August - Turning 24

01-29

What you do everyday more than what you do once in a while.

本文原本發在我個人的Newsletter上。厭煩了太多太雜的公眾號，也想每周末收到我定製給你的郵件直接閱讀？點擊這裡，即可訂閱：Zake Zhang

Welcome to the No.21 Edition of

THE REVIEW ARMY

This email was originally posted on my newsletter.

August — Turning 24

On August 11th, I turned 24.

In Chinese culture, there』re 12 animals representing different zodiac, each year a different one. Mine is rooster, and turning 24 means I』ve finished 2 rounds of zodiac… Uhh, think about how many rounds can people have in their life?

I don』t have special birthday wishes, I only wish people who are important to me are healthy and happy, and I can keep creating content and bringing value to others as one of the first of LG(legacy generation), and be happy along the way.

Work

In the past 8 months, I think I』ve already gone through researching and getting in the industry, prioritizing the given tasks and some product plans, and understanding the rhythm of product development.

Next step, I need to take more initiative during product development, leading different teams to work together seamlessly and grasp the quality of every product we put out.

By the end of September, I think I will be able to show people officially what black technology we『ve been working on.

Life

I keep the habit of going swimming twice a week, and usually I go on weekdays between 7AM — 9AM. Always feeling good after some workout in the morning.

Giving up the most popular mobile game for a month, instead, I read or listen more content, or stay connected with people around me, not in that virtual world. I think

It』s good to try or being obsessed with a game for awhile, helping you get out of that dark moment in life, but you need to understand and know when to leave it.

I have the chance to meet with my girlfriend』s parents for dinner. And seeing my girlfriend off to NYC is definitely not something happy, but the unwelcome typhoon made her flight delayed, and we have an extra week before the original plan. Fair enough.

Side project

Currently, my side project can be divided into 2 main parts: writing and videos producing.

I started with an idea of

doing something that you intend not to let other people know.

I decided to do this, because I』m Leo and born in August.

Just kidding, in the past I feel like I always care about what other people think about my content, for example like my blog posts or videos. I read every comments and find ways to defend myself as much as possible.

It turned out that I was wasting my time on things creating the less value for more people. Why?

1. Don』t judge others

People should have different opinions on different subjects regarding to their own life experiences.

It』s arbitrary to judge people by their behaviours, as long as they are happy, you should be happy too. And pushing people to believe what you believe, that goes way too much.

2. Don』t judge yourself

And wasting your time to defend yourself again and again, you are also judging yourself.

The idea of writing something down is a way to document yourself and share with others who think this is helpful.

If you think this is something you should do, no matter how many people are going to hate you from the very beginning, then you are doing right thing, that matters for you. Don』t ever give up.

So in the past month, I』ve challenged myself to keep writing and posting videos only for myself, and turning off notifications on some platforms like Zhihu.

And I realized that I cannot live without writing and video editing.

What I』m Reading

I stop reading Thinking Fast and Slow, still feel like this is not the right book for me, at least for the time being. The content is golden as fuck, but also boring as fuck. Young people should have more fun.

1. Modern Romance — Aziz Ansari

So I started to read, no, actually listen to Aziz Ansari』s Modern Romance for the second time. You could see this book as an extended and ultimate version of my post: A 30-day Tinder Experiment.

The author Aziz is a super funny American comedian, and he reads the book himself. It』s good entertainment.

Audiobook: Modern Romance

PW:zddj

2. How to Fly A Horse — Kevin Ashton

As I』m preparing for another online course, I recommended this book, and started rereading this book myself. Here』s some quotes I love:

Creation comes from ordinary acts.
Having ideas is not the same thing as being creative. Creation is execution, not inspiration.
Creation is destination, the consequence of acts that appear inconsequential by themselves but that, when accumulated, change the world. Creating is an ordinary act, creation its extraordinary outcome.

How to Fly A Horse.epub: https://pan.baidu.com/s/1c24H1UK

PW: ykdf

3. What Should Designers Expect from their PMs?

This week I also came across Facebook』s product design VR, Julie Zhuo』s article, What Should Designers Expect from their PMs?

At the highest level, a PM is meant to help steer a team towards a successful outcome. They are held responsible for that outcome.

I』ve followed her newsletter for 2 years, and every week there』s a high quality post. If you are interested in product design or product management, or even just tech companies, you should read it.

What I』m Learning

1. Sleep > Exercise + Food

The other morning, I was listening to James Altucher』s podcast on the way to the office. He invited somebody talking about health, and how to stay healthy in this modern world.

This always has been something I really want to learn, so I dug in a little more, finding some really valuable content and research, so I put them together to a blog post, in order to remind myself, as well as help others.

Leptin…Cortisol … Adenosine triphosphate… Mitochondria…Brown adipose tissue… White adipose tissue… Melatonin…

These words I may be familiar with only in Chinese.

2. VR Development

I enrolled a VR Development course on Udacity, and so far it』s been going well.

But I think it』s a little bit waste of time to watch their content to learn VR. So I decided to start doing video tutorials on VR development myself along the way.

In Chinese, there』s a saying 「現學現賣」, which means sell it right after you learn it. And normally it』s not a positive word. But let』s think about it this way:

Teach it right after you learn it.
Because the best way to learn something is to teach others how to do it.

And this is what I』m doing right now.

What I』m Doing

1. Video tutorials on VR & Unity

As I said, the current tutorials are not good enough, and there even no quality VR tutorials out there, so why not create one of my own?

You will be able to see my videos here, but sorry they are in Chinese, they have to be: https://space.bilibili.com/89944567/#!/video

I believe that we are the first generation who have the ability to document our life with digital devices, the first generation who are accessible to all tools helping us creating legacy.

Don』t ever live like a cave man.

2. Crashed my drone

The photo above is literally the last footage I shot before I crashed the drone. I didn』t purchase the DJI Care along with it, so I paid ￥1,400 ($200) to get my drone exchanged, and purchased DJI Care right after the repairing.

I need to practice more with my drone, if you are in Shenzhen or HongKong, I』d love to hangout together and get some sick footages.

3. Enjoy playing PUBG on weekend~

Thanks for reading and continuous support. Hope you find this email helpful, and I』m looking forward to hearing from yours!

「What you do everyday more than what you do once in a while.」

Warm Regards,

Zake