My Way of Learning: Plan and Set Goals But......

"Failing to plan is planning to fail"

We were repeatedly told this phrase since young. We have seen this phrase many times. So what is planning? How to plan so that we can effectively work our way through? Personally, I keep two sets of plans. I call them the big plan and the small plan. I write them in an organiser which is always in my bag.


The Big Plan

The big plan is something more general. I will plan how much time to spend on one activity per week. The image above shows the big plan I made for myself during my final semester in NUS. The stated time was the amount of time I planned to spend on the corresponding activity per week. This plan may not seem like a plan, but it serves as an important guideline for me. In case I feel lost during the week, I refer back to this plan and see what I can/should do.

The Small Plan

Looking at the second image, it shows how I spend each day. Every night, I will write down what I plan to do the next day. I will try my very best to make sure I follow my small plan. As you can see, the way I plan is very simple. I want to finish EE4001 report by the next day. I want to do EE4502 tutorial 2 the next day. As simple as that, no need to be very specific.

Do Not Follow Your Plan Blindly
Plan never really works well, at least not for me. I am not contradicting myself. There are many times which we are "forced" by circumstances to change plan. My rule of thumb:

Failing to change plan is planning to die

Looking at my big plan above, do I really have the textbooks for the modules? Do I have so many questions for practicing? Actually no. In fact I did not purchase any book. In fact, I spent all 5 weekdays (from 830am to 9pm, minus off meal and lecture time) in the lab working on my Final Year Project, so much so that I did not even bother to write it down in my small plan. And I like to shift the things that I want to do from one day to another. As long as I get all my TODO's done by the deadline, I am free to do anything I want to my plan.

Summary
So the main idea here is to plan well, write down what is needed to be worked on, don't do last minute work, spread out the workload so that you won't feel burdened. And of course, celebrate whenever you cross out a task from the task list. Give yourself a break, buy yourself a curry puff (yes, the curry puff from the snack store in NUS Engineering was my reward for myself).

4 Unorthodox Methods For Tackling Examination

Examination at the end of a course tests what we have learned. Although it may not be a true reflection of what we know (a few questions can never truly test our knowledge), we must recognize that examination still plays an important part in education, especially in Singapore.

Examination can be stress for some of us, it can also be relaxing for the rest of us. To me, it's all in the mind, it's all what you think and feel. Ultimately, we control our own feeling.

Here are some unorthodox methods which I use to make myself feel comfortable during and before examination.

Dress Code

I believe we all have our own favourite shirt/dress/pants. When we wear it, we just feel good, feel confident, feel like we are going on a winning streak that day. During my 4.5 years in NUS, I always try to wear my favourite shirt, the Stitch shirt, to the examination hall, at least for the most important paper/day (judge yourself which is the most important) of the semester if I have papers on consecutive days.

For those required to wear uniform, wear your good-luck watch, put your bracelet in your pocket if you can't wear it. As long as the item is not prohibited by the examination rules, just wear it! It will up your confidence level and you will do better!

What To Bring To The Examination Hall

Bring a lot of what is important. I tend to bring at least two of each type of stationery, including calculator. My rationale for doing so is because I am afraid. What if my only eraser goes missing? What if my only pen suddenly goes out of ink or the ink just won't flow? What if my calculator gives up on me in the midst of the exam? So many what-if's. Let's put these what-if's to rest. Bring as many as you like. Put your mind at ease. Tackle the paper without any worries of this sort.

On a side note, bring what you think will bring you good luck (of course nothing illegal such as the whole textbook). I bring calculator to all papers. I remember my JC classmate, Looi Sing, asked me "why the hell do you bring calculator for GP (General Paper)?" I was embarrassed to admit it was for good luck, so my answer was that I needed it to calculate the number of words I wrote for my essay. Sorry Looi Sing for hiding the truth for so long. :D

Do-Not-Bring Items

There are two sides to everything. You bring good luck items, of course you don't bring bad luck items. I remember the first time when I did well for my Physics paper (and of course I still did quite badly for all  my other papers) in secondary 3, I forgot to bring my wallet. Ever since then, I never ever bring my wallet to school during examination period, including O Levels. Yes you are right. Wallet brought me bad luck. Superstitious? Yes. Worked? 90%. What about the 10%? English, but imagine if I brought wallet for the English paper, I might have failed right?

Actions Before Examination

All the previous pointers provide us with a peace of mind unconsciously. Now, we still have to wait outside the examination hall. We still have to keep looking at our watch while carrying our stationery. Relax, make yourself comfortable while waiting. Do things to calm yourself down. I used to visit the toilet 15 minutes (no more no less) before the paper. This makes me "feel empty" and I won't feel like visiting the toilet again for the next three hours. And this ritual makes me feel lucky too!
There are certain things that you don't feel like doing before a paper. For example, I like to be alone, not talk, not mingle, not shake hands and not wishing/receiving good luck. I need time to be alone, to empty my mind so that I can enter the hall with a fresh mind. Because of this, my classmates laughed at me and joked that I didn't want to share my good luck with them. I followed my simple ritual without fail. Those who are afraid that you will be friend no more with your classmates because of "weird" actions, fear not! I am still on good terms with my JC classmates. Thank you guys! :)

Summary
The things that I did and do may seem superstitious, but who cares if it works well? Let's not care about how people may look at you (most likely no one will even care). As long as you are not doing harm to anyone, by all means make yourself feel good and comfortable! Ultimately, you are the one sitting for the examination, which may (or may not) determine your future. Your future is in both your hands, handle it well!

