K.H: analytical IQ

• high IQ. EQ is average. As a listener, he is average (perhaps better than me;). Both he and me talk too much.
• .. he can be competitive and competent in academic or theoretical domains.
• .. Dean’s list NUS B.Eng (stronger than me), graduating 10 years after me.
• I think he cracked many elite technical interviews as quant or trader candidate, but somehow didn’t get an offer.
• slightly lacking worldly wisdom but I was probably similar at his age.
• defensive of his own stance. Can be more flexible.
• slightly condescending esp. towards people without his knowledge and intellect.
• good at accumulation and time utilization — moonlighting, xx, personal trading,
• good at investment analysis but see section below.

— opinionated, pessimistic… I have seen such attitudes, perhaps Tanko, XR, Shanyou (on tech interview)
We all have our share of setbacks, adversities, failed struggles. He was quick to develop his (probably valid) explanations of his setbacks, but he doesn’t stop where he should. He then (画蛇添足)  became confined, imprisoned (in his worldview) by those explanations.

He doesn’t seem to notice that confinement, perhaps because of limited introspective capacity (my strength), or because of intellectual arrogance — too confident about his explanations.

It’s vital to recognize that Most of our explanations are highly incomplete and biased. His explanations tend to glorify himself and blame others.

— wellness priority? fitness is apparently a low priority for him.
He does recognize work stress. So I fully support his decision to forgo those “high careers” due to 高处不胜寒, even though he may have the required intellectual capacity. I used to see that capacity as wasted but I believe he knows himself better. Work-life balance is his higher priority.

— immigration: he has strong opinion about Chinese nationality. No right or wrong. I think it doesn’t benefit him, and probably limits his choices without him acknowledging.

He doesn’t like the U.S. job market, partly because of political tension between U.S. and his 祖国 ? I feel this is like making a decision and finding justifications for it. I might have the same tendency.

— career path
By age 37, I had cracked open a huge (possibly growing) job market not only on WallST but also in Singapore. I was able to change job (with repeated success) to keep up my income and also to compensate for my professional limitations. He surely has his limitations too but he doesn’t seem to acknowledge them.

His first 10 years were far more successful than mine, but after he left b@a in 2017 he had ventured into a domain that’s very niche and possibly shrinking. He actually likes the new domain, working there since Mar 2018, but I guess it does limit his job choices. I guess he will become an old-timer on his current job. He doesn’t have many other job opportunities in Singapore, so his increment pace is at the mercy of the big bank. Not ideal but he is satisfied. Actually my situation is also considered by lsagain and many as non-ideal, but I’m satisfied, almost semi-retired. Mellowing up for both of us 🙂

He is probably a very strong interviewee, but it didn’t help him as greatly as in my case.

Somehow, I have a very biased, partial evaluation of his moonlight business. I feel it won’t grow a lot. Would remain a great, valuable recreation.

— investment: current income ^ windfall
Clearly, current income is not his priority, so he won’t be able to reach semi-retirement stage very early as I did at 44. I think windfall profit is his investment goal. Therefore, I think he may achieve higher return rate than me.

I guess my risk capital size is larger than his, so his profit amount may not exceed mine at, say my age 50 vs his age 50.

Good at investment analysis, but his analytical vision (few have an eagle’s vision) tends to make him risk averse. In contrast, I’m fool-hardy with HY/PE and overseas rEstate. I think he is mostly into well-known stocks. I cast my net much wider though I don’t touch hot low-div stocks.

In my tanbinvest blog I have several posts on Kun’s views. I think he tends to look down on unorthodox investment products/methodologies.

— my personal priorities in the big picture
Even though I spoke to him a lot about investment, immigration and career domains, for me those are minor issues, to be put aside. There are very few real investment decisions or job decisions within 2Y. No immigration topic to analyze.

Like him, I have my analytical IQ and I want to apply it on my priorities. I want my center stage to be occupied by 1) healthy longevity and perhaps 2) career longevity and 3) parenting.

 

Y higher ground than Catcha/zed cohort #wife

Trigger: I recall my chat with Sonny Lim, and also my recent reconnect sessions with ex-colleagues in Catcha/Zed/NewSilkRoute

Yet another free-flow historical review. Don’t aim for completeness. If I come up with one unique item it would be a gem.

Let’s focus on higher_ground, but I’m deliberately vague about it. Lower ground is 被动, defensive, struggling,,,

Q: why am I on higher ground than those guys? Let’s focus on deeper, less obvious reasons.

