My birthday is on December 24th, during the last week of the year. Reflecting on what I gained and lost at 26 is also a look back at all the gains and losses of 2024.

In 2024, my keyword was “resonance”—a delightful term suggesting that the seeds planted in previous years are slowly breaking through the soil and sprouting.

In February, I took part in SSPai’s annual writing contest and published “In the Turbulent 2023 of Unemployment, I Learned These”. I stated that my keyword for 2023 was “return” during a year full of twists and turns, having undergone three job changes, and that I needed to “return to common sense” and “return to myself.”

2024’s “resonance” is the result of practicing that return. Frankly, this year I wasn’t entirely thorough in returning to common sense, but I did manage to return to myself to some extent.

1

After experiencing three completely different organizational structures and team atmospheres in 2023, I came to understand that everything has two sides. Under large companies, there are many makeshift teams; behind professionalism lies endless internal friction and fatigue. These turbulent experiences clarified my non-negotiable boundaries, so I let go of all attachments to titles and became determined to produce simple, genuine work in the field I love—creating value and earning a living.

Thus, in May 2024, after four months of unemployment, I turned around and joined a tools team to continue doing what I want and co-creating with AI. While this might not be a complete “return to commercial common sense,” it fills me with passion and leaves little room for discontent.

This is the first “resonance,” working in the tools industry I had dreamed of entering since my student days.

2

Outside of my main work, in 2024 I finally started and consistently produced a newsletter I’d wanted to write for years, and even launched a very simple product. The specific figures are as follows:

  • Updated nearly 40 issues of the “Better Life” newsletter, with 121 subscribers and 176 followers on the official WeChat account.
  • Published 10 articles on SSPai, received two homepage recommendations, gained 110 followers, 105,000 reads, 278 “recharges,” and earned 476 RMB.
  • Launched a simple product on Xiaohongshu, generating 2K in income.
  • Submitted one article each to TickTick and flomo. The article submitted to TickTick unexpectedly earned the highest readership award.

A few hundred readers and a few thousand in revenue—these modest numbers are the result of steadily building something from zero, one determined step after another.

This is the second “resonance.”

3

Thanks to the twists of 2023 and my efforts to reflect on and mend intimate relationships, this year I unexpectedly began exploring philosophy—hoping it might provide answers to the ultimate life question, “What is the meaning of life?”

The meaning of life is an extremely important yet not urgent question. It is like a ghost—inescapable and ever-present, haunting the mind at times. I remember pondering this question in the latter half of 2022, the first half of 2023, and early 2024, yet none of these reflections yielded a definitive answer.

Fortunately, in the middle of my 26th year I encountered existentialism. For me, it was like a powerful boost—it neither denied past mistakes nor ignored them, and it instilled in me the belief that I still have a chance to remake myself, creating meaning and happiness through proactive actions that continually spiral upward.

The core of existentialism is to choose freely, act proactively, and accept all the consequences of those choices and actions. Compared to Stoicism, existentialism feels more dynamic, vibrant, and optimistic. It views the self as an “empty” container—a state of “nihility” that is continually filled through our choices and actions. In this way, human nature becomes distinct from that of inanimate objects: self-determined, malleable, and forever unfinished.

So, what is the meaning of life? My answer now is to actively and courageously create, fully realize my potential, and wholeheartedly care for and respect those around me.

This is the third “resonance.”

4

2024 was not all about positive resonances; there were also losses and shortcomings.

  • I socialized very little; at one point in mid-year, I felt like an isolated island.
  • My great-grandmother passed away, and with her, I lost the chance to converse with the last elderly person who shared a significant part of my life, someone nearing 90.
  • I went home only twice this year and rarely reached out to my parents during my unemployment. When I saw my father’s medical report in December, I realized I hadn’t shown them much care, and my attention to my grandparents was even less.

In 2025, I will show more care and love for those around me—while continuing to create.

Thank you for your attention. Finally, here are my 2024 lists of favorite tools, reading materials, and audiovisual works to share with you.

Annual Tools

  • TickTick
  • Cubox
  • Notion
  • ChatGPT
  • CleanShot X
  • PasteNow
  • Magnet

Annual Favorites

  • MacBookPro M4 Deep Space Gray
  • iPhone 16 Black
  • Godox Ml 100 Bi
  • Xiaomi Soy Milk Maker
  • Asics GEL-EXALT 2
  • Uniqlo High-Performance Composite Hooded Jacket
  • Muji Striped T-Shirt

Annual Cities

In 2024 I visited six cities, and Nanning was an unexpected delight. If I decide to embrace a digital nomad lifestyle, Nanning is my top choice.

Annual Playlist

Reading List

Relationships

  • Seeing Children
  • No Action, No Happiness
  • Pseudo-Intimate Relationships
  • Intimate Relationships
  • Think Like a Horse

Novels

  • One Sentence Is Worth Ten Thousand Sentences
  • A Mess of Chicken Feathers
  • I Am Not Pan Jinlian
  • Life and Death Fatigue
  • Animal Farm

Philosophy

  • Siddhartha
  • The Road to Happiness
  • A Brief History of Philosophy
  • What the Philosophers Did
  • Our Shared Existentialism
  • Existentialism Is a Humanism
  • An Invitation to Existential Psychology
  • Lectures on Western Modern Thought by Liu Qing

Biographies

  • How Many More Times Can I See the Full Moon Rise?
  • Steve Jobs

Efficiency, Notes, Products, and Business

  • Slow Productivity
  • Deep Work
  • Mastering Your Habits
  • The Method of Note-taking
  • Building a Second Brain
  • Card Note Writing Method
  • Evernote Knowledge Management
  • 16 Lectures on Li Xiang's Product Practice
  • The Company on a Surfboard
  • The Product Philosophy Behind WeChat
  • Xiaomi's Entrepreneurial Reflections
  • Small and Beautiful
  • Behind the Products
  • Capital of Knowledge
  • 7-Eleven Management Secrets

Health and Medicine

  • Dear Family of the Patient, Please Come Over
  • Beyond 100 Years
  • Running for Healing

General Knowledge

  • The Framework of Thinking
  • Reason with the World
  • Soft Skills
  • Tipping Point

Essays

  • What I Talk About When I Run
  • The Three of Us

Others

  • The Weak Spread
  • Why Are Danes So Happy?

Audiovisual List

  • Blossom
  • The Annual Party Must Not Stop
  • Springtime in Seoul
  • Dune
  • Dune 2
  • The Twentieth Clause
  • Racing Life 2
  • The Falling Judgment
  • We Shook the Sun Together
  • The Life of Plants and Trees
  • What Kind of Life Do You Want to Live?
  • Country Love
  • Undercover
  • Clever Prison Life
  • I Really Crave You
  • My Altay
  • Yongzheng Dynasty
  • Kangxi Dynasty
  • Finding Nemo
  • Toy Story 4
  • The Rose’s Story
  • Flirting Scholar
  • Home
  • 1942
  • Assembly
  • The Return
  • Evacuating Safely from the 21st Century
  • I Love You!
  • Childhood in a Strange Land 2
  • The Grandmaster
  • Ip Man
  • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
  • Life of Pi
  • Claw Machine
  • The Hedgehog
  • Alley Life
  • Flowers & Boys on the Silk Road
  • Hospital Playlist
  • Fengshen Part One: The Storm in the Court

👋 Bye bye 2024, hello 2025.

#resonance #authenticity #existentialism