“Listen and Watch” - Belonging to Myself
This week, I’m sharing Singaporean singer Zhang Yuhua. Her voice is so beautiful, pleasant, and delicate. In this era that pursues diversity, we should also listen to older songs. I recommend her 2002 self-titled album.
The Staged Feelings of Agricultural Entrepreneurship in Africa#
The superficial aspects of the industry, income, job level, and the social recognition and status they bring, as well as the practical industry skills and experiences learned, are all gains from a job. However, these are merely surface and mid-level gains.
The real deep gain is that a career serves to “become a higher-level self that is true to one’s heart.” It may seem like I am doing dirty and tiring work for the company every day, but who can help bring about the possibility of “a little structural improvement for people, society, and the environment”? It is this job.
Perhaps most of the voices we hear daily are complaints and aversions to work. But if we turn it around and truly embrace our work with a unified mind and action, what kind of feelings would arise? This article shares a perspective, and of course, my intention is not to preach understanding of capitalists, as it is indeed hard to find someone who resonates completely with oneself, and a job that fits perfectly is also rare :)
Notes on the Book “Self-Control”#
“Feeling very tired” is a subjective feeling, an emotion. When an athlete's body first wants to give up, it is actually far from the physical limit. But how to soothe the “very tired” emotion and complete the task at hand can rely on imagining success.
The human brain is truly amazing. To avoid consuming energy, it can emit signals based on illusions to make us stop; this is a survival instinct. Understanding this awareness helps us make better and clearer choices. If our goal is to not stop, then we must overcome it, and the reverse is also true.
Xlog#
After seeing Cali's blog post, I found an instant search for a friend’s Xlog introduction and registration tutorial, which is an open-source blogging community in web3. It allows the same use of Markdown for publishing, and you can also see the blog content of registered users and follow them. It’s quite nice. This week, I’m considering whether to learn the technical big shot Cali's personal blog setup tutorial or just continue using hashnode. In any case, I find that I enjoy tinkering with blogging.
Pokemon Sleep#
Pokémon is really amazing! You can play games while sleeping, gaining experience points and various Pokémon based on actual sleep duration. It can also track sleep quality and details; just open it and place it next to your pillow before sleeping. For Pokémon fans, the feeling of sleeping with Pokémon is quite wonderful.
Speechless Weibo Backup#
A small method to back up your Weibo information, using the Speechless plugin in Chrome, which can automatically read and export PDF format files. There is also “Stable Tribe,” an open-source software that requires downloading a client, available here: https://www.yaozeyuan.online/stablog. The downside may be that both the Speechless plugin and “Stable Tribe” have poor formatting, and the export format is only PDF, which is inconvenient for later organization.
I started backing up occasionally last year to prevent losing my account, which I have used for nearly ten years, in case Weibo gets banned. It’s also a way to prevent losing a complete picture of my personal identity.
Auto Tab Mute#
When opening multiple video or audio pages in the browser, a pain point is that all the tabs will play simultaneously, and you have to click the mute function on each page, which is quite cumbersome. This Chrome extension automatically mutes other pages, only allowing sound to play on the current page, making it very smooth. Don’t be fooled by the average icon design; it’s very practical.
Support xBrowserSync!#
A multi-browser bookmark synchronization plugin, its advantage is that it is easy to use. After some initial setup, it will automatically sync without further intervention. The downside is that you need to manually back up data locally from time to time to prevent loss. I have also tried many synchronization plugins before, such as floccus bookmarks sync, which is also very good. The benefit is that it can use Nutstore for synchronization, so you don’t have to worry about data loss. The downside is that the initial setup requires finding a tutorial, and there may occasionally be issues with duplicate bookmark backups that need to be manually deleted.
Perplexity AI#
I used Perplexity AI a long time ago, but after downloading the app and finding that it couldn’t be used for questions in Chinese, I gave up. This week, after seeing a recent introduction article, I discovered that it can be an upgraded version of ChatGPT and Bing AI. Perplexity AI is a conversational search engine that can generate summaries and overviews of search results for questions and cite source websites. Compared to ChatGPT, it can connect to the internet, and compared to Bing AI, it provides more details. However, due to the quality issues of information on Chinese websites, one method is to ask questions in English and then use other software to translate them into Chinese for viewing.
Several Use Cases of Claude 2.0#
Last week, one of the hot topics in the AI community was the release of Claude 2, so I’m sharing a technique to improve efficiency by combining multiple tools: using audio/video-to-text tools to export txt or pdf, and then giving it to Claude, which is more friendly to Chinese, for summarization and dialogue, yielding good results. I thought of the memo I recommended earlier, which can serve as a local tool for converting audio and video to text, combined with Claude, for daily interests like small universe podcasts or YouTube videos.
