从台积电主管到全职自媒体：瓦基的阅读、习惯与复利人生

Giving up a managerial position at TSMC to switch to this new path must have been a huge internal struggle, right?

I remember at that time there was an incident in Taroko Gorge.

Accident and I was actually supposed to be on that bus.

At that time I was thinking about resigning every week.

Every time I would tell myself next week, next week, next week, next week.

But after I saw that news I couldn't sleep at all for two nights.

If at that moment I had just closed my eyes and never woken up, would I regret not having tried something different?

It was a risky, uncertain, but very challenging path.

While working as a supervisor, I managed to achieve the highest certification.

And at the same time, I gradually brought my so-called side business up to match my income at TSMC.

That was when I started to consider things differently.

At that stage, I realized that what I wanted in life wasn't just my job title or how much money I had saved.

What mattered more to me was how I spent each day.

Am I spending every moment after I wake up doing what I truly want to do?

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Hello everyone, I am Dr. Song Yeren.

Welcome to the Churi guest room.

Today our guest comes from a field we've never explored before.

What kind of person is he? He is a storyteller.

Today we are honored to have Waki as our guest.

Hello Waki.

Hello Dr. Song, I'm very happy to see you.

I'm really glad we could invite such a special person.

Especially when I saw your background, when I saw TSMC manager, I immediately thought, "Hmm, you must be an older gentleman, right?"

But how come you're such a young guy?

Right, how is it that someone so young? Let's talk about this. Could you introduce yourself to us?

Well my name is Waji and in English it's spelled W-A-K-I.

This name has a bit of a rebellious feel to it.

So back then, when I started at TSMC, I worked my way up from engineer to manager.

I see.

I just felt like I really truly wanted to do something significantly different within this incredibly vast and complex system.

At TSMC, what everyone seems to learn is, this ironclad culture, you know, made me feel like Psy,

I wanted to lead my subordinates in a different way that I personally thought was more ideal.

So I started reading books on leadership and management and I found it all so interesting.

Not only could I lead my team in a better way, but I could also arrange my own personal growth and life rhythm really well.

Before I turned 30, I actually didn't like reading extracurricular books at all.

After finishing my exams and entering society, I really didn't want to touch books at all.

But it was precisely because I encountered these issues in the workplace and in my personal life rhythm that I started reading extracurricular books.

That's when I realized that there is a house of golden books.

All the wisdom is in there.

When I had this realization, I felt like I needed to take a lot of notes.

But later I thought, taking notes just for myself felt like enjoying it alone.

So why not let everyone enjoy it together?

So after that, every week I started sharing an article, sharing my reflections after finishing a book.

So besides just reading and reading on my own, I kept sharing and sharing as well.

That's how I developed a real interest in it.

You now have a blog called Reading Out Post and also a podcast channel.

Is this something like a full-time job for you?

Now it's already my full-time job.

So you went full-time giving up your managerial position at TSMC to switch to this new path.

That must have been a big internal struggle, right?

What made you suddenly change tracks? Was it just because you suddenly realized you loved reading?

I think it was also books that opened up my career and life for me.

My perspective on life broadened.

That when I first joined the company as a fresh graduate, my dream at the time was to keep working at TSMC,

become a manager and getting promoted, way to senior executive position, retire at 65.

That was all I wanted back then, just that simple.

But as I read more and more books and my reading became broader and deeper,

I realized that my perspective had changed because I read so much from different fields,

I started to see how authors from various backgrounds lived their lives.

That sparked a lot of imagination in me.

Before, I only thought about following this one path, so I just kept going down it.

But later on, I realized that there could be a hundred different paths in life.

When we see more, we understand how to choose.

But when we haven't seen anything else, we might think that's the only path there is.

So while I was working, I also started doing side projects such as book sharing.

At that time, I even started recording podcasts.

During that stage, I gradually realized that what I wanted in life wasn't just about my job title.

It wasn't just about how much money I had saved or how I looked in other people's eyes.

What I cared more about was whether every minute and every moment after I woke up each day

was spent doing what I truly wanted to do.

So I started reading a lot about social media.

Whenever I had questions or felt confused, I would go straight to books in the relevant field to look for answers.

And then I'd try out what I learned.

So while I was working as a manager and achieving the best performance ratings,

I also built up a source of income within those same two years.

I was gradually able to catch up to the income I was making at TSMC.

So basically, I was doing both at the same time.

As I kept at it, things got better and better.

Only then did I start to consider what kind of life I really wanted.

In fact, what I wanted was a life that was a bit more carefree.

So I realized that if I kept pushing myself like this, this isn't the life I don't want to be this five years.

I remember at the time there was an accident in Taroko Gorge, which happened in the Hualien-Taitung area on the East Coast where I'm from, Taitung.

