After the visit the American entrepreneur invited his soviet counterpart to visit Detroit to see an American car factory. As the Russian was touring the production line he asked his tour guides “Who owns this factory?” “Henry Ford”. “Who owns the equipment?” “Henry Ford”. And as they came outside, he pointed to the line of cars in the car park. “Who own these cars” “We do” came the reply.

Many research studies in economic psychology have shown how individual behaviors towards choice, and the satisfaction we draw form our choices, differ when the number of choices to choose from is low versus when it is high.

These studies show that there is such a thing as too much choice. When faced with too many options, the chances of us choosing poorly increase proportionally and we may end up less happy as a result. Not knowing whether we made the right choice or not can be harder than having a choice in the first place.

What is more interesting to an expat living in Asia like me is that the perception of choice varies across culture. While Occidentals tend to view choice and free will as an intrinsically good thing to have, Asian may sometimes prefer to have fewer choices.

Culturally, choice is seen in Asia not just a way of defining and asserting their individuality, like in the West, but a way to create harmony and unity. By deferring their power to choose to people they trust and respect, usually their elders or parents, Asian put the collectivity well being above their personal one.

This can explain why the Chinese, Singaporean, or to a lesser degree the Malaysian one, tend to constrain the options their constituent can choose from. Such authoritarianism has been particularly effective at generating growth over the past 50 years, and for a while, it was a win win situation.

The problem now is that the western culture of choice is spreading fast in Asia; the most visible symbol of this phenomenon being the many mega-shopping-center mushrooming across the region. More importantly, this trend is spreading from the economic to the political arena.

The past ten years have seen an immense shift, with people from Taiwan, Indonesia, or Malaysia starting to get their voice heard more and more. I believe this trend will only strengthen over the next few years, and I hope Asian (and especially Malaysian) authorities will be wise enough to understand it and accept it.

This “Doing business in Singapore” audio guide from the Economist is a great way to prepare yourself if you are going there for business, or simply brush up on your knowledge of Singapore’s business culture if you go there regularly.

Nordic systems are among the most social in the world. In fact, even uber-social France often look up to its neighbor from up north when it wants to review its social system – if only we could be as disciplined and socially responsible as them… but let’s not digress.

The Norwegian healthcare, in its breadth of scope and its results in lengthening Norwegian’s life expectancy, is often compared to the French Sécu. As a result, it could be perceived as yet another European universal, tax-funded, single-payer health care system.

In fact, it holds a few surprises when look under the tip of the iceberg – I know, this one was easy !

A little teaser to entice you to follow the here above link.
You will discover that the Norwegian system:

1. is very centralized administratively;
2. but its health care services are decentralized;
3. it also cover Norwegian expats for up to one year after they move abroad;

Expatypus is a self-helping community of expatriates and world citizens. Members share insights and experiences on their travels and living places, and connect with like-minded individuals.

Yes, it is another expat website. Yes, it has a community forum. And yes, it has an ‘information centre’ using a wiki* system. However, instead of focusing on providing information with a “top-down” approach, Expatypus is to be an open, collaborative community. Every user can create wiki pages, edit them, and keep them up to date. You can also discuss and meet like minded world citizen through the forums.

Expatypus is still in its infancy. Presently I am focusing on creating content for Malaysia. Your help would be welcome, and you can be one of our first patron. You can do so by clicking here. The process should be very easy and straight forward. If not, let me know. I’ll correct it.

I look forward to reading your feedback – either here or on Expatypus itself 

Oh, and yes, you can be brutal in your feedback – otherwise how else to improve, eh !

* What is a wiki – a wiki is a website or a section of a website, which allows the visitors to easily add, remove and otherwise edit and change some available content. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative authoring. Wikipedia is the most famous example of how a wiki can work and be successful.