01/01/2024 My dad's life lessons from playing Go

1. You need to think ahead and anticipate what might happen in the future, instead of being shortsighted and only doing things that seem to benefit you in the short term.
2. One mistake can be deadly. Things may look like they are going OK, but one wrong move may cost you your life.
3. The one with the upper hand is the one who has the freedom to go anywhere, instead of having to respond to attack. Offense is the best position to be in.
4. If you are not connected to your pieces (or your community), you are more weak, and it is easier to get attacked.
5. You should not put all your eggs in one basket. Spread out and occupy different areas of the board.
6. Life isn't winner takes all. In Go, it's very rare that the winner takes up 100% of the space. Usually the winner wins by having more space occupied, like 60 to 40. In life, you need to concede. You have to let the enemy have something to satisfy them. This also means, by trying to have everything, you may lose more. You can't have everything.
7. Go is like Chinese culture, simple but complex. The game has simple rules, but there are many complex scenarios. Like chopsticks, it's just two sticks, but they can handle many complex situations.
8. Sunk cost – sometimes by trying to rescue your piece, you will actually get more pieces eaten. Give up while it's early, and you have less pieces to lose.
9. You need air to survive.
10. If you don't take any risks and always play conservatively, then you will lose. You need to take some risks, but if you take too many risks, you may lose it all.

​ 01/13/2024 I dreamed I was coming back from a trip. There was a shared house. I only have one suitcase – I need to fit everything in there. Someone is telling me that people have to rely on me for help. So I can't go home, I have to stay here. I'm annoyed but I understand. The house is dimly lit. Then, at home there was still brown water coming out of the shower. ​

01/22/2024 Dreamed I was back working at Wonderland. It was early in the morning, not bright yet. We were there to open Market, but it looked like a mix of Market and Coasters. Somehow, there was a guitar in one fryer and an amp in the other, so I needed to take them out and change the oil, so that the food wouldn't get contaminated. ​

01/24/2024 In my dream, I was watching a video of an old Broods concert, and they were singing some songs I hadn't heard. I was trying to microwave my food, so I asked my roommate (I don't even have one IRL) to search up "broods all songs" lists on Depop. She was scrolling through shirts with their discography on it, but I didn't see the old songs they had played on any of them.

That was actually the first time I met my roommate, and after that she asked what kind of music I listen to, I said, "Dance music? And some other stuff." She said she listened to bubble rap and bubble music. I said, "What's that?" She explained it, but I didn't get it, so I asked her for some examples of bubble rappers, then she said some names of people I didn't know.

While I was fiddling with the microwave, she told me about how she had lived here for four years and ten months, but was in China on exchange for four months, so actually it was more like four years and six months. She was a US and Canada dual citizen and thinking about moving to NYC, but was still in school, and would see what her mom has figured out. She also started folding kitchen towels and cleaning the floor while we talked. ​

01/27/2024 I dreamed my family had a rivalry with another family who owned a hotel. We went to that hotel and they argued with them, while I laid in bed and chewed the pillow apart slowly in chunks, from the corner.

As we were leaving the hotel room, my dad was separating the laundry. We passed by one of the rival family members and I mentioned something about the low quality of their pillows. He said they were aware of the issue and working on it, in a polite manner. ​

02/02/2024 In my dream, we were visiting a middle school. The students kept trying to talk to 0427 and eat with him, saying they think his hair is cool and stuff.

He didn't like it, so he ran out during a talk while people were seated. It was dark outside. He kept running in circles around the school. 0463 came out of the school, leading a line of kids. The kids were worried about him, but I told them he was probably just running to clear his head, and 0463 seemed to agree calmly. Then 0427 started banging his head on bricks and I started to worry. He got tired and fell on me. A group of kids thought he died, but I could hear his heart beat. One of the kids who wanted to be a doctor when he grew up passed by and confirmed he died, but came back to life. ​

02/03/2024

​ 02/06/2024 In my dream, I went back to Wonderland in some kind of periodic working agreement. I was at the back of Coasters. For some reason, we had to close and then open, so I was there extra early. (Maybe the people who were supposed to close yesterday didn't do their job?)

