Gamefi

 GameFI

This visual, sourced from the famous cryptocurrency tracking website Coingecko, provides an overview of the launch and failure of GameFi Projects (Gaming Finance) in the last five years.

Generally, each year the number of failed projects was less than but close to the launched projects. The only year the failed project was higher than the launched ones is 2022, with 693 new and 742 failed web3 games. On average, the failure-to-launch ratio is approximately 75%. 

In the downturn period from 2018 to 2020, there was a gradual decline in GameFi startups. It just suddenly surged in 2021 when the crypto market turned bullish. This year recorded the lowest percentage of failed gaming projects.

Overall, most GameFi will bankrupt in the first year of launching, and investing in this field is still a risky game.

031 - jaken - 30/11/2023

English Proficiency Index

This visual demonstrates the EF English Proficiency Index of Vietnam. It includes an overview and proficiency trends by year and age group.

Vietnam ranked no 58 and scored 505, a moderate proficiency level. That score is similar to the global average score of 502. In the top-right chart, we can see that Vietnamese proficiency level significantly increased in the 2011-2013 period, from a very low to moderate level in 2 years, then maintained this sideway trend to 2023.

In specific age groups, the trends vary. While younger individuals decreased in proficiency a little from 2015 to 2023. The older groups show a significant increase. This change reflects a movement from younger to older groups.

In summary, Vietnamese reached a plateau in English fluency. The country stayed at a moderate level for ten years and didn't improve much. 

Source: https://www.ef.com/wwen/epi/regions/asia/vietnam/

30 - jaken - 29/11/2023

Cursed with knowledge

Knowledge is somewhat like money, people tend to want more than what they have. However, sometimes it causes suffering rather than peace.

Once some know much, they'll be less likely to understand the thoughts of those who have less information than them. Although everyone used to be naive, they forgot their past innocence once they gained experience and built new biases.

In some manner, life includes many anomalies, injustices, and sorrow. While a mind sees raw truth without a right mental filter, it will hurt them like a thorn in the eye. And this is the curse: they will reject to discard their understanding, craving for more things that lead them to unhappiness.

In the end, those who have wise pains may find themselves admiring naivety, but no longer want a fooled joy.

028 - jaken - 27/11/2023

Don’t break the streak.

Don’t break the streak.

Today I feel exhausted. As I reflect on my recent endeavors and the lengthy journey that lies ahead. A thought of giving up emerges. Therefore I write for myself some motivative words:

Jaken, you did a good job in discipline writing, at least 30 minutes each day, among other small tasks. You don't see any results now, but they will manifest once you've completed your journey.

Recall the reason why you started and the fulfillment you got with each completed step. You're making progress, bit by bit, every day. Regardless of what others said, your friends and family saw all and always supported you, but you need to be on your side too.

Your emotions are just illusions, not real struggles that cannot be overcome. If the streak is broken once, it could be two, or three until all process and motivation dissipate. All your past efforts could become nothing, and you would regret the moment of weakness.

Please don't break the streak.

027 - jaken - 26/11/2023

Artificial general intelligence (AGI)

When the CEO of OpenAI was fired a week ago, there were rumors about a huge step in the development of artificial intelligence. Newspapers said that OpenAi might create a model that can solve grade school math problems. And it could lead to the creation of AGI.

In recent years, computers have outperformed human beings in many intelligence-type tasks. Start with handwriting, speech, and image recognition. After that is language processing and generation. There are fields in which AI is still not as good as humans. But with its rapid development speed, the time when robots reach the intelligent level of man is very near.

Such creatures are so powerful. An intelligent computer could think a million times faster than a human. After being created, It could absorb all the knowledge of humankind on the internet and become better than any of us. That's the singularity, while homo sapiens no longer stay on top of the Earth's food chain.

A brand new Doomsday Clock is ticking.

025 - jaken - 24/11/2023

Phishing

Every day, internet users receive countless emails, messages, and notifications from strangers around the world. This notorious scam called phishing, was born before the internet and became a dreadful threat in the digital age.

Some people might wonder: "Who will fall for such simple schemes?" The success of phishing is based on the law of large numbers. With thousands or even millions of messages sent out, there are always some people who read and follow the instructions in them. Maybe they are just naive, curious, or get drunk that day.

The next step, the scammer will trick victims into sending them money, and private information or downloading a virus onto personal computers. And thanks to blockchain technology, sometimes people could lose their entire cryptocurrency in a few clicks. And it's so hard to investigate these frauds; the culprits could be anywhere with a laptop and a criminal mind.

