I woke up before 6 a.m. today. Though I couldn’t fall back asleep, I didn’t get up right away. Instead, I stayed in bed scrolling through my phone and came across a thought-provoking comment on Zhihu about “removing primary school-level education from kindergarten.” One part of the comment really struck me:
“Hiring graduates from prestigious universities like 985 and 211 schools doesn’t even require offering a high salary or using manipulative motivation tactics; just pile the work on them. The dedication to progress, sense of responsibility, and meritocratic values instilled by the education system will naturally push them to invest time and get things done—working overtime if necessary. They can’t help themselves.”
This sentiment captured exactly how I’ve been feeling lately. Last night, after playing badminton, I gave a colleague a ride on my e-bike, and he remarked, “I’m barely into my job here, and I’ve already seen such intense overtime.” I couldn’t help but wonder: if I don’t throw myself completely into this, how should I approach situations like this?
After I got up, Hamer also got up on her own, washed up, and got dressed. She was moving slowly, but today I didn’t urge her on. When we were leaving, she insisted on bringing an umbrella. We searched for a while but couldn’t find the one she wanted. I handed her an umbrella that she had decorated herself before, but she didn’t want to risk getting it wet. In the end, we decided not to use an umbrella and rode the e-bike through the drizzle.
The light rain continued throughout the day, and when I got home in the evening, it was still falling, which disrupted our plans to play badminton. Hamei was a little disappointed, so instead, I played with her at home for a while. Looking over her school log, I noticed she didn’t have too many tasks. But when it came time to review math, she was visibly reluctant and seemed irritable, though I couldn’t figure out exactly why.
As it was almost time to go shopping, I told her to get changed. Unexpectedly, she kept changing her clothes several times until she was satisfied. Then, while looking for her socks, she couldn’t find the pair she’d just taken off, which made her frustrated. Watching her impatiently search from the doorway, I asked, “Is there another way? Maybe you could check one item at a time, or put on a different pair, or even go without socks?” But she stubbornly insisted on finding the exact pair she’d taken off and wouldn’t look on her own; she grew increasingly upset and started crying.
I didn’t help her and stood by, feeling a bit annoyed myself. Then she got angry at me, picked up her grandma’s phone, and called Xiaoyan to complain, telling her she didn’t want to go to Hema with me. Xiaoyan patiently comforted her and suggested she could walk there by herself with an umbrella. Hamer immediately brightened up at this idea. After finding her socks with grandma’s help, she picked up the umbrella and dashed out the door without a backward glance.
On the way, she walked along the sidewalk while I rode my e-bike in the adjacent bike lane. At one point, she even jogged alongside me with a slight look of determination on her face. Watching her run like that made me feel a mix of amusement and relief. When we arrived at Hema, her mood had mostly settled. Though she still mentioned being “mad” at me, it was clear she was feeling much better.
Back at home, Xiaoyan and I ate dinner while Hamer practiced her eye exercises, and then she reviewed her math lessons.
The workload today was relatively light; most of it involved following up on recent changes to the RT module and compiling a list of technical points worth studying in depth. I spent quite a bit of the afternoon troubleshooting an issue with S123 authentication. I couldn’t make any headway until a colleague informed me that the version I was using didn’t yet include the necessary hotfix.
In the evening, I didn’t do anything particularly noteworthy. I applied for an Apple account for Hamer, removed a few categories from my blog only to realize that some articles were no longer visible as a result, and followed up on some questions regarding domain migration. There wasn’t much that felt especially fulfilling, and by the time it reached past eleven, I ended the day feeling a bit unsatisfied.
