running away from the covids

🍥 Life

FRIENDS!! I AM BACK!!!! How are you doing?? I was quite busy with Lonely Octopus for the past few weeks but tbh I also totally fell off the wagon and got out of the habit of writing newsletters. BUT we’re back on the wagon now!!

Omg I have so much to tell you…idk where to even start lol. Well, basically I’m in fugitive mode. 😱 They finally locked down Beijing because there are too many Covid cases. No idea how long the lockdown will be, but for reference, Shanghai was locked down for 2 months and there are some places that have been locked down for 3+ months…

covid testing people aka. covid popo

I’m currently running away to the south. ⬇️ The general rule of thumb is that you can go to cities with similar or higher risk levels, but it’s rather unpredictable because not only does each province and/or city have its own definition of risk, but also risk levels of cities change quickly. For example, one of the cities I was in was considered low risk, but by the next morning it was high risk and some places didn’t let me in even though I had already left that city. There are literally people stuck on the highways because no other cities will let them in. 🫠

It’s insane, isn’t it? Fingers crossed pls - I’ll keep y’all updated!

📖 Books

I’ve read a bunch of books since I last wrote a newsletter, but the best one is Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. Thanks, Ned for the recommendation!

A “shoe dog” is someone who devotes their entire life to making, designing, buying, and selling shoes.

The book is a memoir by the creator of Nike. It’s the story of how a young Phil graduated from business school, borrowed fifty dollars from his dad, and then launched a company to sell low-cost Japanese running shoes. He sold shoes from the trunk of his car in 1962, which then kickstarted a twenty-year rollercoaster ride. Yes, it’s about business, but it’s even more so about life, relationships, and unrelenting bravery. I think what makes someone brave is not that they feel no fear, but that they feel it but carry on anyway.

One of my favourite quotes right at the beginning of the book:

There’s a kind of exuberant clarity in that pulsing half second before winning and losing are decided. I wanted that, whatever that was, to be my life, my daily life.

I was actually super resistant to reading this book because I thought it would be testosterone-filled or something but I’m so grateful that Ned finally convinced me to read it. ❤️ It’s one of the three non-fiction books that have ever made me cry. The audiobook version is amazing so don’t hesitate to grab it if you’re into audiobooks. HIGHLY recommend!

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🌻 Learning & Productivity

Due to me running away from the covids, my schedule is absolute trash and I haven’t live-streamed properly for a couple of weeks now. I’ve been squeezing in some work here and there but productivity has definitely suffered. Hopefully, this will get better soon!

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👨‍💻 What I’m Working On

I’m mostly working on Lonely Octopus stuff and making videos. Both the Lonely Octopus team and the octopi are amazing (thank you so much if any of you are reading this). It’s been so much fun getting to know everyone and I’m so proud of the progress octopi have made in the past 4 weeks! 🐙🐙

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💻 Today’s coding challenge (SQL/Python)

🎮 Amazon question!

Calculate the first-day retention rate of a group of video game players. The first-day retention occurs when a player logs in 1 day after their first-ever log-in. Return the proportion of players who meet this definition divided by the total number of players.

players_logins

Head on over here to answer the question!

*Btw if you’re prepping for data science interviews or just want to keep yourself sharp, Stratascratch is a great platform with 10k+ real interview questions on SQL and python coding, probability, product sense etc. You can use my code ‘tinahuang’ at checkout for 20% off ❤️

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P.S. All constructive feedback is greatly appreciated :)

-Tina