When you focus exclusively on understanding instead of what is right, you grow your understanding of the world while keeping your relationships healthy.

Nick's notes from reading The Courage to Be Disliked.

Germany has had a law since the 1950s that bans most shops from selling on Sundays, and it has given me a new lease on my time.

Always judge a book strictly by its contents. If the author is an alcoholic and misogynist, it should not matter in your consideration of his ideas.

This is the first time I am writing an Annual Review in this format. I’ve experimented with various formats over the last three years (2017, 2018, 2019) and I think it is time to bring some consistency into these year-end reflections. An Annual Review is a personal note that is designed to spark…

I try to be serious with what I write and publish on this blog. My fuzzy goal is to write to help people, regardless of who they are, to live well. Be it through greater purpose, meaning, safety, love, or whatever else comprises a well-lived life, I am there searching for answers, for you and for me…

One of my favourite quotes is by the Austrian psychologist and Holocaust survivor, Dr Viktor Frankl: Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. When I am angry, upset, happy, or disturbed by…

Recently, I saw a tweet quoting a minister back home saying something that was supposedly incendiary. I did not get why as the words seemed innocuous when read without context. So I tweeted asking for context and I understood why some tweets later. But I soon noticed something else. In that Twitter…

I recently rewatched a short sporting Stephen Fry’s wisdom on the English language (as well as his wonderful British accent in the voiceover). I remember being struck by some of the ideas encapsulated in it many years ago when I first watched it, but I didn’t fully fathom them. Today, after watching…

We are all very scientific, each of us, even if we don’t necessarily think about ourselves as scientists. Let’s ask ourselves: What is the scientific method? Well, the unsophisticated answer is that it is simply a method for arriving at a durable truth. Don’t we seek durable truths all the time? my…

Today I’m setting myself a hairy goal of writing a book in November. I made the decision just now to participate in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). So far I’ve only done minimal preparation like reading Take Off Your Pants by Libbie Hawker, while many other writers have already…

I can code and I think I can code well. But for some reason, I’m just not inclined to try and become an amazing programmer. For me, with programming as with many other skills, I ascribe to the mantra that good enough is good enough. Why pace the long end of the curve of diminishing returns? I just…

I recently watched A Life on Our Planet, a documentary that David Attenborough called his witness statement. He talked as if he was testifying against humanity for the stupid things we’ve done collectively to degrade our only inhabitable planet. I enjoyed the cinematography, but I enjoyed even more…

Often, I let myself believe that many people just “get it,” that they know what they want to do in life and they just dove into it and became excellent. For example, there’s this person whose tweets and website I lurk around. His name is Shawn (@swyx) and when you visit his website, you’ll see that…

In two days, I will mark my first year living away from Singapore in Berlin. I moved here with my wife and dog last year when I managed to get transferred to the Berlin office of my current employer. As you can imagine, life has been different since. Our first day in Berlin at a restaurant with…

When Breath Becomes Air is a precious book about life as it is experienced through the lens of impending cancer-induced death. It is poignantly written by the neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi and it reads like a part memoir, part treatise on the meaning of life. Reading it, I felt inspired, sad…

Before you know it, your face is greasy, your feet cold, and you wonder, why are you doing this? Nah, that’s not representative of life on a campervan, although I’ve felt all that in my recent week-long campervan trip with my wife and dog. My rented campervan from Indie Campers, photographed against…

This books is part memoir, part philosophical manifesto derived from Patagonia’s founder’s experience in applying them to business, environment, and life. I skimmed some parts of this book like the parts laying out the design and product philosophies, written in a handbook-style, knowing that I…

Last week I wrote about how we don’t buy things with money but with time. What’s funny is that while I was writing that article, I was simultaneously growing fond of a new coffee machine. Having moved to Berlin almost a year ago and left my excellent home coffee setup in Singapore, I have since only…

Most of us trade time for money. Do you deny it? In modern life we purchase things all the time. There is an ongoing pandemic trapping us at home, yet we continue to buy stuff from Amazon. Our lives are structured around stuff, there is no escaping it. Unless, well, you literally escape and build a…