June 2025 Thought Notes

June 2nd, 2025 - 06:28:12 In a Korean fried chicken restaurant, unexpectedly surrounded by Chinese people.

The meal sets were all for two people, so I ordered two combo meals for myself. When ordering, I asked if I could pay by card, wanting to avoid using cash as I felt my cash wasn’t quite enough.

A table nearby had two men and two women who greeted me, asking if I was Chinese. I said yes. They wanted to exchange money with me, saying their cash wasn’t enough, and a woman suggested they could exchange via WeChat.

I said no.

I didn’t explain my reasons. I felt like I didn’t need to provide reasons—no means no.

They seemed embarrassed, and so did the restaurant owner. Their embarrassment came from unmet expectations and their own sense of face.

One stranger rejected another stranger’s money exchange request and chose not to explain. The other party felt embarrassed. This isn’t about right or wrong, but the natural friction between expectations and reality when face meets personal boundaries.

People’s embarrassment often doesn’t come from others' indifference, but from their own unmet expectations of others' responses.

This experience taught me that maintaining personal boundaries doesn’t require justification. In a world where we’re conditioned to please others and provide explanations for our choices, sometimes the most authentic response is simply “no” without elaboration. The discomfort others feel isn’t our responsibility to manage—it’s a natural part of human interaction when expectations meet reality.

#SelfObservation/Interpersonal

Authenticity in Hiking: Love Beyond Logic

June 2nd, 2025 - 08:51:22 There are many things in this world that cannot be explained by logic, such as why I go hiking.

When chatting with a friend recently, he asked why I enjoy hiking and mountain climbing despite how tiring it is. I could certainly analyze it rationally: enjoying the joy after overcoming difficulties, appreciating the breathtaking scenery that can only be seen step by step, or savoring the state of focusing on the present moment during the hike. These are answers I gave him, but I also knew they weren’t sufficient to capture the real feeling.

So what’s the answer I give myself? Loving it is just loving it, passion is just passion. You can find countless reasons and excuses, and use logic to reason layer by layer, but language ultimately has its limitations. Only when I’m actually walking alone on a mountain ridge, the feeling of body and soul in that moment, is real.

Many things cannot be explained by logic—like why some people become so absorbed in their passions they forget to eat and sleep, or why certain melodies stick with us once we hear them. This is a kind of irrational passion. Science explains the world, art feels the world; logic constructs the world, while love gives this world its warmth.

During hiking, I spend most of my time “wasting”—emptying myself, feeling the world. When I see people or mountain scenery, thoughts naturally emerge in my mind, then drift and flow freely. I enjoy this natural state of thinking, and it’s okay even if it gets interrupted. This authentic feeling cannot be faked or deliberately created.

I particularly love the “authenticity” that people display while hiking: some people become silent as they walk, some start murmuring to themselves, some light up and say they figured out a problem, and others just smile and say “today’s wind is really nice." Accepting this authenticity allows ourselves to flow naturally.

In our hyperconnected, always-on world, this kind of unstructured, purposeless “being” becomes revolutionary. We’re so accustomed to optimizing every moment, tracking every metric, that we forget the profound value of simply existing in space and time without agenda.

#SelfObservation/Hiking

The Dialectic of Simplicity and Complexity

June 2nd, 2025 - 09:27:09 Yesterday while hiking, I thought a lot about the balance between simplicity and complexity.

I’m increasingly drawn to “simplicity,” whether it’s pure simplicity or abstracted conciseness.

But I find myself preferring to spend time with “complex” people. Not because simplicity is bad, but because complex people carry more authentic traces left by life—those struggles, contradictions, uncertainties, gains and losses, and insecurities. These are the most honest portrayals of human nature. Observing them is observing human nature itself.

It’s still that same cognitive path: simple → complex → simple. The closer we get to truth and reality, the harder it often becomes to explain clearly with simple language—this is respect for the world’s complexity. Those who easily give standard answers, if they’re not gods, are fools. Laozi said “those who know do not speak”—I think it’s not unwillingness to speak, but language itself ultimately has its limitations.

So, do we still need to pursue simplicity? Of course. Simplicity is a life philosophy, “the great way is simple." Laozi expressed profound philosophy with the extremely concise language of the Tao Te Ching, and Jobs presented complex technology with the most concise user interfaces. “Simple” never equals “easy.”

Where is this boundary? It returns to understanding and applying “balance.”

