Category Archives: Anecdotes

Bad memory, good understanding

I had a bad memory and in school I was never quite able to cram for examinations. I found memorisation a complete chore and whenever I had to remember something, it was important that I found something already in my memory to associate it with so as to bond the materials better to my mind.

It turned out that this exercise from young did two things for me. One is that it caused me to develop an interest for learning and genuine understanding when confronted with something new. Since I wasn’t able to retain much in my mind, what I did, I kept them for much longer than everyone else. And I had to develop my own reasons and purpose for wanting to put something into my memory since they were usually stored longer term. And the other was that it gave me a method that allowed my memory capacity to accelerate as I learnt more.

The second point requires a bit more explanation. When I recall things by associating the new information with something already in my mind, I’m actually causing the web of my knowledge to be denser. When a piece of information stands alone, it is easily forgotten. But when you connect it with other information, it suddenly becomes more memorable.

Take for example you meet a guy and he tells you he is 23 years old, then says nothing further. Your memory of him is reinforced by how he sounded, his clothes, hairstyle and perhaps handshake. But if he also tells you that his Mum is a widow, and he had gone to college in Boston, you might actually take all these pieces of information, form even more associations and once you meet him, you’d be able to recall him better than if he had not shared the additional information.

If you’re good at quick wins, you might miss out the opportunity and the grounding to get the harder wins. So when the quick wins are exhausted, you find yourself poorly positioned to make any further wins.

Symmetries in relationship

“The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want. It’s such a simple idea. It’s the golden rule. You want to deliver to the world what you would buy if you were on the other end.”

Charlie Munger

In Barry Nalebuff’s Split the Pie, he emphasized the concept of symmetry in negotiation, highlighting that in any two-party negotiation, the contribution of both are actually equal. Because the benefits are off the table when any one of the parties walk away. And therefore once the pie is identified, it should be split down the middle.

As seen in the quote above, the thinking about symmetry is the same when we consider how we ought to treat others, how we put things out into the world, and make decisions. There is always a thought experiment that allows you to be on the symmetrical opposite end of the deal – and you’ve to consider if you’d accept what you’re getting.

What this mean is you can introduce this thought experiment to someone who puts up a ridiculous deal and flip the tables on him/her. When the person highlights the asymmetry of the parties, you can mention that it is irrelevant to what you’re trying to create here. The question is whether the person is actually committed to securing this gain? If the person has a better deal elsewhere, put it on the table so it shrinks the pie and the split can be reallocated.

What about the baseload?

I get asked this question a lot; by the people operating power systems, by the Oil & Gas industry, and the traditional old school bankers. They also ask about price of intermittent renewable energy plus energy storage; and when that will reach grid parity. Essentially, they are saying that the new innovations cannot replace the current technologies because the cost don’t stack.

I’m not sure those are the right conversations to have or the right questions to ask. Economics do drive a lot of systems and considerations but they probably should not be hijacking our priorities and our realities. Climate change is real; and if we are to put our best foot forward to make the difference, we are not going to make it. Putting our best foot forward is about using our minds, engaging our hands and changing our lives.

Yes, baseload power will be changed, energy prices will increase, perhaps our spaces, our wealth will have to be sacrificed. But our earth can remain a sanctuary for life, and our world can remain intact; if only we are putting our best foot forward. Not dragging our feet, not trying to maintain status quo. Not trying to exercise malicious obedience.

What would labour chase?

Labour is different from capital; the output of labour is meant to upkeep life, and in order to keep labour going, the returns are used to enrich labour in different ways. It could be investing to enhance skills and hence quality of labour; it could be food for sustenance and continued provision of labour; there is also enjoyment and entertainment, that labour needs to have meaningful life. The returns on labour is not to have more labour, nor to expand labour, but to live, to enrich life of labour.

Labour also has fixed lifespan; it needs to be utilised or it gets wasted. It cannot remain stationary or stagnant the way capital could. It does not hold its value when it is not being worked. And being worked, it accumulates greater value more quickly. Hence, labour can be chasing something more basic and yet more elusive than what capital chases.

Collecting data points II

To make life a little more complex, because data is often insufficiently precise the manner we conceptualise them; therefore, there is a need to try and estimate the actual underlying data. And so estimation means new data is being created – that which may describe our reality but to an imprecise state. The estimations are based on actual empirical observations overlaid with some theory or stories about what it means for similar sort of situations and so on.

The more actual empirical observations, the statistical theory goes, the more we are able to refine our story (or the model) in order to improve the estimations. But the difficulty is that we can make mistakes in empirical observations; and certain assumptions have to be made about these mistakes and how much margin they end up constituting when we are dealing with large numbers of observations.

Incorporating intelligence about reality through theories or stories in different ways can help to deal with these mistakes as well. Being able to do so skillfully requires a strong understanding of both the statistical theories and also creativity in terms of introducing parameters into modelling.

