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Reflection on 2020
Well, here I am, a year later. It is approaching the end of 2020, as I am writing now. Might as well practice the new phrase I ought to be familiar with while I’m at it.
2021
2021
2021
2021
2021
2021
2021
2021.
LoL, anyway. I suppose this is some sort of recap, though I would note that I didn’t really do much when compared to other years {2019,2018,2017}. Nonetheless, looking back and reflecting on ourselves could be considered the first responsibility, but my reason for writing this is not that but is instead an intent to start a yearly tradition.
This year, a pandemic happened, it showed me what is broken in our society. But I don’t think that I would write about it adequately in this piece.
Do note that I started writing this at 8:36 PM, so I have some sort of deadline. That kinda stimulates some sort of adrenaline in me, ngl.
to be honest, i have finals in like five days so i’m gonna have MORE adrenaline rush then lmao
Some days ago, a family member of mine told me to compile the achievements this year for our online Christmas family meetup, and so I’ve compiled them from my Google Photos account (now under my university account which has a Google One plan, a big W).
After I’ve compiled them, I… ended up not using them and just told the others that I’ve worked on projects and was recently admitted into the University of Indonesia college, this year. Plain and simple, a good way to speak to your distant relatives.
Anyway, here is some stuff that I would deem be important for me to archive off in the blog, for nostalgia’s sake.
Hung out with some of the evilfactorylabs fellows and other devs at Plaza Festival:
Evil Factory Labs is a software publication, I am part of it. We do content and tweets, mostly tweets, funny tweets. Come see us on twitter.com/evilfactorylabs.
Anyway, let me actually start this post LMAO.
This informal meetup gave me some idea of how late 20-year-old software people hung out, and what sort of things they talk about outside work, mostly software too. It was really fun, geeking the fuck out of things, together.
I was doing Google Code-in Tasks at this time, and the task I was tackling at the time is a Docker Compose task. I asked some of the people there, and they gave me some idea of what could be the solution to the issue I was having on that particular task.
Me and my friends ended up getting the prizes for each of us was a a Grand Prize Winner, a Runner Up, and a finalist for CloudCV. It seems to me that a yearly tradition of mine is: getting a Hacktoberfest shirt, a Google Code-in shirt, and writing a reflection piece now.
Sadly, the final contest of Google Code-in was held in January 2020.
Back to my meet up. I got back at 2 A.M., and I got home via Transjakarta. I still think about what I’ve seen people did that night, what Jakarta did.
A.I. meetups with the Indonesian AI Society:
I visited the IBM Indonesia office
And the ITB Campus (mostly STEI).
I blent into discussions with industrial, academician, and governmental people in regards. You know, the triple helix model.
Later on, I sense that this innovation model lacked personhood, and one could sense an outcome of such model.
Though do note that these occasions gave me an idea of that world. It was, informational. It’s a world that I would be in touch with again, in the near future.
College o’ College
How does it feel to participate in college elitism? All of the freshmens at the University of Indonesia and perhaps other Indonesian Ivies (Bandung Institute of Technology, Gadjah Mada University, etc) has found a way to carefully craft words that are polite enough to wrap theirs inherently-boasting sentences about where they are going to spend their undergraduate years. It’s interesting to see, though I can’t say I agree with it.
A lot of kids here (science and math faculty) has been fun in knowing, even though I’ve only known them from their digital personification, it’s still pretty cool, nonetheless. Raise a glass to our new social status, and to more weeks of mindless works on mathematical/scientific problems!
The paragraphs above are the caption of the twibbon I was compelled to post on Instagram. As can be seen on https://www.instagram.com/p/CF1yYHkgTcx/?igshid=r8a96hhyoytw.
It’ll give you an idea of what I have experienced in regards to college.
Some relevant pictures
Though, some might ask: why did you pick Physics?
To put it simply, I had an intent to outgrow the ideals, to experiment, a.k.a. fucking around. I could’ve went to the no-college path and join the Thiel Fellowship, but a part of my heart wanted me to learn something else, something that I haven’t been involved with in the past. And so I didn’t pick Computer Science, Computer Engineering, hell even Electrical Engineering.
I picked Physics. I’ve thought about some stuff leading up to that pick. Acquaintance reasons, scientific purity reasons, and some more I cannot name at this time.
When you tell someone that you’re taking it, it either impresses them really hard, or they would on the other hand doubt your skills and ask you inappropriate personal questions.
I haven’t experienced the latter from families and friends thankfully, though friends of mine have confessed to me of such things.
I think of it like this: the people I follow on Twitter and the people whose writings I read are scientists who dabble with the complexities of real life. These people call out bullshit when they see it, and they come with solutions.
I admire this quality of them, though it is not rare that I see what they lack in their ideas. People grow, that is perhaps, one of the things that I have felt this year.
I do Software Engineering, but it is not an endeavor that requires much formal education, it’s more of an experience thing, people do well on it without the ideal degrees I’ve said above. I myself have taken Software Engineering projects this year and learned new technologies (one of particular interest is the Google Apps Script, which was a funny project).
I have seen and am learning many things this year: The Principles of Social and Political Theory, Governmental Stupidity, Terrible Punditry, The Philosophy of Science, The Scientific Method, College Probability, College Statistical Formulas, Biophilia, and many more.
Do note the cycle of Learn, Unlearn, Relearn.
I end with this: my new year isn’t tonight, it’s on my birth date. Tonight is a festive on supposed a mutual pain between members of societies and most importantly, the global society.
A time where we can unite and listen to each other to what we’ve come across, felt, experienced this year. How our social structures have helped us, or gave us problems. How it saved us, or how it put us in danger.
I wonder what the world would be like if every people see life for what it truly is. Far away from things.
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
― Blaise Pascal
Sleeping is the thing to do, don’t stay up for the countdown. I think of the self-crisis people will have, the way they will loathe themselves when that timer reaches 0. And then, they will finally think of what their life are, just for a little moment.
In 2021, I hope that each and every one of us will be more emotionally connected with each other. Our pain, and how we can hold each other pain.
How we value each’s inside, each one’s stomach. Dostoyesvky, I would like to reread his works, and seek the clarities in them. This includes other literature as well.
The lucidity and divinity of writings, oh what beauty they are.
“Just stumbling towards grace. That is all that we are doing in this life. Sometimes, if we are lucky, we fall into each other’s arms. And sometimes, usually, we miss. But at least, perhaps, we touch. And if, at least, you do that much, just touch, for a moment, then maybe, maybe, your pain can be held by that place, by that person. And do you know what you should do?
Hold them tight, first.”
― Umair Haque
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