“Say goodbye to free time,” they’d murmur, shaking their heads with the weary wisdom of the sleep-deprived.

They were spectacularly wrong.

2025 turned out to be my most productive year for passion projects: not despite becoming a father, but because of it. The arithmetic seems impossible until you live it. Fewer hours, more output. Less time, greater clarity. It’s the kind of paradox that would make a philosopher stroke their beard thoughtfully, except I no longer have time for beard-stroking.

The ruthless arithmetic of nap time

Before the baby, I had entire days stretching ahead of me like an open highway. Naturally, I spent most of them idling in the road shoulder, fiddling with the nav app. Parkinson’s law: work expands to fill the time available. Give me eight hours and I’ll produce four hours of output, having spent the rest “researching” (reading articles tangentially related to the task) and “preparing” (rearranging my desk).

Now my productive day looks like this: drop Wifey off at work, take any necessary meetings in the car on the way home, walk the dog, bring the baby to the park for morning playtime. Pick Wifey up for lunch. Then, the main event: nap time. Those precious two hours when the baby sleeps and I transform into a remarkably focused worker. Some evenings, after bedtime, I squeeze in a bit more.

That’s it. Two to three hours of “real” work time, plus stolen moments.

The secret weapon? Three tasks. Every day. No exceptions, no excuses, no ambitious to-do lists stretching into next week. Just three things that matter, identified the night before, executed during nap time.

Parkinson’s law, it turns out, works beautifully in reverse. Compress the time and work becomes remarkably efficient. When you know the baby could wake at any moment, you don’t spend twenty minutes choosing the perfect Spotify playlist before you start.

The surprising bonus? I now have more time to read and reflect than I did when I theoretically had “all the time in the world.” When you protect your time fiercely, you spend it on what matters. When time feels abundant, it evaporates.

Learning to say no

The real transformation wasn’t in how I worked: it was in what I refused to do.

Past-me would have said yes to that interesting project, that networking meeting, that “quick chat” that inevitably balloons into an hour. Present-me has become ruthlessly protective of my time, because every yes to something peripheral is a no to being present with my daughter.

Saying no used to feel uncomfortable, like declining a dinner invitation from someone you quite like. Now it feels like self-preservation. The baby doesn’t care about my professional obligations or networking opportunities. She cares about whether Papa is there, fully there, not half-present while mentally drafting replies.

This protectiveness extended beyond work. I said no to meetings that could have been emails, projects that would have fragmented my attention, and commitments that looked appealing but would have stolen hours from what actually mattered. I limit work and meetings to very specific time slots: even more aggressively than before, and my previous schedule was already considered extreme by people who knew how I operated.

There are trade-offs. I reply to messages even more slowly now, and I’m already notorious for glacial response times. To some, this probably comes across as disrespectful. But that’s the price of protecting my time, and I’ve made peace with it. The people who matter understand. The ones who don’t: well, that’s useful information too.

Finally learning to be present

I’ve written about presence before. I’ve read the books, understood the philosophy, nodded along with the wisdom about not dwelling on the past or anxiously predicting the future. I knew, intellectually, that ruminating on yesterday or worrying about tomorrow steals from experiencing today.

Knowing and doing are different things.

Having a daughter changed this. Not through some mystical transformation, but through simple, brutal motivation: I don’t want to miss the special moments. When she laughs at something for the first time, when she figures out how to do something new, when she reaches for me: these moments don’t wait for me to finish checking my notifications.

The present used to feel slippery. I’d try to grasp it and find myself somewhere else, replaying a conversation, planning tomorrow’s tasks, anywhere but here. Now the present has a face, and she’s looking right at me.

This is perhaps the most unexpected gift of parenthood: not the joy or the love, which I anticipated, but the anchor. She pulls me into now, whether I planned to be there or not.

AI as a force multiplier

I couldn’t have maintained this output without AI tools. But the breakthrough wasn’t using AI more: it was learning to use it like a proper director runs a film set.

Here’s what I mean. Last month I was debugging a layout issue on this very blog. Pre-AI me would have spent an evening squinting at CSS, opening seventeen Stack Overflow tabs, and muttering increasingly creative profanity at the screen. Instead, I described the problem, the AI identified a conflicting z-index in about four seconds, and I spent the remaining hour and fifty-six minutes actually writing.

That’s the model now. I’m the director setting the vision; the AI is the crew handling execution—the same cyberbrain approach I’ve been refining. I developed workflows where the AI doesn’t just complete tasks but checks its own homework: each step includes a checklist and a scoring system. If the output falls below the threshold, it reworks until it meets the standard. Only then does it slide the result across my desk.

Think of it as hiring a diligent assistant and a quality control manager in one. The result is that I can accomplish in two hours what previously took a full day, because I’m no longer doing the tedious parts. I’m focused on where the ship is heading, not swabbing the deck.

Progress on passion projects

Against all expectations, every personal project moved forward this year.

WuxiaSociety saw steady progress. MechaBay evolved. This blog: my digital home for over two decades, got more attention than it had in years. Translation work continued. The constraint of limited time forced me to prioritise ruthlessly, which meant the projects that mattered actually got done instead of languishing in the “someday” pile.

The lone exception was AI art, but not for lack of trying. The technology is evolving so fast that keeping up feels like reviewing cars when a new model launches every Tuesday. By the time you’ve mastered one approach, three better ones have emerged. I’ve made peace with running behind on this particular frontier: I stay current enough to know the latest trends and workflows, but I focus on getting the results I want rather than chasing every shiny new release. It’s not unlike being content with my camera gear instead of upgrading every time Leica clears its throat and announces something.

Unlearning the Western lens

I’ve spent a decade in China and apparently learnt nothing. Or so it felt this year, when a quiet revelation crept up on me while reading the Analects.

On a whim, I compared Confucian ideas against Greek and Roman philosophers and found striking parallels. Concepts about virtue, governance, and the good life echoed across millennia and continents, except the Chinese versions often predated their Western counterparts by a thousand years.

Growing up with a Western education, absorbing Western media, I’d unconsciously absorbed a dismissive attitude toward Chinese philosophy. It was something ancient and quaint, not a living tradition with practical wisdom. Discovering that Confucius was exploring ideas about ethical leadership and self-cultivation centuries before Aristotle put quill to papyrus was, to put it mildly, a recalibration.

I’ve been reading Michael Puett’s The Path, which reframes Chinese philosophical traditions as practical guides for living. His treatment of rituals particularly struck me. I’d always thought of rituals as empty traditions: things we do because we’ve always done them, like wearing ties and belts.

But rituals serve a deeper purpose. They’re emotional guardrails, preventing our feelings from pushing us toward reckless actions we’d regret. When you’re angry at someone you love, ritual: the expected response, the appropriate behaviour, stops you from saying something irreparable. It’s not about suppressing emotion; it’s about creating space between impulse and action.

This isn’t mysticism. It’s practical psychology dressed in ancient robes. And it’s something I’ll be delving much deeper into in the year ahead.

What I actually want

Turning 40 has a way of clarifying things, like putting on glasses you didn’t know you needed.

I used to think I wanted to create content. What I actually want is to shape conversations: to share what I’ve learnt in the hope that it helps someone, however minor the contribution. Not someone producing material for algorithms to sort, but someone whose ideas occasionally make a reader pause and think.

I used to dream of building a big business. What I actually want is a self-sustaining operation, what Paul Jarvis calls a “company of one”—work that stays meaningful without demanding I sacrifice the life it’s meant to support. Something that supports the life I want rather than demanding I sacrifice that life to feed its growth. Rejecting the busyness of business, if you will.

These aren’t failures of ambition. They’re refinements of it. The younger version of me chased scale because scale seemed like success. The current version understands that true success means something different: autonomy, impact, presence.

Finding myself at 40 isn’t about dramatic reinvention. It’s about clearing away the assumptions I’d accumulated about what success looks like, about what I should want, about who I’m supposed to be, and discovering what was underneath all along.

A wish for more courage

If I could gift myself one thing for 2026, it would be courage. Not the dramatic kind. I’m not planning to wrestle tigers or start a revolution. The quieter kind.

The courage to publish the half-formed essay that might make me look foolish. The courage to admit, publicly, when I’ve been wrong about something I argued passionately. The courage to create, even when the work might be mediocre. The courage to fail at things worth attempting. The courage to learn new things badly before learning them well. The courage to keep saying no, even when it disappoints people I respect.

Saying no got easier this year, but it still costs something. Every declined invitation carries a small weight. I’d like to set that weight down: to say no without the lingering guilt, trusting that protecting my time is stewardship rather than selfishness.

Courage, I’m learning, isn’t the absence of fear. It’s shipping the blog post anyway, while uncertain—being bold in the small ways that add up. Creating anyway, while imperfect. Pressing publish, then closing the laptop before you can change your mind.

Looking ahead

2026 arrives with unusual clarity. The systems work. The priorities are set. The path is clearer than it’s been in years.

I’m grateful for Wifey, who makes all of this possible and tolerates my obsessive systems and stubborn refusal of most invitations. For my daughter, who taught me more about priorities and presence in her first year than I managed in the previous thirty-nine. For friends, old and new, who showed up in ways that mattered. For the tools that multiply my efforts and the knowledge freely shared by others that helped me build my systems.

2025 wasn’t a year of conquering challenges. It was a year of receiving gifts I didn’t know I needed.

What stays: the three-task system, the fierce protection of time, the AI collaboration that makes it all possible, the commitment to being present. What evolves: deeper engagement with Chinese philosophy, more intentional thought leadership, continued refinement of the small-but-sustainable approach to work. And hopefully, a bit more courage.

Some questions I’m still sitting with: How do I balance spending more time creating with being present? How do I scale impact without scaling busyness? How do I keep discovering blind spots I don’t yet know I have?

Good questions to carry into a new year. The kind that don’t demand immediate answers, just continued attention.

The great irony of 2025 is that becoming a father: the thing everyone warned would end my creative life, actually gave it back to me. Constraints clarified. Limits liberated. Less became more.

It turns out the secret to getting more done isn’t finding more time. It’s finding what actually matters, and protecting the time you have for exactly that.

Somehow, 1.4 billion people became a singular noun with a singular intent.

I’ve lived in Shenzhen for years now, and I can confirm that the city contains at least six violently different opinions on where to get the best changfen (肠粉). The idea that everyone here could coordinate their views on anything—let alone geopolitics—is, how do I put this delicately, completely mental.

The substitution test

Try this experiment. Take any headline about “China” and substitute “United States.”

“United States infiltrates universities through student exchange programmes.” The framing sounds paranoid immediately. US students abroad are understood as just… students. Some brilliant, some mediocre, most trying to figure out laundry in a foreign language.

“US weaponises technology companies for global surveillance.” Post-Snowden, this claim has teeth—which is precisely the point. When the NSA was found to have collaborated with tech companies, the response distinguished between government overreach, corporate compliance, and what individual Americans believed. Nuance survived. The entire population wasn’t treated as suspects.

“US citizens abroad advance US interests.” This would get a laugh. American tourists are advancing their interests in finding decent coffee and complaining about portion sizes.

(Even “America” is lazy shorthand—ask a Canadian or Brazilian how they feel about one country claiming an entire hemisphere’s name. These patterns are easy to fall into without noticing.)

Yet when the subject is China, this basic understanding of how societies work evaporates. Every Chinese company becomes an arm of the state. Every Chinese citizen becomes a potential agent. Every success becomes evidence of some grand, coordinated scheme.

The actors that aren’t “China”

This framing welds together entirely separate things:

The Chinese government sets policy, regulates markets, and yes, sometimes does things that warrant criticism. Like any government.

Chinese companies are trying to make money. Some are state-owned or state-influenced, but the vast majority operate as private enterprises in competitive domestic markets. The ones listed on NASDAQ have shareholders in New York who care about returns, not ideology. They face antitrust investigations, regulatory fines, and market pressures—often from their own government.

Chinese people are 1.4 billion individuals with wildly different opinions, preferences, and priorities. My neighbour thinks the local government is too lax on traffic enforcement. His wife thinks they’re too strict. They’ve been married for twenty years and still can’t agree on this.

These are distinct actors with distinct motivations. To call them all “China” is to confuse the play for the playwright, the soldiers for the state, the voters for the vote. A useful corrective: think of China as Europe—a continent of distinct regions and interests, not a single actor.

Yes, some companies have state ties. Yes, there have been documented cases of espionage. These warrant scrutiny of specific actors through specific evidence. But painting 1.4 billion people with suspicions earned by a handful of cases isn’t caution—it’s prejudice dressed as prudence.

When these distinct actors get collapsed into “China,” the framing isn’t analytical. It’s lazy.

An old story in new clothes

This flattening has a history, and it’s not flattering. The “inscrutable Oriental” trope—the idea that Asian people lack individual agency, moving as a coordinated mass—is centuries old. It’s been used to justify exclusion acts, internment camps, and foreign policy disasters.

The modern version is subtler but structurally identical. Instead of explicit racial language, we get euphemisms: “China’s long game,” “the Chinese way of thinking,” “how China operates.” These phrases smuggle in the same assumption—that 1.4 billion people share one brain.

The assumption is no longer that “they all look alike,” but that “they all think alike”—a premise just as flawed and just as dangerous.

I grew up in Singapore’s British-influenced education system and absorbed these frames without noticing. The dominant English-language media I consumed granted Western societies nuance—regulators fighting corporations, citizens protesting governments, companies competing ruthlessly. Not all coverage was equal, of course. But the default assumption was complexity.

It wasn’t until I moved to Shenzhen that I noticed the double standard. The same complexity I’d been taught to see in Western societies? Apparently it stopped at the Chinese border.

The bias isn’t always conscious.

But unconscious bias is still bias.

What we lose

This matters beyond hurt feelings.

None of this denies the Chinese state’s significant influence. But mistaking influence for monolithic control causes us to misunderstand everything from market reforms to social change. The monolithic framing sees a chessboard with one player, when in reality it’s a dynamic ecosystem of competing and aligning interests.

When China is framed as a monolith, observers become worse at understanding how it actually works. They miss the genuine policy debates, the factional disagreements, the regulatory crackdowns on domestic tech giants that suggest the relationship between state and private enterprise is far more complicated than “big brother controls everything.”

The framing damages relationships before they start. Chinese students arrive at Western universities already suspected. Chinese businesses face regulatory scrutiny their Western competitors avoid. Chinese individuals abroad navigate a fog of assumption that their counterparts never encounter.

And it blinds. If every Chinese action is part of a grand authoritarian scheme, genuine concerns become indistinguishable from phantom threats. Real partners blur into real problems. The monolithic frame means shadowboxing a cartoon villain while the actual, complicated reality goes unexamined.

Seeing clearly

I’m not asking anyone to approve of Chinese government policy or ignore real issues. Criticism, where warranted, should be precise—aimed at specific policies, specific actors, specific decisions. That’s how accountability works.

And precise criticism actually gets results here. When specific policies face pushback—domestically or internationally—they often iterate rapidly. But that feedback loop requires identifying what’s actually happening, not what observers assume must be happening based on a cartoon of how “China” operates.

“China wants” is not precision. It’s a shortcut that flatters existing assumptions instead of challenging them.

So here’s a rule: never accept a sentence that claims “China wants.” Demand to know who in China wants it. The Politburo? A provincial governor? A tech CEO chasing market share? A generation of young consumers? Until you can answer that, you don’t understand the story.

Countries don’t want things. Governments do. Companies do. People do. And they often want completely different things—which is rather the point of having a society in the first place.

Here’s the thing: China isn’t a country in the way many people conceptualise “country”, a concept that took me some adjusting having grown up in a city-state like Singapore. It’s more accurate to think of China like Europe—a vast landmass containing the equivalent of dozens of distinct peoples, each with their own languages, cuisines, customs, and historical baggage. The only difference is that they happen to share a central government and united identity rather than an emphasis on individual uniqueness.

Scale of the misconception

Let’s start with the obvious: size. China is roughly the same size as Europe. Not ‘kind of similar if you squint’—actually the same size. China covers about 9.6 million square kilometers; Europe covers about 10.2 million square kilometers. The populations differ more with China at 1.4 billion and Europe at around 750 million.

Yet when someone says ‘I’m going to Europe’, you’d naturally ask where. Paris? Berlin? Amsterdam? But when someone says ‘I’m going to China’, people unfamiliar with China would often leave it at that, as if Beijing, Shenzhen, and Kashgar are interchangeable destinations. They’re not. The distance from Beijing to Shenzhen is roughly the same as London to Rome—and the cultural differences can be just as stark.

A continent in disguise

China’s provinces are more like countries than administrative regions. Guangdong Province, where I live in Shenzhen, has a population of 127 million—that’s nearly twice the population of the UK. Sichuan Province has 84 million people. Henan has 99 million. These aren’t mere administrative units; they’re massive regions with distinct identities.

The languages alone tell the story. Yes, Mandarin is the official language, but calling China a ‘Chinese-speaking country’ is like calling Europe an ‘Indo-European-speaking continent’—technically true but is as helpful as saying you live on Earth. Cantonese, spoken in Guangdong and Hong Kong, is as different from Mandarin as Spanish is from French. Shanghainese, Hokkien, Hakka—these aren’t dialects, they’re distinct languages that are mutually unintelligible. A Beijinger who speaks only Mandarin literally cannot understand someone speaking Cantonese without translation, any more than a Londoner can understand Dutch.

The cuisine is equally diverse. Sichuan food bears no resemblance to Cantonese dim sum. Xinjiang cuisine looks and tastes more like Turkish food than anything you’d find in Shanghai. The idea of ‘Chinese food’ is as absurd as the idea of ‘European food’—try telling an Italian that their cuisine is the same as Finnish food and see what happens.

Historical kingdoms & regional identity

China’s current borders contain what were historically separate kingdoms and empires. The Qin Dynasty (where ‘China’ gets its name) conquered and unified these regions around 221 BCE, but the regional identities never disappeared—they just got bundled together under a common government.

Here’s a thought experiment I often return to: if the Roman Empire had survived and evolved into a modern federal state, Europe today might look like China does. You’d have Italians, Germans, French, and Iberians all under one government, all speaking their local languages at home while using Latin in official contexts. That’s essentially what China is—except the ‘Roman Empire’ in question was the various Chinese dynasties that unified these disparate regions over millennia, all the while retaining the concept of a unified identity as the Middle Nation.

The governance myth

Here’s where things get really interesting, and where misconceptions reach peak absurdity. Many people imagine China as this monolithic machine where Beijing micromanages every province, city, and village—some sort of authoritarian puppet show where Xi Jinping pulls all the strings simultaneously. It’s a comforting narrative if you want to paint China as a dystopian nightmare, but it’s about as accurate as assuming Brussels dictates every decision made in Lisbon, Stockholm, and Athens.

The reality is far more nuanced. China’s governance structure is remarkably decentralized, particularly when it comes to economic policy and local administration. The central government sets broad strategic directions—think of it as the conductor setting the tempo and key signature—but the provinces are the ones actually playing the music. And much like an orchestra where the violins, cellos, and trumpets all have their own parts, each province interprets and implements central policies in ways that suit their local conditions.

Take Guangdong Province, where Shenzhen sits. It’s been pioneering economic reforms since Deng Xiaoping designated it as a Special Economic Zone in 1980. The province didn’t wait for Beijing to spell out every detail; it experimented, failed, adjusted, and eventually created an economic powerhouse that rivals entire countries. Shenzhen itself went from a fishing village to a tech megalopolis not because Beijing micromanaged every decision, but because local officials had the autonomy to try new approaches based on what they see and experience on the ground.

This mirrors how Germany’s federal states (Länder) or Catalunya operate with different policies from Andalusia within Spain. Some provinces focus on manufacturing, others on agriculture, still others on technology or tourism. Cities within provinces enjoy similar autonomy—Shenzhen operates differently from Guangzhou despite being in the same province, much like how London differs from Manchester. When conditions made neighbouring Dongguan more favourable for manufacturing, Shenzhen pivoted to become the world capital for innovation. It’s a laboratory of governance approaches, all working toward ‘common prosperity and national advancement’, but each finding their own path.

The phrase ‘common prosperity’ itself is telling. It’s not ‘identical prosperity’ or ‘uniform prosperity’—it’s common, as in shared, while acknowledging that the routes to prosperity will vary wildly between a tech hub like Shenzhen, an agricultural heartland like Henan, and a remote region like Tibet.

This decentralization explains why you can cross from one province to another and encounter completely different regulatory environments, business practices, and even enforcement of national policies.

Does Beijing step in sometimes? Absolutely. When the central government deems something critical to national interests, it will override local preferences—just as the EU occasionally overrides national policies with regulations like GDPR, or how the US federal government enforces civil rights legislation regardless of state resistance.

China operates similarly. When Beijing declared its zero-COVID policy, provinces had to fall in line—much like how EU member states had to comply with Brussels’ directives during the pandemic. The 2021 crackdown on private tutoring companies is another example. Beijing decided the education sector needed reform to avoid an increasing gap where the wealthy could pour money to give them an edge over less well-off schoolmates. The promotion of fairer education while reducing childhood stress and burnout essentially shut down an entire industry overnight. Local governments in cities like Beijing and Shanghai, which had thriving education sectors, implemented the policy across the board.

But here’s the crucial point: these interventions are the exception, not the rule. Most economic decisions, urban planning, local regulations, and business environment policies are determined at the provincial or municipal level. Beijing sets the vision—‘become a technology leader’, ‘reduce carbon emissions’, ‘promote common prosperity’—but how Shenzhen interprets ‘technology leader’ looks very different from how Chengdu does it.

Climate zones & geography

The environmental diversity drives this home further. China contains deserts in the northwest, tropical rainforests in the south, and everything in between. Harbin in the northeast sees temperatures drop to minus 30 degrees Celsius in winter; Shenzhen in the south rarely drops below 10 degrees. That’s like comparing Oslo to Athens—completely different worlds requiring completely different ways of life.

Why this matters

Understanding China as a continent rather than a country isn’t just semantic pedantry. It fundamentally changes how you interpret Chinese news, politics, and culture. When you read about a policy change in China, it’s worth asking: which part of China? Which level of government is actually making this decision—central, provincial, or municipal? A regulation that makes perfect sense in Shanghai might be completely impractical in rural Yunnan.

It also helps explain why certain Western assumptions about China often miss the mark. Talking about ‘what Chinese people think’ makes about as much sense as talking about ‘what Europeans think’—which Europeans? The Swedish? The Greeks? The Romanians? They all have rather different perspectives, wouldn’t you say?

The governance structure particularly matters when evaluating China’s economic success or political decisions. What looks like a unified strategy from the outside is often a collection of provincial experiments, some successful, some not, with the central government picking winners and scaling them up. It’s pragmatic federalism dressed up as central planning.

The unity paradox

Here’s the twist: despite all this diversity, there is a cohesive Chinese identity. Just as Europeans can feel ‘European’ while also being distinctly French or German, Chinese people maintain both regional and national identities. The difference is that China managed to create political unity centuries ago, while Europe is still working on it.

This unity isn’t about homogeneity—it’s about a shared historical narrative, a common writing system (even if spoken languages differ), and millennia of cultural exchange. It’s rather like how English remains English despite enormous differences between British, American, Australian, and Indian English. The shared framework allows for regional variations.

Rethinking your mental map

The next time you hear someone say ‘China is…’, pause and ask yourself: which China? The tech-hub megacity of Shenzhen? The historical capital of Beijing? The Muslim-majority regions of Xinjiang? The Tibetan highlands? Rural Guizhou?

China contains multitudes. Treating it as a single, monolithic entity—whether in praise or criticism—is like judging all of Europe based solely on your experience in Paris. For more on why “China” isn’t one actor, see the companion piece. You might get some things right, but you’ll miss the extraordinary diversity that makes the place fascinating.

So think of China as Europe. It’s not perfect as analogies go, but it’s far more accurate than thinking of it as a scaled-up version of Britain or Japan. And once you make that mental shift, China suddenly becomes a lot easier to understand—precisely because you stop trying to understand it as one thing and start appreciating it as many things that happen to share a government.

Rather fitting, isn’t it? The more you learn about China, the more you realize how much there is to learn. A bit like learning about Europe, really. Or anywhere else worth knowing about.

Source Han Sans represents a landmark achievement in type design: the first truly comprehensive Pan-CJK typeface created through international collaboration. Developed jointly by Adobe and Google, the font family provides unified typographic coverage for Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese (Taiwan), and Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong) writing systems—all while maintaining visual harmony and respecting each region’s distinct typographic traditions.

The design draws from the neutral, contemporary aesthetic of grotesque sans-serifs while incorporating the structural requirements of CJK character construction. Japanese lead designer Ryoko Nishizuka coordinated the overall vision, working with Sandoll Communications for Korean characters and Changzhou SinoType for Chinese variants. The result is a typeface where characters from different writing systems can coexist on the same page without visual conflict, sharing consistent stroke weights, proportions, and design sensibilities.

With over 65,000 glyphs across its complete family, Source Han Sans addresses a fundamental challenge in multilingual typography. The font includes region-specific character variants through OpenType localization features, automatically selecting the appropriate glyph forms based on language tags. Its seven weights provide excellent range for establishing hierarchy, while variable font versions offer continuous weight adjustment for modern web and application development.

Best uses

• Multilingual websites and applications serving East Asian markets
• Corporate branding requiring consistent CJK and Latin typography
• Editorial and publishing projects with mixed-language content
• User interfaces for software distributed across China, Japan, and Korea
• Government and institutional documents requiring broad character support

Thoughts

Source Han Sans stands as one of the most significant type design achievements of the 2010s—not just for its technical scope, but for demonstrating that open-source collaboration can produce world-class typography. The font performs admirably across screen and print, maintaining excellent legibility even at small sizes where CJK characters typically struggle.

The availability of identical fonts through both Adobe and Google (as Noto Sans CJK) makes it an extremely practical choice for cross-platform projects. The variable font releases have made it particularly valuable for web development, where serving comprehensive CJK fonts has traditionally been bandwidth-prohibitive. For anyone working on projects that span East Asian languages, Source Han Sans remains the benchmark against which other Pan-CJK typefaces are measured.

References

• Adobe GitHub repository
• Adobe Fonts
• Google Fonts (Noto Sans CJK)
• Source Han Sans Design Guide (PDF)

Europa is a contemporary geometric sans-serif that refines the modernist tradition established by typefaces like Futura. Designer Fabian Leuenberger has crafted a typeface that retains the clean, circular forms characteristic of geometric sans-serifs while introducing subtle humanist touches that add warmth and improve readability, particularly at smaller sizes and on screen.

The typeface features a moderate x-height and open apertures, which contribute to its excellent legibility. Unlike the more rigid geometric constructions of its predecessors, Europa incorporates slightly curved terminals and optically adjusted stroke weights that give it a softer, more contemporary feel. The result is a typeface that feels both timeless and modern—capable of conveying sophistication without feeling cold or clinical.

Europa’s restrained weight range of Light, Regular, and Bold keeps the family focused and versatile. Each weight maintains consistent proportions and character, making it straightforward to establish clear typographic hierarchy while ensuring visual cohesion across applications.

Best uses

• Brand identity systems requiring a clean, modern aesthetic
• Website headers and navigation where clarity is essential
• Editorial design for contemporary magazines and publications
• User interface design for apps and digital products
• Marketing materials and presentations
• Packaging design seeking refined simplicity

Thoughts

Europa excels at bridging the gap between classic geometric sans-serifs and contemporary design needs. Where Futura can sometimes feel austere or dated, Europa feels approachable and fresh while maintaining similar visual DNA. It’s particularly effective in branding contexts where clients want something modern but not trendy.

The typeface performs admirably across digital and print contexts. On screen, the slightly softened forms render cleanly at various sizes, avoiding the harshness that can plague more rigidly geometric designs. Its widespread availability on Adobe Fonts has made it a popular choice for web projects, and the consistent quality across weights means it scales well from body copy to display use.

References

• Adobe Fonts
• Typewolf
• Fonts In Use

House of Cards is a vintage-inspired display serif typeface that authentically captures the spirit of 19th-century wood type while remaining distinctly contemporary. Based on Hamilton’s Teniers, one of the era’s most beloved wood type designs, this typeface balances historical accuracy with modern usability through carefully considered modifications.

The font’s most distinctive feature is its collection of sprayed stroke alternates for letters such as F, H, P, U, f, h, m, n, t, u, and w. These alternates, accessible through OpenType Stylistic Alternates or Swash features, add organic texture and authentic wood type character to designs. The slightly weathered appearance evokes the imperfect yet charming nature of letterpress printing, where ink coverage varied and edges showed natural wear.

Each glyph retains the robust proportions and confident presence of classic wood type, with generous x-heights and sturdy serifs that ensure legibility even at display sizes. The lowercase characters have been subtly refined from the original Teniers design to feel more natural to contemporary eyes while maintaining the nostalgic essence that makes vintage typography so appealing.

Best uses

• Poster designs requiring authentic vintage character
• Title treatments for retro-themed projects
• Brand identities with heritage or craft positioning
• Packaging design for artisanal or nostalgic products
• Editorial headlines in magazines and publications
• Event collateral with period-appropriate aesthetics

Thoughts

House of Cards succeeds where many vintage revivals fall short by striking a careful balance between historical authenticity and practical versatility. The sprayed stroke alternates are particularly well-executed—they add period-appropriate texture without compromising legibility or feeling gimmicky.

The family’s two weights (Regular and Bold) with matching italics provide sufficient flexibility for most display applications, though designers working on complex hierarchy systems might wish for additional weights. The Bold weight particularly shines in poster and title applications, where its substantial presence commands attention while the sprayed alternates add tactile warmth.

What makes this typeface especially valuable is its ability to evoke specific historical periods without feeling like a costume. The slightly refined lowercase characters prevent the design from feeling too precious or museum-like, making it suitable for contemporary brands that want to reference vintage aesthetics without appearing dated. I’ve found it works particularly well for craft beverage packaging and event posters where authentic character matters more than clinical precision.

The OpenType features are thoughtfully implemented—the alternates appear natural rather than forced, and the italic styles maintain the wood type character while providing genuine cursive construction. For designers building vintage-inspired brand systems or creating period-appropriate editorial content, House of Cards offers an authentic foundation that feels researched rather than pastiche.

References

• Dharma Type website
• MyFonts page
• Adobe Fonts
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I explore how to use AI and technology to live a more fulfilling life. My goal is to share my learnings because I have benefited from others sharing theirs.

Core principles

1. Augmentation, not replacement

AI tools enhance human creativity and decision-making. They handle repetitive tasks, generate initial ideas, and process information at scale—freeing us to focus on strategy, synthesis, and creative direction.

2. Systems thinking

Building a cyberbrain requires understanding how tools connect and create workflows. Each tool should fit into a larger system that supports learning, creation, and reflection.

3. Continuous learning

The landscape of AI tools evolves rapidly. A cyberbrain approach means staying curious, experimenting with new tools, and adapting workflows as capabilities improve.

4. Cultural bridging

AI tools can help bridge language and cultural barriers, enabling deeper understanding and collaboration across different contexts and communities.

Current stack

Writing & content creation

• Claude and Qwen for deep dive and ideation
• Kimi and Yuanbao for quick research and brainstorming

Visual creation

• ComfyUI for image generation workflows
• Flux for realistic image generation
• Qwen-Image and Qwen-Edit models for stylised image generation

Productivity

• Cursor for code and workflow creation
• Bear for note-taking and knowledge management
• Ollama for local model inference

Workflow philosophy

The goal is not to automate everything, but to create workflows where AI handles what it does well (processing, generating, translating) while humans focus on what we do best (judgement, creativity, connection).

This is a living document. As tools evolve and workflows improve, this manifesto will be updated to reflect current practices and learnings.

Related posts

• Three note types that transform thinking – Build a note reservoir so blank pages disappear
• How to think outside your brain – Set your brain free to connect while your notes handle the storage
• Your note-taking system is sabotaging your creativity – Why your perfect system might be killing your best ideas
• Never start writing from scratch again – How permanent notes turn blank pages into finished articles
• Useful writing – We’re taught to be persuasive when we write, but is that useful?
• How to read – Consuming information doesn’t mean you’re learning
• Meaningful work – Mindfulness in choosing work that matters
• Turbocharging self-learning with AI – How AI tools can accelerate your learning journey

This page represents an ongoing exploration. If you’re building your own cyberbrain, I’d love to hear about your approach.

We were raised to treat memory like a filing cabinet. Cram for exams, rehearse grocery lists, memorise phone numbers because Nokia 3310s didn’t sync to iCloud. The message was clear: if you can’t store it upstairs, you’re not trying hard enough.

Spoiler alert: brains aren’t hard drives. They’re processors. They don’t want to hoard information; they want to remix it.

Memory is an unreliable narrator

Every time you remember something, your brain rewrites it. Memory isn’t retrieval—it’s reconstruction. Your neurons grab fragments, sprinkle them with today’s emotions, splice in whatever you just watched on Netflix, and hand you “memory.v47”. No wonder eyewitnesses disagree and siblings argue about childhood stories. The brain isn’t lying; it’s crafting a plausible narrative from incomplete footage.

That’s charming for nostalgia, disastrous for knowledge work. If your workflow depends on perfect recall, you’re building on quicksand. Systems that don’t rely on willpower help: external structure does the holding so your brain can do the thinking.

Working memory is a tiny desk

Even if your brain stored memories perfectly, working memory would still bottleneck you. Most studies pin our mental juggling limit at roughly seven items. Try to hold more and everything splats onto the mental floor.

Complex thinking demands more than seven thoughts: arguments, counterarguments, quotes, data points, your own take, the structure of the piece you’re writing, the hook you want to land. That’s already eight balls in the air.

Sönke Ahrens summed it up neatly: “We need a reliable and simple external structure to think in that compensates for the limitations of our brains.”

Externalise thought, not just storage

The biggest shift in my practice came when I stopped thinking in my head. Not just storing information externally—actually thinking externally.

When I’m wrestling with a messy idea, I open a note (or dictate into an AI) and dump every half-baked thought. Short sentences. Question marks. Contradictions. The point is to get the fog out of my skull and onto the screen where I can see it.

This isn’t diary writing—nor is it treating your notes as a trophy cabinet. It’s conversational debugging. I treat the page like a junior colleague: “Explain this back to me.” Half the time the page just stares blankly, which tells me I don’t have clarity yet.

Ahrens nails the payoff: “The most important advantage of writing is that it helps us confront ourselves when we do not understand something as well as we would like to believe.”

Brains love connections, not cold storage

Brains remember through association. Smells trigger childhood, songs unlock entire summers, one joke resurfaces another. This is the secret sauce of zettelkasten: treat notes as connection points, not trophies.

When I write a permanent note (see three note types that transform thinking), I’m not immortalising the information. I’m planting a hook my future self can grab. My brain only needs to remember “I have something on Luhmann and laziness”; the note contains the specifics.

That division of labour means my brain stays in pattern-recognition mode while my notes handle the exact wording, references, and links.

Forget strategically to remember better

Paradoxically, the more I outsource to notes, the more I remember. Not verbatim facts, but shapes: arguments, narratives, analogies. When I need detail, I look it up. My mental energy stays focused on synthesis.

Writing things down deepens understanding because translation forces processing. You can’t explain something you don’t grasp. Cognitive scientists call this the generation effect. I call it “future Jenxi will thank you.”

This is also why I let ideas marinate. By the time I revisit a note, I’ve forgotten the exact phrasing. The distance lets me spot patterns I missed. It’s the same reason photographers let raws sit before editing: detachment sharpens judgement.

Build a dialogue with your notes

Once thinking happens outside your head, your notes become conversation partners. One note pointing to another sparks an insight you didn’t plan. A question from July collides with a quote from October and suddenly there’s a newsletter draft staring back at you.

Ahrens again: “The slip-box is designed to present you with ideas you have already forgotten, allowing your brain to focus on thinking instead of remembering.” When your notes surprise you, that’s when you know you’re thinking outside your brain.

Practical ways to think externally

Want to try this today? A quick loop:

1. Spot a sticky idea in something you’re reading.
2. Open a fresh note and brain-dump what you think about it. No polishing.
3. Extract one permanent note: a clear statement, why it matters, links to related notes, and a question that keeps the conversation alive.

Rinse repeat. Before long you’ve built a lattice of externalised thoughts that talk to each other. That lattice is your extended working memory—far bigger than seven items.

Standing on an extended brain

This approach compounds. Every externalised thought becomes available to future you. Every connection makes subsequent connections easier. Your creative system snowballs not because your brain grew more storage, but because you built a trustworthy, searchable, remixable extension.

Or as Ahrens writes, “To have an undistracted brain to think with and a reliable collection of notes to think in is pretty much all we need.”

Let your brain be the processor. Let your notes be the hard drive. Together they form a cyberbrain that actually plays to your strengths.

Next in this series: Learn by reading—how to transform passive consumption into active understanding, and why highlighting might be sabotaging your comprehension more than you realise.

I’d wake up on Monday full of determination. I’d power through my to-do list, resist distractions, force myself to focus on difficult tasks. Halfway through Tuesday, I’d be exhausted. By Wednesday, I was running on fumes. It’s barely midweek yet even simple tasks felt impossible.

I thought the problem was me. Not disciplined enough. Not committed enough. Not productive enough.

Turns out, I was asking the wrong question. The problem wasn’t my willpower—it was my dependence on it.

Willpower delusion

We worship willpower in productivity culture. We admire people who wake up at 5 am, who resist every distraction, who push through resistance. We treat discipline as the ultimate virtue.

But here’s what Sönke Ahrens discovered studying Niklas Luhmann’s work: “Not having willpower, but not having to use willpower indicates that you set yourself up for success.”

Read that again. The goal isn’t to have more willpower. It’s to need less of it.

Luhmann wrote 90,000 notes and over 50 books. When asked how he stayed so productive, his answer was surprising: “I only do what is easy. I only write when I immediately know how to do it. If I falter for a moment, I put the matter aside and do something else.”

He wasn’t being glib. He’d built a system that made productivity feel easy because the work was always interesting, always achievable, always flowing naturally from one task to the next.

Most of us do the opposite. We force ourselves to work on things we’re stuck on. We fight our natural resistance. We treat productivity as a battle against our own nature.

And we wonder why we’re exhausted.

Why willpower fails

Willpower is a limited resource. Psychologists call this ego depletion—every decision, every act of self-control, every moment of resisting temptation drains your mental battery.

This is why you can resist the biscuit tin at 9 am but raid it at 9 pm. This is why you can focus on difficult work in the morning but doom-scroll Twitter in the afternoon. Your willpower depletes throughout the day.

But it’s worse than that. Every tiny decision drains willpower. Choosing what to wear. Deciding what to work on next. Figuring out where to file a note. Resisting the urge to check your phone.

By the time you sit down to do actual creative work, you’ve already spent half your mental energy on trivial choices.

This is why Steve Jobs wore the same black turtleneck every day. Why Barack Obama had only grey or blue suits. They weren’t being eccentric—they were conserving mental energy for decisions that actually mattered.

The same principle applies to note-taking and knowledge work. If your system requires constant decisions—where should this go? what tag should I use? should I save this?—you’re bleeding willpower before you even start thinking.

Designing for laziness

The secret to sustainable productivity isn’t becoming more disciplined. It’s designing systems that work with your natural laziness instead of against it.

Ahrens puts it beautifully: “Every task that is interesting, meaningful and well-defined will be done, because there is no conflict between long- and short-term commitments. Having a meaningful and well-defined task beats willpower every time.”

Let’s break that down.

Interesting: If you’re forcing yourself to work on something boring, you’ll need willpower. If you’re genuinely curious about something, you won’t.

Meaningful: If you can’t see why something matters, you’ll need willpower to do it. If you understand its significance, you won’t.

Well-defined: If you don’t know exactly what to do next, you’ll need willpower to figure it out. If the next step is obvious, you won’t.

This is why my note-taking system transformed my productivity. Not because it made me more disciplined, but because it made discipline unnecessary.

How systems remove friction

My old approach to writing an article looked like this:

1. Decide on a topic (decision fatigue)
2. Remember what I’ve read about it (mental strain)
3. Search through highlights and bookmarks (friction)
4. Figure out what I think (cognitive load)
5. Organise my thoughts (decision fatigue again)
6. Actually write (finally!)

By the time I got to step 6, I’d already exhausted myself. Writing felt hard because I was trying to do six different cognitive tasks simultaneously.

My current approach:

1. Notice I have 20 permanent notes about a topic
2. Review and arrange them
3. Write by translating notes into prose

See the difference? The thinking is already done. The organisation happens naturally as I review. The writing is just connecting thoughts I’ve already developed.

No willpower required. The system makes the work easy.

The switching strategy

Here’s something else I learned from Luhmann’s approach: when you’re stuck, don’t force it. Switch.

This contradicts everything we’re told about focus and persistence. We’re supposed to power through resistance, finish what we started, not let ourselves get distracted.

But Luhmann demonstrated something remarkable: switching between projects when you’re stuck is more productive than grinding through resistance.

He always worked on multiple manuscripts simultaneously. When he hit a wall on one, he’d move to another. This meant he was always working on something that felt easy and interesting in the moment.

I’ve adopted this approach in my own work. I have several articles in various stages of development. When I’m stuck on one, I switch to another. I’m not procrastinating—I’m choosing the work that’s ready to be done.

This only works because I have a system that makes switching frictionless. All my notes are connected. All my projects draw from the same reservoir of thinking. Moving between them doesn’t feel like starting over—it feels like continuing a conversation from a different angle.

The psychology of flow

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s research on flow states found that optimal experiences happen when challenge matches skill. Too easy, and you’re bored. Too hard, and you’re anxious.

Most productivity systems ignore this. They tell you to tackle your hardest task first, to eat the frog, to push through resistance.

But if a task is too hard in this moment—if you don’t have the energy, the context, or the clarity—forcing yourself to do it won’t produce flow. It’ll produce anxiety and exhaustion.

A good system gives you options. Multiple things you could work on at different difficulty levels. When you’re fresh and energised, you tackle something challenging. When you’re tired, you do something easier. When you’re stuck, you switch.

This isn’t being undisciplined. This is being strategic about your mental energy.

Building willpower-free workflows

So how do you design systems that don’t require willpower? Three principles:

1. Remove decision points

Every decision is a tax on your mental energy. Remove as many as possible.

For notes, this means having a clear workflow. Fleeting notes go in one place. They’re processed the same way every time. Permanent notes follow a standard structure.

I don’t waste energy deciding where things should go or how they should be formatted. The system decides for me.

2. Make the next step obvious

Ambiguity requires willpower to overcome. Clarity doesn’t.

When I sit down to write, I don’t start with “what should I write about?” I start with “which cluster of notes is ready to become an article?”

The next step is always obvious because I’ve been building toward it incrementally through my notes.

3. Work with natural motivation

Don’t force yourself to work on things that feel difficult right now. Instead, have multiple things you could work on and choose the one that feels easiest.

This requires having a system where all your work is visible and accessible. I can see all my note clusters, all my draft outlines, all my half-formed ideas. When something feels ready to develop, I develop it.

The compound effect

Here’s the beautiful thing about willpower-free systems: they compound over time.

Every note you write makes the next note easier. Every connection you make creates possibilities for future connections. Every article you complete leaves behind permanent notes that feed into future articles.

Contrast this with willpower-based productivity. Every act of forcing yourself to work drains your reserves for tomorrow. Every time you push through resistance, you make resistance stronger.

One approach gets easier over time. The other gets harder.

I used to think productivity was about becoming the kind of person who could force themselves to do difficult things. Now I understand it’s about becoming the kind of person who rarely needs to.

Not because I’m lazy—though I freely admit I am—but because I’ve built systems that make the work inherently interesting and the next step always obvious.

Starting point

You don’t need to rebuild your entire workflow overnight. Start with one area where you’re currently relying on willpower.

Maybe it’s forcing yourself to process your inbox. Maybe it’s making yourself write even when you have nothing to say. Maybe it’s pushing through a project that feels stuck.

Ask yourself: how could I redesign this so willpower isn’t required?

Could you process your inbox at a specific time when you’re naturally most energised? Could you build up notes instead of forcing yourself to write from nothing? Could you switch to a different project instead of grinding through stuck points?

The goal isn’t to eliminate all effort—deep work requires focus and energy. The goal is to eliminate the friction that makes starting feel harder than the work itself.

As Ahrens reminds us, highly successful people succeed “not because of strong willpower and the ability to overcome resistance, but because of working environments that avoid resistance in the first place.”

Build the environment. Skip the suffering.

Your future self—the one who’s actually getting work done instead of just thinking about getting work done—will thank you.

Next in this series: How to think outside your brain—why our memory is terrible at storage but excellent at connection, and how external notes free your mind to do what it does best.

Anything worth remembering got the same treatment: highlight it, copy it into my notes app, maybe add a tag, and file it away. My system was democratic—everything had equal status, which meant nothing had any status at all.

It was like treating your spare change and your savings account the same way. Sure, they’re both money, but you don’t build wealth by treating every penny identically.

The breakthrough came when I realised that notes need to serve different purposes at different stages of thinking. Some are quick captures. Some are deep processing. Some are finished thoughts ready to be used.

Sönke Ahrens describes three types of notes in How to Take Smart Notes, based on Niklas Luhmann’s zettelkasten system. Understanding the distinction between them transformed how I think, learn, and write.

Let me show you how.

Fleeting notes: your thinking inbox

Fleeting notes are exactly what they sound like—fleeting. Temporary captures of whatever crosses your mind while you’re reading, listening, observing, or just thinking.

I write these constantly in my daily logs. A thought while reading a book. A connection I notice during a conversation. A question that pops up while I’m walking my dog. These go straight into Bear as quick bullet points, often just fragments.

“AI tools reduce friction but might also reduce learning?”

“Luhmann never forced himself to work—connection to my procrastination article”

“Why do some photographers resist digita—same psychology as people avoiding AI?”

Notice what these are not. They’re not complete thoughts. They’re not well-written. They’re not organised. They’re just captures—reminders of ideas that I don’t want to lose.

Here’s the crucial part: fleeting notes are disposable. They’re meant to be processed and then thrown away. They’re your inbox, not your filing cabinet.

Most people make one of two mistakes with fleeting notes:

Mistake 1: Treating them as permanent. You capture something interesting and think “Great, I’ve noted that down.” Then six months later you come across “interesting point about motivation” and have no idea what you meant or why it mattered.

Mistake 2: Never processing them. Your fleeting notes pile up until you have thousands of cryptic fragments that you’ll never do anything with. I’ve been there. It’s like having 50,000 unread emails—technically you have all that information, but practically you have nothing.

The solution? Process fleeting notes within a day or two. Either develop them into something more substantial, or delete them. Be ruthless. If you can’t remember why you noted it down or what to do with it, it’s not worth keeping.

Literature notes: your dialogue with ideas

When I read something—a book, an article, a paper—I create literature notes. These are different from fleeting notes in a crucial way: they’re not my thoughts about random things, they’re my understanding of someone else’s ideas.

Here’s how this works in practice.

Let’s say I’m reading an article about how social media algorithms affect attention spans. Instead of just highlighting passages, I also write my own explanation of the key points:

“Article argues that recommendation algorithms optimise for engagement, not attention quality. Short-term engagement (clicks, scrolls) is easier to measure than long-term value, so platforms inadvertently train users toward shorter attention spans. Author compares this to junk food—engineered for immediate satisfaction, not nutritional value.”

See what I did there? I’m explaining the article’s argument in my own words. I’m not copying quotes. I’m not just summarising. I’m testing whether I actually understand what I’m reading.

As philosopher John Searle said, “If you can’t say it clearly you don’t understand it yourself.” Literature notes are your clarity test.

I keep these notes with links to the sources so I can cite them if needed. But the real value isn’t in having the citation. It’s in the act of translation.

When you force yourself to rephrase someone’s idea, you discover gaps in your understanding. You notice assumptions. You start to see how it connects to other things you know.

Good literature notes include:

• The main argument or idea, in your own words
• Key distinctions or definitions
• How this relates to other ideas you’ve encountered
• Questions or uncertainties you have

Bad literature notes are:

• Direct quotes without context
• Summaries so brief they’re meaningless later
• Highlights without explanation of why they matter
• Information without your interpretation

Here’s a trick I learned: write literature notes as if you’re explaining the idea to someone who hasn’t read the source. If your note only makes sense to someone who’s already read the article, you haven’t actually done the work of understanding it.

I picture my daughter in a couple decades reading my notes. If she can’t understand what I meant, I haven’t written it clearly enough.

Permanent notes: your external thinking

This is where the magic happens. This is where fleeting insights and borrowed ideas become your ideas.

At least once a day—usually in the evening—I review my fleeting and literature notes. I’m looking for anything that connects to my existing thinking, challenges my assumptions, or answers questions I’ve been pondering.

Then I write permanent notes.

These aren’t just “things worth remembering.” They’re developed thoughts, written in complete sentences, making explicit arguments or observations. They’re standalone—I can read them months later without remembering the original context and they’ll still make sense.

Let me show you the difference.

Fleeting note: “Luhmann never forced himself to work”

Literature note: “Luhmann claimed he only did what was easy and immediately obvious. When he got stuck on one thing, he’d switch to another project. His system supported this by always having multiple threads of thought to pursue.”

Permanent note: “The productivity paradox: forcing yourself to work on something when you’re stuck wastes mental energy and produces inferior results. Luhmann’s approach—switching between multiple projects—works because it uses natural motivation instead of fighting it. The key is having a system that makes it easy to switch without losing progress. Connection: this is the same principle behind the Pomodoro technique, but applied at a project level rather than task level. Question: does this work for people who don’t have multiple projects, or is parallel work a requirement?”

See the difference? The permanent note is:

• Complete: It stands alone without requiring the source
• Clear: Written in full sentences with explicit reasoning
• Connected: Links to other ideas
• Questioning: Ends with an open question that invites further thinking

I write permanent notes in a specific structure that’s become habitual:

1. Main idea or observation
2. Why it matters or what it explains
3. Connection to other notes
4. Questions it raises

Not every note follows this exactly, but it’s my default template.

Flow between note types

Here’s how these three types of notes work together in practice.

I’m reading Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From. As I read, I’m taking fleeting notes:

• “Slow hunch—ideas need time to develop”
• “Coffee houses as liquid networks for ideas”
• “Darwin’s notebooks show gradual development of evolution theory”

Later that day, I process these into literature notes:

“Johnson argues that breakthrough ideas rarely arrive as sudden insights. Instead, they develop as ‘slow hunches’—incomplete ideas that need time and connections to mature. He traces Darwin’s theory of evolution through his notebooks, showing it took years to fully form, not a single eureka moment reading Malthus. Key point: slow hunches need external storage (notebooks, conversations) because they’re too vague to hold in memory reliably.”

Then I think about how this connects to my existing notes about creativity, writing processes, and knowledge management. I write a permanent note:

“The myth of the eureka moment damages creative work by making people expect instant insights. Johnson’s ‘slow hunch’ concept explains why note-taking systems are crucial: ideas need external storage to survive long enough to develop. This connects to why my best articles emerge from notes I’ve been developing for months—the writing is just the final step of a long thinking process. Contrast with blank page approach where you expect to generate and develop ideas simultaneously. Question: how long is typical for a slow hunch to mature? Days? Months? Years?”

Now I have something valuable. Not just information I’ve collected, but thinking I’ve done.

Common mistakes that kill note systems

Treating everything as permanent notes. If every fleeting thought gets permanent status, you dilute the signal. Permanent notes should be reserved for ideas you’ve actually developed, not just captured.

Treating everything as fleeting notes. The opposite problem—everything stays in rough draft form. You’re constantly capturing but never processing. Ahrens calls this “just a bookshelf filled with notebooks full of wonderful ideas, but not a single publication to show.”

Writing for yourself today, not yourself tomorrow. Your notes need to make sense to your future self who won’t remember the context. I learned this the hard way losing count of the number of times I’ve come across a note and had no idea what I meant. Write as if you’re explaining to someone else.

Collecting quotes instead of understanding. Literature notes shouldn’t be quote collections. Quotes are useful as supporting evidence, but your understanding needs to be in your own words. Otherwise you’re just building a database, not developing thinking.

Making notes too long. Permanent notes work best when they’re atomic—one idea per note. If you’re writing multi-page notes, you’re probably combining several ideas that should be separate. This makes it harder to link notes and harder to reuse them later.

Not linking notes. The whole point of permanent notes is that they connect to each other. Every permanent note should link to at least one other note. If it doesn’t, it’s either too isolated or you haven’t thought through how it relates to your other thinking.

Building the habit

Start simple. You don’t need to overhaul your entire system overnight.

Today, try this: take one idea from something you’re reading right now. Write three notes:

Fleeting: “Interesting point about X”

Literature: “Author argues that X because Y. This differs from Z approach by…”

Permanent: “The key insight about X is… This connects to… This raises the question…”

Do this once. Just once. See how it feels.

Tomorrow, do it again with a different idea. After a week, you’ll have seven permanent notes. After a month, thirty. After a year, 365 developed thoughts ready to become articles, presentations, or simply a more sophisticated understanding of your field.

The compound interest of ideas isn’t about volume—it’s about having thoughts that build on each other. Three well-developed permanent notes are worth more than three hundred fleeting captures.

As Ahrens writes, “We have to read with a pen in hand, develop ideas on paper and build up an ever-growing pool of externalised thoughts.”

That pool is built one note at a time. But only if you’re building the right kind of notes.

Next in this series: The willpower trap—why discipline-free systems beat forced productivity every time. We’ll explore how to design workflows that work with human nature instead of against it, and why the most productive people aren’t the most disciplined.

It whispers that you’re starting from nothing, that you need to conjure ideas from thin air, that writing begins when you open a new document. This lie keeps more people from creating than any other obstacle I know.

Here’s the truth: if you’re staring at a blank page, you’ve already made a mistake. You started too late.

The prolific writers I know never face blank pages. Not because they’re more talented or disciplined, but because they’ve built systems that make blank pages impossible.

Think about it this way. You wouldn’t start cooking without ingredients in your kitchen. Yet we expect ourselves to write something meaningful starting from absolute zero, with nothing but raw willpower and a blinking cursor.

As Sönke Ahrens puts it in How to Take Smart Notes, “They struggle because they believe, as they are made to believe, that writing starts with a blank page.”

It doesn’t. Writing starts long before you sit down to write.

Blank page as symptom

When you face a blank page, you’re not experiencing a writing problem—you’re experiencing a note-taking problem.

The blank page is just the symptom. The disease is that you haven’t been capturing, developing, and connecting your thoughts along the way. This is exactly what I wrote about in my previous article—most note-taking systems are graveyards of good intentions rather than gardens that produce new ideas.

I learned this the hard way. Years ago, I’d spend hours researching a topic, reading extensively, feeling like I was learning a lot. Then I’d sit down to write and… nothing. Or rather, a vague sense of “I know I read something about this” followed by desperate scrolling through highlights and bookmarks, grasping at the thoughts I’d had weeks ago, yet unable to reconstruct them.

The problem wasn’t that I hadn’t read enough. The problem wasn’t that I hadn’t thought enough while reading. The words I read spark a myriad of thoughts—bits and pieces that vanish when the next line teased out more fleeting musings. The problem was I hadn’t captured my thinking in a way that I could build on later.

Building your reservoir

Here’s what changed everything for me: I stopped thinking of note-taking as storage and started thinking of it as construction.

I’m not filing away information for later retrieval. I’m building a reservoir of developed thoughts that I can tap into whenever I need to write.

This reservoir is filled with three types of notes, each serving a different purpose. Ahrens describes this brilliantly in his book, based on Niklas Luhmann’s zettelkasten system.

Fleeting notes

These are quick captures—whatever comes to mind as you’re reading, watching, listening, or just thinking. I jot these down in rapid-fire bullet points in Bear, my note-taking app of choice. They’re messy, contextual, and meant to be temporary.

The key word is temporary. Fleeting notes are like your inbox—a holding space, not a permanent home. I process them within a day or two, either developing them into something more substantial or discarding them Marie Kondo-style, except instead of asking if they spark joy, I look for ideas.

Most people make the mistake of treating all their notes as fleeting notes. Everything goes into the inbox, nothing gets processed, and the whole system becomes a junk drawer like your Gmail inbox. Useful things are in there somewhere, but you’ll never find them when you need them.

Literature notes

When I read something—a book, an article, a research paper—I write down my understanding of the key ideas. Not quotes. Not highlights. My own explanation of what I’m reading.

This is crucial. As philosopher John Searle said, “If you can’t say it clearly you don’t understand it yourself.” Literature notes force me to test my understanding in real-time.

I keep these with bibliographic details so I can cite them later if needed. But the real value isn’t in the citation—it’s in the act of translating someone else’s thinking into my own framework.

