Suddenly I realized that compared to the beginning, the second review feels more difficult to start writing, without some sense of ritual in the content. Just imaging: after the bell rings, sitting there blankly and looking around, lamenting that this dullness is also part of the color of life.
July is already more than halfway through, I can’t say it was in a daze, but it wasn’t particularly positive either. The work routine sometimes blurs the pace of time, and when I come to my senses it’s already another weekend. I can’t say this feeling is very happy, because when I think about what I can do on the weekend, it seems casual. But when compared to those weekends when I have to adjust my schedule or work overtime, it seems to become happier.
I should actually look for some things that are worth “looking forward to weekends”.
Starting from Photography
My photography journey began when I got my first cellphone after finishing the college entrance exam. It was a BuBuGao music phone my mom bought me. Camera phones back then usually had around 3 megapixels, which was barely enough to take any decent photos. So during my first summer break in college, I spent a huge amount of money on a Panasonic digital camera. It was a grey import from Hong Kong that cost me around 1200 RMB, almost two to three months of living expenses at that time. That camera accompanied me through most of my college life. I brought it with me to many places like Northeast China, Sichuan, Guangdong, etc. I took a lot of random photos, though they were quite mediocre as I didn’t understand much about photography nor editing back then. Looking back now, those photos were nothing special. I guess I don’t have much talent for photography, but through the process I did pick up some basic knowledge about composition and lighting.
Later in my first year of graduate school, I upgraded to an Olympus M10 mirrorless camera that I still use today. I also got to know some classmates who were into photography and we would go out shooting together occasionally. During that time, I was passionate about photography. The image quality from my camera was clearly better than phone cameras, and I could get lots of likes posting photos on social media.
But slowly I realized that a good photo is defined by its ability to capture a fleeting moment and story, and overdoing stylized shots loses meaning after a while. Later on, as phone cameras became so advanced that they could handle most daily photography needs, I only brought out my M10 when traveling. Most of the time it just gathered dust, along with my mediocre photography skills. Over ten years have slipped by before I realized it. My promise to record these moments, after all, couldn’t keep up with the passage of time.
On Recording
Looking back on my photography journey, it has been a process of going from initial passion to gradual disillusionment. For me, discovering stories in life and capturing fleeting moments is not easy. Often I would take many photos, but in hindsight find none of them particularly special. Most fail to rekindle the resonance I felt when I pressed the shutter. After multiple such experiences, I started lowering my expectations and losing the urge to pick up my camera.
Regarding the meaning of photos, I can think of two things - recording beauty, and capturing emotions felt at the time. If a photo achieves neither, then I hope I can immerse myself in the present moment when taking it, and try to commit it to memory.
When I traveled on a shoestring budget in college, I always wanted to take more photos to document those experiences. But now I feel photography may not be the best medium for recording memories. On one hand, compared to other media like video, photos have limited capacity for information. They are confined to a single moment, so demand high storytelling value. On the other hand, photos “fade” over time and become blurred. When we press the shutter, we consciously layer many additional “colors” - surrounding scenes, moods, etc. But these details fade from memory, until we can no longer recall the context1.
However, even so, taking photos remains an important means of recording memories, thanks to its simplicity, convenience and shareability. I opened a Threads account last week and will try to keep up the habit of taking at least one photo every day.
From Recording to Time Travel
In fact, in addition to taking photos, I’ve also tried some other ways to record life, such as shooting a one-second video every day2, and then compiling them into a 5-minute-plus short film at the end of the year. It would be a highlight reel of the entire year. But in the end, I wasn’t able to stick with any of them.
As for why we should record our lives, I think everyone knows the answer. As Heraclitus said, “No man ever steps in the same river twice”. Time is one-directional, and we cannot return to the past. Of course, it’s not impossible if we want to go back, as long as we keep good records. If we can completely record the scene at that time, then when we look back, it also counts as a kind of “time travel”. A long time ago, I felt this might be the only way to time travel, it’s just that I thought cameras alone were not enough back then. But recently, with the release of Apple’s MR, this process seems to be getting easier and easier.