• thrifty and hardworking wife .. Not sure about some of their spouses, but I think mine is a rare gift from God.
• my kids did put in effort .. piano, diet, tuition, homework. Not sure about their kids.
• My bold venture to U.S. and WallSt .. life-changing journey that those ex-colleagues didn’t have.
  • career longevity -> quiet_confidence about family cash flow. My dev career is likely to run till 60’s, unheard-of outside WallSt.
• [20] IV + delivery skills .. IV is part of job-hunting which includes trec
• [20] over the decades, coding test has become widespread. I happen to have some competence and a long-term hobby. Together they raise me to higher ground.
• appreciation of my HDB home + Beijing home
• SG citizenship .. a rising foundation (of my high ground), but invisible
• [20 = personal habit, skill,, over 20Y ]
• — minor or obvious factors, or factors less relevant to higher_ground_than_peers.
• [20] burn rate control .. cumulative effect! Note 1) portfolio and 2) nonwork income … (as factors) are overrated.
• [20] wellness habits .. invisible effect except BMI and belly; frq of sickness; frq (I didn’t say “duration”) and absorbency of workout; insomnia; cardio;
• UChicago credential .. fairly visible. It gave me higher ground in terms of insider insight into branded colleges. This credential is rare among my peers.

batteries: 积累 strategic val #plowback #700w

Background: over the years I have discussed “accumulation/积累” in various subdomains of finance and tech career (along with tech Churn). Let’s broaden the exploration, in search of actionable insights. This blogpost is hopefully more than a compilation of the challenges and tribulations of ineffective accumulation. (Shall we say “limitations[1] of accumulation”?)

Battery is a different (slightly better) metaphor than plowback. This blog will not get a good title any time soon. If I spend more time devising a better title, the time is probably wasted.

[1] Limitations are absolute, whereas improvements are temporary.

• [s1~s5=strategic value. Accumulation is at the heart of strategy value.]
• [b = Theme: baked-in is excellent battery — A classic example of bake-in is piano. Some call it muscle memory.]
• [p = Theme: Promethean struggle — a classic example is lower body flexibility, chin-up ]
• Theme: Bao3Shan1 battle — is needed in BMI, IV-bodybuilding,,,
• [e = Theme: self-discovery .. is a multi-decade experiment and learning process and therefore represents an accumulation of wisdom and self-knowledge.]

–Q: briefly, how relevant is defense (see T_defense) ?
A: Relevant! In my quest for ever more security, what I want to accumulate most is …. layers of defenses, and alternatives (狡兔三窟).
— plowback of peak earning? There’s a blogpost
— plowback of peak spare time like my current carefree easy life? There’s a blogpost
— category: pastimes for retirement .. Zhang Jun wanted to develop and accumulate a variety of interests

• piano
• dancing
• 太极拳, 武术

—  [s1] category: relationships, networks? A popular accumulation domain. However, I’m not good at it and always doubtful as I move between jobs. The personal help I need is often professional help, so my friends lack the expertise.
— category: practical knowledge pearls on immigration, local community… Some pearls lose “relevance” over 50Y

[s5] exception — some time-honored wellness principles and guidelines
[s3] exception — some financial knowledge and analytical skill

— [s5] category: family finance .. is the classic showcase of accumulation and is the best /space/ for accumulators, i.e. individuals who are keen to accumulate over decades. The effective accumulators among us can appear like demigods. One of the key reasons behind their success — assets including cash, stocks, rEstate… don’t lose half their usefulness (i.e. practical value) over decades, as happens to the other items below. On the contrary, many financial assets have a tendency to appreciate.

• battery: [e] Like Many experienced investors I had to discover my own risk appetite, my predictive acumen, my  interest, my preference over current_Income ^ windfall_Appreciation.
• battery: [e] optional trading techniques of Trevor Tang. Note classroom learning is insufficient.
• battery: [e] I wrote many blogposts on recreational, buy-n-forget
• battery: buying a blue-chip before an upswing. See 100% upswing after buying #dreamland. This battery will last (years) until price drops to your entry price.

— category: status, trec, prestige, branding

1. battery: immigration status — once you /earn/ the status, you won’t lose it. SG citizenship has huge and long-term benefits.
2. battery: College Credentials are similar — once you earn a prestigious degree, it’s a verifiable badge of honor for life. How about a Nobel prize or an Oscar? These credentials all help provide livelihood.
3. .. personal eg: I am a small beneficiary of this effect, at least on the competitive interviews.
4. battery: Publications (grandpa) is also similar, but you may need to keep abreast of the evolving landscape or risk becoming irrelevant. I think nowadays publication is valued much less than professional affiliation (past employers) and educational credentials, due to massive institutional branding
5. On the other extreme we find decorated former athletes, with their past glory behind them. Their personal branding has value but is less valuable than the above items. Coaching is the most practical value of this branding, but not all successful athletes can be effective and add value as a coach. My wife enrolled my son to the HomeTeam basketball school, largely due to the NBA player behind it. I signed up my son with the athletic team, largely due to the former record-holder of marathon in Singapore.
6. battery and personal eg: [s5] WallSt trec as a moat. Yes you can accumulate, as I did in GS, NYSE, MLP..
7. battery: [s2] credit score: You can accumulate.

