/en/apps/Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0800/en/apps/.apps-grid { display: grid; gap: 1.5rem; margin-top: 1.5rem; } .app-card { display: flex; align-items: flex-start; gap: 1.2rem; padding: 1.2rem; border: 1px solid #e0e0e0; border-radius: 12px; text-decoration: none; color: inherit; transition: box-shadow 0.2s ease, transform 0.2s ease; } .app-card:hover { box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); transform: translateY(-2px); } html.dark .app-card { border-color: #333; } html.dark .app-card:hover { box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4); } .app-icon { width: 80px; height: 80px; border-radius: 18px; flex-shrink: 0; } ./en/posts/2026-02-21-making-of-white-stone/Sat, 21 Feb 2026 14:00:00 +0800/en/posts/2026-02-21-making-of-white-stone/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”)/en/posts/2026-02-21-intro-to-concurrency-through-office-work/Sat, 21 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0800/en/posts/2026-02-21-intro-to-concurrency-through-office-work/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./en/now/Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0800/en/now/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!/en/posts/2025-12-22-migrating-my-blog-to-hugo-with-cursor/Mon, 22 Dec 2025 21:53:00 +0800/en/posts/2025-12-22-migrating-my-blog-to-hugo-with-cursor/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./_posts/2025-05-01-one-persons-view-election-2025/Thu, 01 May 2025 12:18:00 +0800/_posts/2025-05-01-one-persons-view-election-2025/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./en/posts/2025-05-01-one-persons-view-election-2025/Thu, 01 May 2025 12:18:00 +0800/en/posts/2025-05-01-one-persons-view-election-2025/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./en/_past-now/16-apr-25-now/Wed, 16 Apr 2025 07:50:00 +0800/en/_past-now/16-apr-25-now/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./en/talks-consolidation-page/Fri, 28 Mar 2025 18:29:00 +0800/en/talks-consolidation-page/Some of my 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/_posts/2025-02-16-critical-feedback2/Sun, 16 Feb 2025 09:18:00 +0800/_posts/2025-02-16-critical-feedback2/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./en/posts/2025-02-16-critical-feedback2/Sun, 16 Feb 2025 09:18:00 +0800/en/posts/2025-02-16-critical-feedback2/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./_posts/2024-12-22-year/Sun, 22 Dec 2024 16:46:00 +0800/_posts/2024-12-22-year/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./en/posts/2024-12-22-year/Sun, 22 Dec 2024 16:46:00 +0800/en/posts/2024-12-22-year/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./_posts/2024-12-22-week/Sun, 22 Dec 2024 16:42:00 +0800/_posts/2024-12-22-week/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./en/posts/2024-12-22-week/Sun, 22 Dec 2024 16:42:00 +0800/en/posts/2024-12-22-week/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./_posts/2024-09-24-work/Tue, 24 Sep 2024 18:28:00 +0000/_posts/2024-09-24-work/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)./en/posts/2024-09-24-work/Tue, 24 Sep 2024 18:28:00 +0000/en/posts/2024-09-24-work/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)./_posts/2024-08-28-ajahn-ganha-transcript-10-nov-23/Wed, 28 Aug 2024 14:59:00 +0800/_posts/2024-08-28-ajahn-ganha-transcript-10-nov-23/(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./en/posts/2024-08-28-ajahn-ganha-transcript-10-nov-23/Wed, 28 Aug 2024 14:59:00 +0800/en/posts/2024-08-28-ajahn-ganha-transcript-10-nov-23/(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./_posts/2024-08-19-ajahn-ganha-transcript-25-dec-23/Mon, 19 Aug 2024 14:59:00 +0800/_posts/2024-08-19-ajahn-ganha-transcript-25-dec-23/(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./en/posts/2024-08-19-ajahn-ganha-transcript-25-dec-23/Mon, 19 Aug 2024 14:59:00 +0800/en/posts/2024-08-19-ajahn-ganha-transcript-25-dec-23/(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./_posts/2024-08-15-digital-complement-complect/Thu, 15 Aug 2024 21:45:00 +0800/_posts/2024-08-15-digital-complement-complect/(necessary caveat: this is entirely my own opinion, and doesn’t represent any official views of any Singapore government agency.) complect, verb trans 1. embrace 2. 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./en/posts/2024-08-15-digital-complement-complect/Thu, 15 Aug 2024 21:45:00 +0800/en/posts/2024-08-15-digital-complement-complect/(necessary caveat: this is entirely my own opinion, and doesn’t represent any official views of any Singapore government agency.) complect, verb trans 1. embrace 2. 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./_posts/2024-08-13-strange-illness/Tue, 13 Aug 2024 10:45:00 +0800/_posts/2024-08-13-strange-illness/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./en/posts/2024-08-13-strange-illness/Tue, 13 Aug 2024 10:45:00 +0800/en/posts/2024-08-13-strange-illness/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./_posts/2024-08-11-ajahn-ganha-transcript-2/Sun, 11 Aug 2024 21:15:00 +0800/_posts/2024-08-11-ajahn-ganha-transcript-2/(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./en/posts/2024-08-11-ajahn-ganha-transcript-2/Sun, 11 Aug 2024 21:15:00 +0800/en/posts/2024-08-11-ajahn-ganha-transcript-2/(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./_posts/2024-08-11-ajahn-ganha-transcript/Sun, 11 Aug 2024 14:59:00 +0800/_posts/2024-08-11-ajahn-ganha-transcript/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./en/posts/2024-08-11-ajahn-ganha-transcript/Sun, 11 Aug 2024 14:59:00 +0800/en/posts/2024-08-11-ajahn-ganha-transcript/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./_posts/2024-08-01-design-education-resulting-society/Thu, 01 Aug 2024 10:49:00 +0800/_posts/2024-08-01-design-education-resulting-society/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./en/posts/2024-08-01-design-education-resulting-society/Thu, 01 Aug 2024 10:49:00 +0800/en/posts/2024-08-01-design-education-resulting-society/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./en/_past-now/1_june_24/Sat, 01 Jun 2024 19:14:00 +0000/en/_past-now/1_june_24/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./_posts/2024-05-23-in-between/Thu, 23 May 2024 18:28:00 +0000/_posts/2024-05-23-in-between/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./en/posts/2024-05-23-in-between/Thu, 23 May 2024 18:28:00 +0000/en/posts/2024-05-23-in-between/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./_posts/2024-05-23-anicca-dukkha-anatta/Thu, 23 May 2024 10:39:00 +0000/_posts/2024-05-23-anicca-dukkha-anatta/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/en/posts/2024-05-23-anicca-dukkha-anatta/Thu, 23 May 2024 10:39:00 +0000/en/posts/2024-05-23-anicca-dukkha-anatta/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/_posts/2024-05-05-test/Sun, 05 May 2024 21:09:00 +0000/_posts/2024-05-05-test/Anger is always a defilement in the Dhamma./en/posts/2024-05-05-test/Sun, 05 May 2024 21:09:00 +0000/en/posts/2024-05-05-test/Anger is always a defilement in the Dhamma./_posts/2024-05-05-ajahn-ganha/Sun, 05 May 2024 15:09:00 +0000/_posts/2024-05-05-ajahn-ganha/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./en/posts/2024-05-05-ajahn-ganha/Sun, 05 May 2024 15:09:00 +0000/en/posts/2024-05-05-ajahn-ganha/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./_posts/2024-04-28-learnings-from-costco/Sun, 28 Apr 2024 16:09:00 +0000/_posts/2024-04-28-learnings-from-costco/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./en/posts/2024-04-28-learnings-from-costco/Sun, 28 Apr 2024 16:09:00 +0000/en/posts/2024-04-28-learnings-from-costco/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./_posts/2024-04-22-wisdom-definition/Mon, 22 Apr 2024 15:44:07 +0800/_posts/2024-04-22-wisdom-definition/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./en/posts/2024-04-22-wisdom-definition/Mon, 22 Apr 2024 15:44:07 +0800/en/posts/2024-04-22-wisdom-definition/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./en/posts/2024-02-26-gotnextline-lessons/Mon, 26 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000/en/posts/2024-02-26-gotnextline-lessons/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…/_posts/2024-01-21-sickness/Sun, 21 Jan 2024 17:14:00 +0800/_posts/2024-01-21-sickness/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./en/posts/2024-01-21-sickness/Sun, 21 Jan 2024 17:14:00 +0800/en/posts/2024-01-21-sickness/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./en/notes-to-good-writing/Thu, 18 Jan 2024 18:24:18 +0800/en/notes-to-good-writing/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./en/_drafts/2024-01-16-thoughts-on-2024/Tue, 16 Jan 2024 15:03:00 +0800/en/_drafts/2024-01-16-thoughts-on-2024/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?/_posts/2024-01-15-sick-body-healthy-mind/Mon, 15 Jan 2024 17:56:07 +0800/_posts/2024-01-15-sick-body-healthy-mind/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./en/posts/2024-01-15-sick-body-healthy-mind/Mon, 15 Jan 2024 17:56:07 +0800/en/posts/2024-01-15-sick-body-healthy-mind/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./_posts/2024-01-07-big-talent-small-use/Sun, 07 Jan 2024 21:46:07 +0800/_posts/2024-01-07-big-talent-small-use/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!/en/posts/2024-01-07-big-talent-small-use/Sun, 07 Jan 2024 21:46:07 +0800/en/posts/2024-01-07-big-talent-small-use/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!/_posts/2024-01-05-why-jekyll/Fri, 05 Jan 2024 21:40:07 +0800/_posts/2024-01-05-why-jekyll/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. Why?/en/posts/2024-01-05-why-jekyll/Fri, 05 Jan 2024 21:40:07 +0800/en/posts/2024-01-05-why-jekyll/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. Why?