As I crossed the age of 30, I started realizing the importance of values and principles that how I approach things and problems. And I read the book “Principle” from Ray Dalio, I’d like to write the principles I follow, they’re subjected to change but I don’t see they’re changing anytime soon.
English first
I’ve been learning English for almost 20 years(most part of my life), it’s quite embarrassing for me to admit that there is still long way to go, I wasted most of the time in China learn and forget in class. I’m glad currently I’m in a English speaking environment which reminds me that I’m not enough every single day, I see my progress regarding to vocabulary, reading, listening ability, not much speaking and grammar perspective, I do think I can conquer them in my 30s.
I like English, I often amazed by the abundant and diverse information out there in English world(mainly online), it’s magnitude larger than Chinese or any other language. It’s essential for me to interact with people from different background and culture. I learn the western culture as well while learning English, I do see there is a big difference in “Western culture” vs Eastern Asian culture, it’s worth another post.
I cherish my Chinese heritage, but as I’m aspiring to be an entrepreneur and digital nomad, I know English is one of the essential skill for me. Another part is I ardently hate the censorship in China and CCP controlled internet(which is almost all Chinese community I can reach), the prevalence of distortion and manipulation is staggering, and most people I know have got used to it, I found it very detrimental, as we’re getting fed with continuously and unlimited information online everyday. I decided to distant myself from it.
I mostly only listen English music, only watch English movies / TV shows, read English written books. Sometimes I found myself hard to think about a Chinese word while talking with my Chinese friends, and I started reading Chinese writings slower than English, that’s the sacrifice I’m willing to take.
Sacrifice my Chinese fluency by putting English first.
Digital first
Software is eating up the world, and it’s just getting started.
I don’t remember where did I see this quote years ago, and it still holds true and will be like this for a while I think. I’m grateful that I took on this trip at very beginning of my career.
I try to have very minimum physical belongingness, as I keep moving around in my 20s, though in my 30s I would probably don’t move that much but I would still be the same, I just don’t have attachment in physical items. For example, I talked with some people they do agree e-books have insurmountable benefits over paper books, but they just like the feeling of reading on later, that’s fine, I don’t that feeling control me.
Digital first, physical second.
If you can’t fight them, join them. I will still be conservative though.
1000+ notes is just not manageable in phsycial.
Scale, matrix, ghost in the shell
Open and transparent
Anything worth doing worthy doing publicly.
Open to change/challenge, transparent: keep the progress/setbacks visible, no big blockbuster kind.
social media
I believe in open and transparency, in contrast to proprietary, exclusiveness, conspiracy, mystery etc.
I admire people has their public figure, product, I aspire to be like them.
As in software world, open source is undoubtedly overwhelmingly taking over the proprietary world, and it has been proven safe, secure, prosperity. I aspire to join and contribute a open source community.
Open source first.
There is no secrete shortcut
Do hard things
I first heard the concept from reading “Learn Python the hard way” and “Learn Vimscript the hard way”, I was mesmerized by the idea of “do things the hard way”. I knew I’m not very smart since young age, and I gradually realized being smart isn’t very necessary to be a great person, on the contrary, sometimes it becomes a burden. Those people I admire or look up to, they all have gone through very tough battles which made their story worthy telling, I’d like to be one of them.
Aim high and achieve middle.
I take pride in doing things hard and challenging, it’s very fulfilling.
I identify myself as a hardcore person, I like to conquer big challenges, something so hard people wouldn’t even consider it. On the contrary, I hate putting my efforts on things are easy. For example, when I was working on iOS App development full-time, it kills me when people say if doing iOS dev is easy, of course, that’s not 100% true, but it’s hard to deny it feels easier than something like cyber security, distributed system, architecture etc.
Stock market is hard, Skateboarding is hard, Ergodox keyboard is hard,
Things are so hard, people even not dare to think about it excites me the most.
I hate to do things easy, especially I put most of my efforts/emphasis on. For example, when I was working on iOS App development full-time, it kills me
I usually proud and feel fulfilled when I conquered something people would not even
Looking back my own history, I gained most experience, skills, knowledge and even friendship through doing hard things.
as I’m not very smart person in general, I admire hardworking spirit, and I believe hardworking is required for being exceptional. Looking back my own life experience, I got most fulfillment moment from the process of conquering hard issues, I gained the required skills, experience and friendship during those experience. For example, English, I put a lot deliberate efforts in it for years, I’m still far from my satisfying point, I know it’s difficult for an adult to master another language, and I know I would be proud of myself when I do.
Long term thinking
I like focus on long term for anything important, like career, investing, work out, health etc. Especially those things pay long term dividend in life, like reading, investing, writing etc.
If I don’t see myself doing it next 3-5 years, I don’t want bother to start.
I have always been a slow mover, I do things slow, how I get by edge is being consistent and direction adjustment.
Happy, Healthy and wealthy
I learned the concept from reading the book “psychology of money”, essential everyone is looking these 3 things in life, “happy, health and wealth”. I’m no exception, but I feel I need to constant remind myself about them.
I’m genuinely happy when I know what I’m doing, and I know where I’m heading towards, that I have control in my life. I want to do great things, I want to be admired, I’m working on it.
I’m pretty healthy in general.
I’m far from being wealthy. I think that’s normal for a person come from a humble beginning. I’m quite positive that I would be well off in the future if I just keep doing what I’m doing.