0873 – preamble to ‘on critics’

[Every day is a puzzle.] Now that I’m basically a full-time parent of a 1yo, I can’t quite work the way I used to.

0872 – re-spec your character when necessary

sometimes i have several experiences within a narrow-ish timeframe that give me an interesting gestalt. i’m thinking now

0871 – bottleneck2: notesprawl

i haven’t finished goldratt’s book yet but i’m still thinking about bottlenecks and writing. lets recap. i w

0870 – what is my writing bottleneck?

i’m currently reading goldratt’s The Goal– it’s been on my list for a long time, but i bumped it up after

0869 – simcity

I had the following realization recently about a pattern i’ve been living. basically, after i put my 10mo son to bed, i

0868 – jul2024 status update pt1

i was a salaried employee from 2013 to mid-2018. i learned a lot, and generally had a great time. then i left my job and iR

0867 – parenting

if you’re curious about people, and you can manage it, i feel like you should have at least 2 kids. of course there are

0866 – retvrn to fundamentals

i want to write something before i go to sleep. i’m thinking, as i often do, about behavior patterns, behavior change, d

0865 – vividness

Zindagi quote about restlessness in the heart means you’re alive

0864 – iOS notes cleanup

i’ve been spending the past few days going through my notes in my iOS Notes app- it once had over 1000 notes, and i̵

0863 – dialogue on essays

I’m thinking it would be worthwhile to simulate a conversation between Essayist Visa and Tweeter Visa. I’ll just freestyle

0862 – may2024 status update

its may2024 wow. next it’ll be june and i’ll turn 34. which doesn’t seem like a big deal, i kinda feel like

0860 + 0861 – talk to your friends about your work

i’ve been watching a few marvel movies with the director’s commentary– if you have disney+ it’s in the 

0859 – review to cultivate taste and feeling

I realize I’ve been in a funny-tragic pattern lately, behavior-wise. basically every night i go to bed after showering,

0858 – describe very specific things

i’ve published two new substack essays in the past 3 days or so, with a total of almost 7000 words. i wrote both of them

0857 – against notesprawl

just showered and got in bed, i could go to sleep– i didn’t get much sleep last night– but my mind is alive rn so i

0854, 0855, 0856 – essays

in the early 2010s i spent a lot of my time writing on reddit and facebook and quora. and also chatting about politics and the

0852 + 0853 — reinvigorate, and retvrn to beauty

i feel like i’m due for some reinvention, some rework, some sort of shakeup one dimension in which this is obviously nec

0851 – return to freestyling

it’s been about 7 weeks since my son was born. i’ve been doing a bunch of threads about my experience of fatherhoo

0850 – just describe stuff bro

it’s been a little bit over a month since the birth of my son. it’s been an incredible experience, and i have a lo

0848 + 0849 – prolificacy-induced logjam puzzle

right so one of the puzzles on my mind is I. i know that i can write a copious amount of words at almost any given moment. the

0847 – gonna be a dad

It’s october 1 2023. my wife and I are having our first child this month, which is going to be a huge change to our live

0846 – essays are for gestalt

met another old/longtime friend today, we discussed singapore, southeast asia, narratives. gives me some encouragement and con

0845 – identifying as a professional author

met old friend DC today as part of our ongoing unplanned ritual of passing back some military equipment back and forth between

0844 – new macbook

I did something kind of surprising and indulgent today: I bought a new macbook air. it’s not the first time i’ve t

0843 – take care

It’s 1am and I am tired and also feeling somewhat unfulfilled by how I’ve spent my day. Scrolling around, shufflin

0841, 0842 – write your thinking, take the scenic route

so the big mistake i’ve been making this past year and a half or so is that i keep trying to think my writing instead of

0838, 0839, 0840 – twitter and other cursed artifacts

right so I’m going to do a fucken rant about twitter. i cant do a thread about it, i get self conscious worrying about h

0837 – broken telephone

I’ve been tweeting a bunch lately about status and misunderstandings and thresholds. This seems to be something that I c

0836 – explore vs exploit

I had a feeling earlier that if I just wrote a lot then all my problems will be solved. And I mean that in a particularly prec

0834 + 0835 – symptoms, diseases and creative funks

Two possible trains, one about forgetting, another about defining problems. I’ve already forgotten the forgetting train.

0833 – jul2023 status update

Hey Visa, how are things? Pretty good overall as usual, though maybe a bit more scattered than usual. Scattered how? Too many

0832 – devastating losses for an infovore

When I was about 11 years old, I used to blog on a now-defunct service called Diary-X.com. It was something like Blogger or Li

0831 – escritoire

This was originally a substack draft from 03may2023. I keep searching for an angle from which I can write something that I per

0829 + 0830 – snippets and drafts

I had 9 different unfinished drafts in my wordvomits, and I was thinking I’d just copypaste them into my notes and ignor

0828 – what’s my substack for?

This was originally a draft intended for my substack but I didn’t feel like publishing it there. I used to write on my p

0826 + 0827 – creative finesse

They say that the healthy man wants a million things, the unhealthy man wants only one. The thing I want most in the world rig

0825 – inventory management

I want to say, “every day I sit down and try to do some good writing”. Though that’s not entirely true, I do

0824 – less gnashing / now what

(originally a substack draft, abandoned) Alan Watts had a riff that went, “What would you like to do if money was no object?

0823 – resentments pt1

It’s occurred to me a few times recently that… by stepping into the Friendly Ambitious Nerd King persona, I’

0822 – restart the engine

I tweet every day, very easily, without having to think or worry about it. It just happens. Earlier today I made a 15 minute y

0821 – some self-help + triangulation

I think it’s time that I seriously consider the possibility that my existing frames aren’t very helpful to me and

0819 + 820 – make yourself comfortable / dream of elegance

It occurred to me that I haven’t felt truly relaxed in what feels like a really long time. I felt a bit of it while I to

0818 – touch all notes

Every day I sit in front of twitter for hours. A part of me is slightly embarrassed by this. Another part wants to say, there&

0817 – journalling again

I haven’t journalled in a while, and I find myself thinking, if I’m talking so much all the time about how good, i

0816 – figuring out next steps, oct 2022

I find myself kinda grouchy about how little time and space i seem to have to do all the things i want. I want to research anc

0815 – untangling writerly goals

(started in July 1st 2022) I found an old note somewhere that said something like “WHEN I WRITE I HAPPY, WHEN I DONT WRI

0814 – getting better at being me

1202am and i don’t feel like going to bed. i bingewatched all of cyberpunk edge runner on netflix today, i thought it wa

0813 – aug22 status update

I used to be able to write thousands of words just like this, tapping fingers on glass, typically on the train on the way to w

0811 + 0812 – scaffolding for my substack

I’m going to be going to SF next month, which I am excited about. I’m excited to meet friends, old and new, and to

0810 – turning 32

Long time no write: Scanning through my wordvomits, it looks like I didn’t publish posts for turning 30 and 31. This is

0809 – may 2022 status update

It’s 4am, just got home from dinner with the in-laws and have been lounging around on the computer for a while. Just lea

0808 – untangle competing interests (pt 1?)

I’ve been feeling some disappointment and frustration lately. The thing to watch out for is when I notice that I’m

0807 – don’t expect too much from babbling fools

(Wrote this initially on twitter after waking up from a rather psychedelic dream after sleeping for just 3 hours) I think the

0806: confront the minotaur pt2

So in pt1 I talked about how I tried to bully myself as a child, how ineffective that was, how miserable, how we are each inte

0805: confront the minotaur pt1

So Act IV of INTROSPECT is about confronting the minotaur, and it’s kind of apt how it’s the Act that I’ve s

0804 – introspect: overview

The above image is a screenshot of my latest (and final, I think) conceptualisation or overview of INTROSPECT. It’s been

0803 – introspect: what does your heart want?

The following is an unedited messy transcript of bits of my parts of a conversation I had with a friend, Ms. G. I spent a long

0802 – introspect: content page notes

I woke up, showered, got in my chair, it’s 1034am. In the shower I was thinking to myself, what’s the thing I want

0801 – introspect: deliver on the promises

I’ve been feeling a strange tension lately – I’m working on my book, INTROSPECT, and I’ve been feeling stu

0800 – cultivate courage

This is my 800th wordvomit! I am now 80% done with this project that I started way back in 2012. For starters I’m curiou

0799 – be honest

I used to lie a lot as a kid. I’m not proud of it and I don’t want to defend or justify it. It just seemed so easy

0798 – be kind

What is kindness? It seems like a simple enough question but the answer doesn’t jump out at me. The word’s origin

0797 – be playful

When I look through the draft of my book INTROSPECT (it’s not out yet), I find that there are several recurring motifs i

0796 – writing is what I do

I’ve missed typing. Specifically, I’ve missed typing on a blank page. I type a lot on Twitter every day – someth

0795 – my relationship with twitter

When I signed up for Twitter in October 2008 (I was 18 then) I had no idea that it was going to be such an important part of m

0794 – “my book is killing me”

I’ve been spending most of my time on Twitter lately. And it’s probably not great for me. It’s time for me t

0793 – checking in with the inner newsfeed

I went to bed at about 5am last night – a fairly common thing for me at this point – but what was slightly less common was

0792 – starting pomodoros again

At some point during this project I printed out a few calendars for each year to try and get a sense of how often I was writin

0791 – renegotiating my relationship with rest

I had a re-realization a couple of nights ago at almost 6am when I was lying in bed struggling to sleep. I was thinking about

0790 – enjoy your life without bullshitting yourself

It’s 2021jun02-1716, and I’m working on my second ebook, INTROSPECT. I’ve been working on this for a long ti

0789 – the invitation: stop fussing

There are few things I dislike more than people telling me what to do. So this is not a directive. This is an invitation. You

0788 – vacation from twitter

It’s 519am. I should go to bed like a couple of hours ago but I feel like writing a word vomit. It looks like I haven

0787 – leadership and responsibility

I didn’t grow up wanting to be a leader. I grew up wanting to have fun. And leadership often seemed like the opposite of fun

0786 – put on your old gi and get back in the arena

I found myself unexpectedly in tears while watching Cobra Kai S1E5 earlier while having lunch eating chicken rice. I’m o

0785 – don’t linger too long in your comfort zone

I’m sure I’ve said before – maybe several times – that if I go too long without writing a wordvomit, I start t

0784 – embody the chaos school of art

I’ve been teaching myself to draw again. Drawing is something I’ve wanted to get into several times in my life. I

0783 – cultivate a sense of occasion

It’s 539pm, June 5th 2020. I just had a cold Subway sandwich from the fridge for lunch. I’m listening to In The Cr

0782 – the difference between video and text

It’s 12 noon on tuesday the 7th of April 2020. It’s been about 3 months since my last word vomit. I’ve been

0781 – making 100 youtube videos

So it’s 2020, and I’ve started on my quest for the year: to make 100 youtube videos. My youtube channel is pretty

0780 – troubleshooting nightmares + revisiting my relationship with authority

I want to think out loud for a bit about some recurring dreams I’ve been having for a long time. When I look at the scat

0779 – revisit your purpose (why are we doing this?)

Haven’t written one of these in a while. It’s 129am, Saturday 2nd November. Why haven’t I written one of the

0778 – share your work

It’s 427am and I should get to bed, but I suddenly feel this compulsion to do an “old school word vomit” –

0777 – journaling for myself again

I started writing in a paper journal again. It’s been a while. I’m not sure exactly how long, though I could proba

0776 – accelerating hypermedia, pt 3: the courage to collaborate

pt1 – articulating frustration with current social media configurationspt2 – talking a little about nerdposting (thereR

0775 – accelerating hypermedia, pt 2: nerdposting

Previously, I loosely circled around social media, trying to articulate my frustration and discontent with “the way thin

0774 – accelerating hypermedia, pt 1

I’ve found myself using the phrase “hypermedia” a couple of times and I want to explore it. To me, it’

0773 – transform into who you are (let go of who you used to be)

(Preamble: I initially wanted to use this vomit to write about a conversation that I had with my boss recently. I’m stil

0772 – let your paint dance freely, and revisit any point as required

117am. I spent some time earlier rewatching a few Rick and Morty episodes. And I find it fascinating how “fresh” i

0771 – cleanup is never done if you don’t know what the cleanup is for

Just spent a couple of hours replaying Horizon Zero Dawn on the PS4. It’s a stunningly beautiful game. The combat is a l

0770 – the surfer must be one with the ocean

Yesterday I wrote and published a word vomit in about 10 minutes, just before 2am. I then told myself, hey, I’ll do this

0769 – I’m not here for accolades; I’m here to write

Some of my earliest word vomits were written without any sort of planning or prompt whatsoever. I just got into a text editor

0768 – nightmares as a bottleneck

I’ve been trying to become more effective and efficient as a person. This isn’t always my top priority at any give

0767 – neediness

A friend asked via DM something like “I noticed that you’ve mentioned ‘neediness’ a few times, what do

0766 – turning 29

It’s my 29th birthday! I feel good. I think I feel better than I’ve ever felt on any birthday prior. I feel powerf

0765 – what do I want? pt 1

It’s a simple question. What do I want? Boy, where do I start? I want to live a good life. I want to grow old fit and he

0764 – identify the valuable squares on your life’s chessboard

I’m feeling a little blocked at the moment, writing-wise. I’ve been tweeting a lot, but I’ve been getting a

0763 – memoir planning

One of the things that’s been on my todo list for some time is to write a memoir. I’ve been wanting to do it for o

0762 – going to San Francisco

I’ve booked the flight tickets already – I’m flying Singapore Airlines at 830am on Wednesday, the 24th of April

0761 – perhaps allow the Tao to describe itself

I joked on Twitter a while ago that “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao… which is annoying, because I rea

0760 – life can be easy, but getting there takes a lot of work

Peter Thiel had a question that went something like, “what important truth do very few people agree with you on?”

0759 – make friends (pt 1)

I did a thing a while ago where, for fun, I decided to map out my “memex” – ie the things that I talk about a lo

0758 – tap the bricks to find the secret passageway

I did a post on Patreon on V-Day asking my patrons, “what are you looking for”? It’s interesting that there

0757 – each day a project, each day a game

So it’s January 1st 2019. And I find myself thinking all of the thoughts that most people probably have on January 1st e

0756 – 2018dec31 status update

So it’s the end of another year. 737pm as I start writing this. I’m writing this because I find that I always kind

0755 – learning music, learning everything (pt 1)

I was noodling around on my guitar earlier and I found myself thinking about my personal learning journey as a musician. I don

adulthood threadpost

0093 – transitioning to adulthood, maladjustment I was doing some reading (blog.asmartbear.com today) But then a swarm of sc

addiction threadpost

Putting together this threadpost, I find myself thinking that my thoughts about addiction circle around video games, social me

sleep threadpost

0008 – waking up early gives you more options I slept early last night, and it was a great decision to have made. Well, earl

‘review your stuff’ threadpost

Okay so this is going to be a new kind of vomit, inspired by my twitter threads. I’m basically going to pick a tag, and

0754 – how ask good questions? (pt 1)

(the following vomit is likely going to be extremely sketchy and incoherent) How do you ask good questions? I think the fun ge

0753 – beware the tyranny of coherence

It’s 253am on November 22nd 2018. I was having trouble sleeping and so I got out of bed. Usually when I get out of bed becau

0751 + 0752 – introspect: navigating authentic wants vs manufactured wants

(this is an unedited rant, written as raw material to be subsequently edited into the book. The book will not be this rambly)

0750 – accelerating the final quarter [75% complete!]

