The most effective learning looks inefficient; it looks like falling behind.” (David Epstein) I don’t recall when I first heard the term “life-hacking”, must’ve been more than ten years ago. But since then, as everyone is surely aware, almost every other day you get some video, WhatsApp message or tweet…

Our learning will change once we stop comparing academic qualifications. Our fitness will change once we stop counting calories and tracking “steps”. Our investment will change once we stop predicting prices. Our social media experience will change once we stop noticing the number of Likes for our posts. Our corp life will change once we stop calculating KPIs’. Our spirituality will change once we stop obsessing over sin (both our own and that of others).

I picked up this book only because Nassim Taleb blurbed it. And I can (sorta) see why. Felix Marquardt’s writing style is similar to Taleb’s (non-academic in tone but contains healthy scattering of citations and quotes) and is full of personal stories coupled with his “philosophy” of the world. A…

Jampi (Malay), n. magical spell, charm. Synopsis: To ‘kena jampi’ is to be spellcast. There are many Malaysias’ and all of them are bewitched. Cursed with pain, spooked with love. This novel presents Malaysia via a kaleidoscope of voices: Malay, Chinese, Indian, working mum, racist, car thief, schizo, outcast, fallen angel, corrupt cop. From a restaurant in Cheras to a hospital in Selayang to a Chinese temple in Bentong to a playground in suburban KL, “Jampi” narrates multiple lives stuffed with chaos, heartache and Bak Kut Teh; hearts intermingled with joy, love and traffic jams.

I’m glad The Malay Mail ran one of my pieces today on how apps track our non-presences, a theme I tried to connect with Žižekian principles of ‘generative negativity’ (or how the non-real can be a force constitutive of the real). I haven’t been writing much on the Slovenian philosopher recently, so I’m happy with this jump-start of sorts. Other pieces (most, though not all, connected to Malaysian society) similarly tagged:

Today in churches around the world the Holy Communion (or the Lord’s Supper as it’s more casually known as) is a generally sober and formal affair. …

Whilst this is a no-brainer for some of us, for others it’s still a mystery. Either people remain stuck in their sedentary ways or — not entirely impossible — there are some who are unconvinced that exercise benefits us in substantial ways. Anyway, what follows is a recounting of the…

“You don’t learn by reading everything, but by figuring out which parts you don’t need to read.” — Adam Alter “Forgiveness is to remember the past that it might be forgotten.” — Paul Tillich “The best things in life are free. The second-best things in life are very, very expensive.”…

This book (Stripling, S., Hoffmeier, J. K., Rendsburg, G. A., Feinman, P., & Hendel, R. (2021). Five Views on the Exodus: Historicity, Chronology, and Theological Implications. Zondervan Academic) flew over my head so often I had to read and re-read 4–5x just to even retain the gist. …