There are two sides to every coin. And this is one of the costs for the convenience of modern technologies.

024 - Jaken - 23/11/2023

Overcoming the plateau

 Overcoming the plateau

Six years ago, I weighed 75 kg and was dissatisfied with my body. Therefore I set a target to reduce my weight to 63kg. But I failed several times while reaching a plateau at 65kg.

In the initial year, I bought and rode a bicycle to the office every day. Two hours of exercising a day improved my health. As a result, one kilogram was reduced from my body per month. However, after a year, I was stuck at 65 and could not improve. It discouraged me, and when I stopped practicing, my weight quickly rebounded above 70kg.

In the following years, I got the motivation to practice several times, but each time I always failed to overcome the plateau. The circle of gaining and losing weight continued. Until the time I tried hard enough, the miracle happened and I finally achieved my goal.

Now I have a new plan for maintaining my current weight. It's continuing practice to decrease body fat and increase muscle mass. 

023 - Jaken - 22/11/2023

Secret conversation

Secret conversation

When my youngest sister was a little girl. Sometimes we were at home and spoke in English. Because there are some secrets we wanna hide from our parents.

I connect with my mother on Facebook. And I still thought she didn't understand my post when I wrote in English. Until one day, she commented about a secret in my text.

I remember days when I stayed in my hometown. Each morning I woke up early, and I saw she was learning English on Duolingo. And when her sister-in-law from Germany visited Vietnam, my mom used Google Translate to communicate.

Thanks to all technology, my mom caught up with her kids' generation.

021 - jaken - 20/11/2023

Cryptocurrency November

The provided charts reveal some intel about the cryptocurrency market for the month of November. The first chart shows market volume in Billion Dollars, spanning from 2014 to the present. The second chart is the Fear & Greed Index, a complex indicator that measure the cryptocurrency market sentiment over the last 180 days.

The volume chart highlights the remarkable growth of cryptocurrency market. From a small market with only millions of trading per day in 2014, It exponentially increased to an ATH at 200 billion daily volume in 2021. In just 7 years, the market liquidity expanded by ten thousand times. During the "crypto winter" period from 2021 to 2023, the volume shrunk to 20 billion. However, from September to November 2023, the market showed signs of recovery while doubling its volume to approximately 40 billion per day.

The lower chart displays the correlation between trading volume and trader sentiment. As the trading volume increased from September, the market sentiment shifted towars greed. Compared with the previous time when no influx of new money, the sentiment dipped into Fear. An interesting observation is that at the bottom of the market, traders show a stable negative feeling. Notably, there was no extreme fear for a prolonged period.

020 - jaken - 19/11/2023

Better than me

Better than me

I often revisit my writing posts for learning. Because they're something better than mine. It sounds peculiar but let's take a closer look into my writing process to see the reason.

First of all, I maintain a list of writing ideas that I write down when they cross my mind. One will be picked for my daily writing task. Sometimes I run out of ideas, then I will search them in old documents, chat groups, or random quotes I come across.

Secondly, I write my little essay by a standard formula. An outline will break down the main idea into detailed components, including an introduction, several body paragraphs, and a final conclusion. After that, I finished the essay and tried to identify and correct my errors independently.

Thirdly, my essay will be refined using online applications. Grammarly will assist me in identifying the errors that I might have overlooked, while Google will suggest synonyms and paraphrases to enhance my text. Bingchat will guide me on how to make the language more fluid and natural. Thanks to their assistance, a superior version of my original work will be produced.

The final script contains newly learned vocabulary and structures that I aim to remember. Therefore I must take time to learn them and make them become my own knowledge.

019 - jaken - 18/11/2023

Mind and body are connected

The physical body and mental mind are profoundly linked. Such that alterations in one can significantly impact the other.

When an individual gets ill and experiences a chemical imbalance, their emotional stability may be compromised. They may suffer from negative feelings like anxiety, sadness, or depression. In contrast, a physically healthy person tends to be more serene, relaxed, and peaceful. For that reason keeping an eye on physical health is a way to take care of emotional wellness.

Similarly, the spirit could alter the flesh in the same way. While human beings are interpersonally insulted, they go through pain like tangible would. Thus we saw many idioms using physical pain as a metaphor for emotional suffering, such as "cut to the bone", "a thorn in one's side", or "twist the knife". Furthermore, a positive mental state can enhance physical health, the placebo is a great example.