It’s 323am on Friday, 9th November 2018 and I’m writing word vomit number 0750. When I’m done with this, I w

0748 + 0749 – pursue interestingness

prompt: “How people maintain thought, like holding it in their head, writing it down, tweeting, storytelling. How to opt

0747 – how I make new friends on the internet

prompt: “what’s one thing / field / etc you know irrationally too much about? how did you come to that field? what

0746 – explore the spaces in between

prompt: how to explore without doing what everyone else is (the original prompt was about “overtourism”, but IR

0745 – encourage weirdos, discourage assholes

OK for starters, I’ve put together a thread of tweets that I’ve tweeted about weirdness, and I think they provide

0744 – we stress to communicate that we’re serious

prompt: why do people stress so much I love this question! I remember I once watched this video on SikhNet by this guy called

0743 – seeing through the mundane

Prompt: “the mundane” The word “mundane” has French and Latin origins – “mondain”, meaning “of this earth�

0742 – navigating unhappiness

Prompt: “unhappiness” I’ve long been interested in the relationships between the words we have for feelings,

0741 – “living intentionally vs living in the stream of continuous reactions to outside inputs”

Here’s an interesting and personal prompt: “Would love your thoughts on living intentionally vs living in the stre

0740 – framing one’s life as a set of projects

I did some tweets about project management and I got a request to say more words about it. It’s interesting for me to co

0739 – how to live in a manufactured reality

Prompt: “Whether or not the fact that everything we do might be within a manufactured reality changes how we should live

0738 – playfulness as a discipline/practice

I’ve started asking people for prompts for these vomits. The first one I got that I liked was “write about playful

0737 – start interfacing with others

It’s November the 1st, 2018. I’ve been in a feral free agent state for four months now. What do I have to show for

0736 – reconsidering the trauma narrative

I’ve been thinking about something Aella said about the trauma narrative. Actually she said a lot of thoughtful, interes

0735 – tulpas and roles

The following is for Aaron, who bought me a coffee and gave me an interesting prompt: “explore the similarities/differen

0734 – face your tasks and schedules, with love

It’s 123am. I should go to bed soon, because I have an appointment at 11am tomorrow. So the last thing I can do tonight

0733 – use your taste + insight to shape your concepts of your public-facing projects

Took a micro-leap today and started @introspectVV, a twitter account for an ebook I’ve been meaning to research and writ

0732 – tweeting in search of kinship

Wanna take a moment now to do a sort of recap/review of my experience on twitter this past year or so. I’ve been tweetin

0731 – hating on NPCs is a shitty way to make friends

The NPC meme is pretty hilarious to me. I don’t really want to tweet on main about it because I think there it takes on

0730 – the world is burning, invest in your relationships

I spent some time earlier on twitter somehow getting involved in some discussions about american politics. Do I even care abou

0729 – the $50 bet

A couple of years ago, when I was finding myself in a bit of a productivity rut at work, I did something that struck me as a l

0727 + 0728 – answering some Oprah FAQs

[Note to self: I originally wrote this for the Jibabom.sg site, and I got sleepy after crossing 2k words so I haven’t ex

0726 – in pursuit of social capital (and considering status as a currency)

I tweeted something about social status – that I have lots of data in my mind about how to increase one’s perceived so

0725 – living as a blasphemy

“Hello. My Name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” The murder of a parent or parents is a of

0724 – introspect: work backwards from what you don’t want

WORK BACKWARDS FROM WHAT YOU DON’T WANT According to people who work with the dying, there are 5 common deathbed regrets

0723 – introspect: is it bad to want things?

IS IT BAD TO WANT THINGS? In a separate post I talked about how people who have achieved their goals and dreams have sometimes

0722 – introspect: you can’t get everything you want

Been spending some time updating my blog’s CSS, which feels really good – the text is bigger now, which makes for a be

0721 – write book proposals

This will be a status update-y sort of word vomit. And then I think after that I’m going to start trawling through old v

0719 + 0720 – reconceptualizing my audience

When I started this word vomit project, I didn’t have any particular audience in mind. A part of me told myself that I w

0718 – start a spreadsheet and fill it out (4 hours a day)

I have to admit, I’m a little worried, and I think it’s making me have trouble sleeping. It’s 519am on the 2

0717 – do short sprints that optimize for excitement

It’s day 74 of me being a free agent. I loosely, naively thought that it would take me 30 days to “fully recover&#

0716 – make sense of your tags

Yesterday’s prompt: “Tomorrow, I think it would be cool to have a word vomit that looks back on older vomits.̶

0715 – experiment with using volume over intensity

I’m feeling quite inspired by that Joe Rogan “how to workout smarter” interview with Firas Zahabi. Firas bel

0714 – consider the speedrunners

Fun fact: when I first started blogging on my own domain, around 2010 or so, I felt a compulsion to do a series of blogposts a

0713 – gear up (august2018 status update)

So, it’s August 1st 2018. I slept around midnight last night, and woke up at about 645am this morning. I walked slowly to Ch

0712 – review everything with love, and be decisive about what you’re trying to do

I’ve been spending most of today figuring out a list of all of the movies I’ve watched, and all of the games IR

0711 – evaluate your freedom accurately and expand it by acting upon it

Why is it so hard for me to just sleep early? I keep thinking that night time is for… something. What is night time for?

0710 – meet good people and have conversations that inspire you to act

I just had lunch with someone (RH) – she was an acquaintance I knew through work, and we’ve exchanged emails before in the

0709 – execute the jailbreak

Jailbreak. What are the things that I haven’t done, that I want to do? What are the things that I couldn’t do before, that

0708 – a walk through the life

Okay, so let’s take a walk through my life. The goal here is to try and get a sense of how I’ve been framing things, and h

0707 – revisit your life story to figure out a new frame

One of my todo list items is “write a blogpost about framing”. I think I wanted to write some sort of “teach people how

0706 – Clarify your goals, expect effort-shock, take concrete steps every day

I went to bed at about 230am last night. I was somewhat disappointed in myself – I hadn’t gotten any word vomits written (

0705 – expand your imagination as a free agent

Today is the first day in 5 years and 4 months that I don’t have an employer. I’ve been thinking about a Nassim Taleb quot

0704 – honor your sadness

Sad I had a few things in mind about what I was going to write my first “I’m a free agent now” word vomit about. I was t

0703 – keep producing output, the followers will come

I just sent out my 4th tinyletter. I’m pretty happy about that. Just as I want to reach 1,000 word vomits, I’d lik

0702 – find out where you come from

I’ve been interested in history a little more than usual lately. I’m not sure where exactly it started. It might&#

0701 – what i’ve learned being away from here

I started writing these word vomits in December of 2012. In the 60+ months since then, I’ve almost never gone more than

0700 – accept where you are

I’m 27 and I’m going to be 28 this year. The thought fills me with unease, a mild sort of panic. I wasn’t re

0699 – consider your childhood fearscape

I woke up and it was 0709am. I got out of bed. Peed. Wandered around the house a little bit. Did 10 pushups. Now it’s 7:25am

0698 – get back in the game, reorient, keep moving

I haven’t published a new word vomit since September 25 2017. I don’t feel terrible about it, but I do think it’s defini

0697 – become a man of your word

I want to become a better person. I feel like I am ready and qualified to do this. I think it’s one of those things that

0696 – have some changes planned

I’m sitting in my hotel room in Krabi feeling a little guilty, a little anxious. I had this vague idea in my mind that I was

0695 – facebook strippers and filter bubbles

Had an interesting exchange on Facebook earlier. I shared a post from Jacq The Stripper, where a stripper asked her followers

0694 – don’t argue with idiots; pick your battles and contexts

“Nerds do NOT understand #skininthegame. “Life is not about winning an argument [with a nerd like you] but about winning.�

0693 – avoid burnout by scheduling your breaks, uncompromisingly

I saw something interesting on Facebook earlier about burnout – something about how people who are internally motivated and

0692 – dream bigger, recalibrate your life and walk into the dark

Things to write about when on holiday at Krabi: Different types of music in different places. It’s interesting to listen to

0691 – contemplate your personality traits

These started out as notes when I happened to end up at a table with a friend’s girlfriend’s friend – someone I was unli

0690 – john 2

I plan to write a novel. I think I’ve gotten started on outlining it. But that’s kind of vague and weird to say. A novel i

0689 – do reviews to measure your progress against the ceaseless sands of time

I wrote two word vomits yesterday before getting interrupted by the Internet and running out of battery on my Macbook. I wonde

0688 – contemplate ‘endless’ nature of life and carefree school days

Hot off the heels on the last one, let’s keep going. I was thinking earlier about something my wife said. She was doing the

0687 – write to gratify yourself

It’s 11pm on a Thursday night. I don’t have work tomorrow because it’s a public holiday, Hari Raya Haji. I’d like to s

0686 – to figure out your categories, clarify your intent

I have a sort of ‘procedural’ blogpost to be written about tags and categories. I remember when I started blogging

0685 – optimize for an interesting, emotional life

Sometimes it’s just time to sit down and write a word vomit without thinking too much about it. That’s how the pro

0684 – Dear Visa

(I wrote this in June 2017, while I was on reservist) Dear Visa, How are you? It’s me, your oldest friend, who’s always be

0683 – if writing is important to you, write.

I had a thought recently that’s been sticking with me. Which is – if writing is as important to me as I say it is, why don

0682 – manage interruptions like you’re cooking

I dropped my smartphone yesterday. The battery fell out, and when I put it back together, the screen wouldn’t light up.

0681 – John The Rockstar

I want to write fiction. I want to write short stories and novels. But I haven’t quite been able to get started. My atte

0680 – write what you feel like writing about

I want to try and write a word vomit before I leave to go meet some friends for dinner. It’s so important to make time f

0679 – be mindful of the effect that people have on you

I tweeted something a few days ago that struck a nerve: I think my saddest realization in life, which I resist (and shd stop r

0678 – take responsibility for getting unstuck

(Update: 2023 threadpost on getting unstuck) I haven’t published a word vomit in 11 days, and I can tell that it’s

0677 – start over again, repeatedly

I happened to drop by a “classic” blog of a friend of a friend, and I was just floored. It has an archive that goe

0676 – exploit the witching hours (?!)

I was never very good at chess, though I geeked out about it for a little bit when I was a pre-teen. I used to borrow books fr

0675 – being smart vs being kind

When I was a child, I was told that I was smart. I wasn’t great at socializing, but I was alright. I was the class clown

0674 – commit to good sleep and good weekends

So it’s the first weekend since I’ve turned 27. I spent Friday evening having chicken wings and beers with my coll

0673 – if the Earth weren’t a safe space we’d all be dead

Sunday Morning Thoughts cum Tedious Facebook Essay: If The Earth Wasn’t A Safe Space We’d All Be Dead – # TL;DR:

0672 – turning 27

It would be so easy for me to just continue living every day as though it were every other day. After all… it is. But at

0671 – honor your taste

A friend said something to me today that’s stuck with me. He was telling me about his job search, and how he’s ab

0670 – train your inner ear

Sometimes I wonder if I’ve made any progress in life. If I’ve grown as a person, if I’m any better than I wa

0669 – consider the nature of deliberate practice

I had an interesting experience today trying to make a video. It’s a video about race relations in Singapore. I don̵

0668 – consider: tempo and time-scales of writing

So I’ve been thinking about this for some time and it’s starting to come together for me now. I enjoy writing in m

0667 – revisit, review and re-reference your work [Final Third!]

I have been hesitant to begin on the final third of my word vomit project. There’s a simple reason for this – I wasn

0666 – consider the economics of pricelessness pt 1

I want to spend a vomit thinking about the economics of pricelessness. – Why am I thinking about this? I think it’s be

0665 – keep going, do reviews and improve yourself

In 2000 words, I would have completed 2/3rds of this project. Strangely, I don’t have a lot of feelings about this. I se

0664 – tidy up after yourself

I was feeling pretty weird and shitty for a few weeks – not an all-encompassing shitty, just a sort of background shitty. A

0663 – start over again (and pay attention)

I’ve only published 1 other word vomit in the month of April. This is surely correlated with the amount of uneasiness I

0662 – safe spaces are for nurturing, not coddling

I have an essay swirling around in my mind about ‘safe spaces’ and I need to get it out of my system, but I can’t seem t

0661 – make books a part of your life again

And now we’re on to the third and final vomit of the day. It’s 1210am on a Sunday morning. And I have to admit this feels

0660 – acknowledge the monkey-mind

This will be word vomit 0660 and I’m getting started on it on a Sunday morning at 1150am. Now this is starting to feel good.

0659 – make commitments to yourself and keep them

So I’m trying something new today. I slept later than I intended last night, so it’s now 1130am. I remember that the last

0657 + 0658 – identify your principles by examining your behavior patterns

What are my principles? A bunch of my colleagues were chatting about our company values and it was an interesting discussion �

0656 – define concrete next steps on your radar

The time is now 10:05pm on a saturday night, March 25th 2017. It’s been quite a casual, lazy day. I watched some Extra Credi

0655 – cross one threshold at a time

Do I have time for another? I established earlier that if I wrote 2 vomits a day, I could be done in September. If I do 3 vomi

0654 – do reviews regularly so you can have more fun

I have a sprawling to-do list that’s just full of things that I haven’t gotten around to. This is an interesting challenge

0653 – get back in the game and reorient yourself

It’s 238am, Saturday, May 25th. My last published word vomit was on May 8th. It’s been 17 days. This is definitely too lon

0652 – write on your commutes

Commute vomit! I haven’t done one of these in a while. I find myself feeling like I don’t have enough time. Time i

0651 – in search of lost time

(Started last week, finishing this now.) The title is a title of a book by Marcel Proust. I believe I first heard of it while

0650 – if you’re not beating a fear, you’re hiding from it

(I started this a few days ago, I’m going to finish it now.) I was watching a video by Ramit Sethi over dinner earlier.

