A letter to Juniors

                Desire or not, it is already the middle of the semester for all the students in my University. For now, I am sure that most of the students are having their mid semester exams, that may cause them to burn a midnight oil studying.

What stimulate me?

                In the past two three days, a lot of students especially juniors text me and asked a lot of things. Most of the questions focus on the future road of themselves which the questions are raised only when the students feel that they cannot cope with the mid-term exam. Before I continue my writing, I would like to explain two major things. First of all, I would like to say that once you chose Business Mathematics, just go ahead, no quit or fear, being confident with our choice is the only way to reach our success. Secondly, this post is not about any exam tips (some even demanded for exam tips, but I am not the lecturer). It is all about what you can do after you graduate (Just an advice, do not blame me since I am also only in Semester 5, but at least I hope I can motivate you).

                With major and minor in Business Mathematics, basically you may go to two ways after you graduated. Remember that the one you study now does not necessarily guarantee what you are going to be in the future. It is all about the attitude and how you convince the people based on the knowledge and skills that you are equipped with. It may sound too abstract at the beginning for you. Let us continue discussing.

Several Expected Careers

                If you choose to go to the major (Maths), the main focus will be on the data management. The type of data I mention here does not necessarily related to the minor or specific fields that you are going to handle. For example, Numerical Analysis, Programming, Statistics-related subjects offered here will prepare you for the data management. Even you go to the analytics, the knowledge offered by the subjects will still help you a lot. Apart from data management, you can also go to the field of academicians, where you can be the researchers after you studying Master and PhD later.

                You can also go to Minor, where the main focus differs from field to field. I take myself as example. For me, as a student with minor Finance, I can be the financial manager, financial analyst or even an actuary upon my graduation. For Business Mathematics student, the main advantage we are compared to the student with pure Finance (perhaps?) or any other fields, they are easily replaced in the IR 4.0 today. The value of the easily replaced product is always lower compared to the unique product that is hardly replaced.

                With the data management skills and the mathematical skills that students from the pure studies of the field do not have, we are at the frontline compared to them upon the graduation. I had once received request from the students of the other fields, to teach them on the analysis of data for their study. This is because R&D in the industry nowadays requires a lot of data management skills that can handle the huge database in the IR 4.0. Therefore, personally, I would always suggest my juniors to take as many as the useful or related subjects for them to use in the career field later. If possible (unless you want to save pointer), just take subjects that are not too basic such as the Principle of Management etc. so that you will not be at the back compared to the other students. I personally take 10 Finance subjects (6 in minor, 4 in elective) which the requirement is just 6.

Expand Your Knowledge

                In order to face the challenges in IR 4.0 today, it is not enough if you just read or know whatever you learnt in the textbooks. It is a must for us to know things outside the textbook such as the current issues or any other skills which are not in the course syllabus such as Python programming, chord progression or brain practice so that we are not outdated. The knowledge can be also expanded through watching useful Youtube video, communicating with experts, reading online books or even writing blog like me. The more you learn, you will notice that the more that you do not know.

                Before I end my post, I would like to give some advices to the juniors who will be choosing their minor fields two semesters later. Choose whatever you think you are interested, if none of it you are interested, then choose the minor field that is popular nowadays such as information technology, data management or data science. It is advised not to choose minor fields like law or accounting since it is impossible for you to be a professional lawyer or accountant if you do not take the whole package. I am sure you won’t be regret after reading my post.

2019-11-11

4.30 pm

Happy Double 11!

Are We Really Prepared for IR 4.0?

                Industrial Revolution 4.0 (or IR 4.0) may be familiar for Malaysians like you and me. In general, the fourth Industrial Revolution, as the previous, refers to the total changes in the industry from the conventional computers (IR 3.0) into the Artificial Intelligence (AI) that increases the productivity of the industry with a lower average cost.

Concern of the Experts

                This morning, I had attended a forum in my University entitled “Where are you in the IR 4.0?” which I personally think it is significant especially for the students who are still studying in the University. It is specially organized by the Quantitative Science Association (QuSAC) by inviting the graduates who are now serving in the governmental and private sectors.

