Ian On The Red Dot

Actually, it is a novel about China, but somehow, to a certain degree it seems like the author was speaking about Singapore.

Given the choice between a good hell and a counterfeit paradise, what will people choose? Whatever you say, many people will believe that a counterfeit paradise has got to be better than a good hell. Though at first they recognise that the paradise is bogus, they either don’t dare or wish to expose it as such. As time passes, they forget that it’s not real and actually begin to defend it, insisting that it’s the only paradise in existence.

Democratic one-Party dictatorship, rule of law with social stability as its top priority, an authoritarian government for the people, a state-controlled market economy, fair competition dominated by the central government-owned enterprises, scientific development with Chinese characteristics, self-centered harmonious diplomacy, a multi-racial republic with sovereignty of one people, post-Occidental and ‘post-universal’ thought of the subject, and national rejuvenation of the incomparable Chinese civilization.

In Singapore, quite often, when we want to arrange a meeting, we don’t ask someone if they are free for a meeting, we ask them if they are free for coffee.

Which makes Patlaw’s contact email for her new agency the most kickass contact email address for any company. anywhere.

In case you still haven’t found it … [coffee][you know what goes here][goodstuph.org]

A must read if you are interested in understanding the spin behind mainstream (i.e. Straits Times) articles.

Trapper’s Swamp – Thoughts of a misanthropic, liberal, egomaniacal atheist

Brilliant commentary all around. Take this post on this Straits Times article:

Responding to a student who asked if Singapore would adopt a new political attitude or stick to its Asian values stance, he said: ‘We need to be more self-confident.’

He related how when he became education minister in 1997, he was surprised to find that teachers lacked confidence in themselves, even though they were doing a great job.

‘Everybody was telling them that they were doing the wrong things,’ he said. ‘I said: How can this be? People are coming to learn from us, see how we teach, why we are successful. Yet our teachers don’t have self-confidence.’

It led to Mr Teo resolving to set up a unit at the National Institute of Education for teachers to study why Singapore’s education system works and how it can be improved further.

Callan Tham:

In one sure stroke, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean deflected a question, equated the country with his party, and patted himself on the back for formulated a policy that doesn’t address the issue and rife with conflicts of interest.

How? Read it over here.

While having coffee with Daniel of Young Upstarts, he shared the secret of his English essay writing abilities – GAMING.

danielgoh:

One of the best things I ever did in my youth was to play role-playing games. Taught me problem-solving skills and about consequences.

Seeing the tweet, I’m reminded of two articles I read about the link between gaming and skill acquisitions.

Why Dumb Toys Make Kids Smarter

The second half of first grade, our son started reading the fine-print paragraphs on the cards. He got more reading time in through his love of Pokémon than he ever did at night, when we handed him books. He did read the books out loud to us, but it was a necessary chore. Pokémon was never a chore. And I noticed the paragraphs on the cards were syntactically far more complicated than anything he read in books. Soon, the same brain transformation that drove his math speed was reproduced with his reading speed.

Our son taught me an extremely valuable lesson. When it comes to kids, we often bring moralistic bias to their interests. There’s a pervasive tendency in our society to label things as either good for children or bad for children. Cultivating children’s natural intrinsic motivation requires abandoning all judgment of good and bad content. Society has a long list of subjects that we’ve determined they should learn. But learning itself is kick-started when enmeshed and inseparable from what a child inherently loves.

As always, the right game matters.

Awesome By Proxy: Addicted to Fake Achievement

To progress in an action game, the player has to improve, which is by no means guaranteed – but to progress in an RPG, the characters have to improve, which is inevitable.

RPGs are many things, but they are almost never hard. As I realized in childhood, the vast majority of RPG challenges can be defeated simply by putting in time. RPGs reward patience, not skill. Almost never is the player required to work hard – only the characters need improve. Failing to defeat Zeromus might mean your strategy is flawed, but it also might mean your level is too low. Guess which problem is easier to remedy?

Geek uses Monte Carlo simulation method to ensure he never gets caught without an umbrella when it rains:

Umbrellas to work, or why engineers should get married:

Now I don’t take any umbrellas along with me, so with the recent change in weather (it has been raining cats and dogs and all sorts of mammals in between) I have been caught a few times in some unpleasant wetness. It is during one of these wet commutes from home to office I was thinking of ways of making sure that will not happen again.

Therein lies the problem. Let’s say I keep 1 umbrella at the office and another at home. If it rains when I’m leaving the office, I will carry that one home, leaving 2 at home and none at the office. If it rains the next day when I leave home it’s ok, I will just take an umbrella to the office, making it 1 – 1 again. If it doesn’t rain and therefore I don’t take any umbrellas to the office, I will be left with 2 – 0. If it happens to rain when I’m leaving the office I’m stuck with getting wet again.

He discovers that:

In February where the probability of rain is the lowest (39%), I will only need 23 umbrellas at each location to almost guarantee that I will not get wet (the whole deal assumes at the end of each month, I replenish each location with the necessary number of umbrellas, of course).

And learns that his wife is smarter:

That evening when I proudly told my wife my findings at home, she stared at me for while (frostily if I might add) …

An event to meet top international investors:

“In Bed With The Right Investor” gets individuals up close and personal with the illustrious international investor panel of iMATCH who will be seated on the famous beds of supperclub Singapore. If you are an entrepreneur present at the event, pick the investors you want to speak to, throw your business card into their respective lucky draw bowls, and get lucky when they pick out yours. Then get to cozy up to the investor on the comfortable beds of supperclub, ask a question, stay, or move on to another investor.

Loyalty Lessons From Lady Gaga

1. Give fans a name. Gaga doesn’t like the word “fan” so she calls them her “Little Monsters,” named after her album “The Fame Monster.” She even tattooed “Little Monsters” on her arm and tweeted the pic to fans professing love for them. Now fans are getting their own Little Monster tattoos.

2. Make it about something bigger than you.
3. Develop shared symbols.
4. Make your customers feel like rock stars.

On number 3, the night of drinking that saw the 4 Brothers of S11 became close during that crazy period of Tiger Beer infused nights was the night that second bro taught me the secret handshake.

Learned of this 3in1kopitiam forum today.

Truly a revelation. Go and read the posts there.

Principles of Living Stories:

1. Unified Coverage
2. Story Summary
3. Story Developments
4. Various levels of detail
5. Prioritization of story developments
6. Remembering what the user has read

There’s no speed limit:

Kimo’s high expectations set a new pace for me. He taught me “the standard pace is for chumps” – that the system is designed so anyone can keep up. If you’re more driven than “just anyone” – you can do so much more than anyone expects. And this applies to ALL of life – not just school.