Translated from the Chinese original.
1 A Bit of Rambling
When I was composing my 2019 summary in my head, I had a whole lot I wanted to say, but once it came time to actually write it down, I didn’t know where to begin.
Fine, let me start with my WeChat official account. I’m sorry that it basically went without updates for the last few months of 2019. There are really just two reasons. First, I was genuinely busy: a lot of things piled up in the second half of the year, and I couldn’t find the time to write. Second, naturally, I was lazy. Turning text and images into an official-account post still puts a certain amount of psychological pressure on me.
Most of the time I post in my private Telegram channel. For one thing, Telegram has convenient clients on every platform, so I can share things straight from my phone. For another, Telegram is less restricted, and I don’t have to worry about a post getting blocked over some random sensitive word. In the new year, I’ll try to publish at least one post a month on my official account, using output to push myself to take in more.
My life looked much the same in 2019, but my outlook in the first and second halves of the year was worlds apart.
Around the first half of 2019, I was still rather idealistic. I spent my days following heavily hyped concepts like AI and blockchain. Every day I felt like I was hearing a great many predictions about industry trends and visions of the future, and it seemed as if I were gaining a lot of knowledge. But dig a little deeper and it all felt hollow — big talk that was of no practical use.
Some of this content, such as analyses of industry trends, isn’t necessarily wrong. It may offer some guidance to large companies. But for a tiny individual like me, it has one fatal flaw: there’s no way to put it into practice. So to me, it’s useful nonsense—fine to skim, but not to take too seriously. It’s like checking the local weather before going out; nobody checks the average global temperature because it has too little impact on daily life. What I need to focus on is what I can actually put into practice.
Perhaps because I noticed this problem, in the second half of the year I gradually shifted toward practical advice for individuals and ideas about how to think. Along the way, I especially want to thank a few mentors for their help.
The first is Teacher Senmiao. He is highly effective and has sharp insights, and over the past year I was lucky enough to watch him bring an arbitrage project based on information gaps to fruition, step by step. I really admire him. He regularly shares thoughtful excerpts, introduces interesting people, and posts his reflections in his Knowledge Planet group. Through him, I discovered people across many fields who combine deep thinking with hands-on experience, and I also started putting a small arbitrage project of my own into practice. Below are Teacher Senmiao’s Knowledge Planet group and some articles he has written:
Teacher Senmiao’s Knowledge Planet (free for a limited time): https://t.zsxq.com/eYvFuFq
Zero-cost arbitrage: building a Planet referral-rebate navigation site in 30 minutes
A retrospective on a Fanfou account arbitrage
The second is Cao Da, known in the community as the “Internet Encyclopedia.” A veteran of the PC era, he knows what really goes on behind the scenes of internet content, and he’s willing to share his thinking and experience. Over the past year, his advice on creating internet content and conducting myself corrected some of my mistaken ideas. I’m truly grateful that he shares his experience with young people. At my age, experience is the most valuable asset, and his advice has saved me some costly lessons as I’ve learned by trial and error.
A common workplace ailment: don’t treat yourself as the submissive one
Young people, how to be resilient: expectation management and mindset control
From campus to workplace: how interviewers see the project experience on your résumé
From campus to workplace: asking questions and communicating
The third is Teacher Xifeng. If I had to describe him in one phrase, “a shrewd judge of people” might fit best. He sees through the tangled interests and human choices behind any situation. Of course, some things are laid out so plainly that they’re hard to accept; his WeChat Official Account, Jiyi Chengzai (记忆承载), is a force of nature.
Attack the matter, not the person? Reality just slapped Luo Zhenyu hard in the face!
I also want to thank my family for their support and my friends for their help. Without them, my 2019 might have looked like a completely different landscape.
But however much I read, to me all of this can only count as information. What hasn’t been thought through and internalized can hardly be called knowledge. So let me talk about what I did in 2019, and what I’m going to do in 2020.
2 What I Did and What I Will Do
2.1 What I did
- Launched my official account and brought in a few thousand followers from various channels in the first half of the year. My corresponding Zhihu account received 4k likes and 20k saves.
- At the end of the year I started making video content; so far I’ve uploaded one video, which has 20k views across all platforms.
- The lost-and-found mini program is basically finished.
Frankly, I still read far more than I put into practice. I may have improved some specific skills, but relative to the amount of information I’ve taken in, the conversion rate is low. So the new year has only one theme — trial and error.
