Month: October 2017

Why am I so curious?

Originally published on 31 Oct 2017 12:27 PM

Because you are human!

Curiosity is definitely something that defines us as human beings. Most other mammals and primates don’t really go around being so curious about every single thing they see, smell or hear, so I guess that definitely should qualify us into the most curious species on planet Earth.

On more bigger things, our curiosity had led a handful of us to actually figure out how the universe works, while others had tried to figure how the mind works—and so on.

If that’s not convincing enough, I remember someone said something very interesting. Basically you could observe the overly curious person who got a static electric shock when he brushed his skin into something, only to try to touch it again to see if it will shock him again.

Looking at that particular observation, few people actually theorized that curious individuals of the past (as in, long time ago) might not have the best survival instincts. This is because they might be too overly curious for their own good, to the point that hypothetically, they would check on what’s behind a shaking bush instead of staying away from it, as a predator / venomous creature might actually the thing behind the bush, and they got injured in the process.

“Hold on mate, I think I see something between those tre—oh sh…”

Cheers.

Footnotes

  1. famous scientists – Google Search
  2. famous philosophers – Google Search

The quality of infrastructure of Southeast Asian countries, who is the best and the worst?

Originally published on 31 Oct 2017 12:06 PM

More familiar only with 3 cities in 3 countries, I can’t be sure which is the worst if you’re talking about all countries in SE Asia. Either way, those cities are Jakarta, Singapore and Bangkok. Even though I’ve been to Kuala Lumpur once, I was too young to remember anything important.

Now, although it is not fair to judge a whole country infrastructure level just by their capital city, I’m going to do just that for the sake of simplicity. That said, as for the best country in terms of infrastructure, I don’t need to think hard—it will be Singapore for sure, hands down.

1. Singapore. Thanks to its small size and great founding father, and combination of other things, Singapore got it right when it comes to infrastructure. I believe what Singapore has done in terms of infrastructure should be a role model for other Southeast Asian countries. Its MRT trains might not yet be as comprehensive as Japan’s, but the fact that they managed to pull it off much earlier than many of its neighbors tells me something about the vision of its founding father. Also, the fact that Singapore has practically no resources whatsoever while excelling in many other areas beside infrastructure, that its neighbors could only aspire to, is surely something worth looking into.

Image 1: Orchard Road in Singapore.

2. Bangkok. I will place Bangkok before my own city, mainly because they managed to get a mass rapid transit train railway running much earlier than Jakarta, which is currently still in development. In terms of traffic condition, road, electrical lines and all those things, Bangkok actually is pretty similar in many aspects to Jakarta, sometimes even worse especially when I have to notice the electrical lines above my heads on the streets of Bangkok.

Image 2: Typical Bangkok marketplace. Notice the electrical lines.

3. Jakarta. As far as I know by living here, Jakarta had been plagued by lack of proper public transportation and inactive road construction sites, literally for decades, with one of them stopped entirely and rather shamefully, creating tall remnants of failure so vivid and familiar to everyone in the city. But I have to say, when it comes to many parts of Jakarta, I don’t see electrical lines as haywire as the ones I saw in Bangkok. Yes, they’re not anywhere as clean as Singapore’s electrical lines which is practically invisible, but I believe it’s better off than what I saw in Bangkok.

Image 3: Kota Tua area in Jakarta.

That’s the top 3 as far as my knowledge and observation goes.

Thank you for the request.

Footnotes

  1. Alasan Dilanjutkannya Konstruksi Tol Becakayu yang Mangkrak 22 Tahun – Kompas.com
  2. PT Jakarta Monorail: Semoga LRT Tidak Dimangkrakkan seperti Monorel – Kompas.com

What is the key to be a popular, successful, great Quoran?

Originally published on 31 Oct 2017 1:29 AM

Not sure if I’m qualified at all to write answer on this but those 3 things you mentioned, while sounded similar, can actually mean different things.

Being popular presumably means you have to have a lot of followers, which follows that your content will reach broader audience and depending on your luck, things could snowball if you hit the right answer at the right moment. To be popular here, however, doesn’t always equal hardwork the way I see it (sorry to say). I’ve seen people with answer-to-follower ratio that doesn’t make sense to me personally, if diligence of answering question is actually what you need to be popular here.

