Sometimes I blog about work lifestyle, the meaning of work, the future of work, designing the ideal workplace, designing your ideal work experience…

But most of the time I keep quiet about it.

However, silently, I daresay I’m working very hard as part of this movement, to promote making your work your bliss.

The Guinea pig for my attempt?

MindValley, of course! The folks at MindValley believe in the dream, and are not afraid to put money and sweat down to achieve it.

About a thousand emails, conversations, and experiments later, MindValley as a workplace utopia is taking shape…

So much so some people are taking note.

We’re officially on the list of the Most Democratic Workplaces in the world. We’ll be appearing in international press in coming weeks. We’re the only company from friggin’ Malaysia, and I’m very proud that I had an active hand in creating this.

What does this award mean?

You can take a peek at Organizational Democracy, the award, and details on the Agile Entrepreneurship blog. It’s in no way a huge deal in the big scheme of things, and we have a long journey ahead. But I admit it’s great to know something you work hard for and care about is valued.

On a related note, a professor for an MBA program at Denver University used Apple, 37Signals, and MindValley as case studies for organizational innovation.

I’d like to think that slowly, but surely, we’re doing something right, and more companies can do it too, and employees around the world will return home everyday smiling and celebrating their awesome day at work :)

Want some ideas on how to help your company give more meaning, happiness and impact to its work?

See what the other winners have done right (including crazy ideas such as “The Love Machine” at work) and sign up for this book I helped write, called Agile Entrepreneurship.

I just got back from the Police station.

It was a long night.

Nika’s friend had a friend visiting from Poland, it is her first night here in KL. She was walking in front of Bangsar Permai apartments on Jln Tanduk, Bangsar, when 3 men leapt out of the car, armed with a giant curved parang.

She got robbed, in front of the guard house of the apartments!

Being the courageous hero manly man I am, I was in Nika’s apartment hanging out, drinking some sour Polish soup they made.

As soon as Nika’s friend stumbled into the apartment in tears, my spider-like reflexes prompted the extension of my muscular arm into my pocket, initiating crucial contact with the police department.

Then my shirt…

I could go on.

But let’s not dwell in the past.

This blog post is about solutions!

If you think about it… everyone you know, knows someone who got robbed or snatched or whatever. Right? Don’t know someone? Well, you know me, and it’s happened to my mom, my ex-girlfriend’s sister, and even I got robbed! Twice! (Both times the robbers got caught / humiliated but that’s another story.)

Gah! Bah! We have to stop these crimes!

Since I want to avoid any real confrontation, here’s the plan.

1. Guys and girls walking around the city? Carry an ugly market-like plastic bag, and put vegetables in it.
2. Make sure a cucumber, or a cabbage is sticking out, so it is clear that you are carrying a bag of vegetables.
3. Place all your valuables next to the cabbage. Wallet, money, handphone, whatever. Wrap it up, place it in the cleverly disguised bag of vegetables.
4. Carry your usual bag, the way you normally would, except you could place a home made booby trap. No booby trap? Place a couple of extra vegetables in there. Maybe a rotten one, too.
5. In the event of danger, drop your plastic bag of vegetables (which contain your belongings) on the floor. Or throw it far away. And give the criminals your expensive looking bag (the one with the booby traps)

OK…ok… You may think this is a stupid idea.

After all, not too many people have real booby traps for robbers. Heck I was thinking time bombs but not everyone has time bombs.

You can also argue that a robber who goes home to find a bag of vegetables might anger him enough to go out and rob some more victims.

But perhaps, in the long run, if all of us implement my idea, robbers may get sick of vegetables, and try other stunts to get money, like becoming social entrepreneurs.

I guess, the idea has too many maybes.

Since this is a serious topic, allow me to suggest some alternatives.

1. Resolve economic disparity through changes in public policy and the education system
2. Increase employment opportunities and skills development for the urban poor
3. Form a special task force to crack down on snatch thieves and robbers

But if you analyze the above solutions, and compare it to my vegetable bag trick, they are just as likely to get implemented, and have any real effect on the recent crime spree.

Seriously.

But I won’t complain about stuff here… Solution focus! Yes, yes! And if for some reason, the solution is beyond my pea-sized brain, I need your help.

If you have any real ideas on what we can do to stop this sort of crime, do share.

