This blog is created to honour the end of my Nationals Inter-School Canoe Championship 2009 and the end of a Canoeist Career in Junior College. The 1st few post will be dedicated towards the setting up of this blog and will convey my thoughts and feeling over the 4 days event to honour the Sports which I really believe in, fought for, bleed for and gave my life to.
Connecting the Dots
Tuesday, April 9, 2013 @ 9:50 PM


Connecting The Dots.
Finding your passion – A Singapore context.



I feel sad that one day I will live to write this but I strongly believe that this should be read by soon to be University students. From an ambitious start as a freshman, year 2 into University has escalated into a nightmare, and for the first time in my Education I actually dread going to school.

This is odd. I have great ambition to be a teacher since the age of 10. I have great intuition in teaching. Often in class I will evaluate teachers and their teaching methods, constantly analyzing if their method of delivery is the most effective way to deliver a course material. When I enter University, I decided that teaching Physics will be the subject of my choice as it has the hardest content to convey and thus the field which is in need of good teachers (my topic of choice is Geography).

By no means Physics is my forte. In fact, I have no intuition about Math and Science. These are the 2 subjects that I often struggled with, and my study session usually boils down to rote learning instead of discussion base learning. Nonetheless, I got an A for Math & B for Physics (B through a dumb mistake in A level that cost >10 marks). I am only able to extend discussion and understanding only to topics and questions that I have learned before, but not to new question.  I find myself struggling to remember answers to standard questions just so I will have enough ammo to cope with exams. This kind of routine produces no interest, no learning, and no creativity – only mediocre grades. There is no joy in attending lectures and as time goes by, the brain ultimately suffers. 

This chunk of background information is not a complain that is directed at our education. In fact, the university’s lesson plan and resources are excellent for the inquisitive and initiated. More importantly, the question that must be asked is - why am I here in the first place? From what is explained, clearly I am not suited to be in this course. If I am not intuitive about Physics or Math, which part of the decision making process draws me to this course? There must be a flaw somewhere. If this flaw can happen to me, I'm more than 100% certain that this is going to happen to good number of people out there who will waste their time in University as a result of the wrong choice. I have been pondering about this question for as long as I have been in the University, and I will provide some perspective from my experience, which will hopefully help readers, especially undergraduate, to make the right choice.



Grades - I traced the root of the problem back to my Secondary and A-level education. I know my forte is not in Physics but why did secondary school and A-level not impress upon me to avoid this discipline? It leads back to my grades. I may not have the intuition in Math and Physics but experience has convinced me (in my secondary and college at least) that I can overcome anything if I try harder. I was convinced that I have my rote memory to fall back on if I fail to catch up or lose interest. There are non-standard questions that are designed to test your analytical abilities but even these questions will become a 'standard' questions with enough practice and exposure into the syllabus. So I can be bad at Physics & Math but yet obtain A on my paper, no problem. How difficult can University be if my teachers have always recounted in their experience that the A-level is the toughest part in their Education life. This means if I work a little bit harder than what I did during my A-level, I should be able to score in my University also? Wrong. Grades often do not reflect if you are good at something. In our society where grades are in such high demand, the correlation between grades and passion are often blurred.



School Syllabus - I was pretty comfortable and relatively interested with the syllabus in H2 Physics offered as a subject for A-level. Since A-level paves the way to University, I will have a reasonably good foundation if I have taken H2 Physics (opposed to H1 Physics or Poly track). This is again wrong! Physics major will agree with me that it is hard to compare between University and A level Physics. To an extent, H3 Physics (exposure to University freshmen modules) will provide some form of exposure to what Physics in the University is like. This is true only to a limited extent. This is not an essay to compare the difference between University and A-level so I will cut the story short – the University level is where things start to get serious and it is difficult to extrapolate what you have learn in college to University materials.

What I am going to discuss in the next section will hopefully help readers (specifically undergraduate) to be able to find a course that is more suited for them to major in. I do not claim to be an expertise in this field as I am quite young and thus lack the necessary experience but what I am providing here are some tips through my own experience, which may help others to avoid my fate. 

Advice: Follow your heart.
This is the most clique line spoken in the name of passion. Steve Jobs mentioned that "... the only way to do great work is to love what you do." How do I know what I love? What does it mean to follow my heart? I don't even know where my heart is. Or worst, I thought I know where my heart is but it isn't where it is supposed to be. Take my case for instance, I thought my heart lies in Physics until I'm proven wrong, the hard way. The golden question is - where do you start? 

I feel that our education is dangerous because the focus is on us is to get better grades and enter a better school. Even when we join other activities (local tongue: co-curricular activities (CCA)), a great deal of emphasis is on us to get better testimonial, which will enable us to get into better school (-2 points in O level to reduce your L1R5). This paper is not written to evaluate what education is good for, so I will not go into that. This paper is about finding your passion and so I will stick to this. Here are some goals, which will help you evaluate your passion:

- Any activity, which you won't mind to wake up at 5a.m. in the morning to engage in. It can be sports, travelling or online shopping for some. Speaking from my heart, I know there are not many student who will wake up out of their own will and study the first thing in the morning. 