                According to the panels, the IR 4.0, no matter we like or not, is now completely happening in the economic sectors in Malaysia. Everything today is to deal with the big data that requires multiple tasking in order to produce the analysis effectively and efficiently. Unlike the traditional method which we will calculate all the mathematical and statistical step by step manually, the work today can be done in just one finger’s click.

                Looking deep into the IR 4.0, there are actually several industries, if not equipped with the technological skills as being required by the industry, are going to be eliminated from the economics chain. The most impact goes to the finance and accountancy that technically needs a lot of manual calculation and preparation once ago, are now being slowly affected by the development in the IR 4.0.

                Imagine that you can get the statements in just a minute with several clicks. What you need to do is just to insert the receipt or what so ever documents of payment and the AI machine can generate a financial statement in just few minutes automatically. This of course will bring a serious threat to the people in the finance and accountancy.

                As what being concerned by the experts, the students nowadays are almost alert of the IR 4.0. However, most of them are still panic and do not what to do in order to equip themselves with the skills demanded in the IR 4.0. As the panels did mentioned, Microsoft Excel, R and Python, that you once think are not important to learn, might be the advantages for you in the industry nowadays that requires automation.

What to Prepare for IR 4.0?

                In this IR 4.0, big data is a trend. Everything sector deals with various amount of data. The first step is of course to learn at least one application that may help you to manage the huge data. This should not be any problems to you since Excel that you may once think is a child’s play, has been the most useful application required by almost all the employers in the industry.

                Looking deep into the main core of the IR 4.0, we can notice that innovation is very important for you and me to sustain in the competitive environment. Innovation, when compared to creativity, is a more advanced step. This is where the info-graphical resume enters. In the industry today, the black and white resume is no more attractive for the employers to hire you.

                Taking an example from the Tencent Games in China. Innovation had actually, saved the company from the biggest crisis that it could encounter since the introduction of the video game, King of Glory. Tencent Games face a serious threat from the LOL moba that is going to be introduced in the end of this year. The number of players had been decreasing dramatically since September.

                As what you can see, in IR 4.0, everything happens very fast. Sometimes, you just collapse in just several seconds when you are not even prepared yet with the changes. Opportunity just passes very quickly, the one who is the fastest will be the final winner of the competition. This is where innovation enters, which could “slow down” the tempo of the changes and hence, solve the problem of aging.

                Getting back to the previous example, you would not expect that the innovation being done by the Tencent Games had totally saved it from the big decease when the Autochess Mode is being introduced. With the innovation, the number of players again, increase and return to the peak moment of the game itself.

                You can see the power of innovation in the industry. Innovation, as I mentioned, is a more advanced step of creativity which it does not necessarily bring a completely new thing to the society. An existing thing which is the trend of the society that is being improved is also part of the innovation that we could think of.

                Now, it is the time to ask ourselves, are we really prepared for IR 4.0? Rethink.

2019-11-10

2.45 pm

Millionaire Mind? Aim High Start Low

                I believe that becoming a millionaire is a dream for you and me, no matter who we are. We might be a lecturer, a student or even an ordinary person that does not have any wealth or valuable properties.

Millionaire Mind?

                Two days ago, I went to a workshop which is related to how to become a millionaire. At the first moment, I was quite excited with the workshop even though personally, in my heart, I am the kind of still doubtful of the topic since the workshop is handled by my lecturer, who looks not really like a millionaire, unless he performs some personal business.

                Among the points being given by him, I just pay attention since this is the responsibility that I need to have at the moment I decided to attend for the workshop. He started to say that, he is not a millionaire. You can imagine how all of us think when the sentence was released from his mouth. Handling a workshop related to how to become a millionaire, but you yourself are not even a millionaire? It sounds really sarcastic.

                It is not the purpose of this post to blame anyone. However, the lecturer managed to convince us especially me myself when he started to share on the knowledge that he knows. He said he had paid MYR 1500 to attend the training session on how to become a millionaire, which I personally do not think that there is a need for doing so.

                Indeed, I agreed with the main idea that he delivered, breaking the jars. What “jars” did he mention? I am sure all of you wondering. The basic idea is like this, when you received the salary, break the salary into several portions that you want to put your money in. For example, the first jar is for your food, the second jar is for instalments etc.

