Some short thoughts seem more suitable for real-time recording on microblogging platforms like Sina Weibo (referred to as Weibo) rather than directly or summarized and published on a blog. The blog seems to have a slightly “heavier” positioning for content.
However, the quality of content on Weibo is really poor. I’ve tried opening Weibo multiple times and casually browsing, but the inferior information flow is unbearable. Moreover, Weibo has two major faults. First, its acceptable “scale” is too small. My online name smallyu, simply because it contains the letters “sm,” cannot be searched for my content on Weibo’s search engine. This is strange, meaning any username containing words like “smile” or “smart” cannot be properly displayed in search results, which absolutely has nothing to do with technology. The second fault of Weibo is that users are interfered with by the platform. Cui Yongyuan opened an account on YouTube and occasionally posted short videos. Once, he mentioned that he had two accounts on Weibo with over 20 million followers, but suddenly he couldn’t post content without any explanation—Weibo simply wouldn’t allow it. So now he uses Twitter and YouTube.
In comparison, Twitter is indeed much better. There’s a story in the 111th issue of Ruan Yifeng’s Technology Enthusiast Weekly that highlights Twitter’s freedom:
A Twitter user conducted an experiment by registering an account and posting the same content as Trump, not retweeting, but copying the original text. Apart from this, he didn’t post any other content.
As a result, Twitter noticed him within three days, closed his account for 12 hours, and required him to delete the violating content during that time. The same words Trump could say, but he couldn’t. After media coverage of this incident, Twitter restored the account and said the closure was a “mistake.”
This reminds me of another issue regarding tool choice. People often recommend the 360 browser in the Deepin forum. I used to really like the 360 browser, especially the 360 Extreme Browser, which is a Chromium-based browser with built-in gesture operation functions. You can perform convenient operations on the page by holding the right mouse button and dragging in the browser window, such as forward, backward, new tab, close page, scroll, move to the top of the page, etc. It was fun. Until one day, all domestic browsers collectively banned 996.icu, and I decided to never use domestic browsers again.
I don’t want to continue using Sina Weibo. Twitter has almost no content restrictions, and the user experience is also great. But after all, there’s a wall between us, and the network environment is somewhat unsatisfactory. As for how to place short-term thoughts that are not many, I still need to think of a way. Recently, I wanted to “create” some seemingly “positive energy” stuff on Weibo, but later deviated a bit. However, the principle is still there, which is to only mention “non-technical topics.”
Here are the recent Weibo contents, archived here in chronological order.
May 4
Family affection is a bad emotion; it makes people feel sad.
May 5
Renting a small apartment, I don't even know what time it gets bright.
May 7
Sometimes life feels terrible, will it always be like this?
Sometimes life feels terrible, it seems like it was the same way a while ago.
The first time you hear an exciting song, it doesn't sound as good the next time. The first time you eat delicious spicy crayfish dry-mix instant noodles, it doesn't feel as great the next time. This is a kind of punishment.
May 15
We are all used to being the protagonist in games, the hero in movies and TV shows, but if we were sent back to the prosperous Tang Dynasty, we couldn't become Li Bai or Bai Juyi catching demons; we would only be ordinary people, not worthy of leaving a name in history.
It's easy for people to cheer others on, but those struggling in the arena feel the most pressure. So, what contribution is cheering?
May 16
Deleting and reinstalling Honor of Kings repeatedly. Deleting because it wastes too much time, reinstalling because time is wasted elsewhere without a good entertainment experience.
May 17
Nowadays, once someone is blocked on WeChat, it's a real breakup. There's no way to make up because besides WeChat, there's no other way to contact them. Their address is even more unknown.
May 18
Finding joy in oneself is a way of life, and having dreams and pursuits is also a way of life.
May 20
Only what you know and others don't is valuable.
May 26
"People with no worries sleep well."
May 27
When listening to songs, if you suddenly hear a good song, you start to become impatient, hoping to find another good song, skipping songs frequently. But it's often hard to find another touching song. After skipping many songs, you end up going back to the initial song.
May 28
"People Like Me"
May 29
A game you don't want to win suddenly becomes less fun.
