Hung's Notebook

For 2026 and after

tl,dr

For the new year, I ask myself what kind of person I want to be known as. I have settled on High Agency - I proactively plan and solve problems to make my goals come true - as the general identity I need. I also choose 3 more specific aspiring titles (sounds wrong but the first to come to mind)

  1. Writer - I regularly write and update my blog.
  2. Open Source Developer - I regularly contribute to open-source projects on GitHub.
  3. Connoisseur - I enjoy high quality leisure.

The Deep Life

I know about The Calendar Effect and why new year resolution often ends up in the garbage bin. But when you want to change your life, don't make any resolution because it's new year is wrong, either. I say that to clarify this is my resolution for now on, not 2026.

It's nothing original. Cal Newport called it The Deep Life. It's a generalization of his Deep Work idea à la "how you do anything is how you do everything". It's the fancy name for the ideal life of an intellectual worker, where outside the time you produce great work via the deep work method, you choose meaningful activities and engagements over the current and future shallow distractions/escapisms. That's not an idea generally applicable to everybody, but compelling to those who can afford it. I have known Cal Newport since high school and managed to read most of his books. But I never seem to implement it successfully, because I never tried that hard to commit to it. I want that to change.

High Agency

The clue to my problem is high agency1. For whatever reason you can name (or borrow from whatever big names, like Steven Pressfield's "you fear about the possible drastic change to your life, so you pull the pin and run away from it"), I always just stop at the first hard problem encountered. I will go hard at it for days, then stop. Some change happened, but not for long, and ultimately does not matter.

Not anymore. That's what I decide. I want a better life, and I am ready to pay for it with my current life. I want to change. But I don't know how. I still don't know how, but the idea made me realize I could not wait for someone to come hand me a manual. I was lucky that it happened in the past, when I was in school, but that would never happen again. Whatever I do, there will be a problem, and I need to actively plan and break down and solve them.

High agency is the foundation to achieve all of my goals. I need it if I want to achieve anything, including wishes that I have had for a long time.

Creator

I am a reader. Until some time between 2-3 years ago, I will suffer strong withdrawal symptoms on being separated from a book. Naturally, I want to write something of my own, something as "simple"2 as a blog. Not only I do not succeed, I also lost my reading habit and my Reader identity3.

My Bear Blog was the first time I kept writing regularly for a significant amount of time4. And I intend for it to be that way. But the path I want to walk is that of a Creator5. It's like an artist, but I want to make it clear as the opposite of Consumer. It means that eventually I will need to do some other forms of arts, such as drawing, painting, or playing instrument. But for now, the first thing I can do is regularly (say, weekly) write and update on my blog.

Open Source Developer

The most common piece of advice given to entry level dev is "create or contribute to great open source projects". It's also a demonstration of "simple and easy are not the same thing". The number of impressive and meaningful open source projects are few and far between, and so do the people behind them. I intend to become one of them. I also want to do it with at least another person, because the only thing more meaningful than building something is building it with others. I have set eyes on one project. I will update later after contacting the person and get started.

Connoisseur6

Simple. High-quality leisure over low-quality slops. Actively seek out great means of entertainment instead of low-effort ragebaits, spams, slapsticks, brainrots, you get what I mean. I have started it by picking up my books again and changing how I play video games, both the great works and gacha games. I intend to continue my behaviors, but also try out other forms of deep leisure, such as walking over the nature trail near my house as an exercise.

This is my dejected Steam Library. Never mind the Limbus Company hours.

Parallel with that, I stop using social media Feed feature, only message with my existing friends over there. I never have a habit of browsing TikTok or "short-form videos"7. One thing I could improve on is my manga time. Contrary to the acquantances thinking that I am some David Goggins, I lie in bed reading manga for hours, even days, at times. I think instead of eagerly waiting for updates to drop in the wee hours every day and mess up my sleep schedule, I should just wait until the Sunday and go through "the stack", similar to how Readwise Reader or other Read It Later app works.

Lacking

The roles I have chosen to pursue so far lean heavily onto my career/professional and personal sides. I know that the community (friends, family) and constitution (health) sides are lacking. But this resolution is not set in stone, but meant to be updated and revised. I want to get started with these sides of me that I have wanted to touch for a long time but always fail to. I will update the others later.

Footnotes

  1. https://www.highagency.com/. Thank you George Mack.↩

  2. Once again, "simple and easy are not the same thing".↩

  3. When I got here, I sort of chuckle at my using identity as if it's a role/title/path in an RPG that can be equipped and upgraded. It was at least half accidental.↩

  4. My sincere thanks to the Simple Chats community for the peer pressure, which for the first time works properly.↩

  5. I hate "Content Creator", though that's the first that comes to mind.↩

  6. The title is pompous. But I love it.↩

  7. "Time-wasting slops" is politically incorrect but the first that comes to mind.↩

#post #thought