Failure of Competition
By Kevin
Setting it up properly
Spending more than one and a half decade in a competitive education system like that of Singapore is pretty much enough to give me a good sense of what is wrong with it. It's a really good demonstration of how competition have been exploited way too far to attain an arbitrarily defined sort of excellence that has caused us to lose sight of the original intent of the competition itself. And perhaps this article discussing the state of NUS Lectures provides us with good insights on the effects of the 'Singapore Student Mentality'.
In a competitive set up of our education system, we want students to develop good character, work ethics, working knowledge of their field and an ability to motivate themselves to work hard. The design of our assessment and curriculum will have to match that in order to achieve the objectives of this competitive set up. Lectures and typical lessons should preferably not become 'exam-preps' as they probably are now. And while student feedback on course content and teaching style is good, it should be ignored when trying to drive lessons towards the direction of mind-numbing exam-preparation. At the end of the day, we want students who could go out there in life and perform.
A friend recently commented that bright Singaporean students sometimes face problems with getting in US schools because the top schools there are really not interested in an alumni who simply gets a good job, works hard and be recognized by his boss. These universities are interested in producing students who would be the next Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg (sorry I'm only thinking about more tech related companies for now). They are not interested in people who can top their cohort with their GPAs, they want people who top their cohort with ideas that the markets applaud, visions that talents would follow and products consumers demand, or influence the economic policies. This makes them bolder when it comes to admitting students who may not have the scores but the great stories about their exploits on trips to exotic places, initiation of eccentric projects, failed entrepreneurship attempts.
If our economy is to transit to greater heights, and human capital is the most important thing to a tiny economy like Singapore then modifying education, and not migration policy is going to be priority.
Freedom & Responsibility
By Kevin
I often look into management books for inspirations on personal development. Essentially, while winning in corporate environments may not always be about abilities or qualities but these are important aspects HR look out for when hiring. Their favored traits are often manifestations of something more fundamental in one's attitude and beliefs.
I was delighted to stumble upon Netflix's slides on 'Freedom and Responsibility Culture' not so much because it is a good framework to create a successful culture for a creative, technology driven company but because it contains some wisdoms and elements about living life that we all should learn. I've included it here for all to look through.
I'm particularly drawn to the idea of how you should only give freedom when responsibility is demonstrated. That's not only valuable for firms but also as an advice for parents. Too many kids today are not demonstrating the maturity and responsibility and they get freedom that can be dangerous. Worst, parents are not giving kids the right incentives and showing how they can achieve what they want in the appropriate ways.
Now that firms are learning how to teach and train their employees better, doesn't mean parents can cease doing a good job...
Deep Optimism
By Kevin
As any good young person in his 20s should know, optimism versus pessimism is not simply about half-glass full or empty sort of thing. In a recent FT article in 'Recruitment', research suggests that optimist tend to get the best jobs. They mentioned the concept of a 'deep optimist', whose optimism is not the simple foolish concept of 'looking on the bright side'. It is something that goes deep into the personality and thinking of these people:
In fact, psychology suggests that an important way in which deep-rooted optimism does good is through better coping strategies. The deep optimist has the strength to see obstacles more realistically and resourcefully, not less. And drink and drugs are deep optimism’s enemies, not its friends.
In other words, being cheerful and bubbly is more of a by-product of optimism though the reverse can often help to improve one's ability to adopt that deep optimistic approach to thinking. And Matt Ridley provides a very sophisticated demonstration of what it takes to be a deep optimist, although he tends to also exhibit the cheery personality that can be 'faked', it takes a remarkable deep optimist to stand up and tell everyone around him to snap out of the gloom.
I personally believe that a deep optimist does not ignore problems or negative aspects of issues but sees the opportunity to eradicate them. He seize the day and take action to realistically right things. And it is these actions, this attitude that you can strive and achieve that provides them with outcomes that might differ from everyone else.
Mode of Doing
By Kevin
Take Action!
After spending 15 years in education, I spent a brief two and a half year or so working (2 years in the military and then 6 months in the private sector). I returned to education after that; almost completing my first year of education since the hiatus. So I guess I know a thing or two about studying, or at least learning. Of course, everyone have different styles of learning but from my experience with people around me (who have mostly done remarkably well in the education system back in Singapore), studying/revising for school work almost definitely involves some form of active 'doing' rather than passive stuff (like plain reading).
The trick to absorbing new materials and learning in general is to involve as many senses as possible. This is a concept I explored a while back in 'Remembering Stuff'. It is then, more sensible to draw mindmaps while reading, to do underlining, annotations, taking notes while going through materials. When I go through my Economics notes, I often have to try deriving the equations myself because if I don't walk myself through the equations using my own interpretation of the logic of the theory, I will never be able to internalize the materials. This true for all the hard sciences (granted, economics is not exactly a hard science but when it comes down to the equations and formulas, we can reasonably assume it takes on that slice of nature of hard sciences).