/en/_past-now/now-5jan24/Fri, 05 Jan 2024 15:24:18 +0800/en/_past-now/now-5jan24/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./_posts/2024-01-02-learnings-from-rains-retreat-2023/Tue, 02 Jan 2024 09:07:07 +0800/_posts/2024-01-02-learnings-from-rains-retreat-2023/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./en/posts/2024-01-02-learnings-from-rains-retreat-2023/Tue, 02 Jan 2024 09:07:07 +0800/en/posts/2024-01-02-learnings-from-rains-retreat-2023/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./_posts/2023-12-11-annual-review/Mon, 01 Jan 2024 21:54:07 +0800/_posts/2023-12-11-annual-review/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: Chronological 2023 Highlights In terms of the chronological order, these were the things that happened: January 2023 Did my first freelance training (with Singapore global network) Attended my first iOS conference: got completely lost with Swift code! Celebrated dear’s 40th birthday: we went cycling./en/posts/2023-12-11-annual-review/Mon, 01 Jan 2024 21:54:07 +0800/en/posts/2023-12-11-annual-review/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: Chronological 2023 Highlights In terms of the chronological order, these were the things that happened: January 2023 Did my first freelance training (with Singapore global network) Attended my first iOS conference: got completely lost with Swift code! Celebrated dear’s 40th birthday: we went cycling./_posts/2024-01-01-how-to-lead-in-problem-solving/Mon, 01 Jan 2024 14:17:07 +0800/_posts/2024-01-01-how-to-lead-in-problem-solving/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./en/posts/2024-01-01-how-to-lead-in-problem-solving/Mon, 01 Jan 2024 14:17:07 +0800/en/posts/2024-01-01-how-to-lead-in-problem-solving/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./_posts/2023-09-26-interaction-design-in-8-sentences/Tue, 26 Sep 2023 14:13:56 +0800/_posts/2023-09-26-interaction-design-in-8-sentences/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/interaction-design-in-8-sentences1805-revision-v1-interaction-design-in-8-sentences/Tue, 26 Sep 2023 14:13:56 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/interaction-design-in-8-sentences1805-revision-v1-interaction-design-in-8-sentences/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./en/posts/2023-09-26-interaction-design-in-8-sentences/Tue, 26 Sep 2023 14:13:56 +0800/en/posts/2023-09-26-interaction-design-in-8-sentences/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./_posts/2023-08-26-lessons-from-42-july-piscine-part-i/Sat, 26 Aug 2023 15:52:47 +0800/_posts/2023-08-26-lessons-from-42-july-piscine-part-i/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)./en/_drafts/old-drafts/lessons-from-42-july-piscine-part-i1799-revision-v1-lessons-from-42-july-piscine-part-i/Sat, 26 Aug 2023 15:52:47 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/lessons-from-42-july-piscine-part-i1799-revision-v1-lessons-from-42-july-piscine-part-i/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)./en/posts/2023-08-26-lessons-from-42-july-piscine-part-i/Sat, 26 Aug 2023 15:52:47 +0800/en/posts/2023-08-26-lessons-from-42-july-piscine-part-i/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)./en/_past-now/past-nownow-21736-revision-v1-14-may-2023/Sun, 20 Aug 2023 16:25:12 +0800/en/_past-now/past-nownow-21736-revision-v1-14-may-2023/Positive ART test for CovidSince 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)./en/_past-now/20-aug-23-now/Sun, 20 Aug 2023 16:24:18 +0800/en/_past-now/20-aug-23-now/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./en/_past-now/now-page/Sun, 20 Aug 2023 14:33:40 +0800/en/_past-now/now-page/Positive ART test for CovidSince 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)./en/_drafts/old-drafts/four-days-with-ajahn-ganha1775-revision-v1-four-days-with-ajahn-ganha/Sun, 16 Jul 2023 17:15:26 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/four-days-with-ajahn-ganha1775-revision-v1-four-days-with-ajahn-ganha/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/two-dhamma-learnings-as-ajahn-brahms-kappiya1779-revision-v1-two-dhamma-learnings-as-ajahn-brahm8217s-kappiya/Sun, 09 Jul 2023 17:04:19 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/two-dhamma-learnings-as-ajahn-brahms-kappiya1779-revision-v1-two-dhamma-learnings-as-ajahn-brahm8217s-kappiya/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./_posts/2023-07-09-two-dhamma-learnings-as-ajahn-brahms-kappiya/Sun, 09 Jul 2023 17:04:19 +0800/_posts/2023-07-09-two-dhamma-learnings-as-ajahn-brahms-kappiya/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./en/posts/2023-07-09-two-dhamma-learnings-as-ajahn-brahms-kappiya/Sun, 09 Jul 2023 17:04:19 +0800/en/posts/2023-07-09-two-dhamma-learnings-as-ajahn-brahms-kappiya/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./_posts/2023-07-02-four-days-with-ajahn-ganha/Sun, 02 Jul 2023 18:09:31 +0800/_posts/2023-07-02-four-days-with-ajahn-ganha/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./en/posts/2023-07-02-four-days-with-ajahn-ganha/Sun, 02 Jul 2023 18:09:31 +0800/en/posts/2023-07-02-four-days-with-ajahn-ganha/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./_posts/2023-06-04-generosity-giving-getting-skirts/Sun, 04 Jun 2023 17:24:30 +0800/_posts/2023-06-04-generosity-giving-getting-skirts/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 The quote above is from the Buddha, where he talks about the good karma from giving something miniscule./en/posts/2023-06-04-generosity-giving-getting-skirts/Sun, 04 Jun 2023 17:24:30 +0800/en/posts/2023-06-04-generosity-giving-getting-skirts/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 The quote above is from the Buddha, where he talks about the good karma from giving something miniscule./en/_drafts/old-drafts/generosity-giving-getting-skirts1769-revision-v1-generosity-giving-038-getting-skirts/Sun, 04 Jun 2023 17:22:40 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/generosity-giving-getting-skirts1769-revision-v1-generosity-giving-038-getting-skirts/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 The quote above is from the Buddha, where he talks about the good karma from giving something miniscule./_posts/2023-06-02-venice-vs-singapore/Fri, 02 Jun 2023 05:14:00 +0800/_posts/2023-06-02-venice-vs-singapore/I finally finished readingJohn 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./en/posts/2023-06-02-venice-vs-singapore/Fri, 02 Jun 2023 05:14:00 +0800/en/posts/2023-06-02-venice-vs-singapore/I finally finished readingJohn 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./_posts/2023-05-31-the-most-important-tech-law-you-never-heard-before-amaras-law/Wed, 31 May 2023 17:03:54 +0800/_posts/2023-05-31-the-most-important-tech-law-you-never-heard-before-amaras-law/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:/en/posts/2023-05-31-the-most-important-tech-law-you-never-heard-before-amaras-law/Wed, 31 May 2023 17:03:54 +0800/en/posts/2023-05-31-the-most-important-tech-law-you-never-heard-before-amaras-law/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:/en/_drafts/old-drafts/venice-vs-singapore1749-revision-v1-venice-vs-singapore/Sun, 28 May 2023 17:14:32 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/venice-vs-singapore1749-revision-v1-venice-vs-singapore/I finally finished readingJohn 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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/venice-vs-singapore1749-revision-v1-202305261542-venice-vs-singapore/Sun, 28 May 2023 17:11:48 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/venice-vs-singapore1749-revision-v1-202305261542-venice-vs-singapore/I finally finished readingJohn 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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/the-most-important-tech-law-you-never-heard-before-amaras-law1750-revision-v1-the-most-important-tech-law-you-never-heard-before-8211-amara8217s-law/Sun, 28 May 2023 17:03:54 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/the-most-important-tech-law-you-never-heard-before-amaras-law1750-revision-v1-the-most-important-tech-law-you-never-heard-before-8211-amara8217s-law/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:/_posts/2023-05-28-ageing-in-singapore-missed-opportunity-of-the-century/Sun, 28 May 2023 16:57:17 +0800/_posts/2023-05-28-ageing-in-singapore-missed-opportunity-of-the-century/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./en/posts/2023-05-28-ageing-in-singapore-missed-opportunity-of-the-century/Sun, 28 May 2023 16:57:17 +0800/en/posts/2023-05-28-ageing-in-singapore-missed-opportunity-of-the-century/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./_posts/2023-05-21-the-hypothetical-economist-obituary-of-pj-teh/Sun, 21 May 2023 15:54:05 +0800/_posts/2023-05-21-the-hypothetical-economist-obituary-of-pj-teh/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/the-hypothetical-economist-obituary-of-pj-teh1744-revision-v1-the-hypothetical-economist-obituary-of-pj-teh/Sun, 21 May 2023 15:54:05 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/the-hypothetical-economist-obituary-of-pj-teh1744-revision-v1-the-hypothetical-economist-obituary-of-pj-teh/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./en/posts/2023-05-21-the-hypothetical-economist-obituary-of-pj-teh/Sun, 21 May 2023 15:54:05 +0800/en/posts/2023-05-21-the-hypothetical-economist-obituary-of-pj-teh/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./en/_past-now/past-nownow-21736-revision-v1-now-page/Sun, 14 May 2023 19:32:07 +0800/en/_past-now/past-nownow-21736-revision-v1-now-page/Positive ART test for CovidSince 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)./en/_past-now/past-now15-mar-now1699-revision-v1-15-mar-2023/Sun, 14 May 2023 19:30:02 +0800/en/_past-now/past-now15-mar-now1699-revision-v1-15-mar-2023/15 Mar 2023 ### 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!/en/_past-now/now-2/Sun, 14 May 2023 19:27:53 +0800/en/_past-now/now-2/Positive ART test for CovidSince 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)./_posts/2023-05-11-mastery-based-learning/Thu, 11 May 2023 21:36:04 +0800/_posts/2023-05-11-mastery-based-learning/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:/en/posts/2023-05-11-mastery-based-learning/Thu, 11 May 2023 21:36:04 +0800/en/posts/2023-05-11-mastery-based-learning/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:/en/_drafts/old-drafts/mastery-based-learning1733-revision-v1-mastery-based-learning/Thu, 11 May 2023 21:35:29 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/mastery-based-learning1733-revision-v1-mastery-based-learning/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:/_posts/2023-05-11-know-vs-know-of/Thu, 11 May 2023 21:29:14 +0800/_posts/2023-05-11-know-vs-know-of/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./en/posts/2023-05-11-know-vs-know-of/Thu, 11 May 2023 21:29:14 +0800/en/posts/2023-05-11-know-vs-know-of/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/know-vs-know-of1730-revision-v1-know-vs.-know-of/Thu, 11 May 2023 21:19:13 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/know-vs-know-of1730-revision-v1-know-vs.