Chiwi Journal

Chiwi Journal

By Camellia YangSociety & CulturePhilosophy
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Chiwi Journal episodes

  • #124: Unschooling, Innovating Education, Intuitive Learning and Startup Cities with Zach Caceres

    My guest today is Zach Caceres. He is an experienced software engineer and focuses on modern web technologies. He is interested in education and ##StartupCities and initiated a couple of cool projects in the relevant areas.

    In today's episode, we discussed:

    • Zach's unschooling experiences at a young age and his way of learning.
    • Why choose to go back to university later on?
    • Hilarious stories on the arbitrary bureaucracy of our modern education
    • What's the essence of education?
    • Case study of innovating education from within Guatemala's top university
    • Sneak peek of The Intuitive Programmer project, learning how to learn
    • What's community technology? What's Startup City?
    • Stories on informal entrepreneurs and almost dead experience in Africa and South America.
    • How does technology power up the city building and enhance people's living conditions?
    • Brief introduction of Benjamin Blooms's two sigma problems
    • What's 'The Great Fact' raised by Deirdre McCloskey
    • What get you most excited about the future?

      • Books and links mentioned in this episode:

      1. Zach's super cool website
      2. Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential
      3. Innovating Education from Within Guatemala's Top University
      4. Professor Barbara Oakley
      5. Polymath Michael Polanyi
      6. The Intuitive Programmer: Learning How to Learn Programming
      7. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
      8. Learning how to learn | Barbara Oakley | TEDxOaklandUniversity
      9. Focused vs. diffuse thinking: which is better for learning?
      10. Pathological Altruism
      11. The Start Of Startup Cities
      12. Culdesac Tempe: The first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US!
      13. CityDAO: Blockchain Cities IRL
      14. Informal Entrepreneurship
      15. Stealth of Nations by Robert Neuwirth
      16. City of God movie
      17. Amazing video shows 10-story high-rise built in a day
      18. Maybe the Coronavirus Was Lower-Hanging Fruit
      19. Benjamin Blooms's two sigma problems
      20. Khan Academy
      21. Duolingo
      22. Ad Astra Academy
      23. The Great Fact- the humongous increase in humans' standard of living that began about 200 years ago.
        24. 57 min
      24. #123: Kiwi returning home, Global talent relocation, NZ working culture and TCK with Bridget Romanes

        My guest today is Bridget Romanes. She is the Founder of Mobile Relocation Ltd, helping Kiwis returning to work and live at homeland, assisting migrants and expats relocating to New Zealand, and offering a tailored program for businesses to recruit and retain international talent throughout Aotearoa.

        We discussed:

        • From expat herself to founding the company to help expats, Bridget's cross-culture career journey
        • The motivation behind starting a business solving talents relocation challenges.
        • What are the top three struggles facing returning home Kiwis?
        • How to overcome the reverse culture shock and mentally prepare well for returning home?
        • How will children get affected by moving around? What's The Third Culture Kid (TCK)?
        • What's the MIQ system? How can we better assist global talent to relocate to New Zealand?
        • Thoughts on future work. Will remote working become mainstream in New Zealand?
        • What's unique about the Kiwi working culture?
        • What's the top three factors of NZ that will appeal to global talent to come?
        • How to deal with the negative attitudes from locals toward migrants?
        • If you could change one policy that will make your job easier, what would that be?
        • What do you get most excited about future?

