Yujian's Exchange In USA: SMUX Elections & How to make a Decision

Hey all,

i know this blog is about my life in US while SMUX, at this moment of time, is not part of my life. Nonetheless, I have really been keeping close contacts with some of my friends in Singapore to still get an understanding of the SMUX Elections. Before I continue, I would just like to congratulate all those who get into crew and remind those who didn't get in that SMUX is made up of every single one of us.

During my past 3 years in SMUX, i've seen many different types of people. I've seen people who truly believed in the outdoors and have lived their lives with adventure. Some of them are crewies and some of them are not. The most important lesson that I think all of us should take away from SMUX is to develop our passion for the outdoors. With regards to passion, I feel that passion is not something that can be described. Its not something that should be conveyed in words, its your act that tells others how much you believe in something. Stop telling people how passionate you are about something. Your actions will tell.

This brings me to how decisions are being made in life. Recently, I am faced with many dilemmas and this is what that has got me to start thinking about decision making all over again. Making a decision in a firm is totally different from making a decision for your OWN life. This is because when you make a decision in a firm, the act itself affects EVERYONE related to the firm (think BGS - Stakeholder theory) . But when it comes to making individual decisions, I affirm that we should do what we LIKE and not what others tell us to do!

Personally, I feel that as long as it doesn't harm others, we should always seek to pursue the course of action that maximizes our satisfactions (think maximizing utility functions). In our lives, we are constantly succumbing to the messages sent by mere social constructs around us, and have more or less lost ourselves. But I just want to remind everyone that we are who we define ourselves to be. Remember that. Stop trying to be someone else, just be yourself!
On the other hand, some people make decisions by weighing the pros and cons. This is what I call the effect of Singpaore's education. When we write GP essays or papers for our courses, we are always very compelled to present both sides of the story so as to show the people who grade our papers that we have thought through the situation. Although this is highly applicable for decision making in firms (because there are graders out there, your stakeholders), I strongly argue against doing this when it comes to choosing paths in our personal lives.

Frankly, there are millions of reasons that are pro and millions of reasons that are cons. The crux of doing an analysis before decision making is to think through these reasons so that you are making an "informed" decision. BUT, it is NOT POSSIBLE to think through every single reason and even if you think as long as you can, the reasons you have listed is just a small fraction of ALL the reasons (or variables) out there! Thus, I feel that we should always do something because we LOVE it, or when we feel that its something we like, albeit constrained by the fact that our decision should not affect others.

Sorry for the ranting, but for those who constantly come to my blog for a peak on my food menu, here's some of the different dishes i've made recently:

Chicken Breasts with Shrimp Paste Sauce