At this point of our classes, we will spend more time writing and discussing the merits of our works so there is less theory to share moving forward.
Yesterday, we studied how to create believable fictional characters and once again we were introduced to two concepts, that of an archetype versus a stereotype. Once again, my engineering instincts kicked in and produced an equation to make understanding fiction much easier for us Techies type.
Archetype = Stereotype - Exaggeration
An example of an archetype commonly found in fiction is the The Artist, someone who is cast as somewhat eccentric, angsty and wants to bring something from his internal world into an external representation like a book or a piece of sculpture. Some experts claim that there are about 45 standard archetypes in literature and fiction writing.
Archetypes makes characters more believable.
A stereotype is an archetype on steroids. Add exaggeration to an archetype and you will get a stereotype. The character loses his political correctness and becomes more unbelievable. imagine a story of multicultural Singapore where Chinese gamble, Indians drink and Malays take drugs, and you catch the drift.
The best value from the course comes from the idea that a character becomes much more interesting if you introduce contradictions into his character.
Instead of a starving artist, perhaps the Artist in the story is a vulgar drill sergeant who imposes a life of strict regimentation his recruits who actually secretly paints in his spare time. Once an author finds a way to twist a character, the character becomes much more memorable.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Fiction writing lesson #3 : Plot, Reversals, Recognition and Beats
Yesterday we got into a detailed discussion on how to construct a plot.
Stories can be plot-driven or character driven. A plot-driven story is somewhat like Transformer 3, a lot of things happen, but the author has to intervene and make the entire plot gel using a series of contrivances or coincidences. Plot-driven stories may have logical loopholes and tend to disrupt the suspension of disbelief. In Avatar, nature has to wake up just when the humans are about to destroy the Na'vi.
Stories can also be character driven. These stories are more carefully crafted and often are told from a person's point of view. The strength of this approach is that causation for the events are clearly spelled out so there is usually stronger logical consistency. The weakness is that character driven plots can be boring. I just read a Dance with Dragons and it's a very character driven fantasy series. In book 5, there is so much stream of consciousness writing that nothing much happens for thousands of pages until the author decided to fuck this shit and started killing the key characters in the story.
The best stories should a combination of both.
Then the lesson starts getting interesting. Due to my engineering inclinations, I can summarize storytelling into a simple equation.
Beat = Reversal + Recognition
Imagine a set of scenes as programmable objects that you use to develop a story otherwise called a beat. Fundamental in a good story is that the protagonist encounters an obstacle (reversal) and then experiences a personal change (recognition).
Chaining these beats allow you to methodically build your story into a climax.
Stories can be plot-driven or character driven. A plot-driven story is somewhat like Transformer 3, a lot of things happen, but the author has to intervene and make the entire plot gel using a series of contrivances or coincidences. Plot-driven stories may have logical loopholes and tend to disrupt the suspension of disbelief. In Avatar, nature has to wake up just when the humans are about to destroy the Na'vi.
Stories can also be character driven. These stories are more carefully crafted and often are told from a person's point of view. The strength of this approach is that causation for the events are clearly spelled out so there is usually stronger logical consistency. The weakness is that character driven plots can be boring. I just read a Dance with Dragons and it's a very character driven fantasy series. In book 5, there is so much stream of consciousness writing that nothing much happens for thousands of pages until the author decided to fuck this shit and started killing the key characters in the story.
The best stories should a combination of both.
Then the lesson starts getting interesting. Due to my engineering inclinations, I can summarize storytelling into a simple equation.
Beat = Reversal + Recognition
Imagine a set of scenes as programmable objects that you use to develop a story otherwise called a beat. Fundamental in a good story is that the protagonist encounters an obstacle (reversal) and then experiences a personal change (recognition).
Chaining these beats allow you to methodically build your story into a climax.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Fiction Writing Lesson #2 : Show, don't tell.
Show, don't Tell is one of those basic fiction writing concepts which have been something I've been trying to wrap my head around for ages. In fiction writing, the aim is not tell the writer of someone's feelings but to show it. This allows the reader to infer for himself what's really going on around the story.
Lesson 2's exercise is powerful and I find myself able to apply it to some of my electronic products almost immediately once I get around to rewriting some of the narratives in my fantasy RPG.
Original prose - He had never been so angry in his life.
After my refinement - His brows tightened as his face turned beet red. With a clenched fist raised to the sky, the teenager's voice thundered across the room.
I was not even sure if tightening brows signified anger but I'm still an amateur at this.
Some paragraphs later, I decided to go ape-shit with this concept.
Original Prose - She could not imagine how her precious baby had grown up into such a rebellious, defiant teenager with no qualms about saying untrue things.
After my refinement - The babe that used to suckle at her teats has now become a raging tornado of bullshit, threatening to despoil the truth with it's swirling nuggets of filth.
The flair for drama aside, I just recalled my good instructor reminding us not to mix our metaphors.
All in all, a good lesson not just in fiction writing, but also in good corporate communications. You can increase your persuasiveness by using metaphors in your speech and by using concrete images to sway your audience.
Now to "weaponise" this discovery for my friends who are still in the dating circuit.
Lesson 2's exercise is powerful and I find myself able to apply it to some of my electronic products almost immediately once I get around to rewriting some of the narratives in my fantasy RPG.
Original prose - He had never been so angry in his life.
After my refinement - His brows tightened as his face turned beet red. With a clenched fist raised to the sky, the teenager's voice thundered across the room.
I was not even sure if tightening brows signified anger but I'm still an amateur at this.
Some paragraphs later, I decided to go ape-shit with this concept.
Original Prose - She could not imagine how her precious baby had grown up into such a rebellious, defiant teenager with no qualms about saying untrue things.
After my refinement - The babe that used to suckle at her teats has now become a raging tornado of bullshit, threatening to despoil the truth with it's swirling nuggets of filth.
The flair for drama aside, I just recalled my good instructor reminding us not to mix our metaphors.
All in all, a good lesson not just in fiction writing, but also in good corporate communications. You can increase your persuasiveness by using metaphors in your speech and by using concrete images to sway your audience.
Now to "weaponise" this discovery for my friends who are still in the dating circuit.
Saturday, July 09, 2011
Fiction Writing Lesson #1 : Joys of discomfort.
Yesterday marks my first fiction writing lesson under Felix Cheong, who conducts a brilliant course on fiction writing with NUS extension. While I'm not a new as a student of Felix, having attended an earlier session on feature writing, this first lesson was a particularly useful one, because I found it a little uncomfortable.
For years, I have stayed within comfortable boundaries and leveraged my classes based on my strengths. Classes in finance and IT played on my traditional strengths of Analysis, Input and Intellection. For the first time in my life in a class, I had no strength or talent to draw from. All I have is the idea that with enough deliberate practice, I can take on fiction writing just like folks like George R R Martin and J K Rowling.
It felt funny being below average in class. Almost like taking Mandarin classes all over again.
I'm just going to highlight some of the high points of this class. I think many exercises cannot be done buy reading a book on fiction writing. You've got to sign up with Felix to experience it yourself.
a) Creatively generating multiple uses of an everyday object.
Felix took a water bottle and made the class think up alternative uses for it. I said that it can become a weapon for self-defense, another student said that it can function as a book-end. After a few rounds, conventional ideas started to run out and we began brainstorm some really zany ideas for the water bottle. Most of my ideas are X-rated in nature so I had to suppress sharing with the class how the bottle can be used for colonic irrigation or acting as a temporary storage on the way to the sperm bank.
b) Predicting someone's personality by looking at their belongings.
In the second exercise, we were made to read someone's personality by looking at four of their items. I had an unfair advantage for this exercise because I employed the OCEAN personality framework to create a fairly accurate profile of someone. The dude showed me an Economist magazine (turned to the pages on ETFs) and a bible, so using the framework I painted an agreeable, introverted and very conscientious personality profile of my target. One student wanted to offer me a job after my display, but it's really the framework in use that should be credited for it.
c) Generating a story by listening to a song.
