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Some Career Advice — For My Future Self

Earlier this week, my company announced another round of mass layoffs — the biggest since 2022 — just days before reporting strong quarterly earnings. Some of my colleagues were affected. I feel deeply for them. This post isn’t meant to advise others, but to remind my future self of a few things I’ve learned. 1. You Are Expendable No matter how loyal or hardworking you are, remember: the company doesn’t care about you as a person. It’s not personal — it’s business. Even the best companies ultimately serve shareholder value . That’s the system we live in. Recognize it, accept it, and plan your life accordingly. 2. Be Mission-Driven, Not Promotion-Driven Money and titles are tools — not the destination. Find what truly drives you, what makes you feel alive, and let that be your compass. Balancing passion and livelihood is hard, but once you know what you love, you’re less likely to lose your way. 3. Family Is Yours You’ll never look back and wish you’d worked more overtime. But y...
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The path has never been clearer to me.

It’s been two and a half years since I moved to a new country and started a new job. I was excited and joyous, but also tired, sad, and quietly uneasy. After a decade in my career, I began to see things differently. Society — human organization itself — is chaotic. East or West, top or bottom, it’s the same confusion, only dressed differently. In Chinese there’s a phrase, “草臺班子,” meaning a straw-stage troupe — a group performing before the stage is even built. That’s how reality often feels to me. I once thought science was sacred — a pure search for truth, what Karl Popper called conjecture and refutation. Then I read Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and realized science is less a path to truth and more a social endeavor — shaped by people, power, habit, and belief. I used to think probabilities were propensities, that statistics revealed the world’s hidden truths. Now I see them as closer to beliefs ...
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Buddhism and Ancient greek

Recently, I read Plato's Republic . What surprised me wasn't Plato's theory itself—I was already somewhat familiar with it. What truly caught my attention was the story Plato tells near the end about a warrior named Er who died in battle but came back to life after twelve days. As someone who grew up in a Buddhist family, I found this story strikingly similar to Buddhist teachings. Souls exist forever. After death, they are judged and either rewarded or punished based on their behavior in this life. After a thousand years, souls return for their next life. They are offered a choice of what they will become. This choice includes not only different types of human lives (rulers, craftsmen, athletes, etc.) but also animal lives. They must drink water that causes them to forget everything from their previous existence. After doing some research, I realized there IS a historical connection. Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia: "Greek was one of the first languages in wh...
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Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
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