Went for a haircut today. Had noticed that I had more white hairs for a while, but because I was so busy and focused on work, I didn’t take the time to scrutinize my own appearance. Sitting down in front of the mirror today for an extended time while the hairdresser was cutting my hair, I noticed to my horror that I had patches of white hair hidden all around underneath, much more than what I could see along my…
Much has been discussed about how powerful new AI tools such as ChatGPT have the power to transform how we work, and possibly how it may make some jobs done by humans redundant. As someone who enjoys reading science fiction and grew up watching Star Trek, it seems like that the reality where machines become more integrated with the way we live, work and play seems to be getting closer. To fear such new technologies is natural, as it is…
Something happened at work that made me reflect on this. Does a staff who repeatedly makes careless mistakes at work even after being warned to be more careful, or a colleague who is consistently rude or disrespectful without a real reason deserve to be forgiven? At my workplace, the pace is fast and unforgiving. It is tough for newcomers to the industry to learn everything quickly. Yet, being harsh and judgemental on newcomers who make mistakes is not conducive for…
Let’s try a thought experiment – what would you do if money is not a concern? I pondered about this for a moment, and asked myself what I would do. For starters, I want to travel! It has been so long since I travelled regularly, to the extent that I may have forgotten the joy of travelling. I also want to go for a month long yoga retreat, where I can focus on myself and improving my physical and mental…
Do you believe in soulmates? I do, but it seemed like something other people experience, not me. This changed last year when I reconnected with a friend I met online. I had no expectations of online relationships, having tried unsuccessfully to meet people online before. Things never moved beyond casual conversations, and often fizzled out naturally. We got along really well and started chatting daily. Till then, I had never managed to chat with anyone like this, not even friends…
I suddenly thought of this question while pondering my own future path, and decided to ask ChatGPT what it thought about this topic. To my surprise, it managed to come up with a pretty coherent answer that was quite comprehensive: Out of the list, while some of the items were definitely important, they seem to be too broad and large in scale for single individuals to exert any significant impact. However, items 4, 5 and 7 are things we can…
I’m a private person by nature. It takes a long time to get to know me well, as I tend not to trust others easily. Sure, I get along with others at work or in my personal life, but I typically maintain a distance and keep my thoughts to myself in a crowd that I am unfamiliar with. Even the idea of writing a blog didn’t really seem appealing, as it seemed like I was sharing my innermost thoughts with…
Have you ever worked so hard that you skip meals, stop exercising and have trouble sleeping because work is constantly on your mind? Even so, the work never ends and you feel like even though you are already putting in an average of 12 hours a day, you are still forever trying to catch up. This is what I am going through right now, and it is not a pleasant experience. To make matters worse, there is no acknowledgement for…
Something interesting happened when I started writing this blog. At first, it was just about putting thoughts in writing to get more clarity about myself and developing the discipline to do so regularly. As I went along, I started wondering what it took for people to want to pay attention to my blog. This led me to research SEO for blogging, and there was plenty of advice such as finding your target audience, using the right keywords, writing comprehensive articles…
Besides resonating with the Zen philosophy, another reason why I chose Zen as the name for this blog is also my affinity with Japanese culture and language. Having been a fan of J-dramas for many years and a struggling language learner for almost as many years, I have never progressed enough to be able to converse fluently. This may be because although I have had a lot of input, I had never tried to output any of the materials I…