This is supposed to be fun

Today, two things happened:

• I didn't come up with a completely formed topic for today's blog post.
• I counted how many days remained before I'll have completed my 100-day challenge of 100 posts in 100 days (there are 18 days and 18 posts remaining).

I think the above are symptoms of my increasingly limited time for learning (and thus my decreasing base from which to source topics) and my constant concern that I might post something that has value to no one.

Actually, this post topic for today has existed in my "draft posts" section for about three months now. I created the draft so that it would always be at the top of my post list, and therefore would be present whenever I need to be reminded of the principle in its title - that this blog is supposed to be fun.

Yes, I should write for at least one person. The point is - it's ok if that person is me. In fact, maybe I am the most important version of that person.

So for today's post, I'll do something a little different. I'll talk about some topics that have yet to gel into fully formed posts. I have not yet done enough research or gained enough experience to form fully conclusive opinions on these topics, but I recently began thinking about them and I think they're interesting - and fun - so I'm going to write about them.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)

I knew about BitCoin way back in early 2011, when its price was about $1, but I never got into it. I think the trending popularity of NFTs in 2021 is quite similar to that of BitCoin in 2011, so this time I'm definitely taking notice.

A day ago, Garry Tan posted a video about the rise of NFTs and his firm's recent investment in Manifold, an NFT platform. I also learned that a16z invested $150 million in the company that created a game, Axie Infinity, based on collecting NFTs of characters, where players in the Phillipines are reportedly making more money playing the game than working normal jobs. This phenomenon has given rise to the term "play to earn" (P2E).

I'm going to do more research later and possibly consider getting involved with this new tech in some way. That said, I haven't even watched Garry's video yet, because today I've been obsessed with the next topic.

Folding bikes

I think this topic deserves a full blog post. Maybe I'll write one if/when I actually purchase a folding bike.

I think the folding bike is an amazing idea - it allows us to commute in the city much more easily as folding bikes (unlike most normal bikes) can be taken onto public transport. It also prevents theft because we can carry our folding bike with us all the time.

Today, I went to the Dahon flagship store in Shanghai and a Decathlon sport mart, both of which sell folding bikes. I discovered the main problem: despite costing 1,600-3,200 RMB (which is not a small sum for a bicycle), the build quality is mediocre at best.

Tomorrow, I will check out Brompton, which has a new store in Jing'an Kerry Centre. It has a spotless reputation and numerous online fans, so I have high hopes for its build quality and design. The only problem: even the most basic Brompton folding bike costs 13,200 RMB - over four times more than the most expensive Dahon I saw today.

Stay tuned for a possible update tomorrow on this.

The International (Dota 2)

The most important e-sports tournament of the year began today. The group round-robin matches are being played right now, but I have no time to watch (I still have some work to do after finishing this post).

Perhaps before I sleep, I'll watch a replay of the most important match today that featured a Chinese team. Like I said in a previous post, it's essentially the World Cup of the gaming community. The elimination stages after the group rounds are a must watch!