inquivision

Dear You, Dear We

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 18:00:00 +0800

A few weeks ago, my wife and I went to watch the surprise-hit movie Dear You.

The movie is great: it really brought to life how the people of my grandparents’ generation lived. And it was lovely listening to Teochew spoken in the cinema! I grew up listening to my mother speaking Teochew to her family, especially her brothers and sisters during Chinese New Year, and there was a certain warmth to hearing terms that I grew up with (like ngou1 giah4, for kids, and zao2 giah4 for girls, which was talked about in the movie).

The Viable System Model

Sat, 04 Jul 2026 18:00:00 +0800

I recently came across this video, that does a really good job of explaining the Viable System Model:

This is the parallel to systems-thinking by Stafford Beer, and is sometimes known as a form of management cybernetics.

My issue with systems thinking is that causal loop diagrams tend to be too granular. And after mapping out the causal loops, you end up with the question “and then what…?”

White Stone v1.1: adding Reflections, stone tagging, and pattern surfacing

Sat, 16 May 2026 18:00:00 +0800

A few months ago, I shipped White Stone v1.0: a minimal iOS app for tracking your mental states throughout the day — log a white stone for a wholesome thought, a black stone for an unskillful one.

This week I submitted v1.1 to the App Store. I tested v1.1 over the last few weeks, introducing a few new features (more below) which I dogfooded and tested out for myself before rolling out.

Apps

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Apps I’ve made.

Making White Stone with my friend Claude: from ancient pebbles to Apple App Store

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 14:00:00 +0800

Claude Code is really amazing.

A few days ago, I shipped White Stone to the App Store. It’s a mental tracking app for spiritual practitioners, inspired by the practice of an ancient Indian teacher named Upagupta. The whole thing went from concept to App Store submission in about a week: I started on 10 Feb, and finally shipped this on the Apple App store on 19 Feb (v1.0).

All this wouldn’t have been possible if not for Claude Code (“CC”)

A Gentle Introduction to Concurrency — Through the Lens of Office Work

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0800

PJ: This post is guest-written by Claude Opus 4.6, and came from a thought that occurred to me as I was thinking about work in the office. What if concurrency problems manifest in the office? And what if actually, most of the problems that we see in the office are actually some form of concurrency bugs?

So that led to me asking Claude, which then led to the generation of this article. You can see the prompts that I used at the bottom of this article. Enjoy!

Now

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Now - 1 Feb 26

Life Updates

I am currently no longer freelancing, nor working as a software engineer.

right now, I am working as a principal design lead, heading up the Transformation Lab’s Design Practice in the Public Service Division, Prime Minister’s Office.

T-lab is an internal government consultancy, combining human-centred design with Organisational Development capabilities.

What Have I Worked On & Done

Since I joined in end July 2025 (which is only six months ago! Feels like an eternity, in a good way…), I have

Migrating my blog to Hugo with Cursor

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 21:53:00 +0800

On Sunday, I was casually browsing my own blog when I was surprised to see a random Indonesian gambling site instead: after my Github account was downgraded to a free tier, my previous Github Pages and its associated actions seems to have been deprecated.

That got me off my ass: for the longest time I wanted to migrate my blog to a different tech stack. Previously I had used Jekyll, but Jekyll has been having a lot of dependency issues. I tried Hugo (a Go-lang framework) and it works really wonderfully. But the thought of needing to debug issues as I switched the blog to Hugo really dissuaded me from even trying.

Death by Paper (Curb) Cuts

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 11:18:00 +0800

I just started in a new role for the past week, and one thing that struck me was the stark contrast between the Microsoft Ecosystem vs. Google-Office-Slack-Trello-Jira-others.

On paper, the two look similar, offering a similar suite of products that cater to similar needs (e.g. word processing, spreadsheets, slides, etc.)

In practice, the difference in user-experience is much more like this:

Leadership Dilemma

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 12:18:00 +0800

Context

Recently, I had the same conversation with two different people, who both said the same thing: “That is very interesting, I never thought about it like that before!” So here’s what I shared with them, as this perspective might be helpful for others too.

I was explaining that I was very privileged, as a middle manager in EDB’s Strategic Planning team from 2015-2018. The EDB SP team (together with our Corporate Planning colleagues) functioned as the secretariat for our Executive Committee (“Exco”), which comprised of our most senior management. Exco met weekly, and we supported them with secretarial work: the duty secretariat members would clarify the meeting agenda with EDB Chairman, coordinate with the EDBians tabling items to Exco, take minutes, and also capture follow-ups.

One person's view on the Singapore GE2025

Thu, 01 May 2025 12:18:00 +0800

Here in Singapore, we are in the tail-end of a surprisingly rough and vocal election season: initially I thought “aiyah, the election period is so short, should be no issues one lah…”

Boy, was I wrong! The past two weeks have been very surprising in terms of the amount of stuff that has come up. If you told me three weeks ago that

a former NTUC group CEO would come out to publicly question the NTUC Secretary General (who is running for election in the Jalan Kayu Single Member Constituency), not once, nor twice, but thrice
said NTUC Secretary General openly apologises, but still gets slammed anyway, with people saying there is no accountability as he suffered no consequences
his opponent in the opposition party gets his Whatsapp DMs leaked, showing him to be dropping f-bombs left and right on all sorts of people including Grab drivers, etc.; this, despite him saying that he wants to campaign on empathy and compassion

I would have said “NO WAY…”

Now

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 07:50:00 +0800

Now - 16 Apr 25

Life Updates

What Have I Worked On & Done

I recently discovered that my Now page was last updated on 1 June 2024.

Since June 2024,

I worked on the Launch School Python Track for a couple of months, completing PY101-109
In October 2024, I got accepted into foodpanda’s PowerUp SG Traineeship, as a backend software engineer trainee. This traineeship had 3 months of classroom training, followed by 3 months of on-the-job-training with one of the foodpanda teams.
- The classroom training was…. largely meh, with the exception of a couple of instructors who really knew their stuff. For me, the most mindblowing course was the introduction to SQL: I was like “whoa! Dope! why didn’t I get to know this stuff before??” The introduction to docker containers was also quite fun. The quality of instruction on Golang was very, VERY varied across the different instructors… some of my fellow trainees felt that the Udemy courses we were exposed to (foodpanda has a corporate Udemy account) gave better instruction than the Ngee Ann Poly instructors.
  - One of the Udemy courses which we really liked was Learn How to Code in Go by Todd McLeod: he’s a really awesome instructor, who also references the documentation a LOT (unlike some of the NP instructors, who sometimes didn’t seem to know the language)
  - In end Dec, we had a hackathon, and I worked with teammates Avery, Fiona, Felix and Jeremy, which we won! It was pretty cool watching Avery and Fiona work like machines. I wrote about this in my blogpost here
- The OJT phase was AMAZING.
  - In total, I tabulated that I did 25 pull requests in the team repo: ![screenshot of 25 pull requests](./images/Screenshot 2025-03-25 at 1.49.19 PM.png)
  - I was very, very lucky to be in the same team as Viet (my OJT mentor) Ma He and JX. Viet is one of the most technically deep persons I know (he really knows Go), combined with a very strong willingness to help and teach, and who was always willing to answer questions, despite being very busy. Ma He and JX are both extremely strong and fast, and also very warm and helpful to a complete coding noob like me. I will really miss working with them.
  - All in all, it was a really eye-opening experience to learn what it is like as a software engineer. I learnt that
    - backend engineering, service design and product management are all at the same level of abstraction: all three professions look at a systemic-level of abstraction, focusing on how different subsystems interact. All three professions also deal with similar problems e.g. there are no perfect solutions, only tradeoffs; yesterday’s solutions becomes today’s problems, etc.
    - I like working on Jira tickets/pull requests. There is a certain satisfaction from starting a ticket, not knowing exactly what to do, and finishing with “ok I have solved this problem!”
    - while I do like solving technical stuff, my fundamentals of coding/programming are still VERY weak… and I need to strengthen those.
    - The nature of coding in a mature, large coding organization is quite different from creating something from scratch: the nature of the work at foodpanda is more like trying to craft a single jigsaw puzzle piece, making sure that the piece fits with existing “solved” parts of the larger puzzle. Whereas creating something from scratch is more like creating an entirely new jigsaw puzzle. My experience makes me wonder about the DOGE coders who are just breaking stuff…
    - Many times, I would try to come up with something “clever”, and would jump into a call with Viet, only to be told “actually, it’s ok to just do the straightforward thing”. Simpler is often much better, because it reduces complexity and is easier to maintain over time.
    - Maintainability and readability are both underrated.
- During the traineeship, I also travelled & did other stuff:
  - I went to support the October Bodhinyana Jhana Grove retreat
  - I also went to visit my sister’s family in the Netherlands for slightly more than a week
  - In Jan, I attended my first ever GopherCon SG, and got to hear and meet some very interesting folks
  - In March this year, I also went to support Ajahn Brahm’s Executive retreat in Hoi An, Vietnam.
- After I returned from Vietnam, and found out I wasn’t going to be converted into a permanent position, I then left for CIID’s Impact Minds event, which was a reunion for my IDP class, while also a design event of the CIID community.

Talks Consolidation Page

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 18:29:00 +0800

Some of my talks

A Tale of Three Technologies - 2026

A talk on what electrification, platform data, and generative AI mean for service designers, given alongside Isaac and Jensen’s talks

Is Interaction Design dead?- 2025

A talk at CIID’s Impact Minds event, about interaction design and what CIID can do to reclaim our power as interaction designers

How to Give Critical Feedback

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 09:18:00 +0800

Yesterday, I was participating in a workshop for the Buddhist Mentorship Programme, and was helping to lead a breakout session for a group of 4-5 participants. The prompt given was “Think of 1 difficult conversation you would like to have with someone; briefly share the context with your group; apply the tips you have learned to formulate your approach with the help of the mentor and new friends”.

What kinda surprised me was how the type of difficult conversation which came up was basically the same: how to give “negative” or “critical” feedback. One mentee struggled to give that type of feedback to her subordinate, another struggled to share with her superior about toxic behaviours, yet another struggled to think about how to give the feedback to a close relative.

year

Sun, 22 Dec 2024 16:46:00 +0800

I should do a retrospective for the year… this has been such a “jagged” year!

Started on 22 Dec 24 at 1646hrs.
Finished on 22 Dec 24 at 1647hrs.

Week

Sun, 22 Dec 2024 16:42:00 +0800

The past week has been unusually intense.

At one point, I was concurrently dealing with

an internal hackathon at work
helping out with my aunt’s funeral after work
checking in on my wife, who was down with the worst flu I have ever seen her suffer in our 13 years’ marriage

It started at the end of Friday (the) 13th Dec 2024, around my usual bedtime at 10pm. I was in the shower, and was reflecting that a pretty intense week had ended.

Work

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 18:28:00 +0000

Recently, I was thinking about my relationship with work, and how that has changed.

When I was in EDB, I often wondered and thought about striking it out. I was constantly frustrated with what-I-perceived-to-be-bureaucratic-stupidity (not from my EDB colleagues, to be clear, but often from other parts of government: that’s why an ex-EDB boss often referred to other public servants as ‘bureaucrats’). And when I read ReWork, I dreamt of working in Basecamp, or some where else where the work is done, with high leverage, and minimal BS, and no IM (Instruction Manual: #iykyk).

Ajahn Ganha transcript 10 Nov 23

Wed, 28 Aug 2024 14:59:00 +0800

(9)Ajahn Ganha 10 Nov 23 (translated by Ajahn Tilo) This talk is given on the 10th of November in 2023 in the morning.

All of us have to work, but we all have to work with happiness. Don’t think that we are forced to work, we are forced to study. This is wrong thinking. We really have to find our happiness in working. We really have to find our happiness in studying. and learning. If we don’t find our happiness in working, if we don’t find our happiness in studying and learning, we tend to have mental problems. We tend to be neurotic. We really have to prevent ourselves from having mental problems. which is not necessary to have them. If we have mental problems and we are neurotic, nobody will come and help us and nobody want to be with us.

Ajahn Ganha transcript 25 Dec 23

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 14:59:00 +0800

(Translated by Ajahn Tilo on 8 Jan 24)

This talk is given on the 25th of December in 2023.

Wherever you are coming from, you are from Singapore, from Hong Kong, from Taiwan, wherever you are from, you have to get sick, you have to get old, you will have pain and you will die. We all have to know and understand this. Because this physical body of ours cannot last longer than more than 120 years. Then, we have to go from this world.

Digitally Complementing and Complecting Singapore

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 21:45:00 +0800

(necessary caveat: this is entirely my own opinion, and doesn’t represent any official views of any Singapore government agency.)

complect, verb trans

embrace

Connect together; interweave.

complement, noun 4. A thing which, when added, completes or makes up a whole.

Shorter Oxford English Dictionary

In his seminal talk Simple Made Easy, Rich Hickey (creator of the Clojure language) revived the term complect, an archaic English word meaning to intertwine or to interweave. In the programming context, this is a bad thing: it is bad when things are intertwined, because the main job of programmers is to debug. How do you debug? By tracing back where the errors happened. And what happens when you try to trace things in intertwined threads? It’s a mess (which is why ‘spaghetti code’ is shorthand for messy badly written code). So complect is a shitstorm in code, hence you can see Rich’s advice: ‘best to avoid in the first place’.

Strange illness

Tue, 13 Aug 2024 10:45:00 +0800

Yesterday (Monday 12 Aug 24), I had the strangest bout of illness I’ve ever had so far.

It started at 4.30am, when I woke up to pee, and my stomach was rumbling, bloated, and extremely uncomfortable. Something felt stuck in my digestive tract.

When I properly woke up at 6am, I went to the bathroom, and suddenly had the thought “hmm, I think I need to puke.” So I went to the toilet, bent down, and before I knew it, was retching. I retched, and retched, and initially nothing came out. It still felt very miserable in my stomach.

Ajahn Ganha transcript 24 Dec 23

Sun, 11 Aug 2024 21:15:00 +0800

(Ajahn Ganha speech on 24 Dec 23, translated by Ajahn Tilo on 7 Jan 24. All mistakes by PJ.)

The Buddha wanted us to have right view and right understanding. The Buddha wanted us to see the danger in samsara, so that we can stop making new karma, so that we can stop creating pain and trouble for ourselves, so that we can stop creating new karma for ourselves. That’s why the Buddha wanted us to come out of sensual pleasures. Sensual pleasures are nothing else than avijja, delusion.

Ajahn Ganha transcript 28 Dec 23

Sun, 11 Aug 2024 14:59:00 +0800

Ajahn Ganha speech, translation by Ajahn Tilo (28 Dec 23) (Translated by Ajahn Tilo, transcribed by Gladia, emphasis by PJ. All mistakes made are PJ’s.)

Everybody has to practice Dhamma by himself. Give everything you have for the practice. Because external things going their own way according to their nature, according to Dhamma. Everything in your mind is going its way according to their nature, according to Dhamma.
The majority of people who have no right view, right understanding, they don’t develop their mind, they don’t develop their heart together with their body and the material things. It’s a great loss. It’s a great damage. We should be full of happiness when we are working. Because work is for happiness. Happiness is work. The work outside is to develop the material world, is to develop our business. The work inside is our mind. It is to have right view, right understanding (to understand things as they are, not as we want them to be), and as right practice.

Design Education in a resulting society

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 10:49:00 +0800

2024-08-01

Recently, I finished teaching a class of the first-year undergraduate mandatory course on innovation at Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). Earlier this year, I became an adjunct faculty for the course (UDE 1001), and taught a class of students from the Digital Communications and Integrated Media (DCIM) degree. The course ended a couple of weeks ago, this term.

In addition to my own class, I helped out as a guest judge for three other classes which were also doing their final presentations. After a while, there were a few patterns which cropped up across the four final presentations I sat in:

Now

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 19:14:00 +0000

Now - 1 Jun 24

Life Updates

What Have I Worked On & Done

Since my last update in Jan 2024, I changed my mind about the suitability of 42 Singapore curriculum for my purposes (cannot emphasize this enough!), and I have quiet-quit the programme. I’m basically waiting to get absorbed by the Black Hole.

