W44 - Three-Year Work Anniversary Retrospective

These three years at Meituan were my journey from the peak of ignorance to the valley of despair. What’s uncertain now is whether I’m on the left or right side of that valley — whether I’ve already hit bottom.

At the start of the year I thought entering my thirties wouldn’t be dramatic. Instead, I met life with grand expectations, and life responded with tumultuous waves.

First came macro changes that made me feel, for the first time, how profoundly the macro can impact the micro, especially the family unit. This year: pandemic, stock market crash, unemployment, decoupling, the Russia–Ukraine conflict, US inflation and rate hikes, and RMB depreciation. That combination made me long for a self-sufficient, small-scale agrarian life.

My present life is a mix of sorrow and joy. This year I experienced a real-life episode of Westworld that forced me to reassess trust between people and led me to seek professional counseling for the first time. I had a failed pet ownership experience. My parents were trapped by the outbreak in our hometown for months while I felt powerless to help. The world is neither as good as some claim nor as bad as feared; passivity won’t solve anything. Still, some good things happened: I unlocked a new sport each year—Brazilian jiu-jitsu this time—proposed marriage, completed home renovations, and entered a new phase at work.

The biggest change this year was likely an evolution in mindset. I became a kind of doomsday pragmatist, always planning for the worst so that whatever happens becomes bearable.

Reality forces us to measure things on much longer time scales and to view them through different value frameworks.

Strengthening fundamentals is increasingly important. Keep a measured distance from every passing trend and maintain long-term focus on key topics. Going forward I’ll hone the craft of architecture, learn to operate and close loops around a proposition, and better support team evolution.

Do what needs to be done in March and April; answers will come in August and September.