2020-06-18

As of today, we’re finally about to finish the work from the previous iteration.

I don’t feel very good overall, and the reason is that the significance of what we’ve been doing is unclear. In fact, I think it’s fair to say it has almost no meaning.

So, how do I define meaning here?

For me, the current work has meaning in this order of importance, from high to low:

1. The ability to ask questions—to identify valuable and meaningful problems.
2. Accumulating the ability to model problems, so that in the future I can solve a wider variety of problems.
3. Modeling problems in a way that makes it possible to solve a whole class of problems described by that model through a single effort.
4. Through my efforts, solving specific, meaningful problems—where solving one problem at a time is less meaningful than solving multiple problems of the same class with one effort.
5. Maintaining a sense of pleasure and achievement from solving problems, and the inherent interest of the problem itself.
6. Communication and relationships with people.
7. Salary (This is a form of security; not that it’s unimportant, but the rest should be built upon it.)

This may not cover all of my work motivations, but it reflects at least part of the truth.

The main reason I feel frustrated today, I think, is the loss of interest. First, the problem itself doesn’t seem meaningful to me, which takes away some motivation. Second, the modeling of this type of problem is insufficiently precise, so the solution doesn’t address all issues (of course, there are rarely models that solve everything, because models inherently simplify and abstract problems; here I’m talking about solving problems within an acceptable range). This leads to back-and-forth—specifically, the bug reports from QA colleagues. While some of them stem from an incomplete understanding of the requirements or are simply QA’s own issues, the time spent analyzing the problems still takes up the most time-consuming part of the entire problem-solving process.

Sometimes, a superficial understanding of a problem results in solutions that are not fundamental, causing people to waste time on useless work. In such cases, points 3, 4, and 5 of the above are not satisfied, which makes me frustrated.

Another thing to consider is that so far, I’ve been solving problems that should have been resolved in the previous iteration. I haven’t even started on the tasks for this iteration. This will compress the time for this iteration, and it might even negatively affect subsequent iterations. This is a vicious cycle that should be avoided at all costs. Considering its even deeper impact on relationships between people, I think it’s even more unacceptable.

Therefore, starting tomorrow, before I do anything, I should try to think through all its aspects, and only then tackle the problem.

Looking back at what I’ve done over the past ten days or so, it feels like work progress has been completely stagnant. On the first Monday after arriving in Beijing, which was June 8, I mentioned: “Let’s talk about work. After this period of busy delivery, the main task is the refactoring of TLM (Typed Lane Model). This time, we need to clarify the goals, control ourselves, avoid impulsive refactoring, and proceed strategically with controlled progress.”

For now, one good thing I see is that I have been recording what I did every day. Even though the entries are sometimes brief, or even written the next day, I believe that consistent logging is the seed of change.

Also, let me add a quote I saw earlier that I think is incredibly insightful:

“A few years ago, when I bought my first house in New York, a real estate agent said something very wise: ‘This house needs a major renovation, a complete one. This 65-year-old house has absolute appreciation potential. Now you need to make a list of everything that needs fixing and get it all done within six months. Absolutely solve the problems within six months.’
‘Are you crazy? I have no money left after paying the deposit, taxes, and attorney fees. And I’m a very disciplined person; I can take five years to fix everything slowly.’
She said, ‘No, you won’t, because after six months, you’ll get used to the current state. You’ll think everything is fine. Even if there’s a dead body in the living room, you’ll just step over it.’
I still remember those words. What amazes me is that she was right about everything. I was the one who was wrong. The things I didn’t clean up in six months were still not fixed when I sold the house five years later.”

This is so true. Must stay vigilant and careful.