Here’s what a literature note looks like for me: I’ll read about, say, the zettelkasten method. Instead of highlighting passages about how it works, I write: “Luhmann’s system worked because notes were atomic (one idea each) and connected (explicit links between related ideas). This is different from topic-based filing because it mimics how ideas actually relate to each other, not how we think they should be organised. Reminds me of how neural networks form connections—not hierarchical but associative.”

See what happened there? I explained the concept, made a distinction, and connected it to something else I know. That’s a literature note that I can actually use.

Permanent notes

This is where the magic happens. At least once a day, I go through my fleeting and literature notes and ask: “How does this relate to what I’m working on? What does this connect to? What questions does this raise?”

Then I write permanent notes—fully formed thoughts, written for my future self who won’t remember the context. These aren’t just summaries. They’re arguments, observations, questions, and connections.

I find the greatest value in applying new ideas and concepts on tasks and topics at hand. I can test them or build mental connections between two seemingly different or even opposing ideas. Invaluable to helping me grasp the new things I learn.

Ahrens emphasises this: “We have to read with a pen in hand, develop ideas on paper and build up an ever-growing pool of externalised thoughts.”

My permanent notes are this pool. Each one is:

• Standalone - Makes sense without referring back to the source

• Connected - Explicitly linked to related notes

• Developed - Not just “this is interesting” but “this is interesting because…”

• Actionable - Written in a way that sparks further thinking

I write them as if I’m explaining something to another person, since becoming a father this person I picture is my daughter. Sometimes I even start with “The key insight here is…” or “This challenges my thinking about…” to force myself to be clear about why this note matters.

Bottom-up thinking

Here’s where this system gets really powerful. Instead of deciding what to write about and then doing research, I let topics emerge from my notes.

This is what Ahrens calls the bottom-up approach, and it’s completely backwards from how most of us were taught to write.

The traditional top-down approach:

1. Choose a topic

2. Do research

3. Outline

4. Write

5. Edit

The bottom-up approach:

1. Read and take notes continuously

2. Develop permanent notes

3. Notice clusters of related notes

4. Recognise topics that have reached critical mass

5. Structure those notes into an outline

6. Write by translating notes into prose

The difference? In the top-down approach, you’re generating ideas while trying to write. In the bottom-up approach, you’re just organising ideas you’ve already developed.

Much easier. Much less stressful. Much more likely to actually happen.

I’ve been writing this way for the past year, and it’s transformed my relationship with writing. I used to spend 80% of my time staring at the screen trying to figure out what to say and 20% actually writing. Now it’s reversed. Most of my “writing time” is spent shaping and polishing thoughts I’ve already worked through in my notes.

My collection of notes have become a treasure trove of drafts for my blog.

How topics reveal themselves

When you build up permanent notes over time, something interesting happens. Topics start announcing themselves.

You don’t have to force yourself to write about something. You notice that you’ve written 15 notes about AI-assisted creative work, and they’re all connected, and there’s a clear argument threading through them. So you structure those notes and write the piece.

Or you realise you’ve been circling around a question for months—say, “Why do some knowledge workers resist tools that would make them more efficient?”—and you’ve accumulated enough thinking about it from different angles that you’re ready to explore it publicly.

Ahrens describes this perfectly: “By writing down our thoughts and what we learn, we are able to see the topics we have already worked on. They just need to be polished and structured for publishing.”

This is why I never face blank pages anymore. When I sit down to write, I’m not starting from zero. I’m sitting down with 10, 20, sometimes 30 notes that I’ve already developed. Notes that are connected. Notes that already form the skeleton of an argument—or are even each a standalone article.

The “writing” is just connecting them into a coherent narrative or simply polishing an already established one.

POSSE for ideas

You might recognise this principle if you’ve read my thoughts on digital sovereignty. I’m a big advocate for POSSE—Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere.

The same principle applies to ideas. Develop them in your own notes first (your “site”), then syndicate them into blog posts, articles, presentations, or conversations.

Your notes are the source of truth. Everything else is a remix.

This has another benefit: your notes compound over time in a way that individual published pieces don’t.

When I publish a blog post, that’s done. Finished. It lives on my site, hopefully helps some readers, maybe generates some discussion.

But the notes that went into that post? They’re still alive in my system. They’re connected to other notes. They’ll surface when I’m working on related topics. They might become part of three other articles over the next year.

One good permanent note can feed multiple pieces of writing. That’s creative leverage.

Practical implementation

Let me get specific about how this actually works in practice.

When I’m reading a book on, say, productivity systems, I have Bear open next to me. As I read, I jot down fleeting notes—quick thoughts, reactions, questions. “This is similar to GTD but for knowledge work.” “Does this work if you’re not in academia?” “Connection to habit stacking?”

At the end of my reading session, I’ll have a messy list of these captures. That’s fine. They’re not meant to be beautiful.

Later that day—or the next day at the latest—I review these fleeting notes. Some I discard immediately. Some I develop into literature notes, explaining the key concepts from the book in my own words. Some I turn into permanent notes if they connect to my existing thinking in interesting ways.

Let’s say I write a permanent note about how knowledge work requires different productivity systems than task-based work. I’ll link this to other notes I have about:

• The difference between deep work and shallow work

• Why time-blocking often fails for creative professionals

• Examples from my translation work where the “system” was understanding, not execution

Now I have a web of connected thinking. When I eventually write about productivity for creative professionals—which I did, and you can find on this blog—I don’t start from scratch. I start from this web of notes.

You already have material

Here’s the thing that most people don’t realise: you’re probably already doing the intellectual work. You’re reading, thinking, having insights, making connections.

You’re just not capturing it in a way that makes it reusable.

When I talk to people about their note-taking, they often say “I don’t have enough notes to work with.” Then I ask them what they’ve been reading, and they rattle off five books, dozens of articles, multiple podcasts. They’ve consumed and thought about a massive amount of material.

It’s all in their head. And most of it will evaporate within days.

The tragedy isn’t that they haven’t done the work. It’s that they haven’t kept the work they’ve done.

Start today. Right now, if you just finished reading this article, don’t just file it away or close the tab. Write down three things:

1. One idea that challenged your thinking

2. One connection to something else you know

3. One question you’re left with

That’s the beginning of your reservoir. Do this consistently, and you’ll never face a blank page again.

As Ahrens reminds us, “The moment we stop making plans is the moment we start to learn.” Stop planning to write someday. Start building your reservoir today.

Because creativity isn’t about divine inspiration striking while you stare at a blank page. It’s about having a conversation with yourself, with your past thinking, with the ideas you’ve been developing all along.

And that conversation? It’s already happening in your notes—if you’ve been taking the right kind of notes.

In the next article, we’ll dive deep into the three types of notes: fleeting, literature, and permanent. We’ll explore exactly how to write each one, when to use them, and how to avoid the common mistakes that turn promising note-taking systems into cluttered messes. Read it here: Three types of notes that will transform your thinking.

My digital notebooks are graveyards of good intentions—thousands of highlighted articles, copied quotes, and half-formed thoughts that I swore I’d return to “someday”. Someday never came. Instead, I found myself drowning in a sea of saved content, feeling productive while accomplishing precisely nothing.

The uncomfortable truth? I had created an impressive digital museum of other people’s thoughts while producing none of my own.

Sound familiar? If your note-taking system resembles that drawer everyone has—you know, the one stuffed with batteries, old cables, and mysterious objects you’re afraid to throw away—then we need to talk about why your carefully curated collection is killing your creativity instead of feeding it.

Great note-taking deception

Most of us have been sold a lie about note-taking. We’ve been told that collecting information equals learning, that saving articles equals progress, and that highlighting passages equals understanding.

It’s like believing that hoarding ingredients makes you a chef.

Here’s what typically happens. You read something brilliant—let’s say an article about AI’s impact on creative work. You highlight the juicy bits, maybe add a comment like “interesting!” or “remember this”, then file it away in a folder labelled “AI” or “Technology” or, if you’re feeling particularly organised, “AI–Future Trends–2025”.

Three months later, when you want to write about AI’s impact on creativity, do you remember that perfect insight? Of course not. You end up staring at a blank page, despite having “read extensively” on the topic.

As Sönke Ahrens writes in How to Take Smart Notes, “Good, productive writing is based on good note-taking. Getting something that is already written into another written piece is incomparably easier than assembling everything in your mind and then trying to retrieve it from there.”

But here’s the catch: most of us aren’t actually doing good note-taking. We’re just stuffing everything into our metaphorical drawer—digital hoarding with a fancy filing system.

Graveyard versus the garden

The difference between a dead note-taking system and a living one is like the difference between a graveyard and a garden. Both contain organised collections, but only one produces new life.

A graveyard system stores information in neat, categorised tombstones. Everything has its proper place, beautifully organised and utterly static. You can visit your highlights and quotes, pay your respects, and leave feeling vaguely nostalgic about all that knowledge you once possessed.

A garden system, on the other hand, is messier but infinitely more alive. Ideas cross-pollinate, connections bloom unexpectedly, and new insights grow from the compost of previous thoughts. It requires tending, but it rewards you with a harvest of original thinking.

Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s partner at Berkshire Hathaway, understood this distinction. He advocated for what he called a “latticework of mental models”—a framework where “you’ve got to hang experience on a latticework of models in your head” rather than simply collecting isolated facts. As he put it, “If the facts don’t hang together on a latticework of theory, you don’t have them in a usable form.”

The secret ingredient that transforms a graveyard into a garden? Active engagement with your notes. Not just collecting them, but developing them, connecting them, and letting them evolve.

Collection trap

We’ve become addicted to the dopamine hit of saving information. That little satisfaction when you save an article to your favourite read-it-later app. The sense of accomplishment when you highlight a particularly insightful passage. The feeling that you’re “doing something” when you bookmark that Twitter thread “for later”.

But collection without creation is just sophisticated procrastination.

The uncomfortable truth is that highlighting and saving often becomes a substitute for thinking. We mistake consuming for creating, curating for contemplating. We feel productive while remaining intellectually passive.

Think about the difference between a tourist and an anthropologist. A tourist takes photos of interesting sights and moves on. An anthropologist observes, questions, connects patterns, and develops theories about what they’re seeing. Both might visit the same places, but only one creates new understanding.

Your notes should be less like a tourist’s photo album and more like an anthropologist’s field journal—full of observations, questions, connections, and evolving theories.

Why passive note-taking feels productive

Here’s why we fall into the collection trap: it’s easier and feels immediately rewarding. Highlighting a passage gives us the illusion of engagement without the mental effort of actually engaging.

It’s the intellectual equivalent of taking a selfie at a famous landmark—you get proof you were there without actually experiencing the place.

Our brains are wired to seek the path of least resistance. Copying a brilliant quote feels productive while requiring minimal mental energy. Developing your own thoughts about that quote? That’s work. It requires wrestling with ideas, admitting confusion, and risking being wrong.

Daniel Kahneman would recognise this as System 1 thinking—fast, automatic, and effortless. Real learning requires System 2 thinking—slow, deliberate, and demanding. We keep defaulting to System 1 because it’s comfortable, even though System 2 is where creativity lives.

Original insights don’t emerge from collecting information—they emerge from the friction of thinking through information.

As philosopher John Searle put it, “In general, I feel if you can’t say it clearly you don’t understand it yourself.” If you can’t explain an idea in your own words, you haven’t truly grasped it—you’ve just borrowed someone else’s understanding.

Luhmann revolution

German sociologist Niklas Luhmann understood this better than most. Over his career, he accumulated 90,000 notes and published over 50 books and 600 articles. His secret wasn’t superhuman productivity—it was a note-taking system that functioned as what he called a “creativity machine”. The famous zettelkasten method.

What made Luhmann’s approach revolutionary wasn’t the volume of notes but how they worked. Instead of organising notes by topic, he let ideas connect organically. Instead of copying information, he translated it into his own thinking. Instead of storing knowledge, he cultivated conversations between ideas.

The result? A system that didn’t just preserve thoughts but generated them.

And here’s the truly remarkable part: Luhmann never forced himself to work. When asked about his impressive productivity, he explained: “I only do what is easy. I only write when I immediately know how to do it. If I falter for a moment, I put the matter aside and do something else.”

His system removed the need for willpower by making the work inherently interesting. As Ahrens notes, “Not having willpower, but not having to use willpower indicates that you set yourself up for success.”

You either have the understanding to write deeply about the topic on hand, or you need to go back to learning.

Slow hunch and liquid networks

Steven Johnson, in Where Good Ideas Come From, describes what he calls the “slow hunch”—the idea that breakthrough insights don’t arrive in sudden flashes but develop gradually over time through the collision and connection of ideas.

He writes: “Most slow hunches never last long enough to turn into something useful, because they pass in and out of our memory too quickly, precisely because they possess a certain murkiness.”

This is where an external note-taking system becomes crucial. You can’t nurture a slow hunch if you can’t remember it long enough for it to mature. Darwin’s theory of evolution wasn’t a single eureka moment—his notebooks reveal it was a slow hunch that developed over years of careful observation and note-taking.

Johnson also emphasises what he calls “liquid networks”—environments where ideas can freely mingle and connect. Your note-taking system should function as this kind of liquid network, a place where a thought from a philosophy book can unexpectedly connect with an observation from a business article to produce something entirely new.

As Ahrens puts it, “The slip-box is not a collection of notes. Working with it is less about retrieving specific notes and more about being pointed to relevant facts and generating insight by letting ideas mingle.”

From collection to cultivation

So how do you transform your note-taking from a graveyard into a garden? The shift begins with a fundamental change in purpose. You’re not trying to preserve information—you’re trying to develop ideas.

This means:

Writing in your own words instead of copying quotes. When you force yourself to explain something in your own language, you immediately discover whether you truly understand it. I paraphrase ideas I read in my own words, to explain to myself what I glean from them and make connections to concepts and examples beyond why the text mentions. As Ahrens emphasises, the act of rewriting isn’t just about storage—it’s about testing and deepening your understanding.

Asking questions about what you read instead of just accepting it. What assumptions does this argument make? How does it connect to something else you’ve been thinking about? What’s missing from this analysis? List down the questions to start a discussion with an AI chatbot that works even more questions and discovery.

Making explicit connections to other ideas instead of filing things in isolation. Don’t just note that an idea is interesting—explain why it matters in the context of your other thinking. As I mentioned, I write with my own examples and analogies when paraphrasing the ideas. These are often along topics I care a lot about at the moment, allowing me to form connections with real problems or recent readings.

Developing arguments instead of just collecting facts. Take a position, explore it, challenge it. Treat your notes as an ongoing dialogue with yourself and the ideas you encounter. I’m an advocate for having strong opinions and to challenge one’s own stance constantly to find holes and weak foundations that could topple the argument. It’s trying to find ways to be wrong to improve yourself. People often mistake it as me wanting to always prove that I’m right, but the truth is the exact opposite. I want to be right, so I want to be proven wrong.

The goal isn’t to have perfect notes—it’s to have productive ones. Notes that spark new thoughts. Notes that reveal gaps in your understanding. Notes that connect seemingly unrelated ideas in surprising ways.

Compound interest of ideas

People often value the quality of a single note but the real value lies in how notes accumulate and interact over time.

Think of it like compound interest. A single note might be worth very little. But when that note connects to another note, which connects to three more, which sparks a question that leads to five new observations—suddenly you have something valuable. You have the raw material for original thinking.

Munger’s latticework concept captures this beautifully. You’re not trying to know everything—you’re trying to build a framework where ideas from different disciplines can strengthen and inform each other. A concept from physics might illuminate a problem in psychology. A principle from economics might solve a design challenge.

But this only works if your notes are written in a way that allows these connections to form. If they’re just isolated quotes filed by topic, they remain inert. If they’re thoughts developed in your own words with explicit connections to other ideas, they become alive.

Starting small

You don’t need to overhaul your entire system overnight. Start with this simple shift: the next time you read something interesting, don’t just highlight or save it. Instead, write down why it matters to you, how it connects to something else you’re thinking about, or what questions it raises. I do this in quick short bullet points to capture my rapid fire thoughts.

This single change—from passive collection to active interpretation—will begin transforming your notes from a storage system into a thinking system.

As Ahrens writes, “An idea kept private is as good as one you never had.” This inspired the push to publishing more of my thoughts on this blog.

Private also means not staying on its own without any contact with other notes. Your notes aren’t meant to be a private collection—they’re meant to be a conversation. A conversation between past ideas and present insights. A conversation that generates future breakthroughs.

Your future creative self will thank you for it. And more importantly, that self will actually have something to work with the next time inspiration strikes and you sit down to create.

Because creativity isn’t about having access to all the world’s information—it’s about having a conversation with the ideas that matter to you. And conversations require participation, not just attendance.

In the next article in this series, we’ll explore how to build a note-taking system that ensures you never face a blank page again. We’ll look at the three types of notes that transform reading into writing, and how to create a reservoir of developed thoughts that make creativity feel inevitable rather than intimidating. Read it here: Three types of notes that will transform your thinking.

Take the term 镖头, for instance. Some translators render it as “Chief Escort.” Every time I see this, a small part of my soul withers. Not because it’s grammatically incorrect—it isn’t—but because it betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what these people actually did and how their organisations functioned.

Let me explain why this matters more than you might think.

The Chief Problem

Here’s the thing about English word order: it’s not just grammar, it’s meaning. When you say “Chief Escort,” you’re positioning “chief” as an adjective—a descriptor. You’re essentially saying “the main guy doing the escorting.” It suggests he’s the best escort, the lead operative, the top bodyguard on this particular mission.

When you say “Escort Chief,” you’re using “chief” as a noun—a title. You’re saying “the chief of the escorts.” It denotes leadership of an organization, not just excellence at a task. Think Police Chief, Fire Chief, or Editor-in-Chief. These aren’t the people doing the most policing, firefighting, or editing—they’re the people running the show.

The difference is subtle but critical. It’s the difference between being brilliant at your job and being the person who decides what the job entails in the first place.

What kind of escorts?

But before we can properly understand why “Escort Chief” is the correct translation, we need to talk about what we’re even calling these organisations in the first place. This is where things get interesting—and where many translations go spectacularly wrong.

The Chinese term is 镖局, and I’ve seen it translated as “Escort Bureau” or “Escort Agency” more times than I care to count. Both make me want to bang my head against my keyboard.

“Escort Bureau” sounds like a government department. You know, the kind of place with fluorescent lighting, filing cabinets, and people who take two-hour lunch breaks. The word “bureau” carries an inherently bureaucratic, official weight—think Federal Bureau of Investigation. But these weren’t government organisations. They were private, commercial, and decidedly martial enterprises operating in the grey areas of law and order.

“Escort Agency” is even worse, because it’s so thoroughly modern. It conjures images of security firms with logos, business cards, and terms-and-conditions documents. You can practically hear the corporate jargon: “Your trusted partner in asset protection solutions.” It’s about as appropriate for a wuxia novel as putting a QR code on a Song dynasty scroll. It strips away everything that makes these organisations fascinating: the danger, the martial skill, the honour codes, the very real possibility of dying on any given mission.

That’s why I use “Armed Escort.” The word “armed” is doing crucial work here. It immediately signals that we’re not talking about tour guides, delivery services, or hired companions. We’re talking about skilled fighters hired to protect valuable cargo—and sometimes valuable people—through bandit-infested territories where your life expectancy could be measured in days.

Is “Armed Escort” a perfect translation? Perhaps not. But it’s the best balance I’ve found between accuracy and atmosphere. It tells you exactly what these organisations did without drowning you in modern corporate-speak or suggesting government oversight that never existed.

Hierarchy that everyone mangles

Right, now that we’ve established what these organisations are called, let’s talk about how they’re structured—because this is where even experienced translators start making questionable decisions.

The confusion typically stems from two similar but distinct terms: 镖头 and 总镖头. If you don’t understand the organisational structure, you’ll treat these as the same thing or, worse, invent creative variations that sound impressive but mean nothing.

I’ve seen translations use “Head Escort,” “Grand Head Escort,” “Great Escort Master,” and other increasingly baroque titles that result from translating each character literally—yes, 头 (tóu) does mean “head”—without pausing to consider how the bloody organization actually worked. It’s like translating “computer” as “Electric Brain” because you looked up each word in isolation.

Here’s how it actually works:

At the bottom, you have 镖师 (biāoshī)—the individual fighters, the rank-and-file. These are your skilled Guards, the people actually doing the protecting, the fighting, the potentially dying. I translate this as “Escort Guard” because that’s precisely what they are: guards who escort.

Above them, you have 镖头 (biāotóu)—these are your team leaders, your middle management. They’re experienced Guards who’ve proven themselves capable of leading missions. They’re your Captains. An Escort Captain commands a team of Escort Guards on specific assignments.

And at the top—the person running the entire operation—you have 总镖头 (zǒng biāotóu). The character 总 means “overall” or “general,” indicating supreme authority. This is your CEO, your big boss, the person whose name is on the letterhead (if such organisations had letterheads, which they didn’t, but you get the idea). This is your Escort Chief.

The beauty of this system becomes apparent when you understand how these organisations grew. A small Armed Escort might have just one Captain and a handful of Guards. But as the business expanded—as the reputation grew and the contracts became more lucrative—you’d have multiple Captains, each leading their own teams. Some might be managing branch offices in different cities. Others might be specialists in particular types of cargo or routes.

And overseeing all of this? The Escort Chief. Not because he’s the best fighter (though he often was), but because he’s responsible for the strategy, the reputation, the survival of the entire enterprise.

When you see multiple Captains assigned to the same mission, that’s your signal that whatever they’re protecting is extraordinarily valuable—or extraordinarily dangerous. You don’t send three team leaders and dozens of Guards to escort a cart of turnips. That’s like hiring the bodyguards to transport your groceries.

Why this matters beyond pedantry

I can already hear some of you thinking, “Does this really matter? Won’t readers understand from context?”

And you’re right—mostly. Context will usually save you. But here’s what you lose when you get the terminology wrong: you lose the systematic logic that helps readers navigate the social hierarchy of the jianghu without constant explanation.

When I use “Armed Escort,” “Escort Chief,” “Escort Captain,” and “Escort Guard,” I’m building a coherent framework. Once readers understand this system, they can instantly assess any character’s position when they’re introduced. They don’t need me to stop and explain every single time.

It’s like traffic lights. Red means stop, green means go, amber means “technically you should stop but we both know what you’re going to do.” The system speaks for itself.

And more importantly, it respects the intelligence of both the original text and the reader. Jin Yong and his contemporaries didn’t need to explain this hierarchy every time it appeared because their readers understood it instinctively. My job as a storytelling translator isn’t to dumb things down—it’s to create an equivalent framework in English that carries the same intuitive weight.

Translator’s burden

Every translation choice is a small battle between competing priorities: accuracy versus fluency, cultural preservation versus reader accessibility, maintaining the source text’s flavour versus creating something that works as English prose.

The path I’ve chosen—Armed Escort, Escort Chief, Escort Captain, Escort Guard—walks the tightrope between these extremes. It’s English that makes sense to English speakers, using patterns they already understand (Police Chief, Captain of the Guard), while preserving the martial, commercial, and hierarchical nature of the original institutions.

Is it perfect? No translation ever is. But it’s consistent, it’s logical, and it gives readers the tools to navigate the social structures of the jianghu without constantly stumbling over terminology that doesn’t quite work.

And really, that’s all any translator can hope for: to build a bridge between languages that doesn’t collapse when readers start crossing it.

Have you encountered confusing translation choices in wuxia novels? What other terms do you think deserve this level of careful consideration? Let me know—I’m always curious about which translation decisions trip readers up.

For me, Gundam Wing isn’t just entertainment—it set me down the creative path to discover the meaning of life. During our introductory class to HTML in Secondary One, I discovered my classmate Lian Chiu building her Duo Maxwell fan shrine and got inspired to code my own shrines for the series and J-drama Beach Boys. That got me started on building websites and self-learning design and web development, but that’s a story I’ve told before.

What strikes me more now is how differently the series hits, especially when I’ve just turned 40. The series is having quite the moment in 2025. At San Diego Comic-Con, Bandai Namco pulled out all the stops for Wing’s anniversary celebration, announcing everything from 4K theatrical screenings of Endless Waltz to a new manga series bridging Endless Waltz and Frozen Teardrop. There’s even a new promotional video ‘Operation 30th’ directed by Toru Iwasawa, featuring ‘Cloaked Custom’ mobile suit designs that would make teenage me absolutely lose his mind.

The Gunpla celebration is equally impressive—those previously P-Bandai exclusive HGAC kits are finally getting North American retail release, and there’s a new Real Grade Wing Gundam Zero arriving in September. It’s the kind of comprehensive anniversary treatment that makes you realise just how much this series meant to people.

Rewatching with adult eyes

I rewatched Wing completely in 2022, and it was like discovering an entirely different series. The themes that felt heavy-handed in my teens—the anti-war messaging, the political intrigue, the constant philosophical debates about pacifism versus action—suddenly felt remarkably prescient.

The series aired around the same time The Cranberries released ‘Zombie,’ both serving as stark reminders that despite humanity’s best intentions, war never really changes. Here we are, thirty years later, and that message feels more relevant than ever. I still hope for peace for people suffering in war-torn regions, though I’ll admit I’m more jaded now while still clinging to that ‘make love not war’ belief I grew up with.

What hit me hardest on rewatch was the series’ treatment of pacifism versus action. Growing up, I resonated with Wing’s pacifist messaging—it’s how I dealt with bullies, how I approach conflicts, how I navigate disagreements. Sometimes that passive approach served me well, but I’ve learned the hard way that sometimes you need to stand up for yourself and take action to deter bullies. It’s something I hope to teach my daughter: don’t look for conflict, but stand up for yourself when needed.

Living in China for the past decade has given me a different perspective on Wing’s colonial themes too. The Earth Sphere versus colonies dynamic feels particularly relevant when you’ve witnessed firsthand how misunderstandings and propaganda shape global perceptions. People who’ve never lived here paint China as some authoritarian police state, yet I experience the safety and stability without the oppression they imagine. It’s the same kind of disconnect Wing explored between Earth’s assumptions about the space colonies and the colonies’ actual experiences.

Character appreciation

My relationship with the characters has shifted dramatically over the years. I started as a typical Heero fanboy—that cool, stoic, deadly silence appealed to the brooding teenager in me. On my first rewatch, I gravitated toward Duo’s personality and humour. But 2022’s viewing made me appreciate Wufei and Trowa’s depth, and especially Quatre’s struggle against the Zero System.

As a kid, Quatre’s psychological battle felt boring and excessive. Now I recognise it as one of Wing’s most sophisticated character arcs—a gentle soul fighting against a system designed to turn him into a perfect, emotionless weapon. In our current age of algorithms trying to manipulate our emotions and social media designed to make us more reactive, Quatre’s resistance feels incredibly relevant.

Wufei and Trowa, who seemed like simple archetypes before, revealed their complexity on rewatch. Wufei’s not just the angry loner—he’s wrestling with honour, justice, and what strength really means. Trowa’s professional mask hides incredible pain and a deep need for belonging. These are the kinds of character insights you miss when you’re primarily focused on which mobile suit looks coolest.

Broader Gundam journey

Wing might have been my gateway to Gundam, but it’s no longer my favourite in the franchise. That honour goes to SEED, which I appreciate for its superior storytelling approach—focusing on higher stakes, more realistic collateral damage, and genuine character growth rather than five pilots in near-indestructible suits.

The Kira versus Athrun conflict in SEED cut deep precisely because of those personal stakes. Here were two friends fighting for what they believed to be just causes, hurting each other despite caring deeply for one another, because people they loved had died. The mobile suits weren’t indestructible plot devices—they could be destroyed, and their pilots could die. That made every battle meaningful in ways Wing’s conflicts sometimes weren’t.

I’ve noticed Wing doesn’t get discussed as much nowadays as series like 00, Iron-Blooded Orphans, or the Universal Century entries. Perhaps it’s because younger fans are less familiar with it, or maybe newer series have simply overshadowed its achievements. That feels like a shame, because Wing deserves recognition for being many Western fans’ introduction to both Gundam and anime in general.

Enduring Philosophy

What strikes me most about Wing’s enduring appeal is its idealistic but not naive philosophy. The common theme across Gundam series suggests that universal understanding could end all wars—a kind of Newtype empathy that allows us to truly comprehend our opponents’ perspectives. By understanding what others are coming from, recognising that opponents aren’t mindlessly opposing us but have concrete reasons for their actions, we might find paths to peace.

I’ve written before about the importance of having an open mind before forming opinions. If people tried to understand others before judging, we would indeed have a more empathetic world. That’s not naive idealism—it’s a goal worth striving for, even if we fall short.

Living through the past decade of global events, watching how quickly misunderstanding can escalate into genuine conflict, Wing’s message feels more urgent than ever. The series understood that the real enemy isn’t the person across the battlefield—it’s the failure to communicate, the unwillingness to see situations from multiple perspectives, the ease with which we other those who oppose us.

Thirty years of influence

It’s remarkable to see Wing getting this level of anniversary celebration. Sunrise and Bandai do anniversaries every five years, so the attention isn’t entirely surprising, but it feels massive for my original Gundam series to hit the three-decade mark. The fact that they’re putting this much effort into celebrating it—new animation, updated designs, comprehensive media releases—suggests Wing’s influence extends far beyond nostalgic millennials like myself.

The series shaped not just my creative trajectory but my fundamental approach to conflict and understanding. From that first moment of being inspired by a classmate’s Duo Maxwell shrine to learning HTML on Geocities, to eventually building MechaBay as a spiritual successor to my original fan site, Wing’s influence ripples through decades of creative decisions.

But more than career impact, Wing taught me that peace is worth fighting for—even if that sounds contradictory. The series never claimed pacifism meant passivity. Rather, it suggested that the highest form of strength is choosing understanding over retaliation, communication over conflict, empathy over anger.

Thirty years later, watching giant robots duke it out in space while teenage pilots grapple with impossibly complex moral dilemmas, that message feels as relevant as ever. And if that’s not worth celebrating with some beautifully designed anniversary Gunpla, I don’t know what is.

Operation: 30th Anniversary is a success.

Orpheus Pro is rooted in two late 1920s designs by Walter Tiemann, who had an impressive talent for combining classic Roman proportions and Art Deco sensibilities. The typeface represents a masterful fusion of traditional empire capitals with a lowercase that showcases the efficient rhythm of modernist minimalism that defined German typography in the interwar period.

The typeface features a beautiful, flowing italic design that takes on a calligraphic feel, especially in the huge collection of ornate ligatures, alternate and swash characters. What began as a straightforward revival evolved into a comprehensive type system, with each font containing over 1000 glyphs. The italic, originally released separately as Euphorion in 1936, is particularly remarkable—Tiemann created multiple sets of capitals ranging from traditional forms to exuberant calligraphic swashes that showcase formal elegance at its finest.

The digital revival by Patrick Griffin and Kevin Allan King expands significantly on Tiemann’s original vision, adding extensive alternates, swashes, and ligatures that make Orpheus Pro exceptionally versatile for display typography while maintaining its readability in text settings.

Best uses

• Luxury branding and high-end packaging design requiring sophisticated elegance
• Entertainment industry applications including film posters and credits
• Editorial design for magazines and publications seeking refined character
• Wedding invitations and formal event materials needing calligraphic grace
• Corporate communications where classic sophistication meets contemporary style
• Product packaging for premium consumer goods

Thoughts

Orpheus Pro stands out as one of those rare typefaces that successfully bridges historical elegance and contemporary utility. The extensive character set—particularly the italic with its multiple swash capital sets—provides incredible flexibility for creating distinctive, memorable designs without sacrificing professionalism.

What impresses me most is how the typeface maintains clarity even with all its decorative potential. The base letterforms are beautifully balanced, and the ornamental features feel like thoughtful additions rather than excessive decoration. The Art Deco influences give it a timeless quality that works equally well for vintage-inspired designs and modern luxury branding.

The digital revival clearly involved immense care—the expansion from a simple revival to a comprehensive type system with over 1000 glyphs per font demonstrates real commitment to making this historical gem relevant for contemporary design practice. It’s particularly effective in contexts where you need elegance that feels both established and distinctive.

References

• Adobe Fonts page
• Canada Type foundry
• Typewolf showcase
• Fonts In Use examples

Zhang kept selling ice cream for one yuan.

Twenty-seven years later, his company Mixue operates 36,000 stores across 35 countries, generating over 15 billion (USD 2.08 billion) in annual revenue—all while keeping prices so low that most drinks cost less than a bus ticket. To put this in perspective: Mixue operates more outlets than McDonald’s, and significantly more than KFC, Pizza Hut, or Burger King individually.

This is the story of how radical cheapness conquered the world’s largest beverage market.

Persistence of spectacular failure

Zhang Hongchao wasn’t destined for entrepreneurial greatness. A finance student at Henan University of Economics and Law, he first tried motorcycle repair—an endeavour that ended roughly. Fish farming followed, with similarly disappointing results. But failure, it seems, teaches valuable lessons about persistence.

In 1997, inspired by the popularity of Korean culture sweeping China, Zhang launched a shaved ice cart near his university. What followed was a masterclass in perseverance through adversity: three business closures and four demolitions by city authorities. Each setback could have ended the story there. Instead, each became fuel for the next attempt.

The breakthrough came in 2003 when Zhang secured a permanent location adjacent to his alma mater. His menu was hardly revolutionary: shaved ice, RMB 3 (USD 0.4) hamburgers, and RMB 2.5 (USD 0.35) fried rice. But it served a crucial market—hungry students operating on instant noodle budgets.

RMB 1 revolution that changed everything

In 2006, Zhang made a decision that would reshape China’s beverage industry: the RMB 1 ice cream cone. While competitors priced similar products at RMB 20 (USD 2.78), Zhang positioned his at one yuan—not as a budget option, but as an everyday essential.

This wasn’t temporary promotional pricing. This was permanent market disruption.

The response was explosive. Students who previously treated ice cream as an occasional luxury suddenly consumed it daily. Zhang had transformed a discretionary purchase into a habitual one, and the mathematics were staggering.

But here’s where Zhang’s genius becomes apparent: the RMB 1 ice cream wasn’t just a product—it was a customer acquisition tool. Each cone created a loyal customer who would purchase other items and, crucially, spread word-of-mouth marketing.

That ice cream, now priced at RMB 2-3, remains Mixue’s flagship product nearly two decades later. Some strategies age poorly. Great strategies become institutions.

The supply chain revelation

In 2013, Zhang launched another product that would define Mixue’s future: RMB 3 fresh lemonade. This wasn’t just another menu item—it was proof of concept for vertical integration.

While competitors struggled with inconsistent quality from multiple suppliers, Zhang began building his own supply chain. He established Snow King Agriculture in Sichuan province, controlling lemon farms in China’s primary growing region. Not content with domestic sourcing, he extended operations globally—New Zealand dairy, Vietnamese passion fruit, Brazilian coffee.

The RMB 3 lemonade (now RMB 4) achieved something remarkable: annual sales exceeding one billion cups. This means roughly one in four Chinese citizens drinks Mixue lemonade annually. That’s not just market penetration—that’s cultural integration.

Consider this statistic: 98% of Mixue’s revenue comes from selling ingredients and equipment to franchisees. They’ve essentially created a business model where they profit from every transaction—first when franchisees purchase supplies, then when those franchisees sell to customers.

The strategic beauty of franchise control

Zhang pioneered a revolutionary franchise model that eliminates many traditional risks. Instead of relying on percentage-based royalties from franchisee sales, Mixue generates revenue through direct supply sales. This creates several advantages:

1. Predictable revenue: Whether a franchise thrives or struggles, they still need supplies
2. Quality control: Standardised ingredients ensure consistent product quality
3. Reduced risk: Mixue profits regardless of individual store performance
4. Expansion support: Free shipping to franchisees reduces their barriers to growth

The model resembles what economists call the “shovel seller strategy”—during gold rushes, the most reliable profits came from selling tools to miners, not from mining gold itself.

Snow King’s cultural conquest

In 2018, Mixue introduced Snow King (雪王), their mascot designed to embody affordability, approachability, and universal appeal. No scandal potential, no celebrity risks—just a cheerful, rotund character that could represent the brand anywhere in the world.

The genius stroke came in 2019 with the theme song. “Mixue Bingcheng Tianmimi” (roughly translated as “Mixue Ice City, Sweet as Honey”) achieved viral status before viral marketing became routine. The catchy jingle made Mixue top-of-mind for millions of potential customers across China.

Zhang didn’t stop at music. In 2018, he established Snow King Animation Company, producing “Snow King Arrives” (雪王驾到), an animated series that scored an impressive 9.9 rating on Bilibili (China’s equivalent to YouTube). Each season reportedly costs over RMB 10 million to produce, representing one of history’s most expensive promotional campaigns disguised as entertainment.

This investment reveals Zhang’s broader vision: transforming Mixue from a beverage company into a cultural property. Think Disney, but with lemonade.

The global experiment

Mixue currently operates 4,000+ international stores, primarily throughout Southeast Asia—countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. This represents a fascinating experiment: Can radical affordability travel across cultures and economic conditions?

Early evidence suggests yes. Southeast Asian customers embrace affordable indulgence similarly to Chinese consumers. The key insight: while taste preferences vary culturally, the appeal of daily affordable luxury appears universal.

However, expansion into wealthier markets like Europe or North America presents untested challenges. Can RMB 4 beverages compete in countries where similar products cost RMB 15-20? The answer will determine whether Mixue becomes a regional phenomenon or global empire.

Strategic precision in simplicity

Zhang’s approach defies conventional business wisdom in several ways:

1. Extreme price focus: While competitors chase premium positioning, Mixue doubles down on affordability
2. Simple menu strategy: Instead of constantly introducing new products, they perfect existing ones
3. Supply chain priority: Investment goes to infrastructure rather than marketing
4. Cultural investment: Building entertainment properties while selling beverages

The results speak clearly. While premium brands like Heytea and Nayuki fight over affluent urban customers willing to pay RMB 25-30 for specialty drinks, Mixue captured the much larger mass market with offerings under RMB 10.

The Future Uncertainties

Despite remarkable success, Mixue faces several challenges:

1. Scale management: Maintaining quality across 36,000 stores requires exceptional systems
2. International adaptation: Wealthier markets may resist ultra-low pricing
3. Cultural investment returns: The long-term financial return on animation investments remains unproven
4. Competitive Rresponse: How will established global players react to Mixue’s expansion?

Industry lessons

Mixue’s success offers several insights for modern business:

1. Mass market power: Serving many customers small profits often beats serving few customers large profits
2. Supply chain as defense: Controlling your input costs creates sustainable competitive advantages
3. Price leadership: In commodity markets, the lowest-cost provider with acceptable quality often wins
4. Culture building: Brand building through entertainment can create deeper customer connections

The bigger question

Zhang Hongchao transformed a RMB 1 ice cream cone into a RMB 15 billion empire by understanding a simple truth: small, frequent pleasures often create more value than large, occasional ones.

His question for the next decade: Can Mixue become China’s answer to Coca-Cola or Disney—brands that transcend product categories to become cultural institutions?

The answer will determine whether Zhang’s improbable journey ends as a business school case study or continues as an ongoing conquest of global consumer culture.

My thoughts

Looking back, Zhang’s greatest insight wasn’t about beverages or business models. It was recognising that in a world where everything grows more expensive, radical affordability becomes a luxury itself.

Sometimes the most disruptive business strategy is simply charging less than anyone thinks possible while still making money. Zhang proved this with one yuan of ice cream at a time.

Degular represents James Edmondson’s deliberate attempt to create a “boring” sans-serif that could serve as a reliable workhorse for corporate type systems. Unlike the exuberant display faces that typically emerge from OH no Type Co., Degular was designed to fade into the background and support content rather than demand attention. However, despite Edmondson’s intentions to create something completely neutral, Degular retains subtle personality traits that prevent it from being entirely conventional.

The typeface is available in three optical sizes: Degular Text (optimized for small sizes), Degular (the multi-purpose middle size excelling at 14-48 points), and Degular Display (designed for large headlines). Each optical size features carefully adjusted apertures, with the display styles featuring dramatically closed apertures that create distinctive texture in bold weights. The family includes stylistic alternates for select characters (a, g, t, G) and maintains consistent spacing across all weights, making it particularly suitable for complex typographic systems.

What makes Degular successful is its balance between geometric precision and organic warmth. While it draws from the grotesque tradition, subtle details like slightly curved terminals and carefully modulated stroke endings give it a more approachable character than purely mechanical alternatives.

Best uses

• Corporate communications and brand identity systems
• Editorial design for magazines and publications
• User interface design and digital applications
• Website typography and content management systems
• Signage and wayfinding applications where clarity is paramount

Thoughts

Degular succeeds precisely because it doesn’t try too hard to be noticed, yet it’s far from generic. Edmondson’s attempt to create something “neutral” resulted in a typeface that feels refreshingly honest—it has personality without being precious about it. The three optical sizes are genuinely useful, with the display cuts offering enough character for headlines while the text cuts remain remarkably readable at small sizes.

I’ve found Degular particularly effective in contexts where you need a sans-serif that can handle complex information architecture without feeling sterile. The stylistic alternates provide just enough flexibility to adjust the voice when needed, and the extensive weight range makes it genuinely versatile for establishing clear hierarchies. It’s the kind of typeface that grows on you—initially appearing straightforward, but revealing thoughtful details the more you work with it.

The fact that it comes from OH no Type Co. makes it feel like a well-kept secret among designers who appreciate good spacing and subtle personality over flashy distinctiveness.

References

• OH no Type Co. Degular page
• Adobe Fonts
• Adobe Fonts variable
• Fontstand rental
• Typewolf review

Polymath is a comprehensive geometric sans-serif superfamily that brings fresh perspective to one of typography’s most ubiquitous categories. Taking inspiration from different eras of geometric sans serifs, the text size draws from the 1920s with long ascenders and descenders and smaller x-height, the display size takes cues from the 1970s photo-type era with enormous x-height and tight spacing, while the standard size references geometric sans serifs from the late 1980s onward.

What sets Polymath apart is its extensive collection of stylistic alternates organised into 18 sets, ranging from conservative legibility forms to experimental variants that reference different periods in geometric typography history. The alternates include everything from double-story a and g forms to Bauhaus-inspired alternates, “gas-pipe” variants with abrupt curves, uncial-style characters, and even a “squiggly” g. This wealth of options allows designers to customise the typeface’s personality while maintaining consistent spacing and proportions.

The family comes in three optical sizes designed for different applications: Text (optimised for smaller sizes with increased legibility), Standard (the multipurpose workhorse), and Display (for large usage like signage and logotypes with tighter spacing). Each optical size includes nine weights from Thin to Black, all available in both Roman and Italic styles, totalling 54 individual fonts.

Best uses

• Corporate branding and identity systems where versatility and trustworthiness are essential
• Editorial design requiring multiple hierarchical levels across different optical sizes
• Way-finding and signage systems that benefit from the Display optical size’s impact
• Digital products and interfaces where the Standard size provides excellent screen readability
• Marketing materials that need to convey both professionalism and approachability
• Pharmaceutical, healthcare, and financial communications where the alternates provide conservative fallbacks

Thoughts

Polymath represents OH no Type Company’s most ambitious attempt to reimagine the geometric sans-serif for contemporary use. What impressed me most is how the foundry approached this oversaturated category with both respect for its history and genuine innovation.

The three optical sizes aren’t just scaled versions of each other—they’re thoughtfully designed for their intended use cases, with the Text size feeling genuinely comfortable for extended reading and the Display size commanding attention at large sizes.

The stylistic alternates are where Polymath truly shines. Rather than feeling like gimmicks, they serve as a comprehensive toolkit that lets designers navigate between conservative corporate needs and more expressive applications. The legibility alternates provide escape hatches for traditional clients, while options like the uncial ‘a’ and experimental ‘g’ forms push boundaries without compromising the overall system’s integrity.

Having used it across several branding projects, I appreciate how Polymath manages to feel both familiar and fresh. It doesn’t scream for attention like some display fonts, but it’s far from boring. The spacing is exceptional, retaining its beauty across different media and sizes.

References

• Official site
• Adobe Fonts

Welcome to 2025’s most entertaining corporate showdown: the war between China’s tech titans JD, Meituan, and Alibaba—who are rewriting the rules of consumerism by weaponising speed. It’s been dubbed the modern-day Three Kingdom power struggle. Their battlefield? Your doorstep.

Living in Shenzhen, I’ve witnessed this transformation firsthand. I ordered a portable hard disk at 2 pm while on a video call, and when the meeting ended at 2:35 pm, there was a courier at my door to make sure our project stays on track. Of course, we’re used to the speed for food delivery: we ordered McDonald’s at the office and our lunch arrived the moment we stepped back from a trip to the washroom.

These runner services aren’t new; we use it to get items from the pharmacy sometimes. But traditionally, you paid a premium for such instant convenience. What makes this three-way battle revolutionary is how it’s driving costs down so dramatically that consumers can hardly justify not choosing the instant option.

From noodles to neurotic consumers: the instant retail revolution

What started as a simple food delivery service has morphed into something far more ambitious—instant retail. It’s like Amazon Prime, but if Amazon Prime had consumed several energy drinks and was determined to prove it could bring you literally anything before you could make yourself a cup of tea.

This isn’t just about getting your dumplings delivered anymore. We’re talking about a market where 73% of Gen Z consumers would rather pay premium prices for instant gratification than wait like their patient elders. These platforms have taken note and transformed into digital Swiss Army knives, ready to deliver everything from smartphones to strawberries, often with alarming efficiency.

JD: the reformed perfectionist

JD’s re-entry into food delivery earlier this year with JD Takeaway was like watching a reformed workaholic dive back into the office party—with gusto and a slightly concerning level of enthusiasm. They’ve thrown billion-yuan subsidies at the problem, perhaps confident after their successful 10 billion yuan subsidy campaign.

Their strategy is beautifully simple: flood the market with money, guarantee social insurance for couriers (a surprisingly radical move in the gig economy), and leverage their logistics network that resembles something between a Swiss watch and a quantum computer. Within months, they’re processing over 10 million daily orders—not bad for a comeback act.

Their 1 store + N warehouses model reads like a multiplication formula for instant gratification. While competitors focus on food, JD’s pushing into high-margin electronics territory, essentially saying, “Why wait three days for your new headphones when you can have them in thirty minutes?”

Their quality over speed ethos targets urbanites who want organic avocados delivered by full-time employees—not contractors.

Meituan: the incumbent with a point to prove

Meituan entered this war with the confidence of someone who’s already won—which, to be fair, they had. With 65% market share, they could have rested on their laurels like a cat in a sunbeam. Instead, they’ve deployed 30,000 lightning warehouses (which sounds like something from a superhero movie but is actually just really, really fast storage facilities).

Their Meituan Flash Buy service processes 16 million daily orders in non-food categories. That’s roughly equivalent to delivering something to every person in the Netherlands every day. They’ve also mastered the art of using drones for delivery, operating 53 drone routes across cities—because apparently, the future involves tiny aircraft carrying your lunch.

The company’s response to competition? A RMB100 billion subsidy war chest. In the world of instant delivery, that’s the equivalent of bringing a financial bazooka to a price war.

Alibaba: the ecosystem emperor

Alibaba approached this battle like a chess grandmaster who’s suddenly decided to play three games simultaneously. Their stroke of genius was merging Taobao’s ecommerce ecosystem with Ele.me’s delivery network of 3 million restaurant partnerships—imagine if Amazon and DoorDash had a baby, and that baby grew up in a country where efficiency is considered a national sport.

Their Taobao Instant Commerce hit 10 million daily orders within days of launch. They’re offering free drinks and subsidies with the kind of enthusiasm typically reserved for religious conversions. Their 400,000 couriers are now armed with AI-driven demand forecasting, which presumably means the algorithm knows you want ice cream before you do.

The technology arms race

The tech war happening behind the scenes is more fascinating than a science fiction novel, and considerably more practical.

AI: the digital oracle

These companies aren’t just delivering food; they’re essentially running predictive algorithms that would make fortune tellers weep with envy. Meituan’s AI analyse real-time data to make better predictions for order dispatch, pricing, and logistics network design.

JD uses machine learning to manage over 1,500 automated warehouses. JD’s digital twins simulate entire cities’ traffic flows, optimising routes down to the second. Alibaba’s algorithms have cut vehicle use by 10% and travel distances by 30%.

Drones and other flying dreams

Meituan’s drone delivery operations span from Shenzhen to Dubai, operating 53 routes that look like a particularly ambitious game of aerial Tetris. Meanwhile, JD and Alibaba are racing to catch up with their own flying machines, investing in autonomous vehicles that promise to make the sight of packages flying through the air as common as pigeons in a park.

The algorithm Olympics

The efficiency metrics are genuinely impressive. Meituan boasts a 30-minute average delivery time, which is faster than most people can decide what to order. JD and Alibaba are frantically closing this gap with real-time traffic analysis and dynamic pricing—because nothing says modern commerce like smart discounts to entice you to order your late-night snacks.

These companies are pouring billions into AI research not just to shave seconds off delivery times but to understand consumer behaviour at a fundamental level. The goal isn’t just prediction but anticipation—knowing what you want before you do. Their algorithms analyse everything from weather patterns to time of day to seasonal trends, constantly learning from the millions of daily transactions flowing through their systems.

Money talks (and yells, and occasionally screams)

The financial commitment to this war is eye-watering. JD and Alibaba have each pledged RMB 10 billion (roughly USD1.38 billion) in subsidies for 2025. They’re selling coffee for USD 0.80 and bubble tea for USD 0.50—prices that make economists furrow their brows at the seemingly unsustainable business model. It’s as if these tech giants have discovered the corporate equivalent of a perpetual motion machine: losing money on every transaction while somehow expecting to make it up in volume.

Classical economics would suggest this ends in tears, but classical economists never had to compete with companies willing to burn billions to dominate China’s instant gratification economy.

Alibaba, JD, and Meituan sit on RMB 400 billion, RMB 144 billion and RMB 110 billion cash respectively. They can afford to play this game longer than most people can afford to buy groceries. But analysts warn that this subsidy war could evaporate USD 7 billion in market cap if it doesn’t convert casual users into loyal customers.

The future: everything, everywhere, all at once

This war is fundamentally changing how people consume in a market that already pampers consumers. Living in Shenzhen means being accustomed to shopping on the phone and getting your purchases at the door the same or next day, depending on warehouse availability. This wave wants to make them arrive in 29 minutes.

The instant retail market is projected to hit RMB 3.6 trillion by 2030, which means China is essentially teaching the world how to want things really, really fast.

The lines between ecommerce and delivery services are blurring faster than a cyclist on a rainy day. JD’s integration of food delivery with their ecommerce platform and Alibaba’s Taobao-Ele.me merger suggest that the future of retail is about having no separation between wanting something and having it appear at your door.

Of course, this rapid-fire delivery culture raises questions about sustainability and worker welfare. Couriers face increasing pressure, with JD now requiring doorplate photos to verify deliveries—the digital equivalent of pics or it didn’t happen. The gig economy’s ethical concerns persist, even as algorithms grow more sophisticated at predicting human behaviour.

The implications of this delivery war extend far beyond China’s borders. European and American delivery services look positively glacial by comparison, often still bragging about same-day or next-day delivery while Chinese consumers tap their watches impatiently after 25 minutes. Companies like Gorillas and Getir have attempted to replicate this model in overseas markets with mixed success, but none have achieved the seamless integration of inventory, logistics, and predictive AI that powers China’s delivery ecosystem.

As Chinese platforms eye international expansion, particularly in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, we may see this model of hyper-efficient instant commerce become the global expectation rather than the exception.

The verdict: speed is the new currency

In this three-way battle, there’s no clear winner yet. Meituan has the infrastructure of a delivery deity, JD wields logistics like a surgical instrument, and Alibaba commands an ecosystem that spans digital commerce like a benevolent emperor.

But here’s the thing about technology wars—they rarely end with a single victor. Even the Three Kingdoms didn’t end well for the three Emperors, just ask Sima Yi. Instead, they tend to push everyone towards innovations that seemed impossible just years ago. Whether it’s drone delivery, AI-predicted cravings, or 30-minute everything, this competition is creating a world where our parents’ notion of instant seems quaint.

The ultimate winner might not be any single company, but rather the consumers who’ve stumbled into a future where instant gratification isn’t just possible—it’s the standard. And really, in a world where you can get bubble tea and a phone charger delivered faster than you can find your house keys, who’s complaining?

As I write this while taking my daily stroll with my daughter and dog in our community in Shenzhen, I’ve crossed path with no fewer than twelve couriers, each carrying someone’s impulse purchase or urgent need. This modern-day Three Kingdoms battle isn’t just reshaping retail—it’s rewriting our relationship with time itself.

After all, in a world where waiting means losing, perhaps the ultimate luxury isn’t gold or designer labels, but those precious minutes you no longer spend waiting for the things you want. The only certainty in this war is that by the time you finish reading this article, someone in China has already had three things delivered to their door. And one of them was probably bubble tea.

Aktiv Grotesk is dubbed the Helvetica Killer—and that’s the highest praise you can give to any grotesque sans-serif. It is a contemporary typeface that represents a thoughtful evolution of the genre.

Bruno Maag designed it as his answer to Helvetica’s dominance, striking a careful balance—keeping Helvetica’s neutrality but adding Univers’ warmth and approachability. The result? A typeface that doesn’t feel sterile or robotic. The sweet spot that is both authoritative and accessible.

One of Aktiv Grotesk’s most impressive features is its insane language support, covering ten global writing systems including Arabic, Cyrillic, Devanagari, and more. This makes it an excellent choice for international brands and multilingual projects.

The typeface also embraces modern technology with variable font capabilities, meaning you can fine-tune weight, width, and italic settings for optimal performance across different media.

The design features clean lines with subtle humanist touches that give it personality without sacrificing professionalism. Optical adjustments have been carefully made to enhance legibility across different sizes, with a slightly higher x-height than traditional grotesques, and open counters that improve readability in both print and digital applications. Or in simple terms—text actually readable instead of just looking “designed.”

Best uses

• Corporate branding and identity systems where neutrality and authority are essential
• Editorial design for magazines and publications requiring high legibility
• User interface design and digital products where clarity across multiple languages is crucial
• Wayfinding and signage systems that need to work across diverse contexts
• Web typography where variable font technology can optimize performance
• Marketing materials that require a balance of professionalism and approachability

Thoughts

I’ll start off with a confession that Aktiv Grotesk is my favourite grotesque. Whether it’s for UI elements or body text, it’s my go-to sans-serif typeface. So, the following is totally tinted with heavy bias.

Aktiv Grotesk stands out in the crowded field of grotesque sans-serifs by offering a truly functional alternative to Helvetica without feeling like a mere clone. The subtle warmth and character that Bruno and his team have infused into the design make it feel more human and approachable than many of its competitors, while still maintaining the neutrality that makes grotesques so versatile.

Helvetica is so neutral that it can come across cold. When Creative Review said hating Helvetica is pointless because it’s as “like air or vanilla ice cream”, Bruno’s reply was, “That’s the point, it is vanilla ice cream.”

“In my whole career in typography, starting with my apprenticeship, I have never used Helvetica. Being a Swiss typographer, it’s always been Univers. Even in my apprenticeship we didn’t have Helvetica in the printshop. Then I went to Basel school of design and of course in Weingart’s workshop it was Univers, never Helvetica. Then I come to England and there’s all these designers using Helvetica! The Macintosh had just come out and Helvetica was on every single machine. Everyone was so fascinated with it … I never understood that.”

I love Aktiv Grotesk because it is neutral without being generic. It is expressive without distracting from its purpose. The balance makes it a versatile typeface especially when creating visual identities.

When it comes to body text, readability is top priority. Character is a close second for me. Trends break out all the time for body text seen on websites: Inter, Work Sans, Proxima Nova, Open Sans, and Lato are some examples for the trends over the years.

Most of these became popular for good reasons - Inter was designed specifically for screens, Google Fonts made Open Sans and Lato accessible to everyone, and Work Sans was the “better” version of Source Sans Pro. But they’re everywhere now, which makes your site feel like… everyone else’s.

Aktiv Grotesk gets the job done without feeling generic. It has that crisp legibility you need for body text, but with enough personality that your content actually feels designed, not just typed up. The subtle warmth keeps it from feeling cold like Helvetica would, while still being neutral enough that it doesn’t fight with your message.

Plus, when everyone else is using the same five fonts, Aktiv Grotesk helps you stand out without being weird about it. It’s the perfect “quietly confident” choice—and the best part is it ages well. It doesn’t feel dated even after the trendy picks have faded.

References

• Dalton Maag
• Adobe Fonts
• Typewolf
• Variable Fonts: Aktiv Grotesk VF
• ArtifyAssets

It’s almost as if your fur kid is trying to tell you where it hid the body.

What is going on here?

