Some Tools
By Kevin
Making them handy
I've been working a lot of research and as I was suggesting in an earlier entry, many resources are no longer free. The good thing then, is that National Library Board has a eResources site that provides free access to important journal and publications databases. You just have to register an account, which is free. And then you can use their search system that will aggregate search results from multiple databases.
Alternatively, you can use the NLB eResources site to go straight into a single journal database. My favourite is JSTOR where they hold old journal articles and research papers on a huge variety of subjects. I've successfully found famous economics papers there and looked through some of them. They are particularly useful for academic research and if you're keen to find out more about some papers Tim Harford read while writing his book, Logic of Life, you could search for them there too.
For Statistics, you would be glad to make use of Google's Public Data sets, a tool very much in its preliminary stage of development. For more sophisticated and complex data there's OECD Stats, but mainly focusing on OECD nations. There's Eurostats of course, and both World Bank and IMF provides extremely useful data to the public.
Pay Gates
By Kevin
Blocked...
I've been working on a couple of writing assignments that requires intensive research and I discovered to my horror that more journals are erecting pay gates for their articles. I subscribe to The Economist and so I don't have to worry about theirs but Wall Street Journal gives me quite some trouble.
I'm therefore actively using articles from The New York Times, Business Week and Fortune Magazine as my main sources. The Straits Times website pay gate frustrates me in particular because I want to keep myself updated on local news through their site but they're not helpful with it and worst, when I ever need an article from them, it is usually copied from New York Times or other international publications and yet they're hidden behind the pay gate.
For those working on more news research sort of stuff, note the publications without pay gates!
Don’t Kill Nouns with Adjectives
By Martin See
Enemy of the noun?
The sweltering heat these days reminds me of my old, favourite introduction: "The monstrous red ball of supreme heat hung on the light-blue sky, threatening to melt all the helpless pedestrians on the busy street with its radiating warmth". I loved this introduction so much that I would use it for almost every primary school composition assignment irregardless of the question; after some time, my teacher became so accustomed to my writing that he could identify my composition from its first sentence. Since my teacher did not complain much, I had the false belief that my descriptive introduction reflected good writing style. Eventually, the use of adjectives became a desire to show off my rich vocabulary and that resulted in an immature writing style.
I did not realise my mistake until much later, when I entered high school. My heavily adjectival prose caught my teacher's attention and when she could not take it any longer, she summoned me to her office. That day in her office changed my writing drastically because it was there that I understood the shortcomings of my style; instead of displaying my proficiency in the English language, the constant use of adjectives only made my writing embarrassingly ornate. In addition, my writing also suggests a lack of confidence, as if I am trying to make up for my inability by overdecorating my sentences. If every crisis is a critical crisis, every emergency an urgent emergency, and every problem a grave problem, then the whole idea of a crisis, an emergency, or a problem becomes devalued. In these situations, the adjective becomes the enemy of the noun.
That does not mean that we can do away with adjectives. Adjectives have their uses when they define and refine rather than simply emphasise. In the sentence "We are in legal trouble", the adjective, legal, has a truly informative function. For a vigorous style, you can try replacing adjectives with colourful nouns. "The penniless man that lives in a small, filthy hut" can be replaced by "the pauper that lives in a hovel." A "large and impressive house" can be replaced by a "mansion" and so on. You get the idea. Now, before you give in to the temptation of using flamboyant language, do remember the guiding principle of using adjectives and you will surely produce a good piece of writing!
A Request
By Scherzo
The Joke
Hello everyone, my name is Peng Sing and I will be writing under the screen name, Scherzo (pronounced 'S'care-Zoh') which stands for "Joke" in Italian. You'll find out more about me in the times to come... if I am able to sustain my interest in contributing regularly.
This post is actually a request; something that has been bothering me lately. It is a timely request, because more and more young people are becoming interested in politics/political commentary. But too many fall prey to euphemism, dishonesty and witch-hunting (personal attacks).
