烤肉肉

This week has been busy and chaotic. A classic workplace story: I took over a colleague's job after they left, and luckily, I got a 0.5 salary increase.

I didn't write a diary entry two weeks ago because I was feeling down and didn't have anything to write about. Last week, I tried not to procrastinate, but I still didn't feel like expressing myself, so I just wrote a random entry. This week, I finally started to regain my desire to express myself and decided to continue writing my diary. This shows that even when I write something random, it is still a form of expression, and this kind of expression can help adjust my state of mind.

The Internet is Stupid#

(Extreme statement, used to vent emotions)

It's not that there are more idiots now, or that there are more idiots on the internet. It's just that the internet environment has become increasingly stupid.

While taking a break from work and browsing mindlessly (recently, I feel like it's a time sink), a friend sent me a video. The video was very simple, just a picture that divided income and social status, accompanied by an anxious background music, titled "Family Income Level Chart." It quickly gained hundreds of thousands of likes. Another video showed a blogger complaining about relatives who consider "Pinduoduo" as something only poor people use.

It's so stupid. The self-righteousness of the middle class (or even those who can't even be considered middle class) using simple standards to separate themselves from the "poor" is ridiculous. In 2021, the average annual salary of urban private sector employees in our country was 62,884 yuan. A family with two working members would have a net income of only 120,000 yuan per year, according to that "income level chart." This is considered poverty according to their standards. And this is even after the data has been beautified, as our statistics usually include the portion of social security paid by the company.

The average person in our country is poor.

City Walk in Autumn#

Last Sunday, I took advantage of the autumn sunshine and went for a 14km walk in the city.

The city's attractions are just carriers of its culture, while the city's veins are the lifeline of the city.

Although it sounds like I'm exploring the relationship between "city and poetry," I was actually just walking to the city center's supermarket without using any transportation. Along the way, I passed through a very old and run-down street. It was surprisingly clean, but it felt dull and lifeless. Shop owners and residents were sitting outside, basking in the sun.

If it were me, I would be worried if there was no business. But when I saw them put down their stools, I felt envious. Even though it was the weekend, I could also bring a stool outside to bask in the sun, but I could never be as carefree as them. This forgotten street has its own charm.

Linking back to the previous topic, based on their income, they are likely to be classified as "poor" according to that "income level chart." In this day and age, running a business is already difficult, let alone running a business in a forgotten alley like this. But they are free and content. From this perspective, they are also happy. How can a happy person be considered "poor"? And how can a person who is constantly anxious and seeks happiness by distancing themselves from the "poor" in their eyes be considered wealthy?

Is eating stir-fried noodles lower class compared to eating Japanese food? Personally, I find stir-fried noodles more satisfying than Japanese food. Just because you drink Starbucks and eat Japanese food doesn't make you a foreigner, it means nothing. Stop focusing on social class and start enjoying the present moment, enjoy your own life. In a few decades, we will all turn to dust, and we are nothing. I hate the saying "a person without foresight will have immediate worries." Instead of worrying about everything every day, why not find a sunny day, bring out a stool, and bask in the sun?

Exploring the Air Fryer#

Since discovering the air fryer, I've been using it to fry everything.

God said, "Let there be creativity."

I have already discovered a basic formula. By using the air fryer cleverly, I can have a delicious meal in just over ten minutes, which is much more cost-effective than ordering takeout.

Any combination of meat, plus a crawfish seasoning pack (currently using hot pot seasoning as a substitute), add sesame oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce, MSG, etc. (depending on my mood and what I have at home), and cook for 10 minutes. If I have chicken thighs, I flip them over after 10 minutes and cook for another 10 minutes.

It's already delicious with just these basic steps. I prefer to use diced chicken breast, cook it for 10 minutes, and then it's ready to eat. Of course, just eating meat is not enough, so I usually buy some lettuce and tomatoes when I buy chicken breast. If I also have some bread, I can make a sandwich or a burger. If I don't have high-quality ingredients, I can just use lettuce to eat it (similar to eating barbecue).

Fried eggs are also a good choice. Just crack the eggs into the air fryer, add seasonings according to my mood, and cook for 10 minutes.

PS: Be cautious if the meat has a lot of fat, as it can produce a lot of oil.

Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish#

While browsing Wikipedia, I came across an interesting market strategy: first, embrace widely used technological standards and introduce products to the market, then add their own patented extensions to the products, and finally use these non-standard patented extensions to put competitors at a disadvantage.¹

This strategy is divided into three stages:

1. Embrace, join them.
2. Extend, I don't want what you think, I want what I think.
3. Extinguish, you are outdated, I won't play with you anymore.

This strategy has been widely used in the internet battlefield. Wikipedia says it was a phrase discovered by the US Department of Justice within Microsoft, and most of the examples given are related to Microsoft. However, this tactic is not exclusive to Microsoft.

I remember reading an interesting story online before, and I'll write it down while searching for information:

At the end of the 20th century, instant messaging was very popular. The most famous ones were ICQ, Microsoft's MSN, Tencent's OICQ, and Google's Google Talk, which were all competitors. Google Talk was integrated into the Gmail interface, which was a breakthrough compared to other software that needed to be installed locally (I remember that MSN was always on the computer and couldn't be uninstalled).

While Google Talk and Microsoft were competing for dominance in the instant messaging field, a group of geeks were working hard to build a decentralized instant messaging system called XMPP. I'm not sure about the specific protocol, but it's similar to the current federated universe, where multiple servers can communicate with each other through protocols, just like email.

In 2006, Google Talk announced compatibility with XMPP, which meant that every Gmail user could be considered an XMPP user. It was like Tencent announcing compatibility with the federated universe, where every QQ and WeChat user could communicate with the federated universe (which I find terrifying).

Of course, Google was no longer cool at that time. Although they announced compatibility with the XMPP standard, they didn't actually make it fully compatible, making the communication between XMPP and Google Talk unpleasant. Just imagine the terrible experience of using iTunes on Windows, it might be the same kind of operation.

Because XMPP was not user-friendly and Google Talk didn't care, Google realized in 2013 that Google Talk users no longer cared about the decentralized feature and announced the end of their relationship with XMPP² (some articles pointed out that the XMPP community was becoming stable and gaining widespread recognition at that time). Google Talk users didn't care either.

In fact, no Google user was surprised. For them, it was just a few contacts going offline, but for XMPP, it was a large group of users suddenly disappearing, and XMPP became niche from then on.

Don't be evil. We believe that by doing good things for the world, in the long run, we will receive better returns - even if we give up some short-term gains.

• Google's first public offering prospectus, later considered Google's philosophy.

Introduction#

3. Kangshifu Beverage announces price increase of 0.5-1 yuan. Maotai increased its price by 20%, but you increased it by 25%. You have more confidence in raising prices than Maotai. It's not that people can't afford Kangshifu iced tea, it's just that Dongfang Tea Leaves offer better value for money.