Category Archives: Life

I left about 1 kg of marinated chicken breast in the fridge for almost a week – having forgotten about it. It was closed in an air-tight container and I thought I’d try roasting it anyways. It turned out to be pretty good! In fact better and crispier than what I’ve previously done.

It was time and the ingredients which helped to draw moisture out of the chicken to the right level such that the roasting brought out a better texture and flavour. And it dawned on me how many things in life do take time and a combination of things to get better. In the modern world where everything seems rushed for time, I’d seek out these things that takes time and become exponentially better because things that compound non-linearly are usually undervalued.

Which is probably why marinated meats while often having been kept longer, actually fetch a higher price. Well actually there’s more to it than that but I’m just pointing out an arbitrage opportunity that our modern lives seem to produce.

Bought something from Shopee which arrived after I needed it so I gave it a 4-star review but was hustled by the seller to change it to 5-star on account there was nothing wrong with the product. Left a Carousell review for a very kind and nice seller but on the punctuality point I put 4-star (good, rather than very good), which resulted in him getting only 4.7 stars from me. He deleted his “Thank you” message which he left after I said I reviewed (it was requested by him).

I have nothing against star ratings for review systems and I’ve personally benefitted from kind reviews by previous buyers. But I think the system is broken because it pushes people to desire perfect scores which is not practical nor useful at the system level. Engaging in this mutual pleasing defeats the whole reviews system just like how people in most US restaurants expect a tip and it is no longer tied to service quality.

Of course, the platform gains in short run by attracting more sellers on it but in long run if the review system is broken or perceived as just a pack of lies, they lose their value.

A humble unasuming man who has done good work for a community where he has been voted to lead the committee for the neighbourhood. He asks God, ‘Why me?’ And takes on the responsibility in trusting in God to lead and guide Him. There is still the ‘Here I am’ moment when he takes up the responsibility but his confidence is not in himself but in God.

His brother had been a fit young man, always exercised and practised healthy habits. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and it was not discovered until late stage. He asks God, ‘Why me?’ And accepts the diagnosis, trusting in God’s plan for him. There will be the struggles, the “what did I do to deserve this?”, but also the acknowledgement: “the days of man are numbered by You Lord”.

Genuine faith is not about being triumphant in your own circumstances but in the victory that God has won on the cross. And each win or lost in the life we live on this earth are but tests – all of them seeks a faithful response. We will not always pass them; but I want to show here that the Christian faith is not one-sided, all positive but much broader and encompassing so much more.

Years ago Singaporeans had a reputation of complaining. I’m not sure if this is still the case. I think they just call it feedback now. But the poison in complaining is not that it taxes resources of companies and government agencies by way of trying to address even trivial issues. It is the attitude that it creates.

It coaxes our mind into the habit of denying responsibility. It is a way by which we de-stress by assigning blame but doing nothing to improve the situation. In short run, you might be better off psychologically but because it does not address the problem at its roots, your stress level remains if not heightened.

There is a way to complain that rectifies this. First state the circumstance – which is completely neutral – to yourself and stakeholders. It should ideally point to things that happen without stating names or parties involved. For example “the pizza arrived at 1600hrs when I ordered it at 1200hrs” rather than “you guys delivered the pizza late”. Then go on to state your intentions and expectations, and take ownership if it: “your website stated that it was going to arrive in 45minutes from ordering and I needed to take my lunch at 1300hrs so I had expected to have my lunch on time”.

Then, having established the reasonability of your expectations (because if by now you articulated it and feel it is not a reasonable expectation then please don’t waste resources complaining); then invite the other party to take responsibility for any mistakes on their part: “I had to bear the cost of your mistake – whether it is the misleading statement on the website or the delay in delivery. I can only appeal to your goodwill in making this up to me”

Ultimately in this case, the actual problem they have is with their system and they have to rectify it. But the challenge we have is our expectations and correspondingly, we have to deal with ours.

My Dad turns 76 this year. He was born in Singapore when it was called Syonan, when The Straits Times was The Syonan Shimbun. A look into the news articles published then reveals somewhat normal life.

There were advertisements about recruiting locals as officers with interviews at the officer’s club in Bidadari. That seemed innocuous to me though there may be some other motives to this activity. There was even a lottery going on and winners were announced on the papers. The prize money was huge!

For most part the sense of normalcy in the papers could be engineered as part of propaganda. But during wartime where perceptions are mostly skewed, it is interesting how the propaganda press looks like. You can check out the newspapers in those days as well here.

There are lots of preconceived notions about growing up, being an adult, and the responsibilities associated. The truth is you often don’t grow up if you don’t or can’t take up the responsibilities. They come first, not the growth because they drive the growth.

