Essays
On May 12, 1797, the Doge of Venice, Ludovico Manin, abdicated. The Great Council, the primary legislative body, voted overwhelmingly to dissolve the Most Serene Republic. Two days later, Napoleon marched in with his troops and raised the French tricolor over the Piazza San Marco. After 1,100 years, Venice,
Life
Essays
Singapore's literacy challenge is often overlooked, being neither a pressing economic concern nor a matter of fundamental rights. Given our national focus on pragmatism, these issues of literacy can seem peripheral. Singapore consistently ranks among the world’s best — with one of the highest GDPs per capita, exceptional
The ability to think in abstractions is among humanity's most distinctive traits—and there is no abstraction, no collective fiction more universal than money. At the dawn of civilization, a numbered piece of paper had no practical use. You can neither eat it nor plant it, and it
On May 12, 1797, the Doge of Venice, Ludovico Manin, abdicated. The Great Council, the primary legislative body, voted overwhelmingly to dissolve the Most Serene Republic. Two days later, Napoleon marched in with his troops and raised the French tricolor over the Piazza San Marco. After 1,100 years, Venice,
Singapore's literacy challenge is often overlooked, being neither a pressing economic concern nor a matter of fundamental rights. Given our national focus on pragmatism, these issues of literacy can seem peripheral. Singapore consistently ranks among the world’s best — with one of the highest GDPs per capita, exceptional
Civilization is an iconic video game series created by Sid Meier where you take control of one of the great civilizations across history and manage its growth from a Bronze-Age agricultural settlement to a vast nuke-wielding, internet-surfing empire. As can be guessed from the description, a large part of the
I'm wouldn't consider myself an artistic person, and my appreciation for art is differentiated from the common denominator in only my taste of music, which is dominated by Metal and other alternative genres. Regardless, I've been thinking a lot about the arts lately, especially
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In information visualization, each visualization technique has a different niche. Line charts show the relationship between two variables, and bar charts provide a way to compare values associated with different categories. However, none of these tools convey the relationship between different entities, and that is where graph visualization comes in.
This post contains major spoilers for The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima. That being said, the plot is simple and secondary to the themes and symbols. Continue at your own discretion. What does it mean to strive for glory, for greatness? What passions lie
One of the most mind-bending books I've been reading is The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I had decided to start reading it due to its iconic stature in 21st-century non-fiction; it seems as if every other book references some aspect
Most people I know had a reading era in their childhood. Borrowing books from the library and engaging in discussions surrounding popular series is a fond memory I have of my childhood. It's hard for me to forget receiving Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on release day
I've recently finished reading The Age of AI, by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Daniel Huttenlocker. While it was a mixed bag on the whole, there were some new insights I had gleaned from the book, and I can't help but appreciate a book that at
Civilization is an iconic video game series created by Sid Meier where you take control of one of the great civilizations across history and manage its growth from a Bronze-Age agricultural settlement to a vast nuke-wielding, internet-surfing empire. As can be guessed from the description, a large part of the
I'm wouldn't consider myself an artistic person, and my appreciation for art is differentiated from the common denominator in only my taste of music, which is dominated by Metal and other alternative genres. Regardless, I've been thinking a lot about the arts lately, especially
I first read 12 Rules For Life in 2017, and I've recently finished a re-read of it, in 2024. I re-read it to know whether it holds up to this day, and whether there is anything new I can glean from the long-winded, spiritually charged writing so indicative
In my graduate class on Operating Systems, we learnt about the ins and outs of the Linux kernel, or at least we did so as much we could over thirteen weeks of lectures. OS isn't really isn't my strong suit, but elegant solutions to complex problems
As each day brings new experiences, each of them are placed along a personal hierarchy of value through little additional effort of our own. A good book you have read, a bad meal you have eaten, a nice show you have watched, and a completely mediocre carpet you have stepped
It's always amusing to me how the boundary as to when a year starts and ends is so arbitrary, and merely serves as a socially agreed upon time to mark a revolution around the sun, or alternatively (and equivalently), a full cycle of seasons. The blurring of boundaries