A thousand splendid suns

Read the kite runner awhile back, it was a gift that my sister’s teacher gave her. The book cover caught my attention, even i never heard of the reviews or anything about this book.

Took the book and read, and i really enjoyed reading the book.

Now, one year later i borrowed “A thousand splendid suns” by the same author, Khaled Hosseini from the National Library.

Still at chapter 17!!

Add comment February 25, 2010 jolyntan

The Dip by Seth Godin

Hi i’m back with my monthly update! I read this really really thin, small book i borrowed from my school library, by using my ever first request through NUS library service. I must say it is really efficient and they reserved the book for 1 wk( for me! What a privilege). I’d borrowed yakuza moon, but i’m the no. 7th, in the queue.. guess how long it is gonna take!

Okay.. basically the book is about when to quit and when to stick.

He mentioned about 3 different kinds of curves that can be applied to life.

1. The dip

Don’t ride the dip, lean into the dip. Don’t buckle down and survive it, push harder, changing the rules as they go.

2. Deadend (cul-de-sac)

Realize its existence, embrace the fact that when you find one, get off it fast. Stick with the dips that are likely to pan out and quite the cul-de-sac to focus your resources.

3.  The cliff (which is rare but scary)

The pain of quiting just getting bigger and by spoon feed you with little bits of improvements everyday, waiting to trip you up.

All the 3 curves apply to the things you do in life. The 3 curves are to be plotted against result and effort. First part of the book convince you how being the best in the world is over-rated. The dip creates scarcity and scarcity creates value. 

It is the incredible difficult challenge(the dips) that gives you the opportunity to pull ahead. In a competitive world, adversity is your ally. The harder it gets, the better chance you have of insulating yourself from the competition. If adversity also causes you to quit, thought, it is all for nothing.  You get what you deserve when you embrace the dip and threat. It is like the opportunity that it recall is.

Tune in for more:

The lie of diversification 

Superstar thinking

Seeing the curve in advance

The big opportunity

Average is for loser

Add comment February 18, 2008 jolyntan

Review of a bk once a month

School started for me, that explains the lack of update- the review of another nice interesting book.

I’ve had already promised myself to do at least one book review every month her, so i must do it!
Books (from the library) lying beside me, java to c#, the leader in you, the first time investor, tao of warren buffet and more of c#: c# web development using asp.net.

I know i can finish a book really fast but is just the matter of me wanting it or not. From what i can see the two c# books have been lying around shouting “read me read me” but i simply ignore their existence.

Time to pick up my c# book as i can really feel the  stress from my final yr project. I’m sure you guys won’t be really interested in listening me to talk about those really techy stuff. Meanwhile i will fix a day or two to read and review the first time investor! :>

Till then.

1 comment January 25, 2008 jolyntan

The Tao of Warren Buffet

This book is borrowed by Jack, about warren buffett’s words of wisom.

The book is pretty simplistic. A point in each page with a touch of humor.

No.9 “Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rollsroyce to get advice from those who take the subway”

- This is really interesting. If their advice is so great, why aren’t they all rich?I don’t know how true is it, i know that buffet do not look at business projections that analysts put together because the projections are way to rosy.

No 55 “There comes a time when you ought to start doing what you want. Take a job that you love. You will jump out of bed in the morning. I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don’t like because you think that it will look good on your resume. Isn’t that a little like saving up sex for your old age?”

-I seriously need this advice, from my past “part timing experience” i realise those jobs are really boring and not to my liking AT ALL. I will drag myself to work everyday, just to earn that few money. After my graduation, and when it comes to finding job, i will be sure that i will take on those jobs scope that is to my liking even though I’ve no “real” work experience. I’m sure this can be compensated by asking around my friends and mentor. :>

No. 80 “Of the seven deadly sings, envy is the silliest, because if you have it, you don’t feel better. You feel worse. I’ve had some good times with gluttony.. we won’t get into lust.”

- “Greed is a wonderful thing if it is thy servant and not thy master. ” It is a new perspective to me, as i always think greed as absolute bad. Understand the fact that the happiest rich people are those who love the business life that goes with making money and haven’t the least interest in other people’s wealth. Indeed a wake up call for me as often i desire to be rich because i compared a bit too much with my friends or even strangers living in big houses.