When data throttling occurs, QQ Music gets stuck on the splash screen and can't enter because the splash ad won't load. Loading ads has become an essential part of QQ Music. In contrast, NetEase Cloud Music is a bit better.
One advantage of hearing a good song is it improves your ability to identify bad songs. Just by hearing the intro or the opening, you know it's not your type.
June 3
Bai Zhang Huai Hai once accompanied Master Ma Zu on an outing and saw a flock of wild ducks flying by. Ma Zu asked him, "What are those?" Huai Hai said, "Wild ducks." Ma Zu asked again, "Where did they go?" Huai Hai said, "They flew away." Upon hearing this, Ma Zu came forward and twisted Huai Hai's nose hard, causing him to scream in pain. Ma Zu said, "I told you they flew away!" Huai Hai suddenly realized.
Ma Zu meant: The wild ducks had already flown away, but you were still dwelling on them in your mind.
This reminds me of Zen Master Hui Hai's story. Someone asked Hui Hai how he practiced. Hui Hai said, "It's very simple. When I'm hungry, I eat; when I'm sleepy, I sleep." The person said, "Everyone is like that; what's so special about your practice?" Hui Hai said, "It's different." The person asked, "How is it different?" Hui Hai said, "Others think too much. When they eat, they don't just eat; when they sleep, they don't just sleep. But I, when it's time to eat, I eat; when it's time to sleep, I sleep. That's the difference."
— “Reader”
June 4
Sometimes it's hard to tell if someone is really skilled or just pretending. I remember an old teacher of mine who had some classic techniques that I've noticed for a long time.
Ways to make people think you are impressive (1):
1. Mention conversations or experiences with people who have "positions". It might just be a simple conversation or interaction, but adding a title like "Director" makes it seem grander. Saying you met a director doing something and discussed some plans makes it seem like you are on the same level as them.
2. Quote people with "positions", even if their words are simple or nonsensical. "What I'm saying is similar to what Director X said, xxxxx." This shows you have frequent exchanges with important people and makes it hard for others to refute since you're quoting someone else.
3. Create role models by talking about students you taught who became successful. This elevates your status by showing that those you taught are now impressive, implying you are even more so.
4. ...
I've bought many Bluetooth earphones. Initially, I bought the cheap ones, and they all had various issues, like unbalanced volume, static noise, poor connection, or interference from surrounding magnetic fields. The sound quality was also strange. Eventually, I couldn't stand these problems and bought a Redmi sports Bluetooth earphone. Though not expensive, all those small issues disappeared.
After using it, it's hard to say how great Redmi's earphones are, but it's clear there's nothing notably bad about them. Not having bad experiences itself makes it good. Similarly, you might not find Apple products far superior to Android, but they avoid many annoying issues, which in itself is an improvement.
June 5
There are two types of "not knowing": one is having learned but not mastered, the other is not having learned at all or not yet.
There are two types of unsolved problems: those you've encountered and couldn't solve, and those you haven't encountered yet.
For situations where one hasn't learned or faced problems yet, it's hard to judge a person's capability directly. Thus, it's necessary to use past instances to prove one's abilities, like what they have learned or solved before.
Based on this, academic qualifications are one form of instance; having a degree shows you've learned something, implying you can learn other things too. Work experience is another form; having solved problems before implies you can solve others too, making you fit for certain jobs.
June 8
The main content of a PPT presentation usually falls into two categories: viewpoints and cases. Viewpoints are opinions on a problem, reasons behind them, and discussions among participants. Cases are stories with background, cause, process, result, and summary, leading to a new viewpoint or story.
The third type is writing long texts, theories, formulas, and technical solutions on the PPT, then reading them out like a lecture, hoping to teach others. This is clearly ineffective.
Meetups are more like technical exchange events where everyone participates equally, discussing technical issues. The speaker introduces topics, and others discuss them. PPTs are just tools to help convey the speaker's topic and are secondary. The real value lies in people having viewpoints, cases, and discussion-worthy topics.