-know-of/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/pj-2023-okrs1676-revision-v1-my-2023-okrs/Tue, 18 Apr 2023 21:30:38 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/pj-2023-okrs1676-revision-v1-my-2023-okrs/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/why-i-stayed-in-edb-for-13-years1698-revision-v1-why-i-stayed-in-edb-for-13-years/Tue, 18 Apr 2023 21:27:35 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/why-i-stayed-in-edb-for-13-years1698-revision-v1-why-i-stayed-in-edb-for-13-years/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/permissioned-vs-permissionless-leverage1680-revision-v1-permissioned-vs-permissionless-leverage/Tue, 18 Apr 2023 21:21:22 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/permissioned-vs-permissionless-leverage1680-revision-v1-permissioned-vs-permissionless-leverage/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/dhamma-consolidation-page1722-revision-v1-dhamma-consolidation-page/Tue, 28 Mar 2023 18:29:00 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/dhamma-consolidation-page1722-revision-v1-dhamma-consolidation-page/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./en/dhamma-consolidation-page/Tue, 28 Mar 2023 18:29:00 +0800/en/dhamma-consolidation-page/(Note: I have a separate blog focused on Dhamma here) 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. 🙂 How to Be Happier with the Four Noble Truths - 2025 A talk about the 4 Noble Truths, and how they reframe away our suffering./en/_past-now/past-now-20-dec-2022-now/Wed, 15 Mar 2023 16:11:23 +0800/en/_past-now/past-now-20-dec-2022-now/Now – 20 Dec 22 Dharma lazing around with my copy of Antifragile#### Work {#work} Since October, I started doing some freelance work. Sidenote: You can read about my Propositions here. The first (small) gig was a Design Thinking training that a friend asked me to help her conduct, for herself and her small team. This was to be her farewell gift to her team. While she left a public testimonial as I had requested, I completely didn’t propose any of the wording in her embarassingly-lavish-praise here./en/_past-now/past-now15-mar-now1699-revision-v1-present/Wed, 15 Mar 2023 16:04:13 +0800/en/_past-now/past-now15-mar-now1699-revision-v1-present/15 Mar 2023 ### 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!/en/_past-now/past-now20-dec-22-now1624-revision-v1-20-dec-2022-now/Wed, 15 Mar 2023 16:02:55 +0800/en/_past-now/past-now20-dec-22-now1624-revision-v1-20-dec-2022-now/Now – 20 Dec 22 Dharma lazing around with my copy of Antifragile#### Work {#work} Since October, I started doing some freelance work. Sidenote: You can read about my Propositions here. The first (small) gig was a Design Thinking training that a friend asked me to help her conduct, for herself and her small team. This was to be her farewell gift to her team. While she left a public testimonial as I had requested, I completely didn’t propose any of the wording in her embarassingly-lavish-praise here./en/_past-now/15-mar-now/Wed, 15 Mar 2023 15:58:42 +0800/en/_past-now/15-mar-now/15 Mar 2023 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!/_posts/2023-03-15-why-i-stayed-in-edb-for-13-years/Wed, 15 Mar 2023 15:57:30 +0800/_posts/2023-03-15-why-i-stayed-in-edb-for-13-years/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./en/posts/2023-03-15-why-i-stayed-in-edb-for-13-years/Wed, 15 Mar 2023 15:57:30 +0800/en/posts/2023-03-15-why-i-stayed-in-edb-for-13-years/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./en/_past-now/past-now15-mar-now1699-revision-v1-now-8211-15-mar-23/Wed, 15 Mar 2023 15:40:01 +0800/en/_past-now/past-now15-mar-now1699-revision-v1-now-8211-15-mar-23/### 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!/_posts/2023-02-24-who-are-your-extreme-users-niche-experts-what-are-they-doing/Fri, 24 Feb 2023 08:57:00 +0800/_posts/2023-02-24-who-are-your-extreme-users-niche-experts-what-are-they-doing/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!) My reasoning was this:/en/posts/2023-02-24-who-are-your-extreme-users-niche-experts-what-are-they-doing/Fri, 24 Feb 2023 08:57:00 +0800/en/posts/2023-02-24-who-are-your-extreme-users-niche-experts-what-are-they-doing/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!) My reasoning was this:/_posts/2023-02-17-visible-measurable-doesnt-mean-important/Fri, 17 Feb 2023 08:48:00 +0800/_posts/2023-02-17-visible-measurable-doesnt-mean-important/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:/en/posts/2023-02-17-visible-measurable-doesnt-mean-important/Fri, 17 Feb 2023 08:48:00 +0800/en/posts/2023-02-17-visible-measurable-doesnt-mean-important/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:/_posts/2023-02-10-permissioned-vs-permissionless-leverage/Fri, 10 Feb 2023 08:40:00 +0800/_posts/2023-02-10-permissioned-vs-permissionless-leverage/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./en/posts/2023-02-10-permissioned-vs-permissionless-leverage/Fri, 10 Feb 2023 08:40:00 +0800/en/posts/2023-02-10-permissioned-vs-permissionless-leverage/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/who-are-your-extreme-users-niche-experts-what-are-they-doing1678-revision-v1-who-are-your-extreme-users-038-niche-experts-038-what-are-they-doing/Tue, 07 Feb 2023 11:57:18 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/who-are-your-extreme-users-niche-experts-what-are-they-doing1678-revision-v1-who-are-your-extreme-users-038-niche-experts-038-what-are-they-doing/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 & chairBack then, a friend had asked me why I bought these “because these look so ugly!” (My wife agrees, btw!) My reasoning was this:/en/_drafts/old-drafts/visible-measurable-doesnt-mean-important1679-revision-v1-visible-038-measurable-doesn8217t-mean-important/Tue, 07 Feb 2023 11:48:39 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/visible-measurable-doesnt-mean-important1679-revision-v1-visible-038-measurable-doesn8217t-mean-important/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:/_posts/2023-02-06-pj-2023-okrs/Mon, 06 Feb 2023 08:37:00 +0800/_posts/2023-02-06-pj-2023-okrs/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./en/posts/2023-02-06-pj-2023-okrs/Mon, 06 Feb 2023 08:37:00 +0800/en/posts/2023-02-06-pj-2023-okrs/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/singaporean-conditioning77-revision-v1-the-singaporean-conditioning/Sat, 28 Jan 2023 22:51:17 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/singaporean-conditioning77-revision-v1-the-singaporean-conditioning/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”)./en/_drafts/old-drafts/my-learnings-from-the-rains-retreat-in-20221190-revision-v1-my-learnings-from-the-rains-retreat-in-2022/Mon, 09 Jan 2023 21:32:05 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/my-learnings-from-the-rains-retreat-in-20221190-revision-v1-my-learnings-from-the-rains-retreat-in-2022/My meditation corner in my Jhana Grove room, July 2022On 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. 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)/_posts/2023-01-06-5-learning-points-from-ciid/Fri, 06 Jan 2023 14:57:53 +0800/_posts/2023-01-06-5-learning-points-from-ciid/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)./en/posts/2023-01-06-5-learning-points-from-ciid/Fri, 06 Jan 2023 14:57:53 +0800/en/posts/2023-01-06-5-learning-points-from-ciid/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)./en/_drafts/old-drafts/learnings-edb46-revision-v1-ciid-learnings-for-edb/Fri, 06 Jan 2023 11:58:12 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/learnings-edb46-revision-v1-ciid-learnings-for-edb/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…/en/_drafts/old-drafts/8-personal-principles-in-the-wild-20231637-revision-v1-8-personal-principles-in-the-wild-for-2023/Sun, 01 Jan 2023 17:07:06 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/8-personal-principles-in-the-wild-20231637-revision-v1-8-personal-principles-in-the-wild-for-2023/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/8-personal-principles-in-the-wild-20231637-revision-v1-personal-principles-in-the-wild/Sun, 01 Jan 2023 14:59:42 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/8-personal-principles-in-the-wild-20231637-revision-v1-personal-principles-in-the-wild/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./_posts/2023-01-01-8-personal-principles-in-the-wild-2023/Sun, 01 Jan 2023 14:52:31 +0800/_posts/2023-01-01-8-personal-principles-in-the-wild-2023/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./en/posts/2023-01-01-8-personal-principles-in-the-wild-2023/Sun, 01 Jan 2023 14:52:31 +0800/en/posts/2023-01-01-8-personal-principles-in-the-wild-2023/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./en/_past-now/past-now30-oct-22-now1150-revision-v1-30-oct-22-now/Wed, 21 Dec 2022 10:39:12 +0800/en/_past-now/past-now30-oct-22-now1150-revision-v1-30-oct-22-now/30 Oct 22 Life Outlook point at Jhana Grove Meditation Retreat Centre, Serpentine, Western AustraliaHappy 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)./en/_past-now/past-now30-oct-22-now1150-revision-v1-29-oct-22-now/Wed, 21 Dec 2022 10:37:22 +0800/en/_past-now/past-now30-oct-22-now1150-revision-v1-29-oct-22-now/30 Oct 22 Life Outlook point at Jhana Grove Meditation Retreat Centre, Serpentine, Western AustraliaHappy 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)./en/_past-now/20-dec-22-now/Wed, 21 Dec 2022 10:36:18 +0800/en/_past-now/20-dec-22-now/Now – 20 Dec 22 Dharma lazing around with my copy of Antifragile#### Work {#work} Since October, I started doing some freelance work. Sidenote: You can read about my Propositions here. The first (small) gig was a Design Thinking training that a friend asked me to help her conduct, for herself and her small team. This was to be her farewell gift to her team. While she left a public testimonial as I had requested, I completely didn’t propose any of the wording in her embarassingly-lavish-praise here./en/_past-now/past-now20-dec-22-now1624-revision-v1-present/Wed, 21 Dec 2022 10:34:46 +0800/en/_past-now/past-now20-dec-22-now1624-revision-v1-present/Now – 20 Dec 22 Dharma lazing around with my copy of Antifragile#### Work {#work} Since October, I started doing some freelance work. Sidenote: You can read about my Propositions here. The first (small) gig was a Design Thinking training that a friend asked me to help her conduct, for herself and her small team. This was to be her farewell gift to her team. While she left a public testimonial as I had requested, I completely didn’t propose any of the wording in her embarassingly-lavish-praise here./en/_past-now/past-now20-dec-22-now1624-revision-v1-202212201757-present/Wed, 21 Dec 2022 10:24:31 +0800/en/_past-now/past-now20-dec-22-now1624-revision-v1-202212201757-present/Now – 20 Dec 22 Work Since October, I started doing some freelance work. Sidenote: You can read about my Propositions here. The first (small) gig was a Design Thinking training that a friend asked me to help her conduct, for herself and her small team. This was to be her farewell gift to her team. While she left a public testimonial as I had requested, I completely didn’t propose any of the wording in her embarassingly-lavish-praise here./en/_drafts/old-drafts/non-self1602-revision-v1-the-buddha-on-non-self/Sun, 18 Dec 2022 16:59:33 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/non-self1602-revision-v1-the-buddha-on-non-self/Non-self in Impressionist Style by #dalleNon-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./_posts/2022-12-18-non-self/Sun, 18 Dec 2022 16:58:51 +0800/_posts/2022-12-18-non-self/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./en/posts/2022-12-18-non-self/Sun, 18 Dec 2022 16:58:51 +0800/en/posts/2022-12-18-non-self/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./_posts/2022-12-06-playing-with-chatgpt/Tue, 06 Dec 2022 17:27:56 +0800/_posts/2022-12-06-playing-with-chatgpt/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./en/posts/2022-12-06-playing-with-chatgpt/Tue, 06 Dec 2022 17:27:56 +0800/en/posts/2022-12-06-playing-with-chatgpt/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/playing-with-chatgpt1501-revision-v1-an-investigation-ai-into-ai-playing-with-chatgpt/Tue, 06 Dec 2022 17:26:35 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/playing-with-chatgpt1501-revision-v1-an-investigation-ai-into-ai-playing-with-chatgpt/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/playing-with-chatgpt1501-revision-v1-an-investigation-ai-into-ai/Tue, 06 Dec 2022 16:48:30 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/playing-with-chatgpt1501-revision-v1-an-investigation-ai-into-ai/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: 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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/playing-with-chatgpt1501-revision-v1-adventurous-investigations-ai-into-ai/Tue, 06 Dec 2022 16:29:55 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/playing-with-chatgpt1501-revision-v1-adventurous-investigations-ai-into-ai/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 > > — Replit ⠕ (@Replit) December 5, 2022 The Tweet that started it for meI came across the Tweet above this morning, and decided to play around with ChatGPT after lunch./en/_drafts/old-drafts/playing-with-chatgpt1501-revision-v1-experiments-with-chatgpt-by-open-ai/Tue, 06 Dec 2022 16:18:03 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/playing-with-chatgpt1501-revision-v1-experiments-with-chatgpt-by-open-ai/Where my mind is blown by AI > 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 > > — Replit ⠕ (@Replit) December 5, 2022 The Tweet that started it for meI came across the Tweet above this morning, and decided to play around with ChatGPT after lunch./en/_drafts/old-drafts/right-view-four-truths-right-view-8211-four-truths/Sun, 04 Dec 2022 17:20:18 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/right-view-four-truths-right-view-8211-four-truths/Excerpts for Four Truths “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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/right-view-four-truths1485-revision-v1-right-view-8211-four-truths/Sun, 04 Dec 2022 17:20:18 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/right-view-four-truths1485-revision-v1-right-view-8211-four-truths/Excerpts for Four Truths “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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/right-view-four-truths1485-revision-v1-202212041515-_uddi_m-right-view-8211-four-truths/Sun, 04 Dec 2022 17:17:39 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/right-view-four-truths1485-revision-v1-202212041515-_uddi_m-right-view-8211-four-truths/Excerpts for Four Truths “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./_posts/2022-12-04-most-important-idea-meditation/Sun, 04 Dec 2022 17:11:21 +0800/_posts/2022-12-04-most-important-idea-meditation/The most important idea in meditation is this: You don’t meditate. You LET meditation happen. Dharma showing how to let meditation happen./en/_drafts/old-drafts/most-important-idea-meditation1481-revision-v1-the-most-important-idea-in-meditation/Sun, 04 Dec 2022 17:11:21 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/most-important-idea-meditation1481-revision-v1-the-most-important-idea-in-meditation/ The most important idea in meditation is this: You don’t meditate. You LET meditation happen. Dharma showing how to let meditation happen/en/posts/2022-12-04-most-important-idea-meditation/Sun, 04 Dec 2022 17:11:21 +0800/en/posts/2022-12-04-most-important-idea-meditation/The most important idea in meditation is this: You don’t meditate. You LET meditation happen. Dharma showing how to let meditation happen./en/_drafts/old-drafts/manifesto-til-20241451-revision-v1-personal-manifesto-what-i-want-to-do-from-now-until-2024/Wed, 30 Nov 2022 17:55:12 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/manifesto-til-20241451-revision-v1-personal-manifesto-what-i-want-to-do-from-now-until-2024/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”./_posts/2022-11-30-manifesto-til-2024/Wed, 30 Nov 2022 17:51:41 +0800/_posts/2022-11-30-manifesto-til-2024/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”./en/posts/2022-11-30-manifesto-til-2024/Wed, 30 Nov 2022 17:51:41 +0800/en/posts/2022-11-30-manifesto-til-2024/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”./_posts/2022-11-30-career-advice/Wed, 30 Nov 2022 09:46:00 +0800/_posts/2022-11-30-career-advice/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./en/posts/2022-11-30-career-advice/Wed, 30 Nov 2022 09:46:00 +0800/en/posts/2022-11-30-career-advice/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./_posts/2022-11-29-is-now-the-time-to-explore-crypto-applications/Tue, 29 Nov 2022 12:53:00 +0800/_posts/2022-11-29-is-now-the-time-to-explore-crypto-applications/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./en/posts/2022-11-29-is-now-the-time-to-explore-crypto-applications/Tue, 29 Nov 2022 12:53:00 +0800/en/posts/2022-11-29-is-now-the-time-to-explore-crypto-applications/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/is-now-the-time-to-explore-crypto-applications1440-revision-v1-is-now-the-time-to-explore-crypto-applications/Tue, 29 Nov 2022 11:35:34 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/is-now-the-time-to-explore-crypto-applications1440-revision-v1-is-now-the-time-to-explore-crypto-applications/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 PexelsThis article on tokengated commerce elaborates a lot on some possible applications of crypto, which I find very thought provoking./_posts/2022-11-28-qualitative-research-for-quants/Mon, 28 Nov 2022 09:21:00 +0800/_posts/2022-11-28-qualitative-research-for-quants/“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./en/posts/2022-11-28-qualitative-research-for-quants/Mon, 28 Nov 2022 09:21:00 +0800/en/posts/2022-11-28-qualitative-research-for-quants/“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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/propositions1156-revision-v1-propositions/Sun, 27 Nov 2022 15:01:11 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/propositions1156-revision-v1-propositions/1. Applied Design Thinking Fundamentals: training in Design Thinking 2. Team Catalysis: Forming Team Rituals and Norms 3. Service & Strategy Design What I could offer to you: 1. Applied Design Thinking Fundamentals: training in Design Thinking Photo of a synthesis board taken from a Design Thinking training course runWhat is this?/en/_drafts/old-drafts/qualitative-research-for-quants80-autosave-v1-qualitative-research-for-the-quantitative-minded/Sun, 27 Nov 2022 14:37:40 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/qualitative-research-for-quants80-autosave-v1-qualitative-research-for-the-quantitative-minded/“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./_posts/2022-11-27-knowing-good-mental-states/Sun, 27 Nov 2022 14:32:13 +0800/_posts/2022-11-27-knowing-good-mental-states/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/knowing-good-mental-states11-revision-v1-knowing-good-mind-states/Sun, 27 Nov 2022 14:32:13 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/knowing-good-mental-states11-revision-v1-knowing-good-mind-states/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./en/posts/2022-11-27-knowing-good-mental-states/Sun, 27 Nov 2022 14:32:13 +0800/en/posts/2022-11-27-knowing-good-mental-states/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/qualitative-research-for-quants80-revision-v1-qualitative-research-for-the-quantitative-minded/Sun, 27 Nov 2022 14:21:12 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/qualitative-research-for-quants80-revision-v1-qualitative-research-for-the-quantitative-minded/“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./_posts/2022-11-11-on-experience-design/Fri, 11 Nov 2022 10:36:40 +0800/_posts/2022-11-11-on-experience-design/(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?/en/posts/2022-11-11-on-experience-design/Fri, 11 Nov 2022 10:36:40 +0800/en/posts/2022-11-11-on-experience-design/(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?/en/_drafts/old-drafts/on-experience-design16-revision-v1-on-experience-design/Wed, 09 Nov 2022 10:39:10 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/on-experience-design16-revision-v1-on-experience-design/(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?