Why Flying Hippo?

The idea of starting a blog called 'Flying hippo' jumped to me during a post-midnight conversation with Mr Hippo. It was late, so it is hard to remember, even in the next morning, what exactly triggered the idea. Having been reading Daniel Kahneman's 'Thinking, fast and slow', I guess the idea must have been originated from my intuitive System 1.

My (slightly more) rational System 2 did embrace it. I found myself hitting "Creating a blog" the first thing next morning, and five minutes later, here I am, writing my first blog, and as curious as you are about the name.

According to Kahneman, System 1 has an amazing capability of connecting dots, even before the logical side of us is aware of any connection. So my passion towards the name could be explained by a bunch of interactive factors, including the fact that I am mostly herbivorous myself, that I like the way of the word hippo pronounced , that I am a big fan of a Finnish character who looks very much like but hates being called a hippo, and last, but not the least, I had decided to loose weight in 2012.

But here comes the ultimate explanation: I am somewhat schizophrenic. On one hand, I enjoy a quite and peaceful life more than anything else. My favorite time of being a scientist is not to interview my stakeholders or facilitate my deliberative workshops but to ponder what is new next. On my own that is, of course. My No. 1 hobby is also a solo activity--reading while sunbathing. On the other hand, from time to time, I do desire a wild style of life, for instance, flying to Africa and pat hippos in their native habitat (not recommended because hippos have an aggressive nature).

So, this blog is primarily to record my sedentary and peaceful hippo-like life. But, hey, don't be surprised if you read me flying wild once in a while!