Why did I decide to quit? A few reasons.

the main one is overkill: I honestly don’t think I need to know the details of operating systems, in order to have enough skills to make and debug my own apps… 42 is great for training all rounded software engineers, especially those who are keen to work on embedded systems.
the opportunity cost of doing the core curriculum is also quite substantial: the global record for shortest time completing the core curriculum is 8 months of 60-90hr weeks (if I remember correctly). The worst part is, after you’re done with it, the language you’d have demonstrable expertise in is C, which isn’t the most widely used language…
When I was working on getnextline, I had been struggling with all the memory allocation bugs and errors (which is part of the project’s learning goals, imo). At one point, I felt it was really dumb that I was struggling with memory allocation, when it’s a solved problem: many programming languages have garbage collection exactly to prevent the memory leaks and errors that occur when using C.
While working on getnextline at the 1.5 month mark, my friend Mr. T returned to 42, and proceeded to complete the project in 3 days. I asked him for a code review, and he kindly replied with a Slack message, with a lot of detailed comments which I parsed and re-read. I followed it up with a couple of question-sessions with him, where he nudged and guided me through asking questions. It was SUPER insightful, and I gained more from that single code review than from many interactions with other classmates in the previous 1.5 months: some classmates were VERY thorough, others were much less so (and I wonder if they really knew their stuff), but nobody else had the same degree of mental clarity (& same depth of understanding of the mental models of computation) as Mr T.
- I realized that it’s super important for me (as a beginner) to have the right models taught upfront and early. And that in turn, made me realize that, for me, 42 might be less than ideal as a way for me to learn programming, given that it’s really dependent on one’s luck (for who is around you when you encounter problems).
- Another factor is that the 42 pedagogy places a very high cognitive load: the cognitive load is so high that it’s throttling my ability to really learn (see this article here about cognitive load theory). A symptom of this was that I found myself completely stuck, and often unable to recollect what I did when I finally solved the problem!
- The other thing I came to realize is that, due to its constraints (funding, institutional dynamics, etc.), 42 isn’t truly a mastery based learning approach. Yes, there are evaluations, but there is also a ticking time bomb called the Black Hole… so 42 is more of a hybrid rather than a pure MBL.

But I should note and emphasize again, that the above is simply my take and from my frame of reference: your mileage will vary!

In between

Thu, 23 May 2024 18:28:00 +0000

Disclaimer: my views here do NOT represent any official EDB views.

I chatted today with an ex-colleague from EDB, and (as is the case with ex-EDBians) we started talking about our old organization. And this ex-colleague posed me an interesting question:

If you are suddenly appointed MD EDB, what would be one thing you would change or do? What would be the main problem you would focus on?

I thought for a while, and I commented that the main thing I would focus on would be on the strength of relationships & monetary flows in-between the Singapore-based HQs, rather than on specific HQs or companies alone. A related metric I would look at, is to measure and grow the proportion of APAC deals originating from Singapore.

Anicca Dukkha Anatta on Vesak 2024

Thu, 23 May 2024 10:39:00 +0000

Everything just investigate in the mirror of Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta. So you have to understand everything is not sure, unreliable, uncertain, everything is without a self! And if you don’t know that you are suffering. So if you hear something, if you taste something, whatever it is, everything just falls under these three characteristics. Everything with your experience is just anicca, dukkha, anatta.

Ajahn Ganha, at a funeral service of a communist sympathizer

Vesak Day this year (2024) fell on Wednesday 22 May, and I thought it was interesting that there were three incidents around Vesak Day, which serve as a useful personal reminder & reflection through the lens of anicca (impermanence), dukkha (suffering) and anatta(non-self).

Anger

Sun, 05 May 2024 21:09:00 +0000

Anger is always a defilement in the Dhamma.

Transcript of a talk by Ajahn Ganha

Sun, 05 May 2024 15:09:00 +0000

Recording of the talk

Background

This is a transcript from a talk by Ajahn Ganha, given during the funeral service of a leader of the Thai Communist Party. In his later years, the leader had become much more focused on the Dhamma.

The talk had been given by Ajahn Ganha to the monks in the morning; the talk was then transcribed, and read out by Ajahn Maha to the lay community. Ajahn Tillo provided the translation into English. I used Gladia to transcribe the audio recording of this talk into the transcript below: any errors are mine. highlights in bold are my notes for emphasis

Learnings from Costco

Sun, 28 Apr 2024 16:09:00 +0000

I was listening to the Acquired podcast episode on Costco, and found myself nodding in wonder: it’s such a different company, and there were so many lessons there that I found myself wishing I had taken notes.

Lo and behold, the podcast has an entire transcript on its website! So I took the liberty of selecting some excerpts (which resonated with me), and typing up some comments here.

Each block has an excerpt, my TLDR, and some comments ‘bout implications or questions I have as a result of each excerpt.

Wisdom: a definition

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 15:44:07 +0800

In 2007, Paul Graham wrote a clickbait essay titled “Is it worth being wise?.

This is one of the few essays by Paul Graham which doesn’t hit the mark for me, because he uses a lot of words, but doesn’t really hit the essence. He attempted to define wisdom as

“Wise” and “smart” are both ways of saying someone knows what to do. The difference is that “wise” means one has a high average outcome across all situations, and “smart” means one does spectacularly well in a few.

Got Next Line: lessons learned

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I started getnextline (the 42 project) on 19th Dec 23, and finally passed the project yesterday on 25th Feb 2024. It has been quite a journey! At times, it felt like I was stuck beyond stuck… it felt like I fell into a tar pit AND quicksand at the same time: I felt like I was drowning, AND bothered by the sand in my underwear…

Now that I’ve came out of the tarpit/quicksand and just took a fresh shower, I think it’s useful to write down my own retrospective of the project, before I forget everything…

Sickness

Sun, 21 Jan 2024 17:14:00 +0800

I wrote about feeling out of sorts on 15th Jan. Since then, it has been a weird week:

I was quite sick on Monday, so I stayed at home.
Tuesday, I was sick but recovering. I stayed at home, working on my code, as I didn’t want to be inconsiderate.
Wednesday I was fine, so I went to school. I was well enough to work out in the afternoon. However, by Wednesday evening, I was feeling a bit unwell.
Thursday morning, the symptoms of the flu were fully present. Body aches, chills, sneezing, blocked nose and ears, sore throat (but not as severe as Covid), etc.

It’s now Sunday, and I’ve been home since Thursday. I’m getting better, slowly.

How to Write Well

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 18:24:18 +0800

PJ’s Notes to good writing

In 2015 or so, I wrote this set of 10 points about good writing for my Strategic Planning officers, when I was a middle manager in the Singapore Economic Development Board’s Strategic Planning team. It was meant to be a teaching tool, because I was tired of repeating myself.

It should be noted that this was about official/business writing, not about blogging or literature.

I recently rediscovered it, and was surprised by how concise and still pertinent it is. So I’m sharing it here, in the hope that this could be helpful for people. Please feel free to use it & share it, with or without attribution. (Jan 2024)

Thoughts on 2024

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 15:03:00 +0800

I’m supposed to work on my 42 project, but I can’t help thinking about my Common Core ETA (estimated completion date).

![[Screenshot 2024-01-16 at 3.05.39 PM 1.png]]

Part of me thinks that, this changes nothing: it all depends on how I react to things, and my future is made out of my present moment decisions.

Another part of me is (frankly) panicking, with the sense of anxiety, of feeling very far behind, of feeling and wondering “how am I going to finish 42 full time this year??” It’s a very potent swirl of emotions. My immediate instinct is to go into anxiety, self-preservation mode: I need to cut down on projects, I need to serve less, I need to focus more on the 42 curriculum full time.

Sick Body, Healthy Mind

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 17:56:07 +0800

I’ve been feeling physically out-of-sorts today: it was a struggle waking up (which isn’t usual for me), and my nose and ears were blocked when I did get up.

And that has definitely affected my energy levels, and consequently my mood. It takes some effort to remember the Buddha’s teachings:

So you should train like this: ‘Though my body is ailing, my mind will be healthy.’ That’s how you should train.”SN 22.1 Nakula’s Father

Big Talent, Small Use

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 21:46:07 +0800

There is a slightly derogatory Chinese proverb “大材小用”, which translates literally into “big resource, small use". It denotes a situation where a superior talent is not used wisely, and is used wrongly in a small, trivial position.

When younger, I used to think have a lot of ambition. Even now, I need to catch myself to prevent myself from asking “why not think bigger?”: the habit is so ingrained in me!

Why Jekyll

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 21:40:07 +0800

Screenshot of the writing process of this post. Note the live-local server running, which allows me to see updates to this post as I write it.

This blog was previously hosted on Bluehost, with a Wordpress instance.

In the last week of December last year, I decided to shift this to Jekyll, with a private Github repo, which then publishes the blog on Github Pages as a static site.

Now

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 15:24:18 +0800

Now – 5 Jan 24

What I’m doing nowadays

Mondays to Thursdays: I’m working on the 42 Core Curriculum. After the Rains Retreat, I was (honestly) unsure if I wanted to continue with the 42 programme, as it seemed like more striving, more doing, rather than being and at peace. My personal inclination was quite strongly to NOT continue with the programme, and to just give it up.

However, since a key learning from my retreat was to let go of my personal preferences(see #6), it seemed only right for me to go AGAINST my own inclination. So I went to ask for a divination lot from the Kuan Yin template at Waterloo Street.

Learnings from Rains Retreat 2023

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 09:07:07 +0800

I was on a meditation retreat from 29th September until 6th November 2023 at Jhana Grove. It was especially fruitful during my personal 3-week silent retreat, from 2nd to 23rd October: during those times, there were days when I literally said nothing aloud to anyone. It’s one of the most enjoyable periods in my life.

Here are some of my learnings, which I’m sharing here. Hopefully these will be useful for some of you.

Annual Review 2023

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 21:54:07 +0800

I had bought a Muji diary last year, and largley used it in 2023 to plan out my week and year.

This is how it looks like: ![](/images/quarter_IMG_7150 1.jpg) ![](/images/quarter_IMG_7153 1.jpg)

![](/images/quarter_IMG_7151 1.jpg)

Chronological 2023 Highlights

In terms of the chronological order, these were the things that happened:

January 2023
1. Did my first freelance training (with Singapore global network)
2. Attended my first iOS conference: got completely lost with Swift code!
3. Celebrated dear’s 40th birthday: we went cycling. :)
4. Started 100 days of SwiftUI: never finished it…
February 2023
1. Started CIID Open Research project
2. Celebrated birthday dinner with parents
3. moved house to Le Reve!
March 2023
1. Daywa workshop
2. Date day with wife on 8 March
3. Ajahn Brahmali retreat on 10-11
4. Went with MIL and wife to Gardens by the Bay
5. 30-31 March - training with NUS TTI
6. 30 March: Grandma passed away in the early morning (4am)
April 2023
1. Dealing with Grandma’s wake and funeral
2. Korea trip (until early May): climbed Bukhansan for almost 5+ hours (where dear fell down, and got pissed at me for suggesting we continue on), went to Busan and met Soo Jung (who kidnapped us and brought us all around by car)
May 2023
1. Focused on Gallaugher’s YouTube course, and also started on Launch School prep
2. Started Dhama Journeys Research
3. Did 42 online game
4. Chatted with Chi Ling and Lilian on facilitation design for July
5. Chatted with Say re Tsao Foundation project
6. Helped out with SBM Vesak Day
June 2023
1. Continued with Dharma Journeys Research
2. Ajahn Brahm Executive Retreat (Phuket, Westin Siray Bay). Went with Wife
3. Helped parents move things back from Bedok to Cashew
4. Visited Ajahn Ganha (LIFE CHANGING)
5. Continued with Launch School Ruby programme
6. Utama dry-run with facilitators
July 2023
1. Utama event facilitation
2. met Jawn Lim at Singapore Productivity Centre’s Train the Trainer
3. Pre-Piscine 100 at 42 event: met Nat, Mr T for the first time
4. Sis family visited Singapore (until early Aug)
5. Started 42 Singapore Piscine II
6. Loss of hearing on 24 July 7pm, in living room: Greg was crying and was suddenly muted. Rest of week was busy with medical appointments….
August 2023
1. Busy with Piscine, until 18 Aug: final exam was 8 hours. Finished at 7 hr mark (pain!!), and surprised self with score (60%)
2. Spent rest of August resting, catching up with people
September 2023
1. 1 Sep: voted for Tharman!
2. 5 Sep: 42 Singapore kickoff. Helped out with ushering VIPs, including Brian Tan and Kaif
3. Spent rest of Sept completing libft. Was feeling down and out due to the change in core: now it was suddenly MUCH more difficult than Piscine!
4. 29 Sept, left for Perth. Took train to Serpentine (train won’t run again until 2025!), and walked from Serpentine to Jhana Grove. Won’t do that again, as I couldn’t do walking meditation properly for a FULL WEEK.
October 2023
1. Silent retreat from 2-22 Oct. Came out on 23 Oct. Silence is golden.
November 2023
1. 27 Oct till 4 Nov, Bodhinyana Singapore retreat. Had to surrender phone, helped out with retreat. Midweek, all cooks down with Covid. Then Christina was down, and Chee Huey and I had to help with breakfast prep (esp. after Sok Yeong was ALSO down with Covid!)
2. 4 Nov, Bodhinyana Singapore retreat ended. Got back phones, …and then had to deal with bushfire!
3. 6 Nov, took ride to Serpentine. Boarded train with Ajahn Appi, who (surprisingly) remembered my name, but we didn’t sit together. Went to beach house Airbnb at Cottesloe, as wanted to relax and meditate. Ended up spending the next few days socializing quite a lot. Lay Har invited me to stay with her and her husband next time.
4. Mumbaikar Deepavali lunch
5. Over 42’s slack, ended up in a back-and-forth with
6. First DT 201 course! It was a small success!
7. Back to 42, finished born2beroot and extended my blackhole absorption date by a month.
December 2023
1. Started the Council training. This is a storytelling & listening practice from Snap (which took it from the Ojai Foundation). My wife and I have been on this journey, and it has been extremely rewarding.
2. here i am!

Looking at the past year, a few things stuck out.

How to lead in problem solving

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 14:17:07 +0800

this is an old post which I recently rediscovered. Posting here as I think it’s still a blind spot.

[i am typing without using caps, as i’m suffering from pain in my right hand which is affecting my grip. the non-capped parts of this writeup are written today, while the other parts were written from my reading notes taken earlier.]

i finished reading ‘the great influenza’, a book about the 1918 influenza, and was struck by the comparison between two very different scientists, with two different problem solving approaches.

Interaction Design in 8 sentences

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 14:13:56 +0800

This post is in reaction to write-ups like this, this and this, which are clearly written by UI/UX practitioners who don’t understand interaction design.

You then get this type of nonsensical rationalization:

UX designers’ working world is concerned with the entire user journey, including aspects of branding, design, usability and function.

Here’s interaction design in two points:

Every interaction goes through a Do-Feel-Know loop like this (taken from Bill Verplank’s Interaction Design Sketchbook):

![Bill Verplank's Do-Feel-Know loop, of an interaction.](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Screenshot-2023-09-26-at-11.27.47-AM.png?resize=868%2C498&ssl=1)2. Thus, interaction design’s **main medium of design is human behavior, not technology.** > *“A simpler way of thinking about **Interaction Designers is that they are the shapers of behavio**r. Interaction Designers… all attempt to understand and later the things people do, the way they feel, and the things they think.”* > — Jon Kolko, “Thoughts on Interaction Design”, 2011

If interaction design is about shaping human behavior, then it overlaps with every aspect of human experience, including “aspects of branding, design, usability and function”.

Interaction Design in 8 sentences

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 14:13:56 +0800

This post is in reaction to write-ups like this, this and this, which are clearly written by UI/UX practitioners who don’t understand interaction design.

You then get this type of nonsensical rationalization:

UX designers’ working world is concerned with the entire user journey, including aspects of branding, design, usability and function.

