This article is a record and reflection on life from 2024-01-28 to 2024-02-03.
Back to Macondo#
In the second half of last year, friends in my reading group chose to read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" after finishing "Pale Blue Dot." Last Sunday, we finally found time to hold a sharing session online, spread across three continents.
My reading experience improved as I got into the middle of the book, but unfortunately, I encountered final exams and had to set the reading aside. However, when I picked it up again after the exams, I found myself a bit lost with the character names, and I struggled with multiple re-reads. Although I eventually finished the book, I still felt a sense of regret due to these small setbacks. So, I wanted to hear what other book friends had gained from it during this reading session.
Later, the book friends discussed a dilemma in reading this book: what do we hope to gain after finishing it? Especially when reading classics like "One Hundred Years of Solitude," is it a regret if we don't read it in conjunction with Colombia's history? Reflecting on this, I realized it was a dilemma I had faced before. When I prepared to read a classic, I often felt unprepared: I would want to do background research first, but then I would procrastinate and never actually open the book. One of the book friends provided an enlightening response; she mentioned a tapestry that can be appreciated from different angles, distances, and light, offering different aesthetic experiences. Reading is similar; the entrance and exit of a book are open, and as readers, we have the freedom to choose our entrance and exit. Many books (including "One Hundred Years of Solitude"), even as pure story collections, are still interesting.
She inspired me to think about the so-called "utilitarianism" of reading. When we hope too much to gain vastly different aesthetic experiences from classics, the result often backfires. We should have confidence in these books and in the authors, interacting with them with a more peaceful mindset. The personalized experiences that arise from resonance are the most precious part of the reading process. Always waiting to be pleased, educated, or surprised is actually no different from the state of scrolling through social media. I recalled what Lee Chang-ho said in his autobiography "No Need to Be Greedy for Victory": the ones who truly enjoy the fun of Go are the amateur players who are not obsessed with winning or the bonuses behind it.
Looking back, my previous fear of classics was gradually dissolved when I read "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" with friends last year. Although I still do not have a deeper understanding of the history of Paris as depicted by Mr. Hugo, the death of Fantine still evokes a sense of compassion in me.
Additionally, when discussing "One Hundred Years of Solitude," it was hard to ignore the characters sharing the same name. When we collectively complained about this, we gained another kind of joy from reading.
Going to Berlin#
A college classmate who had dinner with me in Xiamen last year messaged me saying he was coming to Berlin for an exhibition. I was happy and thought it would be nice to go out with Xiong Xiaohua after Valentine's Day.
Thinking about my understanding of Berlin, it seems to all come from World War II. In the book "There Are No Women in War," Alexievich recounts the story of a Soviet female soldier who fought alongside her boyfriend in the Siege of Leningrad, then drove a tank all the way to Berlin, writing their vows on the Reichstag. Even when I proposed this trip to Xiong Xiaohua, I suddenly saw the book "Archives: A Personal History" from the Ideal Country at my bedside. The author attempts to review his life in East Germany through Stasi surveillance notes, and I hope to visit the Stasi Museum and the former Berlin Wall this time.
This trip also coincides with the 74th Berlin International Film Festival. We haven't looked at the specific film list yet, but we will see if we have time to experience the atmosphere on-site. I still remember at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, "The Grand Budapest Hotel," "Daylight Fireworks," and "Massage" competed for the Golden Bear, and ultimately, Diao Yinan's "Daylight Fireworks" won the award.
Wonderful Connections#
One day, I felt a moment of connection when I was listening to "Sparkle" and checking the wiki of the artist Taro Yamashita, discovering that his wife is Maria Takeuchi, who sang "Plastic Love." Both are musicians I really like; although their styles are somewhat different, with Yamashita's being more passionate and Takeuchi's embodying the beautiful nostalgia of city pop, the arrangements in their songs are quite stunning. In Yamashita's "Sparkle" and "Ride On Time," as well as Takeuchi's "Plastic Love" and "Dream's Continuation," the densely layered bass consistently leads the rhythm of the songs, while perfectly timed pauses provide rich movement without overshadowing the melody, giving it enough space to flourish. Both of them have indirectly influenced my transition from guitar to bass (aka Kings of Rhythm). Interestingly, my bass was unable to output audio to the amplifier due to a pickup detachment before the winter break, but last week, in that moment of connection, I managed to fix it 😆 and can now casually play at home.
Echoes of Time#
I never expected that one day I would heal myself.
I habitually use Logseq to record daily notes and have established a morning diary template. When I started writing this week's reflection and entered the start date of last week, I suddenly discovered a note from a year ago, January 28, 2023. Curious, I clicked to read it and found this record:
I completed the first session of the Headspace Basic meditation course. After a long time of not meditating, I felt that my focus and control over my thoughts were not as good as before. Of course, my mind has been quite chaotic lately, which is one reason.
During the first meditation, my wandering attention missed the prompt to close my eyes, and I continued the subsequent exercises with my eyes open. I missed the prompt to close my eyes again during the second meditation and found the point to close my eyes through the progress bar. Later, during the body awareness process, I was also quite unfocused, my mind constantly thinking about work. Although I am quite certain that by this time next year, I will have mostly forgotten these things.
After the first meditation ended, I did gain some headspace, allowing me to temporarily detach from the whirlpool of thoughts. At that moment, I suddenly noticed the winter sunlight shining on the wardrobe beside me, looking very soft, a gentle light in a brand new day.
"Although I am quite certain that by this time next year, I will have mostly forgotten these things." Now, I have proven my prediction, as I can hardly remember what seemed to trouble me so much back then :)
In this self-dialogue that transcends time and space, I feel that the difficulties I currently face in my studies and career have all been dissolved.
This incident also made me reflect on the power of recording.
