Hey there!!
Welcome to my little corner of the digital world. My name is Mai and this is my story.
I have always been curious and analytical by nature, thriving on logic and reasonings, which enabled good performances throughout my education history, especially in the sciences. Therefore, I chose to study Industrial Design in university for my Bachelor’s degree.
Since I was a small child, I’ve always had a strong appreciation for beauty. In fact, I tried to finish my assignments as quickly as possible just to go back to doodling, day-dreaming or entertaining myself with whatever instruments in my surroundings. Legos gave me as much fun as simple pencils and paper. I loved building and creating, and I started to understand how all these fragments of my childhood piece together as I grew older.
In the recent decades, there have been numerous researches on the science and explanation of beauty. It boils down to our ability to recognise patterns that were carefully planned, by nature or by humans. It helped the early human survive by identifying good food sources, sturdy shelter materials and healthy mates. Today, when humans are not merely trying to survive, but to live to the fullest, beauty has far deeper impacts. As mental health discussions have come into the spotlight in recent years, we now know that our physical well-being is very much affected by our mental well-being. Art and beauty act as a way for us to relieve the pressure built up by our increasingly industrialised, rigidly structured and almost monotonously specialised world. They help us explore different aspects of our capabilities, improve cognitive functions, enhance individual happiness, and be mentally resilient, which in turn keep us physically healthy to be productive members of society in our fields of expertise.
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​With our existing understanding of the sciences, we have developed systems to ensure some form of results and stability through tightly controlled standards for the next generations to survive. However, we, as individuals and as a species, are trying to ascend the hierarchy of needs. While half the world population are still denied access to the bottom tier of the hierarchy, basic physiological necessities, mankind still has much to learn, discover, create, develop and innovate to bring about a more desirable future. That can be brought about by embracing the multiple facets of the human identity and satisfying the inherent human need for creativity.
Art and beauty is a science we don’t fully have a grasp of, but the theories work and we recognise it when we see it, much like every other science. Science is an art where through a series of guesses, trial-and-errors, and experimentations, we land at just the right formulae. Each is a different perspective to a subject matter, and when employed in harmony, can create a better world by design.
With limited resources, creative thinking gives us new perspectives, allows for discoveries, pushes our boundaries, and expands our knowledge and options, while critical thinking allows for its optimal allocation and maximised utilities. These skills need to go hand-in-hand for humankind to advance as a species in a safe and sustainable way.
This is the balance, the harmony I aspire to achieve for both myself, the communities I’m in, and the world by extension. Primary and secondary schools trained me to be able to reliably and consistently produce results through established methodologies. Pre-tertiary and tertiary education is more focused on critical thinking. Creative thinking has started receiving attention from large corporations and being more emphasised in tertiary institutions in recent years, but that’s still insufficient to offset the decades of repetitions and drills millions of people have been going through.
Therefore, starting with myself, I try to be more conscientious of my own actions and development, actively incorporating creative thinking and critical thinking into my tasks. By constantly exploring new things, learning new skills and sharing my knowledge by discovering applications across multiple disciplines, I hope to do my part in steering humanity towards a better future, and influence others to take actions for similar causes.
I am Phan Mai - a designer, thinker, researcher, explorer, engineer, builder, adventurer, creator, critic, and many more roles that I try to adopt in my daily life. I believe in building a better world by design, through conscious and responsible decisions, through balanced applications of creativity and critique.
“Beautiful is what we see, more beautiful is what we know,
most beautiful, by far, is what we don’t.”
- Nicolas Steno
A Glimpse at My Life