Yew Jin's Sometimes Blog

Everyone keeps asking how much I am paid at Google. However, I have been championing that "just" cash compensation cannot be the sole motivator for Googlers. Once you pay someone enough money, then "autonomy", "mastery", and "purpose" are much better motivating forces. This explains the (surprising?) success of open-source projects like Linux operating system, and Wikipedia (hey you do not even need to pay someone!).

Below is a great video that explains this.

In 2001, Craig Venter made headlines for sequencing the human genome. In 2003, he started mapping the ocean's biodiversity. And now, in 2010, he's created the first synthetic lifeforms.

I have been asked about various times about mentions of "Yew Jin" on the web that I decided to disambiguate them here so that interested parties (all two of you) can use your favourite search engine to find the answer. These are articles I do not mind confirming that they refer to me (heuristic: if the article is damning, it's not me!):

Laundry and bikes at work, anyone? by Grace Chng in Straits Times Blogs (2008/12/3)

Singaporeans in Google by Bhagyashree Garekar Straits Times (2008/4/20)

SoC Team Outmanoeuvres Rivals in Competition on Artificial Intelligence in Games in SoC News

N-VCPE-R International Contest Top 50 scorers

Aren't you that millionaire from Google?

No, that's Meng - that rich devilishly handsome bastard. Also, I am also neither a lawyer, nor involved in the Malaysia Amateur Basketball Association

The fall in securities negated the increase in income, so it is another flat month. I did manage to sneak in a few stock purchases, but as a co-worker likes to say, "I'm waiting for financial armageddon again to start buying".

 

In light of me being locked out of my kaching account, I am going to blog more about my financial life and thoughts here. To recap, my investment style so far as being investing small amounts at a time, and every month I do approximately 10 trades since I get 10 free commission trades from Zecco. Stock buys are made with limit order at prices that are priced using Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and relative pricing models. While there are no guarantees I can fully utilize (or not exceed) the 10 free trades per month, I tend to average close to 10 buys a month.

As I only buy with available cash, I do not have to sell due to margin calls. Mint has an interesting visualization of net-worth trends. Even though I have been investing in the stock market since 2007, I only started using Mint since Oct 08. As a result, my financial information has only been available since last year.

I have been satisfied with my investment performance so far - with an average money-weighted annual return of 22% (includes the great recession of 2008). However, it is unclear to me if this is due to prudent investment strategies, or a case of a rising tide lifting all boats. Only time will tell.

Geeks are So In

In the early 1960s when he was choosing a career, Professor Chamberlin recalled, technical people were respected and well paid. Money, he said, was part of the equation. “But the bigger part of the motivation for me,” he said, “was that I would be doing exciting and important work and that my contributions would be appreciated.”

--With Finance Disgraced, Which Career Will Be King? [nytimes.com]

The universities in Singapore have release information regarding the grade profile of students entering each course of study. [NTU] [NUS] [SMU]

A comparison between common courses at the various universities at the 10th percentile (letter grades are for GCE A-Level grade combinations, and floating point numbers are the polytechnic diploma GPAs):

Course	NTU(H2/H1, GPA)	NUS	SMU
Accountancy	AAB/B, 3.71	AAA/B, 3.64	ABB/A, 3.60
Business	AAB/B, 3.63	AAB/B, 3.50	ABB/B, 3.49
Economics	ABB/B, 3.48	BBC/C, 3.39	BBB/B, 3.30
Law	-	AAA/A	AAA/B
Information Systems, NTU Comp Eng, Computing (IS)	BCC/C, 3.38	BCC/B, 3.54	BCC/B, 3.16
Social Sciences, Psy, Socio	BCC/B, 3.39	BBC/C, 3.39	BBC/B, 3.28

Reproduced from [Jay Lim's Blog]

Some observations: Computer Science/Engineering has the one of the lowest admission cut-offs, except when considering polytechnic diploma GPA for NUS (at which point, CS actually has a more stringent requirement than even Business).

It is true - we simply do not get the best and the brightest in Computer Science. And while I imagine it would be very difficult for an entrepreneur with solely non-technical background to create the next big thing in software and Internet technology. The faculty in NUS routinely relies on foreign students to prop up the quality of the student base - an illustrative example is a fellow Singaporean in Google who had my PhD supervisor as his supervisor for his project. In the first meeting between the professor and the student, the professor simply assumed the student was not Singapore and asked, "so, which part of China are you from?".

Geeks make money - No?

Do not fill young people's heads with too much nonsense like how they have to look cool. Sell the cool ideas they work with. Teach them to see that you can make money and be rich only if you have something worth selling, and that is where engineers come in.

Years ago, engineering was the top school to go to.

Today, everyone wants to be in business and make money and that is why our young flock to anything and everything to do with business, finance and economics.

-- Straits Times Forum Comment - Focus on engineers' 'cool' ideas, not their image [straitstimes.com]

As my colleague (in Google mind you) likes to quip: "If you are in software engineering for money, you are in the wrong business."

If you are the gahmen, hear my plea

Singapore might want smart and hardworking generalists to be to civil servants by enticing them with extraordinary salaries. But if you want a striving science and technology sector, specialists have to be nurtured. And my last rant: uhm, propping up A*Star scholars like trophy dogs is not the way to go, simply due to the overemphasis of look-at-my-scholars-with-their-high-grades, aren't they adorable sense of it all.

Rejected by Harvard? Not a problem. You're in good company.

The list is, well, impressive. Investor Warren Buffet, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass,
Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner, NBC "Today" show host Meredith
Vieira, former "NBC Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw, New Yorker magazine
editor David Remnick, CNN founder Ted Turner, folk rock legend Art Garfunkel,
Matt Groening, creator of the animated television series "The Simpsons," Sun
Microsystems chairman Scott McNealy, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
president Harold Varmus, and Columbia University President Lee Bollinger
round out the list.

-- Non Ivy League Graduates

I think that:
1. After seeing the disintegration of Wall Street, I am less inclined to consider pursuing a MBA.

2. After being disabused about how flawed financial modeling and short-term trading can be, I believe that a logical person can read the macro-economic signs and deduce a trend that can result in a successful long-term investment plan. You too can be Warren Buffett.

3. The latest bull run is a technical rally, and we will see a bearish market soon. Perhaps even matching the March lows.

4. In light of the presumed bearish market, I am waiting (and evaluating if it's worthwhile) to contributing more to my Roth IRA before April 15, the last day to contribute for tax year 2008.

5. A 529 plan seems like a good plan, except that we might not be staying in US until DJ enters university.

Baby is sick. Wife is sick. I am sick. Maybe i should switch to twitter.

Woah. In so many ways.

Woah. So much work (but exciting!)

Woah. What's up stock market?

Woah. DJ is coming over tomorrow. In fact, double Woah.

Woah.