Thinking Dangerously

Get an IT job. Get an MBA. Get a non-IT job. Start up. Do masters. Start up again. Do research.

There are times when all of it stops making sense to me. Everything sounds meaningless. Like acquiring a skill not to create but to survive.

In times like this, the impulse to do something meaningful eclipses the innate will to survive. Glued to a desk, I don't want to whip out another app which looks cool but adds little utility. Roving like a vagabond, I don't want to continuously absorb trivial factoids. There exists no problem that rattles my brain to an extent than I can selflessly devote half a decade delving into the its intricacies.

I don't understand why most jobs even exist. 

Everything that you do reduces disorder in some way. It creates certain predictable circumstances around which the juggernaut of randomness revolves. A piece of program, a postman delivering mails, a recently dug canal - all such activities lead towards a predictable and more ordered scenario. They facilitate flow of information and of matter.

I fail to recognize any such reduction in randomness in a recent upsurge of jobs centered around finance and technology. The phenomenon of trading in finance fascinates me. How much effort, time and money has been put at stake to indulge in an abstract world that hinges on extrapolations, predictions and generalization of human behavior? 

It's ironic to see so much redundancy in the area of tech based start-ups. A massive amount of code is rewritten, duplicated, forked and copied on a daily basis to create products that differ merely in their ownership. This duplication when coupled with competition contributes to a course of events that shape the society we live in. It disrupts the original behavior of consumers and increases randomness. And then we write more code to dive into the granularity of this randomness, or to rise above it to witness a pattern that clouds all random fluctuations we see on a daily basis. 

The society that we humans have created is a severely closed group. You can't use its facilities without being a part of it. 

Think of a person who lives a minimalist life close to nature but wants to take a train or a flight to get somewhere far in little time. To do that, they need money. To have money, they need to do something that forces them to be a part of a society. It seems logical at first. But after a while, it seems a very inefficient design. 

Restriction gives rise to notions of luxury and tourism. A luxury is a luxury only because it's hard to get it. 

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[Minimalism] We need not own everything we use

I need an umbrella only when I step out. I stop needing an umbrella as soon as step in a place with a roof. As long as I am indoors, I don't need an umbrella. I own the umbrella, but it remains unused for the most part.

I shouldn't be owning an umbrella. As soon as I step out, I should be able to pick an umbrella from a pool of available umbrellas. As soon as I reach my destination, I should be able to add it to an existing pool. I don't have to bear the burden of it when I don't need it.

Most of the things we use when outdoors have little use while we stay indoors - cars, carry bags and umbrellas for instance. But the fact that we possess such items bothers us even when they aren't being used. We shouldn't own any of these things. Like a service, they should be available on demand. 

That's a step towards a more systematic urban landscape - we should own less and use publicly shared items more. Factors like catering immediately to a demand and reducing downtime can be taken care of by efficient technology.

A functioning model hinges on two factors: trust and information. Trust is an outcome of culture. The way we receive and process information has to be revolutionized. How do I know where the nearest pool of umbrellas is? This information should be available swiftly and accurately.

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運輸與住宿 [Transportation & Accommodation]

經過流浪與簡約生活的內化，我最近多考慮高效的運輸跟住宿方式。要符合環保，速度，成本與歡樂的最佳所在是什麼？我去過的所有的國家中，台灣是最適合簡約生活方式的。
Almost having internalized an itinerant lifestyle and a minimalist way of life, I have been thinking more and more about efficient ways of transportation and accommodation. What lies at the optimum of eco-friendliness, speed, cost and fun? Of all the countries I have been to, Taiwan is best suited for a minimalist way of life.

「騎共享」是一種很有潛力跟實務的方式。不過「騎共享」的商業化好幾次失敗了。「騎共享」跟我們生活的因素例如文化，合群能力，易損性與安全有密切的關係。我在台灣旅行時沒有常搭便車。我卻以長途走路跟騎腳踏車為移動。我覺得走路是個很平淡和滿花時間的方式。我以跑步能到50公里以內的地點可是攜帶行李是不好跑的。我去年騎腳踏車環島。那趟對我有很大宗的影響。目前的交通缺少移動的時候跟別的車聯絡的能力。「以後要探索這個議題」

The most potential and practical way is ride sharing; something that has been tried many times on a commercial level but failed. Ride sharing is something deeply connected with other facets of society such as culture, sociability, vulnerability and safety. While moving around in Taiwan, I didn't rely much on hitchhiking. I have covered long distances walking and cycling. Walking turned out to be massively inefficient, dull and time-consuming. Running is better option for distances less than fifty kilometers but its hard to run even with a small luggage. Last year I cycled around the island covering most of its periphery. I consider that as one of the rare life altering experiences in my life. A principle component missing these days in transportation systems is the ability to communicate with vehicles around you while in motion. [More on this later]

我未料到拒絕「騎共享」的世界會歡迎共享住家的觀念。共享住家的現象席捲全球了。我很好奇為什麼我們不願意車短期共享可是輕易地讓陌生人來我們家長期住。事後很容易可以演繹原因可是其中沒有什麼使人信服的。

I find it so surprising that while ride sharing hasn't become a widespread phenomenon due to aforementioned factors, apartment sharing has had a resounding success worldwide. The phenomenon has permeated various levels of our lives. What makes people so willing to share their home for longer periods but so reluctant to share their ride with a stranger for a much shorter period of time? A lot of reasons can be drawn in hindsight. But none of them seems compelling enough to me to be accepted as a categorical reason.

在亞洲，尤其是在台灣，我旅行時廣泛使用CouchSurfing。我去年環島時不少次在室外過夜。因為我沒有帳篷，只有一個睡袋我沒有很輕鬆地睡覺。我發現我一決定在個室外地方要過夜，我就會開始審視所有的環境。無家可歸的人怎麼那麼容易睡得著呢？

I extensively used couch-surfing during my travels in Asia, particularly in Taiwan. During my cycling trip around the island, I also spent many a night sleeping outdoors. I never used a tent; just a sleeping bag which made me slightly more vulnerable to my surroundings. 

I realized how differently our senses respond to stimuli when we decide to sleep outdoors. If I decide to sleep somewhere outside, my brain will start noticing minute details of the place. 

Even when I spent nights in less isolated areas, I wasn't able to relax and stop noticing each and every thing going on around me. It's amusing how homeless people get used to it.

我覺得目前的住宿方式太僵硬和固定。住宿不再使用的時候應該縮小或是改變「連消失也可以」「以後要探索這個議題」。要是放假的時候我們能使用學校佔領的地方或是上班的時候我們能有空家的地方的話，不時會很方便嗎？

Accommodation doesn't have to be as rigid and stationary as it stands today. It should shrink, transform or even disappear when not in use [More on this later]. 

Think of what we could with all the space that lies unoccupied such as schools during vacations and empty homes when people are working or traveling.

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