4 Tips For Effective Teaching And Learning

Since my last post, some of you commented to me that I never really describe what is my approach of teaching and learning at the same time. So here you go, below are some of my approaches.

Teach in layman terms

In other words, talk simple. Due to my limited English, and my "ability" to pronounce many technical terms wrongly although I can spell them perfect (I still inter-change between ellipse and eclipse), I tend to use layman terms. And I find that it helps in getting the other party to understand. A blessing in disguise indeed. For example, instead of "ellipse", I use "oval". Instead of using "cobalamin", I will just use "vitamin B-12". Now ask yourself, how many people, yourself included, will more likely remember ellipse or oval? How many of us know eating vitamin B-12 is good for health VS how many of us will think that eating cobalamin will land us in jail, just because it sounds like some restricted drug?
I also tend to use a mixture of Mandarin, English and even Chinese Dialect to discuss with my friends. The most important thing here is to understand the concept, forming it in the brain, and not get hindered by the language.

Use analogy

How many of us find the above diagram familiar? Those of us who took Physics will know that a direct current circuit is always represented first by a water pipe with water (electricity) flowing. This is needed because we can see and feel water flowing through a pipe while we cannot see (although we can feel once in a lifetime) electricity flowing through a piece of wire. Analogy, thus, will make a concept be explained easily. It aids visualisation. Never mind if the analogy is flawed, as long as it brings across the general idea. Anyway, there is no perfect analogy to begin with.

Talk about it in a fun way

"We represent an AND gate". This was the answer I gave when our common friend, Desmond from the US, asked why my roommate, WJ, and I always appear together and he even joked that WJ is my other half. What is an AND gate? It only gives positive if both of us are, meaning we will go out only if we go out together, else we don't. This definitely sounds very geeky. However it has two main advantage. First, you put into use the things you have learned. Second is, of course, you made some people laugh at your "lame" joke while others will boo in a jokingly way. In any case, it definitely livens up the atmosphere. :D

Relate to daily activities

Related to the previous points, let's relate what we have learned into common daily activities. If you wish to remember the difference between frequency and period, think about the brushing of teeth. Brushing at a high frequency seems to shorten the time period we take to brush (dentist may have different opinion here?). Doesn't this give us the inverse relationship between frequency and period?

Summary

Let's overcome our high coefficient of static friction. Start moving, try these methods now. Once you get started, the coefficient of dynamic friction will be less (although this may not be true with new findings) and you'll move with less force, more fluidly.

p.s. you can contact me anytime if you need flawed analogies... :p

My Way of Learning: Share The Knowledge

"Givers get. The more you give, the more you get"

This bookmark was given to me by my JC Physics teacher, Mr Sng Peng Poo, just before A Levels. Receiving this gift, I actually stared at the quote for some time. How can it be true? If I give, I lose something, or at the most I stay status quo while the other party gains. When will I ever gain? I took one step back and thought about it, thinking through the "hidden meaning" and the following is what I feel.

I was lucky to score well enough in secondary 3 to have my classmates ask me for my notes and asked me to go through concepts and questions with them. I wrote a notebook of Geography note in secondary 4 and when one of my best friends, AS, asked for it, I lent it to him on one condition, and that was to take good care of it and return to me when he is done.

At that time, I did not think much. To me, I was just sharing with my best friend what I had. Unexpectedly, he came to me almost daily, asking me "why this why that", and even pointed out that I wrote wrongly. He corrected my mistakes! Imagine if I was selfish and hid from him, I would have studied the wrong things and scored badly. Furthermore, I would not have reinforced what I've learned by answering his questions. This was the best example of "Givers Get" that I thought of that time.

Back to JC, I was asked to be a peer tutor, initially for Further Mathematics, later Physics. As a side note, I feel that this is an awesome on-going programme in Anderson JC, for the better students to share the knowledge and help others, instead of keeping to self and appearing like a snob. I was glad that I took up the offer. Aside from the CIP hours (yes we did receive it and I still don't understand why), I feel that I learned a lot from teaching. What??? I learned? By teaching?

The best way to learn is to teach. By communicating what I have learned, I am actually putting it into use. If the other person understands what I am saying and most importantly, understand the concept, I guess I am already 99% sure that I have the concept at my fingertips. In the midst of teaching, I assure you that your peers will ask you questions you never thought of, and most likely these questions will throw you off track. These are the questions that may prove to be the difference between an A and a B student.

If you are not the score-well kind, teach too! Who says only someone who scored well can teach? Remember that I failed many of my subjects? How did I improve? I forced some of my friends and my cousins, notably Sis HC and Bro YD, to listen to me teach them. (Theoretically I was not teaching, just getting them to listen to what I thought I knew, but who cares?)
The trick here is to be thick-skin! Come on, when we are already doing badly, who cares about face? I'm sure that your (true) friends won't snub you. If you really want to save face, teach yourself. Talk to yourself. I will talk to myself at home when trying to learn something which I have a hard time. My sister will totally agree as she is always disturbed by my loud teaching, although I always assure her that she grows smarter each day by my "lessons".

Having said so much, I must emphasize that when you are giving, never ever think of getting. It will only hold you back from giving more and make you feel miserable. In the end, you will only stop giving and become paranoid about giving. So, just give! You may not gain tangible rewards. You may not gain instant rewards. But ask yourself this question, when you teach and your friends understand and thank you with a big smile, what is your feeling? Don't you feel happy that you have just done something good? Don't you feel grateful that you've just made somebody's day?

So...

Share The Knowledge!