In conclusion, it is essential to care for both the spirit and the flesh. In challenging times, when either the mind or body suffers, focusing on the well-being of the other can facilitate overall healing.

018 - jaken - 17/11/2023

Weight control

Some want to lose weight, others want to gain weight or keep fit. All those actions share the same approach and difficulties.

First of all, exercise is a requirement. The human body is smart and it knows what is good and bad for itself - only if it is healthy. While practicing daily, the hormones will be more balanced, and all internal organs will operate normally. The training time may vary from thirty minutes to many hours depending on each one's plan and goal. 

Secondly, control the carbs that you consume every day. If the intake of calories is greater than the outcome, you will gain weight. The lose weight formula is the opposite. And if they are equal, your mass will be stable. A diet diary is an effective tool, practitioners can write down what they eat, how long they practice, and estimate the calories.

The method is clear and simple, but many people still fail to manage their body size. It's a long journey that needs motivation to begin, and discipline to keep going for months to years. And you will also face some other troubles in some periods. For example a plateau: sometimes you reach a particular weight, and it does not increase nor decrease although you keep practicing and dieting. That's the time for a higher intensity exercise and a stricter diet.

With a good plan and continuous working out, I believe that we could control our weight, for a healthier and happier life.

016 - jaken - 15/11/2023

Phone number

Every weekday, during working hours, I receive several calls from unknown salespeople attempting to advertise their products. Most of these annoying calls are in real estate and finance. There are moments I contemplate blocking all strange numbers, but that action would also prevent me from shippers and other essential services. Sometimes I wonder when the phone system will disappear since we are using it less by and by.

I seldom use my phone to call or send SMS messages. Instead, social networks and chat apps are more convenient and cost-effective communication tools. However, such applications need a bridge between digital and physical worlds, a hybrid ID. When you register a new email or social platform account, a phone number is typically required. And if you forget your password, you can always recover your account using the phone. Now it has become a part of infrastructure, a passport we need to enter the internet.

But is it a necessity permanent? Will phone numbers always be a part of our lives? In the future when we have 6G or higher level technology, every device could be interconnected and available all the time, and other innovative identification methods could be adopted. That might be the time the phone number will go to the museum.

014 - jaken - 13/11/2023

Power Cut

As I was learning on my laptop, the light suddenly turned off, and all the apartments around me changed to a dark theme. I found myself having nothing to do in the dark when I was unplugged.

Most of my life is chronically online: my work, my finances, my learning plan, and even my friends and family, since I live far away from them. Therefore I felt lost and confused when I was disconnected. I opened the door, and my neighbor across the hall did the same, then a wind blew through the space, replacing the fan that had stopped working.

I plan to unplug twice a month, during that time I will go out with new friends and refresh my body and mind. But in a metropolis, people expect electricity and water to be permanent. It's hard to live in a city without those convenient utilities.

This is the second blackout this November, and there are rumors that it will be unstable in the coming times. What a shame that a monopolistic company only raised its loss on the media to increase the price without improving its service.

Vietnam needs a better system, such as a free electric market.

013 - jaken - 12/11/2023

Sense of insecurity

Many of us feel uncertain and unconfident in ourselves. This sense of insecurity can make us unhappy, but it can also be a motivating force for improvement.

A lack of confidence can lead to sadness and depression. This can be related to one’s skills, appearance, or financial status when compared to others or their own goals and targets. For example, I feel very uncomfortable about my English pronunciation, which makes me nervous when speaking.

On the other hand, when we are self-aware of our weaknesses, it can motivate us to develop ourselves. At the same time, by recognizing our weak points, we can imagine a better version of ourselves that we want to become and try to realize it. If you are satisfied with your current status, why do you want to change?

Finally, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and it’s normal to be imperfect. Therefore it’s important to focus on self-improvement and personal growth, which can boost your confidence over time.

012 - jaken - 11/11/2023

Why do old scams always work?

 Why do old scams always work?

With Bitcoin’s price surging in recent days, the market sentiment turned to FOMO. As usual, I got messages from friends seeking advice on cryptocurrency tokens.

This time It is a combination of gamefi, high yield, and multi-level marketing. A quick Google search revealed a strange symbol with approximately 500 holders and a daily trading volume of 8000 USD on a small exchange. The market cap of this token was an amazing number: 4 billion dollars, with its price skyrocketing ten thousand times in just three months.

