Skip to main content

Posts

Education and Career: How to Go about it?

I was asked by parents to advise their kids on which higher education courses to pursue, which is in line with establishing their career paths. Having faced this very same question about 12 to 14 years ago, I feel I may have something fruitful to offer. Let's take a step back for a moment. At some point in our lives, we all need to make a decision about what we want to do with our lives. We must recognize that this is a huge question and requires deep thought to derive an answer. We should also consider that at 15 to 17 years of age, we don't have all the answers. Frankly speaking, at 28 (turning 29 in a few months), I too am still figuring out life. It's a journey, not the destination. NOW, this presents a challenge. The world and all its weight are expecting us, mere teenagers, to make a life-changing decision when we don't have a clue what the world is like and where we want to be in this world. So, what should we do? Panic? Nah. We take a deep breath and think it th
Recent posts

Resourcefulness

Resourcefulness. What does it really mean?  For many, it's doing more with less. But I think it's much deeper than that. It's about not allowing obstacles to stop us from reaching our goals. It's about not giving up when times are tough. It's about looking inwards instead of criticizing outwards.  We, humans, are unstoppable when we are focused. When we put on our "resourceful" hat, we accept that there is no problem too big to solve. We are ready to dig deep and reinvent ourselves in order to solve the problem. We do not accept excuses or mediocrity. We will stop at nothing until the problem is solved.  The next time we face a problem, let's put on our "resourceful" hat. Let's not list down 100 ways why we can't solve the problem. Let's list down 100 ideas on how we can tackle the problem. We just need ONE idea to work.  All the best in discovering more Eureka moments! 

Retuning our expectation of achievement!

I first created this reflection for my team at Coda Payments on 31st December 2021. I hope this brings value to you as you navigate the daily beauties of life.  Reflection post ahead: 2021 was an unprecedented year filled with life-changing events; work for home continues to be a norm, the battle to end Covid prolonged, people found new ways to connect with one another, and so on. As we head towards the new year, it poises us an excellent opportunity to reflect on the past year. As we reflect, we have 2 ways to go about it: Glass half empty or half full. Circling back to earlier in the year, I gave a Lunch & Learn session on "Clues to a more fulfilling work-life", where the core of the message was finding meaning in our work as when one find meaning/purpose, the work(action of doing) becomes more fulfilling, leading to greater satisfaction in life. Now it's time to see the 2nd part of the equation: contentment/achievement. Fulfilment is all about the action, while ach

Seeking a more meaningful work-life!

Over the years, I have been pondering this very thought. I have been obsessed with having a more meaningful work-life. On average, an individual spends about 40 hours a week at work, about 2,000 hours a year. That's 1/3 of our lives dedicated to working.  Many believe work is time wasted, and prefer to spend time on more passionate activities. Knowing this, I set out to find a more balanced answer. These were the few questions that raced in mind when I started this journey: How can we turn work into a more passionate endeavour?  Why do a few people love work while the rest of us hate it? Does a more meaningful work-life lead to a better life altogether? With these questions in mind, I set off my journey. I spoke to countless leaders, read(more like listening to audiobooks), listen to podcasts and watch Youtube videos. After numerous months and years invested on this topic, I found a couple of commonalities: 1. It's a choice we make to either have a more meaningful work-life or

Is Obsession a good thing or a bad thing?

In most movies that I have seen, the filmmakers often portray  obsessions  as a bad thing. Is that the case?  I would argue that we all need a certain level of obsessions in anything we do before producing great and remarkable work; work that we are proud of sharing. At one point in our lives, we had a dream which is so crazy that people will think your just too naive. It could be as simple as publishing your very own magazine while in school or declaring that every home in the world would have a personal computer in a couple of years. Without context, most of us would consider these as crazy dreams. But for the obsessive few, it was the only thing they could think of, every night and day until it became a reality. The two crazy dreams here if you haven't guess they are from Richard Branson, the Virgin group Tycoon and Steve Job, the founder of Apple and Pixar. One had an obsession with sharing stories while the other to make personal computers. I know many view obsessions as a bad

Horror Narrative

So since I am making a horror game, I need to know what kind of narrative I should right. One of my previous post, I wrote about "What is Horror" which covers many of this. Now I would to dive deeper into this. Certain design choices made before production due to time and resources constraint. First Person Point of View No Dialog One repeatable Level [Check My Previous post for the layout] Its an Horror Game One Ghost / Young Girl Lack of Props  This means, I have to design Narrative through Visual Means, I cannot take the easy way out of dialog and words. I have to show Emotion and Story through Color, Layout, Lighting, Atmosphere and Sound. So before I start, I would like to share the common Problems for the Horror Genre. 3 Reasons Why Today's Horror Films Are Just Not Scary Anymore Usually people who make horror focuses on JUMP SCARES. Well this is not good. As when the scare is done, it feel the viewers with immediate relief which may spoil the hor

Horror Atmosphere Part 1

Now I would like to talk about, designing horror. Here is a basic breakdown on horror techniques. Basics Tips and Concepts to Keep in Mind as You Make Your Horror Film This part I will be focusing on the Layout of the game. The game is  PT Demo Mix with Affected . Player will be stuck in a loop and each loop there is objective player need to complete to progress. The Objective could opening the door and pick up a object in a particular room, or there a sequence of triggers the player have to follow to complete the game. For more detail, do contact me. The idea for the game, is that all ages should be able to pick it up and play. I like this approach as the young and old would not be leafed out. I design games primary for all ages. The controls must be simple and intuitive for player to use. The objective and game play must be visible clear and accomplished by many [need my play-test sessions.]. However, do to it being a horror game, player below 12 are not advisable to play.