Sometimes we wait around for time to pass so that we have “grown up” and can take on some new responsibilities. But the age doesn’t mean anything if you’ve just been wasting that time on nothing but hitting the number. So are systems that prize seniority in age or experience in years. Time is a proxy, not a measure of growth.

So instead of giving up because “time passes too slowly”, what are you spending your time on right now that prepares you for the responsibilities you want to take up?

Memes are essentially ideas copied and spread across the internet with slight variations. What is interesting is the way a conceptual framework is being used to apply to various context often in humorous ways. There are two drivers for viral memes – humour and resonance. The manner by which the image and/or text combined generates universally appealing humour or the sense of “I know exactly what this is about” allows it to be shared, copied and spread.

Yet to be part of the media which carries the conceptual framework for the meme is perhaps a whole new level. Andras Arato experienced that being the meme character “Hide the pain Harold” and shares about it on a TEDx. It was completely accidental and the fact it started with some harrassment on part of internet users was pretty disturbing. But Andras embraced it in such a huge way – even starring in a funny video of a tour of Manchester particularly displaying his love for the Man City football team. The video reflects how sporting he is about this internet character and that genuine sense of enjoying the persona given to him.

Most recently, Swedish authorities used his stock image on the website for Covid-19 vaccinations and alongside giving people a good laugh, had to try and assure themselves this would not mislead the public on the level of confidence about the vaccine.

It’s been the Easter weekend and I’ve just been reflecting on the significance of the manner by which God sent Christ to take away our sins. The lessons are deep and profound – and honestly, as a culture, we have lost the appreciation for tragedy as an important genre in literature and stories that will help us understand the world we live in. There is depth in the appreciation that Jesus did not just die in an accident but in an execution. And for crimes he did not commit, things he had not done. Every element of his trial, crucifixion, and finally death was steeped in meaning from fulfilment of scriptures.

And there is meaning in tragedy; though we may not know it yet or appreciate the lessons from there. If we fail to appreciate these and allow sufferings in life to turn us into hateful and resentful creatures, then we do not grasp that tragedy that Good Friday is getting us to remember. And the meaning of course comes, in an even deeper way on Easter.

Christ arose not to scare anyone but to give us a preview of what His death really means for us by way of eternity. And great rejoicing should come from it.

People underestimate the important of match quality when they overemphasise the role of passion in finding what you want to do. There’s then another camp that ignores what you want to do and just optimise for other attributes like prestige and income. These approaches do not work because they all generate misalignments; and these mismatches can eventually come back to haunt you in one way or another. Being balanced about where you can give and what you can get is key.

The techniques used today in terms of trying to match people to jobs and roles are still rather crude and this stems partly because the market on both sides has shifted without reference to each other too much. The corporate landscape and the private sector is always looking to keep up with consumer demand and new trends which means that their demand for skills tend to be not met by the structure of the current workforce. Yet because of the decades of ‘Great Moderation’, the labour force have in some sense been lauded into thinking that all the training and upskilling they need takes place in schools and formal training environment as opposed to responding, learning, facing difficulties on the job.

Today, skills matching is no longer about trying to just find the right person to fill the right roles because job preferences and skillsets are not catching up with the job roles available; and the job roles are not really aligned with the aspirations that we have created for our generations of workers. Skills-matching is really more about companies being willing to take on people with the attitude and soft-skills then investing in them. To keep doing so even when people would leave, even when that investment only seem to pay off in a limited way. For the labour force, it is about commitment to jobs and work, to also set clear goals for oneself and not just trying to ‘settle’ into a job that will take care of you perpetually.

The thing about Pixar (and now Disney-Pixar) movies is the depth of themes that they dwell upon.The high quality animation and the background story aside, the storytelling has been consistently brilliant. The universal appeal lies in giving the young and old, the men and women something to take away from.

I watched the latest one: Raya and the Last Dragon. I’m not going to spoil it for you but all I’d say is that the film keeps up with the contemporary times where they deliberately try to stuff it with more female characters.

For those who have watched it; and I want to confess that the thought that the land of Fang represented Singapore cross my mind. “Successful” and obsessed with their own survival (to the extent they threatened the entire land of Kumandra), Fang seem to mirror elements of being Singapore even geographically: being cut off from the rest of the land by a canal and hence protected, having insufficient land to expand.

While I really enjoyed and appreciated the lesson about trust and unity, it is hard not to reflect on Southeast Asia as a region, the diversity and the differences, the difficulties if you may, of having our own “Kumandra”. And given the political climate and the global context today, we need to create more pan-Southeast Asian literature and celebrate the diversity and fushion in the region more. Perhaps, we need to start looking for dragons.