/en/_drafts/old-drafts/design-thinking-rename75-revision-v1-why-design-thinking-should-be-renamed/Wed, 09 Nov 2022 10:26:51 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/design-thinking-rename75-revision-v1-why-design-thinking-should-be-renamed/Double Diamond – Theory vs RealityDesign 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./en/_past-now/past-now30-oct-22-now1150-revision-v1-present/Wed, 09 Nov 2022 10:24:13 +0800/en/_past-now/past-now30-oct-22-now1150-revision-v1-present/30 Oct 22 Life Outlook point at Jhana Grove Meditation Retreat Centre, Serpentine, Western AustraliaHappy 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)./en/_drafts/old-drafts/portfolio466-revision-v1-portfolio/Wed, 09 Nov 2022 10:23:25 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/portfolio466-revision-v1-portfolio/A selection of projects which I have undertaken since 2019. (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](http://ciid.dk) in the [Interaction Design Program (IDP ’19)](http://ciid.dk/education/portfolio/idp19/students/peijing-pj-teh/). It was awarded [Student Runner Up in the 2020 Core77 Design Awards](https://designawards.core77.com/Service-Design/94438/Stille), and was an honoree for [2020 Fast Company’s Innovation By Design Awards, Student Category](https://www./en/_drafts/old-drafts/art-design-and-innovation955-revision-v1-art-design-and-innovation/Tue, 08 Nov 2022 21:38:23 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/art-design-and-innovation955-revision-v1-art-design-and-innovation/(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./_posts/2022-11-08-art-design-and-innovation/Tue, 08 Nov 2022 21:32:32 +0800/_posts/2022-11-08-art-design-and-innovation/(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./en/posts/2022-11-08-art-design-and-innovation/Tue, 08 Nov 2022 21:32:32 +0800/en/posts/2022-11-08-art-design-and-innovation/(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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/portfolio466-revision-v1-project-portfolio/Tue, 08 Nov 2022 21:16:00 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/portfolio466-revision-v1-project-portfolio/A selection of projects which I have undertaken since 2019. (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](http://ciid.dk) in the [Interaction Design Program (IDP ’19)](http://ciid.dk/education/portfolio/idp19/students/peijing-pj-teh/). It was awarded [Student Runner Up in the 2020 Core77 Design Awards](https://designawards.core77.com/Service-Design/94438/Stille), and was an honoree for [2020 Fast Company’s Innovation By Design Awards, Student Category](https://www./en/_drafts/old-drafts/spacer1273-revision-v1-spacer/Tue, 08 Nov 2022 11:30:34 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/spacer1273-revision-v1-spacer/- - - - - -/en/_drafts/stille/portfoliostille864-revision-v1-stille/Tue, 08 Nov 2022 10:59:30 +0800/en/_drafts/stille/portfoliostille864-revision-v1-stille/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:/en/portfolio/stille/stille-design-process/Thu, 03 Nov 2022 10:00:10 +0800/en/portfolio/stille/stille-design-process/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./en/portfolio/stille/stille-design-principles/Thu, 03 Nov 2022 09:55:31 +0800/en/portfolio/stille/stille-design-principles/Research yielded five design principles, which were 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 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”./en/portfolio/stille/stille-concept/Thu, 03 Nov 2022 09:50:05 +0800/en/portfolio/stille/stille-concept/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/_posts/2022-10-31-my-learnings-from-the-rains-retreat-in-2022/Mon, 31 Oct 2022 16:38:33 +0800/_posts/2022-10-31-my-learnings-from-the-rains-retreat-in-2022/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. 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)/en/posts/2022-10-31-my-learnings-from-the-rains-retreat-in-2022/Mon, 31 Oct 2022 16:38:33 +0800/en/posts/2022-10-31-my-learnings-from-the-rains-retreat-in-2022/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. 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)/en/_past-now/past-now30-oct-22-now1150-revision-v1-now-page/Sun, 30 Oct 2022 21:54:05 +0800/en/_past-now/past-now30-oct-22-now1150-revision-v1-now-page/30 Oct 22 Life Outlook point at Jhana Grove Meditation Retreat Centre, Serpentine, Western AustraliaHappy 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)./en/propositions/Sun, 30 Oct 2022 21:20:20 +0800/en/propositions/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!/en/_drafts/old-drafts/propositions1156-revision-v1-proposition/Sun, 30 Oct 2022 21:19:58 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/propositions1156-revision-v1-proposition/1. Applied Design Thinking Fundamentals: training in Design Thinking 2. Team Catalysis: Forming Team Rituals and Norms 3. Strategic Planning as a Service What I could offer to you: 1. Applied Design Thinking Fundamentals: training in Design Thinking Photo of a synthesis board taken from a Design Thinking training course runWhat is this?/en/_past-now/30-oct-22-now/Sat, 29 Oct 2022 21:21:53 +0800/en/_past-now/30-oct-22-now/30 Oct 22 Life Outlook point at Jhana Grove Meditation Retreat Centre, Serpentine, Western AustraliaHappy 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)./en/_drafts/old-drafts/pj/Sat, 29 Oct 2022 16:41:41 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/pj/About Me #### (For the latest updates, see my Now page. Now-page concept from Derek Sivers.) 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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/raging-bull-v181-autosave-v1-raging-bull-v1.0/Mon, 15 Nov 2021 09:14:41 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/raging-bull-v181-autosave-v1-raging-bull-v1.0/Project description here./en/_drafts/old-drafts/right-intention-wrong-intention-and-the-banality-of-evil1121-revision-v1-right-intention-wrong-intention-and-the-banality-of-evil/Sun, 10 Oct 2021 07:25:02 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/right-intention-wrong-intention-and-the-banality-of-evil1121-revision-v1-right-intention-wrong-intention-and-the-banality-of-evil/Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the philosopher Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem”, 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./_posts/2021-10-10-right-intention-wrong-intention-and-the-banality-of-evil/Sun, 10 Oct 2021 07:23:59 +0800/_posts/2021-10-10-right-intention-wrong-intention-and-the-banality-of-evil/Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the philosopher Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem”, 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./en/posts/2021-10-10-right-intention-wrong-intention-and-the-banality-of-evil/Sun, 10 Oct 2021 07:23:59 +0800/en/posts/2021-10-10-right-intention-wrong-intention-and-the-banality-of-evil/Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the philosopher Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem”, 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./en/_past-now/past-nownow-31108-revision-v1-28-aug-now/Sat, 28 Aug 2021 02:37:27 +0800/en/_past-now/past-nownow-31108-revision-v1-28-aug-now/Now My work station setup with my Moonlander keyboard, which is an absolute lifesaver for my hands and posture during this work-frome-home period. Also my ergonomic mouse and emotionally needy cat. 😉 Work I’m (still) an Assistant Vice President in the Customer Experience (CX) division, Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB”): that is the internal design team within EDB. I serve as a service design lead. Some of the projects we are working on currently:/en/_past-now/past-nownow-31108-revision-v1-202108280902/Sat, 28 Aug 2021 02:36:00 +0800/en/_past-now/past-nownow-31108-revision-v1-202108280902/Now My work station setup with my Moonlander keyboard, which is an absolute lifesaver for my hands and posture during this work-frome-home period. Also my ergonomic mouse and emotionally needy cat. 😉 Work I’m (still) an Assistant Vice President in the Customer Experience (CX) division, Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB”): that is the internal design team within EDB. I serve as a service design lead. Some of the projects we are working on currently:/en/_past-now/now-3/Sat, 28 Aug 2021 02:36:00 +0800/en/_past-now/now-3/Now My work station setup with my Moonlander keyboard, which is an absolute lifesaver for my hands and posture during this work-frome-home period. Also my ergonomic mouse and emotionally needy cat. 😉 Work I’m (still) an Assistant Vice President in the Customer Experience (CX) division, Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB”): that is the internal design team within EDB. I serve as a service design lead. Some of the projects we are working on currently:/en/_past-now/past-nownow-31108-revision-v1-202108280902-now-page-draft/Sat, 28 Aug 2021 02:34:36 +0800/en/_past-now/past-nownow-31108-revision-v1-202108280902-now-page-draft/Now My work station setup with my Moonlander keyboard, which is an absolute lifesaver for my hands and posture during this work-frome-home period. Also my ergonomic mouse and emotionally needy cat. 😉 Work I’m (still) an Assistant Vice President in the Customer Experience (CX) division, Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB”): that is the internal design team within EDB. I serve as a service design lead. Some of the projects we are working on currently:/en/_drafts/old-drafts/ciid-learnings70-revision-v1-ciid-learnings/Thu, 24 Jun 2021 12:52:10 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/ciid-learnings70-revision-v1-ciid-learnings/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./_posts/2021-05-30-notes-about-power-from-the-years-of-lyndon-johnson-master-of-the-senate/Sun, 30 May 2021 14:01:07 +0800/_posts/2021-05-30-notes-about-power-from-the-years-of-lyndon-johnson-master-of-the-senate/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./en/posts/2021-05-30-notes-about-power-from-the-years-of-lyndon-johnson-master-of-the-senate/Sun, 30 May 2021 14:01:07 +0800/en/posts/2021-05-30-notes-about-power-from-the-years-of-lyndon-johnson-master-of-the-senate/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/notes-about-power-from-the-years-of-lyndon-johnson-master-of-the-senate1079-revision-v1-notes-about-power-from-8220the-years-of-lyndon-johnson-master-of-the-senate8221/Sun, 30 May 2021 14:00:23 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/notes-about-power-from-the-years-of-lyndon-johnson-master-of-the-senate1079-revision-v1-notes-about-power-from-8220the-years-of-lyndon-johnson-master-of-the-senate8221/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/notes-about-power-from-the-years-of-lyndon-johnson-master-of-the-senate1079-revision-v1-202104241648-lyndon-johnson-master-of-the-senate/Sun, 30 May 2021 13:51:49 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/notes-about-power-from-the-years-of-lyndon-johnson-master-of-the-senate1079-revision-v1-202104241648-lyndon-johnson-master-of-the-senate/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./en/_drafts/stille/portfoliostillestille-process895-revision-v1-stille-8211-process/Sat, 08 May 2021 14:17:40 +0800/en/_drafts/stille/portfoliostillestille-process895-revision-v1-stille-8211-process/To see rest of the project: Background (Context & Brief) 