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, bu...
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
Hey Xuling. It must have been tiring for you. I hope your journey will continue to go well. I would love to see most posts about your experiences in general in tech in addition to the series you have been keeping up! We would love to learn from you!
Feel free to remove this. Not because this article is humanly generated, but also cutting some slack as well. Besides, I only send notification if it is almost entirely AI generated (with high confidence. I can provide examples if needed). At most, usually a mix of human wrote entirely while using AI to fix grammar is fine. Sylwia and others use this practice and it works well.
Hope for the best health!
Yeah, I'll mix in some stories from my years in the industry throughout the series. Probably mostly ranting, lol. Thanks for the good wishes. I'll say a prayer for the whole dev community when I'm up on Wudang Mountain. Seriously, thank you all so much. You guys are family to me.🙏
I think when something ends, it also means something new is beginning.
Nothing in this world lasts forever, after all. 😿
Take some proper time to rest.
Once your mind has had a chance to settle, new paths and ideas often start to appear naturally.
For now, I think the most important thing is simply to rest.
See you again next week! 🐱
You're so right. Nothing stays the same, we just adapt and go with the flow. This hike is all about relaxation, and I'll definitely get some good rest.😄 See you next week!
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 😂
I'll be scouting Wudang for you on this trip. To guard against that rain of unknown origin, I've packed 6 raincoats. Airtight defense. And by the time I'm at the summit, you should watch out for rain of unknown origin too. 🤣
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
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.
"AI healthcare company, AI diagnostics" - it does sound like exactly the kind of business which should be "booming", but only when executed well ... so, essentially you got pushed off a ship which was already sinking ;-)
P.S. how about utilizing that knowledge to start your own AI Healthcare company? But, it's a specialized business, I don't see how it can be done with some "real" experts (doctors and all that) on board ...
😂hahaah I don’t have the resources to start my own AI healthcare company. Before this job, I was testing fintech payment stuff — some of it a bit gray-area, web3 and all that, you know. As for what’s next, I’ll figure it out after I get back from hiking. Who knows, maybe I’ll say a little prayer up on the mountain, and things will get smoother after that.
Wishing you a smooth transition and lots of good things ahead. Sometimes a change of direction turns out to be the start of something really interesting. Enjoy the trip and see you next week! 🙂
Thanks! Late reply 'cause I'm busy packing and loving it. See you next week! 😄
旅途愉快! ✈️ Enjoy this beautiful trip with your lovely family. ❤️ I’m from the mountains too, so I share a deep connection with nature. There’s something about the mountains—their silence, fresh air, and peacefulness—that truly touches the heart. I hope nature brings you a little peace and makes you feel lighter. ❤️
I'm already pretty calm, and nature will just make me even calmer, haha 😄. I'm getting more and more excited for tomorrow. I need to pack some extra outdoor gear. I figure the first day will be about five or six hours of hiking.⛰️
Ohh, 5–6 hours, that’s really nice! Make sure you pack everything properly and don’t forget anything. We often forget important things when we’re too excited 🙃. By the way, will there be bungee jumping there too? 🤔
So I googled it, and Wudang Mountain does have bungee jumping. But nah, I'm a total chicken. No way, not happening😂This time it's all about the temples, hiking, sitting in meditation, and finding calm while on the move. So let's keep it chill.🧘
I’m clearly late to this one — you’ve already climbed the mountain, come back, and started sending resumes while I’m only now showing up to wish you a good trip. My timing is apparently running on Internet Explorer. 😂
But maybe that makes this easier to say: I hope the mountain did its job.
What stayed with me most in this post wasn’t actually the job or the layoff. It was that last breakfast at the familiar shop. We usually think we’ll miss the big things when a chapter ends, but somehow it’s the tiny routines — the same commute, the same breakfast, the people who already know what you’re going to order — that make you realize something really ended.
And from what you’ve written about the company and its AI transition, I suspect some distance will eventually make this chapter even more valuable. Not necessarily because it was good or bad, but because you got to watch a very strange period in our industry from the inside.
Anyway, welcome back. 😄
Now go make some company regret not replying to that resume.
And if that takes a little time, well… at least you already have 15 articles and a book almost ready while the rest of us are still pretending our TODO lists are a productivity system. 😂
Good luck with what comes next, Xu. 👊
Thanks for the kind words. I did climb that mountain and made it back — and now the aftermath is real, my legs are so sore🤣
Today I sorted out my old ebook series and also updated my resume. Still not many replies, but whatever, it's only day one. Next thing is registering on Amazon and getting KDP set up, plus all that verification stuff — international payments are always a bit of a pain😅
Tomorrow I'll write about the climb and my plans going forward. Maybe I'll even get the book live tomorrow, haha😆
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.
is IT job market as bad as India out there
My company has been doing crazy amount of redundancies
Yeah, layoffs are really bad out there. Hope you get through it okay.
Hey Xu, I know it’s easy for me to say this from my side, but I am sending you all my positive thoughts and wishing you the very best. Please take some time to rest and take care of yourself.
真的非常感谢，已经休息完毕，开始好好投简历了，哈哈哈
相濡以沫，不如相忘於江湖。看懂了。
旧的不去，新的不来，爬山回来会有一堆公司抢。
多谢了，兄弟，借你吉言😄
😂Not sure if it's the article or my account that's the problem, but this post didn't show up in Latest again.