This is the highlight of the evening. We listened to two songs and we then were made to come out with a story-line idea after the song ends. This exercise was way over my head. The songs were very alternative and the best i could do is visualize a scene which was spontaneously being generated in my head. I was unable to construct a setup, conflict and conclusion by listening to one song. But the amazing thing is, the rest of the class did! One lady who is in advertising came out with so much concrete detail it includes a twist in the plot of each tale, the specific locations where action is taking place and the the countries the characters come from. How so much information could be squeezed out of a song with lyrics that are barely audible baffles me.
To close this article, I think a fiction writing class can benefit technology professionals or suits. Felix taught me that people tended to frame their experiences in two ways. A Paradigmatic approach normally used by engineers in an attempt to bring order out of chaos is my bread and butter in my daily work. But the other approach is the Narrative approach which I am now trying to master. Crafting a story, enriching it with metaphors and symbols, is a rare skill in the Tech world.
We should heed the useful lessons of the liberal arts to advance our technical careers.
For years, I have stayed within comfortable boundaries and leveraged my classes based on my strengths. Classes in finance and IT played on my traditional strengths of Analysis, Input and Intellection. For the first time in my life in a class, I had no strength or talent to draw from. All I have is the idea that with enough deliberate practice, I can take on fiction writing just like folks like George R R Martin and J K Rowling.
It felt funny being below average in class. Almost like taking Mandarin classes all over again.
I'm just going to highlight some of the high points of this class. I think many exercises cannot be done buy reading a book on fiction writing. You've got to sign up with Felix to experience it yourself.
a) Creatively generating multiple uses of an everyday object.
Felix took a water bottle and made the class think up alternative uses for it. I said that it can become a weapon for self-defense, another student said that it can function as a book-end. After a few rounds, conventional ideas started to run out and we began brainstorm some really zany ideas for the water bottle. Most of my ideas are X-rated in nature so I had to suppress sharing with the class how the bottle can be used for colonic irrigation or acting as a temporary storage on the way to the sperm bank.
b) Predicting someone's personality by looking at their belongings.
In the second exercise, we were made to read someone's personality by looking at four of their items. I had an unfair advantage for this exercise because I employed the OCEAN personality framework to create a fairly accurate profile of someone. The dude showed me an Economist magazine (turned to the pages on ETFs) and a bible, so using the framework I painted an agreeable, introverted and very conscientious personality profile of my target. One student wanted to offer me a job after my display, but it's really the framework in use that should be credited for it.
c) Generating a story by listening to a song.
This is the highlight of the evening. We listened to two songs and we then were made to come out with a story-line idea after the song ends. This exercise was way over my head. The songs were very alternative and the best i could do is visualize a scene which was spontaneously being generated in my head. I was unable to construct a setup, conflict and conclusion by listening to one song. But the amazing thing is, the rest of the class did! One lady who is in advertising came out with so much concrete detail it includes a twist in the plot of each tale, the specific locations where action is taking place and the the countries the characters come from. How so much information could be squeezed out of a song with lyrics that are barely audible baffles me.
To close this article, I think a fiction writing class can benefit technology professionals or suits. Felix taught me that people tended to frame their experiences in two ways. A Paradigmatic approach normally used by engineers in an attempt to bring order out of chaos is my bread and butter in my daily work. But the other approach is the Narrative approach which I am now trying to master. Crafting a story, enriching it with metaphors and symbols, is a rare skill in the Tech world.
We should heed the useful lessons of the liberal arts to advance our technical careers.
Saturday, July 02, 2011
10,000 hours of deliberate practice : Maybe its time to realize my Fiction Writing ambitions.
The Golden Point awards submission closed on Thursday this week, and I have, a month earlier, submitted an entry for the English short story category. Perhaps after the announcement of the results, I can share my, as yet, amateur writings on this blog.
For the past 8 years or so, I took the easier road in writing and publication. Writing non-fiction does not really differ from project management. Simply start with a table of contents, break down the work structure until you can complete a section per sitting and start writing about 500 words a day. Rinse and repeat the cycle.
The tough part comes in after the manuscript is complete. As Singaporeans are not avid readers, you need to in-source a lot of functions like formatting and cover design to keep your costs at a bare minimum, by my third book, my cost per copy became as low as $3.80 a copy.
With the invention of the Kindle, authors now get direct exposure to international markets. While marketing remains a consistent problem for me, publishing a book priced at $0.99 can break even within a week. The Kindle based role-playing game I wrote actually sells about 15 copies a month.
Now it's time to move into the territory that I've been eyeing for years. Fiction writing is a big money loser in Singapore, and that's for our greatest literary talents. My distributor is always warning me about the perils of writing poetry in our business meetings, but I think the economics for Singapore fiction writing has changed, a short story can be floated on Kindle and if about 5 fans pick up a copy because of marketing over your blog, you can say that you've broken even. If you write a novel and can sell it for $2.99, your profit margin climbs up to 70%.
No paper publisher can offer terms like that.
Anyway, this years Golden point begins a fresh new cycle of deliberate practice for me in fiction writing. I can now say authoritatively that writing fiction is very hard and yield much lower rewards than non-fiction writing. But the process is psychically rewarding and you enter the state of flow much more easily.
Beginning next week, I will apprentice myself to a master wordsmith, Felix Cheong, who will smoothen some of my edges and, hopefully, make me a competent fiction writer who doesn't churn out drivel.
In the months that follow, I will share my vision for my fantasy fictional world of elite Singaporean secondary schools struggling for dominance in a Harry Potter cum Game of Thrones like setting.
I hope to target this product for teens as I now have a daughter to share my writings with in the future.
For the past 8 years or so, I took the easier road in writing and publication. Writing non-fiction does not really differ from project management. Simply start with a table of contents, break down the work structure until you can complete a section per sitting and start writing about 500 words a day. Rinse and repeat the cycle.
The tough part comes in after the manuscript is complete. As Singaporeans are not avid readers, you need to in-source a lot of functions like formatting and cover design to keep your costs at a bare minimum, by my third book, my cost per copy became as low as $3.80 a copy.
With the invention of the Kindle, authors now get direct exposure to international markets. While marketing remains a consistent problem for me, publishing a book priced at $0.99 can break even within a week. The Kindle based role-playing game I wrote actually sells about 15 copies a month.
Now it's time to move into the territory that I've been eyeing for years. Fiction writing is a big money loser in Singapore, and that's for our greatest literary talents. My distributor is always warning me about the perils of writing poetry in our business meetings, but I think the economics for Singapore fiction writing has changed, a short story can be floated on Kindle and if about 5 fans pick up a copy because of marketing over your blog, you can say that you've broken even. If you write a novel and can sell it for $2.99, your profit margin climbs up to 70%.
No paper publisher can offer terms like that.
Anyway, this years Golden point begins a fresh new cycle of deliberate practice for me in fiction writing. I can now say authoritatively that writing fiction is very hard and yield much lower rewards than non-fiction writing. But the process is psychically rewarding and you enter the state of flow much more easily.
Beginning next week, I will apprentice myself to a master wordsmith, Felix Cheong, who will smoothen some of my edges and, hopefully, make me a competent fiction writer who doesn't churn out drivel.
In the months that follow, I will share my vision for my fantasy fictional world of elite Singaporean secondary schools struggling for dominance in a Harry Potter cum Game of Thrones like setting.
I hope to target this product for teens as I now have a daughter to share my writings with in the future.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Why shouldn't Singaporean women be materialistic ?
The following article has created a minor storm on my Facebook, I thought I should comment on it.
Singaporean Girls are materialistic
So far, the reactions from a lot of folks were typical. A lot of ladies got upset and said that generalizations like this should not be made. A lot of guys snicker and accuse SMU of stating the obvious.
I'm adding my two-cents worth in this argument.
a) Maybe SMU should publish an article to demonstrate that Singaporean guys go for looks.
I'm with the evolution camp and while evolution makes women go after guys with more economic resources, women are also fairly diverse in what they want. Height, Facial symmetry are also factors in mate selection. They are actually more multi-dimensional than men.
The great thing about being multi-dimensional is that women can be subject to socialization.
b) Singaporean women HAVE to be materialistic.
