Unreal Blog

Another one of my early “redactions” describing a rich girl’s perspective of what poverty is all about. Enjoy!

Read the rest of "La pauvre famille"

My impressions of George Orwell’s 1984.

[...]In 1984, the immediate story is of a completely totalitarian regime. Inwardly, 1984 is about ethics and politics. It doesn’t end there, but goes into nested philosophical inquiries about how everything is eventually connected to metaphysics. It naturally ends up in solipsism, not merely in the material, metaphysical sense, but also in a spiritual, socio-psychological sense where the only hope in life becomes death.[...]

Read the rest of "1984"

We Singaporeans have a problem. We are graceless, they say. So we train ourselves to say the right magic words at the right times and to smile at random intervals. We still come across as a bit graceless at times.
We have to bite the bullet and face the music; we may be a bit on the rude side — when judged by the western norms of pasticky grace popularized by the media. But we don’t do too badly when judged by our own mixed bag of Asian cultures [...]

Read the rest of "Graceless Singaporean"

One of my “redactions” for my French courses. My fellow students and teacher loved it, hope you will too.

Les fermiers aux Etats Unis ont de la chance - ils ont de grandes fermes. Ce n’est pas le cas en Mexique. Mais, le Mexicain de qui je vais vous parler, etait assez content de sa ferme. Une fois, un fermier texan est venu chez notre Mexicain.[...]

Read the rest of "Les fermier"

Another one of my “redactions” for my French courses. My fellow students and teacher loved it, hope you will too.

En Inde, on mange ce qui s’appelle des “chapatis”. C’est un peu comme les baguettes en France.[...]

Read the rest of "Les chapatis"

Economists have too many hands. On the one hand, they may declare something good. On the other hand, they may say, “well, not so much.” Some of them may have even a third or fourth hand. My ex-boss, an economist himself, once remarked that he wished he could chop off some of these hands. [...]

Read the rest of "Food Prices and Terrible Choices"

Pointers in surviving the corporate jungle. Newspaper column in Today on 14 June 2008.

[...] In the unforgiving, dog-eat-dog corporate jungle, you need to be sure of the welcome. More importantly, you need to prove yourself worthy of it. Fear not, I am here to help you through it. And I will gladly accept all credit for your survival, if you care to make it public. But I regret that we (this newspaper, me, our family members, dogs, lawyers and so on) cannot be held responsible for any untoward consequence of applying my suggestions. Come on, you should know better than to base your career on a newspaper column! [...]

Read the rest of "An Office Survival Guide"

Newspaper column in Today on 17 May 2008.

When it comes to news, things are seldom what they seem. The media can colour news events while remaining technically objective and strictly factual. Faced with such insidiously accurate reporting, we have little choice but to read between the lines. [...]

Read the rest of "Reading between the Lines"

Published in the Wilmott Magazine in May 2008 under the title “Stress Test,” this piece looks at the incredible levels of endurance and resilience demanded of quantitative and trading professionals. It is anthology of my columns on work-life issues that appeared in the Today paper, adapted to the risky and rewarding lives of quants and other front office professionals.

Read the rest of "Risks and Rewards"

Published in The journal of the Philosophical Society of England. The Philosopher, Vol. LXXXXVI No. 1 (Spring 2008), pp 3-7

This article examines the role of light in perception, physics and philosophy. Based on the similarities between metaphysical and spiritual or philosophical views on space and time, the article sheds new light on modern physics — the special theory of relativity, in particular.

Read the rest of "Perception, Physics and the Role of Light in Philosophy"

The rights and wrongs of gender equality. Newspaper column in Today on 5 April 2008.

[...] When such dimensions of equality encompass all aspects of our lives, we will be able to safely say that gender equality has arrived. We should not be looking for equality in testosterone-driven playing fields, which, by the way, may include higher echelons of the corporate pyramid. We should be relegating debates on equality to irrelevance by attributing enough respect and value to natural differences. [...]

Read the rest of "Good and Bad Gender Equality"

Newspaper column in Today on March 1, 2008.

We all want to be the boss. At least some of us want to be the big boss at some, hopefully not-too-distant, future. It is good to be the boss. However, it takes quite a bit to get there. It takes credentials, maturity, technical expertise, people skills, communication and articulation, not to mention charisma and connections. Even with all the superior qualities, being a boss is tough. Being a good boss is even tougher; it is a tricky balancing act. One tricky question is, how friendly can you get with your team? [...]

Read the rest of "How Friendly is too Friendly?"

How to retain quant talent? Published in the Wilmott Magazine, March 2008.

The trouble with quants is that it is hard to keep them anchored to their moorings. Their talent is in high demand for a variety of reasons. The primary reason is the increasing sophistication of the banking clients, who demand increasingly more structured products with specific hedging and speculative motives. Servicing their demand calls for a small army of quants supporting the trading desks and systems. [...]

Read the rest of "Quant Talent Management"

How to turn around gracefully? Newspaper column in Today on 19 Jan 2008.

Elton John is right, sorry is the hardest word. It is hard to admit that one has been wrong. Harder still is to find a way forward, a way to correct one’s past mistakes. It often involves backtracking. [...]

Read the rest of "When the Going Gets Tough, Turn Around!"

How to market sophistication, a la francaise! Newspaper column in Today on 5 Jan 2008.

Sophistication is a French invention. The French are masters when it comes to nurturing, and more importantly, selling sophistication. Think of some expensive (and therefore classy) brands. Chances are that more than half of the ones that spring to mind would be French. And the other half would be distinctly French sounding wannabes. [...]

Read the rest of "Sophistication"

This article that appeared in the Jan 2008 issue of the Wilmott Magazine explores the fascinating numerical phenomenal of the first digits in real-life numbers.

[...] The calculated creativity in tax returns seldom pays off. Your calculations of expected pain and suffering are never consistent with the frequency with which IRS audits you. The probability of an audit is, in fact, much higher if you try to inflate your tax deductions. You can blame Benford for this skew in probability stacked against your favor. [...]

Read the rest of "Benford and Your Taxes"

A frank, but strange, look at global warming. Are we a virus on the earth? And is the global warming a bout of fever? Published in the Singaporean newspaper, Today, on 1 Dec 2008.

[...] The end result of a viral infection is always gloomy. Either the host succumbs or the virus gets beaten by the host’s immune systems. If we are the virus, both these eventualities are unpalatable. We don’t want to kill the Earth. And we certainly don’t want to be exterminated by the Earth. But those are the only possible outcomes of our viral-like activity here. It is unlikely that we will get exterminated; we are far too sophisticated for that. In all likelihood, we will make our planet uninhabitable. We may, by then, have our technological means of migrating to other planetary systems. In other words, if we are lucky, we may be contagious! [...]

Read the rest of "Human Virus"

The Asian Tsunami two and a half years ago unleashed tremendous amount energy on the coastal regions around the Indian ocean. What do you think would’ve have happened to this energy if there had been no water to carry it away from the earthquake? I mean, if the earthquake (of the same kind and magnitude) [...]

Read the rest of "Tsunami"

A whacky look at the life of a quant in Singapore. Published in the Wilmott Magazine in Nov 2007.

[...] Among the highly skilled workforce are scattered a hundred or so typically timid and self-effacing souls with bulging foreheads and dreamy eyes behind thick glasses. They are the Singaporean quants, and this short article is their story. [...]

Read the rest of "Quant Life in Singapore"

On how to handle rumors at the work place. Newspaper column in Today on 27 Oct. 2007

[...] There is a city underground. Parallel to the world of corporate memos and communication meetings, this rumour city trades information, often generating it as needed. [...]

Read the rest of "Rumour Mills"