There were two or three other sups, and we split up the cleaning duties with good teamwork. Then we started to open. I was thinking the fryers got kind of dirty compared to when I worked here full time, whoever maintained this place didn't care about the fryers as much. It had been a while, so I was making sure the oil didn't need to be changed and that the fryers were being used for the right items, like not cross contaminating meat and vegetarian items.

Since it was the start of the day, there weren't many guests yet. I wanted to pre-fry some chicken burgers, to be able to reheat them faster, so that people wouldn't have a long wait when they arrived. I was looking for an extra fryer basket so I could set this up, when an Area asked me why I needed one. Her and another sup, 0466, started saying stuff to me like, "What are you doing? We always have this problem, remember when we tried having the burgers in a steaming water bath? And the time we were using that bean sauce to try to retain moisture? What's your plan?"

And I couldn't get a word in, so I just patiently listened to them. Finally I said, "No, I was just going to dip– actually, you probably already know."

The Area said, in a nice way, "Actually I don't know, please tell me." I replied, "I was just going to cook it like 80 to 90 percent, and then when people come, finish cooking it." She said, "Oh, that's actually a good idea!" And then walked away. I felt good about keeping my composure throughout that entire thing. ​

02/10/2024 Maybe I will update my website... it's bothering me. ​

02/24/2024 Years pass by and memories fade while data piles up in servers, old iPhones and hard drives. I want to remember myself from 10 years ago and how I've changed over time. This project is an attempt to organize the pieces I've collected so far.

• Found 301 images from 2010-2023, between the ages of 8-22
• Used Google Vision API to analyze the sentiment and dominant colour of each image
• Plotted images on a graph using the axes of sentiment and time
• Image data available on hover, and dominant colour of image displayed below

​ 03/16/2024 Watching Perfect Days with 0399.

​ 03/20/2024 A vending machine is a claw machine that lets you pick what you want. ​

03/22/2024

​ 03/27/2024 Didn’t expect so many people to see heart browser, I should have made it look better... yesterday I was at work, looking at all the rectangles in my rectangular browser on my rectangular monitor in a rectangular building and felt a bit annoyed, so I made a little heart to escape.

​ 04/05/2024 I was at home, confused about the room shaking, but nothing fell over or anything. I thought the unit above me installed a laundry machine, I was thinking about messaging my building's super. My coworkers said they thought it was construction work, or a truck, or their boiler exploding. But it was a small earthquake. ​

04/08/2024 View of the eclipse from our office at 3:18 pm.

​ 04/18/2024 Trying pottery-making at a work social.

​ 04/21/2024 Are.na spring cleaning log

• Deleted 9 underused channels with less than four blocks, and migrated blocks to other channels
• Archived 18 channels (I private and add "z: " to the beginning of the channel name, so it appears at the bottom of my index)
• Renamed 4 channels
• Moved 10 channels from private to closed
• Rearranged blocks in channels for better readability
• Connected existing channels to other channels for more discoverability

​ 04/27/2024 In line for Alexander Roth's closet sale.

​ 04/2024

​ 05/16/2024 Plantaingrams games from March 30 to May 16.

​ 05/25/2024

​ 05/26/2024

​ 05/27/2024 Being honest with myself  I’m lacking – I can't ride a bike. I can’t drive. I don't cook. I don't wear makeup. I don't have enough discipline. I can't even read everyday. I don't have basic time management skills. I eat whatever.

The question every new grad asks – should start I getting into hobbies? It's embarrassing to talk about how I spend my time. I collect and organize, I make playlists and Are.na channels. What's next? DJing? Photoshop? Learning a language?

There's a lot of things I tried without building any meaningful habits. Playing electric guitar, speaking Korean, making YouTube videos, and abandoned side projects like "Sentiment timeline." I get easily obsessed over things like the NewJeans situation with Min Heejin and HYBE, and the final lineup of I-LAND2. It eats me up and affects my mood.

