I still vividly remember staying up in Shanghai last December to watch the World Cup. 2023 is about to end, and for me, it may have been one of the most experience-packed years in recent memory. Here's a chronological summary of 2023.
⌨ Back to Frontend
At the beginning of the year, I interned at Conglian in Shanghai, attended the annual meeting, and even a listing celebration. On the tech side, I got exposed to Tauri, Rust, Web3, DApp development, Solidity, and more. I feel lucky to have joined a blockchain-focused company, especially one with many chip industry veterans.
The most exciting part was being fully responsible for developing a Web3 frontend project from scratch—similar to Coinbase. There’s something deeply satisfying about building a project from zero. I remain very grateful to my mentor at Conglian, from whom I learned a lot about problem-solving strategies and thinking methods. Of course, there was also plenty of pressure, and I hit many walls during spring recruitment. Perhaps it was fate, but somehow, MaLi sent me a coding test, and that set the wheels of destiny in motion.
On my first day at MaLi, the conference room was packed—reminding me of my onboarding experience at Baidu. I was lucky to meet many fellow frontend newcomers and talented seniors. Even though I had React experience, switching from Vue to React wasn’t exactly easy—I had grown attached to two years of Vue. The month-long training was intensive, and the internal articles were fantastic; I knew I had made the right choice (😂).
Later, I was fortunate to join a team where everyone was supportive. I’m especially thankful to a senior who helped me navigate early challenges with backend requirements. Taking over an old project was tough: incomplete documentation, unclear handovers, and future pitfalls waiting to be discovered. But as I like to say: everything that happens is ultimately for my benefit. Slowly, I adapted to the daily development workflow and the occasional unexpected problem-solving calls.
Over the course of six months, I worked on H5, low-code, B-end, and mini-program plugins. I hit most of the React pitfalls (though I still prefer Signal—React is mentally taxing; Vue is more relaxing 🤣). I got familiar with internal tools, but there’s still much to see. My technical growth has slowed compared to university and internship days—probably because I didn’t want to “overwork” and couldn’t push myself further. I just wanted some work-life balance.
My passion for full-stack development with JS hasn’t faded. This year I played around with Next.js, NestJS, Redis, MySQL, Nginx, Docker, Linux, and Shell. I’m now fairly comfortable with independent full-stack development—after all, who wouldn’t want to be able to work solo if given the chance?
📷 Diving into Photography
The most impactful thing for me this year was photography. On sad or confusing days, countless times I picked up my camera or phone, pressed the shutter, and momentarily forgot all the troubles of reality. Each captured moment became a piece of the past I can’t return to. Photography also introduced me to many people and helped me document countless warm and beautiful moments: 2023 Photography Recap
I love pedestrians in heavy rain, sunsets at dusk, cloudy skies, and neon-lit nights. Photography has helped me feel the world around me again and capture the stories happening on the streets.
This year, I used the following devices for photography:
- Xiaomi 12S
- Xiaomi 13 Pro
- Xiaomi 13 Ultra
- Nikon Z5 + 50mm f/1.8S + 24-120 f/4S + Viltrox 85 f/1.8 + 40mm f/2
Life
Leaving university at the end of June still feels like a dream. I can hardly believe how fast the past four years flew by. I’m glad I achieved almost all the goals I set during university, and even happier to have escaped the glitzy chaos of Shanghai for the livelier, more grounded life of Changsha, Hunan.
The transition brought its own anxieties and tension. Looking back, even in my freshman year, I felt the same kind of uncertainty. Some paths gradually become clearer as you walk them. Embracing uncertainty and accepting one’s negative emotions are essential steps in moving from student to professional.
After peaking in college-level fitness in June, my regular exercise habits largely fell apart. By August and September, after intense overtime, attempts to restore training routines mostly failed. Notifications from DingTalk disrupted my evenings until I turned them off, finally allowing time to do things I enjoy. By December, I returned to early-to-bed, early-to-rise habits, and I plan to rebuild my fitness routine in the new year.
Others
Including various books, I read about 30 this year—roughly half technical, half cognitive/knowledge-based. Though I didn’t reach last year’s goal of 50 books, I’m still satisfied.
I also adapted to reading English regularly and can now read technical documents almost painlessly. Often, misunderstandings weren’t due to the documents themselves, but poor translations.
This year, Stephen Curry aged another year at 35. Although he fell in the Western Conference semifinals, I was lucky to witness his 50-point performance in a Game 7. After following him for ten years, I continue to admire his consistency and the surprises he delivers each season.
Closing Thoughts
Life is no more than 30,000 days. Every day of happiness counts. I hope every programmer can find their own answers in life in the years ahead.