15. A Life Filled with Gratitude
When I was young, my family was not well off, and life was not going smoothly. Without financial support, the choices available to me became quite limited. Yet in such an environment, I still ...
When I was young, my family was not well off, and life was not going smoothly. Without financial support, the choices available to me became quite limited. Yet in such an environment, I still ...
This is a business strategy for creators such as artists, writers, musicians, and other creators. Kelly argues that creators do not need to become global superstars or have millions of followers; they only need a group of loyal supporters to sustainably make a living and keep creating.
Nassim, the author of *The Black Swan Effect*, once proposed a concept: things that seem completely impossible can happen at unexpected moments, and most of the time we cannot predict them, yet they can have an enormous impact. The best example is COVID-19 in 2020. Under the influence of the pandemic, people’s lives and work patterns were completely changed, and many shops shut down or went bankrupt because they could not hold on; it was not until 2023 that things began to improve.
In today’s fast-paced modern society, many people keep extending their working hours in pursuit of career success, overexerting their physical resources. This theme usually starts to appear around the age of thirty, mainly because that is about the age when the body begins to develop problems.
We really should have an honest conversation about imposter syndrome. In this post, I’ll share my own experiences and how I’ve worked through it.
Life is unfair
In today’s society, many people fall into a common misconception: that the time and effort they put into work should be directly proportional to their income. I was also trapped in this mindset early in my career.
However, seeing someone else live a harder, more miserable life does not seem to make things better for yourself. Many people stop at this stage of perception: when they see someone doing better than them or being more successful, they start blaming their own background and bad luck, give up early, and then blame the government and the environment for all their misfortunes. My experience over the past few years has taught me that although luck cannot be controlled, there are things we can do to increase the chances of good luck happening.
Ramen Profitable is a business model focused on maintaining stable income and continuous operation, without pursuing venture capital or rapid growth, but instead aiming to reach a level of profitability that can sustain one’s livelihood.
Even without the authority of the church, and despite appearing to be free, this kind of “geocentric” way of thinking is still everywhere.
"I used to often wonder: why is consulting, which costs more for an hour than an online class, still such a good business?
There are two profit models in the world. One follows the 20/80 rule, where the top 20% take 80% of the profits; the other offers high average returns, even if it does not reward only the most outstanding people. For decades, software development has belonged to the second model: you do not have to be extremely elite to earn a good salary. Fields like medicine and law share this same characteristic.
I’ve let myself off the hook. I want to tell everyone that I love you all, even though I’m not as good at expressing emotions as I imagined; I also want to tell you that I’m doing well (though I’m a little uneasy). Focusing my limited attention on these tiny, unremarkable things and feeling life with care may be far more important than the titles we chase in the workplace.
"I’ve been heavily affected by cheap dopamine — scrolling X, Threads, Instagram, and Shorts all at once, getting hooked before I knew it, and realizing that the time I spend doomscrolling has been growing more and more severe.
I chose to quit my job at 30 without lining up another one, and I’d like to talk about leaving a job, my thoughts on it, and some small stories from the workplace.