Looking back in life
I quit social media and start this blog since July 2024. It’s almost 2 years now. Let me recap the whole journey.
2018 - 2 years into adulthood I was thinking kinda like to take photo and I try to tell photo story of my life on Instagram story. It slowly turns into daily 1-2 hours arranging random snaps of photo of the day to tell story with captions. I get people who really enjoy my story.
May 2020 - COVID solitude drive me online and start to watch YouTube for entertainment. I open up possibility to the YouTuber’s opinion because they have no conflict of interest with me in real life. Their opinion remains opinion. I enjoy the openness.
A few months later I was redirected to 樊登读书 videos on YouTube. They are all stolen and pirated, of course. He only share his video in paid app, with a promise of 365 yen (China) a year for 50 new books he is introducing. I found his video helps me to understand books very well. Finite & Infinite Game is one.
Nov 2020 - My first subscription on 樊登读书 app, I actually finish all the books video (about 380+ of them back then) until Nov 2024 because my life is too busy to pay attention on his video or podcast. As his preach, he only want an hour in our week for his content and we should be doing our life instead of sticking on his app. He is a role model as human.
Nov 2022 - ChatGPT gone viral, causing an immediate “code red” (internal state of emergency) at Google. I decided to root in Gemini after half a year of observation because they will sustain. Based on the existence of “code red” and they didn’t overtake the market in 3 months, they are playing the long game.
Jan 2023 - I started a new job and left Malaysia. The job banned personal phone so I can no longer have enough “randomly snaps photos” for my story. I was keeping them for weekend only.
Jun 2024 - The job is too demanding where I am no longer able to spread positivity in Instagram. I quit both job and Instagram. I keep my story creation urge here and I wonder where can it grow next. I don’t want to turn my friends into another data point as an audience, but if I am to spend that much effort on social media, I want more value out of it. I want a growth outside career.
I love technology but I don’t think we can trust Jarvis without Tony Stark. Now everyone is with the AI machine gun and the internet is no longer safe to post publicly like back then. I need cool down period to know how to deal with it.
I was exploring a lot of method. Journaling, handcrafts… I took some online courses and learn about different business and how they run them. I went into metaphysics and can tell if fengshui is extremely good or bad.
I realize I don’t like to social. I was extroverted badly back then. Following the trend is valuable to the attention economy, I think I contribute enough for free. I am quitting them all.
Mar 2025 - I get this site link back on my Instagram as a post. I want to play the long game too.
I want my attention back and I want my friends and family attention back to them. I spend more time putting up this writing but that’s not even 3 days of my Instagram story time and effort back then. My friends shouldn’t be thinking of me everyday, they should have other things they care and reach out to my news here once in a blue moon. I don’t need that much attention actually.
(Universe decided that it’s time for a baby to enlighten me about life)
Apr 2026 - Baby in nursery and I finally get back my solitude.
I want to write more. I want think deeply by writing more.
I want to turn it into a lifestyle that I am proud to live in and make a profit out of it.
I don’t want to be famous. I want my work to be famous.
I think I finally know what I want in life.