Chang'an 30,000 Miles#
On Saturday, I went to see Chang'an 30,000 Miles. The picture shows adults and children taking photos after the movie ends. Throughout the movie, whenever I thought of Li Bai's poetry, I would get a stuffy nose and tear up. I believe only Chinese people, those who have Chinese culture flowing in their blood, can feel the poetic power in this film. The Anshi Rebellion was a turning point for the Tang Dynasty's fortunes, and it is said that one-third of the people perished in this rebellion, and Chang'an city also suffered from the flames of war. But as Gao Shi says at the end of the movie, as long as poetry exists, and books exist, Chang'an will remain.
Season 7 Episode 10 of “Thirteen Invitations”#
This episode is my favorite of Season 7. Li Jingliang is a real and charming person. His tone and pauses in speech blend with his experiences. When Xu Zhiyuan enters a completely unfamiliar world, he goes from confusion to gradually being led, and finally, he is in the fields of Li Jingliang's hometown, feeling everything under the sun with bare arms. It’s a very touching experience.
- Xu Yun is No Longer Wandering
I have been following the cycling UP master “Xu Yun Wandering China,” and I was very angry when he stopped updating cycling videos. I was angry that I could no longer see his videos on the road and that he hadn’t completed his goal of reaching Iceland. But then I understood him; someone who gradually loses their passion for travel needs a toothache as an opportunity.
I’ve forgotten how many years ago I started following him and watching his videos. Initially, in 2019, I saw a Bilibili account called “Traveling with Youth,” by an UP master named Shouhou, and I began to like this kind of authentic travel life recording. Later, I came across Xu Yun and was moved by the resilient and optimistic mindset he conveyed in his videos. Over time, I noticed how he patiently and obsessively cleaned every abandoned house he stayed in for over two hours each night, neatly organizing his luggage, and he could eloquently talk about the culture and history of every place he visited, which kept me watching. Although many people film travel life, he is someone who rides for himself from start to finish, and I admire him greatly. So I understand his decision to change if he feels he has lost his passion!
I also believe that when he updates videos about rural life in the future, he will still carry the spirit of being on the road. An unsettled Xu Yun, who seeks his heart, will always make different choices.
- Had a Chat with the Official Miss of Poki
Since I have been updating my weekly journal on Poki, I didn’t expect to be added by the official Poki account. I had a pleasant chat with the lady, learning about my experience and suggestions regarding creating weekly journals on Poki. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the team is all part-time and still able to create such great work. Truly impressive 👍.
It was also another opportunity to sort out the reasons for recording and writing my weekly journal. In high school, I really liked the slogan of Zhihu at that time: “Discover a Bigger World.” The active shares from people like Cai Tong, Liang Bianyao, Xie Xiongmao Jun, Mingxi, etc., had a significant impact on me as a high school student just getting into the internet. I even downloaded all their answer compilations to review and take notes. At that time, I also began to cultivate the habit of writing diaries, monthly records, and notes, and I enjoyed using my sister's Lenovo laptop every weekend to discover various things online. Even after starting work in the internet industry, I still browse daily. When I first started writing weekly journals, I saw the newsletter format and thought that since I had “scraped” a lot of interesting information, I could also try to organize it to deepen my memory. After organizing, I wanted to share it, so I found Poki and saw the blogging site. Although my writing skills are poor and my logic and experiences are sometimes shallow, I really enjoy this process of continuous discovery. It coincidentally aligns with what friends One Siri and Zhang Xiaoji said, that cultivating vision and sincerely sticking to oneself is very valuable.
- Monthly Call with a Friend
On Thursday, I had a phone call with a friend, which lasted about an hour as usual. This time we mainly talked about his work situation after graduating and working at a car company in Shanghai for nearly two to three weeks. I could feel his excitement and strong desire to learn as he just entered the workplace. The company environment and departmental atmosphere are also quite good. During the conversation, I reminisced about the last time he graduated when I wrote a note: “It turns out that when you are eagerly waiting for something to arrive, time passes the slowest, and at the moment when the anticipated event truly happens, time disappears like an arrow released from a bow.” The first two years of work are the fastest for progress, and I hope he can steadily move forward and achieve his small goals 🎯.
The picture shows the distant trees he sent me while I was editing my weekly journal, capturing some lush scenes from the south.
That’s all. Thank you for reading. If you like it, feel free to subscribe or share it with other friends to let more people see it. You can also find me in these places to discuss thoughts on efficiency, work, and life:
Jike: @Yan Guanglin
Email: [email protected]
Of course, likes and comments for encouragement are always welcome.