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" (Extraordinary Life), "随意搜寻" (Casual Search), etc. I can basically read every article carefully, unlike reading articles on some websites. The titles of the articles attract me, but after clicking on them, they may be written to fit various frameworks, and although the structure is more reasonable, the content becomes somewhat cumbersome, and most of the time I just skim through them.
The feeling I get from reading newsletters is more like having a conversation with someone, or listening to someone speak. It is easy to read and it is easier to generate thoughts and resonance. This feeling is similar to how I enjoy listening to audiobooks. When I hear an interesting book, I will find 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 usually write about their original intentions. They usually read as a way of input, and after accumulating some knowledge, they need to output it regularly. Without this output step, 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. I currently lean towards the latter, and I want to use the same approach as my daily journaling. Simply recording what I did each day feels good, so I want to use this approach in newsletters as well.
The structure I have in mind is roughly like this:
- One Sentence: A thought-provoking sentence.
- Observations: Observations of various events.
- Books I'm Listening to: I have a habit of listening to books, so this will be a stable source of input.
- Recommendations: Good articles, applications, plugins, etc.
- Insights: Some recent thoughts of mine.
These are my current ideas. Let's give it a try. When I used to write a journal, I made several changes before it became stable.
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 is really no comparison. 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 news about layoffs at Zhihu. It is said that the video department will lay off half of its employees. A former colleague happened to join Zhihu last year, and he is in the video department. I asked him today, and he said that there is no definite news yet. I wish him good luck.
Books I'm Listening to#
Yesterday I read a book called "The Blind Watchmaker" by Richard Dawkins. He is also famous for another book, "The Selfish Gene".
The title "The Blind Watchmaker" is quite interesting and comes from the theologian William Paley's masterpiece "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 just like 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. Dawkins says in the book that Paley is very clever. He keenly noticed 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 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: when the 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 when hovering.
- 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. 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.
Insights#
The first work week after the New Year's holiday, 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 calendar it was. In the evening, we had dinner at home, and my child sat by the coffee table, eating while watching a movie, occasionally laughing. My wife and I sat at the dining table, eating hot pot, occasionally chatting a few words. At that moment, I felt a clear sense of happiness.