April 30th, 2024 (2 days ago) • 2 minutes

Old school taxi

The Taxi Cab Theory says that love and relationship does not depends on commitment and effort, it depends on timing. Like a cab, when they are reading for commitment, they will have their lights on. But if their light is off, not matter how hard you try to flag them down, they will never stop for you.

When their light is on, they will immediately pick up the next available passenger. If you are not there, they will pick up someone else. Vice versa if you are not ready, they will pick up someone else. It’s not fate, it’s dumb luck.

I think I might not be ready to turn on my light yet. I still have many things to do that I want to accomplish at least for the next year. Moving to another country is a big thing and I want to enjoy the process. But who knows what comes on after next?

April 29th, 2024 (3 days ago) • 5 minutes

2 years ago, if you asked me whether I would ever go for another studies after my degree, I would have said no. So what changed since then? I guess I can't keep the dream of me living in the US out of my head plus going there with a friend of 11 years makes it even more exciting.

We applied to the same school, same program and eventually landed on similar scholarship at the same school - USFCA.

Schools we applied to and the results. I spent a total of $385 on application fees (about $95 for each school besides the one that got waived).

PhD

• Northwestern - Got an interview but rejected
• Boston - Rejected 🥲
• NEU - Rejected 🥲
• Princeton - Rejected 🥲
• Rice - Rejected 🥲
• Duke - Rejected 🥲

Masters

• UVa - Accepted
• Brown - Accepted
• USFCA - Accepted 🎉

Out of the schools that I got accepted, I chose USFCA because of the location (it's literally at SF - in the middle of everything tech and weird). Also, they offered a practicum program which I thought would be a good opportunity to get some hands-on experience in the industry.

Why Grad School?

The reason I chose to try out PhD programs was mainly because of the opportunity to do research on topics that I was curious - distributed storage and computing. Plus it was fully funded which was definitely a big factor I was considering. But I knew that I had lesser of a chance since I didn't directly publish any papers during my undergraduate studies. Then, I applied to the masters programs as a backup plan and I'm glad I did.

Starting the Process

csranking helped a ton when choosing schools. It showed that your usual prestigious school might not be the best for the field you're interested in. Ivy leagues are not always the best in every field. But one thing I would admit is they are good for the network you get. In those school, you mingle around people with connections and relationships that could help you in the future.

From there, I only had a few schools to choose from since most school require a 4 year degree to apply for graduate school. Coming from an Australian university, I only had 3 years of degree which further limited my choices.

A very common sight across unis

Statement of Purpose

Then it was time to write the statement of purpose. The 1 document that you have to write to convince the school that you're the right candidate for the program. I spent a lot of time on this document. I wrote, rewrote, edited, and rewrote again. I referred to a lot of past reference such as these:

• Structuring your SOP
• Holy grail of submitted SOPs
• Eugenie Lai's blog
• Saujas's blog

Of course, here is mine for Phd and then for Masters. Feel free to use them as reference but please don't copy them.

Letter of Recommendation

Once that is done, it's time for the recommendation letters. I asked 2 of my lecturers and my current manager for the letters. I chose them because they were the ones that I had the most interaction with. I also asked them to write the letters in a way that they could differentiate me from the rest of the applicants by giving them a list of things that I did during my undergraduate studies and my CV so that they could refer to them when writing the letter.

Some good reads before you ask:

• Advice to Writers
• Advice to Students

Others Tips and Resources

1. Write a good CV. I used Jake's template for mine. It's clean and simple.
2. Start way earlier because SOP and LOR takes time to write and edit.
3. Reach out to the professors you want to work with beforehand to establish a relationship. I didn't do this but I heard it helps a lot.
4. Check for waivers. Most school have it if you joined certain info session or are involved in certain organizations.

