Happy Malaysia Day to all of you who are from Malaysia!
On another and related note, those of you who know me probably know that I am a big fan of Lee Kuan Yew.
Well, that’s a bit of a small understatement. I mean, it would have to be for someone who was somehow so moved that he decided to write an entire book about Lee Kuan Yew, which is by the way exactly what I did.
This Malaysia Day, 16 September, I’m very happy to announce the release of “One Date, Two Destinies: Lee Kuan Yew and the Birth of Malaysia and Singapore”, at a (Malaysia Day) discount!
This was a fun project to engage in, writing about the entire track of Lee Kuan Yew’s history from his birth up until the end.
I think it is crucial to look back at the past to understand history better, and this is one of the first things that a person will understand, I think, if they look just a little bit beneath the surface of Malaysian history and that which we call Malaysia.
I don’t think that there is quite a project that is like this, but I think that it was an extremely fun one – It contains many of my own personal reflections about Mr. Lee and the role that he played in Malaysia and Singapore, and in our shared history together, one that was born from a time of what can rightfully be called trauma.
I hope that you will find it meaningful and valuable for your own personal development and growth even as you reflect on these stories.
Thank you for your support in advance if you would like to purchase the book!
I am writing this after contemplating Fanon’s “Black Skin, White Masks” and undertaking a full sequence of reading on the way to reading Homi K. Bhabha’s “The Location of Culture” upon Shahril Hamdan’s recommendation – incidentally, after failing to understand it and after complaining to Shahril, I realized that perhaps it was not the book that was fundamentally flawed, however many articles I found describing how it is badly written.
Rather, it was myself – But I suppose I will go through that thought process another day.
What’s more important is that each day, I’m reminded of the value of time nowadays. I wonder if this is a neurosis. Perhaps it has something to do with the affective way that I’ve been influenced by life all this while. Maybe it is path dependent and the result of my previous decisions.
Either way, I look now at the seconds, at the measurements, at how they are organized, and at how everything contributes in sum to the totality of what I am. In the realization that all of it is finite, finite, oh so finite, what can a man do in a lifetime? That is unclear. How much in an hour can be quantified? Will he, in fact, overestimate what he can do in a year but underestimate what he can do in five? That is really up to him at the end of the day and the truism really does nothing but provide small and cheap comfort.
It seems a little strange that all of this should have given rise to the appreciation of time that I currently have, but it’s just dawned upon me that there are so many books to read and there’s so little time. Yet there are so many of them that need to be understood, apprehended, and integrated into my consciousness before I will be ready to really do what I need to do. That is why I feel every second, every minute, every moment in a deeper sense of feeling. In the realization that every breath that I take, every moment I’m awake, and these contemplations that I pen with my voice in the middle of my oldest home are all passing into an eternity where it will all be gone one day
Got the SecretLab Atlas because I wanted to see what Secretlab’s task chair setup was like after having purchased 7 different Secretlab Titan chairs across time.
Beyond vibe, which it does check (in a different way from the Titan), it is quite different from the Titan Evo in a few key areas, so I thought I’d do a comparison!
TL;DR: Seems like a better experience than the Titan for now and definitely more ergonomic in a bunch of ways. I don’t know if it matches up to higher-end chairs yet, or to what extent, but first impression is that this is perhaps 50% as good as the Herman Miller Aeron and Embody at 25% the price.
Now let’s go a bit more in depth.
1. Armrests: Unlike the Titan Evo, the armrests of the Atlas are not removable. They are, however, smoother and more comfortable compared to the Titan Evo.
2. Recline: Unlike the Titan Evo, the Secret Lab Atlas can only recline up to the 120° mark. This is likely to imitate the harmonic tilt mechanism of the Herman Miller chairs. I tried it, and it is comfortable, but if you want to lie down, the Titan Evo would probably still be your choice.
3. Overall backrest feel: The Atlas has a bucket seat style arrangement (which some people complain about), but there is a gentler angle that feels better to me than the Titan Evo’s.
That means it’s able to fit a wider variety of body types. You might also notice that, since it’s a bit slimmer, this does mean that this gives the arms more range to move around in.
The curve of the Atlas backrest is also great, and if we keep both chairs in an upright position, the Atlas wins, despite the fact that it’s possible to adjust the lumbar support for the Titan Evo both in depth and in height. I have personally not really needed to adjust the lumbar for the Titan Evo, but if you think that level of customizability is needed or useful for you, then just go with the Titan.
