this will be an article which i’ll update often

a collection of thoughts that i kept thinking about

they might be cringe, they might be wrong, but that is the fun of everything

as is life

snippet 1

talked to a guy and then asked him what’s he doing

he primed his sentence first with “this is gonna sound pretentious”

then said

“i’m just taking a step back, asking what the biggest problems humanity is facing then try to work backwards from there”

that is probably the most unpretentious sentence i’ve ever heard in a long time

people take things too seriously in this world, being curious is almost a crime

luckily it’s not a pretentious thing in my world

i remember a large chunk of my time at the end of 2025 is answering “i’m just learning” to such question

“learning what?”

“learning about myself”

snippet 2

coming from the previous experience

i realized i didn’t like staying in viet nam because i don’t feel like shit when i’m around people

around places like sf or ns or fr8, i feel small and normal, i feel what i did was just a joke

i love that feeling, i can freely talk about anything i want without feeling like i’m playing the cool card

“oh i just reproduced a sota world model in my bedroom overnight”

“oh i am just the first person in the world to put a llm on a bank card”

but in viet nam, what i did at my age is often unseen, or just outright haven’t been done

so whenever i talk about my experience, i would be afraid that it would hurt others

“oh i don’t do much, i just work with robots”

“nice”

“nice”

snippet 3

learning about oneself is probably harder than learning about anything else in this world

on one side, you want to understand your limits and capabilities

but at the same time, you want to learn about new aspects of yourself, you want to make your own knowledge obsolete

so you’re effectively learning how to unlearn yourself

it’s a spiral

self awareness is probably the greatest tool but also the greatest blocker that one can have

snippet 4

i am lost but i’m not lost

i know exactly i’m going to do next

i know exactly how the plan is going to play out

i know the exact leverage and risk i’m having

yet i also know that it might just be wrong

and i think most people don’t understand that when i’m talking about being lost, i just want to hear a “just do it and let’s see” instead of working out a plan

the plan is having no plan but all plans

we plan but we figure things out as we go

snippet 5

leverage

there are two paths to eternal wealth in life

be it monetary wealth or knowledge wealth

they are the power law and the compound interest

on one hand, you play big bets with big risk and even bigger rewards, in which winning one bet will cut the losses of all other bets

this is how vc works

on the other hand, you play safe bets with small risk and medium reward, essentially betting that the reward will compound overtime if you’re consistent enough

this is how large banks and funds work

there are no better paths, there are just suitable paths

it applies everywhere

snippet 6

infinite and finite games

life is a series of finite and infinite games

infinite games are games that never ends, there are no winner or loser, you only move forward or stop

finite games are games that ends, there are clear winner or loser

knowing what games are finite or infinite makes all the difference

such is the course of learning, which is most suitable to be treated as an infinite game, but many treat as a finite game

to this point, i still have to force myself to see more aspects of life as a infinite game

such as health and investment

infinite games free your mind from things that don’t matter, but finite games give you urgency and impact at the cost of vision

from time to time, i have to remind myself which games i’m playing, it’s easy to lose track and focus on the wrong kind of game

snippet 7

i’m afraid one day I’ll be so bitter that I won’t learn anymore

i hope that day doesn’t come

i hope i’ll always be as curious and as open as day one

i hope i always meet people who can humble me

snippet 8

a lesson that I always re-learn is the power of simplicity

i think the world is pilled with bitter lessons in almost every domain

take one simple idea, so simple that it sounds stupid and take it more seriously than anyone else.

in AI, one example is GPT where one stops focusing on improving architecture, one just scales data and compute, streaming pixels to actions instead of feature engineering

in investing, one example is taking the compound interest seriously than anyone else. berkshire hathaway and charlie munger's philosophies are based on this.

there’s always a vector that everyone considers isn’t worth to improve, yet when improve to insane scale makes all the difference.

that’s why obsessive people win.

but just remember, there is no dominating vector, it's a circle at the end of the day.

snippet 9

every morning when i wake up, i check my messages first

often times the first messages i read are from my distant friends

i like the way they discuss new topics

i like the way i can just send a link and they would immediately understand what i was thinking about

i like how supportive they are of the crazy ideas i have

every morning i wake up to a wave of messages i enjoy reading

sometimes it’s a new problem we have to solve

sometimes it’s just a new wholesome achievement they have in life

one of the things i’m most grateful for right now are the friends i have who are just as passionate as me

everyone deserves a friend group that is on the same spectrum as them

snippet 10

i try to not depend on the ephemeral things in life.

there are a lot of instances where people pavlov themselves to certain conditions.

“i need a good chair to focus”

“i need to be in sf to build a great startup”

so i try to reduce my attention to ephemeral things as much as possible

i try to focus whether i’m around noise, i sleep wherever i can, i don’t care about my surroundings as long as i fulfill my needs of life:

• my stomach is full
• my body is well rested

the rest are just noise, albeit sometimes the noise is incredibly comforting.