I didn’t want to write, but I felt I would be sorry for my rich experience this year.

In 2021, I experienced many things, some of which were enough to refresh my understanding of the world.

1. Independent development

For the first five months of this year, I’ve been an indie developer.

1.1 Why indie development

There are a couple of reasons why you should go indie,

First of all, I have made several products before, but due to product design problems and lack of technical experience, I have spent a lot of time supplementing technical knowledge in recent years. The second is trial and error. Because being wrong becomes more expensive with age, it’s better to be wrong early than late. Again, for individuals who are dissatisfied with their previous jobs and want to be as stable as possible, now is the best time to try and error. Also, I missed out on the two bonuses of wechat official account and short video, so I want to spend some time exploring these aspects. Finally, I think individual development and team development are two different things. Some products may not support a team, but they are more than enough to support one person. A lot of people are not good timing, may be the best timing.

1.2 What have I been doing this time

So what have I been doing with all this time?

First, I developed three apps, one of which is still making money. A lot of advertisers wanted to work with me, but I didn’t want to. One lasted only a week and has given up. In addition, I designed and built a general APP server to provide network services for my APP and support expansion. Designed and built overseas servers to handle Google order requests. Second, I wrote an e-commerce crawler and deployed it on three servers, but it is currently down. In addition, a small program was developed, but has not been made public. Also, I tried to make a Tiktok sign and posted a few videos. Finally, I did a lot of technical precipitation and combed the development framework to improve the development efficiency. The National Day also took the time to build their own personal blog.

For some development frameworks for my personal grooming, refer to my personal Github address. I won’t summarize it here. In addition, some articles were written this year. It’s a different mindset, though. This year I focused more on self-expression and a more “laid back” mentality.

1.3 Experience and summary

So, what are the lessons and conclusions from this experience?

  • The current profitable products can be made, the main reason lies in the product design ideas. The idea of product design comes from my long-term observation and summary in this field. Therefore, long-term observation and preliminary market research in a certain field are necessary.
  • Tool software was abandoned because it was too big to cover everything, but it was difficult to do every function well. Improvement: the function should be less but better, solve the core pain point problem. For a product, one or two core selling points are enough.
  • The design idea of e-commerce crawler is to refine the market, integrate resources and become community. The reasons are as follows: reptiles themselves have legal risks; Individual developers are not qualified to make community-related products; Community products, suitable for long-term operation, cost recovery is slower, slower to make money.
  • Personal development requires different roles, which can be tiring.
  • At present, I lack fixed direction, and my understanding of other industries is limited. Improvement: Learn more about other industries and look beyond the Internet.
  • Some projects are slow and suitable for long-term commitment, so a large, block of time commitment is not the optimal choice. Improvement: Do what you want to do when you want to do what you want to do when you want to do what you want to do.

1.4 Others are worth mentioning

In addition to the above summary, there are other experiences worth mentioning during this period.

First of all, I designed the icon myself when I was designing the app icon, but later I felt that the icon was not good-looking enough and had obvious regional features (including Chinese), so I considered asking a professional designer to help me design it. At first, I considered paying for it, but luckily, I met a brother who helped design a LOGO for free, which is the LOGO we use now.

This year, I am also pleased with the improvement of my English ability. Copywriting on the Google Store, in-app translation, customer support with Apple, and communication with users on the Google Store and Gmail are all done in English. After years of learning English, I finally put it to use in real life.

Finally, make money. Being able to make money from your own software is something you are proud of. Now, of course, there is no comparison between what you earn and what you earn at work. But I think the fact that I was able to make money from software that I designed vindicated at least some of my ideas and understanding of the product.

2. Find a job

Some of the feelings I’ve had during my job search,

  • Compared with other terminals, there are many client pits, but few companies.
  • There are fewer opportunities in Hangzhou, and the difference between companies is worse or worse.
  • Some problems can be solved by job-hopping.
  • Interview is also helpful for making up for deficiencies and personal improvement.
  • From the interview content, mainly includes engineering governance, performance optimization and stability, as well as some basic questions.
  • Be prepared to do everything in advance, ready for some technical talk.
  • Interview from easy to difficult, target company last. The more you meet, the better.

