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.
Page 24
Big ideas and big plans are often easier – certainly no more difficult – than small ideas and small plans.
Page 57
Action cures fear.
Page 67
Your mind wants you to forget the unpleasant. If you will just corporate, unpleasant memories will gradually shrivel and the teller in your memory bank will cancel them out.
Page 88
Suppose you say, “We face a problem.” You have created a picture in the minds of others of something difficult, unpleasant to solve. Instead say, “We face a challenge”, and you create a mind picture of fun, sport, something pleasant to do.
Page 124
It isn’t so much what you know when you start that matters. It’s what you learn and put to use after you open your doors that counts most.
Big success calls for persons who continually set higher standards for themselves and others, persons who are searching for ways to increase efficiency, to get more output at lower cost, do more with less effort.
Page 129
The bigger the person, the more apt he is to encourage you to talk; the smaller the person, the more apt he is to preach to you.
Page 152
The child is a living reflection of how his parents or guardians think; for he learns through imitation.
Page 153
The way we think toward our jobs determines how our subordinates think toward their jobs.
Page 204
Get the family on your team. Give them planned attention.
Page 209
You don’t get a raise on the promise of better performance; you get a raise only by demonstrating better performance.
Page 221
Recognize the fact that other fellow has a right to be different…you don’t have to approve of what another fellow does, but you must no dislike him for doing it.
Page 234
Excellent ideas are not enough. An only fair idea acted upon, and developed, is 100 percent better than a terrific idea that dies because it isn’t followed up.
Page 238
The test of a successful person is not an ability to eliminate all problems before they arise, but to meet and work out difficulties when they do arise.
Page 246
I make myself sit down at my desk. Then I pick up a pencil and go through mechanical motions of writing. I put down anything. I doodle. I get my fingers and arm in motion, and sooner or later, without my being conscious of it, my mind gets on the right track.
Page 274
When you hit a snag, don’t throw up the whole project. Instead, back off, get mentally refreshed.
Page 280
Visualize your future in terms of three departments: work, home, and social.
Page 324
Many people fail to tap their creative leadership power because they confer with everybody and everything else but themselves.
Page 330
You never gain anything from an argument but you always lose something.