Motivation#
In the past month, I started subscribing to some newsletters, such as "事不过三" (Three Times is Enough), "生活奇旅" (Life's Wonderful Journey), "随意搜寻" (Casual Search), etc. I can basically read through each one carefully, unlike reading articles on some websites. When I'm attracted by the title of an article and click on it, it may be to meet various requirements and constraints, and although the structure is more reasonable, the content tends to be cumbersome, and most of the time I just skim through it.
The feeling I get from reading newsletters is more like having a conversation with someone, or listening to someone speak. It's easy to read and it's easier to generate thoughts and resonance. This feeling is similar to how I enjoy listening to audiobooks. When I come across an interesting book, I would look for the e-book to read, but the experience of reading the e-book is not as intense as listening to the audiobook.
The authors of the newsletters I subscribe to, when they write about their original intentions, are mostly for the purpose of output. Regular reading is considered input, and after accumulating some input, it is necessary to have a fixed output. Without this step of output, it is difficult to measure how much of the input content has been internalized.
So, I also plan to start writing newsletters myself. I used to write a blog, but it always ended up being abandoned. I hope I can stick to this.
How to Write#
When I read some newsletters, some are personal essays, and some have a structured format. At the moment, I lean more towards the latter, just like how I write a daily journal now. Simply recording what I did each day feels good, so I want to use this approach in newsletters as well.
The current structure I have in mind is as follows:
- One Sentence: A thought-provoking sentence
- Observations: Observations of various events
- Books I've Listened to: I have a habit of listening to books, so this will be a stable source of input
- Recommendations: Good articles, applications, plugins, etc.
- Reflections: Some recent thoughts of mine
These are my current thoughts. Let's give it a try. When I used to write a journal, I made several changes before finally stabilizing it.
Let's Get Started#
One Sentence#
We always regard sudden good ideas as inspiration, a gift from God. You must work hard, or at least have a strong desire to solve the problem, in order to deserve this gift. Even so-called inspiration comes from diligence and focus.
Observations#
I received an email from GitHub in my Gmail inbox, recommending the Copilot plugin. I installed it in IntelliJ IDEA and tried it out. I have to admit that the era of AI programming is coming. We are now just copying and pasting, and in the future, we may not even need to do that. Haha, we will become code review engineers directly.
Gu Ailing, a name that has been popular recently, is only 18 years old. After looking at her resume, there's no way to compare. I also have to admit that the influence of a family on a child is very important. Her father went to Harvard, her mother went to Stanford and Peking University, and when talking to my wife, I said that when some parents criticize their children for not being as good as others, they should really think about whether they are as good as the parents of others.
Today I saw some news that Zhihu is laying off employees. It is said that the video department will lay off half of its staff. A former colleague happened to join Zhihu last year, in the video department. I asked him today, and he said that there is currently no definite news. I wish him good luck.
Books I've Listened to#
Yesterday I listened to a book called "The Blind Watchmaker" by Richard Dawkins. He is also famous for another book, "The Selfish Gene".
The title of "The Blind Watchmaker" is quite interesting and comes from the representative work of theologian William Paley, "Natural Theology". In the beginning of "Natural Theology", Paley says that if you see a stone in the wilderness, you can assume that the stone has always been there and exists naturally. But if you see a watch in the wilderness, with various intricate mechanical devices, you would definitely think that it cannot be a natural product like the stone, but must have been carefully designed and manufactured by a watchmaker. Complex organisms like humans or other animals and plants are similar to this watch. They must have been carefully designed by someone for a purpose and cannot possibly occur naturally.
In this story, the "watchmaker" is actually a metaphor for God. The meaning is that life on Earth is so intricate, and various natural phenomena are so complex that they must have been designed by God and cannot be the result of natural evolution. The author of this book, Richard Dawkins, disagrees. In the book, Dawkins says that Paley is very clever. He keenly discovered that the appearance of complex life must have a very special reason. However, this reason is not the all-powerful watchmaker God, but the natural selection proposed by Darwin. Natural selection has no purpose, so it can only be a blind watchmaker. Although this blind watchmaker follows very simple basic rules, it is the only correct answer to the birth and evolution of complex life.
Many people have a misunderstanding of Darwin's theory of evolution. Evolution is not a completely random process, but a gradual accumulation. In simple terms, beneficial genetic mutations have a higher probability of being inherited based on natural selection, because detrimental mutations will be eliminated. Therefore, the theory that every step is a random mutation is incorrect.
I also read a book called "Fermat's Enigma". The content of Fermat's Enigma is very simple: for any integer n > 2, the equation x^n + y^n = z^n has no positive integer solutions.
Recommendations#
This week, while reading newsletters, I discovered two useful Obsidian plugins:
- cmenu: It displays shortcut keys in the editing area.
- Title Serial Number Plugin: It makes it easy to add sorting to the title area.
There is also one called Spaced Repetition, which allows you to create flashcards and use Obsidian to review and practice questions. However, I haven't actually started using it yet.
By the way, there is a Chrome extension called Relingo, which can automatically translate according to your set proficiency level. It feels pretty good.
Reflections#
The first work week after the New Year, the past few days have been mostly in the process of recovering. I have been doing some work intermittently. Another year has passed, and I used to look forward to the Chinese New Year, but after it passed, I didn't feel much. I forgot which day of the Lunar New Year it was. In the evening, we had dinner at home, and my child sat by the coffee table, eating and watching a movie, occasionally laughing. My wife and I sat at the dining table, eating hot pot, occasionally chatting. At that moment, I felt a clear sense of happiness.