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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/raging-bull-v181-revision-v1-raging-bull-v1.0/Sat, 08 May 2021 03:50:06 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/raging-bull-v181-revision-v1-raging-bull-v1.0/Project description here. [WP-Coder id=”1″] [WP-Coder id=”2″]/en/_drafts/old-drafts/raging-bull-v1-0-project-description/Sat, 08 May 2021 03:49:25 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/raging-bull-v1-0-project-description/See the interaction here:Raging Bull v1.0 > > > “To tame a raging bull with an infinite field.” — Zen sayingUpdate 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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/raging-bull-v1-0-project-description1025-revision-v1-raging-bull-v1.0-8211-project-description/Sat, 08 May 2021 03:49:25 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/raging-bull-v1-0-project-description1025-revision-v1-raging-bull-v1.0-8211-project-description/See the interaction here:Raging Bull v1.0 > > > “To tame a raging bull with an infinite field.” — Zen sayingUpdate 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./_posts/2021-05-02-202103160916-spying-on-whales-and-convergent-evolution/Sun, 02 May 2021 13:43:20 +0800/_posts/2021-05-02-202103160916-spying-on-whales-and-convergent-evolution/#innovation #corporate_innovation #create #convergent_evolution 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./en/posts/2021-05-02-202103160916-spying-on-whales-and-convergent-evolution/Sun, 02 May 2021 13:43:20 +0800/en/posts/2021-05-02-202103160916-spying-on-whales-and-convergent-evolution/#innovation #corporate_innovation #create #convergent_evolution 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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/202104120923-climate-change-and-an-ageing-population/Sun, 02 May 2021 13:40:15 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/202104120923-climate-change-and-an-ageing-population/#climatechange #ageing #family #inlaws 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…/en/_past-now/past-now/Sun, 02 May 2021 11:18:12 +0800/en/_past-now/past-now/2 May 21 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./en/_past-now/past-now21-feb-now450-revision-v1-21-feb-now/Sun, 02 May 2021 11:17:31 +0800/en/_past-now/past-now21-feb-now450-revision-v1-21-feb-now/Work Happy Chinese New Year with cats! I’m 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. 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./_posts/2021-03-14-the-four-realities-of-life-and-what-to-do-about-them/Sun, 14 Mar 2021 10:25:50 +0800/_posts/2021-03-14-the-four-realities-of-life-and-what-to-do-about-them/> “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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/the-four-realities-of-life-and-what-to-do-about-them967-revision-v1-the-four-realities-of-life-and-what-to-do-about-them/Sun, 14 Mar 2021 10:25:50 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/the-four-realities-of-life-and-what-to-do-about-them967-revision-v1-the-four-realities-of-life-and-what-to-do-about-them/> “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./en/posts/2021-03-14-the-four-realities-of-life-and-what-to-do-about-them/Sun, 14 Mar 2021 10:25:50 +0800/en/posts/2021-03-14-the-four-realities-of-life-and-what-to-do-about-them/> “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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/the-four-realities-of-life-and-what-to-do-about-them967-revision-v1-202103141523-the-four-realities-of-life-and-what-to-do-about-them/Sun, 14 Mar 2021 08:29:16 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/the-four-realities-of-life-and-what-to-do-about-them967-revision-v1-202103141523-the-four-realities-of-life-and-what-to-do-about-them/![[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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/dreaming-of-dharma60-revision-v1-dreaming-of-dharma/Thu, 11 Mar 2021 13:48:50 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/dreaming-of-dharma60-revision-v1-dreaming-of-dharma/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/problem-solving723-revision-v1-how-to-lead-in-problem-solving/Thu, 11 Mar 2021 10:49:50 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/problem-solving723-revision-v1-how-to-lead-in-problem-solving/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/posts447-revision-v1-posts/Thu, 11 Mar 2021 10:39:36 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/posts447-revision-v1-posts//en/portfolio/stille/Sun, 07 Mar 2021 08:57:04 +0800/en/portfolio/stille/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:/en/_drafts/stille/stille-design-principles892-revision-v1-stille-8211-design-principles/Sun, 07 Mar 2021 08:40:04 +0800/en/_drafts/stille/stille-design-principles892-revision-v1-stille-8211-design-principles/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./en/_drafts/stille/stille-design-principles892-revision-v1-stille-8211-evolution/Sun, 07 Mar 2021 08:26:02 +0800/en/_drafts/stille/stille-design-principles892-revision-v1-stille-8211-evolution//en/_drafts/stille/stille-design-principles-stille-8211-design-principles/Sun, 07 Mar 2021 08:23:14 +0800/en/_drafts/stille/stille-design-principles-stille-8211-design-principles/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/simple-contact-form730-revision-v1-simple-contact-form/Tue, 02 Mar 2021 08:07:36 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/simple-contact-form730-revision-v1-simple-contact-form/{“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”}}/_posts/2021-02-28-problem-solving/Sun, 28 Feb 2021 06:18:59 +0800/_posts/2021-02-28-problem-solving/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./en/posts/2021-02-28-problem-solving/Sun, 28 Feb 2021 06:18:59 +0800/en/posts/2021-02-28-problem-solving/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./en/_past-now/past-now21-feb-now450-revision-v1-now/Tue, 23 Feb 2021 13:00:14 +0800/en/_past-now/past-now21-feb-now450-revision-v1-now/Work Happy Chinese New Year with cats! I’m 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. 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./en/_drafts/stille/stille17-revision-v1-stille/Mon, 22 Feb 2021 13:58:37 +0800/en/_drafts/stille/stille17-revision-v1-stille/![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. 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./en/portfolio/Sun, 21 Feb 2021 07:18:14 +0800/en/portfolio/A selection of projects which I have undertaken since 2019. 2019 Stille 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./en/_past-now/21-feb-now/Sun, 21 Feb 2021 06:43:37 +0800/en/_past-now/21-feb-now/Work Happy Chinese New Year with cats! I’m 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. 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./en/_past-now/29-sep-2084-revision-v1-now-page-template/Sun, 21 Feb 2021 05:50:52 +0800/en/_past-now/29-sep-2084-revision-v1-now-page-template/Now ### Work I’m an Assistant Vice President in the Customer Experience (CX) division, [Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB”)](https://www.edb.gov.sg/). 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](https://news./en/_past-now/29-sep-20/Sun, 21 Feb 2021 05:50:21 +0800/en/_past-now/29-sep-20/Now ### Work I’m an Assistant Vice President in the Customer Experience (CX) division, [Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB”)](https://www.edb.gov.sg/). 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](https://news./en/_drafts/old-drafts/emerging-industries56-revision-v1-thoughts-for-beyond-covid-emerging-industries/Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:46:38 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/emerging-industries56-revision-v1-thoughts-for-beyond-covid-emerging-industries/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:/en/_drafts/old-drafts/8-10-may64-revision-v1-the-interesting-things-from-8-10-may/Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:46:35 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/8-10-may64-revision-v1-the-interesting-things-from-8-10-may/![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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/sample-page2-revision-v1-sample-page/Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:46:34 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/sample-page2-revision-v1-sample-page/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/post-covid-workplace67-revision-v1-post-covid-workplace/Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:46:32 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/post-covid-workplace67-revision-v1-post-covid-workplace/![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./en/_past-now/now255-revision-v1-pj8217s-now-page/Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:46:31 +0800/en/_past-now/now255-revision-v1-pj8217s-now-page/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) **Update –** Stille got honored as an **honorable mention** in the [2020 Fast Company’s Innovation By Design awards](https://www./en/_drafts/old-drafts/perspectives-template59-revision-v1-perspectives-template/Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:46:30 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/perspectives-template59-revision-v1-perspectives-template/- - - - - - > > > “Donec id justo non metus auctor commodo ut quis enim. Mauris fringilla dolor vel condimentum imperdiet.” — Hope K.