niracler

Finally understood one thing: to solve problems, what you need is momentum, courage, fighting spirit, cutting off the source, getting to the bottom of things, and having the determination to throw away 80% of the remaining work for the day. Otherwise, you always think about "doing more work" instead of "completely solving one thing"~~

About the Past Few Weeks#

The last time I wrote a weekly journal was already in mid-October. Over the past three weeks, I went through three phases: "Confrontation" -> "Going Home to Rest" -> "Starting Work Again." Don't get me wrong; I just revealed my mental state to my leader and adjusted my work content and workload, but the completeness of the work content needs to be high.

Change of Mindset#

My state of life has always had problems. It's like having ten homework assignments in front of me. My approach is to work on all ten assignments simultaneously. Whenever I encounter a difficult question on one assignment that I can't solve immediately, I jump to the next one. The result is that each assignment ends up being "terrible." Yes, the problem lies in wanting to do everything but not doing anything well, lacking restraint on what I want to do, and only having a fleeting enthusiasm. This might be acceptable in life or hobbies, but in work or career, it can be fatal.

Meaningful things are generally difficult. Completing all the easy questions of ten assignments in a limited time is meaningless. The key is to do well in what you are currently doing; some things cannot be rushed, but once you decide to do them, you must do them well. Don't take pride in reading many comics or books; sometimes, understanding and thoroughly reading one book is much more meaningful than skimming through a hundred. And don't think every day, "What should I do about all the things I haven't done? I might as well do a few easy questions to boost my score." This might work for exams, but in real life and work, solving one difficult question on one assignment might yield a score higher than all the easy questions combined from ten assignments.

You might think you are doing easy questions, but to others, you are just writing a "solution." It's just self-deception; don't even believe it yourself. Just like the description in "The Fool Who Sleeps":

Those who call themselves artists often do some easy and enjoyable exercises, but the truly hard practice is avoided because it's too exhausting. They hold their own exhibitions, but because they fear knowing their own abilities, they avoid participating in formal evaluations or selections. They create the illusion of being talented artists within their familiar circles.

(I am currently in this foolish circle)

Going Home - Those Long-Lost Friends#

The place where I work is just a little over an hour's drive from home, and I probably go home once a month. However, every time I go home, I just stay indoors and don't go out.

In recent years, I have had very few friends. Due to a lack of maintenance of past relationships, I have ended up almost alone. The main reason I haven't gathered with former classmates and friends is largely due to my inferiority complex regarding my current state and work. I feel that my state over the past few years of working has been very poor; simply put, I have been "dragged along" by work.

Since I learned during the National Day holiday that a high school classmate works near where I am, I have arranged to go out a few times. I found that I can hardly speak fluently anymore. This week, I also had a long-awaited online technical conversation with a few university classmates. Should I say I really miss them?

(Just going for a stroll in a park that I've been to countless times, but when I go with them after four years, it becomes a memory)

Experience of Using Steam Deck for Development#

In the past few days, I tried to set up a second development environment on the Steam Deck. I found that when I use different devices for development simultaneously, I can better understand the differences in the design of different desktop environments.

I realized why I liked using Manjaro in college; it was because I found the way of installing software particularly novel. Most of the software I needed could be found in the AUR repository, a feeling that doesn't exist on Android or Windows, and I later discovered that such an environment doesn't exist on Mac either. The convenience of being able to download any software from a powerful package manager is truly remarkable.

(Simple keyboard and messy desk)

"Land of the Lustrous" After Ten Thousand Years#

Some things are beautiful at first, but as you gradually lose them, you will increasingly miss their original form. This work constantly showcases this "gradual loss."

This volume contains chapters 89 to 98 of the manga. Between chapter 95 "Ceasefire" and chapter 96 "Ten Thousand Years," there was almost a two-year gap, from December 25, 2020, to June 24, 2022. As a result, I feel like I've been waiting for this book for ten thousand years; the plot from 2020 -> the volume was released in 2023 -> it took another six months to reach me. I ordered it out of habit from what I used to read, and I've almost forgotten why I liked it so much back then.

Works & Overall Ratings#

"Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas" - Singapore's Development is Definitely Not Accidental#

Recently, Lee Hsien Loong announced his intention to retire, so I picked up this book to read. For the first time, I gained such a deep understanding and judgment of various countries in the world; it was truly enlightening.

Reading this book is not tiring at all; I can read it in one go. I finally understand that I need to start with books that are easy to read; reading can have a good start, and then gradually increase the depth and breadth of reading. Otherwise, if everything is hard to digest, it might be very difficult for me to have a good start. This is also mentioned in the "Fogg Behavior Model."

