[[How has been]]

Saturday, May 24, 2014

[[]]

So, ummm. I shall post something about what I have been up to. A rarity and oddity for this place that has somehow morphed into being almost exclusively ideas and musings. Time to drag back some physical archival purpose into this entity.

Right. Starting this Monday that is 190514, I joined the STEP program just after my two week stint in NUS business school.

Surprisingly, it is rather hard to reflect when you actually consciously act to reflect. I never had a problem with babbling bullcrap on demand.

Now I shall reflect on reflecting. When it becomes a conscious, structured activity the checker goes into overdrive. (The checker here refers to a function of my brain, as opposed to the creator of ideas which is also another function of my brain.) It rapidly sieves and sorts out, but with a much more stringent criteria. Afterall, what is ramblings and musings may not count as reflections of the acceptable kind eh. And hence I draw a blank.

Ok. Not working. Perhaps a word document would be better.

[[I wrote this at]]*|2:26 AM|

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

[[About dreading mondays]]

How is dreading mondays so glorified?

I feel sad for the people who dread mondays. I understand it if you are in the army. When you are forced to do things. When if you do not do such and such you will be charged and thrown into jail and have your freedom deprived. Come to think of it, I value freedom very highly. Please do not throw me into jail. Unless it is for, a greater purpose.

I dont really understand it when you have the freedom to choose and still decide to dread it though.

If say studying is so dreadful, then dont study! If you cannot afford to not study, should you not be glad for the opportunity to study then? Similarly, if working is so dreadful then dont work! If you cannot afford not to work you ought to be glad for the job. What I am saying is, you are rational, you are choosing the best possible course of action. If you could quit and be better off you would have already done it. If searching for a new job is worth your time you would have already done it. Since going to work is your best choice, and your decided best choice, then why dread it?

Hohoho, im waiting for the day this bites me in my butt. When the hazy content days of holidays pass.

Why should one dread a part of their existence that they choose though? Perhaps enjoy it less, but not dread I think. Afterall, it is the best that you could do within your circumstances. And if you cannot change your circumstances and have done your best, what is there to dread?

Of course, it is also a day that the lord has made to rejoice and be glad in it. Just sayin.

[[I wrote this at]]*|8:47 PM|

Monday, May 19, 2014

[[]]

Quoted from hweeteng's tumblr

The people should not be afraid of their government. The

government should be afraid of their people.

Why should either be afraid of the other? Whats with this excess amount of fear. Is there not enough fear in our life? Why should people fear the government unless the government is a tyranny or the people are crooks. Why should the government be afraid of the people unless the government is not for the people?

The more I think about this whole system of countries the more I think it is stupid. Why do people not get a choice in their citizenship? I dont see why a group of people in a land, based on history, should be an independent entity. Why should a country deny independence to any region of it citing sovereignty when nobody gave the country sovereignty in the first place? Perhaps the only way to exert sovereignty is through the use of force. Which is sad.

Why should peoples have a claim on land? On the land they inhabit just because they inhabit the land? When does it cross from being occupant to rightful owner? Like maybe cite the example of the white man seizing america from the indigenous american indians. Or Singaporean Chinese being the majority after just out populating the malays who in turn just out populated the orang laut. Or Israel's much criticized settlements into lands that is not it's. So it just happens it is the time? Like when it was fashionable? Or maybe it is just might is right?

Actually this i a very underdeveloped piece. Perhaps one day I will be able to write something more coherent.

Ideally we should be past governance and everyone live based on a inherent code. Perhaps that is beyond us as fallen human beings.

[[I wrote this at]]*|11:37 PM|

Saturday, May 17, 2014

[[]]

Come now, come now. It is time to change. Time to make a difference.

Articles like http://www.thesmartlocal.com/read/this-is-why-young-singaporeans-think-their-lives-suck make me feel sad. Anyway, it is lots of generalisations. There are those that see the light. Not all are smoked by society. In fact, nobody is the 'average' millennial the article seems to insinuate. And bash.

