I've read countless stories of successful people's early encounters with computers, and their experiences are mostly similar: initially driven by interest, they gradually learned and eventually chose computers as a career. I didn't really get into computers until I was in university, on New Year's Day 2019, when my father took me to an HP store to buy a laptop. I've used it for both study and work ever since. I had some early exposure to computers, but it was all superficial at school because we didn't have a computer at home, so there wasn't an environment for learning programming. Although the laptop sometimes lags, it's still usable, and in these times of economic hardship, not buying a new computer will save a lot of money. I had my laptop professionally cleaned by the official after-sales service, replacing the old SATA mechanical hard drive with a SATA solid-state drive, and I'm using the new SSD as my system drive.

My operating system is Arch Linux, which has been with me for five years, and I'm very grateful for its existence. My daily desktop environment is KDE, which suits my usage habits, and I've always used it. When I left Windows, my first operating system was Ubuntu, using the GNOME desktop environment, which I used for six months. I eventually stopped using it, probably because I disliked Ubuntu's overall design philosophy and some aspects of GNOME as a desktop environment that I found unpleasant. I heard about Arch Linux naturally because of its biggest feature—rolling releases, meaning the software is always up-to-date.

After getting into this hobby, I encountered quite a few problems in the early stages, but in the last two years, I haven't had any major issues affecting my use when upgrading the system. I feel very lucky about that.

I admire those technically skilled developers. They are more passionate about technology and programming than I am, and they have a stronger desire to improve their programs. I feel like I'll always be chasing after them, imitating them, and learning from them. I can't understand their code because I lack their deep knowledge. The vast ocean of computer science may contain some boring and tedious things, but those truly captivating, sparkling gems keep me learning and understanding the principles behind the technology.

Code is pure and logical; developers write code to express their thoughts about the world—it's an incredibly romantic thing. I'm deeply drawn to this romance. In such a world, I can escape worldly affairs and immerse myself in the ocean of knowledge. I think I'll never want to leave this atmosphere unless I die.

When I read Ruan Yifeng's Weekly Tech Enthusiast (Issue 386), I was startled by his description of what might be the future: programs mobilizing human resources to automate processes. In the AI ​​era, it's AI models that mobilize human resources. Humans will no longer be the core of the socio-economic system; AI will be. This possible future makes me feel that I need a long time to adapt to this change, even though I don't know when it will begin.

When circumstances change, people's first thought is: What should I do? I'm the same way. I don't want to, and can't, just sit and wait for things to change. I have parents to support, and I might get married in the future. What can I do to maintain my competitiveness? I will continue to think about this question.