No Blanket Solutions

There exists in the spoken language, a supreme contradiction. A sentence that manages to be simultaneously profound in its humility and stunning in its arrogance.

"If I can do it, anyone should be able to do it." - every douchebag ever.

Why is this humble? Well, on the surface, it seems like people who say this are modestly describing their achievements as mediocre. They feel that they're not special, so if someone as unexceptional as them can do something, there's no reason why most other people wouldn't be able to do it. For example, I quit smoking almost two years ago. I did it far easier than many people did, with no lingering physical or psychological side-effects despite having been a pack-a-day guy for the better part of twenty years. No discipline was required; the struggle was non-existent for me. However, I'm also reasonably certain that this isn't that uncommon. There are plenty of people, wired the same way as me, who could accomplish that. Acknowledging that you're not special, is humility.

Why is this arrogant? At the same time,  if I were to claim that I quit smoking without much fuss, and there is something wrong with people who can't simply follow my example; that's a problematic stance to take. Assuming that oneself is the standard on which everyone else should be based around, is both immature and pretty egoistical. It lacks self-awareness.

And both positions are wrong.

We're not all the same.

They're wrong for the very uncomplicated reason that we're all built different. We don't all come off some assembly line with the exact same characteristics. There are significant variances across data points like culture, upbringing, physical and environmental.

For example, people who spent their formative years in a Southeast Asian multicultural country like Singapore or Malaysia would have significantly less trouble picking up a third or fourth language as opposed to, say, an Englishman born and bred in the UK. Incidentally, that's why people coo and act impressed when a white guy speaks Mandarin (even if his pronounciation is dogshit). Whereas nobody bats an eyelid when an Asian guy speaks English well. Why? Because a white dude even attempting to speak anything other than dodgy English is impressive, whereas for an Asian guy it's just another Tuesday.

Is it fair? Well, of course not; but if we're going to acknowledge that everyone's built different, then nothing is fair.

The tech space

"There are no blanket solutions" is a favorite refrain of mine, because it's true especially in the tech space. You can have all the best practices in the world, but they have to be evaluated against the exact context in which you're applying them. The concept of best practices is a good thing, don't get me wrong, but only if not applied blindly.

Frameworks aren't always the way to go; I've said this before over and over. They're often the way to go in software development, but not in every situation.

Not every data storage solution has to include a database.

Not every 2FA solution
looks the same.

Not every 2FA solution looks the same - some involve texts to mobile phone and some involve a third-party authenticator app.

You wouldn't use Python to code every damn thing, just the same way you wouldn't use Java to do it. At least, I hope not.

While we're at it, almost every organization's implementation of Agile Methodology looks different from the next.

But while all I've said so far is uncontroversial, that's for the tech space. The software development context.

In a personal context

Someone once told me he wanted to be like me. I had a place of my own. I was doing well financially with no debt. While I wasn't filthy rich, I spent money without needing to think too hard about it. And above all, I was chill. I didn't let what I didn't have, bother me too much.

And all that was before I got blissfully married and really started stepping up my game at life.

Possibly, to an outsider who was just watching me live my life, it looked like I had everything without needing to turn to drugs or alcohol in order to cope. Furthermore, it looked like all that was needed to achieve what I achieved, was to live my life the way I did. Sadly, I had to disabuse this person of that fantasy. He was not going to achieve the same things I did by living like me, simply because he wasn't me.

There's more than
one path to the
rainbow.

My achievements aren't spectacular by any means. An apartment, a job and a spouse. Spare cash in the bank. The means to take care of my immediate family. These things are achievable by the vast majority of people. All I've really done is earn as much money as I can while living a very modest lifestyle. And that's the hard part.

You see, not everyone can, or wants to, live life the way I do, as if I were still drawing an income of just under SGD 3,000 a month. It takes a specific kind of person to happily sacrifice pleasure for stability. Not everyone has the same experience and needs. Not everyone has the same personality. I know plenty of people who would struggle mightily with a simple existence.