Lets go for it. Change. I think the first place to reform is the church. Lets join the fray! Enough of standing on the sidelines!

[[I wrote this at]]*|10:21 PM|

Thursday, May 15, 2014

[[]]

Ugh man, I dont get it. After I have committed into, commitments, I rue the lost free time. Why does it seem to be so ironic that whenever I have time I do not have things, but when I do not have time I have things. So many people I wanna meet within the next few weeks! But I am tied down, almost entirely for the next few weeks. Why!!!

I guess what I read somewhere somehow is going to be something to try and live by. That is to never turn away a friend. Of course, people I consider friends, and not people that consider me friends. Mwahahaha. Theres a loophole in the selection criteria here eh.

[[I wrote this at]]*|5:19 PM|

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

[[]]

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have never yet engaged in a direct-action movement that was "well timed" according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "wait." It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "wait" has almost always meant "never." It has been a tranquilizing thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a moment, only to give birth to an ill-formed infant of frustration. We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."

From Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter.
I think it has links to my previous post.

I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time; and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

From the same letter.

Over the last few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. So I have tried to make it clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or even more, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends

And again the same letter.

Ends dont justify the means. Do what is right and the outcome, in the long run will be right. Short circuit the process for a better 'end' in the short term and you will have a shit- ton of problems in the future. Maybe not you, but your progeny.

[[I wrote this at]]*|11:16 AM|

Sunday, May 11, 2014

[[Why is the world as the world is?]]

I think the world is inexorably linked to it's history.
Ok for one, this is a very broad very wide very nice and long question. And this is going to be a blog post of medium length as I am sleepy and it is rather late.
The world is not in it's ideal state. I believe there perhaps is not even an ideal state. But because of the continuum of time, the progress towards utopia is so stunted.

Well what I mean is that constructs created by humanity are change resistant. Allow me to explain. Please be obliged to listen.

When say, the initial start state of humanity (I would say creation, you can say evolution or whatnot, does not matter for this purpose I guess), decided to improve their societal construct say move from A->B, they implemented such ideas and all. Say at the end of 10 years, a referendum was held and there are problems with the system, suggestions, learning points and all.

My point is that at the end of 10 years, to travel from B-> C would take longer and be much harder than if there were a reset button and humanity just dissolved B and jumped from A-> C where A is the start state. Get what I mean? Yes you do dear reader, you are intelligent.

This is unique, it follows a different path from all other human invention and innovation where each step is a step in the right direction, where failures are treated as learning points and where. Yet it is the key (I would say it is key, or at least very important) to human happiness. Yet humanity is unable to work collectively where it matters most due to the selfishness of humanity.

For like the invention of the wristwatch or any other thing for that matter, each failure is a sign to all others to not follow as a learning experience to minimise resources wastage, each success will benefit all and perhaps the discoverer or the inventor or creator more.

With society, each construct, say B, creates an uneven spread of benefits. People that are better off in B will be opposed to change in C. Even when there is good chance that they could be better off in C and all others would be better off in C. Basically the effect of such a change is spread and each will have their own opinion and own stance and take their own measures for or against. Ironically those that are better off in B will probably have more clout under the present situation in B. Which would make the chances of B-> C really low. As compared from A-> C assuming everyone there is more or less equal. Which is doubly ironic being that C can only be discovered by having the experience of B (like in all innovation) yet humanity is unable to, as a whole, proceed to the next step. Then after B-> C is finally, after hundreds of years, finally achieved, C-> D will be a rinse and repeat.

Add in all the people resistant to change, being comfortable with the status quo, risk adversity, the long periods of time required (and the fact that people do not live that long) .etc. And you have a very very slow change of societal change.

Perhaps more thinking should be done on this topic before acting. For if the result of rational minds is irrational, where is the flaw? For those worse off do not fully push as hard and as strongly for their next step as much as they logically should despite being rational. The human mind is complex man. There must be so many fallacies in that thinking. Or at least several prevalent ones.

