I am rather embarrassed that I write my annual review later every year. Time may be like water in a sponge—you can always squeeze some out if you try—but deadlines remain the greatest source of productivity. I did not even begin this year’s review until the end of March 2025.

The past cannot be changed, but the future can still be pursued. I hope my 2025 review will not be delayed as badly as this one.

Overall, 2024 felt fresh, fulfilling, and confusing. I entered new environments, and both my way of working and my way of learning changed. I was admitted to HKUST’s MSc program, transferred to a position in Shenzhen, and began commuting between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Leaving behind my stable relationships and work environment in Hangzhou inevitably made the adjustment somewhat bumpy, yet I also felt eager to try what lay ahead.

Progress on My 2024 Goals

In previous years I always reviewed milestones. This year I will use a different approach with two parts: first, reviewing my progress on the goals I set for 2024, and second, listing what I actually did.

  1. Maintain a regular schedule: get up at 8:30 a.m. and go to sleep at midnight. Spend at least one and a half hours studying and writing on weekdays, and at least six hours on weekends, unless something unusual happens. ===> 40%. Because I began studying in the second half of the year, I usually got up at 9:30 a.m. and went to bed at 2:30 a.m. Reality was completely different from the plan, so this goal fell apart. I generally did preserve the planned study and writing time on weekdays and weekends, although my actual output also fell somewhat short of expectations.
  2. Keep exercising: six sessions of pull-ups and crunches per week, with two or three sets each time; have at least four visible abdominal muscles by year-end; and run 800 km during the year. ===> 70%. I mostly kept up the crunches and pull-ups. I had achieved the four-pack by midyear, although it disappeared again by year-end. I ran 764 km in total, slightly short of the goal.
  3. Complete a systematic approach for handling hot spots in high-concurrency scenarios; write twelve technical blog posts. ===> 0%. I truly had wanted to organize this material because it inevitably comes up in interviews. To be honest, by the time I wrote this article, I had forgotten that I had even set this goal.
  4. Learn iOS and Vision Pro development (tentative). ===> 0%. At the beginning of last year, Vision Pro was incredibly popular, much like DeepSeek is now. A few months later, however, it had almost vanished from view, so this goal quietly came to nothing as well.
  5. Gain a basic understanding of China’s financial system. ===> 90%. After transferring to the global team, I became responsible for the entire transaction and fund-fulfillment chain. As a result, I passively absorbed a great deal of knowledge about finance, economics, and payments during the second half of 2024.
  6. Read two novels (tentative). ===> 100%. I nearly finished Ming Dynasty in 1566. While reading, I even noticed some familiar historical figures and wanted to build a website showing their relationships. I had too many ideas and too little action, however, so that never happened. I also read Chen Xingjia’s At the Bend of the Jianghu and The Alleyway Families. Both were well written and resonated with me. The Alleyway Families was especially immersive in its portrayal of interpersonal conflict and family tensions, and it offered some approaches that might prove useful in resolving them.
  7. Learn the foundations of AI and become able to use large models for basic data modeling. ===> 10%. LLMs were extremely popular, but perhaps because I was too busy, I only received knowledge about them passively and never studied them actively.
  8. For my side project, establish a self-media presence based on knowledge creation and personal reflection, reaching 1,000 followers across all platforms this year. ===> 50%. I reached a combined total of 500 followers. The basic media matrix is now in place; the next step is to update it consistently and thoughtfully.

As you can see, I completed less than half of my 2024 goals. On one hand, this reflects my poor execution. On the other, circumstances changed so quickly that plans simply could not keep up. In the new year, I therefore need stronger feedback mechanisms so that I can adjust goals and correct course sooner.

Besides following the map laid out by my goals for 2024, I also did the following during the year:

  1. Enrolled at HKUST and became half a university student again.
  2. Transferred to Shenzhen, where I became responsible for global transaction and fund-fulfillment services for merchants in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
  3. Took the senior software engineer examination and missed passing by only a few points.

Reviewing 2024

As with last year, I can barely remember the first half of the year. Fortunately, I keep a diary and can revisit what happened. There are too many entries, though, and they are too fragmented. In the new year, besides keeping my diary, I plan to write a monthly review that records each month’s events, lets me reflect and consolidate what I learned, and gives me timely feedback for making corrections.

Perhaps because I have always worked in southern China, I have gradually learned about southern Lunar New Year customs. Celebrating the New Year in the south differs from where I grew up. Back home, we had neither a New Year’s Eve dinner nor all kinds of holiday trips and activities. For as long as I can remember, the New Year began with winter vacation: buying toy guns, ammunition, and fireworks, then running wild outdoors every day. On New Year’s Eve we would begin putting up Spring Festival couplets, and the first day of the lunar year marked the formal start of the celebration.

I mainly did two things in January 2024: applied to graduate programs at NTU and NUS, and celebrated the Spring Festival. The main thread of the holiday was much the same as before. I visited relatives to exchange New Year greetings on the first day, then spent days two through five visiting my mother’s and grandmother’s siblings and their families. In previous years I could still rest for a few days on the sixth, seventh, and eighth days. This year was different because of my younger brother. I spent those three days trying every possible connection to move him into a stronger class, but ultimately failed. And with that, January was over.

