eli james

Essays

Malaysia: The Inside View and the Outside View

Applying Behavioural Psychology's 'Inside View' vs 'Outside View' to Malaysia's 14th General Election.

The Two Tiers of Singapore's Tech Companies

There are two tiers of tech companies in Singapore: a good tier and a bad tier.

Generality and Power

How can you learn to learn better?

Vinyl

People buy vinyl for the same reasons they travel to exotic new countries: to find atoms or time in a bit-rich world.

Phnom Penh for Two Days

Impressions from a cowboy town.

This Strange Thing Called Patriotism

How Malaysian must you be, before you consider leaving the country?

The Expat Horizon

The expat horizon is the time limit an expat can survive in a country alien to his or her own.

Principles for Technology Choice

I don't have a lot of time to code. Under my constraints, here are some personal principles for picking technologies.

Thinking about Careers

Some thoughts on careers, from a person at the start.

Where is the Intellectual Capital of Asia?

And if one doesn't exist, should we be worried? Or is the idea of an 'intellectual capital' moot, anyway?

Saigon

Moving to the least developed ASEAN dragon.

The Most Important Class I Took in NUS

Asian universities and the pursuit of truth.

Negative Knowledge and Success Stories

It probably pays to be careful about success stories.

Talent Waste

Is it fair to judge smart people working on getting people to look at more ads?

Actions Speak Louder than Words

Sometimes lessons from business books are pretty much the same thing as old wisdom from my father.

Because Asia

Are there good reasons to be starting a startup in Asia, instead of the valley? Yes, as it turns out.

Leverage

Technology as a lever for change.