@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Welcome! 欢迎!@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Welcome to my virtual home. This is a little private space for me to put my thoughts and share my feelings since 2005. Due to my wide range of interests, there are perhaps too many tags. I would explain some of the less obvious tags:

"About Life" is really about how I have been pondering about life and what enlightenments and paradigm shifts I had experienced.

"About Psi" contains most topics about happiness, optimism vs pessimism,
confidence, comparison, pride and prejudice and other psychological aspects.

"About Logical Thinking" is about my own way of interpretating and explaining
certain issues, aiming to debunk (or create?) superficialness of them.

"About Ideology" is about my thoughts on big concepts like freedom, justice,
fairness in society and religion.

"About Society" is more about my observations about the society, often through interactions with different peoples.

"My Country" reveals my frustration, critics and hope
on my homeland - Malaysia.

"My Little Pieces" has more short posts though mostly are written in Mandarin.

While I do have some posts on book reviews and business, I am planning to
separate them into author-specific and content-specific blogs. Stay tuned.

Enjoy your reading!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

2009的回顾

剩下几天,就要和2009年告别了。如果说2008年是峰回路转多姿多彩的,那2009年就是风云变色变幻莫测的。【2008年,我渡过最难熬的FYP、拿到最意外的First Class、顺利拿到第一份工作、在美国梦幻般地生活、面临意想不到的失业冲击和目睹别人的中年危机。】


工作

最大的变化,当然莫过于在惠普待了十一月之后,毅然辞职寻梦去,转做房地产中介。这不是个容易的决定,尤其在最初的那几个星期里,复杂的思绪犹如不同的游龙在脑子里舞动。那份工,坦白说我并非做得不好,相较于之前的IA和Imflash,我更认真对待工作,甚至可以说是第一次真正在做工,毕竟IA只是实习,而Imflash停在培训阶段。大体上而言,我挺满意自己的工作表现和态度,只是当负荷越叠越重时,我的疑问也越滚越大。两年、五年、十年之内,我会走去哪里?越来越多的薪水、越来越高的职位、越来越重的枷锁?我要的,是这些么?我看不到前景。

于是我不停询问,不停寻找,到最后我得到了一个答案:人最宝贵的资产,是时间。宁可牺牲短暂的利益,也不要虚度光阴。对于时间,我一直比较敏感,因为我知道,要达到我追求的理想中的简单幸福,我没有多少时间。工作恼人之处是除了不能发挥优势之外,还有让很多时间变成垃圾时间,不能为自己增值。时间一分一秒地无谓流失,好像血液一点一滴流失那样痛苦。我要控制自己的时间,做自己想做的事。

我选择进入房地产的行业,不仅因为它在成功上的可能性和在时间上的伸缩性,而是因为房地产方面的知识,是每个想要成功的人迟早都需要累积的。更何况,有多少人穷其一生奋斗,不过为了建立美好的家园。通过接触社会不同的阶层,我希望我能从管中窥豹,明白更多家庭的概念。

健康

今年发了两次烧,一次大的,在三月;一次小的,在五月。下半年身体没什么大恙,除了那个逐渐频繁的偏头痛之外,有一次发作时痛得几乎做不了任何东西,痛得睡不了觉。这病应该是从妈妈遗传下来的,医学上暂时不能根治,只好找寻引发头痛的原因以预防。大略知道只要稍微过劳过累,右脑侧的神经就会开始隐隐搏动,只是很遗憾的是,我挺容易感觉疲劳的。或许这正是我随时随地都能入睡的原因吧,我需要比较多短歇。

但另一个转变却让我喜出望外:我的食欲回来了。自从去年毕业旅行后,我的胃口骤然变小,让我一直怀疑肚子是不是生虫了。直到今年年中,当我开始每天做掌上压和在早餐摄入比较丰富的蛋白质后,我的胃口渐渐变大了。终于,隔了好久,吃东西变回一种享受。用热腾腾的食物填饱懂得喊饿的肚子,是多么简单的幸福和满足。体重第一次超过六十公斤,说起来可能有点好笑,但我却觉得这是非常了不起的成就呢。

只是残酷的是,二十五岁的新陈代谢毕竟不如年轻时强。意外仆街摔伤的伤口居然要两个月才能痊愈,运动前需要热身才能出劲出力,没穿球鞋运动竟然让膝盖有点负荷不了……都是以前不曾感受过的,也是以前怎么想也想不到的问题。

