Random Walk Newsletter, Issue 2#
Hello, this is the second issue of "Random Walk" newsletter. Welcome to read.
One Sentence#
From Li Shutong:
"Life is like the setting sun over the Western Hills, wealth and honor are as fleeting as frost on the grass."
It is said that he wrote this sentence when he was only fifteen or sixteen years old.
Reading#
Running as a Cure#
I finished reading a book called "Running as a Cure" this week, written by Zhang Zhanhui. Nowadays, many people start running for various reasons, such as energy, health, or weight loss. Regardless of the purpose, reading this book before starting can be helpful to some extent. Running, which seems ordinary in daily life, is actually full of knowledge. With the correct methods and plans, you can complete a half marathon within six months to a year. However, incorrect methods not only fail to achieve exercise effects, but may also harm the body. For example, many people experience knee pain from running. I used to run on a treadmill at the gym for a while, but I had to stop because of knee pain. In addition, many people resist running mainly because it makes them tired and unable to muster the energy. These are actually issues with methods and approaches. Running can also be done easily.
Out of Control#
I re-listened to "Out of Control" by Kevin Kelly this week, and the second time felt completely different from the first time. This book was published in 1994, and even now, many of the viewpoints in the book are still relevant, and some even hit the mark in our current lives. One of them is the idea of decentralization, where an emergent system achieves a sophisticated state through self-evolution, which cannot be designed by centralized leaders. This is what Kevin Kelly refers to as the meaning of "out of control."
Furthermore, the author says that the latest form of emergent system is you and me. Every human being is connected to the world through various means of communication and electronic devices, forming a huge emergent system. This is the union of humans and machines, also known as the Internet of Things that we often hear about now. To have such forward-thinking viewpoints almost 30 years ago is truly admirable.
I looked into the author's life and found that he is indeed extraordinary. Kevin Kelly was born in Pennsylvania, USA in 1952. After studying for a year at the University of Rhode Island in 1971, he dropped out and became a freelance photographer. Between the ages of 20 and 27, Kevin Kelly hiked in Asia. At the age of 27, in Jerusalem, he had a miraculous experience where he felt that he only had six months to live. So he dutifully served his parents, made generous donations, visited relatives and friends, and then "died" on Halloween night. After returning to the United States, this person who had experienced "death" spiritually rode a bicycle and traveled 5,000 miles, crossing the entire country, experiencing the brilliance of life.
The Blind Watchmaker#
The author of this book is Richard Dawkins, who has also written another famous book called "The Selfish Gene."
"The Blind Watchmaker," the title of this book is interesting and comes from William Paley's masterpiece "Natural Theology." In "Natural Theology," it is said that if you see a stone in the wilderness, you can assume that the stone has always been there and is a natural product. However, if you see a watch in the wilderness, you would definitely think that the watch was carefully designed by someone and cannot be a product of nature. In fact, this meticulously designed watch is a metaphor for humans, and the watchmaker is God.
However, Richard Dawkins is a loyal supporter of Darwin's theory of evolution. His view is that the appearance of complex organisms must have a special reason, but it is not God, but rather natural selection as Darwin described. Natural selection does not have a purpose, so the watchmaker can only be a blind watchmaker.
The book also explains why he thinks so, including some interesting examples. If you are interested, you can take a look. In summary, natural selection is not random selection, but an accumulative process. If genetic mutations are considered random selection, it is highly unlikely to produce complex organisms like humans. However, natural selection is an accumulative process that continuously evolves towards survival advantages, and unfavorable evolution or unfavorable genetic mutations will be eliminated.
Recommendations#
- A plugin for Obsidian called "Text Snippets" is very good. It can replace common inputs with short texts.
- I used to record my thoughts and then organize them in Obsidian from other places like Drafts and Agenda. But this week, I started using another built-in plugin of Obsidian called Zkcard. I used to worry that the mobile experience of Obsidian would not be good, but after using it a few times, I found that the experience is not bad.
- I recommend a book called "The Story of the Human Body." After listening to it, I think it's great and have added it to my reading list.
- I read Wen Hao's newsletter, "Shi Bu Guo San," and learned about the story of Chen Jingfei. I had no idea who she was, but after reading her story, I was motivated to listen to her music. I haven't listened to her music yet, so I can't recommend it, but I can recommend her story first, "A Female Singer's 'Moon and Sixpence'" (https://www.tsinghua.org.cn/info/1953/35699.htm).
Insights#
- Let's start with a reflection. I encountered a problem at work before and thought it was a problem with a third-party tool. I thought I could just use it in a different way and it wouldn't have much impact, so I didn't investigate further. However, when another colleague tried to use it within the team today, we found that the current usage method doesn't work. Then another colleague asked a question, and we solved it in less than half an hour. It turned out to be an issue with the nginx configuration, and adding two lines of configuration fixed it. This serves as a lesson. If I had thought a little further, I could have solved the problem for sure.
