utilizing decisive bursts
I’ve had some rather unique NS experiences. One of them involved me and my colleagues spending many hours with penknives
explaining my love for self-correcting mechanisms, philosophy and systems
Stereotypical geniuses have highly developed self-correcting mechanisms. They learn from their mistakes and avoid repeating th
Talent, focus, and endurance, by Haruki Murakami
In every interview I’m asked what’s the most important quality a novelist has to have. It’s pretty obvious: talent. Now
The passing of Steve Jobs, and what it means for the rest of us
I woke up this morning to messages that Steve Jobs was dead. I wasn’t entirely surprised to hear it- we know he’s
smoking in jc
I picked up smoking sometime around my O Levels, when I was 16- but I never really bought my own cigarettes and carried them a
thoughts on illness, immune systems and weekend warriors
I think I fall sick more often than my peers. I’m not completely sure of this, I don’t have enough data to be conc
nothing to say
Torn between wanting to seek out and ruminate with every last person I have any spiritual affinity with, and throwing myself i
misery and effective decision making
Time and time again I find myself staring into space, overwhelmed with so many choices and options that I end up doing absolut
how good are you at making maps?
I like to think of communication as drawing a map, or giving directions. I’m not suggesting that you need to spell out e
is the human race fucked beyond measure?
I always feel that desiring power shouldn’t have to be mutually exclusive with making the world a better place. Everyone
transactive memory and being a part of something greater
I like to think that almost every single thing in the universe is a part of something greater than itself, and I think as soci
On regrets, fragility, certainty and forks in the road
Do you have any regrets? It’s one of those questions that’s thrown around so often that we don’t really thin
The Simple Yet Overlooked Truth About Self-Interest
A few days ago I was tasked with writing something along the lines of “What’s the defining moment of BMT for you?&
everything and nothing
It’s amazing, frustrating and humbling how easily I fall back into the same old routines and problems when I haven’
It’s not about you, by David Brooks
“Over the past few weeks, America’s colleges have sent another class of graduates off into the world. These graduates
sudden BMT
Up until the morning of August 3rd when I was to go for my Basic Military Training (BMT), I was pretty sure that I was going t
The Problem With Practical Logic
Some people consider themselves logical because they’re systematic, but they tend to begin from faulty premises and indu
I am nothing, by Paul Buchheit
“On a scale of one to ten, how good of a cog are you? How well do you function in your assigned role? How much of a man
Applying fitness wisdom to writing: Why Good is better than Perfect
I’ve experimented quite a bit over the years with my fitness habits. Well, it might not be fair to say “over a few
Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century, by Seneca
“Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century: -Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others; -Worryin
Hacking The 7 Deadly Sins: Wrath
(image courtesy of blackeri) What is Wrath? Dante described vengeance as “love of justice perverted to revenge and spite
Week 52. (One Year!)
And we come to the end of an entire year of life-tracking. Wow. This a huge milestone for me- it represents the most amount of
homophobic remarks, 2009
If a friend or relative makes a racist or homophobic remark, do you tend to confront them or let it slide? Are you more likely
dealing with siren songs
In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous bird-women, portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with
Left 4 Dead: Enlightened Self-Interest In A Zombie Apocalypse
Left 4 Dead (or L4D) is a first-person shooter with a simple premise- four people are stranded somewhere overrun with hordes o
live for others
scrolling through my friendslist, posting comments, a cheer-up here, a hang-in-there there, a =) here, and cheers there. i mea
the rogue and the pastor’s daughter
The young pastor’s daughter reaches out to the wounded rogue, who cringes and shifts aside. “Stay away from me,” he snar
enlightened hedonism
Life should be pleasurable. It really should. It’s an incredibly brief period of time, so we really ought to make the mo
The First Thirty Weeks.
The following is a summary of the first 30 weeks of my 90 Week Project. Week 1: Philosophical introspection during gym workout
The Hero Hypothesis
The world needs more Heroes. What do I mean by that? What constitutes a Hero? Everybody has different ideas, but most of them
The (rather strange) Armchair Critic Story
In 2006, three starry-eyed teenagers with almost no musical background or any sort of relevant experience whatsoever created,
How I started tracking my life, Part 2
Continuing where we left off from How I started tracking my life, Part 1: You can see that I started with a monthly perspectiv
Hacking The 7 Deadly Sins: Sloth
(image courtesy of blackeri) Sloth is…Â laziness, inactivity, idleness, restlessness, ennui, boredom, indifference. Ever
How I started tracking my life, Part 1
I made several random attempts to start tracking my life over the years. I used to have a blog on the now-defunct Diary-X.com
The 90 Week Project
The 90 Week Project is my personal experiment to challenge myself to grow and learn as much as possible within a fixed timefra
The Old About Me
My name is Visakan Veerasamy. I am a Singaporean, born and bred. I am proud of my country despite its shortcomings. I believe
vivid dream- alternate-earth bass player road trip, oct 08
Part two of this post is about a ridiculously vivid dream I had, and I still remember very well hours later. It involved me an
Knowing But Not Knowing.
