Cafes I went to: Le Gourmand and Neo Coffee
Highlight of month: Had the best chocolate croissant of my life.
Book of the month: What's Our Problem? - Wait but Why
“When we fall in love with people, we fall in love with how they see the world.” — noampomsky. I just want to meet someone who makes me feel like I am seeing the world for the first time. Through their eyes, and through mine.
The universe if full of magic things, and life is about perceiving a little more of that magic. I told M that we are collecting winks of universe together, she asked me to promise that we will never lose our wonder for the world. My favourite type of people are the ones who holds on to the heart of a child despite their age.
I told M before meeting her there is no way I can imagine such goodness can exist in a person. Every time I talk to her it feels like my world and heart has grew a bit bigger. - That’s her superpower. She provided me a space to dream.
In Susan Cains newsletter, she quoted: “Happiness lies in thinking or doing that which one considers beautiful.” - you just have to learn to find beauty. :) Open your eyes and heart, let the world humble you.
In a meritocratic society, we are conditioned to see life as a journey of going upward, the pursue of higher education, climb the corporate latter, move up the social classes. We find ways to optimizing our choices to maximize the efficiency of reaching that ‘success’. But in reality, life simplify just flows and expands, you don’t move up and down, you travel left and right. We are in the state of finding ourselves and losing it same time.
A while ago, S and I were talking about our biggest fear in life. I had to think bit deeply to answer this, but as of now, I concluded my biggest fear is: realizing the world is not as good as I believed it to be.
There is a gap between what world should be (Ideal) and how the world really is (Reality). To cross that gap, we need to take leap of faith - it requires us to believe in something that doesn’t exist yet- it requires us to choose the future. I am not there yet, but I hope to be someday.
I came to accept that people experience the world differently and making sense of the world in our own way. As someone who changes my mind every two seconds, my world is never consistent and trust me it’s more fun this way.
And if one day I am fortunate enough to meet you briefly, I would love to hear about who you are and see the world for the first time through your lens. Let us help see each other’s blindspot, connect with our vulnerabilities, and lose track of time talking about anything you find beautiful.
As Jamie Wheal said in the end of Recapture the Rapture: “One day, I hope we can dance each other home.”
Here is what’s on my mind in February:
Stay awake, build stuff, and help out.
Do obvious things well. Do things well consistently. - But do things that matter to you.
Anything that’s popular, is ordinary, because mass is ordinary.
“You can’t find the same person twice, not even in the same person.”
Resources are limited, the values we prioritize determines where the resources gets allocated.
Significances only exist because of differentiation. - Let things that doesn’t matter go.
Education is most effective way to mass producing talents.
Between stimulus and response there is window called choice.
Secret of becoming interesting is to be in a constant state of being interested.
Love is given, trust is earned.
Invest in initial sunk cost and time to build a solution that is sustainable and scalable.
Human nature (Constant) —> Environment (Variable) —> Humans (Output). (Best way to change yourself is to change your environment)
Make choices based the factors you cannot control.
Approach the issue as a problem solver rather than victim. - M
The world is grey and amorphous. Get use to making decisions in a non-black and white world. Sometimes it’s about choosing between 2 wrong choices.
Now ending with a positive note - (as my world was falling apart this month):
Cook for yourself tonight. Make dumplings because you miss home. Go watch a random movie at TIFF. Catch up with a friend. Order ice cream in Cafe Landwer. Have a glass of wine. Walk home at 2 AM and watch CN tower change colour. Read a book. Go sit at a cafe with huge plants for the afternoon. Make a list of all the places you want to go. Take a deep breath. Take another breath. And look, spring is coming. :)
Again, have something on your mind ? Send me an email wangchenyu006@gmail.com. In Toronto and want to chat ? Lets grab coffee!