What you’re witnessing is URL encoding in action—a method where “unsafe” or reserved characters get replaced with a percentage sign (%) followed by two hexadecimal digits.

It’s the digital equivalent of someone translating your name into Morse code when writing it on a coffee cup. Technically correct, but as practical as the barista tapping on the coffee top to announce that your brew is ready.

URL encoding serves a legitimate purpose on the web—ensuring special characters don’t break URLs or confuse servers. But when these encoded names persist in your downloaded files, they’re about as welcome as sand in your swimming costume.

How did this happen to your files?

There are several culprits behind this encoding madness:

1. Server amnesia: The server forgot to specify the proper file name in the Content-Disposition header, leaving your browser to default to the URL’s encoded path. It’s like a restaurant forgetting to write your name on a takeaway order, so they just use your phone number instead.

2. Lazy code: The developer who wrote the download system simply forgot to decode the names before serving them up.

3. Backwards compatibility: Some older operating systems or file systems break into a cold sweat at the sight of Unicode characters, forcing the use of encoded names.

Decoding the code

Fear not! You need not live with files that look like they’ve been through a cryptographic washing machine. Here are some ways to restore order to your digital domain:

For the casual user

The quickest fix is to use online decoders like URL Decode Online. Simply copy your encoded filename, paste it into the decoder, and voilà—legibility returns faster than you can say “percent twenty.”

For the command line connoisseur

If you’re comfortable with a bit of Python (or just want to feel like a hacker in a 90s movie), the urllib.parse.unquote function is your new best friend:

import urllib.parse
encoded_name = "My%20Summer%20Holiday%20Photos%202024.zip"
decoded_name = urllib.parse.unquote(encoded_name)
print(decoded_name)  # Outputs: My Summer Holiday Photos 2024.zip

For the efficiency enthusiast

If you find yourself wrestling with encoded filenames more often than you’d care to admit, it’s time to level up with some proper tools:

PopClip: Your Mac’s Text manipulation wizard

PopClip is that little menu that appears when you select text on your Mac—if you haven’t discovered it yet, you’re missing out on a productivity goldmine. It’s one of the Mac tools that I can’t live without. PopClip is like a contextual Swiss Army knife for text, with a wide selection of extensions for quick actions to speed up your workflow.

The URL Encode extension lets you encode and decode filenames with a selection and a click. You don’t need to do any coding or fiddling. You Just need to download the extension, run it to add it to PopClip, and enable the action.

The caveat here is that you need to buy PopClip. The good news is, you can download it for a free trial to see if you like it. Prefer a free option? The next solution is for you.

Apple Shortcuts: automation for power users

For those who deal with encoded filenames in bulk (you have my sympathies), I’ve created an Apple Shortcut that decodes filenames faster than you can say “why didn’t I think of this sooner?”:

// Apple Shortcuts for Bulk URL decode filenames
// 1. Receive files from Quick Actions input
Receive Files from Quick Actions
// This ensures the shortcut can be run from the share sheet or Files app
// 2. Repeat with each file
Repeat with each item in "Selected Files"
    // 3. Get the current file's name
    Get Name of "Repeat Item"
    Set Variable "Original Name"
    
    // 4. URL decode the filename
    URL Decode "Original Name"
    Set Variable "Decoded Name"
    
// 5. Show completion notification (optional)
Show Notification "URL Decoding Complete" Subtitle "All filenames have been processed"

This little beauty runs as a Quick Action right from your Finder, turning a folder full of digital gibberish into properly named files with a click. I created this for my own specific use case. I know how exactly I will be using it, so I skipped steps that checks if the file name is encoded, and whether the output is properly decoded. You might want to modify it to make it more robust should your workflow require.

The digital decluttering satisfaction

As we increasingly live our lives online, these small digital quality-of-life improvements add up. After all, life’s too short to spend it trying to decipher filenames that look like they’ve been encrypted by an overzealous secret agent.

Spending a bit of time to craft an automation work flow goes a long way to saving you time in the long term.

Do you have any other file management pet peeves or solutions? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below. Or perhaps you’ve found other uses for URL decoding in your digital life? Share your wisdom, and let’s collectively make our digital spaces just a little bit tidier.

Until next time, happy decoding!​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Bricolage Grotesque is an expressive variable font that blends iconic elements from French sources like Antique Olive and British sources like Stephenson Blake’s Grotesque series. It features three variable axes: weight, width, and optical size, allowing designers precise control over its appearance across different contexts.

“Bricolage” is French for improvising by combining readily available materials. The typeface’s name perfectly captures its nature as a thoughtful remix of historical references with contemporary sensibilities. The compressed weights lean toward the anxious and wonky tones of Grotesque No. 9, while the regular widths have more of Antique Olive’s relaxed and confident attitude.

Best uses

• Editorial design for headlines and pull quotes
• Contemporary branding and identity systems requiring personality
• Display typography with a balance of character and legibility
• User interfaces needing both distinctiveness and functionality
• Websites and digital applications at various screen sizes
• Print applications from small text to large format display

Thoughts

Bricolage Grotesque strikes an impressive balance between personality and functionality. Its “restrained quirkiness”, to quote Triay, allows it to be expressive without being overly decorative, making it versatile for both display and text purposes.

The variable font technology provides excellent flexibility across different applications. I’ve found the optical size axis particularly valuable when using the font across different contexts—the font genuinely transforms itself to maintain readability whether used in body text or display settings.

While many contemporary fonts aim for neutrality, Bricolage Grotesque deliberately embraces expression. It provides what the designer calls “the foundation of a feeling” without overwhelming the content it presents. In projects where I want typography with presence but not domination, this font delivers perfectly.

What makes this font particularly special is the personal story behind it. Mathieu Triay is a French designer based in London and the typeface visually expresses his experience of cultural hybridity, reflecting what it feels like to move between countries and rebuild one’s identity.

References

• Official page
• Adobe Fonts
• Google Fonts
• GitHub repository

In Chinese culture, a good name is believed to shape destiny. In the West, it’s often about honouring family or sounding pleasing. But across cultures, the weight of naming a child feels universal—perhaps because 80% of parents report feeling significant pressure to choose the “perfect” name. This pressure doubles when navigating the complexities of Chinese naming traditions, where each stroke of the brush carries centuries of cultural significance.

As someone who straddles both Chinese and Western cultures, I’ve always been fascinated by how names and often go on deep dives when naming characters in my writing. However, this is nothing like I’ve experienced—creating a name for my own child. My wife and I had been navigating the particularly complex world of Chinese naming since her second trimester. And like any modern problem solver with a penchant for technology, I wondered: could AI help streamline this deeply personal process?

The art and science of Chinese names

For the uninitiated, a Chinese name isn’t just a collection of pretty characters. It’s a carefully balanced equation taking into account the stroke count numerology, characters’ elemental harmony, phonetic flow, and layers of cultural meaning that would make an onion jealous.

Traditional methods involve consulting fortune tellers, studying almanacs, and sometimes paying naming specialists who consider everything from birth charts to family histories. My parents’ generation would have never imagined using artificial intelligence to name their offspring—they were more likely to consult the year’s “Yellow Calendar” (《黄历》 Huánglì) and our family’s genealogy records.

But here we are in 2025, and AI tools have become sophisticated enough to understand these cultural nuances and assist in creating meaningful names—though with human guidance, of course. Think of it as having a culturally knowledgeable assistant rather than outsourcing the entire emotional process.

I recognise that some traditionalists might raise eyebrows at using AI for something as sacred as naming. After all, isn’t this precisely the kind of deeply human, cultural practice that should remain untouched by technology?

I had similar reservations initially. However, I came to see AI not as replacing tradition but as a tool for exploring it more thoroughly. The combination of my cultural knowledge with AI’s analytical capabilities allowed us to honour traditions with greater depth than either approach alone could achieve.

Our AI-assisted naming methodology

Working with AI on baby naming is a bit like having a master chef help you prepare a family recipe. The chef brings technical expertise and an understanding of flavour combinations, but you still provide the family’s secret ingredients and make the final decisions about taste. Similarly, AI offered analytical precision while we supplied the cultural context and emotional resonance.

I developed a comprehensive approach combining traditional wisdom with AI assistance.

1. Set constraints

First, we put down details like the expected birth year, my wife’s and my names, our respective bazi—our time of births—for the AI to use as reference, along with other constraints to maintain cultural integrity while making sure it won’t be awkward internationally.

The baby’s expected zodiac would play a part in the naming because the zodiac carries its own element. I went into the naming process with a Dragon year baby in mind, since our due date was a few days into Chinese New Year and we expected the baby to arrive a week or two early.

• Zodiac
  • Baby’s expected birth in the Year of the Wood Dragon
  • Parents’ birth year to determine their zodiac element
• Bazi
  • Parents’ bazi derived from the time of birth
  • Since we didn’t know the baby’s bazi yet, we checked against it later on
• Parents’ name
  • The stroke counts in the parents’ names
  • The elemental profiles of the parents’ names
  • The meaning of the parents’ name
• Family surname
  • Our baby would take my family name 萧 (Xiāo)
• Things to avoid
  • Check against historical figures with the same or same-sounding name
  • Verify that there are no taboos in regional expression in China and Southeast Asia
  • Ensure there are no potential negative connotations

With this information, the AI was able to narrow down:

• The ideal range of stroke counts, in our case a target of 25–35 total strokes
• The ideal element of suggested characters
  • Prioritising Wood element to support the Wood Dragon year
  • Balancing Water to counter excessive Fire in parents’ names
• The preferred phonetics

2. Generate names

I got the Claude to generate lists of names that fit the above constraints and are auspicious based on the input we gave. I went through over a hundred names. For each, the AI provided detailed analysis of:

• The total stroke count and rate how auspicious it was
• Element of each character and evaluate the elemental balance
• Visual balance between the characters
• Explain the name’s meaning and how it fits with the meaning of the parents’ names
• Checking the tonal progression so that the name flows well when spoken
• Note if the name is more masculine, feminine or neutral, since we don’t know the baby’s gender in China until birth

3. Generate from shortlist

With our initial shortlist of names, I had a list of names that worked, so I figured it was useful to feed the list back to the AI as reference to generate more names. It did so by reusing certain characters that we liked, or meanings that we thought were good as the starting point to come up with further ideas.

Prompt used

Here’s the prompt I used:

Create and analyse Chinese baby names. Use the following information and templates to guide your suggestions:

## BASIC INFORMATION:## PERSONAL INFORMATION:
- Family surname: [your surname in Chinese characters and pinyin]
- Baby's expected birth year and zodiac: [e.g. 2024 Wood Dragon]
- Baby's gender (if known): [boy/girl/unknown]
- Father's name: [Chinese characters and pinyin]
- Father's birth year and zodiac: [e.g. 1990 Metal Horse]
- Mother's name: [Chinese characters and pinyin]
- Mother's birth year and zodiac: [e.g. 1993 Water Rooster]

## NAMING REQUIREMENTS:
1. Elemental Balance:
   - Support element for the birth year: [e.g. 2024]
   - Harmonize with parents' elements
   - Balance any excessive elements in family
   
2. Structural Requirements:
   - Ensure that the name has a total stroke count that falls within the range that is the most auspicious
   - Number of characters in given name: [usually 1-2]
   - Any specific characters to include/avoid: [if applicable]
   
3. Phonetic Considerations:
   - Preferred tone patterns: [if any]
   - Important sounds or syllables: [if any]
   - Ensure that the name is easy to pronounce internationally
   
4. Meaning Requirements:
   - Desired qualities or themes: [e.g. wisdom, strength, grace]
   - Cultural or literary references preferred: [if any]
   
5. Additional Considerations:
   - Family naming traditions to respect: [if any]
   - Cultural background specifics: [e.g. Malaysian Chinese Hakka family]
   - Any other important factors: [e.g. religious considerations]

## ANALYSIS TEMPLATE:
For each suggested name, please provide a comprehensive analysis using this structure:

1. Basic Information
   - Characters: [Name in Chinese]
   - Pinyin: [with tones marked]
   - Meaning: [individual character meanings + combined meaning]

2. Structural Analysis
   - Stroke Count:
     - Surname: [number] strokes
     - Middle character: [number] strokes
     - Last character: [number] strokes
     - Given name total: [number] strokes + auspiciousness rating
     - Full name total: [number] strokes + auspiciousness rating

3. Elemental Balance
   - Surname character: [element]
   - Middle character: [element] + any secondary influences
   - Last character: [element] + any secondary influences
   - Overall: How these elements interact with each other and birth year
   - Bazi flexibility assessment: How well it balances family elements

4. Phonetic Analysis
   - Tone progression: [tone numbers, e.g. 1-3-4]
   - Flow assessment: How well the sounds transition
   - Dialectal considerations: How it sounds in relevant dialects
   - Potential pronunciation issues: Any challenges for native/non-native speakers

5. Cultural Safety Check
   - Historical figure conflicts: Any notable historical namesakes
   - Modern figure conflicts: Any contemporary namesakes to be aware of
   - Regional meaning checks: Any problematic meanings in specific regions
   - Dialect meaning checks: Any issues when pronounced in other dialects
   - Homonym analysis: Any sound-alike words with negative connotations

6. Meaning Depth
   - Individual character significance: Deeper meaning of each character
   - Combined imagery: The visual or conceptual image created
   - Literary references: Connections to classical texts or poetry
   - Cultural connotations: Broader cultural associations
   - Gender appropriateness: How suitable for the intended gender

7. Name Flexibility
   - Formal/informal usage: How it works in different contexts
   - International considerations: How it translates globally
   - Nickname potential: Natural shortening options
   - Writing style variations: How it appears in different calligraphy styles

8. Overall Assessment
   - Strengths: [Key positive attributes]
   - Concerns: [Potential issues or drawbacks]
   - Recommendation Rating: [Scale 1-10]

Example analysis

To illustrate how this works in practice, here’s an actual analysis for one of our shortlisted names, 萧旭霖 (Xiāo Xùlín):

*### Example Analysis: 萧旭霖 (Xiāo Xù Lín)

**1. Basic Information:**
- Characters: 萧旭霖
- Pinyin: Xiāo Xù Lín
- Meaning: "Rising sun abundance" or "Dawn's blessing"

**2. Structural Analysis:**
- Stroke Count:
  - Surname (萧): 12 strokes
  - Middle character (旭): 6 strokes
  - Last character (霖): 16 strokes
  - Given name total: 22 strokes - Moderately auspicious
  - Full name total: 34 strokes - Highly auspicious

**3. Elemental Balance:**
- Character 1 (萧): Metal
- Character 2 (旭): Fire (sunrise)
- Character 3 (霖): Water (strong Water element)
- Overall: Excellent dynamic balance with Metal (surname), Fire and Water (given name)
- Bazi flexibility: The Water in 霖 perfectly supports the Wood Dragon year, while balancing our family's Fire elements

**4. Phonetic Analysis:**
- Tone progression: 1-4-2
- Flow assessment: The flow from first tone to fourth to second creates a pleasing rhythm
- Dialectal considerations: Consistent pronunciation across Mandarin, Cantonese, and Hakka dialects
- Potential pronunciation issues: None identified; "Lin" works internationally and is easily pronounced across cultures

**5. Cultural Safety Check:**
- Historical figure conflicts: No significant namesakes in Chinese history
- Modern figure conflicts: No notable contemporary figures with this name
- Regional meaning checks: Positive associations across mainland China and Southeast Asian Chinese communities
- Dialect meaning checks: No negative homonyms in major Chinese dialects
- Homonym analysis: No concerning sound-alike words

**6. Meaning Depth:**
- Individual character significance: 
  - 旭 represents new beginnings, rising energy, and the morning sun
  - 霖 symbolizes timely blessing, nurturing rain, and continuous abundance
- Combined imagery: A sunrise bringing beneficial rain—balanced energy of growth and nurturing
- Literary references: 霖 appears in classical texts referring to timely rain that nourishes crops
- Cultural connotations: Suggests balanced dynamism—both energizing and nurturing
- Gender appropriateness: Suitable for a boy, combining strength with nurturing qualities

**7. Name Flexibility:**
- Formal/informal usage: Works well in both professional and personal contexts
- International considerations: Both characters translate well conceptually; "Lin" is easily pronounced globally
- Nickname potential: "Lin" forms a natural nickname
- Writing style variations: Both characters maintain integrity across different calligraphy styles

**8. Overall Assessment:**
- Strengths:
  - Perfect elemental balance for Wood Dragon year
  - Beautiful meaning combining energy with nurturing
  - Excellent visual balance between simple and complex characters
  - International adaptability
  - Strong cultural associations without being overly common
- Concerns:
  - Contrast in stroke count between middle and last character is significant
  - May require explanation of meaning to non-Chinese speakers

- Recommendation Rating: 9/10

While these systematic steps might make the process sound mechanical, the experience was anything but. Each AI-generated suggestion sparked conversations between my wife and me about our values, our cultural identities, and our hopes for our child. The technology may have provided the framework, but the journey was deeply personal and emotionally resonant.

The human touch

While AI proved remarkably helpful in analysing and generating options, the final decision remained deeply human. AI could tell us that 萧旭霖 (Xiāo Xùlín) had “perfect elemental balance for Wood Dragon year” and “beautiful meaning of supportive abundance,” but it couldn’t tell us which name felt right when spoken aloud.

Some insights from our process:

1. AI excels at systematic analysis – It can process thousands of character combinations against multiple criteria in seconds, something even the most knowledgeable human naming expert would find daunting.
2. Cultural nuance requires human oversight – While AI understands rules and references, the subtleties of cultural significance still benefit from human intuition and experience.
3. Emotional resonance remains human territory – The feeling when you say a name and think “that’s the one”—that magical moment belongs to humans alone.
4. AI reduces bias and expands possibilities – It suggests combinations a human might not consider, freeing parents from being limited by personal preference or familiarity.

Final decision

Since we were choosing the names before the baby was born, we didn’t have the baby’s bazi that required the time of birth to derive. Thus, we got the AI to do another round of checks against our shortlist when we had the baby’s bazi.

Based on the baby’s bazi, we could determine what elements are lacking and balance accordingly with the name. For example, if the time of birth already has Fire, we would avoid names with Fire and prefer names with Water.

I actually planned for this by getting the AI to come up with options that are more versatile in balancing, and variations that would preserve the sound and stroke counts while changing the element through switching radicals.

It’s illegal for healthcare professionals to reveal the baby’s gender during birth in China, so our shortlist included both masculine and feminine names.

Beyond Chinese names

The parallels between Eastern and Western naming considerations are striking once you look closely. Where Chinese parents might worry about stroke counts and elemental balance, Western parents often fret about name popularity rankings and family traditions.

Both approaches seek to provide children with names that carry positive associations and set them up for success—just through different cultural lenses. AI can help bridge these approaches by analysing names through multiple cultural frameworks simultaneously.

Even if you’re not naming a child in Chinese, the AI-assisted approach offers valuable lessons:

• Comprehensive analysis: Consider multiple dimensions of a name beyond just how it sounds
• Cultural verification: Check for unintended meanings or associations across cultures
• Future adaptability: Think about how the name will work in different contexts throughout life
• Meaning layers: Look for depth and resonance that grows with your child

For Western names, AI can help check popularity trends, cultural associations, nickname potential, and even how the name pairs with siblings’ names—all factors that contribute to finding that perfect match.

Balancing tradition & technology

What fascinates me most about this process is how it represents the bridge between ancient traditions and cutting-edge technology. Chinese naming practices date back thousands of years, yet here we are using neural networks to carry those traditions forward.

It’s a reminder that technology works best not when it replaces human culture, but when it helps preserve and enhance it. The AI doesn’t choose the name—it simply helps parents navigate the complex considerations with greater confidence and insight.

In a way, this approach mirrors my own journey of straddling cultural worlds. Just as I find harmony between East and West, traditional and modern, the AI-assisted naming process finds balance between age-old wisdom and contemporary tools.

Final thoughts

Choosing a name remains one of the most personal decisions parents make. It’s a gift of identity, a first legacy given to a child before they’ve even taken their first breath. While AI can inform this process, the magic still happens in the hearts of those who will whisper that name with love for decades to come.

When we finally settled on Yifei, there was a moment of shared clarity between my wife and I. The name simply felt right in a way that’s difficult to articulate—a feeling AI could never replicate. When we shared it with our families, they expressed a liking for the name, aside from the concerns about the complex stroke count. The blend of old wisdom and new technology seemed to bridge generational gaps in an unexpected way.

If you’re expecting and considering how to approach naming, remember that AI can be a helpful guide on your journey—but the final choice belongs to your heart alone.

Picture it: a harried web developer, eye-strain headache fresh behind the forehead, thumbing through a dog-eared copy of “JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 1996 Edition” if they were lucky enough to avoid having to wait line for someone else to finish it. After finding a potential solution, they proceed to jot it down in their trusty little notebook as they prayed that the solution would work when they got back on the computer. It wasn’t efficient, but by God, it had character.

Fast forward to 2025, and our intrepid developer is now casually chatting with an AI about why that same error has evolved into a more concerning “Cannot read property ‘map’ of undefined.” The AI doesn’t judge their curious questions, it simply offers three possible solutions, complete with code snippets and a friendly reminder about that pesky asynchronous data fetch they keep forgetting to await.

The Library Era: When knowledge smelled musty

In the late '90s, when I was teaching myself web design with all the grace of a giraffe on roller skates, learning a new skill meant one thing: becoming intimately familiar with your local librarian, or in my case becoming one. I volunteered as a librarian at the school library and later on the public library near my school after school hours so I could get my hands on the latest acquisitions and to intercept popular books that were always on loan.

For web designers, it was the sacred For Dummies series and O’Reilley’s animal-themed programming books (because nothing says “JavaScript fundamentals” like a bewildered rhinoceros on the cover). And Photoshop 5 Bible (Photoshop 5 not CS5, they are published 12 years apart), for anyone who was desperate like me to add more animated GIFs to their Geocities shrine.

Trying to visualise solutions for programming and graphic design, and then attempting to recreate them when you got back on the cousin’s or neighbour’s family computer. Or attempting to make crude notes of what the images in the books depicted (imagine if you had a nifty pocketable device that could capture whatever you saw so you could refer back to the photos anytime), or attempting to photocopy more than the allowed number of pages for reference books, while the librarian was trying to help some wailing toddler find their parents.

These are art forms forever lost in the modern world.

The Digital Enlightenment: Websites and forums

As the new millennium dawned—and after we collectively survived the anticlimax of Y2K by staying up past midnight—the learning landscape shifted dramatically. Suddenly, knowledge wasn’t bound in leather and paper but floated freely in the digital ether, waiting to be plucked by anyone with a 56k modem and the patience of a saint.

For web designers, this era birthed legendary sites like A List Apart, Webmonkey, and CSS-Tricks, where you’d spend hours trying to understand why your div was floating right off the page like a helium balloon cut loose at a child’s birthday party. Forums spawned digital communities where username “HTMLWizard99” might be a 12-year-old prodigy or a 30-year veteran developer—you’d never know until you tried their oddly specific advice to “add an empty div with clear:both and sacrifice a small goat to the Box Model gods.” It was a glorious, chaotic time.

I spent a big chunk of my free time trawling websites like Photoshop Cafe, Good-Tutorials, Abuzeedo, PSDTuts, and forums on DeviantArt, CGTalk, and Renderosity to find the latest tips and tricks to create skeuomorphic designs.

You only had text and accompanying static images that tried to explain how you used certain tools, with the rare GIFs that was a luxury both in the bandwidth cost and time needed to wait for it to load. Don’t get the results? Scroll back to the top and start from the beginning. After a few failed tries, you leave a comment and waited until the author halfway around the globe woke up and saw your question. If you’re lucky, someone who stayed closer to your timezone replied that pointed you down the right direction.

After time, with the accumulation of knowledge, sites like StackOverflow, GitHub, and Reddit emerged as places to search for existing solutions. Someone had the same problem as the one staring at you, and different people have shared how to fix the problem. You could just copy and paste the solution instead of having to wait for replies.

The YouTube University: Visual learning revolution

Around 2010, a new phenomenon emerged: suddenly, everyone was learning not by reading, but by watching someone else do the thing first. YouTube became the world’s largest technical college, with a faculty of enthusiastic amateurs and grizzled professionals alike. Educational video content then spilled over to TikTok and Instagram Reels later in the decade.

For web developers, this was revolutionary. No longer did you have to interpret cryptic documentation like “implement a responsive flex container with appropriate breakpoints”—now you could watch the screencast while explaining exactly which CSS properties to use and why Internet Explorer would inevitably break it anyway.

Learning JavaScript frameworks became less like deciphering ancient hieroglyphics and more like cooking along with a slightly over-caffeinated chef who built a full e-commerce site in 20 minutes.

You still had to wait for replies to your comments, but you get to pick up certain habits and workflow while watching someone else work. I’ve lost count of the number of Photoshop and Figma shortcuts and hotkey I’ve picked up from YouTube videos. Similar to how I learnt strategy and tricks for Red Alert 2 while hovering my cousin or friend’s shoulder while they took out the Tesla Coil with Tanya.

But more often than not, the top upvoted comment is probably the question you were going to ask anway.

The AI Companion: Learning through conversation

Which brings us to our present moment of educational evolution. The AI boom has become a developer’s best friend, like having an infinitely patient mentor who never tells embarrassing stories about that time you forgot a semicolon deployed code that took down the entire website.

Today’s learning process has been condensed from “spend hours searching for an answer” to “ask the AI to write three possible solutions, modify your code, and get it to double check its work for errors.” It’s like having a senior developer, a technical writer, and a cautious project manager all rolled into one digital package.

For web developers specifically, AI has become the ultimate coding companion. It can check through your code for errors, suggest ways to improve and streamline the code, and even help you brainstorm future features to add to your roadmap. All without making a single joke about your choice in naming variables (looking at you, finalFinalActualLastVersion2).

Beyond just finding your answers

The AI advantages extend beyond just information retrieval:

• Contextual understanding: Unlike a static documentation page, AI can follow a conversation about your specific problem, asking clarifying questions about that weird bug that only appears when a user is logged in, using Safari, during a full moon.
• Code analysis: Many AI systems can now analyze your spaghetti code that would make Italian chefs weep, identifying anti-patterns and potential performance issues that might look like perfectly reasonable solutions to your sleep-deprived brain.
• Customized learning paths: Rather than following a one-size-fits-all tutorial, AI can adapt its explanations based on your experience level, explaining what a variable is to beginners or jumping straight to advanced topics like monads and higher-order components for the masochistically inclined.
• Multilingual support: For international developers or those working in diverse teams, AI translates technical jargon instantly, making knowledge accessible regardless of whether you learned to code in English, Mandarin, or the ancient and mysterious language of PHP.

To me, AI tools like Cursor and Windsurf are more than just your co-workers and interns who help you grind out the hard work while you supervise and direct the overall project progression. They can be your business partner or coach by helping you walk through your thoughts, suggest ideas, question you to test your resolve and make you rethink your approach and direction.

The Rise of “Vibe Coding”

This AI revolution has even sparked entirely new approaches to programming itself. Recently, AI researcher Andrej Karpathy coined the term “vibe coding” to describe a workflow where developers essentially surrender to the AI’s suggestions, focusing on outcomes rather than scrutinizing every line of code.

It’s a fascinating shift in how we think about programming—one where intent matters more than implementation details. Instead of meticulously crafting each function, developers can focus on high-level design while the AI handles the mechanical aspects of code generation.

I’ve only touched the surface of this phenomenon here, but I’m exploring vibe coding’s implications, benefits, and potential pitfalls in a dedicated article on vibe coding. Whether you see it as programming liberation or concerning shortcut, there’s no denying it represents yet another transformation in our relationship with technology and learning.

Learning evolution: From book stacks to binary stacks

The journey from library bookshelves to AI chatbots represents more than just a change in medium—it’s a fundamental shift in how we approach learning. We’ve moved from passive consumption of knowledge to interactive problem-solving, from generalized information to personalized guidance.

For the red-eyed heroes of the coding world, this transformation has been particularly profound. The developer who once had to memorize API documentation or lug around a 1,200-page “Definitive Guide” can now access the collective wisdom of the programming community through a device that fits in their pocket. It’s like having every experienced developer who’s ever lived standing beside you at the keyboard, whispering suggestions and gently steering you away from catastrophic Git pushes directly to main.

Beyond answers: Understanding principles

The real magic, though, isn’t just in having answers—it’s in the learning process itself. When you ask an AI why a particular solution works, it doesn’t roll its eyes and just tell you “because that’s how it’s done.” It explains the underlying principles, the cause-and-effect relationships, the computer science concepts that make modern web applications both marvels of human ingenuity and absolute nightmares to debug.

It’s like having your computer science professor, your senior developer mentor, and that one brilliant but socially awkward colleague all merged into one entity that never gets tired of your questions.

The digital apprenticeship model

In a way, we’ve come full circle. The apprenticeship model that built craftsmen for millennia—learning directly from a mentor through conversation, observation, and guided practice—has been reborn for the modern age. Only now, your patient mentor never retires, never has a bad day aside from the occasional hallucinations, and doesn’t make you refactor legacy code before imparting wisdom.

For today’s aspiring developers, designers, and self-taught enthusiasts of all stripes, the AI boom isn’t replacing the joy of learning—it’s supercharging it. Gone are the days of learning in isolation, piecing together fragmented knowledge from Stack Overflow answers that begin with “This question has already been asked…” Today’s learners are having conversations, solving real problems, and building understanding through interactive guidance.

A new generation of autodidacts

As I look back on my journey from library-dwelling novice to AI-augmented creator, I can’t help but feel a twinge of envy for those just starting their learning adventures. They’ll never know the unique frustration of spending three hours hunting down a missing closing tag, but they’ll experience something perhaps even more valuable: the freedom to focus on understanding rather than merely finding information.

The toolbox has changed, but the essence remains the same: human creativity, now with a digital mentor-intern that never sleeps, never forgets, and thankfully, never commits directly to the production branch without a code review.

Fear not, fellow image generation enthusiast. There’s a solution that doesn’t involve the endless shovelling of your output images to the empty secondary drive. Let’s explore how to redirect ComfyUI’s output folder to a more accommodating location.

Why your system drive needs relief

If you’re like me—constantly experimenting and generating hundreds of images per day—your poor hard drives might be starting to wheeze under the strain. This becomes even more critical if you are running your GUI of choice off the C: drive. Filling up the system drive with all these files impacts performance.

For my Stable Diffusion work, I’ve used various GUIs, with ComfyUI becoming my tool of choice for its powerful node-based workflow. The Desktop Application ComfyUI must be installed in the system drive, and the output folder sits there as well, even though it is smart enough to migrate any existing SD WebUI (A1111) or ComfyUI folders by pointing to them.

Option 1: Command line arguments

The most straightforward way to change ComfyUI’s output location—and the one documented in the official guides—is using command line arguments.

For manual installation

If you’re using the manual installation, this is as simple as adding the output-directory argument when you launch ComfyUI:

python main.py --output-directory path\to\new-output

For Desktop Application

Things become slightly more complex with the Desktop Application since you launch by double-clicking on the application shortcut. The shortcut is running the launch command for you, so you’ll need to modify the .bat file to add command line arguments to the launch command:

1. Locate the launch script at C:\%APPDATA%\Local\Programs\@comfyorgcomfyui-electron\resources\ComfyUI\.ci\run_nvidia_gpu.bat
2. Change:

   .\python_embeded\python.exe -s ComfyUI\main.py --windows-standalone-build pause
   

   To:

   .\python_embeded\python.exe -s ComfyUI\main.py --windows-standalone-build --output-directory X:\path\to\new-output pause
   

Limitations of this approach

The problem with modifying files is that you will have to make the modification again if the batch file is overridden in an update. For those who rarely update, this is a perfectly viable solution. For everyone else, there’s a more resilient approach…

Option 2: Symlink solution (recommended)

Rather than wrestling with command line arguments or editing batch files that might be overwritten, I’ve found that using symlinks offers the perfect balance of simplicity and reliability.

What is a symlink?

If you’re not familiar with symlink, it means symbolic link, a way to point the system to another location. Think of a symlink as a sophisticated digital signpost—it appears to be a folder, but it’s actually directing traffic elsewhere.

This means that you can have your output folder in another drive and place the symlink in ComfyUI’s default folder. Your ComfyUI still thinks it’s saving files to its preferred location, but the actual files are actually directed to a secondary drive. This allows you to free your system drive from the clutter of thousands of output images.

I also use symlinks to point other drives to my Stable Diffusion models folder. This makes the GUI applications think that all my models are in one folder, when they are in fact spread all over three different SSDs.

Benefits of using symlinks

Unlike modifying batch files or launch parameters (which can break during updates), this approach:

• Survives ComfyUI updates without needing reconfiguration
• Works with any ComfyUI installation method (manual, Desktop App, or portable)
• Requires no technical knowledge beyond using Command Prompt once
• Eliminates the risk of you breaking ComfyUI by editing the wrong file or make an error in the modification
• Can be easily changed later if needed

The symlink essentially creates a digital illusion—ComfyUI believes it’s writing to its default location, but the operating system quietly redirects that data to your chosen destination. It’s like having your mail forwarded without having to tell everyone your new address.

Setting up your symlink

1. First, locate your current ComfyUI output folder (typically something like C:\ComfyUI\output or if you’re using the Desktop Application, check C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Programs\@comfyorgcomfyui-electron\resources\ComfyUI\output)

2. Create a new destination folder where you actually want your images stored (perhaps on that roomy external drive or secondary SSD)

3. Delete or rename your original output folder (backup any images you want to keep!).

4. Open Command Prompt as Administrator (⚠️ this is important!)

5. Create the symlink with the magic words:

   mklink /D "C:\path\to\original\output" "X:\path\to\new\output"
   

6. That’s it! ComfyUI will continue saving to what it thinks is the same location, but your precious disk space will be preserved.

If you’re curious about what’s happening behind the scenes, the /D flag tells Windows to create a directory symbolic link. After running the command, you should see a confirmation message like:

symbolic link created for C:\path\to\original\output <<===>> X:\path\to\new\output

Here’s what the folder would look like in Windows Explorer—note the shortcut-like icon indicating it’s a symlink:

Testing your symlink

You probably don’t need this reminder, but I sure needed it. Before generating hundreds of images, it’s worth running a quick test:

1. Launch ComfyUI
2. Generate a simple image
3. Check both the original path and your new destination
4. Confirm the image appears in your new location rather than consuming space on the original drive

Troubleshooting common issues

If you encounter problems with the symlink approach, here are some quick fixes:

1. “Access is denied” error: Make sure you’re running Command Prompt as Administrator
2. “The system cannot find the path specified”: Double-check both paths for typos
3. “Cannot create a file when that file already exists”: Ensure you’ve deleted or renamed the original output folder
4. Images still saving to C: drive: Verify the symlink was created successfully by checking its properties

Conclusion

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the most effective. By using symlinks, you’ve essentially given ComfyUI a secret portal to store files wherever works best for your system. Your C: drive—or whichever drive your system is on—can breathe easy, and you can continue creating without interruption or storage anxiety.

This approach has saved me countless gigabytes and the frustration of repeatedly reconfiguring ComfyUI after updates. While there’s a certain satisfaction in tweaking configuration files directly, I’ve come to appreciate solutions that require less maintenance over time.

After all, the less time spent managing where your AI images is saved, the more time you have to actually create it—and isn’t that the whole point?

A Harvard Business Review study found that 67% of professionals admit their daily habits are holding them back from success. But what if I told you the answer isn’t working harder—it’s working smarter?

The silent architects of your life

The truth about habits is both liberating and terrifying: they form whether you’re paying attention or not. Like water slowly carving channels through rock, your daily actions—conscious or otherwise—are gradually etching pathways into your brain that become increasingly difficult to redirect. Habits will form unconsciously from you repeating routines.

Habits rely on dopamine loops. Every time you check your phone, dopamine spikes reinforce the behaviour. Over time, this creates a craving, not a choice. Imagine scrolling through Instagram: it’s not just “habitual”—it’s your brain seeking the reward of social validation.

Habits can allow you to background process certain things so that your neocortex, your frontal lobe, stays available to solve brand new problems.

Naval Ravikant

When you don’t deliberately cultivate good habits, nature abhors a vacuum—bad ones rush in to fill the space. It’s not that you decide to form bad habits; it’s that you never made a conscious decision at all. And therein lies the problem.

The default settings

Consider your relationship with exercise. If you don’t have a habit of exercising, you haven’t simply “not formed a habit”—you’ve actively established a habit of not exercising. Your body and mind have adapted to sedentary behaviour as the default state. The same applies to eating healthy, reading, or practising mindfulness.

This is why “I’ll start tomorrow” is perhaps the most dangerous phrase in the English language. Each day you delay is another brick cemented into the wall of your bad habit architecture.

The most insidious habits are the ones you don’t even recognise as habits. They’re so deeply embedded in your daily routine that they’ve become invisible—like the way you grip your toothbrush or scroll through your phone the moment you wake up. These unconscious patterns fly under the radar of your awareness while secretly piloting the plane.

The child’s perspective

Watch a child try something new—tying shoelaces, using cutlery, or writing their name. There’s a beautiful clumsiness to it, a deliberate focus that adults have long since abandoned. Each movement is considered, each action a conscious choice.

Children haven’t yet developed the autopilot function we take for granted. They’re actively laying down those neural pathways, brick by conscious brick. And in that conscious building lies a power we often forget we possess—the ability to choose our habits rather than letting them choose us.

As adults, we’ve backgrounded so many processes that we can navigate entire days barely engaging our conscious mind at all. That cognitive efficiency comes at a price, however. We lose the ability to notice—really notice—what we’re doing and why.

Next time you eat, slow down. Notice the taste, texture, and hunger cues—retraining your brain to savour, not shovel.

The excuse factory

Basically whenever you throw any so-called good habit at somebody, they’ll have an excuse for themselves. Usually the most common is, I don’t have time. I don’t have time is just another way of saying, it’s not a priority. What you really have to do is say is it a priority or not. If something is your number one priority then you will get it.

Naval Ravikant

We humans are magnificently creative when it comes to justifying our behaviour. Ask someone why they don’t read more, exercise regularly, or learn that language they’ve been talking about for years, and you’ll likely hear the time-honoured refrain: “I don’t have time.”

This excuse is about as watertight as a colander. What we really mean is: “This isn’t important enough to me to actually do anything about it.” After all, we somehow find time to doom-scroll through social media or binge-watch entire seasons of shows we’ll forget by next month.

It’s rather like claiming you can’t afford healthy food while clutching a designer coffee that costs more than an entire meal—our priorities reveal themselves in where we invest our most precious resource.

The uncomfortable truth is that our habits reveal our real priorities, not the ones we claim to have over dinner conversation or post about on Instagram. They show what we actually value, not what we wish we valued.

Compound interest of habit formation

Good habits, much like financial investments, yield compound returns. The daily push-up routine might seem insignificant in isolation, but after a year, you’ve not only transformed your upper body strength but also demonstrated to yourself that you can commit to positive change.

Similarly, bad habits extract compound interest in reverse. That “occasional” procrastination gradually normalises delay, making it increasingly difficult to start tasks promptly. The sporadic stress-eating slowly rewires your brain to seek comfort in food rather than addressing the underlying emotions.

Small choices, repeated daily, aren’t just drops in the bucket—they’re the bucket itself, gradually taking shape with each seemingly inconsequential decision.

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, built his writing habit through micro-actions:

• Daily Goal: Write 2 sentences.
• Result: After two years, he’d written a draft of his best-selling book.

That “occasional” procrastination? It normalises delay, making it harder to start tasks. Sporadic stress-eating rewires your brain to seek comfort in food rather than addressing emotions.

Breaking the mould to form better habits

Recognising the power of habits is the first step toward harnessing it. Once you understand that your current behaviours—good and bad—are largely the result of established neural pathways, you can begin the process of redirection.

This doesn’t mean attempting a complete lifestyle overhaul overnight. The “all or nothing” approach is precisely why most New Year’s resolutions collapse faster than a house of cards in an earthquake. Instead, focus on one habit at a time, making tiny, sustainable changes.

Want to read more? Don’t commit to an hour a day—start with five minutes. Looking to exercise regularly? Begin with a single push-up or a short walk around the block. These microscopic changes might seem laughably small, but they serve a crucial purpose: they begin to lay new bricks in your mind.

Cyberbrain advantage in habit formation

We’ve explored how habits shape our biological brain—but what happens when we extend this concept to our digital cognition? As our lives become increasingly intertwined with technology, the principles of habit formation take on new dimensions.

As someone exploring the transformative potential of AI to build a cyberbrain, I’ve discovered that the same neurological principles that govern our physical habits apply to our digital practices. Consider how habits fit into this evolving paradigm.

While the second brain concept focuses on capturing and organising information outside your biological memory, the cyberbrain takes this further by incorporating AI as an active thinking partner. This hybrid cognitive system doesn’t just store your thoughts; it processes them, finds unexpected connections, challenges your assumptions, and extends your intellectual reach.

Implementing consistent habits around this system is crucial. The daily practice of note-taking, the regular ritual of reviewing content, the habit of prompting AI tools with the right questions—these behaviours don’t just populate your knowledge system. They gradually transform how you think, creating neural pathways both in your biological brain and in your extended digital mind.

When you habitually ask an AI to analyse patterns in your notes, you’re training both yourself and the system to think differently. When you routinely use AI to help generate multiple perspectives on a problem, you’re expanding your cognitive range. These habits create feedback loops of insight that neither you nor the AI could produce alone.

In this context, habits aren’t just behaviours; they’re the neural pathways of your extended, hybrid mind—shaping not just what you do but fundamentally enhancing how you process, understand, and create in the world.

This isn’t just theoretical for me. In my journey of building a cyberbrain, I’ve discovered that analog and digital habits need to work in harmony. For instance, the simple habit of capturing ideas in a note-taking app like Bear isn’t effective unless paired with the habit of regular review and connection-making.

This system doesn’t require superhuman discipline—just small, consistent habits that compound over time. My digital second brain now reminds me of connections I would never have made on my own, not because the technology is magical, but because the habits supporting it have become automatic.

Habit design

If you’re like me—someone who repeatedly set up elaborate habit systems only to abandon them faster than photos we take with our phones and forget in the photo library—consider this minimalist approach:

1. The Two-Minute Rule: Any new habit should take less than two minutes to do. Want to read more? Start with reading one page. Exercise more? Do one push-up. The habit of showing up is more important than the duration.

2. The Obvious Cue: Place visual reminders where you’ll trip over them. My piano practice habit only stuck when I place my digital keyboard so that I need to move it to get to my work desk—making it physically impossible to start my day without acknowledging it.

3. The Satisfying Conclusion: Create a small but immediate reward. After my daily writing session, I make a refreshing cup of coffee—not as a bribe, but as a ceremony that marks completion.

4. The Identity Shift: The most powerful phrase isn’t “I want to” but “I am.” Not “I want to write” but “I am a writer.” This subtle shift makes decisions automatic—writers write, even when they don’t feel like it.

The architecture of habits isn’t built with grand intentions but with small, consistent actions that gradually transform who you are when you’re not paying attention. The process of habit formation follows this same principle—start small, be consistent, and trust in the compound effect of daily practice.

The deliberate life

The greatest power we possess isn’t superhuman strength or the ability to fly—it’s consciousness itself, the capacity to notice what we’re doing and why. When applied to habit formation, this awareness becomes transformative.

By bringing consciousness to our habits—examining them in the light of day rather than letting them operate in the shadows—we reclaim authorship of our lives. We become architects rather than tenants, deliberately designing the systems that will shape our future selves.

Your habits are building your tomorrow, brick by brick, moment by moment. The only question is: are you holding the blueprint, or are you simply watching the construction from afar, hoping you’ll like what gets built?

The choice, as always, is yours. But remember that inaction is also a choice—a choice to let your life be designed by default rather than intention.

Perhaps the most important habit of all is pausing, just for a moment each day, to ask yourself a simple question: “Is this who I want to become?” Because while we’re busy making other plans, our habits are quietly, relentlessly turning us into them.

What habit will you start building today? Remember, it doesn’t need to be revolutionary—just consistent. Share your commitment in the comments, or better yet, set a calendar reminder to check back in 30 days and let me know how it’s going. Your future self is being shaped by today’s decisions—make them count.

I’ve always preferred Atom over RSS so I made the switch immediately.

RSS vs Atom

RSS has wider compatibility and simpler structure compared to Atom. But it’s 2024, and worrying about Atom support feels a bit like fretting over whether your new car has a USB media player.

Atom has several compelling advantages that make it worth considering:

• Better standardisation with clear, formal specifications
• Superior support for rich content
• Improved support for internationalisation
• The smug satisfaction of using something slightly more sophisticated

And the best part? The Feed package supports both RSS and Atom, working seamlessly with Astro right out of the box—like finding out your new electric car still has a spot for your thumb drive music library after all.

Setting up Feed with Astro

Adding the jpmonette/feed package to your Astro project is straightforward.

1. Install jpmonette/feed

First, install the package using your package manager of choice:

Using yarn: yarn add feed
Using pnpm: pnpm add feed

2. Create endpoint

Create an API endpoint in Astro to generate your feed by creating a file at src/pages/feed.xml.js:

// src/pages/feed.xml.js
import { Feed } from 'feed';
import { getCollection } from 'astro:content';

export async function GET(context) {
  const blog = await getCollection('blog');
  const siteUrl = 'https://yoursite.com';
  
  const feed = new Feed({
    title: 'Your Site Name',
    description: 'Your site description',
    id: siteUrl,
    link: siteUrl,
    language: 'en',
    favicon: `${siteUrl}/favicon.ico`,
    copyright: `All rights reserved ${new Date().getFullYear()}`,
    feedLinks: {
      rss: `${siteUrl}/rss.xml`,
    },
    author: {
      name: 'Your Name',
    },
  });
  
  blog.forEach((post) => {
    const url = `${siteUrl}/blog/${post.slug}`;
    
    feed.addItem({
      title: post.data.title,
      id: url,
      link: url,
      description: post.data.description,
      content: post.body, // Or process this with markdown if needed
      author: [
        {
          name: post.data.author || 'Your Name',
        },
      ],
      date: new Date(post.data.publishDate),
    });
  });
  
  return new Response(feed.rss2(), {
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'application/xml',
    },
  });
}

3. Add link to <head>

Declare the feed by adding a link to it in your site’s <head> section:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Your Site Atom Feed" href="/feed.xml">

Parsing Markdown

After following the steps above, I found my feed serving raw Markdown instead of proper HTML.

The Astro RSS documentation recommends using SanitizeHTML and MarkdownIt to parse the content properly.

1. Install the packages

Install the necessary packages:

Using yarn: yarn add sanitize-html markdown-it
Using pnpm: pnpm add sanitize-html markdown-it

2. Modify the endpoint

Modify src/pages/feed.xml.js to parse the content:

// src/pages/feed.xml.js
import { Feed } from 'feed';
import { getCollection } from 'astro:content';
import sanitizeHtml from 'sanitize-html';
import MarkdownIt from 'markdown-it';

export async function GET(context) {
  const siteUrl = 'https://yoursite.com';
  
  // Initialize markdown parser
  const md = new MarkdownIt({
    html: true,         // Enable HTML tags in source
    breaks: true,       // Convert '\n' in paragraphs into <br>
    linkify: true       // Autoconvert URL-like text to links
  });
  
  // Create feed instance
  const feed = new Feed({
    title: 'Your Site Name',
    description: 'Your site description',
    id: siteUrl,
    link: siteUrl,
    language: 'en',
    favicon: `${siteUrl}/favicon.ico`,
    copyright: `All rights reserved ${new Date().getFullYear()}`,
    feedLinks: {
      atom: `${siteUrl}/feed.xml`,
    },
    author: {
      name: 'Your Name',
    },
    updated: new Date(),
  });

  const blog = await getCollection('blog');

  // Add each post to the feed
  blog.forEach((post) => {
    const url = `${siteUrl}/blog/${post.slug}`;

    const publishDate = new Date(item.data.date || new Date());

    const itemIndex = allContent.indexOf(item);
    let updatedDate;
    if (item.data.modified) {
      updatedDate = new Date(item.data.modified);
    } else {
      // Clone the publish date and add a small offset (milliseconds) based on index
      updatedDate = new Date(publishDate.getTime() + itemIndex);
    }

    // Parse markdown to HTML
    const htmlContent = md.render(post.body);
    
    // Sanitize HTML to remove potentially unsafe tags
    const sanitizedContent = sanitizeHtml(htmlContent, {
      allowedTags: sanitizeHtml.defaults.allowedTags.concat(['img', 'h1', 'h2', 'h3']),
      allowedAttributes: {
        ...sanitizeHtml.defaults.allowedAttributes,
        img: ['src', 'alt', 'title'],
        a: ['href', 'name', 'target', 'rel']
      },
      // Transform relative URLs to absolute URLs
      transformTags: {
        'a': (tagName, attribs) => {
          if (attribs.href && attribs.href.startsWith('/')) {
            return {
              tagName: 'a',
              attribs: {
                ...attribs,
                href: `${siteUrl}${attribs.href}`,
                target: '_blank',
                rel: 'noopener'
              }
            };
          }
          return { tagName, attribs };
        },
        'img': (tagName, attribs) => {
          if (attribs.src && attribs.src.startsWith('/')) {
            return {
              tagName: 'img',
              attribs: {
                ...attribs,
                src: `${siteUrl}${attribs.src}`
              }
            };
          }
          return { tagName, attribs };
        }
      }
    });

    feed.addItem({
      title: post.data.title,
      id: url,
      link: url,
      description: post.data.description || '',
      content: sanitizedContent,
      author: [
        {
          name: post.data.author || 'Your Name',
        },
      ],
      date: publishDate,
      updated: updatedDate,
    });
  });

  return new Response(feed.atom1(), {
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/atom+xml' }
  });
}

Multiple feeds

Can’t decide between RSS and Atom? Why not both? Creating endpoints for each format allows readers to subscribe using their preferred method. Here’s how to set it up:

Create two endpoint files and modify headers returned.

For RSS 2.0 at /rss.xml:

// src/pages/rss.xml.js
return new Response(feed.rss2(), {
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/xml' }
});

For Atom at /atom.xml:

src/pages/atom.xml.js
return new Response(feed.atom1(), {
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/atom+xml' }
});

Wrapping up

Setting up Atom feeds with Astro and the Feed package greatly improves how my content is delivered to subscribers. The standardised format ensures better compatibility with modern feed readers while maintaining all the rich content from my posts.

Whether you choose RSS, Atom, or both, making your content accessible through feeds gives readers more control over how they consume your work—something that aligns perfectly with the principles of owning your data.

But before we dive into the what, let me explain the why.

Learning in public

As a firm believer of learning in public, one of the my primary motivations for migrating this site to Astro was to push myself to publish my notes as soon as possible. Instead of keeping my drafts in Bear until they are polished to near perfect, I’m embracing the liberating concept of good enough. The posts are ready to be put out there once I’ve nailed down the key ideas.

I’ve discovered that Astro—or any static site generator, really—helps with this mental shift by decoupling posts from chronological timestamps. Instead of content sorted by publication date assigned to them when I press “Publish”, they exist as individual files without the temporal pressure. Yes, they still have published and modified dates, but manually assigning these somehow breaks the spell of “pressing this button to freeze my thinking for eternity.” It’s entirely psychological, but this subtle change has unlocked a freedom that’s helping me share more openly.

My Bear app currently houses hundreds of draft posts—digital seedlings waiting for sunlight—with more sprouting daily as I encounter new ideas. I’m committed to transplanting them here, hoping they might either prove useful to you or nudge you down a path toward discovering even more fascinating things. In the mean time, the knowledge and experiences I gain are the fertilisers that would nurture these seedlings into fully-grown plants in my digital garden.

Typography

Designers are obsessed with typefaces, and I’m absolutely no exception. I’m the person who snap photos of products in stores to identify fonts, inspects page sources to uncover website typefaces, and whips out the WhatTheFont app to identify lettering in the wild.

My Eagle app houses a sprawling collection of typeface screenshots from websites and graphics—similar to how I used to make newspaper and magazine cuttings of design and typography that I like during my teens. It’s my personal typographic mood board, a visual library filled with ideas and inspirations that informs my design decisions and spark creative thoughts.

I’ll be sharing not just specimens that catch my eye, but the thoughts they provoke. What strikes me about this typeface and what scenarios do I foresee myself using it? All the nuances that fascinate me, and hopefully, they’ll intrigue you too.

Library

I’m a voracious reader, constantly hunting for book recommendations from notable thinkers, following trails of suggested readings in books I’m already enjoying, and noting titles mentioned in podcasts and videos.

This new section draws inspiration from Maggie Appleton’s library. But rather than simply listing books I’ve consumed—a digital bookshelf—I’m embracing true learning in public by sharing my notes and reflections, similar to Ali Abdaal’s approach.

When reading, I jot down thoughts that bubble up as my mind interacts with the ideas presented. My raw notes typically resemble a mental maze—I know the path I took, but visitors would likely get lost without a map. So for the Library section, I’m expanding these stream-of-consciousness scribbles into more digestible formats with structured sections inspired by Ali that might actually prove useful to fellow readers.

Digital garden

Both these new sections represent a shift from treating my site as a polished publication to viewing it as a digital garden—a space where ideas are planted, nurtured, and sometimes pruned. Some will flourish, others might wither, but all contribute to the ecosystem of thought.

So welcome to these new plots in my digital landscape. They may look a bit sparse at first, but gardens aren’t built in a day. I hope you’ll return occasionally to see what’s taken root and perhaps find something that inspires you to plant ideas of your own.

Astro has a showcase of sites that demonstrates the framework’s versatility. The wide spectrum of site types shows the amazing possibilities building with Astro. However, it is a pretty long list of over a thousand sites spanning 49 pages as of writing. I prefer to send examples I feel is more likely to resonate with the person asking.

Instead of frantically recalling example sites off the top of my head to share each time, I’m compiling this living document both as a reference for myself and a resource for people curious about Astro, and our web design clients. Consider this my digital cabinet of curiosities—a collection of sites that showcase the infinite possibilities when you embrace Astro’s philosophy of shipping less Javascript.

Personal sites

• Maggie Appleton – her site was on NextJS before she moved to Astro with no visible change in the front end, but she wrote briefly about how the backend is less complex.
• Koos Looijesteijn – I have no data to back this up so it is most likely just psychological, or due to prefetching, but his site feels faster after he moved from Jekyll to Astro.
• Nic Chan – lovely retro Windows look that is both nostalgic and nerdgasmic
• Exerra – minimal yet full of character
• Angelika Cathor – great example of minimalist branding
• dragon’s vibe by sirlan – a throw back to Geocities aesthetics
• HiDeoo
• Akira Hirata
• Kuraunaito
• Izzi Ink Astronaut
• Emmma Goto – lovely minimal site with a nice layout for her mountain hiking entries
• Enscribe – Jason uses a custom version of his Erudite theme

Portfolios

• Danielle Levitt
• Harry Atkins
• Rhys Jones
• Arravind
• Alessio Atzeni
• Hyperlaunch
• Cyborg Fish
• Trapti Rahangdale
• Websmith
• Tomo
• Federico Bagato – sleek use of bento-style design
• Zander Martineau
• Jhon Boy

Blogs

• Frontend Mastery
• Lloyd Atkinson
• Yufan
• The Daily Stoic
• Mahad Kalam
• Christine Burtseva
• Gold Ayan
• Yayu

Landing pages

• React.gg
• Current
• Novelcrafter
• Drax Social
• Terms
• Kiko Card
• gRPC command

Corporate sites

• Engineering @The Guardian
• With Digital by Kodansha
• Unilever
• Dodonut
• Varda
• Mont Fort – stunning visuals
• Futurefabric
• Frontribe – futuristic vibes
• Little Stack
• Hello Humans – delighting with details
• Samaya AI
• Overlayed
• Sweeney Studio
• CocoMetic
• Marie Curie
• Le Gros Tonneau Festival
• Visa Product Design System
• Dalton Maag – awesome typeface studio that created my favourite sans-serif Aktiv Grotesk
• Belkins
• Ricola
• The Dentists’ Guild
• Travelodge

Technology sites

• Proton
• Cloudflare
• Cloudflare’s Documentation – great showcase of Astro Starlight documentation theme. Check out the migration process.
• Cloudflare AI
• Netlify – Astro’s official deployment partner
• Netlify Documentation
• Netlify Developers
• Netlify CLI command reference – built with Astro Starlight
• Google’s Firebase Studio
• Google’s Firebase blog
• Google’s Designcember
• Google’s Jules coding agent
• Google’s Gemini CLI
• Google’s Genkit
• Microsoft’s Fluent 2 guide
• Kakao Pay blog
• Trivago Tech site
• DatoCMS – they wrote about why they moved to Astro and the benefits
• StudioCMS
• NordVPN
• OpenAuth
• OpenMoji
• TransactPay
• Webcore
• Ark UI
• Skeleton
• Ladybird browser
• Lua Language Server
• Persona
• LiveStore
• Moonlight mod for Discord
• Cash app
• Drizzle ORM

Brands

• Porsche
• Lucid
• IKEA
• Michelin
• Scout Motor
• Jamie Oliver – I’m in the Uncle Roger camp when it comes to cooking, but the site design is pretty palatable. I love how the recipe pages are laid out. *Chef’s kiss*.
• Dilmah Tea
• Renault
• NixOS

Ecommerce sites

• Wild – beautiful design
• IKEA – listing it here again because it is also ecommerce
• Running Supply
• Genuio
• Replicant
• Miniwalker
• Kleinanzeigen – Germany’s largest classified site and why they chose Astro

Community sites

• WuxiaSociety — A wuxia fan site
• ITK – Los Angeles curated events calendar
• 海棠诗社 – a Chinese poetry community
• NAOSI – Dalian University of Technology’s Internet and Open Source Society

Resource sites

• Kidney.wiki
• SakuraPass
• Style Dictionary
• KAPLAY – open source library for HTML games that really emphasises the fun
• Patchstack Academy
• 第一在线工具 – free online tools
• Bootstrap – migrated to Astro in v5.3.6
• Mac Themes Garden
• Open AI Agents SDK
• China Recipe – a Chinese recipe site
• Pricefinder Travelodge

Tools

• Deep Time Navigator – visualise world events through deep time, with log scaling
• Passport Photo Wiz – a site that creates compliant passport photos
• MapLibre – open-source TypeScript library for publishing maps

Directories

• Rise of Machine
• Pokémon Database
• Pujo Atlas
• Figma Plugin Hub
• Steambase
• Football Logos

Fan sites

• WuxiaSociety – my personal project wuxia fan site
• MechaBay – my other pet project Gundam and mecha fan site
• Centiskor – A Pokémon fan site
• FF7 Rocks
• FF Pixel Guide

Celebrities

• Limp Bizkit

Suggest a site

Know a site built with Astro that I should check out? Shoot me a message on any of the platforms listed here.