- - - - - - Feedback or comments? Name * First Name Last Name Email * Subject * Message * Thank you!Updated date/en/_drafts/old-drafts/perspectives-template-179-revision-v1-perspectives-template-copy/Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:46:30 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/perspectives-template-179-revision-v1-perspectives-template-copy/- - - - - - > 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/en/_drafts/old-drafts/opportunities-in-aging66-revision-v1-opportunities-in-aging/Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:46:28 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/opportunities-in-aging66-revision-v1-opportunities-in-aging/![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. I rang the doorbell, and waited a few minutes./en/_drafts/old-drafts/day-surprise69-revision-v1-10-july-2020-8211-a-day-of-surprises/Sun, 21 Feb 2021 04:44:42 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/day-surprise69-revision-v1-10-july-2020-8211-a-day-of-surprises/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./en/_drafts/stille/stillemicrobreak-station-evolution29-revision-v1-microbreak-station-evolution/Sat, 20 Feb 2021 12:10:46 +0800/en/_drafts/stille/stillemicrobreak-station-evolution29-revision-v1-microbreak-station-evolution//en/_drafts/stille/stille-154-revision-v1-learnings-for-edb/Sat, 20 Feb 2021 12:10:27 +0800/en/_drafts/stille/stille-154-revision-v1-learnings-for-edb/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/two-letters72-revision-v1-two-letters/Sat, 20 Feb 2021 12:10:04 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/two-letters72-revision-v1-two-letters/![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./en/_drafts/stille/stilleself-care-module-evolution24-revision-v1-self-care-module-evolution/Sat, 20 Feb 2021 12:08:41 +0800/en/_drafts/stille/stilleself-care-module-evolution24-revision-v1-self-care-module-evolution//en/_drafts/stille/stilleco-worker-module-evolution256-revision-v1-co-worker-module-evolution/Sat, 20 Feb 2021 12:05:16 +0800/en/_drafts/stille/stilleco-worker-module-evolution256-revision-v1-co-worker-module-evolution//en/_past-now/29-sep-2084-revision-v1-29-sep-20/Sun, 14 Feb 2021 13:43:28 +0800/en/_past-now/29-sep-2084-revision-v1-29-sep-20/Now ### Work I’m an Assistant Vice President in the Customer Experience (CX) division, [Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB”)](https://www.edb.gov.sg/). 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](https://news./en/_drafts/old-drafts/lambs-lions71-revision-v1-lambs-or-lions/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:17:17 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/lambs-lions71-revision-v1-lambs-or-lions/![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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/korean-drama-dharma58-revision-v1-korean-drama-dharma/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:17:16 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/korean-drama-dharma58-revision-v1-korean-drama-dharma/![Crash Landing On You poster from Wikipedia]() Crash Landing On You poster from Wikipedia 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- At one point, the lead actress Yoon Seri was about to die on the hospital bed, and she narrated her “dream”./en/_drafts/old-drafts/optionality61-revision-v1-creating-optionality/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:16:59 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/optionality61-revision-v1-creating-optionality/![Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Credit: @mrwenchen from Unsplash]() Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Credit: @mrwenchen from Unsplash (I wrote an earlieressay on antifragile architecture here, 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./en/_past-now/9-feb-202055-revision-v1-9-feb-2020/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:15:29 +0800/en/_past-now/9-feb-202055-revision-v1-9-feb-2020/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](https://inquivision.com/projects#/stille/). 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./en/_past-now/30-aug-2082-revision-v1-30-aug-20/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:15:27 +0800/en/_past-now/30-aug-2082-revision-v1-30-aug-20/Now ![Work From Home realities.]() Work From Home realities. ![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!/en/_past-now/27-jan-202053-revision-v1-27-jan-2020/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:15:23 +0800/en/_past-now/27-jan-202053-revision-v1-27-jan-2020/Now ![My cat Dharma by our study window]() My cat Dharma by our study window ### Work I just finished CIID’s IDP programme in Dec 2019. This personal page will be filled up with my portfolio of work, which I need to do before my memories and documentation are lost to old age, amnesia and entropy… Back in 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, and what can be done to improve them in terms of digital processes, systems, and new products./en/_past-now/19-feb-2057-revision-v1-19-feb-20/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:15:21 +0800/en/_past-now/19-feb-2057-revision-v1-19-feb-20/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](https://inquivision.com/projects#/stille/). 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./en/_past-now/17-may-202068-revision-v1-17-may-2020/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:15:20 +0800/en/_past-now/17-may-202068-revision-v1-17-may-2020/Now ![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)**./en/_past-now/17-apr-2063-revision-v1-17-apr-20/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:15:19 +0800/en/_past-now/17-apr-2063-revision-v1-17-apr-20/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. 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)**./en/_past-now/10-may-2065-revision-v1-10-may-20/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:15:18 +0800/en/_past-now/10-may-2065-revision-v1-10-may-20/Now ![One morning after a thunderstorm.]() One morning after a thunderstorm. ### 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)**./en/_drafts/old-drafts/hello10-revision-v1-hello/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:14:22 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/hello10-revision-v1-hello/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/en/_drafts/old-drafts/book-review8-revision-v1-book-review-8211-midnight-in-chernobyl/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:14:20 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/book-review8-revision-v1-book-review-8211-midnight-in-chernobyl/![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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/knowing-good-mental-states11-revision-v1-on-the-need-to-encourage-good-mental-states/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:14:19 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/knowing-good-mental-states11-revision-v1-on-the-need-to-encourage-good-mental-states/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/on-secular-buddhism-and-stephen-batchelor13-revision-v1-on-secular-buddhism-and-stephen-batchelor/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:14:16 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/on-secular-buddhism-and-stephen-batchelor13-revision-v1-on-secular-buddhism-and-stephen-batchelor/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/vision-2030257-revision-v1-pj8217s-vision-2030/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:14:16 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/vision-2030257-revision-v1-pj8217s-vision-2030/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/hello-world1-revision-v1-hello-world/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:14:15 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/hello-world1-revision-v1-hello-world/Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!/en/_drafts/old-drafts/on-national-service15-revision-v1-on-national-service/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:14:15 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/on-national-service15-revision-v1-on-national-service/For the first two weeks of March, I was serving my national service reservist training. When we booked out for the first weekend, my wife commented, “Wow, this time round, it seems like you all are quite busy no?” 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. In a five-ton truck under the cloudless sky, the 36C felt like being cooked alive./en/_past-now/30-aug-20-30-aug-20/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:19 +0800/en/_past-now/30-aug-20-30-aug-20/Now ![Work From Home realities.]() Work From Home realities. ![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!/en/_past-now/29-sep-20-now-page-template/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:19 +0800/en/_past-now/29-sep-20-now-page-template/Now ### Work I’m an Assistant Vice President in the Customer Experience (CX) division, [Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB”)](https://www.edb.gov.sg/). 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](https://news./en/_drafts/old-drafts/raging-bull-v1/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:18 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/raging-bull-v1/Project description here. [WP-Coder id=”1″] [WP-Coder id=”2″]/en/_drafts/old-drafts/perspectives-template-1-perspectives-template-copy/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:17 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/perspectives-template-1-perspectives-template-copy/- - - - - - > 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/_posts/2021-01-02-singaporean-conditioning/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:16 +0800/_posts/2021-01-02-singaporean-conditioning/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”)./en/posts/2021-01-02-singaporean-conditioning/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:16 +0800/en/posts/2021-01-02-singaporean-conditioning/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”)./en/_drafts/old-drafts/how-to-lead-in-problem-solving-how-to-lead-in-problem-solving/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:15 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/how-to-lead-in-problem-solving-how-to-lead-in-problem-solving/[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. the two scientists were oswald avery and paul lewis./en/_drafts/old-drafts/two-letters-two-letters/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:15 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/two-letters-two-letters/![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./_posts/2021-01-02-design-thinking-rename/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:15 +0800/_posts/2021-01-02-design-thinking-rename/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./en/posts/2021-01-02-design-thinking-rename/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:15 +0800/en/posts/2021-01-02-design-thinking-rename/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/ciid-learnings-ciid-learnings/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:14 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/ciid-learnings-ciid-learnings/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/lambs-lions-lambs-or-lions/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:14 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/lambs-lions-lambs-or-lions/![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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/day-surprise-10-july-2020-8211-a-day-of-surprises/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:13 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/day-surprise-10-july-2020-8211-a-day-of-surprises/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./en/_past-now/17-may-2020-17-may-2020/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:13 +0800/en/_past-now/17-may-2020-17-may-2020/Now ![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)**./en/_drafts/old-drafts/opportunities-in-aging-opportunities-in-aging/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:12 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/opportunities-in-aging-opportunities-in-aging/![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. I rang the doorbell, and waited a few minutes./en/_drafts/old-drafts/post-covid-workplace-post-covid-workplace/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:12 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/post-covid-workplace-post-covid-workplace/![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./en/_past-now/10-may-20-10-may-20/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:11 +0800/en/_past-now/10-may-20-10-may-20/Now ![One morning after a thunderstorm.]