My Advice to Tan Jun Yen - SPM achiever with no scholarship

I read the article posted by the Sun written by you. It’s discouraging to see repeated attempts by the Malaysian government to discourage students from entering the national education system, but I’m keen to hear your thoughts on the alternatives.

The only reason why I see non-bumiputra students still keen on local scholarships and placements is because of cost. A secondary reason could be family. But I don’t know. I’m not in the position to say much. You and the students in the same boat as you should know better.

But I want to ask if the alternatives seem as bleak. Will the National University of Singapore be equally uncompromising to high achievers? Or even other overseas universities? Some universities in India are world-renown, especially in areas such as medicine and engineering. You don’t have to go as far as the UK or the US, though I feel that it would broaden your perspectives even further.

Try to think for the longer term (5 to 10 years). It appears that the kind of experience a high achiever stands to benefit from in other countries seems much more fulfilling, compared to some of our local students here. At the end of the day, I believe both types of graduates stand the same chance to enter the workforce - it does come down to personality, attitude and experience. And what you gain from that experience can be worth everything.

My question to you is - what do you want?

If it’s a fulfilling education experience you want, I don’t know if you’ll find it here as compared to overseas. If you stay, the obstacles you will have to put up with may not even be related to your field of study.

You’ve already come this far - I’d hate to see your qualifications and experience go to waste. The world is a big place, and sometimes searching for the right thing can be extremely frustrating and lonely. But the treasures that you will end up receiving is worth far greater. My advice to you is to broaden your perspectives, challenge the status quo, seek alternatives, consider all your options, and work hard to find what you want.

You have a potentially rewarding life ahead of you. For your own sake as well as your family’s, I hope that you will continue your fight and determination to get what you deserve and desire.

Are you Generation Y? You Should.

Generation Y are people who tend to be born between 1983 to 1997, and can be sometimes be called

Millennials. They are ‘peer-oriented’ (which explains why Facebook is so popular), don’t look at jobs in the traditional sense, and are comfy with gadgets.

I love working with them. They’re quirky, fun, groupish but not clique-ish, and have good working habits. I teach voluntary classes to teens around 15 to 19, and they’ve got entire books loaded onto their cheapish phones, talk about the latest movies and gadgets, but seem fine not owning them. It’s more of a really big club than a generation.

Anyway, you don’t have to ‘get’ Generation Y. Generation Y gets you. They’ll fit in mostly anywhere, and you’ll want them around cos they’re the people who know Facebook and ipods better than anyone else. And they don’t sound geekish either. Geek for the masses.

How this compares to life - I don’t know. I think that it helps me get an understand of where the world is going, and that ethics will be a big part in all this. Companies will need to run their businesses more ethically and authentically, because Gen Yers are socially conscious. It’s affecting other Generations too - even oldies like me (I’m sorta in Gen X) are looking at the world in a new positive light.

If you’re fearful that Gen Y is a cop-out, don’t worry. Generation Y can get jobs in IBM.

Now, maybe I’ll use this excuse to get a Nintendo DS.

Some interesting facts from Wikipedia:

In their recent book, Reynol Junco and Jeanna Mastrodicasa (2007) ^[22] found that in a survey of 7,705 college students in the US:

• 97% own a computer
• 94% own a cell phone
• 76% use Instant Messaging.
• 15% of IM users are logged on 24 hours a day/7 days a week
• 34% use websites as their primary source of news
• 28% author a blog and 44% read blogs
• 49% download music using peer-to-peer file sharing
• 75% of college students have a Facebook account ^[23]
• 60% own some type of portable music and/or video device such as an iPod.

Get a life - care less about jobs other people care about

I’m a Malaysian. I’ve spent over 20 years in this country. One thing bugs me - I haven’t really met anyone in Malaysia who has told me they really love their jobs. The only people who told me that they have are people who tell me the love everything.

Sure, a job is better than no job. But I think if you keep doing that long enough and you’ll start to lose brain cells a lot faster.

I encourage the youth of Malaysia to go for rock concerts, fight for social injustice, make some side-income, play sports, join competitions, get involved in art and design, start new things, and travel to other countries. I feel these things are far worth more your experience than worrying and over-working about a job.

Jobs will always be there. If someone doesn’t hire you, someone else will. It just depends how desperate they are. Plus, there are a lot of desperate people out there. You won’t have to fight very hard because your exposure and experience would have served you better.

The only catch is that you have to play smart.

Smart companies these days know how to sift through people who are concerned about “am I” vs. “can I”. And you don’t want to join a company that’s not smart. So, basically, you shouldn’t care too much about whether you have what it takes. You should be more worried about understanding how stuff works - asking yourself what you really want in life, and what you’re really capable of.

I really feel that you end up saving a lot of time, money and avoid unnecessary pain.

Of course, in order to be confident enough to get the right job, you need to start asking the questions early. What will prepare you for the interview to the right job is not text-book material. It’ll be about experience.

That’s what matters most in life, anyway.

I recommend Alltop

If you’re short on time, and you want a fulfilling life/career/relationship/whatever, ditch the mundane crawl through newsreaders, google news, and forum posts. Alltop.com gives you the headlines of every news-based site you should read. It was created by Guy Kawasaki.

This means you can focus on living your life, and then spending that 20% of your time through GOOD CONTENT to assess yourself, plan your journey, laugh or cry… whatever.

Also, if you watch TV, forget TV. You got me, Stop Watching TV. Or watch less of it. Take time out to decide what you really want in life, and get going.

First Post - Why I like to Leapwalk

I just spent a few minutes watching a video clip of David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) delivering a speech to some techies for Startup School about “The Secret to Making Money”.

The fact that I just said that indicates that I’m some kind of techie myself, and that this blog is going to be about programming, web applications, and computer games.

It’s not.

As much as my tech work pays the bills and that I do have an insatiable desire to solve problems with it, the point of the DHH clip (if you watch it) will summarize some values to which this blog subscribes to.

In a nutshell, it’s about life. Your life, and mine.

Leapwalking is a term I use to describe how we live that life - it’s like walking (to get to somewhere), but the way in which we walk allows us to arrive at our destination faster or better.

I believe that there are way too many confusing signals in today’s world. And there’s just not enough time to consume, let alone process, all of that information. We have but 24 hours to make decisions ranging from what food we eat to what person we should become, and everyone seems to be going in all different directions.

Leapwalking is a way to make a decision about our lives - in a way that doesn’t make our neighbors go crazy, in a way that doesn’t require nuclear reactors or traveling to space or becoming the next President.

If you had a choice to make today, and that small choice to make a difference, that would be enough - no matter whether that difference would be big or small.

That’s what leapwalking is all about. To conscious effort to make the right choices, with our own abilities and opportunities, and due respect to the people around us.