I came across a speech by Loh Kah Seng, given during the launch of "Men in White" at a library, which got me thinking a bit. The main excerpt which caught my attention was how he aptly describes a social phenomenon among our youth in the recent years:
"There is a tendency for young Singaporeans to read our past for inspiration and vilification. This is not surprising and is part of the enduring appeal of history. Inspiration because the past provides positive precedents, or heroes, of an earlier generation of Singaporeans (also young and idealistic then) struggling to make Singapore a better, fairer and more open society. Vilification because history also provides what appears to be proof of what some present day young Singaporeans want to believe – that the government is repressive, manipulative and narrowly neo-liberal. In short, we read Singapore history for Lim Chin Siong and Operation Coldstore."
There's a whole load of anti-establishment/anti-PAP angst that show up frequently on the Temasek Review and many other Internet portals that discuss Local Affairs. It is there where you can find these Singapore's Neo-political-liberalists. My impression of them is that they love to go about scrutinizing every single piece of pro-government literature that comes out in mainstream media with "critical thinking skills" they picked up from god-knows-where. Very often these are senseless personal attacks at various political figures, or simply emotionally charged posts that appeal to the reader. They always seem to make sense at first, but upon full of logical fallacies that are either misleading or isolated cases that are exaggerated.
Be wary of:
Appeals to popularity – just because something is popular/unpopular, does not mean it is correct. Eg. “Majority of Singaporeans are disappointed with budget 2010. Singapore is going down.” Because everyone is upset about something, does not mean that it is harmful. Note that the use of ‘Majority’ as well: Majority of Singaporeans? Anti-government activists are also Singaporeans! And where did he get his numbers from?
False-dichotomies – Something that is not good, does not mean that it is bad. Be alert for people that present you with only 2 options, do not let them fool you into thinking there is no room for alternatives or to remain neutral.
Red Herrings – Used as a distraction. Eg. The PAP is not putting enough emphasis on keeping a tighter leash on PRs, what’s worse, incentives for childbirth have been stagnant for the past few years Clearly, immigration and childbirth incentives have little in common, but is roped into the argument to make the PAP look bad when in actual fact the argument at hand is about immigration policies!
I Forgot What This Fallacy is Called - But it is still a fallacy. When considering reading peoples’ interpretations of social/political trends, always take note of how his ideas are presented. Was the trend drawn from data/reliable observations? Or was it the other way round? There is likelihood that many poor/dishonest political commentators base their conclusions from their opinions/emotions first, then find ways to support their conclusion, often leaving out on purpose vital pieces of information that actually prove them wrong.
Finally, remember to address all the other political parties that isn't PAP as 'non-ruling parties' and not 'opposition parties'. It brings about a very negative connotation and is subconsciously perpetuated to those growing up; ‘opposition’ appears to be rather disruptive as compared to non-ruling.
It is unfair, if not difficult, to instantly label various political parties that don't begin with 'P' and end with 'AP' to harbour malicious intents. They may 'oppose' the PAP sometimes, but where Singaporeans are concerned, they are addressing the concerns of a group of Singapore Citizens. As much as they like to find fault in our government/PAP and have peculiar ways of doing things, we must bear in mind that most of their intentions are good.
These are habits of the mind, to be critical of others' thoughts as well as your own.
Have fun poking fun at lousy political blogs/articles/comments on Temasek Review! :D
Just the Food
By Kevin
Food for the ears
Of the list of links to ERPZ's Partners, there is an 'odd-one-out'; the sites linked to are mostly blogs and personal sites of friends of mine but this particular one is a forum - HeadphoneHaven.
I'm no audiophile but Danny (aka ahdui) who runs the forum would proudly announce that true blue audiophiles are no 'true blue' in its purest sense. They'd be bike enthusiast as well as food freaks who go around the island hunting for great food, nice bike shops, not to mention audio shops that don't con people's money by proclaiming Gold is better than Copper (an insider joke). And for that you'll have to applaud Danny's efforts to deliver objective food reviews at his forum.
