Monthly Review of July, 2017
What you do everyday more than what you do once in a while.
Welcome to the No. 20 Edition of
THE REVIEW ARMY
July— Try More and Be Consistent
This month slips away fairly quickly. I’m occupied with both my work on weekdays and my side project on weekend. However, when I sit here and review myself and what have happened at the beginning of this month, it feels like a long time ago.
For work, we are making demo products to show our partners as well as investors, there’s even one night we are blind test with different parameters until 3 in the morning. It all went pretty well, and everybody is satisfied with what we had come up with.
Every month, we also have a different side task. Last month I was watching VR videos, and figure out what makes a VR video great. This month, I choose to watch games live streaming. These content make no sense for me, but just couple days ago, I finally find out what attracts people to watch game live streaming instead of playing themselves.
For life, I went to Macau for the first time, and I didn’t expect it to be such an expensive city. Literally it is a compact version of Las Vegas, tourism and casinos are all that they have been depending on.
I also tried to take a piano class and learn some basics about music, but don’t feel like this is the best time to pick up an instrument, instead, I enrolled in a VR development online course, which will start in mid August.
For my side project, which is writing and making videos. I stick to my new weekly product journal and weekly updates for newsletter and WeChat blog. Only published 1 video of a tutorial for Apple ARKit game application, which takes me a week of preparation, 1 hour recording and 6 hours editing.
I also wrote an article about blockchain and bitcoin, documenting my learning process as well as explaining the concept in plain language with pictures. It also inspires me to rethink about the topics I’m writing.
What I’m Reading
I’m still reading Think Fast and Slow this month, every chapter Daniel introduces some new concepts and psychology terms which blow my mind. I tried to squeeze some time for reading in the morning after I wake up, as well as half an hour before I’m taking a nap in the afternoon.
I will talk about what I learn from this book after I finish it, and here’s I’m also going to recommend your some articles I came across in July, which definitely worth your time to read:
1. 20 Years Ago, Steve Jobs Demonstrated the Perfect Way to Respond to an Insult
His reaction:
He pauses to reset his emotions. This is so very important and the hardest part.
He agrees with his accuser.
He helps everyone see the larger picture.
He uses vulnerability to his advantage.
He praises his people.
He finishes strong.
2. The Narrative Fallacy and What You Can Do About It
I had a couchsurfer staying at my apartment at the end of July. He’s a German entrepreneur who’s looking for funding for his CureBlindTech in Hongkong and Shenzhen.
He said the Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s trilogy, which are The Black Swan, Antifragile and Fooled by Randomness shape his understanding for this world, and strongly recommended me to read his books. I haven’t purchased these books yet, but came across this blog, which also discusses about narrative fallacy and Nassim’s books.
The narrative fallacy addresses our limited ability to look at sequences of facts without weaving an explanation into them, or, equivalently, forcing a logical link, an arrow of relationship upon them. Explanations bind facts together.
We should all be careful about what we read, what we see and who we meet every day. Stay away from things that are most narrative, or even people who are good at painting a narrative, including my blog, because that’s what I think is right, not yours.
And one way to learn from these great people while staying away from narrative is to keep a journal or a disciplined writing habit. This is the only way to get your own ideas down on paper, and just be yourself.
3. I kicked my smartphone addiction by retraining my brain to enjoy being bored
“Research suggests that people who want to come up with creative ideas would do well to let their minds drift. A 2014 study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that bored people are more prone to “divergent thinking styles” — the ability to come up with creative new ideas…[boredom] is an opportunity for us to meet our own needs — to turn inward rather than outward and tend our emotions, interact with our creativity, and give our brains a break.”
Creativity and imagination is what I’ve been struggled with since I started my career, I always feel like I’m not creative enough at work, and push myself to read and be more disciplined.
However, this is not how you solve the problem and move forward, the creativity should mostly come from our life, not some deep work mode.
What I’m Learning
1. Blockchain & Bitcoin
I gave myself a challenge and did some research online to learn about Blockchain, this has always been what I really want to learn, but feel like no clue about how to start it.
This time, I challenged myself to read everything I can find about blockchain in a week, and try to explain it to a toddler. And this article is one of my favorites in 2017 so far.
2. Apple ARKit Development (Video Tutorial)
I have some experience developing VR/AR programs in Unity last year, but our current project requires us to know more about basic C# language and design features in Unity. I started watching some tutorials online, and inspired by a saying that,
the best way to learn something is to teach others how to do it.
So I want to document the process of learning and create content and tutorial for other people. This is the best way I can think of to keep myself accountable while producing content.
Apple ARKit is quite popular right now, so I pick a game using Apple’s ARKit, and record a tutorial video of how I make this zombie game.
What I’m Doing
1. Douyin 抖音
Douyin is a short video social platform for content creators. I have to say they’ve done a pretty good job in marketing their product and popular contributors.
15 seconds, you are allowed to share a funny story, or even creator some sick transition which won’t cost users a lot of time, like I edit m video in final cut pro. It’s easy to get on hands and user friendly, and have brought so much joy to my life.
I also started my own channel @Zake Zhang in Douyin. Check this out if you dare.
2. PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS
Each month, we have a side task of doing some research about some topic, and then share with other on our monthly product review. Last month I chose to watch game livestreaming. There’s no doubt that PUBG is my favorite now.
I started with Chinese platform like Douyu, Huya, but I have no interests in the most popular hosts, as well as their personality and styles. Then at the end of July, I went to Twitch and found a guy called JoshOG.
He’s a super experienced and skilled shooting game host, but what makes him different is that he also brings joy and positive energy to the audience. That’s my key takeaway from watching his content,
no matter what you are doing, you need to bring the good vibes to the community.
3. Back in the Pool
Last Christmas, that is the last time I went swimming. I remember this quite clearly because I was in Mountain View, swimming with my couchsurfing host outdoors.
I make sure I go swimming at least twice a week, and due to the super dense population in the pool, I always go in the early mornings, from 7am–9am, and I can still arrive at office at around 9:30AM. Hopefully I can get back to my good state at bufferfly stroke.
Thanks for reading and continuous support. Hope you find this email helpful, and I’m looking forward to receive your stories and plans!
“What you do everyday more than what you do once in a while.”
Warm Regards,
Zake
