31 December 2017

"We pride ourselves on being fast. Chinese startups are faster."

"Work-life balance is nonexistent in Chinese startups.

Meetings are anytime — really. My meeting in Beijing with Hugo Barra, who runs all international expansion for Xiaomi — the cool smartphone maker and highest-valued startup in China, at around $45 billion or so — was scheduled for 11 pm, but got delayed because of other meetings, so it started at midnight. (Hugo had a flight to catch at 6:30 am after that.)

In China, there is a company work culture at startups that's called 9/9/6. It means that regular work hours for most employees are from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week. If you thought Silicon Valley has intense work hours, think again.

For founders and top executives, it's often 9/11/6.5. That's probably not very efficient and useful (who's good as a leader when they're always tired and don't know their kids?) but totally common.

Teams get locked up in hotels for weeks before a product launch, where they only work, sleep and work out, to drive 100 percent focus without distractions and make the launch date. And while I don't think long hours are any measure of productivity, I was amazed by the enormous hunger and drive."
From https://www.recode.net/2016/5/13/11592570/china-startup-tech-economy-silicon-valley

16 December 2017

A Number Theory Appetizer

Fix $x, y \in N$ such that $x$ and $y$ are coprime. Prove that there exists $n \in N$ such that $k | x^n - y^n$ for any $k \in N$.