                Since the workshop is free for us, therefore the lecturer was only willing to give 3 out of the 8 successful jars he could have. I could actually guess what he is going to say. Nevertheless, the jars that he is willing to share with us are useless. So, I am not going to share the jars here. In my opinion, actually the idea of breaking jars is good, but is it to make you a millionaire? I think the journey is still far away from the idea of “millionaire” that you and I know. By splitting your salary into the correct portions of expenditures is not enough to make yourself a millionaire, which I again, state that it is not the problem with the lecturer, but there is doubt on whether there is a need to pay the MYR 1500 for the 8 jars that you and I can easily guess?

Save then Spend or Spend then Save?

                To be millionaire is not an easy thing that you could achieve just in one sleep. However, the self-financial management is really important to make you a base to become the millionaire that you dream. Indeed, the daily financial management really deals with the decision that we could make on the moment you receive your money, either the scholarship, the salary or any pocket money from your parents.

                I am sure that since you are a child, your parents should say this when you receive your pocket money from them. “Take this money and make sure you do not use it up. Save for your future need.” Good, the initial objective of the statement is really to help building the financial sense in you and me. However, don’t you wonder, the money left is always too little, maybe 10 cents per day? Or even nothing left?

                This is what we can do to cope with our natural tendency, as the human being, which is the higher tendency to spend money rather than earn money. It is a norm that we tend more to enjoy rather than work hard to gain money. The psychological effect that you cannot see with your eyes will really stop you from going towards your millionaire dream.

                “Everything starts from small”. Yeah, it is true that you have an aim to become a millionaire. Here, I want to share something regarding your income. Rather than planning how to spend your money first when you get the income, how if you plan how to save your money first? By saving the money first, you will brainwash yourself that you only have the remaining money as your available income to spend. Then, from here only you plan how to spend.

                It might be too virtual. Let me explain. You get salary of RM3000, instead of planning how to spend the RM3000 as less as you can so that more money left to be saved, you should save RM600 first. By this, you will brainwash yourself that you only have RM2400 to spend.

                Aiming high might be a good motivation source for yourself. How if you sit down and start building your path towards the aim right now?

2019-11-07

8.20 pm

First Class Facility, Third Class Mentality

                Last night, I unintentionally visited that “pity” Obike apps that I had not been using for more than a year. The server failed to be connected and this had raised my interest on what really happened to the Obike Malaysia. It was a shocking news when I discovered that the Obike Company in Malaysia had been shut down in June this year.

                Founded in Singapore, Obike Malaysia had been landing for more than 24 countries in the world. (Wikipedia, 2019) However, the Obike in Malaysia had been closed due to the insolvency. Some of the sources said that it is due to the poor management while some said it is due to the low demand in Malaysia (since the cars are common things in Malaysia).

Abandoned Bicycles

                I decided to search for the real cause of the shutting down of Obike Malaysia. Although in my heart, I had some suspected causes that I personally, think after I recalled the almost alike situation that happened in my University, around one and a half year ago when I read one article that comments on the factors that led to the insolvency.

                Looking back into the real situation that happened in my University, the Obike was once introduced in my University when on that time, the Obike just landed. I still remember that moment when the students were given offer price for using the bicycle service. That was the time when the students were busy registering for the Obike account in order to get the rewards.

                I myself also paid deposit for the service, it was around MYR19, if not mistaken. At first, everything ran smoothly as what had been planned by the Obike Company. Whatever complaints we made will be entertained in two three days and I was quite satisfied at the beginning. What happened afterwards was when I started to find the students taking the service for granted. Maybe due to lack of monitoring process, the Obike started to be seen everywhere. I could one time even found seven or eight bicycles along a 2km road, being abandoned by the roadside.

                That was the time when I think, oh my god, what happened to the Obike? I stopped using the Obike service when I once complained on the faulty lock, but it looks like there was no any improvements when I again, used the same bicycle. The number of bikes available here also reduced from 50 at the beginning to 3 at the end, which I personally, found that the service started to be inconvenience.

