A Sentence That Changed My Outlook on Life

1. What I Cannot Create, I Do Not Understand

What I cannot create, I do not understand. – Feynman

Feynman believed that if you can’t create something, then you don’t truly understand it.

When I first entered the field of software development, I liked studying the “fundamentals.” That might mean the principles behind HTTP, Fourier transforms, singular value decomposition, the purpose and mechanism of CORS, and so on. This sentence also shaped the way I learn new knowledge: I try to understand the principles behind it.

Because of that, I also tend to admire engineers with a solid foundation more. For example, my former Dutch colleague, who often appears on my blog.

Three things left a particularly deep impression on me.

The first was during a hackathon at my previous company, where we chose an IoT-related topic—building a simple CO2 concentration monitoring application with Arduino. At the time, I bought a CO2 sensor that provided an Arduino SDK, so I planned to use it directly.

But he said that since we rarely get to play around in a hackathon, we should learn something from it instead of using ready-made kits for everything. Otherwise it would be basically the same as what we do every day—just calling APIs. I thought his perspective was excellent, so we looked up the sensor’s datasheet together and successfully communicated with the sensor according to its protocol.

The second was when he was writing tests related to form submission but didn’t know how to simulate a form request (multipart/form-data) and came to ask me. He said he knew a form was just a somewhat special HTTP request, but after using the library for ages he still couldn’t get it to work. I took a look and found that the form boundary hadn’t been set properly; after fixing that, it worked as expected.

一起理解 HTML 當中的 Form Data 表單在網頁中是相當常見的應用，不只能夠傳輸純文字，也能夠達到檔案上傳的功能。不過也因為 form 的行為跟其他傳輸方式較為不同，有時候也產生疑惑與誤解。 這篇文章試著從閱讀規範理解來龍去脈後，深入理解 form 背後到底做了哪些事情，以及表單與其他傳輸方式的不同之處，最後再提及 HTML 的 form 標籤背後做了哪些事情。 frontend

The third was when we were talking about our favorite YouTube channels, and he recommended Ben Eater to me. For anyone who likes studying how computers work, it’s practically a treasure trove of a channel. To explain how networks operate, he starts right from transmission-line signals (with an oscilloscope) and goes all the way up to the application layer; or he builds a simple 8-bit CPU from scratch on a breadboard.

I’ve noticed that in an age of ever-advancing AI, this ability has become increasingly rare. But I think no matter the era, it is a truly precious trait.

2. Think shallowly, look down on the world, don’t act only for self-preservation, and keep attacking even when you’re winning

Think shallowly, look down on the world, don’t act only for self-preservation, and keep attacking even when you’re winning

This line is spoken by the athlete Zaitsu in one of my favorite films, 100 Meters.

I’ve found that as I’ve grown older, I’ve become more and more afraid of making mistakes. For example, when I think about building a small service, I realize I’d have to handle deployment, database design, monitoring, and it all seems too troublesome, so I end up not writing a single line of code. Or when I want to try a new instrument, I think, I’m already out in the working world—no matter how much I learn, I probably won’t achieve much.

I even used to read some articles or posts whose content was relatively beginner-level and think to myself, “You still dare to show this off?”

As a beginner, it’s naturally hard to grasp everything, and you don’t even know what you don’t know. Only later did I realize that the truly ignorant one was me. Beginners don’t know what they don’t know, so they can act without baggage; the more I know, the more hesitant I become.

That kind of confidence—“Isn’t it just like this?”—is precisely a kind of courage that hasn’t yet been tamed by self-censorship.

What this sentence influenced most deeply is that I’ve become more willing to move forward even when things are imperfect and highly uncertain, such as when I quit my job at a big company, tried freelancing in Japan, and connected with people from different fields.

3. Rather Than Rule Over People, I’d Rather Help Them

I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone — if possible.

This is a line from Charlie Chaplin’s 1940 film The Great Dictator, spoken on stage by the Jewish barber, who is mistaken for the dictator Hynkel, in a speech to the crowd.

What’s funny is that I first came across this line in Kōtarō Isaka’s Modern Times. Kōtarō Isaka was a Japanese writer I really loved in college.

I think this sentence runs through my mindset from childhood to adulthood. When I was young, my family wasn’t well off. In middle school, I had no real skills to speak of, and studying wasn’t my strength either. I lived with a deep sense of inferiority, often seeking sympathy by flattering my classmates and wallowing in self-pity.

During my school years, I was deeply helped by many people. For example, the PX Mart welfare card, tuition reductions, the alumni association, classmates, and teachers all helped me so I could focus on my studies in a relatively stable environment.

Early in my career, I was also fortunate to meet a strong development team and capable managers. Not only was I able to sharpen my skills in a demanding yet reassuring environment, but some of the managers I worked with also became old friends, often giving me wise advice that opened my eyes when I was lost at work.

There are many similar ideas in other sentences that have deeply influenced me, but I’ve forgotten where they came from (I think Elon Musk mentioned it in an interview). He said we should strive for positive sum—that is, produce more than we consume—so that the world can become a better place.

Now that I have the ability to help others, I’m glad that the mindset I’ve followed has stayed exactly the same as before: rather than rule over people, I’d rather help them.