Writing

Today I saw a post on Douban. The content came from Umberto Galimberti’s book L’ospite inquietante, probably from a chapter about schools. I haven’t found any s…

I recently posted an update on Bonjour, which was a way of making something I'd been wanting to do public! I shared it as a community post, and I also wanted to…

I had a dream early this morning.

Hi everyone! I'm Helia.

Some of you may do a double take when you see this title: Huh? What does that even mean?

The first time I discovered Snarky Puppy’s “Lingus” was late at night. The moment I heard it, my eyes literally filled with tears. I almost cried. No exaggerati…

Archimedes said that if you gave him a lever, he could move the Earth.

After writing this piece, I started wondering about something: why am I (or are we) so demanding about stumbles and pauses when listening to audio podcasts, yet…

Probably sometime after Lunar New Year this year, the podcast industry's shift toward video started becoming increasingly obvious.

Over the past couple of days, using whatever scraps of time I had, I gave my blog a major redesign from 0 to 1. It finally went from an old-school 2010 blog lay…

I’ve been thinking about this lately: in the future, could ChatGPT Work’s image generation maybe give users an editable version after generating an image, inste…

After moving, I chose an apartment facing west. Outside the window there is a wide stretch of green and a lake. I have been very happy watching the afternoon li…

This is a review of the first hackathon of my life. I made a very immature tool in it. Behind the tool is part of my imagination of what a personal information-…

My self-built Telegram bot keeps giving me things that make me smile at the screen, or frown and ask, “What is that?” after I read them. Interesting, interestin…

The title comes from a line in the Japanese drama Me and Him, Who Will Break Up in 100 Days, which ended today.

Today I found a new topic on Douban about Codex and Claude Code.

I have had two strong thoughts lately, so I want to leave a trace of them here.

There are not many AI products that I both love and hate. Poke is one of them.

I have been making two tools recently. I have gained a little, and I am also still confused about many things. There are too many small details, so I will go st…

I am not sure whether something changed in the GPT team's UI strategy, but I want to try to understand this from my own perspective.

At one point while discussing Anthropic's recent ‘2028: Two Scenarios for Global AI Leadership’ with NotebooLM, I noticed that my input method had done somethin…

1) Humans can't escape the ‘curse’ of their environment

Yoga pants are only a metaphor. What I mean is: when it is worn, it does not call attention to itself.

This is the strongest feeling I've had recently, after listening to several podcasts and reading posts from people on X.

Of course, I mean AI product managers who understand what an AI-native product is in the AI era.

Earlier, I used the Hugging Face API to make a voice-to-paint tool. Then I noticed that whenever the generated image involved a person, it was almost always mal…

I recently watched a conversation between Dwarkesh Patel and David Reich. A few things stayed with me, so I am recording them here:

I have been looking at AI PM opportunities lately, so I explored some products that interested me and noticed several problems:

A while ago I came across videos by Johnathan Bi online and was drawn in for no clear reason. Philosophy seemed so different in his world. A few days ago I list…

I once mentioned a wonderful woman I found on Xiaohongshu. In one of her posts, she said that Code kunst is someone all asexual people would like. As someone wh…

Honestly, I do not hate having a job. I even kind of like working. There have been times when I was still at my computer at two or three in the morning.

I was just listening to a podcast and heard a prediction that made me laugh out loud while washing dishes. The guest asked: why is Musk building space technolog…

I recently heard two ideas that I found interesting and wanted to keep, so here I am writing again.

At the end of last year, I was obsessed with AI coding. Most of what I did then was decide what to make, ask AI to write a PRD, and let an agent work. Once ther…

Today's note began with an online stranger. When I first came across his posts, he was looking for a co-founder to build an agent for dating and relationships.

One day I remembered talking with AI about certain topics. I went back with keywords, but the results were often disappointing. The jump did not always take me…

I finally restarted my personal podcast. Come listen, friends 👂

Whenever I visit a new city, the things that draw me most are still the familiar cultural and art spaces, especially bookstores. I never get tired of going to p…

1) I read a passage in an article that felt a little unreal, so I asked Gemini the same question. After seeing its reply… well, another perfect example of GIGO:…

During the Lunar New Year period, besides dealing with the holiday, I was doing something else: feeding my Elys avatar. Then I started using Second Me too... I…

I have been thinking about onboarding lately and realized that several things are important. Yet among all the apps I have used, none of their onboarding has re…

I shared with ChatGPT the sense of disconnection I felt while using Elys. It gave me the analysis shown in the images, and I thought it made a lot of sense.