My Way of Learning: Stay Humble, Stay Hungry

It is easy to be the top, but never easy to stay up there.

I have been living by this quote for many years. I have never seen anyone who can stay top for long, not to say forever. In sports, we have Barcelona which used to be unbeatable in the football world just a few years back. In business, we have Apple which stocks only rose, also just some time back. In studies, do we always see the same name occupying the top of the level position? I doubt so.

Humility has long been a virtue, a trait that we should have. To me, this is a very important must-have in learning. Without humility, we will only go downhill. When we are near the top, we continue to work hard to climb up higher. When we are at the top, all the more we must work harder to stay there. Shame on me, I was complacent at the start of secondary 4. Being the level top for Physics in secondary 3, I thought it was needless for me to study so much for it. I paid for it. On the same day I received a book prize for my achievement in secondary 3, I received my common test result for Physics and guess what, I merely passed it. I did worse for Additional Mathematics, from A1 to fail. All because I was complacent and thought it was easy. Looking back, I've failed at least once in most of the subjects I took in school.

I always bear this in mind: We can always learn from one another. I have heard of the saying "only make friends with people smarter than you". I humbly disagree. No one is better than anyone else. Even if you are the top student and you have a friend who is the last, I am sure he knows something which you don't. I am sure that through a conversation with him, you will learn something new, something you have never even thought of before. Personally I have "stunned" people who scored better than me with my questions, teachers included. I was "stunned" many times by people who scored lower than me, and there were times which they scored higher than me. So, who is better? Who is smarter? No one.

Steve Blank once said during a lesson in Stanford, 2009, quoting Steve Jobs, "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish". I totally agree. Let us be hungry for new knowledge. Let us be hungry to improve our existing knowledge. Looking back in my own life, I have been asking many questions since young. I remember that I kept asking a staff at a chinese medical hall how to use the weighing scale, till the point that I was sure of its operation. I even tried to take it over from her to try it. I was about 8 years old then and of course, I was stopped by my parents, who asked me not disturb the auntie's work.

Summary
No matter what we have achieved so far, we achieved them yesterday, the past, and they are history. We have to look at the present and to the future. Getting arrogant because of past achievement will only send us on the way down. Staying status quo is equivalent to going downhill too. This should be enough for us to stay hungry for knowledge. Only when we are humble do we seek to improve ourselves. So, stay humble, stay hungry. Be confident, not arrogant.

Build On Your Strengths, Not Forgetting Your Weaknesses

"Not bad, but Samuel needs to improve on his English."

"Samuel should spend more time on reading English books."

"Samuel did very well, but he needs to brush up on his English."

These were what my parents used to hear from my teachers 9 out of 10 time whenever there was a Parent-Teacher-Meeting. The 10th time, my parents would say first before the teacher can open his/her mouth, because they were used to it.

"Samuel, what happened? Do you know that if you continue to fail your English, you will be retained next year?"

This was what my Secondary School vice principal, Mr. Fauzi, said to me during secondary 2.

"Samuel, come see me for one-to-one remedial lesson this Thursday."

Out of pure concern that I couldn't enter a university after A Levels, my General Paper (GP) tutor, Ms Ang, offered to give me remedial lessons about 4 months before A Levels, at least once or twice per week. (Strangely enough, I was my class GP representative for 2 years.)

Some of my better GP results. Yes, these are my higher scores.
My record (low) was a single digit our of 50 for
both Paper 1 and Paper 2.

I'm sure that from my first two posts, you would have seen that my command of English is not good. But the above shows how bad it is. I was nearly retained in secondary 2. I needed to appeal at the end of JC1 in order to continue my 4 A Levels subjects and to take up Special Papers, all because of my GP grades.

Everyone has his own strengths and weaknesses, you and me included. My weakness in school was of course English, writing, speaking and comprehending. I have always been told to spend more time on English, which of course fell on deaf ears. I spent my studying time on Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Geography, History, everything else except English/GP. When it was time away from these subjects, I would sleep. Who cares about the boring English/GP? At least this was what I thought.

Over the years, after so many times of nearly falling into the trap of passing every subjects (except English/GP) and yet got retained/rejected, I learned something very important. That is, of course, to continue to build on my strengths (the other subjects). This is purely because these are my interests and reading on these make me happy and passionate about school. However, what's more important is that while pursuing "happiness", I did not forget my weaknesses (English/GP) through constant reminders from the teachers. In the end, I'm lucky that although I did not get good grades for them, I made it! Thanks to the teachers.

Being more abstract on the title of this post, in the working world, this is no different. Our strength is the core skill that we use in our everyday work. Our weaknesses are, I would say, skills not needed in daily work but may be useful, either for work or for conversation with peers. My greatest technical strength at this moment is web development. I am much weaker in other areas, even in areas I have passion in, such as semi-conductor. However, I make it a point to at least know a bit of many things (yes, not everything but many things, else I will be stressed out). This is important because we don't know what skill or knowledge is needed in the next project, or even in the next hour.
Taking a recent example, although my core programming language is Ruby, my boss suddenly threw me a PHP question (and it was quite urgent), asking me to get a small feature out. If not for my little prior knowledge in PHP, I would have taken forever to do it.

In summary, do focus and continue building on your strengths, as these are the elements which make you effective at work, and many times, you will feel happy when you feel effective. While at this, spend a little time, even if it is just 30 minutes per day (this was roughly the amount of time I spent for English/GP), reading up on other things. It can be on any topic or topics which are important but you are bad at. The end result will be different, so do try it!

