Today we discussed what we learned from Munger. I said there were several aspects that I learned from him. First, he was deep into different subjects and was able to connect them to form a network of knowledge. It's the source of his great wisdom. That to me, separate him from the rest of the investing gurus. Second, he was more than an investor expert. His wisdom was in all areas of life. Last, he wrote these things done and shared with others. Wealth and material goods are transitory, while spiritual aspects are eternal. In that sense, by sharing with others his wisdom, he will live with us forever.
I recently talked with some friends, and I think about my own life. I still live just for myself and my immediate family. I live without much grand purpose. I don't think of others that much. It's far from enough. I should learn what is pay forward. Making more friends and exchanging ideas constantly, should become a natural part of life. We should often invite others home and have more fun. Life is more than our immediate family. We should become more connected.
We should all love what we do. Keep life simple and focus on what you are doing. Become an expert of that, and stick with it. It should become a natural habit of you. That will lead to a peaceful life and we can enjoy the peace within our mind.
I finished the book Cuba and now I'm reading the book about Mr. Kazuo Inamori's philosophy. It's a rather dry book, but it's full of wisdom.
A lot of the times, I have been thinking too much about the end game and the path towards it. In fact, in doing so, I have lost some fun along the way. I also put too much pressure to the kids, that over planed their activities and their paths to success. Is that absolutely necessary? Maybe not.
When some preparation is good, let's not over do it. Let's focus on the fundamentals: keep reading, writing, thinking, and exercising. Let's focus on our work at hand and think of how to better do our jobs. Worry less about the future. After all, life is just a process. Happy or unhappy, it's a short moment in the river of life. No need to over think of it.
For that reason, we should be more biased towards consumption, more biased towards action, more biased toward optimism. That should be the base for the coming year.
It's surprising good once the new TV is installed. It showed that if you spend some money and enjoy some of the new technology, you can have so much fun. In fact, it's almost always the case. As long as you become a bit greedy and a bit more adventurous, you can always get more from life. I should become more biased for action, more biased towards risk taking. That should become a habit for me. Whenever there is a doubt, I should try to take more risk, rather than the other way.
I was reading the book Elon Musk and was shocked to learn how much freedom that Elon got during his childhood. I feel that level of freedom was the key to his personality. Looking at my kids, I followed the traditional Asian parenting way, which is to force the kids to do all kinds of stuff in order to best prepare them for the unknown society. Is that the right way to do it? Is there a better way?
I feel I should let them play more and explore more. Leave some freedom to their free time. Let them play more games and buy more toys. At the same time, encourage them slow down a bit, and enjoy the fun period time of their time. After all, the boys won't spend much time with parents anyway.
Tomorrow the team from Kneron will visit our company. I volunteered to pick them up from airport. Is that absolutely necessary? Probably not. But it's a good use of my time to have some more conversation with the industry professionals.
Looking back, I don't think I picked the easy way. At the time, it was rather unclear which way was the easiest. I remember years ago, my roommate in college said to me that we ought to have an easier way to study abroad. I agree. Looking back we probably have done a lot of things rather differently. But all is not lost. There is too much we can do today. There is a lot we can still hope for.
Today is a big day. I spent so much time with K company. I talked with the company from morning till night. I learned a lot and gave a lot of thoughts about the business model. In my mind, I know every well, it's a good opportunity to get myself some credit by entering this venture investment. But at the same time, I have to be true to myself on the key question, whether it's a good business model or not.
At the end of the day, I feel there are a lot of considerations that I need to spend more time on. I want to clear my thoughts on it.
But, it's a big but. If our company can help this company to expand the business inside China, that would become a terrific opportunity to earn more credit for similar investment opportunities. To think along that line, I need to investigate more about the market in China. That should be my focus during the weekend.
A friend told me she just got a baby and another told me she got sick and needed an operation. Life is full of drama. What can we do to deal with all the developments? I think we can only embrace the unexpected things in life with open hearts. Work hard, play hard and hope for the best. As for kids, it's a big uncontrollable force in our life. We hope they can achieve great things and likely they will.
If we read the legendary stories of the Silicon Valley riches, you feel the US is just full of magic. So we should definitely lower our expectations, and focus on some of the key areas while relaxing on other areas. To me, reading some of the non-fiction books and learning about the real world is part of the education that is missing from school. Going to the public school may also be a good thing as it can serve as a way for the kids to know more about the society. I may think of seeking advice from some wise friends that have actually spent some time in the US.
I feel so low. When others tell you are not good that's causing me feeling so low. I feel I have done much for the family but the kids say they don't like me. It makes me so sad. I feel I devoted myself to everything I value, but somehow life is not becoming easier. The truth is life has never gone so hard.