— [s4] category: tech career (briefly): My career longevity is a result of accumulation

• CIV::bigO QQ (and other QQ)? yes accumulation is effective
• .. Dram refresh much needed
• CIV::ECT for speed coding? less effective. This skill is somewhat similar to yoga
• CIV::pure algo (and CIV::BP for weekend assignments)? somewhat effective

I feel majority of my peers secretly dream of 一劳永逸 and therefore perceive the constant interview practice as the worst Promethean struggle.

A smaller Promethean struggle is XR’s concern over 积累: FTE^contractor

By embracing the challenges, I am much stronger than them.

##layers@ {buffers+alternatives} ⇒security #optimist

See also spare time as slack resource + [20]random list@ Protection+reinforcer #early planning

This blog is /fairly good/ at focus — focus on 1) buffers or 2) alternatives.

Multiple layers of cushion/buffer/slack-resource … always give me a deep sense of enhanced security. I’m very sensitive to this kinda thing. I feel our life is a small dugout canoe in the high seas, battered by the high waves… soooo many perils, blows, threats, dangers,

Defining example of buffer — the past reserves can tide over the SG economy and buy time, but this buffer can be depleted. Therefore, the current term of goverment must use the past reserves in a sustainable way, not to consume the fruits of the previous generations and leave a reduced reserve for future generations.

Note on optimism — layers of buffer sounds defensive and pessimistic, but is optimistic at a fundamental level. If you don’t believe in the buffers, why would you bother to build them?

I wish the list below can be more focused on a specific theme. On the other hand wide-ranging is kinda good.

• ——– wellness (including mental) protector
• [b] office — (even MRT) as a sanctuary with wifi for my laptop … is an valuable alternative venue when home becomes too “hot” with tension and distress.
• Grandpa, EAP counsellors, even trusted friends like Raymond … as “redundant support network”, to help me deal with various challenges. Note SG offers more social support than other countries.
• A [b] plenty of spare time for workout and rest, rather than fully stretched .. to protect against spare time “resource” depletion
  • A [b] plenty of paid leaves to protect against depletion of “slack resource” such as spare time
• [b] early rise — good for wellness, but under stress I tend to “eat into this buffer” i.e. slowly delay early rise
• AAA+ [b] #1 eg: low BMI / cholesterol / blood pressure; pull up + fitness …. to protect against wellness “hazards”.
• AAA [b] high fruit/veg low fat/starch diet …. to prepare for stress binge
• AA [b] on belly, low visible fat to protect against (almost inevitable) bulging
• [b] light body weight relative to my strength, as shown in my pull-up and curl-up
• ——– career buffers
• [b] plenty of coding drill and QQ accumulated over the years, fully digested in my own words in blog and github. If there’s a decline in my learning, this visible, measurable built-up buffer would be valuable. Remember the aging Batman in the Bane movie — he relied on his past training to rebuild strengths.
• [b] sustained traction and engagement (at least neutral attitude) on tech xx. See reliability @ effort^talent. If there’s a decline in my level of engagement, I think it will not drop to zero. I can feel an invisible buffer therein.
• ——— alternative gz (+ school) choices
• [d] teaching and research as an alternative career, thanks to my branded master’s degree
• A [d] internet and wallSt as two alternative job markets
• AA [d] SG and U.S. as two alternative job markets
• A [d] c++ in addition to java; jxee in addition to coreJava to provide many times more job opportunities
• A [d] SG and U.S. schools for my kids
• ——– technology++
• [bd] multiple low-cost laptops for coding drill and git blogging. In crunch time, I need this backup support.
• [b] diskHog/landGrab files to be released when I run out of disk space
• [b] simple smart phones. Don’t get addicted and dependent on the newer smart phone features
• buy cheap but reliable furniture and gadgets to reduce stress
  • [b] have spares, thanks to the low cost
• ——— cash flow planning is my strongest hand, so I won’t talk too much today
• AAA [b] wife able to make a living; sister able to help support my kids if something happens to me
• [d] MYS and China as additional/alternative retirement destinations, if SG becomes difficult
• A [d] diversified passive incomes including CPF-life
• [d] currency diversification — USD assets, SGD assets, RMB assets
• ——– other protectors
• [b] strong family — protection for every family member
• [b] support network beyond the family
• [AAA etc = reliability rating of the buffer/shield] See locus@control:current carefree high ground mostly due2%%effort
• [b = buffer. I like the imagery of energy-absorbing buffer stop. They absorb impacts from unexpected adversities and buys me TIME.]
• [d = diversification … to put my eggs into multiple baskets]

HF.Sun meet-up#1300w

I don’t put up a blogpost for Jun.Z, WQ.L, Tanko… because HF.Sun has a family situation similar to mine.

