Aren’t we all Happy ?
Here’s an article from Australian Broadcasting Corp’s website. Interesting read. We have a worldclass airport, world class Universities, world class non-corrupted goverment with world class pay for MPs. Yet …. most singaporeans are often stressed out and unhappy. Is material wealth = happiness ? At the same time, many singaporeans worry about retirement, money for medical bills and rising costs of living. What is real happiness? Is it illusive ? What are dreams ? Are they worth pursuing ? Can dreams keep out stomachs full ?
Read http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/20/2196195.htm
Stressed Singapore hunts for happiest person
Posted
A search has been launched for the happiest person in Singapore, where a recent survey found that 90 per cent of its population feel that life is stressful.
The aptly named Philip Merry, chief executive of consulting firm Global Leadership Academy, is tasked with locating the cheery resident.
“Being based in Singapore and having trained thousands of people across the globe, one distinct trend I have noticed is that despite material wealth and economic success, Singaporeans consider themselves less happy than many other people,” said Mr Merry, who was given two weeks from last Sunday to complete his quest.
“Singaporeans fret about financial security and retirement. Many Singaporeans are concerned they do not have enough money to grow old gracefully, and that seems to make them unhappy.”
Despite its affluence, a poll by advertising firm Grey Group found that nine in 10 people living in the city-state said they were stressed.
Under the contest, citizens aged 18 years and above can be nominated for the title of Singapore’s Happiest Person 2008.
Mr Merry has asked nominators to explain in between 300 and 1,000 words why their nominee is a “model of happiness”.
The winner will stay for free at a beach club in the Thai resort island of Phuket.
The search is being held in conjunction with a conference on ‘The New Science of Happiness and Well-Being’, to be held in Singapore next month.
Almost 60 nominations have been received so far, Mr Merry says.
- AFP
Plant your garden here. Now.
From the department of we-want-you-to-do-something-now.
Make what you will of the Old Testament but even if you just treat it as just another fictional book, there are some nuggets of life lessons it can teach us. So stuck somewhere near the end of the Old Testament is a book called Jeremiah, and in that chapter, terrible things happen to Israel; the Babylonian armies invaded the country, owned the Israelite army and looted everything. They also bring the elites of the country - priests, scribes, nobles and etc. to Babylon - into exile.
(Bear with me, history lesson will be over in just a short while). So at Babylon, the exiles began to long for the old way of life back at Jerusalem. They wanted to go back so badly that they began to believe in their religion again. And it was at this point, a number of so-called prophets spotted the market trend and the instant chance to be popular, and began to prophesy that “Don’t worry; A miracle will happen just like for us back in Egypt; if you can’t remember, go watch ‘The Prince of Egypt’!”.
(History lesson will end in this paragraph). So the exiles began to live the life of mundanes; they just live from day to day, live off the land and just, you know, slack. Why bother doing anything worthwhile when you may be going to be somewhere better soon. Remember, those were the elites from their homeland, living like leeches. Then one day, Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles. It basically said “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their products…seek the welfare of the city [Babylon]” — supposedly a command from their God.
In short - dudes, you are staying at Babylon in exile for a long, long time. Got off your ass and work. Where you are now is the best place to be.
Interestingly, in Singapore we are the opposite. We in Singapore are not exiled but we live like exiles. This is the place we hate, loathed and for guys, have to deal with NS and reservists. There is less freedom of speech, less welfare, less opportunities and etc. when compared with other countries. We wish to migrate; and ironically, it is always the elites of the country, those who are affluent, well-trained, talented, who sought to do so. Or even some of us, thinking that we could do nothing here, settle for a mundane life of day to day complaining, paycheck to paycheck mourning and year to year grumbling.
This is where we are at, Singapore, and the chances of migration, depending on who you are and whom your parents are, are low (and you think other countries are really better. Research). We think “When I leave Singapore I will make a difference” or “Since I can’t leave Singapore I won’t make a difference”. Try answering this question; if someone says person so-and-so is such a person, what would you think of him? Now, if you are such a person, what do you think of yourself, and ultimately, will you change? The likeihood of Singapore changing geographically, economically and politically is lower than you changing yourself and your outlook.
So what are you going to do about your garden?
01. Peaches and Lemons
from the department of we-can’t-tell-whose-who
The problem with many people is that whenever they have a problem with their lives, work or love they usually ask help from gurus, experts and religions. Not that it is a bad thing but just how many of you are willing to turn to economics for help?
Yes economics. Because economics will tell you who will get what, how and why. Until you realize where your money is going you are bound to make less than satisfactory decisions in life.
Where wondered why working in Singapore is so frustrating? Why do our colleagues always seem to get ahead when we are so much more talented? Why are we all working our socks off to get returns of peas?
Well life in the Singapore company is like a tournament. At a tournament players are rewarded for winning not for trying. But they try anyway. This is something employers have noticed. They know that most of us want to reach the top and catch those glittering prices.
This is why your bosses pay silly money not to encourage him to perform but to encourage you to perform in the hope that one day you could be in his or her shoes.
The problem is that while this worked well for the companies this isn’t great for the workers. Because let’s face it we all can’t be winners and there is only so many top jobs available.