Although I believe Peking Duck should be eaten with cucumber, and that Marche's Rosti are still better, I enjoyed my post-dinner ice cream at Ice Cream Gallery. Besides loving potatoes and believing that hawker center western food stalls should not be perceived as serving pseudo-western meals, Danny's reviews covers food from a wide variety of places and he tries his best not too be overly positive about the food he is reviewing - which means he's wasting his calories on yucky food for you rather than have you fabricate positive remarks of yucky food you've consumed.
So do visit HeadphoneHaven and become a member if you'd love to join in the discussion; for the food if not for the audio.
Essay Styles
By Kevin
Got a pencil?
I got a couple of friends to read some of my writings and they commented that I write in a very The Economist style. As a matter of fact, they do really have a distinct style but I didn't consciously follow their style - it was through a very long period of reading (since my Secondary 4 days when I more or less decided I'd study Economics). And I guess it goes to show how much reading influences our writing.
Unfortunately, that would also mean that I'm pathetic with story writing, narratives and particularly descriptive essays. I specialise more in the examination of issues, analysis of ideas and dissecting phenomena rather than aid readers with imagining experiences, or appreciating sights and sounds of something they never got to see or hear. Despite that, I probably don't follow the 'Unnecessary Words' rule as closely as John Grimmond would like. I'm still pretty generous with my useless adverbs and cliche adjectives.
Worst, I am not always very direct in my writing. A student of the social sciences should realise that concise, clear explanation and analysis aids readers and you should be sticking to that unless your motive is to befuddle teachers into believing you have a good mastery of the complexity of the subject - which, sometimes can be the case. I'd urge students to prepare for essay tests (of social sciences) by pre-fabricating chunks of concise explanations of certain concepts, be they the cumulative causation model of Gunnar Myrdal, the demand and supply of Adam Smith, the Kantian ethics of Immanuel Kant or Communism of Karl Marx.
Develop a personal essay style through reading professional writings on the topics you enjoy. This sort of stuff often starts with imitation, conscious or not - we mostly learn things through trying to copy whatever we consider ideal and then deviate or innovate from there. I borrowed a copy of The Economist Style Guide from the library a week back and found that it is less instructive compared to The Elements of Style; it discuss why a certain prescription is made and gives multiple examples as well as exceptions. I liked the fact that it recommends a standard for capitalization, small capitals and also some consistent punctuation. It's Part III - Useful Reference provides a exotic array of information that will probably be useful to any journalist or editor. Advice like 'Do not be hectoring or arrogant; Nobody needs to be described as silly: let your analysis show that he is' is particularly entertaining to me.
Reading Habits
By Kevin
Piling Up
As books in my home piles up and I am increasingly unable to keep up with finishing the stacks of library books I borrow almost on a weekly basis, I can't help but write something about reading habits; the selection of reading materials, how to go about reading them and what sort of benefits you should be expecting. More importantly, I have to explain what sort of problems you should avoid.
There is way too many means to categorize books but they fall into 'fiction' and 'non-fiction' generally. I am a strongly non-fiction person but I'm not going to ramble on the merits of non-fiction and such. The thing about non-fiction is that they are generally not attention-sustaining for long and that means things can get boring very quickly and you'll have to be able to sustain your interest in the book. Fiction, on the other hand is usually flowing smoothly from one chapter to next most authors have decided that a page break between them would be way too disruptive.
Fiction
Self-sustaining Fiction
Therefore, choose fiction when you need to entertain yourself and prefer to use up less energy paying special attention to what the author has to say. The descriptive words of fiction will just diffuse into your mind as images (accurately perceived or not) and the storyline will flutter pass you with its ups and downs. If the fiction is good, you'll find yourself emotionally drawn towards the characters and their circumstances. Your attention, in other words, would be naturally occurring, something that requires little efforts because the ease of visualization and imagination facilitates the involvement in the contents of the fiction. At times, skipping a couple of paragraph won't even cause you to miss out on anything in the story. And if you're lucky, the story is probably beautiful, like The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger or abstract and deep with loads to learn about like Life of Pi by Yann Martel.
