On a hot Saturday day in the Pennisula, Cup of Blooms is an unassuming and relaxing destination. This cafe, situated east of Central Park in Downtown San Mateo, specializes in fruit and milk tea with ample seating for groups small and large. For an urban-minded worker trapped in the suburbs, hangout spots like this one well quenches the thirst for a third place.

The Greeks believed that daemons were responsible for striking you with inspiration and whispering wisdom into your ears. The Romans believed that various geniuses guarded you until your death and were the disembodied spirits of many aspects of your life. When I heard this concept from Elizabeth Gilbert in her 2009 TED Talk “Your Elusive Creative Genius,” I was in the middle of a creative drought. Nothing I tried to motivate myself with was working and I was beating myself over for not living the life of someone that will become “successful.” Ah, the never-ending pressure to become successful.

Half a year ago, a close friend and coworker of mine was leaving Google. When I asked her what her plans were after quitting, she said that she simply didn’t know, and she wasn’t too worried about it. All she cared about was that she could learn more. “Learn what?” I asked for examples. She walked me through how much she wanted to improve at jazz piano, learn more about machine learning, and just feel like she’s growing again.

https://slate.com/technology/2019/02/china-consumer-data-protection-privacy-surveillance.html

There is an interesting “paradox.” On one hand, if you have been following the news, the Chinese government has been deploying AI to monitor and govern more expensively than ever:

The government is using facial recognition and big data to control and monitor its citizens. Under recent legislation, authorities have enshrined the right to law enforcement access to data without due process.

On the other hand, as pointed out by this article, citizen privacy awareness is also rising, but not against the government:

Since sometime around 3rd grade, I started using fountain pen for all school assignments as per my school curriculum in China. In primary school, shattered ink bottles and stains were a matter of life—a sacrifice made in exchange for better handwriting. When we entered middle school and heard that fountain pens were no longer required, everybody stopped using fountain pens almost immediately.

About one year ago, I backed a Kickstarter project that promised to deliver a sleek-looking thermos that cleaned itself and purified water with a built-in UV light. This fancy water bottle, first named Quartz, was later renamed to LARQ. The self-cleaning routine runs every two hours on its own, and the UV purifier supposedly kills 99.9999% of bio-contaminants in “Adventure Mode.”

One year later, I finally got my LARQ. Its craftsmanship is apparent. The bottle weighs a hefty 2 pounds and the body appears to be molded from a single piece of stainless steel. The granite white model looks clean and elegant. The indicator LED ring on top sports a futuristic and high-tech look. It did not disappoint me in its build quality and sense of design.