Now a lot of poetic beta-males fantasize about European or Scandinavian chicks because they seem so liberal and are more willing to settle for love and compatibility. I don't think its the fault for Asian women to actually have standards compared to their European counterparts if you really understand the kind of societies they come from. If you observe these European women carefully, you will find that they come from countries that tax their working citizens to provide child support.
So of course Swedish and French women can accept the guy even if he is "useless piece of shit for a guy who can't get his ass off his bed to go out to work" because the State goes really far to look after the children. The Swedes and the French like to protect their men who can serenade their women and write touching poems.
c) Ergo, you want your daughters to less materialistic, pay more taxes !
In socialist Europe, more taxes will go a long way to help families cope with children. Childcare can be free all the way to university. But I don't think my single friends will want 15% GST and 60% income taxes like those in Europe so that they can find someone to love them unconditionally.
Of course, in such societies, particular breeds of unconscientious and unreliable dudes get to go on to taint the gene pool further. Why ? Because hard-working, conscientious and productive single men are paying to feed all those babies who might from the dudes who drink beer and can't hold a decent job.
Yup. You heard it. Women are not materialistic in high-tax societies. They are free to find some testosterone filled drunkard and have his babies because he may be tall and have better facial symmetry.
You, my hardworking, nerdy and geeky friend will spend your entire life paying 60% taxes and getting cuckolded by these non-materialistic and unconditionally loving women ! They simply develop a different criteria for mate selection. They love being serenaded and want love poems from a testosterone-filled guy with a neanderthal facial features. They don't give a shit about you even if you have money.
d) Therefore I conclude that materialistic Singaporean women are a good thing for us !
If women have are not choosy, men will have no standards, society will stagnate and we will be swallowed up by Malaysia.
Yeah sure, our local Xiao Meimei are a tad more materialistic than their Yankee counterparts, but that's easy for us guys because unlike facial symmetry, height or looking good with long hair on Harley motorcycle, SOCIAL STATUS CAN BE EARNED.
It is earned by careful planning, hard-work, resilience, superior salesmanship and ability to delay gratification. These traits can be developed.
Singaporean women are just telling us boys that if we want their love, we have to fight for it !
They are realistic and cannot be easily swayed by good looks, a leather jacket or a well-played ukulele.
Tell me why is that wrong with that?
Singaporean Girls are materialistic
So far, the reactions from a lot of folks were typical. A lot of ladies got upset and said that generalizations like this should not be made. A lot of guys snicker and accuse SMU of stating the obvious.
I'm adding my two-cents worth in this argument.
a) Maybe SMU should publish an article to demonstrate that Singaporean guys go for looks.
I'm with the evolution camp and while evolution makes women go after guys with more economic resources, women are also fairly diverse in what they want. Height, Facial symmetry are also factors in mate selection. They are actually more multi-dimensional than men.
The great thing about being multi-dimensional is that women can be subject to socialization.
b) Singaporean women HAVE to be materialistic.
Now a lot of poetic beta-males fantasize about European or Scandinavian chicks because they seem so liberal and are more willing to settle for love and compatibility. I don't think its the fault for Asian women to actually have standards compared to their European counterparts if you really understand the kind of societies they come from. If you observe these European women carefully, you will find that they come from countries that tax their working citizens to provide child support.
So of course Swedish and French women can accept the guy even if he is "useless piece of shit for a guy who can't get his ass off his bed to go out to work" because the State goes really far to look after the children. The Swedes and the French like to protect their men who can serenade their women and write touching poems.
c) Ergo, you want your daughters to less materialistic, pay more taxes !
In socialist Europe, more taxes will go a long way to help families cope with children. Childcare can be free all the way to university. But I don't think my single friends will want 15% GST and 60% income taxes like those in Europe so that they can find someone to love them unconditionally.
Of course, in such societies, particular breeds of unconscientious and unreliable dudes get to go on to taint the gene pool further. Why ? Because hard-working, conscientious and productive single men are paying to feed all those babies who might from the dudes who drink beer and can't hold a decent job.
Yup. You heard it. Women are not materialistic in high-tax societies. They are free to find some testosterone filled drunkard and have his babies because he may be tall and have better facial symmetry.
You, my hardworking, nerdy and geeky friend will spend your entire life paying 60% taxes and getting cuckolded by these non-materialistic and unconditionally loving women ! They simply develop a different criteria for mate selection. They love being serenaded and want love poems from a testosterone-filled guy with a neanderthal facial features. They don't give a shit about you even if you have money.
d) Therefore I conclude that materialistic Singaporean women are a good thing for us !
If women have are not choosy, men will have no standards, society will stagnate and we will be swallowed up by Malaysia.
Yeah sure, our local Xiao Meimei are a tad more materialistic than their Yankee counterparts, but that's easy for us guys because unlike facial symmetry, height or looking good with long hair on Harley motorcycle, SOCIAL STATUS CAN BE EARNED.
It is earned by careful planning, hard-work, resilience, superior salesmanship and ability to delay gratification. These traits can be developed.
Singaporean women are just telling us boys that if we want their love, we have to fight for it !
They are realistic and cannot be easily swayed by good looks, a leather jacket or a well-played ukulele.
Tell me why is that wrong with that?
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Field testing my retirement and the World's Cheapest Guides.
Maybe I should explain just what the heck I'm trying to do. About 3 weeks ago, I left my job with a secure offer from another company. Because as a new dad, I asked for a later starting date because I wanted some time to watch my girl grow.
More interestingly, I wanted to field test the effects of early retirement.
My holiday was split into approximately 25 days, I wanted to wean myself from a day job so I gave myself three challenges :
a) Publish an e-book on Financial Independence.
b) Publish an e-book on Philosophy and move out from writing finance books.
c) Study intensively for an IT exam.
To make things more interesting, all three need to be done simultaneously and had to be complete before my IT exams finish.
My first book was published after 5 working days. My products are all designed with the same specs :
a) Targeted at International audiences.
b) Cost set at the minimum allowed by Amazon at $0.99.
c) No more than 10,000 words.
d) Facebook friends provide editing comments and proofing.
I wanted some sort of cheap alternative to a Dummies guide that contain a single idea in a Kindle e-book format. I want the series to grow with me as I develop new interest in other fields. For example, I am now aggressively reading books on Organizational behavior to glean some insight into Power and Politics in the modern office.
Anyway, my first book is on Financial Independence. It's nothing really new compared to my other writings but the investment examples had to be drawn from the US. For example, instead of business trusts, I had to write about Master Limited Partnerships.
Local readers probably don't have ready access to a Kindle, but to keep the long story short, Singapore is a dividends yields paradise. In the US, if you want fantastic yields, you gotta give Mortgage Backed securities a try.
My second book is on Life Philosophy. For a couple of years, I've been a following a good friend, Lau Kwong Fook, the founder of Singapore's first Socrates Cafe in his lessons on Philosophy. I thought it might be a good time to get into writing Philosophy to crystallize my thoughts on this interesting subject matter.
I think many of us who took professional degrees exhausted a large part of our youths to get a decent lifestyle, we never did have the time to develop a meaningful philosophy of life. My engineering background allowed me reverse engineer Ayn Rand's approach to Objectivism and rebuild it into a framework that can be used for anyone who missed out on a good liberal arts education. You can find the link again here.
The second book did not meet my deadline , but it went out the Tuesday night because Amazon needed to vet it before it goes live.
Lastly, I want to talk about retirement.
For month's I have split my earned income from my passive income and field-tested my family's ability to live on nothing but stock dividends. This is very much like a business continuity plan. Since I do it for my company, I might as well do it for myself.
Anyway, living on dividends is actually more challenging for a working man because going to work incurs costs like transport and more expensive meals in town. A retiree spends only a fraction of what a working man spends.
In the past 25 days, I lived out a life close to a being a retiree but in the end I don't think a life without working is right for me:
a) You can retire at 36, but your friends are working. Even if you can afford to do nothing and drink coffee with, who are you going to drink it with?
b) In the days where I was churning out 2000 words a day, I was very happy. There's stuff to think about. Frameworks to improve. Ideas to hack. Certainly better than idling the whole day.
c) Work provides more than pay and personal satisfaction. Work forces a person to interact with others and that interaction yield ideas that goes beyond what a person and dream out on their own. To be fair, I'm an extrovert, I'm more relaxed when I'm hanging out with other people.
d) I hate TV, my RSS feed is excellent but there are only about 1000 articles to read everyday.