— To HF, do I come across as completely satisfied, without pains? No
1) PIP, bonus, stigma, respect
2) FOLB, exclub peer comparison
3) boy’s “performance” and lack of effort

In terms of livelihood, All my top 3 deep, recurring pains above are “superficial” i.e. not real threats to my family livelihood, largely thanks to my interview skills. But IV is the flagship of a /fleet/ of strengths. I should also give credit to —

• the dev (not just tech) job market and my decision to stick to it. I have key talents to thrive in it such as low cultural bias
• the WallSt contract market that I discovered and held on to
• lifelong wellness habits
• bedrock of stable marraige. I made the right choice.
• bedrock of SG citizenship providing essential protections. I made the right choice.
• my lifelong earn/save/invest and Fuller wealth strengths

My descriptions above tend to lean towards external locus of control, but in reality my personal factors are more important.

I notice three broad topics (beside parenting) in our chat, all related to livelihood. Clearly, HF is not carefree in his late 30’s. Neither am I. How about stressors beyond livelihood? I feel many people in his shoes and my shoes would feel the exclub stress to keep up with the Joneses, and the FOMO. The less blue-collar, the more likely you would feel this pressure.

— Q: which specific statuses are the most enviable?
A: current wellness condition? I think HF appreciates it more than other guys. I feel this item deserve to be #1 , but seems to be ranked rather low in the subconscious of some /stereotypical/ peers a few years younger.
A2: current work-life balance?
A3: long-term career security?
A4: the 6 properties of some ex-colleague? I cautioned HF that under the facade things may not be that simple. I didn’t give specifics, as it would be pulling out a thread from a knitting.

== parenting
When I said I don’t want to telecommute, HF asked me how much time I spend with my kids. I said nowadays I try to make the hours productive towards my personal goals.

HF wants to spend more time with his 2 kids, and prefers telecommuting. I guess he experiences incremental ROTI on parenting. I feel a fundamental reason for our differences is boy’s reaction. I feel like driving with the brakes on, sometimes spinning the wheel. Lack of intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. Without realizing this difference, it’s EASY to fall into the trap — feeling inferior, guilty, a failure, self-hate…
== wellness
Many Singaporean professionals sleep late and get up early, according to HF.
— work-life balance: HF felt current work-life balance is not very sustainable due to a micro-managing boss. HF said in OC he used to have more autonomy as a team lead.

He said it partly in response to my generalized view that the more leadership portfolios you assume, the more stress, and work-life balance tend to deteriorate. His response is basically a counter example. However, is there always higher stress due to higher responsibility? HF’s response echos many manager friends because they all feel confident bout the leadership responsibility. Josh said something about “bigger picture”.

Can he change to a lighter job? I think his chosen domain has poor market depth, or he is not comfortable/confident to beome a job-hopper.

Q: What’s important to someone like Honglin. His kids are working. He has plenty of assets and investments. In his late 50’s he looks like semi-retired.
A: wellness is presumably the most important tangible thing to someone in his shoes. However, I guess he is not that old like waiting to pass on, so he must have his aspirations, and seeking meaning. These are higher aspirations, based on, not competing with, wellness maintenance as a foundation.
— self-discipline:  in diet, workout and (I also mentioned) … self-awareness to “reduce work hours”
— longevity and locus-of-control — HF felt final age of 80 is a realistic target for himself. In contrast, I set an explicit goal of 95, and I FEEL confident about my chance, even though my chance depends on many external factors beyond my control. This “faith” has the power to change my daily behavior at least for a few years [1]. The change in behavior does produce results i.e. lead to change in my wellness.

I would say that “faith” is belief without convincing evidence.

[1] It’s normal to lose the momentum after a while. After the loss, you can rebuild. The power, motivation… to improve lifestyle is a daily battle and a marathon.

== career planning
main street salary: 5-6k, as confirmed by HF

HF asked how my current package compared to OC. I mentioned medical, extra leaves, flexible hours. Lastly I singled out commute as the most satisfying part of the package, suggesting that I might accept a lower salary to work in downtown rather than ChangiBizPark.
— brank peer comparison: HF is no longer a team lead, but earns more.
I am not good at climbing up, so I seek non-mainstream career paths suitable for me. I no longer agree with  German’s narrowing-path assessment.

One of HF’s managers is about my age but not so healthy, partly because of anger and stress. I said I may show the same face when scolding my son.

I said big managers often have heavy job responsibilities, which often means stress. Some can handle it, but it still requires mental effort and stress. In contrast, as a contractor I was carefree.
— churn in the dev job market. I feel this is a common view from the outside. I don’t know if HF is an insider, but I guess he probably doesn’t have my wealth of first-hand tech interview experience. I said more than 200 interviews.

Once again, the interview experiences are crucial in way-finding. I may need to go out and interview again.
— flexibility to move back to tech (current HF is Business-PM). I think he said there would be difficulties.

