Dunning Kreuger - A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

 

                       Here is a second post on Dunning Kreuger - the height of stupidity. 

The jist of intelligence or 'getting it' essentially is to admit that you don't know all there is to know about everything.

An intelligent person (logical and analytical thinking only) in the narrow sense of the word, accepts that he doesn't know everything. For example, the learning of a  new language will take a decently smart person anything from 2 weeks to 12 months (total immersion) and that is true for 98% of people.

For the not so smart amongst us, we just pick up a few phrases (without the grammar, fine tonality,declensions, sometimes gender specific nouns (like in German) and just 'wing it'. After a few months of trying, we think and say to ourselves, Yay I am so smart. So for a dumb person, he gets by with 50 words and 'goes with the flow'. This (if he is truly unaware) is 'holiday French - reserved for tourists and people who just visit the country of France for a few days.

When in the room with the native speakers (like say German), he will not be able to realise his inadequacies as the native speakers will most times accomodate him and make him feel 'accepted'. 

Is he then 'smart' ? The person needs to first understand the depth of language he / she wishes to attain. Secondly acknowledge that acquiring that level of speaking / writing (even more difficult) will not be easy and require a lof of time, effort and practice.

Once he gets the grasp of the language, he needs to practice, practice and practice. Immerse himself in the language day in day out

If he manages to pick up fast, go past the standard catch phrases tourists use and actually build sentences using basic grammar, then he is getting there and 'quite smart'. 

Many folks end up in the basic category and think they are some kind of genuises in their own mind.

Hence the knowledge they attain will only be very shallow and it is known as 'cheuffer' or 'reporter' knowledge - they know enough to entertain but are not domain experts.

Hence knowing a little knowledge and pretending to be an 'expert' the dumb person will be caught out - if he actually knows it or nor. Most likely he doesn't and it flies above his head.

Some heads of Government are  currently like that and it is a pretty embarrassing sight to watch.

3,000,000 views ! My humblest and deepest thanks to all

 

                                                         At Nami Island S. Korea. Dec 2010 

I am humbled, deeply grateful and appreciative for all the views my little blog has been having this 16 years since I started this writing adventure. If there is anything I am most grateful for, it is to my wonderful family, my wife and 2 sons who have helped me in this journey of growth and challenges as they coming along my way.

3,000,000 views is by no means a small number. I just hope and pray that the interest in this blog keeps up on this trajectory and I am trying new means to add interesting content to all that I post.

Carpe Diem. 

Chicken Dakalbi in Seoul

 

During our last family visit to Seoul, after our ski adventures at Daemyung resort, we had a couple of days and we had some fantastic meals. One such meal was this at Dakalbi street in Myeongdong area.

What is Dakalbi ? Well, it is a pan fried marinated diced chicken, with rice cakes, vegetables and the famous Korean chilli sauce Gochujang paste. There are lots of other condiments like soy sauce, garlic, ginger, some sugar and sesami oil. I think there were certain grades of the chilli sauce, and we chose the mildly spicy one.

The pan is huge, and they have various sizes, some for 1, 2 , 4 , 6 and 8. The server normally cooks the whole shebang in front of the guests, as in our case. 

The vegetables are : lettuce, some cabbage, capsicum, onion, spring onions and some perilla leaves. There are the usual side dishes like sweet radish, kimchi, and anchovies. 

The photo above shows my elder son Noel with my wife. 

After 5 days at the ski resort, eating from mess trays, and communicating with the wonderful YMCA staff, we were all ready to try authentic Korean food, and this post highlights what a fun meal it was for all of us. 

Since we were not too comfortable eating only rice cakes (tteok). the second serving was for frying with rice. Now, that went down pretty well :) 

So if you are ever in Myeongdong Street, do make a beeline for Dakalbi Street and give this touristy dish a try. Its something for the winter to warm the cockles of a skiier' s heart. 

Everest Training Kit

 

Its finally here ! In Singapore.

QRA's very own Everest Training Kit. 

