I read, I travel, I become - Derek Walcott

Hello, this is Tiffena! I build recommendation systems for travelers, and blog about personal growth and product trends. I believe there’s something inherent good in each place, object and person, and it’s my mission to forage, curate, and share these with the world.

My biggest passion is in understanding different ways of thinking and living. I take a systematic view of the world, as things don’t exist in silos but interconnect and influence each other. I like to drill down into the why and how.

Some subjects I’m interested in:

  • Learning: how humans learn and its analogy with machine learning, specifically, meta-learning and transfer learning. Specifically, I am interested in ways to understand a novel concept and break it down to the simplest form. The first principle of things.
  • Social design: using design to solve pressing social issues such as aging society in hyper-developed countries such as Japan. Moving away from the stigma of treating elderlies as burdens for healthcare system to empowering them to contribute their lifelong experiences and unused energy to contribute to the growth of the upcoming generation.
  • History: how/why people made key choices in crucial moments that affected millions of lives. The major actors/factors contributing to events and how things evolved in time. Many years ago, I came across a book by history Professor Shih-Hao Lu, in which he taught history as MBA-style case studies. In critical moments, close the book and ask yourself, “if you were him/her, what would you do?”. Think thoroughly and critically. Better yet, discuss with your peers. In this approach, we can appreciate history as a massive treasury of lessons in strategy, leadership, psychology, etc.
  • Consumer trends and Psychology: the historical/social context and psychology of spending, especially in the ultra-fast moving East Asian metropolises.
  • Travel planning: not just for me but also my family members and close friends. It’s a bliss to utilize my PM skills in gathering local market information, studying user needs and matching resources to requirements and constraints to plan a trip that is personalized, memorable and budget-fitting!

Find me @instagram, DM me, email me hiATtiffena.me, or check out my A4 resume.