I guess, if being popular is your sole target, try to answer questions that people could relate easily—something that had already being often discussed about, like popular social issues or anything else that people could easily relate.

Being female seems to help a lot if what you want is to start off with a lot of followers. Especially if you are young and have a very attractive profile picture. Just a thought.

Being successful on the other hand, should be different to each people. For example, if you want a lot of Followers to feel successful here, then you can go back to previous points I iterated on how to be so. If getting Upvote is your target, then nailing a lot of Upvotes should be a success—you could try tackling popular topics people could relate easily, and be relatably witty. If View is your target, then having good viewership should feel like a success. That being said, it’s unclear what makes some answers have bizarre view-to-upvote ratio, so I can’t give you tips on this.

Basically it boils down to what you want to do here, if you’re talking about being successful.

Being “great” in Quora however, sounds too vague to me to mean anything at all. Going back to previous points of mine, you have to look at what your aim is here in Quora.

I think generally if you measure your success here by numbers game, you could always take a look at people who have huge answer-to-follower ratio. Try to look at their topics and how they write things. Look at their persona, and so on. The way I see it, if a user managed to get a lot of viewership/followers/upvotes here despite having much less answers than other less popular writers, then I guess they must have done something right. So, again, if that’s your aim here, then I suggest you look into it.

Then again, you probably shouldn’t feel compelled to just follow what others are doing only to be disappointed with the results when it doesn’t go your way. The way I look at it, in social media, no same method is really guaranteed to deliver the same result. At the end of the day, you might say it heavily relies on your luck.

I personally think online platform like this shouldn’t be taken so seriously like that. Much better off for you to focus more on how to be successful and awesome in real life, where it really matters. I’m not saying having achievement(s) in a platform like this is bad, but I believe one shouldn’t stake their whole identity on this, unless this is the only thing you have to hang onto life, which is very unlikely.

I’ve seen people who wasted too much of their time on virtual world like this, whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, World of Warcraft, DotA or any other various online platforms which you could invest your time and energy into, became way too absorbed in them as if their lives revolve around it, leading them to forget they have a real life to live. Then again, maybe it’s just me—I just believe such excessive obsession on anything virtual could be harmful if left unchecked.

Cheers.

Do you still live a life even though you are a bad person? Why do you still live a life even though you are a bad person?

Originally published on 30 Oct 2017 11:20 AM

Do you still live a life even though you are a bad person?

Yes, broadly speaking. Regardless of how “good” or “bad” you are, if you’re still alive you do “live a life”, though most probably at other people’s expenses if you’re a bad person.

Why do you still live a life even though you are a bad person?

Basically if you’re still alive, technically, you still do live a life. However, what you do with that life, is a totally different question. That being said, being “bad”, often times, is relatively subjective. I discussed this from an ethical perspective the other day:

The way I look at it—again—to live a life is one thing, but what you do with your life is another. If you’ve seen enough different kinds of people, you’d probably come into the same conclusion as I do—some people actually live their lives at the expense of others. I believe this is where the problem usually comes in.

I personally know several people who do this on regular basis—i.e. getting their way while making other people suffer for it. Also, I meet the opposite sort of people—i.e. just doing their own stuff without bothering anybody. When you look at it this way, any social or interpersonal problems would more often than not originated from the former at the cost of the latter.

Put it in another way, regardless of the fact that both of those types of people are technically “living a life” in their own ways, the former sort of people tend to make the lives of the latter sort of people, more difficult to live in.

In summary, if we’re still alive, then we still do live a life. When it comes to the matter of bad or good, virtue or evil and anything along that line, I believe, could be measured by the amount of good or bad our lives have over other people.

By saying this however, I don’t believe every single one of us could live a perfectly virtuous life 100% of the time—none of us is without a vice. What I’m saying is that, if one is to live in constant personal pursuit of pleasure while affecting the well being of others, then one should perhaps reconsider their way(s) of living, and ought to figure out how to minimize damage to others.

Thanks for the request. I hope that helps.

Why do some people have the urge to prove themselves to others and where does this come from?

Originally published on 29 Oct 2017 6:46 PM

Why do some people have the urge to prove themselves to others […]

I think it’s a pretty normal thing to have urge to prove ourselves, whether it’s to peers, love interest, relatives or the world at large. I don’t know if there’s anything wrong with that, unless it’s brought to the point of bragging or boasting.

and where does this come from?