You may think that was an awesome investment opportunity. Imagine if if someone had invested $1000 in this token three months ago, they could sell it now and become extraordinarily wealthy. Actually, with such thin liquidity (8k/day), one could only realize a few thousand dollars when you dump all your coins into the market. What all those investors did was lock their tokens in the project portal, and watch their account balance grow daily with high interest. 

They could also share the fantastic opportunity for financial freedom and retire early with friends and relatives. When a new investor enters the system, the referrer receives a commission, as does the referrer's referrer. Most continue to reinvest their money, hoping to be richer.

This scam scheme was invented a century ago and remains tremendously effective now. Over the years, I've seen many new investors fall prey to such Ponzi pyramids, lured by the trust in a good friend and their naive greed. I've also witnessed old victims trying to game the scam by joining early and planning to exit with a profit, or MLM leaders who learned the art of get-rich-quick created their own scams and hunted for new innocent money.

In the end, most of us will fall for a scam at least once, gaining experience from the pain. But is it necessary to be suffering for the knowledge that we could learn easily through more convenient ways such as books, movies, or financial courses?

011 -jaken -10/11/2023

Alone in a big city

 Alone in a big city

Last Saturday morning, I had arranged to meet friends at an elegant and tranquil café. The place was perfect with cozy interiors and a verdant patio at the fore. Arriving early, I picked a small table in a chill corner where I could observe the splendid cafeteria.

When one of my friends arrived, she was pleased with the store but wondered why it was so deserted. While its atmosphere and drinks were awesome, the coffee shop could not generate enough profit with this amount of customers.

We chatted about some miscellaneous topics while calling for the last friend. The phone rang but she didn't answer. Firstly we thought she was riding on the street. However, after two hours and ten missed calls, we started to worry about what was happening.

We contemplated visiting her house to make sure that she was okay. But none of us knew her current address. I had visited her previous boardinghouse but just forgot the address, and she had moved to a new location recently. We also failed to connect with her sister who is living abroad.

The topic switched to how isolated metropolitans are. Although we have the technology that shortens the distance, we are more separated now in the vast city.

I thought about me and all adults who are living alone in urban areas. If something were to happen to us in our room. How long would it take for someone to find out? Our neighbors know nothing more than the number on our closed doors. It could take weeks until the organic matter becomes putrid and notifies nearby residents by the fetid air.

The flow of negative thoughts was only interrupted when our friend finally responded to us in a tired whisper: she had overslept that morning.

010 - jaken - 09/11/2023

Wrong measurement

When I decided to practice writing daily, my initial goal was to write longer pieces. Because I felt uncomfortable about the length of my previous texts, I often found myself counting words, despite my teacher’s advice to focus on ideas rather than word count.

I set a target to write more than a hundred words per day and try to make each post longer than the previous one. After completing an article, I used Bing Chat to check my grammar and spelling. However, because I used the wrong measurement and wrong validation tool, my work was improved in quantity but unknowingly compromised on quality.

Fortunately, my friend Chau noticed my mistakes and suggested me a new tool. With it, I revisited all my posts and recognized the flaws in my approach. Now I am adding more metrics to my system and will continue to adjust them until I find a more effective way to evaluate my work.

Effort leads to success, but only if we are on the right track.

009 - jaken - 09/11/2023

running for a happier life

I chose running for exercise because it's a low-cost activity. All I need to prepare are shoes and discipline, then I can practice anywhere at any time that is suitable for me. Sometimes I can run with friends, but teaming is not a requirement.

When running alone, I can run at my own pace, a little slower than other runners but I'm okay with it. Because the main opponent that I have is only me. And I know I can surpass myself if I try harder. Each time I break my limit and set a new record, my confidence builds up a little more. It brings me the satisfaction of fulfilling myself.

Jogging also helps me relax from stress and have better sleep. The more intensive my body is, the more ease my mind becomes. Compared with real physical hardships, mental pains are so insignificant. Anyway, mind and body are connected, when training the body, we also strengthen the mind.

On the running track, I see the simple path to happiness: setting an achievable goal and then trying hard to realize it. And that is the enjoyment we could experience every day.

008 - jaken - 07/11/2023

learning is hard and slow

learning is hard and slow

I've finished the second book in a series of machine learning documents that is recommended for beginners. It is almost the same as the first one and contains things that I already knew. Hence I recognized how hard and long the pursuit of knowledge is.

It takes months for a baby to learn their first word, with hundreds to thousands of attempts and corrections from the parents. The acquisition of other skills is the same: we must try and adjust many times before we "learn" those skills perfectly. There are some ways to learn better than others, but there are no shortcuts in developing knowledge.

