Quirkbag

Author: zacyeohs@gmail.com

Are You Truly Living Freely?
Quirkbag Collection #54 – 09.08.26

“The Shawshank Redemption” gave us a line by which we all ought to live:

“Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’.”

We have moved on from that age of racial segregation; their cars are now vintage. But that line still remains classic.

When I started this blog, the biggest driving factor was documenting my thoughts and experiences before school starts again. It meant to push me to “get busy livin’”. Well, school starts next week and I never thought I would be looking back at my time so quickly.

But there is something to be said about using this frame as a lens through which we make choices. If something fails to add to your life, or merely eats your time, then really, it is pushing you to “get busy dyin’”.

How free are you, really?

Has Your Life Begun?

Ramit Sethi has this theme about living a Rich Life. A Rich Life is one that aligns your money with your goals and life values, guiding you to spend freely but intentionally rather than haphazardly. Most people don’t do this.

There is a good chance that most of us are living a lie. We live someone else’s expectations of us, and not who we would like to be. Most of us are tied down by our reality – commitments we no longer want, relationships we performatively maintain, old habits overdue for correction. We have patterns in our lives because that’s the only life we have known; the one we were raised with.

Besides the essential life commitments (caring for family members, paying bills etc), there is a whole other chunk of life waiting to be lived for most of us. Yet, we don’t see it because we have never thought to ask what life we really want. Again, it’s easier to put our heads down and “get on with it”.

It is not about throwing caution to the wind or dreaming lofty ideals far detached from reality. Being realistic remains fairly significant. Rather, are you choosing to maximise your free will (which some humans historically did not have) in your life? Or are you sleepwalking through life being resistant to changes for the better?

Where Do You Feel The Most Free?

There is a unique and incomparable feeling of catharsis that some of us have when we are in certain places. These places soothe and recharge, and just temporarily, everything else in the world fades away. For beach-lovers, maybe it’s walking along the shoreline and hearing the waves crash. For others, it’s watching sunrises and sunsets, or the horizon itself.

The Horizon From A Mountain In Zhangjiajie

One of my favourite parts of travelling is being in the airport before departure. I love being in the airport and boarding the plane (this is largely because I depart from Changi airport). Seeing all the listed flights heading to all parts of the world brings this sense of freedom and possibility to life.

There is vast potential in the blank space of our future, the time not yet spent. The only question is how we will align our lives to feel the most free, the most fulfilled and the most at peace.

Parkinson’s Law At Scale

Dare I propose a thought experiment.

Imagine Andy, a boy with dreams of skydiving. As he grows older, this dream slowly recedes to the back of his mind to free up space for more current problems. School, sports, relationships, money and more. Without constantly reminding himself of his dream, life’s banal routines take charge. Andy graduates and works a full-time job.

With the gift of the third-person perspective, we can easily advise him to save up and pursue his skydiving dream by taking a trip and never looking back. But how far are we willing to take our own advice to pursue our neglected dreams?

What disguises as “reality” is our imaginary excuse to settle for mediocrity. Should we ignore or procrastinate what we want out of life, life will take what it wants out of us. Afterall, it is easier to stay where we are than risk what we have for something we kind of want. It is always easier to say “next year”.

Extrapolating our procrastination due to the available time left, Parkinson’s law works at scale, with our lifespan being the time horizon. We delay what we want to do because we can “always do it in the future”. But our future runs out. Unless you are Tom Cruise, it is unlikely you are skydiving solo at 60.

We can delay doing some things (say, going on a cruise), but others like hiking Everest or skydiving, they can only be done in certain periods of our lives. Once gone, these periods of life will never return, and with them goes certain life experiences. So instead of waiting, we might as well take the next available opportunity.

Your Best Life

Comparison is the best way to view progress, and the easiest way to feel inferior. Worst still, some of us tie our self-worth or identity to these things we have or do. Our society and economy easily perpetuate the false association. We buy into the belief that we must always “be the best or go nowhere” and we kill ourselves trying to “be the best” without ever knowing why. We chase arbitrary approvals and success, only to be unsatisfied.

Money is undoubtedly vital to living comfortably in any city, but somewhere along the line, we have accidentally linked it to our success in life and a measure of our self-worths. The numbers in our banks do not equal points in our lives that we can somehow cash out. While we need money, it hardly represents a fulfilling life, let alone the best life for you.

To some, all shiny jewels and gems in the world still remain a distant second to a good book and a cup of tea. There is as much to life as we believe there to be, whether it is the value of enjoying a book or otherwise. Your best life is what you discover to be truly freeing and fulfilling, regardless of how simple it may be.

Part Of The Three Gorges in China; This Year Is As Good As Any For A Visit

Is it a walk along the beach? Or is it slowly backpacking around Europe?

We are free. Our time is finite.

So “get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’”.

Click the arrows for other posts!

Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

Teleport home below!

teleport!
Connect with me:
- Follow Here
Enjoy More Serendipity Below!
August 9, 2026
What It’s Like Writing A Blog
Quirkbag Collection #53 – 01.08.26

On 21 March 2025, my very first post on Quirkbag.com went live. It was my introduction to the world of blogging and content creation (aka my thoughts). I never expected to ever write a blog, especially since I hated essays in school. But here we are. According to Wix, there are over 600 million blogs today, this is one of them. It is a fantastic stroke of luck for you to be reading this.

So what exactly does it take to write a blog? Well, not much apparently, at least on the surface. Of course, everything included is just my personal experience. On the flip side, if I can do it, you can too.

Getting Inspirations or Ideas

Writing a blog is neither easy nor hard. It’s all arbitrary and dependent on the blogger.

Quirkbag.com started because I wanted a place to spill my brain noise and be authentically strange. There are no “rules” or commercial purposes that dictate the content or topics, except for the theme of serendipity. Consequently, all the posts thus far reflect the experiences or thoughts I had at that point in my life.

The lack of a conventional niche is intentional.

More niche-driven blogs, like Ramit Sethi’s, or established ones like Tim Ferriss’ and Cup Of Jo, take a whole lot more brain power to generate ideas and write. At the same time, the content is more polished and targeted. One of the tips from Ramit’s blog is that some topics can be picked from reader suggestions and their pain points. Not only does it write more easily, but it also stays relevant. Of course, this only works once readership has been built.

But needless to say, inspiration and ideas are important. How do I come up with the weekly topic? Do I just pluck something random out of the sky?

