The Journey to Building and Sharing

As my website is about to go live, I feel it's time to finally write something for it. After all, leaving it empty wouldn't make much sense, especially at this stage. I have plenty of thoughts about this site. The first is to use it as a platform to practice website-building skills—something that could prove useful and help me earn a living. My background is in acoustics and electronics, fields that have little to do with web development. After graduating, I worked in embedded systems, which was more aligned with my degree, but due to certain reasons, I eventually transitioned into the internet industry. Sometimes I wonder: if I had started exploring this world of website building back in middle or high school, would I have had a more impressive career by now? But then I think, probably not. If I had a computer back then, I’d likely have used it to watch anime or play games—just like I did when I bought my first computer in college. Despite owning a computer, I still missed out on Bitcoin and didn’t make any significant progress in programming.

If you think about it, how could a seed that falls in the desert sprout more easily than one that lands in a forest? How can a fish feeding in shallow waters grow larger than one swimming in a vast river? If a person’s environment is like a seed that falls in the sand, then instead of waiting for the wind to carry it away, they can walk to the forest or the wilderness to create their own path.

Once I started working, I began to view my brain as a filter—one that receives and processes signals. What makes it smarter is that I can actively seek out information, rather than passively waiting for it. I realized that my instinct to seek benefit and avoid harm drives me to filter out information that’s advantageous to me and make decisions based on it. Even though some of these decisions may hurt the feelings of those around me, I no longer feel the need to burden myself with moral guilt. Now, I ask myself: If my brain is a filter, and it’s adaptive, how do I obtain the parameters and direction for filtering? The answer is data, feedback, and communication. This is the second reason I created this website: to foster better communication. Much like how plants improve their environment after taking root, running a website can be a way to enhance my ability to acquire and process information. And who knows—it might even generate some income, which leads me to my third reason for running this site. If one day the website can support me financially, I’ll consider this the primary reason for doing it. After all, that’s how most people would view it, so why get caught up in the details?

Now, enough rambling. Let me explain the general direction for the content on this site. It will primarily focus on China’s political economy and the culture of I Ching. In the beginning, the content will mostly take the form of casual essays. If any readers are interested, I welcome practical discussions in the comments section. Finally, I’d like to clarify: this is not a platform for promoting any particular ideology, nor is it a space for emotional venting. Readers who enjoy playing devil’s advocate are kindly asked to exit to the left.