From https://gradschool.princeton.edu/admission-onboarding/prepare/deadlines-and-fees

5. Check for scholarships. Some schools have scholarships that you can apply for.
6. Leverage on AI like ChatGPT for some help in your essays. Not saying to copy everything, but it's definitely helpful to get some ideas, rephrase sentences etc. My friend and I even went as far as building an app for this. Check out the demo here or code here.

General guides for getting a PhD Admit

• HOWTO: Get into grad school for science, engineering, math and computer science
• For Prospective PhD Students
• The N=1 guide to grad school

p.s Today, I also finally did it. I resigned from my job. I'm so excited to start this new chapter in my life.

An internal sign we used at MoneyLion when someone is leaving

April 28th, 2024 (4 days ago) • 2 minutes

Everyday I keep 1-2 hours of my time to read, write and curate things. And that's because my email is always bombarded by the numerous substack/newsletters/blogs that I subscribe to. There are just so many interesting people around and so many interesting things happening around us.

But this is not sustainable. What I had been practicing recently is to be strategically ignorant.

I don't subscribe to the loudest noise on the 'For You' page, but instead search for resource from high value sources like curated newsletters, books, and podcasts. It usually takes a bit of time to find the right resources, but it's worth it.

They are the ones that don't normally talk about the world hottest event or social media drama but instead talk about the timeless principles, the fundamentals, the things that are not going to change in the next 5 years.

It's okay to not know about the latest news. Just say "I don’t know" and take the opportunity to learn about that from your conversation.

You may also think it's selfish to discard latest drama, but will this be something you remember 1 year down the line? For me, I think it's much more beneficial to focus your limited attention on things that matter in the world full of notifications and distractions.

p.s occasional clean up of these subscriptions works very well too. Today, I unsubscribed a total of 8!

April 27th, 2024 (5 days ago) • 1 minute

Today I went to a dermatologist to ask about some skin issues I have. After the consultation, I was given a prescription for some medication. There are also some products that she recommended me to use as well.

I hadn't heard of the product brand before so I assumed that it was something you could get from her clinic only. Until when I got back home, I did some research and found out that the products are actually available in the market and at a much lower price.

Hence why I think it's important to ask more questions and negotiate more.

One of the main reasons to do this is to protect yourself and make sure you are not being taken advantage of. You can always get a better deal even though you thought the current one they offered is already good.

In general, just ask for things, even if you’ve never heard someone ask for them

It’s okay if the things are crazy. You can always mollify afterward by saying “I know that’s a crazy thing to ask for, but I have a rule that I always ask.”

April 26th, 2024 (6 days ago) • 1 minute

The shogun who dabbled in art while Kyoto burned

Stay calm when you are facing a problem. That's already winning half the battle.

Today, I went into autopilot mode when I was solving a problem raised but what I should had done is to ask more questions to understand the problem better. Then only I can help myself to help them better.

I managed to get the problem solves eventually, but I think the path could be easier if I were to ask more questions and push back a little bit.

April 25th, 2024 (7 days ago) • 1 minute

Abstract from How Warren Buffett Mastered Life.

Recently, I felt that I do things just because someone else that I see on the Internet is doing it. That I did it because I crave the admiration of others. I did it because I wanted to be seen as successful, as someone who has it all together.

This is a reminder to myself that I should not compromise my own standards, those I have set for myself. And to live life on my own terms, not someone else's.

April 24th, 2024 (8 days ago) • 4 minutes

Daffy and I presenting on Data Governance

I spoke at my first event on stage today for Snowflake's Data for Breakfast!

I was nervous, but I think I did well. At least it was better than I thought I will do.

It was 8.30a.m when I reached Muzium Negara, the train station interconnected to Aloft Hotel, KL Sentral. The walk there is further that I thought, plus I thought I was late for the rehearsal, so I walked faster. It was I think 5 escalators (including the one I took wrongly!) to reach the hotel.

When I reached, Chang Boon, the sales engineer handling MoneyLion greeted me. We just exchanged some life updates and talk about our week. Just the usual stuff. Then I went into the hall to get prepared for the rehearsal.