Before I end this post, I must really thank all my teachers who never give up on me, especially Ms Ang from AJC. I also want to thank Mr Fauzi, then vice-principal of AISS. Without him, I would have really forgotten my weaknesses and things would have been different, doesn't matter for good or for bad because I love where and what I am now.

Guide to Learning 1: Focus

I'm sure all of us know that focus is the key element to complete any task effectively and efficiently. But why is it that we know but we never really practise it? There are many reasons and personally I feel that the main reason is noise.

Focus in achieving an objective

Noise, or the alternative voice in our lives, is the culprit of pulling us back from advancing towards our goals. One example would be me writing the blog. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, Guide to Learning, I started this blog in 2007. However, I did not follow through my dream. This was due to the noise inside me. The "devil" in me told me that this is redundant, this is a waste of my time, etc etc... I procrastinated and although I kept looking back into this blog, I was just lazy to pick it up and do what I wanted.

So, I would urge everyone who has an objective to just work towards it. To quote the famous Nike slogan, "Just Do It!". What can be the worst outcome? Fail? People laughing at your failure? At least you have tried and have no regret. Imagine you looking back in life when you are old and realise that you have not tried to work towards one of your little dreams. If the reason for not trying was because of the noise inside you, I'm sure you would have regretted big time.

In my case, I would have failed if no one reads my blog, but if at least one other person reads it, I see myself as a success. And now you are reading this post, thank you so much! :)

Focus in achieving a small task

Another reason why we fail to focus would be our physical surrounding. We may be distracted by people walking past, by the (real) noise from footsteps and conversations nearby, and even by the hot weather, especially in Singapore.

My friends always comment that I look very scary when I am doing my work, especially when I am thinking. They don't dare to interrupt me, even if they just wanted to ask me for lunch, because I look like I can devour anyone anytime. Now, how do I overcome these real noises?

My only reply, even if you ask me now, is to train in harsh conditions. There is no air-con at home. I stay less than 10 metres from the ground floor. I stay at a busy location where there are thousands of people walking past each day. I stay near the train station. There used to have a garbage collection point just outside the window in my room.  I'm sure you would have guessed what is it like to do work in my room. Noise, smell, non-stop moving elements. To round it off, I love doing work in my room, facing the moving train.

This "training" has made me used to the harsh conditions which we could face anywhere, anytime. When my house was under renovation with all the drillings and hammering, I was inside my room, with door opened, continuing to do my work as if it was just another normal day.

For students, if you are able to focus in harsh conditions, I'm sure that you will have no problem during examination, in a quiet environment. If this is not enough, one more plus point is that it will definitely serve you well if by any chance, your examination hall is not as quiet as it should be. This happened to me a few times before and I'm sure you have experienced it.

To end off, I feel that everyone is equal and no one is smarter than another. It's the ability to focus that makes the difference, that determines how much time is needed to understand a concept, that makes a person "seemingly smarter" than another.

Guide to Learning: Introduction

Motivation

During my upper Secondary School days and Junior College days, my classmates have been saying to me things like "Why are you so free to mug all the time?", "Don't you have life? Stop mugging!" and "Don't lie, I know you study all the time". In JC 2, people started asking me for my technique of studying. I remember clearly that my answer was a few words, "I just study normally lor, nothing special." Some of them just kept quiet, while others would comment that I was trying to hide my "secret recipe". The truth is, I really did not know how I study to achieve slightly better result than many of my schoolmates. Is it that I really do not know or that I was just plain lazy to give a second thought on my so-called techniques?

When I was in National Service after JC, I started to give some thoughts about it. Is my way of studying really a "secret recipe", or is it just a normal way which everyone follows, just that I had more luck since my upper secondary days?

Having been blessed with being able to enter all the good schools (I knew about my acceptance into NUS during the early months of my NS days), I thought about what my friends from my previous schools said and thought it would be good for me to really think about it and write my technique down.

I started this blog in my NUS days, wanting to just pen down whatever technique of learning I could thought of (yes, I did not start in NS because I was just plain lazy to think and write after a full week of physical training in camp). This blog was also meant to serve another purpose, and that is to record down what I have learned (you would have known about this if you have read About Me).

Of course, you would have realised from my blog history, my plan failed terribly because I was not focus on this at all. I held myself back by telling myself that learning how to learn was useless. Writing down how I learned was redundant. Who really cares? Even I myself at that time did not care. To me, learning was just three things: read, understand, apply. We learn how to build assemble circuits, we learn how to do triple integration, we don't learn how to learn these stuff.

Here I am again!

Now that I have worked for more than a year, the thought of writing down how I learn came back again, stronger than ever. Throughout this one year plus, I started my own company which I failed, I gave tuitions which I consider was quite a success, I am currently holding a great job, involving both operations and technical fields. Although the journey has been short thus far, it requires me to learn, and learn more than what I had to learn in school, to learn faster than my speed in school. This reinforces the thought that penning down my technique may not be a bad idea.

This post marks the starts of a series of posts which I, Li Minghui Samuel, will talk about my own experience of learning throughout the 20 plus years of education in Singapore, from Kindergarten all the way to University, and beyond.

These posts will be based on my own personal experience and they may or may not apply to you. And of course, you may or may not agree. I do welcome feedback though, for I am still learning how to learn better. I just hope that my experience will serve as a guide to both you and me, the learners.

Please do note that some of the posts apply particularly to studies, since I do not have much experience in working. However, when extrapolated, I truly believe that they can apply to all aspects of life.