Sort of. Besides picking my own brain for recent events or experiences, I think about the vastness of life. If my theme is purely serendipity, then anything that coincidentally occurs in my mind qualifies. A sneaky trick, perhaps.

As with any personal blog, the niche is the person. You (or in this case, me). Unlike an objective blog with more mainstream topics, the ideas for my blog have to come from personal opinion and experience. Sometimes, that’s much harder than it sounds because the average person’s life is just that – very average, indeed. The art therein is elevating the ordinary to extraordinary.

Sticking With The Blog

Our good friend named “Consistency” pays us a visit here. There is nothing more important in blogging than to keep writing. Whether it is once a week or once a month, the words need writing. A teacher teaches; a painter paints, a writer writes. I have to write blog posts if I want to have a blog.

Unlike big-name blogs with professional writers and editors, a personal lifestyle blog implies a self-directed approach. Yes, I brainstorm the ideas (or pluck them from the sky). I also do the writing, editing, proofreading, image-sourcing, finalising, posting, web management and design.

No doubt, it is a hefty commitment. But like all skills, there are tricks I learnt along the way to expedite parts of the process. Whenever I travel, do new or interesting things, see something cool, I snap a picture of it with my phone and save it for potential usage in my blog.

There is nothing more tempting than to say “I wish I had a team”. But creatives know that the most original and inspiring ideas come from one genuine thought, from one person. Having a team likely dilutes a pure idea, somewhere along the line from inception to execution. The lustre of a scrappy personal lifestyle blog lies in the ideas being “untarnished” by others. Afterall, too many writers spoil the article.

Are there times I felt like writing this blog is too exhausting? Of course. Have I wanted to give up? Sure. But a part of me wanted to keep doing this. Despite facing “blank-page syndrome” all too often, feeling like my writing is not good enough, struggling to create new ideas, I still like the idea of blogging if for no one except myself.

Catharsis for me, content for you. Win-win, right?

Does Anyone Actually Care?

Short answer – no.

Long answer – no, not yet.

No one builds an audience from scratch in a day with a blog. If we were on Tiktok, there might be a chance for virality.

Being extremely unknown (instead of well-known) confers me some unique benefits. I can write anything I like in any style I want without fear of being “demonetized” or “losing investors”, if for no reason apart from that I do not have any. Freedom is writing yourself onto the page instead of letting someone write you onto the page.

For example, I can include a picture of a duck for fun.

A Duck I Saw in a Pond in China

After posting my first post, absolutely nothing changed. 99% of the outcome that something will happen after hitting “publish” is imaginary. In reality, no one knows. No one cares. And that’s a good thing for us.

You enjoy a freedom that most established writers or platforms no longer have. Of course, writing this blog without an intention to earn staggering revenues grants me the choice of writing in my own style rather than what is “professional”. Being flexible with the writing means finding my voice with no risk. On the contrary, being popular subjects any writing to the scrutiny and approval of the audience, one which can never be pleased entirely.

No one cares until everyone else cares.

What Changed After 1 Year of My Blog?

Ideas have not fallen onto my lap, nor have they been delivered to my doorstep. They continue to remain elusive and original (and sometimes plucked from thin air). But what has become easier is the process of writing. Easier, but nonetheless difficult.

Writing is a skill that forces articulation and expression, the more concise the better. I often remind myself that ideas can be conveyed through words, both included and omitted. Ruthlessly cutting words revealed to me just how extraneous my thoughts can be.

As a skill every writer wishes they were better at, writing is one of those endeavours you do for life. Just like investing, or reading, or…stand-up comedy, it ages and grows with time.

Yet, it never gets old. The words have not changed, neither has the language.

Perhaps, then, it is the writer and reader who have changed.

Click the arrows for other posts!

Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

Teleport home below!

teleport!
Connect with me:
- Follow Here
Enjoy More Serendipity Below!
August 1, 2026
Must Everything Have Meaning?
Quirkbag Collection #52 – 26.07.26

As children, the system taught us to do everything that teachers and parents say. We played a game designed for us and graduated in the mold of their shaping. Our entire personality or profile is “captured” in no more than 600 words, with several key achievements.

That represents around 12 years of life. Where do we go next?

The system has run out of railroads. We’re left wondering what this all means. Where do we find the meaning in what we do? Is there even a point?

~ The Myth of Time Management ~

Frequent readers may remember that I learned time management to be a myth. We do not control time. We merely have it trickling through our existence. As a scarce resource, or perhaps our only resource, do we optimise every moment and squeeze the very last bit of utility?

Theoretically, it sounds like the most “economic” way to live. Use every second to achieve every bit more output for some goal in the future. Yet, most goals in the future are just goals we set. Most of them are arbitrary and are not what we truly want. Worse still, they are goals we have been pressured to set by our environment.

Surprisingly, there is a unique pain that arises from needing to schedule every second of life. As a student, I used to optimise everything over my final few years. The mindset was to devote every second of time to some form of studying or revision. Every moment planned. Guilt and regret were all that hung in the balance. Any “wasted” time would cause an unspoken misery. Sometimes it still does.

What I thought was a switch that could be turned off was a habit that stuck around subconsciously. I felt compelled to have everything done with “a purpose”. It must count for something.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with being unproductive; except my mind cannot stand it. Must there really be some reason or purpose for everything we do in life?

What if we did something just for the fun of it, with a rom-com-like spontaneity? As an end rather than a means to an end? In an Adam Sandler/Jim Carrey-kind of style?

~ Meaning Of Life ~

What if we did things for no material reason?

The easy answer for optimists is “adventure”. Yet on the flip side of this coin, it would be “wasteful”. An adventure is an exploration of the unknown with no guarantee of results. All partakers understand the risk of having no returns, with only the promise of what might be a thrilling and fun process.

Choosing adventure directly gives up the alternate path of certainty – a “waste” in the eyes of some. It is, unsurprisingly, what made me start this blog too.

The meaning of life has no real answer. It is what anyone subjectively decides it to be. And so is the way we spend our time.

Everything need not have meaning. It can, but it does not need to. It becomes easy to get caught up in others’ judgement of our lives, when we are constantly asked to justify our decisions and life choices. We fear the shame of falling short in the eyes of others more than in our own. Perhaps we should remember to give ourselves permission to do things even if they lead to no real “end”.

The greatest shame for those who know, deeply, what they want, is never having tried to pursue that.

~ The Eileen Gu Phenomenon ~

A real conundrum reveals itself when you live with the acceptance of mortality and the need to maximise every moment for your goals. In other words, the conundrum of having everything when they seem mutually exclusive.

