Within minutes of this post going live, this laptop goes back to the company. Work is handed over. The final handover was supposed to be Friday, but yesterday management told me to wrap it up by Wednesday. Thursday and Friday, don't bother coming in. Probably couldn't stand watching me sit at my desk with nothing to do, haha.
These past few days, between handover tasks, I've been refining the entire 15-article run of AI, Ego & Regret. All done. Next up: cover design and front matter, then it goes live on Amazon and Gumroad.
I should give myself a break too. Tomorrow afternoon's flight is booked. Taking the family somewhere to decompress, climb a mountain. Back next Monday.
Between the handover and the editing, I also updated my resume and sent it out to a few companies. Almost no responses. Maybe things will look better after the mountain.
Sorry I haven't kept up with the remaining 12 chapters of the 36 Stratagems series. I need to get my head straight first. Saying it doesn't hurt would be a lie. This morning I walked out of the subway station, looked at the sky, looked at the buildings around me, then went to the breakfast shop I've been going to for ages. Last time buying breakfast there. Said a quiet goodbye to the owner. From here on, we part ways in the jianghu.
I know I'm being sentimental. I've changed companies before, more than once. But this one feels different.
Friends, better to forget each other in the rivers and lakes than to cling together in a drying puddle.
See you next week.👋
P.S. English isn't my first language. I use AI to polish the writing. Thanks for reading.
Top comments (14)
It's not the end of your journey. You're just about to step into the next chapter.
I've been feeling something similar lately, as I'm considering changing jobs soon myself. I'm still not sure what I should do next or where I should go. On the one hand, that makes me nervous, but on the other, I'm excited because the future hasn't been fully written yet.
Thank you for everything you've written in this series so far. Take your time, enjoy the break with your family, and have a safe trip.
青山遮不住，毕竟东流去。
I've always believed that along this journey, whoever we meet and whatever happens, good people or bad, good things or bad, it's all fate. Fate gathers us, and fate lets us go. Thank you for every encounter along the way.
百川东到海，何时复西归
A stone in a puddle disrupts the water, makes it difficult to judge depth... Till you add enough stones to stand on and keep your feet dry. It's never easy, nor fun making life changes like switching jobs, especially if it wasnt your choice, but that's just a stone in your puddle, it may disrupt it for a moment, you might not see the depths of it's impact, but you'll notice it once it forms the platform you stand on and when it does, you'll be all the happier for it. Enjoy the trip, imo, switch off your phone and spend the time with your family, enjoy the fresh air away from the city and completely disconnect. Dont even bother thinking about what comes next, wei wu wei, it'll happen as it was meant to, even without you doing a single thing.
Damn, you're a philosopher 😂 You're right: do nothing, and nothing is left undone. The boss was lucky to have me. Firing me is his loss. And honestly, funny timing: I was planning to take Thursday and Friday off anyway, but before I could even ask, the company told me not to come in Thursday or Friday. Nature was calling me, so I'm happily going on the trip. But I can't turn off my phone, no way. In China you need your phone for everything. Absolutely can't switch it off. 😂
Then atleast switch off your mind from all the work stuff. Dont stress, dont worry, dont plan... Literally dont think. Enjoy nature, let it refresh you and enjoy the time with your family, so after your trip, you can follow your heart on where you want to go next. More philosophy for you, we spend too much time in your heads, thinking about nonsense that's out of our control, trying to make plans for things that never happen, get excited over the wrong things and worried about the same. There's an old Taoist saying 'if you're hungry, eat, if you're tired, sleep', live in the way and you'll always be busy with exactly what you were meant to be.
And always remember 'he who pisses off a mountain top, blesses others with rain' 🤣 have fun and enjoy the trip to the fullest!
I strongly suspect you've been up on the rooftop doing your own cloud seeding, manufacturing countless artificial rainstorms 🤣 This trip is purely about emptying my mind. The mountain is Wudang, one of Taoism's sacred mountains. Perfect for going blank. I'm just going with the flow now, not forcing anything. Whatever happens, happens.
No sir, I much prefer crafting the rivers people must cross 😁 after all, that's the journey to enlightenment.
Wudang is still on my bucket list, it just always looks so peaceful in the photos. Just watch out for the rain... You never know whence it came forth 😂
Man I feel for you! Of all the companies you worked for, this one mean the most to you? How long have you been working there? And what changed which made it all go wrong - change of management, or maybe the company's business just went down?
Hoping you get some "leads" soon from companies you're reaching out to - anyway, for now, take your time to reset and relax!
This company was where I truly felt the world shifting from the pre-AI era into the AI era. A lot of the material for my stories comes from here. I don't want to say too much, because you'll find echoes of it in the stories. 😂 I'll definitely take it easy, empty my mind, and really connect with nature.⛰️🌳
They shifted to AI, but the business wasn't doing well (you mentioned at some point) - just wondering of there's a connection between the two, or they were just independent events (the AI transition, and the business going down) - or the move to AI was an attempt to rescue the company (save costs, increase speed/agility, etc) ...
From what I observed and heard, the company always billed itself as an AI healthcare company: AI diagnostics, AI sleep monitoring, that kind of thing. But the business never really took off. People came and went. Every day it was one executive or another, and a lot of those executives are already gone. As more of us got laid off, the people who stayed got more work. Let me put it this way. These past few days, I've watched the group chat turn into: someone posts a question, someone else feeds it to an AI, then copies the AI's answer back into the group. And everyone's having a great time with it. The remaining developers have all become AI-only developers. Even they admit they can't understand the code anymore. Also, the company always had its own vertical business model. The quality of it, well, honestly not great. I think the AI pivot was the company's attempt to save itself. It didn't work. AI became the label, not the product.
No apology needed for the twelve chapters. Nobody here is holding a deadline over you, and the stories will be better because you're taking the time. The mountain is the right call with family. Take the whole week and don't check anything.
About the breakfast shop, it's the small routines you didn't know you'd built until they end. Of course it hurts. It should. That's what years somewhere actually look like, and being sentimental about it isn't a weakness.
And in the middle of all that, you finished editing fifteen articles and got a book to the cover stage. Most people manage neither in a week like this one. You did both.
We'll be here.
Safe travels. 👊
Thanks. I have this habit of setting deadlines for myself. If something isn't done by a certain point, I get restless. This week I'm turning off the VPN, just going hiking with a clear mind, and popping in occasionally to leave a like. When I get back, I'll share some photos from the trip if I get the chance. 😂 Honestly, that breakfast shop means a lot to me. The owner knows me well enough that I walk in and he already knows my order. I don't have to say a word. One of the reasons I'd get to the office early was this shop: my favorite savory soy milk and pan-fried buns, and I'd start the workday full of energy. Hope the shop keeps thriving for a long time to come.
😂Not sure if it's the article or my account that's the problem, but this post didn't show up in Latest again.