1. Meditations is the private journal of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, offering practical Stoic wisdom on maintaining emotional equilibrium amid life’s challenges.
2. The core philosophy emphasises that while we cannot control external events, we have complete sovereignty over our responses to them.
3. Through concise reflections on impermanence, rational thinking, and social duty, his writing provides timeless guidance for living ethically and finding inner peace regardless of circumstances.

First impressions

Reading Meditations feels like discovering a conversation across time—the private thoughts of one of history’s most powerful men struggling with the same fundamental questions we all face, nearly two millennia later.

What struck me immediately was the humility and self-awareness in Marcus’s voice. Despite being emperor of the known world, his reflections reveal someone constantly working to improve himself rather than someone who believes he has achieved perfect wisdom.

The format of brief, sometimes repetitive thoughts creates a meditative rhythm that invites contemplation rather than passive consumption.

How I discovered it

I first encountered Meditations during a period of significant personal challenge. While exploring the meaning of life, I repeatedly found references to Stoicism and quotes from Marcus Aurelius in particular. After coming across several of his quotes that I resonated so deeply with, I was curious to read his writings and sought out the book. It has since become a work I regularly revisit, re-reading it every two years or so.

Who should read it

Meditations is ideal for:

• Those facing significant life transitions or challenges who seek practical wisdom on maintaining equilibrium
• Anyone interested in developing greater emotional resilience and mental clarity
• Readers drawn to philosophy that emphasises practical application over abstract theory
• Those feeling overwhelmed by modern life’s constant distractions and external validation

How it changed me

This book fundamentally shifted my perspective on adversity. The quote “the impediment to action advances action; what stands in the way becomes the way” helped me reframe obstacles as opportunities rather than merely challenges.

His emphasis on our power over our interpretations, not the events themselves, gave me practical tools for emotional regulation that I use daily. Perhaps most significantly, his thoughts on mortality have helped me prioritise what truly matters rather than being caught up in trivial concerns.

Standout quotes

You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.

This encapsulates the core Stoic principle that has most transformed my approach to difficulties. Rather than feeling victimised by circumstances, I now look first to my interpretations and responses.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

This surprisingly practical reminder helps me regain control over any suffering. A simple change in perspective can lead to a release from pain and frustration.

If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.

As long as we are doing what is right, whether anyone is affected by it is not our problem.

Key insights

The discipline of perception

Marcus repeatedly emphasises examining our perceptions and judgments before reacting. He teaches that events themselves are neutral; it is our interpretations that cause suffering. By questioning our reactions and looking at situations objectively, we gain freedom from emotional turbulence.

The nature of impermanence

Throughout Meditations, Marcus contemplates how everything eventually fades away—empires, fame, physical beauty, even mountains and stars. Rather than being depressing, this recognition liberates us to focus on what has enduring value: virtue, ethical action, and the present before us.

The rational soul

Marcus views humans as unique in our capacity for rational thought. He believes this rationality connects us to the divine ordering principle of the universe. By aligning our thoughts and actions with reason, we fulfil our nature and find peace, regardless of external circumstances.

Social responsibility

Despite potential justifications for isolation or self-interest, Marcus consistently returns to our duty toward others. He views humans as inherently social beings, “made for cooperation,” and emphasises that contributing to the common good is essential to living according to nature.

Actionable takeaways

1. Practice the pause: Before reacting to difficult situations, create a brief mental space to examine your initial judgments and choose your response deliberately.

2. Conduct a morning preparation: Adopt Marcus’s practice of mentally preparing for the day’s challenges each morning, anticipating difficulties and reminding yourself of your principles.

3. Implement the “view from above”: When caught up in seemingly important matters, zoom out mentally to gain cosmic perspective on their true significance.

4. Keep a journal: Follow Marcus’s example by recording your own reflections and reminders of principles you wish to embody.

5. Practice contemplating impermanence: Regularly reflect on the transient nature of possessions, status, and even relationships to maintain proper perspective on what truly matters.

Critical assessment

The greatest strength of Meditations is its practical, accessible wisdom that speaks directly to universal human experiences. Its format of brief reflections makes it particularly suited to modern readers seeking wisdom in manageable portions.

However, the work has limitations. Its repetitive nature, while reinforcing key principles, can sometimes feel redundant. The text also reflects certain values of its time that modern readers may find challenging, including a sometimes rigid emphasis on duty that might seem to discount emotional needs. Additionally, Marcus’s position of extreme privilege as emperor raises questions about the universal applicability of some of his perspectives.

The various translations available also significantly impact the reading experience. More modern translations make the text far more accessible but may lose some of the original nuance. Personally, I’ve only read the translation by Gregory Hays, so I’ll have to pick up other versions for a comparison.

Final thoughts

Despite being written almost two millennia ago, Meditations offers wisdom that feels urgently relevant today. In an age of distraction, external validation, and constant change, Marcus’s focus on internal character, reasoned judgment, and social duty provides a valuable counterbalance.

This isn’t a book to read once and shelve, but rather a companion to return to throughout life. I make it a point to read it again every one to two years. Each reading reveals new insights as your own life experiences deepen your understanding of the principles.

Whether facing personal challenges, navigating complex relationships, or simply seeking greater tranquility amid life’s chaos, Meditations offers timeless guidance from a thoughtful mind that understood the fundamental struggles of being human.

Apparat is a contemporary geometric sans-serif typeface that combines modernist principles with subtle humanist touches. Its clean lines and balanced proportions make it highly legible, while details like slightly curved terminals add personality.

The font family features consistent stroke contrast and carefully optimized spacing, making it versatile for both display and text settings.

Best uses

• Corporate communications and branding
• Editorial design and magazines
• User interfaces and digital products
• Wayfinding and signage systems
• Marketing materials and presentations

Thoughts

Apparat stands out for its excellent balance between geometric precision and subtle organic qualities. The font works particularly well in contemporary design contexts where clarity and personality are equally important.

Its range of weights provides good flexibility for establishing typographic hierarchy, while maintaining consistency across applications.

References

• Lettersoup website
• MyFonts page
• Adobe Fonts

The 80/20 rule of joy

We’ve all heard of the Pareto Principle: 20% of our efforts generate 80% of our results. But let’s talk about something more personal—the joy-to-effort ratio. What if I told you that 20% of your activities generates 80% of your happiness and fulfilment?

For me, that sweet spot lies in creative work such as photography and writing. When I’m out on the streets with my camera, chasing the perfect interplay of light and shadow, or at my desk crafting words that capture fleeting thoughts, time seems to flow differently. Hours pass like minutes, and the energy I put in multiplies into something greater than itself, like a garden where every hour spent nurturing yields days of blooming beauty. In this state of flow, I’m so immersed in the rewarding work that the outside world fades away.

This state of flow, where you’re completely absorbed in meaningful work, is like meditation in motion. Your mind quiets, your focus sharpens, and you operate at your peak. I experience this when I’m framing a street photograph or when words flow effortlessly onto the page. It’s not just about losing track of time—it’s about finding yourself in the work, about being so perfectly aligned with your task that everything else falls away.

This kind of deeply satisfying work is like finding your favourite comfort food—once you discover it, you wonder how you lived without it for so long. That thing that makes your heart sing becomes an essential part of your life’s melody.

The currency of time

Think of your daily hours as money in your wallet. Every morning, you wake up with 24 fresh hours to spend. Unlike money, though, you can’t save these hours for tomorrow or earn them back once they’re gone. They’re spent, whether you choose how to spend them or not. Each hour passes, like coins slipping through your fingers, never to be recovered.

Yet many of us start our days mindlessly scrolling through feeds or responding to other people’s urgencies. These precious morning hours—when our minds are freshest and our creativity at its peak—are irreplaceable, like spending your last dollar on someone else’s coffee when you haven’t eaten all day.

As a former pharmacist, hospital work taught me that time is literally a matter of life and death. Every minute spent on non-essential tasks could be a minute too late for someone who needs urgent care. I’ve seen how split-second decisions and focused attention can make the difference between life and death. The same urgency, though in a different context, applies to our creative lives—every hour spent on meaningless work is an hour of potential creativity lost forever.

Your daily creative wellspring

Your creative energy is like a natural spring that replenishes overnight. Each morning, you wake up with a fresh pool of creativity. Unlike a spring, though, you can’t store this energy for later use—it either flows into meaningful work, or it seeps away into the ground of mundane tasks.

Research shows that most people have about 4-5 hours of deep, creative work in them per day. I’ve found this to be true in my transition from pharmacy to creative work. While I could work 12-hour shifts as a pharmacist, my truly creative hours are much more limited. That’s roughly 1,500 precious hours per year of peak creative potential. In a lifespan of 80 years, starting from age 20, that’s about 90,000 hours of potential creative time.

When I realised this finite nature of creative energy, it transformed how I approached my daily schedule. Every hour spent on mindless tasks is one less hour from this limited pool of creative potential.

Practical steps to maximise meaningful work

1. Track your energy patterns
   Keep a simple log of when you feel most energetic and which activities make the hours melt away. You might discover that your creative peak hits at dawn when the world is still quiet, or perhaps you come alive when the rest of the world goes to sleep.

2. Identify your value generators
   Look at your work through the lens of both joy and impact. Which activities make you lose track of time while also creating something valuable? These are your essential tasks—the ones worth protecting with your life, because they are, quite literally, what you’re spending your life on.

3. Restructure your day
   Once you know your high-value activities and energy patterns, rebuild your schedule around them. For me, that means no emails until I’ve done at least two hours of creative work in the morning. Think of it as eating your favourite dish first while it’s hot, rather than letting it go cold while you fill up on sides.

4. Create boundaries
   Protect your creative time like you would protect your sleep. You wouldn’t let someone wake you up every 30 minutes throughout the night, so why let notifications and interruptions fragment your creative time?

The long game of life

Here’s a sobering thought: if you’re 30 years old, you have about 18,250 days left to live, assuming you reach 80. That’s 18,250 mornings to create something meaningful. Each day spent on work that doesn’t matter is one less day you have to make your mark on the world.

As someone who made the leap from a stable career in healthcare to the uncertain waters of creative entrepreneurship, I can tell you that understanding what work truly matters isn’t just about career satisfaction—it’s about making your finite time count.

The goal isn’t to eliminate all routine tasks—they’re part of life, like breathing. Instead, it’s about ensuring they don’t steal the best parts of your day from the work that truly matters. After all, you wouldn’t spend your last day on Earth clearing your email inbox, would you?

What’s your 20%? What work makes you lose track of time while creating real value? Share your thoughts in the comments below—I’d love to hear about your journey towards finding meaningful work. Remember, every day you spend doing work that matters is a day well lived.

The curse of being a perfectionist isn’t just about being meticulous—it’s about having a graveyard of brilliant ideas that never saw the light of day. Like that novel sitting in your drawer, that website redesign gathering digital dust, or that blog post that needs “just one more edit”. Sound familiar?

The perfectionist’s paradox

What do perfectionists have in common? They have very few perfect masterpieces to show. Paralysis by analysis is largely to be blamed for this. We spend too much time trying to perfect the work, because we have an ideal mental image of what we think the outcome should be, yet what we produce isn’t close to what we visualised.

Many of us wear perfectionism like a badge of honour, yet unfinished projects clutter our devices and desktops, and our notebooks are filled with ideas that never saw the light of day.

Breaking free from perfectionism

Good enough is always better than perfect, because with the former you put something out, but you have nothing to show for the latter. You might tell yourself that it’s there, it’s great, and it just needs the time for you to finally get about doing it.

The culprit? That pesky little voice in our head whispering “not good enough” every time we’re about to share something with the world. Here’s a little secret: people won’t know if it is good enough or not. Most people would only have a fleeting interest in your content, if they even noticed, and they don’t care whether you perfected it.

Those who care? It’s already good enough for them!

The 80% rule

Visualise your perfect work as 100%. Let yourself let go at 80%.

80% shipped today is better than 100% shipped six to twelve months later.

The beauty of the 80% rule is that it keeps you moving forward and boosts creative productivity. It’s like a creative conveyor belt—keep the work flowing, and something magical happens: you actually get better. Each good enough piece becomes a building block for the next one, and before you know it, your 80% today looks better than your 100% from six months ago.

Making it work

Strive to give your best. If your first attempt is above 80%, it is good to go. If it isn’t allow yourself a couple of rounds to polish it to 80%. Stop once you hit 80% and move on.

This allows us to complete more tasks. By putting out more writing, drawings, or any time of creative output, we are training ourselves. The more we practice, the closer we come to our illusion of perfection. What we don’t realise is that our level of perfection rises as our skills develop and we grow as creators.

Perfection is constantly changing

Perfection is a moving target and it constantly lies far away. Your standards rise as you grow, and your definition of perfect keeps going up. In rare cases, perfection comes within reach, but it will move again. If our ideal of perfection remains stagnant, then we need to take a step back and look for why our bar hasn’t increased as we grow and improve.

Done is better than perfect, shipping is better than sitting, and starting something new is better than endlessly polishing something old. Give yourself permission to be good enough, and watch how much more you accomplish.

Ready to overcome perfectionist tendencies? Start with your next project: aim for 80%, ship it, and move forward.

Migrating from a decades-old WordPress site isn’t just about transferring content—it’s about rethinking how everything works together, especially when moving from a CMS to a web framework like Astro. The goal was to keep all the features I’ve accumulated over the years that have shaped my digital home while adopting new workflows and capabilities.

My journey with Astro began as a simple experiment with Cursor AI in AI-assisted web development, but it evolved into something more significant: a thoughtful migration that refined and enhanced my digital home of over two decades.

The AI Catalyst

Cursor is a code editor by Anysphere that brings the power of AI to your web development and text-editing workflow. It’s probably the biggest thing in the developer industry this year.

The story of an 8-year-old building her AI chatbot with Cursor in 45 minutes finally pushed me to explore AI-assisted web development. I’d been tracking Cursor AI’s progress, intrigued by its potential to transform how we write code. As someone who has been building websites since the Geocities era, I’ve seen many tools promise revolution but Cursor delivers.

My experience with Cursor AI felt like having a knowledgeable coding partner. It caught errors quickly and offered suggestions I might have missed—much more helpful than digging through Stack Overflow posts. More importantly, it helped me understand why certain approaches worked better than others.

Cursor comes with the popular LLM models, including Claude’s 3.5 sonnet or ChatGPT-4o, GPT-4o mini. I use Claude most of the time and fall back to GPT-4o when doing simpler tasks.

I approached this with my usual autodidactic approach to learning. Rather than diving into tutorials or documentation, I learn best when working towards a concrete goal. In this case, it was switching one of my WordPress sites to a web framework.

My personal website is a rather sacred space, so the logical choices was to work on a local experiment with WuxiaSociety. I was already building a new version of it with NuxtJS. This helped me get up to speed with Tailwind CSS.

But things quickly got out of control—in a good way. I was learning so much from Cursor AI that I felt comfortable enough to take on a more ambitious project.

From curiosity to migration

The transition wasn’t dramatic—it was methodical. My initial goal was modest: experiment with Cursor AI while learning a new framework. Having previously tested both NuxtJS and NextJS, I had leaned towards NuxtJS for its more HTML-centric approach over a JavaScript-centric one.

However, conversations with Claude AI helped me question my assumptions and evaluate my actual needs. Yes, I chat with AI a lot. It’s more like brainstorming and thinking augmented by AI’s vast knowledge.

This reflection led me back to Astro. More on this later. Its approach to selective JavaScript—generating static content by default while allowing interactive elements where beneficial—aligned perfectly with my goals. I wasn’t looking to rebuild from scratch; I wanted to refine what worked while adding subtle enhancements that were challenging to implement in WordPress without extensive customisation.

A tale of multiple sites

Over the years, my website had evolved a main WordPress site into a distributed system of WordPress installations, each serving a specific purpose.

The Chinese blog helped me understand translation contexts for my contributions to WordPress Polyglots. The photo portfolio lived separately due to specific theme requirements, and I didn’t want to bog down my main blog with photo gallery plugins.

The journal section ran on ComicPress that required a standalone WordPress installation due to how it displayed posts, though that changed later on but I ran it separately because moving it was a hassle, and why change something if it isn’t broken? Which ironically is something I ignored this time.

This fragmentation had made sense historically, but times change. With Astro, I saw an opportunity to consolidate these pieces while preserving their individual character. The migration would allow me to:

• Serve static pages instead of dynamic content
• Implement smooth view transitions
• Create a pure CSS photo gallery
• Rebuild the chapter hierarchy for journal entries
• Maintain a bilingual publishing workflow

The technical journey

What started as an experiment yielded surprising results. Within five days, I had a functional design that captured the essence of my existing site while incorporating subtle improvements.

Cursor AI wasn’t just generating code—it was helping me understand why certain approaches worked better than others. One trick I learnt was to share more of my rationale, thought process, and desired outcome to help it better understand my intent and context.

Framework decisions

The decision to use Astro wasn’t immediate, even though I’ve been tracking it since it was released in 2022. Reading about Koos Looijesteijn moving to Astro recently actually convinced me not to consider it, hence my experiment with NuxtJS.

My experience with NuxtJS had been positive, and I was growing comfortable with its patterns. However, through conversations with Claude AI, I began wondering whether I needed such a comprehensive framework for what was essentially a content-focused site.

I like how Claude questioned my stance and pushed me to rethink my considerations and shake my preconceived notion to dismiss Astro as a viable option.

Claude walked me through the process and showed me how Astro’s approach resonated with my needs. It functions as a static site generator, but allows selectively addition of JavaScript functionality. This meant I could maintain fast load times without sacrificing interactivity where it mattered, but still drop in JavaScript where needed.

In fact, Astro allows you to use any framework. This means you can migrate from NuxtJS, NextJS, or SvelteKit while sticking to Vue.js, React, or Svelte as the JavaScript framework.

The built-in Markdown support was particularly appealing, as it simplified the content migration process from WordPress.

Migration and improvements

Converting WordPress content to Markdown proved straightforward with AI assistance. Claude created a conversion script to process my WordPress XML export. It generated each post as a Markdown file while preserving my post metadata as YAML frontmatter. So all I had to do was to drop the files into Astro’s content folder to display them with Astro.

More importantly, Cursor helped me develop a more logical tagging system for my content. I won’t bore you with the details of the process. In short, it involved finding common themes in my articles and then using terms that would perform better for SEO.

The process is easier than you think. Since I can get Cursor to scan my whole codebase, it basically could digest all the information in my articles to help me list down the topics I’ve written over the years. 🤯

The WordPress migration process goes beyond just moving the content. The photo gallery and the journal’s comic navigation were features that needed some work.

Photo slider

The photo gallery was an interesting challenge. I had to rely on using plugins when implementing image sliders on WordPress, but with Astro I could easily create a pure CSS solution that offered better performance and more control over the presentation.

Sure, I could have done the same with a WordPress plugin but that would require more work to implement, which is precisely why I haven’t done so all these years.

Journal

I was able to rebuild the journal section’s chapter hierarchy to sort and manage the journal entries. After support for ComicPress ended, I switched to using the default WordPress posts to serve the images. This meant managing them as posts and grouping them with categories and tags. While it works, it’s still a roundabout way to do so.

Not that it’s any different from ComicPress. Since the plugin was developed by non-developers with a specific need to display comics, and their hard work helped many comics springboard to success, the implementation always felt a little crude and it did not age well.

With Astro, the posts are just images and Markdown files in folder. Working with Astro also gave me some ideas for new features, though I’ve temporarily hidden some until I expand the content volume.

Platform considerations

The deployment process brought its own learning opportunities. Testing across Cloudflare Pages, Vercel, and Netlify revealed interesting differences in how these platforms handle static site generation. I’ve used GitHub Pages for BakingPixel for years and wanted to see what the competition can do, so I skipped it.

I ran into build issues on cloud with NuxtJS, and also when with Astro. Rather than banging my head trying to figure out the problem, I went with the pragmatic solution: build locally and upload the rendered files to Cloudflare Pages.

Vercel deployed the static files without any hiccups, but the dashboard was more confusing than Cloudflare’s. Netlify had problems serving even the static files. I didn’t see the need to debug the Netlify issue at this point. It’s worth noting that Netlify is Astro’s official deployment partner, so I’m still keen to get it working there eventually.

Lessons learned

What struck me most about this migration wasn’t the speed of development—though completing the initial design in five days was remarkable for me. It was how AI enhanced my understanding of web development concepts.

Being able to question Cursor AI about its suggestions led to deeper insights into framework architecture and modern web development practices.

Having Cursor AI as a development partner meant I could explore alternatives and understand trade-offs in real-time, strengthening my grasp of modern web development practices.

I’ve learnt that it is crucial to question the AI—not to disagree or doubt it—but to understand why it is doing things in a certain way. This context helps a lot in grasping the direction or solution it decides to go with, and you can then make a better decision whether it is doing the right thing. Or if you need to guide it down a different path.

That’s my biggest takeaway: using AI to validate or challenge my assumptions and deepen my understanding. And this applies beyond just coding and web development.

Looking forward

The migration to Astro serves as a testament to how AI tools are transforming development workflows. It’s not about replacing human developers but augmenting our capabilities. AI helped me work faster while making more informed decisions about architecture and features.

Some key insights from this experience:

• AI tools are most effective when used for learning, not just code generation
• The ability to question and understand AI suggestions is crucial
• Small, incremental improvements can add up to significant enhancements
• Sometimes the best features are the ones you decide not to implement

As I continue to refine and improve the site, these lessons will guide future development decisions. The goal isn’t to chase every new technology or feature, but to thoughtfully enhance the user experience while maintaining the site’s core purpose: sharing ideas and connecting with readers.

I’ve compiled a curated collection of sites built with Astro in case you are interested to check out more examples of the possibilities with the framework.

Social media is so prevalent today that businesses and solopreneurs would have a presence on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms. That’s where users are and where users would search for them. Having a website often becomes an afterthought.

Home of your digital presence

It might come as a surprise, but owning your data and having your own website is still as crucial as ever for entrepreneurs and small businesses in 2024. In fact, the importance of owning your digital presence has only grown in our increasingly online world.

I’ve been making websites since 1997, providing it as a service for over 15 years, and it has been a key part of the business we do at RubyCoded for the past 10 years. This blog has been around for 22 years. I cannot emphasise the importance of owning your data and website more.

In a world where social media platforms come and go faster than fashion trends, relying solely on them is like building your house on quicksand. And just having a website is not enough. You need to own the data, or at least make sure that your data is portable. Web hosts and content management systems evolve and newer, better ones appear all the time. You need to make sure it is easy to migrate your content to new hosts and software you use.

The pitfalls of social media silos

Remember MySpace? Once the coolest kid on the block, now it’s about as relevant as a VHS tape. Or Vine, the six-second sensation that withered away, leaving creators scrambling. And let’s not forget Google+, which despite being backed by the internet giant, ended up yet another casualty in Google’s graveyard.

These platforms rose to dizzying heights, only to plummet faster than a lead balloon.

By pouring your efforts into growing your audience on a social media platform, you’re sinking yourself deep in its silo. Your content is often only discoverable within the platform, and you can only reach your followers there.

When you have all your eggs in one basket, you might lose access to your audience should the platform suddenly decide to tweak its algorithm, restrict your account, or if you lose access to your account.

I’ve seen so many cases where clients lost their following that they built up over years because the platform banned them without giving a reason or a chance to reactivate the account. Or where the clients lose their accounts to hackers or errant employees.

You can only restart building your audience from scratch.

The power of data ownership

In today’s world, it’s indisputable that data is king. When you build your entire business presence on social media, you’re essentially handing over the keys to your most valuable resource. These platforms aren’t in the charity business; they’re profiting from your data faster than you can say “targeted advertising.”

Not owning your data is like letting someone else write your autobiography. Sure, they might capture the main events, but they’ll miss all the nuances that make your story unique. Plus, there’s always the risk that one day they might just decide to lock that book and throw away the key. Poof! There goes your customer insights, your engagement history, and, potentially, your peace of mind.

In the past, when platforms closed down, they just turned off the lights and left you in the lurch. Most of them are more responsible now and provide a grace period for you to back up your data. However, the usefulness of the data backup is a big question mark.

Your website: Your online home and data fortress

Think of your website as your virtual home and data fortress. It’s the place where you present to the world whatever you want to. Your deepest thoughts, your casual musings, or simply a portfolio. How you choose to decorate and fortify your online home is up to you.

Or, if you prefer, think of it as your personal billboard in the digital Times Square. It’s always there, 24/7, shouting your message to the world. And unlike social media, where your post gets buried faster than yesterday’s news, your website stands tall and proud, waiting for visitors to stop by.

Benefits of owning your data and website:

1. Control over your brand presentation: No more fighting with restrictive layouts or character limits. Your website, your rules.
2. Independence from platform limitations: Want to sell products, host videos, or create an interactive experience? The sky’s the limit.
3. SEO benefits and discoverability: When someone Googles your business, do you want them to find your website or your competitor’s Facebook page?
4. Direct relationships with your audience: Build an email list, create a community, or offer exclusive content. It’s like having a direct line to your customers’ hearts (and wallets).

The POSSE strategy

Now, I’m not suggesting you abandon social media entirely. That would be like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. I’m a proponent of the IndieWeb concept of Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere (POSSE). This means that the content you post on your website is the one true source that you then repurpose and share on social media platforms and other sites.

Here’s how POSSE works in practice:

1. Create and publish content on your own website first.
2. Share that content on various social media platforms, linking back to your original post.
3. Engage with your audience on social media, but always guide them back to your owned platform.

When you post on your own site, you are not shackled when a particular third-party site is down and unavailable, such as when Twitter or Facebook suffered massive outages.

You link posts from third-party sites back to your website, so that people who discover your content through your social media posts can find your original content, and the place where they know they would be able to find you if the third-party platform is down.

There is a push to increase adoption of ActivityPub. This allows you to publish content on your own site, but still be connected to others through the ActivityPub protocol that is used by the likes of Mastodon, Threads, and BlueSky.

You can also use Webmention to send a notification to other sites using it to inform them that you wrote a post as a response to their content. Such purposeful and considered writing gives more depth and context than a mere comment under their post would.

The importance of email in owning your audience

While social media platforms can be fickle, email remains a constant in digital communication. By building an email list through your website, you’re creating a direct line of communication with your audience that you own and control.

Remember the Great Facebook Outage of 2021? For six hours, businesses that relied solely on Facebook and Instagram for their online presence might as well have been shouting into the void. It was like showing up to open your store, only to find the entire shopping mall had vanished overnight.

Or how about the countless small businesses that built thriving communities on platforms like Tumblr or Twitter, only to see their engagement plummet when algorithm changes relegated their posts to the digital equivalent of Siberia?

These aren’t just cautionary tales; they’re digital horror stories that should keep any savvy entrepreneur up at night. By owning your data and website, and building an email list, you insulate yourself from these platform-specific risks.

How to start owning your data and website

So, what should you do in this wild digital west? Here are a few steps to start taking control of your data and online presence:

1. Choose the right website platform: Whether it’s WordPress, Squarespace, or something else, find a platform that gives you the flexibility and features you need.
2. Implement data collection and management tools: Start gathering those precious customer insights directly. It’s like having your own crystal ball, but less mystical and more practical.
3. Create a content strategy that prioritises your owned channels: Think of your website as the sun, with your social media profiles orbiting around it. Everything should lead back to your digital home base.
4. Build and nurture an email list: This is your direct line to your audience, independent of any social media platform.

If you have any questions on the right strategy for you, feel free to reach out. I’m more than happy to give suggestions.

Embrace the power of owning your data and website

In the end, relying solely on social media is like trying to build a house on rented land. Sure, it might work for a while, but you’re always at the mercy of the landlord. Owning your data and your website? That’s like having the deed to your own piece of digital real estate.

Don’t let your digital destiny be at the mercy of social media giants. Take control, own your data, and build your digital home today. After all, in the ever-changing landscape of the internet, the only constant should be your own piece of digital turf.

Remember, in the game of online presence, those who own their data and website don’t just participate – they write the rules. So, are you ready to be the master of your digital domain?

Take the first step today: Start planning your website, or if you already have one, begin the process of truly owning and controlling your data. Your future self will thank you for it.

Now that you know what Stable Diffusion is, how to install it, and the basic usage of Stable Diffusion, you must be wondering what Stable checkpoints to use. I’ve compiled the top 10 best Stable Diffusion checkpoints for SD 1.5.

You’ve probably downloaded Stability AI’s official Stable Diffusion 1.5 model (SD 1.5) during the installation process. While it is a big improvement over the Stable Diffusion 1.4 model (SD 1.4), it is still a base model for general use with the main purpose of showcasing what Stable Diffusion 1.5 is capable of.

If you followed my installation guide, you would have installed the DreamShaper v8 checkpoint. It’s the model I recommend to people who are new to Stable Diffusion.

To bring your Stable Diffusion to the next level, you need to get a custom checkpoint like DreamShaper. Before we dive into the top checkpoints, let’s have a brief look at what best Stable Diffusion checkpoints are.

Top 10 Stable Diffusion checkpoints

I have listed the top 10 best Stable Diffusion checkpoints based on their popularity, ranking them based on the total number of downloads they have on Civitai.

These checkpoints are ranked by popularity as of writing. Note that some of these checkpoints differ by very small number of downloads, so expect the rankings to fluctuate.

Regardless of their standings, these checkpoints are very established and popular amongst Stable Diffusion and are great to starting points for your Stable Diffusion journey.

1. Realistic Vision

• Type: Merge

• Usage: Photograph

• Download: Civitai

It is a close fight between Realistic Vision and ChilloutMix, but Realistic Vision edges out slightly probably because it can generate a wider range of face types. It is merged from a long list of realistic checkpoints to squeeze the most realism out of them.

While I don’t use Realistic Vision that much, I use the inpainting checkpoint all the time. It is great for fixing photorealistic images.

2. ChilloutMix

• Type: Merge

• Usage: Photograph, digital painting

• Download: Civitai

ChilloutMix is so good at creating realistic images that it stirred up a lot of controversy around the generation of images with a real person’s face. The issue snowballed to a point where the creator had to transfer ownership of the checkpoint to Civitai and go into hiding to avoid legal repercussions. I take this as proof of the checkpoint’s capability and popularity.

Besides being the most popular realistic checkpoint for Asian faces, ChilloutMix is also used by to train many LoRAs and checkpoints, even non-realistic ones.

ChilloutMix is released under the Dreamlike License due to the checkpoint it used in the merge that is rather restrictive. Model creators seem to have bypassed this by training models using generated images instead of just merging.

3. DreamShaper

• Type: Trained

• Usage: Photograph, digital painting, anime

• Download: Civitai, Hugging Face

DreamShaper by Lyon is the checkpoint I recommend to all Stable Diffusion beginners. If you’ve followed my installation and getting started guides, you would already have DreamShaper installed.

It is a very flexible checkpoint and can generate a wide range of styles and realism levels.

4. MajicMix Realistic

• Type: Merge
• Usage: Photograph, digital painting

MajicMix Realistic has become the standard for photorealism in the later half of 2023. It is one of my most used checkpoints, though nowadays I tend to switch between one of the MajicMix Realistic derivatives out there for a more specific look.

How popular is it? MajicMix Realistic has a recognisable face, especially before v7. It’s so easy to spot the face and I see it a lot on Taobao. Yes, Taobao sellers are already using AI-generated images for product images in mid-2023.

5. Uber Realistic Porn Merge (URPM)

• Type: Merge
• Usage: Photograph, digital painting
• Download: Civitai (NSFW)

You can tell from the name that URPM is created to generated realistic NSFW images. That explains its popularity. It is very good with anatomy, naturally, and hence is used in many checkpoint merges for realistic and non-realistic models. Realistic Vision contains URPM.

Realistic Vision delivers better skin and hair textures due to the other checkpoints in the merge. But if you want a high level of NSFW concepts in your output, you might want to consider URPM.

6. epiCRealism

• Type: Merge

• Usage: Type: Photograph

• Download: Civitai

EpiCRealism by epinikion takes realistic output to the next level with the amazing skin and hair texture it generates. On top of realism, it can create images with a photographic look if you prompt for it. I love the cinematic lighting it’s capable of. This special look that epiCRealism delivers has led to many checkpoints being merged or trained with it.

Realistic Vision contains epiCRealism, but I feel that it lost some of the latter’s magic touch in the merge. When I want the photos to look like a photograph, epiCRealism is the first checkpoint I would use. Its derivatives are also useful if you want to go for a particular look.

7. ReV Animated

• Type: Merge
• Usage: Digital painting
• Download: Civitai

If you’re looking to create artwork with intricate details, ReV Animated is the checkpoint. It is so good at generate complex details and delivers a stunning digital painting style with the 2.5D to semi-realistic look it produces.

Unfortunately, the creator is no longer maintaining the model. I used to start off almost all my pieces with a Rev Animated draft, but it’s age is showing and there are other checkpoints out there that handles hands and complex poses better.

8. Perfect World

• Type: Merge
• Usage: Render, digital painting
• Download: Civitai

Perfect World specialises in a semi-realistic look inspired by artwork from the game of the same name. It exaggerates body proportions, a goal that it proudly strives for. If that’s your thing, then this checkpoint is perfect for render-like and digital painting outputs.

9. MeinaMix

• Type: Merge
• Usage: Anime
• Download: Civitai

MeinaMix is hands down my favourite anime checkpoint for the typical anime look. It strikes a good balance between the character and background.

10. Beautiful Realistic Asians

• Type: Merge
• Usage: Photograph
• Download: Civitai

Beautiful Realistic Asians (BRA) by pleasebankai is capable of generating very realistic photographs of Asian subjects. However, I find that it takes good prompt engineering to coax the best out of it, and this kind of explains why it is less popular than ChilloutMix. When used right, BRA generates better realism than ChilloutMix.

The photographs BRA generates have a cinematic aesthetic to them like epiCRealism but specialising in Asian features. Why the need for Asian-specific checkpoints? Well, most of the general checkpoints give Asian faces that lean towards the Western stereotypes or preferences. These Asian-specific checkpoints delivers output that with Asian aesthetics.

Many realistic checkpoints use BRA in their merge partly because of its quality, and partly to avoid the licensing issue with ChilloutMix.

11. CyberRealistic (Bonus)

• Type: Merge
• Usage: Photograph
• Download: Civitai, Hugging Face

To me, CyberRealistic sits between Realistic Vision and epiCRealism. I feel that it delivers output closer to what Realistic Vision is trying to achieve while retaining a more photographic aesthetic. It also works very well with textual inversions and LoRAs, though I’ll need to do some tests to determine if it is more versatile than the other two checkpoints.

Realistic Vision contains CyberRealistic. I suggest trying all three to see which you prefer, or just switch between them. All three are great for photorealistic output, especially if you want to avoid Asian faces.

12. Counterfeit (Bonus)

• Type: Merge
• Usage: Anime
• Download: Civitai, Hugging Face (v2.0, v2.5, v3.0)

I had to add this as another bonus to the Top 10 because the majority of anime checkpoints out there can be traced back to Counterfeit. They either use Counterfeit or a derivative in their merges, or are trained with Counterfeit-generated data sets.

Before Counterfeit and Abyss Orange Mix came about, anime checkpoints were mostly trained on the controversial Anything V3. Anything V3 is suspected to be the leaked NovelAI checkpoint, and hence has a lot of question marks hanging over it regarding copyright infringement.

Round-up

These top ten or twelve best Stable Diffusion checkpoints are ranked based on their total number of downloads on Civitai at the time of publishing this article. This might not be a truly accurate reflection of their popularity, because some of them have multiple versions and downloads of all the versions add up to the total downloads.

A checkpoint with ten versions can have someone downloading all eight out of ten versions, whereas another with one version gets only one download. Still, it is a good list to get you started if you are new to Stable Diffusion, and you’re looking for checkpoints to play with.

Having more versions means more effort has been put in to keep improving the checkpoints. If you’re interested to rank the checkpoints based on the actual number of downloads, check out my Ultimate Stable Diffusion Checkpoint Database for a comprehensive breakdown by version.

Free Notion resource

I’m giving away my personal top 10 Stable Diffusion photorealistic checkpoint list for free when you join my newsletter. While it is less comprehensive than the paid Ultimate Database, this free list is a good way starting point if you are new to the world of Stable Diffusion.

I’ve split the list so that you can view the top 10 trained checkpoints, top 10 merged checkpoints, or the overall top 10 checkpoints.

What about anime or painterly checkpoints? You can find them in the Ultimate Database. There’s just an overwhelming number of anime checkpoints out there. Besides, they differ a lot by art style and that is subject to personal taste, so it doesn’t make sense for to rank them.

You get the full-sized comparison grids to study the effect of different variables and parameters on the checkpoints output. I create these for my own research and write down my notes in the Ultimate Database, and I’m sharing it with you.

Feel free to reach out if you have checkpoints to suggest or if you want me to do a more in-depth review.

To get started with Stable Diffusion, you’ll first need to use a user interface to let you operate it without having to key in commands into the terminal. In this guide, you’ll learn how to use Stable Diffusion using the Stable Diffusion Web UI by Automatic1111. This is the easier tool available out there and I feel is perfect for beginners to get started.

Once you have understood the process of creating images using the Web UI, you can then explore other tools like ComfyUI that are designed for power users.

This article will guide you through the process to generating your first image in Stable Diffusion. I started with the goal of helping you understand the basics in a single post, but I realised that there are a lot to digest if I do a deep dive and try to cover each parameter.

I’ve streamlined this guide so you understand enough to create your first AI generated image. Once you have a grasp of the process of how to use Stable Diffusion, I suggest reading the individual articles for the different steps and concepts to get a better grasp of what each step does, why I suggest doing it in a certain way, and explore how you can experiment on your own.

Install Stable Diffusion Web UI

If you haven’t already, install Stable Diffusion Web UI.

I have written up a guide on how to install Stable Diffusion Web UI. I try to keep my installation guide updated, but things move fast in the Stable Diffusion world, so don’t be surprised things don’t work.

Download a Stable Diffusion checkpoint

When you first launch Stable Diffusion, the first option in the top left is the Stable Diffusion checkpoint option. This dropdown option lets you select the checkpoint you want to use to generate your image.

Check out my lists of the top Stable Diffusion checkpoints to browse the popular checkpoints. Sign up for my newsletter to get the free Top 10 Realistic Checkpoints Database.

The 🔄 icon beside the dropdown lets you refresh the list if you moved a new checkpoint into the checkpoints folder. Click on the icon to update the list without having to restart the Web UI.

If you have already installed Stable Diffusion Web UI using my guide, you would already have the DreamShaper checkpoint. You can skip to the next step.

For beginners, I recommend using DreamShaper, a good general purpose checkpoint.

• Download Dreamshaper v8 from Civitai or Hugging Face.

• Move the checkpoint file into the checkpoints folder \models\Stable-diffusion\.

Click on the 🔄 icon to update your list of checkpoints and select DreamShaper v8.

Generate image with txt2img

There are several tabs in your Web UI screen. My tabs might differ from yours since you are most likely on a default installation. My Web UI is very customised, so it will be different from what you see.

The txt2img tab is where you start your image generation if you want to create an image from a prompt.

Prompt structure

I won’t go into the details of prompt engineering in this article, so I’ll just touch briefly on the way I write prompts.

There are several ways of writing prompts for Stable Diffusion. You can go with natural language and describe the scene you want to see. This method is commonly used in Midjourney and DALL-E3. You then let the AI interpret your description to create the image.

I personally prefer to use Danbooru tags in my prompts because that gives me more control over to the elements I want to appear. For example, you can use 1girl or 1boy to specify that there is just a girl or a boy in the image. If you use them both together, you will get a girl and a boy. If you go with 2girls or 2boys, you will get two girls or two boys. Use both and you get four people in the image.

Of course, you can also do a mix of the natural language and booru tags in your prompt. Stable Diffusion will have no problems interpreting it.

The rule of thumb for prompting with Danbooru tags is to tag what you see, not what you know. For example, don’t tag footwear if you won’t see the feet in the image.

However, I have a general structure for creating my prompts:

• Quality – These are tags that help to determine the quality and style, such as photorealistic, painting, anime, or illustrations etc. For example, masterpiece, best quality, photorealistic.

• Composition – These are tags that describe the camera angle and lighting, such as a close-up or wide shot. You can refer to the list of camera angles and lighting types, For example, cowboy shot, cinematic lighting.

• Subject – These are the tags that describe the subject. For example, 1girl, long hair, blue eyes.

• Supplementary – These are tags that add on to the subject, such as the outfit or pose. For example, red dress, standing, looking at viewer.

• Background – These are the tags that describe the background in the image, For example, Chinese village.

• Miscellaneous – Any other tags that I want to add on would be added at this part. I prefer to place my camera lens tags here if I use them. For example, depth of field, canon 85mm f1.2.

Based on the examples above, the final prompt would be:
masterpiece, best quality, photorealistic, cowboy shot, cinematic lighting, 1girl, long hair, blue eyes, red dress, standing, looking at viewer, Chinese village, depth of field, canon 85mm f1.2

This is just a general approach to creating a prompt. Some checkpoints have a recommended way to prompting and would give better results if you follow that.

Prompt length

Stable Diffusion interprets prompts at 75 tokens per chunk. Once it goes beyond that, it will split the process into two parts. The prompt fields will show 0/75 when empty. Once you go past 75 tokens, it will show a total of 150 instead, to indicate the token count left before you use up the second part.

Token weightage

The tags in your prompts are weighted based on how far in front they are in your prompts. Tags with stronger weights are given more priority. If your output is not giving you the results you want, you might need to move your tags around to tweak their weightage.

Repeating tags

If you look at other people’s prompts, something I highly recommend you to do to study how others build their prompts, you might see them repeating the same tags, or similar ones. For example, 1girl, solo. Both tags have the same effect but repeating the similar concepts helps to give emphasis and tells the AI that this concept is important.

Some people repeat the same tags, for example, having blue eyes repeated again near the end of the earlier prompt that we had.

masterpiece, best quality, photorealistic, cowboy shot, cinematic lighting, 1girl, long hair, blue eyes, red dress, standing, looking at viewer, Chinese village, blue eyes, depth of field, canon 85mm f1.2

Moving tokens

You can move your prompt elements around in Stable Diffusion Web UI using the keyboard shortcut ⌥ or Alt + ← or → arrow keys to move them forward or backwards.

Note that this moves comma-separated elements. Meaning that tags within two sets of commas (one at the start or end of the prompt) will be moved about.

Adjusting weights

You can also increase your tags weight by adding brackets and the weight using the syntax (tag:weight). This allows you to adjust the weight of the prompt without having to move the tags around. Weightage can apply to not just tags, but also other prompt elements such as LoRAs and embedding.

You can add the weight of the token in Stable Diffusion Web UI using the keyboard shortcut ⌘ Cmd or Ctrl + ↑ or ↓ arrow keys to adjust the weight.

By default, the tags have a weight of 1 at the position in the prompt. You can increase (above 1.0) or decrease (below 1.0) the weightage to adjust its strength in your prompt. You can actually give negative values to the tags, though at this point you might want to just place the token in the negative prompt.

Negative prompt

Those of you who have tried other AI image generators like Midjourney, Mage Space or Leonardo AI would be familiar with negative prompts. A negative prompt is basically what you want the AI to avoid in the image. Common negative tags are worst quality, low quality, deformed hands, bad anatomy.

You can also place embeddings and LoRAs in the negative prompt to reverse their effect. Bear in mind that this would only work if they support negative weights.

For example, placing a LoRA that adds detail in the negative prompt will actually remove details instead of adding details.

Negative embeddings

Instead of trying to add too many negative prompts there are negative embeddings that makes it easier to insert common negative tags. I won’t go into details of negative embeddings in this article since it is another topic on its own.

The DeepNegative is an example when you use the NG_DeepNegative_V1_75T embedding that includes 75 tokens, it actually applies 75 tokens to your negative prompt. Notice that the negative prompt field will show 75/75 tokens used when you input just NG_DeepNegative_V1_75T in the negative prompt.

Other kinds of negative embeddings are textual inversions or LoRAs trained with concepts you don’t want to, such as bad drawings or anatomy. Applying these in the negative prompt will make the AI avoid these concepts.

A fun, but potentially scary/scarring, experiment to try is to place a negative embedding in the positive prompt.

Next steps

Now that we have our prompt ready, we move on to generating the image.

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter to get the free Top 10 Realistic Checkpoints Database. You can also browse my lists of top Stable Diffusion checkpoints on the blog.

Ever since I got into anime in the late 90s, both Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Soryu have been two of the most prominent heroines. This was due to the sheer popularity of Neon Genesis Evangelion and their character designs. Their posters and figurines filled the otaku shops that I frequented.

So it’s inevitable that I would work on Rei and Asuka pieces once I started creating realistic artwork of my favourite anime characters.

Creation

Anime checkpoints are able to get her interface headset right, but they start turning into hair bands or accessories with realistic checkpoints.

Asuka is a US citizen of Japanese and German descent. Most depictions show her with more Caucasian features. I decided to try to play around with her facial features while trying to retain her red hair and blue eyes. However, the hair and eye colours were weird in some of the styles so I tweaked them to go with a more cosplay-like approach rather than a character recreation.

Tools used

• Stable Diffusion Web UI

• Adobe Photoshop (Beta)

• Huion Kamvas Pro 16

Downloads

The HD versions of these images available for download on Afdian. See the links below each image.

The 4K versions will be available to members on Patreon and DeviantArt. Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when these and new content become available.

Asuka Langley Soryu hello there

• Get it on Ko-fi

• Get it on Patreon

• Get it using Alipay or WeChat Pay on Afdian 爱发电

• Collect it on DeviantArt.

Asuka Langley Soryu dash

• Get it on Ko-fi

• Get it on Patreon

• Get it using Alipay or WeChat Pay on Afdian 爱发电

• Collect it on DeviantArt

Chun-Li is one of the first female fighters in gaming history, and has become one of the most iconic game characters. It was a pretty easy decision to pick up Chun-Li as my third fighting game character art after Mai Shiranui and Sakura Kasugano.

Creation

The challenge with Chun-Li is getting her hair bunds and spiked bracelets right. The spikes were so troublesome that I went with cloth bracelets for the first piece instead. I like how that turned out in the image.

Chun-Li is known for her large, muscular thighs, and that was what I depicted. However, the most feedback I’ve received so far is about how the thighs are too big to be realistic. That’s the character design, and the fun of portraying a character in photorealistic style. You get to have fun and be creative instead of just trying to make it look real.

Tools used

• Stable Diffusion Web UI

• Adobe Photoshop (Beta)

• Huion Kamvas Pro 16

Downloads

The HD versions of these images available for download on Afdian. See the links below each image.

The 4K versions will be available to members on Patreon and DeviantArt. Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when these and new content become available.

Chun-Li challenges you

• Get it on Ko-fi

• Get it on Patreon

• Get it using Alipay or WeChat Pay on Afdian 爱发电

• Collect it on DeviantArt

What are checkpoints

Checkpoints and models are fundamental concepts in machine learning that are related but distinct. It can get a bit confusing when the terms are commonly used interchangeably.

A model is a complex algorithm trained to make predictions based on input data. The process of model training is where the model learns patterns and information from a given training dataset.

A checkpoint is a snapshot during the training that captures the state of a model at a specific stage in the training process. In other words, checkpoints are a type of AI models. There are other types of Stable Diffusion models like LoRAs, LoCONs, LoHAs, LECOs and so on, but we will only be looking at checkpoints today.

Think of checkpoints as save points in a video game, allowing you to capture the state of your model at specific intervals during training. When you use a checkpoint, you are able to generate images using the concepts and knowledge it has learnt up to the checkpoint.

Types of checkpoints

If you know me well enough, you’re most likely aware of how fussy I am about organising things. I group my Stable Diffusion checkpoints based on the output they are able to produce. There are several ways to group checkpoints, including trained knowledge, image output, and realism.

I don’t group my checkpoints based on trained knowledge, but it is useful to know how they are trained to understand what they are capable of. If you are way of using checkpoints trained on copyrighted material, knowing how they are created would be key.

You can also group checkpoints by the level of realism they can achieve. The realism here generally refers to the proportions I find this a good starting point to identify the best checkpoint to use. Of course, some checkpoints are capable of multiple levels of realism.

However, I don’t group my checkpoints by realism. I prefer to sort my checkpoints based on their image output capability. There are checkpoints that can achieve different types of output, but I
find that the better checkpoints are generally specialised for a particular type of usage instead of being able to produce different looks.

Note that other than the categorisation by type, the other groupings can be subjective and are just a general way to group the checkpoints to make it easier to organise them. You’ll find that there many Stable Diffusion checkpoints fall under a few categories in actual usage.

All these different categorisation can be a little confusing that’s why I created my Stable Diffusion checkpoint databases to help me track what the checkpoints are capable of.

Checkpoint types – trained knowledge

One way of grouping Stable Diffusion checkpoints is based on how they are trained.

Trained checkpoints

Models like the SD 1.4 or SD 1.5 models are models trained by Stability AI on a large dataset. Model creators can create similar base models by training a new model with their own dataset. These are referred to as trained checkpoints.

You can also fine-tune a model by using a base model as a starting point to train your dataset. This base model can be the SD 1.4 or SD 1.5 checkpoints, or another checkpoint. Fine-turning is done to adapt an existing model for a specific task or dataset, such as a particular art style, person or character.

Both base models and fine-tuned models are referred to as trained checkpoints.

Merged checkpoints

Checkpoints can also be combined to blend the trained knowledge together, either to improve the quality or to mix different art styles together. These are called merged checkpoints, often denoted with a “Mix” in the checkpoint’s name.

Checkpoint types – image output

The main way I group my Stable Diffusion checkpoints is by the type of output they are able to generate.

So, let’s look at the types of photos you can generate. These are some of the broad looks people create:

• Photorealistic – hyperrealistic images that resemble photographs

• Digital painting – concept or fantasy art images that mimics realism with artistic expression

• Render – 3D-rendered image style

• Anime – anime style with exaggerated proportions

• Illustration – distinct brush strokes, including line art and sketches

Photorealistic checkpoints

Photorealism is an art style that tries to mimic realism in paintings. Photorealistic checkpoints are capable of generating hyperrealistic images that look like photographs. Do not confuse the photorealistic style with the amount of realism it generates.

Get my Top 10 Most Popular Realistic Checkpoints database when you sign up for my newsletter.

Digital painting checkpoints

Digital painting checkpoints generate images with realistic look, but the texture is less realistic than photorealistic checkpoints. They balance detail with artistic interpretation, allowing for greater stylistic flexibility, such as visible brush strokes or a more painterly quality, depending on the training data and model design.

The images they create are reminiscent of digital and traditional artwork. I use these checkpoints if I want a concept art or digital art look.

Render checkpoints

Render checkpoints are often trained with 3D-rendered images and mimic rendering styles, such as Disney’s Pixar style. These checkpoints produce images with render-like qualities. The images created have realistic lighting, but often with texture and details of 3D models.

A popular look is the 3D Niji style from Midjourney. You can find Stable Diffusion trained on 3D Niji images.

Anime checkpoints

Anime checkpoints generate images with the distinctive anime style, including exaggerated proportions, expressions, and hair colours and styles. I generally group checkpoints for manga and anime fan art here, unless the lines are so loose that they fall under illustration checkpoints instead.

The use of generative AI to create anime-style images is immensely popular and a major driving force in the development of AI image generation. Thus, you’ll find many anime checkpoints covering different anime styles.

I prefer to group comic checkpoints here as well, unless they have such a high level of realism that warrants their grouping under digital painting checkpoints.

Illustration checkpoints

Illustration checkpoints produce images with distinctive brush strokes. These could range from wet to dry media, including oil painting, water colour, line art, and sketches. The checkpoints are trained to mimic the brush strokes of the particular medium.

General purpose checkpoints

Some checkpoints are trained to be able to produce different image styles. These are referred to as general purpose checkpoints. They are the Swiss Army knives checkpoints that lets you create a variety of styles without having to swap checkpoints.

Checkpoint types – realism

When I look at realism, I consider both the human proportions and how three-dimensional the images look. This is more subjective than the image output because you can often alter the level of realism through prompting.

Nevertheless, I prefer to also group the realism to help me track what the checkpoints can achieve with these categories:

• Realistic – realistic proportions

• Semi-realistic – 3D look with almost realistic proportions

• 2.8D – between 2.5D and 3D look

• 2.5D – non-flat shading

• 2D – flat-shading

Realistic checkpoints

Realistic checkpoints generate people with life-like proportions and details. These includes both photorealistic and digital painting checkpoints that both aim to replicate the look for real-world or high-fidelity art.

Semi-realistic checkpoints

Semi-realistic checkpoints create characters with a three-dimensional look but the proportions are not quite life-like. These are often anime or comic style look with some level of fantastical proportions, or render checkpoints.

2.8D checkpoints

2.8D checkpoints straddle between 2.5D and 3D look, with more realism than 2.5D but not quite 3D level of realism. 2.8D is not an actual technical style, and I did not use this category initially. However, th number of checkpoints targeting this specific look has led to me adding it as a distinct category on its on.

These checkpoints are often anime or digital painting checkpoints with a very stylised look.

2.5D checkpoints

2.5D checkpoints are have more realistic shading to give the subjects more depth and definition compared to the 2D look. Like 2.8D checkpoints, these are commonly anime or digital painting checkpoints with a stylised look.

2D checkpoints

2D checkpoints have flat shading look of traditional anime style. Most anime checkpoints can produce the 2D look. However, this art style extends beyond just anime, including any sort of two-dimensional artistic styles.

Other types of categories

I focus mainly on portraits, hence I only look at these few features in the checkpoints when groping them. There are other checkpoints that specialises in generating environments, icons, logos, or backgrounds.

Since I rarely generate these kind of images, I won’t talk much about them for now.

Choosing Stable Diffusion checkpoints

There are hundreds of Stable Diffusion checkpoints out there to choose from. You can find checkpoints on sites like Civitai, Hugging Face, and LibLib AI, to name a few resources.

How do you know which one is the best one? It depends on the type of images you are looking to generate and your preferred workflow.

Stay tuned for guides on choosing checkpoints and my review of my favourite checkpoints.

The minimum requirement for Stable Diffusion Web UI is 2GB VRAM, but generation will be slow and you will run out of memory once you try to create images larger than 512 x 512. Fortunately, there are several ways to optimise Stable Diffusion Web UI to speed up the image generation process.

From my experience, the best setup to use Stable Diffusion is a Windows machine with Nvidia GPU that meets the recommendation of 6GB VRAM.

Bear in mind that many variables affect the optimisation options, so it is best to test the different combinations to find what gives you the best performance. Test with different settings using the same checkpoint to generate 512 x 512 images with 20 steps using the Euler sampling method. Compare how fast it takes Web UI to generate an image.

