read: 太白星金有点烦

I love the irony of the office politics in the celestial setting and some of the common office headaches: reimbursements, writing reports, bureaucracy, backstabbing.

1. One action but split into 4 reports to write as though you completed 4 projects

2. Reimbursement is late according to policy but it's ok cos it's a P00 project from above

3. Vague instructions from management due to not wanting to be explicit in interfering with the politics

4. Nepotism: only works if you have a backing

But I thought it was really sweet he puts in some principles. How the monk left his body to pursue the real decoding, how thr God left part of his soul to reincarnate and experience life, how there's real collaboration and sentiments between the guanyin and him. 

read: funny story

Feel good story about two people who got together because their exes dumped them. And better still, their exes didn't end up together.

read: first lie wins

Indeed fast paced intriguing novel with an improbable but feel good happy ending. Enjoyed it.

Feel good book

About a con artist who infiltrated into a handsome rich guy's life and how she got away from the grasps of those the organization that controlled her and into the perfect life that started as a con

read: all the light we cannot see

Illustrates poignantly the lives of everyday people in World War 2, just people trying to cope with their lives in the best way they can in a war context. From the locksmith who fiercely protects his museum treasure, the blind girl who just wants her papa and lives through the struggles not bravely but because she has no choice, the German officer who searches for the jewel to prolong his life, the white hair orphan who just wanted to escape his fate to be a miner, the war veteran who stepped up to protect his ward, the housemaid who wanted to play her small part in defending her country. 

read: normal people

About not normal people

In a not normal relationship.

A relationship that explores class differences, childhood trauma and teenage peer pressure.

Thoroughly odd on off relationship that lasted decades but didn't really happen at the same time.

A couple who felt like only they know each other but also seemed like they barely knew the other.

read: 长安的荔枝

A fictitious story set in ancient china about a government official tasked to do an impossible task of importing lychee fresh in the heat of summer across a vast distance.

The story explores modern relatable concepts. Doing unreasonable things just cos the big boss says. Big boss has no grasp of the reality setting unreasonable tasks. Middle management not daring to say no and try to delegate the blame away. Affected (positively or negatively) by the politics in the court. Doing things cos of mortgage. Going against your conscience for work. 

read: thinking, fast and slow

We have two cognitive systems, system 1 and 2.

System 1 works easily and automatically

System 2 takes more effort and operates methodically

These systems interact continually.

When walking use System 1 but can also think problems use System 2. If switch to running, System 1 is used more and System 2 is less and harder to think problems 

System 1

1. Seek causes in random events

2. Hindsight bias

3. Loss aversion and endowment effect

4. Anchoring

People who are cognitively busy are more likely to make selfish choices, use sexist language and make superficial judgement

Experience self lives the life and remembering self evaluates these experiences

System 1 intuition in experts. Only works in fields where challenges don't vary greatly, luck doesn't determine success and no gap between action and feedback e.g. stock.