Anyway, in the next few days, expect me to talk more about my guides with a focus on developing a life philosophy.
Regards
More interestingly, I wanted to field test the effects of early retirement.
My holiday was split into approximately 25 days, I wanted to wean myself from a day job so I gave myself three challenges :
a) Publish an e-book on Financial Independence.
b) Publish an e-book on Philosophy and move out from writing finance books.
c) Study intensively for an IT exam.
To make things more interesting, all three need to be done simultaneously and had to be complete before my IT exams finish.
My first book was published after 5 working days. My products are all designed with the same specs :
a) Targeted at International audiences.
b) Cost set at the minimum allowed by Amazon at $0.99.
c) No more than 10,000 words.
d) Facebook friends provide editing comments and proofing.
I wanted some sort of cheap alternative to a Dummies guide that contain a single idea in a Kindle e-book format. I want the series to grow with me as I develop new interest in other fields. For example, I am now aggressively reading books on Organizational behavior to glean some insight into Power and Politics in the modern office.
Anyway, my first book is on Financial Independence. It's nothing really new compared to my other writings but the investment examples had to be drawn from the US. For example, instead of business trusts, I had to write about Master Limited Partnerships.
Local readers probably don't have ready access to a Kindle, but to keep the long story short, Singapore is a dividends yields paradise. In the US, if you want fantastic yields, you gotta give Mortgage Backed securities a try.
My second book is on Life Philosophy. For a couple of years, I've been a following a good friend, Lau Kwong Fook, the founder of Singapore's first Socrates Cafe in his lessons on Philosophy. I thought it might be a good time to get into writing Philosophy to crystallize my thoughts on this interesting subject matter.
I think many of us who took professional degrees exhausted a large part of our youths to get a decent lifestyle, we never did have the time to develop a meaningful philosophy of life. My engineering background allowed me reverse engineer Ayn Rand's approach to Objectivism and rebuild it into a framework that can be used for anyone who missed out on a good liberal arts education. You can find the link again here.
The second book did not meet my deadline , but it went out the Tuesday night because Amazon needed to vet it before it goes live.
Lastly, I want to talk about retirement.
For month's I have split my earned income from my passive income and field-tested my family's ability to live on nothing but stock dividends. This is very much like a business continuity plan. Since I do it for my company, I might as well do it for myself.
Anyway, living on dividends is actually more challenging for a working man because going to work incurs costs like transport and more expensive meals in town. A retiree spends only a fraction of what a working man spends.
In the past 25 days, I lived out a life close to a being a retiree but in the end I don't think a life without working is right for me:
a) You can retire at 36, but your friends are working. Even if you can afford to do nothing and drink coffee with, who are you going to drink it with?
b) In the days where I was churning out 2000 words a day, I was very happy. There's stuff to think about. Frameworks to improve. Ideas to hack. Certainly better than idling the whole day.
c) Work provides more than pay and personal satisfaction. Work forces a person to interact with others and that interaction yield ideas that goes beyond what a person and dream out on their own. To be fair, I'm an extrovert, I'm more relaxed when I'm hanging out with other people.
d) I hate TV, my RSS feed is excellent but there are only about 1000 articles to read everyday.
Anyway, in the next few days, expect me to talk more about my guides with a focus on developing a life philosophy.
Regards
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Launch : World's Cheapest Guides on Financial Independence and Life Philosophy.
2011 has been roller-coaster ride.
a) My family downgraded to a 5-room HDB. It was not as tough as I thought.
b) I became a new dad to my daughter Clio.
c) I'm transitioning out of the private sector to a pseudo-government organisation.
One of things I promised myself is during the 20 days break between jobs, I do the following:
a) Take and pass the CGEIT exam on IT Governance.
b) Publish 2 books.
Well it's all done and get the rest of the week off to promote my books and update my blog.
So here are the links to my books.
Over the next two or three days, I'll talk about low-cost publishing on the Kindle Development platform and what this means to someone who wishes to become an author.
I will also take some time tell you more about these two new books I wrote.
Regards
a) My family downgraded to a 5-room HDB. It was not as tough as I thought.
b) I became a new dad to my daughter Clio.
c) I'm transitioning out of the private sector to a pseudo-government organisation.
One of things I promised myself is during the 20 days break between jobs, I do the following:
a) Take and pass the CGEIT exam on IT Governance.
b) Publish 2 books.
Well it's all done and get the rest of the week off to promote my books and update my blog.
So here are the links to my books.
Over the next two or three days, I'll talk about low-cost publishing on the Kindle Development platform and what this means to someone who wishes to become an author.
I will also take some time tell you more about these two new books I wrote.
Regards
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Some quick figures for 2010.
Quick quiet update in case some of you guys subscribe to my blogs.
Ok, this year is not as good as last year in terms of yields largely because of the problems in the shipping trusts I bought, but the capital gains are satisfactory so far.
So far my dividend income for 2010 was $25434.37 which was about 7% yields based on my current cash portfolio size. Capital gains have been ok judging from the nice run-up in January 2011.
2011 should be a better year yield-wise with great yielding new REITs IPOing. Hopefully, I would be able to hunt down a bunch of small-caps which yield above 8% to complement my REIT-heavy portfolio. Of course, if a REIT comes along with 8% yield and below 30% gearing, I will be all guns ablazing for 2011.
It's taken quite a while to get here, clearly $2,100 is barely enough to get along a month. I've got a daughter coming in April this year so expenses are bound to go up even though I have eliminated bulk of my personal spending.
Priorities for this year is :
a) Reining in my blood sugar levels ( 7.9 right now. Way better than my old HP-SGX days of over 10.1 ).
b) Preparing for the arrival of my daughter. Still can't figure out what the costs will be, but will channel some income to ensure that she gets a safe arrival.
c) Rapidly uncluttering all my belongings, first starting with all my RPGs and books and then moving all my assets into the cloud/hard-disk. By de-materializing all my needs, I can channel my finances towards my family.
Ok, this year is not as good as last year in terms of yields largely because of the problems in the shipping trusts I bought, but the capital gains are satisfactory so far.
So far my dividend income for 2010 was $25434.37 which was about 7% yields based on my current cash portfolio size. Capital gains have been ok judging from the nice run-up in January 2011.
2011 should be a better year yield-wise with great yielding new REITs IPOing. Hopefully, I would be able to hunt down a bunch of small-caps which yield above 8% to complement my REIT-heavy portfolio. Of course, if a REIT comes along with 8% yield and below 30% gearing, I will be all guns ablazing for 2011.
It's taken quite a while to get here, clearly $2,100 is barely enough to get along a month. I've got a daughter coming in April this year so expenses are bound to go up even though I have eliminated bulk of my personal spending.
Priorities for this year is :
a) Reining in my blood sugar levels ( 7.9 right now. Way better than my old HP-SGX days of over 10.1 ).
b) Preparing for the arrival of my daughter. Still can't figure out what the costs will be, but will channel some income to ensure that she gets a safe arrival.
c) Rapidly uncluttering all my belongings, first starting with all my RPGs and books and then moving all my assets into the cloud/hard-disk. By de-materializing all my needs, I can channel my finances towards my family.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Presentation at Bar Camp 6 - Quarter Life crisis
Bar Camp 6 was a blast. I made a presentation entitled "The Quarter Life Crisis".
Too bad my laptop which runs Ubuntu would not project itself to the audience but thankfully I rehearsed my presentation a number of times and could run without the slides. For the benefit for the folks who might not have managed to understand the gist of what was presented, here are the points I raised.
1. Gen-X and Gen-Y have a different expression of the quarter life crisis. For Gen-X, the conflict is between isolation and intimacy. This means that resolution would mean finding someone to settle down with. Gen-Y's crisis is a conflict of role versus identity, many young people feel that they want something else out of life than the current jobs they have. The talk focuses on Gen-Y's quarter life crisis.