Cross-attention optimisation

One of the critical operation Stable Diffusion uses is cross-attention calculation. It involves the interaction between two sets of data or vectors: the query and the key. Cross-attention can consume significant amount of memory and time.

Imagine you have a box of building blocks, and you want to build a tall tower. Some blocks are important for making it tall and stable, while others are not so important. You have a pair of special glasses that make the important blocks glow when you look at them through the glasses.

Cross-attention is like using the special glasses to allow the model to focus on the different parts of the input data on what’s important to generate the image.

Setting cross-attention optimisation

Due to the impact of cross-attention calculation, optimising its is the key to speeding up Stable Diffusion. You can set the cross-attention optimisation method in the Stable Diffusion Web UI.

1. Launch Stable Diffusion Web UI.

2. Go to the Settings tab and select the Optimization in the sidebar.

3. Choose your preferred cross-attention optimisation from the dropdown menu. The default is set to Automatic.

4. Click Apply Settings to save the settings.

Doggettx

This is a historical improvement to cross-attention operations that offers a decent performance boost, but has been surpassed by newer options. Doggettx submitted the improvements to the original implementation in Stable Diffusion.

xFormers

The Meta AI team developed the xFormers, pronounced transformers. It is a transformer library that increased the attention operation’s speed while reducing memory usage through memory-efficient attention and Flash Attention techniques.

Transformers are a type of neural network architecture that uses self-attention to determine the importance of different parts of the input data. xFormers integrates with PyTorch and CUDA libraries. CUDA is limited to Nvidia hardware, and hence xFormers is only available if you are using an Nvidia GPU.

Memory-efficient attention uses an algorithm that uses less steps and memory to compute the attention operation, making it more efficient for large models and inputs.

Flash Attention uses tiling to compute attention one small piece at a time, reducing memory usage and speeding up calculations.

Scaled-Dot-Product (sdp) Attention

SDP attention is an alternative implementation of memory-efficient attention and Flash Attention native to PyTorch that is available in PyTorch 2 and newer. Depending on your hardware setup, you might get better performance with SDP attention than xFormers. Note that it uses more VRAM than xFormers, so your hardware might run into issues with it.

SDP attention gives non-deterministic output, meaning that the results are reproducible. This is a problem if you want to be able to reproduce the same image when you use the same parameters.

If you are using Stable Diffusion to create art or images for general use, you generally won’t need deterministic output in your workflow. It is only crucial in research.

SDP Attention without Memory-Efficient Attention (SDP-no-mem)

SDP-no-mem is an implementation of SDP attention without the memory-efficient attention technique. This makes it produce deterministic output, and hence allows you to reproduce the results with the same parameters.

The drawback of using SDP-no-mem is sacrificing the memory-efficient optimisations in exchange for deterministic output.

Sub-Quadratic (sub-quad) Attention

Sub-quad attention is another implementation of memory-efficient attention. It significantly reduces the required memory, but this comes at a cost of speed.

This is useful if you’re unable to run xFormers or SDP. Sub-quad attention allows you to generate larger image sizes if you are on macOS.

Split-Attention v1

Split-attention v1 is an older implementation of memory-efficient attention that has been surpassed by the other techniques like xFormers or SDP that use memory-efficient attention.

You should be using xFormers or SDP where possible. Split-attention v1 uses less VRAM, so it might be a useful option if your hardware has limited memory. However, it is more limiting on the maximum image size it can generate.

Invoke AI

The Invoke AI is an alternative GUI. Its cross-attention optimisation is useful for macOS machines without Nvidia GPUs.

Token merging

Token merging (ToMe) is a new technique that accelerates Stable Diffusion by reducing the number of tokens that need processing. It does this by identifying and combining redundant tokens. Merging tokens changes the prompt processed, and hence changes the image output. This could be an issue if you are trying to reproduce the same image with the same parameters.

I personally find it a better habit to practice good prompt engineering and optimise your prompt length. Be mindful when creating prompts and avoid using redundant prompts.

You’ll find that many prompts out there are very badly structured. Instead of just copying prompts, take the time to remove redundancies. If you have a sample image to refer to, remove the tokens that don’t appear in the output that you want to generate.

With less tokens to process, the generation is naturally faster. However, it doesn’t seem to deliver that much improvements compared to cross-attention optimisations. I would avoid using this unless you are getting very long generation times with your setup.

Setting token merging

1. Launch Stable Diffusion Web UI.

2. Go to the Settings tab and select the Optimization in the sidebar.

3. Choose your preferred token merging ratio by dragging the slider or keying in the ratio value.

4. Click Apply Settings to save the settings.

Negative guidance minimum sigma

Negative guidance minimum sigma is an optimisation that adjusts the sigma, a parameter that represents randomness in the generation process. By increasing the minimum sigma value, you are increasing the chances of the generation process skipping the negative prompt for some steps when the image is almost ready.

Increasing the sigma value reduces the generation time, though I find the performance boost on par with token merging. Negative guidance minimum sigma alters the image output, but to a lesser extent than token merging. If you had to choose between the two, I would suggest going with negative guidance minimum sigma.

Again, I would avoid using this unless you are getting very slow performance with your setup.

Setting negative guidance minimum sigma

1. Launch Stable Diffusion Web UI.

2. Go to the Settings tab and select the Optimization in the sidebar.

3. Choose your preferred negative guidance minimum sigma by dragging the slider or keying in the sigma value.

4. Click Apply Settings to save the settings.

Command line arguments

Since Stable Diffusion Web UI is a command-line application, you can provide command-line arguments to configure it when launching Web UI. Some of these arguments can be used in combination to improve the performance of Stable Diffusion Web UI.

If you launch Web UI from the terminal, you can add the arguments to the command. If you launch Web UI by double-clicking on the webui-user.bat or run.bat files, you can edit the webui-user.bat (Windows) or webui-user.sh (Mac or Linux) in a text editor and add the variables.

In webui-user.bat, add the arguments to the line set COMMANDLINE_ARGS=.
In webui-user.sh, add the arguments to the line export COMMANDLINE_ARGS=.

For example, set COMMANDLINE_ARGS=--skip-torch-cuda-test --no-half-vae —api --opt-sdp-attention

There is a full list of command line arguments you can use with Stable Diffusion Web UI on GitHub.

Optimisation method arguments

These are the arguments that enable the optimisations mentioned in this article:

• --opt-sdp-attention – Enables SDP attention optimisation

• --opt-sdp-no-mem-attention – Enables SDP-no-mem

• --xformers – Enables xFormers

• --force-enable-xformers – Enables xFormers regardless of whether the program thinks you can run it

• --opt-split-attention – Enables cross-attention layer optimisation; enabled by default for torch.cuda for both Nvidia and AMD cards

• --disable-opt-split-attention – Disables the cross-attention optimisation

• --opt-sub-quad-attention – Enables sub-quad attention optimisation

• --opt-split-attention-v1 – Enables split attention v1

Performance options arguments

You can also add other arguments to improve the performance of Stable Diffusion Web UI:

• --medvram – Splits the Stable Diffusion into three parts and only loads one in VRAM at all times, keeping the others in CPU RAM. It slows down generation speed but allows you to generate the image with a lower VRAM ceiling.

• --medvram-sdxl – Enables --medvram only for SDXL models

• --lowvram – An even more thorough optimisation that splits the third part, the unet, into many modules, and keeping only one module is kept in VRAM. Very, very slow generation.

• --lowram – Load Stable Diffusion checkpoint weights to VRAM instead of RAM for machines that have limited RAM

• --upcast-sampling – Improves generation speed for machines that need to run with --no-half. Better performance and VRAM usage than --no-half.

See also

• What is Stable Diffusion

• How to install Stable Diffusion Web UI

• Troubleshooting Stable Diffusion Web UI

• How to use Stable Diffusion Web UI

I will try to keep my installation guide updated, but things move fast in the Stable Diffusion world, so don’t be surprised things don’t work.

Check the official GitHub installation guide for the latest information. The official guide is a bit more technical, so my guide makes it a bit easier for beginners to understand.

The process is a bit different depending on the device you’re installing Stable Diffusion on. The official guide covers installing on Nvidia GPUs, AMD GPUs, Apple Silicon, and Intel Silicon.

I’ve only installed Stable Diffusion Web UI on Windows 10 with Nvidia GPU and macOS on M1 Max, so I’ll only be sharing the guides for these two setups.

Downloading DreamShaper

Before we start, I recommend that you download your first Stable Diffusion checkpoint. You can learn more about what Stable Diffusion checkpoints are and the top checkpoints available out there in my other articles.

• Download DreamShaper v8 from Civitai or Hugging Face. You don’t need to do anything with it now.

Why download DreamShaper? It is a good starting checkpoint for beginners compared to the default Stable Diffusion 1.5 model. Downloading the model now also makes it easier for you to track the download.

If the installer doesn’t detect an existing model, it will automatically download the large 4 GB file. If you are on a slow connection, you might think that the process is stuck.

Installing on Windows with Nvidia GPU

There are two ways to install Stable Diffusion Web UI on Windows. The easy way is to use the installer package. The second method pulls the source from GitHub and requires you to have some technical knowledge to operate git.

The difference between the method is that it’s easier to get started with the installer, whereas using git allows you to switch between different commits. This is useful when you encounter bugs with a certain version or an extension.

Using the Web UI Windows installer

1. Download sd.webui.zip from this GitHub release page.

2. Extract the zip file at where you want to install Web UI. Bear in mind that the models and extensions you install will take up space, so I would recommend choosing a drive that has most space available.

3. Double click to run update.bat. This will update Web UI to the latest version. Wait until the update completes, then close the window.

4. If you have downloaded DreamShaper, move it into the sd.webui\webui\models\Stable-diffusion\ folder.

5. Double click run.bat to launch Web UI. It will download all the required files during first launch. There are many files so it might take a while depending on your Internet connection speed.

6. When everything has been downloaded and installed successfully, you will see the message “Running on local URL: https://127.0.0.1:7860”.

7. Copy and paste the URL https://127.0.0.1:7860 in your preferred browser, or click on this link to go to the Web UI.

Manual Web UI Windows installation

1. Download and install Python 3.10.6. Select the “Add to PATH” option when installing. Skip this step if you already have Python 3.10 installed.

2. Download and install git. Skip this step if you already have git installed.

3. Launch Command Prompt. Navigate to the folder or drive you want to install the Web UI, and then run git clone https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui.

4. If you have downloaded DreamShaper, move it into the stable-diffusion-webui\webui\models\Stable-diffusion\ folder.

5. Double click webui-user.bat to launch Web UI. It will download a large amount of the dependencies during first launch, so it might take a while depending on your Internet connection speed.

6. When everything has been downloaded and installed successfully, you will see the message “Running on local URL: https://127.0.0.1:7860”.

7. Copy and paste the URL https://127.0.0.1:7860 in your preferred browser, or click on this link to go to the Web UI.

Installing on macOS with Apple Silicon

The installation process for macOS is similar to the manual installation for Windows. The only difference is that you need to install Homebrew, if you’ve never installed it before.

1. If you haven’t installed Homebrew, follow the installation instructions at https://brew.sh. You can either install Homebrew using the script or use the .pkg installer. Keep the terminal window open after Homebrew finishes installing.

2. Follow the instructions under “Next steps” to add Homebrew to your PATH.

3. Open a new terminal window and run brew install cmake protobuf rust python@3.10 git wget. This will install the main dependencies and might take some time depending on your internet connection speed.

4. Clone the Web UI’s GitHub repository by running git clone https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui

5. If you have downloaded DreamShaper, move it into the stable-diffusion-webui/models/Stable-diffusion/ folder.

6. Run cd stable-diffusion-webui and then ./webui.sh to launch the Web UI. A Python virtual environment will be created and activated using venv. It will automatically download and install any missing dependencies. Once again, it might take a while depending on your internet connection speed.

7. When everything has been downloaded and installed successfully, you will see the message “Running on local URL: https://127.0.0.1:7860”.

8. Copy and paste the URL https://127.0.0.1:7860 in your preferred browser, or click on this link to go to the Web UI.

Updating Stable Diffusion Web UI

As all things in the world of Stable Diffusion, things move fast and break fast with the Stable Diffusion Web UI. While I recommend staying up-to-date with your software, I don’t suggest doing so with the Web UI.

Updating the Web UI might break compatibility with a certain extension that is critical to your image generation workflow. If things are working well enough, don’t update immediately. Give it some time for bugs and issues to be reported.

I’ve learnt the hard way, but I also install via git so it is easy for me to switch back to an earlier commit that works.

Updating on Windows with Nvidia GPU

If you installed using the Web UI Windows installer

• Double click the update.bat to update web UI and wait for the process to finish before closing the window.

• Once this is done, double click run.bat to launch Web UI.

If you installed manually

• Launch Command Prompt and navigate to the stable-diffusion-webui folder.

• Run git pull and wait for it to pull the latest files from GitHub.

• Once the process is complete, double click webui-user.bat to launch Web UI or run .\webui-user.bat in the command prompt.

Updating on macOS with Apple Silicon

• Open Terminal, run cd stable-diffusion-webui and then git pull and wait for it to update to the latest files.

• When the process is done, run ./webui.sh to launch Web UI.

See also

• What is Stable Diffusion

• How to optimise Stable Diffusion Web UI

• Troubleshooting Stable Diffusion Web UI

• How to use Stable Diffusion Web UI

I started working on Sakura Kasugano AI art as a tribute to my favourite Street Fighter character. When the *Street Fighter II_ was released and became the rage back in the 90s, I was partial to Ryu and Ken but I also enjoyed using other characters because their unique moves made them interesting to play.

Then, Sakura burst onto the scene when Street Fighter Alpha 2 was released, and boy was I smitten. She’s been stealing hearts ever since and is one of the undisputed fan favourites alongside Cammy and Chun-Li. In fact, she was voted the third most popular character in Capcom’s 2002 15th Street Fighter anniversary poll, after Chun-Li and Cammy.

I had just gotten into my serafuku phase, so the outfit was on point. Her character backstory also appealed to Ryu fans. She is a fan of Ryu and travelled to find her idol so that she could ask him to train her as a fighter. That iconic white headband was given to her by Ryu, and she later switched a red headband after he started wearing the red one Ken gave to him.

Now, what sets Sakura apart from the other characters is that she’s entirely self-taught. She picked up moves from watching Ryu in action and even developed her own unique style. The character story resonates with Ryu fans. Her moves are also similar to Ryu and Ken’s so that adds to her appeal.

Background

Due to their immense popularity, Marvel and DC character art was flooding the AI art scene. I didn’t want to work on yet another Supergirl or Wonder Woman. Being an otaku, the natural source for me to find inspiration was from anime and video games. I had created a commissioned art of Lucy Kushinada from Cyberpunk 2077:Edgerunners, so I skipped this obvious choice.

As much as I love the Gundam series, the characters are relatively more niche. I mean, how can any of the characters top Rei Ayanami or Asuka Langley Soryu? But I believe they also lose out to Motoko Kusanagi in global appeal. Despite all the controversies, people outside the otaku scene would still remember Scarlett Johansson’s portrayal of Motoko in the live action movie, or perhaps even because of the backlash.

I love the Final Fantasy franchise as much as Gundam. But everyone was doing Tifa Lockhart and Aerith Gainsborough, so I avoided them for a while. If you follow my Instagram, or other platforms where I post my art, you’d have seen that I’ve succumbed and worked on Tifa and Aerith, and the aforementioned Motoko.

Studio Ghibli characters are popular worldwide. I jumped on my favourite Miyazaki character, Princess Mononoke, or, as I prefer to call her, Mononoke-hime.

Then, I looked at fighting games and Street Fighter and King of Fighter were at the top of my list. I wrote previously about how my creation process for Mai Shiranui from the King of Fighters.

Creation

The challenging part of creating Sakura art is the gloves. Hands are notoriously difficult to produce accurately with AI. Hands wearing gloves? The AI starts getting extremely creative in how it generates the hands.

That said, these were done when I was just started learning Stable Diffusion. I’ve since picked up new techniques and tricks to optimise my workflow, allowing me to create better hands with less effort. Though, fingernails still remain hit-or-miss. Luckily, we just need fists with Sakura, right?

Tools used

• Stable Diffusion Web UI

• Adobe Photoshop (Beta)

• Huion Kamvas Pro 16

Downloads

The HD versions of these images available for download on Afdian. See the links below each image.

The 4K versions will be available to members on Patreon and Pixiv. Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when these and new content become available.

Sakura Kasugano sakura season

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Sakura Kasugano twist

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Sakura Kasugano headband

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Sakura Kasugano stance

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Sakura Kasugano park

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• Collect it on DeviantArt

Compared to images you see on social media and on the web, the key difference is due to my insistence on generating realistic images with a lot of details that are not easy to achieve with just prompting alone.

This is partly due to my personal goal of trying to see how close generative AI can get to realism, and also because I wanted to see how AI would impact my business since visual content generation is a big part of it.

I’m aware of this obsession with realism, and the need to drop this fixation to spend more time on improving my composition, but I digress.

Keep your feedback coming as your voice is invaluable in shaping the content I put out. My goal is to share what I’ve learnt so you can skip past the hundreds of hours I poured into research and trial-and-error. If you find this content helpful in any way, consider buying me a coffee on Ko-fi or join my Patreon to get my art in glorious high resolution.

Let’s dive into the captivating world of Stable Diffusion, where imagination and algorithms join forces to create art like never before.

Unraveling the Mystery: What is Stable Diffusion?

Stable Diffusion, in simple terms, is a remarkable technique that uses the power of artificial intelligence to create stunning and mesmerizing images. It simulates the process of colors or patterns spreading and blending harmoniously, resulting in visually captivating transformations.

What’s in a name? Well, it can aptly describe what something is but confuse beginners. We learnt about diffusion in chemistry class, so how is it related to artificial intelligence and machine learning? And why is it stable? What happens if it’s unstable? (You don’t want to know what Unstable Diffusion is. Yes, it’s a thing and it’s NSFW.)

The term “Stable” in the name comes from the startup Stability AI that developed Stable Diffusion model. “Diffusion” refers to it being a latent diffusion model.

Before I start, I’d like to make it clear that I’m not a machine learning expert. What I share here is my understanding of Stable Diffusion. While I do my best to provide accurate information and explanations, I’m also well aware that I might be completely wrong. Please feel free to correct me where I’m wrong. This is what learning in public is all about.

The Mechanics of Stable Diffusion

So, let’s get down to demystifying Stable Diffusion. You probably remember diffusion from chemistry class. If you don’t or aren’t familiar with it, I’ll try to explain it with an analogy.

Core Concept: Diffusion

Imagine you’re in a room filled with coloured smoke. At first, the colours might be clustered, forming pockets of intensity. Diffusion occurs when these clusters gradually spread and blend until the entire room is a harmonious mix of hues.

Stable Diffusion operates on a similar principle, but with data and features instead of colours. It’s like a digital artist’s brushstroke, smoothly transitioning and merging details to create a seamless and realistic image. This process ensures that every element in the artwork harmonises, resulting in a refined and captivating visual.

In machine learning, diffusion models learn the latent structure of a dataset by modelling how data points diffuse through the latent space, where items that resemble each other are positioned close to each other.

In computer vision, the neural network is trained to denoise blurred images with Gaussian noise by learning to reverse the diffusion process.

The Foundation: Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)

To understand Stable Diffusion, you need to get acquainted with Generative Adversarial Networks, or GANs for short.

Imagine there are two forces in the neural network – a generator and a discriminator. The generator’s job is to conjure up images with the aim of creating something that resembles reality. The discriminator then decides if the generated image is real or a computer-generated imitation.

This is where things get interesting. The generator learns from the discriminator’s feedback and is constantly improving its ability to create increasingly convincing images. Likewise, the discriminator is also getting better at determining whether the images are real. It is a never-ending dance to keep pushing towards increasingly higher performance to produce images that are very close to reality.

This is what makes GANs so powerful in AI image generation.

The Algorithmic Dance: GANs in Stable Diffusion

How does all this tie into Stable Diffusion? Imagine a Taichi master directing these two forces to achieve perfect balance and harmony. Stable Diffusion operates on the principle of probability by leveraging the inherent uncertainty and randomness in the generation process. It fine-tunes the interplay between the generator and discriminator in a GAN, enhancing its ability to generate images that are highly detailed and and realistic.

Through meticulous adjustments to the training process, we are able to train the algorithm to generate results with increasingly higher quality and more refined outputs.

The Potential of Stable Diffusion

Stable Diffusion is a transformative technique that represents a significant leap forward in generative art that has taken the world by storm.

Elevating Artistic Expression with AI

This technique opens up a world of possibilities for artists, photographers, and creatives. Stable Diffusion acts as a catalyst, enhancing the artist’s ability to express themselves through the synergy of human creativity and artificial intelligence.

It’s a tool that empowers us to explore uncharted territories, unlocking styles and concepts that were once beyond imagination. With Stable Diffusion, artists transcend the limitations of conventional art creation, venturing into a realm where imagination knows no bounds.

Beyond Basics: Exploring Concepts

What does that mean? You’ve probably seen some AI generated images and know that AI can generate images of a person or an object. It is able to imitate an artist’s style, painting medium, painting style. It can also reproduce photographs based to the focal length, lighting, or a specific type of look or a photographer’s style. It can even understand composition and placement of subjects. But there’s more to generative AI.

We can go beyond just a look or style. You can train concepts such as a pose or pattern. It is able to learn what different clothing look like. You can even train textures or materials. A stormtrooper from Star Wars wearing armour made of blue and white porcelain. Or a mage conjuring water or magic.

You can even create what we call world morphs. These are concepts that influence and transform everything that appears in the world, hence the name. From cyberpunk to steampunk that we are familiar with, all the way to fantasy worlds where candy, bones or mushrooms dominate the world.

Whatever concept you can come up with, you can attempt to train with Stable Diffusion. And this is just scratching the surface. You can merge concepts to create images generated based on concepts that are out of this world. The limit is your imagination.

Stable Diffusion is an open invitation to artists to break free from the confines of established styles and concepts. It’s a gateway to uncharted territories, where the exploration of diverse artistic expressions becomes not just possible, but exhilarating. Whether it’s blending genres, experimenting with new techniques, or venturing into unexplored thematic realms, Stable Diffusion empowers artists to bring their imaginations to life.

Bridging the Gap: The Human-AI Collaboration

If you’re an artist who is still adamant on boycotting generative AI for ethical reasons, I urge you to give it a try. You can maintain your stance while experimenting in private for research purposes. Stable Diffusion heralds a new era in artistic methodologies and I believe every artist should try to understand what a powerful tool it can be.

It redefines how artists approach their craft, introducing innovative techniques that fuse human intuition with the capabilities of generative AI. The result is a dynamic interplay that pushes the boundaries of what’s achievable, paving the way for novel creative processes and groundbreaking artistic endeavours, not dissimilar to how Photoshop and digital painting and photography has transformed the art world.

Stable Diffusion is not just a tool. It’s a creative partner that harmonises the human touch with the precision of AI. The results are collaborative works that transcend individual capabilities. The artist and the algorithm engage in a symbiotic dance, each contributing their strengths to craft art that is a testament to the potential of human-AI collaboration. Together, they bridge the gap between traditional artistic methods and the cutting-edge world of AI-generated art.

Tradition meets innovation as Stable Diffusion blurs the lines between conventional and digital art forms. It challenges preconceived notions about the boundaries of artistic expression, proving that the digital realm is a canvas as versatile and expressive as any traditional medium. This paradigm shift invites artists and audiences alike to embrace the limitless possibilities offered by technology in the pursuit of creative excellence.

AI-generated art is at this intersection that innovation flourishes, birthing a new breed of art that resonates with the digital age.

Comparing Stable Diffusion with Midjourney, & DALL-E

Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and DALL-E represent the vanguard of AI art generation, each with its distinctive approach and its own set of strengths and limitations. I’ve listed down the key pros and cons that a beginner should consider.

DALL-E

Pros:

• Easy to use. DALL-E has a simple interface with minimal learning curve, making it easy for beginners to learn.

• Hosted resources. It’s an online service so you leverage on OpenAI’s servers to do the processing.

Cons:

• Limited creative options. DALL-E’s simplicity means you rely on text prompting to generate images.

• Pay to use. You need to buy credits to generate images. Each prompt generates four images and uses one credit. It costs USD 15 for 115 credits, that’s around USD 0.13 per prompt or USD 0.0325 per image. It used to give out free monthly credits but that option is gone.

Midjourney

Pros:

• Amazing output. Midjourney is probably the most well-known among the three, or even all computer vision tools, for the highly artistic images it can generate with simple prompts.

• Many resources available. There are many Midjourney prompts out there for you to refer and use to generate images.

Cons:

• Pay to use. While DALL-E uses a credit system, Midjourney charges a monthly subscription that limits the number of generation or the duration of the generation. For example, the basic plan is limited to 200 generations per month, while the standard and pro plans get unlimited relaxed generations and 15 hours and 30 hours of fast generations respectively.

• Account required. You need to register for a Discord account to join Midjourney’s server to use it. Not a hassle if you already have an account. There are many Discord servers for AI communities, so it’s a good idea to get an account to access them.

• Not as easy as DALL-E. There is a slight learning curve in learning the commands for the Discord bot to generate images.

Stable Diffusion

Pros:

• Most powerful out of the three. With Stable Diffusion, you get better control over the output and there are tools to train custom models. Midjourney generates output that is arguably better, depending on your tastes, but this point becomes moot once you discover that you can train Stable Diffusion models to imitate the Midjourney style.

• You can run it locally. This let you customise how you run it and if you have a decent GPU, you can get generate outputs faster and at higher resolutions compared to the other two.

• Free! It’s free to use and open source.

• Large amount of resources. There is a large amount of custom models trained by others, ready for you to use. I current have over 2,000 models.

Cons:

• Most difficult out of the three. Stable Diffusion has a steeper learning curve since there are more options and tools available.

• Work needed to get it running. The installation process might be a hurdle, especially if you’re not used to working with Python. There are one-click installers, but things move so fast in the world of Stable Diffusion, so expect breakage and problems.

• Hardware requirements. You need a decent setup, including at least 6 to 8 GB of VRAM and enough storage space. How much space do you need? Models range from several MBs to 10 GBs. My 2,000 plus models take up almost 2 TBs of space.

Using Stable Diffusion: Tools and Resources

There are several ways to use Stable Diffusion. You can use image generation sites that run on Stable Diffusion, run Stable Diffusion on a cloud service, or install it locally.

Image generation sites

Use an online service if you prefer not to go through the hassle of setting up a local installation of Stable Diffusion, or if your machine is unable to run Stable Diffusion. The more popular ones are RunDiffusion, Mage Space and PixAI. I started out using NightCafe. And there’s also Dream Studio from Stability AI themselves.

Like Midjourney and DALL-E, these sites have to pay for the site development, hosting, and maintenance costs on top of the GPU processing cost to generate images for you. So they all require you either pay a subscription or buy credits.

These sites ensure that the models and different extensions work well so you can focus on your AI art generation without worrying about the technicalities.

Run an online instance

If you don’t want or are unable to run Stable Diffusion locally, there’s another option available for you. You can run Stable Diffusion online by using Google Colaboratory, or Colab for short. Google Colab allows you to run Python code on Google’s server using your Google Drive to store the models and images generated.

People were using Google Colab to run Stable Diffusion for free but Google has since changed their policies to require a Colab Pro subscription of USD 9.99 per month to run Stable Diffusion on Colab.

You can easily get started using the Fast Stable Diffusion Colab notebook shared by TheLastBen. The instructions are in the notebook and you can get your Stable Diffusion up and running pretty quickly.

Alternatives include Hugging Face spaces and Runpod.

When you use an online instance, you pay based on your GPU usage. The advantage of this over image generation sites is greater control over the Stable Diffusion instance. You can run Stable Diffusion wherever you are since it is a cloud instance.

Local installation

You can install Stable Diffusion locally on your computer. You need a GPU with at least 6 GB of VRAM to run Stable Diffusion 1.5 and 2.1, and at least 8 GB of VRAM to run Stable Diffusion XL.

Stable Diffusion is available on GitHub. However, you will need to run it using a graphical user interface if you don’t want to operate it via a command prompt.

The most popular GUI is Stable Diffusion Web UI by AUTOMATIC1111. It is often referred to as the Automatic1111 Web UI or A1111. This is what I use for my AI image generation. It is very well-supported and I’ve witnessed it growing by leaps and bounds from version 1.4 to the current 1.6.

There is a popular fork by vladmandic called SD.Next that started out adding improvements to the Automatic1111 WebUI but has since diverged so much that it is considered a standalone GUI for Stable Diffusion. It is sometimes referred to as Vlad’s Automatic.

Some, especially power users, swear by ComfyUI. It is another GUI that takes a modular approach to operating Stable Diffusion, allowing you to create advanced pipelines for your workflows. The complex nature of ComfyUI means that it has a steeper learning curve compared to A1111, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a very powerful tool.

Training tool

You can train models with Automatic1111 Web UI. For better control over the training setup and parameters, there’s Kohya’s Stable Diffusion training scripts. Like the A1111, you need a GUI to make operating it easier. The GUI for Kohya’s scripts is Kohya’s GUI by bmaltais, more commonly referred to as kohya_ss.

Resources

The two largest repositories for Stable Diffusion models are Civitai and Hugging Face.

Besides hosting models, Civitai also showcases user generated output from the models and has a discussion and review system to help the community gauge the quality of the models.

Hugging Face is the GitHub of machine learning. You find more than just Stable Diffusion models on the site. There are also other resources for computer vision, natural language processing, audio, and others.

Civitai is dedicated to Stable Diffusion and has a better features for the community. Due to Civitai’s popularity driving its rapid growth, the site was very unstable, though it has since improved vastly. So many creators upload their files on Hugging Face as a backup.

Start your Stable Diffusion journey

Stable Diffusion is a powerful tool. It is the most powerful of out the options available as I mentioned above. Of course, there are prolific AI artists who combine Midjourney and Stable Diffusion to produce amazing artwork. However, I would suggest focusing on mastering one tool first if you’re just getting started in AI art.

I hope this overview gives a good introduction to Stable Diffusion and demystifies AI image generation. Share this article the next time someone asks, “What is Stable Diffusion?”

I’ll be sharing guides on how I use Stable Diffusion to generate art and answer some of the common questions I get to help you get started in computer vision. Pateron members get a peek at the behind-the-scenes of how certain pieces are made.

Ready to stay updated with the latest developments in Stable Diffusion, AI image generation, and explore exciting computer vision techniques? Subscribe to my newsletter where I share my journey and learnings.

Remember, with Stable Diffusion, the canvas becomes your playground, and the possibilities are limitless!

Many people have been asking about how I create my AI art, so I decide to share about my journey in AI art, and what I learnt along the way.

How it all started, and stopped

My dad is an oil painter, and I grew up exposed to art at a young age. I started drawing at two and I’ve always had an interest in creating art. I generated my first computational graphics artwork using Apophysis and Ultra Fractal back in 2004, before the current crop of generative AI tools came into existence.

I first dabbled in generative AI art in June 2022 when I tried out NovelAI. As someone who dabbles in creative writing and text role playing, I was intrigued by a text-generation platform that allowed AI-assisted storytelling. However, I thought it was just a novelty and was turned off by the subscription cost and lost interest in it.

Despite that, NovelAI was still on my radar and when it launched the text-to-image generation feature in October 2022, I gave it a try. To have a better idea of the development of AI image generation, I also experimented with OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 that had just gotten rid of its waitlist, the Midjourney beta that had just launched, and NightCafe that ran Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion.

Back then, I had no idea what prompt engineering was and the images I generated were so horrible that I didn’t save a copy of them. I wish I did so I could show them here. If you saw those outputs, you would understand why I concluded that AI image generation was not ready for the mainstream.

ChatGPT, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion

Then, OpenAI launched ChatGPT at the end of November 2022, and it blew up in December and took the world by storm in January.

ChatGPT

Being a tech geek working on content creation, it was inevitable that I jumped on the ChatGPT bandwagon early on. I won’t go into much details on ChatGPT since it’s a separate topic. In short, besides using ChatGPT to help generate content, I was using it to brainstorm ideas, structure strategies and plans, and even wrote a couple of WordPress plugins.

All these were done through giving the right instructions through prompt engineering, the art of structuring instructions to get the generative AI model to perform tasks as intended. It was frustrating initially, having to fight ChatGPT to get the desired outcome, but very rewarding once you get the hang of it.

It was like having an AI assistant you could rely on, when it didn’t hallucinate.

Midjourney

While ChatGPT was the most talked-about thing in December 2022, becoming the fastest-growing consumer software in history by gaining over 100 million users within a month, another software was also taking the creative industry by storm – Midjourney.

Visual artists and content creators were creating artwork with Midjourney. Images flooded all my social media feeds. People were gushing over what Midjourney is able to generate. On the other end of the spectrum, people were also protesting as loudly about the ethical issues, which I’ll briefly touch on in a bit.

I gave Midjourney another go, tapping on my prompt engineering abilities. This gave results that were a lot better than what I generated half a year ago.

Stable Diffusion

This rekindled my interest in generative AI art. I went around trying the different cloud platforms before I decided to give running a Stable Diffusion instance a go. First, I tried the Stable Diffusion macOS apps Draw Things and DiffusionBee, but I found them lacking in a lot of ways, especially after I studied what was possible with Stable Diffusion.

I managed to install Stable Diffusion Web UI on my M1 Max Macbook, and that started me down my generative AI art journey as I discovered tricks to constantly improve my image generation output. However, it isn’t optimised for the Mac and produced very slow generation. I get generation speeds of around 20 seconds per iteration for a simple 512x512 image using the Euler sampler. Compare this to around 5 iterations per second on my PC.

There’s the Stable Diffusion optimisation for Core ML on macOS to leverage on the Apple Neural Engine, but it doesn’t perform as well as a PC with a decent Nvidia GPU. It also required converting the Stable Diffusion models from PyTorch to Core ML. That is quite a pain especially when I have over a thousand models.

To speed up my generation workflow, I built a cheap PC to run Stable Diffusion Web UI. There are many of these on Taobao targeting the AIGC (AI Generative Content) market. AIGC is huge in China and continues to grow rapidly. I run the Web UI on my local network so I can work on it from a browser on my Macbook.

There are many techniques that I learnt to help me improve my generative AI art. With my prior knowledge in photography, Photoshop image manipulation, art direction, and Python, I was able to grasp the nuances of Stable Diffusion quickly and find ways to hack my workflows.

I plan to share as I grow and develop a Learn In Public series. If you’re interested to follow my journey, sign up for my newsletter!

Many people have also asked about workshops and lessons. I hear you and watch this space to be the first to know if that happens.

AI Controversies

There are many concerns over generative AI images. The two major ones I come across most often are training of AI models without artists’ consent, and the potential for abuse and misuse.

I held off from diving into creating generative AI art because I wanted to learn more about the ethical issues. As always, I have strong opinions, weakly held. My views are constantly changing as I gain more knowledge to make a better judgement.

Abuse and misuse

The latter is the lowering of the bar to abuse by bad actors. This includes creation of graphic and sensitive content, and spreading misinformation through fake images.

This is not something new that generative AI introduced. Photo manipulation has been around since the early 19th century, and deepfakes have been around for a few years. Yet, little has been done to deal with such deception and hoax.

Generative AI makes it a lot easier to produce a convincing fake image. And you can batch produce images at scale. Something needs to be done to make viewers know that the image is AI-generated and not real. While I don’t think there is any way to stop criminals from creating harmful content, there should be at least some form of safeguard.

Plagiarism

The other major source of outrage from those who oppose AI image generation is the unauthorised use of artists’ work to train the AI models. As an artist myself, I stand against any attempt to infringe upon the copyright of a creator.

However, once I understood how the diffusion models work, I realised that the choice to plagiarise artwork lies in the hands of the person creating the image, not the AI model.

Can you choose to take an exact copy of a photo that another photographer took? You can, but it makes you look bad. Can you imitate your favourite photographer’s style in the process of finding your own style? You can, and many amateur photographers do that while we attempt to discover our own style. Likewise for painting.

Just because these occur doesn’t mean that we should have an outright ban or boycott of AI image generation. People take images with their smartphones. And then there are those who engage in illegal photography such as up-skirt and other nonconsensual images. Should they be allowed to take such photos? No. Do these warrant a ban on smartphone cameras? No, because it won’t solve the problem and a ban would deprive people of the ability to take legit photos.

Model training

If your concern is infringement of copyright, I’m sure you won’t create an image that replicates another artist’s style even if the model allows it. You can take this one step further by choosing to use models that are trained ethically, meaning they use a training set sourced from images that consent to being used for training AI or from images in the public domain.

Ethically-trained models

A good model creator documents how they trained their models. This includes how they source their training data or the models used to create merged models. By keeping this transparent, it allows others who iterate on these models to train or fine-tune new models to make an informed decision.

Of course, there will be those who choose to train their models using unethical or even illegal training data sources. I think that these will remain as prevalent as the piracy of software, films, and books.

Train your own style

Instead of viewing AI as a threat, I believe it is important to learn how to use it properly to empower yourself.

While the debate over the ethical issues of generative AI art continues, some artists have already jumped on the technical advantages of generative AI and started training models based on their own photography or art style. By doing so, they are then able to generate images with their signature style using AI and experiment with concepts.

My generative AI art

To see more of my AI art, check out the overview page and follow me on the various platforms.

Check out the Mai Shiranui series.

Background

After I create the series on Sakura Kusagano from street fighters, I found myself choosing between another Street Fighter Chun Li or Mai Shiranui as the next photorealistic challenge. I went with Mai without hesitation.

There are a lot of great anime, illustration, and CG artwork of Mai, both official and fan-made, created over the past few decades. She is also a very popular cosplay character, though I have yet to come across a cosplay that matches how I visualise her. So she is the perfect subject for me to try and create a photorealistic live action art piece.

Mai is my favourite character in SNK games and it’s a tough choice between her and Sakura in SNK vs Capcom. More importantly, she is my favourite mage in Honor of Kings, even though I play better with other mages like Angela, Wang Zhaojun, Zhuge Liang, and Zhou Yu. Despite her low survivability and high difficulty, she is deadly when you time the attacks right.

Creation

Her notoriously exaggerated figure makes her a tough character to cosplay. It was also a challenge to make her look real while still sticking to how she is portrayed in the games.

If you have worked on AI art, you will know how difficult hands are. The folding fan and hand took hours to do the pose I want. I finally got the pose I wanted through a combination of Photoshop Beta’s Generative Fill and ControlNet depth map.

There are those who generate AI art through prompt engineering. This often means that it is all down to gacha, aka spray and pray. They go with a rough concept and cherry pick the output that is close to what they have in mind.

I use a different workflow in Stable Diffusion where I have an image in mind and I work towards that using the different tools. This is also why I’m unable to just tell you what models I used and give you the prompt. I used several different checkpoints, LoRAs and LyCORIS.

Tools used

• Stable Diffusion Web UI

• Adobe Photoshop (Beta)

• Huion Kamvas Pro 16

Downloads

Since I started posting the first piece on Xiaohongshu(1, 2) and Instagram (1, 2), I’ve been flooded with requests for the artwork and custom work. The HD versions of these images available for download on Afdian. See the links below each image.

The 4K versions will be available to members on Ko-Fi and Patreon and Pixiv Fanbox. Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when these and new content become available.

Update: Pixiv Fanbox has banned AI generated content, so I’ve removed the links.

Mai Shiranui sakura garden

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Mai Shiranui zen garden

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Mai Shiranui poolside

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Mai Shiranui street shopping

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Mai Shiranui fire dance

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Mai Shiranui welcome home

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Mai Shiranui Arashiyama

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Mai Shiranui dojo dance

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Mai Shiranui shopping date

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Mai Shiranui temple duel

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Mai Shiranui garden duel

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Mai Shiranui street

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Mai Shiranui good morning

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Mai Shiranui landing

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Mai Shiranui ponders

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We are born with natural self-confidence. Just take a look at toddlers. They do what they want and say what they think. They are very comfortable with expressing themselves.

Where does confidence come from?

Before we look at how we lose our self-confidence, let’s look at where it comes from.

To quote Chris Do, “We only talk about self-confidence. Not other-confidence.”

Confidence comes from ourselves. It is not given to us by others. It exists within us but ends up being eroded or drained by external factors or our own doing.

How do we lose our self-confidence?

We start to lose our natural self-confidence when we go through education. We were told what to do and what not to do. Schools force children to conform to rules. Society needs people who obey orders and abide by laws.

Humility is a virtue. Don’t be arrogant. Don’t be cocky. That erodes your self-confidence.

Being bold is different from being arrogant. It is important to have courage, but don’t let your pride swell up.

Nowadays, there are two major toxic ways that warps how we look at ourselves and drains our self-esteem.

Social media

The biggest culprit in the modern society is social media. Social media feeds on your need to grow your self-esteem. You look and compare yourself with the lives of others. You see the number of likes and followers they have.

Social media quantifies success through the number of likes, followers or views. If you post something and it doesn’t garner as many likes, it means the post isn’t as good. Or you aren’t as interesting or fun as a person.

What social media doesn’t show is the amount of hard work it took to attain the success. Someone shared the same post as you but they get several times more likes than you. In some cases, it is because the platform showed their posts first. It has nothing to do with you, but you end up taking it personally.

Why would the platform show their posts first? Perhaps they engage others on social media more often. Perhaps they engage others offline regularly, and thus they get more online interactions. All these aren’t quantified.

Reduce the consumption of content that drains your self-esteem. Remind yourself that you are competing with the platform’s algorithm, not with your friends.

Not convinced that social media has an impact on your self-confidence? Delete your social media from your phones and stop using them for a month completely. Gauge how your self-esteem changes during that period of time.

Negative people

Social media drains your self-esteem. There are also offline ways of draining your self-confidence. Negative people can sap your energies and self-confidence. They can have a profound impact on how you view yourself.

They can make you feel small, unimportant, and unworthy. They do this by being critical, judgemental, and pessimistic. Their negativity would often rub off on you and make you depressed. You start to internalise their gloomy outlook and beliefs, and you start to doubt yourself and your abilities.

Learn to identify such individuals and cut them out of your life. Life is too short to have to deal with people who don’t add any value to your life. You owe them nothing.

Haters appear when you are successful in ways that rubs their self-esteem wrongly. It doesn’t mean that they are low on self-esteem. Rather, they just dislike the way you do things and you are so good at it that they feel threatened by you.

Use your haters as an indication of your success.

Regain your natural self-confidence

As I mentioned at the start of the article, your self-confidence take a hit as you grow up. Some of us lose it completely. It is a trait we are born with but often lose due to various sources, such as education, society, and social media.

Find your inner toddler and rediscover your natural self-confidence. By understanding and managing what that drain our self-esteem, you can cultivate a lifestyle that helps you to regain your confidence.

Block-first approach

Notion adopts a block-first approach. Every item of information in Notion is a block, be it text, images, databases, or embedded media such as websites, tweets, and videos. This makes it intuitive and flexible to rearrange information. You just need to drag the blocks around. You can’t do this in an app with a text-based approach.

Since each block is a standalone piece of information, you link to an individual block. This allows you to link to a specific piece of information, or even embed it in another note where it will be synced across all notes.

You also see this block-first approach in Logseq, though that is a totally different paradigm on its own. Logseq is powerful and I have seen many rave reviews from power users who would benefit from its features. But Notion is more than enough for the average user.

Databases instead of tables

Most note-taking apps offer simple tables to organise information in a visual way. The Notion paradigm, however, takes a database approach. Instead of just a simple table, Notion’s database lets you store, organise, and retrieve information in a structured manner.

Each entry is referred to as a record. You can assign properties to your records that you can then use to search and sort your data. This allows you to present the data through different database views to make it easier to view, manage and organise the data.

Database views

Notion has six types of views you can choose from. Each of them presents your information in a different way optimised for specific purposes.

• Table view – Displays the database as a table, similar to an Excel sheet, where each record is a row and each property a column.

• List view – Displays the database as a list, with each record as a list item. This is useful for a to-do list, though I prefer to view my to-dos in table view

• Board view – Displays the database as a board with cards, where each record is a card. You can turn this into a kanban to track progress by grouping via a progress status property.

• Gallery view – Displays the database as a gallery of images, where each record is represented by its cover image or an image in its body. This is useful to present a portfolio.

• Calendar view – Displays the database as a calendar, where each record is an event in the calendar. This is useful for scheduling or tracking tasks. You can easily move the records across the calendar to change their date property.

• Timeline view – Displays the database as as a Gantt chart, where each record as a task. This is useful for tracking progress and deadlines.

You can then sort and filter the database by specific properties. This empowers you to create views that provides you zoom into a particular view that lets you understand the status of things or make decisions quickly.

For example, I have a content management database with different views for different parts of the process. I use the board view to track progress of the content creation based on the status property. It lets me see how many drafts are pending editing or waiting for assets.

I use the calendar view to track the publish schedule. By filtering for only scheduled posts, I can see how many post are ready and when they will be published.

Databases are not spreadsheets

It is important not to confuse databases as spreadsheets. This is another Notion paradigm to adapt to. If you’re used to working with Excel or Google Sheets, you might expect to be able to easily calculate down columns when in table view.

Database formulas only work within each record, or across the row in the table view. This means that your formulas can only include properties within a record. They cannot calculate for the same property across different records.

This could potentially change in the future, but understanding this might help you to rethink how you want to structure your information and databases.

Embracing the Notion paradigm

Notion is more than just a note-taking app. It’s a powerful tool that can transform the way you work and organise your life. However, many users struggle to fit Notion into their workflows and end up abandoning the app. I shared about my experience and I discovered that the key to unlocking Notion’s benefits is to understand Notion’s approach.

Trying to fit your workflow in it creates more friction and disruption. Instead, find ways to shape it to fit your workflow. Adopting the Notion paradigm means not just understanding the app’s unique features and capabilities, but also certain ways they chose to implement features and functions.

Sign up for Notion and Notion AI

If you haven’t tried Notion, give it a spin and it might just transform your life. Even more so now that Notion AI is placing an AI assistant right within Notion itself. I’m happy to help if you have any trouble getting started. Contact me here or on Twitter.

Sign up for Notion via my referral link to support me in creating more content.

Matt and I created many workflows that help us improve our work processes. We are so passionate about Notion that we are both Notion Certified experts, each with the Essentials and Settings & Sharing badges.

Check out our templates:

• Creator Kit

• Meeting Minutes

It was only when I discovered how to shape Notion to fit my workflow and not create a workflow to follow that Notion finally stuck in my daily routine.

The key to unlocking the benefits of Notion is to understand how to fit Notion in your workflow to boost productivity.

Once I figured out how to fit into my workflow, the app became a key part of my daily life and work. As an active member of the Notion community, I see some users new to note-taking apps or moving to Notion struggling to fit Notion into their workflows. They are going through the same phase as I did.

Unimpressed by Notion

When Notion 2.0 was released in 2018 on ProductHunt, I got it immediately as I happened to be looking for a new note-taking app again. The app felt sluggish compared to the competition that I’ve tried. So I moved on to try other apps.

I was using Ulysses as my full time writing app then. I also kept a personal wiki on TiddlyWiki and was dabbling with Scrivener, iAWriter, Marked, Simplenote, Bear, and other writing apps. I have yet to find a good solution that works, hence the constant hunt for a better solution.

There were some who embraced Notion despite its flaws and grew with the app. I was well aware of Notion’s popularity and rave reviews. These made me keep Notion on my radar and I tried using it every few months for the next few years. Yet, I would be impressed by the features every time but somehow end up being reminded of why I decided not to adopt it.

Shifting my approach to Notion

Then, I decided to give Notion another go in August 2022 after seeing my business partners Giovanni and Matt adopting Notion in their workflows.

Once again, using Notion reminded me of why I ended up ditching it each time I’ve tried it. However, the difference this time is that I adopted Notion’s paradigm and added it to my workflow. Instead of trying to shift to Notion, I shifted my approach to Notion.

Notion is not just a note-taking app. It is more than that. With the right setup, you can create a whole system for your life and workflow. Since it has features that makes it more powerful than a note-taking app, you might find that certain features or ways things are done are not as ideal as a note-taking app.

I write my notes in Bear using Markdown. This Markdown-based text-first approach is perfect for how I build my second brain with my personal knowledge management (PKM) system. I’m happy with Bear and exciting for the upcoming Bear 2 launch. I’ve been testing the Bear 2 Beta and I love it. More about that in other post.

Trying to get myself to switch from Bear is a tall ask, and not a practical undertaking. Remember, we want to use these tools to help us, not to create more work and disruption.

Instead of trying to change my processes to work in Notion, I found ways to use Notion to empower my workflows. Rather than moving everything into Notion, I identified specific use cases where Notion’s features would boost my productivity and provide myself and my team with better organisation.

How Notion transformed my work processes

I use Notion for collaborative work. My PKM and writing still remain in Bear. I have a few shared work spaces to manage content calendars and project task trackers with team members.

My team uses Basecamp for project and task management, and Google Sheets for our content management. Basecamp is a great team management software, but there are some use cases where a simpler workflow is more than enough, and that is where Notion has been very useful.

Content management

Using Google Sheets for content management is a rather crude way of presenting the data in a table and calendar view via a spreadsheet. Once I started fiddling with Notion’s database, I knew that it was a perfect for our content management workflow. Check out my article on Notion to learn more about Notion’s databases.

There are several aspects to my content management workflow that is applied for both my personal and team content creation process. There are the research, creation, scheduling, and review phases.

In the research phase, I use a simple Notion database to put down content ideas and references. This is separate from the main database where I create, schedule, and track each content.

When I start crafting the content, I move to the main content database. Notion AI is extremely helpful in suggesting ideas and points to cover. I also use it to suggest edits of the drafts to help me identify areas that needs strengthening.

I use several database views for the content database. I have a board view of the content database to track progress, a calendar view to track publish schedule, and a table view for metrics analysis.

Task management

For task management, I use our custom project template to record what we discussed in our meetings and the decisions made in each meeting for future reference. Action points become to-do tasks that we can then set reminder notifications.

Task tracking uses either the board view for kanban progress overview, or timeline view for Gantt chart view when I also want to understand how far we are from the deadlines.

Habit tracking

I also created my personal habit tracker. I track my habits with a physical habit tracker book, but having my tracker on my phone makes it easier for me to key in my entries. There are many habit tracking apps out there but none of them provide a clear overview the way my habit tracker book does. I was able to recreate the style in Notion.

Instead of trying to adapt to a habit tracking style or workflow, I managed to fit Notion into my existing workflow. Using Notion also allows me to easily split my habits into different views to give me a better look at my personal, work, and content creation routines.

Sleep tracking

My sleep tracker is part of my habit tracker. It uses a simple formula to calculate the numbers of hours I sleep based on my sleeping and waking times.

The Apple Watch tracks sleep, but manually keying in the times have made me more conscious of the times I go to bed and wake up. When you get to see your daily sleeping and waking times, it allows you to see the trend and take action to adjust where necessary.

My goal for the year is to join the 5AM Club. I have to start by sleep earlier and wake up earlier.

Notion AI

I got my access to the Notion AI alpha testing recently. While the results it delivers so far pales in comparison to ChatGPT, there are some advantages of being able to tap on AI within Notion itself. I can get Notion AI to work on a particular block of text. It can also polish existing writing.

By having the article in Notion, the AI is able to consider everything on the page when it generates new content or rewrites existing content.

If you’re lazy to create your own database, you can also tell Notion AI with what you need and have Notion AI create the database for you. Though this seems to be a hit and miss depending on how well you structure your prompt.

Sign up for Notion and Notion AI

If you haven’t tried Notion, give it a spin and it might just transform your life. Even more so now that Notion AI is placing an AI assistant right within Notion itself. I’ll be glad to help if you have trouble getting into Notion. Don’t hesitate to reach out here or on Twitter.

Sign up for Notion via my referral link to support me in creating more content.

Sharing my Notion templates & expertise to help others

I love tinkering. Working on Notion layouts brings me back to my days of creating layouts for Geocities and Blogspot. This seems to be the trend where a lot of the aesthetic layouts remind me of Blogger and MySpace designs.

However, Notion customisation goes deeper than just the looks. Matt and I created many workflows that help us improve our work processes. We are so passionate about Notion that we are both Notion Certified experts, each with the Essentials and Settings & Sharing badges.

When we showed our workflows to some friends, they were eager to try our approach. This prompted us to share workflows to help others, as well as create workflows for specific use cases. We are also doing Notion consulting to help you create custom workflows to enhance your personal and team work.

If you’re interested in learning more, please get in touch here or on Twitter to discuss how we can help you create the perfect workflow for your needs.

Check out some of our templates:

• Creator Kit

• Meeting Minutes

What is ikigai? Ikigai (生き甲斐) is a Japanese philosophy of the purpose of being.

Do you find yourself feeling fulfilled and happy with the work that you do? You probably have found your ikigai. Conversely, if you feel empty or frustrated with your career, it might mean you have yet to find your ikigai.

Ikigai is not restricted to just work and career. It could also be a hobby or passion project. However, you might not enjoy as much fulfilment if you have to work to make a living in order to pursue such passions. I will explain more later in the article.

Definition of ikgai

“Iki” (生き) means life. “Kai” (甲斐) means worth. Ikigai is what makes your life worth living. It is a lifestyle intrinsic to the Japanese that they live it with instinct and without much chest-beating.

Wikipedia refers it to a person’s sense of purpose or reason for living. Neurocsientist Ken Mogi referred to it in his book Awakening Your Ikigai as a reason to get up in the morning or waking up to joy.

When you have found your ikigai, you wake up every day feeling energised to do the work because the work you do is aligned with your purpose of being. You live for the work you do and doing it gives you happiness and a sense of fulfilment.

Note that happiness does not refer to fleeting pleasure, but more of a satisfaction of having overcome a challenge.

Where did ikigai come from?

Ikigai dates back to the Heian period between 794 to 1185. This ancient Japanese philosophy plays a major role in Okinawan culture. The southern Japanese island of Okinawa has the highest proportion of centenarians.

There have been suggestions linking ikigai to Okinawan’s longevity given that they have less desire to retire and continue working on their ikigai for as long as they remain healthy.

Of course, other factors such as the community and diet contribute to this unusual longevity. Dan Buettner wrote in Blue Zones: Lessons on Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest about how the the same concept exists among people living long lives in places such as Sardinia and Nicoya Peninsula.

Generation feeling unfulfilled

Nowadays, we see a lot of people feeling depressed and losing motivation to drive them onwards. This trend stands out in China where the youths are “lying flat” and “letting it rot” as they become ambivalent about their lives and adopt a laid back attitude towards their careers.

I believe the situation is due to them pursuing degrees that would land them jobs upon graduation. And after graduation, they secure jobs that lets them get by but leave them feel unfulfilled.

This is not just isolated to Chinese youths, but Generation Z all over the world. They live in a time where they have to struggle relatively less than their parents. Without having to worry about putting food on the table or finding money to pay the bills, they lack the drive to push them to work hard.

Of course, I’m speaking in general terms. There are outliers who still need to struggle and those who have found their ikigai. Both of these groups possess the motivation to keep them going.

Why is ikigai important?

Your ikigai makes you wake up every day ready for the challenge for the day, and empowers you overcome the challenges and keep going. The theory among researchers is that ikigai can potentially make you live longer with a purpose and direction that would make it a life well lived.

Your ikigai is what drives you. It gives purpose to what you do, and that brings about motivation and satisfaction. It also steels you with the persistence and resolve to power through the downs and overcome obstacles you’ll inevitably face.

Have you noticed that some work you do feel boring and meaningless? And there are those that you meet with eagerness and dive into while others are unable to see the meaning in them?

When you work on your ikigai, you are in the zone or in the flow. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says that when we are in the flow, we produce our best work to do something difficult but worthwhile.

How to find your ikigai?

Your ikigai is something that encompasses is:

• What you love,

• What you are good at,

• What people would pay you for,

• Or what the world needs.

Your ikigai is the sweet spot that sits in the overlap of these four qualities.

When it is missing one quality, you will find that what you’re doing seems to fall short in some way.

• When it is not what you love to do, you will be comfortable but feel empty.

• When it is not what you are good at, you will be excited but feel uncertain.

• When it it not what people would pay for, you will be delighted but feel poor.

• When it is not what the world needs, you will be satisfied but feel useless.

When you’re missing more than two quality, you end up with:

• A passion that you love and are good at, but people don’t need and won’t pay for.

• A mission that you love and is what the world needs, but you are not good at and won’t get paid for.

• A vocation that is in demand and people would pay for, but is neither what you love nor what you’re good at.

• A profession that is what you’re good at and what people would pay for, but you don’t love and might not necessarily be what the world needs.