0649 – beware scope creep

I was writing a blogpost for work earlier today – and during my research phase I found myself effectively plotting the outli

0648 – work through the discomfort

Would be nice to be able to complete a word vomit right now before I got to bed. Let’s run through a quick status update

0647 – empty your cup and be free

I was working late yesterday when I found out about NASA’s discovery – that there are 7 exoplanets orbiting a dwarf st

0646 – excite yourself and spill paint everywhere, bitch

I was talking with a friend a while ago about the idea that we all have within us a consciousness that is ‘deeper’

0645 – manage your psychology

Some of the best and most interesting conversations I’ve ever had have been with my boss, who has more experience and pe

0644 – be mindful of time and the little things

Time passes incredibly fast. I was at work earlier, and it was maybe 530pm. Next thing I knew, it was 7pm, then 730. And I lef

0643 – greet death at the door

A friend’s father passed away earlier today. I talked about him getting cancer in word vomit 0010. This is word vomit 06

0642 – callie’s world

So what do I know so far. We have Calliope, Talia. A peer of Callie who’s very different from her. And some sort of Tony

0640 + 0641 – Calliope

Fiction. Preamble: I’ve known for a more-than-reasonable amount of time now that I want to be a writer. Writing is something

0639 – beware articulate misdiagnoses and the illusion of knowledge

I want to reflect on an exchange of comments that I had on Hacker News. Here’s the context: Snap is about to IPO, and th

0638 – seek a vision greater than your imagination can hold

I was going through my todo list and I saw an item that said “a vision for my life greater than my imagination can hold&

0637 – YOLO

For DC: “how can one best fulfill the saying live as if you might die tomorrow?” I’m a very naughty fellow, so whenever

0636 – the human game, pt 1

Essay WIP. I find myself thinking about an Alan Watts lecture, that you can find on YouTube titled The Human Game. And he talk

0635 – consider your contribution as a writer

I want to spend this vomit thinking about the contributions I want to make. I’m approaching the two-thirds mark (666 wor

0634 – strive to be sensitive, smart and strong

I wrote a tweetstorm a while ago (two years ago, wow) saying that “a man should be sensitive (to inputs from reality), s

0633 – slow down when responding to people (ugh fields)

There’s something a little strange about me that is a sort of bug that I want to correct. It’s kind of like “

0632 – most people want quiet, not justice for others

The world is large, and complicated, and there are all sorts of people in it. This seems to be surprisingly hard for some peop

0631 – optimize for years, not days; improve skills by learning specific new things

I missed a vomit yesterday because I was so tired and sleepy – which means that I gotta do two today. But if I just do one,

0630 – step into your ugh fields bit by bit

Let’s pick up where we left off. // Who did you have to be? I had to be compliant enough to do as I was told, to follow

0629 – remember to go upstream

I just re-watched Tony Robbins: I am not your guru. I’m not sure if I wrote my thoughts the first time around, but here they

0628 – review your stuff hyper-regularly and do a little bit every day

Today was an interesting day in terms of productivity. I woke up later than I’d have liked, and spent a bit of time just

0627 – comment your code (to convey intent, context, next steps)

So I’ve been trying to make sure that I publish at least one word vomit for each day of 2017. That way, in the worst cas

0626 – be mindful of history and time

I spent an evening out with friends today, and it was a rather pleasant evening. I didn’t exactly learn anything amazing or

0625 – consolidate your thoughts

I feel a slight increase in mental clarity after finalising my thoughts on a project that I want to work on. I know it seems c

0624 – create spaces to nurture others

Teenage spaces – stairwells, liminal spaces. Places to hang out, be themselves. Kids are not allowed to make too much noise

0623 – “asshole grandpa”

In the previous vomit I talked about the fragmentation of all things, particularly social fragmentation. It was triggered by m

0622 – everything is incredibly fragmented and broken

It’s interesting to contemplate the effect that families have on individuals. I’m born to a Hindu tamil family in Singapor

0621 – hello 2017

And so we begin another trip around the sun, as collectively agreed upon. It’s a new day of a new year in social reality. So

0620 – consider Aleppo

I’ve avoided reading too much about Aleppo because I know it would be depressing and frustrating as hell, and I’m probably

0619 – focus on troubleshooting yourself

So here’s a bug in my mind that I’ve noticed. Very often when I’m bored or stuck or lost, I end up trawling the internet

0618 – examples of magic adulting powers

What are the magic adulthood powers? # Monotasking This means doing the thing that you’re supposed to do, and tuning out eve

0617 – systematically, deliberately improve your golf swing

I’m taking a week off from work next week (today’s Saturday). I want to spend that time really getting to know myself bett

0616 – micromanage your time

I’m on the train now, I’m on the way to work. I’m still a littitle bit mindblown at how long it took me to w

0615 – measure your time

I woke up at 9, rolled around in bed for a while, talked to my wife for a bit, and now I’m out of bed at 10:26 with my lapto

0614 – consider Kissinger Before Sunrise

I was reading an interview with Henry Kissinger, and he talked about how him and Enlai from China used to meet secretly in 197

0613 – make 2017 the best year yet

The year is coming to an end, and whenever that happens I get into a rather wistful and contemplative mood. There’s a sense

0612 – consider how the world works

“what is something i believe about how the world works, which i haven’t actually tested yet?” The older I get, t

0611 – face your fears

I’m going to list out things that I’m afraid of. I’m going to try and avoid virtue-signalling and be useful

0610 – disregard current affairs, focus on priorities

So Donald Trump is going to be the next President of the United States. Social media is blowing up about it, even in Singapore

0609 – political consciousness pt 1

I was born in Singapore in 1990. George HW Bush was President of the USA. The Berlin Wall fell, East and West Germany were reu

0608 – commit to reviewing your calendar

One of the things I want to get better at doing is reviewing each calendar year. 1. I’ve always been bad at doing any sort o

0607 – be sensitive to context

Roughly between ages 13 and 23 I was thoroughly convinced that one of the most powerful things you can do is to be really good

0606 – schedule and prioritize me-time (then everything else)

How much me-time do you get a day or week? I created a task that said, “I need to schedule my “inner child” time ear

0605 – watch good documentaries and think

I’ve watched a couple of documentaries lately and I want to reflect on them for a bit. The first was Masters of Doubt, which

0604 – what are you afraid of?

On a day-to-day level I’m afraid of getting caught and scolded for doing bad things, or for not doing the things that I

0603 – the trouble is you think you have time

I had a long, difficult and illuminating conversation with the wife today when we went for a walk and talked about our future

0602 – let go of your stress

I was chatting with my wife when she asked, “So what do you get stressed about?” It’s a great question and it’s so

0601 – consider the writer’s end-game

So we’re now 60% through with this word vomits project. A lot has changed. All I knew in the beginning was that I wanted

0599 + 0600 – learn to be violent

Violence is a fundamental part of nature, red in tooth and claw. Earlier today I saw a cute little housecat that was probably

0597 + 0598 – religion

Thought I’d write about my thoughts about religion, and how my perspective on it has changed from my childhood to the presen

0596 – cherish your friends

As at 26 year old, it’s interesting to look back on my relationships with other people when I was younger, and to think abou

0595 – tentative thoughts about gender

I’ve been thinking a lot about manhood and masculinity over the past year or so. I haven’t been obsessive about it; it’s

0594 – seek out the difficult conversations

I have an old friend that I’ve been talking to for almost a decade now, and I enjoy reflecting on the history of our convers

0593 – learn from your experience

I have a todo item titled “what experience teaches you”. I was reading somewhere about how as you get older, your enthusia

0592 – value your own time

I created a todo list task for myself titled “value my own time”. It stemmed from a conversation I had with an older colle

0591 – dream a little bigger, darling

I think my life can be a little seasonal sometimes. Lots of people around me often talk about productivity as though it’s so

0590 – continuing to grapple with adulthood

Commute starts. I ran after the bus and caught it, am so thankful for thoughtful, observant drivers. And sometimes passengers

0589 – keep on writing

I read something yesterday that reminded me of what I want to be doing with my life. It was an article about how sometimes pro

0588 – the domestication of humans

(Commute begins.) Let me start by thinking about yesterday’s post. There’s an image I saw recently- an artistic image of a

0587 – begin the day with a review, not social media

Sometimes when my wife’s phone is out of battery, she’d borrow mine and scroll through my Facebook feed. (I do tak

0586 – Onwards to SG100

Singapore’s survival is not guaranteed. If you’ve followed Game of Thrones, or Mass Effect, or the Ender’s Game prequels

0585 – birthday reflections 2016

Started on 07 Jun 2016, revisited and finished on 1st Aug 2016 Had a quiet and uneventful birthday; spent it alone at home wi

0584 – Get more out of your hours

Started in 30th may, finished aug 1 The biggest tragedy of my life- and I know that I’m tremendously lucky to have such a fi

0583 – be clear and honest about desired end-states

In the previous vomit I began to start thinking out loud about what my greater vision for my writing was. I began to frame it

0582 – think strategicially about writing projects

While I haven’t been writing, I’ve definitely been doing a lot of thinking – at least subconsciously, or semi-co

0581 – July 2016

I haven’t written a word vomit in almost a month. I don’t really like writing “I haven’t been writing&

0580 – skip the potholes

I was looking through some old notes about my goals, and one of them was “help younger versions of me skip the potholes that

0579 – have something to live for

More than a couple of friends have asked me if I’m depressed, or if I’m experiencing some sort of existential cris

0578 – develop confidence

D asks, what is confidence to you and what is the most charismatic thing about a person? Those are actually two different ques

0577 – make stuff you like

I was reading some Melting Asphalt and Kevin quoted something from Scott Adams. I think Scott said something like, “I en

0576 – consider time wasted

I was really tired last night and figured that I must’ve been sleep deprived. So I went to bed at something like 830 pm

0575 – reduce large, ambiguous problems into small, simple ones

I keep thinking vaguely about a large and ambiguous problem: how can I challenge and inspire the world, make it a better place

0574 – turning 26

So, today is my 26th birthday. My 26th trip around the sun. It means that I’m close to 30 than 20 now. I’m approac

0573 – what would your younger self think of you?

I’m thinking about who I used to be and who I am now, and what’s changed. I was reading Nassim Taleb’s commencement spee

0572 – how social media affects people’s engagement

J asks: Has the emergence of social media – text, images, and video, made the internet more like passive entertainment o

0571 – why I ask for questions

A friend asked, why do you ask people to ask you questions, why not just write about stuff which you cared about? My immediate

0570 – a sketchy outline of childhood

A friend asked, “tell me a vivid childhood memory”. I have a bunch of memories, I think (duh, doesn’t everyo

0569 – if I ever got a tattoo

A friend asked, if you ever got a tattoo, what would it be? I’m still not 100% sure about my own relationship with the i

0568 – tripping through time on the information superhighway

I wanted to write about “tripping through time”. I was telling another friend about this essay that I’ve bee

0567 – Till the ground for the Demon-God

I sometimes have this dream where I’m possessed by some sort of Demon-God. “Possessed” is a bit of a loaded

0566 – one must imagine Sisyphus LOL-ing

Life, particularly in modern civilization, is an absurd circus. We’re all clowns living in boxes trying to amuse ourselves i

0565 – ignore the ego’s whining, the point is to act

Originally posted direct to Medium. When I was a kid, I was stuck in a very silly cycle. I’d get home from school every

0564 – modern civilization pt 3

I’m losing a bit of steam here but I got to keep going while I can. A quick summary– I’ve been thinking about th

0563 – modern civilization, pt 2

Let’s try to quickly summarise what the previous post was saying. Pre-settled human life was brutish and short, but it was a

0562 – modern civilization, pt 1

To be born into modern human civilization is both a great privilege (for the safety and opportunities it provides) and a rathe

0561 – Just Ship It

A: So I haven’t written for myself in a while. B: Why is that? A: I guess I’ve been busy. Or distracted. Or tired of the s

0560 – figure out what you care about

I want a lot of different things and care about a lot of different things, both to varying degrees at different times, in diff

0559 – hire a competent CEO for Me, Inc

So (again) i was thinking to myself, about myself, and i had to conclude that i am not in control of myself. at least not as

0558 – change your story change your frame

Change your story change your frame A new title a new name A new set a new piece Different hair different teeth A list of sens

0557 – heal yourself by helping others

So I wrote that last post in under an hour early this afternoon, and posted it on /r/singapore in the hope that it would be h

0554 + 0555 + 0556 – ‘My Education Journey’

An older friend told me that a parent wanted to talk to ‘learn about my educational journey’ and ‘understand

0553 – self-regulate pt 1

It’s interesting and scary to contemplate the mind sometimes. And how it’s compelled to do certain things in certain ways,

0552 – shed your past selves

Every morning I wake up and it feels like I must’ve smoked a cigarette the night before. It’s felt like this ever since I

0551 – any issues?

A: I was asked if I have any issues. B: Well, do you? A: I don’t know. Doesn’t everybody? What is an issue? B: Wel

0550 – a life of quiet desperation

(fiction) There’s a guy who’s stuck in a dead-end office job. Every day gets out of the box box he calls home and gets int

0549 – write true sentences

What does it take to write a piece of fiction? You have to start with something. You could start with a person, or perhaps a p

0548 – go running every week for mental clarity

I just got home from a run. I found myself thinking, as I often do after my infrequent, irregular runs, that my mind was feeli

0547 – “if everyone were zombies”

It’s interesting to me that so many teenagers develop the idea that nobody understands them, that they’re uniquely self-aw

0546 – the future of my words

Some writing comes more easily than others. Some writing requires cross-referencing with other work, and that’s always a

0545 – find humor in your dark times

There’s an enticing idea in the game of Zen and spirituality and philosophy and whatnot, which goes something like this:

0544 – a man lives in a box

A man lives in a box. He has lived for 9,409 days, and has been living in the box for 1,155 days. It’s a pretty nice box

0543 – writing as joyful self-correspondence

I suspect that I might have already written a word vomit about this but another one won’t hurt, since I’ve found m

0542 – more good than bad, please

The time is 330am. I got in bed at midnight. I’m not sure if I fell asleep at any point, but it was 2am when I found mys

0541 – forgotten gods

Questions: there’s a relationship between the ‘power’ of a god and how/why people believe in it (consider how greek myth

0540 – strive to break out of your box

This weekend wasn’t as productive as I was hoping it was going to be. That’s interesting– Why do I say hoping? W

0539 – end 2015

(started 24 dec 2015) So I’ve made it through another year. Not bad. It’s probably been legitimately the best year

0538 – evaluate (and do not tolerate) your problems

(started 4 oct 2015) In an earlier vomit, I mentioned that I already pretty much know what all my problems are and I know what

0537 – what is going on?

