2024 Reflections

Relocating to Seattle

Aviation Journey

• It's like adding another degree of freedom to my life, progressing from walking to biking, driving, and now flying! While high-speed rail is the top choice for distances between 100-500 miles in China, North America lacks such transportation infrastructure. Looking at California's high-speed rail project, projected to cost around 128 billion dollars and taking forever to complete, you quickly realize that flying makes more sense in North America—general aviation for distances between 100-500 miles, and commercial airlines for anything beyond that.

• As a result, general aviation has shortened my trip from Vancouver to Seattle from 2.5 hours to 1.5 hours, Seattle to Victoria from 2.75 hours (by ferry) to 1.5 hours, and Vancouver to Revelstoke from 6 hours to 2 hours.

• Along this journey, I've met fascinating people in the aviation industry—instructors, ferry pilots, surveyors, airline pilots, and even retired millionaires enjoying their leisure time. I've seen flight school aircraft, firefighting planes, and World War II fighter jets. In August, I attended Canada's largest airshow, where I witnessed F-22 fighter jets and C-5 carriers. A whole new world opened up, and I felt like a newborn, amazed again by the breadth of human possibility.

• When flying, I enter a state similar to skiing or snowboarding—almost like zen—where you leave all worries behind and become absorbed in the spectacular views and every subtle movement of the aircraft. You can feel the wind against your airframe, with wild open lands and dramatic terrain beneath you.

• You also learn to adopt pilot habits in your daily life: creating checklists to stay organized, being well-prepared, maintaining 100% concentration while staying calm during critical situations. You learn to take responsibility for passengers and establish personal boundaries when navigating challenging situations.

A Taste of Academic World

• The academic world, although I'm not a big fan of the 9-5 job, occasionally produces interesting moments when you genuinely engage with your work and have a good team around you. During 2024, my work on Large Language Model evaluation with Apple MLR was accepted by the 2024 ACL workshop. Apple sponsored my entire trip to Bangkok, Thailand in Business Class. It was my first time experiencing a top academic conference, where I saw firsthand what the natural language processing world is focusing on in the post-LLM era. My time in Thailand was incredible—experiencing luxury service while paying a fraction of U.S. prices.
• At the conference, I noticed researchers were primarily exploring ideas around LLMs and transformer-based models, though I wished for some breakthrough ideas beyond the transformer paradigm.
• Beyond the conference, I spent half my time enjoying Thailand's hospitality: Thai massages, impressive shopping malls like CentralWorld, ICONSiam, and Siam Paragon, and amazing Thai cuisine at places like Jay Fai and Here Hai. It truly was a tourism paradise.

Books

• Zero to One by Peter Thiel:
• True innovation means creating something entirely new ("going from 0 to 1") rather than copying existing ideas ("going from 1 to n")
• Monopolies in business can be good when achieved through innovation, as they allow companies to focus on long-term value creation rather than just competition
• The best startups identify unique opportunities others don't see

• The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss:
• Focus on effectiveness over efficiency - eliminate unnecessary tasks rather than optimizing them
• Use automation and delegation to reduce your active work time
• Design your ideal lifestyle first, then build your work around it rather than vice versa

• The Most Important Thing by Howard Marks:
• Superior investment results come from better risk assessment and management
• Market cycles are inevitable - success comes from understanding where we are in the cycle
• The importance of "second-level thinking" - going deeper than obvious surface-level analysis

Others

• In the second half of 2024, I hired a private fitness coach to help me build a healthier lifestyle. We discussed lifespan and longevity—I hope fitness can slow down muscle aging and improve my cardiovascular health. From a productivity perspective, I expect fitness to regulate my sleep schedule and extend my daily energy levels. Most importantly, creating a fitness habit will benefit my whole life. I see this as an asset more valuable than money.

• I've long been fascinated by Japanese culture and finally decided to take action by learning the language! In the second half of 2024, I began daily language practice through Duolingo (a wonderfully designed and executed learning app). I'm preparing for a future trip to Japan that will definitely happen at some point. As I write this, my Duolingo streak has reached 205 days. I plan to intensify my Japanese studies around 2026.

2025 expectation

Positioning for My Next Startup Opportunity

• The aviation industry is facing significant challenges, particularly for flight schools and small charter businesses with no fixed vendors. These organizations are often overlooked and struggle financially when their aircraft are grounded. Addressing this issue could unlock a meaningful business opportunity.

• Developing the right technology to help these operators minimize downtime and keep their aircraft flying is a compelling use case.

• The key is to remain exploratory, focusing on creating workable solutions before worrying about scaling. Skills are transferable, and success will come through unwavering dedication.

Aviation

• Licensing
• Complete my night rating to enable evening flights.
• Transfer my Canadian PPL to an FAA PPL to expand my flying capabilities across Canada and the US.

• Trips in Planning
• Tofino, Seattle, and Portland trips.
• A potential cross-country adventure, such as Palo Alto to Sacramento or Lake Tahoe.

Tennis Goals

• Beginner classes are set to begin in February.

• My 2025 goal is to reach at least a 2.5 NTRP rating, with an ambitious target of 3.0.

Snowboarding Goals

• All-Mountain & Freeride Skills, enhance carving techniques on black moguls.

• Progress in medium jumps and small tricks.

• Learn buttering skills for added versatility.

• Park Skills Focus on advancing in jumps and tricks.

• Work on dropping into lips and cornices—a challenging but exciting goal.