          • Books and links mentioned in the episode:

          • Bridget Romanes LinkedIn
          • Free Move to NZ Checklist
          • Tall poppy syndrome
          • 30 Kiwi Slang Terms you need to know before you visit
          • Third culture kids (TCK)
          • The Third Culture Adult Book
          • New Zealand MIQ System
          • Are we returning to the office? Or is the future remote?
          • Christchurch mosque shootings
          • New Zealand Offers One-Off Resident Visa to 165,000 Migrants
          • Mobile Relocation— Impacts of Reverse Culture Shock for Returning Kiwis (mobile-relocation.com)
            • 50 min
          • #122: Digital Nomad, Self-actualization, Chinese Buddhism and Love with Allison Wang

            My guest today is Allison Wang. She is a founder of a yoga brand, Awake. She is currently living a digital nomad life and writing a blog, and running a podcast channel. Allison and I used to be online friends, but we finally met in Madeira and recorded this podcast sitting in front of the Atlantic Ocean. The sound quality might not be perfect, but you’ll be able to hear the sound of waves and feel the zen vibes while we were talking about meditation, self-realisation and love.

            We discussed:

            1. Our random meetup in Madeira and some highlights at this digital nomad village.
            2. How to support yourself while living a digital nomad life?
            3. The journey of becoming a content creator
            4. Why the late 20s is the most painful period for the majority of people?
            5. Why do people never get satisfied even though they’ve achieved so-called successful life?
            6. Which four parts contribute to Self-actualization?
            7. Brief intro of Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi and Daoism
            8. What Chinese writer Su Shi taught us about life?
            9. How did early Chinese education on reciting poetry help us understand life better?
            10. The experience of egoless, can we hold this status forever?
            11. Why is love inconsistent, and how do you know he/she is your soulmate?
            12. Is there a cure for our modern loneliness?

              13. Books and links mentioned in this episode:

              • Digital Nomads Madeira Islands
              • Tim Ferriss 4-Hour Workweek
              • Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu
              • 煽风点火 Shan Feng Dian Huo Podcast
              • Rumi
              • American neuroendocrinology researcher and author Robert Morris Sapolsky
              • Yoga With Adriene
              • Transcendental Meditation
              • Zen Buddhism 101 - The Power of Zen Meditation
              • Henry Shukman — Zen, Tools for Awakening, Ayahuasca vs Meditation, Intro to Koans, and Using Wounds as the Doorway
              • "Memento Mori": The Reminder We All Desperately Need
              • Ryan Holiday
              • Seneca
              • Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi
              • Chinese writer Su Shi
              • Zhuangzi loses his wife
              • Prelude to Water Melody by Su Shi
              • Qingyuan Weixin three stages of life
                • 58 min
              • #121: Chinese Philosophy, Traditional Festivals, 4 Character Idioms and Podcast Lessons with Jay Yow

                My guest today is Jay Yow. Jay is a recording and mixing engineer and a gamer. He was born in Malaysia and immigrated to America in his adults year. Jay is currently the producer of one of my favourite podcasts James Altucher Show.

                We discussed:

                1. What's it like to be a bilingual writer producing two newsletters to two different audiences?
                2. How James Altucher adopted Jay and trained him to be his sound engineer?
                3. What are the top three lessons learnt from James Altucher Show that interviewed 700+ guests?
                4. How does playing games teach us about life and learn a new language and business strategy?
                5. What's the traditional Chinese education role in the Malaysian education system?
                6. What's the origin story of famous Chinese festivals such as the Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-autumn Festival?
                7. Who are the most famous poets in ancient China?
                8. Why there are so many different versions of history? What's the TRUTH?
                9. What's the fundamental difference between Chinese philosophy and western philosophy?
                10. Share some four-character idioms that are valuable: Wo Xin Chang Dan and Sai Weng Shi Ma

                  11. Books/Links mentioned in this episodes:

                  • David Perell Write of Passage
                  • Jesse Itzler: The $160,000 Lesson
                  • How to connect with the greatest network in the world with AJ Jacobs
                  • How to Have Impossible Conversations when facts don't matter with Peter Boghossian
                  • How to start a conversation with Strangers? with Joe Keohane
                  • Fantasy Premier League 20/21 Review
                  • One Hundred Thousand Whys
                  • A story of Sima Guang
                  • Three Character Classic
                  • China’s Shakespeare - Du Fu
                  • Li Bai and Du Fu
                  • Dragon Boat Festival
                  • Mid-Autumn Festival
                  • Dynasties in Chinese history
                  • Qin Shi Huang
                  • Burning of books and burying of scholars
                  • Legalism (Chinese philosophy)
                  • Opium Wars
                  • Journey to the West
                  • Black Myth: Wukong

                    • Full version


                    1 hr
                  • #120: Sovereign Individual, Digital Age, Multi-incomes/citizenships with Doug Antin

                    Kia Ora, Nihao and hello! Welcome to the Chiwi Journal Podcast. I’m your host Camellia Yang.