I promise to give the best idea a bag of vegetables. (I did this for a friend’s birthday once, so I’m not kidding)

Tell me your great idea for solving snatch thieves and armed robberies, and I will give you a healthy reward.

Armed with a mouse and my laptop, I used to draw a lot of trees. I didn’t look at trees when I drew them. They exist in my imagination. A whole forest full of them.

Today, I give you one of my trees. This one was part of a collage of trees I called “The Impossible Forest”. This lone tree is called “The Breathing Tree”. Drawn in Sydney, on August 31, 2004.

My other pixel sketches are here.

I’m been working on this with Joel since late Feb. See the YouthSays blog for behind the scenes pictures of what that really means.

Ok. So here we go….

What is it?

Well, check it out and you’ll see.

We’ve signed up over 1,000 users before it’s launch, so I’m pretty optimistic about its success.

Time will tell.

Disclaimer: YouthSays has nothing to do with MindValley. It’s Joel’s venture more than anything else.

I’ve been investing / growing a couple of other ventures with MindValley, will talk about them when the time is right.

… you take a photograph.

Photo by Andreas Till

What do you do with the person you love most in the whole world?

Take ‘em out and shoot ‘em.

~ From Photojojo

Each artist contributed six photographs of the person(s) who is most important to them, taken outdoors in a natural setting. The goal of the website is to portray the people who are loved, cherished, and inspirational to these artists.

This one is sort of my favorite.

See them all.

This is the same run I attempted last year. I only decided today, so this gives me almost 6 days to train for it. I think I’ll just eat a banana or something.

Nadiah, Effa, and Katalina are running with me, too. My guy friends have too many excuses.

Yeah, if you happen to be running, drop me a line. I need someone to trash talk to with.

Here’s what I look for in a T-shirt.

This sort of cut is made to accentuating my humps.

BACKGROUND STORY: The picture (the actual tee in the picture has a print I dislike, though, I rarely wear camels, and shirts with words on them) was made in August 2006 when a friend from the Philippines was coming over. I wanted her to get me some T-shirts from a local Filipino clothes label I really liked (called “Artwork”).

I was alone one night, in deep thought…

I was wondering what I would learn by going through a selection of 213 quotes on “action”.

The one thing I personally took away?

The need for consistency and continuous effort.

Not revolutionary, I know.

But it hints at me quite accurately, as I’ve spent the most part of life on “think smart” to the extent I’m relying less on “work hard”.

Looking ahead, for the ambitions I’ve chosen, I might have to do both.

As MindValley grows in new people and new ventures - how can we maximize happiness and profit?

Let’s tap the brain of a guy who funded 80 startups with a total of about 200 founders, with a pretty good hit rate (conception to acquisition / profitability).

Yes, it’s Paul Graham. One of my favorite brains to tap.

Read his essay “You weren’t meant to have a boss” as he talks about

• Optimal group size for work
• The way humans naturally work in groups
• Struggles in designing a structure to avoid becoming a “big company”
• Lions hunting in the wild

In the article, he ponders the same problems we are trying to solve….

“A large organization could only avoid slowing down if they avoided tree structure. And since human nature limits the size of group that can work together, the only way I can imagine  for larger groups to avoid tree structure would be to have no structure: to have each group actually be independent, and to work together the way components of a market economy do.

That might be worth exploring. I suspect there are already some highly partitionable businesses that lean this way. But I don’t know any technology companies that have done it.”

~ Paul Graham, from “You weren’t meant to have a boss”

Personally, I want to solve this problem. Not theoretically, but I want it to work in action. It’s a great problem to solve, as the solution (perhaps lessons other organizations and startups can use) will unlock a world of talent, innovation, and happiness at work.

Solving this might take some fancy experiments with organizational structure, radical thinking, consistent hard work, a bit of patience, and a group of people who dare… which is why I’m grateful to solve this with MindValley.

We’re doing some crazy stuff right now, but I’ll only talk about it when we have RESULTS. Till then, do share your workplace experiments and thoughts, if any.

(By the way, usually blog posts like this and this go on the MindValley blog, but to reflect how my so-called work and personal are in perfect harmony, I figured I’ll republish selected pieces about management, marketing, and designing optimal work/lifestyle here too.)