- Any activity you won't mind to dream big or move up the ladder of progression. The ladder of progression for academics will be: discussing difficult concept with tutor, go for consultation lesson, find out the next big thing in research concerning the subject, become a professor. The ladder of progression for fashion sales person will be: find out the latest trend, impressing the latest product of a brand to your friends starting a blog shop. To people not interested in academics, being a professor or going for consultations are daunting. To people not interested in shopping, engaging in related field is daunting.

- Any activity you spend most of the time thinking about. For me, while studying Physics, half my time is thinking about directing the next big Hollywood movie, talking about how a scene is so impressively shot, and so impressively conveyed. I RATHER talk and think about filming than exploring Physics. 

Advice: How do you know you will excel in this ‘new’ passion of yours.
The reason why I gave up being a Physics teacher is because I realize I can’t produce great students if all I can impart is questions that I have solved or came across before. To be a great teacher at a subject, I need to be able to lead a discussion and explore possibilities of unknown questions. I can’t hope to be a great Physics teacher if I’m not intuitive about Physics idea or equation. To know if you are able to excel, you need to figure out if you’re intuitive about the area concerned. Intuition means that you’re natural in the area concern. Here’s an example about intuition:

- Someone intuitive in Math: Without formal training in the topics concerned, the person can devise a way to solve the problem and even improve the current way of solving the problem. When asked about math, I usually have some kind of approach or direction.

- Someone intuitive about fashion: Without formal training in colors matching or products, I can pair people up with the right clothing and match the clothing very well. I dare say I can pair clothing better than some people who have diploma in this field. People who are not intuitive about clothing’s will be struggling to follow theories taught in the course. It is demoralizing that these people may end up consulting someone who has never gone through a formal course. 

Of course, people need time to develop an intuition in something, as it is rare to develop an intuition for something, which we have never done before. So as a golden rule, exposing yourself to new ideas and ways are advice that won’t go wrong – unless done at a big cost. 


Advice: It is ok if you don't know what you want to do now. Do your degree first. 
I live by this advice until I entered an unsuitable course in University and now I'm sure this course will not be the bridge to my future career choice. To an extent, when you’re young, your opportunity is plentiful. You can choose to go into Poly/JC. When you get older, you will realize your choice will become more limited.  What is the morale of the story? The earlier you find your passion, the greater advantage you will have. JC is hardly a destination for your passion unless you're using it as a means to get into University. In addition, some local University does not have courses that Poly offers. 


Advice: You're too young now to find your passion. 
So what is the right age? The longer you wait, the less opportunity you have. I think what they meant is, you are too young to pursue your passion because it is important for you to secure a degree before you go and venture into your passion (i.e. establishing a startup). It is never too young for you to start finding where your passion lies.


Advice: You don't have a passion. You always change passion.
I draw an analogy to the concept of focus. Focus sometimes isn't on what you want, but on what you don't want. As a student in Adam Khoo workshop, the trainer said, the more you quit, the closer you are to finding your passion. In my own words, the more you know what you don't want; it is also true the more you know what you want. It can be true you don't really have one thing you want but it can also be the case where it is finding your most "want" out of all your unwanted. 




I think one of the key purposes in life is to find out which field we are intuitive about and where we can really contribute as a person. For example, if I were to continue the path to be a Physics teacher, I can do the job but I probably will not be able to produce good Physics student or spark their interest if I cannot connect the dots for them. Have you ever wondered what does being smart means? In my own terms, being smart means being intuitive about academics since this is the medium in which we Singaporeans are measured against. You can be intuitive about other things. The trade off is that you won’t be labeled as smart in the society but you will earn that title from Mother Nature when you see that you have done great work with great satisfaction and love, in a society where the journey is often the reward. Think about the reality if Steve Jobs choose to go down the path of academics due to society’s pressure – and today we will not have Apple electronics. Start building your own future by starting young and early in developing your passion. Don’t settle for something you have no love for, and this search for your passion starts now. You may not know the right choice now but you can start by avoiding the wrong choices. I wish you good luck in connecting the dots as you eventually unravel where your passion lies. Do share with me if you have any insights on how one can find their passion.    

Disclaimer: In writing this, I believe I have received great education in Singapore and continue to receive great education. It is just a shame that I feel I ought to have factored in more considerations during the time of my enrolment. In writing this, I must emphasis that the study of Physics is a very enriching and mind opening discipline and I would recommend anyone with the capabilities and intuition to take up Physics.



Share this if you wish for the people around you to consider more before they pick up a course to enrol in.