Last year, I took a number of vacations which involved cruising, diving, snorkelling and walking on glaciers. Thinking back on those trips, I could not help but notice that water and ice exhibited different colours in different settings. I decided to dive deeper into the colours of water. Finally, here are my findings. Water’s True Colour The colour of an object mainly depends on the colour of light emitted from it. In the case of water its colour is also affected by factors like light source, absorption, scattering, and suspended materials. Absorption by water is stronger for red light, but weaker for blue light. Water is therefore, intrinsically blue. However, this effect is only apparent when the water is reasonably deep. This is why a glass of water appears colourless whereas a big aquarium looks bluish through the thickness of water. Why is the Sea Blue? I did two cruises last year, one in the Caribbean and the other in the South Pacific. Owing to the depth of the wate...
I am not usually a fan of biographies. The narcissist in me says there is no one better to learn from but myself. I have always hold in admiration for Jeff Bezos however, having interned for Amazon.com during my university years. Invent and Wander , written by the man himself, is a great summary of Bezos' philosophies on running his businesses -- namely Amazon, but also The Washington Post and Blue Origin. In particular, a few points caught my eye: Go long: Amazon.com is focused on the long term, and I mean really long term. Bezos even raised the eyebrows of his shareholders on numerous occasions by sacrificing short term profits for what he believed to be worthy long term investments (Marketplace, AWS, Amazon Prime) Focus on customers: F ocus on customers' needs, sometimes even before they know it. If you are obsessed with your customers instead of your competition, you will innovate much more. This was how volunta...
I have long wanted to study Buddhism, because its teachings are quite cryptic in nature and to me, thought provoking. In fact, I took a trip to China's Shaolin Temple in recent weeks to soak in some zen. Shaolin is also known for its Chinese kung fu, so I also signed up for a private martial arts lesson with a warrior monk. That was a great experience in itself, but the story will have to wait for another day. Instead, I wanted to share a great read called Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty. It portrays a few keystones of Buddhism and how a purposeful life can be led without subccumbing to the distractions we encounter on a daily basis. Reading the book provided an egaging experience as it uses real life examples to illustrate its points. Here is what I learnt: We are what we think people think we are: we often project the "right image" to impress others. This is the direct result of us overthinking our importance in t...
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