Guide to finding your ikigai

The process to find your ikigai is takes some time. Don’t expect to suddenly know what your ikigai is. You need to reflect upon and observe yourself to discover what you find true meaning in.

Be easy on yourself and give yourself time to discover what are the options that could be your ikigai.

We start with an outside-in approach to find ideas that are our potential ikigai. Then we flip things around and use an inside-out approach to understand how feasible each idea is.

Outside-In

To find your ikigai, you list down at least five things for each of these qualities:

• What you love.

• What you are good at.

• What people would pay for.

• What the world needs.

Idea brainstorming

Once you’re done with the lists, you start to find overlaps. Using the overlaps, you think of ideas that could be your ikigai. For example, you love drawing comics in a topic that people would want to read and be willing pay for. This could be one idea.

Come up with as many ideas as you can. You don’t need to do this all in one sitting. It is important to think and take the time to brainstorm.

Inside-Out

Once you have the ideas, you score them for each of the following questions out of a scale of 10:

• How much do you love it?

• How good are you at it?

• What is the relative the income potential compared to the other ideas?

• Is it in demand?

Add up the scores for each idea and we will look at how to identify your ikigai.

Identifying your ikigai

Your potential ikigai can be ideas with high total scores. However, it might not necessarily have the highest score. It can also be ideas with a good balance across four columns. This means that it has a good spread across the four values instead of being skewed.

The process might seem a bit complicated. Don’t worry if you feel overwhelmed. It is normal. Allow your mind to digest the questions and think them over.

Ikigai Notion template

Some people work well with pen and paper. Others prefer using software such as note-taking apps. Being the geeks we are, Matt and I created a free ikigai template for Notion. It is easy to fill up and walks you through the process to identify your ikigai.

Conclusion

Finding your ikigai doesn’t mean you will be able to dive into it right away. The key is focus on the details and take small actions that would bring you closer to your ikigai.

Take note of the scores you gave. You might want to ask yourself how you can make small changes that would boost your score for a particular question for an idea you prefer. For example, taking classes to become better at something. Or refining the idea so that the output has more demand or income potential.

You will know when you’re ready to embrace it and pursue your purpose of being. Remember that you are not stuck to what you chose. You will have a better sense of what the work entails and your scores for the idea might change so much that it no longer makes sense as an ikigai option.

At least you tried and confirmed that it is not for you. Try something else. Bear in mind that even if ikigai is your purpose of being, there might be some aspects or certain tasks that you won’t enjoy. You would have to either accept them or find ways to outsource them so you can focus on what you love.

If you have any questions on how to use the template or just want some guidance or discussion on the process of finding your ikigai, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Diary to journal

Journalling stems from my teenage years of writing a diary. I wrote to practice writing and to pen my thoughts.

When I started junior college, I outgrew my diary. It was only in 2011 that I started to write a journal again. This was borne not from a desire to keep a journal, but from my obsession with fountain pens and notebooks.

One of the items on my bucket list was to pick up cursive writing. So I started practicing daily. After practicing the individual letters for a few weeks, it was time to put them together and write actual words. What better to do so than to write a journal?

It became a way for me to reflect upon my days. Writing longhand is a mindful process where I sit with my thoughts and pen them down. My thoughts could not run faster than my hand. At the same time, the words just keep flowing as my thoughts pour out.

When I leapt into entrepreneurship, I had less time for journalling. I no longer had an hour to sit down with my thoughts and my notebook. And even when I did, my thoughts were on the business.

Day One

I maintained a journal in the Day One app where I would reflect upon the day and note down significant events, thoughts, the mood I was in, and whether I felt energised or drained.

However, Day One evolved into something more like a personal feed. It was my personal Facebook and Instagram feed with myself as the only audience. Instead of sharing snippets of my life in public, I post them in Day One for myself to look back upon weeks or months later.

Bullet journal

You might be familiar with the bullet journal method created by Ryder Carroll. After reading his book The Bullet Journal Method, I gave it a try but adapted it to suit my system.

It helped me shift my journalling mindset from writing in prose to jotting down bullet points. By capturing my key thoughts in bullet points, I am able to record the thoughts when they appear in my head.

It might seem like a trivial act, but I have lost count of the number of times fleeting thoughts escape me before I can commit them to memory. I don’t trust my memory anymore. I prefer to write things down in my personal vault in Bear Notes that acts as a second brain that never forgets. Unless I fail to backup my notes.

I find that by putting down a few words in bullet points, I somehow unlock the floodgates and words start pouring into paragraphs. Of course, there are times when the words fail to flow, but at least the key ideas and points have been recorded for me to come back and expand upon later on.

Daily log

Since I can capture my thoughts so easily, I started recording them throughout the day. I don’t try to catch every thought and idea that appear in my mind. I write down what matters.

Besides my thoughts, I also note down content that I consume. When I come across content that I resonate with, or want to research more on, I would write down the key information that caught my eye, and link to the website, podcast or video for future reference.

This helps me to find information that I might want to retrieve later on. Before I started doing this, I would often be talking to someone about something I saw and want to share the source with them. Only to realise that I can’t remember the name or title and end up not being able to find the information. Now I just need to search Bear Notes and I can easily retrieve the information.

By noting down what I want to research instead of dropping what I’m doing to search for something, I ensure that I remember what I want to look up while not allowing distraction to interrupt whatever task I have on hand.

Linked notes

I watched Andy Matuschak’s video on how he takes notes and noticed how he would turn his bullet points into standalone notes when they become too long to be just a point.

Since then, I’ve been doing the same as well. When my bullet points grow to a certain size that they don’t make sense to be just bullet points, I would create a new note for them. For example, writing this blog post spurred me to delve more into fountain pens. Instead of retaining what I wrote about fountain pens in this article, I broke it off into its own note where it turned into an article on its own.

This works for thoughts that I take down too. Rather than have a long series of bullet points about a certain sub-topic, I put them into a new note where the sub-topic becomes a topic of its own. I just link to the new note from the original note.

By doing so, each note become a topic of its own that other notes can link to. This is invaluable to both my daily logging and personal knowledge manager systems.

Snapshot of my day

My daily logging functions as a snapshot of each day. It tracks my thoughts and helps me to maintain a clear perspective of my direction and how it might have changed subconsciously.

By reviewing my daily logs or journal entries, I am able to understand if I have maintained the course I set out to achieve, or if I have deviated so much that course correction is due.

Getting iamjenxi.com

I got my first personal domain iamjenxi.com back in 2002.

When blogging became popular at the start of the 2000s and I dived into it as it became popular among my friends. Coming from building sites on GeoCities and AngelFire, it was easy for me to get the hang of it.

I started off on Blogspot like most of my friends before I dabbled with WordPress.com and Tumblr. After that, I started to self-host my blog, first with Movable Type before adopting WordPress. Movable Type is by Six Apart, who also runs TypePad, Vox, and LiveJournal. WordPress celebrated its nineteenth birthday earlier this year.

When I self-hosted my blog, I needed a domain. I wanted to get jenxi.com but it wasn’t available, so I went with iamjenxi.com. Then in 2012, I discovered jenxi.com was available. I jumped on it immediately and it has been with me for 10 years.

Keeping iamjenxi.com

Even though jenxi.com is the better domain since it is shorter, iamjenxi.com is relatively easy to remember as well. I stuck to using iamjenxi.com for my blog and jenxi.com for my photography portfolio.

I didn’t want to shift my blog because the older domain has been with me for a decade.

Looking back, it would have been the smarter thing to do to move all my digital assets to jenxi.com as soon as I got the domain. It is the logical thing to do to consolidate my online presence from a personal branding perspective.

Making the move

2022 marked the 20th anniversary of my blog and when the idea of moving the site appeared in my mind once again, it felt that the time was ripe to make the move.

Moving domains can be a tricky and disastrous in terms of SEO if not handled well. It was not as daunting as expected. I referred to Kinsta’s article for this process.

My sites are hosted on Linode servers via Cloudways. Sign up via my Linode link for a 60-day $100 credit. (Offer expired.) Sign up via my Cloudways link for $25 free hosting credit. I’ll get some credit to my account if you sign up via my links.

I love Linode servers but I’m not a fan of managing them. Cloudways provides a great server managing service while allowing me to use my preferred server host without having to go for Linode’s more expensive managed option.

Kinsta’s article worked great for Cloudways, and it should be easy to follow on other services that work similarly.

1. Clone the Cloudways application. I decided to keep the old domain on the old application.

2. Add the new domain to the new application and Cloudways automatically applies a search and replace for the domain.

3. I used the Better Search Replace plugin to check if there were any hardcoded links with old domains left in the database. You really shouldn’t be using hardcoded links. There were none because Cloudways did a great job with the search and replace.

4. Added 301 redirects to the old domain to the .htaccess file of the old application. Cloudways uses NGINX but still lets you use Apache configurations.

5. Let the search engines know that my domain has changed. It is very straightforward via Google Search Console. However, Bing Webmaster Tools seems to be missing the Site Move tool. I’ve submitted a ticket to support.

6. Submit the new sitemap to Google and Bing.

7. I repeated the steps for the Chinese blog.

Conclusion

There were small hiccups with things like the Bing Site Move. However, that is a problem with Bing Webmaster Tools itself so that can’t be helped.

You can read more about the journey this sie has taken, as well as my thought-process in almost every step over at the Colophon.

It was a very simple process and I look forward to seeing you here more often next year.

The Beach Boys has had a profound impact on my adult life. I wrote previously about how the TV series changed my life completely and shaped who I am today. I also shared meaningful and inspiring quotes from the Japanese drama.

While searching for the lyrics and translation, I was surprised to find mostly direct English translations that fail to grasp some of the intricacies. So I decided to work on it to practice my Japanese.

Here are the English and Romanji versions of the lyrics by me, with the original Japanese lyrics from Musicxmatch.

English translation

The wind is shaking　The waves are singing
I’m walking as well today
Grabbing the sand　Checking its heat
I’m feeling the season

Ah, forever your love　(Forever your friend)
That smile from that day is still here
Quietly etched in time
Forever your heart
No matter when (Forever your friend)
You supported me without saying anything
Sharing the joy together with you

Moving ahead constantly
Time can’t be stopped (No, you can′t stop time)
No matter what we encounter in the future
I’ll never forget everything in the present　(Forever your friend)

We talked about our own dreams
I love your eyes the most
I realise deep in my heart
I was secretly worried about the future

Ah, forever your love　(Forever your friend)
The words I said flashed in my mind
No matter what happens
My love for you will be unchanged
Oh, even if I was alone (Forever your friend)
I will find a way to overcome the obstacle
To be reunited with you

Moving ahead continuously
I swear on the stars (Together we’ll be there till the end)
No matter what happens to us in the future
I will be here　(Forever friend)

Moving ahead constantly
Time can’t be stopped (No, you can′t stop time)
No matter what we encounter in the future
I’ll never forget everything in the present　(Forever your friend)

Original lyrics in Romanji

Kaze ga youreteru　Nami ga utatteru
Ore wa kyou mo aruiteru
Suna o tsukande　Sono atsusa tashikamete
Kono kisetsu wo kanjiteru

Ah, forever your love　(Forever your friend)
Ano hi no mama no egao ga koko ni
Shizuka ni toki wo kizamu
Forever your heart
Itsu no hi mo (Forever your friend)
Nani mo iwazu ni sasaete kureta
Omae to futari yorukobi kanjiteru

Kawarazu ni nagarete yuku
Toki wa tomerarenai (No, you can′t stop time)
Korekara no michi de nani ga attemo
Ima wo wasurenai sa　(Forever your friend)

Sorezore no yume Katari atta hibi
Omae no me ga suki datta
Kokoro no oku ni Kakusenai mirai e no
Fuan ore wa kizuiteta

Ah, forever your love　(Forever your friend)
Ano ga attemo kawaranai sa to
Ano toki itta kotoba ga kasurete
Oh, hitori demo　(Forever your friend)
Norikoerareru michi wo sagashite
Omae to futari mata koko de aitai

Taemanaku tsuzuite yuku
Hoshizora ni chikau yo　(Together we’ll be there till the end)
Sorezore no michi de nani ga attemo
Ore wa koko ni iru sa　(Forever friend)

Kawarazu ni nagarete yuku
Toki wa tomerarenai (You can’t stop time baby)
Korekara no michi de nani ga attemo
Ima wo wasurenai sa　(I′ll be there, I′ll be there, I’ll be there)
Oh wasurenai sa

Original lyrics in Japanese

風が揺れてる　波が歌ってる
俺は今日も歩いてる
砂は掴んで　その熱さ確めて
この季節を感じてる

Ah, forever your love　(Forever your friend)
あの日のままの笑顔がここに
静かに時を刻む
Forever your heart
いつの日も　(Forever your friend)
何も言わずに支えてくれた
お前と二人喜び感じてる

変わらずに流れてゆく
時は止められない　(No, you can′t stop time)
これからの道で何があっても
今を忘れないさ 　(Forever your friend)

それぞれの夢　語り合った日々
お前の目が好きだった
心の奥に　隠せない未来への
不安俺は気づいてた

Ah, forever your love　(Forever your friend)
何があっても変わらないさと
あのとき言った言葉がかすれて
Oh　一人でも　(Forever your friend)
乗り越えられる道を探して
お前と二人またここで会いたい

絶え間なく続いてゆく
星空に誓うよ　(Together we’ll be there till the end)
それぞれの道で何があっても
俺はここにいるさ　(Forever friend)

変わらずに流れてゆく
時は止められない (You can’t stop time baby)
これからの道で何があっても
今を忘れないさ　(I′ll be there, I′ll be there, I’ll be there)
Oh 忘れないさ

Credits:
Japanese lyrics: Musixmatch

I’ve shared how the series changed my life. In this post, we’ll look at some of the moments that I found memorable and meaningful.

Disclaimer: While I try to avoid spoilers for those of you who haven’t seen the drama, I can’t guarantee not revealing any details that might spoil the show. Actually, don’t even read this if you haven’t seen the TV series!

Adulting is hard

Hiromi on childhood vacations:

Wasn’t summer vacation fun when you were little? Why was it so much fun? It’s not that I hated school or that it was hard for me. But summer vacation would get me so excited and happy. It’s not that I did anything special either. Why don’t adults feel that way?

Life becomes dull and depressing when we grow up. The term used nowadays is adulting. Adulting is hard.

This is a reminder not to loose our innocence and approach things in life with excitement and joy. Life is too short to focus on the negative or feel sad or sorry for oneself.

Life is a smile

Hiromi on smiling:

And you’d better learn how to smile more. Life is a smile. Get it?

A smile is more than just a facial expression. It is a state of mind. It is an emotion. Feel the smile and convey the feelings within you.

To me, the phrase “Life is a smile” is a poignant one. Smile when you’re happy. You know it will come to an end, so enjoy it while it lasts. Smile when you’re down. You know that it, too, will come to an end, so don’t worry about it and accept that it will get better soon.

Simple is best

Kaito asks Masaru, “Why did you start this Mishuku?”

Masaru’s reply:

Because I thought it’ll be fun. I didn’t think too hard I just thought I wanted to do it, so I decided I would. Simple is best.

The Japanglish actually makes the quote more memorable.

Don’t overthink things. Think it through, but don’t think too hard. Sometimes we just need to follow our hearts. Thinking too much leads to paralysis by analysis.

It is only through taking action that we understand if what we are doing is the right thing. So take the first step and do it. Whatever the outcome, you will have learnt something that you wouldn’t have if you just sat there thinking instead of doing.

Over the years, I’ve learnt to just do it. Of course, it is not that easy. We tend to take the safer route and err on the side of caution. Stay in our comfort zone and not push ourselves.

However, taking action is a lot more valuable and brings results that are feedback that tell us whether we need to improve, or if we’re on the right track.

Simple is (the) best.

Go with the flow

Hiromi giving Kaito advice on how to chop firewood, and sharing his philosophy on life:

If you put too much power into it, you’ll mess up. It’s like life.

Sometimes we try to hard or push too hard to get things done in a certain way. If we try to force things, we might end up making things more difficult for ourselves.

Just like how chopping firewood is all about going with the motion of the falling axe and letting gravity do the job. Our hands are there just to hold the axe firmly and guide the swing. If you use too much power, you might end up swinging wildly and not chopping at the spot you were aiming for.

Likewise, we should go with the flow in life. I’ll point out that going with the flow doesn’t mean avoiding obstacles. It is more of finding ways to deal with or get past the problems or obstacles. Don’t use excessive force to solve a problem. As Bruce Lee said, be like water, my friend.

Swimming in the ocean

Hiromi, an Olympic swimmer, on swimming in the ocean:

It must be tough to live just doing what you love. I’ve never swum in the ocean. To be honest, I’m a little scared of it. Because there’re no lanes or a finishing line. That’s why I couldn’t swim in the ocean.

People often envy others who do what they love. I pursue doing what I love, and do my best to create an environment where my team gets to do likewise.

Yet, it is far from the rosy picture that people would imagine. Just like there are no lanes or finishing lines in the ocean, there are no boundaries when you do what you love. We often end up blurring the lines between work and life.

When what you do is what you love, it takes discipline to create boundaries to separate work from our personal lives.

Hiromi loves the ocean but dares not swim in it. How many of us have things we love to do, but we are afraid of turning it into our work. Doing so might just make what we love become a chore and lose its appeal. Though, I would argue that it could be a sign that you didn’t really love it that much if that were the case.

Ever since my post on the meaning of life, I have been actively seeking purpose in my fleeting time in this world. Recently, I started reading about ikigai. It is a Japanese concept that means something that gives a sense of purpose for living.

National Geographic reporter Dan Buettner suggests that ikigai is a possible factor contributing to the longevity of people in Okinawa, Japan. Okinawans do what they love for as long as they are healthy, choosing not to retire. To them, they don’t work. They are devoted to their purpose in life, and thus enjoy fulfilment in life.

Find your ikigai and you would be able to swim in the ocean that you love. Your ocean.

Be stupid

Kaito on being stupid:

For the first time in my life, I want to try being stupid. It might make me feel good.

You’ll need a bit of backstory here to understand the context. Kaito is a white-collar employee in a large multinational trading company. He graduated from an elite university and basically grew up as a high-flyer chasing success in the big city.

He realises that he has been living a life that is laid out for and expected of him, based his education background and career path. While on vacation, Kaito meets Hiromi, a guy living a carefree life doing whatever he wants, and starts to doubt if he truly enjoys the life he has.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

Steve Jobs

Instead of following a stable career path before him, he contemplates pursuing what he loves. To others, Kaito is giving up on a life that others would snap up in a heartbeat. In other words, he is being stupid.

I can totally relate. I watched the series when I was considering leaving my job as a pharmacist. It struck home how I felt not pursuing my passion.

I also watched the drama again after I started pursuing entrepreneurship for a few of years. It still rubbed at me. I still meet people who are unable to understand why I chose to give up a stable, comfortable career. It is hard to explain if they haven’t found their purpose in life.

Sometimes, being stupid might be the right thing to do, especially if you’re following your heart.

Have faith in your decisions

Kaito knows what he wants, yet he harbours doubts over the choice he made. He calls his girlfriend Sakura and asks, “Did I make the wrong decision?”

Sakura is merciless with her response:

Do you want me to say you did? It was wrong. No matter who you ask, they’d say the same. But you wanted to do it, right?

It doesn’t matter if what you did was right or wrong. We are talking about whether it is the right decision here, not doing illegal or immoral things.

But if you made a decision, then you have to bear the consequences. The key is to not stop yourself from doing what you want because you fear failure. Be clear about the consequences, and whether you can accept the worst case scenario. If you can, then go ahead.

At least you tried and failed. Learn from the failure so you fail better next time. Don’t question whether you made the wrong decision. It doesn’t help. However, you can analyse your decision-making process. I do this though a decision-making journal.

I can go in a deep dive about the decision-making journal. I’ll try to be brief. When I make a decision, I note down how I feel, the situation and the problem, and factors that I considered. These include variables, complications, and alternatives that I don’t choose.

In a nutshell, writing these down help me to understand what led me to making the decision, the thought process behind the choice, and any possible emotional or mental factors that influenced the decision. This allows me to review my decisions, learn from them, and make better decisions next time.

Do what you want, while you still can

Kaito’s boss talks to Kaito about the latter choosing to do what he loves:

Everyone… thinks about doing what you’re doing. They think it, but they can’t do it. There’re all kinds of reasons. The future. Family. Most people can’t do it. When you get older, you think maybe you can. But by then, I’m sure you won’t be able to do much.

This quote was rather significant when I was considering leaving my job as a pharmacist. We often fall into the trap of thinking that we would be able to do what we truly want someday. We keep waiting for that someday, until we can no longer do what we want.

It is a reminder that we are all growing old. I hate to use clichés but time waits for no one. Do what you want while you can, before age and obligations stop you from being able to.

This is also a reminder that I am lucky to have been able to take my leap of faith with my close friends and family supporting my decision to take a less conventional path in life.

No effort is wasted

Kaito on his the path he took in life:

In my case, I followed a path that had been laid out for me. My whole life. But I don’t regret that at all. I don’t think it was a waste of time. Because I don’t think any effort in life is wasted.

Growing up, I followed a path laid out for me too. This resonated with me when I watched it after graduating from university.

I have met people who think that they wasted their time doing things that didn’t work out or wasn’t what they truly wanted. I used to think that way too, until I started to connect the dots looking backwards. That was when I realised that every thing in life happens for a reason.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”

Steve Jobs

There are times when I question what might have been if I had gone down another path, but I often end up being reminded that whatever I did contributed to who and where I am today

We got to where we are because of the path we took in life. We are who we are because of what we did and experienced in life so far. So no effort in life is wasted.

Find what you love

Kaito on Masaru:

The boss is so cool is because he’s found a life he loves and he’s stuck to it.

Find what you love and pursue it wholeheartedly. People will see the joy and sense of fulfilment you have. It is infectious and inspiring. I’ve been told that I look so much happier after I took my leap of faith to pursue what I love.

Sure, there are struggles. But ups and downs are a part of the process. When you do what you love, there’s that extra skip to your footsteps and a glow of happiness that is noticeable to the people around you.

Realise when you are in a comfort zone

Keiko tells to her daughter Makoto about why she thinks Makoto’s grandfather Masaru is not truly happy:

Because I don’t want to become like Grandpa. I felt like I wouldn’t be able to do anything if I stayed here. I felt like this place could ruin a person.

The way he’s lived his life… I really like it. I never said it was bad. But I don’t think he wanted to become the owner of a minshuku inn. I’m not saying that’s bad either. He may be happy with it. But I really don’t think he wanted to run a minshuku inn.

There must’ve been another reason he chose this place. I think staying in a place like this will make you not care anymore.

Keiko understood that the minshuku (bed and breakfast) inn was a place that could lull people into a kind of comfort that stops them from pursuing what they really want.

It is important to know when you’re in a comfort zone. I would often reflect and ask myself if I’m stagnating. You might be in a comfortable situation, but is it truly what you want? What’s stopping you from going for what you truly want? Life is too short to not chase your dreams.

The difference between fulfilment and comfort is a fine line, but we need to be aware of whether we are truly happy or just comfortable.

Of course, not everyone is after true fulfilment in life. Some people prefer to just find a comfort zone and stay in there. That is totally fine if it is what you want. It’s your prerogative. My point is to make sure that you know the difference and make the decision with that knowledge in mind. You owe it to yourself to not waste your time.

Find your ocean

Masaru tells Hiromi and Kaito to find what they truly love:

This is my ocean. Your oceans are somewhere else.

Sometimes, we find ourselves following other people’s dreams. It is fine to do that for a while to help us find our own direction and purpose. However, it is important to realise that you are swimming in someone else’s ocean.

You won’t find true happiness unless you find your own ocean.

Sometimes, you never really belonged

Hiromi on how he feels after being Masaru tells them to leave:

To be honest, I’d been waiting for him to say that to us. This place is really comfortable and I really do think it’d be the best if I could stay here forever. This is the first place I honestly felt like staying at forever. I’ve never felt like this.

Then, being told it’s almost time to leave… It’s a lonely feeling.

Sometimes you won’t know you’re in a comfort zone. You’re lucky if someone comes along in life to point that out to you. Be thankful for that. And if you see someone else stuck in their comfort zone, let them know too.

It might feel lonely, but there will be people out there who would help you to push yourself. If there isn’t get in touch with me. Let’s push each other to become better.

Only you get to decide what is right

Masaru admits that he lost his way, saying, “I wanted to surf. That’s why I came here to live. But before I knew it, I’d forgotten about the surfing, and became just a guy running a minshuku inn.”

“What’s wrong with that? You’re still really cool, boss,” Hiromi replies.

Masaru disagrees:

I’m the only one that decides whether it is all right or not. I was about to become an old man that could only talk about how good he used to be.

Don’t lose sight of your dreams and goal. We might lose our way, but we will get on the path once more if we know what it is we really want.

People might admire you for what you do, even if it is not what you love.

That said, it’s your life, and only you get to decide what makes you truly happy. Find your ikigai.

Seize the opportunity to do what you want to. In most cases, it is never too late to do what you want. Push yourself to do it so you won’t just talk bout how good you were or what you could have been.

Embrace the journey

Kaito tells Hiromi what he learns after taking his leap of faith:

I realised that there were folks in this world that lived like you. It made me really mad and bitter. I felt like you knew something about life that I didn’t. So… I wanted to experience it, too.

To be honest, I was really scared. Because everything would go back to zero. But I can say this now. No matter what happens, I’ll never get scared. I have the confidence now to start from zero anytime now.

A hero is supposed to die or walk away into the sunset to be cool. It’s one or the other. Happily ever after? Stories with a hero don’t end like that.

We fear failure because it means going back to square one. But once you learn to embrace failure, you’ll realise that there is no square one. Even if you go back to zero, you have gained the experience and wisdom from your failure. You are some where above square one.

It is a constant upward spiral. The more you fail and learn, the wiser and smarter you become.

Don’t strive for happily ever after. That’s just chasing the destination. Embrace the journey and savour the experience.

You either fail like the hero that dies, or succeed and walk away cooly in the sunset to star in the next movie, ie the next phase in life or the next project. It is either we make or break. And it is totally fine regardless of whether we make it or flop. Failure is an inevitable process to success. And success is not final. Success is not happily ever after.

We move on to the next thing after we succeed. If we fail, we keep trying until we succeed.

Forever Beach Boys

Frankly, I didn’t expect the article to be so long. There are certain topics that I touched on really briefly. I kept them succinct to focus on the Beach Boys quotes. They are topics that I’ll definitely revisit in future posts, so stay tuned.

I don’t think there are any other films or dramas that have such a profound impact on me. I doubt I would be able to write another 3,000-word essay on what I learnt from another movie or TV series. Then again, I won’t completely rule that out.

Are there any films or dramas that were especially memorable for you? Let me know. I would love to check them out if I haven’t.

Check out my translation of Beach Boys theme song Forever by Takashi Sorimachi.

The series aired in Japan in 1997 and I recall first watching it on a Singapore TV channel in 1998 with Chinese subtitles. It was the first Japanese drama I had ever watched and it left a deep impression on me.

T-shirt and cargo pants

T-shirt and cargo pants were the fashion trend back in those days. Watching these idols sporting T-shirts and cargo pants in such a cool manner made me follow suit. However, I was unable to keep my hair long due to school rules.

It was almost a decade later before I started wearing anything other than T-shirt and cargo pants. That was when I entered the emo punk phase.

Japan culture

The drama is my gateway drug to Japanese culture. I became fascinated with the people, the place, and the language. This fascination grew and I started to watch anime, read manga, and listen to Japanese music.

I started to pick up Japanese on my own to be able to better understand the pop culture I consume.

Looking back, it was the rise of Japanese culture in Southeast Asia during that period of time that influenced my teenage years, and that of my peers. J-pop and J-rock were aired on TV channels. J-dramas were the rage along with anime. Even the game consoles and the games we played from SEGA, Nintendo, Konami and Square Enix hailed from Japan.

I consume a lot of Japanese media to this day, but I will always remember Beach Boys as the one that opened the doors to the world of Japanese culture. And Japan still remains my favourite travel destination.

Be a beach boy

Growing up in a city, I was going through a phase of yearning for country life. Beach Boys showed me what life could be in the seaside.

I love the beach. Put me at a beach with a cold beer and a good book, and it’s my paradise. Relaxing to the soothing rhythmic crash of the waves. Soaking in the warmth of the sun through skin lathered with sunscreen. Feeling the caress of the sea breeze heavy with the scent of brine.

Back when I was a pharmacist, I found myself on a beach every month, and at times every fortnight!

Web and graphic design

My current business revolves around design and new media industries. This is a culmination of my interest in web and graphic design that begun after I watched Beach Boys.

You might wonder, what does a J-drama have to do with web and graphic design? Well, back in 1998, there was a trend called fan shrine sites or fan sites. It was still the early days of the internet when people were on 56k dialup modems.

My classmates and I were obsessed with Japanese pop culture, so we were gobbling up content about J-dramas and actors, J-pop and J-rock stars, and anime.

We were also having basic HTML lessons in school on how to build a website. My classmate Lianchiu and I discovered Geocities, and eventually Angelfire, and started creating fan shrines for Gundam Wing and Beach Boys respectively.

It came to a point where the basic HTML I learnt in school was insufficient to create the look I wanted. So I borrowed books on HTML and CSS to teach myself more advanced web design.

We didn’t have a computer at home back then, so my access to computer and the internet outside of school was mostly from Internet cafes. Other kids went to the Internet cafes to play Red Alert, Might & Magic VI, Worms 2, or whatever the latest game was available back then. However, I was fiddling with Notepad to key in my web design code.

The Internet cafe charged by the hour back then and I had an hour a week, so I had to try and visualise the design in my head as I wrote down the HTML and CSS code on paper. I would then type it into the computer and discover how the code turned out while I was at the Internet cafe.

Photoshop

I was using images and GIFs I found online for my websites. However, as my web design skills and taste improved, it gradually became apparent that what I found was unable to suit my needs.

My designs required custom graphics and this pushed me to pick up graphic design. When I looked for HTML, CSS, and JS books in the library, I noticed books on Photoshop in the same section.

I started to fiddle with Photoshop and started to teach myself graphic design.

Photography

Creating these sites also got me into blogging. I worked several sites before starting this one in 2002. The blogging journey is a long story deserving of its own post another time.

Blogging led to me reading blogs by Danny Choo, Cheesie, Kenny Sia, and other well-known bloggers in the early 2000s. These people have and still inspire me even to this day.

As I wrote, there came a point where photos were becoming more important to tell a story. And this eventually led me to purchasing my first camera in 2009.

I got the camera mainly to document travel and my gunpla hobby, but it has since blossomed into a passion for street photography and a business that provides video and photography services.

Freelance designer

When I was in university, I was looking for ways to make some pocket money. I started offering web design services as a freelancer.

I enjoyed web and graphic design. I had also started blogging. Writing for the web was an art form on its own. It was something I wanted to pursue in college. However, my parents were adamant that I pursue a healthcare profession. They reasoned that I could always take up another diploma or degree in the new media design field.

Career change

I practiced as a pharmacist for seven years. It was only five years after working as a pharmacist that I thought of allowing myself to do design work.

My plan was to work for two years to give it a try, since I spent four years to study the degree and another year to get my pharmacist license. But the job was too comfortable and I ended up in the industry for seven years.

I was having a quarter-life crisis in 2014 because I was turning 30. I quit my job to pursue design work full time. And this eventually brought me to Shenzhen where I’m based now.

Connecting the dots

Who would have known that watching a J-drama would lead me down such a path in life?

We can only connect the dots when looking backwards.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.

Steve Jobs

The power of such scripted scenarios and the writing also attracts me and inspires me to do do likewise when I write stories or video scripts.

I strive to distil what I’ve learnt and share it with people with hopes that they might find some positive impact in their lives, no matter how minuscule it is.

Lessons in life

Beach Boys also taught me a lot about life over the years. Each time I rewatched it at different stages in my life, I gained new insight.

I’ll be sharing the lessons in life I learnt from Japanese drama Beach Boys in the next post.

Have you watched Beach Boys before? If you did, what are do you remember from it? Has any TV shows impacted your life as much?

It has been rather depressing the past few weeks. I’ve been reminded time and again to cherish each day with my loved ones.

My aunt passed away last month and less than two weeks later, our beloved golden retriever passed away on 4 October.

Chewy, named after the hairy Wookiee he resembled, was 11 years and two months old. The last time I saw him was in February 2020 when I was last in Malaysia before the pandemic hit. I didn’t think that would be the last time I saw him.

Who knew back then that I won’t be able to travel back home for over two years, probably even three given the current situation. The question that kept appearing in my mind in the past few days has been, why didn’t I spend more time with him? Why didn’t the moments we had.

The casual thought back then was, see you again next time, boy.

I have friends who lost their loved ones to the pandemic and weren’t able to say the final goodbye in person due to lockdown measures. But this still hit home hard.

Chewy had been having problems with his hips, either a hereditary condition or one that was caused by playing excessive football with us when he was younger. It seemed rather mild when I last saw him.

The condition deteriorated and he could hardly stand up the past few months. There was mention of euthanasia to ease his suffering. If it came down to that, I was hoping to be able to return home and see him one last time.

I guess Chewy has more pressing matters to deal with in doggy heaven. His sudden passing caught us off guard. My brother had even planned for a visit to see him.

Chewy showered my family with love, and will be missed dearly by all of us. It felt like it was just yesterday when we first welcomed the tiny ball of joy into our home back in 2011.

A reminder that time waits for no one.

As I write this, my poodle Xiaobao is leaning against my lap snoring in his usual post-dinner nap. He’s the anchor in my life. My sidekick. A constant in my life for the past five years.

He is with me all day for most of the days. The only times he has to stay home is when I go to places or occasions where dogs aren’t allowed. I cannot imagine life without him.

Yet it is inevitable and the only thing I can do is to cherish each day like it were the last.

Chewy will forever be that playful but obedient boy. The protector who watches over us, and will continue to do so from wherever he is with his brother, our beloved Husky.

In loving memory.

These often disguise themselves as our personality and character, but they are actually bad habits that we acquired over time.

“First we make our habits, then our habits make us.”

Charles C. Nobel

Since they are bad habits, they can be eliminated. You just need to do the opposite regularly so they become good habits.

1. Over-thinking

Stop worrying. Start doing. Worrying won’t make the problems go away. Taking action brings you closer to completing tasks.

Don’t mentally paralyse yourself by over-thinking. Don’t think “what if”, adopt the mantra “what will be, will be.” Be positive.

This is not to say you should take action without thinking. You need to make the necessary analyses and considerations, but don’t over do it.

2. Not keeping a record

There are people who think they have good memory, and those who are acutely aware of how fleeting the human mind is.

I found myself in many occasions where I had a wonderful epiphany or idea and told myself I will write it down later, or that I will remember it because it is so awesome. And I end up not remembering what I thought of a minute later.

Nowadays, I put down thoughts in my Bear app to track where my mind wanders. I find having a record of a meeting, even a casual dinner with a friend, is a great way to help me remember the time spent better.

Keeping a journal is a great way to keep track of your days and what you have been thinking about each day. So when you look back, you can see how you have progressed or grown.

3. Be your worst enemy

We often give ourselves less credit than we deserve. Our inner voice tells us that we are not good enough.

Learn to love yourself. You are better than you think, and you will be in a much better place if you allow yourself to be proud of how far you have come.

4. Stop learning

Many of us stop learning when we finish school. Or just learn when we have training at work.

“Learning isn’t a way of reaching one’s potential but rather a way of developing it.”

Karl Anders Ericsson

Learning is a lifelong process. You are never too old to learn something new. And there is always something out there that you can learn.

Look at the world with an inquisitive mind and you might just pick up something that changes your life.

5. Being stubborn

All of us are stubborn in one way or another, over a spectrum of stubbornness. There are times when we should be stubborn and stick to what we believe.

When it comes to getting things done, you create more problems by refusing to work with or listen to others.

Be aware that we all are stubborn. Recognise it and make sure you reign in your stubbornness.

6. Checking and consuming

Our smartphones are such horrible black holes. They give you instant access to and endless list of things to check – messages, emails, your favourite social media, your next favourite social media, news, sports results and various other time sinks.

Notifications remind us to check our phones, and we end up being sucked into all the different apps. You are consuming content created by others instead of creating content or working on your to-do list.

7. Escaping problems

We all have tasks that comfort us and allows us to escape from the issues we might have. Some people dive into cooking. Others find things to learn. They are all ways we distract ourselves and keep us from having to face our problems.

Not dealing with problems doesn’t make them go away. They might just simmer into bigger problems. Deal with them so you can enjoy doing the things that you love without a nagging worry.

8. Not having rules

Rules are important to define a boundary. Having a constraint doesn’t inhibit creativity. In fact, constrains encourage us to find creative ways to do things.

Having no rules just makes us wander around aimlessly and we end up wasting time.

Create a set of rules for yourself. These become principles you live by and eventually define who you are.

Eliminating unproductive habits

Now that you know what unproductive habits to look out for, you can identify them and work towards eliminating them.

Habits form when we do things in a certain way regularly or all the time. They are good habits when they are beneficial to us, and bad habits when they affect us in a negative way.

You might find it hard to get rid of a bad habit. It is not as hard as you think. You just need to do the opposite of how you usually go about a bad habit. In most cases, it will let you turn the bad habit into a good one.

Learn to understand why traditions, cultures, and food are different at each place. How did the way of life and the local thinking shape each of these? Take note of architecture and interior design as well. These are also shaped by the culture and history. By immersing yourself in a local culture and being more mindful of how people think, you slowly start to see things from their perspective.

It is important to understand how people think in each place. Only when you start to grasp how they think, especially how differently they think, then are you qualified to draw comparisons with how you live and think. If you don’t stand in their shoes and simply judge others living in a different place, you are only forcing your own views based on your own culture and living conditions.

Very often, I come across comments from people who have no idea of the local culture they criticise. They merely impose their own culture and views on the situation or way of life. Just because something is different from the way it is done back home doesn’t mean that it is something that should be condemned.

Before you start judging others, it makes more sense to understand the local way of life. Even better, live for a short period of time at the place so you can truly immerse yourself in the culture and society.

Understanding how people think and why they behave in certain ways can give you insights on how to improve your life and think of new ways to resolve problems back home. And then create mindful memories of your time in a place you might only go once in a lifetime.

Hannah Fry[^1] explains in The Mathematics of Love about the Gale-Shapley matching algorithm that proves: “If you put yourself out there, start at the top of the list, and work your way down, you’ll always end up with the best possible person who’ll have you. If you sit around and wait for people to talk to you, you’ll end up with the least bad person who approaches you. Regardless of the type of relationship you’re after, it pays to take the initiative.”

[^1]: Via Farnam Street.

Why we are shy

Our instincts protect us by making us afraid of things that endanger us. And as social animals, we fear being thrust into a situation that exposes us to people we are unfamiliar with in our social circle.

Fear of being made fun of. Fear of social engagement, especially with strangers. Fear of the unknown. We are not sure how others will react to us. Will they make fun of us or thing that we are weird?

As an introvert, I’m inclined not to interact with others.Despite being an introvert, I enjoy engaging others in conversations, even if it leaves me drained. I value discourse, both with people who share what I know, and others who challenge me to rethink my views.

Another reason to put myself out there is that as an entrepreneur, I need to be meeting new people to increase the chances of having opportunities for work or expanding my network. I find myself uncomfortable with making that first interaction that I know would open up myself to strike up a conversation.

I just need to push myself to step out of my comfort zone.

How to overcome shyness

When I walk my dog, I talk to other dog owners. Others are people who love dogs and want to greet the dog.

As an expat in China, I would approach foreigners I meet just to introduce myself as a fellow expat. I would also offer to add them to group chats for the expat community in our neighbourhood and district.

Attend events. It is easy to find events for your hobbies or interests in the modern era. Make the effort to go to these events so you meet like-minded people. When you have a common interest, you have more to share and talk about.

Be helpful. When you see someone who looks like they need help, offer assistance before they even ask for it. The most common example is if you see someone who looks like they are looking for directions. Offer to point them the right way before they even approach you.

I met my business partner because I engaged in conversation with people I encounter. You’ll be surprised what being bold can introduce to your life!

What to talk about

It doesn’t matter that much what you talk about. When you talk about people, they tend to be more willing to open up, especially when you ask open-ended questions.

When they see that you’re interested in what they have to say, it gets them to talk more about the topic.

Give honest compliments. It makes helps to warm them up to you and people are keen to talk about themselves. For example, I don’t hold back from telling them when I think they look good. I often think that doing so makes my day more than it makes theirs.

The weather is a good start when it is something bad, such as really scorching, sunny days or heavy rain. But you might want to avoid it if it might sound too much like you have nothing else to talk about.

Look for points of similarities so you can find topics to talk about.

Be bold

If you haven’t tried what I mentioned, I urge you to give it a go. You’ll be surprise how it might change your life. What’s the worse that could happen? Someone might ignore your approach and walk off? If they do, then they aren’t worth your time anyway.

Do you have any other ways to engage people? Have you had any life-changing experiences or bad ones from trying to talk to strangers? I’d love to hear about it.

So what is it that people don’t like to do? They are generally things that most of us naturally dislike. Most people prefer things that bring pleasure and want to obtain results from doing what we like to do. We grab the low-hanging fruits.

Why do we tend do what we dislike doing? We do so because we have things we want to accomplish. In other words, we prefer to enjoy the results rather than the process.

Purpose

Successful people have a strong sense of purpose that drives them to do what they dislike.

When you encounter a plateau or slump in your work, or find yourself losing your way, reminding yourself of your purpose often pulls back on track.

This purpose needs to push you to form habits that you dislike, and to help you through the hardship in the journey to achieving what you set out to do. It must be practical, not visionary, so you can act on it.

For example, I set five-minute habits. My daily goal is to clock in five minutes of each of these habits. Doing the task gets me in the mood and hooked for more. These five-minute sessions often end up stretching for an hour or more.

On days that I find it hard to get going, the bare minimum of five minutes helps me to push through the dip. Doing the hard work during the times you want to give up is what pays off. If you go to the gym, you know that the gains start when you begin enduring the reps and try to best your personal record.

If you want to be successful, you must respect one rule: never lie to yourself.

Paulo Coelho

It is only through taking actions that you reach your goal, not just by dreaming it up. I know it sounds silly to state something that is so simple and straightforward, but you’ll be surprised at how often people keep themselves away from success.

Next step

Now that you know what the secret of success is, take a look at your daily habits and review what changes you should take to reach the goal you aim for.

I grew up an avid reader. I gobbled up fiction, from Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl to Hardy Boys as a child, to fantasy and sci-fi classics as a youth. These fictitious worlds were so fascinating and inspired me to write my own and fantasise about the imaginary.

However, non-fiction books were my bane. I found them boring and dry. It was hard to get through them, until I had a change in mindset. Now I read three to five non-fiction books for every fiction novel I finish.

“Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.”

Otto von Bismarck

Non-fiction books are often the accumulation of experience from others who have gone down similar paths or wondered about the same topics and ideas. Reading non-fiction helped me to learn from the experience of others to help me to keep learning.

Taking notes

The key to reading well is to be engaged while you read. Reading inevitably stirs thoughts and emotions. These are usually fleeting so pen them down while you are aware of them to help you understand more about what you read and also about yourself.

If you read with any decent reading app on your desktop or phone, it would come with highlighting and note taking functions. If you’re reading a physical book, mark and write on the book if it’s your own and grab a pen and notebook to expand upon the notes you take.

To get the full value out of your reading process, it is important that you practice active reading. Think while you read. Try to connect what you’ve read to your past experiences and current problems you might face.

By linking what concepts that the author writes about with your personal experiences, you understand them better and even gain insight on how to view the problems in a different light and potentially resolve them.

Reading it again

After you finish reading it, give the book a rating and let it marinate for at least a week, ideally longer.

Pick the book up again. If you think the book is good but not great, read through your notes. If it was better than good, read the whole book again or at least go through all the parts that you thought were outstanding.

As you read through the second time, be it the whole book or parts of it, make notes again. After that, check if your initial rating of the book still stands.

Any kind of important book should immediately be read twice, partly because one grasps the matter in its entirety the second time, and only really understands the beginning when the end is known; and partly because in reading it the second time one’s temper and mood are different, so that one gets another impression; it may be that one sees the matter in another light.

Arthur Schopenhauer

I wrote previously about having my personal wiki. It is a personal database where I file away my notes on books I’ve read and films I’ve watched. My database is a trove of my thoughts I wrote down when I read, or after I watch a movie or drama series. Good content is worth going back to.

By reviewing your notes while you read the book the second time and after you finish the second reading, you can examine how you have grown during the two readings.

This is either due to the insights you gleaned from the book, or it could be an accumulation of knowledge from the book and other books or content you might have consumed between the two readings.

Another factor is your emotional and psychological state while reading the books. These generate different thoughts and ideas when you read, and in turn lead to notes that are different between the two readings.

I have found that the longer the duration is between the two readings, the greater the differences. This is why I often let the books marinate for months before I pick up the same book again.

Skip the boring parts/books

How many of you are stuck somewhere on a book because it’s hard to make progress? Try skipping forward to a point where it catches your interest to speed up your consumption of the book.

Be quick to start a book, but quicker to put a bad one down.

I used to think that I should read everything that the author wrote and try to understand it. If I failed to appreciate a certain part of it, I would think I was missing out on something and was not good enough compared to someone else who gets the book.

It’s not about reading the book from cover to cover. It is perfectly fine to jump around to find the chapter or chunk that gives you the most value. Of course, reading it in the way the author intended it to be helps you understand better, but if you already grasp the idea, then honing in on the most valuable or interesting portion works too.

“If you find yourself wanting to speed up the reading process on a particular book, you may want to ask yourself, ‘Is this book any good?’ Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy reading.”

Ryan Holiday

If jumping around doesn’t help then put it down and move on. The book might not be for you. Or if it is a highly recommended book, perhaps it’s not the right time for you to be reading this book.

Have read a book and you thought it is not as great as the reviews or what your peers say about it, and wonder if you were not smart enough to appreciate the book like they did?

We are not in the same race. Every individual is in a different path in life, and even if we are in a similar growth path, we might be at different stages of growth. Don’t compare with others. If a book doesn’t resonate with you, then it is not the right book or not the right time to read this book.

Don’t give up on a book just because you can’t get through it in the first read. There is value in a book, especially if many people praise it. Keep it the gist of what it says in mind, so when you encounter what it talks about, you’ll think of it and come back to it again. It just might be the right time to read the book.

Dive into your next book

Changing my mindset towards reading has helped me reap a lot more rewards than before. As I said before, I wished I discovered how to read non-fiction earlier.

Everyone has their own way of reading, so my process might not work for you, but I hope that sharing it gives you insight to improve on yours.

I would love to read about how you read. I’m sure I would gain useful insights from it.

I’ve tried doing this back in 2005. I started with Microsoft OneNote, but found it lacking the key feature of interlinks. The ability to link notes together is a very important part of creating a PKM. I explain further in a bit. The need for interlinks led to me trying out wiki software such as MoinMoin, DokuWiki, and TiddlyWiki.

TiddlyWIki became my preferred personal wiki that I used alongside my notes app. It was very portable during an age when we still used thumb drives. It was a single file that I saved in the thumb drive I carried between work and home, and later on, one that live in my cloud drive for access wherever I was.

Personal wiki app

Meanwhile, my note taking moved from OneNotes to Evernote, before I started to use Apple’s built-in Notes.app.

While my notes still live in Notes.app, my current home for my personal wiki is Bear, my preferred writing app.

There are many reasons I love Bear, but its ability to link between notes using double brackets: [[Note name]] makes it my choice for creating a personal wiki. The use of double square brackets is the common syntax to create wiki links. Being able to use a familiar markup for this makes the process frictionless.

Better still, Bear would suggest existing notes after you type [[ and start to type the note title. This is key to creating inter-linked notes quickly. I am able to know if there are existing notes with the name you type. By connecting your notes together, it becomes a powerful knowledge network that you can organise to help you learn and create content.

Bear comes with many useful shortcuts on Mac, but my favourite is the timestamp shortcut. There are several of them, but I use these two the most – ⇧⌘7 to gives the date and time, and ⇧⌘8 to give just the date. I use the former note down the time I wrote each note. It is very useful for meeting notes and change logs.

Notes tagging

Bear also lets you group notes via tags and subtags. This makes sorting very easy an intuitive. You just need to add a hashtag in your note and it gets tagged and sorted.

I prefer using tags over folders. This is a topic for another day, but I’ll briefly explain this. Using folders is an old habit and concept from back in the days where files resided in folders to help us keep things organised.

However, with the power of modern software, we don’t need to know where the files, or in this case notes, are. We just need to be able to easily retrieve them either via search or from a tag they are grouped under.

I even use tags for a rating system. I tag movies and books with 4⭐️ and 5⭐️ tags to rate them. I don’t rate anything below four stars as I don’t write about them and don’t think I will. Who knows, they might gain a star or two in the future when I come back to them at the right time in my life.

Notes taking

I take notes when I read, watch videos, and during meetings. I don’t trust myself to recall things. It is better to take notes to track my thoughts.

You might think that you will remember thoughts and ideas that pop up in your head. You might, but what if you don’t? Better to write that thought down before it slips away.

For those of you who have a good memory, note taking is a good backup to your brain, and the note are not just a way to record what you think. They actually help you to organise your thoughts.

I found this note taking livestream by Andy Matuschak pretty insightful. He uses Bear app in the video but the process could probably be replicated in other note taking apps.

My previous workflow was to put down thoughts in bullet points within a single note, but Andy’s process inspired me to split longer bullet points into a separate note and link from the original note to the new note.

This helps to compartmentalise ideas and concepts, and I see splitting ideas into new notes as a form of seeding ideas. It is also how topics I write about branch off from an article and take life as a standalone article, or multiple articles.

Besides taking notes while I read, my notes can be grouped into three main types – meeting notes, change logs, and database notes.

Meeting notes

When I have a meeting, I take notes during and after the meeting. By meetings, I refer to any kind of meetings, not just a meeting for a group discussion.

Yes, I take notes when I meet up with friends. I picked up this habit after reading about how Jack Dorsey makes notes of his conversations with people he meet.

While I try to avoid picking up the phone when I’m out with friends, I would jot down notes in the Bear iOS app to remind me of what we talked about and things I want to look up after the meeting.

When possible, I would take the time to review the meeting and note down some details I want to remember.

These notes help me to remember more details of what we discuss and research on some of the things we talk about. I also put down action points where necessary.

When I meet up with this person again, I would review the notes before we meet. This helps to make the meetings more meaningful and enriching experiences. We follow up on the previous meetings and engage on a deeper level in each meeting.

Change logs

I have several pet website projects that I tweak occasionally. There have been times I found myself looking at the same problems and not remembering why I made a certain decision about the design or feature. I end up researching on the same problem, and eventually come up with another decision that could be the same or different, depending on the circumstances.

Once I noticed this, I started to create a change log for each project and article. In the change log notes, I would timestamp each entry and put down in bullet points my thoughts, the decisions made and my reasonings for each. This helps me to look back at my previous thought process.

So, when I look at a problem, I can check if I’ve already thought of that before and how I came to the decision. I can then review the decision and work on an alternative instead of going down the same path over and over again.

Database

I have a database section where I put down my thoughts on content I consume, in particular, art, books, films, and music. I record the thoughts and emotions they evoke in me.

I also tag them with ratings, as mentioned earlier. Instead of a vague recollection of what I thought about each type of content, I have a record that I can refer to.

This is also very useful when I consume these content again. We are constantly growing, and our emotional and psychological state is always different each time we watch a book or listen to a film.

By recording these thoughts, I am able to understand how I have grown.

Avoiding mistakes

Taking notes help you to track the decisions that you make. Decision-making is a topic that deserve separate articles, and is not something I’ll discuss today. The point here is, making notes of your decision-making process helps you to remember why you made the decision. Case in point, why I keep change logs, as I mentioned earlier.

You are then able to look back at the decision in the future when the decision succeeds or fail. With the notes you made, you are then able to understand what worked and what didn’t. This in turn helps you to avoid making the same mistakes.

Second brain

To me, a PKM is a way to turn your thoughts into a searchable database that is very much a second brain.

In the past, I would have to search for a certain thing. It could be a person, an idea, a movie, a song, or an article, and so on. I noticed that this happens because my brain attaches an idea or or a thought to it instead of what it is exactly. My brain only recognises it once I see it.

This means I would have to search online and try to pinpoint the thing I want to share or refer to. Having a PKM has improved that. When I notice something that makes do this dance, I would note it down in Bear with the concept attached to it, and I can search in my PKM to quickly locate it.

It is this access to your personalised information database that makes PKM so powerful. Your thoughts exist in a permanent medium that allows you to store and retrieve information at a higher level through a deliberate process rather than a physiological one.

PKM is a habit

The first step to having a good PKMS is to get in the habit of taking notes. Build your note taking process by looking at established systems such as the Zettelkasten method. The best form of PKM is one that works for you. Refer to the process others use, but create one that suits you.

The app you choose for your PKMS should easily fit your process, not the other way round. It should empower you to fully utilise your PKMS.

Write about your PKMS if you already have one or share your journey to building one.

Sometimes, we don’t know the dangers but our subconscious picks it up. This is when you get a gut feeling that something isn’t right. This intuition comes from thousands of years of evolution and our life experiences.

So, instead of living in fear, trusting your gut might serve you better. When we are afraid, we become anxious. Living in constant vigilance is what gives many people anxiety, whether they are aware of it or not.

Trust your instincts. Your body will intuitively tell you when it perceives a danger. Recognise the gut feeling and act on it. This is a lot more useful than being fearful.

Anxiety vs fear

When we are gripped with anxiety, it is very hard for our intuition to surface. We are trying to hear the signal from our gut. Drowning it out with fear means we are more likely to miss the signal.

However, don’t mistake fear as anxiety. Our anxiety stems from our body’s reaction to fear. When we are anxious, we are actually subconsciously suppressing our fears.

Today I escaped from anxiety.
Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions – not outside.

Marcus Aurelius

Dealing with fear

So how do we deal with our fear? Stoicism tells us that good things will happen to us, as well bad things. Life is a cycle of ups and downs. When you’re on the up, don’t get carried away because the next down is just around the corner. And when you’re down, don’t be too upset because things will get better eventually.

When we adopt a Stoic approach in life, we accept the uncertainty in life. You ask yourself what is the worst that could happen if you do something, and decide if you can accept this outcome. You already anticipate the worst case scenario.

The man who has anticipated the coming of troubles takes away their power when they arrive.

Seneca

When things go wrong, we already anticipated it and are mentally prepared for it. Most of the time, they don’t turn out as bad as we think they would.

Once we know what we face, our fears diminish or even vanish. That is when our fears have no power over us.

You can never get a refund of the time you spent. You can never spend more time than you have. You can never be in debt because you can’t spend time from the future.

We shall never have more time. We have, and have always had, all the time there is.

Arnold Bennett

Many people want more time. Just look at the popularity of time management and productivity techniques. We are finding ways to do things faster so we can have more time to do more things.

However, the way to get more is rather counter-intuitive. We need to try to be less productive to get more time. By allowing ourselves the time to relax, we are able to get more done when we start to pick things up again.

Relaxing is also a way to let your subconscious work. You probably have experienced getting fresh ideas or an epiphany when you are not doing anything or engaged in a relaxing activity.

Your time is yours to spend

You can choose to reinvent yourself whenever you want. Telling yourself that you’re too old, too young, too poor or have too many commitments are merely giving yourself an excuse to not try.

You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.

Arnold Bennett

The beauty of our life being divided into days is that each start is a brand new start. You can choose to be bogged down by the past, or you can choose to start anew.

Invest your time on what you desire

Don’t worry about failure. There is no shame in trying and failing. Only disappointment and regret in not giving it a go.

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

Theodore Roosevelt

Spend an hour or two each day on yourself. Invest time in learning and improving yourself. Use that time for reading or an online course. Replace the instant gratification of social media or Netflix with something that will makes you grow.

Block out all diversions during this time. More importantly, clock in regularly and you will see your efforts snowballing.

This is partly why I have over a hundred drafts sitting in my Bear app. When I read, I write down my thoughts and these notes generally end up as an article. I also jot down points in my Bear notes when I watch videos or even when I talk to people. However, the perfectionist in me wants to edit the drafts and structure them in a way that would make what I’ve been taught is a good piece of writing.

Useful vs convincing

It helps to be able to lay down the points we want to make to put our point across. However, I’m starting to believe that it is more important to let readers take away something useful. You spend the time to read what I wrote. The very least I could do is to tell you something that you might already know but didn’t articulate it.

This belief stems from me reading articles by good writers. They don’t try to convince me of something. They put their facts and opinions down and leave it to me to make my own conclusions.

