Finding order in randomness. Finding randomness in order.

I went cycling today. Did 25kms in total through the park connector and on to old upper thomson road. The Upper Pierce/Old thomson road part of singapore always gives me a different feeling. Partly because it reminds me of the time when i used to stay at Sing Ming Avenue and run there frequently. In those days I used to work from home and my business was still in its infancy. I remember working work, running hard (many times at 5 am in the morning) while listening to some great books on audible. It was a really good time. While cycling on old upper thomson road today I got that feeling again. Just being in nature, with the sounds, the occasional monkey sightings (i saw a family sitting by the road side today) and the pure clean air - there is something so refreshing about it. I was listening to this book called "Bold". Its by the same guys who wrote Abundance a few years ago (and which I read just recently). Its an interesting book which chronicles what the authors predict ...

I always thought that the pursuit of happiness ( as enshrined in the constitution of the united states) was the noblest of goals and is what everyone should aim towards. I am not so sure anymore. In the last couple of years the more I think about happiness, the more I realise that a meaningful life is not necessarily a happy one. So it depends what you want from your life. Do you want to look back on your deathbed and say "I have lived a happy life" or would you rather say "I have lived a meaningful life and am leaving something behind and have made the world a better place". Do you want to just exist? or you want to create? if you want to create then the goal of happiness is not the right goal for you. For out of misery, melancholia comes some of the best art in this world. Out of suffering comes new ideas, world changing ideas. Not don't mistake my ideas - I am not suggesting suffering is what you should aspire to. In fact there are kinds of suffering that ar...

I have this idea for movies that change their storyline depending on certain parameters received from the audience. this is how it will work: the movie theatre seats will have sensors to measure things like heart beat, perspiration, attention etc. to sense what the person is feeling at that moment. the movie itself will be shot so that there are a lot of possible story-lines. The sensors will feed to the central unit which will decide what direction the movie takes. In this way you can possibly watch the same movie a number of times and come out watching a completely different one!

Health is such a complicated subject. And now a days a very commercial one. So many health products, supplements, diets, juices, super-foods are readily available. Each one promises to be the best thing ever. Take diets for example. Think of any food category and there is probably a diet centered around it. Heck, there is even a 30 bananas a day diet. Yes, you eat nothing but bananas. And I guess it might make you go bananas in the process but I have not tried it so I can't really comment.  See  this ,  this  and  this . But what I am concerned about is the extremes in all these diets. And there is "evidence" which supports their claim and they always have hordes of people who have basically turned from whales to supermodels with these diets. The paleo diet to some extent and some other meat based diets on the one hand are all about meat (and how our ancestors ate), while you also see the exact opposite with a vegan diet or a raw food diet. And there is the new...

Dark skies, broken ties a thunderstorm on the horizon Black truth, white lies is this all just for fun? Slouched bodies, sad faces dragging through existence Tight hugs, soft caresses why all this persistence? easy choices, hard decisions the seriousness of it all simple concepts, misapprehensions is that why they fall?

In my last post I wrote about how people are different and how I learned to just accept that fact. However, that doesn't mean that I am not fascinated by the differences in people. I am most certainly. It amuses me why people do what they do, why they think what they think and why they are the way they are. I guess a lot of it is their culture, upbringing. But also there is a big genetic portion - we are born this way. It is the usual nature vs nurture debate and I think the consensus is that both play a significant role. Also what I have realized (not sure if there is some research on this..) is that some brains are more malleable than others. So something in some people gives them more of an ability to change. A lot of it has to do with the desire to change, however the ability to change is equally important and I believe this ability is genetic i.e. you can't obtain it. So people who have a malleable brain and also the desire to change have the best chance of changing (not ...

One of the better business books I have read is "Good to Great". Excellent read for anyone, not just entrepreneurs. The key message in the book that I understood was that the most important thing that will make a company stand out and be extra ordinary is the people. It sounds like common sense but you will be surprised as to how many businesses out there forget this cardinal rule. The right kind of people at the right places will get things done and nothing else can replace that. No amount of training, education can substitute having the right person at the right job. There was a time when I used to try to understand the world, specifically other people, through my lens. If someone did something which I did not agree with, or which I found extremely repulsive, I would beat myself over how could that person do that? Why can't he or she think like I do? I mean, its so simple but why can't they see it..etc.etc. You get what I mean. Thank god I got over that phase. No...