Do your best and leave the rest to fate; many things that seem accidental to us are actually inevitable in the dark. For example, Singapore's development is definitely not accidental; it is the result of countless efforts by politicians like Lee Kuan Yew and his generation. Or, while some things are hard to guess whether they are accidental, there are things we can "do our best and leave the rest to fate." Some things are inevitable, and you can see that. Alternatively, it could be a high-probability event; you can't say that something is accidental and then not try to do it. The gambler's spirit in "No Game No Life" was a source of encouragement for me at that time.

Elitism and the de-welfarization of society are actually very correct things, in my opinion. China's state-owned enterprises are truly terrible. If Alibaba's software is considered difficult to use, then anything related to telecom operators is just too awful; IPTV makes me want to vomit. Software related to state-owned enterprises is exceptionally difficult to use; I really don't know if it's my bias.

Some people are mediocre, and I am one of those mediocre people. However, I believe that even mediocre people can achieve things that ordinary people cannot.

There are many subdivisions among welfare states, such as the differences between Nordic countries and other European countries. The lack of a lower limit for laziness is truly distressing. But I roughly understand that while companies can force people to leave, countries cannot force people to die; they can only refuse people, but once accepted as citizens, they cannot be expelled. Therefore, companies should not have a golden rice bowl system. People must work, but there should be a certain guarantee system to at least prevent chaos. I have found that some issues with the state are somewhat similar to those with companies.

PS. The above are just some random thoughts, not particularly organized. If possible, I will write a dedicated reflection later. Or in another form.

Miscellaneous Reading#

The '-' after each item is my thought, while the

contains quotes; this time it was generated using the Pinboard API and then fine-tuned.

• simonw/til: Today I Learned - Consider using this format to write TIL; pure markdown will suffice, and large code blocks and images can use external links. The key is to write each idea completely and not just fill space. Then publish it after reaching a certain score.
• Typing Practice - A typing service; I am now the slowest typist among all the developers in the company and often find myself looking at the keyboard, especially when I change my sitting posture or keyboard.
• Downloading videos should be "fair use" like recording songs from the radio | HN - I still don't understand whether this kind of downloading is illegal or how to say it.
• A university teacher decides to deliver takeout - Having spent years in the ivory tower, he wants to break free from confinement, arrogance, and superiority - takeout workers, in fact, belong to a downward spiral of life, unable to think, and spending all day doing inefficient things.
• How China's Great Firewall Detects and Blocks Completely Encrypted Traffic - The recent clash incident has sparked my interest in the mechanisms of the Great Firewall.
• You may have used the wrong dictionary « jsomers.net blog - A good dictionary can have such a significant impact; searching for a commonly used word in the dictionary can yield better and more elegant alternatives~~
• Using automated workflows to aggregate information intake and output | Reorx’s Forge - I optimized the Douban Telegram synchronization strategy.
• ✅ The Node.js best practices list (July 2023) - A series of best practices for Node.js; I have been doing Node development for so long but have never really gotten started, explosion💥.
• The 37% Rule - MBA 智库百科 - So you can't wait for love at first sight; if you like someone, confess; if you no longer like them, break up. Job hunting is the same.

  The 37% Rule comes from the book "The Beauty of Algorithms." It means that after mathematician Euler's experiment, using 37% as a dividing point, the first part of the time is used for observation, and the latter part is used for decision-making. For example, if you want to buy a house and there are 30 houses in the area, you need to first look at 37% of the houses, which is 11 houses. The houses seen before 37% should only be observed and not bought, but you should remember what you think the best one is like. After that, from 37% onward, you should only buy a house if you encounter one that is better than the best one you saw before.

• (Translation) Basic knowledge about Unicode that every software developer must know in 2023 | The Door to a New World - In the past two years, our team's awker has often been troubled by UTF-8 issues; the more primitive the tools used, the more one cannot ignore encoding issues.
• Is it meaningful to encrypt passwords when calling APIs on the front end? - Huli's blog - I have always been puzzled about why the API request headers of Alibaba Cloud AWS are so complicated to sign, while GitHub's is simply a token placed in the header. It turns out there are some design considerations.
• Command Line Interface Guidelines - A very good CLI design guide. I was surprised that it took me this long to consciously search for such tutorials. Clearly, I have been doing related development for two years now. Looking at it now feels more like a way to fill in the gaps.

Postscript - Difficult Emotions to Convey#

I am really not good at writing this kind of weekly journal because there is always a feeling of "no matter how I say it, I can't express it clearly." However, I think this is also a phase; if simple "happiness" or "pain" could express the emotions in our hearts, then there wouldn't be so many various forms of works in the world. Originally, I thought there was nothing much to write about this time, but flipping through my notes and photo albums from this period, I found that there were still many things happening over the past few weeks.

During this time, let's start by taking good care of ourselves. Despair can be countered with sleep + nutrition + exercise. Moreover, I have already thought about what I want to do at "that point in the future."

(I also changed my avatar as a basis for switching moods; I quite like characters with deep red hair and dead fish eyes, definitely not Makise Kurisu + Matoi Ryuko)