For certain there’s debate on the reliability of MBTI, for which I cannot argue. However, I believe the overall trend could be an interesting indicator. My rest from 2016 was ENFx; in 2024 it’s ENFJ. The way I react to events and how I perceive myself probably stayed.
I revisited Cal Newport’s time block method, a short lived habit I briefly tried during college and a last resolve to my hectic schedule these days.
If I don’t schedule my own time, someone else will.
Aside from getting things on traction, other benefit includes remember to take break and reflecting improvements.
It’s a misery where my time went and what I did that day.
Page 20
At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie.
Page 25
In the long run, what people think about shepherds and bakers becomes more important for them than their own Personal Legends.
Page 26
Most people learn, early in their lives, what is their reason for being…maybe that’s why they give up on it so early, too. But that’s the way it is.
Page 34
The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.
Page 42
I’m going to become bitter and distrustful of people because one person betrayed me. I’m going to have those who have found their treasure because I never found mine. And I’m going to hold on to what little I have, because I’m too insignificant to conquer the world.
Page 67
He suddenly felt tremendously happy. He could always go back to being a shepherd. He could always become a crystal salesman again. Maybe the world had other hidden treasures, but he had a dream, and he had met with a king.
Page 129
There is only one way to learn…it’s through action. Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey. You need to learn only one thing more.
Page 133
Why should I listen to my heart?……Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. Even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be there inside you, repeating to you what you’re thinking about life and about the world.
Page 155
When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.
The goal of savings in 2024 income is NT$500,000, the actual savings is NT$553,741; saving rate is 42.7% of my personal income.
That leaves excess of NT$53,741 for this year’s fun money.
1. For someone important: I bought an iPhone 14 (NT$22,300) for my wife since her phone’s breaking down
2. For myself: I spent NT$13,000 for a Tom Bihn Synik 22 (goods + shipping + import tax). I’d figure, it’s something that I use daily, just like bed and pillow, why shouldn’t it be comfortable?
3. For the family: the remaining NT$18,607 is flushed to travel budget.
Page 9
You couldn’t discriminate against the right answer. But I preferred to spend my time interpreting things.
Page 11
We spent summers and winters in Hsinchu; weeks would pass when the only people I spoke to were my parents and their middle-aged friends.
Page 21
The first generation thinks about survival; the ones that follow tell the stories.
Page 40
When you’re young, you are certain of your capacity to imagine a way out of the previous generation’s problems. There is a different way to grow old, paths that don’t involve conforming and selling out. We would figure it out together, and we would be different together. I just had to find people to be different with.
Page 57
The present was a drag. We lived for the future. Youth is a pursuit of this kind of small immortality. You want to leave something behind.
Page 64
It was only in my zine that I admitted to dreaming of anything great. In real life, I feared stepping into too large a world and failing. But I wrote things that were earnest and open, that I would never dare say out loud.
Page 68
You make a world out of the things you buy. Everything you pick up is a potential gateway, a tiny, cosmetic change that might blossom into an entirely new you.
Page 101
Everybody likes something — a song, a movie, a TV show — so you choose not to; this is how you carve out space for yourself.
Page 180
Sifting through these small moments of the past was a way of resisting the future.