Here’s interaction design in two points:

Every interaction goes through a Do-Feel-Know loop like this (taken from Bill Verplank’s Interaction Design Sketchbook):

2. Thus, interaction design’s main medium of design is human behavior, not technology.
> “A simpler way of thinking about Interaction Designers is that they are the shapers of behavior. Interaction Designers… all attempt to understand and later the things people do, the way they feel, and the things they think.”
> — Jon Kolko, “Thoughts on Interaction Design”, 2011

Lessons from 42 July Piscine Part I

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 15:52:47 +0800

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/IMG_5407-1.png?resize=473%2C1024&ssl=1)

I joined [the 42 Singapore Piscine](https://www.42singapore.sg/the-piscine/) from 24 July till 18 August 2023, and wrote about it [here in my Now page](https://inquivision.com/). TLDR – it’s a very intense, enriching learning experience which I really, really enjoyed. I’m happy to say that I got accepted into the 42 Core Curriculum, and will be joining the programme from 5 Sept onwards.

My two questions

In the middle of the July Piscine, 42 Singapore organized a AMA session with the June Pisciners (the first batch of Pisciners). The two questions I asked them were:

Lessons from 42 July Piscine Part I

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 15:52:47 +0800

I joined the 42 Singapore Piscine from 24 July till 18 August 2023, and wrote about it here in my Now page. TLDR – it’s a very intense, enriching learning experience which I really, really enjoyed. I’m happy to say that I got accepted into the 42 Core Curriculum, and will be joining the programme from 5 Sept onwards.

My two questions

In the middle of the July Piscine, 42 Singapore organized a AMA session with the June Pisciners (the first batch of Pisciners). The two questions I asked them were:

14 May 2023

Sun, 20 Aug 2023 16:25:12 +0800

![Positive ART test for Covid](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_4298.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1)

Positive ART test for Covid

Since March until now, much has happened:

Life

Grandma passed away end March. Wake. Funeral. Reconnecting with family after 15 years! They had not been in touch while Grandma was alive, due to family drama.
Travelled to Seoul, visited Korea & close friend of 15 years, who drove us around for a few days around the Jeolla-province.
I am sick with Covid (as of writing). This is my second time but my first official time (since my first time, I tested negative all the way)

Learning

Programming: I have had a change of direction, sparked by an issue I faced while programming my app. While I was trying to program my own iOS app, I was facing a number of problems which seemed to be… fundamental & basic.

Now

Sun, 20 Aug 2023 16:24:18 +0800

Now – 20 Aug 23

Life Updates / Worked On

From 24 July until 18 August (yes, including National Day!), I was involved in the July Piscine for 42 Singapore at SUTD. It culminated in a 8 hour (yes! EIGHT HOURS!) final examination: I left after 7 hours, as my whole body was in pain and my brain was in a complete fog. I was literally stumbling from exhaustion as I walked out of the exam hall.

Now Page

Sun, 20 Aug 2023 14:33:40 +0800

![Positive ART test for Covid](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_4298.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1)

Positive ART test for Covid

Since March until now, much has happened:

Life

Grandma passed away end March. Wake. Funeral. Reconnecting with family after 15 years! They had not been in touch while Grandma was alive, due to family drama.
Travelled to Seoul, visited Korea & close friend of 15 years, who drove us around for a few days around the Jeolla-province.
I am sick with Covid (as of writing). This is my second time but my first official time (since my first time, I tested negative all the way)

Learning

Four Days with Ajahn Ganha

Sun, 16 Jul 2023 17:15:26 +0800

Now it is good to see such arahants.”

Taken from MN 41 To the Brahmins of Sala

![Indoor stairwell, with an assisted stairlift railing. Large Wooden elephant sculpture to the right of the stair](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/quarter_Ajahn_Ganha_stair.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1)

*Luang Por’s kuti. He usually comes down on the stairlift in the mornings.*

Saturday 24th June, I came back from four days with Ajahn Ganha (whom everyone calls *Luang Por*) at [Wat Pah Subthawee](https://www.watpahsubthawee.org/), which I visited with my Dhamma brother Rong Hui. This ranks as one of the most transformational & impactful experiences I have had in my life, though it might be too early to say.

We arrived on 20th June, after a whole long day of travel. Most of the day was spent dealing with admin stuff, like getting settled into our rooms. We also went to take a walk around the monastery: it is a very lovely monastery, with a stillness & quiet that is very delightful and delicious!

Two Dhamma Learnings as Ajahn Brahm's Kappiya

Sun, 09 Jul 2023 17:04:19 +0800

From 11-18 June, I attended and helped out at my teacher Ajahn Brahm’s retreat in Phuket, as his kappiya: the term is a Pali term, referring to a lay person who helps monks with various tasks. One of the most important tasks as a kappiya are to ensure that my teacher is fed & offered food: this has to do with the monk’s Vinaya, which states that the monks can only eat food which has been offered to them.

Two Dhamma Learnings as Ajahn Brahm’s Kappiya

Sun, 09 Jul 2023 17:04:19 +0800

Four Days with Ajahn Ganha

Sun, 02 Jul 2023 18:09:31 +0800

Now it is good to see such arahants.”

Taken from MN 41 To the Brahmins of Sala

Luang Por’s kuti. He usually comes down on the stairlift in the mornings.

Saturday 24th June, I came back from four days with Ajahn Ganha (whom everyone calls Luang Por) at Wat Pah Subthawee, which I visited with my Dhamma brother Rong Hui. This ranks as one of the most transformational & impactful experiences I have had in my life, though it might be too early to say.

Generosity, giving, & getting skirts

Sun, 04 Jun 2023 17:24:30 +0800

The bottom half of one of my wife’s favourite dresses
“But, Vaccha, I say that one acquires merit even if one throws away dishwashing water in a refuse dump or cesspit with the thought: ‘May the living beings here sustain themselves with this!’ How much more, then, does one acquire merit when one gives to human beings!”

[https://suttacentral.net/an3.57/en/bodhi?reference=main&highlight=false#sc4](https://suttacentral.net/an3.57/en/bodhi?reference=main&highlight=false#sc4)

The quote above is from the Buddha, where he talks about the good karma from giving something miniscule.

Generosity, giving, & getting skirts

Sun, 04 Jun 2023 17:22:40 +0800

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/IMG_4483.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1)

The bottom half of one of my wife’s favourite dresses

> *“But, Vaccha, I say that one acquires merit even if one throws away dishwashing water in a refuse dump or cesspit with the thought: ‘May the living beings here sustain themselves with this!’ How much more, then, does one acquire merit when one gives to human beings!”* > > > [https://suttacentral.net/an3.57/en/bodhi?reference=main&highlight=false#sc4](https://suttacentral.net/an3.57/en/bodhi?reference=main&highlight=false#sc4)

The quote above is from the Buddha, where he talks about the good karma from giving something miniscule.

Venice vs Singapore

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 05:14:00 +0800

I finally finished reading John Julius Norwich’s “A history of Venice”, which is perhaps the most comprehensive English history of The Most Serene Republic of Venice (almost 600 pages in the paperback!).
I first started this book about 7 years ago, and only recently picked up where I last left off (I didn’t bother re-reading the older parts, tbh, though my memory was quite patchy).

I bought the book because I chanced upon a speech by George Yeo, where he had compared Singapore with the Venetian Republic, saying there are many similarities between the two.

The Most Important Tech Law you never heard before: Amara's Law

Wed, 31 May 2023 17:03:54 +0800

In March to April this year, I read Matt Ridley’s How Innovation Works,(which I highly recommend: Matt Ridley’s perspectives as a biologist on innovation & evolution are very worthwhile reading, though I am not sure I fully agree with his views on genetic modification & the nuclear industry being stifled by regulation).

The book introduced a concept I had never heard before, called Amara’s Law. Amara’s Law was coined by Roy Amara, an American researcher at the Stanford Research Institute, and states:

Venice vs Singapore

Sun, 28 May 2023 17:14:32 +0800

I bought the book because I chanced upon a speech by George Yeo, where he had compared Singapore with the Venetian Republic, saying there are many similarities between the two.

202305261542 Venice vs Singapore

Sun, 28 May 2023 17:11:48 +0800

I bought the book because I chanced upon a speech by George Yeo, where he had compared Singapore with the Venetian Republic, saying there are many similarities between the two.

The Most Important Tech Law you never heard before – Amara’s Law

Sun, 28 May 2023 17:03:54 +0800

The book introduced a concept I had never heard before, called Amara’s Law. Amara’s Law was coined by Roy Amara, an American researcher at the Stanford Research Institute, and states:

Ageing in Singapore: Missed Opportunity of the Century?

Sun, 28 May 2023 16:57:17 +0800

After a dry spell for a few years, I have suddenly had 3-4 conversations about ageing in Singapore in the past couple of weeks.

It feels like deja vu, in terms of what I am saying, also because nothing much has really changed in the wider system.

Since I generally dislike repeating myself, I thought that I should put down my observations & thoughts about ageing in Singapore in writing, so that I don’t have to repeat myself: I can just refer people to this. 🙂

The Hypothetical Economist Obituary of PJ Teh

Sun, 21 May 2023 15:54:05 +0800

TRIGGER ALERT WARNING The write-up below contains allusions to death and dying, which might be uncomfortable and cause some people to become enlightened.

I love the Economist’s Obituary section: it’s the first (and sometimes only) part of the magazine that I read. A few weeks ago, I wondered “what would my own Obituary look like, if I were to write it in the style of the Economist?”

So I wrote up a hypothetical Economist Obituary for myself, as part of my regular spiritual practice of death contemplation, which emphasises the unreliable impermanence of life, but also conversely helps highlight what is actually really important to the individual.

The Hypothetical Economist Obituary of PJ Teh

Sun, 21 May 2023 15:54:05 +0800

TRIGGER ALERT WARNING The write-up below contains allusions to death and dying, which might be uncomfortable and cause some people to become enlightened.

Now Page

Sun, 14 May 2023 19:32:07 +0800

![Positive ART test for Covid](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_4298.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1)

Positive ART test for Covid

Since March until now, much has happened:

Life

Grandma passed away end March. Wake. Funeral. Reconnecting with family after 15 years! They had not been in touch while Grandma was alive, due to family drama.
Travelled to Seoul, visited Korea & close friend of 15 years, who drove us around for a few days around the Jeolla-province.
I am sick with Covid (as of writing). This is my second time but my first official time (since my first time, I tested negative all the way)

Learning

15 Mar 2023

Sun, 14 May 2023 19:30:02 +0800

15 Mar 2023

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/PHOTO-2023-03-15-07-20-08.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1)

### Life

We moved house in mid Feb. In December, we finally sold our place (very quickly: it took less than a month from the time we got an agent to accepting the letter of offer!) The completion is supposed to be today.

And we also found a rental place that same month after viewing 7-8 places: thankfully, we rented the unit we are at now, as the rental prices have only gone higher!

14 May 2023

Sun, 14 May 2023 19:27:53 +0800

![Positive ART test for Covid](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMG_4298.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1)

Positive ART test for Covid

Since March until now, much has happened:

Life

Grandma passed away end March. Wake. Funeral. Reconnecting with family after 15 years! They had not been in touch while Grandma was alive, due to family drama.
Travelled to Seoul, visited Korea & close friend of 15 years, who drove us around for a few days around the Jeolla-province.
I am sick with Covid (as of writing). This is my second time but my first official time (since my first time, I tested negative all the way)

Learning

Mastery Based Learning

Thu, 11 May 2023 21:36:04 +0800

In end March, I happened to visit the page of Derek Sivers, and read about Launch School, which touts itself as an online school for software engineers.

So far, so normal: sounds like any normal coding bootcamp.

What caught my eye was their sales slogan, which is quite unusual: “The Slow Path for Studious Learners to a Career in Software Development”

Huh. Who focuses on the SLOW PATH??

That was so unusual that I read on further:
“Our program is about slowly building up mastery of fundamentals, so you understand how higher level abstractions truly work from the bottom up. Our goal isn’t to teach you how to use React or Rails, but to show you how to construct accurate mental representations of first principles in order to tackle fundamental engineering problems. Our goal isn’t to help you find a job, but help you launch a career. Our goal isn’t to teach you to code, but to teach you how to deconstruct and problem solve like an engineer.”

Mastery Based Learning

Thu, 11 May 2023 21:35:29 +0800

In end March, I happened to visit the page of Derek Sivers, and read about Launch School, which touts itself as an online school for software engineers.

So far, so normal: sounds like any normal coding bootcamp.

What caught my eye was their sales slogan, which is quite unusual: “The Slow Path for Studious Learners to a Career in Software Development”

Huh. Who focuses on the SLOW PATH??

Know, vs. Know Of

Thu, 11 May 2023 21:29:14 +0800

Know, is when you know deep in your bones that “X is true” because you experienced X before. You’ve gone through X, and know the origins, the consequences, the tradeoffs, the hard choices, because you made those hard choices before.

Know of, is when you heard someone talking about “X is true” but you’d never experienced it before. You imagine that there is always a way out, that someone else hasn’t thought of before.

Know, vs. Know Of

Thu, 11 May 2023 21:19:13 +0800

Know of, is when you heard someone talking about “X is true” but you’d never experienced it before. You imagine that there is always a way out, that someone else hasn’t thought of before.

My 2023 OKRs

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 21:30:38 +0800

These are my OKRs for 2023, which I have set for myself & drafted in January 2023.

By end 2023, I would like

… to have explored creating & using tools at the intersection of Dharma, Design & Digital (Objective 1): linked to the idea of permissionless leverage!

==Key Results for 2023:==

Complete >= 8 mobile or web applications, which draw on Dharma principles as inspiration
Submit 1 app to a design award
Prepare & submit a talk to a conference about my experience at this intersection

==1Q2023 Key Results (by 1 Apr 2023)==

Make 1 mobile app
Complete John Gallaugher Youtube course on SwiftUI
Complete 100 Days of SwiftUI

… to be financially sustainable for my two year sabbatical & be financially independent (Objective 2)

==Key Results for 2023:==

Earned S$60,000 from various gigs & products
Reduced total monthly expenses to $5,000/month (including $2k rental + $2k tax bill monthly)
Fully invested a portfolio of ETFs
Made & sold 5 info products on Gumroad or some other platform

==1Q2023 Key Results (by 1 Apr 2023)==

Track & reduce monthly expenses to $5,000/month
Hunt for projects to deliver S$60,000
Fully invest ETFs
Make & sell 1 info product on Gumroad

… to have given my time & energy to causes I want to give to (Objective 3):

a. Dhamma & Practice

b. Dhamma Community

c. CIID

d. EDB & EDB Society

e. online communities

==Key Results for 2023:==

For 3a: Dhamma & Practice

Why I stayed in EDB for 13 years

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 21:27:35 +0800

I joined the Singapore Economic Development Board (aka “EDB”) on 5 October 2009, and left on 31 July 2022. When I tell people that I was at EDB for almost 13 years,the most common response I get is “wow, that is a long time!” And it was!

In the 13 years, I did multiple things:

I started out in the Energy, Chemicals & Engineering Services (ECES) team. This team oversaw the development of Jurong Island, Singapore’s energy & petrochemical complex inspired by BASF’s Ludwigshaven complex. That was where I really got to wrap my head around a truly complex system, in my daily work. I was involved in an initiative to re-examine the national hazards and risk assessment framework for large hazardous projects. Eventually, this led to the creation of a new government department to manage risk, after I was posted to India.
From 2012 to 2015, I was posted to Mumbai, India, as a Centre Director for Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad. This was primarily a sales role, with sales targets that I frankly never met. But it was a very good experience, as it was during this time that I came across the budding startup ecosystem in India, and also started thinking about what startups were/are.
From 2015 to 2018, I returned to Singapore, and was a Head (line manager) in the Strategic Planning team. I co-led the Secretariat of the International Advisory Council meetings for two years, and was also involved in the Create initiative to help large corporates create new ventures (it is now the New Ventures division in EDB). The Create initiative also got me exposed to design.
In 2019, I was sent by EDB to study interaction design at CIID in Copenhagen. I completed the year with the IDP 2019 cohort.
From 2020 to 2022, I was really a jack of all trades. At various times, I was a design researcher, service design manager, webmaster, product manager of a manpower scheme (I know!), manager of product manager, prototyper (my favorite thing), design thinking instructor, design workshop facilitator for a new strategic initiative, and helping to initiate a new product innovation team before I left.

