Kelly Huang

Author: kelly huang

  • Not finish a book

    Two books I did not finish recently and the reason.

    • The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias
      • A fundamental book. If it dates back to 2017, I think this would be a nice read. For now, it feels like a reminder; there’s nothing wrong with that, but I haven’t found big insight to keep me going.
    • Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts
      • A highly to-the-ground, practical book. I think it will be a good read when I’m on the road, but that ‘s not the case at this moment. It felt distant and hard to follow through.

    Why do I feel obligated to finish a book?

    1. I paid. I want my money back. or: it’s a waste not to.
    2. There’s something, I just haven’t stumble across it yet.
    3. It’s a book. It has to be right.

    But a book is an idea, and idea doesn’t always translate for everyone. At 35, I think there’s no guilt in that; although at times I imagine myself to have to like it.

  • No clear instruction? Make a call

    • Year 2022: promoted as the team lead for product marketing when 3 of 5 members left.
    • Year 2025: got a new job as team lead for product marketing unit employee no.1.

    Both jobs shared one thing similar: a direction to head to, but lack of clear milestones. At least not given to me.

    What I learned is to make call on my own KPI, on what I think the organization needs and how I will implement this. If no one tells me to stop, then I continue to work on my roadmap. Remember frequent status update is a must.

    The lessons I learned:

    1. Have a plan to work on and being less panic. Doing nothing or passively doing little gets you killed.
    2. Autonomy and freedom to make a plan and execute the plan.
    3. Do it differently. Instead of learning to use Indesign to create multi-lingual datasheets, which underperforms even with someone dedicated, try to automate with script and template. Try 10x to result, not 1.2x.
    100 day action plan at Luminys

  • Saving up for

    10th grade, I saved up THB 3,000 for my first Nike basketball shoes. At 30, I start to see people save up 20% for their home down payment.

    Once we start to make a paycheck or receive our credit card, that stopped. Everything seemed so easy now. The wait is gone. So was happiness. It was both less and short.

    Fun money gave some of that that back: having a thing or service to want and the progression to reach that. The result feels happy, the progression feels happy, and the anticipation feels happy.

    Side note: that basketball shoes was made for indoors, so it didn’t last long. I never bought another sneaker or sports shoes surpass 3k.

  • Gamification and doing hard things

    Millie’s turning 5, school began to teach numbers and alphabets. I found this as an opportunity to learn to do hard things.

    Every time she writes from 1 to 50, a box is slashed, she accumulates 4 minutes of iPad or Switch time to redeem.

    It works for adults too. What’s that one anticipation we reward ourselves when we finish our work? Or may be in smaller pieces: I’m having a cup of hot mocha after 3 pomodoros on this deck.

  • Writing in a to-do app

    I’m a great procrastinator. I paid for Bluehost, I switched to Hostinger. I changed a dozen or so themes. But I avoided the thing that should be done: to write.

    • 2021: 3 posts
    • 2022: 3
    • 2023: 5
    • 2024: 30
    • 2025: 25

    I began to write on TickTick and reached 22 straight days. I found writing in my todo list to be a tactical move stay away from perfection.

    1. Removes the mental barrier, it’s like writing on a post-it note.
    2. Smaller screen landscape compared to an empty webpage.

  • Wispr Flow (or other AI voice-to-text apps)

    I discovered this from Tiago Forte’s YouTube video. The benefits are immediate.

    1. Speak to LLM is easier.
    2. It’s faster to speak than to type.
    3. Less friction to start compared to typing 500 characters.
    4. It turns a thought into a structured context.

    The opposite takes a few weeks to realize.

    1. So easy that I persuade myself to hold on to doing it, procrastination.
    2. Mentally resisting to type the keyboard.

  • Challenge of starting work at 5am

    Starting work at 5 am is not the hardest, sleeping at 10 pm is. Because lures are everywhere.

    • Phone and tablet
    • Wrapping the day at 8:30
    • Stop reading
    • Occational Friday movie night
    • Holding on to sex (sometimes)

    Working at 5 is not the hardest.

  • Benefits of working at 5 am

    This new job requires to work closely with US and Canada, so it allowed me to work at 5 am. I’ve found some benefits:

    1). Productivity: each session are more equally divided.

    Screenshot
    • 5 am to 7 am: 2 hours
    • 9 am to 12 pm: 3 hours
    • 1 pm to 4 pm: 3 hours

    2). Confidence: knowing that this is a difficult discipline.

    3). Forced lifestyle: start on time and take breaks on time to manage the energy.

  • 好懂秒懂的財務思維課 by 郝旭烈

    106

    1. 擁有錢，才活得下，管理現金流量表。
    2. 確保錢，才活得久，管理損益表。
    3. 累積前，才活得好，管理資產負債表。

    127

    損益表：簡單來說就是看到底有沒有賺錢

    資產負債表：就是看賺錢的效率跟效能高不高

    金流量表：它等於揭示整個賺錢最後的結果

    310

    中國人講「量入為出」、「開源節流」，都把開源跟量入放在前面，開源跟量入講的就是「收入」，所以怎麼樣關注你的收入，事實上才是最重要的一塊。

    這三者當中的領頭羊不是費用，不是成本，而是「收入、收入、收入」

    321

    收入預算不確定，你就沒有編，但是費用預算你確定了，所以編得鉅細彌遺…淨利怎麼估算？

    404

    如果沒有辦法持續的話，那基本上就不是好收入

    439

    收入＝商品Ｘ通路Ｘ流量Ｘ轉換率Ｘ客單價Ｘ復購率

    688

    砍成本和費用，要砍脂肪，不要砍到肌肉

    792

    「先生產再銷售」，最怕的就是「埋頭苦幹」，也就是一但一頭栽進生產的環節裡面，就沒有花太多心思在銷售環境的變動上面

    1171

    公司是用扣除費用的所得淨額納稅，但是個人卻用所得總額來納稅

    1262

    「淨資產或淨值」對公司或者是個人而言，才是真正「財富管理」的終極目標

    1870

    要推薦最重要的財務分析KPI…總資產報酬率

    1926

    好的商品去做生意，最好是「高頻高需」

    2205

    只要手邊有足夠充分的現金，就有活下去的本錢，和足夠應對未來的資源

  • Motion drives emotion

    The word ’emotion’ includes the word ‘motion’, it’s 6 out of the 7 characters. I think this implies 80% action and 20% feeling. Unfortunately, we often flip the ratio when things get hard.

    If I treat myself as a business, a restaurant. Does a bad review make me feel bad? Yes. And nervous, angry, defensive, sad – that’s natural. Does it stop the restaurant from opening the next day? Probably not. Why do people operate differently when it comes to personal life?

    Discipline helps to mitigate the emotion. Discipline to take action, even if it’s not the optimal quality.