It has only been a week since I started working, but the amount and variety of tasks I’ve handled in that short time have already been quite a lot.
I’ve never believed that doing a little more than my colleagues is unfair or a loss. On the contrary, I’d rather have a reasonable amount of work every day, something that keeps me moving forward and improving. A lot of experience, and a lot of mistakes, are only discovered through work itself. Some failures happen in practice, then stay in your memory like a lesson carved in place, so you won’t repeat them later at work—or in more important situations.
Just as important, overcoming those problems helps me look at people, work, and life with a more humble mindset.
Practice really does teach
When I was studying, I often saw older writers mention the idea that practice leads to real understanding. Back then, I treated it like a proverb. I didn’t disagree with it, but I also didn’t feel it deeply. I only knew that doing more was the point.
Now, after being sharpened by this new job and taking time to reflect, those five words mean something different to me. What they really remind us is not only to take action, but also to think after acting. Only through reflection can practice reveal more meaning. And only through communication can we uncover more of the hidden details inside ordinary events.
Keep learning, and don’t lose sight of why you started
2026 is clearly shaping up to be a year of rapid AI growth. The speed of AIGC development has far exceeded what many people expected. We’ve moved from generating text and data to generating images, editing images, and even describing a scene and directly getting a video. AI has kept advancing at an astonishing pace, almost exponentially. That has also brought shortages in hardware and rising memory prices. At the same time, completely new ways of using AI are appearing, such as building agents and creating "digital profiles" for smart education platforms—so many that it’s hard to take them all in at once.
As a leader often says, the AI era has already arrived. If you don’t keep learning, you will have no advantage when future job adjustments come. When the tide goes out, you can tell who has been swimming naked. At the same time, if our education informationization team does not hold a solid core position, the unit itself may face the risk of being merged. We’ve seen what happens to nearby provincial-level city departments: once they lose their leading role, they can only drift with the current.
The "Smart Education Platform" we are building now is our main battlefield and also the window through which we serve schools. Beyond guiding teachers toward regular, on-demand use, we also need to think while working and innovate while working. Only then can the unit continue to play a meaningful role in the future.
That means we still have to keep learning, and we still must not forget why we started.
The turmoil in the Middle East feels painfully familiar
The recent major conflict has been the U.S. and Israel’s attack on Iran, and Iran’s counterattack has ultimately won sympathy from the international community.
First, the retaliation itself earned admiration from many people in China. More importantly, it struck a chord, because the humiliation of being pressured and bullied by American power is still fresh in memory. It is only in recent years, as China’s military strength has grown, that people have slowly been able to stand up straighter.
Some netizens quoted an old line: "Today they take five cities; tomorrow they take ten. Then one night’s sleep is gained. But when you rise and look around the borders, the Qin army is there again." Iran’s missile counterattack carries clear historical meaning. It not only shows that there are still countries unafraid of U.S. threats, but also proves that the air defense systems Washington likes to boast about are not flawless. It also serves as a reminder that following the U.S. and NATO may not end well.
Technology only matters when it can be used
Whenever colleague Y shares a new technology with me, I’m always curious. The question I like to ask most is: "What kind of scenario can this be used in?"
Because I’ve always believed that learning should lead to practical use. A technology only makes sense if it can be applied. When we learn something new, we should first imagine where it fits, then test it in practice, and improve it through practice.
At the same time, we also need to stay careful and serious. We can’t keep acting like reckless youngsters anymore...