== per finance: I tried to postpone this discussion to the next meet-up. I was conscious (and fairly successful) to avoid deep dive on personal finance, which has the potential to hijack (i.e. take over) the precious meet-up opportunity. If I were to reveal my specific investments, most likely I would feel the urge to clarify, and reveal more. It’s best to avoid the topic. If not possible, then it’s better to be non-specific. I was positively vague about “no need to work”. But did I come across a bit cocky/condescending esp. on the ffree including 7% return, properties,,, but I did point out “very risky investments”? I think I didn’t arouse any negative reaction to my assessment of dev-till-70, healthy longevity. As to the “parenting” and brank parts, I was humble.
— Replace salary income with dividend income: HF’s friend had this goal and HF felt it was achievable. I used 4% dYield and $5k/M family burn rate to derive $1.5M stock position. I said such a big position is impossible for most of us, assuming we need a home etc. I said I achieved my bare-bones ffree due to lower burn rate and higher yield. I chose not to elaborate.
— portfolio risk and gold: I described my portfolio as high risk. I meant credit risk, political risk. I hope some gold would provide a much-needed stability.
I didn’t say that more important than gold, I rely on my 1)wellness 2)career longevity 3)SG gov providing healthcare, CPF-live, inflation-proof
— inflation post-pandemic — HF raised this point. I feel my family burn rate would not increase like 30% due to consumable inflation. I guess the biggest components of my family CPI basket would be 1)nutrition and 2)utilities+transport

##gain` traction+vision {years@envy #c++

Need a better title. Old title: “##gain` traction+vision {years@envy”, showing

1. Gaining vision after years of shooting in the dark
2. Gaining traction after years of spinning the wheel

This blogpost grew to become /unwieldy/, so I split it to a sister blogpost on wellness+finance

• [c = even a SINGLE effective strategy / tactic would put me well above the clueless majority]
• [m = I or someone can teach a class like the master class run by the Value-Investing or e-commerce gurus ]
• [r = reflective writing proved instrumental]
• [e = I envied for years, until I figured out some secrets, and now becoming the envy of others ]
• [t= reached a decisive turning point]

—- eg: secure foothold in the U.S. the land of opportunities. I am reaching my turning points steadily. Last one was my priority date becoming current.
—- eg: find a women good enough, who likes me. Turning point was 2005.
—- [t] eg: sexual intercourse — I had months of failures until I found effective techniques, and the techniques continued to work (no need to be 100%).
My traction secrets? jogging; avoid breasts; self-knowledge that the penis would lose erection if you keep trying for several minutes, so put on condom well before full erection.
—- [ct] eg: ROTI family outing — The tcost of outing was prohibitive. ROTI was always underwhelming if 5H+
My traction secrets? jogging
—- [cmr] eg: bedbugs — most people think a single sighting implies they must treat everything, and stay in hotel for a few days. Even after treatment , they fear the bedbugs could come back from neighbours.

My vision secret? See bedbug heuristics:where, how many,spreading speed,weekly check
—- [c] eg: use paper as dashboard — more effective than technologies
—- [cm] eg: mosquito screen — economical, durable. Additional traction secret: avoid tear at the edges.

===== as student
—- [et] improve English vocab and aim to have enough to express myself in writing and carry a conversation
—- [et] improve English listening and aim to follow BBC radio
In terms of listening, this goal is harder because the other person can’t slow down and repeat for me.
—- [et] earliest defining example: Chinese compo — My “traction” secrets to start gaining traction?

• Use as many nice phrases as possible to describe details;
• Develop sufficient vocabulary to describe vague or complex sentiments
• free-flow writing

Is this a defining eg of “traction”? Yes.

===== career
—- [mt] eg: java (and c++) IV stardom — Is this a defining eg of “traction”? Yes.
My traction secrets? I failed many interviews until I found out what valuable questions to focus on

C++ journey was more winding. My traction required more interviews and easier interviews.

HFT c++IV are still too hard.
—- WallSt-pro status — achieved in 2010 after GS.
My traction secrets? not GS trec, not dnlg, but java IV skill !
—- [ce] tech career longevity — against churn. We all envy the doctors.
My vision secrets? I found a “way” to this goal, via WallSt contract market
—- [et] eg: c++ IV, and c++/java combo — envied for years those who can pass C++ interviews. This battle is much harder and longer than the java battle. My traction secret? Here are some

• bet on the topics. Go skin-deep [1] on a wide (wider than java?) range of paper-tiger topics, but go deeper on several core topics. See c++11,sockets,IPC in QnA IV #AshS
  • [1] earlier I overspent myself on too many secondary topics.
• Use HFT c++ interviews as training only; count successes only at Type1 and Type3 c++ interviews. Focus on outscoring the competition at these easier contests.

 

proactive^passive acceptance/surrender #WPress #1300w

See also

• why I feel successful #le2wife #1400w —
• 中年男士40-50压力最高@@ —

In this blogpost, my focus is the widespread passive acceptance of … highly unsatisfactory, barely tolerable or dire situations. Surrender, give-up, resignation, 破罐子破摔 are some of the synonyms.

