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In the army, I discovered the most powerful productivity hack ever invented. It’s called Act Blur. Not lazy. Not incompetent. Just… selectively unclear. When I was a recruit, my corporal had a favourite line. “Don’t be a smart aleck.” Translation: Don’t volunteer brilliance. Don’t improve the
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If there is one skill the army trains to Olympic level, it is waiting. The camp commander says, “All men assemble at 8am.” The OC says, “7.30am.” The platoon sergeant says, “7am.” By the time the message reaches you, you are standing in formation at 6.45am, fully dressed,
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There is one word in the army so powerful that I cannot even spell it properly. Let’s just call it “Fcuk.” Parents worry that their innocent, wide-eyed sons will come home brainwashed by the military. They are right. But not in the way they think. The first sign
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In the army, there were many kinds of standby. Standby bed. Standby area. Standby for instructions. Each one had its own unique way of wasting time. But the one every recruit remembers most is Standby Bed. Standby Bed is an inspection of your bunk, locker, and personal belongings. It usually
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Probably for the first time, officers and NCOs were thrown into the same batch and trained to become SAF Boys’ instructors. No rank buffer. We were trained by the commandos on top of a small hill in Changi, living in an two-storey colonial bungalow. Before every meal, we did
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Drills never made sense to me back then. Under the blazing sun, I learned Malay words I still remember today. Kanan pusing. Kiri pusing. Left turn, right turn, repeat until your brain melts before your body does. At night, we polished our boots until we could see our teeth in
short story
Life Lessons from the Armed Forces – Punctuality In the army, punctuality is not a suggestion. It is a survival skill. Be late by one minute and you don’t get a warning. You get punished. Your weekend disappears. While your buddies are shopping, eating good food, or dating their girlfriends,
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Life lessons from the Armed Forces. In the armed forces, we work with a simple assumption. Anything can go wrong. And failure is not an option. That is why every mission comes with a contingency plan. Before we move, we already ask the uncomfortable question: If this fails, then what?
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Life Lessons from the Army Discipline Comes Before Everything Else In the army, work does not begin with work. Before anything else, the order of the day is fixed. Exercise. Cleaning. Breakfast. You exercise even when you are tired. You clean your rifle, make your bed, clean the toilet and
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Life Lessons from the Army (That You Didn’t Know You’d Keep Using) I spent most of my working life in the armed forces as a regular. I lived through the era before computers and the internet. When work was done on heavy, noisy typewriters. When information was kept
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My retirement dream is to be a street busker. Stand somewhere near a Singapore MRT station with a portable electric piano, playing all my favourite songs. Big problem. I don’t know how to play. And please don’t ask me to memorise the notes. If the government ever opens
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I stopped making resolutions. Last year’s resolution is still unfinished. I am not unintelligent. I know that. And yet I barely earn more than fresh graduates. Some of the students I once tutored now earn more than me. They are living the kind of life I once assumed would