My Life (1981 – now): A Review

Posted on January 23, 2012

Happy Water Dragon Lunar New Year! (Gong Xi Fa Cai!) With new year, comes new hopes and aspirations. So I thought I’ll do a review of my life thus far. This is my first time doing a life review.

What triggers me to do a life review? Well, time flies and life is short. So I need to examine whether I have been living the way I want it to be. It’s the right time for a review, because the year 2011 (metal rabbit lunar year) had been so special to me in many ways:

January 2011: I got married
April 2011: I got promoted (my first-ever promotion in a job)
July 2011: I hit the big 3-0 (I’m 30 years old)
September 2011: I traveled to central Europe for the first time. I had a super good time there.
November 2011: For the first time in my life, I spoke in front of an audience about something that I’m passionate about (no, it’s not directly related to my work).
December 2011: the biggest achievement in my life so far: I became a father.

Not bad eh? After all those achievements, you probably think that I’m contented and happy.

But I’m not…

Hold your judgment. I’m not a greedy ungrateful dude that you think I’m. I’m not contented because I miss my life, back in 1999. That’s when everything in my life went so well. I managed to prove people wrong. No one believed I could achieve my dreams. But I did it! I went to National University of Singapore, and I got a pretty girlfriend.

Ah, the sweet taste of victory. This movie clip pretty much described my feelings in 1999.

Oh gosh! Now I get it. I know the result of my life review now. Here it is:

My current life sucks

Yep, that’s true. My life sucks. Despite all my achievements, I don’t feel any glory like the one that I had in 1999. And my current life doesn’t lead me to shout: “I’m the king of the world!” (that’s how I felt back in 1999). I have nothing to shout about now. My life thus far has been average. Average in happiness and success. Simply average in every angle!

It’s not about being grateful for what I have (I’m grateful for everything that I have now). But it’s about being outstanding – not being average. It’s about wanting more and about shaping the world around me, the way I want it. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Listen to Steve Jobs in the interview clip below, and you’ll see that I’m not so crazy after all.

I know I’m capable of achieving so much more. I believe in myself. I believe in my ability – because no one else will.

It’s 2012 (water dragon lunar year). And I have bigger dreams now. I won’t tell you what these dreams are, because according to Derek Sivers, I have to keep my goals to myself. But mark my words: I will make these dreams come true – just like I did in 1999. (I will “go get it. Period.”)

Using A.S.H.E.N to discover what you know (or lost)

Posted on July 7, 2009

Michael Jackson (MJ) is dead and the world wept for him. Some people claimed that there will never be another MJ. His talent in song writing and singing is exceptional and unique. As we lament the lost of a legend – a magnificently talented singer – we might also be affected by our reliable and talented colleagues or employees who hand-in their resignation letter.

Depending on the available budget and time, organisations often struggle to find a good replacement for their star employees. However beyond the constraint of limited organisation’s resource, more often than not, many employers are clueless in finding a good replacement for their leaving employee. Both the HR department and the immediate superior – the two groups of people who screen candidates – are often rely on job description, job requirement, and interview techniques.

While the above hiring mechanism may help in filtering out unsuitable and incompetent candidates, the tools are geared to discover the candidates’ skills, experience, and attitude – which do not add up to replace the lost knowledge assets. The knowledge that walks out the company door, due to staff attrition, needs to be replenished more effectively to prevent the deteriotation of corporate (or departmental) capability.

In this knowledge-age, organisations may led to believe that nobody is indispensable and talent is overrated. However, the impact of talent lost to the corporate competitive edge is real and can’t be underestimated. Unless the company has a robust succession planning in place, replacing a talent is always an opaque process. Even the mighty Apple, the producer of iPod and Mac, has problems to discover the value of Steve Jobs, their charismatic CEO. NASA lost its’ ability to send people to the moon because they unsuccessfully replace the old engineers with the new ones who have different types of knowledge assets.

A.S.H.E.N Framework

Dave Snowden, the Chief Scientist of Cognitive Edge, has proposed A.S.H.E.N – which stands for Artifacts, Skills, Heuristics, Experience, and Natural talent – framework to identify knowledge assets. Artifacts are things that produced by people, which include documents. Skills are expertness, practised ability. Heuristics are methods that people used to do work. Experience is an ability that is acquired through time. and Natural talent is an ability that is difficult to emulate.

With A.S.H.E.N model, organisations would be able to examine what their employees know, and to mitigate risks associated with the lost of knowledge assets. For example, an employer or a supervisor should find out from the employee who is leaving, the following items:

Artifacts. Where did he file his documents?, what types of documents did he create?
Skills. What are his skills?
Heuristics. How did he get things done?
Experience. What kind of prior experience he has that help him in his work? What sort of experience that he gained from the course of his employment?
Natural talent. What are the aspects of work that he excel in and noone can do a better job than him?