Part of my everyday work is related to podcasts. With podcasts, what really takes time is often not the content itself, but post-production, especially audio ed…

Recently I have been doing an experiment on making long-form podcast content callable. It is a little like an Agent for podcasts, or a question-and-answer assis…

There is a kind of product that has always made me uncomfortable. It is usually very effective: it catches attention quickly and really can turn it into sales.

Parkinson's.

I had a need 👉 then found that the tools for it did not meet my expectations 👉 so I made one myself 👉 and used it myself. That is probably the path that brought…

I am someone who much prefers speaking to typing when I interact with AI. Every time I try to explain what I want to Gemini on the web, Claude Code on desktop,…

Recently I used AI to make myself a website. (As of July 16, 2026, its domain has successfully moved to the domain where you are reading this article.) Then I r…

What can sound and painting, photography, or moving images with AI become in my hands? I have been thinking about this question for a long time. (I love sound a…

After a little more than two days, on and off, I finally made my LumiFlow MVP! (The MVP itself was finished earlier, but I did not think the features were good…

On New Year's Day, I got some New Year wishes from friends. One person asked where I had gone to have fun. I said: nowhere. I was vibe coding!

I have been making an extension over the last two days. It was almost ready to launch: I had created the GitHub repo and uploaded it, and my Google Chrome Store…

Exploring what AI can do, building products, putting ideas into practice, and being a half-trained STEM student solving technical problems... laughter through t…

Look at the images above 👆

Would you dare let it reject you first?👀

Truly learning by doing!

01 When I Switched the App Store but Was Still Shut Out

Recently I wrote a long piece and wanted to archive it here too—an extremely subjective perspective that reflects my preferences for using software, the path by…

It can.

I've tested a few apps and products lately. Some made my eyes light up; some drove me crazy.

Lately I have been thinking that a builder's perfectionism can also be a powerful way to keep users around.

A while ago, I watched iFixit's video taking apart the Meta glasses. Eight hundred dollars disappeared just like that. I watched with my eyes wide open: what th…

Not long ago, I was tutoring a Chinese student from overseas in Mandarin. I wanted to leave him with something, so I tried making a few things with Gemini 2.5.…

I wonder whether parts of everyone’s everyday routines work like this:

After writing Podcast Content, AI, and Creator Sovereignty, I started thinking seriously about why, apart from NotebookLM, there still are not many tools for ge…

I have recently been learning about AI chips, which led to the notes below.

Today’s note is rambling and a little trivial, but the whole thing revolves around one phrase: Narrative Moat. Although the title is a little bullshit, from wha…

Don’t let my title fool you. What I really want to talk about is how we express ourselves and how readers feel.

Last year, I helped a friend produce a podcast series about the culture of Gulangyu. During the process, she brought up the “long-tail effect”, or, put another…

✨ Nora Tian Jiangchuan, Managing Partner at Chuxin Capital, with Zhao Jiehui, CEO of Deepexi.

A few days ago, I read an article and felt frustrated by the time I reached the end. Apart from the parts where the author spoke from personal experience, I had…

If you’ve opened this article, please read all the way to the end.

Late one night, while scrolling through X, I came across an article. It gave me a glimpse into another side of Chinese entrepreneurs.

I don’t even know why, but I find making content in venture capital really interesting. I’ve even started paying attention to related content, learning about it…

Reading this long post Andrew Chen shared on X gave me a jolt—especially, as the title suggests, the examples of how to make “results” visible.

I seem to be someone with “selective attention.” The clearest example happened when a friend and I went to the office to chat with a teacher. At one point, I sa…

I don’t know. I’m one of those people.

A few days ago, I reached out to a friend and asked her to recommend the best river-snail and duck-feet casserole.

I cannot remember the first time I took a photo with a phone. The first time I formally took photos with a camera was during my sophomore year, when I volunteer…

I feel like I have been offline for a very long time... 🫠

Every time I go away, I feel that I understand myself a little more. Of course, more confusion and uncertainty come with it too.

When I set out to see this stretch of sea, I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open... But after resting a few times, I still started walking. I did not…

While watching the latest episode of “Sweetheart Service,” I noticed one of the filming locations. It drew me in so much that before the progress bar reached th…

‘I feel that most boys' love works exist to fit the market or the audience. The criticism of “making BL ugly” shows it clearly enough. The way people are writte…

A couple of days ago, I saw a younger schoolmate's Moments post. In the background of the photo was a “mango ice cream crepe”... Mango + ice cream! Seriously! E…

After getting through each phase of a project, I always feel: Ah, I’m alive. I look up at the painting on the wall. Different colors spread outward in all direc…

Ah, my brain has crashed.

My senior colleague is a very kind-looking person, about my father’s age, but much gentler in temperament.