Preface#
2023 should be considered a relatively "mediocre" year in my life. The reason for its mediocrity is that I didn't experience much personal growth during this year. I lived a scattered, boring, and unproductive life. A blogger recommended newslabs' year in review template, which I found to be a great template. I will summarize the year based on its sections: Health & Fitness, Work & Business, Friends & Community, Personal Life & Family, Learning & Knowledge, Travel & Culture, Hobbies & Creativity, Emotions & Spirituality, and Money & Finances. This will serve as a reflection on the past year.
Health & Fitness#
My health this year should have declined a bit, although I didn't go for a physical examination. From January to March, I was quite disciplined. I used the Nintendo Switch for aerobic boxing exercises: I would exercise three to four days a week for about twenty to thirty minutes each time. At this time last year, I was mainly doing sit-ups, but I found it too boring, so I started doing aerobic boxing exercises. If anyone is interested, you can give it a try.
In April, the projects I had piled up, and with overtime work, I no longer dared to exercise (according to my unscientific analysis, if you exercise while sitting for long periods and working overtime, the risk of sudden death increases by several levels). So, my exercise routine was interrupted until September. In September, recommended by someone else, I started practicing Baduanjin. The reason I stopped using aerobic boxing was that every time I exercised, I used a portable screen, a very small screen. When I exercised, I was in the living room; after exercising and taking a shower, I would write code, articles, summaries, or watch dramas in the bedroom, which required me to unplug, tidy up the wires, and plug them back in... Although it was simple, it was also troublesome, so I switched to practicing Baduanjin.
Baduanjin is a good exercise for stretching or daily exercise. I practiced it for about a month and found something was not right: although I exercised, it seemed like nothing happened—despite exercising frequently, my weight did not decrease. Here's some background: during the time I didn't exercise (around April to August), because of overtime work, I gave up cooking, proving the famous formula: weight gain = work + takeout + lying down. After successfully proving this formula, I restarted exercising. Of course, I didn't exercise every day, about 3-4 times a week. However, the effect was not satisfactory because each time I exercised for more than 20 minutes, the calories burned were only about 170, far from achieving weight loss. I had no choice but to change direction: when you have been walking on a path for a long time and find that you are not getting closer to your goal, you need to consider the correctness of this path. I thought about it and decided to try a more intense exercise—Wing Chun. After exercising, I saw good results (I lost 1kg in about half a month, and I also started controlling my diet), so I started practicing Wing Chun. There is a tutorial on Bilibili that is quite good, and I followed it to practice. So, I recommend everyone to take a look. As for daily fitness, Baduanjin is also good, mainly because I'm short on time. :)
Work & Business#
Originally, I planned to switch from the mechanical industry to the software industry in March or April. Unfortunately, during that time, I was sent on a business trip, so I had many projects to handle. Although this is not an excuse, it really exhausted me mentally and physically.
This state continued until August. During this period, I interviewed with two software companies. One was a subsidiary of a company with a moderate size, and the interview felt average. The interviewer asked me which books I had read, and I mentioned the book "CSAPP." He said it was too old and not significant, and started blah blah blah. As a result, I developed a strong "bias." Professors from universities abroad still recommend that book, but he directly dismissed it, which created a serious "bias" in me. The second company was a small company, and I had a great conversation with their HR for about an hour. During the technical interview, they felt that my salary expectation was too high and hinted that if I didn't lower it, my chances would be slim. I declined. After that, I didn't actively search for software jobs anymore. I felt that I needed to accumulate more and my learning was not systematic enough.
In September, some headhunters contacted me for mechanical engineering positions, and I had a few conversations. Later (around the end of October), a state-owned enterprise interviewed me, and their supervisor thought I was a good fit, and the salary was acceptable, considering it was a second-tier city. However, in the end, I declined mainly because I wasn't particularly optimistic about their direction. Afterwards, the headhunter contacted me again, asking if I would reconsider because the department leader thought I was a good fit. In the end, I still declined.
I plan to take another look after the new year. After the new year, it will probably be my last attempt at software jobs. If I am not successful, I will treat it as a hobby. I hope I can succeed. God bless me.
Friends & Community#
One of my good colleagues left the company this year, mainly due to excessive pressure. In March, my junior came to visit Hefei. My senior and I got together and went to an arcade in the evening. The games at the arcade were okay, and we took turns shooting basketballs, pushing coins, and playing bullfighting... When it came to grabbing dolls, none of us were successful. It seems that Hefei doesn't have many fun places, at least not in the city center.
Mr. Tang has always been in Hefei, so we often get together. We mainly chat about various topics. We discuss future plans, such as pursuing a Ph.D. or taking civil service exams. We also talk about interesting things at work, but there is a sense of confusion about the future. At times like this, I often think of the painting "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" Sometimes it is important for a person to know where they are going. After starting work, I realized that I have been mechanically laboring in the mechanical industry, and sometimes it is really necessary to look up.
