Reading & Sharing

I am an avid reader, mainly of English books. Depending on the year, I read anywhere from 3 or 4 textbooks to 20+ non-fiction books. For fiction books, I like Chinese online literature. Here are some of the books I've enjoyed recently:

• Ages & Stages, A Parent's Guide to Normal Childhood Development.
• A Short History of Nearly Everything — by Bill Bryson
• The Clean Architecture by Robert C. Martin.
• Nutrition Made Clear (The Great Courses).
• The Science of Exercise (Coursera online course).
• Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker.
• 凡人修仙传

Some of the tricks I adopted for reading:

• Instead of reading, I listen to audiobooks while doing household chores or commuting. LA Public library is ranked second in US in terms of audio book collection size.
• In terms of writing book summaries, I don’t constrain myself to sitting in front of a computer. Nowadays, I finish most of my summaries through dictation using WeChat, ChatGPT, or Doubao, often during small pockets of downtime throughout the day — while commuting, or waiting for appointments.

Dancing

I enjoy learning hip-hop dance from videos. It is more difficult for me than to learn from a real teacher, but I get to notice more details, and become more aware of my body and the music. Here are some ingsights I gained from learning dance:

• Dance is actually very logical. The way I move my body in a routine needs to be logical. If I treat each move as an isolated pose, my dance will look like a sequence of snapshots -- it does not flow. Creating flow requires me to design how I can utilize momentums, tensions, force and vibrations from one move to transit into the next. For example, if I need to step to another location, instead of a straight foot step, I can design to initiate the motion with my shoulder to create a leaning momentum, allowing my body and legs to follow naturally.
• I start to see choreography not simply as “pose A → pose B”, but as transition logic between movements:
  • Which body part initiates the movement
  • Where the momentum comes from
  • How the force is redirected
  • How the rest of the body responds naturally
• The design between the movements on the beats is very fun. I do not need to follow the teacher's choreography strictly; I can experiment with my own interpretations and variations.
• If I feel awkward about a move, it is usually because I have not fully come up with the transition logic between movements. Once the logic design is natural, it is also super easy for me to memorize the routine, as my body memorizes it instead of my brain. No matter how many times I do it, I do it exactly the same way.
• In dance, it is important to think about pivotal point. I intentionally use my toes, finger tips, ankles and wrists more, as they are generally far away from the pivot point of the movement, then it requires less force to execute the movement. For example, if I want to lift my leg straight up, the pivot point is actually at the hip joint. In addition, for transition of movements, if I initiate the momentum from these points, the line of motion is extended. I like this dance style of having a longer line of motion.

Swimming

I swim two to three times a week. I was on my high school swimming team, but only in adulthood have I started to think more deeply about swimming itself. It is a sport that hurts me, teaches me, and heals me at different times of my life:

• For any sport, part of the training is on mental focus. Can you stay focused so that each of your stroke is executed with good form, under physical and mental fatigue?
• What should you be your potential?
• Endurance: Building physical and mental stamina is essential.
• Mind-Body Connection: Understanding how my body moves through water helps me optimize performance.