What are we, what is going on, what should we do? We’re all bags of cells. A hundred trillion nanobots working together,

0536 – Lemmy (This is not a practice life)

(29 Dec 2015) I woke up today and learned that Lemmy from Motorhead is dead. I wasn’t particularly a big fan of the band

0535 – 2015 in review [DUPLICATE OF 0513]

(started 2015-12-21) The year is coming to a close, and with it there’s a general atmosphere of slowing down, breathing

0534 – becoming a man means accepting responsibility

(started 25 sept 2015) When does a boy become a man? In some societies- tribal cultures in particular- there are very explicit

0533 – the next steps of my writing journey

(started 13nov2015) I love the winds we get at the end of the year. They’re so calming, refreshing, and a little melanch

0532 – guilt as a signalling mechanism

(started 3rd nov 2015) Let’s start with a bit of skepticism. I’ve written about feeling guilty several times befor

0531 – do things for placebo purposes

(Started in Oct 2015) I just downloaded an app called Byword and I’m using it to write right now. It cost me $15. Part o

0530 – first monthly review

So the first month of 2016 is over. I’ve done a few good things. I’ve met some friends- I remember 4 specific meet

0529 – gently calibrate your expectations

I’m in an uber on the way home from meeting my friends. My battery died but I just remembered that I have a fully charge

0528 – break things down

Sometimes it feels like there are gaps in my reasoning or gaps in my understanding of my own behavior. Why am I not writing ev

0527 – next steps for main blog

I’ve been starting to post things on my main blog again. It’s interesting for me to try to be mindful about what I

0526 – revise and refine your personal algorithms (they’ll set you free)

I’m thinking about Facebook and video games again, and personal growth and scaling difficulty. When you play a game such

0525 – strive to transition from ordeal to adventure

There are many metaphors for thinking about life. One of the most common is probably “life as journey”. Birth is t

0524 – acknowledge the silly “big-minded man” game

I think I’ve been approaching fiction the wrong way. I start with big ideas. But what’s the point? People don̵

0523 – prioritize developing your work ethic

What is work ethic? Wikipedia says it’s a value based on hard work and diligence, and frames it in the context of Marxis

0522 – strive to do more than ‘get by’

It’s interesting to think about how many teenagers come to the conclusion that the world is full of mindless zombies, th

0521 – next steps for writing and work

The last vomit ended with “I have not answered the central question”. Probably because I didn’t ask it clear

0520 – know what you want and go get it

I woke up pretty early yesterday, I think. It was probably around 7 or 8 am. I left for work at 9-something, got to office at

0519 – obliterate your subconscious taskmasters

Day 4 of the new year. Didn’t publish a word vomit yesterday. It’s interesting to think about the psychology and p

0518 – refactoring my personal library

So it’s the second day of the new year, and it’s a weekend, and so far so good. I hit the gym, did some squats. Di

0517 – writing for a richer experience of reality

I wrote two vomits earlier– first about my goals for 2016 (get physically stronger + write daily + review daily + do more de

0516 – hello 2016: mindset (zero to one + pursue responsibility)

In the previous vomit I thought about my goals– I’ve learned that it’s important to have concrete, measurable go

0515 – hello 2016: goals

So we’re halfway through the first day of 2016. A year is an arbitrary signifier of the passage of time, but it’s

0514 – don’t build taj mahals

I’m re-reading Fareed Zakaria’s The Post-American World. [1] I’m at the bit where he’s talking about Z

0513 – reviewing 2015

The year is coming to a close, and with it there’s a general atmosphere of slowing down, breathing out. I find myself wa

0512 – be a player, not a spectator

Let me try and summarize what I’ve been rambling about in the past few vomits. A quote I’ve been ruminating on is

0511 – prioritize strength

The more time I spend online, the more I read news articles and forums and reddit, the more I look at what’s going on on

0510 – eliminate information feeds that don’t serve you

(This wasn’t a very good vomit. Circling around too many things without drilling into any one thing deep enough. So be i

0509 – putting my gains first

Been a few days since I published a vomit, but it’s something I don’t feel bad about anymore. Once this happens a

0508 – writing publicly again

I published my last word vomit on Nov 21, and it was something a little different– dialogue practice. I haven’t publis

0507 – what does love mean to you?

“Can I be totally honest with you?” “Sure.” “Huh. It’s funny– I didn’t actually re

0506 – More Power: What can I do to raise my voltage?

I’ve got a few minutes so I thought I’d run through the blog manifesto I’ve been putting together. I’v

0505 – troubleshooting stories, pt 2

A: Where were we? B: We were troubleshooting your first story. It’s about growing up, and how that requires losing your

0504 – the pebble in the shoe is worse than a rocky road

Woke up pretty late today after a long night shooting video game villains with my friends. Had a nice afternoon coffee with my

0503 – troubleshooting my first story

A: I’ve been thinking. B: That’s usually a good idea. A: I’m pretty happy that I’ve done over 500 word

0502 – set aside time for scheduled personal software debugging

Just left a marketing event and I’m on the way home. What’s on my mind? There are a bunch of things that I could a

0501 – regularly revise your personal narrative and self-concept

There’s a lot of sciencing that I can still do to improve the quality of my life. One of the slightly frustrating things

0500 – I’m proud of you

It’s 1:31am and I really, really need to pee. And this is the thing that I will remember about the 500th word vomit that

0499 – what would Visa like to read?

A friend posted a status update asking people to tell him what they’d like him to write about. I thought about it for a

0498 – commit to perpetually upgrading your software (Push The Big Red Button)

Many vomits ago I wrote about the concept of a “The Big Red Button”. It’s a fun thought experiment– if you

0497 – adjust the resolution of your map to suit your quest

I’m tired and a little drunk but I feel like I should get a word vomit out pronto because I haven’t done one in a

0496 – identify personal baggage that needs addressing, and address it

When I was reviewing my first 50 word vomits, I came up with a bunch of questions that I wanted to answer. I’m looking a

0495 – 5 away from 0500 while revisiting 1 to 0050s

495, that’s the number of the address of my childhood home. It’s always interesting to me how things grow and wane

0494 – get into the arena and play to win

I was just reading an article where someone quotes what Murakami had to say about writing. At some point Murakami talked about

0493 – suspend judgement of low-res work, increase resolution through practice

I’m writing this one while I’m on the train, taking the Green line (east-west) from my workplace to my parent̵

0492 – nothing lived ever goes to waste if you’re mindful and kind

I went to bed earlier than usual (which is probably the time I should actually be going to bed regularly, at around 10pm), and

0491 – everything changes so stop holding so tight

Have had a few recurring conversations recently– first with my wife then with a couple of my colleagues, and I suppose I wro

0490 – mindfully avoid muscle memory

The brain is an interesting thing. If complexity were a measure of interestingness, it would be the most interesting thing in

0489 – take memories of yourself that you like, and make them more vivid

It’s been a good weekend. Yesterday I woke up really early with my mind swimming with thoughts, and I wrote a full 8 vom

0488 – getting shit done is a lot of work

So this is interesting. It’s 12 noon now. I was able to chug from 5am till about 730am, then I got tired and started rea

0487 – progress is cringeborne

One of the best signs of progress is when you find yourself cringing at your own work. The more recent the work you cringe at,

0486 – boredom is a symptom of a cluttered mind

I think I wrote about this as a Facebook status before, because I was so excited about it, but it’ll be good to revisit

0485 – the athlete must play hurt

Took a short break, drank some water and I’m back for round 5. The title of this post is from a line from Steven Pressfi

0484 – use good tools (but don’t obssess endlessly about them)

Back for number 4 at 0633hrs. There’s something very calming about writing in this Byword screen, which is all minimalis

0483 – stop fussing about Poor Little Me

I distracted myself for a few minutes, and it’s now 5:58am as I begin my third vomit. I think I’m okay with that.

0482 – gooey people and prickly people

The first vomit of the day is done, and it’s now 5:34. If I can keep this pace up (of course I can’t, but just for

0481 – consider glorious possibilities of new ideascapes

It’s 5:15am. I woke up a while ago. What time did I go to bed? I think around midnight. This is an unusual occurrence, a

0480 – “Why do you read?”

Before words were written, they were spoken. They probably started out as grunts and yelps and growls. Somehow, over time, the

0479 – revisit the Resistance

I started re-reading Steven Pressfield’s War Of Art on a whim, after cycling through a bunch of other reads– Guns Germ

0478 – moving forward means letting go

It’s funny to me that I spent some time writing half-vomits that I didn’t publish, and then suddenly I wrote a tri

0475 + 0476 + 0477 – How did I get here?

It’s always fun to pay attention to all the different kinds of stimuli I encounter, which then trigger a series of paral

0474 – “Do you have any writing advice?”

This post was written direct to Medium. For you? Of course! 🙂 Before anything else, you have to know what you want to say.

0473 – strive to breathe easier

Haven’t written a full vomit in a while. Sometimes I get started but then I don’t finish. Had two or three starts

0472 – experiment with pretending you don’t have problems

A: Hey, you free for a chat? B: Always. What’s up? A: I was hoping to catch you in a more relaxed, unprofessional sort o

0471 – strive for mastery in the artful application of force

My mind has been triangulating onto upon a simple idea over time: A lot of life is about the artful, appropriate application o

0470 – to be or not to be (in one’s self-interest)

It’s 437am and I’m having trouble sleeping. I have a meeting at 11, so I’ll have to be out of the house befo

0469 – make the decision to grow

In both Mean Girls and in The Office and I think in many other stories that we find compelling, the hero goes through a diffic

0468 – boredom is a bug of the mind

(The following vomit gets a bit messy because I jump back and forth and repeat myself) I want to think and write about about b

0467 – past-induced glitchy limbo

I hold on to a lot of stuff from my past. I don’t think this is good for me. Examples? I don’t particularly hold o

0466 – beware fuckarounditis

In September 2011, a guy named Martin Berkhan wrote a blogpost titled “Fuckarounditis”. He was using it to talk ab

0465 – the world doesn’t need another personal development blog

I’ve been trying out this new voice-to-text app on my phone, and it’s pretty fun. It’s not 100% perfect, and

0464 – experiment with different mediums

I’ve been toying with the idea of getting into the “Writing For Medium” game. I know it’s a little late, but it st

0463 – when does a boy become a man?

When does a boy become a man? In some societies- tribal cultures in particular- there are very explicit initiation rituals and

0462 – beware grandiose proclamations

I have a few more minutes, I might as well try to hammer another one out. Let’s check my Trello / Evernote / Workflowy f

0461 – we are all miseducated – accept it and deal with it

Gonna dash out a quick vomit before I go to bed. It’s a little late, but it’s just one of those days. Bought some

0460 – dance along to your internal compass

First a quick meatbag management review– I hit the gym about once a week for 3 weeks, and then took a break for a week (unin

0459 – just a little tired

Here’s something that’s really quite funny. I wrote 4 word vomits last night with a sense of vigor and energy and

0458 – oceanic moments of being

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time exploring this more wet, dark, feminine, touchy-feely spiritual side of myself. I

0457 – the joy of working with constraints, pt 3

Let’s quickly try and summarize what’s been happening the past couple of vomits. In the first, I got into a bit ab

0456 – the joy of working with constraints, pt 2

I got the more big picture life-long perspective stuff out of the way in the last post, with death and life and all of that st

0455 – the joy of working with constraints

I’ll start by refuting the very premise that I want to meditate on. Constraints can be cruel, arbitrary, stupid, unfair,

0454 – the echochamber is the siren

Almost two weeks ago, I voted for the first time, in Singapore’s general elections 2015. It was a pleasant and quick pro

0453 – contemplate presence and impermanence

Impermanence is a hard idea to properly grasp. (It’s amusing how “grasping” implies some form of control, some ability t

0452 – strive to resolve recurring guilty dreams via meditation

I have some recurring dreams from time to time, all with the same fundamental themes of guilt, shame and failure. My brainR

0451 – the moral failure fixation is a red herring

I’ve been thinking and talking and writing for some time about how I’ve needed to experience some sort of rebirth

0450 – practice taking pauses

I’ve been taking a break from writing for a while but now I’m back. I initially hoped to have August be my “

0449 – How to think about categorizing blogposts

I wasn’t super happy with the last word vomit. The reason for that is fairly simple– I wrote it in a fit of strong emo

0448 – parents, peers and other benevolent plagues

I’ve been reflecting on how people get into drinking and smoking and drugs. And by extension, how my life has come along

0447 – Cameron

When he was a little boy, Cameron was devoted to exploring the world with his entire being. He would spin in circles until h

0446 – switching to stories

Well, this is hilarious. I started on this vomit, and then I sort of got distracted and wandered off, and I ended up taking 2

0445 – onward

So yesterday I had a really epiphanic, euphoric sort of vibe. The peak state has worn off, but I still remember the critical b

0444 – Hello, World.

I am. Billions have conspired to create me, to bring me here, right here at this moment. I am. I feel like I have awakened fro

0443 – GTD, prioritization, dealing with interruptions and distractions

Work [1], daily reviews, exercise. These are the things that I really want to adopt as part of my daily routine, beyond my dai

0442 – insist on prioritizing

A few vomits ago I realized that sometimes I have to state things that seem incredibly obvious in order for me to grapple with

0441 – peopling, and silly

It’s 2:16am. I was home around 1030pm, and so I was hoping to be asleep by 12noon, but look, it’s 2:16pm. I do thi

0440 – reading old vomits (and thoughts for new ones)

Second set of things on my mind– thoughts while re-reading old word vomits. The first and most pressing thought is that I

0439 – perpetual wistfulness

I have a couple of things on my mind. The first is a sort of persisting wistfulness, the second is a collection of thoughts I

0438 – break in case of utter desolation: a script

I realize that I’ve written many vomits that circle around the ideas of what I ought to be doing, but it’s never q

0437 – stop walking over the same old ground

I’ve been reading and summarizing old vomits over the past few days. I think the important realization is that I’v

0436 – people will always misinterpret you, so focus on earning your own self-respect

I’ve been observing with interest as the people around me have been writing long ass essays on Facebook, and getting int

0435 – earn some self-respect

I feel a little funny writing this, because it’s probably something that I should write for myself, personally, rather t

0434 – go somewhere new

I’m getting tired of writing about the thoughts on my mind the way I’ve been doing for the past 400 vomits or so.

0433 – evolving the 1000wordvomits project

I’m recognizing an increasing need, or feeling of need, to re-read my vomits and to start editing them properly. This fe

0432 – let go of your fixations

I’m not sure when or how exactly I was triggered to write about this, but it’s been obviously something that’

0431 – your priorities are what you do, not what you say you’ll do

My subconscious doesn’t seem to grasp the idea that I’ve done over 400 vomits. I write “242” instead

0430 – needed changes and a perfect month

I’m writing this vomit by picking something from my to-do list. Somewhere– maybe a few vomits ago– I thought to myse

0429 – dissatisfaction with vomits; how to fix?