Coping With Aggressive Behaviour (Glyms M.Breakwell)

Types
- Assertiveness:- Insisting on your rights or opinions
- Aggression:- Behaviour intended to harm or injure someone against his wishes
- Violence:- A delibrate attempt to inflict physical harm

Instrumental aggression/violence
- Primarily a means towards some other ends

Emotional aggression/violence
- Doing damage is an end itself
- Any instrumental value is purely at psychological level.

3 types of explanation for violence
(1) The instinct explanation
- Human is violent in nature
- Release violence in different ways eg.sports, fights
- Aggression has survival value for the species

(2) Social/culture learning explanation
- Aggression is learnt
- Instrumental learning: Rewards awarded for violence done
- Observatory learning: Social modelling

(3) Aversive stimulation explanation
- Aggression is designed to reduce arousal levels by eradicating unpleasant stimulation

The violence cycle of behaviour (The assault cycle)
- Trigger
- Escalation
- Crisis
- Recovery
- Post-crisis depression phases

Loss And Grief (By Megan Gressor)

Stages of grief
- Shock:- Numbness, disbelief. Serves as the mind's way of protecting itself from too much bad news all at once.
- Denial:- Refuses to accept the loss. Declines with time.
- Intense emotions:- Overwhelming emotions, rage, grief, regrets, fear, anxiety, helplessness. Euphoria is the mind's way of giving itself a break from exhausting emotions.
- Bargaining:- "If only I do this......"
- Depression:- Sad hopelessness, feel apathetic and tired. Withdrawn and no interest in anything.
- Acceptance:- Come to terms with loss.

Note:- These stages may not come in this order and may pass faster or slower for different people.

Factors affecting how people can cope
- Prepareness for the news
- Relationship with the deceased
- Acompanying changesL- A sense of loss is compounded if it involved other major life changes
- Health and state of mind:- A positive/robust person is likely to be more resilient
- Access to a support network:- Supporters should not interrupt, listen carefully. Don't use well-meaning advice.

Note
- Don't neglect and increase his isolation. Men tend to retreat into themselves at times of loss, only venting frustrations alone.
- Children regress to infantile behaviour, become clingy and insecure.
- Grief is like losing an arm, never 100% healed but can learn to work around it and enjoy life again.

Toll taken by grief
- Stress and disease:- Suppress the immune system, more susceptible to infection and disease, such as indigestion, exhaustion, insonmia
- Depression:- Frequent bouts of tear, feelings of numbness, hopelessness and withdrawal
- Loss of identity:- Losing someone important makes us feel like losing a part of ourselves
- Loss of self-esteem:- "I'm useless.'

Introducing Psychology Part 3

The hierarchy of needs
- Physiological needs
- Safety needs
- Love and belongingness
- Esteem needs
- Cognitive needs
- Aesthetic needs
- Self-actualization

Each need must be satisfied before the next need can motivate us. We can go up or down several times.

Introducing Psychology Part 2

2 'laws' of learning
- The law of exercise - Repetition strengthens learning
- The law of effect - The effect of reward is to strengthen learning

Infant's 3 basic emotions
- Fear - Caused by loud noise, sudden loss of support
- Rage - Caused by restriction of body movement
- Love - Caused by caressig and rocking

Why punishment is ineffective?
- Causes less and slower learned responses
- Individual will avoid being punished rather than stop the undesirable behaviour
- Causes individual to associate punishment with pinisher, rather than the behaviour
- Trains individual what not to do, but not what to do

Behavioural objectives
- Verbs must be measureable (eg. state, list), not vague (eg. understand, know)

2 types of people
- Internal locus of control - Believe reinforcement depends on personal effort
- External locus of control - Reinforcement depends on outside sources. Make less attempts at improving lives

Gestalt principles of perception
- Proximity - Perceiving things which are close together
- Continuity - Perceiving things which continue, and not 2 seperate items
- Similarity
- Closure
- Pragnanz - Sense of 'goodness' is often experienced when objects are symmetrical, simple
- Figure/ground illusion - We tend to perceivesome items in the foreground or background. If ambiguous, we'll switch from one to another, or it depends on the viewer's personality or expectations (mental set)

3 styles of leadership
- Authoritarian
- Democratic
- Laissez-Faire
Note:Democratic group leads to higher productivity and better able to work on ownself

Psychologically healthy person
- Openness to all experience
- Ability to live fully in every moment
- Willing to follow own instincts
- Freedom in thought and action
- Much creativity

Self esteem depends on the gap between ideal self and self image. It can be increased by raising self image or lowering ideal self.

Left brain:- Controls right side of body, deal with visual-spatial skills
Right brain:- Control left side of body, specialise in language skills

Behaviour is influenced by the social-cultural perspective.
Culture
- "The human-made part of the environment"
- Objective: Means of transport technology
- Subjective: Beliefs, values, roles
Note: Culture is always changing. Modern cultures faster to change. Traditional cultures slower to change

3 aspects of attitude
- Cognitive - The beliefs (factual and neutral)
- Affective - The emotional feelings
- Behavioural - The actions taken

Attitude change can be achieved by working on all 3, especially the affective component.
Prejudice is am extreme attitude and is easily created.

