I want this blogpost (esp. the title) to be /identifiable/ and as unique as possible, different from (possibly numerous) related bposts.
I want to avoid creating yet another /forgettable/ blogpost.
I want the list items to be specific, highly selective/discriminatory.
Below are some of the familiar/generic items, or high-level and vague items. Some items are indirectly relevant or /tangential/ to the original question.
Context — introspective and therapeutic blogging; blogging on family, relationships, pff, career…
For years, I have wondered
Q1: why am I subconsciously cautious about /relying/ on Chinese phrases in my blogging [2], even though Chinese phrases are increasingly important o my blogging.
After so many years, today I just noticed the #1 biggest [1] hidden barrier — technical dependency. Ascii-based blogging (without text effects) is the quickest, simplest, most transparent, most reliable, easist in set-up. Available on any device including linux,,,
Conclusion .. in my lifetime, Ascii blogging will remain the most reliable and my default.
— Chinese IME at offices, hotels … I hit progressively fewer (but not zero) issues nowadays, after the technology reached maturity, 20 years after Windows added it!
— printing .. I had hit multiple issues when printing out Chinese text, even when the screen display was fine! Even if hardware support keeps improving, this worry still lingers.
— blogg on smartphones .. Singapore smartphones generally have reliable Chinese support, but in many countries (esp. U.S.), Chinese-made phones may not be so easily available. The cheapest or best phones may not have (decent) Chinese support.
–[1] a #2 hidden barrier, I also worry about the scenario where I seek counselling or I have a written discussion with someone in English, or I present my input in a group discussion.
If a Chinese phrase is central to my writing, then I would have to translate it, crossing the /chasm/.
— case study: 摆烂 .. (躺平, 内卷 to a lesser extent) . I spent an hour researching on the precise meanings, origins/connotations. This Chinese phrase has rich meanings, but limited resonance/awareness outside the internet-age Chinese community. In contrast, many English expressions are easily understood by people unfamiliar with the English language.
Q: How much will I use this and related Chinese phrases in my blog?
A: I think “involution” as defined by myself might be the first exception to my rule (Q1). Bai3lan4 or Tan3ping2 might be the second exception. These Chinese phrases are highly relevant to my family, with RICH meanings.
— other advantages of English over Chinese and other languages
When American innovators create an online product or service [games], it appeals to the global audience, but when Chinese (or Japanese) innovators do that, they become successful only in home country. This is partly due to the openness of the American culture and English language.
k_my_adapted_jargon
^^^ In some of the above cases, there exist some “established English phrases”, but laden with complex meanings or extra connotations, so I often put “k_my_adapted_jargon” on them. In contrast, terms below are ..
— invented by me, and not so disruptive,
For years I believed I need to spend more time reading/learning than thinking/blogging. However, now I believe there are important 学而不思-prone areas where that belief doesn’t apply. This blogpost uses examples to illustrate the principle that oftentimes, we need ThinkMoreReadLess.
Other titles: ThinkMoreReadLess, BlogMoreReadLess..
I advocate “read less” mostly due to Diminishing return. If you read more you are likely to end up 学而不思, not because of laziness.
— earliest example: parenting… a well-defined domain, where _applying_ is more important than learning
See my 2019 blogpost t-effi: blogg^facetime,思而不学
— Eg: Buddhism teaching .. is a very specific and well-defined domain, where practicing is more important than reading
Suppose you learn, say, 20 high-level (or 100 detailed) guidelines and memorize them, share them with friends and family. In contrast, I only learn a one high-level guideline (with a few detailed guidelines) and try to practice them in my daily life. Serious “practice” is a struggle, with lots of thinking, blogging, discussing. I don’t read much since I focus on one guideline only.
— Eg: /selfcare/ [motivation, anger, anxiety, ] .. blogging is more important than reading new content. There are thousands of books but we may need to read only 1 or 10.
Many people use chat, email, self-talk as alternatives, but I find blogging more powerful and in-depth
— Eg: mgmt, interpersonal communications, assertiveness, leadership (vague) .. _applying_ is more important than reading. I have bought or borrowed many books and read many ..
— eg: reduce inactivity .. (active living) practicing is more important than learning. However in this domain there are not many books
I feel by default, homeless topics belong to 610610.
k_soul_search
“Recreational reading habit” is a loose term. (As an analogy “Asia” actually refers to many distinct regions like Indian subcontinent, S.E.Aaia etc.) The current (last 5Y) sample of identifiable content domains for reading :
— energy sinks .. are a superset of recreations
[z=zqbx recreation. Recreations can be consistent or inconsistent with zqbx.]
I tend to watch video, browse online or blog for a break (from work or study), but now I think reading a is superior break.
— alternative_to ⇒ [!z] movies or shopping in TPY central .. Reading as an alternative reward, unwind. Some people even take a reading vacation… am warming up to it.
sugg: go to bus interchange, or McDonald, or MRT
— alternative_to ⇒ online reading + blogging
For more than 50% of the topics I’m learning, books/magazines are more in-depth, much easier for _DRAM_refresh_
Advantage of online reading is the possibility of blogging. Online reading often involves wikipedia++ and curiositySou
— alternative_to ⇒ [!z] video_xx
— alternative_to ⇒ [!z] online news reading (+ curiosity search) .. Magazine/newspaper/online news reading is far less focused than magazines or books, and often degenerates into aimless curiosity reading. Very poor ROTI (short or long-term)
News is a huge and established industry as folks like to know and talk about news. There’s a lot of effort by credible writers. Therefore, there’s valuable content but we must be selective to maintain a minimum ROTI.
