Oct 2025 Reflection

redfrogotr - - 3 mins read

Doing one thing in a good way is hard. We must focus on it so that neglecting other things that are also important.

So far, I have not figured out how to keep efficient. Insisting doing one thing is so boring that I unconsciously look for doing other things counteracting this feeling.

The second problem is loneliness. I am alone in my loft room and hardly ever talk with others. I think that probably results in psychology problems. In this condition, one single person starts to becoming odd gradually.

The third problem is economy. After resign, I lost my income. Depends on risk aversion, I tended to require me to make some money to balance my expense. But I have done nothing.

But what do I replace out under these problems? It’s owning myself. That means I have the decision right of my body. I can decide what I do now. Fitting in and attaching on one organization guarantees the safety, but we sacrifice individual freedom.

One important characteristic of this occasion is we can make some achievements or do nothing because of having not any requirements from organizations. When we are in company, even though we are reluctant to work, what we do is still valuable for our company. That’s why our company pay us. But when we don’t have to work anymore and we entertain ourselves during these free time, we make nothing valuable. If we replace the time originally for work with only entertaining ourselves, that is a more terrible situation.

All of us want to be in the positive side about not having to work. But the reality is we are mundane. We finally will succumb to uncertainty, anxiety and not having any achievements. We absolutely don’t want to drop into this terrible plight eventually.

I want to find out why most of people don’t become those who they expect to become. I think the reason is the big gap between our imagination and our current level of implementing it. If we see ourselves as a system, its working state matching our goal is the prerequisite. At this time, doing what we want is as easy as taking one step forward. For ourselves at present, the combination of what we can do is our circle of competence. If our goal locates in outside of the circle, we have to expand our circle. So how to expand it?

To be simple, we need to improve our levels in different aspects. When our ability level has been over the basic requirement of one thing, we absolutely can finish it easily. For example, asking an undergraduate to take a test in primary school. He can pass the test very easily. If asking an entrepreneur to do a small business, he can think out one hundred strategies to manage and market his business. These goals are inside their competence circle, so doing it is easy.

There are four basic ability levels that I think it’s most important:

  1. First is professional level for different domains (e.g. programming, electronics, product design). We must become the master in at least one domain. For example, reaching the professional level in language (e.g. English, Spanish and etc) or mastering programming (Python, any business). We know how to do it, then we do it.
  2. Second is economic level. Sufficient money provides more options what we want to do. Money can buy a lot of things, especially in contemporary capitalist society, but it can’t buy anything.
  3. Third is recognition level. For one event, different people have different comments and thoughts. Some people even will analyze it from psychology, economy and management aspects. But someone won’t. It is hard to conclude the recognition of which person is better, because we draw a conclusion depending on our individual experience. The difference of what we experience, see and read results the difference of opinions. However, one rule is correct. That is do not think basing one single model.
  4. The last is communication level. We must know how to express our opinions and how to persuade others. Anything will always connect with others. Also, they are not isolated. If we can’t tell your thoughts, we might be stuck here.

Actually, the hard part is improving the level. Most of time of the improving process is boring, tough and painful. Maybe, happiness is only the small part of life. Is it true that discomfort is the common state of our lives? —It’s not always true. Many people who improving the level are depending on not enduring pain rather motivating by the ultimate scenes they looking forward to. In this situation, they think pain can be as an exchange of meeting their final expectations.

I admire the strong willpower from monk. They show a feasible example of enduring pain for a long time or even whole life. To be honest, they did not simply endure pain. They still see pain as exchange of something else. They are clear about what they will get after a long pain. Meanwhile, the exchange as for them is acceptable. Therefore, when considering accomplishing one hard thing, the reasonable sequence of thinking should be: first consider the result, then the cost of process.

Last Month Goals & Progress

  1. APS preparation: almost finished, wait for testing
  2. GRE preparation: starting stage, only memorizing 300 words
  3. iOS development: starting and middle stage
  4. Writing: only 3 articles (5 in plan)

Reading

  1. 智人之上
  2. 芒格之道（almost finished）
  3. Elon Musk (2/3)

This Month Plans

  1. Pass my APS test
  2. 20 days for GRE, so finish 2/3 part of preparation:
    1. Full 1400 words
    2. Full quant mock tests
    3. Full verbal mock tests
    4. 10 articles about writing

Development

  1. Create my product prototype: at least 4 pages
  2. Keep learning iOS dev (4 hours per week)
  3. Learn about the knowledge of Bitcoin

Reading & Writing

  1. read 2 hours per day
  2. write 4 articles

Non-functional Plans

  1. Ban RedNote and Bilibili