Group behaviour
- Confirmity - A small group can influence a person as he doesn't want to be embarrassed, wrong or different.
- Obedience - Instructions from a person

Human's learning
- Thinking
- Conditioning
- Imitation

Introducing Psychology Part 1

Methodology: Study of methods of research

5 methods of research
- Experiment
- Observation
- Survey
- Case study (case history)
- Correlation (significance) *
* Correlation doesn't show causation and also may occurs by chance (spurious correlations)

- Check sample is appropriate, reliable(consistent) and valid data(intended measurement)
Sampling
Random - Each person has equal chance
Quota - Certain number from specific groups
Opportunistic - Whoever is avaible, maybe biased

- Nothing can be proved. No amount of evidence is sufficient. There's always the possibility of new, conflicting evidence

Mind
The conscious - The awareness we have when we are awake
The pre-conscious - Contains memories of dreams
The unconscious - Containing secret wishes and fears; traumatic memories of the past

The 3 parts of mind
- The ID - Inborn and is alone for a couple of years. Operates by The Pleasure Principle. Sefish and typically wants immediate gratification.
- The ego - Develops from about 2 years. Operates by The Reality Principle. Essentially selfish.
- The superego - Develops from about age 3 (Influenced by parents). Is the "moral watchdog" that stops us from doing wrong. It considers other people too.

Note: Don't let ego inhibits ID. People should sometimes 'let go' and enjoy themselves.

Stages of psychological development
- Oral(0-2 years) - Baby instinctively sucks to develop trust and an optimistic personality
- Anal(2-3 years) - Child becomes aware of its bowels
- Phallic(3-6 years) - Child becomes aware of genitals and sexual differences
- Latent(6-11 years)
- Genital (11+ years)

Ways to unconsciously protect ourselves from unpleasant ideas
- Repression - Pushing down unwanted ideas into the unconscious and keeping them there. Too much can be exhausting as it takes engergy(Libido)
- Regression - Going back to an earlier stage. It's natural to seek situations that give comfort, especially under stress
- Displacement - Diverting energy(Libido) into another activity
- Seblimation - Displacement which is 'healthy' eg. Sports
- Denial
- Projection etc......

Note: It's better for the unpleasant ideas to rise into the conscious mind to be confronted and dealt with.

- Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour due to experience

Learning theory - classical conditioning
Requires:- A neutral simulus that will become a cinditioned simulus
- An unconditioned stimulus
Result:- An unconditioned response which becomes a conditioned response
Therapies developed from classical conditioning
1) Desensitization therapy - Relax a phobia
2) Counter conditioning therapy
3) Aversion therapy

Sexual Deviancy
- Fetishism - Unusual sexual behaviour
- Voyeurism - Sexually aroused when watching other people
- Sadism & masochism - Sexual pleasure from inflicting physical or mental suffering
- Paedophilia - Sexual excitment in the presence of children
- Homosexuality

慈悲

慈
悲

Product Strategy

Product - Good, service or idea consisting of tangible or/and intangible features which satisfies consumers and isreceived in exchange for money or some other unit of value.

Core - Main function of a product, allows marketing managers to understand the product and detect for opportunites and threats or substitutes.
Tangible - Physical elements of the product.
Augmented - Additions to the product to enhance its benefits, allows consumers to experience better functional benefits.

Consumer Products
Durable - Small replacement market, long lasting, usually of high value, use personal selling strategy
Non-durable - Big replacement market, need to rebuy to experience benefits, consumable, usually of lower value, place of sale located at convenient places
Services - Intangible(Depends on performance), inconsistent(Varies from day to day, person to person), inventory(Idle production capacity, supply exceeds demand), inseperablility(Hard to differentiate service from deliverer)

Convenience - None to low loyalty, low level of involvement, need repetition advertisement to serve as reminder.
Shopping and Specialty - Higher level of involvement, emotional content involved, need to provide more information to consumers. Differences between these two lie in buyers, not products
Shopping - Superficial decision making, effort put in not as great.
Specialty - Lots of effort put in, absolute loyalty, consumers are well-knowledged, critical about choices

Industrial Products
Entering - Products which enter into the manufacturing process to result in the final product, eg. raw materials. Look out for price, delivery, quality
Foundation - Products which support the operations of the company. Usually high-valued, eg. building, machinery. Look out for financing, life-time cost, service support(maintenence, repair, spare parts)
Facilitating - Not critical but make life easier for worker, usually of low value, and exist in large quantity(Not worth to take stock), eg. pens, pencils. Look out for ease of ordering(Electronic purchasing). Outsourcing is easy.

Product Mix
Product Mix - A collection of products offered by a company
Product Line - A collection of inter-related products(product category)
Product Length - Number of items within a product line(eg. sport shoes, formal shoes)
Product Width - Number of product lines(eg. shoes, clothing)
Product Depth - Number of variants(Items within an item of the product line)(eg. red sport shoes, green sport shoes)

Branding - Name, slogan, colour, logo etc given to a product for identification and to distinguish it from competitors' products. May add personality to the brand as consumers tend to associate products with human characteristic and buy one which fit their own personality

Benefits of Branding
Buyers - Easy to look for products, aids in search effort, provide assurance of quality as branding is a promise from company
Sellers - Allows for differentiating of products from competitors', creates brand loyalty, protects own brand using intellectual rights law, branding building is vital for long term success

Branding Strategies
Distinct Identity - Use an unique name, not one that is a common noun or publicly-owned name such as numbers, prevent it from entering the dictionary as it will become a verb or common noun, rendering it to public usage
Association - Associates brand with its product such as benefits, slogans may be used for easy remembrance
Acceptance - Depend on whether the products are about to deliver its promised benefits and assurance such as safety
Equity - Build up the brand as its an intangible asset.