I get along well with my colleagues. Two colleagues left, but they are still in Hefei.
Personal Life & Family#
This year, I actually confessed to a girl, but unfortunately, I was rejected 😭. My family has been urging me to go on blind dates, and I got angry once, so they stopped mentioning it. I have always been averse to blind dates; I always find them strange: two strangers are brought together and then start talking about marriage. It's really hard to accept. The reason for this difficulty may be that I am not at the right age yet. Maybe when I reach a certain age, I will think it's okay. Previously, I often teased my senior and senior sister for being "at the right age." For a period of time, I carefully pondered what "at the right age" means and how to reach that age. After thinking about it, I instantly understood. Well, I'm still far from reaching that "right age."
Regarding marriage, I have never told anyone my views. My personal belief has always been: you need to meet someone you truly like, and then marriage will be okay. No one should be a "marriage machine" for certain beliefs, such as "carrying on the family line." Liking someone is an individual matter, and love requires the consent of both parties. Meeting the parents is equivalent to following the traditional Chinese "procedure." Of course, this may also be due to my immaturity and lack of understanding of love and marriage.
As for my family, everyone is doing well. On my dad's birthday, I bought him an electric shaver, and also bought him a new winter down jacket and other things.
I hope to encounter unexpected love next year.
Learning & Knowledge#
Let me briefly list what I learned this year. I didn't learn much, so it's a bit mediocre:
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Computer Networking (A Top-Down Approach, 7th Edition, James F. Kurose, Keith W. Ross) by Zheng He and Yang Jian from the University of Science and Technology of China
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Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment by Stevens Institute of Technology: I mainly read their lecture notes and took notes. See the image below for my notes.
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Operating System Concepts by [美] Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau / [美] Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau. It's a very easy-to-understand book, highly recommended. It provides a good understanding of the basic concepts, but if you want to go deeper, you need to read other books as well.
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Unix/Linux Programming Practice by [美] Bruce Molay. Overall, this book is quite good, at least for beginners like me. Just by reading the book and quietly coding, you can understand the usage of most common APIs.
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CS50’s Introduction to Programming with Python: I only have three more lectures and the homework left.
That's all I learned this year, so it was a failure. I didn't learn much, and I didn't connect the content together. I need to change in the new year. 💪
Travel & Culture#
- Travel: None. I need to change that in the new year.
- Culture - Reading: I read a few books, but not many (I calculated, it's not even one book per month, further proof of my unproductive year). Here are some of them, as a motivation for the coming year:
- Seven Weapons: The Longevity Sword by Gu Long
- Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by [美] Ashlee Vance
- Fragrant Sword Rain by Gu Long
- Animal Farm by [英] George Orwell
- Siddhartha by [德] Hermann Hesse
- Micro Dust by Chen Nianxi
- The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by [美] Tony Schwartz
- Culture - Speeches: Here are some speeches that I think are okay:
- 2023 Harvard Law School Graduation Speech by Yang Ziqiong
- TED Talk: How to Change Yourself in Two Years
- The Relationship Between the Masses, Intellectuals, and Officials in Modern and Contemporary Novels by Xu Zidong
- How to Make Learning as Addictive as Social Media by Luis Von Ahn
Hobbies & Creativity#
At the beginning of the year, I planned to learn one "useless" skill each month, but in the end, I only learned one skill: how to shake dice into a vertical position (it only took me about ten minutes). Let me list them briefly:
- Shaking Dice: I can currently shake three dice into a vertical position. It's not difficult, and it takes about ten minutes to learn.
- Building a Blog: I built my own blog, although I used someone else's template, it's very simple, but I still feel a small sense of accomplishment.
Emotions & Spirituality#
I was very depressed in the first half of the year, partly due to work and partly due to learning issues. The second half of the year was slightly better, probably due to exercise.
Money & Finances#
I keep track of my expenses, but it seems that I only record expenses and not income, so it seems like I only recorded my expenses for about three to four months. And the income is not much, so I'll briefly summarize it.
I should have recorded about 99% of my expenses, as long as they were more than one cent. This year, digital products cost me a lot, for the following reasons:
1. HP Laptop: My eight-year-old Lenovo motherboard burned out. If I repaired it, the unscrupulous manufacturer would charge me 300 or 400, can you believe it? So I decided to replace it, which cost me 8,000 yuan.
2. iPhone 15PMAX: Because my Xiaomi 10s had a system failure after using it for two years, I had no choice but to switch to an iPhone, which cost me 12,000 yuan. It hurts.
Other expenses should be normal. The reason why dining and ingredients are a bit expensive is that in the second half of the year, I gave up cooking and takeout is too expensive, which also made me gain weight 🤡.
I ate a lot of snacks this year, mainly because of my decadence and watching dramas frequently. Magji chicken is another reason for gaining weight.
Most of the money spent on socializing was for buying things for my family and treating my classmates to meals. Other expenses were normal.
That's how 2023 went, a year of decadence. Goodbye.
Hello, 2024 🤟.