Y5-2024 Annual Summary

Completion of Last Year's Goals#

【Work】 Get an offer based in Chengdu
【Design】 Continue learning Blender
【Learning】 Produce at least one technical blog/video each week
【Learning】 Learn Vue3 and understand more front-end frameworks

These are the goals set for 2024 in [[Y4-2023 Annual Summary#Plans for This Year]], with the completion status as above.

In September, I returned to Chengdu and started a new job and a new life.

In my work, I happened to need to use Blender, and while learning Blender, I became increasingly proficient in it through practical use.

The areas where I did not perform well were the last two items; although there were some outputs, both the quality and quantity were not high, and there was no significant improvement in technical breadth.

Timeline#

Celebrated New Year in Chengdu with friends in January.

In March, I cut my hair short, visited Hong Kong, and met with Xiao Gao.

In May, I returned to Chongqing and spent a few days with friends in Chengdu.

In June, I went to Guangzhou to see Teacher Da Mie’s graduation exhibition and gathered with friends.

In July, BW arrived as scheduled, and last year's gloom dissipated a bit; I took a photo with Da Mao.

In August, I resigned, picked up milklove at Pudong Airport, visited the forum to see her and another friend, packed up, and moved back to Chengdu.

In September, I traveled from Shanghai to Wuhan, saw Da Mao's live performance, met with friends, then returned to Chengdu, bought a bicycle, rented a house, and significantly improved my quality of life compared to Shanghai, starting a new job and life.

I attended my Cong live's closing station in Chengdu. Thankful for fate, which allowed me to meet old friends on the map.

In October, I went to Xiamen again; although I brought a camera, I didn't take many photos or videos, recording everything happening around me with my eyes, feeling that just being with everyone was enough.

After returning to work in Chengdu, I also increased the frequency of trips back to Fuling.

I met with Ao Wu's silly Bao for the first time, bought an Action 5 Pro, intending to use it for vlogs.

I visited the main city of Chongqing, had dinner with Xiao Liu and YL, and the next day visited a museum with Xing Mi.

In November, I went to a Chilichill live with my dog, mistakenly went to the wrong ticket collection location, but it wasn't too far.

I hitchhiked with a colleague to Luzhou to see my brother and them.

In December, I attended the recording of "Flowers Blooming Under Heaven," and after returning to Chengdu, I pursued a business performance for the first time.

What I Like#

In recent years, my favorite things have remained quite stable: my Cong and Han Se.

However, at the end of May 2024, I came across milklove's fish silk clips on Weibo, specifically the segment "Girlfriend, please place an order," found it very interesting, and subsequently delved into some materials, thus getting hooked on milklove. I even went to pick her up at the airport and attended offline events to see them.

After getting into them, I felt that life was infused with new motivation, and I became happier; I hope to see their new drama soon.

My favorite show this year is gbc.

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When Nina said "Let's raise our middle fingers together" in the square and during the segment where Nina went home to meet her parents and sister, I couldn't help but cry, feeling the strong emotional impact.

The 831 host's live contract expired, and there will no longer be daily 135 live streams, but I no longer feel as anxious and distressed as I did three years ago; I feel I've changed quite a bit. In any case, I hope everyone is doing well.

Changed Jobs and Returned to Chengdu#

The thought of returning to Chengdu has always been there; why this year, and why in July?

Firstly, this year marks my third year of work. In this company, it can be considered a good work-life balance, with little overtime, but after three years, my salary has hardly increased. I feel that if I continue like this, I will become useless, so I decided to jump out before getting stuck in the mire.

At the same time, I am someone who is very dependent on recognition.

When I do something, if I do not recognize the task itself, I will have a serious retreat mentality. I cannot truly persuade or deceive myself from various angles to work hard for it.

It's the same in work; if a product or leader proposes a demand that I find unreasonable, I really do not want to fulfill it and only hope that the demand dies before it starts or is not executed much.

So, although the direction of the department I was in was correct and mainstream, there were some methods I did not agree with, and the heavy historical burden made me feel that continuing would be hard to maintain, so after receiving my year-end bonus, I decided to resign.

In fact, my resignation was a bare resignation. When I talked to the department leader, he was very nice and advised me not to resign bare but to find a new job while still working, but I still felt I needed to push myself, so I chose to resign bare.

After returning to Chengdu, I went to a startup company. To be honest, it was really tiring, but there were also many joys and growths. I can say that the speed of growth during this period was the fastest in over three years.

However, when the pressure reached the peak I could bear, I still inevitably thought about leaving.

But before truly leaving, I need to think about what I really want to do, what kind of person I want to become, what can bring me great motivation, and what I can delve into for a long time. Rather than making hasty decisions and then regretting wanting to change jobs later.

What Do I Really Want#

Before discussing this question, we should set a standard and explore what I really want from this standard.

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First is the most basic need, which is currently being met. We need to explore higher-level needs, which is what I want.

Regarding motivation, I feel that I am someone who needs feedback and recognition. Before doing something, I must first recognize the task, and then I have the motivation to do it. During the process and after completing the task, I need feedback to continue.

Looking back at what I am most motivated to do, it often relates to outputs related to things I like or when I genuinely have something to express, like this clip.

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If I were to say what significance it has or what benefits it brings me, there really isn't much, but at the moment of cutting it out, I felt very happy and accomplished.

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Then this video is a complaint about Focusee, but after using it, I indeed felt dissatisfied, so I simply wrote a draft and recorded and published it.

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This summary website was also a spur-of-the-moment idea; I just thought it would be more convenient to compile everything for myself, so I wrote the website.

This is similar to when I post some content on social platforms; I only output and publish when I genuinely have something I want to express; otherwise, I face endless procrastination.

In 2025, I will face three paths: the first is to return home to take civil service exams, the second is to switch careers to do stage VJ-related work, and the third is to do fully remote work + self-media work.

I instinctively reject the first path, even though I know it is the most stable one, but I can't muster the enthusiasm.

So I want to give myself another year; if I can find what I want to do in this year, I will continue on that path. If not, I will return home to take civil service exams.

The second path, VJ, stage design, lighting technician, is a completely new field, and I haven't yet looked into what specifically needs to be learned. Moreover, this is essentially a career change, which will be more challenging. (Update: After looking at the salary and benefits on Boss Zhipin, I was discouraged.)

CleanShot 2025-01-30 at 15.46.58@2x

The third path is probably the one I am most likely to take now, but it requires strong execution, self-discipline, and strong learning ability.

So overall, I plan to work hard for another year on the third path, and I will start formulating specific research and plans in the next few days.

Worthy and Unworthy#

This year, I also purchased some products and software, some of which are worth it, and some are not. Here are some personal opinions.

Worth it

【Software】 Milanote and carpooling with others, as a visual note-taking software, the experience is great and very worthwhile.
【Software】 Obsidian's synchronization feature eliminates the hassle of using other cloud drives.
【Software】 1Password, renewed for another year.
【Device】 Xiaomi 65-inch mini LED TV, which has improved my focus on video watching.
【Device】 Coffee grinder, regretting not buying it sooner; freshly ground coffee beans smell much better than pre-ground coffee powder.
【Device】 Monitor arm, saves space.

Not worth it

【Device】 Panasonic lens 14-140mm, the photos taken are indeed not good-looking.
【Device】 Yongnuo 25mm f1.4.
【Software】 Focusee; specific reasons can be found in Reasons Not to Recommend Focusee to macOS Users.