One time I was planning to take the train home during a holiday when tickets were cheap.

It was the weekend before that accident.

Some work arrangements got cancelled, so I didn't catch that train, which turned out to be a good thing.

Good, you didn't get on that train.

When I saw the news, I was really shocked.

I realized I was supposed to be on that train.

At that time, I actually thought about quitting every week, but I never brought it up.

Every time I told myself, "Next week, next week, next week, next week."

But after I saw that news, I couldn't sleep at all for two nights.

As a result, the following Monday, I handed in my resignation.

It was only then that I truly had the courage to make this decision, because that shock to my life made me realize,

if in that moment I had closed my eyes and never woken up, would I regret not having tried another path?

A path that was risky, uncertain, but also full of challenge.

Now I can understand how you felt at that moment.

Back then, you really said, "This life was given back to me, so I have to make good use of it."

That's right.

And now the way you're living is something you enjoy and you're achieving a lot.

Yes.

Really, congratulations to you.

So now I want to start looking at your professional journey, starting from your book talks,

and then how you also promote reading through your blog and podcast.

The first thing is, "Why do you think this is such an important thing?

I really like a quote from Gandhi of India.

He said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

When I was choosing books at that time, it was extremely difficult.

I searched online and realized, "Sai, what kind of management books should I look for?"

I spent a long time searching and still couldn't find anything.

Wow, it's really hard to find books.

That's when I realized this was something I could do.

And I'm also very grateful for all the feedback I've received from listeners and readers,

which let me know that they've seen this person.

So as a knowledge-based KOL, how do you view the act of book reviewing?

What do you think is the difference between that and your own actual reading?

In other words, what's the difference between me listening to you read and me reading by myself?

I have a supervisor in the front desk electromechanical department named Hao Shuli.

He once said something that I strongly agree with.

If a person either listens to others' review books nor reads by themselves, that person is double illiterate.

On the other hand, if a person listens to a book review and after listening becomes interested,

and then goes to read the book, that's a win-win situation.

If that person is even more diligent and both these things, after doing them,

and writes a short article to share others, that's internalizing it once, sharing it again with others,

that's a triple win.

We don't lack information, including the vast amount from AI.

I can ask AI, so why do I need a book and read it from beginning to end and finish the whole thing?

Or some people might think, what does this have to do with my life?

Western concepts don't apply to Taiwanese workplaces.

Things don't work that way.

What do I do when I read a book?

Let's say a book about the workplace.

I consider the principles and which apply to the environment here in Taiwan.

This way of reviewing books becomes something that everyone can understand,

and for me, it's about how I can actually use it.

I even really enjoy creating templates.

When I encounter conflicts, I think how to handle them,

and I make template notes for situations.

Or when I come across different workplace scenarios, I make many of them.

So I really like turning things from books into little templates that I can refer to later.

And after sharing and explaining these things, they can be extremely helpful to readers.

In this age of information overload, how do you think we should filter out the more useful

For example, if I know nothing about the field of weight loss,

I would first use AI to search and ask,

in the field of weight loss, who are all the authoritative figures in Taiwan?

List their references and backgrounds so I can do some filtering myself.

Then, based on certain criteria, help me further filter out the most representative and feasible ones,

and then proceed to the next step of searching.

Of course, a lot of people might stop at the first layer, just out of laziness.

So, like, after I ask my first question, I just stop there, thinking that's the answer.

Oh no, no, no.

In your first query, there might still be some hallucinations or incorrect information.

You really need to use your own judgment and then go on to the second and third layers of filtering.

In fact, I really think this is worth investing in.

I've also heard that you're good at using something called, it's called card box notes to organize knowledge.

Cards and notebooks are actually quite special things.

They originated from the academic circles in Germany.

One card at a time, kind of like this, cards that are a bit bigger than business cards.

You write the concept on it and then create some indexes between the concepts.

For example, this is card 1-1, and this is card 1-2, and so on.

You organize them and put them into card boxes one box after another.

This was the method used about 50 years ago.

Nowadays, the approach is to convert them into digital form.

The key idea behind cards and notes is that the most important thing is the connections between the cards.

For example, if I want to assemble a braised pork rice recipe, do I need to?

When making the sauce, you might not know which ingredients to buy.

You might not know how long to cook it or how much sugar to add.

This kind of thing, this vast body of knowledge, if you use cards to break it down, it becomes simpler.

Once you've organized the technique for making the sauce using cards, you can even stack these cards together,

and that becomes the technique for making the sauce.

If you want to make minced pork noodles, you can combine the minced pork noodles with the braising sauce,

and that becomes something else entirely.

What really matters is that the cards are very small.

Each one is probably just 2 or 300 words.

You need to clearly explain a concept in 300 words.

I think creating a card isn't really difficult at all.

But searching for it or retrieving it later is a bit challenging.