— competition ⇒ [ ] frenDialog by email (better than chat) + blogging
— competition ⇒ [!z] frenDialog by phone or meet-up
half of my peers (young or old) seem to spend bulk of “disposable leisure time” on meet-up and phone calls. I know myself. I derive more joy/satisfaction from other recreations
— competition: inferior_to ⇒ [z] workout
reading habit can easily lead to wellness stagnation [implies slow decline due to aging]
— competition: inferior_to ⇒ [z] self-learning music.. Learning takes huge amount of time but is accumulative.
— #1 competition ⇒ recreational[3] blogging .. blogging is more active and accumulative. I can revise my opinions in my own words.
Over the long term, blogging (not reading) improves your 1) expressive/articulation capabilities in specific languages … 2) complex thought-organization
[3] non-gz
— minor competitions
⇒ [z] exp recon
⇒ [z] recreational investing
taking note of a memorable conversation: I tend to confuse two modes
* journalist taking notes for potential publication use. This mode often provides active recreation, and keeps my vocab and my mind active, even improving.
* taking personal notes for my own review
In my 30’s, I would take a critical view on my friends (like Chonglei.Qi) who had unique, sometims incisive, observations on many topics. I often say “commit to writing down your observations and get them published.” That would lead to more meaningful discussions and create more value-add.
For some years, I also had a dim view on private diary (in contrast to public blog). I would insist that it was important to review the content with other people. But now I wonder how important.
Over the decades since, I have realized that 1) a reputable (serious) publication, or 2) a real review with a friend, all entail huge amounts of time and energy.
In reality, personal diary/blog + some email discussion is the only reasonable compromise I can have. Without peer review, it’s not solid, complete, balanced, but still it is a valuable deep-dive, exploration. (I have left out the therapeutic blogg that is often intermixed with my general blogging.)
Note all of these activities can (and did) take up sooo much spare time, that they often become the primary energy-sink of the year
Writing vs reading.. Scope here is non-fiction, including current affairs,,, I always feel most people, across education levels, don’t read as much as is good for them (due to different priority or available leisure time). Among those “lifelong” readers, I believe most don’t write nearly as much as I do. Nothing wrong, but I feel if you are seriously reading some topics, then you must have your personal observations. Writing (later reviewing) them is an excellent practice to enhance understanding. That includes clarifying, deepening, correlating, comparison, pattern-finding, correcting mistakes, finding appropriate phrasing… So I always feel if you are serious about some reading topic, then you had better work on improving your understanding. If you don’t use writing, then what can you use?
k_X_FOMO_v_livelihood
Q1: what motivates me to spend so much time blogging on Defense, carefree, ffree, FOMO^livelihood?
My current carefree utopian bliss feels fragile, fleeting/impermanent, almost surreal, like a dream, too good to be true.
Also, no one (except my dad) seems to be endorsing my priorities, my habits, my perceptions
Therefore, just as [[inception]] characters constantly check the totem, I feel the urge to review my blogposts in T_defense, T_carefree, T_ffree, in an attempt to make sure my carefree life is real not a /utopian/ dream. I don’t want a rude awakening.
Jolt — perhaps it’s ok to live the (almost surreal) utopian life without questioning it, just like the last scene of [[Inception]] — “Using Mal’s totem – a top that spins indefinitely iFF in a dream – to test if he is indeed in the real world, Cobb does not observe the result and instead joins his children.”
— a related question: Q2: Why writing so many blogposts comparing my ffree with peers?
A: since my teenage years I have witnessed the vast majority of adults (99% of the people around me) struggle and suffer the stress, and later experienced the same myself. Since 2017 I started seeing some reasons to feel free — so surreal and tantalizing as to demand an examination and clarification. After some research, I now believe there are a few /identifiable/ differences (between me and peers) not only in attitude but in actual and projected cash flow figures.
A: FOMO esp. due to brank (a lost game). This is a powerful driver for my comparative analysis.
A: ( secondary j4 ) rationalize my U.S. housing decision. The mainstream choice is a $800k school district home.
See blogposts on HaiFeng discussion, and rely to Genn
— utopia/surreal .. are increasingly used in my blog. It has rich connotations. As used in my blog it can refer to
— T_FOMO^livelihood spotlights the intersection (rather than “boundary”) between my carefree surreal world and the real world of “other people”.
SDXQ remains a real FOMO, real pain, real dilemma, though it doesn’t affect livelihood.
— My monthly expense tracking exercise is another “reality check” in terms of livelihood, ffree, carefree, brbr
— OC_effective, brank, slowTrack
These are my weaknesses, 短板. Paradoxically, they serve to highlight my carefree livelihood, brbr, barebones ffree, my career longevity
— For a insightful contrast, I also spend lots of time on these other topics but for subtly different reasons:
— career longevity= #1 Bedrock@ffree
As to my carefree bliss, wellness is even more important, more fragile than career longevity.
Open house distraction is heaviest when I need to focus, such as reflective blogging. If I need reflective blogging in open-house, arguably the best coping device is git-blogging .. It beats web blogging and even email blogging.
Paper blogging won’t let me build up a blogpost incrementally, but enhances mental focus.