Some of my mistakes and corresponding solutions in this process,

  • Not enough project (or job) experience (perhaps because too much time has passed). The solution is to refine the following points when combing the project: points that can reflect technical depth; Problems encountered and solutions; The process of problem solving produces methodology; Points that can be reflected in the role of the team; What was considered when selecting the technology (why one implementation was chosen over another, etc.).
  • There are some technologies that appear or are used, but they don’t go too far into the implementation behind them. The solution is to be prepared for any technology that may come up.
  • Although some technologies learn its principles, but no concrete practice. The solution is to use the techniques learned in real projects, even open source projects or even demos. Some details are only known when you use them.
  • Before, I have been according to the T type to develop, so, learn things more complex, it is inevitable to ignore some technical details. But now I feel like MY path is pretty well paved. Next I spend my time on “producing” and strengthening each skill point.

A few last words,

Sometimes I feel that the current way of interviewing is quite ridiculous. It may be helpful to know some very basic principles of some skills, but it is unlikely to be used in the actual work. Of course, it’s important to understand the underlying implementation principles, but if you don’t need them in the real world, just stop there. Another irony is that many questions are not really the difference between knowing and not knowing, but between knowing and not knowing. If I were to decide how to evaluate a person, I would look at the technical aspects: actual coding ability, code design ability, code style, algorithmic ability, and the necessary basic knowledge. Non-technical, learning ability, analytical and problem solving skills, communication skills, responsibility. (I will gradually add and improve later, there is a book called principles, written by the founder of Bridgewater Foundation, the summary is very good, if you are interested in it, you can read it for yourself.)

3, daily

Another thing I did this year was watch movies and TV shows! Before that period of time to see more, basically with film and television meal. Movies are one every few days. I don’t think it’s a waste of time, because time spent on something worthwhile is not a waste. Here’s a generalization, if you’re interested, you can try it yourself. In my opinion, when we write codes and learn technologies, we should also pay attention to the improvement of our own culture and thinking ability. We should be an independent thinking, warm and emotional engineer, rather than a tool writer who only writes codes.

Memorable TV shows include: Our Planet (documentary), Yes, Prime Minister, Black Mirror (the first two seasons, the quality is slipping too fast), Westworld (season 1) and Please Answer 1988 (about youth).

Memorable movies include: Cinema Paradise, Modern Times, Fight Club, Eat Man woman, Eavesdropping, Tiny Shoes, Wall-E, Infernal Affairs, The Witness for the Prosecution, The Untouchables, The Last Emperor, Batman: The Dark Knight, What Can We Call Home, The Cove, Once Upon a Time in America, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Seven Samurai, City Lights, Rashomon, City of God, How to Live, Shadow Warrior, Chaos, Good Intentions, The Hunt, etc. These basic stand the test of time, douban score is basically above 9.0.

What impressed me most was a director named Akira Kurosawa. I was very impressed by his films — not a single shot was wasted, the color, sound, editing, story, depth were impeccable. When I saw the film, I felt that his works could almost be regarded as a unique existence. It’s no exaggeration to say that other directors are proud to have won an Oscar, and the Academy is proud to have given it to Kurosawa. An actor by the name of Chaplin. His performance is very powerful, able to conquer the audience with body language in the silent film era, with light humor and social critical realistic significance…

Excellent film and television works are the treasures of human culture, film and television works bring me, or warmth, or relaxed and humor, or unexpected reversal, or human warmth and complexity of human nature, or freedom, or suffering… I can also get different knowledge and experience from movies. Some people say that people who read books can experience a thousand different kinds of life. In my opinion, watching a movie is also experiencing a kind of life.

As far as daily life is concerned, I prefer to be exposed to as many things as possible that can bring me different experiences and cognition. Fortunately, this year has seen a lot of such things. For example, some movies, books, videos and UP. This year, I went to LiveHouse for the first time. Next year, if the epidemic situation is better, I also hope to have more contact with different landscapes and cultures.