If I were to summarize my 13 years’ evolution in a single word, it would be leverage: I learned (not always successfully) how to use, design and create leverage across different levels of abstraction, from an industry & national-level, down to an organization/company-level, senior leadership-level, team-level. (A synonym for leverage is power: see my notes on Power here.)

Permissioned vs Permissionless Leverage

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 21:21:22 +0800

or Why I deliberately didn’t want promotion & am learning how to code

When I became a Head in the EDB Strategic Planning team in 2015, I wondered about my career pathway. And by 2018, I was quite clear that I didn’t want to get any promotion.

When I came back to EDB in 2020, I was again very clear that I didn’t want to get any promotion, and I didn’t want to manage people. Eventually, I did become a design manager, but it was really just to help out rather than because I wanted to.

Dhamma Consolidation Page

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 18:29:00 +0800

I have been invited to give Dhamma talks for a few years now, and I just realized that my writings and videos are spread out across the internet ~~like random pigeon droppings on a street~~. So here’s a single place to find them. Please DM me if I missed out anything. I hope these are helpful. 🙂

Right View -2022

A talk about key aspects of Right View: the Four Truths, Cause & Effect, and Non-self. Includes the YouTube video, slides & presenter notes here.

Dhamma Consolidation Page

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 18:29:00 +0800

(Note: I have a separate blog focused on Dhamma here)

How to Be Happier with the Four Noble Truths - 2025

A talk about the 4 Noble Truths, and how they reframe away our suffering.

20 Dec 2022 Now

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 16:11:23 +0800

Now – 20 Dec 22

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/quarter_IMG_0254-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1)

Life

And we also found a rental place that same month after viewing 7-8 places: thankfully, we rented the unit we are at now, as the rental prices have only gone higher!

Why I stayed in EDB for 13 years

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 15:57:30 +0800

In the 13 years, I did multiple things:

I started out in the Energy, Chemicals & Engineering Services (ECES) team. This team oversaw the development of Jurong Island, Singapore’s energy & petrochemical complex inspired by BASF’s Ludwigshaven complex. That was where I really got to wrap my head around a truly complex system, in my daily work. I was involved in an initiative to re-examine the national hazards and risk assessment framework for large hazardous projects. Eventually, this led to the creation of a new government department to manage risk, after I was posted to India.
From 2012 to 2015, I was posted to Mumbai, India, as a Centre Director for Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad. This was primarily a sales role, with sales targets that I frankly never met. But it was a very good experience, as it was during this time that I came across the budding startup ecosystem in India, and also started thinking about what startups were/are.
From 2015 to 2018, I returned to Singapore, and was a Head (line manager) in the Strategic Planning team. I co-led the Secretariat of the International Advisory Council meetings for two years, and was also involved in the Create initiative to help large corporates create new ventures (it is now the New Ventures division in EDB). The Create initiative also got me exposed to design.
In 2019, I was sent by EDB to study interaction design at CIID in Copenhagen. I completed the year with the IDP 2019 cohort.
From 2020 to 2022, I was really a jack of all trades. At various times, I was a design researcher, service design manager, webmaster, product manager of a manpower scheme (I know!), manager of product manager, prototyper (my favorite thing), design thinking instructor, design workshop facilitator for a new strategic initiative, and helping to initiate a new product innovation team before I left.

Now – 15 Mar 23

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 15:40:01 +0800

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/PHOTO-2023-03-15-07-20-08.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1)

### Life

And we also found a rental place that same month after viewing 7-8 places: thankfully, we rented the unit we are at now, as the rental prices have only gone higher!

Who are your Extreme Users & Niche Experts, and what are they doing?

Fri, 24 Feb 2023 08:57:00 +0800

As I write this, I am using an Omnidesk standing desk and a SecretLab chair.

Both are Singaporean companies, and are creations for gamers.

I bought both pieces of furniture in 2020, when we started working from home due to the pandemic.

My workspace, including my desk & chair

Back then, a friend had asked me why I bought these “because these look so ugly!”
(My wife agrees, btw!)

Visible & Measurable doesn't mean Important!

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 08:48:00 +0800

One of the most common management myths wrongly attributed to both management gurus W Edwards Deming and Peter Drucker was

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.

What’s interesting is that, it seems that neither management guru ever said that phrase: see here and here.

What’s even more interesting is that both management gurus had very nuanced views on the unmeasurable.

Deming’s original quote was actually the exact reverse of the quote attributed to him:

Permissioned vs Permissionless Leverage

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 08:40:00 +0800

or Why I deliberately didn’t want promotion & am learning how to code

When I became a Head in the EDB Strategic Planning team in 2015, I wondered about my career pathway. And by 2018, I was quite clear that I didn’t want to get any promotion.

Who are your Extreme Users & Niche Experts, & what are they doing?

Tue, 07 Feb 2023 11:57:18 +0800

As I write this, I am using an Omnidesk standing desk and a SecretLab chair.

Both are Singaporean companies, and are creations for gamers.

I bought both pieces of furniture in 2020, when we started working from home due to the pandemic.

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/quarter_IMG_1044.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1)

My workspace, including my desk & chair

Back then, a friend had asked me why I bought these “because these look so ugly!” (My wife agrees, btw!)

My reasoning was this:

Visible & Measurable doesn’t mean Important!

Tue, 07 Feb 2023 11:48:39 +0800

One of the most common management myths wrongly attributed to both management gurus W Edwards Deming and Peter Drucker was

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.

What’s interesting is that, it seems that neither management guru ever said that phrase: see here and here.

What’s even more interesting is that both management gurus had very nuanced views on the unmeasurable.

Deming’s original quote was actually the exact reverse of the quote attributed to him:

My 2023 OKRs

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 08:37:00 +0800

These are my OKRs for 2023, which I have set for myself & drafted in January 2023.

By end 2023, I would like

… to have explored creating & using tools at the intersection of Dharma, Design & Digital (Objective 1): linked to the idea of permissionless leverage!

==Key Results for 2023:==

Complete >= 8 mobile or web applications, which draw on Dharma principles as inspiration
Submit 1 app to a design award
Prepare & submit a talk to a conference about my experience at this intersection

==1Q2023 Key Results (by 1 Apr 2023)==

Make 1 mobile app
Complete John Gallaugher Youtube course on SwiftUI
Complete 100 Days of SwiftUI

… to be financially sustainable for my two year sabbatical & be financially independent (Objective 2)

==Key Results for 2023:==

Earned S$60,000 from various gigs & products
Reduced total monthly expenses to $5,000/month (including $2k rental + $2k tax bill monthly)
Fully invested a portfolio of ETFs
Made & sold 5 info products on Gumroad or some other platform

==1Q2023 Key Results (by 1 Apr 2023)==

Track & reduce monthly expenses to $5,000/month
Hunt for projects to deliver S$60,000
Fully invest ETFs
Make & sell 1 info product on Gumroad

… to have given my time & energy to causes I want to give to (Objective 3):

a. Dhamma & Practice

b. Dhamma Community

c. CIID

d. EDB & EDB Society

e. online communities

==Key Results for 2023:==

For 3a: Dhamma & Practice

The Singaporean Conditioning

Sat, 28 Jan 2023 22:51:17 +0800

In 2020, when I was talking to younger friends who asked me about career advice (see link for earlier thoughts), I shared an episode in my CIID experience that I have not written about thus far. The episode made me realise that there’s this thing, which I call “the Singaporean conditioning“.

The TL;DR answer is this: the Singaporean conditioning is about doing what you should do, for your material well-being, for conventional success (which is often defined in Singapore as “makes you monetarily rich”).
It is about “being disciplined”.
It is about “doing your duty”, “being responsible”, “being an adult”.
It’s about “being pragmatic”, about making choices that are “reasonable”.
It’s about making choices that Singaporean society deems “successful”, “good”, “conventional”.

My Learnings from the Rains Retreat in 2022

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 21:32:05 +0800

![A corner of a room, with a window and sunshine. On the right hand side is a meditation cushion seat. ](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/IMG_4877.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1)

My meditation corner in my Jhana Grove room, July 2022

On 19th October 2022, I flew back to Singapore after spending three months at my teacher [Ajahn Brahm](https://bswa.org/teachers/ajahn-brahm/ajahn-brahm-bio/)‘s retreat centre [Jhana Grove](https://bswa.org/location/jhana-grove-retreat-centre/) and [monastery](https://bswa.org/location/bodhinyana-monastery/) in Serpentine, Western Australia.

Since then, I’ve been asked quite frequently about what I learned and “gained”, which I’ll attempt to summarize here. (Please note that learning point 8 has a few graphic pictures of a decaying dead kangaroo)

5 Learning Points from CIID

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 14:57:53 +0800

Hi! Welcome to my site. 🙂

This post is an adaptation of an internal sharing I did in EDB in February 2020, about my experience in the CIID Interaction Design Programme in 2019, and my 5 key learnings from that crazy, amazing year.

The purpose of this sharing is to share some learnings from a very different world that I lived in in 2019: not Copenhagen, but CIID (Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design). I hope that these learning points are useful for people. But I especially hope that this is useful for the creatives & rebels who are courageous enough to try changing within large organizations. This includes

CIID Learnings for EDB

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 11:58:12 +0800

Hi! Welcome to my site. 🙂

First, a bit of an orientation and introduction: this is a page that is password protected, and only visible to CM members as part of the CM sharing. If you’re not an EDB CM member, or minimally EDBian, please leave as you’re not the audience.

This page contains materials that precede a scheduled CM discussion on 27 Feb 2020. As the content is heavily interactive (as you can see from the images + video embeds below) and as none of this is confidential (it’s all public domain, except for my comments on applicability to EDB and on EDB), I’ve decided to try this format instead of a 900MB slide deck…

8 Personal Principles in the Wild for 2023

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 17:07:06 +0800

Updated as of 31 Dec 22

After I left EDB in July, I thought about some of the principles I want to carry on trying, and thought of the following principles. These are my current guesses of my True North:

Build more in public: Write and share more, about projects, motivations, strategy, tactics, which are not confidential. => Default Share & Show.

this is meant to serve three purposes at the same time:
- Holding me accountable
- Documenting work and thoughts in public
- “Content marketing” by default

Fight & argue less. Clarify if necessary, explain why once: but no need to convince or be right all the time. => Stop arguing.

this is meant to stop me from digressing into wasting time. Like this comic from XKCD.
Also, this is meant to stop me from going into rabbit-hole “discussions” that are often unproductive online, because people aren’t going to change their minds with an online debate!

5-3-1: 5 topics, 3 projects, 1 daily thing at a time. 1 time-bound project at a time (as of 31 Dec 22)

This is meant to stop me from spreading too thin over too many things, by imposing a constraint

Always Compound Learning! Compound learning by 1% daily. Over a year, 1^365 = 1, 1.01^365 = 37.78, 0.99^365 = 0.025. But more importantly, over two years, 1.01^730 = 1,426, & three years, 1.01^1095=53,939 times the original! Even if you compound by just 0.1% daily, 1 yr = 1.44x, 2 yr = 2.07x, 3 yr = 2.98x.

Personal principles in the Wild

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 14:59:42 +0800

Updated as of 31 Dec 22

After I left EDB in July, I thought about some of the principles I want to carry on trying, and thought of the following principles. These are my current guesses of my True North:

Build more in public: Write and share more, about projects, motivations, strategy, tactics, which are not confidential. => Default Share & Show.

this is meant to serve three purposes at the same time:
- Holding me accountable
- Documenting work and thoughts in public
- “Content marketing” by default

Fight & argue less. Clarify if necessary, explain why once: but no need to convince or be right all the time. => Stop arguing.

this is meant to stop me from digressing into wasting time. Like this comic from XKCD.
Also, this is meant to stop me from going into rabbit-hole “discussions” that are often unproductive online, because people aren’t going to change their minds with an online debate!

5-3-1: 5 topics, 3 projects, 1 daily thing at a time. 1 time-bound project at a time (as of 31 Dec 22)

This is meant to stop me from spreading too thin over too many things, by imposing a constraint

Always Compound Learning! Compound learning by 1% daily. Over a year, 1^365 = 1, 1.01^365 = 37.78, 0.99^365 = 0.025. But more importantly, over two years, 1.01^730 = 1,426, & three years, 1.01^1095=53,939 times the original! Even if you compound by just 0.1% daily, 1 yr = 1.44x, 2 yr = 2.07x, 3 yr = 2.98x.

8 Personal Principles in the Wild for 2023

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 14:52:31 +0800

Updated as of 31 Dec 22

After I left EDB in July, I thought about some of the principles I want to carry on trying, and thought of the following principles. These are my current guesses of my True North:

Build more in public: Write and share more, about projects, motivations, strategy, tactics, which are not confidential. => Default Share & Show.

this is meant to serve three purposes at the same time:
- Holding me accountable
- Documenting work and thoughts in public
- “Content marketing” by default

Fight & argue less. Clarify if necessary, explain why once: but no need to convince or be right all the time. => Stop arguing.

this is meant to stop me from digressing into wasting time. Like this comic from XKCD.
Also, this is meant to stop me from going into rabbit-hole “discussions” that are often unproductive online, because people aren’t going to change their minds with an online debate!

5-3-1: 5 topics, 3 projects, 1 daily thing at a time. 1 time-bound project at a time (as of 31 Dec 22)

This is meant to stop me from spreading too thin over too many things, by imposing a constraint

Always Compound Learning! Compound learning by 1% daily. Over a year, 1^365 = 1, 1.01^365 = 37.78, 0.99^365 = 0.025. But more importantly, over two years, 1.01^730 = 1,426, & three years, 1.01^1095=53,939 times the original! Even if you compound by just 0.1% daily, 1 yr = 1.44x, 2 yr = 2.07x, 3 yr = 2.98x.

30 Oct 22 Now

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 10:39:12 +0800

30 Oct 22

Life

![Trees & Grass at Jhana Grove, overlooking Serpentine, Western Australia](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Jhana-Grove.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1)

Outlook point at Jhana Grove Meditation Retreat Centre, Serpentine, Western Australia

Happy Halloween!

I left EDB in June-July, and just came back from spending three months with my teacher Ajahn Brahm at his retreat centre and monastery. This part of the Buddhist monastics’ Rains Retreat for this year, and is a dream come true for me (since 2018, when I did a partial Rains Retreat for a month). The most common comment I’ve gotten since I returned was “wow, you’ve lost a LOT of weight!”, which makes me (and my wife) wonder just how fat I was before…

29 Oct 22 Now

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 10:37:22 +0800

30 Oct 22

Life

![Trees & Grass at Jhana Grove, overlooking Serpentine, Western Australia](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Jhana-Grove.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1)

Outlook point at Jhana Grove Meditation Retreat Centre, Serpentine, Western Australia

Happy Halloween!

20 Dec 2022 Now

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 10:36:18 +0800

Now – 20 Dec 22

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/quarter_IMG_0254-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1)

Dharma lazing around with my copy of Antifragile

#### Work {#work}

Present

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 10:34:46 +0800

Now – 20 Dec 22

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/quarter_IMG_0254-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1)

Dharma lazing around with my copy of Antifragile

#### Work {#work}

202212201757 Present

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 10:24:31 +0800

Now – 20 Dec 22

Work

The Buddha on Non-Self

Sun, 18 Dec 2022 16:59:33 +0800

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/DALL·E-2022-12-18-16.56.00-non-self-anatta-in-impressionist-style.png?resize=1024%2C1024&ssl=1)

Non-self in Impressionist Style by #dalle

Non-self is a central concept in Buddhism, which makes it very different from other belief systems.

