33 Epiphanies

Hero of the Week: Johnny Bunko

During another battle with insomnia, I read about an intriguing career guide, written in the form of manga (Japanese comic), titled "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko." It was written by Daniel Pink, who has served as chief speech writer to Al Gore and as an aide to US Labor Secretary Robert Reich, in addition to writing a "trio of provocative books on the changing world of work." I read the whole book in one sitting (or, more literally, standing) at Books Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City this Sunday. The book had six simple, yet powerful lessons. I highly recommend reading it on your own sometime, but below is my interpretation of the author's main points:

1) There is no plan: I came to Singapore with the vague plan of "spending a year abroad" before starting grad school. As a result, my professor's plan for a research project became dominant. I deeply regret not being open to more options about how to spend my time. In particular, I really wish that I had become a private tutor (possibly in presentation skills), which could have tripled my monthly income and introduced me to many new Singaporeans, outside of lab.

2) Forget about your weaknesses: It's still hard for me to accept my "weakness" of working shorter hours than pretty much else in the group. However, things improved when I focused on my strength of giving effective presentations. After giving a lesson at group meeting about presentation skills, I am now helping edit papers, organize lab cleanings, and revise presentations, in addition to my research duties.

3) Persistence trumps talent: I don't feel like I have much innate talent for science, but I do believe that my persistence has been one of my positive qualities. I see it especially with my running, which can often make me feel like Sisyphus. Numerous times I have trained for months to build up to running a marathon, only to be struck down by a cold or other ailment, and needing to start back at the beginning.

4) It’s not about you: The most enjoyable times in lab have been when I have directly helped others: working with a grad student to improve her group meeting presentation, assisting a post-doc with his plans for a novel type of molecular motor, or using my skills as a native English speaker to help my professor edit various documents.

5) Make excellent mistakes: I'll need the benefit of hindsight to understand my "excellent" mistakes. However, I think this is an awesome piece of career advice.

6) Leave an imprint: As I've mentioned above, there is no way I can compete with the other members in lab in terms of the sheer quantity of experimental results. However, I hope that I can demonstrate some of the non-technical aspects of science that I have learned through various research experiences back in the United States.

Fleeing Comfort Zones

The past few weeks I have focused on escaping my comfort zones, through food, sleep (or lack thereof), and actual travel. I didn't always understand what I was doing at the time, but I have a better idea now that it is all over (except for a stubborn cold as a result of the process):

The first related to food. I was getting into a routine of making homemade powerbars for my pre-run snack, homemade granola for my post-run breakfast, and various one-pot stews, soups, and noodle dishes for dinner. I decided to try the opposite and eat as much local food as I could over the three day weekend. My gateway dish was kway chap, basically pig offals. I had a desire to try it out ever since Ruhlman's post about offal on his blog. This created an avalanche that led to yong tou foo (various types of fish paste-veggie combos in broth), various dim sum delicacies, durian juice (most amazing drink ever), soon kueh (a type of dumpling that I struggled to eat with chopsticks), peanut ice kachang (like an upside-down snow cone, but much better), bak kut teh (beef rib in peppery broth), curry noodles from a vegetarian restaurant (a mistake: not outside my comfort zone), soup toulang (a tribute to Bourdain, featuring mutton bone marrow in a nearly-addictive red sauce), and "carrot cake" (more like an omelet than anything from a bakery). After all that, it seems that the less-processed the food the better: durian thrown in a blender was the best, followed by leftover mutton bones in a red sauce, with various manual-labor intensive Chinese dim sum dishes being my least favorite.

The second related to sleep. I nearly always go to bed around 10 pm (+/- 1 hour), so I decided to try staying up all night watching movies at the 24-hour theaters on Orchard. I ended up watching Evangelion, a Japanese movie that made absolutely no sense in my sleep-deprived state. I considered having some chicken rice at the 24-hour Meridian restaurant or taiwan porridge at the 24-hour Goodwood Hotel cafe, but I ended up with the far less expensive option of the Newton food center, which was surprisingly lively at 4 am, where I had the identity-confused omelet.

However, I paid a price for my curiosity, and came down with a cold the next day. This actually didn't bother me too much, since I just found a blog post about various cocktails for treating colds. I attacked my viral invader with the full arsenal of salt water gargles, ginger tea, chamomile tea, nasal rinses, Zycam homeopathic oral mist, Emergen-C, oranges, and so on. Sadly, I am still sick.

The third comfort zone was breached by leaving Singapore for a trip to the Philippines. I visited my friend Emily, who is working as a teacher in Manila. I could easily devote a whole other post to the topic, but I will keep the focus on comfort zones for now. I was struck by how foreigners could move Manila and pretty much feel like they never left home: we visited malls that looked exactly like something out of Southern California and saw luxurious apartments that would fit perfectly in any US city. Moreover, the cost of living is so low, that one can live a five-star lifestyle for the same amount as a middle-class existence in America. However, one of the advantages of having a local guide was being able to see the real Manila. Riding in jeepnies (public taxis made from old US military vehicles), serving kids breakfast in the slums near Paco, going out to a birthday lunch with one of Emily's friend's family at a fast-food restaurant, and taking the light rail trains gave me an invaluable view into how most of the world lives.

Why did I wait until now to post all this? I didn't really understand my Makansutra-inspired, sleep-deprived expedition around the island until I left it temporarily. I am searching for something that I can't get from working 14+ hour days in lab like everyone around me. I can't always travel physically (although many of the American and European exchange students do explore new Southeast Asian beaches every weekend), so I find whatever substitute I can. I listen to podcasts whenever I am on public transport, listen to new music whenever I am doing repetitive tasks in lab, try out new recipes on my own and new food in hawker centers, and explore new routes on my morning runs.