To be an adventurist

Intrigue

I have been reading the book “Principle” written by Ray Dalio for few months, I really like this guy and the way he thinks about things. There is one excerpt impressed me, Ray sent his then 11 yo son Matt to China for one year, when the time China didn’t even have unlimited hot water at night, Ray likes China, he thought China has a huge potential, he wanted to have some connection with China, of course he provided his son with safety and basic needs. Somebody might think that’s selfish or cruel, but I think that’s a brilliant idea. I grew up in China and just moved to US few years ago, living in total different society and culture really teaches me a lot, I can’t help thinking what if I could’ve lived in a totally different culture for few years besides China, that would be interesting and inspiring, for example, Japan, yeah, I might send my kid to Japan for 1 or 2 years if I could have the chance. This excerpt reminds me Jeff Bezos once mentioned in an interview, “He’d rather his kids lost one figure but being resourceful”, that’s why he gave his kids to use knife when they were really young. I think that’s bold, and I like it.

Looking back my own experience

I’ve played roller skating for years, I enjoyed it. This sport was very popular in China, special between kids and teenagers. For people really seriously play, there are two paths to level up. One is freestyle slalom which play tricks around some small cones, it requires tons of skills and practices, those tricks are amazing, some of them might look unbelievable which usually make audience dazzled. Another path is freestyle braking or sliding, I don’t really know the technical term. This one is just braking abruptly with some freestyle tricks while you’re in a high speed. It’s more like stunt, the tricks in freestyle braking usually makes bystanders feel nervous or breathtaking instead of excited. Because bad luck and happens the player can get insured severely, I’ve got a friend broke his hand just in front of me. And I chose this path. I liked it so much, I specially enjoy the breathtaking moment, you either nail it or screw it, it’s very simple format in those stunts, but it requires a strong determination while you stick on it. I spent most majority time playing the freestyle braking, I’ve fell thousands of times, luckily I haven’t got hurt seriously yet.

What I’m doing now

I’ve always asked myself, what do I really enjoy while doing those tricks while taking the risk. Well, first of all, I don’t think that risk is totally out of my control, actually we can control most majority part more than normal people think, and there is a huge maneuverable gap between fall alright vs fall unprotected, just outsider can’t grasp the split second.

I treated this kind of exercise as practice of my willpower and focus ability. I think part of reason is this just part of my nature, like dogs needs run out every day to have some exercise which make them happy, I need to take some risk, solve some uncertainty to let me release some adrenaline, let me feel alive.

The same as I was riding motorcycle on commute before the pandemic happens, I really enjoyed the adrenaline spike on the motorcycle. Unlike driving a car which usually pretty relax, hitting a freeway with motorcycle is very much like an adventure. You’re the most vulnerable object on the road, you gotta to be serious, you gotta to be aggressive because you are often got ignored which can be catastrophic.

Looking forward

As these kind of exercise or sports they are just my personal plays, I’d like to have meaningful fight in adventure in the real world, hopefully benefit the society. How am I gonna do that, well, I think the best for me would be either pioneer an new area or project in a stable company like Walmart or ideally start my own business. As an engineer, I like to solve problem, special solve problem in a engineering way, there are so many problems in our society, I’d like to help people kill a few if I have a chance. As one wish Ray Dalio in the book “Principle” have mentioned, “I hope you struggle well”, yeah, look back my life experience, I made most of friends during work, most of my enjoyable moments through work on difficult project in difficult times, either I made it or I failed, I become stronger than before. I will try to myself more meaningful struggle and fight them through.

Thanks you!