以前不懂得照顾身体或许还可以,现在不懂得照顾身体,后果可能就很糟了。二十五岁,真的是一个分水岭。

心境

身体素质不如前,但心里素质却强了很多。这个,是叫“成熟”吧。在经历翻天覆地的内心挣扎和增广见闻的心路历程后,这是我第一次接近将自己的性格定型,在个人内心到个人与他人的关系之间的善与恶、柔与刚、阴与阳、卑与亢、内与外、静与动、听与说、学与述、知与行之中,找到了比较完善的平衡。

这个平衡,对于我这个典型的双子来说,是很难得的。曾经一段时间,我常常被冰火两重天的情绪所困扰,但在更进一步掌控了情商之后,我逐渐明白情绪产生的原因,和接受它,从而能够理性地把情绪化为可贵的动力。其实,有什么样的情绪,为什么有这样的情绪,并不是那么重要,最重要的是如何接受和转化它。冰火两重天,在我现在看来,反而是不可多得的优点,因为感受过了冰和火,才能轻易地感受到别人的感受。

从至阴的随遇而安毅然破釜沉舟转向挑战未知,我已重拾失落的刚强,为过去那段阴柔的逆向叛逆寻找之路(我的父亲是至刚至强的极致代表),找到新的出口。我依然喜欢猫咪的细腻阴柔,却多了对飞鹰展翅高飞的欣赏。

持衡自强。

朋友

在职场上新认识了不少人,交了不少朋友,和其中几个变得挺要好的。年中通过和朋友的交流明白到原来存在这么一种划分:类型A会把朋友划成不同圈子,内圈是谈心事讲义气,关系亲密的知己,外圈是聚合玩乐的朋友;类型B把所有朋友都一视同仁,没有亲疏之分。因为自幼就有缘结识两个知己,所以我是铁打的类型A,倾向于把能信赖的、要好的归进内圈。

但也正因为如此,很多时候我总是被朋友的行为举止所影响和困扰,甚至产生失望。因为我总是对人存有期望,尤其是朋友。可是年中发生了一些事,让我明白到不是所有人都愿意把朋友变知己,聚乐原来才是普遍流行的朋友的概念。

我想了很久。于是我增加了一些聚乐的接受度,但我不放弃扩展内圈的可能。我始终相信,朋友,不应该仅仅是聚乐而已的。

财务

尽管惯于节俭,但今年有不少大笔的费用,譬如五月的韩国之旅、新添的电子产品(Netbook,I-phone)、初始投资的亏损等。在消费控制方面,今年实行了几个月的记录和观察,所以大致了解自己在不同方面的消费数额。吃的,随着食欲回来放松了一点;穿的,衣服没什么添(美国买了很多),鞋子添了几双;读的,已经倾向去图书馆借,除了非常新的新书。

节流,一向来不是什么大问题,但是开源,就仍在累积知识的阶段。四月时决定要开始累积实战经验,但后来一开始就亏了一点,就觉得在缺乏基础知识去实战是在玩俄罗斯轮盘,所以转去学习不同投资工具的基础。下半年后期的学习让自己对整体的金融财经和资金流动有了更全面的基本掌握,也让自己在阅读历史时多了一个有用的角度。

剩下的,就是在2009剩余的最后几天,计划一下未来五年之内想要累积的资本,金钱的分配和投资的回酬。

阅写

看看今年博文的数量,我或许可以自欺一下,语文能力,就算没有进也至少没有退吧。华文应该是如此,而英文应该有细微的进步。因为有持续阅读和写作,所以词汇数量和写作速度有些许提升,但没有时间去学习和检视语法。年中有一段时间学习了不少英文的字根和词源,算是受益不少吧。

至于阅读,今年目标是读十二本书,却没想到后半年沉溺在阅读,所以非常轻易地就超越了目标,大约数一数,今年应该读了二三十本书吧。

体育

今年还真得玩了不少体育项目。

篮球:参加了惠普的篮球比赛,掌握了一些基本的技战术,让我这个一直以来只是玩玩的门外汉开了不少眼界,也更享受篮球运动。

羽球:和惠普的同事打过几次,也给断线已久的球拍绑了线。

网球:去朋友的公寓学习和玩了几次。蛮喜欢这个运动,因为需要身体全方位的协调。

保龄球:也是和朋友玩了几次,从一开始的一直滚进沟渠,到现在掌握了一点技巧,strike得越来越爽了。

烹饪

目标是把拿手好菜加到十样,不过因为下半年自己租房住不能煮,也没有什么时间,所以其实没有真正去整理和总结。有试过煮麦片虾、苹果猪肉和三水姜蓉鸡(不过不是很成功),从双头妖师那里偷师了猪肚汤和马铃薯红萝卜焖肉,从四姨那里学了咸菜干碎炒蚬和猪脚醋,所以今年算起来还是有收获啦。

2009年,变之年,万事变动,我也在变。

2010年,期待着腾飞。梦,仍在寻……但寻梦者,首先不能丢失的,是时间。

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Integrity

It has been about a month to work as a property agent. Life is certainly good without wasting too much time. Before I embarking on this journey, some were afraid that I am too nice to work in such environment that is full of possibilities of fraud.