The main idea is this: that a so-called self or soul is made up of five aggregates (physical form, sense-feelings, perception, volition, sense-consciousnesses), each of which are not a self or soul. So there is no single thing you can point to which is a self or a soul.

The Buddha on Non-Self

Sun, 18 Dec 2022 16:58:51 +0800

Non-self in Impressionist Style by #dalle Non-self is a central concept in Buddhism, which makes it very different from other belief systems.

An Investigation (AI) into AI: playing with ChatGPT

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 17:27:56 +0800

Where my mind is blown by ChatGPT

ChatGPT has recently taken the Twitter space by storm. I’ll let it describe itself to you:

ChatGPT describing itself ChatGPT is a variant of the GPT-3 (Generative Pretrained Transformer-3) language model that has been optimized for generating human-like responses in conversation. It is trained on a large dataset of conversational data, such as chat logs and dialogue from social media, to enable it to generate text that resembles the language and style of natural human conversations. ChatGPT can be used to assist in creating chatbots, virtual assistants, and other conversational AI systems.

An Investigation (AI) into AI: playing with ChatGPT

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 17:26:35 +0800

Where my mind is blown by ChatGPT

ChatGPT has recently taken the Twitter space by storm. I’ll let it describe itself to you:

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Screenshot-2022-12-06-at-4.40.11-PM.png?resize=763%2C376&ssl=1)

ChatGPT describing itself

> *ChatGPT is a variant of the GPT-3 (Generative Pretrained Transformer-3) language model that has been optimized for generating human-like responses in conversation. It is trained on a large dataset of conversational data, such as chat logs and dialogue from social media, to enable it to generate text that resembles the language and style of natural human conversations. ChatGPT can be used to assist in creating chatbots, virtual assistants, and other conversational AI systems.* > > From ChatGPT

What has also been interesting has been the use of ChatGPT for coding applications, sites.

An Investigation (AI) into AI

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 16:48:30 +0800

Where my mind is blown by Chat GPT

Chat GPT has recently taken the Twitter space by storm. I’ll let it describe itself to you:

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Screenshot-2022-12-06-at-4.40.11-PM.png?resize=763%2C376&ssl=1)

ChatGPT describing itself

What has also been interesting has been the use of ChatGPT for coding applications, sites.

Adventurous Investigations (AI) into AI

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 16:29:55 +0800

Where my mind is blown by Chat GPT

> This site was built in less than 10 minutes using a few ChatGPT prompts and Replit. > > Here's a glimpse into how software development has changed forever 👇 [pic.twitter.com/sSYK4Umlm6](https://t.co/sSYK4Umlm6) > > — Replit ⠕ (@Replit) [December 5, 2022](https://twitter.com/Replit/status/1599803817515548674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

The Tweet that started it for me

I came across the Tweet above this morning, and decided to play around with [ChatGPT](https://chat.openai.com/chat) after lunch.

The first thing I did was to type in (simplified) Chinese, to see how Chat GPT deals with a non-English language. I asked it to tell a joke. Maybe it’s me, but I really didn’t understand how the jokes were funny at all: Why can’t the pig go up the mountain? Because it is always worried it’ll be beaten to death by the hunter. Why does the duck love to stand on the grass? Because there are a lot of people sitting there. (They are equally unfunny in Chinese btw…)

Experiments with ChatGPT by Open AI

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 16:18:03 +0800

Where my mind is blown by AI

The Tweet that started it for me

“And what is the noble eightfold path?
“Katamo ca, bhikkhave, ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo?

It is right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion.
Seyyathidaṁ—sammādiṭṭhi …pe… sammāsamādhi.

And what is right view?
Katamā ca, bhikkhave, sammādiṭṭhi?

Knowing about suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering.
Yaṁ kho, bhikkhave, dukkhe ñāṇaṁ, dukkhasamudaye ñāṇaṁ, dukkhanirodhe ñāṇaṁ, dukkhanirodhagāminiyā paṭipadāya ñāṇaṁ—
This is called right view.
ayaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, sammādiṭṭhi.

The most important idea in meditation

Sun, 04 Dec 2022 17:11:21 +0800

The most important idea in meditation is this:

You don’t meditate.

You LET meditation happen.

![Calico cat curled up in basket, with one eye open](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/quarter_IMG_9999-1.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1)

Dharma showing how to let meditation happen

The most important idea in meditation

Sun, 04 Dec 2022 17:11:21 +0800

The most important idea in meditation is this:

You don’t meditate.

You LET meditation happen.

Dharma showing how to let meditation happen.

Personal Manifesto: What I want to do from now until 2024

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 17:55:12 +0800

I was talking to my wife Chee Huey, and talking through about the different opportunities that have come up through my connections and LinkedIn.

All in all, it feels a bit frazzling, as it seems like I’m pulled in all directions.

And my wife suggested that I AM pulled in all directions. She suggested that it might be useful for me to write down, for myself, what do I want to do out of my remaining time (two years from Oct 2022 to Oct 2024), what do I want to “get out of this”. So that is what this write-up is about.

Personal Manifesto: What I want to do from now until 2024

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 17:51:41 +0800

I was talking to my wife Chee Huey, and talking through about the different opportunities that have come up through my connections and LinkedIn.

All in all, it feels a bit frazzling, as it seems like I’m pulled in all directions.

Career Advice (Updated 6 Aug 21)

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 09:46:00 +0800

My LinkedIn profile gets a lot of random queries from people who connect to me for career advice.

Initially, I was quite annoyed, & I tried to turn off the setting that randomly paired with people whom I don’t know. But I realised that, maybe I could be of service to people in a small but substantial way.

So, I’ve been giving the same advice to various people over the past few years over LinkedIn. This advice is necessarily general, but I think it is useful to consider how it might apply to your individual circumstance.

Is now The Time to explore crypto applications?

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 12:53:00 +0800

With the recent crash in crypto, I have started to look at the crypto-tokenomics-blockchain world.

This is because I suspect that the crash will shake out a lot of the hype followers. But the fall in crypto value will also make it cheaper to explore actual applications of crypto.

Free pic from Pexels This article on tokengated commerce elaborates a lot on some possible applications of crypto, which I find very thought provoking.

Is now The Time to explore crypto applications?

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 11:35:34 +0800

With the recent crash in crypto, I have started to look at the crypto-tokenomics-blockchain world.

This is because I suspect that the crash will shake out a lot of the hype followers. But the fall in crypto value will also make it cheaper to explore actual applications of crypto.

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/pexels-photo-844124.jpg?resize=1024%2C631&ssl=1)

Free pic from Pexels

This [article on tokengated commerce](https://www.notboring.co/p/tokengated-commerce) elaborates a lot on some possible applications of crypto, which I find very thought provoking.

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/https3A2F2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com2Fpublic2Fimages2F0b266afa-1420-414b-ac0d-cf35231ae6d9_1600x895.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1)*What’s going on in this picture? This is from [Doodles’ event at SXSW](https://twitter.com/doodles/status/1506457398239657989) this past march, a pop-up world created by the web3 community [Doodles](https://twitter.com/doodles).*

The event was open to everyone, but if you were a Doodle holder, all kinds of experiences in this world – from the entry all the way through to the Shopify-powered gift shop – “opened up” to you in delightful ways. Lights flashed, bubbles blew, special gated merch dropped down on a hand-built roller coaster cart; and your Doodle showed up on a huge screen, announcing to the world: “Welcome, Doodle holder 3125!” And one after another, guests’ faces lit up in the unmistakable joy of being recognized; of successfully entering this new world.

Qualitative Research for the Quantitative-minded

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 09:21:00 +0800

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” – William Cameron, Professor of Sociology

“It’s not the men in my life that count, it’s the life in my men.” – Mae West, actress

As I started doing design work within my org, I’ve come to realize that many people do not really understand the difference or purpose of qualitative vs quantitative data.
Quantitative data and its standards are much more well known, so people talk about ‘statistical significance’, ‘standard deviation’, etc. Part of this may have to do with the prevalence of statistical techniques being used around the different domains of business, whether sales, engineering, marketing, etc. Qualitative research is much less well-known or understood, and is often seen as “just subjective opinion (of the respondent)”.
The prevailing paradigm is of quantification. As a consequence, I have frequently encountered questions of “is this finding statistically valid? how many datapoints do we have for this?” etc. even for qualitative research findings.

Propositions

Sun, 27 Nov 2022 15:01:11 +0800

What I could offer to you:

1. Applied Design Thinking Fundamentals: training in Design Thinking

![Bunch of Post Its on a board, with a Persona of a user](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Design-Thinking-Training-1.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1)

Photo of a synthesis board taken from a Design Thinking training course run

***What is this?*** This is a hands-on course on design-thinking fundamentals, which participants will learn by doing. **Please note that this is not accredited nor Skillsfuture Qualified, yet.** I am modelling this course on what I created for EDB, inhouse. With two other teammates, we created a Design Thinking training course for EDB, which we conducted for 4 runs, training people ranging from Admin to Strategy: it seems that people survived these, and they were well received. 😉

The curriculum and material was made from open-source material, and the training lasts 4 x 1/2 days, covering the “double diamond” design process. Each half-day training is highly-interactive: there is a short initial download of theory, followed by a hands-on application.
Every afternoon, there is also a 1hr free consultation, which teams can use to consult me on how they could apply their morning learnings to their specific context.

Qualitative Research for the Quantitative-minded

Sun, 27 Nov 2022 14:37:40 +0800

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” – William Cameron, Professor of Sociology

“It’s not the men in my life that count, it’s the life in my men.” – Mae West, actress

Knowing good mind states

Sun, 27 Nov 2022 14:32:13 +0800

Often we tend to focus on being mindful and aware of unwholesome mind states & what has gone wrong e.g. that our mind has become distracted.

But this sutta passage highlights the importance of being aware when we are NOT distracted, when we ARE mindful, when one’s mind is pure, clean, and without defilements (even if temporarily)!

“Take the case of the person who doesn’t have a blemish but does not understand it. You can expect that they will focus on the feature of beauty, and because of that, lust will infect their mind. And they will die with greed, hate, and delusion, blemished, with a corrupted mind.

Knowing good mind states

Sun, 27 Nov 2022 14:32:13 +0800

Often we tend to focus on being mindful and aware of unwholesome mind states & what has gone wrong e.g. that our mind has become distracted.

But this sutta passage highlights the importance of being aware when we are NOT distracted, when we ARE mindful, when one’s mind is pure, clean, and without defilements (even if temporarily)!

“Take the case of the person who doesn’t have a blemish but does not understand it. You can expect that they will focus on the feature of beauty, and because of that, lust will infect their mind. And they will die with greed, hate, and delusion, blemished, with a corrupted mind.

Qualitative Research for the Quantitative-minded

Sun, 27 Nov 2022 14:21:12 +0800

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” – William Cameron, Professor of Sociology

“It’s not the men in my life that count, it’s the life in my men.” – Mae West, actress

On Experience Design

Fri, 11 Nov 2022 10:36:40 +0800

(This was written shortly after I returned from CIID in 2020, before Covid slapped the world.)

Recently, I’ve had a few conversations that went along these lines.

Person X: Oh, did you study interaction design?

Me: Yeah, I did!

X: Cool! Then you’ll understand that design is really about experience.

Me: Yeah, it is.

X: And experience is about*…*

“experience is about taking the user not too far but within their comfort zone”
“it’s all about the experience… like when I do (an action in our organization) and I get (a particular response), I’m like ‘how is that a good experience??’ “

My guess is that, the term “experience design” has become such a mainstream-yet-woolly-buzzword, that it has basically become yet another container for people to ship their own opinions, biases, interpretations.

On Experience Design

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 10:39:10 +0800

(This was written shortly after I returned from CIID in 2020, before Covid slapped the world.)

Recently, I’ve had a few conversations that went along these lines.

Person X: Oh, did you study interaction design?

Me: Yeah, I did!

X: Cool! Then you’ll understand that design is really about experience.

Me: Yeah, it is.

X: And experience is about*…*

“experience is about taking the user not too far but within their comfort zone”
“it’s all about the experience… like when I do (an action in our organization) and I get (a particular response), I’m like ‘how is that a good experience??’ “

Why design thinking should be renamed

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 10:26:51 +0800

![Post It sketch of the Double Diamond, showing theory (perfect double diamond) and reality (very messy)](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/IMG_854528129.jpg?resize=1000%2C750&ssl=1)

Double Diamond – Theory vs Reality

Design thinking is a buzzword that I really dislike. It isn’t just that it’s a buzzword, but that it is an inaccurate buzzword. “design thinking” is a problematic name, as it connotes that “it’s just enough to think”, and it also connotes that it is sufficient to come up with ideas. It also connotes Post Its: as a CIID instructor once said to us, “sometimes people mistake using Post Its as real work; sometimes using Post Its IS real work.”

*Perhaps the biggest problem with the term “design thinking” is that it connotes that design is just about thought and thinking, and that just “thinking” is enou*gh

Present

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 10:24:13 +0800

30 Oct 22

Life

![Trees & Grass at Jhana Grove, overlooking Serpentine, Western Australia](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Jhana-Grove.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1)

Outlook point at Jhana Grove Meditation Retreat Centre, Serpentine, Western Australia

Happy Halloween!

Portfolio

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 10:23:25 +0800

A selection of projects which I have undertaken since 2019.

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stille-Awards-Portfolio-pic-2-comp-comp.png?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1)

(2019) [Stille](https://inquivision.com/portfolio/stille/) is a physical-digital service, which supports the emotional well-being of institutional caregivers of the elderly, thus maintaining their empathy and their energy to care for the elderly.

Stille was my final year project at CIID in the Interaction Design Program (IDP ’19). It was awarded Student Runner Up in the 2020 Core77 Design Awards, and was an honoree for 2020 Fast Company’s Innovation By Design Awards, Student Category. The detailed documentation is here, covering the design research (including shadowing, interviews, sacrificial prototypes), development of design principles, and the subsequent concept and prototype testing.

Art, Design and Innovation

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 21:38:23 +0800

(Reposting this from an older blog post that I wrote when I was at CIID)

There remains one a priori fallacy, or natural prejudice, the most deeply rooted perhaps of all which we have enumerated… that is, that the conditions of a phenomena must, or at least probably will, resemble the phenomenon itself.

John Stuart Mill, “A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive”

Recently during the spring break, I re-read the book “Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned” by Kenneth O Stanley and Joel Lehman. The book’s ideas are especially applicable for domains which I think broadly of as “search” i.e. one is exploring a “search space”, much like a treasure hunter. This contrasts with “execution” domains, where there is often much greater clarity about the domain, and the focus is just on doing. The recent book “Trillion Dollar Coach” talks about the innovation vs execution spectrum; the ideas of “Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned”are largely applicable to search & innovation.

Art, Design and Innovation

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 21:32:32 +0800

(Reposting this from an older blog post that I wrote when I was at CIID)

There remains one a priori fallacy, or natural prejudice, the most deeply rooted perhaps of all which we have enumerated… that is, that the conditions of a phenomena must, or at least probably will, resemble the phenomenon itself.

John Stuart Mill, “A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive”

Project Portfolio

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 21:16:00 +0800

A selection of projects which I have undertaken since 2019.

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stille-Awards-Portfolio-pic-2-comp-comp.png?resize=1024%2C576&ssl=1)

spacer

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 11:30:34 +0800

- - - - - -

Stille

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 10:59:30 +0800

Emotional care for institutional caregivers of the elderly

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Stille-Awards-Hero-Image-comp.png?resize=682%2C1024&ssl=1)

A Danish caregiver preparing the bed of an elder

Stille is a physical-digital service that aims to help institutional caregivers maintain their empathy and their energy to care, by supporting caregivers’ emotional well-being. It was my [Final Project](http://ciid.dk/education/portfolio/idp19/courses/final-projects/projects/stille/) at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (IDP 2019), conducted from Sept to Dec ’19. Research was done in two phases, which yielded five [design principles ](http://stille-design-principles)used to design the solution:

Address the Stress: create a break
Focus on the emotional, not the physical
Reinforce social bonds & support amongst co-workers
Tactile interactions to calm & soothe
Non-written reflection mechanisms

It was awarded the Student Runner-Up in Core 77 Design Awards in 2020, and was an Honorable Mention in Fast Company’s Innovation By Design Awards 2020.