How do you find it again after you've created it?

AI can read through all of my notes because I have nearly 4,000 cards, 4,000 small note cards.

I now have my own personal knowledge base, so the time it takes for input and output has become extremely, extremely fast.

According to your podcast, notes are divided into so-called inspiration notes, literature notes, and permanent notes.

Inspiration notes, simply put, are like when we're out walking and need to record a voice memo, those very scattered thoughts, OK?

They haven't yet been written in a publishable form. That's what we call inspiration notes.

So-called literature notes are when I see a key point and think about what my own ideas are.

You interpret it in your own words.

Literature notes can be quite extensive.

Because you are referencing a particular piece of literature,

turning it into a permanent note is different.

The permanent in permanent note means that you transform these inspirations and literature notes into something you can use permanently in the future.

So actually, when it comes to reading, you just mentioned that before the age of 30,

you didn't have the habit of reading extracurricular books, you only read textbooks.

How did you transform that into such a broad reading habit and accumulation?

Actually, when I talk about weight loss, I often say especially regarding diet that it's really a matter of habit.

Instead of just following the methods in some of our books and stopping after you're done,

if you revert to old eating habits, your weight loss will fail.

Many ask, "Dr. Song, if I succeed with your diet, can I return to normal food?"

I ask, "What do you mean by normal food?"

They say, "The food I used to eat, I tell them that food made you gain weight and it still will."

I say the best way to maintain your weight is to develop good habits.

I think that building habits is really important.

So how do you develop these habits? Do you have any insights or experiences you can share?

When I first became a manager, I was quite confused.

I started reading and sharing articles and at the beginning I set a goal for myself to share one article every week.

Then I realized that it was because my daily routine was really irregular.

So when things are irregular, even if I want to share something, it ends up being irregular too.

So later on, I started to think about whether there was a time in my life when my energy was full

and I could finish that task first before facing the challenges of the whole day.

After doing a lot of analysis, I realized that the morning, the hour and a half before work, was that time.

That's my golden time.

In the morning, I get up at six o'clock sharp, then do half an hour of yoga, spend another half hour reading,

and then another half hour writing.

So in an hour and a half, I do these three things.

And then for the rest of the work day, I can fully devote myself to my job.

I've been very consistent about doing this.

I stick to this schedule for six days a week.

So you can imagine that when you add up all that time, it really adds up to a significant amount.

It's the compounding effect.

Honestly, I keep it very simple.

I just write 300 words of reflections each day.

That's it.

300 words, six days a week.

If you casually add a bit more, it easily becomes over 2,000 words.

After developing this great habit, my output became consistent, my energy stabilized,

and my performance at work improved as well.

In fact, having a regular routine allowed me to create even more.

The greatest freedom.

If there's ever a day when you don't manage to do it, do you feel like, "Oh no, I've messed up"?

My plan is ruined.

What's interesting is that because I have an engineering background,

I tend to look at many things from the perspective of success rates.

I'm not really the type to...

Equally.

Yeah, we look at yield rates, which means,

well, 70% is not bad, 80% is pretty good.

We look at things at that level.

We don't expect 100%.

Everyone tends to think that stopping midway is a failure.

But I have a few little tricks.

The first is that I set what I call a flexible habit.

For example, when it comes to writing, I say 300 words is my average.

But I tell myself that at the very least, I have to write one golden sentence today.

This is what I call a mini version of the habit.

And I also set a standard version, which is to write 300 words.

And I have an advanced version where I take those 300 words

and turn them into a 500-word short essay.

I have three versions of the habit.

That habit has become something where there's a very simple version,

a slightly more challenging version.

But the fun part is that as long as I do this, I will never completely fail.

I achieve a small success every day or a moderate success

or even a huge success.

So this is a flexible habit and combined with what I just mentioned,

because a lot of people might record that only writing 300 words counts as achieving the goal.

So you might feel like, oh, there are some days when you just can't even manage 300 words

or there are days when you can't even write a single sentence.

If I'm not feeling well, if I have to work overtime that day

or I really need to catch up on sleep, I'll let myself off the hook.

After accumulating for a month, I might find that my success rate is only 70% or 80%.

That's okay. That's great.

Before I developed this habit, my success rate, 0, going from 0 to 80.

Isn't that an incredible improvement?

So I always give myself this kind of inner voice.

For example, I have the habit of keeping a journal.

I'm always growing, always moving forward, always accumulating small victories.

This is a bit like our strategy for losing weight.

If you really want to eat carbs today, then just eat carbs.

Losing weight isn't about being rigid and unchanging from start to finish.

If you go on a trip today and come back a little heavier, say two kilos, it's fine.

Just reset and get back on track when you return.

So I think, just like you said, even small successes are better than doing nothing at all.

