Mindset

This page lists my principles and attitudes in life.

Self Awareness

Every moment in life I am experiencing, every love I have received from my loved ones, they are gifts. Don't take them for granted. Be grateful.
I am ambitious to invent the future that pioneers of the last century were trying to build but not feasible at their time.
I am ignorant. All I can do is be as humble and open-mind as possible and never stop learning.
I am selfish. Admit it and try hard to make less harm to others.
Good mental health is based on good physical health.

I don't do things to become someone. I don't write code to become a software engineer. I don't study science to become a researcher. I don't learn philosophy to become a philosopher. I don't start a startup to become an entrepreneur. I don't create art to become an artist.
I do things for two main reasons. One is for fun, and the other is for achieving my goal. What really matters is not what I've done, but how much I enjoy them and how well I can utilize them to achieve my goal.
My value is in how much I can give to the world, not in how much I can get from the world.

Don't assume that I can't do something until I know it well enough.
Rules and customs exist for a reason. Don't break them just because I don't like them. Breaking rules and customs is a decision, and I should always evaluate the potential consequences before making the decision. Only realistic, determined, self-aware, and responsible people are qualified to break the rules and customs.
For every painful failure, reflect on and sum up what I learned from it, and translate it into principles. The next time I'm in a similar situation, follow these principles and avoid making the same mistake twice. Reducing mistakes is much more effective than pursuing perfect.
For small, everyday decisions, speed is more important than quality. For big decisions that are hard to reverse, gather enough information to get them right.
If the cost of failure is tolerable, but the reward for success large, then the decision is worth making. Conversely, if the loss of a decision failure is unbearable, no matter how low the probability of failure, don't do it.
Don't make any important decisions when I'm in a bad emotional state.

Think big, start small, iterate.
Always look for the best tools to augment execution.
My next twenty years are unknowable because it depends on my next five years. My next five years are unknowable because it depends on my next year. My next year is unknowable because it depends on my next two months. I have the next two months under control, make the best of it.

Practice makes Perfect. Don't try to get to the top by taking shortcuts. Make concrete progress every day.
Keep a beginner's mind.
Use metacognition. Design customized learning strategies and continuously optimize them according to learning outcomes.

Listen and don't judge. Humans are complex creatures, and their behavior is often not as simple as it seems. Never think I know enough about a person.
When facing conflicts, follow the four steps of nonviolent communication.
Let people impress me.
Make deep connections with people.
Be radically open-minded.
Only spend time on people who value my time.

Purely factual premises can not infer ought-judgments.
Humans invented words like "why," "meaning," "good," "success," which represent abstract ideas that we imagine they exist, but will never get a clear definition. With these words in hands, we can't stop our urge to ask questions like "Why do we live?", "What is the meaning of our life?" These words are like hammers. With a hammer in your hand, everything looks like a nail. But not everything is a nail. And many philosophical questions, such as "What is the meaning of our life?" might not be as important as we thought.
Thoughts and feelings are not "me" or "reality," they are just events in the mind. Memory is memory and planning is planning.