I took several short trips in recent months, to Taipei, New York, San Jose, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Singapore. From my last trip back to Asia, I felt that the vibe of the society was still there. It would be a shame if I don't spend as much time networking with people there as possible. Right now, I haven't been able to built a lot of connections in the industry. Given there is a lot of things going on in the technology world across the Pacific Ocean, I should take full advantage of our company's resources and seek more personal development by building strong connections.
For next year, I want to go for several trips in China, especially after my parents come to the US to aid. I am even thinking of going back to China in early January for a short trip of two weeks.
For personal finance, I will aspire to be more active in managing our family's portfolio. I feel there is a strong likelihood that the China stock market in both A shares and H shares would embrace a rally somewhere, once the economic data shows signs of stabilization. We should think of how to position ourselves if such a rally would materialize.
I believe next year would be a transition year for me.
It's Thanksgiving time. I feel every year, I spent more time thinking of what to buy instead of actually enjoying making the choices. I often spend more time choosing which games to buy than actually playing games. It's unwise, for these games are often in discount, and yet I'm still reviewing and reviewing. Generally speaking, I should spend less time worrying about things. Just buy stuff and done with it.
I need to be more patient in educating the kids. Some times I need to show more ropes so they can know how to get things done in a better way, including chess, writing, math and others.
I think it's a good idea to buy some books about Australia before our trip there. Also, we may start to apply for Australian VISA asap.
Reading the history of the Cuba Revolution makes me think about the inevitable destiny of going through the path of revolutionary. The Fidel Castro government was clearly supported by the people while the ellites were hurt. It seems at that time of the world, it's unstoppable for the revolutionary thoughts to take roots all over the world.
From the eyes of the poor, the society greatly improved their living conditions. So there could be justifications that this system works well for the people. Today, it's the same argument that Chinese government is supported by the people as it tries to improve the living conditions of the mass population. So sometimes, it's hard to judge the history.
I am reading the chapter about Cuba becoming more dependent on the Soviet Union. It's kind of sad that the small country is gradually losing its independency over time.
As a matter of fact, should we say that all small countries would likely lose independency one way or another? It's just the way of surviving in this conjunction of power and politics.
It's lucky to be born in a big country, especially one that is on the winning side of the history. It just gave us a lot of flexibility and the chance to prosper. Now, the bigger question is how to better prepare for the uncertain future, while enjoying what the life has to offer?
Today is Cyber Monday. I was working on some subjects as the bosses are travelling overseas. I need to prepare some work for them. I didn't find time during the day to do any shopping. So I had to make a lot of rush orders at the last minute of the Cyber Monday. It's a classical case of procrastination. I should not let that happen again.
At the end, I decided to add a TV to the living room, and purchase a couple of big items for the family room, essentially upgrading it to a home theatre set-up. It would take some time to install the projector and connect the cables for the projector and home theatre system. But once it's done, it would feel very differently. I didn't go to the route of buying ultra short throw projectors. I think it's a trade-off between easier installation and better image quality. I would rather to enjoy way better home theatre experience with the full set-up.
The front yard project would cost about 20k in the estimates from Glen and Matt. But luckily we don't need to pay for it. I think it's much improvement to the current view. We are losing the opening feeling, but instead, it would give better privacy protection and a higher class feeling. In exchange, we have to release the right to the easement to the east side of our land, which is not a big deal to me. In addition, I am thinking of removing some of the tall trees. It would only cost more to trim them in future if we leave them there.
Charlie Munger's experience and wisdom reminds me that life is about the experience. He had 8 kids. Sometimes you just get to do what matters to you the most. There are a lot of things we can learn from him. RIP.
Today I get rid of some old thoughts and ideas. I feel over the past several days, I have been doing something very wrong and unethical. It's time to have a fresh start. What happened serves a mirror to show my own weakness. I need to collect my thoughts and have a refocus on my work.
2023 is near the end. This year I have learned a lot. The biggest breakthrough is that I am thinking of what I need to learn, instead of what others want me to learn. It's different. It opened new doors for me. I get the motivation to learn more things and think upon different businesses. I grew interests in all kinds of businesses in my field, instead of waiting for the boss to show me the rope.
What I have done is clearly insufficient. I need to do more expert calls. I need to make best use of my time. As I grew older, I become more sensitive about the value of time. It's priceless. That's part of the reason I push the kids so hard, asking them to accomplish this and that. I want them to have no fear of learning, and to enjoy learning. Several pillars of their fundamental skills: 1) reading and writing, especially with a genuine interest on a variety of different topics, 2) logic reasoning, math and programming skills, developed from playing chess and math games, 3) fitness and love for sports, 4) love for music.
I finished the book Sophie's World. I first bought the book when I was in college. I remember I shared the book with Ariel, but none of us read it. I found the book dry and dull for the beginning part, and couldn't finish it at all.
This time I was listening to the audible book, and I found it's actually fun. The book is well organized and introduces a lot of different philosophic ideas in an easy manner. The book also includes a story about the fiction figure Sophie, who lives inside the book written by a philosopher.
The fundamental questions about philosophy include several: 1) what's the world about? 2) who are we. Different eras come with different philosophic schools that give different answers. I think a big drawback of the book is that it didn't touch the philosophies from the Eastern World. The most interesting part of the discussion involves the part around Marx and era before and after him. Together with another book Cuba that I am reading now, it's easier to understand the historic context for the rise of communism. It's a rather progressive school of thoughts at the time, giving a lot of promises to the aspiring young men at the time.
For the remainder of the year, I want to wrap up my work about different companies and business models that interest me. There are a lot of work that is left undone yet.
Next year, I want to dive deeper into the industry and make better use of my time and resources. I learned some lessons this year, and I should do a much better job next year. The performance of the Chinese stock market will be bad this year, following two bad years. But I am as optimistic about future as ever. I feel I have figured out how to do my work better.
One take-away from this year's work: I can only love researching some companies once I get to know them in closer distance. It's hard to imagine how they do the business, without visiting their factories or talking to their people. It's just hard to build that feeling and get a sense of what they. I also need to read way more Tegus call transcripts. I feel they would help me tremendously.