Ventuss

Ventuss xLog

走马敕勒川 | TG: @Ventuss_OvO
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No need to look back, goodbye 2019

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I didn't have the habit of writing year-end summaries before. In my opinion, December 31st to January 1st is just another orbit around a spiral arm of the Milky Way. However, there were some gains in 2019 that I would like to share with everyone.


2019 is a Continuation of 2018#

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After graduating in 2017, I started working directly. The overall feeling was like me sliding into adulthood, with various discomforts. In the second half of the year, I lived alone in Beijing and felt extremely down.

In 2018, things gradually stabilized. I slowly summarized my own framework for viewing the world and established the main direction for my career development. I found my own rhythm. Specifically, there are a few points:

  • Tower of Babel: I realized that the Tower of Babel is a great metaphor. What prevents humans from building a tower to the heavens is not the division of language, but the barrier of the soul. Everyone is lonely, and the only ultimate way to dissolve this loneliness is through creation. Through creation, you can transcend space and time, resonate with countless humans, and influence distant places. Then, you are no longer alone.
  • Existentialism: One night, I repeatedly read Sartre's "Existentialism is a Humanism" and became an existentialist. Existence precedes essence. Morality and the soul are generated through creation. A person is the sum of all their actions. After I understood these things, I no longer felt "lost".
  • XYZ Coordinate System: This is a concept I created to describe the three main aspects of "accomplishment". The Y-axis represents vertical cognition, such as the coding ability of an engineer or the market research ability of a researcher. The X-axis represents horizontal mobilization ability, mobilizing people, capital, resources, or more simply, management ability. The Z-axis represents the ability to traverse cycles, knowing what to do at what time, which is the ability of a CEO. With this coordinate system, I consciously started to train myself in these three aspects.

The cognitive improvement in 2019 was an extension of the foundation laid in 2018. I gained more practical experience, tested theories, and developed more down-to-earth and practical skills.

  • Consumption and Creation: I started consciously distinguishing between "consumption" and "creation" in my life and work. Buying a handbag is consumption, creating a product by buying an SDK is creation; watching TikTok is consumption, writing an article is creation... When you view everything in life from this perspective, you will find that many things become completely irrelevant, while others become extremely important.
  • Creative Professional: I have always used this phrase as my LinkedIn profile summary, but the experiences in 2019 have made me more determined in my career choice. Only creation can dissolve loneliness, and the creation of a product manager can be infinitely amplified by the Internet. There is nothing more wonderful than this. I also discovered that being a product manager is actually a transitional career. In the end, you will either become a professional manager or a CEO.
  • Optimistic Nihilism: I used to really like Leonard Cohen's quote, "The pessimist is someone who is always worried about the rain, while I am already soaked to the bone." However, after being educated by reality, I have become more optimistic. Being optimistic still has a possibility, while pessimists will only stagnate. The universe has no meaning, meaning is created. Be optimistic and create. This is optimistic nihilism.
  • I Can Do It Too: In 2019, I did many things that I had never thought of before. It's not that I lacked imagination, but I thought these things were far away from me. Later, I discovered that they were not as difficult as I thought, and I could do them too. In 2020, I have more confidence and energy to expand my boundaries.
  • Freedom: One day, I suddenly realized that I don't actually have many material desires, but there are many things I want to do but don't have time for. I realized that for me, I don't even need "financial freedom". I just need a stable cash flow. What I need more is complete "freedom", the freedom to do something when I want to do it.

Personal Infrastructure#

One thing I focused on in 2019 was Personal Infrastructure.

This was influenced by Stephen Wolfram. Stephen Wolfram is a genius. Some say he is one of the smartest people alive. He won the MacArthur Fellowship at the age of 21 and later founded Wolfram Software. I was deeply impressed after reading his article about his Personal Infrastructure. He meticulously records, digitizes, and analyzes his personal life and work, which allows him to maintain abundant energy and creativity even at the age of 60.

I cannot be as detailed as him, but I manage my personal infrastructure in the following ways:

  • Scientific Internet Access: I spent some time studying network communication knowledge, made some configurations, and now I hardly encounter any internet censorship. Due to this convenience, I have access to information of much higher quality than the Chinese internet. I have given up on various rogue internet services in China and started using products developed by top-tier internet companies.
  • Information Intake: Besides reading books, I carefully select my daily information intake, mainly through RSS subscriptions, supplemented by a small amount of social media. This way, I don't miss any content from people I admire, and I can also come across content that I wouldn't normally have access to. I strongly believe in the saying, "You are what you eat."
  • Calendar: Since 2016, I have been using a calendar to record my daily life, almost like a diary. I have recorded important events that happened every day for the past four years. This year, I redesigned the rules for recording, making it more powerful and enjoyable to use. One side effect is that I am often stood up by friends, but I almost never stand them up because I record my schedule.
  • Task Management: In 2019, on the recommendation of a friend, I switched from Todoist to TickTick for task management. With the Kanban feature in TickTick, my task management ability has gone from "linear" to "multi-dimensional". I don't blindly believe in methodologies like GTD, but tools do have a significant impact on shaping the user. When I can arrange tasks in a more visually pleasing way, it becomes easier for me to complete work with enthusiasm.
  • Personal Management: I started using Notion to comprehensively manage all aspects of my life and create a personal wiki. In December, I also started trying quarterly OKRs (2019/12~2020/02). When I write down my OKRs, my life feels more organized, and even fragmented time can be effectively utilized (X-axis ability).