However, to minimise the impact of lost knowledge assets, the employer should attempt to transfer the knowledge in the leaving employee’s head. Transferring knowledge can be achieved through codification strategy – where the exiting employee documents what they know, personalisation strategy – where the leaving employee mentor / coach his successor, or both strategies.

Codification strategy is best used to transfer explicit knowledge – the artifacts, skills, and heuristics aspect of knowledge assets, while personalisation strategy used for transfering tacit knowledge – the experience aspect of knowledge assets. Unfortunately, there is no way to transfer the natural talent aspect of knowledge assets.

Knowledge Sharing Lessons from a Technician

Posted on June 8, 2009

My department, Data and Knowledge Management Department (DKMD), has recently concluded a corporate-wide event: The Knowledge Management (KM) Awareness Week 2009. It was held from 29 May 2009 to 5 June 2009, featuring 3 KM experts: Dr. Alton Chua of NTU, Mr. Kan Siew Ning of Singapore Police Force, and Mr. Ng Kok Chuan, the current president of Information and Knowledge Management Society (iKMS).

When I was busy preparing for the third talk, a complete stranger – a technician who was on duty to manage Auditorium and was not part of our company – shared his knowledge on improving lights and audio in our vodcast. Here is an account of what happened and the take-away from the incident.

On 3 June 2009, my colleague, Jaslyn, and I were rehearsing for the KM Awareness Week event the next day at the Auditorium. A technician from One Marina Pte Ltd was helping us to setup the projector and the speaker. When we tested the CEO vodcast on his thoughts about knowledge sharing, the technician suddenly pointed out that the image in the video was ‘soft’ – a term used to indicate that the image is too dark – and the sound was not clear.

Remembering that one should give constructive criticism instead of just criticism, I asked the technician on how to improve the video and the sound in that video. To my surprise, he told us that he used to work for a broadcasting company, and he shared that to improve the video, I could use a reflective material – such as paper or Aluminum foil – to direct the room’s light to highlight the speakers’ face, and to improve the audio, I should have placed the voice recorder closer to the speakers’ mouth. The technician shared his knowledge further by demonstrating the effect of light reflection, using a paper, on Jaslyn’s face.

I was delighted, not because he told me the image and sound quality weren’t good, but because he shared a constructive criticism – a practical knowledge on how to improve things. I had received similar feedbacks on the video’s image and audio before, but without knowledge on how to improve them.

I believe that people appreciates knowledge sharing in general, but some of us – like me – dislike negative feedbacks or comments without improvement suggestions. The issue is less on the ability to receive criticism, but rather on having the knowledge to improve our work. We, at the receiving end of criticism – or knowledge sharing for some of us, usually know that certain aspect of our work can be improved, but more often than not, we don’t know how to improve our work.

Another interesting aspect of the knowledge transfer that happened between the technician and me was the fact that we barely know each other and he shared his expertise for free. In today’s commercialized world, most of us tend to believe that we ought to know and reward the person, who has the knowledge that we wanted, before that person shares his or her knowledge. But, the story above tells us otherwise. Knowledge sharing can happens between strangers and without extrinsic rewards – such as money, performance ratings.

A decision making model for pursuing further studies.

Posted on August 2, 2008

According to Business Times, 31 July 08. Over 50% of workers would like to pursue further studies. And a third have doubts about the career they are in. While three-fifths of Singaporeans are content with their career choice, 11% are convinced they are in the wrong field. But financial considerations are a deterrent to switching careers, while time and family also rank highly.

The above article seems to suggest that Singaporeans want to pursue further study to change career, and they are held back by financial considerations, time and family. Although obtaining higher education might seems logical move, one need to exercise caution. There is no guarantee that extra credentials will mean automatic landing on to the career of your choice. Many companies will look at factors outside academic achievement, such as work experience and interpersonal skills.

However, pursuing further studies could means extra salaries in your long term career prospects. According to Donald Asher, author of Graduate Admissions Essays, higher education has a strong positive impact on income, and strong negative impact on unemployment. For example, the unemployment rate for P.hD in 2000 in USA was 0.8%. Graduate school is probably the second best investment you’ll ever make in your life. (Note: In my opinion the first best investment you’ll ever make in your life is buying a house).

