Edmond Chan

I learned to swim at 39 years old. Here’s how I did it

Edmond Chan · Dec 27, 2018 · Leave a Comment

I've always been a terrible swimmer. I never learned as a kid. And the times that I've swum, I've more thrashed about than technically swum. I remember two times where I've swum in the sea and both times felt like I was in serious trouble. I thought that I might well have died. In fact, without help around me, I could well have died. (I'd never thought about that until writing this just now. Oops.) The first was in 2009 in the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland, Australia. Me and my mate Grant were backpacking and decided to do a boat trip. We did some snorkeling which was okay. But then we had the chance to do some …

Invest in yourself and compound the investment!

Edmond Chan · Oct 29, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Warren Buffett said that the best investment you can make is not in the markets, but instead, in yourself. That’s pretty deep and until today I had no idea what he meant. Yes, you could learn a new skill like data analysis and translate that into more money at work or something, but I think Buffett meant something slightly different. He’s big into the power of compounding. Remember Einstein said that compounding is the eighth wonder of the world. To get the full power of compounding, you have to start something (like investing) early, and do it for a long time, so that you start making money on the money you make. Imagine that you …

What’s really holding you back? Truly?

Edmond Chan · Oct 7, 2018 · Leave a Comment

If we start from the position that we all have potential, then why is there a gap between where your potential self is and where you are at the moment? How big is that gap? What is your true potential? It might be that your true potential is way more than you think it is. In which case, the gap is even bigger than you know. Step one is where you are now. Step two is looking at where you think your potential is. So this might be being a writer or being an artist. Step three is discovering where your true potential might be (and you would need help from outside to discover this). This might be being a rocket scientist, climbing the …

Slow the fuck down. How taking your time a bit more will help you enjoy your day.

Edmond Chan · Oct 5, 2018 · Leave a Comment

I’m generally rushing and multitasking most of the time. I want to squeeze in a podcast in the shower, watch self-improvement videos on YouTube, read business books on the bus to work. I cook quickly, wolf it down and wash up like a dervish. Two things I’ve read recently have made me question this mode of doing stuff. Firstly, I read a great article on Medium by Aytekin Tank (which I haven’t fully digested yet). It’s called: Why reading 100 books a year won’t make you successful. In it he says reading as many books as possible in the shortest amount of time won’t make you successful, and that actually it harms the very reasons why we should …

Is an antilibrary, on it own, really such a good thing?

Edmond Chan · Sep 23, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Much has been written about Nassim Taleb’s famous passage in The Black Swan about the antilibrary. (Farnam Street and Maria Popova) From The Black Swan (p1, 2008 Random House International Edition) “The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of scholars who are encyclopedic, insightful, and nondull. He is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with “Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have! How many of these books have you read?” and the others — a very small minority — who get the point that a private library is …

These are my 10 favourite places to eat in London

Edmond Chan · Sep 18, 2018 · Leave a Comment

I often get asked by my friends to suggest places to eat in London. Eating and drinking are two of my favourite pastimes. London eating and drinking is very hit and miss. There's far more terrible and average places than good places and when London is so expensive, that means that most places are awful value for money. Here's my favourite places based on quality, atmosphere and value for money: 1. Padella, Borough Market This is the best pasta in London. It's great value and there's no reservations, so get there early or be prepared to put your name down and wait. The queue can be massive. Pop off to the Wheatsheaf pub nearby for a drink …

What is psychological health?

Edmond Chan · Aug 28, 2018 · Leave a Comment

I've written quite a bit on mental health in the past. Articles like: How can we improve mental health? Try this breathing exercise for stress release and getting rid of cortisol Crush your OCD with this one question Defeating anxiety and stress But recently, I've been wondering about another question. What is psychological health? We hear a lot about what mental illness is but what about its opposite? What does a psychologically healthy person's mind look like? Much in the same way as an out-of-shape person has to aim to be an in-shape person, a person struggling with mental health has to know what they're aiming at for …