My daughter and I arrived in Korea a few days ago. We’re currently under 14-day self-quarantine. I couldn’t imagine what a journey during the pandemic looks like. But my daughter graduated from elementary, and now it’s her summer break, and we’d like to have a family reunion. So, I decided to know what it actually is. View this post on Instagram So desolate.

Finally, I watched the 22nd Episode of Yamato 1 - The Rainbow Star Cluster. It was an incredible story that a genius engineer beats an admiral who planned and executed a perfect strategy. Space Battle Ship Yamato is an extraordinary anime to me. Though (as a Korean) it is hard to have an affinity to the name of Yamato, I loved this anime when I was a child even if mostly I couldn’t watch it.

It has been more than a month passed after the shelter in place order was activated. It would be good if I could say it had been peaceful and dull days, but I couldn’t because I had been sick. TL; DR. Now I’m fine, and I don’t have any idea that it was COVID-19. One thing I can tell is that it was one of the scariest weeks of my life.

Contrary to my wish, WWDC20 is going to be an online-only event. Apple said it would be “a new experience.” I’m positive about the decision. But at the same time, sorry for missing some traditional moments: the midnight line-up, rush for the shop opening, and there would be no WWDC official jacket. Oh, the jacket. It is the only item given to the WWDC attendants for free - except for the conference pass and some badges.

I bought a paperback of “Barbarian Days (William Finnegan).” It is unlikely for me to buy a paper-book in these days (most are e-books), but I buy a few if it is an excellent book. The physical book has some merits over e-books. Most of all, I’d love to pick the book and open any random page, then feel the move when I first read the page. It is the book that has the worth.

My company HQ moved to a new location - Redwood City - from Palo Alto. I think the main reason would be (as I’m not an executive) the cost. The previous office was a sub-lease from a VC. It was located in the head of the University Ave. (a great location!), but it had the inconvenience of the sub-leased office; we had to share the space (and we couldn’t get crazy while watching the NBA final last year).

My new office now has a toaster, and I can toast a bagel for breakfast. I love bagels for breakfast, but unbaked bagels are so miserable. View this post on Instagram Now we have a toaster. I was mad when Tim Cook slashed toasters at WWDC. A bagel without toast? - nonsense. A post shared by Diko Ko (@dikoko) on Feb 27, 2020 at 8:48am PST

Finally, I’ve closed the Wordpress blog. It’d be better to shut down it before I renewed the Wordpress subscription last year, but I did it anyway. The main reason was that I couldn’t feel any affection for the site even I spent a bunch of money on it. Though it is the de-facto standard, PHP based site nowadays? - no way to be cool. I still wanted somewhere to journal my thoughts as a record.

A few months ago, I read a twitter of a Korean software engineer who was working in Silicon Valley. He had been in a meetup for college students who were interested in working in Silicon Valley. There was a Q&A session, and he was mad at a question. “Should I be good at English?” It sounded to me a general question, but he was furious about it. Because he thought it was a question to fail: an excuse for failure.

Then, I want to talk about why I’m back to Bay Area. Ten years ago, my SF office closed - when the financial crisis came - and I had to return to Korea. During the last 10 years, I started my own business, had many experiences, exited from the business due to a health issue, then back to an engineer over my forties. Last year, I was deeply impressed by the book “The New Geography of Jobs” by Enrico Moretti.