Meaningful Living

I asked a group of students in a group chat :"Does any of you use any other chat apps besides Whatsapp?  If yes, what are they?" One person replied :"Telegram".  And no one else responded after that.  When I asked why no one else replied, a few said "cos same, telegram". So, this blog is to to talk about the difference between a quiz and a survey, according to my humble understanding. A quiz is likely to be one that has a fixed answer, or a fixed set of answers.  For example, if someone asked :"What is 1+1?".  There is no need to respond if the person who responded earlier gave the correct answer.  We can, of course, say the same answer or give another answer if we think the answer given was incorrect.  In this case, it doesn't matter how many people respond to the quiz (but of course, a teacher will want more students to try to answer). On the other hand, a survey requires as many people to respond as possible, because the sample group size ...

In one of Warren Buffet's speech on how to have a successful business, he urged his audience to make a friend out of every customer. Some of his pointers: 1.  Don't worry about things we cannot control or change, but one thing we could change is customer experience.  We want the customer to think of our company the moment they need a product in that area.  For example, if you want to have fried chicken, who do you think of? 2.  In order to provide good customer experience, we need to first give our employees good experience. If I am good, having just one of me is not enough for the company to succeed.  We need to learn to multiply ourselves.  Meaning, impart essential skills and values to the employees, ensuring they are happy working for us, and that they think like us. 3.  Surround oneself with people better than us.  This way, we learn good practices, and we get challenged to do better. 4.  Ask ourselves, what speciality can we bring to th...

One of my former Principals called me a "practical" person, in a good way.  She was telling the rest that to be effective, it is not about doing a lot of things, but doing the right things.  For me, I guess it is more about using logic to help in my decision making. I am not very certain how a practical person is being defined, because it is not likely for a person to be 100% practical. A good match, in my opinion, would be being practical but yet flexible enough to know how to make good decisions fast. The following points are put together after analysing my thinking and choice of actions.  Other practical persons may do things slightly differently. 1.  Sticking to the objective.  When I make decisions, it is heavily dependent on how likely it will achieve the objective of the task.  Many people, when they start brainstorming, may come up with ideas that stray further away from the objective. And in meetings, I am usually the one who voice this out and bri...

Studies show that the odds of saving a goal in a penalty kick in soccer is about 17.4%. Why is the odds so low? Experts also suggest that the best strategy for the goal keeper is to stay central during the penalty kick. Then why, do we almost always see goal keepers diving left or right side when the shooter kicks? Many goal keepers, when interviewed, said that they dived one side because (1) if they guess the direction correctly, that would increase the chance of saving the goal; (2) if they did not save the goal, no one will blame them for "doing nothing". Point (2) above, is an example of the concept of "Perception is Reality".  No matter how good a goal keeper is, if the fans perceive him to do nothing and hence lost the goal, then that becomes a reality, that "he did nothing and hence lost the goal".  The fear of this perception can lead one to choose a less strategic option, as in this case. Another example : You have some very good products in your ...

Recently I have episodes of pain in one of my toe joints.  Saw the doctor and had blood test done.  It could be the start of gout, although the blood test showed that my uric acid level is normal. I did some research on gout, and want to share it here.  Let's start with Purine.  It is a substance that our body produces, as well as can be obtained from food we eat.  Our digestive system breaks down purine into uric acid.  But when we consume high levels of purine, uric acid will build up and form crystals.  These crystals reside in the joint areas, and cause pain.  This leads to Gout and other health problems like diabetes and kidney stones.  Gout is common in people between 30 and 50 years old, but older people can start getting it too. The joint pain is easily treatable in my case, with NSAID (Non-steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs like Diclofenac) or with Colchicine, and an application cream called Diclogel. High purine foods to avoid, or no...

Decision Making is affected by our attitude, as mentioned in a few earlier posts.  Here, I will attempt to explain my thinking process in terms of decision making, which has served me well so far. What is a good attitude then?  Basically, our attitude reflects the way we think .  A good/positive attitude is when we believe in something or someone, and we do our best to make sure the outcome is good/desirable, usually in a win-win manner.  A negative attitude is when our prejudice, biasness, laziness, dislike or perception for something or someone affects our effectiveness/enthusiasm, hence the choice of our actions, which often result in a less-than-desired outcome.  Sometimes, there is no right or wrong, because there are many other people making decisions at the same time too.  Whether our decision made is a good one, depends on the combined effect of these other decisions and hence the final outcome.  For example, we do the right thing by waiting fo...

An episode of the TV series Desperate Housewives ended with this comment: " It is not hard to die, when you know you had lived ". I agree.  For people who have done their fair share in  contributing to this world/society , they can leave this world with their head held high.   Many young people spend most of their time enjoying the current moment, and not preparing for the future.   Many grown ups spend most of their time being caught in the rat race (earning money, spending money, worrying not enough money, quarrel over money, earning money, spending money, worry about money, and the cycle goes round and round, just like running on a rat wheel).  Our life can be happier if we shift our focus, say from chasing money to wanting happiness (or happy family).  But the topic of shifting focus will be in another post as this is not easy to achieve too [note: shifting focus doesn't mean we do not work hard to earn money].   Here's a simple list...

Quite often on food shows on television, we hear food stall owners say things like: Style 1: "we use only the freshest ingredients in our sauce,  unlike other stalls  who use dried stuffs....." "the noodles we cook are just right,  other stalls  normally cook until very soggy....." "..... 外面的不一样...." Style 2: On one programme I watched, one of the food stall owners said: "When I came to Singapore, I saw many fish and chips stalls.  But I noticed their fish and chips are  done differently  from the way I do it.  So I set up a stall here to let Singaporeans try something different....."   There is a big difference between the two styles of commenting.   To cut the long story short, when we want to say nice things about ourselves,   focus on what we are good at .   There is  no need to run others down , which may be an unfair or is inaccurate.   Possible application in our life: When we need to tell people what our ...

Colon cancer is one of the top cancer diseases in Singapore citizens.  Reasons include insufficient intake of fiber (fruits and vegetable), plus other unhealthy habits.  Those above the age of 50 are encouraged to go for screening/colonoscopy.  Briefly list the process here for your info. Few days prior to procedure (colonoscopy) : Bowel preparation starts.  Follow the diet given by the doctor.  This is to ensure the colon is clean for the doctor to scan. Evening before procedure (my procedure was 10.30 am next day): Take a few types of medicine for the purging of the colon.  No more food allowed after 7.00 pm.  Needed to dilute the three packets of FORTRANS in 3L of water and drink 250ml every 15 minutes.  The taste was salty but bearable. No more drinks allowed after midnight. 7.30 - 11.30 pm : Need to keep going to the toilet every 15 minutes or so.  Hence, do not go out after drinking those medicine. Let the colon purge until we do not se...

I attended a course on communications.  Since the course content is trade-marked, I wont be naming the course title here. One of the topics was knowing who our audience is, and saying the right things to them in order to obtain the expected results.   To cut the long story short, I am summarising using the story below. The Story A cruise ship was sailing in the North Seas, hit an ice berg, and was sinking. There were not enough life jackets on the ship. The captain wanted only the women and children to have the life jackets. So he needed to speak to all the guys on the boat to persuade them to jump into the water without the life jacket. He first came up to a group of  British  guys, and said: "Gentlemen, it is an  honour  to give up the life jackets to the women and the children."   Without hesitation, the British guys yelled: "For the honour!", and  all jumped into the water without the life jackets. The captain next found a group of...