Mind Cook

Not everyone was born knowing what they want to do in life. With access to so much knowledge, you could do multiple things along the way. The challenge would be to find out where to start. Well the idea is to just start!

Take an inkling of an interest, or any passing moment and dedicate some time to it. Make it something you can do in a short period of time, but regularly. It doesn’t have to be great strides – just a little bit will do. And don’t give up so soon, give it a decent amount of time to have some fruit. Then after a certain point, you can then assess whether you enjoyed it or not. Chances are if you didn’t take any shortcuts you would have enjoyed it somewhat.

Doing this continuously helps you focus your energy and give any fleeting ideas a chance for being reality. No harm stopping later, but to not try is to fail forever.

Over time you will start to truly identify whether or not you want to continue by questioning your motives and assessing how you feel doing the routines. It is fruitless to push mindlessly but the start must be pushed for.

Passion may be a bit of a misnomer for something you might have just developed a knack for over time. But it’s nice to be good at something and it tends to be self rewarding.

The cost of an MBA is very high. It is justified from a long term perspective, where you are expected to earn a higher wage over time. It is normally done a few years into your career, otherwise you won’t be able to fully understand what you are learning. The big question is, does that make you a better leader?

If you can afford to take an MBA, arguably it means you are quite well off. Not only are you taking up either a big debt or a large expenditure, there is also a big need to sacrifice your time and energy. So that is the first hallmark of private school.

The next thing we consider is what the true benefit of an MBA is in terms of the knowledge gained. Sure there are some nuggets of gold in a few subjects which may be hard to discern anywhere, but ultimately what you can truly remember is quoted by many other people if you read a lot of books on business. You do gain access to a select group of people, who are in alliance with your circumstances to some degree. This is the second hallmark of private school – a niche members only type group.

Last but not least, the reason why it’s good to have an MBA is that you understand the lingo. When working in a big company with multiple MBA holders, there is an understanding of a certain level of language and methodology used – whether it works or not is anybody’s guess. There will be terms thrown around that the average person may not understand, and decisions will be made of certain structures that are not easily inferenced. And this is where we have the third hallmark – having an elitist type way of communication.

So many elements in a cafe – from a great barista, to a good menu selection, to the conscientious service of the staff, and not to mention well priced and great tasting food. But if there is one less obvious way to find out if a place is good, check out their toilets.

The washroom is the place of respite, even if its just a few minutes. Hospitality is a fast paced industry with a lot of pressure from everyone working there. There is also always a little bit of creativity needed to keep days interesting – the food fresh and the customers happy. So when you have a great toilet, one that exudes serenity and comfort – it doubles down as a creativity escape. It gives everyone a chance to breathe, relax and conjure up or motivate to take on the next thing.

A very simple idea not very well implemented in most places. It’s of course not the only way to identify a good place – but it’s so important especially for smaller establishments to pay attention to this. Not only the staff will appreciate it but the customers themselves will as well. After all, if you were a food critic wouldn’t you want to have a place to recharge away from prying eyes?

In a classic weekend hackathon, a team is formulated over a short period of time to create an outcome either based on a set theme or by brainstorming something of merit. This happens typically in a span of 48 hours. Sounds fun? Well the thing that makes it fun is also what makes it bad for engineering.

There is tons of shortcuts out there in software or even hardware to do something, ranging from completely created solutions requiring a small configuration step. Down to more overarching solutions that are more generic in nature. The thing is, these items were created for the sake of simplicity and speed.

What does this encourage? It encourages you to do the minimal effort. What’s more is that winners are judged based so much more on how it is presented more than whether something great was invented. In other words it lacks grit.

When you start from this basepoint, every engineer thinks there is a quick win to everything, not engaging in longer scale strategies or things that are tedious to not being fun. It paints a bad idea of how engineering really is.

Sure it’s still fun, but I’d say it’s best for entrepreneurs and people who love doing sales and pitches.

What is the definition of random? Something that is not predictable? Well in most cases there is nothing random. A real random event has no source of truth. It is a truly decoupled result from everything it originates from

However, this is not possible. Even in computer science, there is a term called entropy which is a designation of level of uniqueness. One way is to define it is by using noise. But noise comes from things that are predictable.

If we argue that computing is the complete opposite of random – because it relies on preset programs, events itself are not random. They maybe observed as random in a collective, but on the individual sense, every organism is driven by motivation of some sort.