2. Human capital, or the present value of unearned income can shed light on important life decisions.
3. Human capital is increased by obtaining more qualifications, astute career management or monetizing your hobbies.
4. Human capital is protected by life insurance.
5. Wealth can be given away in financial capital ( assets ) or human capital ( creating a trust structure to insist on providing education for beneficiaries ).
6. Illustrations were supposed to be done using a demonstration of online tools at qwema.ca. but this did not take place so results were narrated to the audience.
7. First illustration is about a diploma holder who wants to get a degree. The change in human capital for a $20,000 degree can reasonably be as high as $1.1 millions dollars. This supports the idea that education is very often the best for of investment.
8. The second illustration is about a executive who wants a mid-career change to become a lawyer. The change is even more dramatic, enhancing human capital by $1.5 million dollars. But as the retirement age is reduced from the earlier assumption of 65, the value of the career change becomes smaller. To succeed as a lawyer beyond his current circumstances, he needs to work up till the age of 52 to "break-even".
9. The third illustration is about a banking IT professional who wants to risk everything to join a startup. The cost to human capital was found to be high and up till $1.2million of losses can occur. But it was emphasized that there is no price for self-actualization and people have a right to pursue their dreams.
10. Marriage is generally positive to a couple's finances dues to economies of scale and diversification in the couple's human capital pool.
11. Each child was estimated to reduce human capital by $250,000 but it was emphasized that children produce services and comfort at old age which can be beneficial to the parent.
Too bad my laptop which runs Ubuntu would not project itself to the audience but thankfully I rehearsed my presentation a number of times and could run without the slides. For the benefit for the folks who might not have managed to understand the gist of what was presented, here are the points I raised.
1. Gen-X and Gen-Y have a different expression of the quarter life crisis. For Gen-X, the conflict is between isolation and intimacy. This means that resolution would mean finding someone to settle down with. Gen-Y's crisis is a conflict of role versus identity, many young people feel that they want something else out of life than the current jobs they have. The talk focuses on Gen-Y's quarter life crisis.
2. Human capital, or the present value of unearned income can shed light on important life decisions.
3. Human capital is increased by obtaining more qualifications, astute career management or monetizing your hobbies.
4. Human capital is protected by life insurance.
5. Wealth can be given away in financial capital ( assets ) or human capital ( creating a trust structure to insist on providing education for beneficiaries ).
6. Illustrations were supposed to be done using a demonstration of online tools at qwema.ca. but this did not take place so results were narrated to the audience.
7. First illustration is about a diploma holder who wants to get a degree. The change in human capital for a $20,000 degree can reasonably be as high as $1.1 millions dollars. This supports the idea that education is very often the best for of investment.
8. The second illustration is about a executive who wants a mid-career change to become a lawyer. The change is even more dramatic, enhancing human capital by $1.5 million dollars. But as the retirement age is reduced from the earlier assumption of 65, the value of the career change becomes smaller. To succeed as a lawyer beyond his current circumstances, he needs to work up till the age of 52 to "break-even".
9. The third illustration is about a banking IT professional who wants to risk everything to join a startup. The cost to human capital was found to be high and up till $1.2million of losses can occur. But it was emphasized that there is no price for self-actualization and people have a right to pursue their dreams.
10. Marriage is generally positive to a couple's finances dues to economies of scale and diversification in the couple's human capital pool.
11. Each child was estimated to reduce human capital by $250,000 but it was emphasized that children produce services and comfort at old age which can be beneficial to the parent.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
What's marriage really competing with ?
When the government said that they want to have a sustained campaign to promote marriage to younger folks, a lot of folks took the opportunity to start whining about why Singaporeans are choosing to accumulate wealth over settling down.
I don't agree with this line of thought. This light of thought has been used in many scenarios.
Why are Singaporeans rude to each other? Because they are too concerned about money making.
Why are Singaporeans not getting married ? Because they are too concerned about money making.
Why some people are failures can't hold onto decent jobs ? Because other people are too concerned about money making.
I beg to differ about money making because, very often, guys save money in order to settle down and start a family. If marriage gets delayed, it is because we're not saving fast enough.
Wealth reinforces families and makes development possible. Wealth accumulation is not the enemy of family creation - it is an enabler. And vice versa. Married people pool assets creating a portfolio of financial and human capital that is more diversified than that of 2 singles. Marriage raises conscientiousness of males resulting in better overall health, longevity and wealth creation. Children, while a burden when young, provide income smoothing at the late stage of a person's life.
There is enough literature to establish marriage as generally a positive stabilizing influence on personal wealth.
Now let's talk about the real issue of Single-hood.
Marriage has to compete with the one valuable resource singles have can may not be as willing to give up easily - Freedom. Being single is just plain fun !
Many singles make enough to lead decent carefree lives. They can travel anywhere, buy whatever they want. Promote causes that they believe in. That translates to a whole lot of mobility. Generation Y would also not want to be shackled by the norms of Gen X society, they want to carve a set of values for their own.
In this world of readily available sex, tweets and Facebook, I'm betting that it'll be hard to sell the younger folks an ancient institution like marriage.
What price are we putting on their personal freedom ?
This leads to my very dark conclusion for policy makers.
What will happen when the campaign fails ? What will the PAP do ?
I would propose more draconian measures. Let me give you guys a small hint :
Since children produce income smoothing in most cases and function as annuities, CPF Life can be opted out by parents living with their kids.
I'm sure our government can do something along these lines...
Regards
I don't agree with this line of thought. This light of thought has been used in many scenarios.
Why are Singaporeans rude to each other? Because they are too concerned about money making.
Why are Singaporeans not getting married ? Because they are too concerned about money making.
Why some people are failures can't hold onto decent jobs ? Because other people are too concerned about money making.
I beg to differ about money making because, very often, guys save money in order to settle down and start a family. If marriage gets delayed, it is because we're not saving fast enough.
Wealth reinforces families and makes development possible. Wealth accumulation is not the enemy of family creation - it is an enabler. And vice versa. Married people pool assets creating a portfolio of financial and human capital that is more diversified than that of 2 singles. Marriage raises conscientiousness of males resulting in better overall health, longevity and wealth creation. Children, while a burden when young, provide income smoothing at the late stage of a person's life.
There is enough literature to establish marriage as generally a positive stabilizing influence on personal wealth.
Now let's talk about the real issue of Single-hood.
Marriage has to compete with the one valuable resource singles have can may not be as willing to give up easily - Freedom. Being single is just plain fun !
Many singles make enough to lead decent carefree lives. They can travel anywhere, buy whatever they want. Promote causes that they believe in. That translates to a whole lot of mobility. Generation Y would also not want to be shackled by the norms of Gen X society, they want to carve a set of values for their own.
In this world of readily available sex, tweets and Facebook, I'm betting that it'll be hard to sell the younger folks an ancient institution like marriage.
What price are we putting on their personal freedom ?
This leads to my very dark conclusion for policy makers.
What will happen when the campaign fails ? What will the PAP do ?
I would propose more draconian measures. Let me give you guys a small hint :
Since children produce income smoothing in most cases and function as annuities, CPF Life can be opted out by parents living with their kids.
I'm sure our government can do something along these lines...
Regards
Saturday, September 04, 2010
How to study engineering ?
A number of readers may be engineers who want to get into investing so do comment on this article whether you agree or disagree with it.
A friend wanted to me to give some advice on how to study engineering. In particular, would there be fundamental ideas and equations that can make a person a good electrical engineer.
I can't answer that question directly. Like finance, engineering is a mixture of disciplines. Engineers need a strong foundation in mathematics, physics and computing before you can really start doing work in research, programming and systems integration. Finance majors need statistics, accounting and economics to even start making meaningful investment decisions. Finance majors in the future probably need C++ programming to engage in statistical arbitrage and high-frequency programming.
What I can offer is a set of strategies on how to study engineering that is unique in the physical sciences and not anywhere else.
Here are my tips :
a) Study of engineering subjects always involves solving problems.
You can understand or memorize an equation or physical theory but the rubber meets the road in solving problems. This is why sometimes great engineering students look at a typical problem in a tutorial first before diving into the lecture notes. Equations and theories exists as a means towards the ends which is to resolve a technical problem.
