Jia Yang Li

Hi there! Welcome to my blog. Here I talk about making an impact, finding purpose and leveling up in all areas of life. You can find me on LinkedIn at https://linkedin.com/in/adventgineering

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Money

Companion post: exact cards I signed up for + $35 FairPrice vouchers

Apart from the ones listed in the other post, here are a few more cards and a brief review of each one.

Travel

How to plan for overseas travel (comprehensive guide)

Travel can be fun but also exhausting. When you travel, you basically have to think again about all of the aspects that make up life - everything you do will be different in a different country. I've listed down some considerations you should think about so that you can focus

Travel

Philippines El Nido, Palawan and Manila Itinerary

I recently spent some time in the Philippines. It was great! Below is my rough itinerary for anyone who wants to do something similar. I didn't see this combination around so I thought to post it. One thing to take note is that at this point, cash is king -

Career

Generalise or Specialise?

I think it is worth it to try to figure out if you're happier being a generalist or happier specialising in something. Some initial thoughts here. It's been on my mind for quite a few years now. Some of the main arguments: "Generalists are flexible!" * You can switch quickly and

HowTo

Resourceful Renovation

I recently completed a renovation and my total spend was kept very low. Renovation costs can range from $10,000 to $120,000, and I'm happy to say that I've kept mine at about $13,000. We also completed the major works within about 2 months. Don't hire an interior

Research

DonateGoWhere: Singapore IPC Evaluation

Sometime last year - between graduation and my first full-time job - I thought it'd be fun to evaluate charities in Singapore based on a few different metrics, inspired by GiveWell. With the help of some friends, we managed to evaluate all the IPCs in Singapore, at least on the

Climate change

Why I give 10% of my income to charity

So the new year is just around the corner, and I just completed my first full year of donating my income to charity. So far it's been great, and right now I want to continue to do so possibly for the rest of my career (and possibly my life). It's

Career

Levels of Development: Skills

If life is a game, then how do we level up? I seek to answer this question and propose different levels available to us in all aspects of life. I'm going to call this Levels of Development. Just some guidelines and goals to work towards, and thinking about what's possible.

Levels of Development

Levels of Development: Life Purpose

If life is a game, then how do we level up? I seek to answer this question and propose different levels available to us in all aspects of life. I'm going to call this Levels of Development. Just some guidelines and goals to work towards, and thinking about what's possible.

Levels of Development

Levels of Development: Values and Morality

If life is a game, then how do we level up? I seek to answer this question and propose different levels available to us in all aspects of life. I'm going to call this Levels of Development. Just some guidelines and goals to work towards, and thinking about what's possible.

Levels of Development

Levels of Development: Relationships

If life is a game, then how do we level up? I seek to answer this question and propose different levels available to us in all aspects of life. I'm going to call this Levels of Development. Just some guidelines and goals to work towards, and thinking about what's possible.

Levels of Development

Levels of Development: Physical Health

If life is a game, then how do we level up? I seek to answer this question and propose different levels available to us in all aspects of life. I'm going to call this Levels of Development. Just some guidelines and goals to work towards, and thinking about what's possible.

Levels of Development

Levels of Development: Mental Health

If life is a game, then how do we level up? I seek to answer this question and propose different levels available to us in all aspects of life. I'm going to call this Levels of Development. Just some guidelines and goals to work towards, and thinking about what's possible.

Levels of Development

Levels of Development: Finance

If life is a game, then how do we level up? I seek to answer this question and propose different levels available to us in all aspects of life. I'm going to call this Levels of Development. Just some guidelines and goals to work towards, and thinking about what's possible.

HowTo

Assemble your own computer science degree

Seriously, there are so many good resources out there these days that it seems we don't really need the formal path anymore. Best of all, they're all low-cost or free. The main challenge with doing something like this instead of the normal university route would be a lack of discipline

Career

3 great career planning tools you should use

Instead of just thinking about your career randomly and forgetting what you decided on before, I recommend doing it more systematically. There are three main tools that I use for this. Journalling For me, writing is a good way to get my thoughts out of my head and into a

HowTo

How to sell more on Carousell

Carousell is a great platform, and I'm really happy it exists. I've sold a couple of big ticket items there amounting to about $500, and I wanted to share some tips on selling on the platform. Install Carousell on your phone This makes it easier for you to respond to

HowTo

How to buy better on Carousell

Carousell is a great marketplace for everything - from secondhand (or even brand new!) goods to cars and apartments. I've bought about 25 items from Carousell, found my current apartment through Carousell and most recently started selling on Carousell too. I like that I can take pretty good items off

Career

Why being realistic is unrealistic

A lot of the time, when people say "let's be realistic", it tends to sound as if the only things that exist are the things that are possible right now, and we shouldn't entertain ourselves with big goals that are unlikely to happen. It can be short-sighted, cowardly and not

Gaming

How I permanently psyched myself out of video games

Have you ever played this game called MapleStory? I used to love the quests, and played for the story; I couldn't understand the people who grinded levels without playing the different stories. Some of the music still sticks with me today, and I especially liked the Ellinia home music. I

Time

Things take time

Some things just take time to grow, and it can pay to be patient. Got a blog with a shiny new domain? You need to wait six months for the domain to be considered old enough for monetisation with Google Ads. People need time to discover your content, too. Jobs

Climate change

How I concluded that I should blog to save the planet

I spent a long time thinking about my career and what I want to do, and my current conclusion is that I should blog to save the planet. How it all began When I was very young, I watched many documentaries on nature - I would recognise David Attenborough's voice

HowTo

If you feel lost, ask yourself these questions

There are six big questions in life, and they're not just for journalists. That's right - it's your favourite who, what, when, where, why and how. Surprisingly apt when applied to life. They can help bring you clarity if you feel lost and don't know what your next step should

HowTo Featured

What can you do about climate change? (Data-driven)

In part inspired by Bret Victor's post [http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/] in a similar vein, from a long time ago. I made a deck of almost everything I know about the actions we can take that will actually reduce our carbon footprint. It turns out that there are just four

HowTo

How to build a free landing page with conversion

About 5 months ago I hacked together something really simple with Mailchimp and Stripe. I didn't bother with optimising it at that point; it was more of a proof-of-concept that I wanted to try. I want to teach you to do the same. Customer experience flow It was basically: 1.