They share interesting ideas and articles that they come across. They share their though process and outcome. In other words, they let us take a peek in their minds. You’ll be surprised how much you can learn through this.

This is like watching people using an app or cooking on YouTube, provided they try to explain their though process. You pick up the small habits and tricks that they use, why they do that, and adopt or adapt it for yourself.

Empowering vs being right

They help me to connect ideas that I never considered were related. They inspire me to come up new thoughts and ideas. Sometimes they talk about things I already know, but the way they put it across or the analogies they use light a bulb in my head. Or they let me look at things in a new perspective that sparks more ideas.

Perhaps they mention a person or a topic that introduces me to new ideas, sometimes even unrelated to the topic on hand. Instead of trying to to convince me of their argument, they might actually swing me to their side when I make the connection or realisation on my own.

You might say, you prefer someone to tell you what you should think. I’ve already said my piece on that.

Write it down

When that happens, I should then put this down in writing so others might perhaps benefit in some ways. My points are already in my Bear app but I end up holding myself back from sharing immediately because I want to polish things.

I’m trying to share my drafts as soon as I finish writing them, even if they are not structured in a coherent manner. The point is to put my writing out there and iterate on it over time. It is not printed on paper or set in stone.

How often do you encounter useful writing? Do you share good things you read with others? Not a repost or retweet on social media. Actual sharing where you put down your thoughts along with it. Your two cents is worth more than you think.

An important part of our memory is to build an information storage with details. By remembering certain details, our brains are able to connect the dots and help us to memorise a bigger picture. Yet with the fast pace in the modern world where content creator fight to capture our attention in seconds, our attention span is a lot shorter than it has ever been.

Slow down

It is important to be mindful. Slow down and pay attention to the things around us. Be aware of the things that are happening to us too. I highly recommend Thich Nhat Hanh’s “How to” series of books. They touch on how to be mindful when doing simple things like eating, sitting, and walking. These are tasks that we do without thinking.

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

When you slow down and pay attention during these mundane tasks instead of distracting yourself with music, podcasts, or even staring at your phone, you become aware of a lot of details that you previously missed or took for granted.

I enjoy people watching when I’m out. This habit to seek out details is partly because details help a lot in my creative process when it comes to writing and creating content.

The only way to create realistic human interactions and characters is through observing people and how they engage with others.

Clear your mind

We miss the details if we are distracted by the phone or laptop. You don’t have to be actively scrolling your feed or checking emails. Your mind might linger on a reply someone sent, or a news headline you saw earlier.

You need to clear your mind before you can truly be receptive to the small things that happen around you. I found meditating a great way for me to empty my head.

“Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

It just takes a minute to do so. Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Take deep breaths. Your lungs expanding as you inhale, and how your muscles squeeze the air out as you exhale. Do this for a minute, or about 10 breaths. This makes you aware of yourself and of your body as it does something as simple as breathing. You become mindful of your surroundings.

This awareness helps you to improve your short-term memory. A mindful state makes you more receptive to imprinting new memories.

There are many studies and discussions on the link between mindfulness and memory. I would love to hear from you if you practice mindfulness.

Many people read without internalising what they have read. Before you start reading, you need to have a goal in mind. A goal can be any purpose. Even reading just to pass time and allow your mind to explore new topics is a very reasonable goal.

Know your purpose. If you read without a purpose, then you won’t get true value out of your reading. When you have a purpose in the reading process, you try to apply the book on a project you have or in your life. You are able to get a deeper understanding of what the book is trying to tell you. You are able to gain insights that will help you with your problems or to improve yourself.

How I read

The way I read works well for me. It might not work for everyone but do give it a try and tweak it to find your own way of reading.

1. Take notes while reading.
2. Write down a summary of each chapter or article.
3. Let it marinate.
4. Write down your thoughts after reading the book again.

1. Take notes

I highlight points that jump at me when I read. I read on Books Mac and iOS. It is easy to highlight and add notes. I write down notes as I read. This could be questions I ask when reading a particular point, or a thought that comes to mind.

2. Write a summary

I keep my Bear app open when I read on my Mac. I create notes on the topics discussed in the books by expressing what I’ve read in my own words. I find that this helps me to better understand what I’ve read. More importantly, it lets me see what I don’t quite understand.

This post came to life in Bear.

I generally avoid reading non-fiction books on mobile because I find it less intuitive to write as I read, even though Bear has an awesome iOS app.

3. Let it marinate

After you finish the book, leave it for a week or two. This lets you clear your mind of your impression the book.

Pick it up again and go through the notes. Take note of the best parts in the first page. You will notice that you react differently to the same parts that you have highlighted before. It is inevitable since you are in a different emotional and psychological state. Take notes of the new thoughts.

You also have finished the book so you have understood the other arguments the author has made that might have changed how you perceive the highlighted sentences. Use this chance to filter out things that are not as amazing as they first seem to be.

4. Write your thoughts

Let the book marinate again for another week. Then go through your notes again. If you think of anything else that supplements your notes, add them in. You can come back to the notes the next time you come across a similar topic or if you pick up the book again.

Selective reading

Life is too short to read books that are boring. I’ve come to realise that there is a certain element of fate involved when reading a book. It is almost like dating when you read a book. If you find a book too boring, even if it is very highly rated and widely recommended, it is a sign that you should put the book down.

Some books enter your life at the wrong time. Set it aside. Somewhere down the road, you might be piqued to pick it up again. Don’t let your previous experience with it deter you from doing so. For all you know, it might just happen to be the right time for you to read the book.

I speak from personal experience where certain books have bored me when I first picked them up. When I read them after a couple of years, they resonate with me because I happen to be reading them at the right time.

Don’t give up on a book. Some books I’ve tried to reading more than once because they are highly recommended, but I just never got going. Yet, when I finally could, I’m glad I waited for the right time

This goes with certain movies and TV series that left me less than impressed the first time I watched them. Watching them again years later allowed me to appreciate them better after accumulating more life experiences.

If reading books that were boring gave you greater insight when you tried to reread them, imagine the benefits you can glean from books that you’ve already enjoyed and learnt a lot from. Rereading books can further help you to learn more or reinforce what you’ve learnt.

Active reading

I read for two purposes: entertainment and knowledge.

The bulk of the books I read for knowledge are non-fiction books. When I read for knowledge, it is a mindful process. Active reading means to think and be engaged while reading the book.

It means to think and reflect while you read. Through this, you connect the dots between your existing knowledge with new things that you learn while reading the book.

Pose questions to what the author wrote. These become things that you would try to answer to help you gain knowledge. Practice critical thinking while you read. Consider how the things you read can be applied to your life, both new opportunities and past experiences.

Most fiction books are for entertainment. Those I read faster with less thought. Sometimes I read fiction for knowledge when looking for quotes and writing style of authors I admire.

You can practice active reading with fiction books as well, through studying the plots, characters and themes. This was exactly what I had to do in secondary school in literature class for Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies and Romeo and Juliet.

Bridging my literature lessons with fiction that I read helped me a lot as an aspiring writer. I was able to see the bigger picture and better appreciate the novels.

This applies to movies and TV series as well. Part of my business involves video production. My work in screenplay and directing videos makes me appreciate films and dramas more, from the screenwriting to the photography and lighting, to the acting, sound effect, and so on.

Mind maps

Another technique I’ve been exploring is an alternative way of taking notes. Start by putting down in a mind map what you know about the topic. Then ask you read, you add to the mind map. This is a very visual experience as you get to see the knowledge growing as you read.

This is something I’m still experimenting so I don’t have much to share right now. I use Xmind for my mind maps so it helps that I can easily switch from the mind map view into the bullet point view that I’m more familiar with.

Be consistent

When I mention that I read, people are often surprised that I have the time to read. I’m known as a workaholic and I guess it is rather hard to imagine how I can squeeze in the time to read.

The trick is to be consistent. Small steps add up to make a great leap. I make it a habit to read one chapter of a book a day while I’m having my coffee to kick off the day. It’s just one chapter but it adds up.

My old routine was to read the morning’s news or check social media. However, news is so filled with negativity, and what’s in the news hardly contribute to my growth as a person. So I prefer to only consume tech news that have some benefit in my work, and I do this later in the day.

Our minds are the freshest when we wake up. This is the best time to read and gain knowledge. Reading news doesn’t help me grow and often end up depressing or wasting time. The only exception is, however, football scores. That’s the only piece of news I would gobble up first thing I wake up if I missed the match the night before.

When you read a chapter a day, the consistency helps you move towards completing the book. On most days I finish the chapter and go about my day. Some days, I have more time and I indulge in more than one chapter.

Then there are the chapters in books that are so hard to put down. With these, I often go through several chapters before I have to force myself to stop.

What ever the case, the minimum is one chapter. This is a rather low bar but it keeps you going. It’s similar to starting a daily exercise routine with 25 push ups a day, and then slowly get to a 100 push ups daily to keep yourself fit.

We feel that we are the centre of attention in our own experiences. In reality, most people are too absorbed in their own experiences to pick up the signs that you are painfully aware of exhibiting.

Were you awfully nervous when you gave that speech? No one noticed because they were daydreaming, busy trying to process the information you’re conveying, or simply wondering if anyone noticed that they are having a bad hair day. In short, people are too caught up in their own little bubbles to be aware of the subtle cues.

Once you understand the illusion of transparency, you can start to take steps to help you overcome this.

Assume that others don’t know what you are thinking or feeling. If you want them to understand what you are feeling or thinking, tell them.

Vice versa, ask someone how they feel if you want to understand what they are experiencing. Their answer might confirm your suspicions. Or they might just prove the illusion of transparency to you.

Don’t be annoyed or upset when others don’t catch on to your cues. If you want them to know how you feel, tell them directly. This is the basis of clear communication. It’s through communicating that we avoid arguments and misunderstandings.

“Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Understanding the illusion of transparency is very liberating. Almost no one cares about things that you are overly conscious of. Free yourself from the invisible shackles cast by your own mind.

Our willingness to express an opinion is a direct result of how popular or unpopular we perceive it to be. We will avoid expressing an opinion that we think is unpopular. We will make a point of showing that we think the same as others if we think it is popular.

We may also be willing to express an unpopular and uncontroversial opinion rather than an unpopular and controversial one.

Humans are social animals. We are instinctively aware of whether voicing an opinion might affect our social standing. We don’t want to risk social exclusion or even ostracism. Remaining part of a group is important for survival and we need to appear to belong in the group and share the popular view.

Implications

This means we often paint an inaccurate picture of ourselves, and what we see is often not an accurate picture of others around us.

A sudden change in what opinion is popular will drive the shift in what people will say, although not what they actually think.

Because people don’t voice their true opinions, a minority of highly vocal individuals can end up influencing what is popular, and thus influence what others will say in public discourse.

This becomes a vicious spiral where the deviant but vocal views keeps getting feedback to become even more vocal and more influential.

This shows that it is important to be authentic. To speak your mind. And we should also listen with an open-mind to encourage proper discourse that gives us a clearer picture and more accurate results.

How much work is it? Well, you need to do the research and understand both sides of the arguments. You start to form your views and then you need to dive deeper into the arguments that oppose your views to have a better insight. In some cases, there are more one perspective that disagree with your views. So multiply the work you need to do accordingly.

And in the process, your views falter and change as you gain insight, providing you with knowledge and wisdom you didn’t have when you first established your views.

Avoid bias, court disagreement

How often do you find yourself seeking information that backs up your views? How often do you seek views that run counter to your views? Is the former more frequent than the latter? If your answer is yes, you are biased.

We are all biased to a certain degree. The key is to be mindful of when we might be and address the prejudice. Actively looking for information that disagrees with your views is a great way to avoid bias.

Have an open mind

When you seek views that oppose yours, do you argue your point? Or do you accept the information from this perspective with an open mind?

Many people think that they are open-minded, yet they have a set of preconceived judgement on some things. This an inevitable process. As we grow up, we form opinions and stick to them more often than not.

Some of these are ideas and concepts that we are so used to that we don’t even pause to question. In some cases, times have changed and the opinion we had has weaker arguments for it now, then when we first made the opinion.

The first step to having an open mind is not to think that you are an open-minded person, but to admit that you might not be as open-minded as you thought you were.

Admit you’re wrong

“It is easier to keep adding exceptions and justifications to a belief than to admit that a challenger has a better explanation.”

Zeynep Tufekci

Being able to kill off your earlier views is a very important step of forming an opinion. You supported a particular stance before and now you oppose it. This means you have the knowledge and understanding of those views. More importantly, you can understand where they fall short.

When you discuss this topic with someone else, you are then able to point out these and better articulate your argument for the your opinion, especially when those who hold your previous opinion.

But do so with an open mind, still. For all you know, they might come up with an argument that would make you question your views once more.

Remember, we are not out there to be right. It is about understanding each other.

Justify your opinion

I don’t mean come up with reasons to justify why you take a particular stance. I mean doing the work necessary before you are justified to make an opinion.

To have an opinion, you need to start by being impartial and judge the arguments from all sides.

How many of you would fill your calendar and pack your daily schedule? Seize the day! Get the most out of each day by making full use of each waking hour. Or at times even eat into the sleeping hours.

When we have such a tight schedule, we leave ourselves prone to being disrupted. What if an emergency cropped up? Or if a meeting or travel time extended beyond what you allocated?

More importantly, we don’t give ourselves the allowance to slow down. Our pursuit of efficiency leaves little room for us to be mindful. We need some lull time for our brain to contemplate on certain things or to come up with ideas. Sure, we clear the task on hand by being efficient. But we don’t have the luxury to step back and think ahead to avoid unseen problems.

Less efficient, better performance

By being less efficient, we give ourselves more time to perform better. Avoiding a problem is actually better than having to queue more tasks needed to deal with said problem.

Having more gaps in our schedule also allows us to be ready to tackle emergencies and sudden challenges. We can dive right in to resolve problems when they occur since we have been idle and had a break. We deal with the problem immediately instead of adding countermeasures to our to-do list.

We can only handle three key tasks daily. If we only have two scheduled, we would be able to deal with a third when it suddenly drops on our lap. No stress from disrupting our tight schedules and task lists. No delays. No need to push back other tasks to deal with this emergency.

Changes in the past year

I made many small tweaks to the site as It evolved into the current state. It continued the minimal look I adopted in the late 2010s with increased emphasis on typography.

Let’s look at the changes made over the past year or so.

Dark mode

The biggest change in 2020 was the implementation of dark mode. It uses a CSS media query to check if the browser prefers dark mode, and display the dark mode styles if it is.

I made more refinements to the feature as dark mode became more widely adopted over the past year.

Type addict

A shameless typography geek, I have been lazy to implement custom fonts on my websites out of sheer laziness. Despite the ease of doing so since Google Fonts started serving beautiful fonts, it is still a workaround with the themes I use to build my sites.

This have changed with modern themes that have Google Font support built into them and the alternative of using @font-face to reference Google Fonts.

I hopped on the retro type bandwagon and went with a serif-serif font pairing of Playfair Display and Crimson Pro for that timeless classic look. The strong look of Playfair Display was perfect for headings and Crimson Pro has always been one of my favourite serif fonts for web use, since Minion Pro isn’t available for free.

Redesign to welcome 2022

The redesign sees the site coming a full circle, adopting styles that I used almost a decade ago. The stylistic choices are refined after honing my aesthetic taste over that period of time.

Return to minimalism

When I revamped the home page in 2020, I decided to implement trends popular then. I added floating boxes that were meant to give the illusion of depth, and slapped box shadows on them.

Back then, it was yet another return to an old style. I used shadows a lot back in the early 2000s, but that was for a skeuomorphic look that was trendy then.

I decided to get rid of the fancy fluff and returned to the minimalist look. No more shadows or layers. Everything is flat.

Yet, there is still some complexity within the minimalism. This is achieved through thin lines, both faded and in the red accent. This brings me to the next point.

Muted look

Where the old design shouted with the red accent colour to bring attention to Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons and links, this new look minimises the appearance of red.

The red only appears under links and when you hover on link items. Unlike the red link underline style of the old design, this new link is again minimal. Where the old style tries to look like highlights or marker underlines, this new approach is more refined and elegant.

Return of sans serif

We come to yet another full circle. The post kicked off talking about type, and it’s fitting that it ends talking about the new typography of this site.

Where the serif fonts went well with previous the fancy look, I decided to bring back a sans serif font for the headings. Not just any sans serif, though. It is my favourite sans serif font, Avenir Next. Unfortunately, it isn’t available as a web font. Avenir Next Pro is a close alternative but it’s paid. So that’s not an option.

If you’re lucky and your device supports Avenir Next, you get to enjoy the site with this beautiful font. Apple devices come with Avenir Next. I’m unsure what other devices have it installed by default.

Don’t worry if your device doesn’t support Avenir Next. There are several fallback sans serif fonts that still look good.

I choose PT Serif as the body font. Crimson Pro looks more classic compared to the more modern-looking PT Serif. This makes the latter pair better with the sans serif heading.

Under the hood

Besides the visual changes above, I made structural changes to the site layout. I had to use a CSS hack to make the text stay within the container and have images break out of the container.

This is no longer the case. The content uses a single container that keeps the text with the contained width while allowing elements like images and blockquotes the option of extending outside the container.

I’ve stopped using widgets in favour of blocks. While some of my other sites and client sites still rely on widgets, this site is now fully block-based. It helps that the minimalist design means I don’t have to worry about displaying content in widgets.

More structural changes will come once full site editing is available in Wordpress 5.9.

We are wired biologically to avoid vulnerability. Yet, humans are also social creatures that thrive on having people around us that we love. Loving takes trust and that means making ourselves vulnerable, to let people into our lives and be authentic. We do this in hope that the rewards would be worth the risks of vulnerability.

Many of us don’t realise that vulnerability is inevitable. No matter how we build emotional walls and psychological barriers, we still leave a door to let people in. The fact is, we are even more vulnerable without the social connections.

“In the beginning, people think vulnerability will make you weak, but it does the opposite. It shows you’re strong enough to care.”

Victoria Pratt

Stop trying to appear as though you aren’t vulnerable. No one is, and it is frustrating when you pretend to be. It shows that you are not trusting and it makes it hard for others to trust you, to be vulnerable with you.

Be vulnerable

Admitting your vulnerabilities can be very liberating. Admit that you don’t know something, or that you made a mistake, or simply apologising. You are being honest with yourself. Be vulnerable. You are… you. You show others that you are vulnerable and you create a safe environment where they can, too, drop their barriers and open up.

Some people might make fun of you when you let yourself be vulnerable. Take heart that they do so out of fear of their own vulnerability. More often than not, you’ll find the people around opening up as well.

“When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability… To be alive is to be vulnerable.”

Madeleine L’Engle

By being vulnerable, you are honest with yourself. Authenticity lets you better connect with who you are so you can identify where you need to improve. No one is perfect but not everyone is improving either. Those who are constantly becoming better will take steps closer towards perfection.

The more you are in touch with your vulnerability, the more you increase your resilience. Resilience lets you face and accept change. That’s a critical skill since change is the only constant in life.

Browsing

Safari is my primary browser. I have different windows running for different mindset I’m in. There is a window for marketing work, a window for designs and coding, a window for consuming content, and a window for content creation.

By putting what I do in different windows, I get into that mindset when I’m in that particular window.

Notes

As I get older, I find myself having to write down things more or I would forget them. I believe it is partly due to the information overload that we get nowadays, coupled with a less-used memory capacity.

Gone are the days when we had to memorise phone numbers and addresses. If you need any information, it’s all probably in your phone. Or you could just do an internet search.

I make quick notes in Apple Notes . It is the inbox for most information. These then get expanded upon and moved to Basecamp or Bear, depending on whether they are work or personal notes. When I read, I write down my thoughts. In this case, the notes go directly into Bear.

For meetings, I prefer not to touch my phone to avoid distractions and, more importantly, show respect to the people in the meeting. I would take notes in my pocket notebook with my trusty Lamy AL-Star

RSS feeds

I used to read both on my phone and laptop. However, I started the habit of taking notes when I read as part of my mindfulness exercise when reading. I think as I read, so I write down my thoughts as they pop up in my head. These often end up as blog drafts or outlines.

It is very hard to take notes while reading RSS feeds on the phone, so I stopped reading my feeds on the phone. My RSS reader of choice is Reeder.

Books

When I read books, I highlight text and write notes. I’ll share more about why I do that in another article. But this happens more when I read non-fiction books. So I keep my non-fiction reading on the MacBook and read fiction books when I’m on the phone.

I still highlight text on the phone, but I don’t take notes.

Emails

I only check my emails on the laptop. The Mail app on my phone is only for emergencies in case I need to reply or check an urgent message. Other than that, my emails are checked once or twice daily when I’m on the MacBook.

Despite being a firm believer of communicating via emails instead of having meetings, I also limit the time I spend going through emails each day because it can suddenly be a slippery slope down a rabbit hole that eats up a huge chunk of time.

Conclusion

These are some of the ways I help myself to stick to my habits. They minimise distractions and help me to focus. More importantly, they creating a mental state that puts me in the mood for each routine.

My old 15" MacBook Pro upgraded to Catalina and gave me a taste of what it is like. When I got the new 16" MacBook Pro, I decided to do a clean install and move my files in. I had half of the work done for me. After I set up iCloud Drive on the new MacBook, the iCloud files on the old MacBook was synced on the new MacBook via iCloud Drive. It is pretty amazing how the files are synced so quickly over iCloud Drive.

File sharing

Sharing files and folders has been a problem. Dropbox was a good solution, but it felt slower and it was a clunky third party add-on. I had to stop using it because it doesn’t work in China, even with VPN.

So I started using Google Drive and OneDrive for file sharing to varying degrees of success and (dis)satisfaction. File sharing is important for my work because my teams needs to sync documents that different people work on. These could be huge Photoshop or XD documents, where speed would affect how fast we can pass the documents to the next person.

One workaround is to use Figma for collaborative graphic design, but the interface is still not as responsive compared to a native Mac app such as Sketch or XD.

Google Drive only works with VPN, and some times doesn’t work even with VPN. OneDrive syncs pretty well and doesn’t need VPN. However, it is a third party app like Dropbox and there were still occasional issues with the app and sync.

We waited for the highly-anticipated iCloud Drive file sharing ever since it was announced. And it has been a delight. File sync is fast and it works regardless of my internet environment.

Cloud backup

Roughly 95% of my files are all on iCloud Drive. On Catalina, everything is on iCloud Drive, aside from the applications folder and system files, which are on a separate partition. This means all that your files are synced on iCloud unless you place them in a folder outside iCloud Drive.

An interesting feature for users with smaller disk space is iCloud’s unloading feature. It will move less used files and folders to iCloud, off your local storage to free up space. When you need the files, it will download them. This helps you to maximise the free space while clearing out less used items, bringing them back only when you need them.

I haven’t had much experience with that since my files are mostly on local storage, but the few times I had to download files that were synced from the old MacBook Pro, the files downloaded fast enough that I have no complaints.

Cloud is the future

As you can tell, my experience thus far has been incredible. It is beyond my expectations and I’m a very happy user. This has helped me reduce my reliance on backing up to an external hard drive. Instead of constantly worrying about backing up my data, it just works.

Of course, I’ve had BackBlaze for many years. BackBlaze is a subscription backup service and it has saved me several times over the years. It is worth every penny spent. However, it doesn’t back up system files, which I believe iCloud does.

Even with BackBlaze, I would still have to do regular TimeMachine back ups to an external drive. And I would also use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my Mac hard drive and also my TimeMachine drive, just to be safe.

Cloud backups has allowed me to do less frequent backups. While I do worry that iCloud Drive might fail me at some point, I can at least know that it will back me up most of the time, pun intended.

The song went viral a couple of months ago with its catchy tune and lyrics that many listeners resonated with.

English translation

Top verse partner with Li Ronghao
Thank you to all of you, who voted for our team
But for this live song, I have no existing lyrics that fits
So I was preparing my soul, to stay up and write all night
When I turned on my computer, the competition I went through
Become yet another draft

As I sat in the economy-class, and flew to this place
From the hotel window, I watched the moon and think of home
My age, you could say I’m young but not that young
When it comes to new things, I can’t take my eyes of them
Thinking of how I can become the champion

Let the cheers no longer remain, illusions in the deep of night
I treat rhyming, like playing the piano
While my melancholy, perhaps needs a Band-Aid
To protect some wounds, to protect some secrets
Let them ferment then uncover, and I’ll write a song for you

I sat beside the window at seat 46A
I met a fan, and he looked slightly astonished
Are you kidding
A rapper sitting in economy-class, doesn’t it hurt your pride
I said this is, the road leading to success
Ended our conversation, silent thousands of metres in the sky
The silence reminded me of, my own mother
To think that was our, final phone call, Mum

Every time I mourn that you in the heavens
At the moment the moonlight shines through the clouds into the window
I hope my hopes won’t be dashed by a speck of dust
That person’s hope floats lightly in economy-class
I hope expressions in the front and back rows won’t be somber
I hope the distance between you and I are not obstructed
Have your trajectory gone off course
Are your hopes still rooted in reality

Ladies and gentlemen
Key.L Liu Cong

Busy phone lines, are everywhere this starry night
Sing along gently with me, even if you’re sitting in economy-class
Busy phone lines, no signal above the clouds
Don’t be nervous when in love, life is not an arena

A steady heart fears stopping in mediocrity the most
Like a piece of ice, forgetting what it’s like to be water
Homie, you are so desperate, of course you need confidence
A hawk, can’t remain attached to the horizon
This cabin seat can’t see, that people outside the window get what they ask for
Before a seed sprouts it fights with the soil, until it is neighbours with the sky
Incredible tenacity, comes from experience
Don’t doubt, the unchanging nights
Those footprints overcome hardships, helping me defeat pride and laziness
When I’m disheartened by the pressure, and forced to the threshold
I understand the meaning of the word champion

Yeah let’s begin
Like-minded people, don’t stop thinking about them
Debride the wounds, and face the bitter cold once more
I sit in economy-class, but my heart is in the horizon
Sing along gently with me, sitting in economy-class

Busy phone lines, are everywhere this starry night
Seeing the mountains beyond mountains, despite sitting in economy-class
Come on
Busy phone lines, no signal above the clouds
To become best of the best, even if he sits in economy-class
He said
Busy phone lines, are everywhere this starry night
Sing along gently with me, even if you’re sitting in economy-class
Everybody
Busy phone lines, no signal above the clouds
Don’t be nervous when in love, life is not an arena

Like-minded people, don’t stop thinking about them
Debride the wounds, and face the bitter cold once more
I sit in economy-class, but my heart is in the horizon
Sing along gently with me, sitting in economy-class

Like-minded people, don’t stop thinking about them
Debride the wounds, and face the bitter cold once more
I sit in economy-class, but my heart is in the horizon
Sing along gently with me, sitting in economy-class

The broadcast announced our arrival, leaving an echo
During the trip, I didn’t close my eyes to catch any sleep
In the night, like a signal light in the sea
The stewardess said see you again, mister, very courteous
My headphones ran out of battery, without music I’m brought back to reality
Certain emotions I can’t forget, as ai jump onto the noisy stage from economy-class

Original lyrics in Chinese

上端verse合作给李荣浩
感谢所有人 投给我们的票
但这首歌的现场 我没词可以套
所以灵魂继续熬 准备写一个通宵
当我打开了电脑 经历的比赛
又成为草稿

坐上经济舱 来到这个地方
隔着酒店的窗 望着月亮思故乡
我的年龄 说新不算新
对于新事物 总目不转睛
心里面想怎么拿冠军

让喝彩不在成为 深夜的幻听
我把押韵 比喻成钢琴
而我的忧郁 是否需要张邦迪
保护一些伤 保护一些秘密
等他发酵揭开后 我写歌送给你
46A我靠窗边坐下

遇见了歌迷 他略显得惊讶
开玩笑吗 Rapper坐在经济舱
面子伤不伤 我说这是
通往成功的方向 结束谈话
沉默在万米高空上 耳机隔音
仿佛身旁空荡荡 安静让我容易想起
自己的妈妈 没想到那是我们
最后一通电话妈妈

每次当我想悼念你在天上
透过窗月光洒下云层的刹那
希望不会因为一粒灰尘而泡汤
那人的希望轻轻飘在经济舱
希望前后排的表情别哭丧
希望我和你之间的距离没阻挡
你的轨迹有没有偏航
你所希望的是否发生在实际上

Ladies and gentlemen
Key.L刘聪

拨不通的电话 遍布星辰的晚上
跟我轻轻唱 就算你在经济舱
拨不通的电话 信号丢失云层上
爱就别紧张 生活不是竞技场

平常心最怕平常中停歇
像块冰 忘了 be water 的经验
Homie 说你这么拼 当然需要信心

鹰 不可以留恋地平线
这仓位毕竟看不见 窗外的人有求必应
种子发芽前和泥土比拼 直到足以和天空比邻
不可思议的韧性来自经历 你别不信
一律千篇的夜 那些足印涉过艰险
帮我灭却骄傲惰性 当被压抑沮丧逼到临界
了解 champion 的翻译是冠军 Yeah let’s begin
心心相印的人 别停止想念
伤口清清创 并着疯再次凛冽
身在经济舱 可我心在天边
和我轻轻唱在经济舱

拨不通的电话 遍布星辰的晚上
看到山外山 虽然我在经济舱
Come on
拨不通的电话 信号丢失云层上
要做人上人 虽然他在经济舱
他说
拨不通的电话 遍布星辰的晚上
跟我轻轻唱 就算你在经济舱
Everybody
拨不通的电话 信号丢失云层上
爱就别紧张 生活不是竞技场
心心相印的人 别停止想念
伤口清清创 并着风再次凛冽
身在经济舱 可我心在天边
和我轻轻唱 在经济舱
心心相印的人 别停止想念
伤口清清创 并着风再次凛冽
身在经济舱 可我心在天边
和我轻轻唱 在经济舱

广播通知到达 留下回声
旅途中 没有闭眼睛睡一觉
黑夜中 像在海上的信号灯
空姐说再见先生 很有礼貌
耳机用光了电池 没有音乐我又回到了现实
某种情绪再忘不掉 从经济舱跳上舞台的喧闹

Video

I often get asked about how ecommerce works in China. This article serves as a place to point people to when they are curious about the topic. Instead of me retelling the same answers and often missing points here and there, this serves as a place to collect and pen down my thoughts and experiences.

Main players

The two biggest platforms are JD.com, also known internationally as JoyBuy, and Taobao. They are in the Tencent and Alibaba ecosystems respectively. The competition between the two ecosystems is an interesting topic that deserves its own article.

As an Alibaba service, Taobao naturally only accepts payments from AliPay. JD is a member of the Tencent ecosystem and thus only takes payments from Tencent’s WeChat Pay. Of course, each platform also accepts payment by linking bank cards, and JD has its JD Quick Pass service that allows payment via ApplePay.

Other smaller platforms include:

• Vipshop aka VIP.com - the third largest after JD and Taobao.
• Dangdang - the second largest B2C (business-to-consumer) after JD.
• Pinduoduo - a platform that initially focused on group buys before changing to a marketplace model.

Taobao/Tmall

Taobao is the first major ecommerce platform. It operates with a marketplace model where vendors can register and sell their products in their stores. Taobao was less regulated in the early days and it gained a bad reputation due to scams and counterfeit products.

To increase consumer trust in the platform, Alibaba rolled out Tmall, a platform for brand owners or authorised distributors. The approval process is stricter compared to Taobao and vendors had to pay a RMB 150,000 deposit on top of an annual fee of RMB 60,000 to sell on the platform. Tmall products and stores are searchable within Taobao, and users can choose to view only Tmall vendors in their searches if they prefer to buy only from verified and reliable vendors.

Items sold by vendors within the same province as you usually ship within 2 days. Vendors from other provinces will ship within 7 days.

Customer service

You can find almost anything on Taobao. We purchased supplies, equipment, and decoration for our cafe on Taobao.

Since Taobao is a C2C (sidenote: Consumer-to-consumer ) platform, you can often negotiate with the seller. This is something that blew my mind. When I purchased online via eBay or Amazon, I bought what the vendors sold. Taobao has a live chat feature and most vendors reply almost immediately.

You can request for customised products, bargain for a better price or request for free shipping if you are purchasing in bulk. Customer service can also give suggestions or recommendations based on your preferences and requirements.

Returns

Returning items bought on Taobao used to be more troublesome. However, due to the hassle-free service JD provides, Taobao has become more competitive.

Most products come with a 7-day return policy, unless they are perishable or products that can’t be returned. Most vendors provide 7-day no questions asked return policy. This means you don’t need to provide a reason for returning or wait for the vendor to approve the return. The platform will automatically process the return if it is within the return window period.

One thing to look out for is the shipping fee insurance. Not all vendors provide shipping fee insurance. This means you will have to bear the cost of the return shipping. For products with shipping fee insurance, you still need to pay the cost of the return shipping but the platform will refund you the shipping fee once the vendor receives the returned item.

In the past, you would have to bring the parcel to a distribution spot in the neighbourhood to drop off the returned item. It is actually not that big of a hassle because this is usually within 200 metres from where you live.

Nowadays, the delivery person will come to your doorstep to pick up the item. Just select your preferred collection date and time when you process the return in the app. Alternatively, you can choose to leave the parcel in the nearest collection locker, which is available in every apartment block lobby nowadays, and the delivery person will collect it when they come to drop off parcels in the lockers.

JD.com

JD differentiated itself from Taobao through a B2C model. Brands supply their products to JD and the platform manages the logistics including warehousing and fulfilment.

JD is known for its speedy delivery. Since products are sold by JD rather than third-party vendors, they undergo strict a curation process to ensure that the products are genuine and of good quality.

I purchase my groceries, toiletries and other household items from JD because of JD’s partnership with Walmart. If I run out of rice, cooking oil or dog food, I know I can place an order immediately and receive the items on the same day or in the next morning.

Same or next day delivery

If you purchase before 10 am, it is usually a same-day delivery unless your item is out of stocks in the nearest warehouse. For purchases made after 10 am and before 11pm, the orders will be delivered the next morning.

The app will let you know the estimated delivery time before you place an order. Instead of shipping all your products together, items from the same dispatch location will be shipped together. This means that if you order 3 items and 1 of them is out of stocks, the other 2 items will be shipped first and the third item dispatched from the next nearest warehouse.

Such delivery speeds means JD is the go-to platform if you need your orders to be delivered quick.

JD warranty

I purchase electronics through JD because of the awesome warranty and return policy. JD trumps Taobao in terms of its return service and warranty. For many electronic products, JD offer additional warranty extensions. This means that JD will cover for repairs beyond the manufacturers warranty period.

JD offers a 7-day return with no questions asked policy. This means you can try an item and return it if you don’t like it. Of course, you have to make sure that the item is not damaged and retain the original packaging. The item is picked up by the JD delivery person. Each neighbourhood is serviced by a few JD delivery staff. They personalise their service to, uh, deliver the best customer experience.

JD service

My JD delivery guy knows the time of the day I’m at home so he will try to delivery heavy and bulky items during those times so he can bring them right to my doorstep. If I’m not around, the building security would not allow him to come upstairs. He would have to leave them in the lobby and I would have to carry the items up myself. If he’s unsure of the time, he would call to check before making the delivery.

Such outstanding service is a company-wide standard. I’ve had a different delivery person for each neighbourhood I’ve lived in and for different office locations, and the service standard is always the same. This is why I prefer to purchase from JD even if an item is cheaper on Taobao.

Taobao still uses third-party shipping services, so the service standard varies and certain shipping services refuse to bear the cost of the return shipping. For example, we tried to return a display bought off Taobao on the day we received it. However, the shipping service refused to accept the returned item because they could not cover the cost of the insurance. They asked us to ship via another shipping service and bear the additional cost of the shipping insurance.

Until Taobao has its own fulfilment service, I doubt they will be able to catch up with JD in terms of customer experience and satisfaction.

Vendor marketplace

JD has a third-party marketplace where verified vendors sell their products on the platform. I rarely purchase from these sellers. The exception is when they provide imported products that JD does not offer. The drawback of purchasing from third-party vendors is the that they use their own shipping service that is slower than JD’s. Even if they are fulfilled by JD, it is still not as fast as products fulfilled from JD’s warehouse.

JD Plus membership

Taobao has a membership program, but I don’t buy enough from Taobao to warrant subscribing. I purchase almost all my household supplies from JD, so it’s a no-brainer to sign up for JD’s Plus membership.

For an annual fee of RMB 99, I get 5% off my purchases, enjoy members-only discounts and shipping no minimum order amount for free shipping. JD requires a minimum order of RMB 99 for free shipping. I save at least RMB 99 per month with JD Plus.

Other platforms

I’m very pampered by JD, and Taobao vendors generally provide good services. So I haven’t found the need to purchase using other platforms. I won’t comment on the platforms since I don’t use them. If I do venture to try them, I’ll definitely write about my experience.

I’ve been a Mika fan since she sang “Find the Way”, the third ending theme for Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. Her performance in the live action movie Nana as the titular character, and the film’s theme song “Glamorous Sky” sealed her status as one of my favourite female Japanese singers alongside Ayumi Hamasaki.

Background

This was the closing song of her 2015 concert. She was diagnosed with patulous Eustachian tubes in both ears in 2010. In this live performance, you can see her trying to keep the beat with her feet because of her condition. And it was a heartfelt rendition that speaks of her emotions and how they resonated with the lyrics.

Below is a longer version without subtitles. It has segment before the singing where she gave a background of the song.

“Honestly, I was actually very surprised when I first received this song. However, after listening to the song, I was in tears when it ended. I felt my steeled heart softening instantly. This is a song that represents my deepest feelings. Everyone of you present definitely had a time where you were lost and depressed. Asking, ‘Why things never turn out as expected?’”

“Today, I’ll express everyone’s deepest feelings through this song. So, please listen to this song till the end.”

English translation

Title: Once I Thought of Ending It for Good The Reason I Thought I’d Die

I thought I’d die because black-tailed gulls chirped on a pier
Disappearing as they drifted over the waves, flying away and picking my past as they went
I thought I’d die because apricot blossoms bloomed on my birthday
Can I become the soil with dead bugs if I nap under the sunlight filtering through foliage?[^1]

[^1]: “Komorebi” is a Japanese word that is hard to translate.

Mint candy, lighthouse at a fishing port, rusty arch bridge, abandoned bicycle
Before a stove at a wooden station house, my heart can’t set out anywhere
Today looks like yesterday, if we wanna change tomorrow we should change today
I know, I know… but…

I thought I’d die because my heart went blank
I cry over being unsatisfied is surely because I want to be satisfied

I thought I’d die because my shoelaces got undone
I’m not good at making ties, the same goes with human relationships
I thought I’d die because the boy was gazing at me
I’m kneeling on the bed to apologise to myself that day

Dim-light of a computer, sounds of life coming from upstairs
Chimes of an intercom, the boy covering his ears in a birdcage
Don Quixote fighting with an invisible enemy in a six-mat room
Goal must be ugly anyway

I thought I’d die because I was called a cold person
I cry over being loved because I need to get to know the warmth of others

I thought I’d die because of your gentle laugh
I only consider dying because I am too serious to live on

I thought I’d die because I hadn’t met you yet
I fell in love with this world a little more where people like you were born
I will place a bit of my hope in this world where people like you live

Original lyrics in Romanji

Boku ga shinou to omotta no wa umineko ga sanbashi de naitakara
Nami no manima ni ukande kieru kako mo tuibande tonde ike
Boku ga shinou to omotta no wa tanjoubi ni anzu no hana ga saitakara
Sono komorebi de utatane shitara mushi no shigai to tsuchi ni nareru ka na

Hakkaame gyokou no toudai sabita āchi-kyou suteta jitensha
Mokuzou no eki no sutoobu no mae de dokoni mo tabidatenai kokoro
Kyou wa marude kinou mitaida ashita o kaerunara kyou o kaenakya
Wakatteru wakatteru keredo

Boku ga shinou to omotta no wa kokoro ga karappo ni nattakara
Mitasarenai to naite iru no wa kitto mitasaretai to negaukara

Boku ga shinou to omotta no wa kutsuhimo ga hodoketa kara
Musubi naosu no wa nigatena nda yo hito to no tsunagari mo mata shikari
Boku ga shinou to omotta no wa shounen ga boku o mitsumete itakara
Beddo no ue de dogeza shi teru yo ano hi no boku ni gomen’nasai to

Pasokon no usu akari joukai no heya no seikatsu-on
Intāfon no chaimu no oto mimiwofusagu torikago no shounen
Mienaiteki to tatakatteru rokujouhitoma no donkihoute
Gouru wa douse hidoi mono sa

Boku ga shinou to omotta no wa tsumetai hito to iwa retakara
Aisaretai to naite iru no wa hito no nukumori o shitte shimattakara

Boku ga shinou to omotta no wa anata ga kirei ni waraukara
Shinu koto bakari kangaete shimau no wa kitto ikiru koto ni majime sugirukara

Boku ga shinou to omotta no wa mada anata ni deattenakattakara
Anata no youna hito ga umareta sekai o sukoshi suki ni natta yo

Anata no youna hito ga iki teru sekai ni sukoshi kitai suru yo

Original lyrics in Japanese

僕が死のうと思ったのは　ウミネコが桟橋で鳴いたから
波の随意に浮かんで消える　過去も啄ばんで飛んでいけ
僕が死のうと思ったのは　誕生日に杏の花が咲いたから
その木漏れ日でうたた寝したら　虫の死骸と土になれるかな

薄荷飴　漁港の灯台　錆びたアーチ橋　捨てた自転車
木造の駅のストーブの前で　どこにも旅立てない心
今日はまるで昨日みたいだ　明日を変えるなら今日を変えなきゃ
分かってる　分かってる　けれど

僕が死のうと思ったのは　心が空っぽになったから
満たされないと泣いているのは　きっと満たされたいと願うから

僕が死のうと思ったのは　靴紐が解けたから
結びなおすのは苦手なんだよ　人との繋がりもまた然り
僕が死のうと思ったのは　少年が僕を見つめていたから
ベッドの上で土下座してるよ　あの日の僕にごめんなさいと

パソコンの薄明かり　上階の部屋の生活音
インターフォンのチャイムの音　耳を塞ぐ鳥かごの少年
見えない敵と戦ってる　六畳一間のドンキホーテ
ゴールはどうせ醜いものさ

僕が死のうと思ったのは　冷たい人と言われたから
愛されたいと泣いているのは　人の温もりを知ってしまったから

僕が死のうと思ったのは　あなたが綺麗に笑うから
死ぬことばかり考えてしまうのは　きっと生きる事に真面目すぎるから

僕が死のうと思ったのは　まだあなたに出会ってなかったから
あなたのような人が生まれた　世界を少し好きになったよ

あなたのような人が生きてる　世界に少し期待するよ

Credits

English translation modified from:

• Kumonito.net (Site is dead, linked to archived page)

• Genius

Romanji lyrics: Beautiful Song Lyrics blog (Site is dead)

Kanji lyrics: Mojim.com

Changelog

12 July 2023 – Modified the English title and lyrics based on my interpretation of the Japanese meanings.

Even without understanding the language, you can feel the sense of inspiration in this time filled with fear.

Sitting beneath the Moon
I thought about some things
My hometown will be safe and sound
The wish in my heart will come true, right?
Everything will gradually improve, right?

The wind rises
The rain pours
Buckwheat leaves have fallen
Tree leaves have fallen
Spring has gone and autumn is here
My emotions are in turmoil
Time marches on
Fortunes come and go

Don’t be afraid, Don’t be afraid
Don’t be afraid, Don’t be afraid
Don’t be afraid, Don’t be afraid
Don’t be afraid
Whether it’s the bitter cold
Or sweltering heat

The wind rises
The rain pours
Buckwheat leaves have fallen
Tree leaves have fallen
Spring has gone and autumn is here
My emotions are in turmoil
Time marches on
Fortunes come and go

Don’t be afraid, Don’t be afraid
Don’t be afraid, Don’t be afraid
Don’t be afraid, Don’t be afraid
Don’t be afraid
Whether it’s the bitter cold
Or sweltering heat

The wind rises
The rain pours
Buckwheat leaves have fallen
Tree leaves have fallen
Spring has gone and autumn is here
My emotions are in turmoil
Time marches on
Fortunes come and go

Don’t be afraid, Don’t be afraid
Don’t be afraid, Don’t be afraid
Don’t be afraid, Don’t be afraid
Don’t be afraid
Whether it’s the bitter cold
Or sweltering heat
Don’t be afraid

Original lyrics in Chinese

坐在月亮下面
想了一些事情
故乡定会平安无事
心里的愿望定会实现吧
一切都会慢慢好的吧

风起了
雨下了
荞叶落了
树叶黄了
春去秋来
心绪起伏
时光流转
岁月沧桑

不要怕 不要怕
不要怕 不要怕
不要怕 不要怕
不要怕
无论严寒
或酷暑

风起了
雨下了
荞叶落了
树叶黄了
春去秋来
心绪起伏
时光流转
岁月沧桑

不要怕 不要怕
不要怕 不要怕
不要怕 不要怕
不要怕
无论严寒
或酷暑
不要怕 不要怕
不要怕 不要怕
不要怕 不要怕
不要怕
无论伤痛
或苦难
不要怕
不要怕
不要怕 不要怕
不要怕 不要怕
不要怕
无论严寒
或酷暑

不要怕

Original lyrics in Yi script

The original lyrics in Modern Yi script. I don’t know the script so I’m unable to modify it based on Momoko’s rearrangement.

ꃅꆳꁏꇁ
ꂷꉐꐛꇁ
ꈾꏾꊰꇁ
ꌩꏾꏂꇁꃲ。
ꑋꈌꁏꇁ
ꃅꋆꃹꇁ
ꉌꃀꁏꇁꃲꀑ
ꋍꈓꋍꃢꀒ，ꋍꏅꋍꆪꀒ。
ꀋꏦꇊ，
ꀋꏦꇉ
ꀋꏦꇊꀋꏦꀋꏦꇊꀋꏦꀋꏦꇊꀑ
ꈺꑌꀋꐒꀒ，ꊷꑌꀋꐒꀒꀑ
ꀋꏦꇊ，
ꀋꏦꇊ，
ꀋꏦꇊꀋꏦꀋꏦꇊꀋꏦꀋꏦꇊꀑ
ꆄꑌꄡꐒꂸ，ꎬꑌꄡꐒꀒ。

Original lyrics in phonetic Yi

mu hly pur la
ma hxa jjip la
mge qi ci la
syr qy syr la vex
nyix ke pur la, mu chur pur la
hxie mop pur la vex
cyp kur cyp vit ox
syp shyr cyp hlep op

ap jie lop, ap jiep lop
ap jie lop, ap jiep lop
ap jie lop, ap jiep lop
ap jie lop ap jie
ap jie lop ap jie
ap jie lop ap jie

mu hly pur la
ma hxa jjip la
mge qi ci la
syr qy syr la vex
nyix ke pur la, mu chur pur la
hxie mop pur la vex
cyp kur cyp vit ox
syp shyr cyp hlep op

ap jie lop, ap jiep lop
ap jie lop, ap jiep lop
ap jie lop, ap jiep lop
ap jie lop ap jie
ap jie lop ap jie
ap jie lop ap jie

mox nyi ap qyp o
cax nyi ap qyp o
hnax nyi tat qyp o
hnax nyi tat qyp o
hnax nyi tat qyp o
shax nyi tat qyp o
shax nyi tat qyp o

ap jie lop, ap jiep lop
ap jie lop, ap jiep lop
ap jie lop, ap jiep lop
ap jie lop ap jie
ap jie lop ap jie
ap jie lop ap jie

English Translation

Curled up in the sofa, feeling groggy, hair unkempt
Yet I yearn to be as carefree as a movie’s protagonist
Below the eaves, a row of crows nestle close together
I don’t know how to release the feelings I hold back

Whether I’m here or there
Like the frightened chirping of insects
Yet I understand I need to put in some effort now
Whether I’m here or there
I can’t make up for the past
Whenever I recall

Thought of leaving, to exist this way
Because of the whispers, attitudes, and wounds
I didn’t want to leave when you said you’re here for me
Suddenly I start to inexplicably… look forward

As the sun sets, I flip through my phone contacts and have no one to call
This is what I deserve for being used to loneliness
On this single-plank bridge, whoever pushes others off will be the winner
I resist silently, when can I overcome it?

Whether I’m here or there
Like the frightened chirping of insects
Yet I understand I need to put in some effort now
Whether I’m here or there
I can’t make up for the past
Whenever I recall

Thought of leaving, to exist this way
Because of the whispers, attitudes, and wounds
I didn’t want to leave, perhaps having experienced being loved
I’ll start to look forward to the future
These scars, just leave them in my memories
Let go, so I can get better things
Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid

Thought of leaving, when clouds cover the sunshine
I never thought you would go all out to clear the skies for me…
Thought of leaving, yet I’ve persevered till now
I’ve weathered the whispers, attitudes, and wounds
I didn’t want to leave, when start smiling
The world is suddenly filled with colours

Curled up in the sofa, feeling groggy, hair unkempt
As the sun sets, I answer the phone, and it was you

-End-

Original Chinese Lyrics

抱着沙发 睡眼昏花 凌乱头发
却渴望像电影主角一样潇洒
屋檐角下 排着乌鸦 密密麻麻
被压抑的情绪不知如何表达

无论我 在这里 在那里
仿佛失魂的虫鸣
却明白此刻应该做些努力
无论我 在这里 在那里
不能弥补的过去
每当想起

想过离开 以这种方式存在
是因为 那些旁白 那些姿态 那些伤害
不想离开 当你说还有你在
忽然我开始莫名 期待

夕阳西下 翻着电话 无人拨打
是习惯孤独的我该得到的吧
独木桥呀 把谁推下 才算赢家
我无声的反抗 何时能战胜它

无论我 在这里 在那里
仿佛失魂的虫鸣
却明白此刻应该做些努力
无论我 在这里 在那里
不能弥补的过去
每当想起

想过离开 以这种方式存在
是因为 那些旁白 那些姿态 那些伤害
不想离开 也许尝试过被爱
会开始仰望未来
伤疤 就丢给回忆吧
放下 才得到更好啊
别怕 别怕

想过离开 当阳光败给阴霾
没想到你会拼命为我拨开
曾想过离开 却又坚持到现在
熬过了 那些旁白 那些姿态 那些伤害
不想离开 当你的笑容绽开
这世界突然填满 色彩

抱着沙发 睡眼昏花 凌乱头发
夕阳西下 接通电话 是你呀

Video

Here are the video recommendations for this song.

Another live version from Huahua’s 2019 concert

Fan animation of with the studio version of the song

I see photographers who take photos of insects, birds or others things. It is their prerogative what they chose to photograph. They make use of shallow depth of field to isolate the subjects. These photos might be meaningful to them. Perhaps it replicated a photo they have seen before. Or it freezes a memory in their lives.

However, I consider these photos lacking meaning to me, hence I rarely take such photos. I take photos of people because that’s what matters, especially people who matter.

Take more photos

When you see a good scene, take more photos. Having a family event? Out on a date? Or just chilling at home with the dog? Any time is a good time to take more photos to capture the moment.

Edit old photos

It pays to revisit old photos. Photos that you edited out previously might actually be good photos that you overlooked, or discarded due to your thoughts, emotions and bias at that moment.

When you edited the photos, you might not have appreciated it then, but your growth as a photographer teaches you how to better appreciate photos and lets you see your old photos in a new light.

Avoid distractions

Don’t read gear news, rumours or reviews. Focus on making the most out of your current gear. Spend your time creating photos.

Avoid analysing too much

Paralysis by analysis is all too common. You spend so much time studying photography that you have little or no time to shoot. Go forth and shoot. It is only through taking photos that you can actually gain experience that will help you grow as a photographer.

Go out of your comfort zone

Shoot outside your comfort zone. If you stay within your comfort zone you will only get the same types of photos that you got previously. Push yourself to do something challenging or difficult. What is challenging or difficult? Easy. What makes you feel uncomfortable. Discomfort is your mind’s way of telling you that it is doing something that it isn’t used to.

Remember, life is short. Just do it.

Emoji & Symbols panel

Hanyu pinyin uses diacritic to mark the four tones of Mandarin. I used to do this by using control + command + space (⌃⌘⎵) to trigger the Emoji & Symbols input. Then, I would type in a, e, i, o, u or v (for ü) in the search bar and then manually select my input.

Third party input

It was getting a little tiresome and I figured I would use create an abbreviation in Typinator to automatically expand with the tones. Now, I considered using the the macOS native text replacement function. That works just as well. However, given that there are four tones for each of the six letters, I would have to create 24 entries and I would prefer to group them all under a set in Typinator.

The other advantage Typinator has over native text replacement is the ability to use AppleScript and other advanced features such as automatic custom input, variables and custom control functions. Check it out if you’re interested to upgrade your typing.

About a third of the way through creating the Typinator entries, I found myself questioning whether this was something that should have been built into macOS. In other words, I was lazy. So I did a quick DuckDuckGo search and found that macOS is able to do this in a simpler, faster way.

Built-in macOS input

Those of you who input text beyond English on macOS probably already know this. Open System Preferences > Keyboard > Input sources. Click on the + to add a new input source. Under English, add ABC - Extended. Remove the default ABC since you now have a more powerful input source.

The extended input source lets you add a diacritic to a letter in two easy steps.

1. Press option and the corresponding diacritic key. The diacritic appears.
2. You can press space to just use the diacritic as is, or you can type your desired letter a, e, i, o, u or v (for ü).

This is the only part that requires some effort: memorising the diacritic key.

First tone (¯)

First tone high-level flat tone is represented by a macron (¯).

Press option + A (⌥ A) followed by the desired letter.

For example, option + A (⌥ A) followed by a gives ā.

Second tone (´)

Second high-rising tone is represented by an acute accent (´).

Press option + E (⌥ E) followed by the desired letter.

For example, option + E (⌥ E) followed by e gives é.

Third tone (ˇ)

Third falling-rising tone is represented by a caron (ˇ).

Press option + V (⌥ V) followed by the desired letter.

For example, option + V (⌥ V) followed by v gives ǚ.

Fourth tone (`)

Fourth falling tone is represented by a grave accent (`).

Press option +` (⌥ `) followed by the desired letter.

For example, option + ` (⌥ `) followed by o gives ò.

Umlaut u (ü)

You can also input the letter u with an umlaut (ü) using option + u (⌥ U) followed by u.

Uppercase

If you wish to input the pinyin in uppercase, simply hold down shift when you key in the letter.

For example, option + A (⌥ A) followed by shift + a gives Ā.

If you have any more tips that I missed out, let me know and I’ll update this page.

It’s not that bad

The worst case scenario is usually not as bad as we imagined. Fear is what kept our ancestors alive thousands of years ago when they gathered food while facing the dangers of predators.

We inherit the fear that has less relevance in the modern day. Fear is a way of protecting ourselves from harm. It is integral to self-preservation. We need to face our fears, understand what’s causing them and why we feel this way. Then master our fears.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Litany Against Fear by Frank Herbert in Dune

It is only through facing our fears that we become human, detached from our animal instincts. It is not easy because acting out of fear or reacting to your fears is our natural instinct. It becomes even harder the older we get because we are so used to it.

Quick mindfulness

However, it is not as difficult as it appears. You can snap yourself out of an instinctive reaction through mindfulness. One quick way is to put yourself in a one-minute exercise. Close your eyes. Breathe in deeply through your nose. Then breathe out through your mouth.

As you continue to do so for the next minute, focus on how your lung expands as you breathe in, and how your muscles move. Feel the movement of the air through your nose, and out of your mouth.

Avoid thinking about anything else during this minute.

Count your silver linings

Even then, the worst case scenario might be a blessing in disguise. Our fears are based on what we know of in our current circumstances. However, change is the only constant. What we were scared of might be unfounded when it actually comes to pass. Our limited knowledge does not prepare us to fully grasp the situation.

No matter how dark the skies may be, every cloud still has its silver lining. The worst can happen but there will always be positives to take away from it. Hang on to the positive and use it to drive yourself to grow and become better.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. You might have truly and completely failed. But you learn from each failure. You’ll be more experienced when you make the next attempt.

Remembering that you are going to die, is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Steve Jobs

Fear of failure only stops you from trying, and to never take that step you would not know what would have been if you succeed.

Don’t be paralysed

The most common effect that fear has is to paralyse us from taking action. Inaction will only make it worse. Recognise our fear and take steps to make sure we don’t get hurt too badly.

Then take that leap of faith.

Dark mode was added to iOS and recently to macOS 10.14 as well. This allows users to choose a dark theme, either as the default, or allow the operating system to automatically switch to light mode in the day and dark mode at night.

Why use dark mode?