This means that the much-maligned 10 year series method of learning is actually the ideal one to master engineering subjects.
A savvy engineering is always hunting for new problems to solve using their newly learnt theories.
b) Best engineers use their foundation in problem solving to imagine or invent more complex problems.
This is the difference between a B student and a dean's lister - the ability to imagine problems of greater complexity and solve them independently of the lectures. We all learn about resistors in series or parallel in secondary school. A smart physics student can mentally arrange resistors in a three-dimensional cube edge or a mesh and use the basic equations to solve problems of this complex nature.
c) Best engineers have toys which reinforce their understanding of technology.
Engineers must align their hobbies with their discipline. This allows them to gain a kinesthetic understanding of the technologies needed to create value for their employers or clients.
If finance lets you buy the biggest toys, engineering is the professional discipline with the most absorbing toys.
The modern engineering student has a really nice set of toys to play with outside school. Find a VC trained in finance who likes the stuff you build and he'll then proceed to buy you even more toys. Android phones are programmable in Java. Arduino is a very simple, low-cost way to understand micro-controllers. Even better, Android phones can control Arduino microcontrollers.
A friend wanted to me to give some advice on how to study engineering. In particular, would there be fundamental ideas and equations that can make a person a good electrical engineer.
I can't answer that question directly. Like finance, engineering is a mixture of disciplines. Engineers need a strong foundation in mathematics, physics and computing before you can really start doing work in research, programming and systems integration. Finance majors need statistics, accounting and economics to even start making meaningful investment decisions. Finance majors in the future probably need C++ programming to engage in statistical arbitrage and high-frequency programming.
What I can offer is a set of strategies on how to study engineering that is unique in the physical sciences and not anywhere else.
Here are my tips :
a) Study of engineering subjects always involves solving problems.
You can understand or memorize an equation or physical theory but the rubber meets the road in solving problems. This is why sometimes great engineering students look at a typical problem in a tutorial first before diving into the lecture notes. Equations and theories exists as a means towards the ends which is to resolve a technical problem.
This means that the much-maligned 10 year series method of learning is actually the ideal one to master engineering subjects.
A savvy engineering is always hunting for new problems to solve using their newly learnt theories.
b) Best engineers use their foundation in problem solving to imagine or invent more complex problems.
This is the difference between a B student and a dean's lister - the ability to imagine problems of greater complexity and solve them independently of the lectures. We all learn about resistors in series or parallel in secondary school. A smart physics student can mentally arrange resistors in a three-dimensional cube edge or a mesh and use the basic equations to solve problems of this complex nature.
c) Best engineers have toys which reinforce their understanding of technology.
Engineers must align their hobbies with their discipline. This allows them to gain a kinesthetic understanding of the technologies needed to create value for their employers or clients.
If finance lets you buy the biggest toys, engineering is the professional discipline with the most absorbing toys.
The modern engineering student has a really nice set of toys to play with outside school. Find a VC trained in finance who likes the stuff you build and he'll then proceed to buy you even more toys. Android phones are programmable in Java. Arduino is a very simple, low-cost way to understand micro-controllers. Even better, Android phones can control Arduino microcontrollers.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Advertisement to get singles to settle down and start families.
Today is a double-shot weekend. Here's my idea on a different way of positioning family life which the Government might consider.
The advertisement starts with two characters.
Toyboy is a guys with model killer looks, some sort of a Aaron Kwok figure.
FatFish is the opposite, a fat and ugly but with laughing eyes.
The first scene shows Toyboy working in the office. It shows FatFish dating FatChick.
The second scene shows Toyboy sipping on a martini and cruising in a Ferrari. It then shows FatFish proposing to FatChick.
Third scene shows Toyboy visiting the Eiffel Tower. The scene shows a quick scene with FatFish in bondage gear being pulled back into his bedroom by a chubby pair of arms.
Fourth scene shows ToyBoy playing a Playstation next to his pool in a bungalow. It also shows FatFish with FatChick pushing a pram full of babies and laughing amongst themselves.
Final scene shows ToyBoy aged to about 50 years old walking around the Orchard Road of the future. To his horror, everyone in Orchard looks like a carbon copy of FatFish or FatChick. A little kid walks by with FatFish's face photoshopped to his own. Policeman looks like FatFish, foodcourt lady looks like FatChick.
Screen blacks out.
White words appear with the MCYS logo.
"So who has won ?"
The advertisement starts with two characters.
Toyboy is a guys with model killer looks, some sort of a Aaron Kwok figure.
FatFish is the opposite, a fat and ugly but with laughing eyes.
The first scene shows Toyboy working in the office. It shows FatFish dating FatChick.
The second scene shows Toyboy sipping on a martini and cruising in a Ferrari. It then shows FatFish proposing to FatChick.
Third scene shows Toyboy visiting the Eiffel Tower. The scene shows a quick scene with FatFish in bondage gear being pulled back into his bedroom by a chubby pair of arms.
Fourth scene shows ToyBoy playing a Playstation next to his pool in a bungalow. It also shows FatFish with FatChick pushing a pram full of babies and laughing amongst themselves.
Final scene shows ToyBoy aged to about 50 years old walking around the Orchard Road of the future. To his horror, everyone in Orchard looks like a carbon copy of FatFish or FatChick. A little kid walks by with FatFish's face photoshopped to his own. Policeman looks like FatFish, foodcourt lady looks like FatChick.
Screen blacks out.
White words appear with the MCYS logo.
"So who has won ?"
Fairness is what we strive for. But equality may turn out to be a really bad idea.
Well I think the GE fever will be upon us very soon. I just want to spend a short amount of time to talk about two concepts which tend to confuse voters and get them to support the wrong causes.
First of all, if I'm reading my fellow citizens right, Singaporeans want to be treated fairly. Singaporeans want to be hired for jobs which they are qualified for and given a days fair wages in return for a day of hard work. Fairness means that you get paid for your contribution and folks who who contribute less should get less. The mechanism to price your labor should be the free markets. It's not a perfect system, but if one works towards adding value to others, it's not going to be hard to get 3 meals a day here.
I'm personally all for fairness.
I'm a little upset at how liberals in Singapore want some more equality. Equality is a more disturbing concept. There are overtones that people will get something no matter how much contribution you make. I don't think Singaporeans want the hardworking nurse or the taxi driver to be paid equally as the poet who write poems about fornicating dead cats ( Unless this poet is a Lady Gaga like figure who attracts hordes of tourists who like seeing him fornicate dead cats at the Esplanade ).
While I want more opposition parties to gain headway I'm very disturbed that some of the more left leaning parties want more equality and the best way of doing this is by minimum wages and welfare.
Make no mistake, minimum wages will push business to create fewer jobs and if unemployment goes up, we'll lose our rock solid stability. Welfare is not going to come out from minister salaries, it will come from taxation. You either pay for welfare with a larger GST or higher income taxes.
Just want to remind readers once again to keep your eye on the government if you're not happy with them. But don't declare war on your fellow citizens. Some local people like this place because it allows them to raise decent families with low taxation.
Once again I appeal to the opposition to create a good framework for Singaporeans to draw their CPF out in difficult times rather than resort to taxation and welfare schemes. It's populist and the low road towards prosperity. It's also high time Singaporeans get to do more with that CPF-OA instead of being stuck with investing only 35%.
First of all, if I'm reading my fellow citizens right, Singaporeans want to be treated fairly. Singaporeans want to be hired for jobs which they are qualified for and given a days fair wages in return for a day of hard work. Fairness means that you get paid for your contribution and folks who who contribute less should get less. The mechanism to price your labor should be the free markets. It's not a perfect system, but if one works towards adding value to others, it's not going to be hard to get 3 meals a day here.
I'm personally all for fairness.
I'm a little upset at how liberals in Singapore want some more equality. Equality is a more disturbing concept. There are overtones that people will get something no matter how much contribution you make. I don't think Singaporeans want the hardworking nurse or the taxi driver to be paid equally as the poet who write poems about fornicating dead cats ( Unless this poet is a Lady Gaga like figure who attracts hordes of tourists who like seeing him fornicate dead cats at the Esplanade ).
