How to increase your worth, especially work in a low-pay job?

First, understand that everything in the world is dynamic and constantly changing: our life change all the time, no company always stay rich, and there is no such thing as secure job.

Next, understand that the real value of a person is equal to the perceived value of the person plus the other special experience and skills the person have.

i.e. Real Value = Perceived Value + Skills + Experience

Now, given that a person has a job which paid X amount of salary, for a Y amount of working hours. This still leaves the person with quite a number of hours after work. If this person can spend these times cultivate their hobbies and learn something new, the real value of the person will increase accordingly. Given the unpredictable dynamics in the career world these days, it makes people with additional skill sets looks more interesting and highly sought after. As such the perceived value for this person also increases.

So, how to increase our worth? Use our time wisely 🙂

Watching dramas, gossiping, complaining life won’t help! Do something productive and always learn something new. Otherwise, our value will also drop over time. Why?

Because there is another important hidden rule:

Our perceived value is a function of time. The longer the time, the less we are being valued.

Perceived Value (time) ∝ 1/time

Breathe hackathon – Everyone is a winner, and everyone take back home something meaningful

Last weekend, I went to Breathe hackathon held in Imperial College London. This hackathon focused on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patient, their user journeys and problems facing by patients, carers, and doctors. I have been to many hackathons in the past, but this is truly an incredible hackathon where there were professors, medical doctors, industry experts in the hackathon explaining what COPD is. Prof. Peter Barnes, Dr. Douglas Newbury, Irene, Tess, Sarah Price, to name a few. They all have years of experience and knowledge working with COPD patients and spent their precious weekend with us.

In short, COPD is a devastating disease. It is estimated that 65 millions people are currently affected. For severe stage, people have to fight for every breath they take. Some patients described it as putting a plastic bag in front of them while trying to breathe in. Worst, many people who have mild COPD condition don’t realise they also have this disease. When their lung has deteriorated and suffering major breathing difficulty, it was too late. COPD is an irreversible disease, so once a lung has gone worse, there is currently no technology to reverse it back. And remember, they are also people, just like us, deserve to live properly and nicely.

In the hackathon, our team is called Neon. We have Jack, Mo, Paul, John, and myself. We also had Ian who sadly can’t join us in the weekend. His breathing problem deteriorated a week ago and required rest and treatment (one more reason to make sure we can solve COPD patient problem!). Everyone in the team has their special skills, and we all worked very well together, a lot of collaboration, discussion of ideas, and keeping the communication going all the time. Everyone also helped each other out all the time. It was a great team!

After pivoting 3 main ideas, ranging from e-cigarette, wearable, to pyjamas. Finally, we found KOALA – the first unobtrusive symptom-tracking pendant that allows COPD patients and carers to monitor data and prevent exacerbations, at very low cost. This saves millions/money on hospital visits and gives patients a better control over their disease. Koala gives feedback on respiratory rate, cough patterns, heart rate and stress levels, with no need for patient input.

Why call it Koala? Because it we also want it to be a nice feeling pendant that hugs onto your neck comfortably, and take cares of you, like a lovely Koala bear hugs. We learnt that some people who have COPD feel ashamed and isolating themselves. We want to improve this design to make it looks like a nice designed piece, and make them feel empower, and it is okay to have COPD.

Meet KOALA – Work in progress prototype for tracking symptom related breathing.

Each team was also assigned a mentor from Cambridge Consultants. They all have many specialities and skilled in developing a product, and gave everyone tons of advice. Those mentors were also all volunteered to share their precious weekend with us in this weekend hackathon, and all the way from the Cambridge. Alim, who is our assigned mentor, also helped us consistently and even helped pitch our ideas to other people to get their feedbacks when we are so focused on developing our ideas. Just before the presentation (or so-called pitching), Chris Natt, who has been helping out with organizing the event, also helped us to do some quick drawings to help us visualize the idea better.

After the event, I also met an incredible pitch coach – Annette Kramer. She has a great personality and use a great coaching style. It was so attractive that I can’t help but admire the way she did it. Everyone knows 30s elevator pitch is extremely difficult. She made it simple, effective and impactful. You can also feel she is genuinely helpful in bringing the best our from you.