Malaysian’s Typical Thinking

                Would not it be a sarcastic case when the Obike Malaysia, stopped its operation, mainly not from the poor maintenance, but was due to the too much of bicycles being abandoned? The number of abandoned bicycles had created a huge cost to the company and this finally brought to the collapse of the company when the number became uncontrollable. Imagine that only in the University, there were already hundreds or even thousands of Obike being abandoned, everywhere except the place they should be parked. In the newspaper report that I read, the picture taken is really horrible when you can see, ten thousands of Obike bicycle which are broken, being dumped in just 2 years of launching.

                From here, we can see that it is no more the problem of the Obike Company in managing their service. Don’t you even wonder, why can the Obike survives in Singapore until now but collapsed in Malaysia in just two years? As what all we know, Singapore is really popular with their “kiasu” mind, or in English, “afraid to loss”.  Malaysians as what I observed, are famous with the lazy characteristics.

                Since we are lazy to park the bicycles back to their original place, we choose to abandon it by the roadside. Since we are lazy to report the failure, we choose not to do so. Since we are lazy to lock the bicycles, we let the bicycles unlocked until the action affects other users’ chance to use it. Since we are lazy to arrange the bicycles, we just put it at the original place and leave it even though it is at the “sleeping” position.

                This kind of attitude really needs changes. In Malaysia, we often said that, yes, we want to be a country that is modern. Modernisation needs a lot of technology, a lot of good facilities, an easier way of doing work and even a deeper knowledge in everything. Trust me, if we continue with the same kind of thinking way like what we did to Obike Company, that you may once abandoned it and ignored the faulty, the modern country will be just the dream that will never be achieved.

                “First class facility, third class mentality” is always the obstacle for a country to be modern. Start to change yourself for a better Malaysia.

2019-11-07

1.00 pm

Education - Not an Easy Road

                It was once I had a communication session with one of my lecturers during my training session in the Centre for Training, Management and Appraisal (CeTMA) at the university that I am currently studying. The communication session, for me, is quite meaningful and I personally think that I should share the information with all of you as my readers.

Initial Objective of Education

                As the title proposed, the education is not an easy road. Through my conversation with the lecturer, who is also the Director of CeTMA, I found that the initial objective of education is now rarely followed by the students, especially the undergraduates who are still studying.

                Education, initially is a field which the main objective is actually to teach a human being not to be perfect, but to think rationally and critically when solving a problem. The main different between the educated people and the uneducated people, “theoretically” should think in different ways. The educated people should be able to think more critically which the solution being proposed by the people should solve the problems more effectively compared to those who are not educated.

Objective Distorted

                However, through the conversation, she shared her opinion to me which I personally also agreed to the opinion. Most of the undergraduates nowadays, when go to the practicum, seems like they do not know anything on what they had learnt in the university.

                The major cause of this phenomenon is the distortion of the education among the undergraduates. The more serious problem is, the distortion starts from the early education of the students. I am sure that your parents must once said, “Study hard and get good results, you will be a successful person. “ I once think, what is the relationship between good grades and good job? It is not related at all!

                Nowadays, the employers look into more perspectives than the past. Not only those “perfect” exam scores they look into now. The employers tend to look into the initial objective of education which is the ability to think critically.

                You might be doubted, wow, the point is obviously virtual. How are we going to achieve? Well, just put aside you doubts. I might use several posts to share whatever I had come across with my lecturer here.

Study for Exam or Study for Life?

                Through the conversation also, we came to the root cause of the distorted education. It is the time for graduates to think of one thing, what is the purpose you come to the university? To be equipped with the skills so that you can seek a job? To pass in the examination with the flying colours and being popular in the university?

                Some of the undergraduates cannot even find why they are here. They just study for their examination without knowing deeply the knowledge they are getting. Memorizing the books Is a common thing for a university student when they only study in the last minute, after they had been busy for the other student activities, which they think are more essential than their academic. The often excuse for last minute study is busy for the events etc. This also makes me wonder, why are you joining a lot of events since yourself do not even have sufficient time for study?

                This caused the fresh graduates to be unemployed when their study is just for examination. This mind is not only limited to the objective of getting a good mark, it also goes to the selection of the subjects. Students tend to register for the subjects they think is easy to score, without really thinking the needs of the subjects in their future career field.

