Therefore, it isn’t that less bureaucracy is a good thing; we just need a high-performing bureaucracy. We really need to quit sabotaging our organisations, public and private.
Therefore, it isn’t that less bureaucracy is a good thing; we just need a high-performing bureaucracy. We really need to quit sabotaging our organisations, public and private.
So, as we aspire to be “innovative” or “creative”, we must learn to be better at evaluating plausible useful counterfactuals. Playing too safe doesn’t really get us anywhere beyond what may be in textbooks. And being too unanchored just creates arguments as useful as those in YouTube comments.
The best part about reading stuff is learning new ideas and seeing how they might connect to other ideas or be applicable to certain situations or circumstances. So with that in mind, I thought I would just share four of the most interesting ideas I learnt in 2023, be it from books or articles.
humankind is imperfect in the first place — and try to see that, rather than get worked up over performative displays of purity, we should instead channel our efforts towards resolving real issues, helping others rather than judging them.
That said, as mentioned, cash transfers to compensate for subsidy rationalisation address symptoms, not causes. The key challenge we need to tackle remains a cost-effective, reliable and well-connected inter- and intra-city public transport system.
It isn’t just our national finances that can ill-afford such populist measures, it is our entire development path. Can we come together to better understand our elite social terrain, and make moves towards a more sustainable future?
Perhaps a rule of thumb is as follows: “If you’re unsure, always choose against the status quo and always choose new.” Tradition is safe, but only innovation can get us where we need to go.
As such, while I had to watch on in semi-disappointment as The Dark Knight Rises failed to stick its landing, we are not just passive observers watching a movie unfold. The economic vision the prime minister has laid out is a strong start, but it needs to stick its landing.
But now, if we plug these unprecedented initial conditions into Chaos Theory, where weather patterns can fluctuate immensely, the logical inference is that we will see ever more variable and unpredictable weather conditions even in seemingly “stable” zones.
Even if you make it through to the third round and come back from three games to nothing to tie it at three to three, the same habits that led you to lose extremely winnable games throughout the playoffs will come back to haunt you in high-pressure situations.
Many key ingredients of economic development require long-term planning, a greater tolerance for the long-term (patience) means that these ingredients may get to be fully cooked as well.
Therefore, it’s never “only the private sector should be in business” or “the government should always intervene in business”. Reality is far more complex and there are certainly pockets of market failures where the government does have a more direct role in economic activities.