Maybe we should make kids really happy during their childhood. Home should be a shelter for them, instead of a place that they feel constantly pressured. I should relax a bit and let them play more. After all, not everything matters. In the long history of the universe, everyone is so unimportant that everything seems not worth much. In fact, we need to find value and meaning from the things we do. Hopeful it will be a happy journey.
Every time I tried a new game, I was in awe. Baldur's Gate 3 is just right in every way. Last time I had the similar experience was with Witcher 3. That time I was playing on the big monitor screen, while this time I was playing on the new MacBook Air.
Another observation I made is that Apple silicon has still a lot lacking. The gaming experience is far from satisfactory. With the similar amount of dollars, I should be able to enjoy way better if I was using an X86 machine. Instead, I had to face lackluster animation effects and downgraded resolutions.
I had a call with K company today and learned that the company had someone that I can relate to. It's a classmate of Ariel's. I feel this company should be a perfect candidate for VC investment. At this moment, there are uncertainties regarding the company. Imagine this is a Chinese company. Chinese VCs would not let the company go. Imagine the US investors know more about the China market, they will feel better about the team and the market opportunities. I think our firm is just the best firm out there that can actually invest into the company.
Most importantly, currently the company's products won't be banned due to lower technology nodes used in the fabrication process. It's a bless for the company. Key point is the China market is in shortage of AI chips.
China is always competitive. This is the conclusion that I got from my recent call with friends. I may thought that the K company is good at something that is unique. But the fact is that is a lot of companies are doing the exactly same products. A really bad news is the Huawei is also attacking in this market. But does that mean the K company will have no chance to enter the market? Maybe it will continue to have some chance to earn some share in certain markets. But the market dynamics would be different from what we initially imagined.
What is the next step?
I am reading Elon Musk, the new book. One thing struck me. Elon decided to invest in Tesla Motors after the first meeting, which lasted two hours. I think the decision to make venture investments should be totally different from making stock investments. It's a different game. I need to learn the VC approach of doing things. It's an area that I have never touched before. Also I have never worked in a VC team before. I need to change my mind and learn to undo my biases against smaller companies.
I should invest more time learning about the company. I probably will give them a call tomorrow morning asking for a further video call with their tech heads. That would be the right move to go.
I think boss is just too smart to figure out the key questions in business operations. Although I only delivered a small part of the big picture, somehow he already figured out the rest of the big picture and identified the key questions facing the K company. That being said, there are still a lot of opportunities and uncertainties involved in the business. And whatever decisions are reached, we got to do what we need to do. It's a great opportunity to learn about the operations of a business and the intricacies of the technology industry.
I am amused to see that Jace is asking me philosophical questions. I asked him to read the book Sophie's World and he is now writing his cute diary entry about how world is made up, how things can change or never change. It's a great mental practice that will only make him smarter. It's important for kids to learn how to ponder on abstract topics. When I picked up these topics, I was shocked why no one taught me such knowledge at an early stage of life. It's good that my kids get to know them earlier.
I still need to make several phone calls about the topic that I am working on. But somehow I already feel less interested in digging for more. I feel we need to focus on the ideas that can actually make us money. I feel Intel might be an interesting candidate. But this may not be the best time to buy in now. It's still in huge trouble at the moment and patience can pay us dearly.
Daimler was doubtful about investing into Tesla, but the test drive blew away the executives. They immediately invested $50 million into the business, saving Tesla from bankruptcy. Sometimes, you need to show some real tricks that others are willing to play along instantly. Will K company pull off something like that? But behind that, it's hard work. It's the dedication that really proves the way to success. First of all things, you have to believe in the things that you are doing. The more you do the same stuff, the better you get.
I was playing Baldur's Gate 3, and was amazed by the progress that the game industry has made. The game just demonstrted what the new age can achieve. It's just beautiful in every way and set a new bar for similar games. I have to wonder what can be achieved with any new gaming devices in future.
This year I played with the idea of setting up the family/media room with a projector, but eventually returned everything I ordered. The deals were not that impressive at the first place. The discounts on projectors are still offered after the Thanksgiving week. Maybe I will just wait until new generation of gaming consoles coming out before setting up the media room. That would be about 2 or 3 years from now. At that time, the kids would be mature enough for some serious games too.
I just spent more than 5 hours organizing my expense report for the past two weeks. It was a terrible experience. Next time, I should definitely write down the expenses quickly in a spreadsheet as they occur. It's just such a waste of time. Another thing I should change is that I should make sure all business spending should come from one card. That will save tons of time. Also, promptly saving the digital copy of the receipts into the correct folder in the shared drive. That way I don't need to organize them again and again. Lesson should be learned and I swear next time I should never spend more than minutes to submit my expense reports.