Double Degrees are a terrible idea

I agree with the HR professionals asked for their views for this article that this is generally a bad idea. I had explained and advised my daughter why. Even in one of the NUS tea sessions for top students a professor didn't hide his disdain for the idea.

People must learn to choose. Don't be like SQ management which want to be good at everything. It is not possible. In fact learning to make choices, taking risks and understanding trade offs is basic to growing up.

I also told my daughter I wonder how many use double degrees to show off that they are brighter students. I don't see medical students complaining about not allowed to offer double degrees. If you let on that you are in medical school, that's also telling people you had done well academically.

I had also explained to my daughter that a scholarship often do strange things to a scholar's emotional health. I think that is unhealthy. In fact I also had a successful non-scholar example for her to learn from: DPM Tharman. Scholars often take themselves too seriously. There is great strengths and advantages in true humility. In fact nobody can be truly free and happy without humility. It is the crowning virtue which most people do not understand.

And I often remind her don't try to win for the sake of winning. The laurels isn't worth it because the price you pay is you will never learn until too late what you really want. You would be too busy trying to look good by coming in tops all the time. You have become a slave to success. Many have fallen into this trap. They are always stressed, anxious and insecure. It didn't used to be like that, but now you can find a ton of them at Harvard and the other top Ivies.

City Harvest Church Leaders trial: The easy stuff

When they first made appearance on our old calendars and the papers went to town to tell and follow the story closely, I could understand round tripping.

Along the way when the prosecution tried to expose how these church leaders were hiding in broad daylight - complex stuff, it became harder to follow. Some readers even begun to think some of them could end up acquitted.

Now it has become easy again and naturally attracted much interest: 173 comments and counting. What! The church spent half a million bucks to buy unsold Ho's CDs? Who do they think they are? The church's bank accounts were their personal accounts to please themselves with?

Sunny Bookshop closing

It is sad to see Sunny Bookshop close but I guess it could not be avoided.

Wifey and I were regulars at their Far East Plaza outlet even before we got married. So many books we took out didn't make it back to the shop. Today we have so many of them with the Sunny loan sticker on the back of their front covers.

When the kids were old enough, we bought them many Magic School Bus and Berenstain Bears from Sunny. The kids outgrown them and we have given them all away for those who can make good use of them.

Once we met the first owner when we were transiting in Taiwan on the way back from San Francisco. It was like meeting old friends. She knew how to connect with customers. If my memory serves me well it was there that she told us she was selling the business. She was reluctant but her husband had persuaded her to call it a day.

Why does Sunny Bookshop have to close? Simply because former regular customers like us no longer buy from them. We are mostly into eBooks now. Meanwhile lacking imagination they had failed to reinvent themselves. A similar fate awaits all businesses that fail to adapt as we restructure our economy.

MSF: 85% satisfied with family life

I am sure that I am not alone in becoming skeptical about survey results. Many are done these days and they regularly contradict each other. They are effectively useless. The truth is out there unseen but sometimes felt.

Just a few days earlier I read about the growing number of young people committing suicide. But in the same report social workers blamed too much smart phone use as the culprit. I thought they were confusing the cause and the effect. That was as inane as blaming crying for sadness.

Given time nobody will trust any survey results and few people are trained to judge if a proper survey was carried out. So there is no point even if the process is transparent.

For me, it is best to be agnostic; as good as no surveys were done.

Update: 10:30am

Just came across this by Andrew Loh. Posting it here because it is convenient. I could have looked for and use any examples. We are spoiled for choice.

The new economy: Too fast, too furious?

Some gold plated economists warned that our efforts to restructure the economy is failing. The government begged to disagree. Who is right?

Some companies will leave and some will fail. I think the government will press ahead hard as long as the employment situation is good. Businesses who feel that they are perishing naturally complain the loudest. Many who are working on reforming themselves are not yet confident they have navigated themselves out of the woods. They are busy and keep quiet. We must not be too alarmed by the noise and the words of the prophets of doom. How can many numbers not get worse before they get better? Even when they upgrade HDB flats, you can't use your loo for a few days while they built you a new one!

Update: 9:45pm

If we do this right, business people at the end of the journey should be thinking in new ways quite different from what we are used to. I don't think this is going to happen. Transformation like these comes with a lot of pain than we are seeing. Of course economists don't think in such terms. Their reference points are often too narrow to be any good.

NUS orientation camps crazy about sex

With annual regularity there will be one or more such stories about university orientation camps in our papers.

As surely as the sun rises everyday, we can expect such stories next year. The university leadership frowned on them but don't do enough to stop them.

I think freshmen should just boycott these orientation camps. They preyed on your fear that if you do not participate you will not make the necessary friends to succeed in university. Use your head and think if you are clever enough to be admitted to NUS or NTU that this is not true.

Replacement USB fan

I didn't expect to need to buy a replacement so soon ($10.90 vs $7.90). In fact, I thought the spoilt  one would last years because it had replaced one that seemed to go on and on.

Let's see how long this one lasts.

I have one of the older ones working 24/7 to keep the router cool.