Should One Persist When Efforts Do Not Yield the Expected Results?

Exploring future possibilities can be incredibly challenging, often leading to doubt and confusion, raising questions about whether current actions hold meaning—especially when there’s no positive feedback. I want to take a shortcut, knowing that regular employment offers a predictable future. So, I’m choosing a different path. While it may be thorny, muddy, and full of cliffs, it might be a quicker route. Like climbing a mountain: when you reach the top, no matter how much you want to stay, you must descend. Why not continue forward and explore life’s second peak?

Some recent thoughts:

How can I turn my Kubernetes (K8s) expertise into personal benefit?

I could do freelance work on platforms like Xianyu, but that’s not a long-term solution since it’s still trading my time for money. I’m looking for a low-cost, replicable way to generate passive income, but creating courses and tutorials isn’t my preferred approach.

When people talk about a “good job,” most think of “high pay, little work, and close to home.” But in the current economic climate, the standard for a good job has further declined, and now “a stable salary, two days off per week, no overtime, and no toxic management (PUA)” has become the new definition of a good job. What used to be a basic expectation—having weekends off without overtime—has now become a luxury.

I feel as if I’ve returned to my university days, with a calm mindset, not in a hurry, and actively exploring various ways to make money.

In college, I was the type of student who didn’t study well and failed courses every semester. I disliked my major, and the future career path as a teacher was something I hated the most. So, starting from my freshman year, I researched what to do after graduation and how to find a job, even attending job talks for graduates in my first year.