Any sum of money is relative -- $5 compared to $10 is pretty big (50%), while $5 compared to $1,000 is pretty small (0.5%). And this relativity is important because when it comes to financial matters, we are often unware that it exists, leading us to bleed more money than we think we do. Gary... Continue Reading →
My Foray into Sales
As a fresh graduate, I have been exploring my career options lately -- looking at the recruitment section of newspapers, browsing job search sites, asking friends etc, and applying for jobs and going for interviews. In what was one of the earliest "serious" interviews that I have been too, I was asked a question that... Continue Reading →
The Speeding Car
As the ridiculously speeding car zoomed past me, clipped the car beside me and spun out of control, I couldn't help but wonder to myself, "how cool is that?" And I smiled to myself.
On rah-rah self-improvement
I've always had this love-hate relationship with self-improvement. On the one hand, I can't get enough of it. I love reading about it; talking about it; and even occasionally actually acting upon the new things I learn about. On the other hand, self-improvement has always felt corny and overhyped; and oftentimes self-improvement "gurus" simply promise... Continue Reading →
The Job Search
For the past two weeks or so I've been actively looking for a job. Then again, it wasn't so much a job I was looking for than a career; a vocation; a calling. I've heard contrasting theories about the importance of the first job: one proclaiming that the first job is the most important one... Continue Reading →
Freedom from Envy
There was one time I was feeling envious of a peer. I knew it was a problem, for I felt that most other things in my life were in order -- save for this rather uncontrollable emotion. I decided to turn to the internet for help. I searched the phrase "overcoming envy", hoping for a... Continue Reading →
The Job Posting
She watched the plane as it took off, trying her best to hold back the tears that flowed. She had been preparing for this day for the past few months. She remembered how he broke the news to her: the dinner; the wine; the soft lighting. She remembered, too, how hurt he looked. She had... Continue Reading →
Happiness and the Value of Life
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of the bestselling book Flow, writes in his follow-up book Finding Flow that being happy alone does not mean we have a good quality of life; rather, he says that it is what we do -- not how happy we are -- that determines the quality. I do not agree --... Continue Reading →
Nails on a blackboard
Lately, I've been bothered by a lack of purpose in my life. I've officially graduated, having received my final semester results a couple of days ago (they were average -- more or less what I had expected). Up until then, I had told myself I deserved a little break, and that I could do whatever... Continue Reading →
The Eternal Lightness of Being
I recently finished Milan Kundera's book The Eternal Lightness of Being. This has been the first novel I've read in years, and I must say it doesn't disappointment. Although I'm not a fan of authors breaking the fourth wall, it was relatively infrequent and not excessive. The stories (the book revolves around a few protagonists)... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 