Honest Simplicity: Don’t package yourself; admit and expose inner contradictions. I know “perfection” itself is a kind of falsehood—authentic honesty is more precious than surface-level flawlessness.
Admitting Ignorance: The more you understand yourself and this world, the more you discover that the answer closest to truth is often “I don’t understand yet.”

This remains a life philosophy, a concise aesthetic of depth.

This insight reflects a mature understanding that intellectual sophistication doesn’t require complexity of expression. The most profound truths often have elegant simplicity, but arriving at that simplicity requires navigating through complexity with wisdom and experience.

#SelfObservation/Growth

Korean Cultural Exploration: From “Han” to “Kku-An-Kku”

June 2nd, 2025 - 10:42:06 A few months ago, and for a long time since I became self-aware, I was influenced by some sensational internet content and had no good feelings toward Korea as a country. The most fundamental reason behind this might be anxiety about national identity and cultural sovereignty. Even before coming to Jeju Island, I thought visiting the Olle Trail once in this lifetime would be enough.

When we see Korea emphasizing “national cultural independence,” it’s national pride within their country, but from our perspective, it might trigger a collective anxiety of “losing cultural authority.”

However, the people I encountered in Korea gave me the same feeling as in other countries I’ve visited—human nature is universal; it’s just that society and systems shape differences in people’s personalities. I observed some interesting philosophical and cultural cores:

1. The Philosophy of “한 (Han)" Korean “han” is not simple hatred, but a complex state of existence—a mixture of pain, unwillingness, resilience, and hope. This is much like Camus’s Sisyphus, who continues to push the boulder up the mountain knowing it will roll down. Koreans transform this “han” into driving force for progress—this is a profound life philosophy: accept pain, but don’t be defeated by it.

Compared to other East Asian peoples' restraint of emotions, Korean culture more encourages direct emotional expression. This isn’t being emotional—it’s respect for inner authenticity.

2. The Aesthetics of “꾸안꾸 (Kku-Min-Deut An-Kku-Min-Deut)" Behind Korean cultural export lies extremely intense appearance anxiety and internal competition. Korean society demands women look perfect, but simultaneously requires this perfection not to appear too deliberate or artificial. So Korean women invented “꾸안꾸” culture—carefully dressed up, yet appearing as if not dressed up.

The logic of Korean makeup is: bare face is one kind of authenticity, but the appearance when mentally full and happy is also a kind of authenticity. I’m just using techniques to present the latter. This kind of “artificiality” is different from deception—it’s more like an aesthetic choice, choosing subtle over dramatic, choosing enhancement over transformation.

This cultural analysis reveals how beauty standards often reflect deeper societal tensions. The “effortless” aesthetic paradoxically requires the most effort, representing our modern struggle between authenticity and social expectations. Korean culture’s negotiation with this paradox offers insights into how societies manage the tension between individual expression and collective pressures.

#Understanding/Culture

The Essence of Prompt Design: Architects of Cognitive Synergy

June 2nd, 2025 - 10:56:14 Recently I read Li Jigang’s philosophy of prompt design, combined with my own understanding.

One word can make a large model understand—this is the power of compression. Essentially, it’s optimizing input simplification to help LLMs better understand requirements.

Three keys to writing good prompts:

Understanding the Model: Different LLMs have different “temperaments” and capabilities. Understanding how they work is important.
Industry Knowledge Base: This is the real knowledge barrier. For example, aesthetics—how to build, how to select colors. These top-level implicit knowledge areas are difficult for LLMs to learn in the short term.
Clear Logic: Being able to articulate a problem clearly is core capability. The same requirement, clearly expressed, enables LLMs to understand more accurately.

The greater the subjective differences in a field, the harder it is for LLMs to replace it—like aesthetics. Even with some common aesthetic principles (such as symmetry, color coordination), each person’s understanding of beauty is ultimately unique, like wabi-sabi beauty.

Where are the boundaries? LLMs keep improving, becoming smarter. Will we need fewer and fewer prompts?

Yes. When we tell GPT-4 “output a concise sentence,” it can do it because it “understands you.” But the same requirement to GPT-3.5 might not be well understood—you’d need to expand the description of “concise” or even give examples. The advancement of large models means enhanced understanding capability.

LLM progress essentially pushes humans toward higher cognitive levels, rather than compressing expression space. The role of prompt engineers is as translators and architects of cognitive levels. True prompt engineering isn’t “training AI” but designing cognitive synergy architectures between humans and AI.

As AI advances, this profession will evolve from “instruction writers” to “cognitive resonance designers.”