So I think we can talk about this and bring it up during our conversation.

The compounding effect.

I think honestly when I was younger, this concept was a mystery to me.

Now that I'm in my 60s looking back on life, I realized that everything we do has a ripple effect.

So I'd like to ask you, as someone so young, how were you able to grasp the concept of the compounding effect?

Could you share your perspective, not only as an individual, but also from an engineer's point of view,

and based on your life experiences?

First, let's talk about financial compounding.

How would you explain it as an engineer?

Second, let's discuss whether there's such a thing as compounding in health.

And third, with your long-term habits of reading and writing,

you must have some deep insights into the accumulation of knowledge,

what we might call the compounding effect of knowledge.

My family education in the past only taught me one concept, don't take too many risks.

So in my first few years in society, I put all my money into fixed deposits.

But later, I realized that this wasn't going to work.

That's why I started reading a lot of books on personal finance.

It was kind of like having an epiphany after reading them.

The approach I adopted is called passive index investing.

The strategy I use for this is called reinvesting dividends.

Reinvesting dividends means that every year, your stock portfolio might pay you dividends.

This interest, you shouldn't take it out to enjoy yourself.

However much dividend you get, just use all of it to buy more.

I've been investing for about eight years now.

Looking back, I am truly, truly grateful that I was willing to adopt this strategy back then.

I can really feel the power of healthy compounding.

As long as I still have my hands and feet and I can use my voice to speak with everyone like this,

I want to maintain this healthy state.

So I absolutely have to do it.

There are a lot of healthy routines I need to arrange,

including exercising and maintaining a healthy diet.

If I don't take care of these things while I'm still young,

when my condition gets worse and worse in the future, it will be very hard to reverse it.

That's why I care a lot about my health.

The last thing is about the compounding effect of knowledge.

Before I had read so many books, I felt, I thought what was on my mind was,

at that time, I had a background in mechanical engineering and was also programming.

So what I was thinking about was, how does this mechanical design work?

But later, after I read a lot of books, I realized that for the same thing,

I could interpret it in many different ways.

That kind of compounding effect of knowledge after it accumulates

makes me feel so enriched when I face those things in the future.

It's like compared to the black and white world I saw before,

now I feel the whole world is full of vibrant colors.

That's really how I feel.

I personally feel that what you described is a reflection of my own life experience in the past,

a reflection of this period.

The investment strategy, you can see the benefits in seven years.

Do you reach my age?

The effect of compound interest should be incredible.

Health, I think even more so.

For example, when we do some fitness activities, you'll find getting stronger and stronger.

In March, I went to challenge the Young Mingsion Grand Slam.

At 67, I've never cycled this far.

144 kilometers with 4,200 m elevation gain.

But then I realized the feeling I get from riding every day,

I notice that little progress every day, a little improvement day.

That compound effect, when the day came, I was only short.

I was only five kilometers short, but I didn't finish the whole ride.

For someone like me who had never ridden a long distance before to make it far,

I felt really proud at that moment.

At this age, to take on this challenge, as you said, I'm grateful for this opportunity.

Now, we've come to the show where every guest has to face the interrogation.

Is having reading biases a bad thing?

It's actually a good thing. It means you know yourself.

Are morning people truly and demonstrably more productive and efficient

It doesn't matter which type you are at all.

Productive people are just productive people.

That's so straightforward. If you're not a productive person, you're doomed.

No matter if you get up early or late, it's the same either way.

Which book would you recommend to the viewers of our channel?

There's a book called I May Be Wrong.

Yes, that's the title. It's also like a mantra.

Every time, as long as I recite I may be wrong before a conflict happens,

I can turn things around. What do you think?

What important habits do people often overlook?

Men sitting down to pee when using the restroom.

That's a common habit.

That should be developed. I've always failed at it.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Because I...

This is supposed to be a quick Q&A, but I have to ask why.

If you're the one responsible for cleaning the bathroom,

you'll notice that when you clean the toilet,

you'll realize that if men could sit down to pee, it would make things so much easier.

Guys, don't make a mess.

Yeah, don't make a mess, exactly.

Which particular author would you most like to have a delightful dinner with?

My idol is James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits.

Which concept from a book do you still find really useful to this day?

There's a concept, and the book's title is the same.

Don't react to everything.

If you find a book boring halfway through, should you force yourself to finish it?

Just toss it or sell it right away.

If a book is boring, it means it's not worth your time right now.

If someone wants to quit their job to become a self-media creator, what advice would you give?

Definitely don't quit your job right away.

Yes, my advice is, if you can succeed while still working, then you'll succeed.

But if you can't make it work while you have a job, you'll definitely fail if you quit.

Okay, okay, okay, that's very honest advice.

Alright, that wraps up our quick Q&A.

And for being so successful at it...

Thank you, Dr. Song.