Ok night is old, I am old, I am going to sleep.

[[I wrote this at]]*|9:49 PM|

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

[[]]

This is really quite the life. I always enjoy having the freedom to pursue my own agenda without obligations.Without constraints. I love the 'observer' status. It allows almost full participation as and when I like. The only drawback, clearly, is that I am unable to interject and ask questions. How annoying.

The subject matter too, is quite interesting. Stuff about the leadership and management, how to earn money and so on. I cant fathom that there are so many so many ways to learn how to earn money.

Since I am on that topic, fantastic, the amount of literature on this earning money subject, to earn money, of course.

What questions to ask is more important than asking the question?

Verify what questions to ask through, perhaps, quantitative data.

[[I wrote this at]]*|3:03 PM|

Friday, May 2, 2014

[[Sunk costs]]

Hi all.

While I am slowly writing my 1000th post, here is the 1001th post! Just something I thought to share with whoever reads this. And perhaps, my thoughts.

Anyway, I just watched a video on Sunk Costs Fallacy. By Big Think Mentor (You can search that on youtube). What it says is that, I summarise, past efforts warp our current decision making irrationally.

So in essence, one gets blinded by the past efforts already put into an endeavour and have a bias to tend to stick it out even when the outcome is not desired. So for instance, one example given in the video is that given that you have walked halfway to the store and realised that the store is closed at this time. One would not rationally walk to the shop just to not waste their effort (or sunk cost) of having walked halfway.

This is the extrapolated to like why finish reading a book when halfway through the book you realise this isn't what you are looking for. Similar to jobs and all that shit. Like basically it is that cost spent is cost spent and unable to be claimed back, decisions should be made according to optimised outcomes. So at your current situation, you make the best possible decision given all the past that has happened. Not you make your best possible decision factoring in all the past .etc.

I would draw a parallel to like a story I read somewhere. The chances of a coin being heads six times in a row were rare, one person observed. But the chances of a coin being heads seven times in a row were almost never. So, said person concludes, when the a six in a row heads streak has been done, he will bet on tails and will surely earn money. Well basically he has committed the error of some probability shit. Im sure you all educated people can figure out given six, chances of seven is very much different from chances of seven. So it is a fallacy to factor in the past. Something like that.

I love clear cut examples. They simplify the world into such tiny bits of acid. Well clearly, logically, if you have walked halfway to the store and realised that the store is closed at this time you would head back. What if you seem to recall that the store might be closed. Then it becomes a chance game. The problem is that the chance game is affected by the 'sunk cost'. Assuming there is a 40% chance that the store is open, it becomes more rational to have a gander at the store already halfway there as opposed to walking back and forgoing the 40%. At home, if it were a 40% opening-rate the chances of saying screw it, I'm not putting on decent clothes to go out is much higher. I give another example, you hate your boss, life is miserable, but you have worked at the company for the past 10 years. The straightforward option would be to leave, miserable = leave. Why factor in your past deeds. There is no place for sentimentalism. But then again how certain are you that the boss will not die of a heart attack tomorrow, or traffic accident. Or he could be moved to another department. Or whatnot. With the 10 years of past employment you stand to lose alot more by leaving as compared to a person that is just hired. (Hmm, I guess a person well aware of the fallacy will probably sense that this reasoning is dubious. To be given 10 years one would make the rational decision based on situation of 10 years. But what I'm saying is that, basically dont be so quick to swing in the other way) So I dunno, on account of certainty I doubt really anyone is acting fully in this principled fallacy as espoused by the video.

Anyway. I thought this practical to how people make university choices, life choices, career choices. It shouldn't be I have worked so hard for these A-level grades I should make the best use out of i t (I.e not waste it). It should rather be given these A-level grades and the possibilities before, what should be my best course of action. (Sounds like somebody eh). If the best course of action is to throw the A-levels cert into the fire and become a piano teacher or something then one should just do it. No sentimentalism shit. That stuff is for the weak.

What what.

[[I wrote this at]]*|12:03 AM|