Your job title doesn't mean much

Your job title doesn't mean much

If you have been to enough networking events, you’ll surely noticed the most common question, other than asking for your name, is what do you do?

Over the years, I’ve learned to alter my job title depending on the situation. If I’m in a tech event, then I’ll introduce myself as Software Developer. Normally, they may follow up with asking what language (programming language) I work with and all the techie stuff.

For almost all other cases, I’ll go with Software Programmer. It usually does the job of communicating that I write code for a living. Saying I’m a developer will confuse some people as they think I build physical buildings instead of software systems.

If you want to grow your business, be a pirate! AARRR!

If you want to grow your business, be a pirate! AARRR!

The one question that every entrepreneur and business owner keep asking themselves, every single night before they go to bed is how do I grow my business?

You may want to increase your sales and revenue to improve the bottom-line. Or you may want to unlock the economies of scale by ramping up your production output.

Whatever the reason, you can only grow your business if you have a clear understanding on how it is performing right now. That means you have to track and measure all the different parts of your business. You simply can’t improve something you are not measuring.

Everyone should build a robot

Everyone should build a robot

Some of you may have seen the 80s movie Short Circuit. It's about an experimental military robot named Johnny Five, which after being struck by lightning, became sentient.

Like most kids, I was fascinated (and still is) by robots and always wanted one. In the sequel of Short Circuit, the creator of Johnny Five made a small toy version of robot. Boy I wanted one so badly. 

Why are you in KK?

Why are you in KK?

Ever since I graduated from my computer engineering degree in  Australia and came back to my hometown, Kota Kinabalu, I've been asked this question many, many times.

Most people assumed I would look for a job elsewhere. After all, there are only a handful of software companies here and opportunities are very limited.

But for the past 13 years, I've chosen to stay back in this beautiful city, despite getting offers and options to further my career elsewhere.

Apple in the mud

Apple in the mud

When someone tell you it is safe to eat something you dropped on the floor as long as it's been there for less than five seconds, that's a rule of thumb.

For most of us, we know that the five-second rule isn't always applicable. If you dropped your apple onto a pile of mud, you know it's not safe to eat it.

Even if you have ninja reflexes and managed to retrieve your shiny red globe the second it is in contact with the brown slimy sludge, you wouldn't be consuming it right after.

Useful Programming Concepts for Everyday Life

Useful Programming Concepts for Everyday Life

I learned programming relatively late compared to most of my peers. It was only in college that I dabbled in it seriously and decided this is what I wanted to do for life.

Personally, I think everyone should learn a little about computer programming. Not because you could build an app on your own, although that's a great skill to have, but to also learn some useful concepts that is beneficial to your everyday life.

Let’s take a look at some basic concepts in the Ruby programming language and how they could be adapted to improve your life

What you had for lunch could change your life

What you had for lunch could change your life

Last night during dinner, I was struggling to recall what I had for lunch. Yet moments later, at the same dinner, I was able to describe the entire experience of having my favourite ramen in Japan months ago.

Have you ever wondered why it is easier for us to recall certain past events in our lives, even though it may have happened years ago, but can’t seem to remember what we had for lunch yesterday?

Live within limits

Live within limits

When Google first introduced Gmail with 1GB of storage, many people including myself was wondering why would you need that much space for your mailbox.

Over the years, the storage limit has now increased to 15GB and most of us have been trained to never delete our emails but archive them instead. By lifting the limit of our mailbox, Google has changed our behaviour.

Services like Netflix have also redefined how we consume TV series by releasing all episodes simultaneously, allowing us to binge-watch them whenever and wherever we want.

Empty cup, open mind

Empty cup, open mind

After the death of Chairman Mao, Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping led his country towards market economy reforms. He understood that it will take significantly longer if they were to figure out the ropes themselves. So he reached out to the World Bank for help to educate his countrymen on how the Western world have been managing their economies.

This helped kickstart the amazing growth China have been experiencing for the past few decades. He famously described the transformation as crossing a river while feeling the stones. He not only understood that they needed help, he also realised those frameworks and insights from others will need to be tweaked and modified to work for their unique situation.

There and back again

There and back again

This is an email written for my team to remind them of the values & principles that brought us to where we are now

It has been more than three years since we embarked on this unexpected journey together and for some reason, we tend to find ourselves back to similar situations again and again.

When John and I first join Mindvalley, we were tasked to build Omvana Online. Then soon after that, we started working on Elula while growing the team. And recently, we started a new quest to develop the greatest personal growth learning platform the world have ever seen.

Personally, I think we are amazingly lucky to have the trust of the company to be the go-to team to build the next big thing. All of us should be thankful for the opportunities given to us and we should never take it for granted.