Stairway To Heaven

Last week, I met Prabhu, a programme manager, for coffee. He is also a lecturer at NUS and was pursuing his PhD at the SeSaMe Lab more than ten years ago, around the time I was doing my Final Year Project (FYP) at the database lab. Although we were in different stages of our academic journeys, our paths crossed back then, and it was great to reconnect after all these years. I reached out to him because I had been feeling anxious about what to do next with my AI storytelling platform, Kakis.ai . Recently, it received some public attention through its collaboration with Alibaba Cloud and HeritageSG in an AI storytelling video challenge . While that was encouraging, it also made me confront some uncomfortable questions. AI is an incredibly competitive space. New models and products emerge almost daily, particularly from the U.S. and China, where many of the frontier AI models are developed. I found myself wondering: Should I continue investing my time and energy into this? Can I realisti...

Eight years ago, my then-girlfriend and I made our first World Cup bet. It was 2018, a teenager named Mbappé was tearing through his first World Cup, and we were still in our dating days — the kind of couple who turns everything into a small competition. We each picked a champion, shook hands, and a tradition was born. Four years later, in 2022, we did it again — this time with a one-year-old on our laps who contributed mostly by chewing on the remote. And now, in 2026, the game has grown into a full five-person family draft, with rules, priorities, and one very opinionated five-year-old. The rules Simple, but sacred: everyone picks before the tournament starts, picks are made in priority order, and — most importantly — you cannot pick a team someone else already took . First come, first served. The stakes: bragging rights, and a "potential award" that Grandma takes very, very seriously. Pick #1: The five-year-old oracle Our son got first priority — house rules favor the youn...

In the past month, I was involved in the renovation of our new home. Though it was not a big project, it did draw quite some attention from the family, as many small renovation decisions need to be discussed before consolidation. Indeed, I acted more like the project lead and coordinated between the contractors and the family members. Yesterday morning, my wife and I went there together to inspect the current status. She is quite satisfied with the result.  (Image of trees from a lounge room of my new apartment) Wifey loves to summarize and improve with feedback. As it's close to CNY,  she asks how my company is doing and what the plan is for next year. I shared besides the multimodal video AI agent, I am also working on two other AI initiatives.  One is related to prudent AI for more constrained industries such as manufacturing, finance, and healthcare. This initiative is primarily led by a Singaporean partner, who has deep business connections and foresees a potential f...

It comes pretty naturally for me to use AI agents for different tasks, and I'm a paying customer for some of them for the team, as well as for my own use. The reason our team continues to pay for these services is related to a brutal fact: it's too costly to hire skilled human beings to do the work. Take some of the tools, for example.  We used Lovable for prototyping and diagram creation. It helped our team communicate more easily with customers, especially SMEs and individual entrepreneurs seeking idea validation. SMEs/Individuals may not be able to commit to a full project due to limited budget and a lack of tech expertise. They expect a tech consultation that helps them visualise their ideas and map the workflow, and identify the gaps on why/which it may/may not be the right idea to proceed at the moment.        (Shao and my AI Agents created using ChatGPT) The traditional MVP/POC process will be more costly and time-consuming. With the right tools, like L...

I haven’t been writing blog posts for some time. Part of the reason is that I’ve been in firefighting mode—constantly dealing with urgent issues without the mental space to reflect deeply or think long-term. I also didn’t yet have the clarity or wisdom to prioritize effectively from the list of tasks and ideas in front of me. But with some recent strategic shifts, more than a month of deep thought and open conversations, the help of advancing AI tools, and exposure to quality content both online and offline, I’ve started to form a clearer picture of what’s happening now—and what steps I want to take next. 1. A Proactive Mindset Toward AI a. Empowered by AI Tools Recent AI advancements have made it significantly easier for me to execute a variety of tasks. Whether it's writing proposals, generating images, or even managing some accounting work, these tools have increased my efficiency by 50%–100%. More importantly, they give me the feeling of being backed by a diverse team—some...

