This issue covers my reflections from September to October 2025.

The video Rethinking Thinking introduces the concept of the “Ladder of Inference” — a model of how we process the raw information we perceive in the world. It breaks the process into seven steps:

  • Raw data: The unfiltered data of the world as our senses receive it.
  • Selected data: From everything we perceive, we unconsciously use attention to filter certain details and information.
  • Interpreted data: We try to make sense of what we’ve selected — to understand what it means.
  • Assumptions: We develop assumptions based on the meaning we’ve created. At this stage, the line between fact and story starts to blur.
  • Conclusions: We draw conclusions from our assumptions, and our emotional reactions emerge here.
  • Beliefs: We update our existing beliefs about the world based on our current experience.
  • Actions: We act based on our updated beliefs.

Every step on this ladder has its own limitations, which means we’re inevitably unable to perceive reality directly. At the very first step — raw data — the limits of human sensory systems ensure we can never receive the full picture, and what we do receive can’t accurately reflect objective reality.

Benford’s Law reveals that in many naturally occurring datasets, the distribution of values follows a logarithmic rather than a uniform pattern. A vast amount of real-world data doesn’t grow linearly; it spans many orders of magnitude. To accommodate this, biological nervous systems have evolved logarithmic encoding so the brain can maximize the information it receives. This is also what the Weber-Fechner Law describes: our sensory systems respond to stimuli proportionally. What we perceive is a representation jointly constructed by our senses and our brain — not reality itself.

Zimbardo wrote in Psychology and Life: “Perception gives meaning to sensation, so perception produces an interpretation of the world, not a perfect representation of it.” Knowledge is not merely information — it is interpretation that emerges dialectically as an individual’s cognitive model collides continuously with the environment. Everything we understand about life has been filtered through these meanings and perspectives. We don’t live in reality; we live in our perception of reality.

The brain isn’t seeking truth — it’s seeking a reliable, stable model. For survival, the brain must rely on models, and so it works hard to protect the models it believes in.

Hardened beliefs push us to rely on “System 1” — the fast, energy-efficient mode of judgment. When that happens, it can help to pause and trace the ladder of inference that led to a particular conclusion: what’s at each level, and is there a higher vantage point from which to see things more clearly? Letting “System 2” do some work often leads to a more objective reading of the situation.

The concepts we carry in our minds are each the result of countless overlapping horizons of understanding. The higher we stand, the wider our historical and cultural view — and the better equipped we are to correctly gauge the significance of everything within that view, from the large to the small, the near to the far.

But we must also accept that we can only ever approach reality, never fully arrive at it. That means staying genuinely humble when encountering different perspectives — willing to hold them, to sit with them.

I touched on a related idea in an earlier post, On Existence, Value, and the Experience of Living: the real world is complex and plural. Limiting yourself only to what you consider “worthwhile” is both narrow and a loss, because you’ll miss so much that is rounded, sharp, obscure, and quietly beautiful. Lowering the threshold of “value” often turns out to be the better way to find life’s hidden sweetness.

So maybe the move is to demote that inner model — stop letting it occupy the top of your value hierarchy. When you do, you become more open, and in becoming more open, you find more joy. You also get to experience life more honestly, and to keep growing.

Some people build authority and others blindly follow; some people champion niche things and others think they’re just showing off. These are all just different people, in different moments, in different places, in different moods, looking at the world in their own way. As long as you can ultimately see the thing itself — and collect the sweetness from all those different vantage points along the way — does it really matter which path you took to get there?

Life Moments

Work was intense these two months, but looking back I still managed to squeeze in a few trips.

🇲🇾 Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Our team went to Johor Bahru for a team dinner and escape room outing. I realized when writing this that I didn’t take a single photo those two days. JB overall reminded me of a second- or third-tier city in China, with a sizable ethnic Chinese population.

🇮🇩 Batam Island, Indonesia

I didn’t have time off during China’s National Day holiday, so I had to watch the travel photos roll across my feed with some envy. To compensate, I took the weekend to go lie on a beach in Batam for two days — my version of a National Day break.

A sunrise at the water’s edge — the XPan crop turned out pretty well:

🇨🇳 Beijing & Zhuhai

The week after National Day I was back in mainland China for work — first Beijing, then Zhuhai. First time back in six months. The first order of business was finding good food. Multiple meals a day. Nothing beats food back home.

And finally got my long-awaited Ah Ma Homemade drink:

🇲🇴 Macau

After the Zhuhai work trip, I spent a weekend doing a full day of city walking in Macau.

🇸🇬 Halloween at Universal Studios Singapore

Also made it to USS in October for the Halloween night event — four exclusive haunted houses, all jump-scare based. The set design was creative but the experience felt pretty similar across all of them.

Books, Films & Music

Here’s what I consumed this period:

  • Watched: Series | When the Stars Gossip | ★★★★★
  • Watched: Series | Zombie Campus | ★★★☆☆
  • Watched: Series | The Rest of Our Life | ★★★☆☆
  • Watched: Series | Journey to the Mountains and Seas | ★★☆☆☆
  • Watched: Series | Alice in Borderland Season 3 | ★★★☆☆
  • Watched: Film | Shadow in the Cloud | ★★★★★
  • Watched: Film | Nanjing Photo Studio | ★★★★☆
  • Watched: Film | Fight Back to School | ★★★★☆
  • Watched: Film | For Better or Worse | ★★★☆☆
  • Reading: Nonfiction | Gödel, Escher, Bach | ★★★★★
  • Read: Fiction | Wings of the Kirin | ★★★☆☆
  • Played: Game | Marvel’s Midnight Suns | ★★★★★
  • Playing: Game | Silksong | ★★★☆☆