How do you peacefully accept that life is finite and that time should be enjoyed when simultaneously, you know that the greatest success only comes with intense effort and time spent?

Enter Eileen Gu, a recent Internet sensation for the latest in human-inspiring achievements. She received attention for having the courage to and also being able to pull off never-before-seen skiing stunts, while also being the most decorated Olympic freestyle skier, fashion model and Ivy-League student.

While the mindset of neuroplasticity is a main takeaway, perhaps we’re missing something else. Genuine intention to life. You cannot be Eileen Gu, much as you cannot be Steve Jobs, because you would be fake. Hard work can be duplicated. Obsession cannot.

To be obsessed is to gladly devote all your time and life to something you genuinely deem worthy. It’s not a trade, like what we do with most tasks. It’s a voluntary gift with no expectation of any returns from life. An exploration is voluntarily going on a journey for its sake, with no promise that any prize be won.

Eileen’s life has meaning to her. She loves skiing, despite the bad days. Swapping lives, you only want the glory without the work. Your lifestyle has become aligned with your “purpose” when you would rather do nothing else and live no other way. Obsession is your life.

~ Drawing The Line In The Sand ~

How do I know if I am lazy or if I just want to live a slow life?

Try this two-part question: “Would you rather do anything else now? Would you regret this trade later on?”

We crave the success depicted in modern media. We want to do great things, have great lives while holding onto our comfortable piece of mediocrity. The tension tears us apart. Our indecision to give up who we are for who we think we want to be, puts us in limbo.

Accepting who we are, where we want to go and the chance of failure is scary and vulnerable. You subtly tell yourself that you might leave potential on the table – you might not empty the tank.

Doing everything in your power, relentlessly, for a goal you deem worthy, regardless of outcome, is immensely excruciating but the surest way to achieve greatness. We torture ourselves to greatness. That is true for all great individuals. A burning obsession to do everything and anything possible toward excellence never fails; with words from Eileen Gu herself.

But even then, that thing must mean something to you.

Greatness is hollow without your sense of fulfilment and personal alignment.

Not everything needs or has meaning. But everything has meaning with true personal alignment.

Click the arrows for other posts!

Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

Teleport home below!

teleport!
Connect with me:
- Follow Here
Enjoy More Serendipity Below!
July 26, 2026
Why Do I Like Reading?
Quirkbag Collection #51 – 19.07.26

It was June 2024. I was sitting outside the doctor’s consultation room waiting for my turn at the polyclinic. I held in my hand a copy of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” which I had just borrowed 15 minutes earlier.

Out of curiosity, I read the first page. Then the second, and the next one. When it was my turn, I was almost one chapter in.

I caught myself by surprise as I hated reading books. It was a feeling aggravated by the insistence of teachers/educators to read. How could I have read the first few pages of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” without “forcing” myself? And how is it possible that I felt okay reading it?

Until then, every piece of text I read was “forced”. It was torture. I willed myself to read anything and it was ultimately for studying. Leisure reading was a concept far from familiar back then. But that day, I read more and more pages of the book and in a few days, I had finished the iconic book by Robert Kiyosaki.

From then on, I hit the library weekly and read almost one book a week for slightly less than 1 year. I could not believe it.

Starting A New Chapter

So how could I have taken a liking to reading suddenly? Simply put, I found a selfish reason to read.

In the army, I encountered the ideas of investing and personal finance, so I wanted to learn what they were about. Enter “Rich Dad Poor Dad”. Like a door that led me down a long corridor filled with more doors, one book led me to the next. The rest is history. I moved into a new chapter of life where reading is no longer an anathema.

It started because curiosity about one out-of-school-syllabus topic in the right environment led me to lightly pursue it. Then I fell into the rabbit hole of reading.

But it was not always like this, and so it could not have happened earlier.

In all my student life, I hated reading, and any piece of text longer than one paragraph, because I had to spend effort reading. No article or passage was interesting because everything had to serve a purpose: help me study (mostly GP in particular).

I was not interested at all, had no desire or curiosity because I hated the idea of reading. I hated having to understand what some obscure author had to say about some issue I cannot be bothered to discuss.

“Why do I care what they think when I have a 2-hour exam to take?”

I had all the wrong reasons to read, and none to continue reading.

Purpose Matters

All this to say, purpose matters when it comes to reading. It cannot be forced for the sake of it no matter how well-intentioned we are. Purpose matters when reading, especially to those growing up without an interest in books. Push (“push” might mean “force”) them into reading and, like me, they might just hate it altogether at the end.

Growing up, the habit of reading was nurtured by nagging some variation of “read the news”. Of course, teachers used encouraging tones but any 12 year-old fed up with “reading” (like me) would describe it that way.

I mean, the best some kid could do was maybe Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. Not even that interested me then. And still, sometimes you could feel parents’ minor dissatisfaction because they should “be informed of the news”. Just look around today, how many (young) adults really read the news (and no, that 30s clip on Tiktok does not count)?

Regardless of how well-intentioned we are, we never think in the shoes of the kid/student. We always think in our own perspectives. Why should they feel differently than we did at the same age?

So I like to think that the adage “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force it to drink” applies to reading. You really can’t force a child/student to read without some unintended but well-deserved “horsekick to the chest”.

Suppose they did read, they probably would not enjoy reading nor would they do so for its intrinsic value. So really, was it successful?

A Sight-Seeing Voyage From Your Comfort Zone

What of its intrinsic value then? Surely reading is beneficial to all of us and we should all want to read. Indeed it is, but only when we do it for the right reason. Dare I say, there is only one right reason – because we want to.

Ever since I read one book a week, I have seen (fractions of) the world all from the comfort of my chair/bed. From personal finance, productivity, lifestyle to psychology, philosophy and business, the books gave me a taste of it all and how big the world really is.

There are more books than one can ever finish reading. Similarly, there are more experiences in life than one can actually have. So if reading is like sitting in a train on an endless sight-seeing voyage, you, the reader/traveller, can choose what you want to see for as long as you want.

If Only Reading Could Bring Such Scenery Before My Eyes

A Glimpse Of Time Travel

The benefits of reading are well established. But less so the experience of it.

I continued my sight-seeing voyage with books after “Rich Dad Poor Dad” because the sheer possibilities offered by books was almost too good to pass on. It was the compiled learning, experience, insights and feelings of people who have dabbled in their field, all given away for free in the library.

It was a revelation of how little I knew and how little I learnt from school. There was so much else to learn and from it live a better life.

