What I Read - 2025-04-15

2 best pieces I read today:

• On Swearing & Sex - https://www.sherryning.com/p/on-swearing-and-sex

We assert dominance by calling someone “our bitch” and we express our defeat by saying we got “fucked over.” We care about power moves in every layer of our interactions, from writing proud resignation letters to harvesting ‘likes’ on Instagram to trying to hang up the phone first in a hostile conversation.

• Ramble #1: Living with Regrets - https://www.sherryning.com/p/existential-ramble-1-regrets

  Isn't regret just a present decision to be unhappy about a past attempt to be happy?

Besides these, I spent most of my time on technical sites, my local dashboards, discord, and a re-watched 美秀's videos. The music is just so good, they're extremely creative and cover a diverse range of topics.

This is one that's on the more controversial end... But it grew on me, just like 電火王 and 懶趴火 (skip these 2 if you don't know any hokkien)

米兒，來自霓虹絢爛的城市中，最深不可測的角落，她究竟是一場美麗邂逅，還是一個巧妙的騙局，又或者，她是個不存在的謎團？最危險的東西，一直都來自想像⋯⋯

《米兒》是美秀集團外遇三部曲的第一章，講述著電火王在情慾世界中迷失的開端，歌曲中的女聲由來自鳳梨先生的鄭小韻擔綱，把原本由珮慈負責演唱的部分詮釋得更加清純甜美，一句正氣凜然的「她在騙你！」，是否能夠叫醒夢中人呢？就請大家期待第二章吧！

This is so good - very professionally done, reminds me of breaking bad / better call saul's beginning of some episodes.

I also have a screen for charts that's opened all day. I also read the quant's piece I paid for, the Goldman's free research on characteristics of bear markets, where they argue the current one is event-driven, however, it seems more structural to me.

• 2000, 2008: structural bear markets, long-lasting
• 2020: even driven short lived bear market, extremely fast rebound, Fed stepped in with $3T (but not without consequences that'll come later)
• 2022: cyclical? SPX only down ~35%, lame!!!!!
• 2025: we all know it's not about tariff. One narrative I'm leaning towards is to using engineered recession to flush out stagflation.

1 important thing I learned from the GS research was how long the rallies can last in bear markets, the most recent and most notable one being the June 2022 one lasting for 2 months.

It's my third day of going to NCMA for runs and I feel more healthy than my previous states. The trails in the park are closed, forcing me to take alternative routes on foot (which is good).

Last week I finished 返校 on Netflix, the series is about a totalitarian Taiwan in the past (戒嚴時期 白色恐怖). It's been on my watchlist for 5 years and I'm glad I finished it.

「我很幸運，可以活著看到自由。」

高齡85歲的田孟淑，和丈夫田朝明，因在白色恐怖時期，積極庇護、營救那些，因思想與言論而被政府鎖定的「政治犯」，被稱為「台灣民主的媽媽」，一路見證了台灣自由民主的過程。

「看《返校》的時候，我是緊握雙手，不停的發抖，因為那就是我們以前活生生的故事！」

台灣曾是世界上實施戒嚴最久的國家，，前後長達38年56天，這是一段課本說不清楚，但你我卻一定要知道的歷史。如果你看過電影《返校》，今天就一起來看看，比《返校》更驚悚的「返校真實版」

Started watching Black Mirror Season 7 today and it did not disappoint :)