Huy's Blog

You'll probably ask an AI to take out the trash.

You probably WON'T ask it to take your wife to dinner.
(unless, ugh...)

Some tasks are worth only their result.
Some are worth doing.

With advanced gene editing, there's no avoiding the next generation of superhumans, with better overall abilities than most people.

Many others and I are current-gen humans.

Our strongest claim is this: we show how far a person can develop inside their natural limits.

The superhumans will have it handed to them. We're still the ones who inspire.

In order to be special, first you need to be special against something.

The bigger that something is, the more room there is to be special against it.

A very large amount of that something is called a monoculture. Monoculture is the fertile ground for people who can offer special things.

I've made this mistake too many times: offering something special without framing it against a monoculture, and the thing feels mundane.

Every pixel should mean something.

A product that does this is as if its creator is saying: I respect your time.

As a designer, every element I cut causes me some agony, but I cut it anyway.

We are not cattle. Don't feed each other slop.

Gods used to be things we prayed to, in exchange for favorable weather, relationship, or politics.

Now we are actively building one, the final one.

I just refreshed this site's look:
The 2 new symbols

1. The number in the 3 windows is the percentage of my life I have left. Read them together like this: 55.9843687%.
   1. How did I calculate it? Based on the average Vietnamese male's lifespan (by The Global Economy, 2022). Perhaps humanity can figure out immortality this decade, but I may also very well die of some other stupid cause. Best stick to the average.
2. To the right: every post now contains the first window of % of my life left when I wrote each post (red arrow)
3. At nine o'clock is the Vegvísir, an Icelandic symbol for navigation, representing my wish for how to spend my life well.
4. But how do you spend a life well? I agree with Benjamin Franklin's prayer O Powerful Goodness: to continually discover where my "truest interest" is, and have the courage to do it.
5. The design is somewhat inspired by the beautiful A. Lange & Söhne Lange 1

Why?

This creates an incredible effect of seeing how my life just ticks away (especially in Grid View!), and what kind of thought I had at the time.

Which incentivizes me to write more.

Bonus

Earlier this month, when a whole number went down 🥹:

I've been obsessed with the topic of time since forever. Unsolved.
From my 2014 Photography portfolio

Sign of people who peaked in high school: they keep talking about high school.

Now it's great to be reminded of the past from time to time, but you can recognize these people by the frequency of how much they keep referencing the past:

1. the relationship they had
2. how cool they were
3. who they knew
4. what they did...

and there are some people whose entire current group of friends is the one from high school they hung out with. And their identity is entirely based on whoever they were in high school.

As if the last time they ever felt happy, was back in high school (kinda sad, tbh)

My suggestion is to stay far away from these people.
They don't grow, and haven't for quite some time

Note: All opinions below are my own. I never wrote on entertainment topics before here, so it's worth it to tell you that.

Their acting in a few words:

Delicate, Punchy, Masterful

Here are my 5 stand out performances of season 1. Absolutely loaded

My tier list:

1. Patricia Arquette (8 o'clock): steals EVERY scene. Every delivery, voice or micro expression, is packed with intention and range. Perhaps the most skill on display in the whole show.
2. Tramell Tillman (11 o'clock): a delightful mix of being very friendly & unfriendly. Watching him is a constant joy. There is never confusion which trait is showing up when. Surgical performance.
3. Adam Scott (center): plays our main character, which carries the show's major emotional weight. And it's a success.
4. John Turturro (2 o'clock): his feelings are controlled like seeing a volcanic eruption being administered though all of his senses
5. Christopher Walken (5 o'clock): I don't think I see Walken much (may be some initial appearance 😆 unavoidable for such an actor with distinct facial feature), but he fully disappears into the role. It's the great casting of comedic actors into drama roles (credit to John Turturro), that help with the distinction.

Everything else contribute, as well:

• great styling choice, scene direction, character writing...
• which leads to each scene seems to deliver the most, with the least screen time needed.
• Feels like watching an ensemble of masters working on their new filmmaking textbook.

Most of the things I said above can be glanced at with the scene below.

It's very subtle, and happens during episode 1 (doesn't spoil anything).

If you still haven't watched the show, watch it. I recommend.

P/s: I've also watched season 2, but I think 1 is clearly superior.

I sat down with Hiếu and Sơn for episode 1 of their new podcast, Đàn ông Tập sự (Apprentice Men).

Three men, still in a life long training.

We talked about:

• In 2016. I spent ~3 months trying to commit suicide
• My late grandmother, in an LSD-induced vision. She said nothing, knew every failure I had, and hugged me anyway.
• Memento mori. I will die anyway, so life is a game with a deadline. The calm became my launch pad.
• My coats: success, studying abroad, my parents' pride, art. Shiny on the surface. All failed at once.
  • Some of these was mentioned in How a filmmaker ended up founding an edtech company
• Side quests before the main quest. When a coat stops fitting, try other coats.
• Respawn should be a default response for failure.
• The Wedding: How I decide who to marry 😆
  • Have a peek at here my wedding here

The episode is in Vietnamese, make sure you turn on English caption.

And if some of these topic resonates with you, I do offer a personal coaching service