() One morning after a thunderstorm. ### 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)**./en/_past-now/17-apr-20-17-apr-20/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:10 +0800/en/_past-now/17-apr-20-17-apr-20/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. 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)**./en/_drafts/old-drafts/8-10-may-the-interesting-things-from-8-10-may/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:10 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/8-10-may-the-interesting-things-from-8-10-may/![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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/optionality-creating-optionality/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:09 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/optionality-creating-optionality/![Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Credit: @mrwenchen from Unsplash]() Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Credit: @mrwenchen from Unsplash (I wrote an earlieressay on antifragile architecture here, 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./_posts/2021-01-02-dreaming-of-dharma/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:08 +0800/_posts/2021-01-02-dreaming-of-dharma/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./en/posts/2021-01-02-dreaming-of-dharma/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:08 +0800/en/posts/2021-01-02-dreaming-of-dharma/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/korean-drama-dharma-korean-drama-dharma/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:07 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/korean-drama-dharma-korean-drama-dharma/![Crash Landing On You poster from Wikipedia]() Crash Landing On You poster from Wikipedia 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- At one point, the lead actress Yoon Seri was about to die on the hospital bed, and she narrated her “dream”./en/_drafts/old-drafts/perspectives-template-perspectives-template/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:07 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/perspectives-template-perspectives-template/- - - - - - > > > “Donec id justo non metus auctor commodo ut quis enim. Mauris fringilla dolor vel condimentum imperdiet.” — Hope K.- - - - - - Feedback or comments? Name * First Name Last Name Email * Subject * Message * Thank you!Updated date/en/_past-now/19-feb-20-19-feb-20/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:06 +0800/en/_past-now/19-feb-20-19-feb-20/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](https://inquivision.com/projects#/stille/). 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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/emerging-industries-thoughts-for-beyond-covid-emerging-industries/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:05 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/emerging-industries-thoughts-for-beyond-covid-emerging-industries/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:/en/_past-now/9-feb-2020-9-feb-2020/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:04 +0800/en/_past-now/9-feb-2020-9-feb-2020/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](https://inquivision.com/projects#/stille/). 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./en/_drafts/stille/stille-1-learnings-for-edb/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:03 +0800/en/_drafts/stille/stille-1-learnings-for-edb/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./en/_past-now/27-jan-2020-27-jan-2020/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:02 +0800/en/_past-now/27-jan-2020-27-jan-2020/Now ![My cat Dharma by our study window]() My cat Dharma by our study window ### Work I just finished CIID’s IDP programme in Dec 2019. This personal page will be filled up with my portfolio of work, which I need to do before my memories and documentation are lost to old age, amnesia and entropy… Back in 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, and what can be done to improve them in terms of digital processes, systems, and new products./_posts/2021-01-02-learnings-edb/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:01 +0800/_posts/2021-01-02-learnings-edb/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…/en/posts/2021-01-02-learnings-edb/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:06:01 +0800/en/posts/2021-01-02-learnings-edb/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…/en/_drafts/stille/stillemicrobreak-station-evolution-microbreak-station-evolution/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:05:59 +0800/en/_drafts/stille/stillemicrobreak-station-evolution-microbreak-station-evolution//en/_drafts/stille/stilleself-care-module-evolution-self-care-module-evolution/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:05:58 +0800/en/_drafts/stille/stilleself-care-module-evolution-self-care-module-evolution//en/_drafts/stille/stille-stille/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:05:56 +0800/en/_drafts/stille/stille-stille/<img src=”https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e118deedab2864e15e95365/1594291181154-5OSE06KVV9LU5CH38HVO/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kMXRibDYMhUiookWqwUxEZ97gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z4YTzHvnKhyp6Da-NYroOW3ZGjoBKy3azqku80C789l0luUmcNM2NMBIHLdYyXL-Jww_XBra4mrrAHD6FMA3bNKOBm5vyMDUBjVQdcIrt03OQ/Core+77+award+page.jpg” alt=”Stille – Emotional care for institutional caregivers of the elderly” /> ![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. 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./en/about/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:05:46 +0800/en/about/About Me (For the latest updates, see my Now page. Now-page concept from Derek Sivers.) 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./en/_drafts/stille/stilleco-worker-module-evolution-co-worker-module-evolution/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:05:45 +0800/en/_drafts/stille/stilleco-worker-module-evolution-co-worker-module-evolution//en/_past-now/now-pj8217s-now-page/Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:05:43 +0800/en/_past-now/now-pj8217s-now-page/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) **Update –** Stille got honored as an **honorable mention** in the [2020 Fast Company’s Innovation By Design awards](https://www./en/_drafts/old-drafts/hello-world-hello-world/Wed, 30 Dec 2020 09:09:28 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/hello-world-hello-world/Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!/en/_drafts/old-drafts/privacy-policy-privacy-policy/Wed, 30 Dec 2020 09:09:28 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/privacy-policy-privacy-policy/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. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it./en/_drafts/old-drafts/sample-page-sample-page/Wed, 30 Dec 2020 09:09:28 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/sample-page-sample-page/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/resume-resume/Thu, 18 Jun 2020 20:56:32 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/resume-resume/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./_posts/2020-03-18-on-national-service/Wed, 18 Mar 2020 09:20:21 +0800/_posts/2020-03-18-on-national-service/For the first two weeks of March, I was serving my national service reservist training. When we booked out for the first weekend, my wife commented, “Wow, this time round, it seems like you all are quite busy no?” 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. In a five-ton truck under the cloudless sky, the 36C felt like being cooked alive./en/posts/2020-03-18-on-national-service/Wed, 18 Mar 2020 09:20:21 +0800/en/posts/2020-03-18-on-national-service/For the first two weeks of March, I was serving my national service reservist training. When we booked out for the first weekend, my wife commented, “Wow, this time round, it seems like you all are quite busy no?” 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. In a five-ton truck under the cloudless sky, the 36C felt like being cooked alive./en/_drafts/old-drafts/vision-2030-pj8217s-vision-2030/Wed, 19 Feb 2020 14:17:06 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/vision-2030-pj8217s-vision-2030/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/on-secular-buddhism-and-stephen-batchelor-on-secular-buddhism-and-stephen-batchelor/Sun, 09 Feb 2020 12:56:38 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/on-secular-buddhism-and-stephen-batchelor-on-secular-buddhism-and-stephen-batchelor/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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/book-review-book-review-8211-midnight-in-chernobyl/Sun, 09 Feb 2020 09:01:20 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/book-review-book-review-8211-midnight-in-chernobyl/![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./en/_drafts/old-drafts/hello-hello/Fri, 31 Jan 2020 04:19:43 +0800/en/_drafts/old-drafts/hello-hello/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/_posts/2024-02-26-gotnextline-lessons/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000/_posts/2024-02-26-gotnextline-lessons/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…