A Letter to My Boss
Dear Boss,
Since you asked about my progress on Plato’s Republic twice, I’m finding a chance to share with you something on my reading plan, but each time it looked inappropriate to engage you. Hence, I resort to writing.
There are 3 concerns in my venture into a new field of knowledge:
- I do not understand the basic concepts or terms, nevertheless I pick some classics and drift along for first few chapters to get a rough view.
- I do not know where I stand - or rather where the author and his ideology stand - in that field of knowledge or in the historical development of the knowledge.
- I tend to enclose my quest to a few authors (composers in the case of music) that I like or are famous, thus not getting a full coverage on the subject as a foundation or an overview.
To illustrate, having gone through Economics classes in NTU (currently pursuing a Minor in Economics), it enables me to evaluate government policies, follow the rationales of central banks’ moves and IMF reports, with an awareness of the difference between Keynesian, monetarist, neoclassical etc approach. An introduction in International Business Law enlightens me on the issues of WTO Doha Round, anti-dumping of China, farming subsidies of France and the US etc - the role of law in international order. My past efforts in Relativity and Quantum Mechanics allow me to follow the lines of theoretical physicists (Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawkings) and some arguments of Bertrand Russell - the extent of human understanding of the nature.
I am unfamiliar with political science and philosophy. An objective text would lay the ground to address my 3 concerns, and help to construct a holistic picture. Nonetheless, concurrently, I am also browsing through some classics, which can be likened to "scratching an itch" in my impatient desire to plunge myself into the great writings. They include the works of Russell, Paine, Mill, Kant, Marx, Rousseau, PLATO etc.
So that’s it, the roundabout way of my answering your question, which, I think, better reveal my thoughts. The Republic is one of the books that I flip, not with the intention to fully understand it now, but to scratch my itch and to get a rough view. I will come back to all these books again after having an overview of the political and philosophical concepts, and their developments. And back to your question, how is my progress on The Republic? Seriously… Alas! No progress yet 
Regards,
LOH YI ZHENG
July 7th, 2005 at 6:29 pm
dude, you have to speed up your reading! i can’t wait to read your next entry. always an enlightening experience reading what you write. keep up the good work!
July 8th, 2005 at 2:40 am
Is the earth round?
The interior of Earth, like that of the other terrestrial planets, is chemically divided into an outer siliceous solid crust, a highly viscous mantle, a liquid outer core that is much less viscous than the mantle, and a solid inner core. The liquid outer core gives rise to a weak magnetic field due to the convection of its electrically conductive material.
The average density of Earth is 5515 kg/m3, making it the densest planet in the Solar system. Since the average density of surface material is only around 3000 kg/m3, we must conclude that denser materials exist within the core of the Earth. In its earliest stages, about 4.5 billion (4.5×109) years ago, melting would have caused denser substances to sink towards the center in a process called planetary differentiation, while less dense materials would have migrated to the crust. As a result, the core is largely composed of iron (80%), along with nickel and silicon; while other dense elements, such as lead and uranium, are either too rare to be significant or tend to bind to lighter elements and thus remain in the crust.
Earth is the only place where life is known to exist. The planet’s lifeforms are sometimes said to form a “biosphere”. This biosphere is generally believed to have begun evolving about 3.5 billion (3.5×109) years ago. The biosphere is divided into a number of biomes, inhabited by broadly similar flora and fauna. On land, biomes are separated primarily by latitude. Terrestrial biomes lying within the Arctic and Antarctic Circles are relatively barren of plant and animal life, while most of the more populous biomes lie near the Equator.
Seriously… Alas! I don’t know!
(Haha. Don’t be angry k? Just kidding.)
July 9th, 2005 at 6:51 am
hey steve, thanks for that.. i’m helpless with my productivity..get tied down by interference (self-inflicted + external) in your formula
uzyn, u r so deep hehe..
July 5th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
hi there just being curious.. but true, i agree.. i also had this experience writing to my boss.. i really have that creepy feeling. it was about telling him that he is just unjust in implementing rules in his office(he owned it actually) and thereafter i was terminated from my first job after graduating from college but well at least i have that opportunity of letting him know.
but you are really really smart… i salute you. you are one of a kind.. God bless
September 29th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
I have blog similar topic because it involves our current political affairs too. Honestly the topic was too vagued to compare it with our present political situation, but some points are really worth nore taking. It is the gut feeling of having survived each days grind of daily living, and constant political turmoil, in a telenovela manner, that makes me wonder how problems starts centuries ago are so persistents ( as most Plato’s Republic shown). Is life indeed a constant struggle between interdependent opposite that most political leader has to pole vault between good and bad for political survival? Deciding for populace good and self interests? Anyway its hard really to comprehend all Platos thought… but its nice topic.
September 29th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Keep on bloging and hopefully I can catch up with those kind of topics. You can add me add as your friend, my add is food_sounds@yahoo.com
November 11th, 2006 at 3:30 am
Wow!You really are good!!!Hope i can also write a niece piece like you…it inspires me a lot…got to read a lot though to be like you…
November 22nd, 2006 at 6:28 am
Hello.. i am novice in terms of economics issues.. your writing are really worth reading. As an IT people, most of your writing are jargon to me, but I am truly learning. Great job. Keep going on ya
December 31st, 2006 at 6:05 am
So young and so serious!!!
i used to be a student too at ntu … applied econs was tough for a fren but well its past graduation and u are still going strong on econs! way to go man!!
Apply for job at ministry of finance or govt. they need economists!
January 14th, 2007 at 4:59 am
Youre’ the man! Our country need more people like you!