2024 Review

2024 was quite similar to 2023—it felt like being stuck in a state of structural exhaustion. Work itself was fine, but I had too many unrealistic thoughts outside of work, and my health was poor, which left me physically and mentally drained. Looking back, I can barely remember what I did in 2023, to the point that I didn’t even write a year-end summary. This 2024 review has also been delayed until now—almost a quarter of 2025 has already passed.

Writing

For the past few years, my biggest source of stress and anxiety was an unfinished book. So, my greatest achievement this year was completing the 2nd edition of Flask Web Development Practice. Including the revisions after submission (the publisher's AI review system cost me an extra 50 hours to salvage my manuscript), writing this new edition took a total of 600 hours. The new edition even received an endorsement from Armin Ronacher, the creator of Flask. This book marks a satisfying conclusion to my exploration in the Flask ecosystem. Now, I can take a proper break and explore new things. By the way, due to some organizational changes at the publisher, the book is expected to be released in September, and this time, hopefully, there won’t be any more delays.

Community

The CodeKitchen Community originated from an on-the-spot recruitment I did at the 2022 Open Source Conference. In 2023, six of us held four gatherings, sequentially named Quarter One, Two, Three, and Four. At the last gathering, I solidified the concept of CodeKitchen Community—a fun and useful community focused on people rather than technology, with minimal commercial influence. The main sections of CodeKitchen were defined: Steak Overcooked and Recipes (community forums), Song of Open Source (collaborative open-source projects), and potentially, a CodeKitchen Conference in the future.

In 2023, we hosted the first Song of Open Source. In 2024, we organized the first in-person Song of Open Source at my company's venue. Later in the year, we partnered with PyCon China 2024 to host a Python-themed Song of Open Source. Both in-person events concluded with a performance by the CodeKitchen Band. Through these events, I met many old and new friends and gained a lot of joy. Toward the end of the year, I also rejoined the PyCon China organizing committee, taking on some miscellaneous tasks, mainly planning the Song of Open Source track.

At work, I also experimented with open-source community practices, such as: - Transforming some internal projects to follow open-source standards. - Setting up a complete Markdown document preview and deployment system using Jenkins, encouraging everyone to store documentation in code repositories. - Independently designing and organizing a fun Community Market and two meetups, including the First Office Chair Sliding Competition at Wujiaochang.

Mid-year, I gave a talk at CommunityOverCode 2024 about community-building practices inside and outside the company. Due to limited energy at work, I only gave one talk in 2023—The Endangered Flask Extension Rescue Project at PyCon China 2023. I’ll write a separate article to further reflect on my community-building experiences.

As for open-source projects, there wasn’t much progress—mostly just maintaining old projects. In 2023, I released APIFlask 2.0, and hopefully, APIFlask 3.0 will be completed in 2025.

Life

Just like in 2023, because I was constantly fatigued, the rare days when I felt good physically became exceptionally precious. I still remember a few sunny winter days when I sat in the office, constantly glancing at the trees outside. The leaves glowed under the sunlight, swaying in the wind, and the water shimmered with gentle ripples. A deep sense of happiness filled my heart.

Despite the constant exhaustion, the restless mind, and long bouts of colds, 2024 still had many memorable moments:

• Moved to a place I like more, near Metro Line 3—finally escaping an area dominated by elderly residents.
• Invited my whole family to Shanghai for a few days. We created happy family memories at Disneyland. Just before the park closed, we ran through the crowd under twinkling lights—Yao took my brother and dad on TRON Lightcycle Power Run, while my mom and I enjoyed Winnie the Pooh’s Storybook.
• Learned to swim. On Fridays, I often left work early with colleagues to swim. Swimming gave me a new sense of freedom. Looking at the pool from the deep end brought a feeling of tranquility—light bouncing on the water, blue tiles forming a fluid dreamscape.
• Traveled to Tokyo with Yao to see Li Zhi’s Three Minus One concert. We wandered around Tokyo for a week. During the performance of With You, I secretly slipped a ring onto her finger. After returning, we got married—Yao, my dear high school Chinese class representative. I wonder if one day we’ll run into our history teacher, who once told us we’d never end up together.

Many other joyful moments came from music, games, books, and movies.

Apart from Li Zhi’s Three Missing One, another unforgettable concert was Omnipotent Youth Society's 2023 Mercedes-Benz Arena Show. I still remember the thunder rolling outside before the concert started. The joy from Wonfu's performance lasted for a long time. After exporting my Douban FM favorites playlist to Apple Music, I spent a long time revisiting songs from my high school and college days.

Played the beginnings of several games but only finished Black Myth: Wukong. Most of my gaming hours went into CS2—excluding the 100 hours I played CS:GO in college, I logged about 300 hours this year. Yet, my skills barely improved. I'm obsessed with playing Wingman Mode with my brother or colleagues, always trying to get taser kills.

Watched several movies, but they feel like dark, fleeting dreams interspersed in daily life. I read books sporadically—mostly buying them rather than reading. Recently, I really enjoyed Submarine at Night, especially the first and last stories for their ingenuity and imagination. Bamboo Peak Temple had beautiful twilight descriptions, and Li Yin’s Lake captured the essence of the 80s and 90s.

Work

Three years into my job. To make work less dull, I’ve done my best to integrate my interests. Besides exploring Python and internal open-source communities, I also ventured into performing arts. In 2023, I formed a temporary band, Six O’Clock Mayday, for the department’s annual party. We turned the band’s formation, rehearsals, and performance into this short film, Cheers. Later, I took on various internal event filming and editing tasks.

In 2024, we formed Grey and Friends for the department’s annual party. This time, I also made three versions of promo videos—mystery, comedy, and aerial. For the aerial version, a colleague and I used a drone to capture a one-shot scene flying from the building across the street, through the company terrace, down the floors, and into the event hall. It was fun to see everyone watching the video as if the camera was flying toward them.

There are many more fun experiences from these three years at work—I’ll write about them separately.

New Year’s Resolutions

The past two years have been suffocating, squeezed between writing, work, open-source projects, and community events. In 2025, I hope for a year of expansion—spending more time on myself, relaxing both physically and mentally, reducing time wasted online, and leading a more grounded, peaceful offline life. Thirty feels like a halftime break—a moment to reflect on the next decade.

Most of my goals this year are about happiness:

• Restore my health (80% of a normal person’s level)
• Use English more (especially writing and speaking)
• Learn basic Japanese (memorize the kana chart)
• Learn freestyle swimming (and correct my breaststroke technique)
• Learn to drive (get a license)
• Write Flask Beginner’s Guide (4th edition)
• Release APIFlask 3.0
• Organize at least one CodeKitchen offline event

Even achieving three of these would be enough for me! :P

Wishing myself—and you, who made it to the end—a peaceful and free new year.