The net is set for the fish, But catches the swan in its mesh. The praying mantis covets its prey, While the sparrow approaches from the rear. Within one contrivance hides another; Beyond one change, another is born. Are wisdom and skill enough to put your hopes on? From the book Master of the Three... Continue Reading →
The problem with fighting fires
The problem with fighting fires, day after day, is that there's no time for anything else. Sometimes, you just have to step back and observe. To think; to plan; to conquer. That's not going to happen while you're fighting fires. Sometimes, you have to lose the battle to win the war.
The Difference Between Amateurs and Professionals…
...is that amateurs practice till they get it right, but professionals practice till they can't get it wrong. I love that quote. Reminds me of how I push myself to obtain my IPPT golds. In the months leading up to it, I'd train like I was training for the Olympics. During the test days itself,... Continue Reading →
To Judge a Life, Just Look at the Last Half
A beautiful quote from a beautiful book, Vegetable Roots Discourse, #92: If a singing girl is virtuous later on in accord with her circumstances, her earlier life of rouge and flowers will not matter. The faithful wife with white hair who lets down her guard nullifies half a life of chaste endeavor. The proverb reads,... Continue Reading →
Towel pull-ups improved my pull-up max by 50%!
Since completing my full-time national service in the army in 2006, I haven't managed to do more than 12 pull-ups, generally fluctuating between a max of 10 and 12 (I could just about do about 13 in 2006), though I've maintained a pretty decent ready-for-eight-at-any-time standard (i.e. if you asked me to do pull-ups I'd... Continue Reading →
Competitive Intelligence/Analysis
It's strange how today's the first day I realise how closely related competitive intelligence is to so much of what I've been doing and thinking and writing about in the fields of data analysis *slash* business analysis *slash * business intelligence *slash* data science etc. This discipline even has a professional society of called, aptly enough,... Continue Reading →
Happy 2012 everyone!
It's the first day of 2012, and what better excuse to set your goals, resolutions, and plans than today? So what will you be up to this year? Who do you hope to become? What do you hope to achieve? And, how do you expect to become who you want to be, or achieve what... Continue Reading →
No such thing as privacy in the digital age?
I just read this post on how privacy and the digital age are incompatible, and in the most part I find myself agreeing with the author than not. Throughout my digital life I've found my perception of the importance of privacy swinging wildly between the extremes, sometimes being paranoid about what data I give away... Continue Reading →
Aftershock
I just finished watching the Chinese movie Aftershock with the wife-to-be. It's deliciously sob-worthy (I did drop a tear or two in parts), and was overall quite an enjoyable show. The only pity is that this story had the potential to be so much sadder. The family-orientation(?) probably meant that the show was to be... Continue Reading →
What If I Actually Wrote Great Content?
I was just looking through my website statistics, and noticed that two webpages made up more than 80% of my website traffic: Moon Represents My Heart by Teresa Teng and What is Dry Humour?. Although these two posts are as different as night and day, they are similar in one important aspect: they are useful... Continue Reading →