It’s a longstanding tradition among the Chinese to have steamboat for dinner on the first day of the Lunar New Year — and an even longer-standing tradition to trade stories, gossip, and bond over the simmering communal stew.

2020 was no different — except this was the first time in 24 years I actually had reunion dinner with my Dad.

My Dad was, is, a workaholic entrepreneur. Festivals and weekends equal prime business hours, so we never got to spend time together during the holidays.

Not that he was a bad father, far from it, but it was just the…

Medium, I loved you.

I loved the blank white page you provided, the easy pitching and posting of stories, the low-key thrill of reading quality stories by quality writers while on my morning commute at dawn.

But lately, it seems like my feelings aren’t being reciprocated.

It started when you made the decision to adopt a more “relational” model.

You claimed that this would help foster interaction, that followers will matter more and publications less, that these changes will make Medium one big, happy family.

Many of us were excited about the change, myself included. But what the relational model ushered in made Medium less of an Edenic paradise to read and write…

Steven Pressfield, the author of the bestselling book The War of Art, believes there exists a mythical force whose sole purpose is to sabotage human productivity. He calls it Resistance, and describes it as follows:

“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.

Have you ever brought home a treadmill and let it gather dust in the attic? Ever quit a diet, a course of yoga, a meditation practise? Have you ever bailed out on a call to embark upon a spiritual practise, dedicate yourself to a…

Bukowski, one of my favourite writers, wrote a poem eloquently making this point. A part of it goes as follows:

“don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don’t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don’t add to that.
don’t do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don’t do it. …

It’s no secret that last month has been a bit of a shitstorm.

I suspected my views were getting destroyed because of News Break — then I became super disheartened when I realised that the blame lies not on an external site, but squarely on Medium itself.

Medium, in its switch to a more relational model, has also changed the way it distributes articles. I don’t know exactly what they’re doing to the algorithm, but whatever it is, it’s causing a plethora of writers to suffer a drastic drop in views.

And by drastic, I’m talking about a 50–85% drop.

…

Hi, my name is Alvin, and I’m sort of a big deal.

Just kidding. I’m a regular Singaporean kid living in a regular Singaporean apartment — which made it all the more trippy when I beat out a thousand applicants to become a contestant on The Apprentice last year.

It was an insane, insane experience, and now that filming is all wrapped up, the producers of the show were kind enough to invite all the contestants back for the premiere of the show, this time as valued guests instead of contestants at each other’s throats.

This is the part where…

If you’re reading this, it means that I’ve already been fired.

The beginning of the end came when I applied to be a contestant for the latest season of “The Apprentice.” For those who don’t know, “The Apprentice” is a reality-TV series that pits sixteen contestants against one another in a string of business challenges. Needless to say, corporate skills play a huge role in one’s success on the show.

I have zero corporate experience.

Yes, yes, I have almost a decade of experience in martial arts. I am also the founder of my own little sports events company, both…

Conor McGregor has landed yet another huge payday.

Earlier this month, liquor giant Becle announced that they were increasing their shares in Eire Born Spirits (the holding company of McGregor’s whiskey brand Proper No. Twelve) from 49% to 100%. This means that they have effectively acquired the company.

The sale is estimated to make McGregor and his associates £112 million (US$155 million), making Conor an even wealthier man than he already is. …