Weekly Report #30 - Open Source Budget, Writing Original Intent, and Humility Towards Technology

Preface#

This article is a record and reflection on life from 2023-02-07 to 2023-02-12.

This week, there wasn't much progress at work, but it felt like time has passed especially quickly after the New Year. It seems like I haven't done anything particularly valuable, yet I was caught up in a sense of busyness. However, I finally started dedicating a significant amount of time to the additional project, which has deviated somewhat from the original expectations and brought some anxiety, but I'm slowly working through it.

This week, I was entrusted by the company to write an article about Cosmos. During the writing and publishing process, I had some realizations about my original intent for writing and humility towards technology.

Over the weekend, I attended a concert at the National Centre for the Performing Arts. I had always wanted to listen to a symphony but rarely had the opportunity, so I finally unlocked a new weekend destination. I also chatted with Randy, the author of my current commenting system Cusdis (and reported a few bugs), and felt he was a very pure tech person. I hope to contribute to the development of Cusdis v2; there are many interesting things happening.

Open Source Budget#

In an article by Randy titled "I Set a Monthly $20 Open Source Donation Budget for Myself", I found his philosophy and attitude towards open source projects very interesting, which inspired me to set a similar open source budget for myself.

Currently, my plan is to allocate at least $20 (about 130 RMB) or an equivalent budget each month, flexibly choosing based on my daily usage and tech stack. I will donate to the following projects:

Independent bloggers and developers who inspire me
Projects that I frequently use during side projects and that solve real problems
Some interesting open source tools and services that I use often

The projects I have donated to so far include:

Reorx, a developer I greatly admire. His independent blog, attitude towards tools, exploration, and some of the projects he has developed have benefited me a lot. My "Yu's Life" channel is forked from his "Reorx’s Footprints", which has reshaped my information input and output flow over the past six months. The recently released "GitHub - jsoncv" has also been a great help while I was restructuring my resume.
immersive-translate, an immersive translation plugin led by owen. It is a very interesting tool, and owen is diligently developing the v2 version. I joined the team early on and am currently taking on some development tasks. When the team discussed the need for some servers, I provided two.

You can see which projects and individuals I have donated to on GitHub Sponsor.

Writing Original Intent#

I have always enjoyed writing, especially as my output has reached a good frequency and quality over the past six months. Long-term blogging has also allowed me to meet many friends and occasionally receive some great opportunities. However, as my writing skills have improved with accumulation, I often receive quite positive feedback, but sometimes I seem to fall into a writing trap. A recent event made me more aware of this.

Before the New Year, the company's media operations scheduled an article with me, with no restrictions on the theme, as long as it was related to the company's business technology. Since I had plenty of time then, I agreed, but it was put on hold during the New Year. After returning to work in Beijing, I was reminded to submit it, but I didn't want to be too perfunctory, so I chose a broad theme of analyzing the underlying chain and consensus of Cosmos and spent an entire night finishing it.

Actually, I wasn't too worried when submitting it because most of the knowledge points came from summarizing a book, thinking it would only require some minor adjustments. However, when it was reviewed by a leader who is proficient in the underlying chain, the following dialogue occurred.

zgtech_cosmos_article_review_kai

Upon checking the shared link used for review, I found that he had made very detailed annotations on some questionable details in my article, many of which included papers and citations.

zgtech_cosmos_article_review_3

At first, I just thought that I might have been overly blindly trusting the books and knowledge points I read, lacking the necessary skepticism and verification spirit.

After reflecting on the entire process, I realized that my mindset had undergone some subtle changes. I have always been quite adept at handling words, sometimes summarizing knowledge points and presenting them in an easy-to-read and interesting way, and other times expressing and presenting my thoughts and reflections through writing.

Words seem to have become my habitual means of expression, and because of the positive feedback, I seem to have lost some of my original intent. Writing itself originates from the exploration and presentation of life and certain things and technologies, and only then comes sharing and creating value for others. I seem to have gradually turned sharing into a purpose.

