I wanted to do this chapter differently having realized that it could be boring trying to cover all the essential points from a chapter rationally rather than writing about what I felt was the most interesting.
Thus in this chapter, I will be only talking only about pieces of information which I thought intriguing.
There was a portion in the book about something called the “phoenix theory” (page 53). Philip was commenting on Dr. Goh Keng Swee’s tough execution style.
This is the excerpt:
“I also learnt from him [Goh Keng Swee] not to try to rebuild. Burn it down, restart. He believed in what’s called the ‘phoenix theory.’ The old man taught me: you try to change… it’s very hard to change. So, always restart, then you will not be bounded by legacies. And he’s quite right. That’s the way it was working with Dr Goh. Very dangerous living!”
When I read this excerpt I felt a sense of resonation. I took it as a signal of my attitude towards life. Restarting a process from a clean slate is always better than trying to make incremental changes from its current state. The current state always comes with certain emotions and privileges from previous events that are hard to remove. It’s a state of comfort where inertia builds up and complacency grows.
Starting from a clean slate means “burning” away these emotions and legacies. It requires a sense of resolution that what comes next will be worth more than what has already been built. This means intentionally rocking the status quo because you are clear about the benefits the incoming change will bring.
If something isn’t up to standard and you can afford to burn it all down to restart, do it. People who are willing to start afresh like these are the ones who suceed in life. This is my belief.
Another section in the book that caught my eye was Dr. Goh wanting the officers in the army to play polo, a horseback mounted team sport. I cannot imagine SAF officers in the year 2018 playing polo. This is something very intriguing and humorous at the same time.
This was because Dr. Goh believed in cavalry; the British army officers all played polo. The concept of an officer on a horse competing against others on a horse was like combat he thought. He had the idea that an officer cadet should be unique like the German general staff.
At another point of time, Goh also wanted officers to learn how to play bridge as he thought it was an intellectual game.
Both ideas didn’t take off but it exemplifies how much reference we took from the British and also how our current daily actions or traditions could have perhaps come from such examples of ideation.