When I read “The Intelligent Investor”, it was like talking with the dead. This was brought more to an extreme when I read about Seneca, Aristotle and Lincoln through “Courage is Calling” and “Reasons Not To Worry” on stoic virtues. Through the book, I lived their lifetimes and learning their lessons gives your worldview a little more objectivity, if not wisdom. Both are hard-won.

Exploring the ideas of the past and taking a journey through time feel like suspending reality. Shrinking whatever trivial, modern problems at hand (like laggy internet connection), this reframe imbues a sense of serenity, even if for a moment.

Reading has felt validating and assuring. “Four Thousand Weeks” and “Time Anxiety” help make sense of time and our existence, and our cosmic irrelevance. With newfound knowledge comes the confidence and peace which helps you better understand your life, and how to best live it.

The View Is Better After The Climb Up

Above all, as their private audience of one, books give us the self-assurance and growing peace that comes with knowledge.

The Reading Habit, Literally

Reading is quite a personal activity. It’s a performance with an audience of one – you, the reader. Like any work of art, the measure of its value is subjective and arbitrary, relevant only to you, the reader.

But yet, reading has seemed to become a means of condescension in modern society because it can be an indicator for “sophistication” or “education”. It’s tragic that what could be the legacy of previous generations written to better humanity becomes degraded.

Deciding how you read is also hugely satisfying. You can be someone who reads one book for 3 months, slowly savouring each page every night. You can also be the impatient reader who skips to the last chapter with zero context because “it’s all the same anyways”. Neither is wrong, neither is better.

Reading is but another tool to explore our world and through it better understand who we are. It is a simple luxury afforded by those who have the intrinsic curiosity to learn beyond their space and time.

But of course, you don’t need it to live a good life.

Books merely connect the reader with the writer, and the rest is an experience for the reader. In words better than my own, Emerson wrote:

“If we are related, we shall meet.”

Then through these words, we have met.

Click the arrows for other posts!

Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

Teleport home below!

teleport!
Connect with me:
- Follow Here
Enjoy More Serendipity Below!
July 19, 2026
Comparison Is Too Much
Quirkbag Collection #50 – 12.07.26

Are we really ourselves or just what people make us to be? A product of modern consumerism and media, with a tad of envy from comparison.

There seems to be so much more comparison now that we chase this alternate version of ourselves just to “keep up with the times”. Worse still, comparison drives us to create this version of ourselves which we may not even want.

If you do not juggle 3 projects at work, sleeping 7 hours, walking 10K steps, meditating, spending weekends with friends and family all while working on self-improvement, you are somehow “less”. Or at least it feels that way when you see someone doing just that. And so we do more…just to say we did more…

But why? Is less not more?

Modern Comparison Culture

There used to be a time when comparison was simply finding the farmer who harvested more carrots. Then came several industrial revolutions and today we’re comparing influence through an arbitrary digital number on a screen on social media. God forbid that number is zero, or non-existent, and you’ll get mocked for it.

We’re constantly compared to others whether in absolute or relative terms that we forget who we really are. Whether it is school admissions, project recruitments, job interviews, people love to compare us to the next person. But they compare the glossy, shiny part that we create to show others – the cool stuff.

Where did the normal, not-so-cool but human part of us go?

Somewhere along the line, we started chasing this phantom version of ourselves that represents what society and the world thinks we should be. Yet it is only reasonable that we adopted this shift because that’s how we get by now.

We have to be more something than the next guy.

To do more is to have more impact. To do more is to be better. Or is it?

Escaping Comparison Means Deviation

Much like having clarity on your life’s purpose, there is great comfort and peace in knowing who we are and who we want to be. The new crease is that it may come at the price of being different. Society has a fickle stance on those who are different.

It’s incredible how we judge the extent of ‘different’ today. If you’re different because you become an entrepreneur who builds a modern rooftop farm growing carrots in Singapore, society slaps a ‘well done’ on your back. But if you’re choosing to grow carrots along the countryside instead of a cushy but somewhat boring corporate job in the city, people raise their eyebrows.

You almost have to be the “right kind” of different.

The false belief that there’s a link between doing more and being more is a subtle but poisonous one. To be the ‘role model’ or ‘success standard’, modern society links volume with ability, ability with identity. The succinct new word for it is ‘brand’. That’s how young people are being judged today.

The question society implicitly asks is “What’s your personal ‘brand’?”

Yet, it feels like the real question is “How much more and better are you doing than the next guy?”

The answer had better be more than growing carrots.

What About A Personal Brand?

Now of course, there’s more to us and our lives than a ‘brand’. We know that because this concept did not used to exist. It’s not practical to always show or build this brand in everything we do. We’re flawed humans trying to be a polished pearl, and we judge one another based on who gets the closest. It’s borderline sad to think how we have brought it to an extreme.

Worse still, we’re not even always doing it for the right reasons.

Do we really need so many “followers” online?

Our lives did not used to include living vicariously through others apart from the occasional rumour or story. Today, it’s mildly tragic that we invented ‘screen time’ and actively use it to determine how much of our lives we’re actually living.

To escape this self-made comparison trap, where the more we do the more we compare with others, we have to choose to do less to be more. Afterall, no one can do everything.

But perhaps we’re confusing this public version of ourselves with who we really are. We’re so caught up with building this supposedly important public image and ‘brand’ that we forget our private self. And before we know it, we no longer know who we are at our core and who we want to be.

All we remember is to compare with others and see if we’re doing enough to remain “validated” by others. Gone is the clarity we need to find our own purpose and identity.

More Is Not More; Less Is Still More

With modern digitalisation being increasingly pervasive, there’s a premium for privacy (or as I like to call it – analog) and solitude these days. And perhaps these are the very things we need most to remember who we truly are instead of what we try to make ourselves to be.

Doing more for the sake of it is a surefire way to create burnout, pressure, more comparison and meaningless work. Doing less is also guaranteed to cause feelings of inferiority, more comparison and a sense of falling behind. What then?

Most comparisons are made to gain self-assurance; to feel “normal within the group”.

But more is not more. Less is still more, just as any minimalist would say. But only if you pick the right few things for yourselves. Therein lies the real test of whether you know who you are, and who you want to be.

So, are you doing more or are you being more?

Click the arrows for other posts!

Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

Teleport home below!

teleport!
Connect with me:
- Follow Here
Enjoy More Serendipity Below!
July 12, 2026
Are You Stuck In The Confidence Trap?