So the next time you think about random, ask yourself – is it random or is it just blissful ignorance.

If it’s not meant to be, maybe it’s better not to force it. When is a time where effort and intention should change the course of history? An effort to do something may result in failure or success. With sustained effort, things should succeed. Is there anything wrong with that?

It will surely depend on how far you are willing to go to achieve something. Suppose you are trying to attain a difficult technical degree. You have spent hundreds of hours studying and consulting many teachers, but somehow it is still out of reach. You are still determined to get it. What if you cheated? Or what if you somehow managed to bribe the marking committee?

There will be times when failure to get some thing could mean you find meaning to some thing else. By failing the technical degree perhaps it painted a great possibility for you to have a multi million dollar business. Surely it is not always going to be better than what you hoped in the beginning, that will be wishful thinking. But if the road gets too hard it is ok to throw in the towel once you exhausted a lot of the avenues. The trick to success is to know when is this time.

For you can’t be successful in everything. But you can make sure you continuously assess your focus so you at least succeed in one thing in your life.

I have got some old reminders that I haven’t bothered to edit. Like car servicing for my old car and birthdays of people I haven’t met for a while. Some people get really agitated to see their old life again. Unless there has been some criminal activity in relation to it, we should remember we once wanted to be reminded of something.

Our memory does funny things to actual events. In most cases, should we decide to focus and simmer on something, negativity is wiped out from what we remember. It is just the best way to move on to compartmentalise the event in a positive sense.

Perhaps it’s time for me to delete some of these reminders. After all they are no longer relevant. But it does energise me to think I have made progress in my life. And it also reminds me to keep in touch with some old friends. Being too efficient can have a very destructive effect. You will definitely know someone who had completely changed their clique.

In any case we must remember to be grateful and appreciative for what we have. The things we treasure now will change over time. Make the most of what you care about.

If we were to ask ourselves whether we have time for something new, most of the time the answer would be no, unless we are bored out of wits. So are we really experiencing a lack of time or are there just too many distractions and wants? Likely it is a bit of both.

In this day and age it is so easy to get carried away with multiple forms of entertainment. Sometimes it is not even meant to be entertainment but it sucks you in anyway. Thanks to the mobile phone, putting it in your hand generally means cumulative hours pass by in a day. A lot of time is wasted here.

If you successfully manage to escape mobile screen time, then you will still need to manoeuvre other digital forms that suck in your time. This includes television, Netflix and other digital streaming methods. Steered clear of those and still running short on time? The most common reason will then be lack of resolve.

When we are not clear of what exactly we want to achieve, we tend to get easily carried away by whatever is in front of us. This could simply be because we feel a lack of interest in what we would like to do. It could also be just people that you care about eating up your whole day. Sure, life is nothing without spending time with loved ones, but how much should you sacrifice?

The next time you catch yourself saying that you don’t have time, try to examine a day in your life for these items. You might be pleasantly surprised.

As you get older you tend to stick to your ways and don’t bother with much of what is new. Is it true that we can’t teach an old person new tricks? Certainly not but we must be predisposed not to act this way.

One of the easiest way to keep your mind alert and going is to read non-fiction. When you read fiction you are indulging in a healthier hobby than screentime. Usually the new things you could learn from this are not many. Instead non-fiction is always based on someone’s perspective, and if you take that in you will definitely learn something.

There will be new technology every single day. In fact books can be delivered electronically or even via audio. But ultimately it is the content and intent of the authors that can help keep you abreast. For our bodies will likely wither faster than our minds.

A university party is very different from a school party and also very different from a party with people in another age group. This is not just because of a generation gap and familiarity but core to growing up.

One of the best things that happen when we get older is we really start to undersand what it means to do whatever you want. You don’t necessarily become wiser as the saying goes, but after a long life you will realise that your own needs are more important than fitting in. Some people try really hard to conform regardless, which can form a sort of unhappiness brewing over time.

In a party setting what then happens is that you cannot control how people are going to interact or what events they are going to do anymore. The most you can control is a welcome speech to get everyone to listen. Beyond that people are generally going to stick to their comfort zone or what they have made their minds up to do before attending.

This means it is actually very easy to organise networking events. All you have to do is set a venue and make sure nobody comes expecting food that you don’t provide, everything else is auto pilot. That’s why networking tends to always just a part of the agenda, not the main. It is a simple add on that doesn’t require much planning at all.