This is a record of Raye's life and thoughts from August 7th to August 13th, 2023.
This is the eleventh weekly report, and I can also start thinking about why I write weekly reports.
In fact, I can also ask the question, why do I write blogs?
This question is easy to answer, many people have given answers, and here is a simple answer:
This is the meeting of Internet people through words, it is a romance unique to our hearts.
I used to like Dong Qing's program "The Reader". Truly, letters should be read out, without reading, there is no feeling.
When we meet again, there is no need for pen and paper, just pass the message to you for safety.
It can be seen that pen and paper record the message, and language only has vitality when it is read out.
So why write weekly reports? I really like a sentence from Lao Jiang:
Memories are made up of those unimportant things, that is, the friends we have met, the food we have eaten, the cities and streets we have been to, and those weekends and nights that are meaningless but full of fun. It is these shining and unnecessary things that fill the memory palace built by major events.
But this passage is too arbitrary. Why must memories be made up of unimportant things?
Although talking about work may seem cliché, I think that every day of life can be filled with your reading, exercise, and recording. Although these times may only account for less than 20% of the 24 hours in a day, you are happy in them.
Actually, why bother pursuing these things? Who we have met, what we have eaten, where we have been, these are all carriers, preludes, and objects of memories.
Why can't a person step into the same river twice?
Because I think, therefore I am. My thoughts at any moment make up the unique me, because I know that this is what I think, it is a world in my mind that I imagine, it is a starry sky that I depict, it is a domain where I roam freely.
So, I will quickly record any thoughts at different times, mark them with #Weekly Report, and give myself a chance to return to this world, pick fruits on Sunday; return to this starry sky, sail upstream; and delve into this field, freely roam.
This is the preface of this week's weekly report.
📝 Guangzhou Record#
This week, on Wednesday, I went to Guangzhou on a business trip with my colleagues. Actually, it was not a meeting, but a celebration of achieving a small business goal, haha. There was no doubt that we had to drink at night. This may be the first time I got so drunk, and I vomited on the way back to the hotel (mainly because I mixed Baijiu, grape wine, and red wine together).
I also have many insights myself. I have been with the team for more than two years, and I haven't made any major contributions, but I still have some small achievements. And in the second half of the year, I have set a fixed goal with my leader, so I took the opportunity to talk to my boss about what I need to do in the second half of the year to show results (Boss: Don't come over, haha).
During that time, I was with my mentor and leader, encouraging each other, and we are determined to work hard in the second half of the year. At that time, I suddenly thought of the saying from Zhuangzi, "Even if there are thousands of people, I will go." I blurted it out, and it was like making a military order in front of my leader, haha.
At night, my colleagues dragged me back to the hotel (I was really only left with a little consciousness), although it was only a little after 10 o'clock, I washed up and went to bed without having a chance to appreciate the night view of the Pearl River~.
But I woke up at 5 or 6 in the morning (because my biological clock only allows me to sleep for 7 hours), and I still felt a little unsteady when I got up and walked. But I recovered quite a bit. The hotel we stayed in had a large floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the Pearl River and enjoying the morning in Guangzhou (Have you ever seen Guangzhou at 5 am? I have, haha).
But this hotel only has the river view that attracts people. The actual experience is quite disappointing, for example:
- There are no sockets on the bedside table, so I was really worried that you would play with your phone in bed.
- There is no comb for one-time use in the morning.
- The overall feeling of the room is not very new, and the cleanliness is average.
- The breakfast is okay, nothing special.
The feeling it gave me is not as good as the Yitel Hotel I stayed in when I went out to compete during college, haha.
Last week, I recalled my life in Shenzhen in the weekly report, and also recorded my memories of Guangzhou. The first time I came to Guangzhou was when I was an intern and came to a meeting with my mentor. I met some classmates who were working in Guangzhou and experienced the humid weather in Guangzhou and the cafeteria at the headquarters.