The way I look at it, depending on the intentions, it could come from several sources and for different reasons.

  1. Proving oneself to peers. When you are in a circle of friends, you ought to have few things in common such as hobbies, collectibles, certain cool skills and things along that line. I think impressing your friends is just one way to have fun with them, and also to validate your own worth in their eyes.
  2. Proving oneself to love interest. Usually people do this to get laid.
  3. Proving oneself to relatives. In my experience, I know certain kind of big family seem to have a kind of cold rivalry between kids from different parents. In that case to prove yourself in the eyes of your close family (or being told to impress them by your parents) would usually mean you are attempting to level up your worth alongside your family’s in the eyes of your relatives.
  4. Proving oneself to the world at large. In this case I think it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when it comes to the source of such urge. This is because, unlike the previous 3 group of people I mentioned, proving yourself to the world at large—mainly through public performances and/or (recently popular) social media—your audience is not exclusive to a contained group of people you probably know rather well. In that case it’s best to ask each individuals what is it that drove them to try to get out there and prove themselves to others. As far as my experience goes, I realized that people can do pretty much the same thing but for glaringly different reasons. So if you would like to know for sure, finding out such reasons directly from the subject in question will be most suitable solution than to pick up hear-says and rumors. Being said all that, I believe it doesn’t hurt to take everything people say with a grain of salt.

Thanks for the request. I hope that helps.

If you are nice to someone who is mean, you are rewarding bad behavior and they will continue this behavior because you gave them a reward. Can you correct this behavior by being firm not mean) and confident to punish their bad behavior?

Originally published on 28 Oct 2017 10:44 PM

The article actually explained clearly what to do when you’re confronted with someone who behave badly towards you.

From the article:

To encourage positive and discourage offensive behavior:

• Do not reward behaviors in others that you wish to eliminate.

• Follow actor Alan Alda’s advice: “Be fair with others, but then keep after them until they’re fair with you.”

• Learn to speak up assertively.

• Do not reward unkind behavior from others.

• If someone treats you badly, say so – do not smile and pretend it’s okay.

The way I understand this myself, you don’t exactly have to be stern, be mean, or punish people who behave badly—you only have to let them know their behavior is bad. In other words, you communicate your concern instead of pretending that they did nothing wrong. Different people tend to have different ways of seeing and perceiving what’s wrong and what’s not, and if you do not allow them to know which is which, you’ll end up justifying their actions. Or worse, it will become their habit eventually.

It is true as the article mentioned that sometimes one might be compelled to “turn the other cheek”, but reality is, I believe you shouldn’t be nice to mean people. In my experience alone, tolerating unpleasant behaviors (especially from someone close to you) would only lead to more problems for yourself.

In short, if what you want is to correct bad behaviors, what you need to do is to let them know, loud and clear, how you feel about their behaviors. However, shall you find that they still take you for granted this way, or even make excuses despite you letting them know that their actions bother you, I suggest you go to the nearest exit. It won’t be worth your time to correct behaviors of people who just can’t be bothered to listen to others’ concern.

To give you context, I am currently living with 2 people that are exactly like that. Trust me, if you have people like that, anything you do to correct bad behaviors will add up to nothing. Get out of there while you still can—you’ll thank yourself later on.

Thanks for the request.

Should I die if my life has no meaning, why?

Originally published on 28 Oct 2017 7:50 PM

Short answer — Well, no. If that’s the case, what you should do is to find a meaning for your life. Meaning of life doesn’t have to be complicated—you only have to find it on the littlest, probably most mundane things usually available for you.

Long answer — Not sure if you really meant the question, but I sort of know how this feels like. There were definitely many random times I found that life in general seems to be pretty meaningless, especially after I entered professional life.

I remember back in school or college, every day is a new day—you get to learn new stuff, meet friends, have fun and pretty much had no responsibility whatsoever. I don’t really understand myself why people are like this, including myself—when we were small, we wanted to be adults; then comes the time we are adults, we want to go back being small.

I suppose most of us took it for granted when we said we hate school because days are spent studying, lessons are boring and the teachers suck—that is, until we figured that when we’re an adult, days are all wasted for working, our jobs are boring and our colleagues/boss suck. Certainly, being small and innocent seem to have far more perks than being an adult, which is rather ironic, because while being young seem to limit us from doing many things only adults can do, when we are adults most of us seem unable to enjoy many things that we thought will be fun when we are younger.

