True enough -
Although some would contend that the annual Malay wargames are proof against (1), you're right. After all, isn't the joke, "The Singapore military only needs to operate for up to 7 days. Why 7 days? That's how long it takes the UN to respond!"
Singaporean culture and upbringing often results in two things, in my - somewhat limited - perspective:
- we're often raised by what we can do, not what we can't. Obedience is rather well taught.
- kind of stemming from the former - Singaporeans tend to be a bit more risk averse. Helps when you're trying to stem risky behavior - like crime and drugs. On the flip side, you don't get quite as much entrepreneurship.
Of course, these are merely observations. Feel free to correct me.
I'm currently living in Cleveland, Forbes' #1 worst city to live in. While I, personally, have a startup, I grew up in Rhode Island. I got motivation for the startup (freshbag - www.thefreshbag.com) from the local incubator (launchhouse). It's incredible what a good incubator environment will do to build buzz!
If you have the passion - perhaps you can start an incubator in Singapore near SMU (there's the LKY competition - 'near' being a relative term of affiliation. Good luck with getting real estate space there if you tried!), some of the polytechnic institutes, or NUS (although the latter has more competition). What do you think about that?
That being said, incubators take years to fully form. And you're a cat-herder, never able to really control everyone. On the flip side, you'll encourage a lot of awesome ideas. All the potential...
It seems like you're definitely going to get a good experience if you go with this lab. I'm currently enrolled in a grad program myself - this may bias my perspective.
The great part about where you're coming from is that you might already have a great sense about how the 'real world' works. I'm sure you've done some form of research before - however, the process of getting through a PhD program makes you work harder to understand what you think you know - and hones your ability to create new academic value.
Although a Master's in stats does prove useful, you're generally rehashing the same old techniques. You seem like you wanted more creativity in your job. I feel like value begets value - the academic value you create because you're curious can, if leveraged properly, become a company for you.
I'm sure you already knew all this - but regardless if you're thinking of doing a program, why not consider doing the PhD program? Just make sure to get the Master's on the way, and you haven't lost any time - you were going to do the Master's, anyways. In that time, you'll get a lot of research done and find more opportunities. Furthermore, you'll probably find it easier to be paid - most schools are better funded for PhD candidates than Master's candidates. Why not take a 'free' degree, then, if you're going to put in the time?
Quite honestly - the stuff you're doing is specialized, to some extent, but you can also link it to other imaging modalities. I presume you're correlating 'what am I thinking' to 'what do we see on fMRI?' - it's a classic multidimensional problem with a ton of potential solutions and a crazy number of permutations to handle. That's already some pretty useful stuff - you can take it, rinse, and reuse in another format - say, EEG, or applying new diagnostic fusion modalities to diagnosing various diseases automagically. Things appear different every time in different people - essentially a similar problem.
In addition, you've got a huge area for HCI (human computer interaction). Jobs already has a ton of people contemplating moving to the tablet for everyday usage. What if we end up going a step further to wearable computing - how will we have interfaces? Turn your stuff slick and sexy, and you've got a huge potential market.
You're landing a great research job in a great university. You're on Hacker News - wouldn't you consider starting your own company with all the crazy stuff you've discovered?
Agreed. If you want to have a well performing body, put performance fuel into it. In other words, good food.
Good food is, unfortunately, highly debatable. Organic or non-organic - I'd still have to suggest that starting with any fruits and vegetables, for example, would be a huge step up in the diet!
As a med student, I have to agree - cooking yourself ends up teaching people more about the food they eat than almost any prepared/prepacked food.
And yes, ramen is also possible to make from a bag of flour, salt, baking soda, and water. No palm fat, no other stuff. Just takes a bit of skill in putting together the soup...
They just need to get introduced to the startup culture...