                    My guest today is Doug Antin. He is the Founder and Author of TSI Global Media, a company covering the Digital Age and how the current digital transformation creates a new class of people. Doug is also writing The Sovereign Individual Weekly Newsletter, providing insights, analysis, and actionable advice helping you become a Sovereign Individual and make the most of the digital transformation.

                    We discussed:

                    1. What’s the definition of the Sovereign Individual? Why should you care?
                    2. How does a book written 20 years ago perfectly predict our current world?
                    3. What digital trends support sovereign individual lifestyles?
                    4. How do we deal with information abundance as a content creator?
                    5. What role does blockchain and bitcoin play in this Sovereign Individual movement?
                    6. Is there a conflict between becoming a sovereign individual vs be part of the community?
                    7. Why should you have multiple citizenships?
                    8. What stops people from becoming sovereign individuals? What’s the reason behind that?
                    9. How to cultivate multiple income streams?
                    10. If you can live and work anywhere, where would you go, and what criteria to consider?
                    11. What’s the difference between a sovereign individual and an anarchist?
                    12. How to build the system to run a weekly newsletter?
                    13. Which three books to read when consider being a sovereign individual?

                      14. Books and links mentioned in this episode:

                      • The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg
                      • How to Start a New Country by Balaji Srinivasan
                      • Neo-medievalism
                      • The Sovereign Individual Weekly
                      • Important Things About the Digital Age
                      • Future Shock by Alvin Toffler
                      • Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
                      • Night as Frontier: Colonizing the World After Dark by Murray Melbin


                        • Thanks for listening to this episode. 

                        Remember that you can join my monthly newsletter email list at camelliayang.com, where I spend 140+ hours digging valuable insights from books, articles and podcasts and share them in a 6-min easy-to-read email.

                        Please rate or leave a review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover this podcast if you like the show.

                        48 min
                      • #119: Born as a Girl, Chinese Higher Education System, Stereotypes and Migrant Entrepreneurship with Royal Reed

                        Kia Ora, Nihao and hello! Welcome to the Chiwi Journal Podcast. I’m your host Camellia Yang.

                        My guest today is Royal Reed. Royal has 20 years of experience in the NZ legal profession. She is also well respected in the Chinese community as a TV and Radio presenter and for her legal education programs for the community. Her legal practice and excellent cross-cultural dispute resolution have received recognition in New Zealand and Greater China.

                        We discussed:

                        • What’s it like of being a girl born in a traditional Chinese family that parents favour boys over girls? What’s the bias that the old generation hold of giving birth to a girl?
                        • The decision making process behind picking up a career and move abroad.
                        • Why do Chinese people consider the National College Entrance examination as the only way to lead to a bright future? Does it contribute to many competitive Chinese students?
                        • What’s the difference between the New Zealand education system and the Chinese education system?
                        • How many stereotypes have Asian women received overseas?
                        • What’s bamboo plus glass ceiling facing Asian migrants in career?
                        • How to skin in the game and achieve a career breakthrough?
                        • Does local working experience still matter that much in today’s digital world?
                        • What internal and external factors drive Royal to start her own business?
                        • How to cultivate business culture as a female migrant leader?
                        • A brief introduction about On Being Bold organisation?