Back to Topic
I digressed a bit. Regarding the “looking forward to weekends” I mentioned at the beginning, I plan to go out with my M10 and wander the streets and corners of this city without any particular destination, capturing some light and shadow stories, when I have time later. I just happened to see some vloggers’ street sweeping diaries recently. Perhaps there’s no need to deliberately record things, simply pressing the shutter can lead to unexpected touching moments.
Xu Yun Stopped Cycling
One major news last week was that Bilibili cycling uploader Xu Yun stopped updating. Not long after entering Uzbekistan, he returned to China and announced that he would no longer cycle. I was quite shocked when I first saw this news, didn’t expect him to quit cycling so suddenly. I had followed him for quite a while, back when the Shanghai pandemic just started. One day I accidentally saw that he was preparing to cycle the Ali Middle Route, and at first I thought this guy was quite gutsy, cycling such a place alone in such harsh environments. So I started following him diligently. The Ali Middle Route was indeed difficult, and it coincided with the Shanghai lockdown, so I basically watched every episode. However, later when he cycled Sichuan and then Northeast China until now in Central Asia, I just watched casually without following too closely.
Regarding his stopping updating, I understand and respect his decision. After all he’s no longer like when he first started, without fans or popularity, unable to choose. And as he said, repeating the same thing too many times can make one lose passion and love for it. For me, apart from seeing those landscapes and experiences that I may never witness firsthand, more importantly it’s about understanding a person’s composure and resilience when facing the unknown. Perhaps one day I may also find this familiar feeling in myself.
Flow in Work
This is a concept I learned while listening to a podcast. I had also reflected on this phenomenon to some extent previously. It is mainly about the state of being fully immersed in work, and the sense of accomplishment it brings. This is like deep sleep during actual sleep - you can come across it but you cannot seek it deliberately.
It’s possible that previously I felt that achieving flow depended on whether I could optimize my own workflow to let everything run smoothly without interruption, leaning more towards self-reflection. However, after listening to the podcast, I feel that the organizational environment may determine the main factors. So, it’s natural that I started to reflect on my current company. In fact, just as the podcast mentioned, “In China, organizations that are truly thriving are very very few, most of them are rigidified, and rigidified organizations also lead to ‘people being suppressed at work’”. The podcast episode discussed around “organization, people, leadership” in three aspects. If interested, you can click the link to listen. But personally I don’t really like the host’s style.
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Haha, how should I put it, I just want to ask if anyone has seen a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner? What’s your impression of traditional Chinese medicine? I haven’t seen one before. If you have good experiences seeing one, feel free to share, and also recommend any good traditional Chinese medicine practitioners you’ve encountered. Why bring this up suddenly? It’s probably due to my inherent bias, but I thought it’s not right that I’ve never studied it yet let it bear my unwarranted bias, so I’ll find some books to read about it in the future.
The Inevitable Ramblings
This section will record some of my work and study progress this week, as well as list books and audio/video I’ve read/watched, fun stuff I bought, etc. The content will be more rambly.
Technical Learning
- Tried out the OAX4600 development environment and compilation, no issues
- Organized and uploaded some Git repos to the server
- Updated the Edge AI group share session for next Monday
- Wrote some documentation and updated the intranet Wiki
Writing and Output
Fun Stuff
Books and Media
Podcasts
- 不给我八字，怎么帮你看病啊！聊聊老中医的玄学、哲学，养生学
- 神秘客：当代社会的微服私访，商业市场的 007
- 就我这三瓜俩枣的，也需要像顶级富豪一样考虑财富传承？
- xAI vs OpenAI 背后，揭开马斯克和 Altman 竞逐硅谷「顶流」的隐秘战争
- 真正伟大的企业，应该努力减少消耗员工能量的事情
Videos
Movies
Investment and Fitness
- Completed 5 rowing machine workouts, total 104 minutes
- One 3.5 km outdoor run
- Stock returns last week -2.18%, underperforming the broader market at -1.98%
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