-
I don’t have a pet. I can appreciate pets from afar, particularly dogs, but I wouldn’t touch them. And especially cats. Cat fur — even the sight of fur balls — triggers my asthma. Fortunately the condo where I live has a no-pets policy. So the most that I do to appreciate pets is liking…
-
You can finish reading Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz in just one night. That’s what I did. At more than 200 pages, I didn’t expect to breeze through this book. The chapters are straight to the point and have crisp prose — a…
-
Kakuzo Okakura’s turn-of-the-twentieth-century classic is a fascinating ode to one of Japan’s most hallowed traditions: tea. Where it came from; how it’s cultivated, harvested, and stored; how it found its way to the West and how it captivated it; how it’s prepared for the famed tea ceremony, the height of elevating the mundane to utmost…
-
My dream job would be one where I would solve business problems creatively, serving as an advocate for employees, a sculptor of culture, a voice and conscience of the organization. Image created with Canva Magic Media
-
A good leader strikes an optimal balance between managing work to achieve goals and managing people with respect. I’m fortunate to have encountered a few such leaders in my 15 years in professional life. One of them promoted me in less than a year, saying I deserved it, considering the outstanding skillset I brought to…
-
I fondly remember my childhood in a rural, coastal town in the Philippines. I was surrounded by the love of my parents, grandparents, and friends. A few of the moments that I recall vividly: Building milk-box birdhouses with my father Searching for beautiful seashells at the nearby beach with my friends on some late afternoons…
-
The atomic bomb. The issue of nuclear armament is complex and brings with it a complicated context. But putting myself in the shoes of the thousands of innocent who perished in Hiroshima, and the threat we are now actually under because of the advances in nuclear weapons since the Second World War, I say it…
-
Data Analyzing Robot Youth Lifeform — a.k.a. DARYL. That was the young, baseball-playing, android-robot protagonist that gave the ’80s movie its title and me my name. My mother was so fond of the character that she wanted to call her firstborn son after him. When I first saw that movie, back in high school, I…
-
I give a theme to every year, and this year’s theme is Simplicity. Part of applying this theme to my daily life is discarding everything that does not really contribute to my one, very personal, Essential Intent. A few of the things I’ve let go so far: Irrelevant email newsletters Unused or worn out clothes…