Stille - Design Process

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 10:00:10 +0800

To see rest of the project:

Background

Design Principles

Concept

Research

I started with desktop research to understand the aging and motivation: the books I referred to included Aronson’s Elderhood, Gawande’s Being Mortal, as well as Dan Ariely’s Payoff: The Hidden Logic that Shapes our Motivations. Concurrently, I started volunteering at the nursing home where I eventually did my research, and was able to ask some of the staff on possible areas of research for my final project.

Stille - Design Principles

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 09:55:31 +0800

Research yielded five design principles, which were used to design the solution:

Details of each design principle are below:

Address the Stress: create a break. The picture showed the emotional seismograph of a nursing home part-timer (sketched on a tablet): the thin line was her “happiness” chart, while the thick grey line was her “stress”. As she said to me, “happiness is not the same as stress.” Thus, it was not sufficient to create meaning, but there was a need to design for a break, even a small one.

Stille Concept

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 09:50:05 +0800

Back to Main page

Stille is a service which aims to help caregivers maintain their empathy and their energy to care, by supporting caregivers’ emotional well-being.

It does this through three modules, which
– Allow caregivers to emotionally support each other through sending audio messages of appreciation
– Provide timely prompts for caregivers to reflect on their day and visualizing the caregiver’s mood patterns
– Provide micro-breaks at a physical break station

My Learnings from the Rains Retreat in 2022

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 16:38:33 +0800

My meditation corner in my Jhana Grove room, July 2022
On 19th October 2022, I flew back to Singapore after spending three months at my teacher Ajahn Brahm‘s retreat centre Jhana Grove and monastery in Serpentine, Western Australia.

Now page

Sun, 30 Oct 2022 21:54:05 +0800

30 Oct 22

Life

![Trees & Grass at Jhana Grove, overlooking Serpentine, Western Australia](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Jhana-Grove.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1)

Outlook point at Jhana Grove Meditation Retreat Centre, Serpentine, Western Australia

Happy Halloween!

Propositions

Sun, 30 Oct 2022 21:20:20 +0800

Interested in what I could offer to you? Want to hire or work with me?

Visit my company’s page for more details of my offerings!

Proposition

Sun, 30 Oct 2022 21:19:58 +0800

What I could offer to you:

1. Applied Design Thinking Fundamentals: training in Design Thinking

![Bunch of Post Its on a board, with a Persona of a user](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Design-Thinking-Training-1.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1)

Photo of a synthesis board taken from a Design Thinking training course run

30 Oct 22 Now

Sat, 29 Oct 2022 21:21:53 +0800

30 Oct 22

Life

![Trees & Grass at Jhana Grove, overlooking Serpentine, Western Australia](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Jhana-Grove.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1)

Outlook point at Jhana Grove Meditation Retreat Centre, Serpentine, Western Australia

Happy Halloween!

PJ

Sat, 29 Oct 2022 16:41:41 +0800

About Me

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/PJ-Teh-Profile-BW.jpg?resize=400%2C400&ssl=1)#### (*For the latest updates, see my* [*Now page*](https://inquivision.com/now)*.* [*Now-page concept from Derek Sivers.*](https://nownownow.com/about))

I graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Physics from Rice University in 2006, and worked brief stints (respectively) in a chemical research institute, an investment bank in Hong Kong, and a proprietary day-trading firm in Singapore.

Since 2009, I have been with the Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB”) in various roles, ranging from the industry development of Singapore’s energy and chemicals sector, to attracting investments from Indian corporates. Before switching to interaction design, I was with the Strategic Planning division, where I was part of a new initiative (named “Create”) aimed at helping large companies to create new businesses.

Raging Bull v1.0

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 09:14:41 +0800

Project description here.

Right Intention, Wrong Intention and the Banality of Evil

Sun, 10 Oct 2021 07:25:02 +0800

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/img_6162950c2dd3d.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1)

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the philosopher [Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem”](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/320983/eichmann-in-jerusalem-by-hannah-arendt/), specifically her concept of “*the banality of evil*“.

A few months ago, I was vigorously discussing a work matter with a colleague, and trying to explain why I have a knee-jerk reaction against “because the boss said so” explanations when asked to do things. I alluded to Arendt’s the banality of evil, coined from her coverage of the Eichmann trial. Initially, my colleague thought I was comparing him with Eichmann (which was completely not the case: my colleague is a very high integrity and moral man who has often spoken his mind when he thought things made no sense); thankfully, I managed to clarify that I wasn’t comparing him to Eichmann at all, but more that it is a constant battle that each individual must constantly do to prevent doing evil by sheer thoughtlessness, especially in any system or environment we operate in.

Right Intention, Wrong Intention and the Banality of Evil

Sun, 10 Oct 2021 07:23:59 +0800

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the philosopher Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem”, specifically her concept of “the banality of evil“.

The purpose of this sharing is to share some learnings from a very different world that I lived in in 2019: not Copenhagen, but CIID (Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design). It’s a world where things move at an amazing clockspeed, where it’s not uncommon for a project to go from zero to working prototype (sometimes complete with user-research) in two weeks. This page is my attempt to peel back the onion, share some learnings I took away from this world. 🙂

Notes about Power, from 'The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate'

Sun, 30 May 2021 14:01:07 +0800

I finished reading Robert Caro’s “Master of the Senate”, which is the history of Lyndon B Johnson‘s time in the US Senate, and had a few learnings about power.

Power is structural

In the case of the Senate, the power comes from the US constitution, which has divided power across different parts of government. The Senate has the power of ratifying treaties, but also has tremendous power in blocking laws: much of the book is devoted to the repeated blocking of legislation (e.g. civil rights for black Americans, due to the Senate having a significant Southern faction that united their votes together, under the leadership of Georgian senator Richard Russell).

Notes about Power, from “The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate”

Sun, 30 May 2021 14:00:23 +0800

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/IMG_7452.jpg?resize=600%2C800&ssl=1) I finished reading Robert Caro’s [“Master of the Senate”](https://www.amazon.com/Master-Senate-Years-Lyndon-Johnson/dp/0394720954/ref=sr_1_1?crid=24SD6ZTV852GW&dchild=1&keywords=master+of+the+senate+robert+caro&qid=1619322218&sprefix=master+of+the+senate%2Caps%2C370&sr=8-1), which is the history of [Lyndon B Johnson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson)‘s time in the US Senate, and had a few learnings about power.

Power is structural

202104241648 Lyndon Johnson, Master of the Senate

Sun, 30 May 2021 13:51:49 +0800

Power is structural

Stille – Process

Sat, 08 May 2021 14:17:40 +0800

To see rest of the project:

Background (Context & Brief)

Design Principles

Concept

Research

Raging Bull v1.0

Sat, 08 May 2021 03:50:06 +0800

Project description here.

[WP-Coder id=”1″]

[WP-Coder id=”2″]

Raging Bull v1.0 – Project Description

Sat, 08 May 2021 03:49:25 +0800

See the interaction here:Raging Bull v1.0

> > > “To tame a raging bull with an infinite field.”

— Zen saying

***Update 30 Sep 20: the interaction is buggy on mobile versions of Safari and Chrome: tapping on the circle doesn’t do anything, when it should turn black and agitated. Mobile Firefox works well, as do desktop versions of said browsers.***

Inspired by the above Zen saying, I created this little toy interaction with p5JS. Instead of a raging bull, you get an agitated black circle: the more you click and move the mouse around, the more the circle stays black and agitated!

Raging Bull v1.0 – Project Description

Sat, 08 May 2021 03:49:25 +0800

See the interaction here:Raging Bull v1.0

> > > “To tame a raging bull with an infinite field.”

— Zen saying

Spying on Whales and Convergent Evolution

Sun, 02 May 2021 13:43:20 +0800

Almost a year ago, I finished reading Spying on Whales. The book was super rich both in meaning and emotion: emotion, because I bought it during my only visit to Oxford (where I visited my friend Aaron, who brought me to booklover’s Mecca i.e. Oxford’s Blackwell’s…) But it was really the contents of the book which provoked a lot of thoughts for me.

The book is written by a paleontologist at the Smithsonian, so he takes an evolutionary lens, but also a very long-time-scale perspective, far beyond our usual human time-scales. This results in a few observations that we don’t often see in our day-to-day lives:

202104120923 Climate Change and an Ageing Population

Sun, 02 May 2021 13:40:15 +0800

Imagine the direct warm heat when you stand next to a charcoal barbeque pit fire, or when they bring the white hot charcoal in a Korean barbeque restaurant. Now imagine that such heat is radiating from above and beside you, constantly in your home for HOURS, and you’re an elderly person…

My wife grew up in a HDB flat, which is on the top floor, and we go back every Sunday evening for dinner with her family.

Past

Sun, 02 May 2021 11:18:12 +0800

2 May 21

![One cat licking another](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/IMG_7526.jpg?resize=756%2C1008&ssl=1)

Dharma licking Greg: a rare act of love

### Work

I’m still an Assistant Vice President in the Customer Experience (CX) division, Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB”). I also oversee EDB’s Connections Concierge, a listing of Singapore service providers to potential investors of Singapore.

Of the two strategic workstreams which I can’t really talk about in detail:

I am in wrapping up the joint project with a private company: it has now transitioned into an awkward phase, where it is mostly work within government. A lot of stakeholder management going on…
For the strategy development workstream, we are likely only going into high-gear later in the year, due to organizational considerations.

Side Projects

I am still learning coding.

21 Feb Now

Sun, 02 May 2021 11:17:31 +0800

Work

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/IMG_6570-2.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1)

Happy Chinese New Year with cats!

I’m an Assistant Vice President in the Customer Experience (CX) division, [Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB”)](https://www.edb.gov.sg/). I also oversee [EDB’s Connections Concierge](https://www.edb.gov.sg/connections-concierge/service-providers.html), a listing of Singapore service providers to potential investors of Singapore.

I’m part of two strategic workstreams, which I can’t really talk about in detail. At a high-level:

A strategic design workstream with our Strategic Planning team, which will likely take the rest of the year, if not longer. Last year, I had to facilitate and plan a remote workshop on Microsoft Teams for 90+ participants for this workstream: perhaps the most stressful task I have done to date!
A joint team with a private company, exploring the feasibility of bringing a digital service to Singapore.

Side Projects (21 Feb 21)

Last year in 3Q or so, I worked on a interactive prototype for a Digital Dharma project idea I had in mind, which I am calling Bright Stone. The videos of the interactions are here and here: the prototype was built using Sketch and Origami Studio, over a couple of weekends.

The Four Realities of Life, and what to do about them

Sun, 14 Mar 2021 10:25:50 +0800

![A Chinese sutra text under an English translation of the text by Venerable Analyo](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/IMG_6989.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1)> “Of these Four Noble Truths, bhikkhus, there is a noble truth that is to be fully understood; there is a noble truth that is to be abandoned; there is a noble truth that is to be realized; there is a noble truth that is to be developed. > > “And what, bhikkhus, is the noble truth that is to be fully understood? The noble truth of suffering is to be fully understood; the noble truth of the origin of suffering is to be abandoned; the noble truth of the cessation of suffering is to be realized; the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering is to be developed. > > > 「有四聖諦。何等為四？謂苦聖諦、苦集聖諦、苦滅聖諦、苦滅道跡聖諦。若比丘於苦聖諦當知、當解，於集聖諦當知、當斷，於苦滅聖諦當知、當證，於苦滅道跡聖諦當知、當修。」 > >

The Four Realities of Life

I was thinking about what to study in the Dhamma/Dharma today, and decided to re-read the Dhammacakkapavattana sutta (Rolling Forth the Wheel of Dhamma SN56.11), but to also read the Chinese parallels. My study was inspired by the ongoing Noble Eightfold Path course by the Buddhist Society of Western Australia (BSWA). On the recording for Day 1 part 3, someone had asked a question about “what is to be done about each of the Four Noble Truths, something which is to be fully understood, realised, etc.?” Ajahn Brahmali mentioned that this was mentioned in SN56.11.

The Four Realities of Life, and what to do about them

Sun, 14 Mar 2021 10:25:50 +0800

“Of these Four Noble Truths, bhikkhus, there is a noble truth that is to be fully understood; there is a noble truth that is to be abandoned; there is a noble truth that is to be realized; there is a noble truth that is to be developed.

“And what, bhikkhus, is the noble truth that is to be fully understood? The noble truth of suffering is to be fully understood; the noble truth of the origin of suffering is to be abandoned; the noble truth of the cessation of suffering is to be realized; the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering is to be developed.
https://suttacentral.net/sn56.29/en/bodhi

202103141523 The Four Realities of Life, and what to do about them

Sun, 14 Mar 2021 08:29:16 +0800

![[IMG_6989.jpg]]

“Of these Four Noble Truths, bhikkhus, there is a noble truth that is to be fully understood; there is a noble truth that is to be abandoned; there is a noble truth that is to be realized; there is a noble truth that is to be developed.

“And what, bhikkhus, is the noble truth that is to be fully understood? The noble truth of suffering is to be fully understood; the noble truth of the origin of suffering is to be abandoned; the noble truth of the cessation of suffering is to be realized; the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering is to be developed.
https://suttacentral.net/sn56.29/en/bodhi

Dreaming of Dharma

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 13:48:50 +0800

26 Apr 2020
(Note: A post in the Sutta Central discussion forum described the possibility of a Dhamma-focused business organisation. This resonated with me, as I have been thinking about this for some time. I am putting my response here so that I don’t forget. The original post is here. The main idea below is an iteration of a concept that I came up with in Oct 2018 when I was on a self-retreat in Jhana Grove, as I reflected that I don’t really have a vehicle for practicing the Dhamma. In the write-up below, I’ve also added some ideas of possible digital Dhamma projects.)

How to lead in problem solving

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 10:49:50 +0800

i finished reading ‘the great influenza’, a book about the 1918 influenza, and was struck by the comparison between two very different scientists, with two different problem solving approaches.

the two scientists were oswald avery and paul lewis. both were researching into the influenza, but their different approaches led to very different results. Both had similar flaws: both were dogged/obstinate/stubborn, both were single-minded, both failed repeatedly, both were ultimately conventionally unsuccessful: nothing too fantastic.

Posts

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 10:39:36 +0800

Stille

Sun, 07 Mar 2021 08:57:04 +0800

Emotional care for institutional caregivers of the elderly

A Danish caregiver preparing the bed of an elder

Stille is a physical-digital service that aims to help institutional caregivers maintain their empathy and their energy to care, by supporting caregivers’ emotional well-being. It was my Final Project at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (IDP 2019), conducted from Sept to Dec ‘19. Research was done in two phases, which yielded five design principles used to design the solution:

Stille – Design Principles

Sun, 07 Mar 2021 08:40:04 +0800

Research yielded five design principles, which were used to design the solution.

Address the Stress: create a break. The picture showed the emotional seismograph of a nursing home part-timer (sketched on a tablet): the thin line was her “happiness” chart, while the thick grey line was her “stress”. As she said to me, “happiness is not the same as stress.” Thus, it was not sufficient to create meaning, but there was a need to design for a break, even a small one.
Focus on the emotional, not the physical. Existing preventive measures at the nursing home were focused on physical well-being, and not emotional well-being. Emotional support was ad-hoc and between co-workers. There was an opportunity to design for the emotional well-being of caregivers.
Reinforce social bonds & support amongst co-workers. Co-workers were an existing source of emotional support and well-being, but the support was currently ad-hoc and unstructured. This was an opportunity to deliberately systematize the social support amongst co-workers.
Tactile interactions to calm & soothe. A caregiver brought chestnuts during a shift, and throughout the evening, chestnuts were handed out to staff and residents alike; this had an observable calming effect on both staff and residents.
Non-written reflection mechanism. Almost all caregivers though about their work, and found it useful. However, five caregivers were given five notebooks to journal over two-weeks: this yielded only THREE pages of reflections. As one caregiver said to me, “If we had to write, it is just another task.” There was an opportunity to create non-written mechanisms that help caregivers reflect on their shifts and emotions.