These books are best read while babysitting a passive kid who loves to play on his own, when you're trying to skive from work at your workplace, while waiting for your boss in the conference room before a meeting (especially for bosses who don't require you to look busy) and more. Fictions are generally treated as entertainment and plenty of people read them on board buses and trains just to make the journey to work or anywhere else shorter. Unless your English is pathetic relative to the standard of text you've chosen, the process of reading fiction can be rather mindless. Of course, there are more exciting and information packed fiction like the ones Dan Brown writes and some others with such long list of characters you'll be better off jotting down on paper who is who.
Non-Fiction Pop
Loaded with Info Tidbits
Non-fiction popular books are a good choice for those willing to give up a little more attention and energies to entertain oneself while also picking up loads of interesting information about the world that you would otherwise ignore. These books are hard to read in presence of friends who wants to strike a conversation with you but immensely entertaining when you're along in the MRT (for Singaporeans, subway for Americans and the tube for Brits), on-board buses or in a cafe sipping coffee. Now these are the books I'll read most of the time, especially in the area of my interests - Economics! The tidbits of information you gained from these books are going to take you a long way through conversations with different sorts of people, an array of writing works you might engage yourself in or just topics you can cook up and share at a family dinner. Robert H. Frank's series of 'Economic Naturalist' books are great for both students of Economics and the general audience. Of course, I would recommend Tim Harford as well given the many entries with links to his blog and books. Popular science books works the same way - Richard P Feynman have been writing them in the 90s, when the ordinary folks became amused by scientific experiments of all sorts and everyone were hungry for knowledge (at least in most of the Western World). Books on social trends by Malcolm Gladwell and James Surowiecki would probably interest you greatly in the same way.
I usually call these books coffee table books because they're best read when you've spare time for leisure stuff but don't want to be too active. It's best suited as a companion in Starbucks besides the Cappuccino you'll buy. It's fine reading on trains, cars and buses as well but you will have to be a little more interested in case you decide to doze off.
Non-Fiction Reference/Study
Finally, there's the non-fiction serious books that would require undivided attention with serious note-taking. For me, these are economics reference books, heavier books on business and management as well as some textbooks. These are the books that would take up loads of your time just with wondering what a certain paragraph or line means. And these are best reserved for reading in quiet places and when you have plenty of time.
Read these on a table, with a notebook and a pen or pencil, preferably with a technical terms dictionary with you. A highlighter might sometimes come useful. Ensure that the lighting is good around you so that it keeps your eyelids wide open and prepare a good hot drink with a coaster on the table beside you - you're unlikely to be leaving the table any time soon anyways.
You probably have the most to gain from the last type of books, Non-fiction References or Study sort of books but that is the kind of materials you read the least. Fortunately, there is a range of other sort of reading materials you can start on - The Economist, Fortune, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, and many more. These are a cross between the Non-fiction Pop with the Non-fiction Reference and will offer you enriching information without the need to take particular notes and such. Well, with so many choices, choose something you like in each category and get down to cultivating a habit to read!
Planned Reading
One key problem is getting into the trap of wanting to read everything and I often reach that stage of walking into the library hunting for books even when I have loads of them at home unread. There's something satisfying about being able to borrow a book you hope to read and anticipating its contents. So as far as possible, try to plan your reading. Limit active reading materials to a few (it's usually about 5 for me, which is quite a lot; they include a latest issue of The Economist and Fortune, 2 Non-fiction Pop books and a serious Non-fiction book or motivational book).
Don't Force Yourself
If a book is way too high level for you, just drop it. It's not worth the time. When you realise that a writing uses too much references and terms you know nuts about, it's better you go read up on them before getting back to your book/article. You'll gain little finishing a book cover to cover when you don't understand it; worst, you risk losing interest in the issue. It is better to read materials with a little bit of difficult stuff but coupled with loads of friendly information and those that you're interested in; they act as bridges to lead you to higher level materials.
Having said all that, one need not get too technical about reading at the end of the day - when you happen to lay you hands on the materials, just read it!