It is clear that extra credentials is one of the milestone of your life, and it needs careful considerations. To ensure that you make the correct decision before you embark on further studies, you can use Decision matrix tool. In order to use this tools, you need to determine weightage factors:

5 = Strongly agree; 4 = Agree; 3 = Neutral; 2 = Disagree; 1 = Strongly disagree

And list some pros and cons of pursuing further studies:

Pros = Better career prospects; Higher income; More knowledge

Cons = High cost; Demand on Time

The next step is to construct a table such that each factor is cross-checked against the others. For example: Career Prospect (A) against Knowledge (B) –> A is rated at 4, while B is rated 2. This means that I value A more than B. See below for details:

	Career Prospect (A)	Knowledge (B)	High Education Cost (C)	Less Time for social life (D)	Total
Career Prospect (A)	-	A4, B2	A4, C2	A4, D2	A = 12
Knowledge (B)		-	B3, C3	B2, D4	B = 7
High Education Cost (C)			-	C2, D4	C = 7
Less Time for social life (D)				-	D = 10

Total is computed for each criteria. For examples: A4 + A4 + A4 = 12; B2 + B3 + B2 = 7

The above table implies that I value career prospect more than other factors. Since career prospect is one of the pros of pursuing further studies, then I should pursue further study.

Singapore Job Market Q2 08

Posted on August 1, 2008

Taken From Business Times, 1 August 08.

The jobless rate stood at a seasonally adjusted 2.3 percent in June, up from 1.7 percent in December last year and 2 percent in March this year, according to preliminary estimates by the Ministry of Manpower.

Employment rose by 70,600 in the second quarter, lower than the 73,200 gained in Q1 but higher than the 64,400 new jobs in Q2 last year. The increase in employment in Q2 was largely due to a record jump in jobs created in the booming construction sector. The sector saw employment rising by 22,100 in Q2.

Taken from Today, 1 August 08.

Recruiters in certain sectors – such as transport, food and beverages (F&B) and business services – expect to keep hiring in the months to come, according to business sentiment surveys by the Economic Development Board (EDB). and Singstat. This could be in anticipation of the Formula One event next month.

The MOM report noted the rise in unemployment reflected “the increase in job seekers as this year’s batch of tertiary graduates entered the labour market and students looked for work during mid-year vacation”.

Those in manufacturing sector face less rosy prospects ahead. In particular, the chemicals sector – which has the weakest business outlook according the EDB report – has seen some plastics firms retrench workers this year.

On the flip side, there employers who find it difficult to fill certain vacancies. For example: employers in IT sector.

Lesson Learned: My advise for job seekers in Singapore

Look for jobs in IT for highest pay package.
If you just want to get jobs, look for jobs in services industry like hotel, transport, restaurants. Caution: F&B industry paid lower than other industry.
Avoid manufacturing jobs, especially those that deals with chemical.
If you already working, hold on to your jobs until market recovers.

Han Xin and Yuen Qi: Two Similar Civil Servants in Different Time

Posted on July 1, 2008

The story of Han xin catches my attention. This guy practiced “taking small insults for greater purpose” in his early life as a nobody. He took insult such as crawling in between legs of a bully who is bigger and stronger. But, that incident was the best thing that happened to him, because it spur him to achieve his ambition. In a way, he uses his anger as a positive energy to achieve success.

One of the most defining moment in Han Xin’s military career is when his talent is not recognized by Xiang Yu, the greatest warrior at that time. Disappointed, he then joined Liu Bang, the future founder of Han Dynasty. He served both Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, as one of the lowest rank officers. His chance came when many of Liu Bang’s follower deserted him, including Xiao He. However, Xiao He came back on his own accord two days later with Han Xin. Han xin disappointed with Liu Bang, because he was never promoted despite multiple recommendations by Xiao He. Liu Bang then asked Xiao He, “So many general left, but you chased only Han Xin. What’s so special about him?”. This event centered Liu Bang attention on Han Xin, and allowed Han Xin to become one of the greatest military commander in history.

In Summary, Han Xin talent is not recognized although he has talent and connection (with Xiao He), however a single event turned his fortune. One single event that turned his life. Some people may call this event, “big break”, or “The Black Swan” (After the book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb), or for those who are religious “Divine Intervention”. Whatever you called it, the event has several characteristics: unpredictable, extreme impact, and retrospective predictability.

Fast forward hundreds of years later, in another time (21st century) and place (Singapore), a young man with similar characteristics and situation existed. His name is Yong Yuen Qi. Like young Han Xin, he has high aspirations, highly talented, but no one recognize his talents despite his efforts. Whether Yuen Qi going to be successful man in the future is uncertain, because the “black swan” or “divine intervention” has not appeared in his life.

