Friends and Values - a Reflection

Say you have a friend. Who is a vegan. And for the purpose of this illustration, you are not a vegan. And like friends sometimes do, you sometimes have heated arguments with your vegan friend. Maybe about veganism. Or how the world can/cannot sustain carnivorous human lifestyles. And in the heat of the moment, in exasperation, your vegan friend will call you the worst name he can possibly imagine to insult you: a Carnivore. And sometimes, if he is particularly pissed off at you, he may even call you a Cannibal.

Why hawkers are a dying breed.

Two stories about hawkers were in the news recently.

The first was a story about "Robo-cook". This machine could be programmed to fry Hokkien Mee, and many other recipes. However, most of the comments were that a machine could never replace a hawker with experience, intuition, and passion for food-craft. And then comments veered into laments about how the hawker trade is dying out and there must be some way to keep these skills and traditions alive.

The second was a story about NEA asking for not-for-profit or social enterprises to run 4 hawker centres. The intention was that social enterprise or not-for-profit organisations managing these hawker centres could mean lower prices for customers and a better deal for the hawkers (lower rent).

Both these desires - keeping the hawker tradition alive, and creating a conducive environment for hawkers to ply their business fail to consider the key issue or criteria: who wants to be a hawker?

Videos: Materialism, Pro-social behaviour, and Luck's role in Success

There is a high price for Materialism.



The role of luck in your success.

Money makes you mean.

False Equivalencies

“What are ‘pets’?”

“Um… they’re animals you don’t eat.”

“I thought those were called, ‘children’?”

That is my favourite dialogue from the animated film, “The Croods”.

I thought of it recently when the incident of a woman putting her pet puppy to sleep (for being overly aggressive) resulted in an explosion of comments on Facebook. Many commenters asked something along the lines of “what if her children were ‘overly aggressive’? Would she put them down too?”

Which is an example of “False Equivalencies”.

A puppy is not the same as a child.

Meritocracy is the Enemy of Democracy. Discuss.

Meritocracy is the process of selecting a person based on their merit/ability.

Democracy (Representative Democracy, anyway) is the process of electing a representative based on the voter's choice.

Ergo, unless voters choose based on merit, Democracy subverts or at best ignores merit, and if the most meritorious candidate does win, it is usually a coincidence.

[Longer post to follow.]

Why Singaporeans are dissatisfied

This article was written with an American audience in mind, but it does apply to somewhat to Singapore too.

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7 Reasons the World Looks Worse Than It Really Is

By David Wong August 19, 2013

A billion people have been lifted out of poverty in just the last 20 years. Did you know that? Do you know how it happened? Do you sit around thinking about how wonderful that is?

Should you buy a car?

A Checklist.

A) Do you NEED a car?
What do you need the car for? Commuting? Expanding your social horizons? Work (your job requires you to run all over Singapore, and time is of the essence)? Family (you have 4 kids under the age of 12 and your parents are in wheelchairs)?

B) If you don't have a car now, how do you cope with whatever you need the car for in (A)? How do you get to work currently? How do you expand your social horizons? How do you do your work without a car? How do you move your family around?