That being said, I do believe that when you find yourself living a life of no meaning, then just make a meaning! It’s not actually too difficult—you only need to be a little creative, while you look around for things you might take for granted. It doesn’t even have to be something you really need to put effort on—just small things that you could do by paying attention to little details of your surroundings.

Few examples:

  • I want to make at least 1 people smile because of me today.
  • I want to help at least 1 stranger when they seem to need help today.
  • I want to surprise my loved one(s) by doing something nice I don’t usually do today.
  • I want to go to a place in my city that I’ve never been into before.
  • And so on.

Remember, this is not a list of what to do—just few simple examples to get you going. I would admit that those things look pretty mundane, it’s almost lazy—but the point is to create a meaning in your life, no matter how little.

Now, would that solve your problem in finding a bigger meaning in life? Not necessarily. But honestly, you don’t really have to think that far. Simply by you creating little meanings in your daily life, you’ll definitely feel better about yourself.

Ask yourself—am I not feeling better seeing other people smile because of me? And if you take it further by following and completing those little things on daily basis, pretty sure you’ll feel pretty fulfilled eventually out of accomplishing those little missions you have.

To sum up. I always believe that in times of trouble, we could always start doing something small. If things in your life are so bad however, you might feel that whatever it is you’re doing seem to add up to nothing. In that case, well, you might want to tell those little voices in your head to just shut up and stop bothering you so much. Tell them that you want to find meaning in your life and there’s nothing to stop you from doing that. I believe things shall fall into place eventually.

Don’t worry and good luck!

What are some observations you’ve made about Quora?

Originally published on 28 Oct 2017 9:17 AM

After about a year here answering questions, I’ve noticed several things.

  • Strong Indian Quora Community. After spending some time here I was surprised at the number of people in India that actually get into this platform. And the number of followers of topic India shows that—3.6m topic followers at the time of this writing. That’s a huge number even by ratio—0.28% of total population of India at 1.32b people. Compare that with my country Indonesia with 261m population with only 30k topic followers—0.012% of total population of Indonesia.
  • Cliques. I was honestly surprised at the number of people on some topics (especially regional) that formed cliques and refer back to each other, not rarely, in rather distasteful fashion. Plenty of people here noticed that as well apparently. I once thought I was just imagining things.
  • Not too different from other social media. In a sense, the Upvote/Follower system definitely works the same way as other Love/Follower system you see on other platforms like Instagram and Facebook. The feed system also works pretty much the same way—it shows questions from your topic of interest(s), what people you follow are doing and will notify you one way or another when they Upvote certain stuff. This is very similar to “Xxx liked this” on Facebook and Love feed page on Instagram. The only big difference here is that you could actually see if people “View” your answers, so at least there’s something there to let you gauge things up.

That should be all so far.

Footnotes

  1. India
  2. Indonesia

What is Indonesia Kaya?

Originally published on 27 Oct 2017 11:05 PM

Indonesia Kaya is the name of a multi-function facility located in 8th floor of Grand Indonesia Mall, Central Jakarta.

Auditorium inside Indonesia Kaya facility.

Sponsored by Bakti Budaya Djarum Foundation, it serves as a modern platform to showcase culture and cultural aspects of Indonesia, which include musical instruments, traditional toys and culinary point of interests.

Basically it is a digital cultural gallery with many facilities to showcase Indonesian culture.

Few photos from the website:

Kaca Pintar Indonesia (Indonesia Smart Glass)—Digital touch-screen to explore aspects of Indonesian culture.

Selaras Pakaian Adat (Traditional Clothing In-Style)—Augmented reality dress-up digital screen for visitors, to see how they look like in traditional Indonesian clothings. You could also share the photo to social media.

Melodi Alunan Daerah (Traditional Melody Tune)—Digital screen for visitors to try playing Indonesian musical instruments via touch-screen.

Selasar Santai (Lounge)—Sitting lounge inside the facility.

For more information on events and schedules, you could visit the official website:

Happy exploring.

Footnotes

  1. Tentang Galeri Indonesia Kaya | IndonesiaKaya.com – Eksplorasi Budaya di Zamrud Khatulistiwa