I had an art teacher in secondary school who never taught me anything about art, but he did leave me with a cryptic saying he
armchair critic history
I’ve definitely missed out a couple of shows here and there, but here’s a list of what we’ve played! Apart f
random ramblings
I feel like I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, and I feel a need to pen them down, to summarize them, to synthesize them
Hacking The 7 Deadly Sins: Greed
(image courtesy of blackeri) Greed is the untempered, unenlightened pursuit of acquisition. “Avarice” is more of a
To live well, we must prepare for Death.
“We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” – Chuck Palahniuk A c
7 Lessons Smokers Can Teach Us About Getting Shit Done
Smokers do something that’s quite remarkable that nobody really talks about: they smoke a lot of cigarettes. A heavy smo
hospitality vs. media, + self-expression
It was my first time working a morning at Shangri-La, and I didn’t know what to expect. Cause I’d been up all day
Cowboys and Pit Crews- Why the medical industry needs more systemic thinking and execution
Atul Gawande delivered this year’s commencement address at Harvard Medical School. All emphasis is mine. In his book
questions, 2010
Are you physically fit? Healthy? Are your eyes, teeth, heart, back, knees, ears in good shape? How would it feel if you lost t
The Depth Of Complexity
Most things that are interesting are simultaneously complex. Cities are complex. Living organisms are complex. Complexity cove
the art of disagreement
People disagree. Most genuine disagreement stems, I believe, from different people valuing different things, or valuing the sa
Evolution of Co-operation, by Robert Axelrod
The Evolution of Cooperation Summary of: The Evolution of Cooperation “The objective of this enterprise is to develop a
Communication, negotiation and the friendship of Charles and Erik
Can anything be more important than learning how to deal with yourself, and with other people? What a ceaseless struggle! Mana
Outliers
Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers is essentially a description of the ecology behind success. Gladwell points out, rightly, th
Self-Directed Learning (aka intensive reading)
I’ve been procrastinating about this for far, far too long. Now that I’ve hit the midway point of the 90 Week Proj
Hacking The 7 Deadly Sins: Vanity
(image courtesy of blackeri) Vanity is a naive obsession with a non-existent Self. Vanity is the excessive belief in one’
Sense Of Urgency
Stumbled upon some old blog posts from 2006/2007 and am rather startled and amused at some of the wisdom in those posts- ̶
mindfulness in the morning (30/05/11)
Sometimes it happens without any planning- although you may or may not realize that you’ve actually spent all your life
Hacking The 7 Deadly Sins: Lust
(image courtesy of blackeri) Lust is an untempered drive to conquest. Nobody lusts after what they already have. Not just abo
Hacking and Leveraging the 7 Deadly Sins To Your Benefit
I don’t like the idea of Sin as something inherently, absolutely wrong- something so intrinsically vile that even thinki
How I Ran A 21km Half-Marathon Without Training
I remember the day we decided to do it. It was in December last year. My brother had just gotten married and the family was si
Life- The Ultimate Game, by Steve Pavlina
“When designing a game, a good game designer will present the player with a solid collection of compelling choices.  A
The 48 Laws Of Power
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers Law 1 Never Outshine the Master Always make those above you feel comfo
mass effect 2 loyalty missions
In the multi-award winning game and beautiful narrative that is Mass Effect, you play as Commander Shepard- an all-around bada
Dream: Birthday
I dreamt it was my birthday- I think my twenty first. There was an older figure that suggested that I drive this big badass lu
Quotes About Heroes and Heroism
Commander Shepard, Mass Effect Series “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in sp
“Visa, we need to talk.” 2010
The following is something that I wrote to myself in my notebook while I was at work sometime last year, I think around July o
from the horse’s mouth
Well, personally, I would just be straightforward with it. Like how Visa has been to me, and vice versa. It’s a good wak
Interests and goals [Jan 2012]
A friend mentioned to me the other day that she finds my blog a bit difficult to follow because I write about so many random t
I don’t want to sell ebooks about writing ebooks.
