CliftonStrengths® Top 5 for Migo Aguado
Test taken last 09 September 2024 Learner® You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you.…
The Hour Between Dog & Wolf: Risk Taking, Gut Feelings, And The Biology of Boom & Bust
Capital markets post-industrial revolution demand intense biological processes that can surpass natural limits. John Coates, a neuroscientist trader and author of The Hour Between Dog & Wolf (2012), argues that the biological storm associated with our work and lifestyle is too much for a human’s biochemical makeup. This is especially true with traders in financial markets who…
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
Growing up, I was exposed to Wyeth’s successful marketing campaign for their formula milk, Promil. The Promil kids seemed to have become a benchmark of an entire generation in having a head start and are expected to be successful in their respective fields. Some kids, now all grown-up, have chosen a path different from how…
Wilful Blindness
When I knew that a colleague shared the same birthday as mine, I suddenly felt an urge to befriend him even though I had virtually zero knowledge of who he was and what he was like. Familiarity, after all, doesn’t breed contempt–it breeds comfort. The book Willful Blindness (2011) by University professor Margaret Heffernan described…
Be Good: How to Navigate the Ethics of Everything
In the Filipino culture, we tend to rationalize an individual’s behavior by saying, “mabait naman siya (s/he’s actually kind).” We start or end with such a statement before or after criticizing someone’s character. This phenomenon could be primarily cultural, as Filipinos are non-confrontational and relationship-based in the culture map. Cognitive dissonance drives this culture to…
The Class of ’77: China and Critical Junctures
I first encountered the term “critical juncture” in the book Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (2012) by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. Critical Junctures are significant, rapid, discontinuous changes (Collier & Collier, 1991) and the long-term causal effect or historical legacy of these changes (Flora, 1992). They can be defined as…
Our Iceberg Is Melting
E-books have been my preferred book format since I got my first Kindle a few years ago. However, I still have many unread paperbacks at home, and I randomly choose a title to read inside a sauna. One title intrigued me not because of its title but because of its material–it’s glossy and could be…
Do Hard Things
Different athletic disciplines illustrate various principles of openness and creating space: in basketball, we “open ourselves to the ball.” In yoga, the final pose of savasana encourages yogis to “open themselves to the abundance of the universe.” Conversely, running encourages a “controlled fall” instead of “running tall.” This will give the runner a “perpetual forward…
As A Man Thinketh
As Man Thinketh (1903) is more than a century old, and it shows. James Allen, the author of the supposed self-help book, harbors on the idea that circumstances are products of mindset: “A man does not come to the almshouse or the jail by the tyranny of fate or circumstance but by the pathway of…
Some People Need Killing
Educated (2018) by Tara Westover is the book that influenced me to go to graduate school and the first book that moved me to tears. The second one is Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country (2023) by acclaimed journalist and Kate Webb Prize For Exceptional Journalism awardee Patricia Evangelista. The…
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Migo Aguado 