What if no one actually realises how valuable you are at work?

A woman approached Picasso, asked him to draw something on a napkin and said she would be happy to pay whatever he felt it was worth.

Picasso complied and then said, “that’ll be $10,000”.

“But you did that in 30 seconds,” the woman replied.

“No,” Picasso responded. “It has taken me 40 years to do that.

That tale was related in business leader Mark McCormack’s bestselling What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School, my weekend reading.

The book gave me pause for reflection on the unseen labour involved in journalism. Hours are poured into a minute-long TikTok video. An instant analysis required years of studying a subject – as Ravi Velloor’s insights on the India-Pakistan conflict published on the same day that conflict erupted demonstrates.

Nowhere was this clearer for me than in how my incredible colleagues at the Straits Times pulled off our coverage of Singapore’s recently-concluded General Election. From start to finish, it was a back-breaking, 24/7 whole-of-newsroom team effort – by the news, digital, video, photo, podcast teams, and many others roped in from other desks and recalled from our foreign bureaus.

Beyond the intensive burst of manpower-intensive reporting, our coverage relied on past investments in the weeks, months and even years covering previous elections and political developments, soaking up knowledge, understanding Singapore’s political landscape and hewing closely to public sentiments to bring the latest to our audience as quickly as we could.

And besides building editorial credibility over the years, the work also involved shifting gears in real time to embrace new formats to reach our audiences where they are. The podcast team turned my colleague Natasha Ann Zachariah’s The Usual Place into a daily live show. Political journalists Goh Yan Han and Ng Wei Kai started a substack newsletter called Unpacked to break down the latest developments.

As someone who was not involved for personal reasons, I felt both a mix of fomo, envy and admiration. Public service journalism demands hard, quiet, behind-the-scenes effort and such uncelebrated work only shows its value in the most crucial of times, in this case, as Singaporeans head to the polls and needed studied, balanced and incisive news.

GE2025 was 10 days but it has taken us years to do that. 

This is a situation most of us in our 40s can probably appreciate. So I asked ChatGPT what advice self-help blogger Mark Manson would offer to people struggling with knowing their value at work and it replied: “Most people either overestimate or underestimate their worth. Both are equally dangerous. Overestimating makes you arrogant and blind. Underestimating makes you invisible and exploited.

“But here’s the thing: value isn’t just about skill. It’s about relevance. You could be the best typewriter repair guy in the world – that’s practically useless in 2025. So your value is only as high as the demand for it. Learn to read the room. Adapt. Grow.”

Let me end by acknowledging that I’m fully aware some will say I am vested in The Straits Times’ success. As good journalistic practice, I offer up our look-back on GE2025 as a way to let readers come to their own conclusion:

• How staying on message and away from ‘knuckleduster politics’ paid off for the PAP.
• And how the Workers’ Party’s strategy clicked into place, even without new wins.
• Plus, why Singaporeans prefer voting for the opposition slowly and steadily, not suddenly.
• Bonus material: A look at why multi-cornered fights didn’t matter in GE2025.

Until next week, here are my picks of the week to get yours started.

Cheers,

Suling Lin, Senior columnist

Inside the PAP’s GE2025 playbook – and why rivals should take notes

By Bhavan Jaipragas

Opposition-leaning voices should closely study why the PAP’s GE2025 strategy worked.

Singapore’s crisis generation of youths need a reason to believe

By Mubin Saadat 

This struggling generation has been disoriented by a conveyor belt of global crises, their hopes atomised in many ways.

When moderation becomes a non-negotiable lifestyle

By Rohit Brijnath

The moderate life can mean the end of rebellion yet can be a comfort in middle age.

‘If I had a switch to slow down AI, I might use it’: Bill Gates on technology, giving, resilience

By Ravi Velloor 

If machines can provide all the goods and services, what do humans do?  “I don’t have an honest answer for that,” he says.

Supermarkets in Singapore need to innovate to get shoppers through their doors again

By Karen Tee

The modern supermarket needs to bring more to the table than cheap deals.