While I want more opposition parties to gain headway I'm very disturbed that some of the more left leaning parties want more equality and the best way of doing this is by minimum wages and welfare.
Make no mistake, minimum wages will push business to create fewer jobs and if unemployment goes up, we'll lose our rock solid stability. Welfare is not going to come out from minister salaries, it will come from taxation. You either pay for welfare with a larger GST or higher income taxes.
Just want to remind readers once again to keep your eye on the government if you're not happy with them. But don't declare war on your fellow citizens. Some local people like this place because it allows them to raise decent families with low taxation.
Once again I appeal to the opposition to create a good framework for Singaporeans to draw their CPF out in difficult times rather than resort to taxation and welfare schemes. It's populist and the low road towards prosperity. It's also high time Singaporeans get to do more with that CPF-OA instead of being stuck with investing only 35%.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Article on my iPad and homemade stylus.
I took a recipe from the web and made an Ipad stylus that also works on my android phone.
http://polymathprogrammer.com/2010/08/16/homemade-ipad-stylus/
Somehow a friend found it interesting enough to make a blog article out of it.
http://polymathprogrammer.com/2010/08/16/homemade-ipad-stylus/
Somehow a friend found it interesting enough to make a blog article out of it.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
National Day Rant : No one is out to ruin your Singaporean Dream, lah !
I don't really feel like blogging these days. But occasionally some things occur in the blogosphere and I suddenly find that I can't really help myself.
This National Day, a lot of bloggers have taken this opportunity to talk about the Singaporean Dream and of course partake in the tradition of PAP-bashing. A lot of what the Internet has been for the last few days can be summarized by something said by a famous blogger called Kitana who wrote this classic :
" In Singapore, it is difficult to dream. Difficult to dream of anything beyond the material. I don’t wish for a future where I am stuck in my dead end job wondering what the fuck I want in my life. I don’t want a future where I die to myself, murder my idealism and my dreams of being different, simply because ‘different’ is a bad word in Singapore. "
If Kitana is reading this, I'm really sorry.
I don't buy your message.
Sure, I had my share of failures and disappointment in Singapore and I was certainly not part of the scholar-mandarin caste in Singapore. Note that I will probably also vote opposition next election too.
This is my opinion, and I welcome you to challenge them here:
a) No society is obligated to make your dreams come true.
Sure, liberals want welfare and minimum wages. That is the Singapore Dream for them. With a welfare society, a liberal can spend his days drawing pictures of the Singapore River or compose poems about his dead cat. But welfare comes with taxes and wages come from the businessmen creates the jobs. Do we want some dreams to be funded from the nightmares of other people? Too much of the gripes are disguised as attacks on the PAP but they are actually thinly disguised attacks on fellow Singaporeans. Yes, fellow Singaporeans who work hard on their jobs and enjoy low taxes or work hard to CREATE jobs for other Singaporeans.
b) No society is out there to stop the pursuit of your dreams.
While Singapore is not obligated to realize the dreams of everybody, Singapore can never stop you from pursuing your dreams. You cannot be stopped from chasing your dreams. You might be stopped from actually attaining it but that happens to the best of us.
The ultimate power of a citizen is that he can give up his citizenship and take his productivity elsewhere, that's if he refuses to vote in the next election. Singapore has to fight for global talent too. Don't like MM Lee, no problem ! Pauline Hanson will welcome you with open arms down under.
c) Materialist dreams are not spared in this society.
The truth is that my own dream is a fairly materialist one. My dream is to live on dividend pay-outs generated from my earned income. When i shared my dream with readers, all I got was 21 pages of hate-filled postings on Channel News Asia. I don't believe that materialist dreams will be spared from the wrath of the disgruntled fellow citizen. People will attack you if potentially what you are doing is interesting and will make them look stupid.
d) If disapproval from fellow Singaporeans is preventing you from dreaming your dream, you must be quite a sad person.
One of my formative years which made me like this way was at the age of 10, my ACS kid neighbors decided that my ET BMX bike which my dad got for me was not cool enough. They said it was fake and I spent a large part of my youth dodging 7mm plastic pellets from their Thunderboy handguns.
The RI kids were'nt any better, they made fun of me because I went to a neighbourhood school.
If I'm going to gripe about the years where I was a geek kid getting wedgies, developing complicated neuroses about branded secondary schools, I would miss out making friends with many ACS and RI alumni today, many have become my best friends and they can count on me if they need help.
I'm just using this story because like many of you unhappy Singaporeans, I was too poor to qualify for ACS and too dumb to qualify for RI. ( Too Ang-moh to enter Chinese High )
I worked on my academic credentials in university and now I'm going through the journey on financial independence bit. I'm confident I'll get there before I'm 40.
The fundamentals of success does not vary from society to society. It certainly would not vary whether RP or PAP is in power.
Work your butt out, strive to be likeable and don't take things for granted. Look after your family and everything will take care of itself.
As a bonus, you'll earn the respect of your most vicious critics.
That is my Singapore Dream.
This National Day, a lot of bloggers have taken this opportunity to talk about the Singaporean Dream and of course partake in the tradition of PAP-bashing. A lot of what the Internet has been for the last few days can be summarized by something said by a famous blogger called Kitana who wrote this classic :
" In Singapore, it is difficult to dream. Difficult to dream of anything beyond the material. I don’t wish for a future where I am stuck in my dead end job wondering what the fuck I want in my life. I don’t want a future where I die to myself, murder my idealism and my dreams of being different, simply because ‘different’ is a bad word in Singapore. "
If Kitana is reading this, I'm really sorry.
I don't buy your message.
Sure, I had my share of failures and disappointment in Singapore and I was certainly not part of the scholar-mandarin caste in Singapore. Note that I will probably also vote opposition next election too.
This is my opinion, and I welcome you to challenge them here:
a) No society is obligated to make your dreams come true.
Sure, liberals want welfare and minimum wages. That is the Singapore Dream for them. With a welfare society, a liberal can spend his days drawing pictures of the Singapore River or compose poems about his dead cat. But welfare comes with taxes and wages come from the businessmen creates the jobs. Do we want some dreams to be funded from the nightmares of other people? Too much of the gripes are disguised as attacks on the PAP but they are actually thinly disguised attacks on fellow Singaporeans. Yes, fellow Singaporeans who work hard on their jobs and enjoy low taxes or work hard to CREATE jobs for other Singaporeans.
b) No society is out there to stop the pursuit of your dreams.
While Singapore is not obligated to realize the dreams of everybody, Singapore can never stop you from pursuing your dreams. You cannot be stopped from chasing your dreams. You might be stopped from actually attaining it but that happens to the best of us.
The ultimate power of a citizen is that he can give up his citizenship and take his productivity elsewhere, that's if he refuses to vote in the next election. Singapore has to fight for global talent too. Don't like MM Lee, no problem ! Pauline Hanson will welcome you with open arms down under.
c) Materialist dreams are not spared in this society.
The truth is that my own dream is a fairly materialist one. My dream is to live on dividend pay-outs generated from my earned income. When i shared my dream with readers, all I got was 21 pages of hate-filled postings on Channel News Asia. I don't believe that materialist dreams will be spared from the wrath of the disgruntled fellow citizen. People will attack you if potentially what you are doing is interesting and will make them look stupid.
d) If disapproval from fellow Singaporeans is preventing you from dreaming your dream, you must be quite a sad person.
One of my formative years which made me like this way was at the age of 10, my ACS kid neighbors decided that my ET BMX bike which my dad got for me was not cool enough. They said it was fake and I spent a large part of my youth dodging 7mm plastic pellets from their Thunderboy handguns.
The RI kids were'nt any better, they made fun of me because I went to a neighbourhood school.
If I'm going to gripe about the years where I was a geek kid getting wedgies, developing complicated neuroses about branded secondary schools, I would miss out making friends with many ACS and RI alumni today, many have become my best friends and they can count on me if they need help.
I'm just using this story because like many of you unhappy Singaporeans, I was too poor to qualify for ACS and too dumb to qualify for RI. ( Too Ang-moh to enter Chinese High )
I worked on my academic credentials in university and now I'm going through the journey on financial independence bit. I'm confident I'll get there before I'm 40.
