BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK JOURNAL & RESEARCH Lessons From The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis In the mid-summer of 1997, much of East Asia was gripped by the Asian financial crisis. The crisis began in Thailand due to the mounting pressures of its exchange rate in the last quarter of 1996. The These mounting pressures arose from the increase of the already high current account deficits that engulfed the country at the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ENTREPRENEURSHIP SOCIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY How Esports Became Mainstream Referring to eSports (electronic sports) as a professional athletic sport has been controversial right from the start. The idea of being a professional player of online video games always seemed to be fairly distant to what was considered the norm for a career in society. However, with the growth of internet connectivity and the popularity […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
JOURNAL & RESEARCH SOCIOLOGY Covid 19 Management Strategies & Outcomes: East Asia & Western World In December 2019, a new strain of Coronavirus, later identified as SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) or COVID-19, began to surface in Wuhan, China. By February 2020, COVID-19 had become a pandemic which required emergency measures across the globe. However, regions in East Asia and Europe adopted different pandemic strategies which led to […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
EDITOR'S PICK SOCIOLOGY Understanding The Hikikomori Phenomenon Hikikomori, which originated in Japan, refers to the condition where youths withdraw into the home and do not participate in society for an extended period of time. Recent updates on hikikomori presentation within the region were exchanged at a Hikikomori Round Table and Regional Symposium (HRTRS) discussion late 2017, leading to this perspective paper. Hikikomori […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CALLUM CONNECTS ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTERVIEWS Larry Tang – Founder of FAMA Group A concern for the wellness of others took Larry Tang from digital marketing to SLOW food. What’s your story? Prior to founding my own investment and consultancy firm in food, sustainability and wellness, I was the Asia Pacific Managing Director for Digitas & Razorfish, the world’s two largest digital marketing agencies, servicing global Fortune 500 brands. […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CALLUM CONNECTS ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTERVIEWS Kai Chua – Founder & CEO of Linkstuffs Mechanical Engineer Kai Chua did not like being disturbed during the night to resolve breakdowns when the robots under-performed so he found a way to anticipate breakdowns. He then turned this into a satisfying business. What’s your story? I graduated as a Mechanical Engineer. After graduation, I worked for a manufacturing company as an automation engineer. […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
FINANCE American Markets Continue To Climb – How Long Can It Last? When economies tank, the market usually tanks along with it. Except this time, that hasn’t happened. After plummeting in March, the Dow Jones, the S&P, and the NASDAQ have completely recovered. Meanwhile, back in the real world, COVID cases keep soaring, and U.S. unemployment is still sky-high. And, according to experts, the expiry of coronavirus […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CALLUM CONNECTS ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTERVIEWS Ivan Yong, Co-Founder of Nanyang Angelz Ivan’s Start-up Innovation Model Has Become Popular In Established Corporations What’s your story?Nanyang Angelz was founded with the purpose of making impact investments into startups with innovative business models that can bring positive disruption to society and the environment. We believe that startup founders are the catalyst to change and innovation and it’s our role […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK ENTREPRENEURSHIP STARTUPS STRATEGY TECHNOLOGY This AI Startup Detected Coronavirus Before Anyone Else Knew Artificial Intelligence has been around for decades but only in recent years has it advanced to a level where it’s getting both exciting and scary. On one hand, artificial intelligence has started to open doors to things like cashless checkouts, voice assistants and more. On the other hand, people like Elon Musk has indicated his fear […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
CALLUM CONNECTS ENTREPRENEURSHIP INTERVIEWS Coen Tan, Strategic Business Storyteller Coen Helps Leaders, Professionals, and Educators Express Themselves Compellingly What’s your story?Since I was a little child, I have been aware that I was highly sensitive to the emotions of people around me, and I would often internalise these emotions. I struggled to deal with all the “emotional information” that I had unwittingly collected. Whenever […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why Vertical Farms Are Struggling Key Takeaway: Vertical farming, a revolutionary technology that promises fresh, locally grown food in stacked indoor environments, has faced setbacks in recent years. Despite these challenges, the fundamental principles of controlled-environment agriculture remain strong. The industry is still in its infancy, but its potential is greater in regions with less favorable growing conditions. Advances in […] Written by Empirics Asia March 11, 2025March 11, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Paradox Of Narcissism Key Takeaway: Narcissistic individuals often project self-assurance but have a deep need for external validation, revealing a fundamental insecurity. This gap between self-perception and reality affects relationships, emotional stability, and perception of reality. Narcissistic personality disorder, affecting a small percentage of the population, has far-reaching social consequences. Highly narcissistic individuals often display a pattern of […] Written by Empirics Asia March 10, 2025March 10, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Collision Course: The Doomsday Asteroid Flying Towards Earth Key Takeaway: A new asteroid, 2024 YR4, was detected in Chile at the end of 2024, with a small yet notable chance of colliding with Earth in 2032. Initially, estimates suggested a 3.1% probability of impact, but as of February 2024, calculations by the European Space Agency’s Near Earth Object Centre have revised this down […] Written by Empirics Asia February 25, 2025February 25, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Hidden Cost Of Cheap Furniture Key Takeaway: Fast furniture, which is mass-produced items designed for short-term use, is a growing environmental crisis. Millions of discarded pieces end up in landfills each year, contributing to a waste problem mirroring the fast fashion industry. To avoid fast furniture, consumers should identify it by noticing its price, materials, assembly methods, limited or unclear […] Written by Empirics Asia February 24, 2025February 24, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Is Democracy Really The Best System? Key Takeaway: Plato’s critique of democracy, particularly in his work “The Republic,” suggests that it is fundamentally flawed. Socrates, Plato’s mentor and teacher, argues that ruling a state is a skill, similar to piloting a ship or performing surgery. However, critics argue that this is not the case. Politics involves moral judgments, compromises, and social […] Written by Empirics Asia February 21, 2025February 21, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Secret Memory Of Plants Key Takeaway: Plants have a unique memory that helps them survive in a constantly changing world. They have evolved defense mechanisms, such as immune priming, which allows them to remember past infections. However, plants lack this adaptive immune memory, relying on epigenetic changes to maintain a heightened state of defense. This memory can last generations, […] Written by Empirics Asia February 20, 2025February 20, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Are We Alone In The Universe? Key Takeaway: New research challenges the hard-steps model of evolution, which suggests that human intelligence is an extremely rare event. The model suggests that intelligence takes billions of years to emerge on Earth, and that it is a result of rare and improbable evolutionary breakthroughs. Some scientists argue that the emergence of eukaryotic cells, oxygen-producing […] Written by Empirics Asia February 19, 2025February 19, 2025 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked