Shake Things Up
Maybe it’s the start of a new year that’s motivating me to shake things up, and the first step is getting back into writing.
I’ve always found that writing technical blogs can be tricky. Often, I’m simply rephrasing existing resources or documenting how I solved specific problems. As a typical engineer, I rarely feel the need to delve deeply into personal reflections. Plus, technical articles can become outdated quickly, so every few years I end up discarding my older posts.
However, recently, seeing how some engineers leverage ChatGPT has made me reconsider the purpose of writing. Sure, listing problems and solutions is important, but there’s real value in capturing the deeper reasoning — things like the trade-offs made in tight constraints, and the personal experiences that shape each decision. While AI can provide answers, it can’t fully replicate the human nuances behind those choices. It’s precisely these deeper human nuances that keep me inspired to write.
Writing does more than solve issues — it also captures how we feel at a given moment. Our daily experiences — those instances of discovery, struggle, and growth — ultimately shape us as both engineers and people. By recording them, we don’t just document solutions; we preserve the essence of our journey. These small, ordinary moments form the main thread of our lives, and writing them down helps us reflect on ourselves, avoid forgetting, and hold on to what’s truly valuable.
Aside from writing, I’ve also been exploring some new tools: Neovim, Tana, and Cursor AI.
My shift to Neovim began when I discovered avante.nvim, which made me realize that Emacs wasn’t truly boosting my productivity — I was mostly grappling with upgrade issues. Since switching, I’ve written around a third of this month’s code in Neovim. Whenever I use a different IDE, I find myself missing Neovim’s convenient key mappings.
Tana has been a pleasant surprise. Initially, I worried that Supertags might lead to a complex management process, but after a few days, I discovered that Tana aligns perfectly with my thinking. Compared to Notion, Tana feels quieter and less disruptive, while its Supertags, Fields, and Commands offer remarkable convenience. I’ve never put this much effort into a note-taking tool before, and I’m looking forward to exploring more of its features.
Finally, there’s Cursor AI. I’ve long believed that AI would significantly change the way we program, but I initially saw GitHub Copilot as just a more advanced autocomplete tool. It wasn’t until I experimented with windsurf and Cursor that I realized how substantial this shift could be. I’m not sure yet if I’ll fully embrace an AI-driven coding approach, but I definitely want to be part of the journey.