So how can you be a high flying winner? To start you need to know how the game works.
You might think that success at work is all about finding the ideal job and doing it brilliantly. Well I hate to break your heart but it’s dead wrong. And you might think it’s about appearing to do it brilliantly. Well wrong again.
It’s about information. Believe me some bosses don’t know if you are any good. After all you could be faking it. And if your boss is too busy or too far away or too ignorant of your specialty he may take a very long time to find out.
This is what we call Asymmetric Information where a person holds better information than the other. This is not only a problem for your boss it’s a problem but it’s a problem for you.
The common expression Peaches and Lemons is often used to distinguish good bargains from bad ones. The problem is whenever you go to a store to buy something for bargain you always want the best bang for your money.
Unfortunately you don’t know the peaches from the lemons. But the shopkeeper on the other hand knows precisely which of their products are peaches and which are lemons. And this is the problem your bosses face. It may not be obvious which of you is a peach or a lemon.
And this is the problem with Asymmetric information. Since we both don’t have the same information we don’t know for sure if the shopkeeper is telling the truth about his or her products. Because you can never tell if the shopkeeper is telling you the correct information or just bluffing you for his personal gains. And this is not only the shopkeeper’s problem it is yours too because you can just leave and not buy anything at all.
So without having all the information how do we indentify whose smart and whose loyal and whose hardworking and more importantly if you know you are a peach and your boss doesn’t how can you proof it?
Employers always want to know whose hardworking and whose faking it. And if you really want to get ahead you need to demonstrate it. To proof you are a peach and a lemon starts at school. But proof is no easy matter because you need to send the right signals.
Students are in the business of proof. They are collecting evidence that they have the attributes employers are looking for. And that evidence is doing something other job applicants would find lazy or too stupid or unable to do. And this is what called signaling.
A signal is something that proves your ability and can’t be faked. What job you have and where ever you are in that job, signaling is the proof that put you one step ahead.
In a world of asymmetrical information, people can’t see that you are a peach and you need to send creditable signals.
Create for Creation’s Sake, Please
from the department of we-will-only-do-it-if-it-gives-us-some-return
Does Singapore have the capacity to produce anime, creative pieces of claymations, digital cartoons and traditional animations? Sure, we can. Only if it is related to making money or National Education. Sit on the bus or just search for those NE Animations and you will see various students’ work on why we should all band together as countrymen, unite as one, fight for the common good and be a part of total defence.
This is all good and dandy. Some of the animations’ quality are remarkable. However, why don’t we see this type of effort for just, you know, plain cool kickass stuff? Like ninjas having a showdown while the first light of dawn breaks? Why is that if we have to do something creative, it must be national education related or rake in large amount of money?
Look at the news for games industry and animation, and it’s always about the big studios coming in and we are working together with them to produce entertainment. Wait a moment here - do we need them to create entertainment? Must everything we do have a budget of five digits in millions? (and perhaps returns ten times that amount?). Why aren’t there more people who create entertainment in their free time, instead of waiting for big budget studios to come? Why aren’t there more people creating fun stuff, despite knowing that they won’t get anything back in return? Why don’t we just create with what resources we have, instead of wanting the sky and everything even before we learn how to be creative? And how is Singapore going to have an entertainment industry if people are not willing to create just for mere passion alone? You cannot transplant a tree if you don’t have soil in the first place.
We seem to be stuck in a mode of “do it only if it yields returns” or “only if it has some educational purpose”. Even our movies can be seemed as cultural propaganda which “sells” Singapore and presents it as more exotic and weirder than it is. Can’t we just, you know, do something fun, normally?
Crippleware
From the department of we-could-have-made-it-better.
Companies can easily make their products more versatile. But they choose not to. Reducing compatibility and crippling their products are just some of the ways of charging heavy users more because they are the ones who most value the products.
Ever wonder why it is so difficult to replace a battery from your Apple iPod or your Palm Treo? Well now you know.
Price Blind Customers
From the department of we-know-how-to-rip-you-off.
Coffeehouses love price blind customers. It’s not that they are willing to pay more for their coffees I am too. But the reason is that they confess to them and willing to pay whatever they ask. The instrument the coffeehouses use to extract that information is the menu board.
The choice you make on menu board sends a clear signal to the coffee houses. The menu board isn’t merely seeking to offer a variety of alternatives to customers. It’s also trying to give the customer every opportunity to signal that they are not looking at the prices.
It doesn’t cost much more to make a larger cup, use a flavored syrup or to add chocolate powder or a squirt of whipped cream. Every single product on the menu costs the coffeehouses almost the same to produce, down to the few cents or so.
Does this mean that coffeehouses are overcharging all of its customers? No. If so, a regular cappuccino or mocha would cost $4.50 and you could have all the frills you wanted for 50cents. Perhaps coffeehouses would like to do that, but they can’t force price-sensitive customers to pay those prices.
By charging wildly different prices for products that have largely the same cost, coffeehouses are able to smoke out customers who are less sensitive about the price.
Coffeehouses doesn’t have a way to identify lavish customers perfectly, so it invites them to hang themselves with a choice of lavish ropes.
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