I wasn’t satisfied with the last vomit and I’d like to think about why that is the case. I think it’s becaus

0428 – define integrity and embody it

integrity (n.) c. 1400, “innocence, blamelessness; chastity, purity,” from Old French integrité or directly from

0426 + 0427 – significance requires responsibility

Trouble sleeping, mind is refusing to power down. Thinking about the last vomit, and how I didn’t adequately answer the

0425 – replace hyperbole with precision

I’m learning that I have a habit of using hyperbole in my communication. I sometimes describe things as the “best

0424 – the yin-yang nature of our inner child and parent

Amusingly, I have repeatedly messed up the numbers of the past few word vomits. I keep writing 0241, 0242, 0243 instead of 042

0423 – muddled time

A couple of things happened today that made me think about the passage of time. An ex-colleague visited the office, and the de

0422 – reconfiguring things to become a better writer

I have a recurring thought that’s hard to shake, and yet hard to do very much about. I don’t think it should be shaken. In

0421 – beware false victory, and validation

I had an interesting thought this morning when I woke up. I published 4 word vomits yesterday, which is 4 times more than I’

0420 – intelligently power through plateaus and don’t give up

“What is the present state of the saboteur?” The saboteur is always present, always scheming, and always full of s

0419 – identify and overcome your intrinsic weaknesses

“What intrinsic weaknesses do I have, and how do I overcome them?” Aw, man. One of those questions I don’t r

0418 – do periodic reviews at multiple timescales, experience the joy of reviewing

“How do I design checks and balances into my routines?” I’ve been writing word vomits pretty regularly becau

0417 – idea-resistance, one journey, saying no, falling off wagons

“9. The best ideas get implemented without resistance, why?” Well– these might not necessarily be the _best_ ide

0416 – be precise about execution and work hard

“Are we limiting ourselves when we think local?” I was thinking about this in the context of writing. Should I wri

0415 – how to have meaningful interactions + game mechanics in life

I want to take a couple of vomits to answer a bunch of questions I’ve collected over time, mostly the earlier vomits. &#

0414 – i want to host dinner parties

I was having a text conversation with a friend that I sometimes talk to from time to time– one of those people that I don

0413 – stop trying to save the world

Having written one vomit about a status update, I figured I might as well write another. This time it’s about saving the

0412 – on conversations again

Yesterday I said that I’d write a word vomit about having good conversations. It’s a good idea to do what I say I&

0411 – writing aspirationally

I’m currently reading ‘The News, A User’s Manual’ by Alain de Botton, the guy who gave a TED talk abou

0410 – shelves of books and nothing to read

I was amused by a minor struggle I had this morning when choosing a toilet read. I’ve gone through quite a few books in

0409 – emotion in writing

I’m tired and sleepy, but I need to get a vomit done. I don’t feel like I can freeball it completely, so I’m

0408 – (resist the) tendency to talk in explanations

TLDR: I get neurotic when I try to explain everything, including how and why I try to explain everything. Relax. – IR

0407 – description of an average day

I’ve been trying to write about my habits in a sort of bullet list, in some sort of orderly fashion. Progress on that ha

0406 – nobody summits a mountain by going on a random walk

I decided to take 5 minutes to ‘meditate’ and calm my mind before writing this. I was going to start without knowi

0405 – dealing with slipping and with foggy black boxes

Had a couple of interesting conversations at work today that I want to explore a little more fully. The first is about what it

0404 – some things change, some things stay the same

I took a bit of time to read some of my older writing– some from back in 2006, some from back in 2010 or so, and some from 2

0403 – missed a vomit

I failed to publish a word vomit yesterday. I’ve been trying to keep a streak going. I had a 9 day streak when I first d

0402 – a yearning for deep companionship

It’s late at night, and I was hoping to have gone to bed by now. But at the same time I’ve been having really good

0401 – consider absurdity of tapping on glass

I feel like taking a vomit to think through my thoughts about games that I play. This time I’m talking about literal vid

0400 – stop hoarding truth in boxes

As I woke up this morning and lounged in bed for a while, before going to the toilet and reading a book (currently re-reading:

0399 – good conversations do not write novels

I was thinking about my last vomit about how my writing style has changed, and how grateful I am to have induced and witnessed

0398 – beware of digression

Digression is fun Achieving your goals is more fun Do not digress at the expense of achieving your goals Alright, I’ve b

0397 – stop living life stressfully (the elephant can break free)

TLDR Collect desired end-states We are all elephants tied to posts Don’t waste time talking to other tied elephants; fre

0396 – publish crap

I’m approaching 400 word vomits now, which is a nice milestone but it isn’t even half of everything that I’m

0395 – procrastination as Parent vs Child breakdown

I felt like that last post was a lot of beating around the bush and exploring the area around what I wanted to talk about with

0394 – the problem with the motivation game

I’ve always been fascinated by discussions about motivation and procrastination. I guess it’s because I’ve h

0393 – earn your own trust

Assuming you’ve got something that you’re working towards, and you’re working on it… you could probabl

0392 – life is precious

Life is precious. It’s the best thing we’ve got, as far as we know, and yet it’s unpredictable, volatile. We

0391 – examples of wrong feelings

I feel like I should quickly expand on the previous vomit, which I started without an end in mind, and summarized as “my

0390 – my feelings are often wrong and unreliable

Recovering from my illness. I feel my mind returning. I have thoughts and questions to explore. I find myself thinking about t

0389 – get your ass up and walk that tightrope, son

I find myself thinking about the balancing act that’s required in order to move from one level of functioning to the nex

0388 – I will write

There’s always something shitty about word vomits when I try to complete incomplete ones. There’s this looming sen

0387 – knocked down but bouncing back

I fell sick again. I fell pretty hard, too. It coincided with me pretty much overtraining for my fitness tests, and my arms we

0386 – soooo sleepy

Note to future self: I’m only writing this because I’m trying to keep a streak going. Will not even bother fixing

0385 – schedule revisions for learning through repetition

It’s my third day waking up early. I got more sleep last night than I did the previous two nights, so I’m more awa

0384 – express your values through planned actions

TLDR: Wake up early every day (so sleep early too) Review work daily (with accountability partner) So what’s my plan? I

0383 – review your principles regularly

TLDR: I want to minimize unnecessary fear, uncertainty and doubt I want to never feel sorry for myself I want the freedom to b

0382 – wake up earlier for a different life

Yesterday when me and my wife were at the airport sending my parents off, I had a brain wave at some point– I can’t re

0381 – fuck fear

When did I first start becoming afraid? I thought I was a confident person, I thought I had it all. There are loads of people

0380 – what I’m leaving behind

I have a lot of things I’m going to leave behind. I’m going to leave behind the bullshit that I don’t know w

0379 – I can

I’m feeling rather impatient. I find myself thinking that I should be done with this word vomit project already. But I&#

0378 – stop describing problems without solving them

Over and over again I think it’s a good idea to revisit everything from first principles. Start from what you know is tr

0377 – social groups and answers within

I want to think about the strange thing that happens when I fixate on any particular group of people and allow them to become

0376 – meditate and reflect to unlearn childish incompetence

TLDR: I’m still childish. I’ve been an adult for a couple of years now and it’s sometimes funny and sometime

0375 – body-wisdom and metaphorical car accidents

There’s a lot of information and wisdom in the body. I’m not a scientist, and I haven’t read all the literat

0374 – consider what’s changed and prepare for future change

Hot on the heels of the last vomit– so this is the first time in a few days that I’m writing two instead of one. I wan

0373 – revisiting the origin (of the word vomit project) – I want to be a better version of myself

I have a lot of thoughts and a lot of questions. My first question is to do with these vomits. Why am I writing these? It̵

0372 – no escaping the rehearsals

I’m not sure how I should feel about the amount of time I spend inside my head thinking about my past. I don’t want to be

0371 – a table of my own

(original title was “a space that I deserve”) I got a little distracted by the latest Google neural network visual

0370 – Do the loyalty missions and embody hard truths

Reaching that age where “maybe they’re older and know something I don’t” is starting to be replaced by

0369 – skin in the game and growing up

I’ve read a lot about procrastination and akrasia over the years but one thing I’ve always resisted doing is using

0368 – ugh fields

It’s 3:25am and I should be asleep but I’m not. Me and my wife seem to be having this weird silly habit where we s

0367 – history of my writing journey

I’ve always loved words. [1] I grew up reading books. My parents tried to be kind and loving to me, and one of the ways

0366 – “I was stuck but not anymore”, again

Alright, it’s writing time. It’s been about 6 days since I last published a vomit. I’ve taken a bit of time

0365 – stuff I’d like done

I was thinking to myself (as I’ve been doing all day), and it occurred to me that one thing that I really want is this:

0364 – tidy up your mental filing cabinets

I mentioned “mental filing cabinets” in a previous post, and I figure if I don’t write about them now, I pro

0363 – blood sugar 1

I haven’t done the reading yet, but I want to write about it first so that I can reflect on this after I’m better

0362 – latest cigarette thoughts

Thinking about cigarettes again. I went a long time without, around 6 months or so. Then I had a couple of circumstances where

0361 – strive to play the bigger games

I’m trying to make it a habit to start each day with a writing session, if possible. I’m sure I’ve said that

0360 – fuck feeling guilty about not appreciating life

In the previous post I tried to think about reconciling my multiple sets of thoughts and perspectives and approaches to differ

0359 – one coherent picture

In the previous post I tried to think about how brutal and indifferent nature is, and how it generates its own suffering in to

0358 – red in tooth and claw

A couple of days ago I found myself looking at some pretty graphic, grotseque images of nature in action. There was a baboon e

0357 – actually 25

Well, so I actually turn 25 today. Today is my 25th trip around the sun. I’ve been around for about 9100 days now, meani

0356 – Less wrong and next steps

Quick note to self when I’m reading later: I started this vomit before I finished the last one. (And the one after that!

0355 – punch the goddamn tires

Woke up, first at 7 and then again at 9, and been in bed since then. I’m going to write this vomit and then leave for wo

0354 – a day at home

Today has been delightfully irresponsible. I decided not to go to work today, I decided to take a “mental health dayR

0353 – discharge your strength, productively

I make a lot of strange decisions. Right now I’m deciding to write a word vomit in the middle of the day. Is this a bad

0352 – if drunk

I wonder what I would write if I were piss drunk and didn’t give a fuck about what I was writing about. Let me sort of t

0351 – quarter of a decade

A couple of vomits ago I wrote about “Be Dangerous”, a post that I read on Dave Trott’s blog. I tried to thi

0350 – 3 years from now

I wrote a vomit trigger titled “3 years from now…?” It was a question one of my colleagues asked me when we

0349 – ‘be dangerous’

I just looked up Dave Trott’s blog– he wrote a book called Predatory Thinking, which I enjoyed (at the bookstore) and

0348 – clearly define your done-criteria

A huge part of my procrastination comes from bad project management. I notice it’s easier to commit to a run when there&

0347 – writing games

I’ve decided to go through my workflowy (which is a sort of grabbag of thoughts and reminders and todos that I have) and

0346 – finish (or decisively abandon) what you start

It’s 9.45pm. I slept later yesterday than I would’ve liked, and woke up later than I would’ve liked. I did s

0345 – my journey to becoming precise

Let’s wipe the slate clean again. So okay, I want to be a man of my word. I want to be a strong, responsible person. I w

0344 – wipe the slate clean and face your problems now

Let’s wipe the slate clean and start over. I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with this over the years, over the l

0343 – a pretty good week

TLDR: sleep earlier / do the dishes / avoid internet drama / prioritize the best people / don’t self-flagellate –

0342 – tired, re-reading old vomits

Wow I’m tired. I should learn to listen to my body better, take more naps, sleep more. I feel like I’ve been a lit

0341 – avoid “I’ll do it later”

I went to bed around 1120pm or so. I set two alarms- 600 and 710am. Didn’t hear the first one, woke up on the second one

0340 – decide in advance + do it immediately

It’s 948am and I’m leaving the house in a few minutes. Thought I’d get started on this vomit while waiting for my wife t

0339 – real confidence requires practice and awareness

So it seems like I might be developing this rhythm where I’m writing a post every morning and another one every night. M

0338 – identify your implicit beliefs

It’s 943 and I’m out of the house, I’m on the way to work. I went to bed at midnight yesterday, and set an a

0337 – no really do it now

Today started out a little imperfectly– I didn’t jump out of bed the way I wanted to. (I wrote about that this morning

0336 – wake up do it now

So I went to bed later than I would’ve liked yesterday, but I thought I’d still get a good night’s sleep- wh

0335 – strive for no zero days

Today has been a pleasant, lackadaisical day. I did a whole bunch of word vomits yesterday. Today I woke up kinda late despite

0334 – procrastination pt 2

http://www.mindofwinner.com/how-to-stop-procrastinating/ 1- Find out why you procrastinate. Is the task: Unpleasant? Boring? (

0333 – procrastination pt1

Here’s something funny– I’m a procrastinator, and a pretty bad one. And something I’ve always wanted to do

0332 – primitive map of behaviors pt 2

Getting glazed over at work: Often after lunch, I have a post-lunch ‘crash’ where I’m all lethargic. This is

0331 – primitive map of behaviors pt1

Waking: When I wake up in the morning, I tend to lay in bed for a rather long time. I tend to pick up my phone and start going

0330 – beware overthinking (make decisions quicker)

I am an overthinker. I do it probably because it’s familiar and easy, because it’s the hammer in my hands that mak

0329 – creative destruction is necessary for progress

Creative Destruction is an idea that’s floating to the front of my mind. The notion that you have to break eggs to make

0328 – the village idiot goes to the forest

A mental picture I’ve been amused with and enjoying for a while. I like to think and talk about the Hero’s Journey

0327 – put the gun down

(original title: beware self-flagellation, move forward instead) I am a self-flagellator. It’s a weird thing to realize,

0326 – back on the wagon

12:07pm on a Saturday, 23rd May. It’s been 11 days since I last published a word vomit. I’m not sure if I should c

0325 – sick + facebook again

It’s the 12th of May, 2015. It’s 2:48am. I’m recovering from a pretty nasty cold or flu, and I find myself r

0324 – draw bright lines and stick to them

For some reason I haven’t been able to stick to a daily habit. At 26 years of age, once in a while I leave the house forgett

0323 – beware supernormal stimuli

There are lots of things that bother me, and sometimes I’m bothered by the things that bother me– i.e., I wish I weren’t

0322 – an imperfect manifesto

At some point I’ve told myself that I ought to write a manifesto. I’m not sure why I did that. I must have read so

0321 – move fast and break things

I remember reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done a few different times, and I’ve come to realize that for some

0320 – reading is good

Moving on. I’ve been reading books again. In relatively quick succession this year, I’ve read William Gibson’

0319 – tawk is cheap

In Zen In The Art Of Writing, Ray Bradbury describes how he feels weird if he doesn’t write for a couple of days. I can&

0318 – Romance of Late Nights

I’ve been sleeping earlier and earlier the past few days. I went to bed at midnight yesterday, before 1am the day before

0317 – somewhat existential

Somewhat existential. Been feeling a bit of a cloudy sort of mood for a while. Not exactly the “Oh woe is me, I’m

0316 – thinking and talking about anger

C: Okay, okay. I think I need help. Can you help me? B: I can try. What do you need help with? C: I think most people are real

0315 – what do I want to be doing?

