Walking in our new neighbourhood in Mitte, Berlin The value of writing daily This is the first year in my life where I’ve consistently kept a journal almost every single day. I have written an entry in my journal on 250 days amounting to around 150,000 words year-to-date. While I’m certainly proud…

My Astroahaus Freewrite fresh out of the box Hello, you. I want to tell you about the Freewrite, a device that I hold very close to my heart because I’ve always wanted something like it. In fact, I started working on this as a one-man startup in 2014, at about the same time as the guys at Astrohaus…

Photo by freddie marriage I love reading. It wasn’t always like that, but in 2019, I’ve started reading much more than I used to. This year, by my estimation, I have read 10 books so far. Each of them unique, and stimulated my mind into thinking about the infinite topics of life. Right now I’m…

Earlier this year in February, I published my last post on Instagram and left the platform. I left because I was feeling what every magazine has discussed as the detrimental effects of using something like Instagram. I was constantly and, worse, subconsciously, comparing my life to other people’s…

Photo by Adrien Olichon on Unsplash I’m looking for a word that describes this exact feeling because it was how I felt yesterday from around 4 pm. That was when I left the office and headed home after a long 4-hour meeting with the team. I was participating remotely from Berlin, while the rest of…

Photo by NordWood Themes I have a love-hate relationship with technology, specifically with computers being the de facto tool for writing. I love writing. And I love my laptop for many reasons including its ability to let me gently, cost-freely whip up a tweet, blog post, or essay. But I also…

Photo by Thought Catalog I want to admit something. Half the time, I don’t really know what I want to say. Sometimes, it’s because I’m unsure if I care enough about something to actually say something meaningful about it. Other times, I just draw a blank, as though I’d just been born without a clue…

Photo by Djim Loic Having been born and raised in Singapore, it took me close to 30 years to realise there was such a thing as Daylight savings. A snail under a rock is what I am. I found out about Daylight savings only recently at work in Smartly.io where part of my job is to ensure we staff our 2…

Photo by Erol Ahmed As a company grows, even if the resignation rate remains constant, the absolute number of employees who leave the company each month will grow in tandem. Recently, I’ve witnessed some colleagues leaving the company. Some for family reasons, others for personal growth. I want to…

Photo by Tom Ezzatkhah I was back today at where all interestingness in my career began - the General Assembly campus in Singapore. It sprang up in Singapore from New York 4 years ago and I made my way into its history 3 years ago, fresh from a failed startup, attempting to learn to code. Today…

Photo by Robert Anasch As someone who understands and can write computer programs, I frequently ask, should I buy or build this thing? Recently I experienced some eye strain and a colleague at Smartly.io wrote a comment recommending me eye drops, a desktop humidifier, and a macOS app. While I can’t…

We grow older and earn luxuries with our steadily increasing income. Instead of shrinking into comforts and doing less and less with each passing day, we ought to seek the flinch. I’ve always kind of known this, but I’ve never tried to put it into words. The flinch. Those are the words. To continue…

Just by the Bixby Creek Bridge along the Pacific Ocean, two hours drive south of San Francisco Living on the 25th floor of a tall mixed-purpose building in the middle of the city is supposed to be amazing. And in many ways, it is. What I find lacking has little to do with where our building is, but…

I’m tired and confused and feeling a little depressed. The day didn’t start out like this. I was chirpy this morning having done a workout in the gym before heading to work. Now, sitting in my couch at home after scanning the day that had just transpired for specific moments where I started feeling…

Photo by SpaceX I recently heard an analogy of a pilot who, before takeoff, turned the nose of his plane one degree to the left. At the destination airport, confused passengers alighted in an airport in Washington state instead of New York. This analogy brilliantly illustrates how one small change…

Graphic by Team17 Overcooked is a game designed for the PS4 that was love at first sight (yes, pre-play) for me and my wife. On first sight, it’s just one of those games whose goal is to prepare meals and serve them. But when you’re engaged in gameplay, mayhem breaks loose and it becomes just one of…

Photo by Smartly.io Today an article that I wrote was published on the Smartly.io blog. It’s a piece titled “Trust, Alignment and Action — Nick’s Learnings from Futurio 2019” and it’s about what I’ve learned from our company-wide offsite, Futurio. You can view it here. I’d actually secretly been…

I recently spent three weeks in Helsinki as a sort of mini-rotation within Smartly.io. While I was there, I worked a lot more closely with the team I belong to but have been working remotely with from Singapore, and I’ve learned a lot. Below are some of my main learnings, which appear in no…

I have Finnish colleagues, and they never run in the office. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of them go any faster than a leisurely walking pace. And although I don’t really know where that steadiness comes from, I want in, because I’ve found that it’s an incredibly effective way to gain…

In a bid to understand what I’ve been thinking about and have done for the year, I’m taking stock of the posts I’ve published this year. Here are some stats (bracketed is number from 2017): Posts published: 130 (96) Views: 77,800 (5,500) Visitors: 64,300 (3,500) Overall, I’m quite happy knowing that…