PJ Teh's Page

20/03/2026

“… data from actual operational experience is always a driver.

The world is its own best model, and while much can be learned from computer simulations or small-scale prototypes before production starts, there's often no substitute for direct experience.” - p. 203

27/02/2026

“Generals would do well to remember that, even in war, 'the wisdom of a learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure’.

Generals who are terribly busy all day and half the night, who fuss round, posting platoons and writing march tables, wear out not only their subordinates but themselves.”

21/02/2026

I have no iOS background, & used Claude Code to make a mind tracking app to help one be more aware of the types of thoughts in one’s own mind.

And here’s a writeup of my process:
https://www.inquivision.com/posts/2026-02-21-making-of-white-stone/

Feedback is most welcome!

Claude Code is really amazing. A few days ago, I shipped White Stone to the App Store. It’s a mental tracking app for spiritual practitioners, inspired by the practice of an ancient Indian teacher named Upagupta. The whole thing went from concept to App Store submission in about a week: I started ...

18/02/2026

White Stone, the mental tracking app I created, is now available on Apple App Store for download here: https://apps.apple.com/sg/app/white-stone/id6759218807

Feedback most welcome! 😊🙏

10/02/2026

I have dreamt about making this app for the longest time: a mind tracker, like Upagupta (King Ashoka’s teacher) used to do with his pile of black stones and white stones.

Surreal that this is coming to life in a couple of hours…!

10/02/2026

Really quite insane that Claude allows me to build ideas i had been dreaming about for (literally) years!

Both ideas at the same time too!

08/02/2026

I’ve been experimenting concurrently with Replit & Claude Code, & finally made
- a 1-1 meeting tracker app for my own use
- a Python CLI app that takes in my bank & cc statements & churns out a consolidated monthly expenses report.
Both were impossibly hard to do a few months ago: completed today!

07/09/2025

In recent years (meaning the past decade), I had a few exchanges with different people that seems to be a sort of pattern:
- they are all very smart, which isn’t just me asserting that they are smart,
but is validated from their schools, their grades, profession, etc.
- they are all damaged in some way or another, on the personal front. One of
them clearly suffered from PTSD. If I follow the dementia/depression
screening that I used to do for the elderly, I think all of them would
test positive for depression (definitely not dementia!), even if they
might not admit it.
- they all don’t listen very well. From joint conversations with other people, often, their takeaways from the joint conversations are radically different from others, including myself. It is almost as though we were NOT in the same conversation…
- they pride themselves as being intelligent and skeptical, and that often
comes across from their follow-up questions and statements.
- they take offence very easily, especially if there are potential allusions to them.
- they have all caused offence to others, in ways that they themselves often don’t understand.
- they are all male.
- they are all Buddhist-inclined, i.e. they have shown an affinity to some
aspects of Buddhism, but not entirely. E.g. I don’t think any of them
truly believe in past lives.

I have a very soft spot for these folks, because while I (really) don’t think I am as smart as them (I would classify myself as more studious than smart), I see a lot of my old-self in them, and had really suffered before as they have.

In my opinion, many of their actions fall in the category of smart but unwise (which I tried to define here: https://inquivision.com/wisdom-definition ), often in the name of some abstract principle like “Truth” or “Justice”. They often end up hurting themselves and others in the process; one of them left behind a trail of damage that can only be described as a bushfire in the organisation…

This came up yesterday when I was talking with my wife over lunch: we were talking about all kinds of things (as usual), and she commented that such folks lack self reflection.

My conclusion is that the fundamental gap they have (and their blindspot) is the lack of humility, which is the necessary condition for a self-reflection feedback loop.

(Rest of the blog post here: https://abuddhistblog.org/posts/2025-09-07-humility-smarts-wisdom/ )

In 2007, Paul Graham wrote a clickbait essay titled “Is it worth being wise?.

10/08/2025

Yesterday was Singapore’s 60th National Day (Happy birthday Singapore!)

And what is National Day without the Singaporean classic song “Home”?

There is absolutely no doubt that “Home” is the classic
Singaporean national song (aside from our national anthem). There’s no
better way to ruin your makeup and composure than to listen to this song
when you’re homesick and flying on Singapore Airlines 10,000km away…

So it is super interesting to come across this really interesting article about the song’s creation: https://hear65.bandwagon.asia/articles/interview-home-dick-lee-kit-chan-sydney-tan

Here’s what surprised me most: “Home” wasn’t meant to be a National Day song at all. It was written for Sing Singapore, and the initial committee reaction to the song was doubt!

What is also super interesting to me is how inspiration played a huge role in the song’s creation: it took less than an hour to write!

The rest of the article describes how the three of them (Kit Chan,
Dick Lee and Sydney Tan) felt about the song’s growing popularity over
the years.

For me, I think there are a few takeaways that I think are relevant to my current role in a large system.

1. it is important to not over-optimise, but to have enough space for optionality. Imagine if the Sing Singapore festival had been cut out due to
rationalization efforts (“why not combine this with our National Day
song selection process?”)… Singapore would have really lost out.

2. As a nation, we tend to focus on perspiration, but maybe we should now focus on sparking inspiration.

3. The committee’s reaction was interesting for me, because it really emphasises the importance of humility: that we often really don’t know. Even if your idea or project is backed by solid reasoning, it might still be a damp squib. And if your project was the result of a 55 min midnight melancholic episode, hey, maybe that might be the next big thing! Maybe most selection committees might be better off if they view themselves as overseers of experiments.

4. Directed efforts (what Nassim Taleb called ‘teleological’) might be self-defeating… I’m reminded of an earlier blog post summarizing ideas from the book ‘Why Greatness Cannot be Planned’ (https://inquivision.com/art-design-and-innovation/ ), which points out that if you aim for greatness, that aim might actually prevent you from getting there, because you miss out on the necessary conditions for the end-state. If there was the direction to “create a national classic”, that direction will likely be self-defeating (not least due to Campbell’s Law and other effects mentioned here: https://guerrillafoundation.org/escaping-the-trap-of-impact-measurement/ ).

Twenty years ago this National Day, a beautiful, bright-eyed singer named Kit Chan stepped out in front of thousands of people to perform a song that is now universally acknowledged as a Singaporean classic: ‘Home’.

08/08/2025

I just started in a new role for the past week, and one thing that struck me was the stark contrast between the Microsoft Ecosystem vs. Google-Office-Slack-Trello-Jira-others.

On paper, the two look similar, offering a similar suite of products that cater to similar needs (e.g. word processing, spreadsheets, slides, etc.)

In practice, the difference in user-experience is much more like this picture.

The experience is one where yes, there is often integration up to a point. But what is missing is like a sidecurb(without curb cuts) for a wheelchair: small enough from a distance, but a complete blocker up close.

Read more (with examples) here:
https://inquivision.com/curbcuts

27/07/2025

Society conditions our minds and bodies for “success” more than for our happiness.

And the mental actions and habits for success are very different from those for happiness.

For success: be ambitious! Dream! want more! strive and work hard: grasp tight!

For happiness: be content, let go, enjoy

21/07/2025

Weekend realization:
if you are mentally suffering, from a Buddhist pov you aren’t seeing things correctly at that moment.

(ie your mind doesn’t have Right View at that moment)