These individuals accept the unacceptable and make do with what they have, without trying harder to improve the situation. Most visible example is the homeless beggar, and those sleeping rough in New York city.

On the other extreme, as illustrated through numerous examples in long-term ROTI=rare #600@高考, we should NOT beat ourselves up with unreasonable standards. Self-acceptance is paramount. Mellow up if you can (and don’t beat yourself up if you can’t 🙂 So we sometimes need to strike a balance between giving up in a dire situation and self-acceptance of personal limitations. Here, fine judgement is a /rare virtue/. We pick our battles on the really important things. We also pick our battles where we fight to slow down or stop things getting worse.

In all the challenges listed below, my personal-effectiveness shines through (interpersonal effectiveness seems to be less valuable). Over time, the difference between the proactive and the passive can become insurmountable. I’m far from the perfect role model, but my efforts were huge. My endurance was remarkable in the face of repeated setbacks. Thomas Edison said of his light bulb “I haven’t failed — I’ve just found 10,000 that won’t work.”

— defining eg: Singapore government didn’t accept congested city centers, runaway housing cost, tap water quality, seasonal flooding, declining standard of Chinese, limited local talent pool, over-reliance on MYS water supply, (During covid19) ICU shortfall, overwhelming workload of contact tracers, hopeless prospect of containment, growing threat to nursing homes … which many governments gave up on and accepted. SG leaders took actions , often over decades, to reduce each of these problems.
— recent eg: wordpress.com block editor. The company made it look like new editor is so entrenched as to wipe out any hope of using the classic editor. I was passive in my acceptance of this fate. Then I became proactive.
— eg: math practice — many math students accept that some problems are too hard, so they give up. In contrast, many girls (and some boys too) in my primary and secondary schools put in more practice and improve their pattern recognition. I’m somewhat more skilled so I didn’t need so much practice, but there are some topics that required me to practice a lot. I also accept that some topics and some problems (like competition level) are too hard for me , but only after I put in a lot of effort.

UChicago MSFM: at age 42 my attitude was roughly the same. I sank in 30-40 hours a week, and then accept that some homework and past exam problems are too deep too hard and my understanding remained shallow and unconnected.

Did I give up? Not sure. I think I basically chose a time limit. Any additional effort would have taken up too much time and produced diminishing return.

Coding drill is similar. However, virtually all the web2.0 style coding questions can be solved in 45 minutes, not as hard as the toughest math problems.

==== career
— eg: Sunil was unsatisfied with 1) his AVP and the 2) underwhelming prospect of dotnet. Most people in his shoes would accept it, but Sunil took actions over many years and eventually broke through.

Similar eg: my java-}c++ transition, and web2.0 CIV — 99% of us find it hard to cross the moat. Most accept the result and give up. I didn’t give up on c++. I gave up on HFT interviews. Web2.0 CIV is within reach but am not in a hurry.

Sunil’s and my situations were sub-optimal but not really an example of hardship and passive acceptance thereof.
— job insecurity — In today’s economy, most adults experience job insecurity at some points in their adult life. It’s more clearly felt for techies. Most of us accept the anxiety, the fear, the tangible potential impact on our families, and accept it as the norm. “This is the world we are in”. The individuals in ## Not alone2hit job loss were less worried than I was.

I worked very hard for decades, devising and strengthening my dev-till-70 plan for WallSt. Today, I feel more prepared, more confident than that majority I described.

I also learnt my lessons from my false starts, which tend to kill our plan. I think these disappointments define me and my peers. Some (who?) are even more resilient than me.
— bench time — Probably half the adults in the developed countries I know are pessimistic about bench time after job loss. Jack Z is one example. For techies, median bench time is probably 2M+. One-month is considered rather quick. The higher your salary, the longer it gets. These individuals (including my sis) accept it. I work very hard to build up my cushions including

• embrace 70% pay cut just to go out and work
• constant interviewing even when not job hunting

==== wellness
— BMI — Most adults have BMI outside the healthy range. They accept it. Most people don’t i understand why I work so hard towards deeper-green zone.
However, I did accept my weight may not go down to 61 kg again. This is sub-optimal but not unacceptable. Is this “passive acceptance” something negative or mellow-up ? Well Strike a balance!
— supper — I accepted that I would feel hungry if i’m awake at 11pm and there’s food at home beside fruits and veg.
This is non-ideal but remember my breakfast skip, delayed lunch and dinner. Overall, this is not an unhealthy habit.

Crucially, instead of surrender I fight a bao3shan1 battle by controlling starch and following late-sleep diet tactics 
— workout 3/week — Most adults have inadequate workout, partly due to lack of time. They accept it. They point at “lower” societies and conclude that in our advanced society, lack of physical activity is normal. I take it more seriously than the majority but only since 2018.

