2022 is a year worth celebrating. We welcomed a baby girl into our family. We also adopted Bella, a girl German Shepherd dog. We planted some tomatoes, lettuce, and other vegetables in the garden and had a good harvest during summer. Our chickens and ducks are thriving. Check out my write-up in Chinese: 《值得纪念的2022年》.
My notes from a really interesting book “Hyperfocus”: The “Hyperfocus” mode helps you manage attention and become more productive; The “Scatterfocus” mode helps you intentionally wander and become more creative. Check out my write-up in Chinese 《视觉笔记 • 提升个人生产力和创造力的两种聚焦模式》.
It’s been almost two years since we started working from home. We have set boundaries for work and life, so that they do not blend together. At the beginning of the year, we lost Alpha, our German Shepherd girl. The pain gradually goes away as time goes by, but we will always remember the two precious two years Alpha has brought us. We have also realized that lives are so short, and we want to live ours to the best. Therefore, I have started paying attention to capture more precious moments in our lives. Check out my write-up of this year in Chinese 《2021,捕捉生活中的珍宝时刻》。
If we can envision better, more powerful images of ourselves, we could have more courage and motive to pursue those new images, and do things we have not been courageous enough to do. This kind of vision may sometimes come from motivation from within, and sometimes come from a supportive external environment. Check out my write-up in Chinese 《从不敢,到敢,可能只差一点想象》.
At one point of time, I tried to practice more English writing. I stopped it after doing it for two days — I found it not satisfying for me to continue. Later, I tried another way: think about a topic, draw a simple picture of it, then write about it — I was able to do it for a year and a half, without missing a single day. I wondered why I was able to carry it on, even though drawing added more work to it, and found my answer from the book “Atomic Habit”. Check out my write-up in Chinese 《视觉笔记 • 画画是如何激励我坚持写作的》.
As a UX designer, every time you start working for a new company, or a new team, you need to earn trust from your manager and peers, by answering the following questions:
What could you bring us as a UX designer?
Do you have knowledge or expertise in this field (that the product belongs to), and why are you capable of leading the design directions?
Alpha, our German Shepherd dog, left us forever on Feb 28, 2021.
She was diagnosed with Pyothorax (causes unknown). The chest infection was so severe that her heart did not respond to CPR during surgery. Alpha was very healthy and energetic otherwise. She loved chasing balls. Alpha opened her eyes big and wide whenever we went out to play. In two weeks, she would have turned 3 years old.
We have done our best to give Alpha the best life possible. We hope she was happy in her life. We attempted to write down all the happiness she brought to us, but it’s really hard to capture all the lively moments in writing. Therefore, we made this video of our favorite Alpha moments.
Time will go on, and these moments will remain.
Alpha will be forever missed❤️
Here’s a post about Alpha when she was very young.
Learning from the book Creative Confidence: reframe a problem to get to its root and focus on the human needs, so that we can explore solutions to provide better user experience. Check out my write-up in Chinese 《视觉笔记 • 重构问题,避免头痛医头、脚痛医脚》.