Last year, I wrote my year-end summary for the first time: 2020 Year-end Summary. This year, I had no intention of summarizing. However, after waking up, I suddenly decided to leave a record of the unforgettable 2021.
1. Work#
This year, I was promoted to a higher position, and my basic salary increased a bit. The take-home pay is similar to last year's, and it was a crucial year after switching to a new product. The biggest realization is that product development is not as simple as it seems. It requires deep thinking, grasping various resources, and coordinating the relationships among team members.
There was a period of time when I felt extremely tired and even doubted if I was suitable to be a product manager. However, I managed to adjust myself and get through this difficult period. I also began to appreciate the cleverness and rewards of product design. Every product manager should have a hope, hoping to personally participate in and create a well-received product in the market.
I hope that in the coming year, I can make breakthroughs and truly find my social value, and enjoy more joy in my work.
BTW: I upgraded my equipment this year. In addition to the existing iPad Pro, I finally purchased a Mac Air M1. The seamless integration of products from the same brand brings a sense of comfort that makes me feel it is worth it. I will share my detailed feelings about it later.
2. Life#
In last year's year-end summary, I mentioned some expectations for the coming year:
- Buy a house in Xi'an that is affordable for both living and mortgage payments. - Get promoted and receive a raise, achieving my three-year goal. - Manage my figure and successfully lose weight. - Start a romantic relationship and be with someone I like.
It turns out that I overestimated myself. None of these goals were perfectly achieved in 2021.
- I visited several real estate projects in Xi'an, but I realized that 2022 would be the best time to enter the market, so I haven't bought a house yet.
- My position and salary have improved, but it will not be until the end of April next year that I will have been with the company for three years, so I am still some distance away from my three-year goal.
- I have made some progress in losing weight, losing about 5 kilograms, but compared to my current physique, I still need to work harder.
- I haven't started a romantic relationship. I have been chatting with a girl for a long time. Perhaps being single for too long, I no longer know how to express myself.
I hope that in the coming year, I can gradually achieve these goals. I am not young anymore, and it's time to act like a real adult.
3. Future#
I have made quite a few changes this year, and I will continue to move forward based on them next year:
3.1 Social#
I started to distance myself from meaningless social interactions. I deactivated and uninstalled mobile applications such as Zhihu, Weibo, Douyin, Bilibili, and mobile games. I want to redirect my attention to more fulfilling and meaningful things.
In addition, I have an idea to break through my social anxiety and express myself more on other social media platforms. This is the best era for creators, and expanding one's influence will bring about a better self.
Whether it is making money or doing anything else, being yourself is always the coolest, and the desire to express oneself is the primal force that transcends uncertain environments!
3.2 Industry#
I started paying attention to things related to blockchain and web 3. I created my own Ethereum wallet, downloaded several exchanges, and learned about NFT, DAO, DeFi, public chains, Dapps, and POAP. I have truly invested time and effort to study these concepts that have been popular for a long time but have recently exploded.
Amidst the chaos, capital and a large number of talents have begun to enter this industry. 65% of active participants and 45% of full-time developers joined in 2021. Influential figures such as Curry and Jay Chou, as well as influential companies in China like Bilibili, Jike, Visual China, Tencent, and Alibaba, have started to explore this trend to some extent.
Here are some of the products I have tried:
- Metamask: I created my own Ethereum address on it and conducted transactions and interactions with different blockchains.
- ENS: I registered the domain name chiloh.eth on it and reverse-resolved it to an Ethereum address.
- Mirror: I can write on-chain articles on it or mint articles into NFTs.
- RSS3, Revery: I can subscribe to interesting creators on them.
- Gitcoin: I can donate to and collaborate with open-source public products on it.
- Opensea: The largest NFT marketplace where I can discover, collect, create, or sell my own NFT works.
There are other websites as well, such as Okex Exchange, RabbitHole, zkSync, and more. I won't go into detail about them, but the few products mentioned above are the ones I am currently interested in.
If you also want to get involved, you may need Discord, Telegram, Twitter, as various information and resources are usually circulated within these software.