Random Walk Newsletter, Issue 14#
Observations & Insights#
Severance Pay for Layoffs#
Let's start with some good news. I have received my severance pay for the layoffs, which also signifies that I have no connection with my previous company anymore. I recently heard that my former employer is still laying off employees. How should I describe it? I want to stay uninvolved, but occasionally I still think back to the situation when I left. After all, I had been there for three years. Although at the beginning of the year, I had some thoughts due to my colleagues changing jobs, I eventually dismissed the idea. Who would have thought that the situation would develop unexpectedly, and I would be forced to embark on the path of job hunting, experiencing being fired once in my life.
Audiobooks & Books#
Understanding a Book#
The author is Fan Deng, and the content of the book mainly covers how the author views the act of reading, how to choose books, and how to give lectures. When talking about how cost-effective reading is, an example is given. The author used to work at CCTV and was invited by a university to give a lecture on a topic he had no knowledge of. At that time, the author bought several relevant books, read them, and then gave the lecture. When calculating the expenses, the author spent a little over 100 yuan on books but earned tens of thousands of yuan from the lecture. Reading is the most cost-effective investment.
The book also discusses how to choose books. We often come across some classic books, but when we buy them and read them, we can't understand them at all, or we have no idea what is good about them. The author's own experience is, "When I was in my twenties, I couldn't read 'Walden' like others. When I was 38, I thought of it again, and this time I gained a lot from reading it." I have had the same feeling myself.
I couldn't read books on philosophy and psychology before, but after I turned 30, I gradually began to understand some of the texts that I couldn't comprehend before. This reminds me of when I was in junior high school. The first time I listened to Jay Chou, I put it away after listening to it once because I couldn't understand it. But after a while, another classmate asked to borrow it, and when we listened to it together, we couldn't stop. This also shows that even if something seems just okay now, don't rush to deny it. Perhaps the value of knowledge has not been discovered by us yet.
Lastly, the book talks about giving lectures. I briefly went through this part. The specific method is to read it once, then after about a week, start writing a mind map based on memory. Then read it again and review it together with your mind map. As the author puts it, it's about repeated friction. The more you rub, the deeper the memory becomes. And you must control the proportion of direct quotations from the original text. The author's suggestion is not to exceed 10%. Only after extracting and refining it in your own words, it becomes your own.
The Power of Now#
I am currently reading this book. The author also has another book called "Life Doesn't Have to Be So Hard," which has received mixed reviews. I read "The Power of Now" a long time ago, and just by looking at the title, you can tell that it revolves around the idea of living in the present moment. The introduction was written by Zhang Defen, and she mentioned that her own book, "Meeting the Unknown Self," drew inspiration from this book. There is a particularly good summary in the middle, "What I fear the most is when my mind is stuck in the past, bringing forth emotions such as anger, sadness, regret, and guilt, even though I am physically present. Or when my mind jumps to the future while I am in the present, creating stress, anxiety, and panic." So, how do we avoid regret and anxiety? There is only one path, which is to live in the present moment.
That's all for this issue of the Newsletter. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. Thank you for reading.