- The beginning stage of this newsletter was a bit empty this week. I can't remember many of the things and ideas I encountered this week. In fact, almost every day before, some thoughts came to mind, and I thought about writing them in the newsletter, but I didn't record them. Now I can't recall them, and I have realized the importance of recording inspiration at any time.
- I have started reading for 15 minutes every day recently. I just finished reading "Running as a Cure." I had previously finished reading "The Art of Communication" by Hua Jie. Yesterday, I started reading "Yu's Letter." I hope to share it with everyone after I finish reading it. I used to think that reading books takes a lot of time, but as long as I insist on reading for 15 minutes every day, I should be able to easily read one book per month throughout the year. So don't underestimate the power of small changes. Like the book "Tiny Habits" mentioned before, it says that if you want to start exercising, as long as you can stick to it, even if you do only one push-up every day, after a few years, you will definitely see a different self.
Observations#
Feng County Incident#
Recently, the Feng County incident has caused a lot of uproar. Even now, in certain corners, terrible things are still happening. Last night, I saw this report, which shocked me even more, "Beijing Girl Abducted for Six Years" (https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/hdvjZY7z-rfhmpc7fgw79g). Previously, in my opinion, most abductions happened in more remote areas, and it was rare or even impossible for them to happen in places like Beijing. After reading this article, I realized that danger truly exists everywhere. The girl was abducted at the age of 14 and successfully escaped at the age of 20. The experiences she went through in those six years are heart-wrenching. These inhumane experiences have also changed her life. After returning home, her neighbor's classmate had already gone to college, while she dropped out of junior high school. Even though she returned to Beijing, she couldn't live a normal life anymore. After reading the entire article, it is difficult to calm down for a long time.
Hu Xijin's comment on this incident: "A grassroots incident has escalated to this point, and the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government had to set up a separate investigation team to determine the truth. Politically speaking, this is tragic. It is a clear warning that the official credibility is already very fragile."
Salary Cap in Football#
I am a football fan. This week, I saw a piece of news about Guangzhou team, formerly known as Evergrande. The first team has a salary cap of 600,000 yuan per year, which is significantly different from the previously rumored official cap of 3 million yuan. And these days, Hao Junmin posted on Weibo asking for unpaid wages, and Wuhan team subsequently released a document adjusting their investment. The players who experienced the most glorious period before were lucky, as they experienced the peak of their careers, gaining both fame and fortune. However, it seems that only those young players in the youth team who truly love the sport can continue to persevere.
The Significance of Audiobooks#
I saw a post on v2ex discussing whether it is worth buying a membership for Fan Deng's audiobooks. Almost without exception, the opinions were mostly against it, and some even had attacking comments, focusing on "selling anxiety" and "eating someone else's chewed food."
As for me, I definitely don't agree with these views. I am a heavy user of audiobooks, and the changes they have brought to me in the past two years are quite obvious. From my experience, listening to audiobooks still depends on the actual content of the book when interpreting the author's ideas. If you think that listening to audiobooks will miss many important contents of the book, I can understand, but if you think that the audiobook author will distort the original intention of the book, I think it is a bit exaggerated. Therefore, I don't think listening to audiobooks is "eating someone else's chewed food."
Let me give you an example. I recently listened to a book called "Micro Mastery." From the title, I could guess that it is about how we can do anything we are interested in without necessarily following the 10,000-hour rule and mastering everything to an expert level. As the author mentioned, every small skill is like a lottery ticket. You may not know when it will be redeemed and play an amazing role.
Previously, Tsai Kangyong also said something similar. The general idea is that when you are twenty years old, you may think that learning English is useless and not needed in your work. As a result, when you are thirty years old, you may encounter a job opportunity in a foreign company and miss it because you don't know English. When you were a teenager, you thought learning to swim was useless. As a result, when you were in your twenties, you met a girl you liked who invited you to go swimming, but you couldn't swim, so you couldn't go on the date. The expression of this idea is somewhat similar to "Micro Mastery." When we learn certain knowledge or skills now, we shouldn't focus too much on short-term benefits. Instead, we should add a new possibility to our lives. No one can be certain about the distant future. When we need to use certain knowledge or skills, it may be too late to learn. So, explore more and don't be too purposeful when learning certain knowledge. Add a new possibility to your life. This has nothing to do with selling anxiety.
Wan Weigang once said something that I really like and want to share with you. He said: "Everyone says life is a marathon. My understanding of this sentence is not just about running too fast in the beginning and losing momentum later, but that later you may have to change the race event. You have to try different running styles, and even change your understanding of 'running.' "
OK, that's all for this week's summary. Although no one has subscribed yet, thank you for reading, and feel free to discuss.