Throughout the hackathon, everyone has made many new friends, learnt new knowledge and skills from each other, and have lots of fun. Ultimately, at the end of the hackathon, there is a final pitch. Everyone competed to show their ideas. If a team wins the hackathon, then that is great! Winning is definitely a great feeling. It is a good recognition of your idea, team works, execution, and delivering the concept to the judges and audiences. The real prize however, is not the prize or winning the hackathon itself. For me, I believe is the people we met, the people we interacted, and the knowledge we learnt.

Everyone and every team in the hackathon are incredible. All the ideas were impressive, and some pitches were simply amazing. I believe even when the team didn’t win the hackathon, they learnt how to do it better in the next time. These are the priceless experience where you can’t learn from normal life. So everyone one wins one way or another. In addition, Breathe hackathon also made me aware of COPD, and it feels meaningful just to be able to participate in it and contribute in a way that could potentially help them.

I am also thankful for all the talks, sponsors and the organisers for this amazing event. I would also like to thank everyone in the hackathon for being simply amazing and have lots of fun together.

Special thanks to my team (Paul de Panisse, Jack McNeice, John Xin Zhan, and Mohammed Khasawneh) for being simply amazing, and Larissa, Audrey and Joel from ICAH for organising this hackathon so well.

Sponsors:

Breathe Hackathon Sponsors

Privacy, are we losing it?

Ever since the internet of things era begins, companies can get more data out from us. Now, it is becoming a norm that our data is constantly being collected. Our location, our contacts, our preference, and so on.

For example, Windows 10 which collects your computer usage and user preference automatically. Nest who you thought is just a learning thermostat is also collecting your data and sell it to third-party.Now even Spotify is going to collect your location, contacts, etc and they claim is a norm.

Our data is no longer ours. Our privacy is no longer ours. 

It is understandable that with more data we have on a others, we can fine tune the products for them based on preference and their liking. This way, they feel good as the product is matching their preferred experience. It also becomes a customized experience.

However, slowly, we are digitizing ourselves. We are becoming data and numbers. It is like cloning ourselves in the digital world.

Is it really necessary for our data to be collected in this way?

There are research that suggest privacy is about control. We are happy to share some information to someone else if we see fit. But software companies should not force customers to lose that control when they install the software. They should at least let them select right at the beginning what will be collected and let users select which one they are happy to let go.

In addition, who is gaining the benefit?

People who sign up for it may get benefits of a customised experience and improve their satisfaction. But once we share our data, it is really hard for us to know what is being done to our data and if they have been shared to other parties.

For companies, data is money. They can cash in the data they collected and sell it to third party and earn more money from it. For example, Nest sells their data to energy companies, good collects your data and allows third party to have target advertisement toward you. It feels like end users is at the end of the stick, our data got cashed out by companies and we just got more advertisement to ask us to buy more things while they are cashing in through our data?

Sometimes, it makes you wonder, why would we even need to pay for these products and have our personal information given away?

We are just cows in the new digital age. Just like cows, our data is being milk away by companies for their profit.

Are we really okay with this?

One after one, companies are applying the same principle, claiming that it is becoming a norm to share your data. So they started to incorporate data collection as a standard in their technology.

I don’t really believe that everyone is okay with this, it is just that it is hard to migrate to a different platform easily. Once we are locked into a certain ecosystem, it is hard to escape. Since other companies are starting to do the same thing, there is no guarantee they won’t take our data either. We are running out of choice, getting coerced and forced to get used to this new culture.

Are the companies truly to blame?

When people are using Spotify, or other free apps, there are this freemium model where one can choose to use the app for free in return of receiving advertisements. Many people are happy with that. They don’t want to pay to use such service so they happy to trade their data in order to use the service. Although now companies are becoming more active in exploiting the that can be obtained from the user, it is hard to tell if people are still happy to give in.