This insight anticipates a future where human-AI collaboration becomes more sophisticated and intuitive. Rather than humans adapting to AI limitations, we’re moving toward AI that understands human intention with minimal explicit instruction, fundamentally changing how we interact with intelligent systems.

#Understanding/AI

June 2nd, 2025 - 12:16:04 Perfectionist refinement and moving refinement are two completely different experiences. Why do we often have deeper impressions of the latter?

Perfectionist refinement pursues the “standard” itself. For example, absolutely perfect ceramic surfaces without flaws, or a pianist’s precise accuracy with every note. It points toward technical excellence.

Moving refinement pursues “emotional” connection. Similar to Japanese “wabi-sabi,” finding beauty in brokenness and imperfection. It touches the heart. For example, a performer where every subtle force change tells a story, every pause has emotional meaning.

Behind this are two different types of rationality:

Instrumental Rationality: Refinement is to achieve the objective standard of “perfection.”
Value Rationality: Refinement is to convey subjective values like “love,” “care,” “beauty.”

The former is self-directed, the latter is other-directed. The former pursues standards, the latter pursues resonance.

This distinction illuminates why we’re often more moved by “imperfect” art—a slightly trembling hand in a painting, a voice crack in a song, the asymmetry in handmade pottery. These “flaws” carry human presence in ways that technical perfection cannot. They remind us that behind every creation is a feeling, breathing person.

#Understanding/Culture

The AI Era’s Return to Sensibility: Beyond Logical Processing

June 5th, 2025 - 07:12:33 Last night, I suddenly understood why young people in the post-AI era might be more valuable precisely because they return to sensibility.

When AI can handle most logical processing work, what humans are responsible for is experience, and AI is responsible for expression, but the soul remains human.

Young people’s meaning in the post-AI era: returning to sensibility. Not the sensibility that opposes rationality, but a deeper level—extreme sensibility is extreme rationality; both point toward the essential truth of things.

This is the “seeing mountains as mountains again” stage. After going through sensibility → rationality → deeper sensibility, we return to a state closer to children’s “presence.”

AI lacks qualia—that subjective experiential quality. No matter how sophisticated AI’s logical reasoning becomes, it cannot experience the redness of red, the pain of loss, or the joy of discovery. These qualitative experiences remain uniquely human territories.

In this context, young people who maintain sensitivity to emotional nuance, aesthetic judgment, and experiential wisdom become invaluable. They serve as bridges between AI’s computational power and human meaning-making.

This shift suggests that education and personal development should emphasize cultivating sensibility alongside technical skills—developing taste, intuition, emotional intelligence, and the ability to find meaning in experience.

#Understanding/AI

Product Philosophy: Creating Attachment, Not Addiction

June 8th, 2025 - 14:23:17 Why do some products create healthy long-term engagement while others create destructive compulsion? The difference lies in which neurotransmitters they target.

Two approaches to user retention:

1. Dopamine-driven (Addiction Model): Creates anticipation and craving through variable reward schedules, infinite scroll, and FOMO mechanics. Users feel compelled to return but often feel empty afterward.

2. Serotonin-driven (Attachment Model): Creates sense of accomplishment, belonging, and personal growth. Users choose to return because they become better versions of themselves through the product.

The fundamental question: Are users paying for “temporary dopamine hits” or “sustainable self-extension”?

Great products help users extend their capabilities and identity. They become tools for becoming rather than just entertainment for being. The retention logic isn’t “I need this fix” but “I become more myself through this."

This shift from instrumental rationality to value rationality in product design means designing for human flourishing rather than just engagement metrics. It’s the difference between products that deplete users and those that replenish them.

Social media platforms optimized for dopamine create anxiety and comparison. Creative tools optimized for serotonin create confidence and capability. The business model follows: sustainable growth comes from users who genuinely benefit from the product.

#Understanding/Product

The Paradox of Ease and Effort in Modern Life

June 12th, 2025 - 11:45:29 Observing young people today, I notice a curious paradox: we have unprecedented access to information and tools, yet seem more anxious about competence than previous generations.

Perhaps it’s because ease of access creates the illusion that everything should be easy. When information is instantly available and AI can generate solutions, we expect rapid mastery of complex skills. When reality doesn’t match this expectation, we feel inadequate.

The paradox: Tools that make tasks easier make mastery feel harder.

Previous generations expected skill development to take time. They had natural buffers—learning required seeking teachers, finding books, practicing without instant feedback. These “inefficiencies” actually created patience and realistic expectations.