Overseas vacations, wine and cheese, cab rides, expensive pets, gym and club memberships - I won't miss any of those things because they're not the kind of things a guy like me cares about. But again, not everyone is like me in this regard. And honestly, for the sake of Singapore's economy, I really hope not. (Part of the reason why I can live the way I do, is because other people have this habit of buying pricey shit they don't need. So keep on doing what you do, guys; you're awesome.)

Therefore, it's not a simple matter of glibly saying "live life this way". Not everyone will take to my chosen lifestyle the way I have, or reap the exact same rewards from doing so. Why should anyone travel the same path and have the same outcomes as me when they're fundamentally different from me? That makes no sense, does it?

In a nutshell...

The mistake most people make is to assume that everyone wants the same things that they do, or at everyone is built the same way. That's why you have well-intentioned but severely misguided people going around advising others to have kids or go to Church or become a vegetarian because those things have benefitted them... and they assume that these things will benefit other people in exactly the same way.

People can certainly achieve the same things I have, or more... but they're going to have to find their own pathway to it.

Stay unique,
T___T

A Software Developer's Vacation in... Singapore (Part 3/3)

Another day of my vacation was spent covering the locations I hung out at from the entire year of 2012 and onwards. In the next few years, I would shuttle from company to company, never staying more than a couple years at each one.

2012 to 2013

These were the first years I spent away from the Beach Road / North Bridge Road area.

Novena/Balestier area.

In 2012, I found a job in Goldhill Plaza, in the Novena area. Goldhill Plaza looked pretty much the same when I visited. It's still the color of salmon, shaped like a giant penis reaching up to the sky. I got a kick out of taking a walk around the base of the "shaft" to soak in the vibes of where I used to take my smoke breaks.

Goldhill Plaza

Velocity

In the vicinity, Velocity was as fancy as ever. I never bothered much with that place, or with United Square, though I had a soft spot for the Katong Laksa outlet there. It seems that post-pandemic, prices have risen alarmingly. It's now seven bucks for a small bowl. You know what, at my age I think I could stand to eat less laksa.

Laksa at
United Square

A short walk away, Balestier Road beckoned. The entire stretch, when I last hung out there in 2013, was a throwback to an age long gone. That was where I met my buddies for supper and drinks after a long day in the office. When I last left it, modernity had started to creep in, in places such as Zhongshan Park, which, to be fair, is really pretty.

Zhongshan Park

Balestier Plaza

However, a lot of the old stuff is still there. Balestier Plaza is one such example. When I visited, I had a rollicking good time wandering its cold empty halls and soaking in the retro vibes. Aside from that, the entire area has a lot of old architecture. It seems to be one of the areas that the Singapore Government has never been able to fully get its mitts into.

This was the final part of my tour for revisiting former offices in this area. This next part was set solidly in the east. Interestingly, it was all around the Tai Seng and MacPherson area up till the year 2017.

Paya Lebar Road

2013 to 2014

During this year, I ended up at this grand-looking building known as Starhub Green. It was pretty modern and upscale - glass walls, glossy foyer, hipster cafes. I remember ending up here and thinking, rather naively, "I've made it!"

Starhub Green

Honestly, I didn't hang out at this area any longer than I really needed to. This was merely another stop on my quest to ascend the pay scale.

2015 to 2016

The next company was at Tai Seng, at least until they folded. We were at this building, and visually it was a pretty big downgrade. LHK2 is a long oblong on the map, and pretty easy to miss if you don't know what you're looking for.

LHK2

It sure was nice to see their smoking point again, though. What fond memories I have.

LHK2's
smoking point.

The surroundings were more ghetto than the last one, but I expect this was just a matter of what the company could afford. I didn't hang out here; this was the year I was studying for my Specialist Diploma in Mobile Apps Development and I just didn't have the time. At the time I was working there, most of the surroundings were under construction - that day in December when I visited, places like Tai Seng Point had sprung up.