I think what I’ve missed the most about blogging is my rambling nonsense. Seriously, that was my favourite part about bl
On Self-Help books.
I have a lot of self-help books. It used to be a bit of an obsession. I’m pretty sure I have at least 10-20 of them lyin
Johari / Nohari Windows
These are my negative traits, as my friends perceive me: Arena (known to self and others) aloof, irresponsible, lethargic, ins
The wisdom of the universe, and the stories and maps we create to try to comprehend it.
There’s a profound wisdom to be found in nature. To call it wisdom might be misleading because we only get to see what w
Conversation on communication, hive minds, morality, God and the Universe
There’s a concept that Tor Norretranders (a Dutch physicist) brings up in his book The User Illusion. It’s called
Emotions: How you can manage them, and why you should
I often like to pretend that I’m a logical thinker, so for the longest time I (illogically!) convinced myself that emoti
7 things that help me clear my head
After being plagued by lethargy and a general sense of powerlessness for a couple of weeks, I fell asleep on the bus today on
Paradigm shift: Inwards to outwards
The edge-of-seat, I’m on fire and I got to do something right now feelings is one of the best feelings in the world. Wel
Demolish boredom.
I used to be very bored as a teenager. I was bored almost all the time. I was not bored very much as a child. I found everythi
I smoked a cigarette today.
I smoked a cigarette today. Here’s what I’m not going to do: I’m not going to deceive anybody, especially my
Thoughts on running, management and life
I’ve never really liked running. I like cycling, and I imagine I’d like swimming, but I’ve never really like
Personal Systems 2.1- down the rabbit hole we go…
Continuing from where we left off, here and here! Brainstorming (prototype 1.0): Putting things together (2.0) Refining them (
How to survive when everything sucks, by Alexandra Franzen
http://alexandrafranzen.com/ I am really, stupendously, riotously proud of myself. My business is bangin’, my client
Wise words from Stephen Hawking
I have no idea. People who boast about their IQ are losers. Response upon being questioned as to his IQ, in interview with Deb
conversations on systems
on a unrelated note i really am pretty damn exhilarated about my systems thingy lol i kinda get your general gist, but it̵
Friedrich Nietzsche, on laziness and timidity
“… A traveller who had seen many lands and peoples and several of the earth’s continents was asked what quality in men h
The wisdom of Jim Rohn
The soil says, “Don’t bring me your need. Bring me your seed.” Unless you change how you are, you will always have wha
Managing complex change: 5 things that stop you from accomplishing greatness
If you want to get anything serious done that involves complex change, whether it’s starting a blog, quitting smoking, m
Personal Development and Symbolism of the Hero
“Since finding out what something is, is largely a matter of discovering what it is like, the most impressive contribution t
Smoke-Free, Day Two
Yes, I’m still going strong! Today my nervous system doesn’t feel as wonky, but I have got new problems- my respir
Smoke-Free, Day One
I’ve decided to try to quit smoking. Again. I have been smoking for about 4 years now. I normally smoke about 2 packs a
Complex systems are more interesting than linear ones.
I have a big problem with making lists. Lists are not actually very informative. They are an ineffectual way of presenting inf
The Waste Elimination Challenge
I found some notes from a business consultancy firm on improving organizational effectiveness, and I found it cute and conveni
Ezra Klein, on common mistakes made by economists
“Tyler Cowen has posted lists of mistakes he thinks common to left-wing economists and right-wing economists. Both are
Self-mastery and the journey of the hero.
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” -Socrates (socratic method used to teach) “You can have no dominion great
Thoughts on the 8.9 Earthquake in Honshu, Japan
I’ve been thinking really long and hard about what to say about the earthquake in Japan. I want to say something that co
Ray Kurzweil on the future of solar power
Ray Kurzweil: “One of my primary theses is that information technologies grow exponentially in capability and power and
Countering Stress and Depression, by The Dalai Lama XIV
At a fundamental level, as human beings, we are all the same; each one of us aspires to happiness and each one of us does not
Detours: How to move forward when your plans fuck up
I went through most of my life without having any plans. I used to think this was because I was too cool to have plans. But th
Jonathan Diener, on the future of the music industry
I think obviously downloading and the easy access via torrents, etc. to get music and movies are hurting the sales. But with a
a person is a system is a science is a mind is a language is a city is an organism is art
/bow
On faith.
Before anything else I think it’s important to begin by discussing faith. We are all creatures of faith, whether we real
How important is consistency and sustainability?
I was unfollowing people on Tumblr yesterday- specifically, people who haven’t posted in 8 months or more, and people wh