                          • Books and links mentioned in this episode

                          • Qingming Festival
                          • One-child policy
                          • The National College Entrance Examination (aka Gaokao)
                          • Empowering Women | On Being Bold Conference
                          • Bamboo ceiling
                          • Royal's interview on OBB

                            • （*Correct: The year I attended Gaokao was with 10 million people, not 20 million）

                            1 hr 8 min
                          • #118: Zen Meditation, Most Recommended Books, Competitiveness and Know Thyself with Richard Reis

                            My guest today is Richard Reis. He is the co-founder of Most Recommended Books, a voracious reader and a blogger. Richard also enjoys finance and building stuff.

                            We discussed:

                            1. Richard recently has done a three-month Zen Meditation retreat and shared his experience.
                            2. What’s so unique about Zen Meditation compared with other meditation (e.g. mindfulness and TM)?
                            3. Why should we focus on cultivating our intuition?
                            4. What’s the motivation to build the Most Recommended Books?
                            5. What’re the most recommended books in common?
                            6. What’s Tim Ferriss’s effect?
                            7. How to deal with self-doubt when building something new or running a startup?
                            8. What traits of Larry Ellison worthy learning?
                            9. Where does people’s competitiveness come from?
                            10. What are the benefits of speaking multiple languages? Do people change personalities while speaking different languages?
                            11. How to deal with loneliness and lack of community support while moving around very often?
                            12. Is personality test the way to help Know Thyself?

                              13. Books and links mentioned in this episode:

                              • Mountain Cloud Zen Centre
                              • A conversation between Sam Harris and Henry Shukman
                              • The Mysterious/Unsolvable Zen Koans - Henry Shukman, Associate Master of Sanbo Zen
                              • Japanese Zen Buddhist Philosophy
                              • 10% Happier by Dan Harris
                              • Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
                              • Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science by Barbara Oakley
                              • Steve Jobs on Intuition
                              • Most Recommended Books
                              • The Tim Ferriss Show
                              • Derek Sivers
                              • The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick
                              • If it's not a hit, switch
                              • The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
                              • Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle by Larry Ellison and Matthew Symonds
                              • The Billionaire and the Mechanic: How Larry Ellison and a Car Mechanic Teamed Up to Win Sailing’s Greatest Race, The America’s Cup by Julian Guthrie
                              • Founders Podcast (Highly recommend!)
                              • How to think like a programmer — lessons in problem solving

                                • Full version of shownote

                                53 min
                              • #117: Revolution, Ideology, Cyber Anarchism and Nation/Network State with Nick Lee

                                Kia Ora, Nihao and hello! Welcome to the Chiwi Journal Podcast. I’m your host Camellia Yang.

                                My guest today is Nick Lee. He is a university instructor of Sociology and Humanities and Co-Host of the Revolution and Ideology program.

                                We discussed:

                                • Nick’s combined background of finance, technology, sociology and phycology
                                • Brief introduction of the Revolution and Ideology podcast
                                • How do we judge whether a revolution is successful or not?
                                • What’s Cyber Anarchism? What’re the responses to Balaji’s Network State/Union essays on 1729.com?
                                • Are we conditioned to be settlers or nomads?
                                • What’s the definition of a state? What’s the rule of violence?
                                • How do ideologies and -isms affect people’s life and behaviour? Can we escape from ideologies?
                                • What misunderstanding from the mass about anarchism?
                                • How can we challenge the status quo and build the Network State?
                                • What are technology debt and ideology debt?
                                • Is China a real Communism country? What about Russia?

                                  • Books and links mentioned in this episode:

                                  • Revolution and Ideology podcast
                                  • French Revolution
                                  • American Revolution
                                  • Cyber Anarchism
                                  • Network State/Union by Balaji Srinivasan
                                  • 1729.com
                                  • The Art of Not Being Governed by James C. Scott
                                  • Max Weber's definition on Nation State
                                  • Rogers M. Smith
                                  • Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony
                                  • Cultural Revolution
                                  • The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama
                                  • Werner Herzog's films
                                  • Anarchism as a philosophy
                                  • Lenin’s Conception of Socialism


                                    • Thanks for listening to this episode. Remember that you can join my monthly newsletter email list at camelliayang.com, where I spend 140+ hours digging valuable insights from books, articles and podcasts and share them in a 6-min easy-to-read email.

