It took me and my team thirty minutes moving from the center of the city to district 5 where journalist Pham Hong Phuoc is living at. A small house fulfilled with journalistic memories of him.
He dressed in modest appearance, probably the common things of wise men. And when I sat in the same room with him, my mind kind of developed into the next stage of its capacity. I have learned something about life, technology, and the stories of successful people within the tech world. Pham Hong Phuoc shared with me his mindsets about TechTimes Editors’ Choice 2020, his love for the technology world, and his journalistic journey.
“I don’t know we are going to film this interview,” he said to us at the beginning when I and my teammates stepped into his house and carried a filming recorder. But then he accepted the filming process and talked with us freely without concerning about the filming.
Actually, it was not an easy interview at all.
Age gap interfered with this interview several times, but it went fairly well. In the end, we said to each other nice words and learned from each other something. Maybe I learned from him more. Learned about his life, his career, and what he thought about TechTimes Editors’ Choice, I have taken away some meaningful lessons.
Pham Hong Phuoc is in his sixtieth perhaps one of the oldest ones among the advisors’ team of TechTimes Editors’ Choice 2020, but he denied to let age refuse his judging ability.
“No, I don’t feel like I am the outsiders. I have a close connection with Mr. Do Nguyen (CEO of TechTimes and the runner of this award), and I understand what to do with this award. About the other judges, they are all my friends and my fellows, and it is so wrong to be shy in front of them,” Pham said.
Age is not matters for an old but wise man like him.
That about 70-year-old man still possesses a sharp look in the eyes and such a wise mind. He can talk for hours about technology and never make you feel bored about it. His understanding of technology is so diverse that you want to dive deep into his stories and listen to them. Such a wise man he is!
When I asked him about whether human beings factor can interfere and mislead his judge, he said no, it would not happen.
“Definitely, human beings have their favorite option, but as an expert, I will use my knowledge within the technology world and judge the products,” he said. “It is hard to separate that part from our judgement since we are all humans and we have things that we love more than the other.”
Pham is currently the Editor-in-chief of Media online and the expert contributor of several media outlets in Vietnam. Mostly, he writes about technology, specifically topics relate to mobile phones. Besides being a contributor and an editor, Pham participated in several tech competition around Vietnam as a judge or an advisor.
And this year, he chose to join TechTimes Editors’ Choice 2020 although the media outlet is quite young and they organize the Editors’ Choice for the first team. Pham decided to take part in the award of TechTimes as he believed on the success of the media outlet.
“Honestly it is the first time TechTimes hold an award like this. But in the last three years of developing, they have built up such a strong team and applied lots of technology into their work,” Pham said. “With what TechTimes has done in the last three years inside the media world, I believe that their award would be a valuable one.”
He was a little shaking when he said about the award of TechTimes, but the man continued to finish his message with such a knowledgeable attitude. Pham said that the market nowadays is quite messy and misleading caused by a huge amount of deceptive advertisements and unclear feedbacks.
An expert like him encouraged the existence of such an award like this one.
We continued our conversation as we talked deeper about the award categories.
“Which award categories is the most appealing to you?” I asked. It took him few seconds and then he said.
“Personally, I am appealing the most to the awards for smart phones. Whatever relates to this field will be so appealing to me.”
“There are some popular smart phone trends in the year 2020. First of all, it is the battery renovation. It doesn’t matter the stability of the battery but the charging time. Short cutting this step is what smart phone brands focus on developing in the year 2020,” Pham added.
He then mentioned about the price adapting of smart phone brands in the year 2020 and the 5G development of some brands.
We then wrapped up our conversation after 20 minutes of talking, sharing, and even joking since the whole team had another interview to work for.
But it was a fun interview after all. I know nothing about him before hand, probably a little bit, but not that much. After leaving his house, I started to question whether I could be like him when I was about 70 year-old. Sharp look in the eyes, can I keep it? Wise mind that can talk about my favorite field, can I keep it? And a healthy shape, can I keep it?
Honestly, it would be an impossible task to achieve for lots of us. But for a wise man like Pham Hong Phuoc, he knows for sure how to do it.
At his sixtieth, he is still going to participate in an award ceremony as a judge. Pham denied to let age resist his love for technology. In the end, age probably is just numbers to Pham, not the matters of a wise man like him.