Too much stuff, and too little making? Under capitalism, we have so many choices. I'm overloaded with information. Bookmark this tweet for later, add this video to "Watch later" on YouTube. To watch, to listen, to read. I gave up a long time ago on "inbox zero." Organizing it all, my camera roll, my Spotify playlists, is it just a way to make sense of everything? Is it possible to live in the present and trust your brain to remember?

I can’t finish anything. There's too much I want to do. It's been one year since I graduated already. But really trying anything seriously will take you years.

​ 06/08/2024 ​Sutro Heights.

​ 06/15/2024 I'm binge watching this YouTube series where people find dates by going through phones. It's good for finding new apps, seeing different ways to organize your home screen, and being nosy about others' screen time. I think the systems of organization people create, can show a bit of how their brains work. I'd like to see how 100 people organize their phones. ​

06/22/2024

​ 06/26/2024 Config product launch keynote

• The best new Figma AI feature is "Remove background." Now I don't have to use a Figma plugin, or open Photoshop. But, since I probably won't want to pay for the other AI features, I might need to go back to Photoshop after one year, when they make it paid...
• The best FigJam improvement is pages. In my job, I regularly use very large FigJam files, and face the dilemma, "Should I make a new file?"
• Slides are cool, but I probably wouldn't pay for it.

The Human Algorithm with Perplexity and New Computer

• New Computer offered an interesting take on the relationship between humans and computers. They view it in a very personal way, which I do not.
• For example, they talked about their chatbot Dot helping you make decisions in life, like if you should text your ex. And there are many valid ways that people can make decisions – you could ask your friends, Google, internet strangers, ChatGPT, Dot, whatever.
• Personally, I think I would prefer to see my personal data visualized to me, not in a chat format. Maybe a dashboard, or charts, so that I can make inferences and decisions based on the data itself. I'd rather not "talk" to someone about it.
• Building a relationship with a computer involves giving it access to your data, but also talking to it a lot, to understand the reasons behind the data. I don't like texting, and I can barely find the time to text my actual friends, so how would I have the time or motivation to text a computer?

From Flash to Apple Vision Pro with Jonathan Gay and Sho Kuwamoto

• I learned that Jonathan, the creator of Flash, and Sho, VP of Product at Figma, used to work together at Macromedia, after the acquisition of Flash.
• They showed a picture of a beach ball, and then threw a real beach ball in the audience. It was supposed to be some kind of metaphor for VR.
• They also showed a DJ set thing in Apple Vision Pro, and it was super cool. It made me want to get one. And a video on the Apple developer website about how different sounds were made, like the kalimba ringtone and stuff.

Jesper Kouthoofd's closing keynote

• The CEO of Teenage Engineering is like the coolest person ever. His parents are Swedish and Dutch, and he has a daughter. His dad is an architect, and his mom is a banker. He started off in graphic design, and worked in advertising for like 20 years. Later, he got into videos because it's like graphic design but moving. And then he got into industrial design and electronics, and created Teenage Engineering.
• He was talking about how he hires people, and it's just based on vibes. Like, this guy who loves Teenage Engineering was knocking on their door, and they liked talking to him, so they put him on the marketing team, because they needed someone there. But he sucked at marketing, so they put him on support. He wasn't good at that either, and now he's their Head of Development, and has been working there for 12 years. Except he still might not be that good at his job, so Jesper sent him to a guitar building class. And they're like best friends now.
• At their company, they literally have people who do nothing, but they still work there because they're cool. And they know that they do nothing, too.
• Even though he's the CEO, he's doing all the design. The design team is like, "Please, can you let us design?" and he's like "No, learn to play piano."
• But also, he's not even really into keeping up with design stuff. One time, Virgil Abloh came to his company to hang out, and he had no idea who he was. But they became friends.