Now, we can learn anything, anytime, anywhere. But accessibility creates an obligation to excel quickly. When we struggle with something that has “easy tutorials everywhere,” we assume the problem is our incompetence rather than the natural difficulty of expertise.

The solution isn’t rejecting tools, but recalibrating expectations. AI and technology should extend our capabilities, not replace the patient work of skill development. The goal is augmented learning, not instant mastery.

This means being intentional about where we use AI assistance and where we develop our own capabilities. Some struggles are valuable. Some inefficiencies teach patience. Some difficulty is the point.

#SelfObservation/Growth

Time Aesthetics: The Value of Impermanence

June 20th, 2025 - 16:08:41 Walking through a traditional Japanese garden, I was struck by how the aesthetic embraces transience rather than fighting it.

Western aesthetics often pursue permanence—monuments that last millennia, artworks preserved in controlled environments, beauty captured and frozen. Eastern aesthetics, particularly Japanese mono no aware, find beauty in impermanence itself.

Cherry blossoms are beautiful precisely because they fall. Tea ceremony is meaningful because each gathering is unique and unrepeatable. The aesthetic isn’t despite the transience, but because of it.

This creates a different relationship with time. Instead of trying to stop or capture moments, we learn to be fully present as they unfold. The beauty isn’t in the photograph of the cherry blossom, but in witnessing its falling.

Applying this to modern life: What if we appreciated our work, relationships, and experiences knowing they’re temporary? Not with melancholy, but with heightened appreciation. The project will end, the job will change, the phase of life will pass—and this makes it more precious, not less.

Time aesthetics teaches us that value doesn’t require permanence. A conversation, a sunset, a feeling—these can be profoundly meaningful precisely because they cannot be preserved.

In our age of digital preservation and life optimization, rediscovering the beauty of impermanence becomes a form of wisdom. It allows us to engage more fully with what is, rather than anxiously trying to make it last forever.

#Understanding/Culture

The Observer’s Illusion: Mutual Gaze Between Self and World

June 30th, 2025 - 23:45:17 On the last day of June, reflecting on a month of observations, I realize the deepest illusion might be thinking I’m simply observing the world, when the world is equally observing me.

Every time I think I’m studying someone else’s behavior, analyzing a cultural phenomenon, or reflecting on a social interaction, I’m simultaneously revealing my own patterns, biases, and ways of being. The observer cannot be separated from the observed.

This mutual gaze creates a quantum entanglement of consciousness—my act of observing changes what I observe, and what I observe changes me as observer. The month of notes I’ve written says as much about my mind as about the world I’ve encountered.

Perhaps this is why journaling and reflection are so powerful for growth. We think we’re recording external experiences, but we’re actually creating a mirror that shows us how we see, what we notice, what we ignore, and how we make meaning.

The “objectivity” we seek might itself be the illusion. Instead of trying to see the world as it “really is,” maybe the goal is to see clearly how we see. This self-awareness becomes its own form of truth.

In the end, every observation is autobiography. Every judgment reveals the judge. Every criticism exposes the critic’s values. This isn’t a limitation—it’s the beginning of wisdom.

As June ends and July begins, I carry this understanding: The world I observe is inseparable from the consciousness doing the observing. The exploration continues, with greater humility about what I think I know and deeper curiosity about what I’m yet to discover.

#SelfObservation/Philosophy

Reflections on June’s Journey

This month marked a significant evolution in my thinking across multiple dimensions:

Cultural Understanding: From initial prejudices about Korean culture to genuine appreciation for the complexity and wisdom embedded in different cultural approaches to beauty, emotion, and social interaction.

Technology Philosophy: Developing a more nuanced understanding of human-AI collaboration that goes beyond simple automation to cognitive partnership and the unique value of human sensibility in an AI-augmented world.

Aesthetic Maturity: Moving from surface-level preferences to deeper appreciation for the dialectic between simplicity and complexity, perfection and imperfection, permanence and transience.

Interpersonal Wisdom: Learning to maintain personal boundaries while remaining open to connection, understanding the difference between explanation and justification, and recognizing the mutual nature of all observation and relationship.

Philosophical Integration: Synthesizing Eastern and Western philosophical traditions to develop a more holistic understanding of authenticity, time, consciousness, and the observer-observed relationship.

As I move into July, I carry these insights not as fixed conclusions but as evolving questions that continue to deepen my engagement with self, others, and the world.

2025 June Thought Notes

June 2025 Thought Notes