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So, how is Singapore?
Great! Just as we envisioned!
However, it’s also not all sunshine and roses, as the little annoyances of daily life kick in, something that comes with living anywhere in the world.
Coming here was a big operation, and I’m happy that we settled in within the planned (tight) timeframe. Once arriving, I had a mental shift, realising that there was ‘nowhere to go back to’. At the same time, I also had a sense of urgency, thinking that perhaps we could have come sooner and made this life change earlier. With that said, all is in good timing, and I believe everything happens at the right time.
(picture) Our belongings being packed onto a container, shipped across the sea, and arriving in mid July.
One of those little annoyances is what Edward refers to as the ‘pidgin English’ that locals speak, consisting of grammatically ‘incorrect’ sentences and phrases. It can be hard to understand what people mean or what they are referring to, leading to longer communication times and general confusion.
For now, we have settled into an apartment with some rented furniture—just the bare essentials of what we need to survive. It reminds me of camping in the woods, except we are camping in our apartment.
Favourite Finds & Recommendations
Podcasts: 3-hour-long Interview with TSMC founder Morris Chang in full English. I’ve recently read Morris's autobiography, volume one (written in Chinese), and have discovered many interesting things about his journey and early life, including how he signed up for an English Literature class in the first semester of Harvard, where he studied the Odyssey with high school English skills he had at the time. Morris is a significant figure in the company that he founded at 56 years old, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, and has shaped the company into one of the most valuable companies in the world. Today, TSMC supplies most of the chips Apple uses to make iPhones. After reading about his story, I wanted to find interviews and hear him speak, but was met with a minimal number of resources available online.
Some interesting things about him:
In his early years, Morris wanted to be a writer, not an engineer
After graduating from university, Morris took his PhD qualifying exams twice and failed both times. He considered this failure a major disappointment, but later became grateful that it led him to start his career instead.
Morris received job offers from both Sylvania and Ford Motors, with only a one-dollar difference in monthly salary (around $400 USD at the time of 1955). He decided to call the manager at Ford Motors to ask them to match the offer, but they refused, which is how he came to join Sylvania (an early player in the semiconductor industry) - a company and industry he had never heard of before.
After 3 years of working at Sylvania, Morris joined Texas Instruments, where he worked on the production line as head engineer to improve the production yield of the “NPN diffusion semiconductor” from a ‘consistent 0%’ to a ‘stable 20-30%’. This is compared to a yield of 5% at the time, produced by IBM.
Within a couple of years, Texas Instruments had a growing semiconductor business, with Morris as the head of R&D, and they decided to offer Morris a chance at a full-salary and full-expenses-paid opportunity to pursue a PhD degree at a university of his choice.
Morris decided to apply to Stanford University and studied intensely for the entrance exams. He was accepted and was ultimately able to complete his dream of earning a PhD.
Morris eventually moved to Taiwan in 1985, at the invitation of then-Executive Yuan Premier Sun Yun-suan, Executive Yuan Councillor Li Kuo-ting, and ITRI Chairman Hsu Hsien-hsiu. He later founded TSMC in 1987. He eventually returned to Chinese as his primary language after years of thinking and speaking mainly in English.
Music: Yo-Yo Ma - Nature at Play: J.S. Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 (Live from the Great Smoky Mountains) A relaxing classical music clip.
Book: The papers of Lee Kuan Yew : speeches, interviews and dialogues, v. 1-20.
I found 10 thick books full of all the important speeches, interviews and dialogues of Lee Kuan Yew in the National Library of Singapore. Reading the actual transcripts from different periods of Lee Kuan Yew’s political career revealed a new layer I had not yet gleaned from reading biographies and books about LKY.
Some of the things I noticed from the transcripts:
LKY uses his wit and humour to deflect unwanted or confrontational questions
LKY has a sharp insight into many political issues of his time. Henry Kissinger referred to this as the ‘reason why he gets access to all the top leaders of any country he goes to’, because they consider his analysis sound and believed they could genuinely learn from him.
LKY is very careful about how each word he says could be interpreted by the listener, by the media, and by competing political parties. He does not let any ambiguous or vague word go.
As his speeches go on, the key concepts get re-explained in simpler and simpler words.
At the beginning of his speeches, LKY takes a few moments to ‘prepare the audience’, by highlighting the key problems, why they should listen, why they should care about the topic discussed, and how it affects them.
LKY plans for the long term; he thinks in terms of decades and centuries when it comes to the vision he wants to create for Singapore. He is one of the few political leaders, let alone individuals, that I know of who has such long-term planning timeframes. This is also a philosophy I try to implement in my own life whenever possible, and I believe a certain degree of success comes from long-term planning.
Looking Ahead
Unfortunately I didn’t get much chance to take photos, but more will come, I promise! Once our place is fully set up with a guest bedroom, I’ll share more details about it and what it’ll be like when you visit!
Kind regards,
Kate
P.S. My favourite thing about you is {{ My favourite thing about you is | your smile }}