As of early 2020, I now accept 2-4 times a week for myself. I would say 1/month is barely acceptable and 1/wk is decent.

As of Oct 2020, I now push myself towards 5 times a week.
— G3 defining example: yoga —  Most male adults have insufficient flexibility, but they accept it and put it aside as lower priority compared to strength, body shape, or endurance. Yoga is hard for me, but I take it very seriously.
— pull-up — Most guys can’t do 10. The overweight guys can’t do one. They accept it. Similar to yoga, Pull-up is always challenging for me, but I don’t give up. I live with that sense of challenge, self-imposed pressure.

If you are overweight, then self-hate is counterproductive.  But don’t give up. Assisted pull-up is the way to go. Here is a good illustration of the balance between passive acceptance and self-hate.
— G5 best example: belly fat — As described in why I feel successful, most guys above 30 have a visible belly and most just accept it. In this case, I didn’t have an uphill battle, but if I don’t exercise control, I’m sure to grow a belly.

==== personal finance is my favorite and strongest domain, so I won’t talk too much about myself.
— savings for retirement — Most adults seem to worry that they have insufficient financial resources to support their desired retirement lifestyle. (I suspect many realize retirement burn rate is much lower, like $2k/retiree.) Anyway, most seem to accept it and take almost no action.

I should ask those endowment salesmen “How many percent of the respondents actually feel well-planned for retirement?”
— savings rate — Most adults (my sis included) accept a brbr below 3/2, i.e. they save less than 1/3 of income. They seem to accept “saving 50% is too hard and unnecessary for me”.
Low saving rate is not a dire situation until a pandemic. OCBC survey shows 70%Singaporeans can’t last past 6M if jobless, due to insufficient savings.
— mortgage — Most buyers accept as unavoidable — “Except the super-rich, who else can avoid a mortgage”. I think they can, provided they save up higher, and buy lower as I did.
However, mortgage is something non-ideal, not really a hardship.

grateful 4 my absorbency with… #fruits

Below I say “grateful” or “lucky” but actually, these are mostly efforts rather than luck. See locus@control: carefree high ground mostly due2effort

roughly ranked in rarity and value (i.e. amount of benefit)

== wellness – diet
— grateful with my absorbency to eat a variety of …. raw veg
— grateful with my absorbency to enjoy …. fruits as 50% of my daily food intake.
The MLP pantry lacy said that most people can’t take in so much fruits.
— lucky to have no hunger until afternoon

== wellness – workout
— grateful to enjoy … jogging
— I hope to become lucky with absorbency for … yoga home practice
But not lucky with my late-night hunger

== tech learning
— grateful with my absorbency for QQ self-learning
— grateful with my absorbency for coding practice
Actually, some individuals have even higher absorbency for it.

== finance
— grateful with my capacity to … save money without suffering or loss of control
— grateful with my capacity to enjoy life in a smallish HDB apartment

[20←07]factors underpinn`changes since1st summer]US

Am I exaggerating anything? Any accute attachment to beware?

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See also

• [20←04]changes: TPY泳池reflection — similar style
• [20]random list@ Protection+reinforcer — more than half the heavy-hitters in today’s soul search is about protections of family livelihood.

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The trigger — After revisiting my 2007 email/diary such as big cities more expensive @@ #LS, I want to write yet another review of the fundamental factors that Explain or has Driven all the  major changes in my life. Not to become yet-another review, let’s focus more on the factors, less on the changes.

Beware of othRisk. Avoid polishing.

My focus continues to be family livelihood, not FOMO, exclub, peerComparison, brank,,, A second focus in this blogpost is my own American dream as of summer 2007.

• [j] #1 big factor — my tech expertise and delivery skill — in the lucrative and prosperous tech (dev+) job market, esp. on age-friendly WallSt.
• [f] #2 big factor — my brbr /discipline/ — while witnessing my own income growing so much since 2007. I think this is similar to Singapore government’s discipline.
• #3 fundamental factor — SG citizenship — relative decline of America’s appeal to me, and relative rise of Singapore’s advantages. I value my citizenship much more than between 2007 and 2016 !
• fundamental factor — wellness — habits, health conditions (体质)…. The absense of health issues is like the absence of family problems, absence of investment foes, absence of career failures. An invisible dome surrounding Hogwarts in the final Harry Potter movie.
• [j] fundamental but minor factor — WallSt trec as a passport through the moat
• [f] minor factor — Beijing + Blk177 property appreciation, rental yield of overseas properties
• fundamental but minor factor — my English skill — helps my job interviews and job performance, esp. compared to my Chinese and Indian peers. English writing skill is instrumental to my self-help while coping with challenges
• fundamental but minor factor — my relatively low racial bias — I think my Indian colleagues like me a bit more than other China colleagues

