One thing I learnt from Danshari and my various role models is the practice of being selective. Matsuura Yataro once recalled going to an art exhibition with his mom when he was a kid. After that, his mom asked him to carefully pick and elaborate on his favorite painting. What matters more is not which painting he liked best but the why behind it, because that’s where lies one’s hidden preferences and values. It’s through these small daily practices that a person builds up an automatic habit of self-reflection. Through each iteration, you become clearer of what really matters to you. A more focused mind is an indirect result of this practice, aligning you to decide and execute faster. Gradually, your northstar and anchor emerges.

I think this practice is even more important in the current attention economy when everything (information, products, gurus) is in surplus and fads are short-lived. Too much information is consumed passively without vetting. Our cognitive time is spread so thin that we seem to know many things without actually understanding them. To maintain the most precious currency: our attention, we need to vet our input with some questions like:

• Is it necessary now?
• Does it deserve my precious time today? There is opportunity cost in everything.
• Will it make me a better person (aka. Will I grow in/out of it)?

In the book Extra-ordinary, where author Yoshii Shinobu chronicled 12 people leading their unique lives in an unrelenting society, a bookstore owner 25km from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant stated that he had no choice but to stay, as bookstore is vital to a community.

I think by staying, he exercised his free will to make a firm and noble choice. Answering the call of fate is itself a remarkable choice.

Viktor Frankl once said,

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

Frankl called this the last of the human freedoms. Within the stimulus and response, we have a moment all by ourselves to choose a response with intention. This is key to Frankl’s theory centered on finding meaning in life as the primary human motivation. By making this free choice, people empower themselves to be subjects rather than objects of their circumstances, thereby maintaining their dignity.

This philosophy was born from Frankl’s own experiences as a Holocaust survivor, witnessing people find meaning and maintain their inner freedom even in concentration camps. Even though trauma and crisis cannot be compared in relative terms, Fukushima survivors like the bookstore owner indeed made a meaningful choice that stands against the utmost environmental and psychological disaster.

In the past, when I was fed up with life, I would divert to travel planning, restaurant hunting and binge reading to release stress and find some joy in living. However, these joys were so short-lived that I unconsciously fell into a hedonic treadmill, looking for a higher and higher dose to resolve my dissatisfaction.

It’s only years later that I read about passive vs. active entertainment. Being a maker, to create something from scratch, to output while learning, is a form of active entertaining that you produce the output yourself in a very self-reliant way. In such a self-sustaining circle, your output becomes a fruitful input to the next task. The reward can be chemical (dopamine rush) or the joy of seeing a real product seeing the light.

I become much calmer after adopting active entertainment, being confident of my ability to make myself happy without too much reliance on external circumstances.

In some cultures, aging is viewed a stage in life best for relaxing at home doing nothing. Those who are still working draw pitiful eyes, as if they are losers who have no financial backing or filial kids to take care of them.

I think it can’t be farther from truth. Barring from those still toiling in hard manual labor, we do see many retirees working as consultants in their previous industries with the younger generation, or finding a 2nd career where their real interest can bloom and shine. Many medical professionals around the world have indicated that meaningful work is beneficial to both our physical and mental health as we age.

I wonder when the stigma of “pitiful working elders” will disappear.

二元化的思考，只會令我們對一件事、一個人動情時，就自動妖魔化另外一件事。事情的好壞，的確是相對的。但也不用為了拼命幫A貼金，而將所有非A的往死裏打。尤其是，非A之中還有一部分是自己立命之本。貶低它們並不會立即顯得自己變得多麼高尚，反而更像天人交戰中的苦苦自辯。

這令我想起「見山是山、見山不是山、見山還是山」的三階段。走了一圈回來，才真的懂得怎樣擺正一件事情。

近來有幸碰到許知遠先生一系列的訪談實錄「十三邀」。每輯他都邀請某一個領域（如學術、演藝、思想、商業等等）的專業人士，𣈱談他們如何入行、該領域的主要問題和發展、以及他們對現代社會的看法。

許先生認為訪問就像彫刻。人物的立體性、他潛藏的知識點，都需要訪問者細心發掘出來。

我們一般人，除了自己的專業和一兩件可以放上枱面的愛好，對於世界時空之廣博、人性之幽深，實在所知甚微。唯有多看、多聽、多問、多想才能略懂一二。讀書令人常保謙卑、敬畏之心。讀書真好！

這個年代意見變得很廉價。無論是KOL還是學富五車的專家，都是咫尺天涯，一個prompt就送到府上。至於去到哪個終點，就真是每個人的造化了。魑魅橫行之代，還是想起有原葉子先生和中野社長的話：每天要鍛鍊自己心中那把尺。

In aviation, V1 speed is defined as the “point of no return” where a pilot has to continue the takeoff and deal with any issue after.

I think it parallels extremely intense emotions. Before that, sane advice might still reach the heart and we can still resort to reasoning. After a certain threshold, a thick deep cloud engulfs the person affected. Regardless of how good our intention is, sometimes the only feasible way is to let it run its course.

It can be very disheartening to see someone on the verge of breakdown, just like tiptoeing at the edge of a cliff. Yet certain emotions, once crossed over V1, are like a fiery blaze fueled by all sorts of forces that we are no match of. The threats to burn down everyone in its course is real. In this case, perhaps all we can do is to set clear boundaries to contain the blaze, and let it burn out within a specific area. Hopefully, when the smother is over, there’s something spared for us to begin healing with.

以前讀過一本書，作者認為每個人生來都有他自己的人生功課。你不能幫別人做功課，更不能搶了別人的功課來做。

每個人都有自己的步伐，在不同時刻看到的風景都不一樣。有時心痛別人正在經歷的苦難。但路是別人的，如何走下去的也是他的選擇。旁人萬般不捨也無可奈何。

以前也聽過: 聰明的人從別人的經驗學習。看來我們大部份人都不聰明，總要自己親自跌得粉身碎骨才學懂一些道理。

生活中的小確幸無處不在。早上修剪好花園的植物、寫好文章、計劃好小旅行、和家人聊聊天、看了本好書、談了一下職涯規劃、吃了一小塊甜品、晚上散步看見一彎新月如鈎……

以前追求乘風破浪，現在才剛剛開始學會欣賞「也無風雨也無晴」的珍貴。