Year In Review for 2024

As the year draws to a close, it feels much like any other. I spent the festive season at home, indulging in おせち, watching the Red and White Song Battle, and reflecting on a splendid 2024. I'd like to use the seven questions mentioned in Good Chords to review my year and look forward to 2025.

1. Highlights of the Past Year

• In January, I went home to vote and hit the gym with my brother and friends.
• February introduced me to the masterpiece game Terraria. I fell in love with its music, style, and gameplay (even though I got slightly addicted).
• In March, I began contemplating buying a house in Japan and decided to go for it after three weeks of house-hunting.
  • For 10 million Taiwanese dollars, I could get a brand-new, two-story house about 30 minutes from the city center.
• By the end of April, the house was ready, and it was a dream come true. Living here has been wonderful.
• In July, I took a 10-day Refresh vacation from work to explore Tokyo, where I bought my first-ever electric guitar in Ochanomizu. I focused more on playing music than memorizing scores.
• Started writing about quantitative trading in Japanese stocks in March, ending the year with around a 15% gain. The challenging parts were data collection and cleaning, rather than strategy development.
• In October, the idea of quitting my job surfaced, and meeting with Twitter friends turned out to be the best decision I made in 2024. I met a group of warm and energetic people.
• Hosted a life design reading group in October and met a new circle of friends, sharing life plans with each other.
• In November and December, I produced various articles, including retrospectives on my career and travel experiences in Japan.
• Worked on a new project with friends, which will be announced soon.
• Met Yuan, the founder of Zeabur, over tweets and had shabu-shabu together in Fukuoka.
• Saw a post on Threads and reached out for a collaboration, resulting in meeting a seriously committed individual for dinner and idea exchange.
• Started my own business.
• The major highlight was quitting my job. Posting on LinkedIn introduced me to various interesting people and even led to collaborations.

This year was filled with bright moments, with a lot of writing technical articles as usual, but also more interaction and connections with people, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

2. The Most Challenging Parts of the Year

• Making the decision to leave my job, which had a stable income and a good working environment.
• Feeling anxious and insecure due to low savings.
• Struggling with procrastination and a lack of concentration, which seemed to worsen over time.
• Finding it difficult to figure out how to manage my social media presence, without taking any action for a long time.
• Lacking a stable income after quitting my job.

3. New Realizations About Myself This Year

I used to be a tech enthusiast, but this year marked a 180-degree turn for me, almost like undergoing a transformation. Besides wanting to get closer to the product side to understand users' real needs, I've stopped using attention to detail as an excuse for not producing work. I love technology, but I also love people and listening to their stories. I enjoy interacting with others and doing things that help them, and I don't mind stepping outside the role of a developer.

As I grow older, I realize that what I consider obvious, whether in development or mindset, might not be perceived or recognized by many others. My experiences have cultivated a taste and a vision that manifest in many aspects of life.

4. Things to Stop Doing Next Year

• Doom Scrolling: Keep social media usage to a minimum.
• Overly focusing on metrics I can't control: Likes, views, reads, and comments.
• Envying: Stop envying talented individuals.

5. Things to Start Doing Next Year

• Waking up early and getting back to a regular weight training routine.
• Experimenting with different forms of media, including live streaming, short and long videos, and audio.
• Meeting people from different fields and roles.
• Curating my circle of friends to only include those who bring positive energy into my life.
  • Becoming a person full of positive energy and helpful to others.
• Making use of Things and Reminder to practice GTD (Get Things Done).
  • The goal is GTD; Things is the tool of choice because it's both effective and premium-priced.
• Reviving my YouTube channel and trying out new styles.
  • Following up on the above, using the more complete set of time post-resignation to enhance video editing output speed.
• Consciously doing SEO.
  • My tech blog has always been about writing what I want, but after being penalized by Google in terms of traffic, it feels necessary to consider SEO.
• Independent development.
  • Finding my niche to focus on while being open to experimenting and not shying away from non-development tasks.

6. Things to Continue Doing Next Year

• Writing and publishing articles.
• Learning electric guitar and music composition.
• Interacting with people from the same or different fields.
• Participating in reading groups.

7. The First Step to Take Today

Even though it's January 1st, I still wrote an article and went weight training this morning!

My biggest goal for 2025 is to find a sustainable model for making a living on my own terms, moving away from the traditional corporate job. Let's encourage each other!