The tragedy was that I had been planning on serving my time with this company until the time came to move on. It was one of those ruthless business decisions where I use a company as a springboard to bigger and better things. Unfortunately for me, they crashed and burned before I could pull the trigger. Kind of like your spouse dying and turning you into a widow/widower even though you already planned on a divorce.

2017

Next I was at Vertex. It looked just the same as ever in 2025, as it did back in 2017. It's a huge building that houses numerous showrooms at the ground level, and tons of smaller company offices squirreled away in its upper floors. And one of those companies was a startup I worked in.

Vertex

This was the company I actually had more of a soft spot for, as opposed to the last two. This one was at a tech startup where I was finally working alongside people who knew as much as me, or more. I was here less than a year, but this was where I stepped up the intensity back to 12-hour days, almost 7 days a week, because I enjoyed the work and I enjoyed my co-workers.

After 2017, I ended up back in Bugis area, where I hung out with my new colleagues at the new Funan and sometimes ate at Peninsula Plaza together. And thus I spent another three years until COVID-19 hit the world.

2020 to now

I've spent it mostly working from home and hanging out around my neighborhood, as stated at the beginning. Which was why I wanted to go get to know my island again.

I visited other places from my past during my vacation, of course. My old schools were I spent my formative years, my late grandfather's old estate, my late grandmother's neighborhood... all of these held delightful memories as new  developments were juxtaposed among the old (and some ancient) ones.

In conclusion!

This wasn't just a vacation in Singapore. This was a retreading of old stomping grounds, making contact with my past and taking the time to appreciate how I got here.

In these days, I relived the career struggles I experienced, and marvelled at the obstacles I had to overcome. Sometimes we all need that moment of introspection. To remind ourselves that if we've come this far, we can totally do this.

It's okay to vaykay!
T___T

A Software Developer's Vacation in... Singapore (Part 2/3)

The next part of my little vacation in Singapore was spent revisiting offices I worked in from 2009, up to a few years after. I was at the stage where I was finding my feet as a web developer, and struggling to break through that SGD 3,000 monthly wage ceiling.

2009

It was a weird point in my career, as my company in Middle Road moved operations to a little basement office in Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium, around Havelock Road. I remember spending countless nights in the office slaving away writing code. The air-conditioning was on twenty-four hours a day, it being a hotel and all. When I went back to visit it during my leave, that office had been replaced by some nightclub. Beside it, you can see the stairs I used to descend from the lobby to the office.

Holiday Inn
Singapore Atrium

My old office, now a nightclub.

Concorde Shopping Center

Wandering around the basement led me to Concorde Shopping Center. The provision shop I used to frequent was gone. Around it were suspicious-looking women in individual shops badgering me to go in for a "massage". One of them even pulled open her labcoat and flashed me. Ten years ago, I probably would have found this interesting. Now it was just... weird AF.

Zion Road

Great World City

There would be nights when I wandered the area aimlessly to take a break from the screen. During those times, I would go as far as Great World City, which was this huge-ass mall up along Zion Road. Now, I rarely actually went inside, as it was usually closed by the time I passed by. It was significantly more convenient to get there now, since the Havelock and Great World MRT stations are currently in existence.

Zion Riverside Food Center

Singapore River

No, the place I actually hung out at more often wasn't Great World City, but the block of shops just across the road. There was Zion Riverside Food Center (it may not have been called that at the time) and some bars, just by the Singapore River.

In fact, when I visited during my vacation, it struck me that this was the first time I'd seen the Singapore  River from this exact vantage point during the day. Amazing.

2010 to 2011

At that point, I had spent most of my career in the general vicinity of Bugis Street. This was soon to change as I landed a job further up, to the other, less glamorous, end of Beach Road. It wasn't that far away, but the vibes were markedly different. This was the year I spent in Golden Mile Complex, which was under reconstruction works when I visited it recently.