I recently enjoyed a swift lunch with an old friend, who was once my roommate during our school years. We had an in-depth conversation about life and career. To my mind, his thought process is far more mature than mine, and his decisions seem more future-oriented. Although our conversation was private, I believe certain insights should be shared with a broader audience. 1. The Role of Luck in Life.  His life experiences have significantly highlighted the impact of luck. While I'm not ready to accept this fully, similar sentiments have been echoed by other successful and wise individuals I've interacted with. I also recently watched an informative video that lucidly explains the 80/20 rule and the principle of luck. The video demonstrates through "agent-based modelling" how the wealthiest person isn't necessarily the most talented but is usually someone of average talent who encounters multiple lucky events in life.  I agreed that luck indeed plays a vital role and...

I went on a business trip to KL for a travel conference. It would be good to relook into the user journey as a business traveller, which might help fine-tune our travel-tech product. As a business traveller, there are fewer "must-do" tasks in the itinerary. The event is pre-defined. 1. Speak at the conference on the topic ChatGPT on the 7th of June: 3:20-3:40. 2. A fireside chat with another Speaker on Innovation on the 8th of June: 2:20 - 4:00. Pre-trip planning: 1. Accommodation.  As the event venue is very convenient in the city centre, there are a lot of accommodations to choose from. As long as there are rooms available, and it is within the business budget, it should be fine.  In the past, I used to book from aggregators, such as trip.com/agoda. But after I understand how the hotel membership works, I choose to book directly from the IHG app as a member. It provides good rates, as well as member points.  There could be little changes to the dates to stay, so accommo...

For a considerable duration, my role within the company primarily revolved around resolving immediate crises. It has been quite a while since I seriously reflected on business matters. The initial discussion occurred last Thursday, a day when the majority of the team was operating remotely. I had the opportunity to delve into the company's business strategies with two pivotal team members. We began the dialogue with my intention to develop products that create value. The preliminary question we addressed was, "Who are these products designed for?" I attempted to measure the value through The volume of users utilizing our digital product. The number of businesses employing our B2B solution. However, these benchmarks might be too broad, requiring further specificity for effective execution. Worse, they don't adequately answer the question of "Who". Vinnie suggested that we should focus on the needs of the ultimate customers. For Vinnie, expenditure on children...

At the beginning of 2021, I posted a blog post, saying that I will set no resolution for 2021. Instead, I focused on the experiment of behaviour change, starting from my own personal weight loss. It worked. My weight was 83.7 KG on the 1st of Jan 2021, and 69 kg on the 31st of Dec 2021. There is a weight loss of 14.7KG in a year. It worked because of everyday actions/behaviour changes, which does have good impacts in the long term. The actions are simple to take, as long as I keep them. Eat mostly corn and sweet potatoes for the dinner. Walk/jogging every week. This is considered a successful experiment. This year, I plan to take the same approach to fix some of my personal issues and professional works. Honestly, my personal mental status was pretty bad last year, with pressures from both personal/family and the work during the endemic. One generic bad habit I have to make changes: Easy to get distracted while working on tasks.  When switching between roles and tasks, it was diffi...

After failing to lose weight in three consecutive years, I realize that setting some goals as a resolution doesn't really work.  This year, I decided to take advice from doctors and experts: make some changes in life and keep them as a habit. "Behavior change is a learnable skill, and you can learn it". A few advice which worths taking: 1. Drink more water. The first thing after waking up is to drink some water. And drink more water in a day. 2. Add protein to the breakfast: Add an egg. Sometimes eating an apple is ok. 3. Take a walk/jogging 2-3 times a week. Good habits can last long and be beneficial in the long term. The fact that I failed to lose weight in three consecutive years probably means that it is a habit and behavior issue and I need to solve it in the long term strategy. Another big failure comes from my career. It's our 6th year. In the first three years, it grows. However, after 3 years, Fooyo still stays as a small company, and no radical breakthrough...

