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 →
The High Cost of Living
There is an interesting article on how American companies are increasingly finding that they are not as recession-proof as they thought they once were, including those in industries like cigarettes, gambling, and entertainment that were once considered so. But perhaps this is the time where over-inflated prices of life's non-necessities start coming down. According to... Continue Reading →
I am now on Ubuntu
I'm currently running Ubuntu, a distribution of the Linux operating system (OS). I must say that I have fallen in love with it, and am using it for almost all my daily needs. I had never thought of switching to Linux until recently, when I read about that Linux was getting increasingly popular with businesses... Continue Reading →
U.S. Economic Bailout Fails?
The US$700 billion bailout failed, leading to the biggest drop in the U.S. financial market ever. It's shocking, and deplorable how this might have happened. An article on the MSNBC website regarding the bailout revealed the thoughts of one man who voted against it: Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said he had three insurmountable problems with... Continue Reading →
Mixing Disciplines
I'm currently reading a book on innovation, called The Medici Effect by Frans Johansson. What I have read thus far has intrigued me and got me thinking like no book has for a long time. The basic premise of the book is that innovation often occurs at what Johannson calls the "Intersection". He defines the... Continue Reading →
The Rise of Immigration
The rise of immigrants in Singapore has provoked many Singaporeans into thinking we're being "invaded". The same may be said about many developed countries that feel that they're somehow superior, and that immigrants steal resources from their homeland. However, immigrants are not the only beneficiaries of their immigration: the host country itself stands to benefit.... Continue Reading →
If You Can’t Beat Them…
If you can't beat them, go around them. I'd like to share another great passage from Jim Collin's Good to Great, with regard to the difference between being competent at something, and being the best in the world in something: [C]onsider the young person who gets straight A's in high school calculus and scores high... Continue Reading →
If You Can't Beat Them…
If you can't beat them, go around them. I'd like to share another great passage from Jim Collin's Good to Great, with regard to the difference between being competent at something, and being the best in the world in something: [C]onsider the young person who gets straight A's in high school calculus and scores high... Continue Reading →
Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is something that many people in this modern age are looking for. The most obvious symptoms of lack of balance is when either performance at work suffers due to family commitments, or the family's upset at all the time the individual spends at work. Many employees tend to believe that the onus is... Continue Reading →
The Prejudice Against Age
Being relatively young, I've never really given much thought to if and why older workers tend to be laid off first during an economic downturn. Perhaps due to the availability heuristic, the technical term referring to the assignment of higher probabilities to events more easily recalled, I seem to recall it being so. I'm currently... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 