Regarding the weather in Guangzhou, I think Ma Qinwang described it best, as excerpted below:
The climate in Guangzhou is hot, and it is similar to Chang'an in May or June. When Li Shande entered the city, he felt sweat all over his body, as if ants were attached to him. Especially the circle around his neck, the round collar was soaked in sweat, and it was folded inward, and it would hurt when it moved slightly.
The scenery in Guangzhou is different from Chang'an. The walls are covered with vines, coconut trees stand beside the houses, and banyan trees extend from the walls. If there is any vacant space on both sides of the street, it is covered with kapok flowers, Bauhinia flowers, gardenia flowers, tea plum flowers, and various unnamed flowers. There is almost no gap, and almost half of the city is submerged by flowers and plants.
Later, when the internship was about to end, I came to Guangzhou alone for the defense. I went on the same day and returned on the same day, with a journey of nearly 5 hours. At that time, I was a bit sad and worried, afraid that the defense would not pass and I would not be able to stay. Looking at the lights on the highway, I counted the trees that left me one by one, and I realized that I only had one year left in my college life, and I was about to enter society.
The result was naturally very good. After passing the defense, I stayed. Except for a visit to Guangzhou with my classmates during the slightly relaxed period of the epidemic, I have had very little interaction with Guangzhou since then (I couldn't buy a high-speed rail ticket back to Shenzhen that night, so I called the former leader in Guangzhou and stayed overnight, haha). Later, the epidemic became more serious, so I basically didn't come here.
Those gradually lost memories slowly came back in this journey, so I recorded them as follows, as a keepsake.
💭 Thoughts & Miscellaneous#
xLogger#
I posted a tweet to commemorate the first time my number of followers as xLogger exceeded one hundred.
It is regrettable that I have written very few technical articles. They are mainly concentrated in the weekly reports. But this is because I am very particular about technical articles. When I write them, I repeatedly ask myself if I have understood this point. If it is a point that I haven't understood, I usually have to understand it before I can proceed.
I am also very happy that my article, "Building a Personalized Digital Diary: Implementing Information Aggregation with Automated Workflows," has helped many people.
I also plan to write the following articles. I have already set the flags and created the folders, so don't worry, haha.
"Supplement to Automated Workflows" - Recording some issues with automated workflows for future reference.
"Why I Use Ulysses for Writing" - Ulysses has become my main writing tool, and I plan to recommend it to more people.
"A Partial Guide to Using Raycast" - I am currently developing my own plugins for Raycast, which is also my main productivity tool.
"JS, V8, Browsers, and Memory" - I haven't decided on the title yet, but it mainly introduces the memory aspect of JS.
Recently, I have also become familiar with the code of xlog, and there is a need to pin comments, so I plan to implement it and submit a pull request (I feel like pinned comments are a must-have feature).
Thoughts on Web3#
As a fan of DIYgod (crossed out 🐶), I listened to a podcast he participated in this week: "No.28: DIYgod Talks About Blockchain, Blogging Platforms, Front-end Learning, and Life Insights with Xiaoyuzhou" (although the host has a heavy accent, it doesn't affect my learning of technology!).
So I also thought about it:
In the Web 2.0 era, platforms like Zhihu stored articles on servers because, at the beginning, the cost of maintaining servers was greater than the value generated by users? (This statement may not be correct)
But fundamentally, as the platform's user base accumulates and the scale effect and traffic expand, the value generated by users is actually far greater than the cost of maintaining servers (such as those KOLs). At this time, the platform's supervision often harms the interests of creators.
Web3 solves this problem. Web3 believes that the value generated by users is paramount and cannot rely on third parties for storage, so it needs to be decentralized. In order to achieve this goal, hash signatures need to be calculated, so users need to pay (of course, on xlog, you can receive basic income).
Combining the above arguments, there are many reasons why Web3 has not been widely used, and one of them is:
Many people think that if the platform is willing to give me traffic for what I write, I should be grateful. Why should I bother with Web3?