4. Connect the preceding with the following

4.1 Overall feeling of last year

I wrote an article this time last year that analyzed some of the problems in our current environment. This year, some of those claims have been proven true. Briefly, the problem with the Internet, the Matthew effect; Many problems are fundamental to real estate; The foundation of social progress, the improvement of production efficiency. But the sudden change this year is also unexpected. There is no more to say about the general environment. All in all, I personally think 2022 is destined to be an extraordinary year in many ways.

Secondly, for Internet people, the topic that can’t be avoided this year is layoffs. There is one reason for the overall layoff. 1) policy change; 2) blind expansion; 3). Poorly managed. I don’t know about other industries. Name one that I care about: education and training. I focused on education because last year there was a lot of hype about education. Education must be done with the mindset of charity. The two pain points of domestic education are: 1) the inequality of education level between regions; 2) The quality of education. Education must be fair. If education is not fair, then the college entrance exam is not fair either. The Internet’s characteristic of being free from regional restrictions can naturally solve the problem of regional differences.

Second, individuals’ view of capital is that it is neutral. The goal of capital is to pursue maximum benefits, but we can not deny the role of capital in promoting social development. Because capital is to maximize efficiency to promote efficiency, thus bringing social progress.

4.2 Plan for the New Year

Last year I wrote about some of the potential problems of being a programmer. There is no doubt that developments in the last 30 years or so will be crucial to addressing these potential problems. For individuals, the coming year will try to work in the following directions:

This is the current outline and will be adjusted over time. In general, the New Year’s things to do is to strengthen the knowledge and knowledge structure of the system.

4.3 Looking to the future

In terms of technology exploration, I hope to learn the language Rust. The main reason is that I am more concerned about his application in embedded. It’s high time there was a language that did low-level things with high-level syntax. Here, by the way, is my personal view of the future industry.

If the transition from PC Internet to mobile Internet is a revolution, the transition from mobile Internet to Internet of Things is the next revolution. From PC to mobile phone, what changes is the carrier. Devices ranging from mobile phones to the Internet of Things are also changing carriers. I’ve been around the Internet of things before. But I think it’s a shame that for ToB companies, the Internet of Things is unimaginative. When we look beyond mobile software to a wider range of devices, combined with ARTIFICIAL intelligence, there is more room for imagination (perhaps the industrial Internet of Things is what I care about). With the popularization of the Internet of Things, we will also encounter other issues, such as security and privacy issues, network communication speed issues (5G), big data and cloud computing, etc. These could be hot jobs in the future. As the gateway to the Internet of everything, the client will also have more room to play in the future.

Last year I did a survey on a technology forum to gather people’s opinions on promising industries for the future. I personally have a pessimistic view that the barriers to entry in new industries are getting higher and higher. The Internet is one of the few industries where the average person can turn a corner.

4.4 A Bit of Insight

  • Choose the right industry. If you choose the wrong industry, you’ll never make money. Industries can be divided into several categories: hard money, hard money, and hard money. It’s important to personalize your industry in three categories.
  • Secondly, the so-called freedom of wealth is the freedom of time, not the freedom of money.
  • There are four levels of making money: first, simply sell your time and sell a share, such as workers; Second, the compound interest effect of selling your time twice, such as making money while focusing on growth; Third, one creation, many sales, such as selling classes, selling books, etc.; Fourth, buy other people’s time, such as bosses and investors.
  • While it’s tempting to talk about money all the time, the reality is that money can solve most of life’s problems. It’s called “keeping your feet on the ground and looking at the stars.”
  • Mental models are very helpful.
  • The biggest difference between people is cognition. In fact, I think different perceptions come from different life experiences. So, what makes you special is your experience; Your experience is your wealth.
  • I remember reading a word by Qian Liqun when I was in college, which is called “ten years of submersiveness”. That is to say, one should take root in one industry, work hard for many years, endure some loneliness, and eventually achieve something. Especially now the society is so impetuous circumstances, people still want to have a little ideal and pursuit of it.

5, summary

2021 is hard, 2022 could be even harder. Let’s conclude with two lines of Wang Guozhen’s poem:

  1. Since the choice of far convenient only trials and hardships
  2. As long as you love life, everything is to be expected