When I studied machine learning, I found that artificial intelligence acts the same as natural one. The machine has a ton of data to learn from, but how many times does it need to process that information? Like us, it reads the data again and again, tries and adjusts itself until insights are archived. The learning process of a computer is mostly not complex, but the summary of trillions simple calculations.

In summary, all the intelligence systems are learning in a dummy way. And it may be the only way possible for us.

007 - jaken - 06/11/2023

Hiking Ba Den Mountain

Hiking Ba Den Mountain

After a long time, today I returned to Ba Den Mountain for trekking and climbing.

There were years when my friends and I visited this place monthly. We usually planned a weekend bike trip to Tay Ninh province, hiked to the top of the mountain, and camped there. Sometimes we just challenged ourselves with a one-day trek and then explored the city. In my memory, It often rained when I was in the middle of the trail. And I keep in mind the cold water on my burning muscles, the wet tent in the howling of the wind.

We suddenly stopped that travel habit. Perhaps some of us got married and needed to spend time with families, or health conditions prevented one member from embarking on a new journey. And when I heard about a cable car and a large construction project on top of the mountain, I lost the desire to visit Mrs. Black again.

Today, I had a chance to visit the mountain again with new friends. Everything seemed the same, except my weaker muscle. The building is still under construction and looks out of place among the trees. However, it does have some positive uses: half of the trekking team used the cable car to return to the foot of the mountain when they ran out of stamina in the morning.

006 - jaken - 05/11/2023

randomness in a banana hand

randomness in a banana hand

I have a big plate in my kitchen where I usually put a hand of bananas that stays still there and waiting to be ripe.

Throughout the day, I go around and look for the yellow, flecked with brown. Ideally, the bananas would be ripe one by one. And I could have each at its most delicious state.

But life is impermanent. Sometimes the ripening process was too long, and I had to consume a greenish or light green fruit. Sometimes when I woke up, all the hand was ripped and I had to find some ways to handle it before it became overriped and rotten.

In a positive view, these bananas teach me a lesson about expectations versus reality, how to handle unstable phenomena in a dynamic world.

And how to make banana ice cream.

005 -jaken - 04/11/2023

most of thoughts are just rearrangements of our internal biases

most of thoughts are just rearrangements of internal biases

Once while I was thinking, I paused and read my ideas. None of them were new or fresh, all had been fed to my brain sometimes through books, stories, or other sources. Then I found myself thinking again what others had already imagined, lost in a maze of ingrained prejudices.

Gradually, the feeling of déjà vu grew. I would often have an idea and remember I had thought of it before. For sure my thought was neither deep nor clear. Therefore It came back again and obsessed me for an obvious ending that I couldn't afford.

Does this game of the mind serve a purpose, or do we simply confound ourselves in complex illusions?

004 - jaken -  03/11/2023

Tofu’s life changed dramatically when she moved to the countryside.

 Tofu’s life changed dramatically when she moved to the countryside.

Overall, she has more time, space, and friends to enjoy. However, everything comes with a trade-off. There are new rules she must follow and risks she has to confront.

In the past, Tofu could enjoy delicious meals twice a day and sleep on a comfortable mattress. Her physical and emotional well-being were taken care of, and her schedule was the top priority in Tofu's house.

But now, having left the city to live closer to nature, she is just another little dog. Meals are served only once a day, and she must eat quickly or risk losing some of her food to other dogs.

She has a larger space to run around in, but dangers are also closer to her, ranging from small insects to unfamiliar humans.

In her eyes, I see her love for this newfound freedom, and perhaps a hint of nostalgia for her urban life?

003 - jaken - 02/11/2023

Andriy Burkov The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book

 The book is quite succinct and clear. It could be a good start for beginner, but I'm not sure pure beginner will fully understand it. 

If you start from zero, some online visual course may be better for getting new concepts about machine learning, then you can read this book...

crypto treated me so well

crypto treated me so well

From the time I learned about cryptocurrency in 2016. Two bear markets have passed, and I haven’t stopped researching crypto at any moment.

When I first knew about it, crypto gave me a good new job. Then it taught me about investing and managing money. That was the time when I learned a lot about myself and human nature, more than in many previous years.

In the dark time of the market, I didn't abandon crypto. And during the dark time of my life, crypto lit up my path.

I am so in love with crypto that I fear I might be blinded. Will this love story end happily or tragically?

002 - jaken - 01/11/2023