NUS USP rejection arrives

I am glad the rejection email has arrived. I kind of expecting this after the daughter snubbed them by rejecting their invitation to apply for NUS scholarships.

She never applied to NUS for any of their I was told highly coveted bond free undergraduate scholarships. But she was shortlisted for the scholarships interview shortly after her USP interview. My guess was she aced the USP especially when they threw her to the difficult topic of Russia's annexation of the Crimea and she could engage them successfully for half an hour. They were looking out for intellectual curiosity and she gave it to them in spades.

But when she discovered that the NUS Business School scholarships were no different from the NUS scholarships she contacted them to say she is not keen. Nothing wrong right? But days later I found this

I told her she would probably be rejected for the USP.

The rejection came today.

I think time will prove that she was right to turn down the interview for NUS scholarships.
















Update: May 25 5:15 pm

I have waited for traffic to this post to slow down before this update. This blog is not about eyeballs but I know there is no such thing as privacy on the Internet. Experience taught me the best way to get less exposure is to come back and update the post.

This is the essay the girl submitted that gained her the USP interview. It is about an important insight on the rare quality of foresight which I sometimes regret was in LKY but not in his son. And this essay unlocks that secret especially when nearly everyone is running all over the place trying to peer into the future when the secret is in understanding the present and the past as thoroughly as possible with a clear mind and sharp focus.

This is what years of reading and accumulating Asiapac comics have produced. A very good and low cost investment.

The Myth of Foresight

Foresight can be described as looking forward into the future. However, there is a far simpler way to view it. Superior insight into events and human characters.

Zhuge Liang, the famed Chinese strategist from the Three Kingdoms period, is often reputed to have great foresight. This of course is not surprising. Countless of books have been written about the numerous battles he had won, how he knew exactly where the enemy would go and how they would behave when cornered. All these had only boosted his reputation as a man of legendary foresight.

However, there is a simpler and far easier way to explain Zhuge Liang’s abilities and that is rather than being able to predict the future, he instead knew his opponents very well. Every human being on earth has at least a fatal weakness which would cause them, under the right circumstances, to act in a predictable fashion. As part of a wide network of scholars and other learned men positioned in every Kingdom of the Three Kingdoms era, Zhuge Liang would have been able to easily obtain information about the characters of his opponents. Cao Cao, the leader of the Kingdom of Wei, for example, was very suspicious. While Sima Yi, an able General of the same Kingdom, was cautious and in awe of Zhuge Liang’s prowess in military strategy.  Zhuge Liang then simply lured his opponents into situations in which he could exploit their weaknesses and they could not help but behave exactly as their character would dictate. This would lead to certain defeat as Zhuge Liang would have known how his opponent reacted and planned according. The advantage of surprise and deception, so necessary in ancient Chinese warfare was lost and Zhuge Liang duly won the battle.

To illustrate how Zhuge Liang does this, it is necessary to refer to the episode of the Empty City Stratagem. In this stratagem, Zhuge Liang successfully defended a city from Sima Yi’s attack with only 5000 troops compared to Sima Yi’s 150 000 troops. It was in the year 227 and Zhuge Liang’s general, Ma Su, was attacking the Kingdom of Wei. However, Ma Su chose a poor area to camp leading to his defeat. Thus, it was necessary for Zhuge Liang to remove supplies from the city of Xicheng in preparation for retreat. While he was doing this, he received word that Sima Yi was advancing on the city with an army that far outnumbered his. At this point, it must be noted that Zhuge Liang had not foreseen this attack. Ma Su’s defeat, the city of Xicheng’s vulnerability and Sima Yi’s attack were unexpected events that were not supposed to happen. Furthermore, Zhuge Liang’s favourite mode of attack was ambush where he was able to choose the time and place of the battle. The location of a city with too few soldiers is unlikely to be by his choosing. At this point, it is likely that Zhuge Liang consulted his knowledge of Sima Yi’s character in order to come up with an extremely risky and daring plan. He ordered that all the city gates be opened and that twenty soldiers dressed as ordinary citizen clean the streets at each gate. Meanwhile, Zhuge Liang sat at the top of the gate tower and calmly played a zither. Seeing this, Sima Yi, with his knowledge of Zhuge Liang’s tactics and cautious nature, immediately suspected an ambush and fled. Thus, Zhuge Liang won the battle using not his foresight but his knowledge of his opponent’s character.

So, ‘foresight’ is not an unattainable ability. It is nothing more than superior insight into people and circumstances.