Rock climbing is like programming
an essay + a march recap!
Fresh-eyed, fresh legs — transfixed by the assortment of holds, color-coded to your delights. People move their bodies like figure skaters on the wall, flowing to the beat of their own rhythm, propelled by the momentum of their steady drives. They make it look so effortless, graceful even, despite the degree they were inching towards against gravity. It’s precisely the artful balance of utmost strength, flexibility, and endurance that make this sport so mesmerizing to watch.
The bouldering gym is a sandbox, for play and experimentations — with the expectations that failure is a part of the process. So much of climbing requires visualization — from “reading” the route, guesstimating the sequence of holds or the way your body should angle itself to get to the top, and actually executing your assumptions. There is a certain way that the route is meant to be climbed, as designed by the route setter, but it is also open to a wide range of interpretations, given people are at different levels and heights. The process of coming to a successful “send” requires a balance of mental persistence as well as flexibility in modes of thinking. The intuitiveness in knowing when to keep trying versus when to switch to a different approach is critical, especially when your strength and stamina can only last so long. Climbing is challenging, but I like it because you can see the visibly see the gap between where you’d like to be and where you currently are. Like programming, the distinction between a fail and a success is as clear as 0 and 1, but the process in leading up to either outcome can come in so many different ways, each with oftentimes not-so-visible efforts of attempts. People see the outcome, but I find the process of trials and errors so worth documenting too. It’s iterations upon iterations while working with time-sensitive constraints like losing grip strength and energy level that would eventually lead you to completing a bouldering problem. The beauty lies in the delicate calculations of knowing your limits while also pushing your best.
I miss struggling with a problem in programming. When I struggle with a problem, it makes me get to know the problem in all its facets and dimensions beyond just what a surface-level “flash” could’ve ever done. It’s almost as if I get to hear the internal dialogue of the problem at play, all the crevices, blemishes, nuances of what a quick glance would easily miss. With AI so within reach nowadays, it’s rare that you get the luxury of “sitting” with a problem long enough that you can experience the sudden dash of joy that comes from thinking of an alternative approach you can try, and the act of trying it and seeing it succeed that leads you to greater joy. It almost seems outdated to say “give it time” when omniscient AI can just give you the solution like a snap without breaking a sweat. But process is what makes it precious at the end of the day, it’s what builds you and makes you feel connected to the essence of the craft that has first drawn your interest in the first place. Process is what you’ll reminisce over when you look back on a certain time in your life, the way it made you feel and grow — rather than the quantitative stats with no documentation on what led you there. Results with an absence of narratives are disinteguous. Without the story, the weight of the outcome is just not obvious.
March Recap
Reading
I’ve started reading Homeseeking this month, as recommended by Tiff and Cherry! About 40% in but the alternating vantage points from different era in time are quite good. I’m excited for this being perhaps the first novel I’ll finish reading in what have seemed like eons.
As for books I’ve finished, I read Your Brain on Art and Elusive Cures, both of which were on neuroscience but Elusive Cures was more research-y. I’ve started reading another neuroscience book called Models of the Mind, mostly because I want to understand the roles of computational models on neuroscience research and scope out if it is something I would find interest in. So far, it is on the history of neuroscience-AI research, and it’s cool to find that many of the early pioneers were from schools I was looking at in Germany.
Thinking about
I started the month wanting to get locked in for reaching out to professors for grad school in Canada and securing a part-time job for the time being. As I inched closer to end of month, I have decided to put grad school on hold because I am unsure if I would like doing neuroscience research (as opposed to reading about it). Right now, all my efforts are going into finding a full-time job in a frontend-leaning SWE job. Times are tough but I’m hoping that by doing an updated personal project with skills I’ve attained in my last job, it would help for landing interviews.
Core memories
Writing retreat in Pingxi, it was really homey & rejuvenating
Hearty Moroccan soup at Teri’s place for church small group
Sun moon lake 29km with Suii, wasn’t proud of my pace :( but I ran it
Joined dragon boat for the first time mid-March, body was all sore the next day but fun!
Book workshop + picnic at Daan with Enya
Chats on realizations, selfishness, and humanities’ place in a capitalistic society with Cherry
Played lots of tennis with Dress :)
Staying home more and taking Maple out for long time-agnostic walks - she is so loving :)
Little Wins
Hit 90-day streak for German on Duolingo! I’ve been enjoying the way German sounds haha, it’s so different and it sounds so foreign. I don’t have any immediate goals for learning German but that’s just say I want to be able to recognize signs, menus, supermarket goods if I ever go visit in the next year.