Stille – Evolution

Sun, 07 Mar 2021 08:26:02 +0800

Stille – Design Principles

Sun, 07 Mar 2021 08:23:14 +0800

Research yielded five design principles, which were used to design the solution.

Address the Stress: create a break. The picture showed the emotional seismograph of a nursing home part-timer (sketched on a tablet): the thin line was her “happiness” chart, while the thick grey line was her “stress”. As she said to me, “happiness is not the same as stress.” Thus, it was not sufficient to create meaning, but there was a need to design for a break, even a small one.
Focus on the emotional, not the physical. Existing preventive measures at the nursing home were focused on physical well-being, and not emotional well-being. Emotional support was ad-hoc and between co-workers. There was an opportunity to design for the emotional well-being of caregivers.
Reinforce social bonds & support amongst co-workers. Co-workers were an existing source of emotional support and well-being, but the support was currently ad-hoc and unstructured. This was an opportunity to deliberately systematize the social support amongst co-workers.
Tactile interactions to calm & soothe. A caregiver brought chestnuts during a shift, and throughout the evening, chestnuts were handed out to staff and residents alike; this had an observable calming effect on both staff and residents.
Non-written reflection mechanism. Almost all caregivers though about their work, and found it useful. However, five caregivers were given five notebooks to journal over two-weeks: this yielded only THREE pages of reflections. As one caregiver said to me, “If we had to write, it is just another task.” There was an opportunity to create non-written mechanisms that help caregivers reflect on their shifts and emotions.

Simple Contact Form

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 08:07:36 +0800

{“id”:”730″,”field_id”:3,”fields”:[{“id”:”0″,”type”:”name”,”label”:”Name”,”format”:”first-last”,”description”:””,”required”:”1″,”size”:”medium”,”simple_placeholder”:””,”simple_default”:””,”first_placeholder”:””,”first_default”:””,”middle_placeholder”:””,”middle_default”:””,”last_placeholder”:””,”last_default”:””,”css”:””},{“id”:”1″,”type”:”email”,”label”:”Email”,”description”:””,”required”:”1″,”size”:”medium”,”placeholder”:””,”confirmation_placeholder”:””,”default_value”:””,”css”:””,”filter_type”:””,”allowlist”:””,”denylist”:””},{“id”:”2″,”type”:”textarea”,”label”:”Comment or Message”,”description”:””,”required”:”1″,”size”:”medium”,”placeholder”:””,”limit_count”:”1″,”limit_mode”:”characters”,”default_value”:””,”css”:””}],”settings”:{“form_title”:”Simple Contact Form”,”form_desc”:””,”form_class”:””,”submit_text”:”Submit”,”submit_text_processing”:”Sending…”,”submit_class”:””,”antispam”:”1″,”notification_enable”:”1″,”notifications”:{“1”:{“email”:”{admin_email}”,”subject”:”New Entry: Simple Contact Form”,”sender_name”:”Inquivision”,”sender_address”:”{admin_email}”,”replyto”:”{field_id=\”1\”}”,”message”:”{all_fields}”}},”confirmations”:{“1”:{“type”:”message”,”message”:”

Thanks for contacting us! We will be in touch with you shortly.<\/p>“,”message_scroll”:”1″,”page”:”76″,”redirect”:””}}},”meta”:{“template”:”contact”}}

How to lead in problem solving

Sun, 28 Feb 2021 06:18:59 +0800

i finished reading ‘the great influenza’, a book about the 1918 influenza, and was struck by the comparison between two very different scientists, with two different problem solving approaches.

Now

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 13:00:14 +0800

Work

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/IMG_6570-2.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1)

Happy Chinese New Year with cats!

I’m part of two strategic workstreams, which I can’t really talk about in detail. At a high-level:

A strategic design workstream with our Strategic Planning team, which will likely take the rest of the year, if not longer. Last year, I had to facilitate and plan a remote workshop on Microsoft Teams for 90+ participants for this workstream: perhaps the most stressful task I have done to date!
A joint team with a private company, exploring the feasibility of bringing a digital service to Singapore.

Side Projects (21 Feb 21)

Stille

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 13:58:37 +0800

![Core 77 award page.jpg]()

Stille

Emotional care for institutional caregivers of the elderly

My final thesis project for IDP 2019, which was done over nine weeks (excluding four weeks of industry projects) from Sept ‘19 to Dec ‘19. **Update: this was awarded the** [**runner-up in the Student Service Design category**](https://designawards.core77.com/Service-Design/94438/Stille)**.**

Stille is a physical-digital service that aims to help caregivers maintain their empathy and their energy to care, by supporting caregivers’ emotional well-being.

21 Feb Now

Sun, 21 Feb 2021 06:43:37 +0800

Work

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/IMG_6570-2.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1)

Happy Chinese New Year with cats!

I’m part of two strategic workstreams, which I can’t really talk about in detail. At a high-level:

A strategic design workstream with our Strategic Planning team, which will likely take the rest of the year, if not longer. Last year, I had to facilitate and plan a remote workshop on Microsoft Teams for 90+ participants for this workstream: perhaps the most stressful task I have done to date!
A joint team with a private company, exploring the feasibility of bringing a digital service to Singapore.

Side Projects (21 Feb 21)

Now Page Template

Sun, 21 Feb 2021 05:50:52 +0800

Now

### Work

I’m an Assistant Vice President in the Customer Experience (CX) division, Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB”). It’s a lovely team, working on different projects: I’m working on multiple workstreams at this point.

I will be taking over a product team, which I was initially a bit down on (I like being irresponsibly free from having to manage people…) But now I am quite excited: I have been thinking these few days, that perhaps this product I am taking over is my long-awaited answer to the Hamming questions.

29 Sep 20

Sun, 21 Feb 2021 05:50:21 +0800

Now

### Work

Thoughts for Beyond Covid Emerging Industries

Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:46:38 +0800

I posted the below from a Beyond Covid WG. Think this has greater implications beyond a govt WG, and is applicable to a more general discussion about economic and innovation strategy in Singapore’s economy.

I’ve been mulling about a few questions and thoughts, which I’m sharing below as catalyst/ideas/seeds for further discussion.

Are we potentially filtering out the best ideas with our rigour and scale of thinking?
Sharing some quotes from Paul Graham and Sam Altman from Y combinator:

The interesting things from 8-10 May

Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:46:35 +0800

![The Post It that I stuck on my neighbour’s door]()

The Post It that I stuck on my neighbour’s door

Two interesting things happened in the last few days, both of which took me by surprise.

The first incident happened on Friday afternoon. I was on a work call, when I noticed that my phone was vibrating. This was quite odd, as my phone is always on Do Not Disturb. I glanced, and saw that there had been FIVE missed calls from a “No Caller ID” number. So I muted myself on the work call, and picked up the “No Caller ID”.

Sample Page

Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:46:34 +0800

This is an example page. It’s different from a blog post because it will stay in one place and will show up in your site navigation (in most themes). Most people start with an About page that introduces them to potential site visitors. It might say something like this:

Hi there! I’m a bike messenger by day, aspiring actor by night, and this is my website. I live in Los Angeles, have a great dog named Jack, and I like piña coladas. (And gettin’ caught in the rain.)

Post-Covid Workplace

Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:46:32 +0800

![From Andrea Davis on Unsplash. A possibly accurate depiction of a post-Covid co-working space]()

From Andrea Davis on Unsplash. A possibly accurate depiction of a post-Covid co-working space

As some countries are lifting their lockdowns and there’s talk of re-opening workplaces, a recurring theme has been how “things will not be the same”. There’s a belief that everything has changed, that people were forced to work remotely, and that has changed how employers view remote work.

While I think that is all true, one aspect that I think people have forgotten is the question why was there all the skepticism of remote work in the first place? I remember an episode of The Good Wife, where a remote worker had tried to establish her physical presence in the office via a Segway-iPad and ended up getting ignored, and also intentionally left out of certain discussions. It was quite funny: one scene had a co-worker intentionally pasting a paper sheet on the Ipad (as a somewhat mean prank), which caused the telepresence robot to bump all over the place.

PJ’s Now page

![Finally reading this book]()

Finally reading this book

Recently, I came to know this elderly male neighbour, Uncle DC. He has taken to calling me regularly, almost every couple of days.

Yesterday, he called me to ask a favour, which was to buy some snacks for him from the supermarket. After I got the snacks, I went to his door to deliver the snacks to him.

10 July 2020 – A Day of Surprises

Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:44:42 +0800

10 July 2020 was a day of surprises.

The first surprise was in the morning. My wife and I woke up early to help an elderly neighbour go to the polling station: this neighbour is 90 years old, and blind, and rarely leaves his home, so there was a fall risk. Hence I borrowed my parents’ car, and dropped my wife and Uncle DC at the drop-off point, for them to go to the polling station.

Microbreak Station Evolution

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 12:10:46 +0800

![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d29e659d5db74cdd50f0a/1581087163662/Screenshot+2020-02-07+at+5.10.45+PM.png?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d2bbd9af3cb44f6e5514a/1581087244197/Emergency+Button+Copy+2.png?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d2bcdd4ad48682c346480/1581087355783/IMG_6651.JPG?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d2c1f5c32ef68150cc92e/1581087431686/DSC02214.JPG?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d2c6dd4ad48682c34776e/1581087456952/DSC02248.JPG?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d2cd67beb8f5c995a09d3/1581087479520/DSC02240.JPG?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d2d339d7664785ea51028/1581087513580/DSC02241.JPG?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d2da3beb2d657db770ae7/1581087597470/IMG_6882%281%29.JPG?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d2dcb8792a018e59a7591/1581087621660/IMG_6863%281%29.JPG?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d2dfae0249a0c2ea962ea/1581087651407/IMG_6867%281%29.JPG?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d2e1cbeb2d657db771435/1581087679990/IMG_6869%281%29.JPG?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d2e7459d5db74cdd57e9a/1581087747490/IMG_6871%281%29.JPG?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d304364c75c244283cf35/1581087806790/IMG_6876%281%29.JPG?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d306464c75c244283d0b0/1581087883565/DSC02260.JPG?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d30b6b5004465df1a2ce5/1581087911808/DSC02258.JPG?w=1200)

Learnings for EDB

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 12:10:27 +0800

Learnings from CIID

#1 Harness the immense power of passionate, flat, diverse, small teams operating on the same norms

#2a Focus & right sequencing increases the speed of doing & learning (vs. doing in parallel)
#2b Learning compounds with focus & time, with a huge difference

#3 Test quickly, cheaply & often

#4 Build modularly

#5 Content is important, but context is king.Video storytelling conveys both

Context

Helping an older adult find a caregiver, delineating the caregiver’s tasks, monitoring the caregiver’s work with the older adult, and ensuring the caregiver’s own well-being*…can be…among* the most important interventions to ensure the well- being and safety of frail older adults.

Two Letters

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 12:10:04 +0800

![Aron Visuals from Unsplash]()

Aron Visuals from Unsplash

This is a cliche, but one that happens to be true. One of the true tests of leadership is when shit goes wrong.

Why this is true, is because leadership rests so heavily on integrity. The simplest and most straightforward definition I heard of integrity is simply “doing what you say”: so simple, and also helpful. And yet, it’s such a rare thing in the world that when we actually DO see it (e.g. seeing the picture of Mr LKY’s super simple basement, or seeing how bare my meditation teacher’s cave is), it is HUGELY inspiring.
And that inspiration is probably 90% of the power and job of leadership.

Self-Care Module Evolution

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 12:08:41 +0800

![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d28af5749b2699abbd009/1581086799041/Self+Love.png?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d28ba7beb8f5c9959b421/1581086885448/Self+Care+Choice+Screen.png?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d28c378d4b559c05651cb/1581086972518/IMG_6650.JPG?w=1200)![](https://i0.wp.com/static1.squarespace.com/static/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/5e158b55054a681fdb05af3a/5e3d28e39d7664785ea4915e/1581087052470/Starting+Screen+28+Nov+2019.png?w=1200)

Co-Worker Module Evolution

Sat, 20 Feb 2021 12:05:16 +0800

![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.comwp-content/uploads/2021/01/IMG_5417.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1)![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.comwp-content/uploads/2021/01/DSC02217.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1)![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.comwp-content/uploads/2021/01/Physicalprototyperecordingflow.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1)![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.comwp-content/uploads/2021/01/IMG_6580-2.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1)![](https://i0.wp.com/inquivision.comwp-content/uploads/2021/01/ForOthers.png?w=1200&ssl=1)

29 Sep 20

Sun, 14 Feb 2021 13:43:28 +0800

Now

### Work

Lambs or Lions

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:17:17 +0800

![Ian McGory from Unsplash]()

Ian McGory from Unsplash

(Recently, I was talking with a younger colleague about management and leadership. He commented how it is often very hard to be vulnerable, because there are so many mixed messages sent: frequently, our leaders are expected to know and do everything. At the same time, we might not be giving a lot of support to our younger managers, whether it is about modelling behaviours or having the training or support systems to cement those behaviours.

Having been a Strat Planning Head in an older-generation EDB, I’ve had the privilege of managing and leading a wonderful and amazing team, working under the best boss I ever had in EDB, and also seeing how our senior management operated up-close. Drawing heavily on that, as well as other observations, I’ll be writing some thoughts on leadership and management, that hopefully serve as a resource for EDBians in leadership positions.

Korean Drama Dharma

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:17:16 +0800

![Crash Landing On You poster from Wikipedia]()

[*Crash Landing On You* poster from Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_Landing_on_You#/media/File:Crash_Landing_on_You_main_poster.jpg)

On Saturday 18 Apr, my wife and I finished watching the hit Korean TV series Crash Landing on You. It felt, as my wife put it, “like they had run out of steam and were rushing to finish the series!”

But there was one part that resonated with the Dhamma practitioner in me. -SPOILER ALERT-

Creating Optionality

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:16:59 +0800

![Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Credit: @mrwenchen from Unsplash]()

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Credit: @mrwenchen from Unsplash

(*I wrote an earlier*[ *essay on antifragile architecture here*](https://inquivision.wordpress.com/2019/06/18/antifragile-architecture-antifragile-design/)*, covering similar ground.* ) I was reflecting on an economic strategies workstream, and trying to articulate the challenge I had with our approach: I’m still mulling on it. But I’m not going to dwell on it today. Instead, I’m going to talk about a **mindset & perspective issue,** which is the **mental model of economic development** that we have in EDB and more broadly, in the MTI-family.

This was sparked by coming across (again) Nassim Taleb’s essay on the WSJ, titled “Learning to love volatility” What caught my eye were the first two rules:

9 Feb 2020

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:15:29 +0800

Now

![Post-It screens for the Metta app (see Side Project)]()

Post-It screens for the Metta app (see Side Project)

### Work

I finally put up my final project from CIID, Stille. You can see it here.

At the Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB“), I’m working on a (tentatively 3 months) design-research project to flesh out and understand the employee experience in EDB, in order to understand what are the causes of employee fatigue. I’ve completed the shadowing of one officer, which led to some interesting insights; I’ve more colleagues who signed up as research subjects, but this might get disrupted due to the novel Coronavirus situation in Singapore.

30 Aug 20

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:15:27 +0800

Now

![Work From Home realities.]()

Work From Home realities.

![Looking beyond Covid.]()

Looking beyond Covid.

### Work

Currently at the IT department of the Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB“), but not doing anything IT-related: more about design research, in order to scope out user stories. (**Update: I’ll be shifting to the Customer Experience & Marketing division from June 2020 onwards**)

Biggest chunk of work has been a design-research project to flesh out and understand the causes of employee fatigue (due to end 27 Apr). I’ve shadowed three officers, and interviewed a score, and completed three focus group discussions in the week of 23 March, which had 20 participants across different levels of seniority.

17 Apr 20

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:15:19 +0800

Now

![WFH: Working From Home, Working Far Harder, Working For Housepet]()

WFH: Working From Home, Working Far Harder, Working For Housepet

### Work

Currently at the IT department of the Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB“), but not doing anything IT-related: more about design research, in order to scope out user stories.

