烤肉肉

This week has been busy and chaotic. A classic workplace story: a colleague left and I took over their work, and luckily, I got a 0.5 salary increase.

I didn't write a diary entry two weeks ago because I was feeling down and didn't have anything to write about. Last week, I tried not to procrastinate, but I still didn't have the desire to express myself, so I just wrote a casual entry. This week, I finally started to regain my desire to express myself and decided to continue writing my diary. This shows that even a casual entry is a form of expression, and this kind of expression can help adjust my state of mind.

The Internet is Stupid#

(Extreme statement, used to vent emotions)

It's not that there are more idiots now, or that there are more idiots on the internet. It's just that the internet environment has become increasingly stupid.

While taking a break and scrolling through social media (which has become a time-consuming black hole), a friend sent me a video. The video was very simple, just a picture that divided income and social status, accompanied by an anxiety-inducing background music, titled "Family Income Level Chart." It quickly gained hundreds of thousands of likes. Another video showed a blogger complaining about relatives who considered "Pinduoduo" as something only poor people use.

How stupid! The middle class (or even those who can't even be considered middle class) arrogantly dividing themselves from "poor people" based on a simple standard. It's ridiculous. In 2021, the average annual salary of urban private sector employees in China was 62,884 yuan. A family with two working members would have a net income of only 120,000 yuan per year, which is considered poor according to that "income level chart." And this is even after beautifying the data, as our statistics seem to include the portion of social security paid by the company.

The average person in China is poor.

City Walk in Autumn#

Last Sunday, I took advantage of the sunny autumn weather and went for a 14km walk in the city.

The city's attractions are just carriers of urban culture, while the city's veins are the lifeline of the city.

Although it sounds like I'm exploring the relationship between "city and poetry," I was actually just walking to the city center's supermarket without using any transportation. Along the way, I passed through a very old and run-down street. It was clean, but it felt dull and lifeless. Shop owners and residents were sitting outside, basking in the sun.

If it were me, I would be worried if there was no business. But when I saw them putting down their stools, I felt envious. Even though it was the weekend, I could also bring out a stool and bask in the sun, but I could never be as carefree as them. This forgotten street has its own charm.

Linking back to the previous topic, based on their income, they are likely to be classified as "poor" according to that "income level chart." In this day and age, running a business is already difficult, let alone running a business in a forgotten alley. But they are free and content, so in that sense, they are also happy. How can a happy person be considered "poor"? And how can a person who is constantly anxious and seeks happiness by distancing themselves from the "poor" in their eyes be considered rich?

Is eating stir-fried noodles inferior to eating Japanese food? Personally, I find stir-fried noodles more satisfying. Just because you drink Starbucks and eat Japanese food, does that make you a foreigner? No, it doesn't. Stop focusing on social class and start enjoying the present moment, enjoying your own life. In a few decades, we will all turn to dust, and we are nothing. I hate the saying "Those who do not plan for the future will have immediate worries." Instead of worrying about everything every day, why not find a sunny day, bring out a stool, and bask in the sun?

Exploring Air Fryer Recipes#

Since discovering the convenience of an air fryer, I've been using it to fry everything.

God said, "Let there be creativity."

I have already discovered a basic formula. With the help of an air fryer, I can have a delicious meal in just over ten minutes, which is much more cost-effective than ordering takeout.

Any combination of meat, plus a crawfish seasoning packet (or even a hot pot base as a substitute), plus sesame oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce, MSG, etc. (depending on my mood and what I have at home), set the timer for 10 minutes. If I have chicken thighs, I flip them over after 10 minutes and cook for another 10 minutes.

It's already delicious with this basic recipe. I like to use diced chicken breast, cook it for 10 minutes, and it's ready to eat after a quick stir. Of course, just eating meat is not enough, so I usually buy some lettuce and tomatoes when I buy chicken breast. If I have some bread, I can make a sandwich or a burger. If I don't have high-quality requirements, I can just use lettuce to wrap the meat (similar to eating barbecue).

Fried eggs are also a good choice. Just crack the eggs into the air fryer, add seasonings according to my mood, and cook for 10 minutes.

PS: Be cautious with fatty meat, as it can produce a lot of oil.

Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish#

While browsing Wikipedia, I came across an interesting market strategy: first, embrace widely used technological standards and introduce products into the market. Then, add your own patented extensions to the products, ultimately putting competitors at a disadvantage with these non-standard extensions. ¹

This strategy consists of three stages:

1. Embrace, join them.
2. Extend, it's not about what you think, it's about what I think.
3. Extinguish, you are outdated, I won't play with you anymore.

This strategy has been widely used in the internet battlefield. Wikipedia states that it was a phrase discovered by the US Department of Justice within Microsoft, and the examples given are mostly related to Microsoft. However, this tactic is not exclusive to Microsoft.

I remember reading an interesting story online, and I'll write it down while searching for information:

At the end of the 20th century, instant messaging was very popular. The most famous ones were ICQ, Microsoft's MSN, Tencent's OICQ, and Google's Google Talk, which were all competitors. Google Talk was integrated into the Gmail interface, which was a breakthrough compared to other software that needed to be installed locally (I remember that MSN was pre-installed on computers and couldn't be easily removed).

While Google Talk and Microsoft were competing for dominance in the instant messaging field, a group of geeks were working hard to build a decentralized instant messaging system called XMPP. I'm not familiar with the specific protocol, but it's similar to the current federated universe, where multiple servers can communicate with each other through protocols, like email.

In 2006, Google Talk announced compatibility with XMPP, which meant that every Gmail user could be considered an XMPP user. It was like Tencent announcing compatibility with the federated universe, allowing every QQ and WeChat user to communicate with the federated universe (which sounds scary to me).

However, Google was no longer cool at that time. Despite announcing compatibility with the XMPP standard, they didn't actually make it fully compatible, making the communication between XMPP and Google Talk unpleasant. It was like the terrible experience of iTunes on Windows. iTunes might have done the same thing.

Because XMPP was not user-friendly and Google Talk didn't care, Google realized in 2013 that Google Talk users no longer cared about the decentralized feature and announced the end of its relationship with XMPP. ² (Some articles pointed out that the XMPP community was becoming stable and gaining widespread recognition at that time.) Google Talk users didn't care either.

In fact, no Google user was surprised. For them, it was just a few contacts going offline, but for XMPP, it was a large group of users suddenly disappearing, and it became a niche platform.

Don't be evil. We believe that as a company that does good for the world, in the long run, we will receive better returns - even if we give up some short-term gains.

• Google's initial public offering prospectus, later recognized as Google's philosophy.

Introduction#