Every so often it helps to start from scratch. What do I really want to be doing? What am I really all about? What should I be

0314 – writing when tired, little rubbish piles

I wrote that last post– 0313– right after lunch, while in a food coma of sorts. I would’ve typically much rather hav

0313 – tenative thoughts about content labor and process management

There’s an idea that’s been swirling in my mind for quite some time. The adjacent ideas are “writer’s

0312 – B and C

C: So… is that what you guys do all the time? Sit around and talk about life? B: You could say that. What do you usually

0311 – Introducing C

A: You know, we’ve been chatting for some time now and I’ve been having a pretty good time. You challenge me in a way that

0310 – stop kicking up sand

I would experience a certain exalted satisfaction if I finish another vomit tonight, because then I’d gone from 305 on m

0309 – draw an arbitrary line in the sand

B: So what would you do if you could do absolutely anything you wanted, if money were no object? A: Right now really there are

0308 – Draw, Play, Explore

A: I just need to draw, play, explore. B: Are you saying that you aren’t doing that already? A: I suppose if I’m d

0307 – dealing with plateaus

A: Lately I’ve been thinking about exit decisions, about the potential or opportunity of throwing away everything to sta

0306 – Terrangima, The Hero and the Call To Adventure

There’s a beautiful game called Terranigma, which is a pretty interesting spin on the classic Hero’s Journey. Not

0305 – 2nd workout, reflecting on overthinking

I have a thought in my head, which is “I regret the amount of time I spent on Tumblr/Facebook.” It’s an inte

0304 – meta-confession

A: I have a meta-confession. B: What the fuck is a meta-confession? A: I want to confess that I seem to enjoy confessions a li

0303 – building up the meatbag

A: I have a theory. B: Let’s hear it. A: I think I’ve been suffering from a mild testosterone deficiency of sorts.

0302 – breaking out of patterns

A: I need some help. B: That’s what I’m here for. A: I’m having some sort of cold feet situation, experienci

0301 – gym, and how I usually get stuck

A: So. B: So? A: I went to the gym and I feel fucking incredible. I did a few big compound exercises until I started to feel m

0300 – break free from your stale, suffocating patterns

B: So the more interesting question to ask, I think, is why do you feel this way? Why do you constantly overestimate yourself?

0299 – let go of your guilt, shame and bad estimates

A: I feel like I’ve accumulated a lot of baggage that’s wearing me down and keeping me from living my life. B: Why

0298 – confront the fears that paralyze you

A: People are boring and predictable. B: Why, how boring and predictable of you. A: I KNOW. It bothers me. I don’t want

0297 – dialogue

A: I’ve decided to start doing my vomits in the form of dialogues. B: Why? A: Lately I’ve been feeling a little st

0296 – procrastination equation– expectancy and value

The procrastination equation has four parts: expectancy, which is how much you genuinely believe you’re likely to comple

0295 – forgive your inner criminal

TLDR: Love the sinner, hate the sin. Now I want to reflect on a rather liberating thought that I had awhile ago. I’m not

0294 – believe that you can become a responsible person

Right, so hot on the heels of the last post, the question to be answered is– what does it mean to achieve a happy medium? Wh

0293 – get better at estimating (start small)

I would like to do 9 more vomits before I go to bed tonight, though I recognize that that’s probably not very feasible.

0292 – the way to do it is piecemeal: learn one new song at a time

I have a Workflowy that is full of prompts and thoughts and suggestions that I’m trying to pare down. I do that by delet

0291 – my lacklustre relationship with poker

My blah relationship with Poker I first properly encountered Poker on Facebook. There was a Texas Hold-Em game that you could

0290 – what makes a good video game?

What makes a good video game? This is another one of those things that was on my list. I grew up absolutely in love with many

0289 – what to do if you’re stuck in the Singaporean education system and you hate it

This is something I wish I had read when I was 15, 16, 17, 18. It’s written for a very narrow audience, and does not app

0288 – a letter to JC retainees

This has been on my “to write” list for a very, very long time. I think I’ve been putting it off because I w

0287 – Change the lights

When I bought my home and got my keys and moved in, it was dusty and mildly derelict. The previous owners had vacated over two

0286 – don’t want to be frustrated

I woke up this morning feeling a little tired and frustrated. It might have had something to do with the fact that I spent a v

0285 – can I use a Hero’s Journey narrative like Conan’s or Iron Man’s to motivate myself?

I once played a video game at a friend’s house about Conan The Barbarian. It was similar to God Of War, where you’

0284 – the Internet and the Resistance

The Internet is a beautiful thing and I am incredibly thankful for it. Really, it’s a goddamn miracle that it exists, th

0283 – narratives, weirdness, imperfections

Playing with narratives. Narratives are powerful, heady stuff. The brain is supposedly wired to think in narratives rather tha

0282 – make your plans together with your inner child

This is vomit number 7 in today’s streak. When this is done we’d have written over 7,000 words in a single afterno

0281 – zoom out to see how you’re blocking yourself

Life is full of wonderful ironies that reveal hypocrisy in my thinking. But that’s good, because everytime I discover th

0280 – pleasant vs unpleasant, matter of perspective

So I’ve established in my last few vomits that one of my central problems is trying to think that I can figure out what

0279 – win yourself over

I think I mentioned this earlier but I’ll repeat it– I’ve been very curious about the problem of akrasia, where

0278 – parent yourself

So that was the big insight. As a young adult [1], my job is to parent myself. Now this is an interesting way of framing the p

0277 – adulthood is about learning to parent yourself

Well that last post was kind of messy and tried to say a whole bunch of things all at once, which I thought was a bit of a bac

0276 – listen to yourself

Let’s start with the immediate thought– a few weeks ago I did 10 word vomits in a single day. I had previously always

0275 – to GTD u have to know what u want

The problem with Getting Things Done (GTD) – for me, at least– is that you have to know what you want to do. You have

0274 – claw out of delusion

The only way out of a delusion is to test things against reality. So I have to test things against reality. So a natural outco

0273 – ask yourself questions about what’s holding you back, and answer them honestly

I have been trying for years now to solve a problem (or set of problems) that I have not been able to adequately define. There

0272 – let go of cheap validation, do hard things instead

It feels like I haven’t done a proper vomit in a few days. I did a version-one glossary of terms that I tend to use, and

0270 + 0271 – Glossary of Stuff I Talk About v1.0

One of my goals for this word vomit project is to develop a more elegant, structured sense of my own mind and my own thinking.

0269 – leave your comfort zone regularly (lectured to SMU students)

Yesterday evening I did something for the first time– I gave an hour-and-a-half lecture to a group of students at SMU about

0268 – see through the circus and focus on the fundamentals

Before I get to work I just wanted to write a quick reminder (heh, 1000 words as quickly as possible– starting time, 11:38am

0267 – be humble in the face of environments

It’s humbling to discover how easy it is for me to fall back into old patterns and old routines. I enjoyed 5 days of minimal

0266 – beware the dark playground

(some repetition) Let’s zoom back out– the point of this vomit was to think and talk about games that allow me to have

0265 – games that help with time and money

Games and projects that really give you a sense of life, in terms of $$ / time? (0093) Mass Effect. Dragon Age. (I suppose thi

0264 – cultivate different perspectives (by moving yourself)

I left a prompt for myself titled “cultivating a different perspective”. I suppose I wanted to remind myself that

0263 – Stop searching under streetlights

It’s a familiar joke and visual that I’ve thought about several times– the idea of a drunk looking for his keys

0262 – Megaman X and how we teach ourselves

There’s this video that I’ve watched several times on now on YouTube– it’s by this series called Sequeliti

0261 – Solve For Adoption (Consider Esperanto)

I just wanted to remind myself that getting something adopted– getting something implemented– is every bit as hard as comi

0260 – moments out of time

I had a moment earlier which I really wanted to capture, which also reminded me of several other moments. I’d like to ch

0259 – beware of insight porn

The allure of insight porn The first time I read the phrase “insight porn”, it really hit me hard. I realize that

0258 – entirely within my control

I’m in bed right now and I feel strangely compelled to start and complete a word vomit before I go to bed. I don’t

0257 – books, trains and people

I just reached work at lunch time, and everybody’s gone so I wonder if I can quickly dash off a vomit here right now. I

0256 – commit to personal daily sitdowns

According to my sleep tracker that I just started using– it’s not entirely accurate I’m sure– I was in bed for

0255 – fail forward

What is it that influences my volume of writing? How do I write more, faster? It makes me sad to think that I might take years

0254 – old friends, denying and embracing the now

Old friends I met an old friend for dinner and drinks a couple of days ago and I really liked it. It was pleasant. On hindsigh

0253 – repeat yourself as much as you have to; just keep moving

Blind hope is a dangerous thing. It makes me believe that tomorrow will be better without me doing anything about it. The most

0252 – mood music and limiting beliefs

[ Currently playing: Endeverafter – Road to Destruction ] Listening to music on a commute to work is an Interesting expe

0251 – practice meditation regularly

I can’t remember when I first started paying attention to the idea of meditation– it’s been quite a long time. I

0250 – two hundred and fifty thousand

Two hundred and fifty thousand I was “supposed” to be done with this yesterday, but I seem to have this strange ha

0249 – take slow walks

Slow walks. As I got out of the train today after a week of sickness, a day of work and a conversation with an old friend, I t

0248 – develop productive rituals

I woke up a short while ago, don’t yet know what I’m going to write. I’m still coughing up phlegm– I told

0247 – reminder to confront limiting beliefs

Integrity, reliability, responsibility. (Leadership, discipline…) All a bunch of buzzwords that I remember seeing on the

0246 – reminder to focus on fundamentals after the feels

So those were some strong feels in the last post, and strong feels are good to have- at least some of the time, from time to t

0245 – reminder that greatness is goddamn hard

I want to write about this idea… that doing good doesn’t always feel good. I think I first encountered this idea i

0244 – reminder that writing is therapy

I’m literally sick, with a cough and a flu of some sort. It’s kind of odd that after 20++ years I still completely

0243 – unwell

I’m feeling unwell right now and it’s interesting for me to pay attention to my headspace. It’s a kind of al

0242 – all conversations are plagued by silent evidence and underrepresentation

The single biggest thing that’s bothering me right now is the following realisation: 1- Every single conversation takes

0241 – Revisiting “on purpose”, from 2009

In 2009 I had a conversation with a friend about life that felt really powerful, and I went home and started writing. This was

0240 – destroy your limiting beliefs about food

Breakfast and limiting beliefs. Today has begun as a very beautiful day. I woke up at about 6:21am. I lay in bed and scanned t

0239 – keep working on your EQ

Currently going through a phase where I write about all the things I wrote in my “to write” list in my old noteboo

0238 – Strive to be resourceful

I’m currently going through my old notebooks and writing about the things I said I would one day write about. It seems o

0237 – Correct Misperceptions + Asymmetrical Warfare

For this vomit, and probably spilling over into the next couple of vomits, I’m going to go through my old notebooks and

0236 – Identify when you’re vague and be precise instead

I will definitely sleep better tonight if I crank out a word vomit before I go to bed, so I think I ought to write one. But I&

0235 – questions that arise pt 2

How do I succeed where my parents, teachers, etc failed? [0067] I’m still trying to figure out the answer here, but I th

0234 – answering questions that arise

A while ago, I took some time off to do a review of my early vomits– I believe I reviewed the first 100. Here are some of th

0233 – improving my environment

Several times in my writing I have told myself that I want to improve my environment. I wrote in an earlier vomit– before I

0232 – use stories as a thinking tool

I think I’m entering the zone of “what the fuck”, and this is whre it gets fun. This is where it gets intere

0231 – don’t be an eagle in a cage

Here’s a random thought– I remember once reading in Bass Player magazine about a bassist who played for a circus, and

0230 – clearly articulate your mistakes and successes to accelerate jailbreak

This was on my list of things to write about, and I think it’s something that’s always worth revisiting: What are

0229 – regular sync-ups, and the bleeding over of best practices

The single best improvement to my workday has been a daily sitdown that me and my marketing team (writers + designers) do ever

0228 – getting back into the groove of Heavy Reading

I’ve been asking myself this question a few times. I know that I want to read a lot. I have a lot of books. I have books

0227 – ethical self-focus, a declaration

Am rather dissatisfied with that last post– felt like I was spending a lot of time trying to provide context to what I wante

0226 – re-reading landsburg: consider the value of useful thought experiments

Yesterday (a couple of days ago) when my wife was in the shower I was overcome with the urge to do something– something that

0225 – auditing myself + what to read next

I would like to fling myself into the study of the ancients and classics. I’m curious about Odysseus / Ulysses. I’

0224 – win the person, not the argument

A couple of vomits ago I wrote about how upset and frustrated I was because somebody was mean to me on the Internet. I decided

0223 – identify your workflow processes

I woke up at 6am today, and I’m really tired and sleepy now at 1130pm. I guess that’s to be expected. I shouldR

0222 – Never be mean

This isn’t a new topic but it’s been fresh on my mind– why are we so mean on the Internet, and why don’t w

0221 – chip away at the boulder on your shoulder

I will definitely sleep better tonight if I crank out a word vomit before I go to bed, so I think I ought to write one. But I&

0220 – strive for the company of immortals

“Aim for the company of immortals” is a quote by David Ogilvy– I believe he was talking about the sort of atti

0219 – letter to a young smoker

Dear younger smoking self– Your father smoked all your life, and for most of the time you never really thought much of it. I

0218 – a break from being so goddamn public facing all the time

This would surprise my younger self, I think. I don’t know. Hey Visa, one day you’re going to get tired of being p

0217 – frustration and writing

I want to talk about the relationship between frustration and writing, although the real reason I sat down to write this was t

0216 – find a reason to be (smartly) mad

I think that Life should be lived passionately, with fire in your eyes and heart. It shouldn’t be boring, mundane, forge

0215 – why do I not sleep better?