10 May 20

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:15:18 +0800

Now

![One morning after a thunderstorm.]()

One morning after a thunderstorm.

### Work

Hello!

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:14:22 +0800

This is my first post on my own website. I’m tired of typing up to boost other platforms (like Medium), and also tired of WordPress’s interface.

That said, you can see my previous writings/blog posts in the weblinks above.

Other sites that I wrote on are:

https://withdrawndiligentardentresolute.wordpress.com/ – about Early Buddhism, especially some texts and notes

https://8-course.net/ – an online course on the core-fundamentals of Early Buddhism

http://inquivision.blogspot.com/ – a VERY old and outdated personal blog, with some analysis/thoughts

Book review – Midnight in Chernobyl

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:14:20 +0800

![IMG_8133 2.jpg]()

I finished reading this book a few weeks ago, and there are a few striking parallels with the current Wuhan coronavirus situation. In both cases, a human tragedy struck at an authoritarian socialist state; in both cases, within the state, there were voices for and against transparency and openness; in both cases, lives were lost, and the cause of death is invisible to the naked eye (one is caused by nuclear radiation, while the other by a virus); in both cases, there were heroes and ostensible villains.

And strikingly to my mind, in both cases, there appears to me to be a widespread bias against the non-Western state in the reporting. Adam Higginbotham has done a tremendous job documenting the blow-by-blow details of the Chernobyl incident; there are many details that are disclosed for the first time in this book. However, there are many instances where he criticizes the bureaucrats for not doing more to save lives, or for not being transparent and open, especially when he compares these against the norm of Western democracy. He barely gives credit to the fact that the Soviet Union was able and did muster the entire state’s resources to prevent the disaster from spreading further, or that the Soviets made the right key decisions (for example, to sacrifice men to drain the water in the steam suppression pools, which would have caused a massive secondary hydrogen explosion if the remnants of the core contacted the water) Or that the Soviets literally emptied Kiev of buses to evacuate the entire city of Pripyat, literally over a few days.

On the need to encourage good mental states

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:14:19 +0800

I’ve been reflecting on this sutta (MN 5: the Unblemished), and this passage caught my eye. Often we tend to focus on being mindful and aware of what’s unwholesome and what’s not well e.g. that our mind has become distracted.

But this passage highlights the importance of being aware, and maybe even encouraging oneself when one’s mind is pure, clean, and without defilements (even if temporarily)!

“Take the case of the person who doesn’t have a blemish but does not understand it. You can expect that they will focus on the feature of beauty, and because of that, lust will infect their mind. And they will die with greed, hate, and delusion, blemished, with a corrupted mind. “

On Secular Buddhism and Stephen Batchelor

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:14:16 +0800

TL;DR – based on Early Buddhism, but very diluted Dharma/Dhamma…

I borrowed this book to read from the library, as I had come across Stephen Batchelor in some of the Buddhist forums I’m at. So rather than read second-derivative accounts of what Stephen Batchelor believes, why not read him directly?

First, the positives: it was a positive surprise to read that he actually believes in early Buddhism, and even took the effort to learn Pali directly to read the suttas. He also cross-references the Pali suttas with the (English translations of the) Chinese Agamas, which is commendable. He also strongly advocates and teaches the core teachings of the Four Truths, as well as the Eightfold Path. I also think he’s onto something, when he talks about practicing Buddhism in a secular setting: I am all for that, as I personally have little patience for bowing, kow-towing, etc.

PJ’s Vision 2030

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:14:16 +0800

This is more to remind myself, than anything else, but the vision that I have in mind is the following.

The problem I’m trying to address, is a gap.

To dedicate your life to living as per the Dhamma, you pretty much have to ordain as a monastic. Sure, you can still live as a layperson dedicated to the principles of the Dhamma; but right now, there is still very little that is along the lines of the Sangha Vinaya, which helps to reinforce the practice of the Eightfold Path.

Hello world!

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:14:15 +0800

![My final project Stille got honored as a Student Runner-Up in the Service Design category of the Core 77 2020 Design Awards!]()

My final project Stille got honored as a Student Runner-Up in the Service Design category of the Core 77 2020 Design Awards!

**Updates 20 July 20:** New essays on [CIID learnings](/ciid-learnings), [design thinking (](/design-thinking-rename)urgh) and[ leadership in problem-solving](/how-to-lead-in-problem-solving-1).

Surprise: my final project got honoured as the Student Runner-Up, Service Design in the 2020 Core 77 Design awards!

Perspectives Template (Copy)

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:17 +0800

- - - - - -

> data-animation-override> > “Praesent id libero id metus varius consectetur ac eget diam. Nulla felis nunc, consequat laoreet lacus id.”

— Pablo

- - - - - -

Feedback or comments?

Updated date

The Singaporean Conditioning

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:16 +0800

How to lead in problem solving

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:15 +0800

Two Letters

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:15 +0800

![Aron Visuals from Unsplash]()

Aron Visuals from Unsplash

This is a cliche, but one that happens to be true. One of the true tests of leadership is when shit goes wrong.

Why design thinking should be renamed

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:15 +0800

Double Diamond – Theory vs Reality
Design thinking is a buzzword that I really dislike. It isn’t just that it’s a buzzword, but that it is an inaccurate buzzword. “design thinking” is a problematic name, as it connotes that “it’s just enough to think”, and it also connotes that it is sufficient to come up with ideas. It also connotes Post Its: as a CIID instructor once said to us, “sometimes people mistake using Post Its as real work; sometimes using Post Its IS real work.”

CIID Learnings

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:14 +0800

CIID Learnings

The purpose of this sharing is to share some learnings from a very different world that I lived in in 2019: not Copenhagen, but CIID (Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design). It’s a world where things move at an amazing clockspeed, where it’s not uncommon for a project to go from zero to working prototype (sometimes complete with user-research) in two weeks. This page is my attempt to peel back the onion, share some learnings I took away from this world. 🙂

Lambs or Lions

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:14 +0800

![Ian McGory from Unsplash]()

Ian McGory from Unsplash

10 July 2020 – A Day of Surprises

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:13 +0800

10 July 2020 was a day of surprises.

17 May 2020

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:13 +0800

Now

![Looking beyond Covid.]()

Looking beyond Covid.

### Work

Opportunities in Aging

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:12 +0800

![Finally reading this book]()

Finally reading this book

Recently, I came to know this elderly male neighbour, Uncle DC. He has taken to calling me regularly, almost every couple of days.

Yesterday, he called me to ask a favour, which was to buy some snacks for him from the supermarket. After I got the snacks, I went to his door to deliver the snacks to him.

Post-Covid Workplace

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:12 +0800

![From Andrea Davis on Unsplash. A possibly accurate depiction of a post-Covid co-working space]()

From Andrea Davis on Unsplash. A possibly accurate depiction of a post-Covid co-working space

10 May 20

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:11 +0800

Now

![One morning after a thunderstorm.]()

One morning after a thunderstorm.

### Work

17 Apr 20

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:10 +0800

Now

![WFH: Working From Home, Working Far Harder, Working For Housepet]()

WFH: Working From Home, Working Far Harder, Working For Housepet

### Work

Currently at the IT department of the Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB“), but not doing anything IT-related: more about design research, in order to scope out user stories.

The interesting things from 8-10 May

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:10 +0800

![The Post It that I stuck on my neighbour’s door]()

The Post It that I stuck on my neighbour’s door

Two interesting things happened in the last few days, both of which took me by surprise.

Creating Optionality

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:09 +0800

![Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Credit: @mrwenchen from Unsplash]()

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Credit: @mrwenchen from Unsplash

This was sparked by coming across (again) Nassim Taleb’s essay on the WSJ, titled “Learning to love volatility” What caught my eye were the first two rules:

Dreaming of Dharma

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:08 +0800

Korean Drama Dharma

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:07 +0800

![Crash Landing On You poster from Wikipedia]()

[*Crash Landing On You* poster from Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_Landing_on_You#/media/File:Crash_Landing_on_You_main_poster.jpg)

But there was one part that resonated with the Dhamma practitioner in me. -SPOILER ALERT-

Korean Drama Dharma

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:07 +0800

Crash Landing On You poster from Wikipedia

But there was one part that resonated with the Dhamma practitioner in me. -SPOILER ALERT-

At one point, the lead actress Yoon Seri was about to die on the hospital bed, and she narrated her “dream”. In her “dream, she was back in the office when she made her fateful decision to test her company’s product through paragliding. Except that she had full knowledge of everything that was going to happen after her fateful decision: all the pain, suffering, excitement, that came from meeting and coming to know her love, North Korean Captain Ri Jeong Heok. And in her dream, she still chose to proceed.

Perspectives Template

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:07 +0800

- - - - - -

> > > “Donec id justo non metus auctor commodo ut quis enim. Mauris fringilla dolor vel condimentum imperdiet.”

— Hope K.

- - - - - -

Feedback or comments?

*Updated date*

19 Feb 20

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:06 +0800

Now

![Post research interview data atomization & affinity-mapping (see Work)]()

Post research interview data atomization & affinity-mapping (see Work)

### Work

I finally put up my final project from CIID, Stille. You can see it here.

Thoughts for Beyond Covid Emerging Industries

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:05 +0800

I’ve been mulling about a few questions and thoughts, which I’m sharing below as catalyst/ideas/seeds for further discussion.

Are we potentially filtering out the best ideas with our rigour and scale of thinking?
Sharing some quotes from Paul Graham and Sam Altman from Y combinator:

9 Feb 2020

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:04 +0800

Now

![Post-It screens for the Metta app (see Side Project)]()

Post-It screens for the Metta app (see Side Project)

### Work

I finally put up my final project from CIID, Stille. You can see it here.

Learnings for EDB

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:03 +0800

Learnings from CIID

#1 Harness the immense power of passionate, flat, diverse, small teams operating on the same norms

#2a Focus & right sequencing increases the speed of doing & learning (vs. doing in parallel)
#2b Learning compounds with focus & time, with a huge difference

#3 Test quickly, cheaply & often

#4 Build modularly

#5 Content is important, but context is king.Video storytelling conveys both

Context

Helping an older adult find a caregiver, delineating the caregiver’s tasks, monitoring the caregiver’s work with the older adult, and ensuring the caregiver’s own well-being*…can be…among* the most important interventions to ensure the well- being and safety of frail older adults.

27 Jan 2020

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:02 +0800

Now

![My cat Dharma by our study window]()

My cat Dharma by our study window

### Work

CIID Learnings for EDB

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:01 +0800

Hi! Welcome to my site. 🙂

Microbreak Station Evolution

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:05:59 +0800

Self-Care Module Evolution

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:05:58 +0800

Stille

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:05:56 +0800

![Core 77 award page.jpg]()

Stille

Emotional care for institutional caregivers of the elderly

Stille is a physical-digital service that aims to help caregivers maintain their empathy and their energy to care, by supporting caregivers’ emotional well-being.

PJ

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:05:46 +0800

About Me

(For the latest updates, see my Now page. Now-page concept from Derek Sivers.)

Co-Worker Module Evolution

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:05:45 +0800

PJ’s Now page

Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:05:43 +0800

Now

![My final project Stille got honored in Fast Company’s Innovation Design Awards in the Student projects category!]()

My final project Stille got honored in Fast Company’s Innovation Design Awards in the [Student projects category! ](https://www.fastcompany.com/90553730/students-innovation-by-design-2020)

Hello world!

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 09:09:28 +0800

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!

Privacy Policy

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 09:09:28 +0800

Who we are

Our website address is: https://box2416/cgi/addon_GT.cgi?s=GT::WP::Install::EIG+%28inquivis%29+-+10.24.48.85+[Wordpress%3b+/var/hp/common/lib/Wordpress.pm%3b+294%3b+Hosting::gap_call].

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

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Sample Page

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 09:09:28 +0800

Hi there! I’m a bike messenger by day, aspiring actor by night, and this is my website. I live in Los Angeles, have a great dog named Jack, and I like piña coladas. (And gettin’ caught in the rain.)

Resume

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 20:56:32 +0800

Firstname Lastname

your-email-address@example.com – 555-555-5555 – City, State

Professional Experience

#### **Company Name** – *Job Title*

Core responsibility #1. You can provide some extra detail here. Include information about accomplishments and outcomes. Perhaps the website of the company.
- Sub item for further details or a key metric.
- Sub item for further details or a key metric.
Core responsibility #2 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua..
Core responsibility #3 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore.

**Oct. 2019 – Present** *City, ST*

#### **Company Name** – *Job Title*

Core responsibility #1
Core responsibility #2
Core responsibility #3

**Month YEAR – Month YEAR** *City, ST*

#### **Company Name** – *Job Title*

Core responsibility #1
Core responsibility #2

**Month YEAR – Month YEAR** *City, ST*

## Education

**University of Studies** *Degree & Major*

What you studied. Name some programs. As a possible alternative to the Education section, you could include a Knowledge section.
You can also include any relevant certifications.
Extra curricular programs, study abroad programs
Sports, clubs, anything else.

**Graduation Month, Year** *City, ST*

**University of Studies** *Degree & Major*

What you studied. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Extra curricular programs, study abroad programs
Sports, clubs, anything else.

**Graduation Month, Year** *City, ST*

## Hobbies & Interests

This is a place to write something fun about yourself and what you like. Culture fit is often an important factor in a job. And you may find other people with similar interests or spark conversations based on interesting things here.

On national service

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 09:20:21 +0800

This was the toughest reservist I had ever experienced. When we were outfield in the second week, it coincided with a heat wave that hit 36 C in the shade.

PJ’s Vision 2030

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 14:17:06 +0800

This is more to remind myself, than anything else, but the vision that I have in mind is the following.

The problem I’m trying to address, is a gap.

On Secular Buddhism and Stephen Batchelor

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 12:56:38 +0800

TL;DR – based on Early Buddhism, but very diluted Dharma/Dhamma…

Book review – Midnight in Chernobyl

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 09:01:20 +0800

![IMG_8133 2.jpg]()

Hello!

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 04:19:43 +0800

This is my first post on my own website. I’m tired of typing up to boost other platforms (like Medium), and also tired of WordPress’s interface.

That said, you can see my previous writings/blog posts in the weblinks above.

Other sites that I wrote on are:

https://withdrawndiligentardentresolute.wordpress.com/ – about Early Buddhism, especially some texts and notes

https://8-course.net/ – an online course on the core-fundamentals of Early Buddhism

http://inquivision.blogspot.com/ – a VERY old and outdated personal blog, with some analysis/thoughts

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A Tale of Three Technologies

This talk draws inspiration for its title from Dickens' classic A Tale of Two Cities, as I believe that with AI, it is both the best and worst of times for design. Drawing on Hebbia's George Sivulka's account of textile-factory electrification, lessons from foodpanda's data-native operations, and the story of building a conference app with little more than English prompts, this talk asks what these parallels mean for service designers today. Beyond converging job titles, there is a deeper opportunity: understanding & harnessing the human interfaces -- the intersections between people, organizations, and AI agents, in a world that is becoming increasingly permissionless.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

How to Be Happier with the Four Noble Truths

What does Buddhism, Scott Adams and Ajahn Brahm have in common?
Most people want to be happier, but Buddhism seems to be all about suffering... or is it?

In this video, we will dive into what the Buddha actually taught, using excerpts from the Buddha's first teaching to the five monks (SN56.11 - Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dhamma).

We will look at how the Buddha's teachings ("Dhamma") is really a re-frame of reality, and see how the 4 Noble Truths really can help us be happier people.
Taken from a talk on 1 March 2025 with the Buddhist Mentorship Programme.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Is interaction design dead?

Talk at CIID's Impact Minds event in end March 2025 at a session titled "CIID in Focus".
This contains a few provocation and thoughts I had, stemming from my post-IDP 2019 experiences, which land specifically on call to actions by CIID and its community.
It was meant to be a "sourdough starter" to catalyze the conversations, which it did! So it did its job somewhat. :)