2024: My Reading, Learning, and Reflections

2024 was the year I read the most, and the year I felt I grew the most. The books I read can be broadly categorized into three major tostatic: philosophy, finance, and some practical content. In this article, I will share some of my insights on these tostatic.

Part One: Philosophy

For a tool, its meaning is usually determined by its design purpose - for example, a hammer is meant for pounding things, there's no doubt about that. However, humans don't have such a pre-set "purpose" - we are neither tools nor do we have inherent meaning. Despite this, humans always need some kind of meaning and purpose, some transcendent value to which they can commit. Some people adopt commonly accepted goals as the meaning of life, such as making money, getting married, buying a house, raising children - this is what Heidegger called the state of "das Man" (the They); others view the pursuit of career as meaning, striving to reach the pinnacle of life; still others let their hearts take refuge in religion.

All these choices are valid, but I prefer to find my own answer. And one of philosophy's goals is to attempt to answer this question. To find this answer, I read a large number of philosophical books, from Aristotle in Western philosophy to contemporary thought, from Eastern Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism to Buddhist studies, spending considerable time on research.

It's worth mentioning that during my study of Eastern philosophy, I had an unexpected gain: my mental internal friction dropped almost to zero. In Buddhist terms, I roughly experienced the feeling of "being at ease" (zizai). In the past, when I couldn't control things I cared about, I would often feel a lingering anxiety - like background noise in my brain, constantly draining my energy and subtly controlling my behavior. However, inspired by Eastern philosophy, this anxiety gradually dissolved, and the background noise disappeared with it. I believe many people may have experienced similar mental internal friction. In upcoming articles, I will dedicate a piece to explore this issue.

Part Two: Finance

This section's reading mainly includes economics, national policy interpretation, basic financial knowledge, and investment principles. My original intention in studying these was to make money through investment in the capital markets.

Investing in capital markets is essentially a game against other market participants. Every buy with bullish conviction corresponds to a sell with bearish conviction. If the stock market remains stagnant over the long term, like China's A-share market in recent years, this game becomes zero-sum - to make money, you must have more advantages than others. Of course, if the stock market continues to rise, like the U.S. stock market over the past few decades, theoretically you can just follow the market through index funds and earn returns above the risk-free rate.

My view is that as long as I continue learning and researching, one day I will gain a relative advantage in the game and earn excess returns. I view investment as a lifelong learning side project, and what attracts me most about this project is that it drives me to continuously learn various knowledge domains through investment. In comparison, earning wealth is merely validation of this learning process.

Part Three: Practical Learning

This section's content leans toward utility, mainly including quantum computing, data analysis, commercialization, operations, brand building, team management, etc. The motivation for reading these is to address challenges encountered at work.

In daily work, there are two ways to deal with problems: first, think independently and execute based on intuition; second, rely on systematic knowledge. For familiar domains, like programming, thinking based on intuition is often sufficient and can even lead to excellent results. For example, when writing code, I can completely design reasonable architecture and structure based on experience, ultimately producing high-quality code. However, in unfamiliar domains, like community operations, acting directly on intuition may lead to disaster. It's like driving - if you know how to drive, intuition will serve you well; but if you don't know how to drive, it's necessary to learn driving knowledge and apply it with utmost attention. In such cases, systematic knowledge becomes particularly important. If you can find a systematic book that helps you think about problems from a new perspective, it often yields twice the result with half the effort.

Next Steps

Going forward, I will not only continue reading but also plan to start some creation and sharing, with content following my interests. On one hand, through sharing, I hope to bring some thought and inspiration to those who come across it; on the other hand, during the writing process, I can also reflect on what I've learned, refine my knowledge, and elevate my understanding.

In the new year, study extensively, inquire carefully, think deeply, discriminate clearly - let us encourage each other!