kotmj

You're looking at the crotch of a trousers that used to have sacrificial barrier patches sewn in. I think someone used a Super 150's or something for the patches, because they have been abraded to nothing. Not only that, the trouser cloth has also ripped. What is not visible is that the cloth has also ripped at the seams. I gave this to the Malay boy. Do something, I said. A few hours later...

Current state of mess at JT's covid hibernation place. We haven't completed moving in yet.

I think despite all my flaws as a hiring manager, I seem to get one thing right: I have a good record of hiring born craftspeople. My previous four hires have turned out to be real craftspeople. Not that many people are born as craftspeople. For instance, I've noticed that some people have trepidation engaging with the physical world. They feel more comfortable looking at a picture of a cloth on their phones than the physical cloth in front of them. When I hold up a jacket to their face to show them a feature of it, they almost shirk away from it. They prefer ogling it on Instagram or Pinterest. They find real things to be foreign. Well anyway, what I want to say is that I'm discovering the Malay boy to be quite the craftsperson. Next week, I have a fashion design student from JB coming for an internship interview. I shall have to figure out what sort of a person he is. Court mandarin, or gardener? I think what I'm looking for in an employee is that he/she be a craftsperson, and be mindful who the customer is. I'm the customer. I'm trading with the employee. They should see themselves as freelancers, with me being their biggest client. The problem I had with my previous two employees is that they never saw themselves as trading with me. They have never really traded with anyone. They were never in the open economy. They saw me as a sort of headmaster or something. Being in educational institutions is all they ever knew. I did not like trading with them. I kept feeling I was trying to trade with kindergarten children.

At the Awana Horse Ranch, which is really just a deserted, rundown place in Gohtong Jaya halfway up Genting Highlands, Frenzy the German Shepherd found and chased a squirrel. As you can see, the squirrel lost. Another one of my dogs, Grey, fought Frenzy for the prize. Grey had the top half of the squirrel in its jaws; Frenzy had the bottom half. The squirrel tore in two. Grey with the top half of the squirrel. Grey belonged to an Indian farmer next to my house. He obtained Grey to guard his farm. But Grey preferred to hang around my house. He eventually stayed; he never went back to the Indian farmer. Bottom half of squirrel before being consumed by a highly pedigreed working line German Shepherd.

Trouser finishing

Why put it off till tomorrow. Family life very overrated. Work from morning till night. Like your grandparents from China.

Maybe I'll shoot a balcony pic tomorrow

If you talk to an 18-year old with an IQ of, say 140, you get the feeling of talking to a 30-year old.

I noticed that I described Employee #2 as "unbelievably childish" in my post higher up the page. I thought to myself, "like a 15-year old boy in a 24-year old body". I remember a policeman telling me at the end of our encounter after Employee #2 was caught with some ganja, that this employee of mine is "budak lagi". Aren't these descriptions of developmental retardation? That is to say, a person is not as psychologically developed as their age peers are. Developmentally retarded = retarded What I should look out for in my search for future workers is how they are psychologically relative to their age. Do they sound "old" relative to their age? Or are they childish? I would be looking for people who---relative to their age---have a more complete model of how the world works, have a larger vocabulary, are able to look at an issue from more angles/perspectives, can describe a thing or situation with greater resolution, etc. After I am done talking to him/her, I want to feel that I've talked to someone older that what his/her age would indicate. But maybe I'm expecting too much. This is, after all, the tailoring industry. One where almost everybody is stupid.

There is simply no salvation for dumb people. Even those with IQ 106 would resign from their positions in the middle of the deepest recession thinking they would receive an improved offer. Lol. Neurotypicals.

1) 40 minutes 2) Yes. Notice I also introduced myself with my name, which she can readily Google.

The travails of dealing with IQ 90 neurotypicals

What neurotypicals fail to appreciate is that not everybody is neurotypical. Especially when they are dealing with those on the autism spectrum disorder (Asperger's Syndrome, etc.), they are shocked to discover that these neurodivergents are not purely opportunistic. Oftentimes, they act based on values and principles, even when it costs them to do so. Moral sensitivity is a trait of gifted people. They have a strong sense of social justice, of fairness. This always catches the neurotypicals by surprise.

Since I'm seated at a PC now, which happens increasingly infrequently, I may as well give an update on developments at JT. Employee #2 is out. He was with JT for a year. After the first 4 months or so, I started noticing he is fundamentally different from me. As in, fundamentally less effective, fundamentally less intelligent, and very given to all sorts of addictions and compulsive behaviors. In reality, he only worked for 9 months or so since there was an MCO in there. Many of his actions make no sense to me; they are injurious to his own interests and reflect compulsion-based action rather than reflection-based action. At the end, I came to the conclusion I cannot trust him with any task that I wouldn't trust a Downs Syndrome child with. The only job he can hold is a factory-operator type job. A cognitively simple, scope-limited, and repetitive job. His behaviours are also unbelievably childish. I offered him two options. One, he transitions to a piecework remuneration. Two, he leaves in 2 months. I gave him 24 hours to decide. He decided to leave. I am pessimistic about his prospects in life. I know more about the nature of his being than I am comfortable writing about here (because it is very unflattering); what I can see gives me little hope he will succeed to any meaningful degree in life. Sensing the leverage she has now that Employee #2 is leaving, Employee #1 thought it was a good idea to hand in her resignation letter. She probably thought that as the sole remaining direct employee, I would persuade her to stay by making her a better offer. I did nothing of that sort. I do not negotiate with terrorists. So, last month, she left. She adopted a vengeful, scorched-earth policy in the weeks leading to her departure. She was very disagreeable, and conspired with Employee #2 to undermine the operations of the company. As the two were serving their 2-month notice periods, the Malay boy had come on board. He was the recipient of extremely unwelcoming behaviour especially by Employee #1, who poured her scorn on him. He is now the sole direct employee at JT. He is on a piecework remuneration system---the same system Employee #2 rejected. He is doing well on it. In attitude, he is far more mature. He is totally not "strawberry". I had no real problem with Employee #1. She would still be here if she hadn't resigned. I have so far worked with 4 fashion design graduates; two as employees and two interns. I had interviewed several for potential vacancies at JT. I had met with two Head of Programme in fashion design from local colleges. I looked at many resumes of fashion designers who applied for positions at JT. I come to the following conclusion: The smartest fashion design graduate is dumber than the dumbest mechanical engineering graduate. This observation is from a purely personal perspective. When I was a student (in mechanical engineering), the people around me were smart as hell. What I notice about most people is the inability to even weakly simulate the future based on present actions. This is an ability that only a minute percentage of the population has. The other development is that JT has moved premises. I kept wanting to move to the 2500 sq. ft. space facing the lake at Plaza Kelana Jaya, but the precipitous fall in demand due to the CMCO and the very uncertain future made me decide for hibernation instead. So we are now in a smaller unit within the same building. I only signed a 12-month rental agreement for this unit. I hope to move to Plaza Kelana Jaya before that agreement expires.

It occurred to me having typed the above that I see myself being in tailoring into my 60s. In reality, I see myself doing this indefinitely. I believe this is true of many self employed/business-owning tailors. When a tailor switches to doing something different, it's often because they can't make a living in tailoring. I also believe this is true for many owner-operated businesses. They will tell you they see themselves doing what they do indefinitely. But why can't employees bear the thought of such a fate? Ask any employee if they see themselves doing what they do till old, and the very thought gives them a depressive episode which may require medical intervention.