Quirkbag Collection #49 – 21.06.26

Confidence is attractive. But it is also a trap. Like most people, I wish to have more confidence. It is one of those rare traits that exude charisma and trustworthiness. It’s a characteristic that resembles a pillar of strength, a sign of possible leadership.

But more than ever, studying confidence as a concept has left us waiting for it to happen. It’s as though examining confidence in modern society has led to a further lack of it. Sadly, confidence does not just appear. Waiting certainly does not create it.

Why Don’t We Have Confidence?

We’re too afraid. With social media’s extensive coverage and how we have become more cynical, I think more of us are afraid to be vulnerable. We just want to be “right”, we want to feel “validated”, but most of us don’t want to truly stand for something ourselves, not when it might mean being alone.

We don’t have the confidence to be who we are in front of others, let alone the public, because we know there is a more than likely chance of criticism. Instead, we would rather the comfort of the herd than the confidence in solitude.

In other words, we care too much about how others perceive us that we would put up a facade for others. The wiser ones choose not to even portray themselves – they just live privately.

But confidence can still exist privately, right?

Perhaps. But do we have real confidence in our beliefs? Too much and you might be stubborn and conceited. Too little and you can be a pushover. So where does the line get drawn?

Well, when in doubt, look to the philosophers right?

Aristotle had a quote:

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

It seems a good enough guide that our confidence is towed by the ability to consider and play with other ideas without needing to change our stance. Conceited and close-minded people would never strike you as confident – you’ve probably met them. They are usually defensive. Being confident then comes from your deeper understanding of why something is true or relevant.

What Is True Confidence? Do I Have It?

People follow and respect confidence. We all would choose it if given that choice. Mainstream self-help preaches the “fix your mindset”, “do daily affirmations” and the “fake it till you make it” stuff.

But what does it take? Can we really fake it until we make it?

I don’t think so.

Firstly, no one really wants a leader with “fake confidence”. Authenticity beats appearance. I think most people want a genuine person that will become truly confident rather than one who pretends. Real confidence inspires. Fake confidence is off-putting and irksome. Real confidence is assurance. Fake confidence is ignorance.

You can easily tell real from fake based on the tone and behaviour of a person. Real confidence is powerful on its own – there is a sense of humility and kindness behind it. The fake one is fragile – there is always a need to keep up the appearance, to ensure the image is maintained. Most likely, someone’s ego is tied to their fake confidence.

When you go about your day, run this mental exercise, ask: “Where am I going, to do what?” If you can answer with certainty, you are answering with confidence. And that is the first step to knowing how true confidence feels like. I think it’s just a matter of scaling from there to other skills, knowledge, presentations and more.

There is a peace of mind attached to quiet confidence – almost to the extent of nonchalance – which helps a person navigate situations. With experience, the confidence comes as second nature because the actions to be taken are clear. You are able to guide others based on your experience. Knowing what to do is a solid first step.

Where Does Confidence Come From?

Confidence comes after trying and failing. After a ridiculous number of attempts, you know you have the abilities and skills to overcome hardship. But at the start, we have to do it scared, do it alone, do it wrongly. You don’t need confidence to start anything. The scariest part is doing all the things you have never done and failing all of them.

With enough experience, your actions and responses become second nature. It feels smooth and instinctive.

In sales, the only thing that cannot be accelerated is experience. Putting in the repetitions is the biggest factor for consistent success. Top performers always knew what to say, how to say it and when to walk away. But not me. And yes, a long time ago, they were novices like me too. Over time, their experience has given them pattern recognition skills and refined their techniques.

Confidence can be spread temporarily. Being around confident people can subtly boost your own confidence. When you’re in a winning team, you feel strong and invincible even when you may not be the main contributor. When you’re around the people whom you trust, you have confidence in their abilities.

While others can imbue confidence in you, that feeling tends to fade quickly. Without your firm self-belief, confidence is ephemeral. Some confidence than none, but true confidence comes with time, from the internalised lessons of experience.

That is when confidence is yours to have.

Click the arrows for other posts!

Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

Teleport home below!

teleport!

Enjoy More Serendipity Below!

June 21, 2026
Why Your Life Has No Texture

Quirkbag Collection #48 – 14.06.26

Our lives used to be interesting. We used to enjoy the dull and exciting moments all the same, because it made life feel different. Taking the train did not feel like a chore, it felt like an experience. Walking felt like a natural part of the day, now it’s almost an anathema. God forbid the weather be extra humid and hot.

If you feel like life has fallen into a routine, that your life has a certain silent emptiness despite having all that you used to want, your texture of life has smoothened. The texture of life refers to how interesting or memorable life is or has been. When days seem to blend into one, when nothing special stands out in mind, that is a life with no texture. When you can’t remember the last time something felt truly interesting or exciting, that’s a smooth texture.

But why?

What could make life lose texture?

Embracing Ephemerality

The texture of life is built through bursts of experiences of varying intensity. The greater the intensity or emotion of the task/experience, the stronger the memory and texture it has. Whether it’s a few months spent learning something new, or starting a new job, or going through a different ‘phase’ in life, meeting someone new, all of it counts. I used to think life has but one fixed rhythm and texture. That we are meant to graduate from school and work the same job for 40 years till retirement. Alas, there is almost no life texture in such a future without any career growth.

Our days are ephemeral, whether you think of them as good days or bad days. We don’t remember the days. We only remember the unique experiences – the firsts, the lasts, the unusual, the painful. These create the texture of our lives. Without them, we seem to fall to our level of comfort and routine, slowly putting our brain on auto-pilot. We drift through life without remembering what or why we did things.

That’s when time starts to fade. It passes so quickly that we don’t feel it until it’s over, much like Adam Sandler in “Click”. When we think back, we ask “Where did all the time go?” You lost it to autopilot, to the overly optimised life, to the extreme convenience and lack of serendipity.

Learning About The 2%

So why? Why can’t we live like we did 20 years ago?

Our brain is wired to release dopamine when we do something successfully. Modern lifestyle hijacks this system with instant gratification through social media and more. We’re so used to this ‘boring’ life because we don’t remember what life used to be like 20 years ago; when the resistance and inconvenience of today’s world were actually the norm.

Our highly optimised and convenient life has become a frustration because there is no longer a contrast. Finding resistance and sitting with the discomfort of difficulty is the point. That makes the easy part easy, the fun part fun and the quiet moments loud. Our brains are meant for thinking and solving.

Discomfort and difficulty make the ordinary special, the boring interesting, the usual exciting and the habits a relief. That’s the power of facing some resistance. It pushes your mind off autopilot and into the present.

