Category: Random Musings

Take Action

You don’t get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it’s building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That’s the challenge I’m raising in this book. It’s a call to ‘Action’ for people who, like me, believe in America. It’s not too late, but it’s getting pretty close. So let’s shake off the crap and go to work. Let’s tell ’em all we’ve had ‘enough. – Lee Iacocca

I like that quote for a simple reason, I believe in it.

Hardwork does not Scale

This thought caught my attention on someone’s blog recently. It interested me because I was thinking just the very same thing a few days ago, that I need to take things easier. Working hard does not scale.

I am taking a break this week – as much as I can possibly afford to.

Much Ado about RPK

There are all kinds of comments about RPK these days. Personally, I don’t think that he has changed his course because he has generally stuck to his guns. He’s always gone against the status quo. I don’t know why people expect him to do anything but. If the status quo swings to the opposition, you can bet that he will go against them too.

He has his right to see things his own way and write about him. While we may or may not agree with what he has to see, we must respect his freedom to express his opinions.

Grow up and stop building this personality cult around RPK.

He is neither infallible nor god-like.

Big deal.

2012 Resolutions

I have been thoroughly busy these last two weeks of the year and have not gotten round to writing down my new year resolutions. Not to worry, as I already have them but I have just not gotten to writing them down.

They are just extensions of my resolutions last year.

  1. Professional Engineer

    My resolution last year was to earn my Chartered Engineer (CEng) registration. Now that I have done that, I will want to earn the Professional Engineer (PEng) registration too.

  2. Profit

    My company seems to be moving positively last year but the fiscal year has not ended yet. Next year the goal will be to graduate from eating ramen noodles to eating steak.

  3. Pass 1st Year Law

    Since I have started studying law, my resolution is to completely pass first year law. Notice that my target is to just pass it, which I think is tough enough.

  4. Write a book

    This is carried over from last year. I failed to write a book last year and so, I will have to write one this year.

I hope to be able to hit some of them this coming year.

Wish me luck!

Legal Pivot

Is there a way to turn the CPB2011 around so that it is more inclusive and free rather and exclusive and non-free? Kinda like how the FLOSS movement uses strong copyright law to enforce freedoms instead of restrict it.

R-A-H-M-A-N and M-A-H-A-T-H-I-R

I think that every Malaysian knows about the so-called self-fulfilling R-A-H-M-A-N prophecy, leading to our list of PMs from Rahman, Abdul Razak, Hussein Onn, Mahathir, Abdullah, and Najib. My sister recently came up with a new M-A-H-A-T-H-I-R prophecy, with the following list of PMs starting with Muhyiddin, Anwar, Hishamuddin, etc.

Anathem

I’d recently finished reading “Anathem” by Neal Stephenson (one of my favourite authors of speculative fiction). The book was a little difficult to get into as it was set in a quasi-earth-like future civilisation with a somewhat similar but different vocabulary.

However, once I got past the initial learning curve of the new language, the story flowed quite well. A word that I really liked from the book was – “concent” – describing a place that is part convent and part concentration camp.

Anyway, the main idea that the author played with was religion and science. I liked the way that the two are so closely linked and intertwined in the story. My main takeaway was the very definition of consciousness and how quantum mechanics plays a role here.

In QM, an electron can exist in either one of two states. Which state it sits in depends on observation. This is applied to the many-universe theory where we are constantly caught between multiple possible outcomes, which only collapse onto the present when observed, and our consciousness acts as the observer.

Anyway, mind-blown.

That’s why I like his books. I wonder if REAMDE will be any good. I won’t be able to read it for a while though.

Law beckons.