Golden Mile Complex

It was just a year, but what a year. I pulled twelve-hour days as was my wont. I saw things like barfights, sexual predators in toilets and the sordid nightlife that characterized life in Golden Mile Complex, colloquially known as Little Thailand. After sundown, Golden Mile Complex just turned into a completely different animal.

Golden Mile Complex, Golden Mile Tower and Golden Mile Food Center formed what I liked to call "the Golden Triangle".

Beach Road, again.

Golden Mile Food Center

Golden Mile Tower

Golden Mile Tower was further up Beach Road, and Golden Mile Food Center was on the other side of the road, housing the Beach Road Army Market. Shopping there is a habit I picked up from National Service, one that I never quite managed to break. Working nearby in Golden Mile certainly didn't help! The shops were still there when I visited. The food looked largely the same. Ah, nostalgia.

Nearby were the ultra-retro complexes known as Jalan Sultan Textile Center and Sultan Plaza.
Behind Sultan Plaza, was a little playground where I spent several evenings with my then-girlfriend, or drinking in seedy bars with my buddies. There were a ton of them in these parts. I've gone almost completely dry in the intervening years, but it was still fun to reminisce.

Sultan Plaza

Playground behind
Sultan Plaza

And then there was the Textile Center, the sister to the ancient creaking Sultan Plaza.

Jalan Sultan
Textile Center

Special little park behind
the Textile Center.

This little park behind the Textile Center may look like just like any other, but it holds special meaning for me. In 2017 or so, when I could finally afford to take another then-girlfriend (who's now Mrs TeochewThunder) out somewhere nice, it was to the classic Nan Hua Chang Fish Head Steamboat Restaurant just a street away, and we came here for a post-meal snuggle later.

I know, this makes it sound like I really got around, but it was just those two ladies. Around these parts, anyway.

Next

An exploration of offices from 2011 onward.

A Software Developer's Vacation in... Singapore (Part 1/3)

In recent years, I've been writing about my vacations in different parts of Malaysia to meet up with friends I made online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, I didn't leave Singapore at all. Instead, I still cleared my Annual Leave - but in Singapore. This was more than just me being a cheap bastard - I mean, I am a cheap bastard, but there's more at play here.

You see, back in 2019, one of my several uncles, David, died. He hadn't even turned sixty. I saw my Aunt Serene at the wake, in a wheelchair. For reasons we won't get into, Aunt Serene was only ten months older than me and we played together a lot as kids. This would be the last time I would see her alive, for she succumbed to a brain aneurysm just a year later. Then two years ago, the twin brother of one of my friends passed on from a heart attack. He was only a couple years older than me.

Rest well, guys.

Now, granted, I would consider myself a significantly healthier and fitter specimen than any of the ones who've died, rest their souls. This, however, taught me not to take anything for granted. Around my age, anything can happen. I am going to celebrate the fact that I am alive and able to walk... by being alive and walking.

The past five years of working from home meant that I hadn't really needed to leave the neighborhood very often. I hadn't really seen how Singapore had changed post-pandemic. 

Initially, I went through the places I hung out as a kid, but eventually, inevitably, this turned to revisiting old workplaces because my career took up so much of my life. And I've always had a soft spot for old malls compared to some of the more modern cookie-cutter fare out there. It's not that the old stuff is objectively better; there's just a certain charm about the old-fashioned double rectangular layouts that speaks to me.

Today, I want to go through some of the sights I saw in my wanderings as I revisited the places I used to work through my long and storied career. Bear in mind that I did not visit these places chronologically, but I will be recounting them in a certain order, for clarity.

Early to mid 2000s

My career began after graduating from University, amid an economic downturn around 2002. After months of temp work and putting myself out there, I landed a job as Desktop Support at a legal firm. The pay wasn't great, and the prospects sucked ass... but it was better than what I had currently, which was pretty much nothing.

North Bridge Road

Peninsular Plaza

The office was in Peninsula Plaza along North Bridge Road, a place mostly visited by the Burmese and Indians. Upon my visit during my vacation, the building seemed to now be inhabited by small Thai businesses from the collapse of Golden Mile Complex. It really seemed to be a case of seeing how many grocery shops and hair salons one could squeeze into four floors of an old-fashioned rectangular layout.