Perhaps it's true to a certain extent, but I believe I am not naive though I am nice. However, the question of integrity does pose a serious challange to me. After two weeks of directionless efforts without results, I had one friend wanted to rent out his condominium for short-term lease. I was relieved that finally I got a more powerful side to serve, albeit a difficult one as short-term needs are rare and harder to match.

So one senior director who just so happened sat beside me that time told me not to advertise renting out for short-term, but to advertise 1-year lease to lure normal tenants, state a minimum period in the contract, and ask the owner to give one-month notice to tenants before taking back. He said:"Do this kind of thing, cannot be so straight one." Was it the right thing to do? I puzzled the whole night.

The next morning I went on to search listings online, and found out that another senior director were marketing a condo for short-term lease as well. I was so happy to have seen the light and decided not to follow the first director's advice. And in fact, I was rewarded by luck to close the deal with first client that I have shown the unit, and got my first deal.

I thought I would have forgotten this event. But somehow I came across similar story again, with different main actors and script writer. I brought a client to view a unit for short-term lease, he didn't really like it. I went back to the unit after sending the client off, to exchange card with the landlord's agent.

And that's when I came into the play, as an unexpected figure. The other group of PRC tenants, without the presence of their agent, were having communication breakdown with the landlord's agent who is a Malay, due to limited english conservation skills. So I went on to become the free translator, facilitated the communication in between, and helped both sides to agree on the deal.

However, in a flash of moment, I captured a message among the group to know that they weren't informed by their PRC agent, that this rent is for short-term. The contract is a one-year lease with minimum staying period of 5 months. But I know this rent is really meant for short-term because the landlord's agent has informed me that the landlord intends to sell his house asap. After 5 months, they will be kicked out, LEGALLY. So someone is obviously playing the trick of not disclosing the essential information, the PRC agent. Against his own countrymen, BRILLIANT!

So the ball was on my court. Should I act like moral hero, disclose the information, ruin the deal that has nothing to do with me? Or should I just neglect it as I am not supposed to be involved in it anyway? Eventually I chose to be silent because the ball was supposed to be invisible to me. If I weren't nice, I would have just walked away. If I weren't smart, I would not have spotted the insight.

All of the above sound like excuses to make myself feel better. And certainly I do. In this kind of scenario, I am not going to punish myself for not speaking out. That is by all means that agent's fault and wrong doing. And it is different than not helping when a robbery or other crimes happen.

Think about it, it is done legally. Think about it, any party which includes landlord, landlord's agent, tenant and tenant's agent could be utilizing this loophole by hiding their intentions. Think about it, a series of accidents (landlord changes his mind to sell his house midway, landlord don't like tenant and like to kick them out, tenant decides to go back home country midway, tenant don't like the place after a while etc) could have caused the same event (contract to be terminated by either side after minimum staying period). So in the contract, interest of both parties has already been protected by the one month notice.

But being legal doesn't mean being right. Not disclosing essential information that could have affetcting other's decisions is not right. On the same scenario, I have chosen to disclose while that agent have chosen not to disclose. Should I help him to disclose as well? I don't think so. I can only control what I do and affect other slightly but I cannot control how others do things. I can't be hero and save everyone, because even hero can't save everyone. You have to be smart yourself.

Well, everyone lives their own life. Which path you want to take, it's entirely up to you; but where the path will lead you to, it's not entirely up to you. You just pay the price of your decision. Some people have thrown away their sense of guilt and keep jeopardizing their integrity in exchange for short-term gains. I hope they don't wake up to the call of their conscience, because once they do, they will subject themselves to insurmountable sufferings.

There are many ways to success, but I always believe that integrity is vital for long-term success. I have seen examples that justfiy my belief. The only thing is that, of all the thing, integrity is the one that is immeasurable.

P/S: The above red paragraph is also dedicated to the fat landlord bitch that swallows our deposit of $2600.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Nice quote from Eliot

Do not follow where the path may lead.

Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

~ T.S Eliot

Onset of demise

How often an empire was built from courage that breeds from war, and how often its demise started from the negligence during peace. It has never been changed, from the ancient kingdom to modern conglomerate. It will never be changed, due to the fundamental human weakness: complacency. Failure breeds success, success breeds complacency, and complacency leads to collapse.

Where is the prophecy to predict the onset of demise? History, as history will repeat itself, as long as the fundamental weakness exists. It is a little bit funny though, in spite of super advancement in science, technology, business and virtually every areas, this weakness is still so STRONG.

Look at the common notion about stories of successful models or whatsoever, and compare with the universal perception about alarms of possible crisis. Don't you think peoples are more interested in knowing the former one although the latter one may hold more truths? Shouldn't it be more critical to know how not to fail first before pursuing the knowledge of how to success? Yet peoples are quick to criticize warnings if it didn't turn out right(or didn't turn out right fast enough for them to realize), while do not question hard enough on successes, even when these success are short-lived (which means they shouldn't be hailed in the first place as they are bound to fail as they capitalize on long-term benefit to create illusionary success) or subjected to survivorship bias.

It has been proven psychologically that, human tends to attribute success to own efforts while put the blame on environment for failures (self-serving bias), though the reverse scenario are more likely.

On top of this, perhaps it is even harder to realize that things could take million years to build, but just need a second to be ruined. Infallible? What a damn good joke.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Recent reads

Have red two books recently, but would like to just do a quick summary but not thorough analysis here, as I shouldn't have put too much time on here. May re read them in the future.

1. Freakonomics by steven d.levitt and stephen j.dubner

- Peel off one layer or two of seemingly logical "common sense" by applying statistical tools of econonics to determine the direction of correlation and discover hidden links.

- Human works for incentive and that's what economist interested to figure out and model it, from micro to macro.

- Examples touched on:
a) school teachers - cheating?
b) sumo wrestlers - match rigging?
c) Ku Klux Klan - incoherence of roles exposed lead to its demise
d) real-estate agent - incentives work against you?
e) drug dealers - except the top mafias, most don't earn enough, but endure and hope to make it big one day
f) criminal rate fall - self-contradicting explains from so-called experts and hidden link with abortion legalization
g) parenting - does nurturing / parenting really matter?

2. The origin of brands by al & laura ries

- A fascinating book from marketing gurus that build its theme around the law of natural selection in business world - divergence. It argues that like natural selection, products and brands expand in such a way that split into more and more branches, instead of convergence. This book gives a lot of examples and it's definitely eye-opening even though you may not agree with the central theme 100%.

- Different technologies do not converge, but each technology split further into more sophisticated field to cater for niche market.

- Convergence may not always fail when value of convenience are created but convenience only has small roles to play in the overall business market.

Pessimism of the will

"Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will."

Came across this motto in the newspaper and like it so much. It is like speaking out something that I want to say for long, in such a clear fashion.

I don't like the general notion of the exclusivitity of pessimism and optimism. For me both co-exist and fluctuate interchangebly, it's only as of this moment which end do you incline towards. But that's not the main theme here. Compare the motto with the following:

"Optimism of the fool, pessimism of the will."

and you will know why I shouted eureka.

As the old Chinese saying goes, no one can live without worries. The question is, which aspect of life should you worry and how do you face it and conquer it. Worries don't really kill but avoidance and ignorance kill.

And hence, to me, first sentence is a powerful and motivating motto; while second sentence, is nothing more than lazy escapism. Let's face it, life is not always a bed of roses. Quality time does not always has to be lying on the bed, and rest is the reward for hardwork, but not an end by itself.

Pessimism of the intellect spots unavoidable problems and brings forward the necessary worries, for the optimism of the will to plan strategies and solutions.

Two useful sites for investment knowledge

These two local sites can help you to grasp solid knowledge and insights about investment ideas and tools.

http://www.moneytalk.sg/

http://www.wisewealthbook.com/

There is another book that I recommended to another friend who asked me on how to start studying investment. You can borrow it from any library.

"Financial services in singapore - Tan Chwee Huat"

Sometimes I feel like sharing out of what I have learnt but I think at this infant stage, I would be better off spending time to read and absorb instead of writing out to share. Without the vast knowledge and experience, my work may look like a rubbish as compared to those blog articles.

And hence, I recommend you to read both sites as the starting point of your endeavour, if you, too, would like to embark on the same quest.

Currently I am reading on ETF, while some friends are studying CFD and options on equities. Looking forward to leverage the knowledge gained across.

by TemplatesForYouTFY
SoSuechtig, Burajiru