It is a war and those who fight and survive might become heroes of tomorrow. Top inspirations I learned from this crisis are as follows: 1. As a company or a government, risk management is super important. Those who manage the risks well and planned ahead could possibly overcome hard times and survive strong. One of the key principles for risk management is to distribute the risks over multiple buckets. To a B2B business or country, the key competitiveness would lie in supply chain management, getting the right suppliers and deliver to the end buyers. In the past, the key decision will be primarily influenced by the cost factor. In a low-risk environment, it would be fine. However, in a high-risk environment, this may break, and cost could be much less a factor than the following two factors: The reliability of the supplier The alternative choices in case of the supply chain breakdown. This reminds me of the fruits suppliers in SG's supermarkets. Even for oranges, it c...

The Coronavirus has certainly brought lots of impacts to businesses and people's lives. As a junior independent thinker, I have been observing the trends and making some judgments/predictions. 1. Observations:  There is a leadership crisis in some countries. The reactions of the politicians to COVID-19 reflected weak leaderships for some countries. Examples are immature decisions such as “herd immunity" which could harm the general public. This may be deeply linked to the side effects of capitalism and the country's fundamental operational logic. A nation could fail if their leaders are weak, especially during a crisis. The world is getting more competitive and risky, relying purely on individual and business interests may bring some short-term happiness, but will set a bomb for the long term. Government leadership will matter more in the future. Among the countries, I would say China and Singapore are doing relatively great. Despite some delays and information trans...

I am turning 30 years old by April this year.  This is an important age, which is called "而立之年", meaning "Year of Independence" in Chinese. I should set a few long term goals and do something beyond the current being. Time flies and life changes all of a sudden. I live all by myself since 18 years old. Then I met my wife and got married. A life with two people is quite complexed. We need to be more caring and thoughtful to think on the other's feet. Without a sign, my wife got pregnant, though our plan is to have it 6-9 months later. Now it's getting more challenging. The expectation of being a good husband is getting much higher, and I strongly find myself not doing good enough. I am quite careless. I forget things and am not very efficient/elegant. I sometimes do things twice, or even a few times to get it right. I do not know how to take care of people. I do not have the life experiences/common knowledge of what other people may need and how I could ...

It was a tough year in 2019.  Lots of pains and quite a number of gains. I did see some good signs of improvements in Jan 2020, and I am expecting a much better year for 2020. Step 1:  List down the best things of the past year. 1. Fooyo won several awards for our tourism digitalization products, especially the products targetting Chinese outbound tourists in-destination experience enhancements  on the WeChat platform. We are on the right path to dig out the business models of making it a scalable B2B2C business/product. WeChat Developer Challenge  August 2019 @ Singapore  December 2019 @ Berlin, Germany We have successfully created several tourism digitalization solutions such as Mini Destination/Attraction, Mini Mall, and Mini Hotel, and we are now one of the first batch WeChat Certified Service Providers(5 global teams only outside China).  There are also other awards that help Fooyo expose our businesses in the global market. ...

It was a fruitful year in 2018. I really feel thankful for what I and my team have achieved so far. However, the coming year of 2019 will be more challenging, I have already mentally prepared for it. Step 1:  List down the best things of the past year. 1. My wedding was blessed at the witness of parents from both sides. It was the most important event of the year. My wife successfully found a job and our family started to settle down here in Singapore. 2. Fooyo has some progresses in the China market. We exhibited in the Smart China Expo in Chongqing and we are setting up a JV with the Chongqing Tourism Investment Group. It'll likely be a tough journey ahead, we are gracious for what we have achieved so far.  3. Our apartment luckily went through the en-bloc process and my family received quite some investment returns. We bought another new property near the city center. It was lucky. Step 2:  Gracious about things which happened. 1. Thanks to all t...