Weekly Report #40 - Summer of Open Source, Beyond Code, and the Passing Sleep

Preface#

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This article is a record and reflection of my life from May 21, 2023, to May 29, 2023.

I realized over the weekend that I hadn't left the house at all this week, which seems to have become the norm in my life. However, I was still productive. I did some research and learned about new things at work. I continued to read documentation on blockchain and smart contracts. Out of personal interest, I also looked into Swift and SwiftUI tutorials. As an avid user of Apple products, I've always been interested in the technology behind them, even though I rarely use it in my work. I decided to participate in the "Summer of Open Source" offline event to break out of my isolation over the weekend, and it was a lot of fun. There were many interesting things happening.

Beyond Code#

Summer of Open Source#

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I'm not usually someone who actively participates in offline events. I often stay in my own world. After returning to Hangzhou in March or April, I wanted to take a step forward, so I frequently attended the Web3 Festival and various related offline events in Hong Kong. However, I realized that I wasn't really enthusiastic about meeting new people or sustaining interest in energy-consuming activities. So after coming back, I didn't pay much attention to or participate in such events.

This time, I saw STRRL's post on Twitter and learned that Zhi Zi and Mian Bao would be speaking, which piqued my interest. Since it wasn't far away, I decided to attend. I arrived early and got a lot of interesting souvenirs. I won't have to worry about stickers when I change my computer next time.

I listened to many talks by open source experts and had some small exchanges with some of them. I found that curiosity and the desire to tinker are common traits. When encountering something of interest or a real-life problem, they always dig deep and continue to explore, whether it's through issues or pull requests.

I was actually caught up in my own anxiety and frustration recently. My work has become more interesting, and I have more time to learn things that interest me. However, because I want to do so many things, my self-discipline and execution are not always as stable as expected. But after participating in this event, I felt a lot better. I realized that there are many interesting things in the field of open source, and no matter what stage I'm at, I can always do something fun. This is probably the original intention of why I wanted to work in technology.

My mindset is quite strange. My anxiety doesn't seem to come from peer pressure. In this field, I'm not even considered a peer anymore. There are many experts who are much younger than me. Instead, when I participate in events like this and see more possibilities and the people I aspire to be, it alleviates a lot of my negative emotions.

This week, I listened to the podcasts "Beyond Code" by Geekplux and Randy. Both of them are seniors I admire, and I have had some contact with them. Listening to their conversations is very enjoyable. They don't talk about specific technical details or tutorials, but you can feel that even though the program is called "Beyond Code," their lives are closely intertwined with the technology and code they love.

One thing that Randy mentioned that left a deep impression on me is the issue of the desire to share. He said that when he first started using Twitter, he always wanted to share his thoughts and feelings. But now he worries about sharing "too much." Although the context is different, I also share less than before and have some concerns about the randomness and disorganization of my input, output, and thoughts. I seem to be hesitant to share.

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Reorx previously conducted a survey in the channel. Since my channel was originally a fork version of his channel, I had the same confusion during a similar period. But after thinking about it, I didn't burden myself too much. I just added an extra layer of self-questioning before sharing. I need to share content that I have read seriously and gained something from, rather than just aggregating recommended or "seemingly" useful resources. I need to improve the value and purity of my input and output.

I also listened to them talk about many topics, such as work, personal growth, different living environments, post-resignation plans, AI, and more. I heard that Randy might release some tutorials and courses. I benefited a lot from his book "Next.js Application Development Practice," and some of my projects were developed based on that practice. The way he presents information is suitable for people who want to independently work on small projects. I'm looking forward to it.

Passing Sleep#

I don't know if it's because of remote work and being at home, but my sleep schedule has become increasingly irregular. Sometimes, even though I've finished work, I still stay up until three or four in the morning. I wake up around 9 am, but occasionally I turn off the alarm and sleep in until 11 am. I start working and dealing with various things in the afternoon and continue until late at night. It's a never-ending cycle.

I still feel physically fine, but I increasingly realize that sleep can greatly affect my mental state. I often feel a lack of presence the day after staying up late. I haven't started my morning run because the sun hasn't risen yet. However, I bought a yoga mat and plan to do some basic indoor exercises. I also picked up the fitness ring adventure, which I haven't completed yet.

Now, because I'm already tired when I go to bed, I rarely dream. But on the few days when I do dream, I seem to remember some past events vividly. I used to say that May always seems to be a bad month, and now there's only one day left. I hope June, which I really like, will bring some positive changes.

Nie Nie#

Nie Nie has finally regained her energy and is running around. She stays on my legs or lies on the floor next to me while I work or work overtime. She's so well-behaved.

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Interesting Things and Objects#

Mastodon#

This week, due to some work-related matters, I started to look into Mastodon in more detail. Compared to my previous understanding, I came across two articles and several projects:

Since public servers usually have some rate limiting, I thought about setting up my own Mastodon instance. However, I only need to use the Mastodon API and don't require a lot of connections or complex interaction interfaces. I found the following projects, which I might try setting up for fun:

go-mastodon is an SDK that allows you to interact with Mastodon using Go. wildebeest is mostly based on Cloudflare's free services, so once it's set up, it requires less additional maintenance. pub is a lightweight bridge application that supports minimal API access without implementing complex features. gotosocial is a more feature-rich application that consumes moderate resources.

I feel like the Fediverse has its ups and downs. There are still relatively few people actively posting on it, but I treat it as my own sanctuary.

Input#

Although most interesting inputs are automatically synchronized in the "Yu's Life" Telegram channel, I'll list some of them here. It feels more like a newsletter.

Articles#

Videos#

Here are some interesting videos I watched:

PrivacyIN ZK Camp Week2: Basic Principles of the Classic ZK Protocols

Podcasts#

Here are some interesting podcasts I listened to:

Anime#

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - Entertainment District Arc: It's so exciting!
The Case Study of Vanitas: I watched it on Netflix, so I might be a few episodes behind, but I was touched by the imitation of love in one of the episodes.
The Long Season: It's been a while since I watched a Chinese TV series. It was quite popular recently, so I caught up on it this weekend. The quality of the plot is really good.
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