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"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." - Steve Jobs' commencement address, Stanford 2006

Between studying, working and finding out where does the road less traveled leads to, there is little time for discussion papers.

There is a plan to write one regarding happiness, hopefully that would come soon.

But as a great man once said: "the only certainty in life is uncertainty".

News and Views

"Dear Readers,

It is imperative for me to explain this: I am a mere observer, with no interest in affiliating myself with or against the government. The reason behind this writing is due to the past week's interesting commentaries on the formal and informal channel, thus I have done an analysis and presented it for your reading pleasure.

The following would have a pro-Bersih stance due to balance out the heavily tilted mainstream media. But to clarify, I will reiterate my previous statement, I am only interested in championing human rights issue and in no way supportive of either for or against governmental institute."

Letter from K:

The night before D-Day
"This is the final night before the departure to Normandy-before D-Day. Our training that had lasted for six months is suppose to prepare us for the coming war, but truth be told, I don’t feel combat ready. Don’t reckon I ever will.

It was strategy briefing a while ago and there was an awkward silence before the Sarge spoke. Everyone had known their position in the transport and their company months ago, and since there isn’t much of a strategy in direct assault anyways- I couldn’t be bothered; rather have a smoke.

The military demands that we bunk in early for the invasion, but none of us could get any shut eye. God damn kid below is reciting passages from his bible all night long, must’ve peed his bed while he’s at it. He’s too, what’s the word, oh yeah, too much of a chicken shit- goes trigger happy when he’s shit scared. Don’t know how he got recruited, but I thank the Lord that he’s not in my company. Wouldn’t want to drop dead before I even shoot some of those bastards now eh?

My pin is I945020267 and my name is…Nova. Well that isn’t really my name, just what I’m called in company Delta since nobody have names in my company anymore ever since big Mike vetoed that. I miss you, G. The assault will begin at 0630, and I’m on the second wave heading into sector Juno…that way if I don’t make it, you’d know how to locate me through the officers. But don’t worry; I’ll hide behind big Mike when everything goes FUBAR. He’s so big, it should take a lot to get to me. Heh.

I’ll be back G, and we’ll be together like before. I promise.

Love,
K"

Dinning with the Devils

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts...” –William Shakespeare

It is a dark setting in front of two dozen men and women, or less. The lights lit up at centre stage where a round table and four chairs sit. The actor and actress hurry into the scene. The man in front of the woman is holding a plate of rice, in the late fifties perhaps, has a mean demeanour. The woman at the back tails along, looking about the same range of age.

“Shut the f*ck up!”

“No, I...”

“Just admit it, you f*cked up!”

“Wait, but-“

“Just admit you f*cked up b*tch! The facts are there, just f*cking admit it.”

“...”

The audience, numb struck by the fiery opening scene, stood still in their seats, said nothing. All eyes are fixated upon the scene on the stage, anticipating another blow up, awaits for clue of the explosive entrance; yet there was only silence. Another actor enters the scene, with him is presumably the order of the lady. He lays it down in front of her.

The man and woman continue to dine, albeit the man’s body language suggests that he is still unhappy with whatever that happened. The sound of his spoon and fork clunking against each other angrily, as though expressing his displeasure, his stare from the corner of his eye suggest contempt against his wife- who kept her head down the entire time, dejected by the outburst. A hint of tears erupting from the corner of her eye, but it is too far and too faint for the audience to see.

The awkward silence ensued. The audience, who did not know how to react, chose to ignore the outburst, took down mental notes to gossip upon leaving.

As the drape falls upon the stage, the lights lit up, everyone stood and walked away. The scene comes alive in the bewildered audience head as one turn to another, whispering soft enough for one or two words to slip out; judgement is inevitable.

The Power of Incentive:

The Serengeti Equilibrium

In Malaysia, an ATM machine will charge RM 1 from a non bank cardholder should they withdraw; granted that RM1 is a relatively cheap price to pay, we find ourselves scouting for our respective bank’s ATM machine. From a time where we could withdraw from any ATM machine for free, this tiny amount of money seems to have changed behaviour. If everyone, in response to this policy, chooses to do business with the bank which has the most amount of ATM machine in a particular area, the said bank would inevitably gain an upper hand. Convenience became the advantage of a company because of RM 1.

This is the power of incentives. Through its subtle policy changes, it could manipulate behaviour into conformity. Incentives could be the wages that we earn, the tax deductions that we get from the federal government, the cheaper petrol price we pay to fuel our tanks, etc. Incentives could also exist indirectly in the culture of our upbringing, the dictation of what is accepted and what is not, the subtle influence of governmental policies and so on. Incentives, therefore, is the single most powerful driving force that affects our every day decisions.

At a macro scale, the government determines the path of a nation, and then designs a policy package that contains incentives that motivates its people towards goal congruence. What happens if it is not well thought out?

Thoughts on:

The Death of Bin Laden

When the World Trade Centre was struck in the United States back in the year 2001, I was only 13; waking up from my slumber, accidentally catching CNN replays the footage over and over again. I was in shock and disbelief, oblivious from all the other struggles that were happening around the world. At that point of time, I thought the world was well...at peace.

Refreshing my tweets over and over again in hope of something interesting would come up for me to pass time in lecture, little did I expect the news of Osama’s death would pop up. The manhunt has finally ended. As I scanned through the short report on the assault and his subsequent death, more and more tweets came in, reporting US citizens chanting “U.S.A, U.S.A” in front of the white house, celebration taking place on the streets, American flags raised, and people rejoiced, celebrating the victory against the man who caused much grieve over the past decade.

J. Gary Wise, a writer at ESPN, had his say on his blog about the death of Osama bin Laden and it was thought provoking. There is a hint of disdain on his views of the celebrating Americans, citing that his fellow Americans are celebrating more death as we speak; at hindsight, I had to agree with him, but after dwelling on the issue, I now draw different conclusions.