About Work#

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In 2019, I changed jobs and left Shimo Documents to join a startup. I was the 4th employee and the only product manager.

Shimo is a company that values taste (which is a high praise from me, as taste is something that cannot be learned). My time at Shimo was very interesting, and my colleagues were all very talented. However, due to changes in the external environment, the company's development and my personal goals became misaligned. When I first joined Shimo, everyone wanted to achieve great things, but later we had to give up due to various factors. Afterwards, I found that my ideas had been implemented one by one by DingTalk and Yuque, which was a bit regretful. I wish Shimo the best.

However, this experience made me start thinking about what business is. Product managers always emphasize user experience. In my opinion, the best user experience should be providing services to users while also making money. Because if you can't sustain your team, you won't be able to provide good user experience in the long run. What we should pursue is long-term global optimization.

After our new company was established, we all went to Delhi, India for a month. However, we didn't have much time for sightseeing. We were focused on development and street surveys. India is full of vitality. In the foreseeable future, the world will be dominated by China and India, and India may even be more competitive than China for two reasons: 1. Indians speak English; 2. India has no internet censorship. These two factors allow Indians to access information of much higher quality than what is available within the Great Firewall. It impressed me deeply that when an Indian wants to find something, such as "how to do ASO", they will directly use YouTube. YouTube has high-quality content from all over the world for online teaching, which is much more efficient. In China, we can only use Baidu? Toutiao search? Don't make me laugh.

Our team spent some time in the early stages deploying infrastructure and getting to know each other. Then, we launched our first product, which did not meet expectations, but we found a viable path. The second product was taken down due to some issues, but after resolving the problems and re-launching it, it quickly grew. We continuously optimized and polished the product, releasing a new version every week. User retention rapidly improved, and eventually, we reached #18 on the Google Play India category rankings, with 200k DAU and 55% next-day retention. Compared to our competitors, the data is very good.

We originally planned to focus on user experience, but the market changes exceeded our expectations, so we promptly changed direction. I won't go into detail about the ongoing projects. We'll quietly make a fortune. It's going well.

Someone asked if young people now think ByteDance is a cool company. My answer is: Yes, it's cool. It's cooler than BAT, similar to Facebook, but far behind Tesla and NASA. A super powerful recommendation system isn't cool? A commercial system that can monetize traffic isn't cool? The transformation of an aircraft museum into low-rise buildings isn't cool? Of course, it's still not as cool as a spaceship.

Breaking the contract with Huawei and joining Toutiao in 2017 was an extremely correct decision. I shamelessly say that I already foresaw that Toutiao would grow into the new BAT at that time. I learned a lot from Toutiao, although a large part of it was realized with hindsight. Now I have a better understanding that business is a great thing, and profit is the biggest morality in business.

About Life#

In 2019, I still didn't have a cat.

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However, I made many new friends this year, and many of them have become very good friends. The connection between people is a magical thing. Some people are different from the first time you meet them. This year, I also reconnected with some old friends. Sometimes I can be stubborn and argue with friends, but we always make up. I am grateful for their understanding.

In the new year, I hope to meet more friends. I still prefer meeting offline. I welcome all friends who see this to have a meal, coffee, drink, or anything else.

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In October, I went to Australia and went skydiving with a friend. I saw the Great Barrier Reef, but unfortunately, I didn't get to hold a koala. Later, Australia experienced a terrible forest fire, and many koalas were burned to death. I hope everyone can pay attention to them.

One afternoon in November, I had a conversation with a friend and had an idea about the future world. With the help of my friend, it was written into a script and turned into a comic that was published on GQ's official account. Thank you to my friend. One night in November, after having a few drinks, I wrote a science fiction story. I sent it to a few friends for feedback, and it seemed to be well received. It marked the beginning of my new career. My imagination is still alive, and I am still young.

After the snow season started in December, I went skiing every Sunday, establishing a routine of working from Monday to Saturday and skiing on Sunday. I became addicted to snowboarding since my first experience last year. This year, I consciously practiced my moves and learned from the pros on YouTube. I have made good progress. When I can confidently tackle advanced slopes, I will be ready to leave Beijing. Skiing is a sport that suits me very well. It's just me and the slope. I have to be fully focused, or I will fall. I have to keep going because stopping will make me cold. The moment I fall is the most relaxing moment of the week. I surrender myself to life and fall on the ground with determination. It is also the most authentic moment of the week (children, please do not imitate). Learning to ski has also given me a lot of confidence. I used to be very physically uncoordinated, but now I believe that my lack of coordination was mainly due to being discouraged too much when I was young. With the right guidance, I can teach myself any sport. What's so uncoordinated about that?


That's about it for 2019.

Wishing everyone a fantastic 2020!

Don't wish me smooth sailing, wish me to break through the waves.

--

2020/01/01 @ Beijing

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