Notes

Sunlight, a breeze through the grass, a glittering surface of water — it feels comfortable, like a scene from Zelda. Maybe it feels that way because such a place is good for survival: safe, and full of life.

When the sun sets and dusk comes on, danger may be coming too. Perhaps that is why the feeling carries a trace of fear and vigilance.

When you feel sad, it only means your past experience and understanding can no longer solve the new problem in front of you. It also means you have reached the edge of your old world. Congratulations — you are about to step into a new one.

Took a boat on the lake, feeling the wind. Watched the street lamps shine into the bridge arch, their light scattered over the water.

January 25, 2014, Wuhan: Yu Liqiao, Li Na's former coach, gathered her students in front of the TV to watch Li Na win the Australian Open. First from the right in the second row is Zheng Qinwen. Ten years later, she won the women's singles gold at the Paris Olympics.

The Paris Olympics opened, but I went back and rewatched the 2008 Beijing opening ceremony — back then I did not really understand what it meant.

Fourteen years ago is already a distant past. In 2008, Wei and I listened to Xu Song and crossed the footbridge at the experimental school again and again, arguing and dreaming about 23 vs 24. Sometimes I thought that once I shed my student identity, I could become a leisurely middle-class man, doing interesting things with dignity and freedom.

2008 was a time of hope and longing; I even wanted to run ahead of time itself. I remember I could jump, and I loved jumping. I loved running too, the wind passing my ears and my sides. As if my world held only the wind and me.

Now Wei has gone home to be a civil servant, and I never became the leisurely middle-class man I imagined — I am a busy worker at a big company. LeBron, the first basketball player to carry the flag for Team USA, stood at the bow of the boat in Paris holding the flag — a photo of a lifetime. And 24 left this world forever in a crash. He once had a ten-second close-up at the Beijing opening ceremony; now, at the entrance of the hotel where Team USA stays in Paris, Kobe stands as a spiritual symbol — that "silence" gesture, the very shot from Beijing.

All gone. A thousand things pass through a life. May I not forget to keep running. run.

Dazui did a joint livestream with Time with Yuhui. As a conversation, the atmosphere was not quite there. But beyond the content, one thing is clear: the company is moving toward new ways of marketing — a consumer business needs to get closer to its consumers. The partner's persona matters too: they chose Dong Yuhui, who stands for "knowledge changes destiny," not the comedian Xiaoyangge.

On the way to work I passed a group of young colleagues in white tees with red collars, heading to NEO training. The ease and hope on their faces made me envious — that was me two years ago, eyes full of hope, heart full of ambition.

In the dark of night, you own an invisible world, and a clear self.

"However bumpy the life, live it brightly." — To the Wonder (My Altay)

The sky is most beautiful in the moment before dark.

"I wish you would come back soon — but the flowers have not opened yet." — Xu Zhiyuan's cousin

At the 2024 Berkshire shareholders meeting, Buffett reflexively called out "Munger." It makes you drift for a moment, and sigh.

Watching "Nice to Meet You": Xu Zhiyuan returns to his hometown in northern Jiangsu and becomes the village's trending topic. His aunt did not want them to come, she said, because she is too poor. Xu fell silent, started to speak, then stopped — he knew that comfort from someone above carries no weight, even when sincere. When the poor say they are poor, the rich have no right to say being poor is fine; say it, and it becomes "why don't they eat meat porridge?"

Listening to the "Half Latte" podcast series on Apple's history. Five episodes, two and a half hours each, and they go down easily — the two hosts play off each other with a great rhythm. They follow events in time order: how Apple grew, and how its founders faced life, built products, and changed the industry. Jobs was no saint: a contradictory character, hard on his employees, extreme about products, and far from any moral ideal — but he shaped the world deeply. keep looking, don't settle; think different; connect the dots — these ideas serve me well. Hats off to Apple, and to Jobs.

Bought a T-shirt on Dewu. Logistics sent two identical packages, with the same pickup code. I thought: couldn't I keep one and return the other — a free shirt, in effect. But I didn't do it.

On the day Jobs died, a rainbow appeared in the sky above Pixar.

This is probably the freest stretch since I started school. Classes can be skipped at will; my time is my own. Each month there is a stipend of over a thousand yuan, plus a ten-thousand scholarship — not financial freedom, but I can buy whatever I want to eat. The lab has central air-conditioning, dual-monitor desktops, a fridge, a printer, and wifi, and my labmates laugh all day.

Small comforts breed slack. I sleep late, open the computer at the lab, glance at my phone, and the time slips away. Professor Guo is busy with the research institute and has no time to watch us, so the lab grows unbridled: games, cards, livestreams, all spreading. Only when someone gets caught, or when exams approach, do we pull ourselves together.

I don't play games, but I have my own time-killers — dramas and variety shows, and a bout of seal carving. In one semester I made a trip to Shanghai and one to Changzhou.

Only near the end of the semester did I see it clearly: for people like me, without assigned tasks, self-discipline is truly hard.