All the lessons I have written in my blog so far took time to reveal and reflection to unravel. When a crisis hits, you have many theories about what happened. Only when the dust settles and your mind clears do you begin to understand what actually caused it. Sometimes it takes leaving a company, talking to someone you never would have approached before, or stumbling across an unexpected piece of writing to finally see what was in front of you all along. And when you do see it, the answer is almost never clean. It is a mix of factors…

While I was fresh working in construction, you are bombarded by various inputs. Subcontractors say one thing, their managers say another. The inspectors says one thing, then my boss says another. Because you want to be helpful person, you try to listen to everyone, and eventually, you get confused yourself, and you can’t get things done. I started to appreciate the power of frameworks when I was studying in real estate. When choosing a deal or market to invest, seasoned real estate investors will ask themselves the same questions repeatedly: Different investors have their own criteria, and when you ask…

Once I was listening to Brain Chesky. He was known to be a sharp and contrarian thinker. I realized that his depth of thought is much like I did when I was in university, when I had a lot of time for myself to reflect. Consumed with work, and to be honest, not planning my day properly, I have wasted my time from reflection. Most people don’t think soundly not because they are not smart, but because they don’t guard time to think for themselves. It is the same reason why people say that they stopped learning when they start…

As a natural workaholic, I enjoy working hard. When I was in university, take part of internships, take positions in extracurriculars and public organizations, read, tinker, exercise, socialize, date and write blogs like these. Other than some tutorials and exams I need to attend (I mostly skip lectures), I have full control of my time. I plan my week diligently and make sure I do I said what I was going to do. I did well in school, and I was in involved in many internships, social groups and volunteer stint. It was a colorful and energizing time for me.…

We had a process called virtual BCA inspection — cameras and webcams recording inspections that would normally be conducted on-site. BCA published best practice guidelines. I read them carefully, synthesised the requirements, and concluded that our existing camera specs were insufficient. We needed higher quality equipment to meet the written standards. When we invited an experienced vendor over, he told us that nobody actually uses those specs. The file sizes crash the authority’s computers. Everyone uses lower resolution cameras, and it works. This insight is not written down anywhere. It lives in the people who have done it fifty times.…

Two years ago, I wrote a blog on my apparent breakthrough in learning social skills. When I read back the blog, I realized how shallow my understanding of people was then. Here is a excerpt I pulled out from the blog: I feel disappointed and also a little arrogant when I realize my newly befriended peers don’t fit to my high expectations. They may be too quiet for too good, they may be sexually skittish (for men), they may be lazy, weak, anxious, stupid, unhygienic. Along the process, you face the bizarre experience when you discovered the types of people…