This is the most important question in my life right now. If I sleep better, I have more clarity of mind. I make better decisi

0214 – destroy the boxes

I only have a couple of data points [1] but I’ve been enjoying watching videos by accomplished people giving long talks

0213 – freedom requires violence

There were other thoughts in parallel with the Bullshit one. What were they? Okay here’s one that I had written down but

0212 – Bullshit breaks down at the boundaries

I’m on the way to work, and for the first time in weeks, I’m not tired. Not exhausted. It was almost definitely th

0211 – reflecting on why

Feels like I’m going over old ground a lot. Let’s go somewhere new. Let’s just ask questions and answer them

0210 – after the unfriending

Since unfriending everybody, I’ve gotten quite a bit more headspace to think about other things. It’s been lonely,

0209 – repeatedly revisit what you know

Yesterday, I took a post-nap lunch at about 1pm, and I woke up at 4pm. Earlier today, I took a nap at around 145pm, and I woke

0208 – earn your keep

I deeply enjoyed reading The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield a while ago, and it’s a book I want to re-read and re-rea

0207 – a restful day + somewhere new now

Today was a good day, and one that I need to replicate a lot. It was simple and straightforward. I slept fully until I was rea

0206 – fuck it just do it

Happy 2015. I was hoping that I would have something amazing to write for my first post of the year. Something contemplative a

0205 – reflect on recurring dreams and pay attention to yourself

I just woke up from a shitty dream. I’m not sure how it started (dreams usually begin in the middle, right?) but involve

0204 – fixing anxiety, pausing and changing environments

I’ve been feeling so anxious and cramped up recently. I haven’t been able to trace it to a single precise point- i

0203 – be mindful (don’t be sloppy like in grand theft auto)

(2014-dec-14) I spent a long time today lying on my sofa, looking out at the sky outside my window. I found it to be very calm

0202 – smoking cessation and ten minute pomodoros

I had my last cigarette back in July 2014. I didn’t think that I would’ve stopped smoking so soon. I thought that I’d ha

0201 – breathe

I did not imagine that this is what I would begin the 200 series with. I knew that it was probably going to be something diffe

0200 – cold wistful rainy day

Writing this on the train. Such a cold wistful rainy day. Makes me nostalgic, contemplative, reflective. I think about how far

0199 – set precise goals to measure your progress towards self-mastery

What’s a reasonable age to expect to plan to develop self-mastery by? The elegant cop-out answer is that it takes a life

0198 – progressing recursively

Progress is really slow and frustrating. I don’t know if that’s the case for everybody but it’s the case for

0197 – 4 parts to procrastination

There are 4 parts to procrastination. Expectancy- What you believe the odds are that you’ll get it right. Do you expect

0196 – go go go

A conviction that’s difficult to openly admit- is that I think nobody has any fucking idea what they’re doing. I thin

0195 – strive to globally-maximize your enjoyment of life

I lost my last word vomit- it felt like it was some of the best work that I’ve ever done, and I lost all of it before I

0194 – mvp model of personal development

Ugh, I just wasted a bit of time before writing this by going on reddit. I got a couple of little links and stuff out of it, b

0193 – prioritize ruthlessly and follow through

It is now midnight, I wish I had gotten home by 11pm and I wish I had written this vomit 25 minutes earlier. All of that is an

0192 – “You’re only cheating yourself”

In an earlier word vomit- 0170 –  questioning assumptions; what got you here won’t get you there, I talked about a quest

0191 – I Unfriended Everybody

I’ve been getting a lot of utility from meditating on Everything Is A Remix. It’s a simple yet incredibly powerful

0190 – awakening to inner richness

I wonder if I could write a thousand words before I go to bed when I’m in a rather tired, sleepy state. I think I can. L

0188 + 0189 – the kind of person who insists that shit gets done

I’ve been smoke free for over 15 to 16 weeks now. I’m not sure of the exact date anymore. I no longer get cravings

0187 – Reading Dostoyevsky and repeating myself

I bought 10 books at a book fair a while ago days ago, one of them was Notes From Underground by Fydor Dostoyevsky, the Russi

0186 – A list of “What I’ve Learnt”s, part 2

– creating \(n_n)/, or How To Build A Community I’m amused at how poor all the “how to create a community” blogpos

0185 – A list of “What I’ve Learnt”s

I had a list of old prompts lying around in my Evernote since forever. Finally, on a day where I felt full of writerly energy,

0184 – What moves me? I want to find and empower the others

I was about to write “I used to think that developing discipline would cramp my improvisational style”, but then I

0183 – Everything is a remix + checkpoints and milestones

I watched the video on youtube and it triggered some thoughts. 1: Somebody recorded and replayed his recording of his voice ov

0182 – I will probably work on procrastination and productivity problems

Started this post in July 2014. Just finished it.  Founder-Market Fit Founder market fit is something that precedes product m

0181 – Writing Wet And Dry

The following is a post that I wrote on Aug 6 2014. It had only 750+ words, which wasn’t enough for my arbitrary standar

0180 – Hold me back, else I’ll… do something!

This post was written maybe a week ago, and I had stopped at around 900+ words. Hopefully once I cross 0200 I’ll stop pu

0179 – Why can we sometimes change our habits, and sometimes not?

Behavioral change: What separates successful attempts from unsuccessful attempts? The answer I most hate is “you have to

0178 – lean / mvp approach to developing a proper breakfast routine

Thursday 1120. Evernote on the way to work. Morning routines I need a morning routine. It used to be- wake up and go back to s

0177 – Why bother doing your work when the universe is going to be extinguished in the end?

Immediately hot on the heels of the last post. 10x more swearing that usual. Why bother doing your work when the universe is g

0176 – the state of my vomits represents my life quite well

End of the day, 0017hrs. Done with shower. Waiting for wife to shower. The vomits are a tragicomic manifestation of my life at

0175 – Behavioral change is about seeking new equilibrium states, and progress isn’t pretty

This is to be my 2nd vomit of the day.  It’s been a while since I did two vomits in a day. If I can maintain 2/day,

0174 – I have limited amounts of conscious attention + assume I’m smarter than I am

I just woke up after what felt like a really good night’s sleep and I decided to start with a word vomit. I want to get

0173 – New Lens Become New Blinders

It looks like I began writing this in 2013. Blinders New ways of seeing can become new sets of blinders. MBTI was like this fo

0172 – few people seem to write good book reviews

Reminiscing about past. I was going to write about my secondary school and JC days but I guess I’ll get back to that ano

0171 – fundamentals, small changes, fixing laziness

Written in January 2014. How about  completely unplanned vomit, huh? Technically no vomit is completely unplanned because the

0170 – question assumptions; what got you here won’t get you there

Fishes don’t know that they’re in water. And we don’t realize that we’re in unique cultures and enviro

0169 – Marketing, 7 Sins

January 2014. Another day passes. My 2nd day of not smoking. Feels good, feels fresh. Some unsettled stirrings- mouth ‘i

0168 – The Patient Saboteur + Questions for Singapore

These words were largely written on 6 January 2014. Just scanned a bunch of books via goodreads and deleted a bunch of drafts

0167 – Reading Under The Desk + Groups are scary

When I was in my second or third year in Junior College (I flunked my first year- was too busy smoking cigarettes, playing bas

0166 – Pullups at the playground

These posts were written on the 11th and 12th of July. Don’t really feel like writing but I’m going to do it anywa

0165 – read what you love and teach people to fish

This was written in June 2014. I am trying to rekindle the habit of doing vomits. I did one this morning on the way to work an

0164 – Recognizing Naivete, and #welcometothecircus

This was written towards the end of June 2014. Naivete I naively hoped that I would be doing 2 word vomits a day, finishing al

0163 – Turning 24, my problems have not changed

Turning 24- wrote this on my birthday in June Life has been interesting and challenging, despite the occasional mundanity. And

0162 – Identify your wants and utility functions

I wrote this in May 2014, publishing now. I’m sure I’ve written about this before, but each time I strip away some

0161 – Overstimulated

There’s a scene in one of the earlier episodes of The West Wing where the White House Chief Of Staff, Leo McGarry, descr

0160 – motivation is whatever gets you moving

This post was written in February 2014, but I’m only publishing it now. Motivation is an odd thing. What does it mean? L

0159 – morning run with the wife

TLDR: good things: waking early / eating breakfast / running / knowing your desired end-state (doesn’t need to be perfe

0158 – Why do anything? The Disneyland Analogy

Wrote this a few weeks ago, just finished it up. I think one of the simplest and deepest dilemmas that everybody needs to reso

0157 – Reboot (April)

This post was written in April but incomplete, unfinished and unpublished. I haven’t done a proper word vomit in over a

0156 – When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit + ADHD

When I was a young boy- I’m not sure if I was in primary school or secondary school, I read a book called When Hitler Stole

0155 – write to solve your own problems

A blog is a thinking tool. Anytime you write your thoughts anywhere, you’re forced to make your thoughts more precise. T

0154 – We Need To Talk About A

Improving yourself and your life, getting shit done, becoming a more optimal person, all of those things can be described in v

0153 – I highly recommend watching Boyhood, the Richard Linklater movie

I was crushed when I first heard about the existence of Before Sunrise, the movie. It was what I thought nobody had done prope

0152 – Letter To A Young Songwriter

When I was a teenager, I’d play bass in bands, sing horribly and toy with the idea of being a songwriter. This is a lett

0150 + 0151 – Restatement of Purpose

I have often felt purposeless, for the most part. Sometimes I get caught up in something and get all excited, but it usually e

0149 – Channel your fury constructively; become stronger because of it

Defining Fury I have been struggling for a word to describe a condition that sometimes comes over me. I sometimes want to call

0148 – becoming a better writer

This post was started in Jan 2014, and completed today. My blog started out as a random cache of brain farts and rants, and I

0147 – if it works, do you accelerate it?

This was started on Jan 2014, and completed today. If you know that something is changing, and it seems to be a good thing- i

0146 – a utilitarian approach to social media

I’ve been really frustrated with the state of discourse in most fields. Most people are, in my biased opinion, caught up

0145 – becoming less skinny will require small, unsexy changes over a long period of time

This was written around April 2014. I’ve always been underweight, my whole life. I suppose I’ve had a rather unhea

0144 – reading in the mornings and the joy of decluttering

Yesterday was a glorious day for my head. I published a whole bunch of vomits all at one go, that I had done from March to May

0143 – question your assumptions about how life should be lived

This post was written in May 2014. Lost Illusions I find myself questioning many of my assumptions about how life should be li

0142 – Arbitrary configurations of reality

Written in April 2014. Haven’t been writing. Why? Any good reason? Feels like a natural ebb and flow. Got kind of tired.

0141 – Pick the right narratives

This was written in April 2014 or so. I went for remedial training yesterday. I had to do it because I missed my IPPT, and now

0140 – ADHD pt 2

2021 update: I’m assembling everything I know + care about ADHD onto this blogpost: Constructive ADHD So it turns out th

0139 – ADHD

2021 update: I’m assembling everything I know + care about ADHD onto this blogpost: Constructive ADHD A couple of smart

0138 – Identify what makes YOU happy

For two weeks I managed to stick to a daily habit of writing down what I had done that day, watching a motivational video (why

0137 – make time for Life

This was written late March 2014. It’s already March and soon it will be April of 2014, but I’m still thinking abo

0136 – quality conversations, questions and thoughtfulness

This was written on March 25th, 2014. I like good conversations. I think good conversations are enriching, good for the mind a

0135 – strive to go from 20% to 25%

This was written on March 3rd, 2014. I think I’ve spent a lot of my life feeling like I’m only as 20% as productiv

0134 – address your anger and jealousy

This post was written a while ago. Not sure exactly how long ago.  I’m feeling angry and jealous. Jealousy of course is

0133 – Which Singapore?

It’s a wonderfully cool morning for 1140am in Singapore, and I find myself thinking that Singapore would surely be more

0131 + 0132 – figure out what you feel most strongly about and lean into that (Tesla, LKY)

There are few things I’m more excited about than Tesla Motors. The company is committed to pulling the future forward to

0130 – two thirty am

(moar old stuff 2013) It’s 230am and I can’t seem to get to sleep so I figure that I might as well do a word vomit

0129 – consider the future of education

Here’s something that bothers and confuses me: a lot of the thinking and discussion about the future of education is, in

0128 – 2013 in summary

More old posts. This was at the end of 2013, 6th dec. The past year for me has been characterized by me ripping my identity to

0127 – not enjoying games

Still publishing old stuff. Nov 2013. Yesterday the wife went out, leaving me alone at home- which I thought would be a great

0126B – kill the saboteur

More from the series of “I’m publishing stuff I wrote but didn’t publish”. This was from November 2013

0126 – deactivate / large number illiteracy

The following is a composite of 3 different notes I wrote in my Evernote that I never published, all around November 2013. I f

0125 – consider the self as a state

According to Evernote, I wrote this in August 2013. Doesn’t look like I’ve ever uploaded it, so… I’ll

0124 – Stop living in the past

I was watching one of Jon Kabat-Zinn’s videos about mindfulness and meditation, and he talked about how we often spend o

0123 – laziness as work aversion

I want to talk about the word lazy, which I have come to hate with a passion. I’m biased, because I have often been desc

0122 – whenever i stop smoking

I wanted to talk about what happens when I stop smoking, and describe it in as much detail as possible. Why? I just felt like

0121 – a bird in the hand is worth a flock in the sky

120th. I’m amused by how long it took me to get here. It reveals how naive my projections have always been. I think I es

0120 – build self-control like building a company

An interesting thing that happens when you go to bed committed to doing something the next day- in my case, this word vomit

0119 – unclogged, future direction

I’m determined to finish writing a full vomit on my commute home and have it published. It’s been too long. Absenc

0118 – What I’ve learnt from writing over 120,000+ words.

In the past year I’ve done over 100 word vomits of at least 1000 words each, which adds up to over 120,000 words. It has

0117 – I want to experiment with sleeping earlier

I don’t really care for resolutions but I’m going to experiment with a month of sleeping early. (2014 edit: HAH.)

0116 – writer’s “block”

It’s been a full month since I last published something. When I started out I naively thought that I’d be able to

0115 – how to write for a living

I’m a pretty good writer by most general standards. Not the best in the world, but significantly better than average- en

0114 – life should be exciting, and we should see it

Say things that matter. Life should be exciting. It won’t be easy. Sometimes even waking up is hard to do. But life shou

0113 – If I can become a smoker, I can build other habits, too

Alright this is the first word vomit I’m doing in quite a while. How long has it been? Feels like 2 or 3 weeks. I can

0112 – I systematically overestimate what I can accomplish

I decided that I was going to summarize and “process” my first hundred vomits before moving forward. I found mysel

0111 – how does change happen? activation energy hypothesis

16th oct How do you quit smoking? How do you become a responsible person? How does change happen? I know books are written abo

0110 – life should be interesting + boring task mgmt stuff

I logged into Facebook on a whim- I try to keep off it these days. I saw that Nassim Taleb was in Singapore. What are the odds

0109 – Manufactured Context + commit to flow, and interestingness

TLDR: we don’t have much free will if any stop insisting you’re in control modify your context/environment pursue

0108 – future as escapism

12 sept Feel the urge to tidy up, to have a landing page. But life is messy! It’ll never be possible to tidy up years of

0107 – learning to focus is at the heart of learning anything else

3rd sept 2013 I’m convinced that good book summaries and quotes are important. It’s startling to go through a good

0106 – consider the pointlessness of argument

1st Sept 2013 Smoking: I had two cigarettes yesterday. I didn’t enjoy them and my mouth is icky even now. It’s not

0105 – be aware of your addictions and dependencies

(old post- 31st august 2013) Haven’t written because I feel like I’m repeating myself and I have zero authority. N

0104 – manage your information diet and lethargy

(this is an old post- should really be about 20 vomits ago or so. 26th of august.) “This mrt ppc curve is not maximised&

0103 – The sneaky procrastinator waits patiently for The Slip

A picture speaks a thousand words, so lets start with that.   Do you see The Slips? If I didn’t use this external t

0102 – Mean Girls, a tentative/preliminary analysis

I watched Mean Girls for the first time today, a full 9 years after it came out. I absolutely loved it, for the same reason Ve

0101 – 14 days later (update from the light-fires-not-fill-buckets guy)

Boring Preamble About My Word Vomits This is my 101st word vomit of at least 1,000 words each. The early vomits were written u