An Oxygen Generator which sends low O2 through a mask and is used for 

- athletes 

- climbers

- people who want to improve their fitness 

People who want to do base camp trekking at Mt Everest without too much altitude sickness can invest in a system and it is portable, easy to use and install. 

Complete set includes 

1. Hypoxic Generator

2. Mask and Tube

Warranty : 1 year. 

Prices :  USD 2,200 CIF Singapore.

Interested ?  

Email : mark@qra.com.sg

            qrasales@qra.com.sg

Walk In Chamber - ETSP brand S Korea and installed with warranty by QRA International

 

Walk In Chamber (S Korea) ETSP Brand

Temp : - 40 C to 180 C

Humidity : (optional) 20 - 95% 

Size   : 3 m x 3 m x 3 m upwards.

Price : USD 80,000 +++ 

Contact : 

Email   :  mark@qra.com.sg

               qrasales@qra.com.sg

Website :  www.qra.com.sg

QRA Walk In Cold Room for Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Industries 2026

 

Walk In Cold Room 

Temperature : 0 to 10 C

Control Accuracy : 0.1 C

In Room Temp Uniformity : +/- 3 C

Running Time : Continuous 24 hours daily 7 days a week 

QRA International Cold Room is considered one of the best in the region. We have supplied to top brand manufacturers in Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand in the past with 0 recalls and many good reviews.Attractively priced, the walk in cold room can accomodate most budgets and we offer either a 12 month or 24 month warranty with on site service support in your country.

The lead time for each cold room (custom designed to meet your room dimensions) is 12 to 14 weeks upon PO and receipt of downpayment.

We offer the following ; 

a) Consultation and Planned Layouts according to customer requirements.

b) Attractively priced cold rooms with excellent quality materials such as stainles steel SUS 

   304 interior and galvanised sheet steel exterior.

c) High quality component parts (Bitzer or DWM compressor, Schneider circuit breaker and    

    Danfoss filter drier are 3 examples)

d) Very low Global Warming Potential GWP refrigerant gas for compliance to Climate change 

     regulations in all global MNCs

e) Fast and prompt delivery to site and very good after sales service to all clients' satisfaction. 

f) On site stocking of spare parts for immediate repair and fast turn around of  equipment. 

g) Peace of mind that your equipment is in good hands for the next 10 - 15 years  with  extensive Preventive Maintenance Contracts provided QRA.  

                                                            QRA Walk In Cold Room 

                                                 High Quality with Affordability 

Price Range : USD 70,000 +++ 

Delivery      : FOB Singapore 

Lead Time   : 12 weeks - 14 weeks FOB Singapore 

Email enquiries : qra.com.sg

Website            : www.qra.com.sg 

Hoping to Ski just once or twice more

 

                                Our First Ski Camp organized by YMCA in 2007 

                              Location : Daemyung Ski Resort for 5 days 4 nights. 

I've skiied a total of 5 times in my life. The experience is one of total exhilaration and extreme terror the first few times. Later, it just became purely exhilaration on my part. I am pretty athletic by nature, having run numerous marathons in the last 25 odd years, trained and achieved some status in Shitoryu karate also in the last 23 years, swam competitively in my youth. I played squash competitively for University and competed in competitions for my swimming club.  

When I experienced putting on skis for the first time, I was awestruck, I was in my early 40s and I was dumbfounded how come, I had not tried this wonderful sport earlier in my life ?

       My wife and I were trained in skiing and the 2 boys were trained in showboarding. 

We went to 2 ski camps, both I believe at Daemyung ski resort in South Korea. The warmth of the Korean people will always stand out in my mind and the hospitality from the Koreans then was second to none. On each occasion, we made new friends and our boys both loved the camaderie made with their Korean counterparts. 

                                       In a ski cabin going up to the top 

Learning to ski, we had to master balance on moving thin pieces of plywood, we had to learn to turn and move our centre of gravity from left to right and make the S as we went down, first from the bunny slopes then from the intermediate slopes. To be able to stop, we had to learn to make the inverted 'V' and come to a perfect stop.

Not easy for someone in their 40s.

I am lad to have had the ski experience with my family and I really wish to be able to ski a couple more times in my lifetime.