After returning to the company in February, there was essentially one major task: writing my review in preparation for the approaching performance season. I was not particularly worried because I knew I would be promoted that year. My responsibilities also expanded. I did some work involving transactions and contracts and gained a basic understanding of B2B cross-border trade.

In March I received the promotion as expected and also registered for the software qualification examination. Most significantly, I ran the first half marathon of my life and set a personal best of 1 hour and 46 minutes. I also considered how to expand my side project. I decided to begin by posting my IELTS notes on RedNote, but unsurprisingly they made little impact.

April was mainly a month of internal friction because I used my free time so inefficiently. On a weekend day, I could devote only about three hours wholeheartedly to studying or writing. I could not get up in the morning and did not want to get up in the afternoon; after exercising for a while and looking at my phone, it would already be time to go back to sleep. Alibaba generally pays its year-end bonus in April. When I checked mine, the increase was modest. It seems the Internet industry can indeed no longer be associated with rapid growth.

I began preparing for the software qualification examination in May, but ultimately fell ten points short and missed the senior software architect certificate. The second major matter was the system migration at work, which had nearly reached its closing stage. I felt that I had put real care into it. The final event determined the turning point of my entire 2024: I received an offer from HKUST. The offer arrived so late that I had originally decided not to go. After careful thought, I realized that I still dreamed of earning a master’s degree, so I decided to resign and study. The decision-making process lasted nearly a month. I asked many people and received all kinds of advice. The whole experience was genuinely painful, and I could accomplish almost nothing useful each day.

June was largely about telling friends around me that I would soon leave Alibaba to study in Hong Kong. I made all kinds of plans for going there: build a side business, learn English, find a job in Hong Kong, and so on.

July brought another turn of events. While preparing to enroll, I suddenly realized that I might be able to transfer to Shenzhen. With help from my manager and HR, I successfully rebased to the global sales team there, producing what appeared to be a win-win outcome: I could keep working and attend school at the same time. In any case, avoiding resignation was a good thing, and I began familiarizing myself with the Shenzhen team’s business. I also revived the campus-recruitment edition of my interview study guide and reorganized backend interview questions suitable for new graduates, which felt quite rewarding. Finally, I did something that shaped my entire Hong Kong–Shenzhen commuting plan: I completed the edX courses, allowing me to take three fewer courses at HKUST. That decision later proved to be a lifesaver.

After continuing July’s work and completing my edX certification, I formally rebased to Shenzhen on August 16 and began what might become a year-long stay there. The second half of August was mainly about learning how the Shenzhen office operated, renting an apartment, and visiting Hong Kong to become familiar with the university. Everything felt new.

In September I formally began commuting between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Until the semester ended in November, I had to travel from Shenzhen to Hong Kong three times each week. Between assignments, classes, and a full-time job, I was unbelievably busy and barely wrote anything in my diary. Many interesting firsts happened during this period: my first visit to Hong Kong, my first credit card and Hong Kong bank card, my first Hong Kong identity card, and my first time looking up at residential buildings nearly one hundred stories tall. At school I learned about blockchain, but the instructor did not go very deeply and the material was not oriented toward practical applications. In addition, I found the Indian instructor’s spoken English extremely difficult to understand, so I did not pursue the subject further. Compared with my undergraduate education, I found that universities outside mainland China truly have strengths in education. First, they offer rich educational resources; even 4K displays in the library are free to use. Second, the teaching content is strong: instructors directly use perspectives from research papers as classroom material. Third, administration differs enormously from that in mainland China. Slides, recordings, and assignments are all exchanged through Canvas, and university matters are communicated by email, instead of documents flying around countless QQ groups as they do on the mainland. Because I was frequently in Hong Kong, I also passively absorbed a great deal of financial knowledge, including foreign exchange, investment, and payments. I kept around RMB 20,000 on my Hong Kong card as well. I still have one regret: classes were taught entirely in English and there were many international students, but I was too shy to express myself. My spoken English and listening ability barely improved, and even everyday communication still felt difficult.

December brought three examinations in succession. I stayed up through several nights, but in the end I earned three A grades, so graduation should not be a problem. In late December I traveled to Beijing for a team-building trip. Traveling without the pressure of examinations was wonderful.

2025 Goals

Studying in Hong Kong meant that the course of my entire 2024 did not follow the plan I had expected, but the broad outline of 2025 is still set. I hope I can complete this year’s tasks properly.

  1. At work, organize the complete business processes and knowledge for cross-border transactions and fund fulfillment, and write one or two documents.
  2. In development, complete a systematic approach for handling hot spots in high-concurrency scenarios, and write two to four documents.
  3. Technically, master the foundations from ML through DL, NLP, and LLMs; use Spring AI or LangChain to build a mature product; and write one or two documents.
  4. In education, earn my Hong Kong master’s degree.
  5. In my career, strive to advance another level, measured specifically through performance results. With no other matters getting in the way, I need to go all in at work.
  6. In personal finance, achieve an average annual return of 3%. More specifically, accomplish this by converting part of my funds into US dollars and placing them in fixed-term deposits.
  7. In mindset, focus on one or two important things and stop spreading my attention. Put concrete plans into action immediately.
  8. In daily routine, go to sleep at 12:30 a.m. and get up at 8:30 a.m.
  9. In exercise, run 700 km this year.