Update : Calibration Cycle for High-performance

1. Nutrition ... pre-sleep protocol
2. Sleep ... to sufficiency
3. Haptic Simulation ... to sufficiency
4. Nutrition ... pre-load protocol
5. Haptic Execution ... to 70% of failure load
6. Nutrition ... post-load protocol
7. ... proceed to general work ... anticipating increased circulatory status, and higher actions-per-minute
8. ... repeat

The Three Stakeholder Hierarchy

[ The framework can be applied to different types of businesses. Here I document my response to a potential buyer for a used-cafe. ]

Summary of long answer ( met one stakeholder over coffee ):

Level 1.

Before money is spent - approach from the point of view of the [ Investor stakeholder ]. Investing in a self-run business is not like investing in the stock market. How much time are you willing to spend on this until an exit? How much more risky is this than the stock market's annualised 8% nominal gain? Do you think you can beat inflation? If no ... and the purpose of the investment is for the pleasure of ownership, are you very sure about paying the price for this pleasure? There may be other benefits as well, such as paying to test things as a sort of tuition.

For hardware subsales, pay no more than 30% of new price, and have 20% of new price on standby for repairs in Y1.

Unit economics : use one business day as the unit ... not one plate of whatever. All direct and indirect costs for each day should be known. That's your daily sales hurdle. If you're selling low priced stuff, how many units do you have to sell to clear the hurdle? (skip to level 3 below)

The tenancy can have a clause giving the tenant the right to transfer the tenancy - this is a saleable asset. Most tenancies do not have this, but you can try to get it. It's worth thousands of RM.

Level 2.

If you have already spent money to buy an asset, you are stuck - and now must operate it. [ Staff stakeholder. ] It takes longer to build an employer value proposition, than to build a customer value proposition. You may have stable customer flow in six months, but no staff is going to commit bulletproof loyalty to a 6-month-old business over a 2-3 year span. If staff walk, your customers walk. So you can't even walk away from a 6-month-old business that has stable customer flow ... until you hire someone to babysit the work for perpetuity. This is called the whip, or CEO, or chief or staff role. It is better to have this person identified BEFORE you evaluate [ Level 1], otherwise you will be rushing to find this person while you are actively trying to clear the daily hurdle.

Level 3.

[ Customer stakeholder. ] This is what most people have in mind when they want to open a business, because they come from this point of view. However this is the easiest level of problems to fix. You should ignore it until [ Level 2 ] is settled.

I'll limit the summary to this. Of course each area above can be expanded in writing.

Haptic Memory Buffers, and "the Human Experience"

The failure to actively prepare haptic memory buffers, results in an absence of cognitive readiness for physical exercise of the body. Likewise, the failure to actively clear haptic imagery from memory buffers, results in uncontrolled longing, unfulfilled thirst for touch, etc.

Fun reflection. Now I need to prep my buffers better to keep up with  gym targets.

Thinking about Thinking : Maintenance of Memory Mechanisms

I guess, the sort of "thinking about thinking" that I've done since I was a teenager ... is a matter of systematically (or not so systematically) checking the agility of conscious memory buffers. Do CRUD operations work? How quickly? In all sense modalities?

Gaslighting ... a pointer back to Philosophy and Risk Management

One of my partners recently encountered the concept of gaslighting, from the recent popularisation of the term in memes about dating. In the context of personal relationships, gaslighting refers to one party making another party less sure about what the other party believes with regards to an objective fact.

The interesting thing is, the term is loosely adapted also to refer to discussions about subjective facts. For example, whether I like strawberries or not, is a subjective fact. Some people are very sure about their preferences, whereas others are not.

For the record, as a total troll, I generally find it amusing to toy with the beliefs of people in general. In fact my natural disposition is so suited for this that when I had to decide on which college major to pick such that I would need to do the least amount of homework, I picked the philosophy major.

The academic discipline of philosophy is analogous to the risk management department of an enterprise. It's literally the department of gaslighting. Any time anyone claims to know anything, these disciplines receive their substrate, and therefore have work to do ... in poking holes in anything anyone claims to believe in with certainty.

The Computational Structure of Voices in Heads

I wanted to write a short piece on how humans process auditory data structures in memory.

It is popular to discuss how some people think in terms of pictures, some in terms of sounds. Others say they think in terms of neither pictures nor sounds, nor feelings, but concepts. This is a juvenile fallacy as  humans can only consciously process concepts by their sensory semantic handles ... a.k.a. by naming those concepts. And names as verbal entitles are generally semanticised as things seen, heard, or felt. 

I myself, mostly think in terms of sounds - I don't visualise words as much as I hear them. When I think verbally, I am thinking in terms of words aurally present in my conscious memory. If it was necessary to analyse the voice, it would be lacking in higher frequencies, and presenting only the necessary percussive and tonally modulated characteristics which make sounds clearly recognisable as words.

In my daily performance of social analysis, I listen to the words people speak, and then I replay them as a simulated voice in my head. I may change the voice and keep the words, or keep the voice and change the words, all in an effort to generate information by mutating this or  that aspect of the heard phenomena, then running it all through my subconscious again just to see what effect pops back into my consciousness. 