A survey shows 2% of people would choose the stairs when the lift/escalator is easily available. Extending the statistical metaphor, it introduces the idea of intentionally choosing friction and inconvenience to break your brain’s default neural pathways for choosing the easy way out.

Honestly, I experienced this phenomenon even before knowing it existed. In the army, the only time I felt life slow down was over the weekends. Everything seemed more fun, more soothing, more meaningful, more vibrant – even a cup of tea was most satisfying. The constant tedium and non-stop discomfort in the army contrasted the slower, easier and calmer lifestyle outside. That was the point. Even the most mundane day felt interesting.

The Japanese Tea Ceremony

The Japanese have a culture of holding tea ceremonies to celebrate the present moment in each other’s company. Focusing on simplicity and mindfulness, the practice hinges on the principle of “ichigo ichie” – one time, one meeting – a reminder to enjoy the present moment.

Every tea ceremony is different, even if every cup of tea is made of the same tea leaves, by the same person, in the same manner, at the same time each day, in the same place. It is believed that no cup of tea is the same because there is only one cup of tea at the moment – the one you are holding.

It sounds almost philosophical (well, it kind of is), with tea being a metaphor for everything else in life. There is only one present moment at any point in time, and our job is to live the moment so that we create wonderful textures for our memories and lives.

Rather than living on auto-pilot waiting for the next thing, sometimes intentionally going out of your comfort zone and doing the less optimised, more inconvenient things is what you need to reset your mind.

It’s Okay To Change Your Life

For a long time, I struggled to accept changes to my evening routine. I followed the same schedule from 7.30pm to 11pm on weekdays when I was younger because that was my comfortable routine. When I started JC and entered the army, change was forced. There was no choice but to reinvent my routine. And from it, a newer, refined version of yourself emerges as you take on newer tasks, challenges and routines.

Letting go of the old routines was hard because it felt like cutting away part of my identity. I did not want to lose that part of myself which I liked. But this is when texture grows and adds to our lives. It’s okay to change yourself for a new phase of life – to create new textures in life. Without change, nothing new happens.

Sometimes the changes will be hard. When you start a new job, when you train for a milestone, when you experience bumpy relationships, when you feel lost, the list goes on. But everything adds to the narrative of your life story and the texture of your life.

Every version of our old self is like a friend that we create. Some day when we look back, I hope we think of our lives as chapters of adventures with different versions of ourselves being proud of who we’ve become.

To live a rich life filled with various textures is to embrace all the different versions of ourselves – and stay present with who we are now.

Click the arrows for other posts!

Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

Teleport home below!

teleport!

Enjoy More Serendipity Below!

June 14, 2026
Your Wisdom Through Experience

Quirkbag Collection #47 – 07.06.26

I still remember the days of being 17, 18 and 20. Thinking back, it feels like a mere moment. Time flies in retrospection. In retrospection, the memories came without the pain that I actually felt in the past. The sweat, heat, ache and fatigue in the wilderness when I was in the army. The meaningless daily grind that has blurred into mush leading up to A Levels. The memories are vague, undetailed and far from the true experience. So where does this leave me?

Well, with a certain peace that comes with the irreplaceable wisdom of experience.

Understanding Finitude

There is a quote that goes “this too shall pass”. Do not confuse this with a similar line from “The Lord Of The Rings”.

There is a subtle confidence and assurance that comes with knowing that all things will pass, regardless of whether it is easy or difficult. And in accepting that we don’t control a lot of events that happen, “this too shall pass” reframes the present obstacle as just another experience in our lives.

Sure, it probably feels impossible to be “peaceful” if you’re skydiving and falling freely before the parachute launches. Or if you are riding a rollercoaster upside down at what feels like an insane velocity. But eventually, the chute opens. The ride ends. “This too shall pass”.

Now this is not to encourage skydiving or rollercoasters rides. But this is to say that the most thrilling, scary, live-life-on-the-edge experiences force you to be in the moment. To fully feel the depths of the moment, before it passes. And once it has, the residue it leaves is more than just your faint memory and the underlying emotion you associate with it. It includes the broadening of your horizon; the “stronger character”; that intuitive scale in your mind that tells you a certain situation is not that severe in comparison to your experiences.

With more experience, I keep coming back to this quote. Whenever a problem or a temporary challenge occurs, I think of it as an inconvenience to whatever goal or objective I am working towards. It acts almost as a razor that can frame the problem into its appropriate scale rather than letting emotions blow it out of proportion.

A Touch Of Wisdom

Ryan Holiday’s book “Wisdom Takes Work” reminded me of a few familiar lessons from Stoicism. Most importantly, we must be humble to recognise how small, flawed and finite we are as humans. If wisdom is knowing what’s what, how and when to do something, then most of what we do everyday goes against it. Being far too busy putting out the fires 3 inches from our noses, we’re always just reacting to things. We fail to see things through the macro-perspective.

To truly be wise, it takes immense misery, pain and suffering for that is the price to distil the lessons of wisdom. That was the case with the revered Abraham Lincoln. Choosing wisdom in the modern world where instant gratification reigns supreme mandates a strength of will that most of us don’t possess. It takes effort to slow down, to challenge our beliefs without feeling like we are “switching sides”, to contemplate and conclude rather than simply take the default.

With wisdom, or at least some fraction of it, we inevitably gain peace and confidence in ourselves. In slowing down and considering how ridiculous our frustrations sometimes are, we can seek solace in knowing our problems are mostly self-inflicted and mostly insignificant.

The Sun Still Sets No Matter How Beautiful It Looks While Setting; That Too Shall Pass
What Else Matters In That Moment?

Just how many things really truly matter at the end of our time? Framing problems within the period of our existence, it’s comedic to constantly sweat the little things. And that understanding contributes part of the peace and confidence in us – that indeed, this too shall pass.

Suddenly, your problems aren’t as frustrating.

The Passing Of Time

The Chinese proverb says that time dilutes all. How true. It’s probably why I don’t remember the excruciating pain, fatigue and stress from my past experiences. But simultaneously, these experiences enrich our lives. Not just in the moment, but long after the moment has passed, in ways that we don’t fully comprehend (except in therapy). These experiences culminate into our being. They become part of who we are, more than just vague memories.

The passing of time washes the intensity of our memories. At the end, it is said that we get a highlight reel of the most unique, life-changing and thrilling times in our lives. If that’s true, then we are far more capable of handling complex, arduous, painful and scary things than we believe.