Collecting data points

In a world full of disorder, we try to order them. And to really get a better sense of the reality, we gather data. While the notion of data in the modern world seem to be about bits and bytes, 0s and 1s; data collection dates far further in history. And it is important how our observations and the rich data that we actually collect with our senses matter. Before bits and bytes, there was no easy way to store data in a common denominator; we relied on different mediums including rocks, cloth, paper, film, codification (eg. music notations).

And research or learning in the past proceeded that way. It works, even if the knowledge accumulation is not as fast. Curation and developing good quality data hence matters more than gathering these things at high frequency. Things don’t change that much. Which is why I always think Charles Booth’s survey of the poverty situation in London is such an amazing endeavour with brilliant insights. It reminded me that I don’t need thousands or millions to go out there and perform social research about the society, economy or culture. I could just do things on the field with friends, with people who cared. And to simply describe observations to be gathered together.

Such rich, and more ethnographic research can prove to be more valuable, perceptive, and lasting. Ultimately, data points we gather from this world does not give us any sort of order. We are the ones who order the data points and try to make sense of it. Through a story, with a theory. The data points themselves cannot tell us much even when put together unless we have the mind to be able to see patterns, and tell the story.

Salmon bagels

I like salmon bagels; they are my default choice when it comes to getting these bagel sandwiches in one of those bagel breakfast places. I imagine that sort of cuisine came from America and somewhat spread to Australia and was popularized over the world. Unfortunately, it’s really difficult to get good smoked salmon and good, thick, dense bagels.

Likewise, it is so difficult to find good hummus in Singapore. But a Lebanese friend inspired me to consider just making it myself – after all, most of the ingredients are easily available in Singapore and it really doesn’t take that much work.

When we complain about the authenticity of food in a place, and we compare foods across different places (such as Ramen in London vs the ones in Singapore – despite it actually being Japanese cuisine), we are enjoy the fruits of a globalised economy and culture. We often take that all for granted.

At the same time, we naturally pick and choose specific dishes we like while forgetting that within a single food culture, there are various different dishes that are counter-balancing each other to help maintain one’s health. Perhaps it is necessary for me to go beyond the salmon bagel and consider more salads instead – the ones with less dressing of course.

Courage as action forward

In my faith, we trust that God would guide us according to His will. And often, we pray that His will be done, just as Lord Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. But then as believers, we often struggle to accept God’s will. Yet when we are somewhat lost, we think we are seeking His will and wondering how we can find the “signs” to walk His ways. We let our inability to see or find His signs stop us from taking action.

Contemplation is great. Overthinking is not. And at the end of the day, actions bring us forward. Regardless of it being the right or wrong action. In fact, throughout scriptures, God teaches us through our lives each step of the way as we take actions. Actions that exercises our faith or actions that don’t. Our decisions certainly reflect the state of our faith – and we have to trust that the consequence that God has allowed are there to help us grow, to help shape and mature our faith, if we respond to them accordingly.

Courage is not the absence of fear but presence of faith. So courage ultimately becomes a description of the action taken; what came before the emergence of that courage (or act of courage) was simply faith. I imagine when God says to Joshua, ‘Be strong and of a good courage’, the strength was not physical but beyond physical – mental, and spiritual. The quality of courage is simply emerges from that strong faith.

And action forward is that emergent courage manifest.

Meritocratic complex

There are negative feedback loops that ends up self-limiting certain effects. But there are positive feedback loops that amplify certain effects. Meritocracy can be self-reinforcing particularly in the manner merit is defined.

The merit defined at a point in time can become entrenched as those “merited” take on leading roles and define the meaning of merit for subsequent generations. At the same time, those with resources gained through “merit” can likewise use those resources to build up merit for their descendents.

The education system is being challenged and as we look to review our social compact, we need to think this hard. How much should one be rewarded for good luck or penalised by bad? And if merit can be passed on through generations, then is it still merit for an individual?

Improving a system

One of the topics I was really interested in while doing my masters in economics was the impact of institutions on economic development. I looked at it from a few perspectives including the legal system, the existence of various policies or reforms and also studied the economic history of the US to see how the interactions between business and the orthodoxy of the day when it comes to big or small government.

There is no doubt the world operates on a lot of different systems and not one is right or wrong. There are systems better for deriving some outcomes rather than others but it is hard to say if a system is better overall. To begin, we have to agree on the principles; whose welfare to improve more of and what are the priority areas before others.

The market system which has been peddled around is not exactly the complete system. A market directs itself towards outcomes of those in power within the market. The politics and regulation are institutions above the market so they have a huge role in directing the market. While the government cannot be fully culpable of the outcomes of a market, they can help to coordinate the overall goal of the entire market: whether energies are directed towards production or gains diversion, whether one is working for one’s survival or some higher values.

History have proven itself that keeping people fed and with basic needs satisfied unlocks incredible boost to productivity and economic development. We need to enable more of that in all of our systems.