Aside from that, Peninsula Plaza didn't seem to have changed too much from twenty years ago.

Funan

Across the street was Funan, one of the places that my then-Manager often sent me to, to purchase tech supplies. The last time I ventured there was in 2018 (more on that later), and it had completely changed from the Funan I knew as a teenager, or even as a young adult. It had become all kinds of fancy. There was a hotel, and a rock-climbing wall. Upscale restaurants. The works. I don't begrudge evolution, but honestly I didn't want to rub my own face in it either. I had places that held memories that I could actually revisit.

Peninsular Shopping Complex

The basement.

Next door to Funan was Peninsula Shopping Complex (not to be confused with Peninsula Plaza) and Excelsior Shopping Center, which, if I'm being honest, are so old and decrepit and joined at the hip they might as well be one unit. The basement held all the stuff that enthralled me as a kid - I remember blowing much of my earliest paycheck on a belt and some rocker t-shirts. They still have this cool stuff down there, and it doesn't look like it's let up in the past three decades. If anyone's got a hankering to cosplay as some stereotypical badass biker, you could do worse than start here. Just for old times sake, I dropped a bunch of cash on some Iron Maiden t-shirts. Probably got ripped off, but whatevs, it's just money.

Excelsior
Shopping Center

This was creepy.

A little bit of exploration in Excelsior Shopping Center made me realize just how ghetto this place was. I'm all for it, but there were times it got a little creepy. Like this little stairway, for instance. Total horror movie vibes.

The dodgy-looking ladies at the upper floors rapping on the glass windows as I passed, certainly did nothing to make this experience less creepy.

The Adelphi

The colorful building known as The Adelphi was another stop. They still sold vinyl records and CDs, imagine that. There was even a shop that dealt in vintage action figures. That took me way back. Now I've never ventured to The Adelphi much even when I was working nearby, but on this occasion I'm glad I stepped in.

Mid to end 2000s

After three years, the firm relocated to Beach Road. This was the more upscale end of Beach Road near to the Esplanade.

Beach Road

The Gateway was an acutely-shaped building where I spent another three years of my career.  The shelter between the towers, pictured below, wasn't there during my time.

The Gateway

The area in between the two glass towers was where I took my smoke breaks. I'd forgotten how beautiful the surroundings are.

The Gateway's gardens

Back in the day, I spent time around Shaw House along Beach Road. This is what Shaw House looks like now, being reconstructed, but back then it was my goto for horror movies. I distinctly remember watching Ringu here.

Shaw House

The surrounding areas have also evolved. Tan Quee Lan Street and Liang Seah Street appear to have undergone the most changes, with regards to the shops and businesses open. These days it's a lot of Chinese restaurants.

Golden Landmark
Shopping Complex

Another stop I made was at junction of Victoria Street and Ophir Road, where the decaying sight of Golden Landmark Shopping Complex stood. I can't believe that dump is still around; I used to go in to get my hair cut.

2008

In 2008, I ended my Desktop Support career and moved into web development. This was at a little company inside Bylands Building along Middle Road, just a couple streets away from my previous company. Now, if there's ever a timeless spot, it's the entire area around Middle Road. 

Middle Road

Bylands Building

On the other side of Middle Road was the Four-face Buddha and Fu Lu Shou Complex. This remains a classic. It looked like this almost twenty years ago, and looks the same now when I visited it last month. Really took me back to the evenings spent wandering this area while I ruminated on why my code was failing.

Four-face Buddha and temples

Fu Lu Shou
Complex

Just a bit further pas this was Bugis Night Market, and to my everlasting joy, it was going strong! There's a certain charm about it that rivals Kuala Lumpur's Petaling. that since this is Singapore where space is a premium, things were a lot more claustrophobic.

