I chopped up my first melon yesterday. It was a Hami melon and I didn’t know how to check for ripeness until I had finished the cutting. Somehow, I’ve lived almost half a century and had never done this before. I watched a few YouTube videos to see different cutting techniques, and voila, it was done.
I bought the melon to cut my calorie intake as I wage a battle against my aging metabolism – it’s so easy to gain weight now even with my healthy diet and regular exercise. Since 2013, I’ve kept my weight at 63kg so I wouldn’t have to buy new clothes. I never had to work hard to maintain my weight for the first 10 years, but in the past two years, I’ve noticed the tummy flab growing no matter what I do. So once again, I need to innovate my way out of this problem, and that means examining my current eating habits and changing the diet.
That seems to be the story of my life – what new thing do I have to figure out this time? I see 2026 in the same way. For the past few months, I’ve been chatting with different people, many of them new acquaintances, and slowly, I’ve gathered the seeds to sow for next year and started planting some of them.
For example, I want to help more people create their own AI automations and better monetise their businesses. I need to rethink what I teach at the university to drive deep thinking while harnessing AI capabilities. I am still building towards my goal to help everyone become better communicators, but the irony is that I need to explain to people why.
All I know is that things must never stay the same. Firstly, I will get terribly bored. Secondly, I will get stagnant and obsolete. Finally, I won’t have new things to write about on LinkedIn.
Wishing you a great 2026 and God bless you and your family!
What I wrote in the past two weeks
Google’s new Opal-powered Gems (aka apps that you design yourself using a visual workflow) are very nifty. But they’re locked behind the AI Pro subscription of about S$30 a month. I do have that sub and may drop my ChatGPT sub in the next year because Google is really kicking OpenAI’s butt.
Also, you haven’t heard people raving about ChatGPT’s new 1.5 imaging engine. That’s because it’s not as good as Google’s Nano Banana Pro. Here’s how I visualised a Bible verse with Nano Banana Pro.
How you should interview people for AI skills. But make sure you have the skillz too.
Three random thoughts to share with you.
Why MacRitchie Reservoir is a constant anchor in my roller-coaster life.
Try new routes for your jogs or walks. But make sure you know how to get home.
My students at NTU have gotten 13 stories published for our overseas journalism module. That’s a big achievement on all fronts!
For Singaporeans, use the LifeSG app to check the status of your handouts from the government before the year ends. I’m pleased with my SkillsFuture credit usage.
If you’d like to know which games I’ve been playing all year….