Singaporeans famously love to upgrade – their commute, their cars, their homes, their education qualifications and themselves, going by the popularity of self-help books. Go into any chain bookshop here, and the shelves are full of them. 

Books such as “The Subtle Art Of Not Giving a F*ck : A Counterintuitive Approach To Living A Good Life”, by Mark Mason, and “Surrounded By Idiots : The Four Types Of Human Behaviour (Or, How To Understand Those Who Cannot Be Understood)” by Thomas Erikson, have hung around in the bestseller lists of local bookstores such as Kinokuniya for months, if not years.