There is a saying in the Analects:

"When substance exceeds style, it becomes crude; when style exceeds substance, it becomes history. Only when both substance and style are harmoniously combined can one be called a gentleman." — Analects, Book of Yong

This is quite applicable to writing. When substance (the content of writing) is too abundant and style (flair/technique) is too scarce, it loses some of the enjoyment that attracts readers and loses the charm of writing; conversely, when style exceeds substance, it becomes superficial and lacks substantial content, thus losing the meaning of writing. Only when both style and substance coexist can one say it is a good article.

I think I will worry to some extent about leaning towards style over substance, but fortunately, this incident has served as a timely reminder, and I will be more cautious with my writing in the future.

Humility Towards Technology#

This actually relates to a topic worth discussing, which is the humility towards technology.

I think people in this industry can more or less realize the endlessness of technology. Starting programming or making it a career is just the beginning; there are so many admirable people and interesting technologies.

I entered this industry with a filter, filled with too many fantasies and expectations about this field and profession when I was still an undergraduate majoring in English. Therefore, after successfully engaging in development work, I often remind myself to maintain humility towards technology.

I have seen many strong open-source leaders in both front-end and back-end refer to themselves as "a front-end who can write a bit of back-end" or "someone who makes some small things that everyone likes." I really appreciate this attitude; technology itself is a means of enjoyment and realizing one's ideas, not a tool to show off. Holding this kind of belief towards technology allows one to continuously learn and grow.

Interesting Things and Items#

Software#

Previously, I mostly used Apple Music, but some of its operational logic was quite frustrating. The playlist feature was almost useless, and due to some closed interfaces, it was difficult to access my data. Therefore, even though my Telegram channel was originally configured to automatically sync liked songs from Spotify, I would always search for good songs on Spotify after hearing them on Apple Music. The free version's ads and limitations on skipping tracks were also quite troublesome, so I rarely synced my songs.

spotfiy_service_family

spotfiy_service_family_mail

Recently, I migrated from iCloud Family with Ni and Zhan, stopping the original service. Comparing prices in the Hong Kong region, I found it was better to migrate directly to Spotify, so I happily got Spotify Premium, which has been a much more comfortable experience. Plus, after watching the series "Streaming Pioneer", I feel a wonderful sense of participation!

Additionally, Zhan's broadband service in Hong Kong provided a Netflix family membership, so now I have a seamless experience in audio-visual entertainment!

Input#

Although most interesting inputs will automatically sync in the "Yu's Life" Telegram channel, I still selected a portion to list here, making it feel more like a newsletter.

Articles#

Podcasts#

I recorded some podcasts I have been listening to:

10. Before Valentine's Day, Let's Review the Golden Age of Romantic Dramas - | Listen Notes

Videos#

Similarly, I also recorded some interesting videos I watched:

Output#

Blog#

Cosmos Blockchain Architecture and Tendermint Consensus Mechanism · Pseudoyu

Personal Life Snapshot#

Life#

Most of this week was spent at the company, so I was especially looking forward to the weekend.

On Saturday, I went to a Beethoven concert at the National Centre for the Performing Arts with my senior, Bo Yi. I used to go to the light music group in Sanlitun for some small themed performances, like those on Miyazaki, La La Land, and century-old classics. The small space had a great atmosphere, but I was also eager to experience the shock of a symphony, and I finally got my wish!

beethoven_symphony_concert_ticket

beethoven_symphony_concert_live

Interestingly, after the concert, I bought a Mozart brooch (who made him cuter), and shared the following tea talk.

beethoven_symphony_concert_tweet

Today's tea talk: "I just finished listening to a Beethoven concert and turned around to buy a Mozart brooch. Will he be sad?"

After posting the tweet, I coincidentally met a Twitter friend Noy who was also at the National Centre for the Performing Arts at the same time. I found out he is also involved in web3 development and loves to watch plays and concerts on weekends. We arranged to meet up, and we can go watch together later!

Another small surprise was when we passed by a foreign handsome guy at the theater, he said, "I love his hair." The kindness from a stranger made me very happy. Now, with my blue long hair, I really look more and more like a character from an anime, with a 300% rate of turning heads.