Recently, I have a chance to pick up a book on the history of GIC (Government of Singapore Investment Corporation). The book gives important backgrounds of the creation of GIC. In my opinion, it is a short history of Singapore’s reserve management and its currency. In 1965, Singapore separated
In the last 2 years, I spent a lot of money on electronics and camera gear. Recently, I made an inventory list. I found that I have spent around HKD 250K. This is a large sum of money for me. I reflected on the reasons. First, it happens when I
We read a lot about the economy in the news. They are like data points describing the state of the economy, such as GDP, capacity utilization, purchase managers’ index, cpi, etc. Without a general framework in mind, it is overwhelming. We need to have a framework in mind even if
Time is the most precious resource. With the advancement in technology, it becomes more difficult to safeguard time. I am an iPhone user. After checking the “Screen Time”, the top 3 most used apps are WeChat, Instagram, and YouTube (Actually, the 3rd is Safari. But it is less likely to
The planning takes a top-down approach. It starts with the principles that seem right to me and ends with the specific tasks. Reflecting on how I did planning, I put too much emphasis on the details of a specific goal without explaining the motivation and general theme behind it. Principles
New York is a state Friends send me news on winter storm. In New York City, there was little snow. I learn that the total area of New York State is 141,000 KM2. That of New York City is 780 KM2. Why East Coast is Colder Than West Coast
Don’t ask me why I would self-learn mathematics because sometimes I feel like it is a waste of time especially when I found the materials difficult. I feel that maths is the foundation of today’s science, and therefore, important. I feel that I lack training in maths. Not
This is just a sharing of an interesting paradox. I am definitely not an expert in Set Theory. If you want to learn more about the paradox, you may refer to the formal text on Set Theory. Consider the barber paradox in the picture above. The question asks “who shaves
Most financial professionals are familiar with the concept of the time value of money and the respective formulas to derive the future value, present value, rate, etc. While Excel, Google Sheets, or financial calculators offer convenient functions, not every one of us knows what equation is being solved and how
I got Covid this week and still tried to keep doing something else apart from my work. So, I continue reading the book The Theory of Interest by I.Fisher I think I have never thought of defining income. What is income? Income to a labourer like myself means the
I am currently working in the lending business. We charge borrower interest. Recently, I am tasked to work on PnL, and interest loss. But I have little understandings on interest. Why is there an interest? What is interest? How does it determined? The questions came into my mind when I
The book is written by Chris Vos, a formal FPI hostage negotiator. That’s why the book titled “Never Split the Difference” since in a hostage situation, you cannot say: give me 2 hostages, you can have the rest. I remember the negotiation class I took as a first year