2.2 2020 tasks
- Launch another mini program, reach 1,000 daily active users, and break even. If conditions allow, try combining online and offline operations.
- Build a single-product business that reaches 1,000 orders a month.
- Hit 1 million total views across all platforms for the year, reach 1,000 followers on Bilibili, and get over 10k views on YouTube.
- Score above 100 on the TOEFL…
- Get down to 130…
If all goes well, combining the mini program with an offline business will be the focus of my work in 2020. It may not turn a profit, but the experience will be worth it. The second task is to leave myself a fallback, so I don’t end up scraping by. The third is to stake out a spot while Bilibili is still in its growth phase. In a couple of days I’ll also write a post with thoughts and advice on making video content now; getting in early is an advantage, and I should seize it. As for the last two, I can’t put them off any longer.
If I complete these tasks, I’ll send readers a generous cash gift.
2.3 Long-term tasks
- Learn SEO and build an English-language site with over 10,000 monthly unique visitors.
- Improve my reasoning. I still lack critical thinking: sometimes an article feels off, but I can’t explain why. Poor reasoning is a serious weakness.
- Improve my storytelling. I’m fine at joking around, but when I tell a story, even the most interesting one comes out dull.
That’s enough goals for now; I’ll make progress on them gradually. I chose them for a simple reason: they either build my experience or offer a one-time investment with lifelong returns. After all, time is the biggest arbitrage opportunity.
3 Miscellaneous Thoughts on 2019
Here are some of the ideas, figures, and reflections that kept echoing in my head throughout 2019.
When a wave comes, it’s better to build the tools people need than to ride the wave yourself.
I don’t know whether those preparing for graduate entrance exams, civil service exams, or certification exams achieved their dreams. But I do know that from producing courses, to online tutoring, to reselling existing courses, quite a few people are making a comfortable living.
I’m not sure whether official accounts made money, but the service providers offering technical support to creators are doing quite well.
No matter how well known something is in China, there are a hundred million people who don’t know it — but often it’s a billion people who don’t.
Information gaps always exist, and information gaps are money. Take shopping: here are two questions, and you can test whether you know the answers.
- Have you used 1688?
- Why are there dedicated websites, apps, and official accounts that give you coupons for Taobao products? Where do those coupons come from?
2019 will be the worst year of the past decade, and the best year of the next decade.
I expect a wave of services that promise to relieve anxiety to arrive and cash in on it. Hold on tight and don’t get swept away. Making money from people who want to make money may be the easiest business of all :)
Bilibili, 2019 Q3: 128 million monthly active users; average daily time spent per user of 83 minutes; 2.5 billion monthly user interactions
Compared with Xigua Video, I think Bilibili is more likely to become China’s YouTube. While it still needs to expand its long-tail content, creators should identify a niche and get in quickly—being early is an advantage.
Nothing more to say. Just hustle.
4 Lists
4.1 The most worthwhile electronic product I bought in 2019
At the start of 2019 I picked up a used 2018 iPad with 32 GB. Once it had basically solved my file-handling needs, my Surface Pro Pen was more or less retired. The Surface Pro Pen lagged behind the iPad’s stylus in latency and accuracy, and the software ecosystem couldn’t match the iPad’s. Aside from the Surface Pro’s better display, well… sigh.
With the iPad and its comprehensive software ecosystem, I’ve basically achieved a paperless life. Later, during Pinduoduo’s 10-billion-yuan subsidy campaign, I even talked several friends around me into buying iPads, and wrote them a simple beginner’s guide to managing files on the iPad (I’ll polish it and publish it in a couple of days).
For anyone who writes by hand often, the iPad is simply a delight.
4.2 The company I was most bullish on in 2019
Pinduoduo, Bilibili, Meituan.
4.3 The most valuable expense of 2019
Though I’m extremely poor, I still did my part to make China greener 😀.
4.4 The book I most want to recommend from 2019
I didn’t read much in 2019, and most of what I read had a fairly specific purpose. So let me recommend a non-utilitarian novel instead — Drawing the Sword (《亮剑》). Yes, the novel featuring Li Yunlong. I’ve read it three or four times, and even though I know the ending, I tear up every time I finish it. The TV series covers only the first half of the novel; the later part may be even more worth pondering.
You can read it for free in the WeChat Reading app with an Unlimited Reading pass, or buy a physical copy.
That’s all I’ll say.
2020 is already 4% over. I wish all of us the best for the remaining 96% — ( ). Bye~