Living Like Traveling

Lately, I've been gripped by an unshakable urgency.

The AI era fuels our collective FOMO. Innovations drop daily; the world has hit 2x speed. Even on vacation last week, my brain kept scrolling. It's ridiculous: step away for a few days, and it feels like missing a revolution.

Our driver told us he's thinking about moving his family to Xinjiang. He said life's just better there—less rat race, and the kids actually look confident and happy. Meanwhile in big cities, everyone's speed-walking like they're late for something, and even the kids seem withdrawn and anxious.

"That's not really living," he said.

Staring out the window, it hit me: this urgency is manufactured. It doesn't have to be this way.

New Things Are Rewards, Not Debts

New stuff appearing in the world? That's always a good thing.

Don't chase it like a debt. Dive in when inspired; enjoy it.

Traveling and coding are basically the same thing. You're exploring the unknown. That thrill of discovery is our purest, most immediate joy.

But tell yourself you "should've known this already," and excitement turns to guilt. You feel behind, and the fun evaporates.

"Nobody's obligated to learn everything."

Think about gaming as a kid—you didn't feel guilty about skipping side quests. You just played and had fun. Learning new tech should work the same way. Every time you learn something new, it should feel like a reward: you found something cool and made it yours.

Curiosity Needs an Outlet

Curiosity is fragile. It demands action.

Act instantly, and you get a hit of satisfaction. Wait, and it fades into anxiety. Curiosity without action just drains you.

I've been there too many times. When I'm stuck overthinking, problems balloon in my head. Especially when I see some new coding technique but don't have my laptop—it's torture because I can't test it out.

But the moment you actually do something—even if it's unrelated—things start feeling better.

In the AI age, speed matters. Curiosity and action feed each other: move fast and curiosity brings joy; procrastinate and it brings anxiety.

My rule is simple: if I obsess over something for days—constantly googling, reading reviews—I just buy it or learn it. Done.

Experience beats speculation every time. Action turns floating thoughts into concrete answers.

Your Feelings Are the Only Metric

Comparison is a poor use of energy.

Someone's always doing better than you. They're climbing faster—maybe their career's exploding, maybe their relationships are effortless, maybe they get shredded at the gym without trying. In every domain, there's someone outshining you.

But "not being as good as them" doesn't make what you're doing meaningless.

What matters is whether you're changing. Are your attempts, your small shifts, making you better than yesterday? Other people's wins are their story. Your future is determined by your own daily progress.

You've got your own mission: it's not about beating someone else's life—it's about fully living yours.

Same goes for buying stuff.

Specs don't matter. Usage feels matter. Take my new iPhone Air and Sigma BF—one has a weak battery, the other lacks features. On paper, they lose. Reviewers would hate them.

But I love them.

The iPhone Air is so light I want to carry it. The Sigma BF is so beautiful I want to use it. I didn't buy specs—I bought feelings, textures, design.

Specs don't bring me joy. I buy things for joy.

Guard Your Energy

Energy is finite. That's never been clearer than now.

With all these tools, I can do way more than before—my capabilities are borderless. But my energy? Extremely limited. So I have to decide upfront: what am I spending tomorrow's energy on?

And sleep has become non-negotiable.

I need quality thinking time, and only sleep restores that. I've spent countless nights spinning my wheels until 2 AM, thinking "just one more try." It never works. I just get exhausted.

But after a good sleep, the answer is often obvious. It feels like magic, but it's just biology. Your brain needs time to sort the chaos. You can't force that by "thinking harder."

Now, I protect my sleep. If I can't crack it by 10 PM, I stop. I hand it off to the version of me that's actually equipped to handle it.

"The key to breakthroughs is giving your brain time for unconscious processing. Don't keep yourself in a constant state of busyness and tension."

From Chasing to Experiencing

The best travel moments aren't on TripAdvisor.

They're the alley you stumbled into by accident, the random restaurant you walked into without research, the light you noticed while zoning out on a bench. None of that's on anyone's list, but it's yours.

Learning is the same.

You don't need to follow the herd. Wander. See what sticks. Some things stay, some pass. Both are fine.

Life isn't a race to win; it's a journey to experience. Those kids in Xinjiang aren't happy because they have more. They're happy because they aren't haunted by what they "should" have.

That's what I've figured out lately.