Running it Back

Aug 26, 2017

Reflections

Life is always busy. But lately I have been thinking that it has been too busy. Reflecting back on the last few years of my life, one of the most formidable achievements has to be writing the hedge fund book - From 0 to 60 on Hedge Funds and Private Equity. It runs 300+ pages long and was written over a period of 4-5 months. I do not remember much about how I felt or was thinking while I was writing it. I do remember that it was to be the first of several books that I would write. This first one would be a non-fiction piece. The next would be a fiction … and so on. After finishing the first book, I stepped away and began to tackle this new one - but I found that fiction would be too hard and I never completed it. Later on, I would write other things but I never finished anything close to being as large.

One of my friends did 100 Days of Fonts, in where she designs 1 Instagram photo every night for each font. I remember speaking to her about it afterwards and asking whether she would do a followup. She said, “It was youth.” Looking at it today, I know what she means. Had I known it would be so hard I probably would not have done it in the first place. You get caught up in the cycle and eventually you come out of it with something amazing … but you do not want to do it again.

I am working on something new today - a little software side project that has been bothering me for a while. It has quickly spiraled into something insane. But sometimes I think, “Maybe I can restart it again with what I know now.” I feel like I am more knowledgeable about the overall platform and the program and that I can maybe redo the thing with this knowledge. However, I also have a nagging feeling inside me that if I were to try it I would be able to get as far this time. Time in between work hours is just too precious, there is too much to do in Taipei, and too many people to see and live life with.