Why would you want to use dark mode? The main reason is that it is aesthetically pleasing. It is a personal preference and some people prefer a user interface with light foreground on dark backgrounds.

For those of you who work in a dark room, using dark mode means less light colours on the screen and this reduces the strain on your eyes. Dark mode reduces the glare from the screen by switching the user interface to one that uses light text dark colours.

Dark mode for websites

With desktop and mobile operating systems supporting dark modes, an increasing number of people will be on dark mode. This also means there is a greater chance that people will land on your site with their computer running on dark mode.

Websites that don’t support dark mode will stand out, especially those with greater white or light backgrounds. When the user interface is darker, a website with black text and white background sticks out like a sore thumb. A website that noticeably changes with dark mode preference shows that the site designers value a holistic and considerate web browsing experience for their visitors.

How to apply dark mode?

It is very easy to implement dark mode on your website using CSS. You can use a media query to check if the browser prefers dark mode. While this isn’t supported everywhere yet, it’s a good start and it should gain wider adoption as dark mode becomes more widely used by web designers.

Add this to your media query section of your CSS file:

@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  body {
		background-color: #232222;
		color: #fff; 
  }
  
	a, a:hover { color: #fff; 
  }
  
}

What goes into this media query? Basically you just need to change background to a dark colour and text to a light colour. Add a tinge to the colours depending on your site’s colour palette.

Other elements you need to tweak include buttons, input fields and icons.

More than a colour palette inversion

Implementing dark mode doesn’t mean just inverting the colours or changing to light text on dark backgrounds. The whole premise of the dark mode is to reduce the glare and adjust the displayed content so they are not too bright for the user.

I dimmed the image in dark mode so the site will not suddenly feel brighter due to images. The images will still revert to full brightness when you mouse over them so you can hover your cursor to look at the images.

It took me about 40 minutes to implement dark mode on this site, my Journal and my Chinese blog. Let me know if I missed out certain elements! And I highly recommend you try it out on your site!

English Translation

Sunset is so beautiful
Light from the setting sun shines on the white wall
At this moment tears unexpectedly fall
My smile freezes on my face as memories scatter

Yesterday doesn’t matter anymore
The future is distant and a lot is left unsaid
I know you are struggling
But you have to learn to reconcile with yourself

Because you have to believe
Stop your doubting
You might have some regrets
But you experience the ups and downs
And yield a pleasant surprise in the crack on the wall

Wishes and clocks nestle against each other
A gentle breeze embraces me and I feel the warmth

Yesterday doesn’t matter anymore
The future is distant and a lot is left unsaid
I know you are struggling
But you have to learn to reconcile with yourself

Because you have to believe
Stop your doubting
You might have some regrets
But you experience the ups and downs
And yield a pleasant surprise in the crack on the wall

Oh because you have to believe
For the sake of a better reunion
You are given distance and time apart
That day is worth waiting for
That day will be as bountiful as a sea of stars

Soliloquies:

People from all walks of life: Good morning! Good day!

Yuan Hong: Boss! One hot dry noodle please!
Hot dry noodle is a famous dish from Wuhan, Yuan Hong’s hometown.

Zhang Xinyi: Girl, we’re short of one for mahjong! Hurry over!

He Jiong: The noodle place downstairs is open! Go, go, go. Let’s grab some noodles.

Huang Bo: Let’s go to the Qianhaiyan’er seaside for another dip tomorrow!
It’s a famous seaside in Qingdao, where Huang Bo is from.

Shen Teng: Where are you, bro? Where have you been? We’re all waiting for you. Three glasses on you for being late!

Zhao Wei: The willow trees long Mirror Lake are starting to turn green. I want to go with you to bask in the sunshine at Mirror lake and admire the willow trees.
Mirror Lake is in Wuhu, Zhao Wei’s hometown.

Zhang Yishan: Get well soon, brother.

Tiger Hu Yanbin: You stay well.

Song Dandan: Son, Mum baked a lamb zucchini pie and some millet gruel. We’ll eat when you get back.

Yang Zi: I miss you so much.

-End-

Original Chinese Lyrics

黄昏的天空 很美
斜阳下的光亮 映在白墙
竟然就这样 流泪
微笑僵在脸上 回忆散落

已不重要 昨天
未来还很远 太多话梅兑现
我知道你很纠结
但总要学着自我和解

Because you have to believe
不要再怀疑
或许 留下遗憾
也算经历了潮起潮落
惊喜会在裂缝中结果

心愿和时钟 依偎
微风拥抱着我 感受温柔

已不重要 昨天
未来还很远 太多话梅兑现
我知道你很纠结
但总要学着自我和解

Because you have to believe
不要再怀疑
或许 留下遗憾
也算经历了潮起潮落
惊喜会在裂缝中结果

Oh because you have to believe
只为了更好遇见
才赠矛了距离和时间
那一天 值得期待
那一天 满载星海

独白：

各行各业人士：早安 早上好

袁弘：老板 搞碗热干面呢

张歆艺：姑娘 三缺一 打麻将咯 搞快点儿

何炅：楼底下粉店开门哒 走走走 嗦粉去

黄渤：明天再去前海沿儿洗海澡

沈腾：到哪了 铁子 上哪儿去了 都等你呢 来晚了自罚三杯啊

赵薇：镜湖边的柳树都发芽了 我想跟你一起去镜湖晒太阳 看柳树

张一山：大爷 你快好起来

胡彦斌：你要好好的

宋丹丹：儿子 妈给你烙了羊肉西葫芦馅饼还有小米粥 等你回来吃啊

杨紫：我好想你

Video

This habit started from my days as a retail pharmacist. When I was practicing as a pharmacist, I spent a good portion of my working hours standing at the pharmacy counter. We have a tall stool for the pharmacist, but it was usually uncomfortable. Moreover, I disliked having to perch myself on it, only to step off to serve a customer. Sometimes we get a bit too comfortable sitting there too.

I prefer to be on my feet and ready to step out to talk to customers. I didn’t want to be sitting all day at work. Besides, standing helps to burn off some of those calories. Thus, I developed the habit of standing during working hours.

I got a standing desk for RMB 169. The desk area is perfect for my 16" and 15" MacBook Pros with space for me to write on a notebook and plug in some external drives. The downside of this desk is that I can’t work with both laptops on the desk. It is tempting to get a larger desk but I can live with swapping the laptops around in exchange for a smaller footprint.

Caught Xiaobao red-pawed snooping on the MacBook Pro I left on the floor. One moment he was munching on kibble, the next he was punching on the keyboard. Alright, I kid. He knows better than to touch my stuff. I also count myself lucky that he’s such an angel and doesn’t touch any wires or cables.

When I sit too much, I get lower back pains. Standing has a lot of benefits. I’m on my feet and I shuffle around when I’m in the flow, or when some upbeat music comes on. Motion helps to keep my mind jogging. I thrive when I work standing.

My standing desks are at the optimal height for me so my arms are at a comfortable angle to work on my laptop. If the desk is too low or too high, my wrist would start to hurt. Think of the carpal tunnel risk!

Since I work barefooted at home, I have an anti-fatigue standing mat to support my foot arches. I was skeptical when I saw this RMB 90 mat on Taobao, but it is given how pampered we are with making the returns here in China, I didn’t really think twice to order it. You can return most products bought off Taobao with no questions asked, and the seller or Taobao itself will bear the cost of return shipping.

The quality of the mat is superb and well worth the money spent. I’m comfortable standing at my desk. It has also become Xiaobao’s preferred place to laze around while I work. It’s also one of the few spots in the house where he would gladly land his diva bum on during winter.

The mat is surprisingly thick. It is soft enough to be comfortable to stand on, yet firm enough to provide ample support. The tapered sides help make it look deceivingly thin. The mat is heavier than I expected. Its material is very sturdy and once you put it on the ground it is hard to move it without lifting it up, so you don’t have to worry about it shifting.

I’ll leave you with a couple of photos to show how Xiaobao has claimed the mat as his.

The dark side

That initially jarred against my self-impression. Negativity made up a big part of my life growing up. I was the angsty kid that felt that the world was out to get me. I was unlucky. Life treated me unfairly.

I believe my negativity pushed several good friends out of my life. Why would anyone want to stick with someone who is always sighing and draining their energies?

There was no sudden change that turned the way I look at life. No epiphany. No life-changing events. I was numbed. Bad things kept happening and I became so desensitised that I just took them as they came.

Change your perspective

Instead of looking at the negative side of things, I started to appreciate the silver linings. No matter how bad things were, I could always see the blessings when I looked back. Instead of only noticing them when I looked back, I tried to look for them in the present.

Everything in life happens for a reason.

Little did I know I started down the path of stoicism. I have come to expect the worst scenario in everything and when they do happen, I’m already prepared for them. Some people think I simply don’t care, hence I’m not affected by the negatives. The fact is, I care but I don’t let the bad things hold me back.

Everything in life happens for a reason. There is no point dwelling on them. Make the best of the hand that life deals you. Knowing what you want in life helps you to shrug off the hard tackles of life, and let you continue going forth towards your goals.

What’s the worst that could happen?

Ultimately, you need to ask yourself what’s the worst that could happen? If you are prepared for the worst, whatever happens won’t faze you. When things don’t turn out as bad as you expected, you see it as a positive. Very often, the real enemy is our own expectations rather than the outcome.

The more you persevere, the luckier you get.

Keep trying. Keep failing. Fail faster. Fail better.

English Translation

Where is the world that’s filled with fresh flowers
If it exists, I’ll definitely go there
I want to stand on the highest peak there
Even if I have to overcome a steep cliff

Live on and love wholeheartedly, even if I need to make the ultimate sacrifice
I don’t seek to please anyone, what matters is I don’t let myself down
As for my dreams, I never gave up
Even if life is miserable

Maybe I’m not talented, but I have the naivety of my dream
I will prove it all my life
Maybe I’m clumsy, but I’m willing to search endlessly
Give all my youth so I won’t regret

Run forth! In the face of icy stares and ridicule
How can I grasp the vastness of life without undergoing hardships
Fate won’t make me kneel and beg for mercy
Even if flesh blood is splattered in my bosom

Keep running! With the pride of a newborn
How can I witness the glamour of life if I don’t preserve till the end
Instead of enduring a miserable life, let’s burn to my heart’s content
You’ll sprout again some day

The fascinating and splendid future is always calling for me
Even if I only have suffering for company, I still must bravely march on
I want to set sail in the deepest blue ocean
Without a care whether I can turn back

Only cowards are disheartened after failure
So long as I still have a breath left, II’ll clench my fists tight
Before daybreak, we need to become more courageous
And wait for the most dazzling moment of sunrise
Run forth! In the face of icy stares and ridicule
How can you grasp the vastness of life without undergoing hardships
Fate won’t make me kneel and beg for mercy
Even if flesh blood is splattered in my bosom

Keep running! With the pride of a newborn
How can I witness the glamour of life if I don’t preserve till the end
Instead of enduring a miserable life, let’s burn to my heart’s content
For the beauty in my heart, never compromising till the end of my days

-End-

Original Chinese lyrics

充满鲜花的世界到底在哪里
如果它真的存在那么我一定会去
我想在那里最高的山峰矗立
不在乎它是不是悬崖峭壁

用力活着用力爱哪怕肝脑涂地
不求任何人满意只要对得起自己
关于理想我从来没选择放弃
即使在灰头土脸的日子里

也许我没有天分 但我有梦的天真
我将会去证明用我的一生
也许我手比较笨 但我愿不停探寻
付出所有的青春不留遗憾

向前跑 迎着冷眼和嘲笑
生命的广阔不历经磨难怎能感到
命运它无法让我们跪地求饶
就算鲜血洒满了怀抱

继续跑 带着赤子的骄傲
生命的闪耀不坚持到底怎能看到
与其苟延残喘不如纵情燃烧吧
有一天会再发芽

未来迷人绚烂总在向我召唤
哪怕只有痛苦作伴也要勇往直前
我想在那里最蓝的大海扬帆
绝不管自己能不能回还

失败后郁郁寡欢 那是懦夫的表现
只要一息尚存请握紧双拳
在天色破晓之前 我们要更加勇敢
待日出时最耀眼的瞬间

向前跑 迎着冷眼和嘲笑
生命的广阔不历经磨难怎能感到
命运它无法让我们跪地求饶
就算鲜血洒满了怀抱

继续跑 带着赤子的骄傲
生命的闪耀不坚持到底怎能看到
与其苟延残喘不如纵情燃烧
为了心中的美好 不妥协直到变老

Video

I’ll leave you with a few video.

First is my favourite version by Xu Geyang who did a cover in Sing! China.

The second is the original by GALA.

The third is a special edition by the Super Boy 2013 contestants in a surprise reunion, hence the disbelief on Hua Chenyu’s face. The song was the theme song for the 2013 edition of Super Boy.

I learn a lot watching others work, be it editing photos, drawing, creating graphics, doing video editing. I gain useful insights through their habits and preferences when they work on apps I use or plan to use. Screen-casting is such a great invention. Now I get to replay the clips to catch what they did.

Bear

I start my blog ideas in Bear. Ulysses was my preferred app until they moved to a subscription model. That made me hunt of an alternative to Ulysses and it was hard to find something as polished as Ulysses.

I’ve heard many rave reviews for Bear but I never gave it a go since I was happy with Ulysses. For some reasons, Bear was not on the list of apps I thought I’d try as potential replacements for Ulysses. Then Matt brought it up and I gave it a spin and I was sold. I’ll get back on topic now, but if you’re interested to read more, check out why I switched to Bear.

I write in Markdown and it makes it easy to write without having to worry about formatting. I type my formatting when writing in Markdown. Ulysses and Bear shows the formatting even though I type in Markdown. I love the visual feedback.

When in Bear, the post comes out in a thought stream. I write what I think. This helps me to get my message and ideas out without being interrupted by having to thinking of the phrasing, grammar or formatting.

MarsEdit

I used to write edit blog drafts in MarsEdit. I’m a big fan of the app because of how it helps me to focus on blogging. It is a great app and I really appreciate the efforts of Daniel Jalkut in creating one of the best Mac apps for blogging.

However, with the advent of Gutenberg in Wordpress, it makes more sense to edit directly in Wordpress to enjoy the benefits of blocks in the Wordpress editor.

Wordpress

I copy my draft from Bear to Wordpress where the formatting is automatically applied based on the Markdown input. Usually the article is more or less ready for publishing.

Sometimes I will go back to Bear to flesh out the article. Otherwise, I add images to the article. Then I check the SEO, add the category and tags, and set up the social media sharing settings.

Regular entries

Rather than worry about perfecting each piece, I have started to let go and publish my posts when they are good enough. The effort taken to get something 90% done is less than the effort required to go from 90% to 95%. Very often, good enough is more than enough.

Blog entries should be updated. Continue making iterations to refine and distil the concepts and thoughts. The key is to publish the post to open up discourse that help to stir ideas and spark inspirations.

Value of time

When we see someone throwing away money, we think that person is crazy. Yet people waste something even more valuable daily: time. You can earn back money that is wasted. Once you waste time, there’s not turning the clock back.

My favourite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.

Steve Jobs

Yet why do people waste time? It’s because they haven’t truly grasped the value of how limited time is in their lives. Life is short as it is. How much shorter does it get if you waste an hour or two each day?

Tracking time

Time is relative. When you are enjoying yourself, time passes quickly. When you’re not, it moves at an agonisingly slow pace. It is inevitable that we lose track of time and waste several hours or a whole day before we realise it.

One way to help yourself keep track of time is to segment your day and block out the time each task should take. Set an alarm for the expected end time. If the alarm sounds before you finish the task, re-evaluate and set a new end time. This helps you to track how much time you are spending on the tasks, and how much more you need to invest on it.

How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flown. How did it get so late so soon?

Dr Seuss

Personally, I use the Pomodoro Technique to keep track of my time. It is a very simple time management method where you divide your time into 25 minute segments. Set a timer for 25 minutes. This could be done with your phone, watch or even a dedicated Pomodoro app. When the timer rings, take a five-minute break. At every fourth break, take a 30-minute break.

So for three 25-minute intervals, you get to rest for 5 minutes, and at the fourth you get a 30-minute break. Use the break to rest your eyes by not looking at a screen. Stand up and walk around.

This helps me to keep track of how much time I spend on each task. Once you force yourself to be aware of the time you use, you start learning to avoid wasting the time you have.

Buying time

If time is more valuable than money, doesn’t it make sense then to buy time? How do you buy time? Simple. Pay money so that you get to use your time on what you want to.

Many people invest their time to earn money. It is just how society works. Go to a job from nine to five, five or six days a week and get paid for the time you spend on the job.

Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.

M Scott Peck

Would it make sense if someone told you to earn money by spending $100 to get $50 in return? This is just an example and it doesn’t even go anywhere near in quantifying the true value of time in our lives.

So how do we buy time? Learn to place a value on your time. If one hour of your time is worth $100, then paying someone $80 to complete some tedious work so you can spend that hour on something more worthwhile and meaning would make more sense.

Time is life, Therefore, waste your time and waste of your life, or master your time and master your life.

Alan Lakein

Many successful people know how to value their time and spend their time wisely. Everyone has 24 hours in a day. How we spend them and get the most out of them is up to us.

If an hour of your time is worth $100 and you get, say $120 in return when you spend the time on something, then it is worth your while.

Regret

Many of us wish for more time. It is a very familiar thought. All of you would have had this thought before: if only I had an hour more each day. We want more time each day, yet we don’t value time. We would have more time if we used it wisely and didn’t waste it.

Lost time is never found again.

Benjamin Franklin

You would have that one hour you want if you didn’t spend an hour on social media daily. Instead of reading articles that feed on your emotions to make you share them to help them gain more advertising revenue.

Spend time on things that matter. Do what you won’t regret doing now.

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

John Lennon

Writing app

Before I started writing in Markdown, I used to draft my writing in Microsoft OneNote, and later in Evernote. I was an avid user and proponent of Evernote. However, due to the stagnation of the app and privacy concerns, I have moved away from it. I store my notes in Notes app on iOS and macOS. Notes also takes limited Markdown input.

OneNote and Evernote are WYSIWYG editors. My preference for Markdown meant I was writing plain text documents saved as .markdown. I used Sublime Text for that, mainly because it supports cross platform compatibility on the Mac and PC. I’ve since switched to BBEdit now that I work in a Mac-only environment.

Both Sublime Text and BBEdit highlight Markdown syntax. However, I’m a sucker for writing apps and I tried apps such as Scrivener, iAWriter, Marked, Simplenotes and others I can’t recall.

Ultimately, I settled on Ulysses.

Growing with Ulysses

I started using Ulysses since Ulysses III was released in 2013. The Soulmen team did a fantastic job rethinking their app. The update form Ulysses II to Ulysses III brought a minimalist UI and writing-focused UX. I often spend hours in the distraction-free fullscreen mode.

Ulysses displays rich formatting even though I type in Markdown. I love this feature and I expected in any decent Markdown writing app.

Another feature I used a lot was the Daedalus iOS app, which was the IOS companion app for the Ulysses Mac app. I was writing a lot on my phone then and it was awesome to be able to start writing on iOS and continue on my Mac with the draft automatically synced.

The Daedalus app was later discontinued and replaced by the Ulysses iOS app. I have started compartmentalising my device habits by then, so I was writing less on iOS and did not switch to the Ulysses iOS app.

Content creation

I compartmentalise what I do based on the device I’m on. My phone is for quick content consumption on top of communications. I browse social media when I’m on my phone. Occasionally, I read books on my phone. I only consume content on the phone. That’s the conscious and subconscious behaviour when I’m using my phone. I don’t create content on the phone aside.

I keep my content creation to my MacBook Pro. When I’m on my laptop, I’m in the creation mindset. Of course, there are several content consumption outlets on the Mac. I read my RSS feeds, check my emails and read my ebooks on the Mac. These tasks require me to do some kind of content creation. When I read books and articles from my RSS feeds, I make notes and write down ideas for articles in my writing app. Checking emails means replying emails, that’s also a content creation task.

Anyway, I digress. Ulysses has become a treasure trove of ideas and thoughts. Some of these grow into articles and projects. Others remain in hibernation, waiting for the right time to germinate or they might just stay in cold storage until the end of time.

Ulysses going subscription

Unfortunately, the trend in the past few years has been a shift to subscription apps. Instead of a one-time payment to purchase an app and enjoy updates for the version, you pay a monthly or annual subscription.

I understand that app developers need the help of a subscription model to sustain their business. However, I’m more than willing to pay more for a one-time purchase. It’s not as though I would just sit on the app and not upgrade when new versions come out. For good apps and especially for apps that I literally live in, I buy new versions when they come out just to show support for the developers.

The argument against this stance is that subscriptions often amount to the same as one-time purchases. That’s true if the developers are able to churn out new versions on a regular basis. Some app developers show appreciation for existing users by releasing standalone versions along with subscription versions. However, if I was forced to move to a subscription model with no other options, I would choose to find an alternative.

Things and 1Password have adopted subscription models too, but they give users the option of one-time purchases. We don’t know how long these apps will continue to do so, but while they do I applaud them for doing so.

Ulysses had a one-time purchase option, but stopped providing it, forcing users down the subscription path. With a heavy heart, I decided to consign myself to moving away from an app that I love a lot, and has grown and inspired me over the years.

Ulysses alternatives

Ulysses had be so awesome that I didn’t feel the need to test any new writing apps that came out. Instead of testing apps, I was spending my time on writing. So I entered the hunt for a Ulysses alternative with a fresh eye. I have to say, Ulysses has pampered me so much that it was hard to find something as polished as Ulysses.

Scrivener

I tried Scrivener again, and confirmed my suspicions that it was too heavy for the writing I do. Scrivener is a great app, even if I felt it didn’t iterate fast enough compared to Ulysses. To be fair, it has caught up quite a bit in recent years. Unlike the minimalist take Ulysses applies on writing, Scrivener is a very comprehensive app, making it great for writers who need to work with scenes and acts that they need to move around, and with characters and locations.

My past experiences with it have shown that it is an overkill for me. It still is. When I work on screenplay and scriptwriting, my preference is still FinalDraft. Scrivener has a lot of bells and whistles, but for my working and writing style, it’s too much and often overwhelming.

iA Writer

For some reason, I never got into iA Writer. It’s a good app but I didn’t like how it organised files.

Simplenote

Matt moved from iA Writer to Simplenote and had raved to me a lot about it. Being developed by Automattic was a plus. I gave it a spin but didn’t take to it. It is good for notes but I have Notes.app for that. It also doesn’t display Markdown formatting with the markup in the editor, something I prefer.

Writing app requirements

Here are some features that I look for when I was choosing the writing app to move to:

• Markdown input
• Keyboard shortcuts apply Markdown
• Displays Markdown in rich format and shows Markdown syntax
• Inline image display
• Distraction-free full screen mode
• Good typography and user interface design
• Good file organisation
• Saves file in plain text
• Easy import from other formats
• Easy export to other formats
• No subscription fees

Bear

Bear was no stranger to me. I’ve heard many rave reviews for Bear but I never gave it a go since I was happy with Ulysses. For some reasons, Bear was not on the list of apps I thought I’d try as potential replacements for Ulysses.

I was chatting with Matt about the pros and cons of the different apps I tried and he mentioned Bear. The writing app offerings in the market I tried till then have been disappointing and was starting to convince myself to buy into the Ulysses subscription model. I downloaded Bear to give it a spin without expecting much.

To say Bear blew me away is an understatement. The app ticked ever single one of my requirements and more. It displays Markdown format along with the syntax. Bear has inline support for images, something that Ulysses didn’t have. It also has Cross-Note Links that lets you link notes together for quick reference.

Bear hashtags

It introduced me to a hashtag system of sorting my files. Instead of creating folders and moving files around, you can create folders simply through adding a hashtag to a note. The hashtag becomes the folder. If the hashtag exists, your note gets grouped under it. If the hashtag is new, it automatically creates a folder and puts your note there. How crazy is that? No more manually moving notes and articles around or having to create or sort folders.

Want to be more organised? You can add sub hashtags. Instead of just blog, I could do blog/draft and blog/published. Notes from both subfolders show up when I browse blog.

You can also add multiple tags to each note and they will appear in all the tagged folders. This is what modern file systems should be! We have been so tied down by the analogy of files and folders brought over from traditional filing systems that we haven’t leveraged the power of digital file systems.

Bear love

I was sold. I was prepared to buy the app. Bear had one last insane surprise. All the features I wanted are available on the free version of Bear. That blew my mind.

They have me firmly in the Bear camp. Sure, there are Pro features I don’t need that are available with subscriptions at $1.49 monthly or $14.99 annually. It is a bummer that they are on a subscription model, but they give away all those awesome features on the free version. This makes the subscription fee a very reasonable price to pay to support such a fantastic developer team.

If you are looking for a writing app or a note app, check out Bear. It’s free! You might fall in love with it like I have.

English translation

I’m present in, what you in the past
Fantasised about, the future
Where burning enthusiasm and impulsiveness
Has long cooled off now
Your stubborn expression
Has vanished from your reflection in the mirror
Leaving only traces left behind by the passage of time

The belief in every heart
The fortune of every person
The self in every story
Repeatedly asking yourself
All these years of compromising
Does it make you sigh?
Is there anything that you can never give up?

Time after time, you swallow your tears
Time after time, you piece back your broken self
Day after day, do you still believe
The stubborn you who lives deep your heart

You pursue, you breathe
Your arrogant wilfulness
Cried with a bloodied nose and swollen face
Then forget it as though nothing happened
Even if you could foresee
The pitfalls along this road
I believe you would still make mistakes to your heart’s content

Where you have been are your footprints
Where you can’t reach are your longings
You learnt to rein in your rebellious streak
You learn to hide your emotions
Remove your mask
I want to say, thank you
Thank you for keeping me company all the way

Time after time, you swallow your tears
Time after time, you piece back your broken self
Day after day, do you still believe
The stubborn you who lives deep your heart

Time after time, you swallow your tears
Time after time, you piece back your broken self
Day after day, do you still believe
The stubborn you

Who believed back then, those things
That today become a beautiful sight
Whenever I hesitate, I never forget
The stubborn me who lives deep in my heart

-End-

I translated 顽固 as “stubborn” instead of “tough”. I believe the official translation of the song title is Tough because Mayday’s earlier song 倔强 was already officially translated as Stubborn. Both song titles mean the same thing, but 顽固 Tough is more of a self-reflection, whereas 倔强 Stubborn is self-affirmation.

This song is a little tricky to translate because of Ashin’s many wordplays and antithesis.

Enjoy the song and music video. Unfortunately, I can’t find my favourite Life Live version from their concert movie. But there’s a live version with a cameo by Tony Leung Ka-fai.

Music video:

Live video:

Original lyrics in Chinese

我身在 当时你
幻想的 未来里
这个狂热和冲动
早已冷却的如今
你顽固 的神情
消失在 镜子里
只留下 时光消逝的痕迹

每颗心 的相信
每个人 的际遇
每个故事的自己
反覆地问着自己
这些年 让步的
你是否 会叹息
有什么 是你永远不放弃

一次一次你
吞下了泪滴
一次一次
拼回破碎自己
一天一天你
是否还相信
活在你心深处
那顽固自己

你追逐 你呼吸
你嚣张 的任性
鼻青脸肿的哭过
若无其事的忘记
如果你 能预知
这条路 的陷阱
我想你 依然错得很过瘾

走过的 叫足迹
走不到 叫憧憬
学会收拾起叛逆
学会隐藏了表情
卸下了 这面具
我想说 谢谢你
谢谢你 一路陪我到这里

一次一次你
吞下了泪滴
一次一次
拼回破碎自己
一天一天你
是否还相信
活在你心深处
那顽固的自己

一次一次你
吞下了泪滴
一次一次
拼回破碎自己
一天一天你
是否还相信
活在你心深处
那顽固的

你当时相信
的那些事情
会在如今
变成美丽风景
每当我迟疑
从不曾忘记
活在我心深处
那顽固的自己

Think as I blog

Blogging helps me actively ponder over the topic I’m writing about. I make opinions and elaborate on them. And I contradict myself when my opinions change.

Strong opinions, loosely held.

It is important to be able to argue your stance when you have an opinion. Have strong opinions. When you are able to express in detail what your opinions are, you actually help yourself to solidify your views and also reflect on it. It lets you think about why your opinion is correct, but it also helps to expose weaknesses in your arguments.

Have strong opinion but hold them loosely. Don’t argue an opinion that you know is wrong or don’t believe in anymore. It is completely okay to switch sides. It is a sign of you thinking out your views and being reasonable enough to admit you are mistaken or accept the opposing stance.

Think as I review

When you look back on your writing a few months later, a year later, or years later, you will learn from how you have grown and changed as a person from when you wrote the article to when you read it again.

I guess blogging is an extension of my journalling habit. I have kept a handwritten journal since secondary school, not all the while but on and off, and more diligently in recent years.

Reading back on my old entries feels like I’m looking at a stranger’s journal. My thoughts and opinions often differ from my perspectives and emotions when I wrote the entries. It is a fascinating look at how I have changed and grown.

If you haven’t tried writing a journal, I highly recommend it. You don’t even need to accumulate years or months of writing to gain insight. Write and read your entries from a few weeks back and you’ll already notice change.

Blogging as a journal

I put my thoughts on my blog because I want to be authentic. Don’t worry about what others think. Their opinions are out of your control, but if your writing spurs them to think and voice their feedback, then you have already accomplished something.

My daily reads include blogs of the sharp minds I admire in the industry and beyond. I don’t agree with them all the time, but I can learn something from what they share. More often than not, their thoughts and opinions spur me to ponder, and those thoughts end up in my journal. Instead of keeping these to myself, I throw them out in the public by blogging about them.

Owning your content

Another important reason to blog is to regain ownership of our content. Instead of generating content that we post on social media to help Facebook and Twitter to gain data and advertising revenue, post on your blog.

Your content is yours when you post it on a self-hosted blog. It is not hard to get a blog running. If you need help, get in touch and I can guide you on setting one up. Or even better, engage RubyCoded to build one for you.

A self-hosted website stands the test of time. My blog has outlived Friendster, LiveJournal, Path and other platforms have seen unfortunate demise, taking precious user-generated content with them. Sure, my blog has gone through several iterations and hosting services since 2003, but I own my content and I have the sole discretion over whether they should remain published in cyberspace.

First steps

Starting a blog can be daunting because your content is public and readable by anyone with an internet connection. But if you often repost stuff or share your thoughts on Facebook, then how different is that?

You could start by sharing your Facebook and Twitter posts on your blog. Write the longer thoughts in your journal. Let them marinate and then post your journal entries on the blog when you are comfortable. One step at a time.

The fireworks represent the restless and disorder world. Each of us are a mere speck of dust. No one notices our carefree existence. However, we still pursue the illusion of freedom.

When the noise of the world subsides, it’s the silent dust that sings. Be true to ourselves. Live the fabulous life we each own.

English Translation

Watching the dust dance as it falls
No one notices it exists
How carefree
Yet the world prefer liveliness
No room for my boredom
I shouldn’t stare blankly all by myself

Only me, watching the silent desert
Waiting for the flower to blossom
Only me, observing the joy of others
And sigh with sorrow
Let me listen to the serious principles
Unwilling to understand
What should be and what shouldn’t

A withered child lives within my heart
If the world can’t understand, I’ll confess to my shadows
Am I the only one who still questions
Why tomorrow is more exciting?
Can’t find the remains of innocence within the fireworks

Only me, watching the silent desert
Waiting for the flower to blossom
Only me, observing the joy of others
And sigh with sorrow
Let me listen to the serious principles
Unwilling to understand
Only me, just me, so strange
Still sighing deeply

Gusts of wind blows, why don’t they return
Once the wind is gone it doesn’t come back, isn’t that tragic?
To become numb so quickly, should that be so?
Can it slow down?

Laugh heartily, cry without holding back
Why should our expressions be determined by this world?
I am who I am, I’m just being myself
Just dust scattering in the fireworks

Gusts of wind blows
Once the wind is gone it doesn’t come back
Can it slow down?

-End-

Original Chinese lyrics

看着飞舞的尘埃 掉下来
没人发现它存在
多自由自在
可世界都爱热热闹闹
容不下 我百无聊赖
不应该 一个人 发呆

只有我 守着安静的沙漠
等待着花开
只有我 看着别人的快乐
竟然会感慨
就让我 听着天大的道理
不愿意明白
有什么 是应该 不应该

我的心里住着一个 苍老的小孩
如果世界听不明白 对影子表白
是不是只有我 还在问
为什么 明天更精彩
烟火里 找不到 童真的残骸

只有我 守着安静的沙漠
等待着花开
只有我 看着别人的快乐
竟然会感慨
就让我 听着天大的道理
不愿意明白
只有我 就是我 好奇怪
还在感慨

风阵阵吹过来 为何不回来
风一去不回来 悲不悲哀
麻木得那么快 应不应该
能不能慢下来

笑得开怀 哭得坦率
为何表情 要让这世界安排
我就是我 我只是我
只是一场烟火散落的尘埃

风阵阵吹过来
风一去不回来
能不能慢下来

Video

Leaving my profession

Back in 2015, I left my comfortable and stable job as a pharmacist to pursue my web design business full time. Matt and I established our web design agency RubyCoded in 2014 and the business was enough to make sure we won’t go hungry.

Since then, some friends have remarked at how brave it was to make such a career switch. It looks like an easy decision but it actually took me two years of hesitation before I plucked up the courage to do so.

Being self-employed was filled with uncertainties. Will I have enough to feed myself? Would this business take off? How long can I sustain this? All sorts of doubts filled my mind before I made the leap, but since doing so, I came to realise that the fears were unfounded. That was what some of my friends who have taken the leap kept telling me.

Instead of being afraid and anxious, I was kicking myself for not having taken that leap of faith earlier. It felt like I was afraid of a creepy shadow, only to realise that the I was the one casting the shadow.

Going to Shenzhen

Web design work took me to Shenzhen for a photoshoot for a client. That was my first trip to China, and I was drawn to the city. My initial impression of Shenzhen was that it seems like the perfect blend of Malaysia and Singapore.

Doors open when you take chances. Take your chances when doors open. One thing led to another. Matt and I found ourselves given the opportunity to start a cafe in Shenzhen. We jumped on it and grew the Flight 151 from four staff to team of 30.

“Doors open when you take chances. Take your chances when doors open.”

Running our own cafe was a steep learning curve for both of us but we learnt a lot within a short period of time. The cafe did well but due to certain circumstances, we decided to move on from Flight 151.

I joined a startup working on consumer electronics after I left the cafe. It was a completely new industry for me. Another steep learning curve, but I soaked it all up like a sponge. I love tech and the electronics industry. That’s why I write on BakingPixel. Yet it was a completely different thing looking from inside out rather than outside in.

Product development

I immersed myself in all aspects of the supply chain, including industrial design, product development, supply chain management, product compliance, developing new clients, relationship management, marketing, and logistics.

This is just a very general overview of the various aspects of getting a product from concept to the hands of a consumer. I had no prior experience in most of this work so I had to learn fast.

I was lucky to be part of a team that has many experts who I can learn from. An award winning product designer, who has several prestigious Red Dot and Red Star awards to his name, led our industrial design team. A veteran engineer headed the manufacturing team, bringing ingenious solutions through his expertise as an inventor.

We also have a team of software developers. I got to develop an app, working on the initial concept, UI and UX, and then overseeing the app development and testing stages.

My training as a pharmacist and years of working experience in the retail and service sector helped me immensely as well.

Brand strategy

As I worked on more projects, I realised my true passion lies in building brands and product lines. Rather than pouring all my time and energies into developing a couple of products, I now work on the product development in a consultancy role. This allows me to give input on several concurrent projects while concentrating on creating brand strategies.

“Life puts us on paths that sometimes double back to previous roads.”

I’m now working full time on RubyCoded. Instead of providing only web design services, we now help clients build brands that consumers love.

We provide branding and marketing services with an emphasis on innovative new products. We create new brands or refresh existing ones. We also manage the online presence of the brands.

RubyCoded distributes products for brands we manage. We also provide sourcing services for many other products. Get in touch if you are interested to find out more.

Shenzhen beyond 2020

I have many stories about Shenzhen to share, and many awesome places to recommend. With Shenzhen bring named as the second of Lonely Planet’s top 10 cities to visit in 2019, I foresee an influx of tourists in the year ahead.

If you are interested in visiting this beautiful city, stay tuned for more articles about this city that I’ve now come to call home.

When we take social risks by chatting with random strangers or making small talks with people we encounter in our daily lives, we open doors. I speak with experience when I say that taking social risks open doors.

Opening up

I practiced as a retail pharmacist for six years and it was a platform for me to engage strangers. It was my duty to greet customers when they enter the store and approach them to offer assistance.

Being shy by nature, I initially kept these contact minimal. I do my duty and help the customers get what they want or need. I would often hold my tongue because it just didn’t feel right to me to step out of my comfort zone. I didn’t want to be rude or be made to feel stupid by saying the wrong thing. I didn’t want to be socially awkward. The introvert in me knew that I was uncomfortable with being chatty, especially with strangers.

However, there were instances where I found myself slipping into a more unguarded mood and opened up my interaction. These helped me to engage with my customers on a more personal level and established a rapport that lasted years during my professional practice. Several of my regular customers became friends.

This effect is more profound in another example I would like to bring up. I used to frequent online text-based roleplaying games. I was very relaxed and more open behind my online persona and I made quite a few friends. And those friendships have lasted for over a decade and they count among my close circle.

What’s the worst that could happen?

Why do people avoid social risks? They don’t want to make a fool of themselves. They worry about what others think of them. They are afraid of being judged. They are insecure.

How to overcome your aversion for social risks? Start by taking small steps. Talk to strangers. What harm is there in that? They don’t know you. Chances are you won’t meet them again. What’s the worst that could happen? Maybe they would be amused by you. I doubt anyone would outright laugh at you unless you were making a joke, if so then you succeeded!

Living alone in a foreign country constantly makes me push myself to engage strangers. I had to build my social circle here from scratch. I constantly reach out to new people through interest groups, go out to events to meet people, or just hang out at cafes and chat with the regulars there.

I’m an introvert but my experience in retail work helped me become more comfortable with interacting with strangers. That said, being in a foreign land with nothing to lose was liberating. I was constantly taking social risks, and I was reciprocated with genuine interactions and authentic relationships.

Take a social risk today

If you avoid social risks intentionally, or perhaps you realise you do it subconsciously, why not try to take a risk today? After all, what’s the worst that could happen?

This is done differently in China due to the language. Chinese provincial abbreviations use single-characters instead.

For example, the abbreviations are used to describe the cuisine, such as 湘 Xiang dishes (Hunan cuisine), 川 Chuan dishes (Sichuan cuisine), or 粤 Yue dishes (Cantonese cuisine). They can be also for opera, such as 京 Jing opera (Peking opera) or 豫 Yu opera (Henan opera).

These abbreviations appear in vehicle license plates, and they are often used in restaurant names and menus.

There are also the standardised provincial codes established by the National Standards (GB/T 2660-2007) and ISO 3166-2:CN. These use Roman letters.

Municipalities

Beijing (BJ) – 京 (Jīng)

The abbreviation of Beijing is 京 (jīng), as a shortening of its name and also emphasise that it is the capital.

Beijing literally means north (北 bĕi) capital (京 jīng). The character 京 (jīng) means capital. It acquired the name during the Ming dynasty to distinguish it from the previous capital, Nanjing, which literally means south (南 nán) capital (京 jīng).

Chongqing (CQ) – 渝 (Yú)

Chongqing is abbreviated as 渝 (yú). It was the Yu Prefecture (渝州) during the Sui Dynasty. Although the city was renamed during Northern Song, the old town in the city centre is called Yuzhong (渝中). The name Yu identified strongly with the city and is used as a nickname and official abbreviation for the city.

Shanghai (SH) – 沪 (Hù)

Shanghai’s abbreviation is 沪 (hù), a contraction of 沪渎 (hù dú), which literally means “harpoon ditch”. During the Jin Dynasty, the hù was a harpoon used by fishermen living in the Shanghai area, where the mouth of the Suzhou Creek flowed into the ocean. Thus, the area became known as Hudu, and hù became a common nickname and eventually the official abbreviation for Shanghai.

Tianjin (TJ) – 津 (Jīn)

Tianjin is abbreviated as 津 (jīn), a shortening of its name. Tianjin literally means heaven (天 tīan) ford (津 jīn).

There are several stories attributed to the origin of the city’s name. The most common is that Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty bestowed the name after he crossed Tianjin’s Gu River to overthrow his nephew Emperor Jianwen in the south.

Provinces

Anhui (AH) – 皖 (Wǎn)

The Anhui Province was established during the Reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty. Prior to that, the region was known as the Wan (皖) area because it was the State of Wan during the Spring and Autumn Period.

The mountain and river in the small kingdom of Wan were known as Mount Wan and Wan River respectively. Thus, the name Wan has been associated with the region historically. The significance of this heritage led to the province having the official abbreviation of 皖 (wǎn).

Fujian (FJ) – 闽 (Mǐn)

Fujian’s official abbreviation is 闽 (mǐn). The term refers to the Min-speaking people, the group of people living in the Fujian region historically. It also refers to the main river in the province, the Min River.

The State of Yue was a kingdom from the Spring and Autumn Period in Zhejiang. The State of Chu annexed the kingdom in 306 BC and the surviving royal family fled to Fujian where it continued to reign as the Minyue Kingdom. It lost its status as a kingdom under the Qin Dynasty, but regained its status as a tributary kingdom under the Han Dynasty. The Minyue Kingdom was eventually conquered by the Han Dynasty as it expanded south.

After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, General Wang set up the Min Kingdom during the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. The Southern Tang absorbed the Min Kingdom after the latter succumbed to internal strife after the death of its founding monarch. Despite the fall of the Kingdom, the Min heritage persisted through the cultural and language.

Gansu (GS) – 甘 (Gān)

The Gansu province has the official abbreviation 甘 (gān), a contraction of its name. The term Gan refers to the Zhangye city that was formerly known as Ganzhou (甘州 gān zhōu), also known as Campichu in Marco Polo’s Travels.

Guangdong (GD) – 粤 (Yuè)

Guangdong is officially abbreviated as 粤 (yuè) due to the Yue-speaking people in the province. The people in the region spoke Yue Chinese, often referred to as Cantonese. The term Canton is etymologically derived from Cantão, the Portuguese transliteration of the term Guangdong.

Guizhou (GZ) – 贵 (Guì)

Guizhou’s official abbreviation is 贵 (guì), a contraction of its name.

Hainan (HI) – 琼 (Qióng)

The Hainan province has the official abbreviation 琼 (qióng) due to its former names Qiongya (琼崖 qióng yá) and Qiongzhou (琼州 qióng zhōu).

Hebei (HE) – 冀 (Jì)

Hebei is abbreviated as 冀 (jì) as a nod to the Ji Province (冀州 jì zhōu) of the Han Dynasty.

Heilongjiang (HL) – 黑 (Hēi)

Heilongjiang is officially abbreviated as 黑 (hēi), a shortening of its name. The province is named after the river Amur, known as Heilongjiang in Chinese, which literally means Black Dragon River.

Henan (HA) – 豫 (Yù)

The Henan province is abbreviated as 豫 (yù). Yu the Great (大禹 dà yŭ), the founding ruler of the Xia Dynasty, divided ancient China into Nine Provinces. Yu Province (豫州 yù zhōu) was the area where Henan is.

Hubei (HB) – 鄂 (È)

Hubei’s official abbreviation is 鄂 (è) due to its heritage from the Western Zhou Dynasty. The eastern part of Hubei was known as the State of E during the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Another popular abbreviation for the province is 楚 (chǔ), named after the State of Chu that existed in the region during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.

Hunan (HN) – 湘 (Xiāng)

The Hunan province uses the abbreviation 湘 (xiāng), after the Xiang River that runs through the province from south to north.

Jiangsu (JS) – 苏 (Sū)

Jiangsu is abbreviated as 苏 (sū), a contraction of its name. Jiangsu is named after the two cities, Jiangning (now known as Nanjing) and Suzhou.

Jiangxi (JX) – 赣 (Gàn)

The Jiangxi province has the official abbreviation 赣 (gàn), named after the Gan River that runs across the province from south to north, into the Yangtze River. Jiangxi is also known as the Ganpo Dadi (贛鄱大地), which literally means the Great Land of the Gan River and the Poyang Lake.

Jilin (JL) – 吉 (Jí)

Jilin is officially abbreviated as 吉 (jí), a shortening of its name, which literally means auspicious (吉 jí) forest (林 lÍn). Jilin is actually shortened from the Manchu phrase jilin wula (吉林乌拉), which means along the river.

Liaoning (LN) – 辽 (Liáo)

Liaoning province has the abbreviation 辽 (liáo), a contraction of its name, and also a nod to the Liao River that flows through the region.

Qinghai (QH) – 青 (Qīng)

The official abbreviation for Qinghai is 青 (qīng), a contraction of its name. The province is named after the Qinghai Lake, the largest lake in China.

Shaanxi (SN) – 陕 (Shǎn)

The Shaanxi province’s abbreviation is 陕 (shǎn), a shortening of its name. Shaanxi literally means West of the Shan pass.

Shandong (SD) – 鲁 (Lǔ)

Shandong is abbreviated as 鲁 (lǔ), after its nickname 齐鲁 (qílǔ). During the Spring and Autumn period, the States of Qi and Lu existed in the region. Although the State of Qi was a major power during its time, the State of Lu became renowned for being the home of Confuscius and Mozi. Thus, the State of Lu bears immense cultural influence and the term Lu holds great heritage significance for the province.

Shanxi (SX) – 晋 (Jìn)

Shanxi’s official abbreviation is 晋 (jìn), named after the State of Jin that existed in the province during the Spring and Autumn period.

Sichuan (SC) – 川 (Chuān)

Sichuan province uses the abbreviation 川 (chuān), a contraction of its name. Sichuan is the contraction of the term Sì Chuānlù (四川路) referring to division of the Northern Song Dynasty’s administrative circuit in the area into four. Chuan refers to plains.

Sichuan also has the nickname 巴蜀 (bāshŭ), in reference to the States of Ba and Shu that occupied the Sichuan Basin during the Spring and Autumn period. The term Shu continued to be a significant heritage for the region, with later states in the area using the same name, such as Shu during the Three Kingdoms period, and Former Shu and Later Shu during the Ten Kingdoms period. The term Shu is still often used to refer to Sichuan.

Yunnan (YN) – 云 (Yún)

Yunnan’s official abbreviation is 云 (yún), a contraction of its name. Yunnan literally means South of the Yunling Mountains.

The province is also abbreviated as 滇 (diān), after Lake Dian in the region. The area in central Yunnan was referred to as Dian during the Spring and Autumn period, after General Zhuang Qiao of Chu established the Dian Kingdom.

Zhejiang (ZJ) – 浙 (Zhè)

The Zhejiang province is abbreviated as 浙 (zhè), a contraction of its name. The province is named after the Zhe River, later renamed as Qiantang River, that flows through the region.

Autonomous regions

Guangxi (GX) – 桂 (Guì)

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region’s official abbreviation is 桂 (guì), named after the city of Guilin, which was the provincial capital during the Ming and Qing dynasties, before Nanning was made capital.

Inner Mongolia (NM) – 蒙 (Měng)

The official abbreviation for Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is 蒙 (měng), a contraction of its Chinese name 内蒙古 (nèi měnggǔ).

Ningxia (NX) – 宁 (Níng)

Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has the official abbreviation 宁 (níng), a contraction of its name. Ningxia

Xizang (XZ) – 藏 (Zàng)

Xizang Tibetan Autonomous Region’s official abbreviation is 藏 (zàng), a contraction of its name.

Xinjiang (XJ) – 新 (Xīn)

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region uses the abbreviation 新 (xīn), a contraction of its name.

Once you understand how to look at China vehicle registration plates, you can identify where the vehicles are from and the vehicle types.

First character

Municipality, province, or autonomous region

The first character in the licence plate is the Chinese provincial abbreviation of the municipality, province or autonomous region where the vehicle is registered.

While some of the provincial abbreviations are direct abbreviations of the provincial names, others are characters that bear significance for the region they represent.

Municipalities

• Beijing – 京

• Chongqing – 渝

• Shanghai – 沪

• Tianjin – 津

Provinces

• Anhui – 皖

• Fujian – 闽

• Gansu – 甘

• Guangdong – 粤

• Guizhou – 贵

• Hainan – 琼

• Hebei – 冀

• Heilongjiang – 黑

• Henan – 豫

• Hubei – 鄂

• Hunan – 湘

• Jiangsu – 苏

• Jiangxi – 赣

• Jilin – 吉

• Liaoning – 辽

• Qinghai – 青

• Shaanxi – 陕

• Shandong – 鲁

• Shanxi – 晋

• Sichuan – 川

• Yunnan – 云

• Zhejiang – 浙

Autonomous regions

• Guangxi – 桂

• Inner Mongolia – 蒙

• Ningxia – 宁

• Xizang Tibetan Autonomous Region – 藏

• Xinjiang – 新

Second character

District, county or city.

The second character in the licence plate is a Latin character that indicates the city of registration. For provinces and autonomous regions, The letter A is assigned to the capital.

For example, vehicle plates in Guangzhou start with 粤A while those in Shenzhen start with 粤B. Both Guangzhou and Shenzhen are in the Guangdong province, so they have 粤 as the first character. Guangzhou is the capital city of Guandong and is assigned the letter A, while Shenzhen is assigned the letter B.

See the full lists at the end of the article.

China vehicle registration plates

There are five characters after the city character in China vehicle registration plates.

These were previously numbers only. However, as the number of cars grew beyond 99,999, it became necessary to add Latin characters to increase the number of possible combinations.

Only 24 letters of the alphabet can be used. The letters “O” and “I” are omitted to avoid confusion with the numbers 0 and 1.

New Energy vehicles

New Energy vehicles licence plates were introduced on 21 November 2016 and were issued since 1 December 2016 in Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuxi, Jinan, and Shenzhen. These later became adopted country-wide in 2018. These registration plates are green, making them easy to spot.

Before the introduction of these licence plates, New Energy vehicles used the conventional registration plates. The New Energy vehicles licence plates were created to encourage the adoption of New Energy vehicles. The benefits of getting the New Energy vehicles licence plates are a shorter waiting list and no registration fees required. These are attractive perks in large cities like Shenzhen where motorist have to ballot for the registration plates and pay a hefty sum for the licence plates.

The New Energy vehicles licence plate added another character to the registration plate. A “D” indicates an electric vehicle, while an “F” indicates other types of New Energy vehicles. The position of this character depends on the size of the vehicle. For Small New Energy vehicles, it comes after the city character. For Large New Energy vehicles, it is the last character of the licence plate.

List of districts, counties and cities

Municipalities

Beijing

The Municipality of Beijing is abbreviated as 京 (jīng), meaning capital.

• 京A (yellow plates) – Buses, trucks, learner’s cars

• 京A (blue plates), 京C, 京E, 京F, 京H, 京J, 京K, 京L, 京M, 京P, 京Q – Urban area

• 京B – Taxis

• 京G – Suburbs

• 京N, 京P, 京Y – Suburbs and urban area

• 京A (black plates), 京LB, 京LC – Foreigner or foreign company-owned vehicle

• 京O·A – Ministry of Public Security

• 京V – Central Guard Bureau of Beijing Garrison Military License

Chongqing

The Municipality of Chongqing uses the abbreviation 渝 (yú) that comes from its name of Yu Prefecture (渝州) during the Sui Dynasty (581 AD). District prefixes were abolished after 18 May 2017.

• 渝A – Urban area

• 渝B – Urban area

• 渝C – Yongchuan District, Jiangjin, Hechuan, Tongnan County, Tongliang County, Bishan County, Dazu County, Qijiang County, Rongchang County

• 渝D – Urban area

• 渝F – Wanzhou District, Liangping County, Chengkou County, Wushan County, Wuxi County, Zhong County, Kaizhou District, Fengjie County, Yunyang County

• 渝G – Fuling District, Nanchuan, Dianjiang County, Fengdu County, Wulong County

• 渝H – Qianjiang District, Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, Xiushan Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Pengshui Miao and Tujia Autonomous County

Shanghai

The Municipality of Shanghai is abbreviated as 沪 (hù), a contraction of 沪渎 (Hùdù), the Jin name for the mouth of Suzhou Creek in the north of the city. The hu was a type of harpoon created by fishermen who lived there. Hudu literally means harpoon ditch.

• 沪A, 沪B, 沪D, 沪E, 沪F, 沪G, 沪H, 沪J, 沪K, 沪L, 沪M, 沪N – Urban area and suburbs.

• 沪C – Suburbs, not allowed to enter the urban area (not allowed to travel within the Outer Ring).

• 沪R – Chongming Island, Changxing Island, Hengsha Island, not allowed to leave the places above.

For the third character of the license plates (with 4 digits following):

• Z – New energy vehicles (except licenses begin with 沪A and 沪C).

• M, N, U to X – Taxis.

• Y – Vehicles for rent, owned by car renting operators.

Tianjin

The Municipality of Tianjin uses the abbreviation 津 (jīn) from its name, which means the Emperor’s Ford.

• 津A, 津B, 津C, 津F, 津G, 津H, 津I, 津J, 津K, 津L, 津M, 津N, 津P, 津Q, 津R – General issues

• 津E – Taxis

Provinces

Anhui

The Anhui Province is abbreviated as 皖 (wǎn) that comes from the State of Wan from the Spring and Autumn period (770 BCE).

• 皖A- Hefei

• 皖B – Wuhu

• 皖C – Bengbu

• 皖D – Huainan

• 皖E – Ma’anshan

• 皖F – Huaibei

• 皖G – Tongling

• 皖H – Anqing

• 皖J – Huangshan

• 皖K – Fuyang

• 皖L – Suzhou

• 皖M – Chuzhou

• 皖N – Lu’an

• 皖P – Xuancheng

• 皖Q – former Chaohu (prefecture-level)

• 皖R – Chizhou

• 皖S – Bozhou

Fujian

The Fujian Province uses the abbreviation 闽 (mǐn), after the kingdom of Minyue (306 BC).

• 闽A – Fuzhou

• 闽B – Putian

• 闽C – Quanzhou

• 闽D – Xiamen

• 闽E – Zhangzhou

• 闽F – Longyan

• 闽G – Sanming

• 闽H – Nanping

• 闽J – Ningde

• 闽K – Provincial-level agencies, Pingtan Island

• 闽O – Police vehicles

Gansu

The Gansu Province is abbreviated as 甘 (Gān) from its name, that was in turn derived from the combination of Gānzhou and Sùzhou, the old name of Jiuquan not to be confused of Sūzhou.

• 甘A – Lanzhou

• 甘B – Jiayuguan

• 甘C – Jinchang

• 甘D – Baiyin

• 甘E – Tianshui

• 甘F – Jiuquan

• 甘G – Zhangye

• 甘H – Wuwei

• 甘J – Dingxi

• 甘K – Longnan

• 甘L – Pingliang

• 甘M – Qingyang

• 甘N – Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture

• 甘P – Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

Guangdong

The Guangdong Province uses the abbreviation 粤 (Yuè) from the ancient name Nanyue (nányuè) that means Yue in the South. It was the name for the region south of the Yangtze River during the Spring and Autumn period (770 BCE).

• 粤A – Guangzhou (粤AQ – Panyu)

• 粤B – Shenzhen

• 粤C – Zhuhai

• 粤D – Shantou

• 粤E – Foshan (粤EV – Gaoming, 粤ET – Sanshui)

• 粤F – Shaoguan

• 粤G – Zhanjiang

• 粤H – Zhaoqing (粤HL – Sihui)

• 粤J – Jiangmen

• 粤K – Maoming

• 粤L – Huizhou

• 粤M – Meizhou

• 粤N – Shanwei

• 粤O – Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department

• 粤P – Heyuan

• 粤Q – Yangjiang

• 粤R – Qingyuan

• 粤S – Dongguan

• 粤T – Zhongshan

• 粤U – Chaozhou

• 粤V – Jieyang

• 粤W – Yunfu

• 粤X – Shunde (District of Foshan, discontinued issuing from February 2018)

• 粤Y – Nanhai (District of Foshan, discontinued issuing from February 2018)

• 粤Z – Hong Kong and Macau vehicles frequently travelling to the mainland. The registration number has 4 alphanumerics, suffixed with either 港 (for Hong Kong) or 澳 (for Macau).

Guizhou

The Guizhou Province is abbreviated as 贵 (Guì) from its name.

• 贵A – Guiyang

• 贵B – Liupanshui

• 贵C – Zunyi

• 贵D – Tongren

• 贵E – Qianxinan

• 贵F – Bijie

• 贵G – Anshun

• 贵H – Qiandonnan

• 贵J – Qiannan