Most of our days blur and get forgotten; we remember only several events. Not the faces of the strangers on the train, not the classmates from school, maybe not your childhood best friend and not even every single birthday growing up.

That is the passing of time. So with our great capacity to forget, to smooth over the bumpy textures of life, we quietly grow confident in facing new things. We know we have done something of the same scale. Even if we have not, we know that “this too shall pass”. If that does not encourage you to do more life-changing, story-defining things, then very few other things can.

How’s that for self-affirmation?

Your Peace And Confidence

For lack of an alternative phrase, the wisdom, and its resultant peace and confidence, from experience is not compressible. That means I can’t gain 2 decades of wisdom in 2 days, even if everything was written to painstaking detail. Maybe I’ll learn fractions of it, but certainly not the full experience of a lifetime.

The defining characteristic of wisdom and experience is discretion and judgement, both of which cannot be taught through text. Only learnt through experience. The wisdom, confidence and peace are then innate.

Experience, however, can be compressed by reducing the intervals between each “encounter”. In choosing to take on 2 decades of experience (of anything) in 1 decade, the intensity and volume of pain and struggle will definitely be higher, but you’ll gain the lessons faster. That said, wisdom cannot be rushed. It will emerge in its own time.

With wisdom, confidence and peace, where does that leave you?

With a gut feeling that you are going to be okay.

Because this too shall pass.

Click the arrows for other posts!

Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

Teleport home below!

teleport!

Enjoy More Serendipity Below!

June 7, 2026
Why Is Discipline Extremely Boring?

Quirkbag Collection #46 – 31.05.26

In many self-help books, discipline is always crowned champion of the basics to change your life. Everything seems to include discipline, like it’s a magical ingredient to a pot of stew. But what does discipline really look like? Is it draining the thrill out of your life to do all the things you hate? Or is it about consistently doing something for a ridiculously long period of time?

Well, maybe a bit of both.

My Idea Of Discipline

The way I like to think of discipline is as a filter. It strains everything that happens in your life, at least the ones you notice. Discipline makes the decisions for you, determining whether an action or behaviour is acceptable or not. Discipline gives you the clear answer as to whether you should go to that club the night before an important event. It tells you whether an impulsive temptation is the right thing to give into. It’s like an “action compass” for us. We know inherently if the choice is beneficial to us or not.

This “action compass” is more reliable than we think. Its presence is what makes you feel guilty after something is done. You saw the better choice, but you didn’t take it. But if you did, and made every choice the “correct” one based on discipline, would that give an extremely fruitful life? Probably so, but only in the long run.

What then of the short-term?

When we discuss delayed gratification, we don’t think to appease the short-term human cravings. By pushing all the rewards to the future, we risk never even enjoying it. Yet, that never seems to be the main problem for most people. We know how to get our daily dopamine fix. Taking some enjoyment in the present moment is easy. The trick is knowing where to draw the line so that we are not constantly chasing instant gratification. That is where discipline comes in.

How To Get Disciplined

Discipline is the by-product of consistency. Consistency is built through habit. Habit is built through (James Clear’s book “Atomic Habits”) repetition and reminders. Without regular practice, it’s very hard to become proficient at a skill. Besides, consistency to practice anything can itself be hard to achieve. Who wants to keep doing the same thing everyday for who knows how long?

You do! You have to.

Consistency is what allows you to practice, build experience, gain knowledge and improve at literally anything. Constantly trying to do a task is what makes the task easier over time. But most people quit at the start. That’s when things can seem the hardest; when the path ahead looks the longest. It’s when you must fight the hardest against the urge to quit.

Consistency is playing the long game. Tell yourself that it will take time, that your growth will only be seen later, after all the boring, painful repetitions. Because it’s true. Knowing this makes being consistent easier. It makes doing the task again for one more day easier to accept. We must accept that the reward is not given today, but some day in future. And to redeem the reward, we must keep doing the task till that day comes.

If you measure consistency in terms of the number of days an action is done, the longer the streak, the more routine and normal it becomes, the easier it gets.

My Duolingo Streak Since 2024; Never Thought It Would Last

The Auto-Pilot Discipline

Discipline exists on a spectrum. Fixed routines, fixed tasks, fixed timing, fixed everything. Boring. Stale. Repetitive. But, effective. This is discipline elevated to auto-pilot – a lifestyle built around the systems meant to achieve certain goals.

Whether this discipline is good or bad depends on whether you can accept the resulting lifestyle. Not everyone likes the same lifestyle routines.

Auto-pilot deals with every possible choice with an outcome to derail the plan in advance – with discipline. No deciding what is for lunch because you have meal prepped. No choosing between new clothes because you take the train home immediately. Decisions are made ahead of time to avoid confrontation, temptation or autonomy. Life is without novelty, thrill or difference between days. Because everything is fixed, predictability and similarity cause boredom in day-to-day life.

There is little to no room for ‘error’ because discipline has overridden autonomy. The default answer to anything is “no”. Autonomy is then the nemesis of discipline. Without autonomy, discipline reigns as default. Autonomy creates possibilities that cause distractions. Distractions that lure you toward undisciplined lifestyles.

A disciplined lifestyle is one that needs deliberate attention and decision-making. It can be done in advance (like in auto-pilot), or in the moment (avoiding possibilities). But it requires you to choose the harder, uncomfortable path. And this is why autonomy usually works against discipline. We avoid the choice that makes us different from others, that makes us stand out.

The Autonomous Discipline

There is a point where discipline becomes easy. It’s autonomous. Your discipline filter works subconsciously, like a well-oiled machine, that you have so much trust in yourself to intentionally disregard what discipline tells you.

Saying yes intentionally to ice-cream while dieting. Skipping exercise amid regular training. Waking up later than usual without making your bed.

For some, breaking the routine, giving in to the easier, lazier option, may be normal. But disciplined people would feel discomfort the moment something is done in contrast with their identity. Someone who goes to the gym 5x a week feels weird if he only went 3x. Or someone who makes the bed daily finds it unacceptable to leave the bed messy for once.

Autonomous discipline is what I would say is the ‘license to deviate’. You have become so disciplined that you know the habit, routine and behaviour will remain intact even if you deviated from the default action. Skipping one day of exercise knowing full well you’ll hit the gym the following day is an example. This is likely the case when your actions, routines and habits have become part of your identity.

Having this ability to trust that you’ll choose the harder option again the next day is when autonomy is now acting in your favour. Autonomy no longer acts as the nemesis of discipline, but complements it to give a more textured lifestyle. You no longer need auto-pilot.