Individual Brand Identity - New product has new name, expensive to introduce new brand to market, precise association to the product
Umbrella Brand Identity - Using of current existing brand for new product, tap o the success of current existing brand, cheaper to execute, risky-will bring down the brand name and the successful product if the new one fails, hard to associate new product with current brand-have to use general terms

Brand Repositioning - Change of identity or association to target new market segment, hard to implement and takaes a long time to change the mindset of the consumers
Brand Extension - Using of the umbrella brand identity, may dilute the current product brand if too extensively used and cause the failure of the product, have to come up with association with the new product
Generic Brand
Globalised and Localised - Different brands for the same products in different countries may cause confusion especially to those travellers, thus globalise brand is more common these days.

Packaging
Protection of Content - Prevent spillage and spoilage, good packaging will extend the shelf life
Usage - Ease of opening and usage
Logistic - Ease of displaying in the stores
Green - Environmental-friendly, using of non-biodegradable materials
Attracion and Influence - Must be able to attract consumers and influence them to buy the products

Labeling
Influence - Small parts of the content may attract and influence consumers to buy
Correct Usage - Teaches the consumers on the correct method of using the product
Safety, Warnings, Precautions
When Where Who Made It
Requirement by Law - Certain attributes have to be included by law.

Market Segmentation

Market Segmentation - Dividing consumers into groups according to 1)response to marketing actions 2)identity, needs and characteristics

Why segment? 1)To understand consumers better 2) To respond faster and better to consumer's needs, using different strategies for different segments->More productive.

3 basic market preference patterns 1) Homogeneous preference-For mature products, use mass marketing 2) Diffused preference-Use customised marketing. 3)Clustered preference-Use differentiated marketing

Identification Variables (Consumers)
1)Geographic - Places of work and study and stay, can be micro or macro.
2)Demographic - Gender, age, income, education, race, religion, social class, family life cycle, household size, household structure, nationality(within a country)
3)Psychographics - Lifestyle, personality(introvert, extrovert), events(funeral, marriage)

Identification Variables (Business)
1)Industry(different industries need products for different uses)
2)Size
3)Ownership(Owners from different countries buy differently)
4)Technology - Ability to service machineries after buying or need services
5)Vertical scope - Areas which they demand from company, from transport to logistics
6)Organisation of purchasing department - Centralised or de-centralised

Response Variables
1)Usage - Non, occasional, light(effective marketing), heavy(Bulk discounts)
2)Readiness - Awareness, knowledge, interest, trial, adoption
3)Loyalty - None, switching, absolute (80/20 rule - 80% of sales from 20% of consumers)
4)Benefits sought/Product preference - Prestige or basic benefit / Different products for same needs.
5)Occasion for usage
6)Urgency for use
7)Price sensitivity
8)Openness to advertising messages
9)Method of usage
10)Place of purchase/usage

Search for distinct groups, use less variables, usually choose the best one as more variables will cause losing of groups.

Choosing Segment
1)Favourable response - choose one which I can provide what they want
2)Size and growth - A growing big size is desired to ensure profitability
3)Competitive intensity - A fast growing segment is attractive, may face lots of competition
4)Accessibility to segment/capability - Resources to reach the segment, hard to open a new distributing channel in a new market
5)Opportunities for differentiation - A firmer holding if able to differentiate favourably from competitors

Differentiaing - 1) Areas which are important to target segment 2) Areas I am strong in compared to competitors

Product Differentiation Examples
1)Reliability
2)Innovativeness
3)Style of products
4)Ease of use
5)Quality
6)Taste

Service Differentiation Examples
1)Responsiveness
2)Courtesy and human touch
3)Competency
4)Styling (hairdresser)
5)Trust(Banker)
6)Value(Airlines)

Positioning - 1)Provide a frame of reference for products in the consumer's mind 2)Represent a point of differentiation, focus on benefits to hightlight to consumers

Examples
1)Attributes
2)Benefits
3)User
4)Application/usage occasion
5)Product category - Position new products against other categories
6)Competitor - Position against competitors

Logic Gates in Real Life?

Can real life be analogous to a logic gate? On/off, true/false, 1/0, high/low, yes/no? Can our life be dictated by just 2 clear cases? Never, as we live in a complicated world where everything is analog instead of digital.

An analog world is just like what's shown on an oscilloscope. Nothing is clearly defined, approximations and assumptions have to be made in order to extract useful information out of it. But life is not as simple as reading data from the screen. For one basic reason, a life is alive, an oscilloscope is dead.

Human are often trapped in the maze of dilemma, and seldom can they walk out of the maze. They will walk in circles within the maze, for they can't make a simple decision of which route to take. If only they can take out the heart, and use only the brain. but if they do so, they don't fit into the group of powerful mammals, human.

Follow your heart. A famous phrase said by many. I would say it will bring you deeper into the maze most of the time. The best result will be having your heart bring you out of the maze.

人生十四最

一 人生最大的敌人是自己

二 人生最大的失败是自大

三 人生最大的欺骗是无知

四 人生最可哀的是嫉妒

五 人生最大的错误是自弃

六 人生最大的罪过自欺欺人

七 人生最可怜的是性情自卑

八 人生最可佩服是精进

九 人生最大的破产是绝望

十 人生最大的财富是健康

十一 人生最大的债务是人情债

十二 人生最大的礼物是宽恕

十三 人生最大的欠缺是悲智

十四 人生最大的欣慰是布施

孔子爷

性相近也，习相远也。《阳货》

质胜文则也，文胜质则史。
文质彬彬，然后君子。 《雍也》

己所不欲，勿施于人。 《卫灵公》

君子义以为质，
礼以行之，
孙以出之，
信以成之。
君子哉！ 《卫灵公》

不仁者不可以久处约，不可以长处乐。
仁者安仁，知者利仁。 《里仁》

君子喻于义，小人喻于利。 《里仁》

君子学道则爱人，小人学道则易使也。 《阳货》

君子忧道不忧贫。 《卫灵公》

见贤思齐焉，见不贤而内自省也。《里仁》

三人行，必有我师焉；
择其善者而从之，
其不善者而改之。 《述而》

知者乐水，仁者乐山；
知者动，仁者静；
知者乐，仁者寿。 《雍也》

不患人之不己知，患不知人也。 《学而》

The world is changing...

