Mobile phones, fax machines, computers, mp3 players, do they really make things easier for us? At the top of our minds we’ll definitely say “yes” they do, however, if you think about it, these things make things a lot more complicated than ever. Sure it took weeks for mails to be sent and received before, in previous years people used telegrams wherein now we just send a quick sms and our friends in a different part of the world can reply back in no time. Sounds comfy isn’t? Well for me, I prefer the times when things were simpler. My grandmother seems happy not knowing how to send sms, life things less complicated for her as she grew up not knowing how to operate a computer and for her she’d rather not try it at all. If you analyse it, the more you know the bigger your responsibilities will be. It’s like Spiderman saying “great power comes with great responsibility”, which is very much true.

I often times complain about not having to communicate with other people at work, simply because I work with machines, and software which couldn’t even understand what I’m typing. For me it isn’t healthy because I only deal with other people at work when the system is down, or a new function has to be added in our financial application. This is what new technology has caused me, isolation.

It’s not all bad in fairness; new technology opened different opportunities for most as well. It has created a lot of jobs that didn’t even exist years ago, treatment to illnesses where finally discovered - it has introduced a lot more diseases at the same time.

Anyway, the moral lesson here is that despite having all these new things around us, we should try and appreciate all the things that used to give us happiness and contentment. And besides, life is a lot less stressful before anyway.

‘d blogress

In most studies conducted, and papers written, most people agreed that success cannot be measured by the monetary reward.  Happiness, they say is the true gauge of the success of an individual when it comes to his career.  I have to argue that and say that these no longer apply in real life, in fairytales - maybe it still does.  I totally agree that one can never buy happiness, and it is indeed more important than material things.  But how can we really achieve happiness in times when we have to stress about paying our mortgages, looking after our bills, the cost of the kids’ education, and our daily expenses, yet our household income does not suffice?

It is really sad to admit that because of the way our lifestyle have changed, some of our values have to change as well.  If you think of a married person with all the commitments mentioned above, happily doing his dream job, and earning less than what he needs, this person will end up unhappy because of the stress brought about by his inability to support the needs of his family and to pay the bills.  Compare this to another person, doing something that he does not really like doing (but is legal and decent!) and being compensated more than what he needs to meet his obligation.  At the end of the day you will see the latter one happier than the first because after the boring job that he endures doing he can come home - leaving work related things behind and spend some quality time with his family without worrying about the unpaid bills that are waiting for him.  At some point in these two individuals’ lives, they are both unhappy about something, but the other one can sleep well, knowing that he doesn’t have any overdue bills.

I am not saying that we have to be greedy and value money more than anything else.  What I’m trying to emphasize is the sad reality that these days, the old saying that “You work to live, and you don’t live to work” is no longer true.  To be honest, I myself, am guilty of this.  I have been telling some mates that I really do not like IT and that I only do it because I have to - for the monetary reward.  I’m trying my very best to commit to my responsibilities at work and continue to hope that someday soon I would be able to quit my job for something that I’m really passionate about, be happy, and not think of the mortgage that we have to repay.

‘d blogress

It was Labour Day on 1st of October here in New South Wales and people around the state must have travelled intercity (and even interstate) or at least did something to relax and enjoy the long weekend.

I spent a day in the Central Coast fishing with some of my family. I met a good couple who seemed to enjoy the dishes that I prepared. Our conversation then lead to vegetables, the gentleman innocently told us a story about how most farmers in some parts of China manage to make their vegies grow bigger and “healthier”. According to him the water from the poo tanks are used to water the Vegies, and use the poo itself as a fertilizer.

I know chicken manure can be a fertilizer, but not human poo please! We, humans become inflicted with different illnesses at some point in our lives, we take medicines, and some are even using illegal drugs. Ours is the dirtiest of all wastes so why use it as a fertilizer? Vegies should make us healthy not sick, so please, to those who are using human poo as fertilizer please, I beg for all mankind, stop this insanity.

‘d blogress

Choosing between a small or large corporation for an employer really depends on the individual’s priority. There are two ways to look at it, if you are after a better chance of promotion I will say that it is better to be in a small organization where your assertiveness can easily be seen and rewarded. To work in a large corporation means having to compete with a lot of people who have the same aim which is towards career progression. One’s initiative is quite more visible and gets easily rewarded in small organizations than in the large ones. On one hand, if you are after job security, better salary, and attractive benefits, I would definitely say choose the large corporation. However, choosing to work with a these giants may mean waiting for a lifetime to get the promotion that you have been waiting for, unless of course you start at a managerial level wherein you will have a say to most things.

The best advice that I can share to the younger ones who are fairly new in the industry is to set a career goal and start in a small organization where you can shine and be visible until you reach your goal. Upon reaching this certain goal and contributing to the organization explore the opportunities with a larger organization. Therefore you would not have to start at the lowest level in a big organization where visibility is almost impossible.

 ’d blogress