Socially, I often perform the role of moderator, or consolidator of ideas, for groups of people. What this involves is simply ... the simulation of all their speeches, as above, simultaneously and in chorus ... then fed to the subconscious, whereby a summary pops back into conscious memory from time to time. 

To illustrate how some people get stressed out  by listening to other people talk ... imagine hearing a number of spoken things, and having them replay in simulation in your head, BUT OUT OF YOUR CONTROL ... scary isn't it? Well not all of us were granted the capability to control so many things. All of us have computational limits, and we can only do so much consciously, while the rest is handled by the subconscious.

So, sometimes I too get stressed out from handling too many simultaneous projects ... due to a loss of conscious control over simultaneous simulated choruses, I might have different choruses playing simultaneously regarding unrelated subjects. You can imagine the  cacophony of multiple radio stations playing over each other at once ... well, it's not loud, it might be soft, but it certainly presents as a complicated soundscape.

The art, or skill, of managing one's auditory memory to be more performant in such situations ... is simply to identify which choruses regard which subjects ... to herd together related simulations, and to segregate unrelated ones. Then one turns on and off each group of simulations based on what once wants to focus on in the present.

This is an aspect of "executive function" and mental conditioning which isn't often formally taught in schools. But it is the rudimentary form of managing verbal cognition in conscious memory.

I would encourage everyone to dive into such studies from time to time. Also, encourage young children and adults alike to improve themselves in these areas. Sometimes a guide may help, but not always is a guide available.

Best wishes to one, and all.

I made a mistake, and it was probably criminal

It is said, "there are no limitations periods for criminal offenses under Malaysian law". And, in light of this I reflect upon certain past actions of my own individual self, which have been conducted in the Malaysian business environment.

Law

The Companies Act (125) 1965, basically says that shares in corporations ( a superset of companies ) may not be offered for sale to the public. (This law has since been superseded by a more recent one, regarding the same domain.)

Facts / Possible Locus of Infringement

In 2015, an advertisement was shared with me, regarding the availability of a tenancy of a commercial space with some leftover equipment in it. On social media, I organised a marketing campaign to determine the quantity and scope of public interest in a hypothetical business which I was interested to venture into, based on the opportunities availed by that tenancy. 

In some comments on that campaign, I had said such as (verbatim), 

Interpretation

Based on my recent reading of the relevant law, I now see my mistake, in contravening that law. I've only studied this for two days now, so, it's relatively new and interesting to me.

At the time of those actions, I was not aware of the law which I contravened by definition ... recklessly, due to ignorance. Currently, I do not anticipate that I have much recourse in the event that the AGC may decide to prosecute me for the same. Nor can I imagine much defense on my part, should there be lawsuits filed against me for related torts, perhaps of negligence. 

That being said, I am no lawyer, and I am writing this reflection merely as a citizen who from time to time reads the laws. Should there be any lawsuits or criminal charges arising from the same, I expect some lawyers more educated than myself on these matters, may have differing opinions - and those opinions might in turn affect and change my future opinion.

Background

I had for a time been working in the technology sector, where it was common for entrepreneurs and inventors to raise funds from various sources in "bootstrapping" their small businesses. This was the limit of my exposure to such practices, having no greater professional experience in the same.

Foreground

Moving forward, I hope that this case study serves to inform myself, and readers of their rights and responsibilities. I hope to further improve both my understanding of Malaysian law, and my compliance with the same.

Real Property Gains Tax : inherited property, date and value of acquisition

Re: real property gains tax, when disposing inherited real property

Sharing the spoken feedback I got from Duta office's 11th floor today. My queries regarded the computation of the heirs' acquisition date and value.

LHDN said, acquisition1Date by acquirer1 (heirs) is based on transfer documents' date. It is not the date of death of disposer1, nor is it the date of acquirer1's title, rather it is some date in between, corresponding to "form14a", "MOT", or "deed of assignment".

Acquisition1Value is determined internally by LHDN and their own valuers, based on acquisition1Date.

LHDN says it is ok for acquirer1 to privately hire valuer (from LHDN's panel) and to submit valuation report regarding acquisition1value, but LHDN may or may not adopt the same valuation. Private hire of valuer can be added as incidental expenses of acquisition1, reducing any chargeable RPG. Since LHDN has the final say on acquisition1Value, better to avoid private hire of valuer, and avoid form3 waiver of withholding tax. Standard process then is, acquirer2 (person who buys from heirs) withholds 3% of SPA quantum, and remits it directly to LHDN as RPGT deposit on behalf of (disposer2=acquirer1).

Disposer2 is advised to simply submit form1A without form3, then wait 3-6 months for LHDN to reply to disposer2 with notice of tax assessment, which will then indicate if disposer2 gets a deposit refund, or if disposer owes more tax than the 3% deposit withheld by acquirer2. Disposer2 may appeal the tax assessment at this time, which may then involve private hire of valuers to dispute tax assessment's acquisition1Value.

SEC x Crypto

The market deserves it. If you invest in something that's designed to destabilise governments, that's your loss if governments fight back. Be clear in thought and action, and change what you want to see changed in the world?