Death — Last Words
The sixth and last post on the philosophy of death looks at the paradox or the absurdity of living at all, given that there is a death looming, and tries to find a sliver lining.
Topical, Life and Death, Philosophy
Topical, Life and Death, Philosophy
Does the World Go on?
The fifth post on the philosophy of death looks at another notion of continuity. Even for those who believe in no soul or god of any kind, the physical world is real and continuous. No sane person would think the world comes to an end with his death. Then again, nobody has accused me of sanity.
Primal Soul
What is soul, and why do we need one? Philosophy of death is surely incomplete without a discussion of this matter. Here is the fourth post in this series.
Topical, Life and Death, Philosophy
From Here to Eternity
The severity of a pain is not merely its intensity, but its duration as well. Given that death puts a definitive end to our worldly durations, how does it affect our notion of punishment commensurate with crime? Here is the third post on the philosophy of death.
Topical, Life and Death, Philosophy
Why Should I Be Good?
This second post on my series on the philosophy of death deals with the connection between morality and death.
Topical, Life and Death, Philosophy
The Taboo Topic
I thought I would write a short piece on the philosophy death, but it turned out to be a fairly big essay. It was to be expected, I guess, for death is not an easy or simple topic. I will post my thoughts here in parts. The first part looks at the taboo nature of the topic of death.
Columns, The Wilmott Magazine, Topical, Work and Life, Corporate Life, Quantitative Finance
In Our Defense
Here is an article defending (to some extent) the insane salary expectations of the elite bankers and traders. And quants. This piece will appear in my regular column in Wilmott Magazine.
Corporate Life, Columns, The Today Paper
Graceless Singaporean
Newspaper column in Today on 2 Aug 2008.
We Singaporeans have a problem. We are graceless, they say. So we train ourselves to say the right magic words at the right times and to smile at random intervals. We still come across as a bit graceless at times.
We have to bite the bullet and face the music; we may be a bit on the rude side — when judged by the western norms of pasticky grace popularized by the media. But we don’t do too badly when judged by our own mixed bag of Asian cultures […]
Columns, Unpublished, Life and Death, Quantitative Finance
Food Prices and Terrible Choices
Economists have too many hands. On the one hand, they may declare something good. On the other hand, they may say, “well, not so much.” Some of them may have even a third or fourth hand. My ex-boss, an economist himself, once remarked that he wished he could chop off some of these hands. […]
Columns, Humor, The Today Paper
An Office Survival Guide
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! […]
Columns, The Today Paper
Reading between the Lines
Newspaper column in Today on 17 May 2008.
When it comes to news, things are seldom what they seem. The media can colour news events while remaining technically objective and strictly factual. Faced with such insidiously accurate reporting, we have little choice but to read between the lines. […]
Good and Bad Gender Equality
The rights and wrongs of gender equality. Newspaper column in Today on 5 April 2008.