But what about social sciences and humanities? It helps to draw mindmaps, basically to make connections between things that are studied. And the best part about mind maps is that it allows you to make many different complex connections. Although at the end of the day you might not actually find the stuff you drew particularly useful, the mindmap is really more of a tool to pin down your thinking of the connections than a visual representation of the actual concepts (especially true when you're doing revision) so it's fine. Getting in the mode of 'doing' activates your kinesthetic self and enlist the help of your muscles to 'remember' stuff for you. It's not that the muscle cells helps you to remember stuff but that the motor neurons help to provide another channel by which the new material enters your brains.
All that busyness also keeps you engaged and focused, especially if you're like me, dozing off easily as I stare at my materials. So for those who are studying out there, preparing for examinations, plainly trying to be consistent, don't waste your time staring blankly at your notes. Take some action and learn something.
Failing Right
By Kevin
Fall, Just Get up later
Scott Anthony made a good point about the importance of allowing failure to take place and brought up the case of Singapore. Perhaps it is not so much about Singapore but the asian societies in general that faces this problem - zombie banks in Japan, some inefficient state-owned firms in China and more. There's a matter of 'face' and perhaps the 'label' of being a failure. And at times, it's about belief in their ideas (just like in the case cited by Scott in Singapore) - perhaps it is the ownership of the ideas that helps these talents strive hard and be motivated. Still, we must acknowledge the importance of allowing failure to occur and accept it. I believe it's changing and as the social atmosphere towards failure improves, Singapore would embrace failure as part of the process of achieving success.
Jamie’s Dream School
By Kevin
Dreaming Up Stuff
I don't really watch TV and I won't actually recommend it because of how it drains your time away slowly. But I found myself watching an episode of Jamie's Dream School and was immediately drawn to how inspiring it is. It is an incredible experiment about motivation, attitudes to life and trying to inject aspirations in the minds of our younger generation. The best part is that it's available free on Youtube.
You realise that often, sensibility and maturity follows from aspirations and that, I guess gives parents an answer to what you can do to motivate and drive your children. And for the rest of us, it teaches us about maximizing our potential. In the world today, we have to remind ourselves that our career, our work isn't something constant and unchanging through our life. And it is fine. The most important thing is to be able to manage the change, to know the direction you might be driving towards at any moment in time and make sure you follow through.
Perfect Choice Fallacy
By Kevin
Why the different cover designs?
Some time a year ago, I introduced Barry Schwartz's Paradox of Choice in an entry to encourage students to watch TED.com videos and read more widely. I have been intrigued by Barry's idea but didn't exactly give much thought to it. All I took away was that from a marketer's point of view, offering customers a wide range of choices may frustrate him more than anything else. Now, we are all more of consumers than marketers, so how are we going to use Barry's ideas in our daily conduct of life and consumption?
Before we go on to that, we need to understand why Barry's ideas merit much more careful thinking. Intuitively, it is true that when you're confronted with a myriad of choices, you become frustrated and you cease to be able to decide properly. Yet when there's too few choices you wonder if there are alternatives to what is offered.
The other cover...
In other words, there is an optimal number of variety that we would like to see for different things in our lives, assuming you're searching for anything in particular. We might be happy to have a couple of models of cameras with different functions, size, ease of use and other technical specifications but we would probably prefer to have less choices when it comes to carrots (think different shades of red, lengths, textures, maturity, country of origin, etc). Nonetheless, it takes quite a lot to build up a theory that suggests that a multitude of choices may have a negative impact on society's welfare.
But one key idea that we often leave out, is that when we are confronted with too many choices, we almost definitely believe there is a particular option that will be the perfect one. This is perhaps the source of frustration that we feel when confronted with so many choices. The Economist discusses this at length recently. It also highlights how the multitude of choices raises our expectations of the eventual choice we make, increasing room for disappointment and unhappiness. More importantly perhaps, this finding is a call for simplifying our lives and reducing decision-making to things that matters and wisely defer the insignificant choices to others.
It is interesting then, that Barry's book was published with 2 different cover designs; not that we would be making the choice anyways.
Aspirations & the World
By Kevin
About the Cash...
Just went a friend at the LSE studying Law was talking about how the returns on a study of Law is not exactly worth it, The Economist describes how American Law School graduates are finding themselves jobless and under-compensated (compared to what they had expected). But should these students have studied Law because of the prospects of making big bucks?
At times you might find yourself drowning in reality, with people aggressively pursuing high-paying jobs, thinking fast-paced, intense life suits them. People are hungry for success but this success should be something you measure yourself with and not what others measure you with. Staying focused on one's goals are important and it becomes more and more of a challenge as you grow up and become faced with ever increasing alternatives in the world.
