"Music used to be good and proper" - me listening to Roxette's Listen To Your Heart.

I'm an Indo-Chinese, my fam lived through the '98 riots that burned my family's business down — yet I still believed in Indonesia's potential. 20+ years later, watching from outside, that potential's still locked away by bureaucracy and corruption. The Nadiem Makarim mess says it all.

Creativity in an AI-engine looks backwards. If you outsource your creative thinking to AI, then you have to accept that the output will drown in a sea of sameness.

A former colleague, in his sixties and still professionally active, shared a profound perspective with me: "I simply regard myself as a well-compensated volunteer. I arrive, fulfill my duties, and depart. I no longer internalize workplace matters; I am merely a volunteer."

Growth - for whom, at what expense and why? Growth has to have its limit. Don't chase growth blindly.

🫠

With humidity, today feels like 41 degrees Celsius. Can we please normalise wearing shorts to work in 🇸🇬 ?

We are human beings, not human doings. Why, then, do we allocate the majority of our time to being busy, rather than dedicating sufficient time to stillness?

Much needed 😌

Random sales guy giving out pamphlets on a new condo launch: "Freehold apartment in Thomson - interested?" "I can't afford it", I replied. The best answer I could think of. No more soliciting.

One of the unexpected joys I had in #China was its Great Firewall. It was nice to be able to unplug from the "Western internet" and social media - a break from what seems to be a constant doom and gloom on the internet is good for the soul.

Grabbed our last breakfast in #Shanghai before heading back home. Food came from Meituan and the hotel robot even brought it right to our room. The tech scene in #China has really blown me away this trip. You can pretty much do everything and anything just using your phone.

"Singapore is not a clean city. It's a cleaned city." Since I read that on Reddit a while ago, I can't stop thinking about it.

I learned that back in Confucian times, smart guys and even farmers were thought of as way more important than business people. The thinking was that scholars helped run things and were good role models, while businessmen just seemed to be making money off everyone else, kind of like capitalism.

If the ax is dull, And one does not sharpen the edge, Then he must use more strength; But wisdom brings success.

Retail in #China: Service is excellent. They take pride in what they do: warm but not over the top and efficient. It's not uncommon to find younger retail staff who speak English. For those who don't, they leverage AI technology as an interpreting tool.

Had a "head therapy" in #Suzhou today. Basically a therapist washes your hair, cleanses your scalp, and massages your head. Reminds me of #creambath in Indonesia sans the shoulder massage.

A quaint cafe tucked along a creek in #Hangzhou. My retirement dream is to own such a cafe that turns into a whisky bar in the evening.

A grand temple stands juxtaposed amidst towering modern buildings in #Shanghai, presenting a striking contrast.

Friendster is back? Can we bring back MSN messengers and ICQ too, pls?

I grew up watching The Simpsons and today at the age of 40+, watching it remains to be my guilty pleasure. Long live The Simpsons. D'oh!

Extreme heat is the default heat setting in Singapore. So it boggles the mind whenever I see dog owners walking their Huskies or Chow Chows. Their dogs look miserable in our sweltering weather.

Surely it's time for Americans to say, "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me"?

Last year, I got a work phone. I turn it off after work and on weekends. This creates a boundary since I cannot control colleagues' respect for personal time. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Weekend vibes. The library.

It was a heavy week at work. Thank god it's the weekend.

Free upgrade, free breakfast, and late checkout beat novelty. In the current economy, most, if not all, consumers will chose value over bells and whistles. www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article...

Man, I'm really feeling my age these days. There's nothing I love more than just chilling at a coffeeshop, sipping my kopi-o kosong, with the uncles chatting away in the background – it's like perfect background noise.

Ruthless prioritisation is not a productivity hack. It's a leadership philosophy. It means being willing to name the trade-off out loud: if we build this, we delay that by 6 months. Leaders who skip that convo aren't being optimistic. They're being dishonest: with their teams, and with themselves.

"We were conned by the tech companies on Y2K. I think we're being conned by the same actors now on AI". - things heard in my boardroom. 🫠

AI isn’t the problem. Using it to avoid fixing fundamentals is. So is calling dysfunction “efficiency” and outsourcing bad decisions to machines.

The best thing about hanging out with people my age or older is that everyone wants to be home before 10 pm. 10pm is like 3am GenZ time.

AI adoption reveals the limits of businesses' operating models built for a different form of intelligence. When the underlying architecture is optimised for control, consistency and managerial mediation, any new capability gets bent back toward those constraints.

Sambal but not spicy? Blasphemy! Nasi padang with no nasi? Double blasphemy!

Blessed Resurrection Sunday ❤️

Microsoft Teams should come with a health warning.

Hosted our overseas friends and took them around the island. I was appalled by the low service standards in our country that I suffered a 2nd-hand embarrassment. Yikes - we've got a long way to go as a society.

Bye pesky flyers! www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/pr...

I've never watched a single episode of Single's Inferno. Just like how I've never watched a single episode of Game of Throne. I remembered vacationing in Dubrovnik and many GOT fans were cooing about the places or the castles idk and i had to nod along politely, feigning interest.

"You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance."

Went tile shopping yesterday and discovered a world I hadn’t known existed—variety not just in patterns, but in materials. My interior designer’s eyes lit up as he explained each choice for my new home, making me wonder what it feels like to love one’s work so deeply. I've never had it.

Man Utd came out top in the Manchester Derby. Who would have thunk it?

Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife. Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues.

Amazon managers are now expected to hall monitors. *slow clap* www.businessinsider.com/amazon-flags...

One of the quirks in Singapore society that I never embrace is the usage of the term up/downgrading when it comes to property, e.g., moving from public to private housing = upgrading; from a 5-room flat to a 3-room flat = downgrading.

Death, taxes, and #ManchesterUnited sacking their manager mid-season.

Remember that news don't travel unless they're bad news. For the most part, at least.

"Are you not of more value than this little lily?"

What drained you in 2025? How can you have less of that this year? What energised you in 2025? How can you have more of that this year?