I recently passed my probation period, and in a 1-on-1 my manager said, "I'd like you to be more proactive about exploring product issues."
That caught me off guard. I was writing code every day, fixing issues, and pushing projects forward. How was that still not proactive enough? It took me a while to understand what he actually meant.
Before 2023–2024, I still thought the traditional tech blog had real value. You could consolidate your notes, interview experiences, problems you'd encountered, traps you'd fallen into. A personal knowledge base that actually meant something.
But from mid-2025 onward, models started iterating faster and getting significantly stronger. Even Cursor — which I genuinely liked in early 2025 as an AI code editor — felt noticeably outclassed by Claude Code by the second half of the year. That's when I knew it was time to tear down the whole blog and rebuild it from scratch (hoping to preserve whatever value was still in there).
A year-end summary for 2025. Continuing the tradition, reflecting on the year by asking myself questions once again.
At the end of October 2025, my company went through a major round of layoffs, and I was part of it.
Given that Lunar New Year fell especially late this year, not landing a job before then would mean a long stretch of burning through savings. With a young child at home, I wanted to find something as soon as possible.
Over the next 45 days I interviewed around and landed 5 offers. This is a full record of how I compared them, how I negotiated, and how I made my choice. The numbers are real. Company names are anonymized.
A year-end summary for 2024. Continuing last year's format, reflecting on the year by asking myself questions once again.
Time really flies faster than you'd expect. Half of 2024 is already gone, but I don't feel like my self-discipline has improved much. There's not a lot to show for it, but I'll jot down some notes anyway.
A year-end summary for 2023 -- reflecting on my growth by asking myself questions.
Some rough thoughts and reflections after completing the HexSchool Node.js Enterprise Course.