Post graduation life updates

Post graduation life is not as relaxing as I would like it to be. I feel like I always have a long to-do list, like the one I published on my previous post.

Friday was a busy day for me. I went to a seminar at Berkeley hosted by the student chapter of the Deep Foundations Institute. The talks were aimed at students so I understood most things. But some of the talks were so general that I didn't feel like I got very much out of them. Not as many people attended as they had planned for though. Could be because they didn't send out a reminder email. I met the boss of one of my friends from Stanford. It's funny because the last time we talked, he had just met my former boss. Small world. I met up with a friend from MIT and we updated each other about our lives. Turns out, he's been doing research with a professor at the City University of HK, the university that is right next to my office. He might come for a couple of weeks this summer. We can hang out everyday! Then I went with another friend to the Oakland Art Murmur. It was interesting. I wish I had more appreciation for art. I want to learn to sketch better and faster. That was one of the things they were trying to teach us at the d.school summer thing. That it's necessary to be know how to sketch basic objects very fast and use that ability to come up with a storyboard or as a first design for a product. I should start a sketchbook. I saw this book Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice at a small bookstore in Berkeley.

Turns out more of my peers invest in stocks than I realized. With these online discount brokers, you can get started even with a small amount of capital. And people seem to be doing pretty well. It takes time and effort but probably worth it if you're getting 10-20% from these investments. I also realized that living in HK would make it very convenient for me to do trades. The market is opened from 9:30am-4pm Eastern time. And since HK has either a 11 or 12 hours difference, I can do trades when I get home from work. A friend of mine pointed out that this would be like a second job! haha.

I've lost some of the productivity that I had the first week I got into this though. Mainly because I've been helping my brother with a scholarship application. That kid needs to do his own work! Too dependent on getting help from other people.

I haven't made much progress into looking at Chinese philosophy. I think I need something that sends me a daily zen quote. Or one of those desktop calendars that has a daily Confucius quote. Then I can think about the quote throughout the day. It's too much to read an entire book. I feel like I can't absorb so much at once.

Currently reading SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance. It's got some very interesting stuff, like the first book. I can't tell you what the first book was about though since it had such a big mix of topics. I think I've filed all that knowledge into different areas and don't associate them with one book anymore. I think the same thing will happen with this book. The topics don't relate well to each other. I draw a blank when I try to recall what the first book was about. It's entertaining though.

I have also just finished reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and downloaded The Girl Who Played with Fire (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard). Very entertaining series. I was hesitant at first because they are translated from Swedish. But they're very good. Reads very well. The first book had a murder mystery that involved this huge cast of characters. But the book did a pretty good job of introducing them and giving them unique personalities. I really don't like it when I can't tell characters apart.

Newest Obsessions: Investing Money and Chinese Philosophy

I've picked up two new obsessions since moving back home. I started reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad and felt compelled to do something about my finances. One of the points he makes early on in the book is the difference between assets and liabilities. Assets are things that make you money and adds to your income. With some long term planning and investing, I want to get to a point in my investments where my monthly expenses are being paid for by my investments instead of my every day job.

This is definitely a long-term goal and is easier said than done. But it's definitely something that I want to work towards. I never thought of myself a someone who "manages a portfolio" and invests in the stock market. But now that I start reading about investing in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, it doesn't seem that difficult. There's a lot of terminology and things you have to know. But I feel like they're things that I should know.

It's not enough to just stick money into these online saving accounts since the interest is so low. I have some loans that I need to pay off and the interest on those are much higher. Which means, unless I find some place that can invest at a higher interest rate than my loans, I should just focus on repaying those loans. Frankly, repaying loans is not that exciting. There's no gain.

Another thing that I want to pursue is Chinese philosophy. I think there are some deep wisdom from Confucius, Menicus, and other people that are worth reading and thinking about. I met someone who is doing a PhD in psychology who is studying how using proverbs in everyday life makes people smarter. She is Nigerian and says that Nigerians tend to speak with a lot of proverbs. Later on, I realize that this is true in Chinese society as well. I just don't know very many proverbs and stories. The difficulty here is that some of the translations are very difficult to read. The original texts were written a long time ago and I am definitely not familiar with that kind of writing style. So I'm starting out with very diluted stuff and hope that I can get something out of them. We'll see how this new hobby goes.