In school one usually follows the 'standard goal' of trying to do well and get good results and as you go higher in your education you realise that the co-curricular activities are important as well and then there's the community service; and then there's networking with peers, professionals, even politicians, potential employers, potential superiors and finally, when you're out in the world: trying to do the things you want to do (or you think you want to do). The point is that there are dozens of people out there who are trying to convince you that their idea of success matches yours and you should basically adopt their definition and go along what they defined to be great. You're very much on your own and through your life, you need to sharpen your ability to decide things independently and then bear the consequences of your decisions yourself. In other words, you need to grow up, in the truest sense of the word.
Education and social interactions have great powers in terms of encouraging conformity and you need to always blend-in while retaining yourself. I recently attended a talk and the speaker was quoting an assessment of kids' divergent thinking and 98% of the kids aged 3-5 are classified divergent thinkers but when they get to elementary school, and the assessment was done on the same kids, the figure dropped to 50%. By the time they're in high school, it's 32% and finally, a separate assessment of adults classified only 2% of them as divergent thinkers. Conformity is powerful and illusionarily (if there's such a word) comfortable.
The truths are, you don't have to be rich to be happy; the truth is success is a journey, it's about the trip you make and not the destination of it; the point is the action you took and not so much the outcome of it. The action is what tells people about you; the outcome serves only to tell half the story. So before you follow the flow, think where you wanna go.
Measuring Life
By Kevin
How long can you stretch yourself?
As A Levels are ending or have already ended for some kids, it's important to start considering what is next in your life. Many may have avoided the question altogether for most of their lives so far. Some may have tackled it and then gave up, leaving stuff to fate and higher beings (whoever they may be).
Yet as you grow up and encounter greater responsibility in life and make decisions that are of increasingly greater significance and impact (sometimes even on the lives of others). You must learn to take on them and not to fear these decisions or their impacts. You need to put yourself in the position to grow up and take these responsibility, and to make these choices. Keeping yourself in the state of a limbo would only serve to offer a greater disappointment later on in life.
Choosing what you want to do is one of them, because it has such grand impact on what is to come and your experiences later on. Yet, interestingly, a decision can only be wrong if you choose for it to be so. That's the way regret works - regret is a choice, it may be instinctive for you but be aware that you have instinctively chosen to regret when you could have embraced your choice and make the best out of it. At the end of the day, don't make a choice because of someone else, because of money, or your parents. Choose because you want to.
At the end of all, the question is really: How will you measure your life? Against that of someone else? Based on the ratio of right decisions to wrong decisions you make? So make a choice that follows through that. Don't just take the easy options and attempt to sail through life; find out what you truly want and go on to create those options. Ultimately, it's yourself you don't want to disappoint.
PW: Oral Presentation
By Kevin
Make them interesting!
I've been giving tips for Project Work and I thought that since it's close to the time when Promos are about over and OP for PW is going to come, it'll be good to draw attention of readers to my page on Project Work, especially Oral Presentation. Here's the part I've written about it:
The Oral Presentation is probably the most frustrating part of the entire PW, forcing the less eloquent students to present and grading them both as a group and individual at the same time means that groups with weaker students would have suffer more. It would therefore pay to work doubly hard.
You can go through the net to find tips on doing presentations; they would invariably involve watching your tone, gestures, maintaining eye contact with audience. Yet you can't master all these without practising; so I would recommend that after the team has decided what to present and allocated the parts to the members, practise often in front of the mirror and try to memorise your script by repeating it over and over again.
Team dynamics is judged during the presentation so no matter how busy you are (shouldn't be since by then the exams would be over already), the team should meet up to rehearse together. Going through the presentation in its entirety would help you track your time spent, familiarize with what you have to say at different slides and also to get team mates to watch each other and point out any awkwardness in gestures or pronunciations.
I recommend rehearsing the entire thing at least 10 times before the actual presentation; each rehearsal should involve the entire team. The maximum rehearsals in a day should be about 4; leaving time in-between the evaluate your own performance and work in improvements. Try to do a video recording of your entire presentation and then watch it together as a team; more often than not, you are the one who can correct yourself best. And since you can't see yourself on the spot doing the presentation, a video recording would help greatly.
To make the presentation interesting, you could either use video clips, animations, or do a skit. Most students opt for the skit because of the lack of other resources. When dealing with skits, ensure the script is well crafted and of relevance to what you're doing in the project.
I cannot stop emphasizing that practice is really the key to doing well and there's no point practicing over and over without improvements so find a way to evaluate yourself in every practice and then make use of that feedback. It can be from the mirror, your video recording, your voice recording (to check for pronunciation, tones, speed of speaking) or your friends and family. Just make sure you practice for the purpose of improving and not just to pretend you've done your part. Make every single practice your best effort.
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