Reading the Internet
By Kevin
Gets Messy Sometimes
A great reason for people these days to use the Internet for reading of news articles or more academic journals would probably be the ease of firing up the dictionary to check for difficult words, search related topics, read more on an issue the reader just read about but previously not exposed to. The last point probably matters most of GP students.
And for that, The Economist Free Exchange Blog is a great place to hang out at. Reading this entry about Steve Levitt brought me to the 2 blog entries he wrote, one in the past and another more recent. Both were commenting on whether he has ruined the subject of Economics because of his approaches to the subject.
The article of the past was with reference to this article from The New Republic. And the recent one is with reference to one of the articles from The Economist that I recently read but didn't quite bother to blog about. And with all these links here and there, keeping up with the reading and understanding the big picture of the entire issue (which involves some sort of academic rivalry or whatever you call it with genuine intellectual inquiry of the subject of Economics) might be quite a challenge, it is deeply satisfying to do that.
Still, if you're the type who ends up reading movie trivia on Wikipedia (like me sometimes) or almost always drift astray from the main topics you were trying to read about; do the online reading only for leisure rather than study.
Happiness Specialist
By Kevin
Dan's Book
Remember Dan Gilbert I talked about in 'Dan Gilbert Speaks'? I started reading his 'blog' for his book, Stumbling on Happiness. Dan's research and findings have lots of implications on how we can discipline our minds and heighten our awareness of our own thinking processes that will allow us to see our interactions with the world more clearly.
In particular, I thought his article on The Vagaries of Religious Experience actually brings out quite a lot of information about what it means to 'believe' to us.
At times I find it a mere laziness to think further than what we normally do or that we choose to build upon established explanations. I guess his book will be full of these interesting experiments they've conducted and more anecdotes about things going on in people's minds. I'll have to read the book to find out more and after that I'll probably do up a review of it here at ERPZ.
Balance of Currencies
By Kevin
Reading Dr Goh Keng Swee's Wealth of East Asian Nations helped me see the realities of many economic theories. While Dr Goh is a really intellectual academic, he is deeply practical and makes policy decisions based on his observations of the real world. The most interesting piece of information I picked up from the book so far is how the real world deviates from the theory that connects Balance of Payments equilibrium to the Floating exchange rate system.
We learnt in A Levels Economics and basic Macroeconomic modules that Floating exchange rate system is supposed to provide a self-correcting mechanism for the Balance of Payments (BOP) through the appreciation or depreciation of currencies in accordance to export and import figures. The typical explanation goes like this: When a country exports heavily and starts accumulating surpluses for BOP, the demand for their goods would drive up the demand for their currency and that translates to appreciation of their currency. From the perspective of the consumers, the appreciation will make the goods more expensive and thus reduce their demand for them. Eventually the exports will reduce to a level that eliminates the surplus. The opposite case is expected of a country experiencing trade deficit since depreciation of their currency would make their exports more competitive.
Unfortunately the real world doesn't work that beautifully. And it has all to do with the individual countries efforts to manage their currency. In other words the theory did not expect the individual countries to respond in the way they do in reality. In countries like Japan and Germany, the appreciation of their currencies leads their exporters to find more cost savings and achieve greater efficiencies in order to offer the same goods at the same or just slightly higher price for their consumers in countries experiencing depreciating currency. This means that the surpluses stays with them. On the other hand, the countries experiencing deficits like the US attempts to hold its currency value by attracting capital investment into their country so that they can continue to import goods at roughly the same prices even when the countries they import from are supposedly having appreciating currencies.
At the end of the day the Balance of Payment worsens with countries like Japan accumulating more surpluses and US sinking deeper into deficits. The issue is not even about a comparison of whether free float currencies works better than managed float, it is about the spirit of the entire economy and their reaction towards movements in currency values. The deep desire of Japanese companies to export is matched by the deep desire of American consumers to import and the result is obvious in the world we live.
Macroeconomics is still a long way from being mastered by us all.