Now let’s list the major changes since 2007 and try to explain them

• change in my life — confidence in marriage — was untested in 2007, with pretty high inherent risk of failure based on statistics. We have worked on the problems and weak spots.
• [f] measurable change — brbr — Despite my bigger family (with 2 noisy kids), my current brbr and Fuller wealth (ffree) are so much higher than in 2007, partly due to brbr discipline, salary, SG citizenship , nonwork income, ,
• change in my life — livelihood resilience/security — stronger (and growing), with layers of defense, giving my much higher confidence than 2007. I was already healthy in 2007, but now I’m /buffered/ on many fronts such as career longevity, strong marriage, citizenship
• specific change — Green Card dream — is a bit lower than 2007, mostly due to my new view of SG^US. Nowadays, I don’t feel as desperate about GC as my China/India colleagues.
• [j] specific but minor change — c++ in my peers — is no longer 高不可及. Ditto low-latency java
• [j] specific but minor change — WallSt moat — was seen as too deep and wide back in 2007
• specific but minor change — car purchase — was widely known as inevitable back in 2007. Now I know better from experience.
• internal change — target 95 as life expectancy — now I want to live longer. This is exactly where I want to be.
• internal change — internally mellowing up — and more optimistic. Even though my position among my peers is much higher than in 2007, I now care more about family livelihood, less about FOMO, brank, income, net worth, OC-effective, exclub
• [j] internal change — churn, accumulation of experience — I didn’t have solutions, cool confidence… as explained in risks remain high but am calmer
• [j] change — long-horizon income security — was low for decades as everyone around me said developers must move up to management by some age 35, and struggle to keep the job and maintain the income until its eventual decline. Now I have 50% more confidence, primarily due to WallSt experience
• [f] minor change in my life — balance sheet — I am now proud owner of Singapore, Beijing properties + some commercial properties, all in prime locations. We are on track to receive a reliable and high-yield annuity backed by a credit rating comparable to the most trusted insurer.
• [d=detachment needed]
• [f=personal finance]
• [j=career]

[20] Comfy position in cohort #priorities,strengths

##[19] living%%dream life, here-n-now is more useful because I need to progressively shift my focus away from (brank) peer-comparison, and focus more on comparison to my past.

We instinctively know, to varying degrees, where we stand among our chosen peer group. On some games I feel I am unlikely to improve my relative standing, so I need to reconcile:
* kids academics
* brank — I didn’t say “income”. Consider the Siddeshes in my circle.
* double income, white-collar wife

On other “fronts”, I feel confident to maintain my comfortable position relative to peers:

0. — half-ranked by surprise, beyond the big5 topics like sg citizenship, wellness, cashflow (brbr, Fuller wealth, retirement planning, ffree). It’s important to de-emphasize these big, common factors so they don’t overshadow the smaller, more interesting factors
1. stable marriage, valuable support from grandparents
2. top college insider insight — relaxed attitude towards and some insight into it
3. lower fear of job loss, lower work stress .. thanks to contract
4. HDB home ownership — low maintenance
5. coding IV — as benchmarked against my age group on Wall St
6. QQ IV — coreJava and c++ are both fairly stable and low-churn over a 30Y horizon.
7. mobility across multiple job markets
8. work-till-70, life-long learning, access to age-friendly job markets

— How did I achieve this comfortable position, this carefree, complete life?

Actually, G5 Shields@family_livelihood is a more thorough, more rigorous analysis that’s relevant to this question.

locus@control: carefree high ground mostly due2effort also answers this question, from a different angle.

To further explain my well-protected carefree and ffree that’s uncommon among in my age group, I decided to ask two questions below.

Q: how are my chosen priorities “different”, excluding the common, basic ones (like job security, stable family, kids)
A: here are some priorities that my peers don’t give enough attention

1. career longevity till 80’s — instead of brank, salary bracket (exclub)
2. healthy longevity — I still need to give more sunshine to my flexibility
3. current nonwork income — instead of windfall appreciation. Instrumental to my early ffree.

A: here are some priorities of my peers that I don’t care much:

1. luxury IMO — top schools for their kids
2. luxury IMO — (usually big) home in a top school district

Q: my strengths?
A: top 3 strengths unranked:

• brbr;
• lifelong xx for IV
• wellness, vitality

Beyond the strengths, here are some advantages:

• healthcare + retirement provisions I have set up for my family in Singapore;
• SG citizenship
• stable marriage
• property portfolio — including inheritance

— ffree — the poster boy of my comfortable position

Singapore is a success story in many ways. Its position in GDP ranking is the tip of an iceberg. Likewise, My fledgling ffree is the tip of an iceberg. My Fuller wealth rests on a foundation composed of my strengths and my guiding principles (priorities, habits) listed above.

The ffree draws disproportionate attention but is actually less reliable, less important than the G5 Shields@family_livelihood

Humble — My “success” is not glorious, but it is rare, commendable, worthwhile. Look at the success of MMM, ERE author and other FIRE legends.