Bugis Night Market

Parklane Shopping Mall

At the ass-end of Middle Road, I took a few minutes to go through Parklane Shopping Mall. Back in the day, as teenagers, my buddies and I came here for pool and gaming. It was still going during my professional years, but that day when I visited, it was like a morgue - cold, lifeless and dull. Damn, this is sad.

Next

Revisiting offices I worked in 2009 to 2012.

Making the contact tracing effort mandatory, redux

Back in 2021, I wrote about the mobile app TraceTogether and its use during the COVID-19 pandemic. My rhetoric back then, in hindsight, was fiery; but I stand by what I said.

I had thought that this issue was behind us. However, last couple weeks, four entire years after I last mentioned it, the issue arose again in Parliament. A bill was passed - the Public Sector (Governance) Act (Amendment) Bill, which allows for sharing of citizens' data with bodies other than public agencies.

TraceTogether

During the debate, Opposition MP Kenneth Tiong brought up the fact that in 2021, Singaporeans discovered that data collected by TraceTogether could legally be shared with the police for the purposes of criminal investigation, and this had resulted in damage in terms of public trust. 

Minister of State for Digital Development and Information Jasmin Lau refuted this, and predictably, this led to a flurry of activity on my Facebook feed. Again, predictably, supports of the current ruling party, the PAP, stoutly re-iterated their trust in the Singapore Government, while supporters of the Opposition did the exact opposite.

Mostly incoherent sycophantic babbling on both sides, if I'm being honest. These days it feels like the most useless political opinions in the world can be found on Social Media. These political fanboys are nuts, and not even in a cool way.

My assertion back then

I was of the opinion that lives were at stake, and certain things such as privacy, had to take a back seat. I honestly do not consider there to be anything controversial about this statement, and would go so far to say that anyone who would knowingly endanger the lives of the public for the sake of their own privacy, is a selfish muppet.

Bring tracked.

Not that I suspect the Singapore Government to be the type to seize any opportunity to obsessively track its citizens like some kind of overbearing control freak Asian parent. However, the potential for abuse existed, no matter how small. The probability was not a non-zero value. But it's no exaggeration when I say, if the Singapore Government's efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 led to them being able to track my whereabouts for the rest of my life, it was a tradeoff I would have taken. Happily.

However...

Certain quarters started spouting some ignorant claptrap in support of the ruling party. They claimed that anyone who objected to having their data tracked back then, had something to hide. Anyone whose conscience was clear surely would not object to having their data tracked for the greater good.

Oh FFS, children.

It's a principle of privacy. Yes, I'm sure there were those who had plenty to hide, but generally, people were objecting out of principle and not because they were planning to commit acts of moral indecency. Anyone who can't see that, either isn't familiar with the concept of principles, or has none to begin with.

Form-filling.

I had to deal with this principle several years ago when I bought an insurance policy. An insurance agent came to my place and proceeded to have me fill out a form as a matter of routine. Among the questions in the form were gems such as "have you contracted HIV or any STDs in the past year?" and the agent actually asked me this question out loud. In front of my mother.

Wow. This bloody idiot, I swear to God.

The answer was "no", but even if the answer had been "yes", did she really think it was something I would have been comfortable sharing in front of my own goddamn mother? It's the principle of the thing. Whatever happened to professional discretion? Did she somehow think that no one should be allowed to keep personal secrets from their own mother?

So yes... personal privacy as a principle is very real.

Comparisons

It's no comparison, of course. While the principle is the same, the stakes are vastly different. In the case of COVID-19, it was a global pandemic where public health and safety were at stake. In the case of that shockingly indiscreet insurance agent, it was merely a case of bureaucracy. Yes, I'm aware that it could be a lot bigger than that, but it still isn't on the level of public health and safety.

While I value my personal privacy, I don't value it over the lives of others. I certainly do not value anyone's personal privacy over the lives of others, and am mystified at the possibility that anyone could feel otherwise.

It's 2026. This really should be the final time I speak on this.

Not-so-privately,
T___T