2024 Review and Goals for H1 2025

By Yangyu

- 7 minutes read - 1351 words

A Brief Review of 2024

The last time I posted on this blog was in July 2023. At that time, I had taken a three-month break and was ready to start a new job, full of ambition and looking forward to the future.

A Year at ByteDance - 2023-07 to 2024-07

As it turned out, I left ByteDance after exactly one year, on August 1. I was in the Aeolus team, working on a data visualization product. The main reasons for leaving were related to scope and ROI issues:

  • for four out of five days, I worked from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Occasionally, when deadlines were tight, I worked overtime.
  • However, the final output wasn’t great, and the performance reviews reflected that.
  • From a technical growth perspective, it wasn’t ideal. But I did gain a lot in terms of interpersonal skills and project management.

I believe my main issues at ByteDance were also areas where I experienced growth (and for that, I’m grateful for the experience):

  • When encountering problems or blockers, I was easily dismissed by others. I was putting too much hope on what I can achieve, instead of what others can offer. As a result, issues that weren’t originally mine became my responsibility when things got worse
  • I was in a passive position regarding projects, unclear about how to take ownership of scopes proactively. In an environment with limited opportunities and many challenges, this was a disadvantage.
  • In a complex organizational structure, I couldn’t identify the key point of contact to resolve issues, leading to a lot of wasted effort.

Although my experience at ByteDance wasn’t great, I am still thankful for the lessons learned:

  1. It demystified Chinese companies for me. I once thought I might return to China for work, but now I feel the work culture there is too intense (太卷了).
  2. I became accustomed to candid and clear communication. ByteDance has several byte-styles I strongly agree with, especially “Be candid and clear”. This principle fosters a problem-focused, non-blaming attitude that enhances efficiency. It also helped me stop avoiding conflicts in the workplace—everyone just addresses the issues directly.
  3. I developed a habit of working hard. Interestingly, I enjoy working hard when necessary and playing hard when possible. However, before ByteDance, opportunities for hard work were rare, which sometimes led to unhealthy self-pity. At ByteDance, I retained the increased income level I had achieved at Indeed, which likely contributed to my willingness to work hard without much consideration of ROI. With that mindset, the extra effort often led to better outcomes, creating a positive feedback loop.
  4. I discovered that I prefer flat hierarchies and simple, efficient environments without excessive blockers. ByteDance has a startup vibe, but in a mature product team with many smart people, it’s challenging to get good scopes. While I have my own ideas and confidence about how technical architecture should evolve, it was hard to communicate these clearly & get people’s action towards that. This might be easier in smaller companies.
  5. I strengthened my documentation skills and awareness. I started writing documentation at Shopee, but ByteDance further emphasized its importance. Now, I not only keep work logs but also write system summaries when reading code, document investigations when encountering issues, and consolidate operational knowledge afterward. These habits have been incredibly valuable.

Crypto Startup

After leaving ByteDance in August, I joined a small crypto startup. My working hours have decreased, but my effective work time has significantly increased, which makes me genuinely happy. I enjoy coding a lot. Seeing my ideas come to life through code (sometimes with the help of AI) is deeply satisfying. Along the way, I also discover unexpected details, encounter challenges, and solve problems. This gives me a strong sense of accomplishment and confidence.

Currently, the company’s technical architecture and personnel management have significant room for improvement. I hope that in the coming year, I can create systems and products that truly satisfy me.

Reading

I didn’t read much over the past year. Here’s a summary of what I did read, categorized:

  • Novels:
    • December: 《黄金链（上）》: A debt-collecting story. Unrealistic due to the smart protagonist and coincidental events.
    • October: 《海外征程 (3 volumes)》: A story about Huawei’s overseas expansion. Inspiring with some practical methodologies, though it has the usual coincidental nature of success stories.
    • June: 《失业程序员日记》: A programmer’s story about losing his job and driving taxis. Not worth reading.
    • January: 《问鼎 (1～7)》: A typical power fantasy novel. Too many coincidences and an overly strong protagonist.
  • Non-fiction/Biographies:
    • December:
      • 《印度折叠》: A fascinating travelogue about India.
      • 《乱世华尔街》: A detailed account of the 2008 financial crisis.
    • November:
      • 《走出戈壁》: The story of Dan Weihjian, from being a sent-down youth in the Gobi Desert to a professor in the U.S.
      • 《金钱博弈》: Dan Weihjian’s account of acquiring Korea First Bank, emphasizing persistence and honest communication.
    • October: 《信念》: The story of someone walking across China over ten years. It’s inspiring how one big endeavor can leave a lasting legacy.
    • August: 《大力出奇迹》: A history of ByteDance’s founding and development. The author didn’t interview Zhang Yiming, and most of the content is from ByteDance’s internal records. Despite that, it’s still thrilling to read about the company’s miraculous growth.
  • Self-help:
    • 《价值心法》: Encourages self-learning, doing things correctly, and investing. Motivating but easily forgotten afterward.
    • 《谁动了我的奶酪2》: Not much additional insight compared to the first book. Not recommended.
    • 《宝贵的人生建议》: A collection of proverbs. Useful, and I bought both Chinese and English versions to flip through occasionally.
  • Cognitive:
    • December: 《Read, Write, Own》: Explains the evolution of Web 1–3. While Web 2 created the most value (mostly taken by big companies), it’s uncertain if Web 3 can change this.
    • August: 《脉络 - 小我与大势》: I can’t recall much about it five months later. I should avoid similar books in the future 😂.
    • July: 《奔跑吧 程序员》: Advocates programmers creating their own products or joining startups.
    • January: 《与开源同行》: The first two chapters are great, detailing TiDB’s early days, but the later sections on commercialization are less engaging.

Books I haven’t finished but am actively reading:

  • 《期权 期货 和其他金融衍生品》: A textbook on financial derivatives. Challenging and slow-going but valuable.
  • 《深入理解Java虚拟机》: A must-read for Java developers, though progress is slow because it’s not immediately applicable to work.
  • 《流畅的Python，第二版》: An excellent book. I plan to make Python a major part of my work and life, so I’ll continue reading it.

Reflections on my reading habits:

  1. Books that are forgettable after reading are not worth the time. This mainly applies to self-help books. To ensure time isn’t wasted, I’ll track behavior changes inspired by reading.
  2. Most of my reading happened in the second half of 2024, likely because of increased confidence at work.
  3. I didn’t finish any technical books last year, which I need to improve.

Relaunching My Diary App

I’ve always kept diaries in different formats. I even developed a diary platform that ran for over a year but abandoned it due to poor user experience and low adoption. Recently, I relaunched it for the following reasons:

  • I wanted an easy way to keep a diary. My daily workspace is the terminal, and my diary app supports writing diaries directly in the terminal.
  • I wanted to connect it with AI, allowing it to provide suggestions based on my entries. This has proven quite practical so far.
  • I wanted a product I could feel proud of.

Currently, it’s running stably. The development progress is moderate, and I’m focusing on meeting my personal needs first.

I plan to polish the product this year and open it for registration to see how it performs.

Goals for 2025

This section is just a simple list. Based on past experience, most goals aren’t completed 😂.

Health

  • Maintain running (or equivalent exercise) twice a week.
  • Focus on reading after 11 p.m. and sleep when tired.
  • Reduce weight to 72 kg.

Work

  • Achieve substantial improvements in product restructuring and act as the domain owner for two areas.
  • Continuously improve work-related skills.

Growth

  • Finish four technical books (e.g., DDIA, Fluent Python), each requiring at least 15 hours to complete.
  • Read five books that lead to tangible behavioral changes.
  • Develop the diary app to a level where it can be publicly registered and used.
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