An Academic's Delusion

Most corporate giants and MNCs is about about hiring the brightest Ph.D. academics and systems people on the planet. 
It makes sense right?

However, hiring every postgraduate they could get their hands on, they caused themselves a very big blindspot…

You could not even get an interview if you dropped out of college. So you wouldn't even consider the applications for the likes of say....

Mark Zuckerburg…

Steve Jobs…

Bill Gates?

Interesting and ironic that it is the intellectual individuals who quit school, drop out of college that seems to be the movers and shakers on this earth. This model has been repeated over the course of history over and over again.

It will take a long time for my academic friends to realize that chasing papers are just another of those writings on the wall.

There was a tectonic shift going on in the way we roll online.

 

Facebook was created by college dropouts and hackers. The majority of the world are not postgrads…

 

I advocate that one should pursue life long learning not so much of credentials made of paper but for the learning itself. Learning does not necessarily starts and end in a school or campus. In the end, it is not how far you study that the determines how you would influence the world nor would it indicate how far you would get ahead in life.

 

On a lighter note, wouldn't it be just awesome to 'Hack the Planet', topple the elites and monopoly-ism. I seriously don't mind.

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Posted in: Nomad Philosophy,Random Thoughts and Expressions

How to Shamelessly Promote Yourself

The internet has spawned many self proclaimed “celebrities” agree?

You can shameless promote yourself like how this couple did,

Not a bad strategy considering how the video which asked for people’s blessing of their marriage (she’s 47 he’s 23) went viral since Sunday.

[Note: PLEASE DON’T unless you are really aching for your 2 minutes of fame. ]

 

Or you can do what I did by marketing yourself and advertising your services and products freely,

 

Not like this,

 

 

Like this,

Disclaimer: I don’t get paid by featuring Anythinglah.com on my blog. I am a member of the site and returning the favour because they feature me on their page. Thank you Raswadi!

J.

 

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Posted in: Entrepreneurship,Nomad Philosophy,Random Thoughts and Expressions

This is Me....Then - Jeny's Closet Makeover

Thank you Jenny from the Block,

 

I don't come from an IT background. I never did learn about HTML and codings in school or was I ever taught. This blog, everything from its buttons to its link, images and plugins are self learned and self taught. 

I don't claim to be an expert.

I just asked Google. (Like a lot!)

And in my journey of self discovery trying to manage this blog, now yes, I do consider myself an expert in my own right. There are ways to have a customized, easy-to-maintain blog at no cost at all. But be forewarned, it does have its fair share of hair pulling moments.

 

I can almost hear techie fan boys, blogging experts snigger BUT I'm not writing this for you guys. I am sharing this for all the rookies who bored of free templates for their own sites/blogs but don't know where to begin and who thinks you have to pay for premium services. *snigger* I feel like I am letting out a trade secret.

 

Jeny's Closet then....

I apologize for the image. I should have captured a screenshot of it before my HTML experiments. I don't know that I was going to be successful on a first attempt with the template change.

What I like about the old...

There is an authentic rookie feel and it has that honest, homely feel to it. Besides Brasticks, I can promote cupcakes and pies and it will still be 'appropriate'.

What I don't like about the old...

It looks like most personal blogs out there and I was craving for a different look.

 

Jeny's Closet now...

It is still a work-in-progress. There are bits of fonts I wanted to change but as a whole it is pretty much 90% complete. 

 

What I like about the new...

It has my favourite colour, purple as a signature look. I love that the plugins and sidebar are now much neater and framed. Plus, the Twitter and RSS icons are part of the CSS rather than a script. If you are not familiar with the jargons it is ok....you will eventually understand them the more you spend your time working and managing your sites and blog.

What I don't like about the new...

First, the image part does irritate me a little but it does add a more interesting look to the blog. I have to replace those damn shopping girls cos Jeny's Closet is not just about fashion or shopping. Second, it looks a little too professional. I will probably add in more cartoony buttons to make it look more friendly.

So what do you think? Do you like the new layout? Post idea eureka moment - I may write a 'How To' post so please subscribe, in the meantime you can always ask me or comment on how I made the switch.

 

SOS!

If you know of any great simple tricks on how I can customize my fonts, please comment. I would really appreciate it.

 

J.

 

 

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Posted in: Entrepreneurship

Why I am not too excited about the Singapore Elections

I am sharing what I think are the general sentiments of the public and myself.

 

Ministers are currently drawing $1.2m a year which divided by 12 is about $100,000 per month. How does it compare with the average person?

According to the Report on the Labour Force in Singapore 2006, the median gross monthly income of workers in full-time employment is $2,170. In other words, a worker takes a month to earn what a Minister earns in half a day! For university graduates, the median gross monthly income is $4,450. This would take the Minister one day to earn.

 

 “Who are we trying to kid? Before we start talking about dying for Singapore, let us look at our leaders. We are told that we cannot get good leaders unless we pay top dollar, so why expect more from the rest of us”?

 

If we are seriously unable to interest good people into public office, we must ask why other countries can do it and we cannot. Is it just money, or the fact that we have not invested in creating a culture of high public-spiritedness?

 

In some countries, there are young people aspire to hold public office. SM Goh had previously said that we could not expect to behave like people in other countries because we are a young nation and people still see things in material terms. How sad. After 41 years of nationhood, national service and national day parades, what do we teach our children? Do we judge a person’s worth by his salary? If so, we have wasted millions of tax dollars on these nation-building efforts, which have truly been in vain!

 

 

- www.entrepreneur.com.sg

 

 

 

In summary, mono-polytics no more, hear us - your own country people born and bred in Singapore and giving us money nearing to elections is just another way of bribing/paying for votes.

 

And of course, the classic arguement by Sylvia Lim in April 2007,

.....very timely especially in view of the upcoming elections, and the recent pay rise of the President to $4.2mill... If he had $1 mill less, would he perform less well? 

 

 

Full transcripts here

 

J.

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Posted in: Entrepreneurship,Nomad Philosophy,Random Thoughts and Expressions

If You've Never Failed, You've Never Lived

Dedicated to my father who never gives up. Even though sometimes he can be quite the stubborn old man I am still my father's daughter. I love you, Ayah.

Essentially, anyone who decides to get ahead in life will have their fair share of tumbling stories and those who persist despite the rejections or humiliations will reap what they sow in the end. I hope people do not perceive such individuals to be doing it out of greed but a mere attempt to escape from corporate slavery, better education for their children, being there for their family which I believe are indeed noble reasons.
Stumbled upon this from Anna William who shared this video in her post, thank you Anna.

Sucess is most often at the other side of failure and when you want something really badly, the whole world will conspire to get it for you.

Enjoy,
J.

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Posted in: Entrepreneurship,Random Thoughts and Expressions