Migration

I learned today that the main places people are migrating to are North America and Europe. It is interesting to me that almost no one was migrating into East Asia, considering what a superpower China and Japan are. Also, I learned today how easily it is to assume people are a certain race just by their looks. They may look Asian, but could really be a Native American and we would just assume they are because of hoe they look. What was interesting to me, was that race has no genetic basis. There is nothing in our genes that sets us to a certain race. We are all our own individual species. I had never thought about race in this way before.

Migration

Philanthropy

Before this assignment, I had never really thought about philanthropy. Now that I have thought about it, I believe it is one of the most important things someone can do. Philanthropy is different from charity because it is working to fix a problem at the source, whereas charities just give people money or supplies to "mask" the problem. If I were a philanthropist, I would give my money to the spread of churches and Christianity around the world. Also through this, I would work to feed the hungry, and provide better medicine to people in need.

Philanthropy

Thinking About Success

1. Hard work
2. Opportunity
3. Skill
4. Luck

I ranked the words in this order because I believe to be successful, hard work is the most important aspect. If two people have the same dream, but only one of them works harder to gain that dream, then he will be more successful. Another way to think about it is about two volleyball players. If both of the girls want to play volleyball in college, and one of them trains everyday to get better, while the other girl sits on the couch eating potato chips, then obviously the girl who trained everyday will have the better chance of playing in college. The next important aspect is the amount of opportunity the person or business has. If a business is perfectly made and functional, but has no opportunity to be put to use, then it will not be successful. The more opportunity a business has, then the more inventory or other products it could sell. Another, but less important aspect, is skill. If a person has special skill at their job or hobby, then they will have a better advantage to do this job than other people. The least important aspect to being successful is luck. I personally do not believe in luck. I think everything happens for a reason, and that it is not just by chance. But, even if you were to be "lucky", the luck can only get you so far. With out hard work and dedication, then you will not be as successful as those who are competing against you.

Hard Work

Supply Chain Management Innovations

Today I learned about supply chain management and how stores, like H&M and Zara, are able to quickly bring in new inventory every week to keep the fashion cycling. H&M has two major clothing lines for the spring and fall season, but have smaller sub-collections that they release during each of these seasons. By making these sub-collections, these stores have to predict what the current trends will be during these seasons. This raised the question to me as to how these stores predict future trends. What I found was that several stores use websites like WGSN and to help them to predict the upcoming fashion trends. According to fibre2fashion, "fashion & trend forecasting is the prediction of mood, behavior and buying habits of the consumer at particular time of season". Stores like Target and Macy's even use these websites to predict the trends. These trend predictions are made years in advance, so stores are able to know the popular trends during that year, before the year even comes.

Fashion Forecasting