June 10
Recently, I've been having poor sleep and feeling dizzy and spaced out. It reminded me of a college classmate who went crazy—at least had some mental issues. It might have been due to stress, failures, or lack of sleep, becoming the trigger for mental instability. Mental breakdowns are common, especially under specific circumstances. Looking back at my own not-so-glorious school days, I acted irrationally, like a primitive person driven by impulses.
Movies like "Lolita", "Mulholland Drive", "Hello! Mr. Tree", and "Joker" mix reality and illusion, making it hard for viewers to distinguish. With the key to analyzing these films, one realizes the scary truth. Even if something didn't actually happen, if your mind believes it did, it becomes real. So, are we also mentally ill? Did what we experience truly happen? If we're already in a mental maze, how do we find the exit?
June 17
Recently, while having a meal, I thought about drinking culture in China. People like to drink more and more.
Why do they want others to get drunk? Because they want to see them make a fool of themselves. But if the other party is a client or a friend, why would you want to embarrass a friend? Because deep down, everyone is ugly.
Some people look glamorous on the outside, but everyone has their dirty secrets. Drinking reveals this ugly yet real side of people. When you see each other's true selves, relationships become closer, and business deals are easier.
June 22
Walking down the street listening to a song, I found it quite nice, but not particularly impressive. The original was sung by a husky-voiced male with a torn feeling, while this cover by a female voice felt soft and lacked the original's explosiveness. After much internal struggle and thought, I finally decided to add this song to my favorites. When I unlocked my phone, opened NetEase Cloud Music, and clicked on the playing interface, I found the red heart already lit—it was already in my favorites.
What kind of song is considered a favorite? When you play songs randomly from your list, the ones that catch your attention are the ones. It could be a piece of music, a few lyrics, a certain voice, or something that grabs your attention and makes you want to know more.
Knowing what you like ensures you don't miss out on things you might love, avoiding the tragedy of realizing your preference too late.
This includes people.
June 24
Last weekend, I had dinner with a classmate, feeling quite sentimental. I've mentioned this classmate in my blog before. Nowadays, I wouldn't reject someone's kindness outright. This time, there were no surprises. His thoughts were the same as before, and his actions were as expected. Sometimes, I think about analyzing his character, but it doesn't seem worth the space. I'll just mention a few points:
1. There's no need to "mature" too early, thinking about making money, buying a house, getting married... I don't like it.
2. If someone can often, not occasionally, inspire you, then their thinking ability is higher than yours.
3. If you find things "difficult", maybe it's because your consumption exceeds your capacity. The focus is on the cause of consumption—your desires, external pressure, or something else.
June 26
Recently, I've noticed something interesting while playing games. I call it the "mysterious power of encouragement."
At the start of each game, I would send a message to everyone: "Our XXX is really strong, be careful." Initially, it was just a prank, putting my teammates on the opposing side, feeling a strange pleasure of being an undercover, a destroyer, a bad guy. But gradually, I noticed, perhaps it was an illusion, that the person I praised often performed well.
There are two types of people I praise: genuinely strong players (I often pick high-rank players, as matches can range from Bronze to Star Glory) and really weak ones. For the genuinely strong, they either play seriously, or the opponents, not wanting to lose, play better. For the weak ones, I explain that I'm new to the game and they sometimes feel guilty, self-deprecatingly saying they are worse than Meituan delivery.
Just now, in a game, someone bought three pairs of shoes (clearly an actor not wanting to play seriously). I sent a global message: "Our Daji says she can beat you even without buying equipment, don't get too happy" (she obviously didn't say that). I was just teasing, but guess what? My teammates became more united, Daji played better, and even apologized. Maybe the statement was too tragic, or... it reflected some unexpected kindness, trust, and...?
I can relate and understand the psychology in such situations. While I'm too lazy to analyze this behavior, it makes me think about things like "encouragement" and "trust." Sometimes, the ability to encourage and trust others might be more effective than giving orders or setting strict standards. Of course, it depends on the person. There's also the term "flattering to death." Naturally, there are many "of course" situations...
June 28
Finally, to add one more thing, another reason I kept deleting Honor of Kings was due to repeated disappointment in humanity. Hopefully, this time, after uninstalling it, history won't repeat itself.