No 101. “In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield”

- The point warren trying to say here is to invest in business with products that he can determine the long-term economic value. He is interested in only products that allow him to see the road ahead. He stayed away from technology stocks (IT/tech, something i major in, I’m a computing student, i feeling a tad bit upset now) , even bill gates, like him has no idea what the road ahead looks like.

No.102 ” I’m very suspect of the person who is very good at one business – it also could be a good athelete or a good entertainer……”

- The lesson warren taught is to stick with what you know and you will never look stupid, and you may even end up superrich, even if you can’t read and write. In this case he uses Mrs. B. as an example, she was really good in selling furniture and earning profits but she can’t read or write. Boy, I’m sure I’ve looked stupid right now, for writing this review, knowing little bout investing. But hey, I’m just started to learn, my first step!

No. 111 “The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don’t have to swing at everything-you can wait for your pitch. The problem when you’re a money manager is that your fans keep yelling, ‘Swing, you bum!’”

-He advises that to make big money in stock market, stay away from professional fund managers and learn to use their shortsighted stock-trading gymnastics to take advantage of their long term pricing mistakes. Okay, note taken, i will try to see if i can anything related to the above out of my finance course.

No. 121 “I’d be a bum on the street with a tin cup if the markets were efficient”

- The theory of stock markets are efficient, is applicable to short-term perspective but this perspective often creates pricing mistakes from a long term perspective. The thing to remember here is that short-term efficiency often creates long-term efficiency, which you can exploit to make yourself superrich.

Add comment January 13, 2008 jolyntan

Book Review: The six fundamentals of success

author: Stuart R. Levine

Fundamental #1: Make sure you add value

I need to be flexible, be prepared, act like an owner to everything i do, work smarter, and invest in myself (which is what i am doing now).

Fundamental #2: Communicate up and down, inside and out

Listening is as important as speaking, so i should listen actively to my prof, coursemates, groupmates, family and boyfriends. One interesting points Levine pointed out is to excel at giving feedback to your peers etc. I seldom give feedback so personally that levine expects before. Good feedback enables learning process and adjusting of working habits and preventing mistakes.

Fundamental #3: Know how to deliver results

i particularly zoomed in to this chapter first because from my experiences, i expect myself to deliver really good results at a limited time, as required by my university. Why so, because it usually involve group mates with really high expectations, wanting to get a good caps. After reading this i found out that in order to deliver results, commitment, ability to make your group member perform, learning from my mistakes are some of the important skills to make it happen.

Fundamental #4: Conduct yourself and your business with integrity

self confidence? uncheck. I should be building on my self confidence more, in terms of public speaking, speaking up in class, voicing up in front of prof. Sometimes i feel that my self confidence might be directly link to my image, dress sense and look. Guess i will need to work on these also.

respect myself? check

set a good example? check

the world doesn’t owe you a living? check

Fundamental #5: Invest in relationship

relationship driven career is something i think i might try out.

Fundamental #6: Gain Perspective

I should always know what i want. Admit my limitations and try to work on it. Focus on strength not weakness. Do not try to work only on weakness. Work on my strength more. :> Also, avoid arrogance.

Add comment January 9, 2008 jolyntan

Happy new year!

Its 2008! A new year, a new start for me. I’m gonna graduate in a semester time.. and i would use this blog to write down the stuff i do for my own little business i am going to start up with jack. Be it learning experiences, failure, miscommunication, joy, i am going to jot it all down here to remind myself. More importantly, to improve myself, thats the way to learn.

One of my resolutions this year is to successfully use the language i.e. english here. Regardless of talking or writing, i’m gonna make sure that this year i will improve my usage in English significantly. The reason being according to a Harrell’s study, the more successfully you use a language, the faster you get ahead in life..

i think it is true to a large extent because the inability to express yourself and your ideas makes you a handicap in a world that valued innovations and creativity. The time has change.

Add comment January 6, 2008 jolyntan

yey

i manage to get mr jack to accompany to play with wordpress in the midst of exam. im a sinner..

Add comment December 2, 2007 jolyntan

Hello~

thank god its friday, i’m able to start a blog like this to test out the functions

2 comments October 19, 2007 jolyntan