Unreal Blog

On what is important in life. And what is not.

Read the rest of "Midlife Crisis"

Switching from God, philosophy and other higher pursuits, here is a topic close to home. How do people make a lot of money? Can I do it too?

Read the rest of "How to Make Money"

Do you think kids are more materialistic these days? I think so. And I think I know why.

Read the rest of "Little Materialists"

Stressed out at work? Try these stress-reduction techniques. Well, musings, really…

Read the rest of "Unreal Stress Reduction Techniques"

It is that time of the year again — the time for the dreaded annual performance appraisals. One friend of mine told me about one of his direct reports who actually started having a heart attack in his office during the APA! Here is a look at the pluses and minuses, originally published as a column in a Singaporean newspaper.

Read the rest of "That Time of the Year"

For corporate success, we may need to hide our technical knowledge at times. When it comes to techie-ness, we should know when to hold, and when to fold. Here is my take on how best to use (or hide) technical knowledge, originally published as a newspaper column.

Read the rest of "Techie’s Dilemma"

Before we can make others listen to us, we have to listen to them. We need to apply this essential communication principle in private conversations with our spouses as well. Or, it may lead to more problems than meet the eye. Here is an a newspaper column of mine from last year.

Read the rest of "Listen and Be Listened to"

Pointers in surviving the corporate jungle. Newspaper column in Today on 14 June 2008.

[...] In the unforgiving, dog-eat-dog corporate jungle, you need to be sure of the welcome. More importantly, you need to prove yourself worthy of it. Fear not, I am here to help you through it. And I will gladly accept all credit for your survival, if you care to make it public. But I regret that we (this newspaper, me, our family members, dogs, lawyers and so on) cannot be held responsible for any untoward consequence of applying my suggestions. Come on, you should know better than to base your career on a newspaper column! [...]

Read the rest of "An Office Survival Guide"

Newspaper column in Today on March 1, 2008.

We all want to be the boss. At least some of us want to be the big boss at some, hopefully not-too-distant, future. It is good to be the boss. However, it takes quite a bit to get there. It takes credentials, maturity, technical expertise, people skills, communication and articulation, not to mention charisma and connections. Even with all the superior qualities, being a boss is tough. Being a good boss is even tougher; it is a tricky balancing act. One tricky question is, how friendly can you get with your team? [...]

Read the rest of "How Friendly is too Friendly?"

How to turn around gracefully? Newspaper column in Today on 19 Jan 2008.

Elton John is right, sorry is the hardest word. It is hard to admit that one has been wrong. Harder still is to find a way forward, a way to correct one’s past mistakes. It often involves backtracking. [...]

Read the rest of "When the Going Gets Tough, Turn Around!"

On how to handle rumors at the work place. Newspaper column in Today on 27 Oct. 2007

[...] There is a city underground. Parallel to the world of corporate memos and communication meetings, this rumour city trades information, often generating it as needed. [...]

Read the rest of "Rumour Mills"

Newspaper column in Today on 20 Oct. 2007.

How can we manage stress, given that it is unavoidable in our corporate existence? Common tactics against stress include exercise, yoga, meditation, breathing techniques, reprioritizing family etc. To add to this list, I have my own secret weapons to battle stress that I would like to share with you. These weapons may be too potent; so use them with care. [...]

Read the rest of "Stress and a Sense of Proportion"

Newspaper column in Today on 29 Sept. 2007.

[...] Isn’t there a danger lurking behind our habit of demanding super specialized silos of knowledge? One obvious danger is the loss of synergy and potential innovation. A case in point — a particle physicist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) faces the problem of accessing various files on different computers and networks. Being conversant in computing issues, the physicist devices a nice way of describing the file (or, as it is known now, the resource) and suddenly the first URL (Universal Resource Locator) is born. The rest is history — we have the World Wide Web, the Internet. Fifteen years later, you have e-commerce and YouTube! [...]

Read the rest of "Knowledge Silos"

Newspaper column in Today on 15 Sept. 2007.

[...] In high school, I used logarithm tables to work out results in physics and chemistry experiments. Calculators were not allowed. Though inconvenient, this practice honed my arithmetic skills — skills that calculators and spreadsheets have eroded by now. Similar erosion is taking place in our reading skills as well. We don’t read to retain information or knowledge any more. We search, scan, locate keywords, browse and bookmark. The Internet is doing to our reading habits what the calculator did to our arithmetic abilities. [...]

Read the rest of "Internet Reading"

Newspaper column in Today, 8 Aug. 2007.

Stress is as much a part of our corporate careers as death is a fact of life. Still, it is best to keep the two (career and death) separate. This is the message that was lost on some hardworking young souls here who literally worked themselves to death. So do a lot of Japanese, if we are to believe the media. [...]

Read the rest of "Married to the Job — Till Death Do Us Part?"

Newspaper column in Today, 28 July 2007.

[...] The conversation between two tired minds usually lacks an essential ingredient — the listener. And a conversation without a listener is not much of a conversation at all. It is merely two monologues that will end up generating one more setback to whine about — spousal indifference. [...]

Read the rest of "Spousal Indifference — Do We Give a Damn?"

Newspaper column in Today on 21 July 2007 on talent shortage in Singapore.

Singapore needs foreign talent. This need is nothing to feel bad about. It is a statistical fact of life. For every top Singaporean in any field — be it science, medicine, finance, sports or whatever — we will find about 500 professionals of equal caliber in China and India. Not because we are 500 times less talented, just that they have 500 times more people. [...]

Read the rest of "How Much is Talent Worth?"

Newspaper column in Today on 14 July 2007.

We go through this ordeal every year when our bosses appraise our performance. Our career progression, bonus and salary depend on it. So we spend sleepless nights agonizing over it. In addition to the appraisal, we also get our key performance indicators or KPIs for next year. These are the commandments we have to live by for the rest of the year. The whole experience of it is so unpleasant that we say to ourselves that life as an employee sucks. [...]

Read the rest of "Performance Appraisal — Who Needs It?"

First newspaper column in Today, 7 July 2007 (07/07/07 ) on handling staff resignations.

Hold on to your pants, your key staff has just tendered his resignation — your worst nightmare as a manager! Once the dust settles and the panic subsides, you begin to ask yourself, what next? [..]

Read the rest of "Handling Goodbyes"