The fundamentals of success does not vary from society to society. It certainly would not vary whether RP or PAP is in power.
Work your butt out, strive to be likeable and don't take things for granted. Look after your family and everything will take care of itself.
As a bonus, you'll earn the respect of your most vicious critics.
That is my Singapore Dream.
Sunday, August 01, 2010
ipad is overrated?
Well I just got my iPad and am writing my blog using the device. While the device scores on ease of use and user friendliness, I am personally not sure if it's all that useful for Singaporean users. You can't really get kindle books with it unlike my google phone and iBooks will not sell you any books as well.
This just illuminates a point that we need to protect ourselves from marketing hype.
I'll look forward to an android tablet later this year. Hope that my investment returns will let me get one then.
This just illuminates a point that we need to protect ourselves from marketing hype.
I'll look forward to an android tablet later this year. Hope that my investment returns will let me get one then.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Liberal Arts #2 : What can we learn from the Mohists ?
I've not been updating this blog lately. My focus is now in Android programming and coming up with a program to make my D&D games smoother. It's been about 10 years since I wrote programs seriously and now I have to relearn Java on a mobile platform.
Well today's is not so much an article but some advertising for a friend's online publication called "Singularity" which is an inter-disciplinary magazine.
I did an article on Mohist philosophy which reviews their key disagreement with the more familiar Confucianist philosophy and glean useful insights in living the modern life. I want to explore new ways of monetizing income and volunteering an article for my friends online magazine is a good way to learn a little about publication. This platform, if managed well, has some potential.
Anyway, if you are into Eastern philosophy or modern self-help, you will find that the article useful. The cost is minimal as my friend will need to pay his bills as well.
Link to the Polymath Programmer
Well today's is not so much an article but some advertising for a friend's online publication called "Singularity" which is an inter-disciplinary magazine.
I did an article on Mohist philosophy which reviews their key disagreement with the more familiar Confucianist philosophy and glean useful insights in living the modern life. I want to explore new ways of monetizing income and volunteering an article for my friends online magazine is a good way to learn a little about publication. This platform, if managed well, has some potential.
Anyway, if you are into Eastern philosophy or modern self-help, you will find that the article useful. The cost is minimal as my friend will need to pay his bills as well.
Link to the Polymath Programmer
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Fruits from the Liberal Arts #1 - Alexis De Tocqueville on Singapore ?
Here's a short snippet on how my journey towards equipping myself with some skills of a Liberal Arts are bearing some fruits.
Alexis De Tocqueville was a French politician with a liberal outlook in life. He wrote a book after visiting America called "Democracy in America". Some statements he made can be easily reapplied to the local context:
a) Citizens displayed great melancholy in the bosom of abundance.
b) The is disgust of life in the midst of an easy and tranquil existence.
c) Tocqueville's thesis is that at the centre of democracy and freedom lies great ennui.
d) Freedom allows citizens to adopt a single minded pursuit for material goods.
e) Men who live in democratic times have multiple passions, but most of their passions end in the love of wealth.
Now I read only a summary of his books but this has certainly ignited an interested to read the entire book just to see if Alexis has predicted our Singaporean way of life over a century before Singapore gained independence.
Another possible use of Alexis' works is to give us a glimpse of how China's growth will change their people and outlook in life, there is already talk of China being like the US a 100 years ago.
I won't really be dismissing the liberal arts now that I've discovered this gem.
Alexis De Tocqueville was a French politician with a liberal outlook in life. He wrote a book after visiting America called "Democracy in America". Some statements he made can be easily reapplied to the local context:
a) Citizens displayed great melancholy in the bosom of abundance.
b) The is disgust of life in the midst of an easy and tranquil existence.
c) Tocqueville's thesis is that at the centre of democracy and freedom lies great ennui.
d) Freedom allows citizens to adopt a single minded pursuit for material goods.
e) Men who live in democratic times have multiple passions, but most of their passions end in the love of wealth.
Now I read only a summary of his books but this has certainly ignited an interested to read the entire book just to see if Alexis has predicted our Singaporean way of life over a century before Singapore gained independence.
Another possible use of Alexis' works is to give us a glimpse of how China's growth will change their people and outlook in life, there is already talk of China being like the US a 100 years ago.
I won't really be dismissing the liberal arts now that I've discovered this gem.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
My views on how Singapore can adopt the Liberal Arts.
My journeys in wealth creation has stretched most of the technical disciplines. In Singapore, that's what most of us are built to do. Work hard, get a degree and then get employed rapidly to start building wealth for the future. The economy of the future almost ensure that an engineering education will but be enough to sustain a career beyond a decade.
Moving into a management role will require a person to be more aware of the subtleties of corporate life, which means that the advantage will shift towards a manager who is more human and can solve problems with very little structure and live with truckloads of ambiguity.
It is this realization that I disagree with the government's approach towards the liberal arts. Right now, the trend is towards training law and medical students in the liberal arts where they remain elite and give them this opportunity to delay graduation by a year to become more well rounded human beings. All this does is make the program more expensive and delay the money making years by a year for the smartest guys in our education system.
I think this approach will fail. Debt ridden students are more likely to game the grades system to maximize their starting incomes. Humanity can always come later.
Furthermore, the industries in the future will still be run by us Generation X's. We're a ruthless and unforgiving generation who has been trained to be very unsentimental in work matters. The burden will be upon the debt-ridden Generation Y and the Millenials to wrestle the thought leadership from the Generation X's - it would not be ceded more easily.
So i think that a liberal arts education will widen the generation gap between Singaporeans.
I believe that way forward for a liberal arts college should be the opposite of what the West has intended for their people.
The Liberal arts should become an alternative to the EMBA, to allow executives who have reached a level of comfort with themselves to learn more about their past and humanize themselves into better managers. The liberal arts multiple and amplify the years of wisdom already gained by engaging in the workforce. It will also open the minds of the folks in the economy who need it the most.
It will also make execution much easier, mid-level executives can afford to pay for the low lecturer-to-student ratios and discussions between working peers can also attain a level of gravitas as yet unattainable from a bunch of young adults. I bet the academics want a more mature discussion too with cases drawn directly from the working world.
I hope that the Universities will consider making the liberal arts a postgraduate qualification, where senior managers will come back to school to re-school themselves in grammar, logic and public speaking.
Because if you look at the quality of Singapore management today, we're in a dire need for self-improvement.
Moving into a management role will require a person to be more aware of the subtleties of corporate life, which means that the advantage will shift towards a manager who is more human and can solve problems with very little structure and live with truckloads of ambiguity.
It is this realization that I disagree with the government's approach towards the liberal arts. Right now, the trend is towards training law and medical students in the liberal arts where they remain elite and give them this opportunity to delay graduation by a year to become more well rounded human beings. All this does is make the program more expensive and delay the money making years by a year for the smartest guys in our education system.
I think this approach will fail. Debt ridden students are more likely to game the grades system to maximize their starting incomes. Humanity can always come later.
Furthermore, the industries in the future will still be run by us Generation X's. We're a ruthless and unforgiving generation who has been trained to be very unsentimental in work matters. The burden will be upon the debt-ridden Generation Y and the Millenials to wrestle the thought leadership from the Generation X's - it would not be ceded more easily.
So i think that a liberal arts education will widen the generation gap between Singaporeans.
I believe that way forward for a liberal arts college should be the opposite of what the West has intended for their people.
The Liberal arts should become an alternative to the EMBA, to allow executives who have reached a level of comfort with themselves to learn more about their past and humanize themselves into better managers. The liberal arts multiple and amplify the years of wisdom already gained by engaging in the workforce. It will also open the minds of the folks in the economy who need it the most.
It will also make execution much easier, mid-level executives can afford to pay for the low lecturer-to-student ratios and discussions between working peers can also attain a level of gravitas as yet unattainable from a bunch of young adults. I bet the academics want a more mature discussion too with cases drawn directly from the working world.
I hope that the Universities will consider making the liberal arts a postgraduate qualification, where senior managers will come back to school to re-school themselves in grammar, logic and public speaking.
Because if you look at the quality of Singapore management today, we're in a dire need for self-improvement.
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