                Exempting the students who are forced to take the course, a serious problem occur when the students study only for examination. Normally, the last minute study leads to the short term memory where the students immediately forgot what did they learnt after the examination. This is the effect of memorizing books that I mentioned earlier. This kind of attitude finally leads to the lack of competency among most of the graduates when they cannot even provide a solution related to their profession when they are being required by the employers.

It is Time to Change

                I hope that you understand what did I wrote in the paragraphs above. This is just part of the conversation details between me and the lecturer after we discussed in deep regarding the issues of unemployment among the fresh graduates. In short, as an undergraduate, it is crucial for us to always aim for the “Whole-Life-Education” rather than the “Exam-Oriented-Education”. What do I mean here is to understand really well on whatever we are studying so that the knowledge we gain will be stored as long-term memory, not just for ourselves but for a better future.

2019-11-06

6.30 pm

Two-Year-Promise

                You may start wondering on the moment you read the topic. Two-year-promise? What is it? Why do you see this? Well, this is a “product”, but not the physical product that you can touch or see. It is the “product” truly from my heart, which I personally promised to myself that I am going to deliver when I temporarily stopped my blog and went for the other stuffs, which I think, might be more meaningful, perhaps?

                It is almost two years and it is time to “deliver” this “product”, i.e. the promise that I personally owe you for two years. In this post, I am going to explain on why I stopped my blog activities temporarily two years ago.

Seeking Experience

                Well, as I began to create the blog, on that time I was just in the first semester in the university that I pursue my studies. The experience I shared to you might be limited since during that time, I was still a newbies here. The experience that I thought, is great on that time might be a child’s play for you. Therefore, I did not see that there was any need for me to continue writing the blog except maybe the first or second posts that might be still “unique” to be shared on that time.

                Currently, for your information, I had entered the third year of the university life. There are a lot of experience that I cannot wait to share with you, which happened on me throughout these two “manufacturing” years. No matter the story is valuable for you to read or not, I think the next several posts will be really focused on the incidents that I came across in these two years, that I personally think, is interesting to be shared.

Seeking More Meaningful Hobbies

                Apart from writing a blog, I actually found quite a lot of meaningful hobbies for myself here. Hobbies are quite important since they help us to release stress when we are in pressure. At the time I started to create the blog, I found that just writing a blog is not the best hobby that I could have at that time, especially I was just a person that I myself think, is not yet matured. Therefore, after I stopped writing the blog temporarily, I had went through several more meaningful hobbies that I may share with you later if there is opportunity.

                The hobbies include writing novels, playing musical instruments, singing and one of the hobbies that I just stopped two weeks ago, which is playing mobile games. The mobile game that I personally admit that I was addicted to, is the King of Glory (or in Mandarin, Wang Zhe Rong Yao), a game that is similar to the Mobile Legends that I am sure all of you know what it is. For me, the game is can be good or bad, depends on how you think. In the academic perspective, there are several things that I would like to express in the later post on this kind of game.

This is the game result of Wang Zhe Rong Yao. This is the best game that I personally think I had played. The hero I played is Zhuang Zhou, my second most favorite hero after Cai Wen Ji.

Seeking More Matured Way of Writing

                From time to time, writing is not only purposely done to deliver message in text, it also requires some techniques or ways to attract the attention of the readers. A post that is not interesting at all will not attract the reader to continue reading. The similar pattern or the way of writing even makes the reader bored. With limited knowledge and experience when I was in Semester 1, I therefore decided to stop writing the blog temporarily and only comes back here after I know more matured ways of writing. This kind of improvement is achieved when the courses that I had taken requires me to do so. I also earned some experience of writing through the activities that I participated in throughout the two years. Again, as usual, I might share the ways in the next few posts.

               

                Some of you might be a new reader for me and some of you might read my posts before. No matter you are older, younger or same age with me, I hope that you can learn something when you read my post here. The most important thing is I hope that I could deliver my best “product” after 2 years of “manufacturing” process that I am involved in.

                Thank you for reading my post from time to time. Welcome to the new reader and sorry to those who looked upon for my posts in the past 2 years. Have a nice day.

(For your information, starting from this post, the words will be limited to 800 words for your convenient study.)

2019-11-06 (2 years after a temporary stop)

5.10 pm

Boon Keong