4. The seat:
I find the seat of the Atlas to be less firm than the Titan’s, and crossing legs might also be a bit more of an issue, although it’s not because it’s less comfortable – rather, because of the angling of the seat, it is easier for your legs to fall down if you cross them on the Atlas. Not a huge deal for me personally (despite the angling, it is still soft and it is not uncomfortable to cross legs), but if crossing legs and maintaining balance is like your Battle of Waterloo or something, go with the Titan I guess o_o
5. Tilt force:
It is a lot easier to find the tilt force adjustment on the Atlas because it’s right by the side of the chair, unlike what we see with the Titan Evo, where you literally have to bend all the way down and then start turning.
The tilt force adjustment is also discrete for the Atlas, while it is continuous for the Titan. This might give you more adjustability on the recline balancing point for the Titan and might work better if you are the kind of person who can work better in a recline position. Atlas is not really for that, though. The recline will probably serve its purpose.
6. Seat depth adjustment:
As we know, this is non-existent on the Titan. The fact that it exists on the Atlas is a game changer because it really eliminates a lot of the sizing issues that a lot of people were dealing with and allows for more adjustability. There’s a pretty obvious gap when you adjust the seat outwards, but it’s not a major issue, to the point that it should stop you from getting it.
7. Seating experience over time:
I feel that this is better on the Atlas because generally speaking, I prefer to be sitting up straight and looking at the computer from there. I don’t really have a strong reason to recline. If you want to use your chair more like that, that could be something to think about, but I think the Atlas wins over the course of time from my experiments.
8. Designs:
Clearly, the Titan wins because of the sheer variety of different partnerships that have come out over time. If design is an important thing for you, then just go with the Titan, I guess. You could also wait to get the Atlas, because I’m sure that Secretlab will come out with more partnerships in the future. Honestly, most people get ergonomic task chairs for the purpose of locking in the first place, and I think maybe what you might be more concerned with is whether it serves that purpose.
One thing to consider is that it is also at a fraction of the price of other ergonomic chairs on the market that would fit the high-end tier but deliver pretty good performance. On a personal note, it’s not as great as the Aeron or the Embody (hope this doesn’t trigger the out of topic vibe check), but that shouldn’t be a surprise given that it is a quarter of the price of those chairs.
Note that it does have a head support, unlike those chairs, and it is also a high-back chair.
In terms of performance, I probably rank it at least 50% of what those chairs can give you. If you have the money, you might want to go and splurge on those, but this is a perfectly good way to get yourself to lock in – 25% the price, 50% the performance? More value for money. ( Of course, if you prefer to sit on a plastic chair or something, then by all means. You are here for a reason, though, aren’t you?) 😀
I hope this was helpful for you. I made a video review of it. I don’t know how far the self-promotion rules go, but if you search YouTube for “Secretlab Atlas VS Titan EVO 2022,” you might find my videos.
Thank you for reading, and I hope this was helpful for you!
PS: There was a noise issue with the Secretlab Titan EVO 2022 when it was first launched.
I looked out for that on the Atlas and was pleased to see that there was no noise at all after I finished assembling the chair. That’s just my individual experience, though, and I don’t have a way of seeing what happens in all of your rooms. If you have finished assembling the chair, or if you get one, you can try to see if that issue is actually there! Don’t let it dissuade you from getting it if that’s what you want, but if that was a material factor, my experience at least suggests that that’s one thing not to worry about 😀
I’m reading “The Location of Culture” by Homi K. Bhabha, and frankly, it is a hot mess.
Either that, or I am the hot mess, and I don’t know what’s actually happening. It was so bad I didn’t understand so much of it that at some point I actually messaged Shahril (Hamdan – he recommended the book) and asked him if he really liked the book.
…In retrospect, that was a kind of a stupid question, because he recommended the book and he alluded as much 🤣
Well, it is what it is. Maybe I’m dumb or whatever, but anyway, it was just not registering for a very long time. I had to go ahead and push through ChatGPT for a bit in order to even understand what the man was talking about.
For now, what I seem to understand is that culture doesn’t come about just by an imperious subject and the thing that they treat as an object, couched in the typical language of the colonizer and the colonized and in the happy middle that they occupy.
A good example seems to be that of a school where the colonizer is a teacher and the colonized is a student. The teacher may teach a few English phrases, and the student may receive it. They may then learn and imitate what the teacher says. A few twists occur, and before you know it, little interesting nuances come out because of the imperfect transmission between the teacher and the student. The teacher cannot fully know what the student has learned, and the student may not fully receive what was conveyed, or what was conveyed may have been translated in context, amongst other things; frames shift what is understood, meanings transmute, and a hybridity of things results.
I think I am really not doing justice to what was said, and somehow I feel like my capacity at this moment is limited. Well, we will see if my understanding becomes a little better – until tomorrow!