Data breach

The future of our security is no longer just physical security. Now our information is also being stored into digital space. If we want to protect ourselves, we have to protect in both physical  and digital world. Leaving our data in the hands of others can mean that our data security is no longer in our control. For instance, recent news in Ashley Madison hack released gigabytes of client information online, for anyone to check. In 2013, Target was a target for hackers and 40 million credit card information was compromised. The more we share our data, the more likely we will lose our data even when the companies promised to protect them.

So is is all bad to allow companies to take our data?

Not necessary. Protecting data is a very resource-draining activity. It is like you need to hire a security guard constantly watching your house, but in digital world. The security needs constant security patch and upgrade to safeguard against malware, bloatware, and hackers. There is also no one standard to say a software or connected hardware has sufficient security protection layer in place. So you can’t expect an ISO certificate on software to say it is safe, at least not anytime soon. So it may be a better solution to let a trusted company to manage your data. Because then you can ensure that data is safely protected.

However, the bigger the company is, or the more data the company contains, it is also a higher value target. Because the return of investment from breaching into that company security is huge and lucrative.

I am going to end this blog by saying that there remain a lot of uncertainties, people may slowly getting to realise that their data being milk unfairly, or companies become more people friendly and stop coercing people to share their data. The road in the next decade is going to be very rocky with rapid technology advancement and generating a new physical-digital hybrid world.

The untold story of the beginning of my startup.

People founded a startup for different reasons. I have been asked a few times why I am working on my startup. The truth is, purpose of working for and founding a company of my own didn’t really cross my mind. I didn’t want to create a company because startup is cool and fun. I founded the company and developing this technology because I wish to make our world a safer and better place.

I grow up in a beautiful contry call Malaysia. A country full of beautiful scenery, friendly people and amazing culture. However, life back home are getting more and more worrying. Crimes and violence are everyday news, and happened all around the country. People are scared, even when they are at home. We bar ourselves and lock every door and windows to prevent any intruder from coming in to our house. In a way, our home becomes a prison itself. Rather to contain criminal from coming out, we are actually prisoning ourselves at home to prevent any intruder from coming in. It is not just a matter of paranoid, but a feeling of that unfortunate incidence like those reported in news can happened to any of us, at any time of the day.

Here is a video showing 17 minutes of horror captured by video camera. Even I couldnt bear watching the whole 17 minutes of it. Witnessing the possibility of that those things can happen so spontaneously is enough to make anyone paranoid about their safety. Robbery happened on bright day light on the street. Criminals barge into home to rob the family. Not only people loss their valuable items and money, home is no longer the same. Life is no longer the same. Law failed protect us. Existing home security systems and CCTV also failed to prevent the crime. How can anyone actually feel safe?

I asked myself many times, is there anything I can do to change the world to a better place? Even if I am at the crime scene, will I be able to protect anyone as I am only a mere mortal?

As one person, I have very limited power and often we can be very helpless. However, I discover that there are things that I am good at. I love science and enjoy developing technology. So, maybe there is just a way that I can solve this problem through technology and save many people life. And I am fortunate enough to meet a few people along the way to help build this vision and technology together. Together, we started working on a simple idea to improve people life and develop a new technology to make us safe and better.

And so here is the story of the beginning of Pre.sense.

Placebo effect of doing something

When we have a problem we have to solve, we would want to do something. Even though it may not actually helping the conditions, the effect of doing something itself, with the thought of it will helps, creates a stimulation for our mind to think positively.

In short, it is just another placebo effect. When there is a problem require our attention to solve, out brain is hardwired to do something. Sitting idle and not doing anything usually makes the person more anxious and uncomfortable. Imagine if someone suddenly lost contact with her child and does not know where the child is, would she be happy to sit there doing nothing or she would do anything that comes into her mind? By suggesting her that she can do something to help find her child, she will feels that she has a purpose and become more positive. Or at least, ease her mind from worrying too much.

So, how do we make use of this effect in our life?

If we sees someone is in a problematic situation, as an advisor, even though there is no actual solution, suggesting some activity for the person to do can often leads to positive outcome. It gives them both hope and something to work on. Don’t tell them there is nothing they can do, because the person will instantly feel vulnerable and depressed.