Some readers might thought that Yuen Qi ought to excel in small matters first, before he can be trusted in big matters (as what the Bible suggested), and therefore fulfill his ambition and talent. If only the world is this simple, i.e. Everyone who execute small (easier) task would ALL be given bigger (and more difficult) task. This is not always the case:

1. Consider Han Xin who proves himself in managing warehouse, but Liu Bang vilified him exactly because he did small matter (although important, but not valued by Liu Bang). Liu Bang said to Xiao He, “he only good in managing warehouse, but war is different issue. Since he is good in managing warehouse, let’s use his talent and ask him to manage warehouse (only).”

2. Compare this with Yuen Qi, who proves himself in organizing data such that it is more meaningful and presentable. Yuen Qi’s Boss vilified him exactly because Yuen Qi is doing small task. His boss said, “What’s so great about organizing data?…It is simple, everything is done by Microsoft Excel”. No doubt, what his boss said was correct, Excel did most of the job, but Yuen Qi is the one who has organized mind, not Excel. Excel does not run by itself. His boss failed to see this point, and entrusted Yuen Qi with small matters only.

In the above examples both Liu Bang and Yuen Qi’s Boss fall into narrative fallacy, i.e. the bosses already convinced themselves that what their subordinate did was no big deal, and thus no “ordinary event” can convince them otherwise. Note that Liu Bang ignored Xiao He’s advises to promote Han Xin for doing good job in managing warehouse. Likewise, Yuen Qi’s boss suggested Excel work is no-brainer task that deserves no credit. Tragic. This confirms that the “Black Swan” effect (or “Divine intervention”) is required to change someone’s life (for better life or worse).

Up to this point, those deviant readers will try to argue that Yuen Qi and Han Xin should find out what their bosses values. I almost believe such advice. This argument is invalid, since it contains logical flaws. Assuming both men (Yuen Qi and Han Xin) knew what their superior wanted. They still could not do it, because their superior would not allow them to do it. Can you think of small matter that is valued by your boss?…If that task is valued then it is big matter in the first place.

Those people who experienced that they can discover what their boss wanted or small task lead to bigger task, are probably due to statistical inference. You could be doing many small things, until someday your boss “find out” that one of the small tasks is actually a big task. (The division of small and big tasks are pseudo in real life). Think about the flip side, there are many individuals who keep on doing countless small tasks without being recognized. If your boss do not want to promote you for political reason, or for fear of position, can you do anything to convince him?

The moment your boss recognize your work, or the time when your boss feels that you are ready for bigger responsibility is largely determined by random event, instead of what you know or do. Alas, like Han Xin and Yuen Qi, there is nothing much you and I can do to influence the occurence of positive random event (Good “Black Swan” or Divine Interference). Just do your work diligently, and wait for opportunity to present itself.

A Skeptic View on Semiconductor Industry in Singapore

Posted on June 22, 2008

In Straits Times (ST) few days ago, our beloved PM Lee, said that Semiconductor is a vital industry. Thus, he said, “The government remains committed to working with semiconductor companies to understand their needs, reduce the obstacles they face, and help them succeed in this exciting but challenging environment”

Straits Times also reported that Siltronic and Samsung open $1.4b wafer plant in Singapore. This plant is Singapore first 300nm wafer plant and only 1 out of 20 worldwide capable of making the product of that diameter. By 2010, this plant would produce 800 jobs and 300,000 wafers a month.

As mentioned in that article, it is not easy for a country with limited land such as Singapore, to offer the best deal to semiconductor companies, despite Singapore key strengths, which is the high tech electronic manufacturing ecosystem. For this reason, the Singapore government, especially PM Lee deserves big compliment.

However, despite the government valiant effort to lift semiconductor industry and create jobs for Singaporean, I believe Singapore should move away from wafer production for several reasons.

First, the race to produce more superior wafers is not sustainable. The cost of production in Singapore is expensive despite its more productive workers. Additionally, although wafer plants in Singapore generally are technically more advanced than others in low-labors-cost countries like China and India, these countries would eventually learned the new wafer technology and produced the same technologically-advanced wafer as Singapore did, with lower production cost.

Second, dependency on foreign workforce is not sustainable. If you look at the lowest rank of manufacturing workforce, you would see that majority of them are foreigners (usually Chinese, Malaysian, Filipinos, Indian). Whether they are willing to continuously use their hard-earned experience to contribute to Singapore is questionable. They might be tempted to return to their respective countries for higher post. This tendency is especially prevalent among Chinese (China PRC) workers. These workers are young (20+), without commitments.

While semiconductor industry continues to play part in this country, Singapore should reduce its reliance on technology-laden industry, and increase its presence on service-oriented industry, which tap into Singapore’ greatest asset: Human Capital. The emergence of Casinos, IRs, F1 race is a good start, and an evidence of our government’s foresight.