Today is my 7th day in the new department. I originally wanted to finish writing this article before joining the new department, but there were still too many things to wrap up during the handover, so I postponed it until today. Actually, I don't have the habit of writing summaries, but 2023 has been a very difficult year for me, so I want to record it, with a slightly stream-of-consciousness style.
2023 is my third year of formal work, and also the year when I feel the most confused. In the first half of the year, I completed the integration of Feishu developer tools with the Open Sumi framework. I did the preliminary research and implementation myself, and also made several PRs to the Open Sumi framework. Finally, the article was published on the Open Sumi official account. But deep down, I know that the tools are not much better than before. It has been almost a year since I took over this project. There is no product, no design. I basically have to cover everything myself. The person who was supposed to guide me chose to leave in the middle of 2023, leaving only me and this project. Many times, I feel tired and directionless.
Honestly, I don't actually mind working on this project. Although it was chaotic when I took over, and many features were basically unusable, I fixed them one by one. There are two important reasons for this. One is that before working on developer tools, I was maintaining the compilation tools for mini programs, the runtime library for mini programs, and participating in the openness of the mini program ecosystem. For a long time, I was mainly writing pure JS code. I actually don't have much experience in doing business or writing pages. In school, I mainly participated in algorithm competitions and didn't have much project experience. So I have the desire to make up for this shortcoming. At that time, Dan was writing the new documentation for React, and I read the entire document and relearned React. I also briefly learned the technology stack used in the project. Although there wasn't much UI rewriting in the subsequent iterations, I felt that I wasn't afraid of doing business anymore. Another reason is to better understand the entire toolchain of mini programs and fill in the gaps in my understanding of the business/technology in this area.
But sometimes I feel powerless because I know there are many areas that can be optimized and improved, whether it's making error messages more user-friendly, aligning the overall API capabilities across all platforms, or even going to the cloud and creating a pure web-based IDE. But no one supports you, no one discusses with you. Everyone just complains about how difficult the tools are and how many problems there are. The boss also doesn't have any ideas. There is too much negative feedback for a long time, and I feel overwhelmed. I could just maintain the tools here, fix small bugs, because the department still needs someone to take care of this, but that's not what I want.
By the middle of the year, I was the only one left maintaining the entire project. The neighboring mini program client team moved on, and I learned in August that there would be no more manpower invested in the mini program direction. It was a big blow to me because the whole upgrade plan had just been implemented, and I was wondering what I should do next. In addition, my boss sent me to work for another department, supporting their project, under the guise of performance upgrades, and they needed someone with "Solid" skills to join. But in reality, it was just about migrating components, and it gave me a strong feeling of being a cheap laborer, so I also wanted to leave. Although I wanted to leave, it didn't actually happen until the beginning of 2024, so I am very grateful to the boss of the new department. There were many twists and turns in between, and it made me very depressed. I even went to see a psychologist twice. Especially, I had to constantly talk to the boss, listen to his plans for the future, and there are still many things that can be done. But deep down, I don't really agree with what he says.
I have been in the open platform for three years, and it is quite nostalgic to see it gradually become only a few businesses like message cards, web application containers, and the official website. I have always felt that doing open platform work is meaningful and valuable. Although it is difficult to do toD business in the toB field, whether it is the implementation of requirements or the actual value demonstration, I can still learn a lot. After all, when I first came here, I didn't even know what mini programs were and I was pulled into the mini program business. (laughs)
Although I have complained a lot above, I don't regret staying here for three years. My colleagues in the department have been very good to me, and the things I have been exposed to have broadened my technical horizons. In the past few months, I have been thinking about why I want to leave so much. Now I think maybe it's just a milestone. Although everyone says that there are pitfalls outside as well, stepping out of the so-called comfort zone in a different environment may have a different impact on me.
The new department I joined is following the trend of AI and doing AI construction work, which will be more business-oriented. I had a discussion about it in October, but due to various reasons, I officially transferred to the new department only last week. Actually, I have always been a user of AI, but I don't have much knowledge of the underlying technology details and how to build a product based on LLM at this current time. I don't have high expectations for whether this project will succeed, but from my own perspective, if going through this project can broaden my thinking about AI-related technologies/products to some extent, maybe that's enough.
Overall, I was very confused in 2023 and felt that I didn't learn much. I have been internalizing everything and constantly feeling like a failure, feeling meaningless every day. I hope that in the new department in 2024, I can rekindle my passion and have more positive motivation.