Give them hope, give them something to do, make their life meaningful.

“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

I was discussing some of the events and experience I came across recently. Some of them are positive, some are of them aren’t. Then my partner quote “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” by Eleanor Roosevelt.

After what she said, I felt enlighten. Indeed, there are so many ideas we can talk about and dream about, and there are so millions of important things we need to take care of. There aren’t really any time to spare to think negatively about anything and anybody. We all need to do our bit and work on making things work and better. If we want to dream big, think about what matters and how to make things happen.

What is on your mind when you cant sleep?

It is another sleepless night, getting excited and also too nervous for giving a pitch later this morning. I have been trying to sleep for the last 2 hours by lying on bed but so many things keep on flashing in my head. The more I try to not think of it, the more it keeps coming back. There is a saying that if you can master your breathe, you can master your emotion and clear your mind better. So I tried to moderate my breathing too but it seems to get me into a more elevated state in meditation, ended up being more alert. As time goes by, I also became hungrier and ended up get away from bed and have a few cookies.

I cant help but wonder about what others people think of when they cant fell asleep. Would you like to share some of your experience and what you did to help you sleep?

What makes a great person?

I went to watch The Imitation Game last night, it is about Alan Turing on his journey to solve Enigma.

From time to time in the movie, it reminds me of a quote I made for myself a long time ago:

” Obsession, and dedication is what makes a person achieve greatness!”

And it is terribly hard to achieve these nowadays, with so many distraction and commitment we had to go through from daily basis. So indeed, as another quote I learnt from the movie:

“Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.”

“Inspiration can only be found, it cannot be told.”

A sudden insight came to me today when I was discussing an idea about writing a novel. A great inspiration come to us usually when we suddenly found a new idea, it is a self-discovery. Methods of generating inspiration can be suggested, but the inspiration itself cannot be told. So if we want to make someone be creative and imaginative, lets give them some space to nurture their thoughts and let them find their own inspiration.

A new type of academic course framework?

These days, many students are constantly wonder that those lectures they learn in the class are actually of any use. Most often than not, you will find people who graduated, found a job, and that they find most of their studies done in the university is irrelevant to their job. Worst, some people went to university to study in a hope that they can work on their dream job later in their life.

The framework of academic teaching is fairly rigid and inflexible. In order to maintain high teaching quality standard and streamline the teaching process, modules are taught in blocks, and students will have to learn many different knowledge, modules that may not be of any interest of benefit to the students at all.

Since those courses are compulsory, it makes it difficult and sometimes almost impossible to study other modules they really like, especially if those modules are taught in other departments. In the end, it is possible that students have wasted their time learning something irrelevant and not helping them to achieve their initial dream. Instead, it makes their dream goal further and further from their grip, with opportunity wasted during their course of study in order to pass or obtain a good grade for their exams.

One could argues that by studying those additional courses, knowledge gained could be useful when the times comes. If we just narrow our field of study to be so focus on the dream job we wants, then perhaps we would have lost sight of a bigger picture of what is out there in the world.

So what would be the best approach?

From what I experience and what I see, it is best to have two types of academic routes:

For general public who remained undecided on what exactly they want to do in their later life but have an idea of what field of works interest them, they should be encourage to continue their study in the current ecosystem. This way, they can learn many useful tools and knowledge that could help them in the future.

For people who have a very vivid idea on what they want to achieve, which can involves multidisciplinary study across different departments, they should be allowed to do so without limitation set by the university and department. For instance, they should be limited to study into only one department but can cross study in multiple modules in different department of choice. Perhaps they need to study longer to obtain enough credit to graduate, but I think that is fine too. I believe these set of people will also be happy to be awarded a different type of degree, as what they will be interested is the process, and the knowledge they learn that they know they need to make their dream a reality. I believe these group of people are dream chasers and will try many ways to make things happen. For this, they should not be punished for the limits and boundaries set by conventional academic framework. They should be allow the freedom and choice to explore, helping them to maximise their potential and create a better future.