Overview
Two years into the obnoxious pandemic, I’ve got so used to WFH. Though I still struggle to figure out eating every day, but I don’t think we’d ever go back to office on daily basis. A brand new work/life style is opening to us, I’m so excited to see what would happen, I’ve always dreamed to be a digital nomad.
I moved out of Bay Area in July, after staying there for 4 years, there are many happy and bitter memories, and I would probably forget them soon. I left quietly, no fuss. I will go back when I feel like to, it’s not a big deal.
I finally transferred myself into Backend job position, I think I made the right decision, I never looked back, nor open the shitty clumsy Xcode đ . I could finally use my favorite Vim editor to do my job, nothing makes me happier than this.
I spent most majority of my spare time this year in learning investing, there are so much hypes and excitement in stock & crypto market 24/7, I learned a lot. But my portfolio has been drastically underperforming S&P or QQQ index almost the whole year(peaked in Feb), it sucks! But I’m grateful that I got the blow early on in my investing journey, otherwise I’d be cocky and get over myself easily, the setback doesn’t really damp my enthusiasm, I know I’m just starting out and I would catch up eventually. I enjoy doing it, not only for the return/result, that’s the most important thing.
I spent 1+ hour on average every day learning English on daily basis, mostly on expanding my vocabulary using spaced repetition, in my repo. I’ve get very comfortable with it, I used the practice 5+ years, though it’s slow and I don’t see it get done any time soon, but it’s the best way I could figure out at this moment.
Looking back the last year, it’s very much transformative, I’m very happy about it. I settled 3 anchors for my life for the foreseeable years: Backend(Infra, security), investing(stock, crypto, Real Estate) and English(reading, speaking).
Though I spent way too much time on stock market than anything else, way less time in BE learning-close to 0, it’s a colossal mistake. At current stage of my life and foreseeable years, my primary income, social interaction, sense of safety, belongingness come from my work, and I suck at it, it agonizes me everyday.
Career â
Vim/tmux setup for backend development
I spent a decent amount of time setting up my dev environment in terminal, Vim & Tmux, they’re awesome! I’m so glad that I committed to them while there is nobody around me on my side, it makes me feel a bit lonely, but I have a big online community, and they’re huge! I’m proud of myself for my commitment and advancement, I’m still very green in those online communities, I need to work on it.
Post: Setup Vim as a full-fledged IDE, TBD.
Node.js, Devops in backend getting started
The journey of transferring into backend isn’t easy, especially I’m in platform team which mainly on Infra & security, it’s very challenging. There are tons of stuff I need to learn, and I need to learn on the go, I got lost all the time. I appreciate my company and my manager and my teammates gave me the chance to learn, the impostor syndrome haunts me every work day. I’m sure I would get better next year.
Post: 1 year into Backend, TBD
Learning â
Vim
Learning Vim is a life long journey, the more I learn the more I feel I’m just getting started. I finished another book “Mastering Vim quickly”, it’s quite easy for me to read, I learn most of those tricks & concepts here and there in internet over the years.
Post: I use Vim everywhere, TBD
Stock market psychology, Options basics
Finished most part of Meetkevin’s “stock & psychology of money” course, Investopedia’s stock option basics, and I spent huge amount of time reading Motley Fool and Investopedia’s newsletter. Watched įžæå almost all the video on Youtube. I like them so much from bottom of my heart, I like to be in the market, I like to trade/bet base on my knowledge, looking at the world/society through investor’s lens makes me feel so good. I feel I’m more engaged in the society and economy.
Post: 1 year into stock market, TBD
English (Reading, speaking, writing)
I’m an old hand learning English, I’m fully convinced that vocabulary is my primary roadblock for blending into American society and my career advancement. I read/memorize those words every morning, night, weekend or whenever I got some free time.
Almost a decade ago I found Eudic, I have been a happy customer ever since. This year I found Anki, it’s pretty awesome and it’s got huge extensibility and vibrant community, I’m sparing some of job from Eudic to Anki.
Post: Repeating 20 times for every new word, TBD
Health â
Neck issue
My neck pain still bothers me every now and then, whenever I got stressed out on desk, I’d fall into bad posture and be paralyzed the next day. Hope I could get over it.
Post: How I conquer my stiff neck problem, TBD
workout
I do home workout most of time these days, mainly push up and pull resistance bands, I use Reventure balance board to do indoor balance practice when I can not go out stating.
I found this thing called “Contrast shower”, it’s very interesting, it’s so easy, fun and fulfilling. I feel so much energetic/refreshed coming out of shower room every time, I’m glad I find another practice I can do in my lifetime.
Life / Relationship â
Life đ¤
N/A
Dating
I finally started dating after being single for years, it’s still weird to me spending too much time with somebody but my computer.
Friends/family
N/A