#WritingOutput/Newsletter
Random Walk Newsletter, Issue 28#
The first Newsletter of 2023. After sending the previous one, I discovered that there were actually two subscribers. It's been about a year since I started writing, and breaking through the 0 subscriber mark is a cause for celebration. Thank you to the two subscribers for giving me the motivation to continue writing.
Observations & Insights#
Digital Prison
In this article Digital Prison: How Can Modern People Resist Homogenized Violence? - TechNode, I came across the following passage:
The Internet Thieves believe that learning is not a performance for others. The process of learning is painful, and the effort put into learning does not necessarily correspond to the rewards gained. It is impossible to easily and happily absorb knowledge through carefully simplified courses on paid knowledge platforms or through annual speeches by self-media.
I agree with 95% of this statement. The only point of contention is the word "impossible". In this fragmented era, it is not completely impossible to acquire knowledge. I have also tried hard to read a book, such as "The Black Swan" by Taleb and "A Random Walk Down Wall Street". However, the reading process was agonizing, and I could only remember a few things. The key is that I listened to the audiobook first and then started reading. I found that the content I obtained from reading did not significantly increase compared to what I obtained from listening to the audiobook. Of course, this does not rule out the possibility that it is my own reading ability that is the problem. But it also indicates that some people may be able to learn something through audiobooks and shared articles.
The Difference Between Light and Darkness
"I have noticed that when all the lights are on, people tend to talk about what they are doing — their outer lives. Sitting round in candlelight or firelight, people start to talk about how they are feeling – their inner lives. They speak subjectively, they argue less, there are longer pauses."
An interesting observation. When all the lights are on, people prefer to talk about external things. But when sitting in candlelight, people start to talk about their inner feelings. I think this is true for myself at least. For example, when I turn off the lights at night and can't sleep, it's when I have the most inner thoughts 🤣. I remember when I was in junior high school, I would listen to a new cassette tape (revealing my age here) and if I liked a song, I would enjoy listening to it on repeat with the lights off. It just didn't have the same atmosphere when the lights were on. Perhaps when it gets dark, things tend to quiet down?
Focus and Noise Reduction
"What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn’t have any doubt—it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn’t want to go anywhere else."
After reading this sentence, I remembered something I read before. Having a clear goal not only provides direction but also filters out a lot of distracting information, reducing noise.
Self-Control
I uninstalled the app "JiKe" again because I lost to my lack of self-control. I don't know how many times I have installed and uninstalled it in the past week. Since downloading JiKe, the number of unread newsletters in my inbox has reached over 20. After uninstalling it, I currently have no social media apps on my phone and I don't even know what to do with my phone anymore 😄. The immediate effect is that I have now read half of my newsletters, with 10 left unread.
Audiobooks & Books#
Underlying Logic
I had heard about it before, but now I learned about variance. Values calculated using variance can indicate diversity. For example, when you often hear that the average monthly salary at Tencent is 80,000 RMB, using variance calculations can show that the distribution is very uneven.
In addition, Mr. Liu Run summarized a formula: Sales = Traffic × Conversion Rate × Average Order Value × Repurchase Rate. Let's say a company has four salespeople, each contributing 1 million RMB in sales. The total sales would be 4 million RMB. If one of the salespeople has an exceptionally good performance and doubles their sales, will the company's total sales double? No, it will only increase by 1 million RMB. However, if each of the four salespeople is responsible for traffic, conversion rate, average order value, and repurchase rate, and each of them doubles their performance, the total sales will be multiplied by 2, becoming 8 million RMB. You see, this is the power of cooperation in different dimensions.
After reading the above example, I did feel a slight impact, and I also experienced the power of cooperation in different dimensions.
Café at the End of the World
The author quit his job at a global fashion magazine to document his travels and self-published a book. He originally intended to share it with family and friends, but unexpectedly sold millions of copies.
The book mentions the 5 things about life that Warren Buffett advises others to do. He first asks a person to list 20 things they want to accomplish in life, and then selects 5 from that list. The advice given is to devote all your time and energy to those 5 things, and as for the remaining 15 things, avoid them like the plague and don't even touch them. In other words, concentrate your energy and resist other temptations.
The book also mentions a story about sea turtles swimming, which conveys a similar meaning. Finally, the author summarizes his thoughts on the book, which I think is worth sharing: "In my opinion, John's book is a bit like an 'adult fairy tale'. Don't underestimate fairy tales. Other books try to convince you with evidence and logic, while fairy tales convey beliefs. Many times, we get lost in complex thinking and fall into confusion, but sometimes, a simple belief is exactly what we need."
That's all for this issue of the Newsletter. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. Thank you for reading.