Get ready for traffic jams on the Moon

It might be time to consider traffic lights on the moon. In the past week, governments, space agencies, and even a company from the Isle of Man announced plans to land on the moon.

Marking the 35th anniversary of the Apollo programme's last outing, NASA announced on Monday that its next crewed lunar mission is on track for 2020, despite an increasingly constrained budget. Meanwhile, China opened up its lunar programme to private funding last week, planning a lander for 2012 and a crewed mission within 15 years. And Russia will begin a series of uncrewed landings in 2012, after a 30-year break from exploring the moon.

But it won't just be the big players adding to the traffic jam. Last week a private company called Odyssey Moon - based on the Isle of Man - became the first entrant in the Google Lunar X prize. The contest, announced in September, offers $20 million to the first privately funded mission to land a probe on the moon before 2012 and send back pictures

How To Overcome Your Difficulties (Part 3)

•He who expects to secure satisfaction on life from others is worse than the beggar who kneels and cries for his daily bread.

•There are no stars which we could trust,
There is no guiding light,
And we know that we must
BE GOOD, BE JUST, BE RIGHT.

•Failures are but the pillars of success. They not only help us to succeed, they make us energetic, enthusiastic, and rich in experiences.

•We live and work and dream,
Each has his little scheme;
Sometimes we laugh,
Sometimes we cry,
And thus the days go by.



Drunkenness

Drunkenness expels reasons,
Drowns memory,
Defaces the brain,
Diminishes strength,
Inflames the blood,
Causes external and internal incurable wounds.
It is a witch to the body,
A devil to the mind,
A thief to the purse,
The beggar’s curse,
The wife’s woe,
The children’s sorrow,
The picture of a beast,
And self murder.
A drunkard drinks to others’ health,
And robs himself of his own.

How to Overcome Your Difficulties (Part 2)

•Man must be strong enough to know when he is weak, brave enough to encounter fear, dignified and having moral courage in honest defeat, humble and gentle in victory.

•When you know yourselves that these ideas are unprofitable, liable to censure, condemned by the wise, and if they are being adopted and put into effect, they would lead to harm and suffering, then you should abandon them….
When you know yourselves that these things are wholesome, blameless, commended by the wise, and if they are begin adopted and put into effect, they would lead to welfare and happiness, then you should practice them and abide by them.

•Let none find fault with others; let none see the omissions and commissions of others, but let one see one’s own acts, done and undone.

•He who is always observant of others’ faults, and irritable, increases his own defilements. He is far from the destruction of defilements.

•The faults of others are easily seen, but one’s own is difficult to see. One winnows others’ faults like chaff, but hides one’s own as a crafty fowler covers himself.

•People blame others for their silence. They blame those who talk much and those who talk in moderation. There is, therefore, no one in this world who is not blamed.

•There was never, there never will be, nor is there now, anyone who is wholly blamed or wholly praised.

•Admitting your own weaknesses is having the intellectual to succeed.

•The noble ones swerve not from the right path, let happen what may and no longer crave after worldly joys. The wise ones remain calm and constant in mind, alike in joy and in sorrow.

•To waste a man’s existence in worry about the future, in grieving over the past, in idleness or in heedlessness, is to show his lack of fitness for the noble place that he holds as the earthly creatures.

•Certain creatures cannot see in the daylight whilst others are blind at night, but a man, who is driven to intense hated, does not observe anything, either by day or night.

How To Overcome Your Dfficulties (Part 1)

By Ven. Dr. K.Shi. Dhammananda

•Fear and worry, born of the imaginings of a mind that is influenced by worldly conditions, are rooted in craving and attachment.

•From craving springs grief,
From craving springs fear,
For him who is wholly free from craving,
there is no grief, much less fear.

•Wheresoever fear arises, it arises in the fool, not in the wise man.

•No enemy can harm one as much as one’s own thoughts of craving, thoughts of hate, thoughts of jealousy and so on.

•Intolerance often arises from ignorance of another person’s needs and way of
thinking.

•Your faults are your signposts for learning perfection. Temper is a poor camouflage for shortcomings.

•Sweetness causes sickness, while bitterness comes with the cure.

•The ugliness we see in others, is a reflection of our own nature.

•Say not that this is yours and that is mine,
Just say, this comes to you and that to me.
So we may not regret the fading shine,
of all the glorious things which ceased to be.

•Your property will remain when you die,
Your friends and relatives will follow you up to your grave,
but only the good and bad actions that you have done during your lifetime (Karma) will follow you beyond the grave.

•Blessed are those who earn their living without harming others.

•Your wealth can edify your house but not you.
Only your own virtues can edify you.
Your dress can adorn your body but not you.
Only your good conduct can do so.

•If we want to find happiness, let us stop thinking about gratitude or ingratitude and give for the inner joy of giving.
Ingratitude is natural – like weeds.
Gratitude is like a rose. It has to be fed, watered, cultivated, loved and protected.