Li Fei Fei's closing keynote

• Li Fei Fei is also a legend. Did you know that Andrej Karpathy was her student?
• I like the way she started off her talk. She explained how the human eye was formed, and how we can see – and apparently that wasn't enough for us, because now we're trying to build machines that can see.
• She gave an overview of the research that her lab is currently working on. One of my favourite ones was for helping patients who are paralyzed. They will be able to send their brain waves to a robot, who can make a sandwich and feed them.
• There were many practical applications of her AI research that I felt was very meaningful, like beyond chatbots. So it kind of just gave me more hope for humanity.

​ 06/27/2024

Day 2 notes

• The opening keynote with Refik Anadol was cool. He talked about data painting, building a "Large Nature Model", and doing huge projections on buildings. I've seen some of his work before at NYC MOMA!
• There were two product-focused talks I enjoyed today – "How to bring the craft back to product management" by Peter Yang, Product Lead at Roblox, and "The heirloom tomato org chart" by Nan Yu, Head of Product at Linear.
• I found Raphael Schaad's talk to be unexpectedly relatable. He is the founder of Cron (acquired by Notion). He carries a "field notes" notebook everywhere, and has been doing so for years. He scanned and transcribed them, and put it all into Figma, so he can search the text layers.

​ 06/30/2024 Landed in Philadelphia 30 minutes before boarding ends for my connecting flight. Sat in the plane for 15 minutes before we could get off. Ran 10 minutes to the other gate, and made it 5 minutes before boarding ended. On the plane now. ​

07/03/2024 At Luray Caverns with my parents.

​ 07/09/2024 Things I'm starting to say to myself

• Are you proud of how you spent your time today?
• You should be good at your job, but you are allowed to be bad at your hobbies.
• You can always do less. Don't be trapped by your habits.
• 生活就是这样，一点一点变得更像自己。

​ 07/10/2024

​ 07/19/2024 I think I have an aversion to meeting new people, because people = responsibility... I understand why you would quit everything and move to the mountains (or die). You can stop having responsibilities. It's hard to be a functioning member of society, and contribute to your community. I feel so trapped. If I gave up, would you care? ​

07/21/2024 At Cha-An Teahouse with 0399.

​ 07/23/2024 I'm still thinking about The Volunteers concert last night...

​ 07/28/2024 I'm finally getting around to reading Debt: The First 5000 Years. I'm realizing that virtual money is not new, and credit systems existed long before cash. And the notion of having to pay your debts has more to do with morality than economics. Debt goes hand in hand with relationships... I don't blame you for the scars you left on me, because I left them on you, too. ​

07/31/2024 It's been about a year since I moved to New York, and I thought it would be interesting to see how much money I've spent in the past 12 months.

Going into this, I knew I spent a lot of money on clothes, but I didn't realize that it would be more than I spend on tech. Maybe because I buy clothes in small increments, which add up to a lot. And when I buy a piece of technology, it's like a very big purchase. I also feel like buying clothes is a habit of mine, because I used to sell clothes in Canada. Now that I moved here, I don't...

I actually don't mind spending most of my money on clothes, but I do want to buy less items, and put more priority on quality and special pieces. Another thing I buy is books and K-pop albums. I think books are a pretty valuable investment, but I want to spend less on K-pop albums. Last thing – I feel like I don't spend enough money on others. This year, I want to be more generous.

​ 07/2024 Today we were at the WestCap office for our design onsite. We did improv, and I had to talk about a pet peeve. So I picked when people leave ballpoint pens open. Whenever I see one, I can just feel the ink drying up, and it's so easy just to remember to click it shut! But if I tell someone, "Hey, can you close the pen?" then I'll look like the bad person for calling them out over a small thing. And I had to keep talking, so I started rambling about how it would suck if you had a great idea and wanted to write it down, but the only pen around had no ink. We also had to pretend to be flight attendants who were late to a flight, and come up with a great excuse together.

In the evening, we did a cooking activity and got customized aprons! I got to pit cherries using a special tool and it was really fun. We made a three course meal and it was tasty.

To be continued