This is my fifth weekly reflection. To be honest, when I set this goal last year, I didn't even think I would go this far. When I sit in front of the computer each week to review the past week, the first thing I feel is the power of forgetting. In just a short week, too many events and emotions have lost their details due to forgetting, leaving behind fragments of time occupied by emptiness, becoming a huge question mark. I am used to reviewing the previous day in the morning of a new day, and sometimes due to time constraints, I miss recording the previous day. When I try to record the skipped day the next day, I realize that the past day has already become vague, and I find myself futilely trying to trace back memories with words. This scene is somewhat akin to being trapped in insomnia in Macondo.
In these five weeks, my efforts in recording have gradually facilitated small changes in my life. This is somewhat similar to when you always carry a camera when going out; you become more aware of the landscapes around you. Even if you don't take satisfactory photos in a day, this shift in awareness still provides you with a new way to actively interact with your surroundings. Unlike photography, this more personal recording has no unified standards and also lacks the possibility of being judged by others, allowing me to view and record the surrounding events more honestly and neutrally. In this sense, recording itself is also a meditative process. This experience reminds me of a phrase on the Notion official website:
We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us. -- Marshall McLuhan
Data Science#
Last week, I attended the school's Best Thesis Symposium and met a classmate working on portfolio optimization. We discussed the dataset, and he kindly shared learning materials on time-series analysis, as well as data sources Fred and CRSP.
At the same time, another classmate's paper introduced me to the new concept of XAI (eXplainable AI), which was very enlightening for me. This direction can help understand machine learning models and attempt to solve the black box problem. On one hand, unknown risks are more dangerous than known risks, especially in financial risk management, where risk control models tend to underestimate the tail risk represented by black swan events. On the other hand, this direction can address algorithmic discrimination issues behind the black box, such as algorithms considering factors like gender, religious beliefs, and genetic information as important considerations for model output. XAI can help organizations better understand the models they use in their business to reduce compliance risks.
Django! Django!#
This week, I received a surprise from Manning Publication.
After completing the manuscript review of "Django in Action" the week before last, I thought I had finally finished a piece of work and could spend more time preparing for my studies, so I forgot about it. Then, in the middle of the week, I received an email from Manning Publication informing me that due to my previous work, I could choose a reward: one was the electronic version of the book and a $50 token, and the other was a physical copy of the book. Although the physical copy has more commemorative significance, since the book has not yet been officially published and is expected to take 4-6 weeks to arrive, I chose to take the electronic version.
As someone who usually enjoys flipping through books, I am quite happy to have participated in the publishing process of a book, even in this small role.
Reading#
This week, I saw the expansion of chips in the civilian and military markets in "Chip War."
In the civilian market, Sony's "license it" strategy allowed it to leverage the mature mass production technology of Texas Instruments and American companies, combined with its product design capabilities, to emerge in the consumer electronics field. In contrast, the Soviet Union's "copy it" strategy could not keep up with the rapidly advancing chip technology under Moore's Law. Moreover, the cumbersome institutions and inefficient resource allocation made it difficult for entrepreneurs to innovate, leading to a lack of a "star-studded" moment in the American chip industry. For example, during this time, Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore left Fairchild Semiconductor to establish Intel (INTegrated ELectronics), earning the new company its first pot of gold in civilian memory (DRAM).
In the military market, at that time, the United States was deeply mired in the Vietnam War, and how to improve missile accuracy became an important issue for the Pentagon, which brought military orders to Texas Instruments. The precision-strike weapons born from these orders not only brought funding to the American chip industry chain but also drew the Soviet Union into this chip-based competition.
Weekly Gems#
Reading#
I heard about this book on the "Cultural Limitations" podcast. I really liked the content. Initially, I thought the title indicated a documentary-style book, but after listening to the content, I found that the author, Juan Yan, was engaging in more formal literary creation. He reflects on literature while working in express delivery, contemplating the impact of "The Catcher in the Rye" on him, empathizing with Mrs. Woolf, and caring about individuals' psychological landscapes. These thoughts, which I once thought could only flourish in leisurely life, surprisingly thrive in a busy life, leading me to imagine what kind of spiritual life we could lead.
An interesting detail is that Juan Yan is the pen name of the author Wang Jibing. The characters "胡，" "安，" and "焉" are all pronouns indicating questions in classical Chinese:
- 胡: "Why not return?" from "Return to the Fields."
- 安: "How can a sparrow know the ambitions of a swan?" from "The Family of Chen She."
- 焉: "How can one catch a tiger cub without entering the tiger's den?"
Wang Jibing uses these three characters as a pen name, accurately conveying the instability of life itself.
This is one of the reference books for the new semester's courses. In Data Science, statistics is still an unavoidable theme, and I plan to study it well this time.
Language Learning#
I never expected to be taught how to learn Japanese by a Dutch person last week 😓. As someone who enjoys Japanese anime, he learned Japanese and went to Japan as an exchange student. He strongly recommended this website's plugin, which converts anime videos into Anki cards with original sound.
Vidanki is another Anki card-making application that can read the original sound of YouTube videos and create Anki cards for learning. I plan to use this software for my future English studies.
Coding#
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Google launched a free online course on machine learning from basics to advanced.
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🦀 comprehensive-rust is a Rust learning course launched by the Google Android team. I found this tutorial to be very interactive, so I saved it.
Miscellaneous#
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40 questions is a set of questions used by Obsidian CEO Steph Ango for annual reviews. I plan to use it to organize my summary for 2023.
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gwern.net is the blog site of Gwern Branwen. Previously, I knew nothing about this person, but through the wonderful internet, I discovered this elegantly styled and interesting website. I particularly liked a quote he placed on his "Me" page:
The reader lives faster than life, the writer lives slower. -- James Richardson, “Even More Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays from Vectors 3.0”