Section
Stoicism
An applied philosophy for people who still have to make decisions, treated as intellectual discipline rather than wellness.
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Stoicism Essay
Bank froze your account with suppliers waiting? Call each one with the truth, not a promise
On apatheia, and the bank de-risking sweep that froze a Southeast Asian founder’s account mid-invoice, with three Guangzhou suppliers waiting on the money.
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Stoicism Essay
Got a will? A Malaysian tycoon had one, and nobody could sign in his name for 634 days
On memento mori, and the 634 days between a Malaysian tycoon’s death and the morning a court let anybody sign in his name.
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Stoicism Essay
Would you borrow for 20 years on a 5-year licence? Five solar firms said no, and Singapore waits.
On phronesis, and the five companies that judged Jakarta’s five-year solar export permit unfit to carry a twenty-year loan to Singapore.
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Stoicism Essay
Grade A warehouse rent in Ho Chi Minh City runs about US$5.30 a metre. One founder paid herself as if she already owed triple that.
On voluntary discomfort, and the warehouse lease a Ho Chi Minh City founder tested before she agreed to sign it.
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Stoicism Essay
Indonesia halved e-commerce platform fees. Cross-border sellers got none.
On the inner citadel, and the week Jakarta decided which e-commerce sellers count as local enough for a fifty percent discount.
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Stoicism Essay
Singapore fintech raised US$499 million in six months. One June round was two-thirds of it.
On the dichotomy of control, and the six months Singapore fintech spent raising US$499 million while the money went to Jakarta and Shanghai.
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Stoicism Essay
Courage in a down market is a speech act, and most founders spend it a quarter too late
On andreia, and the six months in which Southeast Asian founders raised less than the year before while one data-centre round made the tape look fine.
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Stoicism Essay
Fed hike odds went 35 to 57 percent in an afternoon. Your loan still floats.
Premeditatio malorum, applied to a floating-rate facility and a Fed chairman who will not tell you what he is going to do.
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Stoicism Essay
Jane Ng paid one company to learn who to build with
On amor fati, and the December a co-founder walked out.
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Stoicism Essay
1982 Ventures says early stage. It bought into a $5.4 billion Series B.
On sophrosyne, and the Singapore seed fund that wrote into a $400 million Series B led by DST Global.
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Stoicism Essay
Two days after a Cat A COE closed at S$128,501, Jardine agreed to sell Cycle & Carriage to an Indonesian petrochemical group.
On amor fati, and the S$265 million a 127-year-old Singapore car business fetched from an Indonesian petrochemical group.
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Stoicism Essay
Three lenders put up S$60m to buy Singapore SMEs off founders with no successor.
On dikaiosyne, and the August week three lenders priced your exit above your growth.
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Stoicism Essay
The Philippines’ AI hub starts digging in 2028. Your plan runs three years.
The view from above, applied to a 1,620-hectare AI zone in Tarlac and to the three-year plan you built on top of it.
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Stoicism Essay
Google’s SEA accelerator gives 25 founders $350,000 in credits and takes three months.
Memento mori, applied to an acceptance email: the cohort takes no equity, and the one thing it does take is the only asset you cannot raise more of.
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Stoicism Essay
Singapore opened 200MW to new data centres. One Batam campus contracted 450.
On apatheia, and the compute money landing across the strait from a business it is never going to touch.
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Stoicism Essay
Vietnam pays 12.5 percent to the US now. Malaysia pays 10.
The inner citadel, and the morning a Vietnam assembly line found out its cost advantage was a number Washington had rewritten three times in twelve months.
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Stoicism Essay
Absorbing Singapore’s 12.5 percent tariff keeps the customer and moves the loss onto you.
On andreia, and the phone call a Singapore founder owes an American buyer three days after MAS steepened the dollar band.
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Stoicism Essay
Anthropic prices what you sell at $15 a million tokens. You get no vote.
On the dichotomy of control, and the founder whose gross margin is reset each morning by a price she gets no vote in.
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Stoicism Essay
Kenneth Tan left DeNA and learned how much of his judgement was the job title.
On phronesis, and the month a Singapore founder found out how much of his judgement had been his job title.
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Stoicism Essay
The Network School lost its licence on the 21st, and moved to a new country by the 22nd
On amor fati, and the day an Iskandar Puteri council pulled the licence of the loudest build-your-own-country experiment in the region.
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Stoicism Essay
A Singapore consultant never asked what happens if his old clients pause.
On premeditatio malorum, and the year a Singapore consultant spent building new business without once asking what happens if the old business pauses.
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Stoicism Essay
The Fed held rates in June. A Singapore founder had timed her raise to a cut.
On the dichotomy of control, and the rate path you cannot vote on.
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Stoicism Essay
Four frontier models shipped in ten weeks. From high enough, not one of them happened.
On the view from above, and the summer four frontier models shipped while a founder built nothing.
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Stoicism Essay
Southeast Asian funding doubled to US$7.4 billion. One company took US$4.5 billion of it.
On voluntary discomfort, and the run rate you tighten while a boom that isn’t yours tempts you to loosen it.
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Stoicism Essay
Venture funding in Southeast Asia fell almost 80 percent. Keep deciding anyway.
On apatheia, and the Southeast Asian funding winter that has run long enough to become a climate.
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Stoicism Essay
Indonesia capped ride-hailing commission at 8 percent. Founders got no vote.
The inner citadel, and the Labour Day speech in Jakarta that repriced a founder’s business between one morning and the next.
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Stoicism Essay
SenseTime’s co-founder died at 55. Three more Chinese AI figures died under 50.
On memento mori, and the founders who die with the company still open on the desk.
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Stoicism Essay
Thinking Machines raised $2bn before shipping a product. Some rounds you refuse.
On sophrosyne, and the AI mega-round whose valuation would set your pace for you.
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Stoicism Essay
The WTO put 2026 trade growth at 1.9 percent. Make the cut before it makes you.
On andreia, and the cut a founder keeps postponing until a thinner second half of 2026 makes it for him.
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Stoicism Essay
Your whole company runs on one input. A memo can delete it by morning.
On premeditatio malorum, and the founder whose single dependency a regulator can delete with one memo overnight.
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Stoicism Essay
The View From Above
On the view from above, and the weekend a founder spent refreshing a status page.
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Stoicism Essay
The term sheet expires Friday. The macro will not be clear by then.
On phronesis, and the term sheet that expires before the facts come in.
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Stoicism Essay
The best month just happened since 2023 and the boom that isn’t yours
On amor fati, and the boom that isn’t yours: Singapore’s May export print, and the founder locked out of it.
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Stoicism Essay
What You Owe the Room You Built
On dikaiosyne, and the team you cannot afford to keep.
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Stoicism Essay
Seneca was the richest man in Rome. He still set aside three days a month to eat dry bread.
On voluntary discomfort, and the two weeks a Singapore founder spends paying for her own coffee.
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Stoicism Essay
A Singapore founder ran the AGM and the oncology ward off one calendar.
On memento mori, and the week a Singapore founder ran the AGM and the oncology ward off the same calendar.
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Stoicism Essay
Stockdale at Hỏa Lò.
James Stockdale spent seven and a half years in a Hanoi prison cell. The discipline he came home with has a name now. The discipline still works.