0100B – protect your inner child from smoking and abusive relationships

This is titled 0100B because I repeated a number somewhere and decided to resolve it here. People in abusive relationships ret

0100 – quitting an addiction is like leaving an abusive relationship

Our vocabulary for addiction and personal change or development is so limited. It’s so simplistic and juvenile, and it&#

0099 – education and identity, school is obsolete rah rah

Tuesday morning. Okay I’m up and on the way to work, a little late. I got online after finishing my word vomit, and pred

0098 – everything we do is to feel good

Everything we do is to feel good about ourselves, even at the expense of real things like health. We’ll screw up our liv

0097 – use condensed terms to simplify your thinking

<!– dream interpretation It has been a long and strange night, yet not really. I slept late, at 1am. Yet I am wide an

0096 – identity creation and narratives

Monday morning, earlier than usual. (Deciding to add or two of context to every vomit so it’s easier for me to sort them

0095 – more on gamification, relationships

Okay- while my mind is clear and I have a bit of time, I want to re-approach the ideas of gamification and subjectivization (i

0094 – games aren’t just games

Spent half my train ride looking for a really good picture of FemShep to use as a motivational wallpaper. (Heroine of Masss Ef

0093 – transitioning to adulthood, maladjustment

Wasn’t actually planning to do a word vomit this morning- I was doing some reading (blog.asmartbear.com today) But then

0092 – what it’s like to get better at playing games (eg pacman)

Been using Beeminder for a couple of days. Yesterday I did an extra set of pushups and felt more compelled to publish my eveni

0091 – blog history and cultivation

On the way home. It occurred to me at the last minute that the latest blogpost in doing for work might actually be quite a hit

0090 – firelighting, aphorisms, unknowns, free-roam, shackle-free slavery

I slept at midnight last night- a little later than necessary but not too late. I didn’t set an alarm, and so I slept lo

0089 – starting beeminder

I don’t know if I’m just tired, but I just erased the past two starts I made at doing this vomit. This is of cours

0088 – break up with the saboteur-bum in your head

A new day. Yesterday I entered rage mode at work when a couple of ideas collided in my head (productivity + dating site prompt

0087 – productivity apps fill buckets when they should be lighting fires

2019 update: Wow, people are still reading this! I wrote this 6 years ago. I’m going to leave it unedited + add some new

0086 – memories of reading, procrastination, facebook, smoking

I have been feeling slightly blocked for a while- though perhaps it might be more accurate to say that I am slightly blocked m

0085 – Keep the psychologically-insulated parasite at bay

Random thoughts are hard to come by these days but I just found myself thinking about language and social hierarchy, thanks to

0084 – remember the anguish of being unproductive

Argh I’m so angry with myself. I was distracted and unproductive today, taking way too long to do the little work that I

0083 – avoid talking over people, ask questions and listen instead

I’m up and out a little earlier today, which is great. Still not as early as I’d like- I remember reading up when

0082 – pathfind your way to what you want

So what lenses should I build, what have I built, what is actually useful? (Let’s drop the lens analogy.) The answer is

0081 – evaluate and improve your publishing configuration(s)

Alright! This is starting to feel really natural now, I write in evernote on my way to and from office. I’m not sure why

0080 – be mindful of your age and the passage of time

1: relative ages 2: twitter impulse 3: waking earlier but lingering in bed 4: underestimating the seemingly trivial, daily blo

0079 – I used to be a tedious writer who digressed too much

On the way home now. I was going to start with “back!”, because it feels like I abruptly ended the last vomit with

0078 – become a happy healthy entrepreneur

It’s a new week. I had a silly minor epiphany yesterday: I ought to get really good at my job. I’m not sure why th

0077 – we can get better at talking about sex

All right, writing time. Decided to take the stairs down instead of the lift because what the heck, it’s only 6 floors.

0076 – most people are full of shit including me

Just read an article on ribbonfarm called On Freedomspotting and I loved it- it set things clear for me. I would’ve take

0075 – sleepy and unfocused

Have been a bit sleep deprived or something the past couple of days. Maybe dehydrated too. Wasn’t very productive at wor

0074 – stop sharpening the axe

Here’s an interesting phenomenon I wasn’t expecting to witness until say 200 or 300 posts into this 1000 post comm

0073 – strive to transcend local optimums

I’m feeling somewhat calm. My cat is asleep beside me. The wife is cleaning up the house- some of my cousins are visitin

0072 – don’t break the chain

I don’t actually know what I’m going to write about, I just know that I don’t want to break the chain I seem

0071 – manage your energy by focusing on small tasks

I wrote about things like “big problems” and “abstract problems” and things like that, but if I may be

0070 – social media and me (and games and addiction)

Was writing about excitement, how it’s important for Singaporeans to have something to be excited about, talked about mu

0069 – navigate by excitement

This is an immediate followup to what I was writing earlier (yeah, I’m running straight through it). I was talking about

0068 – beyond Singapore

For the most part my blog is known as a “Singaporean blog”. 6 or 7 (or more) of my top-grossing blogposts are all

0067 – how to help my self-destructive younger self?

The last thought I ended with when I was writing on the way to work this morning was- how do you save a kid from himself when

0066 – starting over, reflections on procrastination

Life may not be meaningful but it can and should be exciting. That seems to be Elon’s conclusion following his existenti

0065 – marketing is the communication of value

Marketing is fundamentally the communication of value. Some people reduce it to sloganeering and jingles and advertising, but

0064 – making music/art sustainably in singapore

Alright I got a lot on my mind. (Overslept and am late for work argh). Two thoughts- how to make art sustainably and how to ha

0063 – good questions and referral marketing

Well I’m on the way home now. Had a decent day at work. Good start in the morning, and decent finish- I shipped a post t

0062 – Facebook fatigue

There’s severely diminishing returns to time spent on Facebook and other social media. I don’t entirely understand

0061 – structured routines can be good if you design them for yourself

Wow this morning’s post was over 1.5k words. Somewhat remarkable. I just left work because I got to head to remedial tra

0060 – what is a blog for? it’s an exocortex, a superstructure for the mind

Two questions on my mind, let’s start with the blog. It’s always been on my mind, sometimes at the forefront

0059 – Waking Early

Good morning. It’s 0650hrs. I went to bed at 0000 last night. I did my best to calm my mind, to be in a state of fitful

0058 – Monotasking

That’s the first thing on my mind today, the importance of monotasking. (I didn’t charge my phone last night and I

0057 – Stop feeding the trolls

Work today. Stuff I’m proud of: 1: I avoided feeding a troll today. I’m typically someone who’s fairly easy

0056 – rip you out of my skull

Today was an earlier morning than usual. Slept a little earlier than usual.  It is clear that sleeping early- before 11pm, fr

0055 – define your habits and improve them

Just got on the train,  damn it’s crowded. Wonder if I can complete a full word vomit before I get home. If I do, IR

0054 – the future of ecommerce is exciting

Written on the train from one-north to Yishun I feel like I’m reaching a stage with my work where I’m starting to

0053 – we rarely love people

The following are two combined half-vomits written on the train. Incoherent, etc. You shouldn’t bother reading this. I&#

0052 – should you motivate yourself by comparing yourself with others?

My feedly isn’t loading and social media has diminishing returns so I souls just start writing. My mind isn’t part

0051 – strive to appreciate and embody happiness

I saw my wife reading Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project and it was something I had stumbled upon on some book revie

0050 – pursue flow

My last blogpost got significantly more attention than any of my other word vomits. (I was going to say “a surprising am

0049 – “I didn’t do well because I didn’t study”

This is something I’ve said to many people over the years, in many situations. I say it to myself all the time and it

0048 – brain reality and starting from scratch (jailbreak!)

Here’s a simple idea worth exploring- what goes on inside your brain affects what happens in reality. What you do. How y

0047 – Consider businesses and corporations, schools and social life

Humans build businesses and corporations that exploit human frailties and weaknesses. They exploit the human need for chemical

0046 – being a fucking human being

Fiction is about what it’s like to be a fucking human being, said David Foster Wallace. The poor bastard was cursed with

0045 – pick the smallest problem and annihilate it

Hey let’s try doing a word vomit like this! I’m using an app (it’s not write or die, but it’s built in

0044 – just wing it

Well when I’m done with this I would have written 44,000 words. I was hoping to be moving at a much faster rate, but I k

0043 – Life is theatre, writing for self

Life is theatre. All the world’s a stage. Everything we do is a part of the show, where we like it or not. We are all an

0042 – define your dreams

Let’s talk lifelong dreams. I just saw a picture of a guy at harvard looking out at the campus, and he said, “When

0041- Consider procrastination, and your inability to focus

I picked up smoking when I was 16 and smoked regularly until I was 22.5. I’d smoke in the morning when I woke up, I̵

0040 – how can I best serve others? by writing

The main question that’s been on my mind for a few years really- apart from things like “how am I going to put foo

0039 – smartphone

I’ve turned into one of those people glued to their smartphones on the train. I just got my first smartphone a few days

0038 – back on track

I’ve turned into one of those people glued to their smartphones on the train. I just got my first smartphone a few days

0037 – changing circumstances (first day of work)

Wow, I haven’t done a word vomit in a really long time. It’s been almost two or three weeks. That’s a little

0036 – strive to be thoughtful and compassionate

Yes I know, I fell off the bandwagon for a while, and I got a little worked up trying to think about how I was going to fix it

0035 – HDB

He sits in an empty house with the woman of his dreams nestled in his lap like a kitten, only bigger, more beautiful and more

0034 – waking early

Somebody said to me yesterday, “You’ve got so much potential, isn’t it a waste if you don’t go to Univ

0033 – I’ve had the same frustrations for a very long time

It’s 1pm. Yesterday, I began to feel sleepy at about 940pm. I thought I’d be in bed at 10pm. Ended up talking to p

0032 – “Safety” + Modifying Behaviour + Desire Paths

Should I go for another one, right now, hot off the heels of having just finished one vomit right before? Can I do 2000 words

0031 – identify limiting thoughts + avoid excessive safety

I went up to shower and I was so overwhelmed with thoughts I’m not sure if I can capture all of them: limiting thought,

0030 – early morning + urban legends

Went to bed early last night and it may have been one of those little “best decisions ever”. I’m up at 420am

0029 – strive to maximize flow

Well this is a little sobering- it’s 3:36am- the time that I said I would be done with all 4 word vomits, and I’m

0028 – the 25%

Afraid isn’t who we are, failure isn’t who we are- fear is a feeling, failure is an event- fear and failure happen

0027 – missed a day

Well it’s day 5/6 of 2013. I didn’t do any word vomits for day 4 and day 5, and I feel quite shitty about that- te

0026 – meeting older friends + singapore/overview effect

Just spent 53 minutes watching a Dave Chappelle special that was “recommended for You” that I didn’t particu

0025 – dreams are strange, culture might be stranger

I just woke up. It’s 1:38pm. My back kinda hurts a little. My throat kinda hurts a little. But I bet I can fix these thi

0024 – Identify procrastination as pain-avoidance, and lean into the pain

Wow, I’m tired. I woke up at 4am this morning and I stayed up until the evening, when I slept for maybe 2-3 hours from 5

0023 – Quora + Naam Ras + Jamming

There are two things on my mind right now- Quora and Naam Ras. It’s 6:25am. Yesterday I told myself that I would get off

0022 – conscious constraints can help guard against meandering aimlessness

It’s 10:39pm and I just met a friend for kopi. It was pleasant and good. We met at about 9pm, and I decided to set an al

0021 – let go of your judgement of others

Well so today is the first day of a new year, and I promised myself that I was going to do two word vomits a day, so here̵

0020 – Remembering Amanat, learning from good logistics and speaking Tamil

It’s been a couple of days or so since I last did a word vomit and I can’t let this die out so here I am again. I&

0019 – expand your scale of influence

So I went to bed at midnight and I just woke up (at 3:45am) and I’m not sure why exactly that is, considering how sleepy

0018 – internet addiction and an early night

Going to do a wordvomit before I go to bed let’s go. I sat down at the computer at like what, 10:15pm, and now it’

0017 – when you’re sloppy, straighten up

Today I am feeling a little weak and naked and insecure. I have not yet showered, I have not yet brushed my teeth, my fingers

0016 – identify what you’re repressing and express that with art

Just got back from my run and am still in my sweaty shorts. Have a few things on my mind. The first is how so much frustr

0015 – sleep early and stop smoking

Word Vomit: 1000 words in 15 minutes unedited I was up at 640am due to natural causes. I had a rather strange dream involving

0014 – protect others from needless shame

1000 words 15 minutes unedited donch read I did something naughty last night, and I do regret it. I think. I was surfing EDMW

0013 – I want to make beautiful web experiences for others

word vomit 1000 words 15 minutes unedited Just woke up. I swear, I woke up at 8am, or 8:15 or so- I remember looking at the ti

0012 – talk is cheap, fear is inhibitive. acknowledge your fears, face them, GTD

Word Vomit 15 minutes 1000 words unedited Well let’s get one over and done with without thinking too much about it. I th

0011 – I want to travel

word vomit 1000 words in 15 minutes no editing Thing on my mind right now, oddly, is travelling. I’m walking around my h

0010 – remember that life is preparation for death

Word Vomit: 1000 words 15 minutes no editing don’t read lah Been a few days since I did my last word vomit and I actuall

0009 – add smart things to your environment to shape your behavior positively

Word Vomit is 1000 words in 15 minutes, unedited. One of the favourite things I’ve ever done was to put a jug of water i

0008 – waking up early gives you more options

Word vomit is 1000 words in 15 minutes, unedited. Wow, good morning! I was blind but now I can see, I feel good, man. (Both id

0007 – there’s a gap in the market for sincere, non-pretentious writing

Word Vomit- 1000 words in 15 minutes, unedited. Alright it’s 11:35pm and strangely my mind is starting to go to mush. I

0006 – Extract signals from the recurring ideas and experiences of your life

Word Vomit is 1000 words in 15 minutes, unedited. Today’s thoughts are about recurring insights, and about changing your

0005 – The SAF should use its inspiring people in its marketing campaigns

Word Vomit is when I write without editing. Don’t bother reading. I have an idea for a marketing campaign for the SAF. I

0004 – Pursue and embody mastery, like Wilbur Wright

Word Vomit is when I write without editing. Don’t bother reading. I have been falling in love with Mastery by Robert Gre

0003 – practice deliberate discipline to become a better writer

WORD VOMIT is when I write 1,000 words in 15 minutes. You have better things to do than to read this. It seems that the best w

0002 – I enjoy late night conversations and unedited writing

Word Vomit is when I write 1000 words in 15 minutes, without editing. I’m sure you have better uses of your time than to

0001 – learn to be productive by examining video game principles

1/ Life should be like an amazing book or video game. Compelling, rewarding, engaging. exciting. Procrastination is just bad g

minus-1 ramblings for progress

More rambling time. Let’s contemplate the evolution of social ideas for a bit- how cultural shifts happen. They’re