I was mic-ed up, given a clicker and was told to stand on stage to practice getting a feel of the surroundings. I also went through the slides a last time to make sure everything is as expected. Shortly after, my teammate Daffy arrived and he did his part of the rehearsal.

Then, we were given some time to have breakfast outside. It was a buffet style breakfast - I didn't get to eat much because the time was short. We met some of our colleagues as well as ex colleagues from our previous company. It was so nice to have someone you know around in a big event like this.

At 9.30am, the event started. It was a full house at about 200 people (I heard 400 people registered but due to space limitation, they had to cap the number). My talk is the last one in the morning session so we had plenty of time to sit down and listen to the other speakers.

Sitting in the crowd

I remembered the room was super cold, so I stepped out to grab some hot drinks. I learned that peppermint tea is such a good drink to have before presentations. It helps to calm down your nerves plus warms you up in the cold room.

Peppermint Tea is OP

At 11.10 am, it was my turn. I got mic-ed up again, and then walked up the stage as I was announced by the MC. I remember looking at Sam Altman from his talk at OpenAI Dev Day just before I went up so I can emulate some of his confidence. Well it sort of worked?

I went to the middle, hands to the side, and started my talk.

"Good Morning, everyone", I said. "Thank you for joining the first ever Data for Breakfast 2024 in KL!".

That 2 sentence was all I needed to calm the remaining nerves I had. I was in the zone. I went through the slides, and I remembered to look at the audience every now and then. I also remembered to smile and be aware to be in the middle more often than not.

Daffy and I split the presentation in half, so I passed on the talk to him when it was close to the 10 minutes mark. The most memorable part was when we did the slap handshake (the one you do before a bro hug).

I think we did well. I was proud of myself. I was proud of Daffy. I was proud of the team.

After the talk, we had a photography session and lunch. Some audience approached us to know more about our setup and how we did things. It was a good feeling to be able to share our knowledge and experience with others.

I went back to the office after lunch. I was tired, but I was happy.

I want to do this again.

April 23rd, 2024 (9 days ago) • 2 minutes

Flowers from Lisette Cafe

Today, I came across this this quote by Dr. Seuss which is so true.

We often take things for granted until they're gone.

Since I bought my first iPhone, with a now decent camera in it, I've been taking a lot of photos. Everywhere I go I start to be more aware of my surrounding, looking into small things that I can capture and keep as a memory.

I didn't really do that before because my old phone had a terrible camera. But now, I'm so glad I did.

I also started to look into camera taking technique as well as editing them in Lightroom. It's so much fun. With just a little bit of preset, pictures can look 10 times better.

I want to start taking videos as well, so I can compile them and look back into the best time of my life now in my 20s.

So, takeaway, take more photos and videos. You'll never know when you'll need them.

April 22nd, 2024 (10 days ago) • 1 minute

No one tells a story like Casey Neistat.

His videos are a masterclass in storytelling. This one is no different.

April 21st, 2024 (11 days ago) • 1 minute

• Think/Reflect
• Write
• Edit
• Publish

That's it. That's how I write.

I think for the most part, people don't blog/journal because they think it's hard to pen down their thoughts. But it's not. It's just a matter of starting.

Every day, you consume a lot of information, from articles, conversations, videos, your surrounding etc. You are bound to have thoughts and opinions about them because you are a human being.

So why not write them down? It's a good way to reflect on your thoughts and opinions.

Then the next question is, what do I write about?

I struggle with that question also. So far I cannot categorize my blog into a specific niche. I write about whatever I feel like writing about.

I think that's the beauty of it. There's no restriction on what you can write about.

So just start writing. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be you.

Some people that I follow that write well:

• Benedict
• Jeremy
• James Quiambao
• Rishi
• Jason Liu
• Postcards by Elle
• Bookbear Express