This is actually a bit of a kneeling for too long and not knowing how to stand up. Never underestimate your own value.
📺 TV Shows & 📖 Reading & 🎧 Music#
This week, I watched the Taiwanese drama "The Defender of the Eight-Foot Gate" intensively. As someone who rarely watches Taiwanese dramas, I deepened my understanding of Taiwan through this drama.
When it comes to Taiwan, I'm afraid many people, like me, only know about the "1992 Consensus," Taiwan independence, Tsai Ing-wen, and "since ancient times," and so on.
This is the sad part. Since Taiwan is an integral part of China, why do we know so little about modern Taiwan? I think this is a problem that education needs to reflect on.
In this drama, I saw how the administrative system in Taiwan works, learned about the fishing industry, which is the economic pillar of Taiwan, and learned about the indigenous people of Taiwan. Of course, the dark side it revealed is a bit beyond my understanding. Actually, when I saw the introduction of this drama, I knew that it would be a tragic hero story, and the power struggles on and off the stage, the visible and invisible operations, are presented vividly in this drama. Yes, with the power of one person, it is ultimately a story of a mantis trying to stop a chariot. Even if there is the "Even if there are thousands of people, I will go" spirit of Lingyunzhi, it will eventually be grounded in reality.
Another book I really liked this week is "The Great Han Empire in Bashu." In short, the highlight of this book is to look at war from a political perspective, after all,
All wars are the continuation of politics.
This book has many interesting discussions, as excerpted below:
When talking about the "Longzhong Dialogue," the author believes that it is a military concept and does not have rigorous political analysis. But his military analysis has indeed been partially verified, such as the flooding of the enemy's troops and the shock it caused. If these two aspects could really be combined, history might have witnessed another famous battle of the weak defeating the strong, and Longzhong would have become another model of achieving imperial ambitions.
When Zhuge Liang analyzed the situation, his analysis and judgment of the major forces were very clear and insightful. However, Zhuge Liang mainly analyzed the military situation, especially the military geography, rather than the political situation. Correspondingly, Zhuge Liang proposed a military strategic concept.
If the soul of military strategy is political guidance, then the soul of political-level strategy is the moral appeal of "the world for all" and the value demands of distinguishing right from wrong. "Longzhong Dialogue" lacks political analysis throughout, and there is no value judgment, so it lacks political positioning and political guidance. As a set of grand strategic concepts, without political guidance, it lacks a soul.
When talking about the Battle of Yiling, the author also sighed at Liu Bei's political acumen. Whether from the perspective of that time or afterwards, there is nothing wrong with this point. But the most lovable and most human aspect of Liu Bei's regime lies in the fact that they did not have political acumen, they were really brothers, and they had brotherly love. The reason why this regime is often lamented is precisely because its most lovable aspect lies here.
When Liu Bei launched an expedition to the east to punish Sun Quan, it only stopped at punishing Sun Quan for killing Guan Yu and seizing Jingzhou. This greatly reduced the political level of the war against Wu.
Finally, this song, I really like it, haha~
📮 Newsletter#
From now on, all my records will be automatically synchronized to my personal channel, https://t.me/RayeJourney
But I will also excerpt some and put them on my blog:
- "No.28: DIYgod Talks About Blockchain, Blogging Platforms, Front-end Learning, and Life Insights with Xiaoyuzhou"
- "Night Climbing Mount Tai to Watch the Sunrise"
- "Why Do We Need an 'About' Page?"
- "Understanding Runtime and Compile Time in Front-end Frameworks"
- "What It's Like to Cast Your First Vote"
- "What Happened to the Paper Clip After Its Disbandment?"
- "There Will Be No Victory in 'Zero COVID,' Everyone Is a Loser"
- "Young People Swimming Naked in Septic Tanks"
- "The Education Model of Chinese-style Parents: Threatening Children"