Are You Disciplined?

I’d love to say that I am extremely disciplined. To have the consistency in doing everything daily to achieve everything I want. But we’re humans. We’re flawed. We’re going to fail in some regard. And that’s okay.

Ironically, we only call it discipline when it comes to things we hate doing, rather avoid doing, but yet always beneficial to us in time. The things we love to constantly do are then called “guilty pleasures”.

Everyone can start with one task once a week. Whether it is a new hobby, a new goal, or anything at all, start there. Once you start, it gets easier to integrate the habit or task into a routine. Set low expectations but make the effort to complete the task.

It will be hard battling your discomfort, emotions and mental excuses to not do the task. But remember, to become different, to improve, you have to sit with it and let it happen. It may suck for a bit, but it won’t be forever. Start today, never stop.

Consistency is never impressive in the moment, only at the END.

Click the arrows for other posts!

Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

Teleport home below!

teleport!

Find more serendipity below!

May 31, 2026
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know: Dunning-Kruger Effect

Quirkbag Collection #45 – 24.05.26

There are 4 stages of competence when we learn anything. They are known competence, unknown competence, known incompetence, unknown incompetence. You might know them simply as “strengths” and “weaknesses”. But you may be unaware you had particular strengths or weaknesses as you don’t know what you don’t know. That’s the Dunning-Kruger effect.

So…“What Are Your Strengths and Weaknesses?”

The typical interview question aims to test someone’s self-awareness. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is easy if you have done plenty of things or have hundreds of hobbies. But most times, the question yields boring answers like “persistent”, “disciplined”, “careful” and “perfectionism”. Most people aren’t even sure what these words mean.

These are usually what people feel about themselves based on what things they have done.

The true test of strengths and weaknesses come when we face new situations. From navigating completely new environments (like travelling alone) to learning something new (a skill or job). The complexity and uncertainty involved shows who we really are. Like waves that polish the beach, our character is only revealed when we face different waves of life.

Through these experiences, the hard-earned wisdom of how we react, behave and think comes to us. Clarity about our character and style surfaces. We now understand how “good” or “bad” we really are at learning or problem-solving. The best reference comes from benchmarking ourselves against others at a technical or professional level.

Sometimes, it forces you to admit that you aren’t as “awesome” or “competent” as you thought. Bruised ego, poor you.

Now, think again. What are your strengths and weaknesses? A story or experience should float into your mind. Not a buzzword adjective.

Another Question: ‘What are some AFIs?’

Simple. It’s the “known incompetence”. We think to improve upon what we know and observe. These can be tangible outcomes like accidents, mishaps or events or intangible observations like confusion, inefficiency or lack of communication. If you can see it, identify it, label it, you can probably fix it.

The hardest part comes when you try to fix what you don’t know is “broken”. That’s unknown incompetence. It’s like trying to find your shadow in darkness.

But you know there’s something there to tackle. You feel it. There’s an invisible obstacle impeding your progress. Like a 5 year-old in bed at night, you think there’s an imaginary monster. Ever hear the silence that falls upon the room when someone asks for improvements, that’s probably one reason. There’s the “imaginary monster” without a name that lurks.

That’s the Dunning-Kruger effect at work. You don’t know what is missing but there is something missing. How can you improve on something if you don’t know what you don’t know? If there is an invisible monster?

A Graph Of Perceived vs Actual Competence Showing Dunning-Kruger Effect
Photo From Nesslabs.com/dunning-kruger-effect

The Nesslabs article suggests meta-cognitive skills. That means enhanced self-awareness, more than what yields the boring answers to interview questions. Unknown incompetence needs you to “figure out what you don’t know”. But what if there’s nothing in mind to try?

The Pasta Method: Stumbling and Fumbling

In learning about sales, I have received advice from others that trying absolutely anything and everything is what will help you gain knowledge. I call this the “pasta method”. This is not knowledge of sales, but of yourself. It’s to find out what works for you.

Learning how you come across to others and the way you speak help to increase your circle of known incompetence. Why?

Because you get instant feedback. A forgiving smile, a light chuckle, a confused look, an angry tone. Everything is the result of a certain trigger from you. You get to know what works. You get to know where you need to work on because of the observable signs of incompetence – their lack of interest, frustration, annoyance and more.

Facing the Dunning-Kruger effect requires more than just hard work or effort. It requires smart work. Hard work is easy when the task simply needs to be done, in repetition over time. Smart work adds a layer of thinking (a very difficult thing) which determines the direction of progress. In other words, smart work before hard work. Smart work brings changes, tests, experiments.

Learning sales was easy initially because there were only so few sentences and words in the basic script. But the art of sales – holding conversations, breaking tensions and showing value – needs time and a lot of smart work. It’s easy to knock 1000 doors and say the same thing. It’s much harder to knock 1000 doors and use every door as a feedback loop to overcome the Dunning-Kruger effect.

You don’t know what you don’t know until you try something new and see yourself fail. Ask others for their feedback, actions or experiences with their learning progress.

Now, smart work requires the “pasta method”. Throw everything and anything that you have heard or thought of and see what sticks. Then, assemble the pieces to see what you didn’t know works. That’s a stumbling and fumbling step towards killing the imaginary monster. Now, repeat it again. See why it’s tough?

A Drop Of Wisdom

Stoics believed that wisdom was the mother of virtues. From wisdom came courage, temperance and justice. It’s your ability to act and to not act. Wisdom comes from experience; knowledge comes from learning. We don’t know what we don’t know because we have no knowledge or wisdom yet. It’s space that has not been explored.

In Ryan Holiday’s “Wisdom Takes Work” about the stoic virtue, it is clear that wisdom needs time, just as compounding works with time. I always tried to fast-track and compress my learning curves in everything over the months. But sales taught me that hard-won wisdom and experience cannot be “optimised” or “expedited”.

You just have to take the time. Sometimes, the long route is the short route. I have met the Dunning-Kruger effect as I learn to do sales. Everyone will at some point when they try different things for the first time. But I hope that meta-cognitive skills (aka strong self-awareness) stay in abundance in people.

That’s the only way we’ll ever slay the imaginary monster – by making it real.

Go ahead, read my other posts!

Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this serendipitous, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself before Uni begins – who I am and what life has to offer. This blog is my little space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading the weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.

Teleport home below!

teleport!

Find more serendipity below!

May 24, 2026

Check back every SUNDAY!

X