                                    If you like the show, please rate or leave a review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover this podcast.

                                    57 min
                                  • #116: Artistic journey, Self-realisation and Life philosophy with Monica Tong

                                    Kia ora, Nihao and hello! Welcome to the Chiwi Journal Podcast. I’m your host Camellia Yang.

                                    My guest today is Monica Tong. Monica was born in Nanjing, China, and raised in Auckland, New Zealand. She spent eight years in the finance industry in New Zealand and Australia before she turned to her passion for art and design. She studied and practised as a multi-media artist in Los Angeles and currently lives in London.

                                    We talked about:

                                    1. What's Chiwi (Chiwi Kiwi)? And What traits of Chiwi have?
                                    2. What’s so good about New Zealand’s working-life balance environment and career break policy?
                                    3. The journey of giving up a highly paid banking job to pursue a passion in the art world.
                                    4. How does work with clay can bring a time-travelling experience?
                                    5. Why does making ceramics artworks can bring you mindfulness and joy?
                                    6. How to deal with self-doubt that and gain back confidence while shifting your career path?
                                    7. How to cope with peer pressures and traditional Chinese family’s values when choosing to be an artist?
                                    8. Brief intro about egg-frozen experience and women in 30s dilemma
                                    9. Success means have a single impact on individual life and let the ripple effect brings on positive changes.
                                    10. Bring ceramics to elders and children to see the world through different lenses.

                                      11. Books and Links Mentioned:

                                      • Wabi-sabi philosophy
                                      • Dao De Jing
                                      • The Third Cultural Adults
                                      • Ralph Waldo Emerson - To laugh often and much; to win respect; to earn appreciation; to find the beauty in others; to leave the world better; one life has breathed easier because you lived here.

                                        • Get in touch with Monica

                                        • Instagram: @momo_production @studio.m.ceramics
                                        • Monica's website
                                        • Royal Colleague of Arts profile


                                          • Thanks for listening to this episode. Remember that you can join my monthly newsletter email list at camelliayang.com, where I spend 140+ hours digging valuable insights from books, articles and podcasts and share them in a 6-min easy-to-read email.

                                          If you like the show, please rate or leave a review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover this podcast.

                                          53 min
                                        • #115: Home-schooling, Writing in Bilingual, Future of Education and GenZ with Gabriele Pizzi

                                          My guest today is Gabriele Pizzi. He is 18 years old Italian and currently lives in northeastern Italy. He has been homeschooling since 2020 and now exploring the art of sculpture, bio-design, and digital fabrication.

                                          We discussed:

                                          • What made Gabriele quit public school and homeschooling?
                                          • Why are education systems around the world very similar?
                                          • How to cope with peer pressure while choosing the unusual path?
                                          • How to find your interests and have the discipline to run the self-learning program?
                                          • The challenges facing bilingual writers?
                                          • Why writing is the best way to test your learnings?
                                          • Why apprenticeship is a great way to make friends and learn skills?
                                          • How to build your networking and setting up your career goal while homeschooling?
                                          • What GenZ wish other generations to know them better?
                                          • What get Gabriele most excited about the future?

                                            • Books and links mentioned in this episode:

                                            • Education
                                            • Tim Ferriss Show with Balaji
                                            • 1729.com
                                            • Jean Paul Sartre: NO EXIT
                                            • The Start Of Startup Cities
                                            • Waldorf School (Steiner School)
                                            • Free Private Cities: Making Governments Compete For You by Titus Gebel

                                              • Get in touch with Gabriele!

                                              Twitter @gabrielepizzi, Linkedin, Email

                                              38 min

                                            About Chiwi Journal

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                                            Conversations between global citizens on culture observation, identity and self-actualisation.