2025 总结

发布日期: 2026-01-30

2025年总体来说是相对舒适的一年。远离了有毒的环境，远离了低效与无效

但舒适对我来说绝不意味着轻松，工作强度在年初定下今年“悠着点”的目标之下降到了95%（往年都是120%超负荷），花了很多时间在运动尤其是羽毛球上。我也不再和投资人/创业者解释我并不是工作闲得有时间和他们吃饭喝咖啡聊天，而是工作已经很忙，聊完我晚上还得加班到十一二点

时间是唯一不可再生资源，如何分配财富是一种隐私，那每个人如何分配自己的时间应该也属于独门秘诀吧哈哈。不过我常常说，人一天有24小时，8小时睡觉（是的我需要很多睡觉），8小时主业工作，8小时副业工作。不过过去这一年我的主业工作差不多是985的节奏，算上周末加班每周60小时算基础的。一年到头也有不少收获，做的项目自己还挺满意的，积攒了很多hands on经验，成果也让简历更上一个台阶

=主业篇

事情还得从由于遭受了严重的职场霸凌而经历了depression和fmla的24年开始说起，到Q3我整个人已经是强弩之末疯狂想逃离工作。当时组里人心涣散，大org里很多能力强的人都受不了跳槽跑路了，我respect的同事们也一个个走了，正打算离开的时候经一位好友介绍了解到YouTube现任老板M的组。当时我特别想做多模态，M组里正好缺一个会做llm quality的人，而YouTube又是一个天然甚至最好的做多模态的地方。当时对整个公司都心灰意冷的我非常谨慎地，在和M聊了5个小时（3次，1次线上1小时，2次线下各2小时）后，选择了再信任一次公司转去了M组。这一次转组其实是我在谷歌5年来第一次真正意义上的转组（之前无数次被动reorg都是我逆来顺受），不知道为什么我一直很能忍，也许是害怕主动做出改变，就一直被动接受环境带来的所有影响，果然人能忍就会一直忍😅但从另一个角度来看，也许是想把所有后果都推给环境而不敢对自己负责吧

这一次我终于把主动权完全掌握在自己手里，细致地考察，多方面思索，对自己的判断all in了

这把all in，结果上来看是赚了。远离了不靠谱的老板和坏心机的同事，远离了动荡不安反复reorg的环境（26年1月我写这个的时候看了下前老板发现他底下的人又全换了一波，而且他的老板也变成ic了…）。去年一整年也实现了rating的V字型逆袭，因为24年10月我换组，前老板硬是扣着我的绩效不放，把我拿去填M rating的quota。这一年从M到O，也是有一股不甘心的气在撑着自己吧。当然rating只是一刀切地给这一年工作做个总结，在现组里我学到了一件非常重要的事情：我是真玩不明白大公司爬梯子的游戏，也听不明白老板讲的话

不过这也不是什么新鲜事，几乎所有跟我熟悉的朋友每次见面都会反复疑问：你怎么还在谷歌？甚至在谷歌带过我的老板离开谷歌后也会跟我说，他觉得我是非常high potential的人，不要局限在谷歌。但我这人就是又叛逆又喜欢和人攀比吧，眼看着身边同一批入职的同事都顺利走到了下一步，总在拷问自己为什么就做不到

不过后来一想人生有得有失，有些事情我（暂时还）做不到，是有些其他事情我做到了

=副业篇

从我的主页就可以看到我的副业就是做些天使投资。25年一共投了5个项目，2个机器人，1个ai教育，1个infra，1个neolab。这些项目都是第一轮seed/family round投进去的，有的项目投的早，年初投完到年末已经可以在新一轮融资中以4-5倍回报退老股了。有的项目是和Jeff Dean / Yann Lecun这样的大佬一轮进的。还有些项目可能founders是以前我只能在网上隔着屏幕仰慕的。这份副业对我来说其实更像是【赋】业。一是我能感觉到包括身边朋友都认为，我在做VC这些事情上是有些天赋的，自夸的话就不说了，我觉得核心还是因为我对人与事与世界运行的规律充满了好奇且精力过剩；另一种赋是我现在每天在ai一线技术工作，也是赋能了我识别创始人，看懂项目技术，还能speak their language。这也是为什么我一直不想全职做VC的原因（鉴于被不下50个人问过这个问题+拒绝了一些VC offer），在现在这种技术爆炸的时机，如果从技术前线下来无疑是本末倒置。就像最好的新闻记者一定比战士还冲在前线一样，做技术方向的早期投资必须要在一线锤炼技术敏感度。另外其实我也没有把它当成严肃的【业】，不像有些人副业是搞投资房会追求利润回报，我深知早期项目成功的随机性无异于买彩票。有谁会把买彩票当作事业呢？我更愿意把它当作一种【学业】，投出去的钱都是交学费，和优秀的创业者交流，在补充本E人社交能量的同时还能学习到很多新知识/认知，和谁对话和谁交谈就是在distill谁的wisdom，如果还能建立起trust和合作，在对方实现梦想创造价值的过程中能稍微参与其中，就像一个大火箭发射到太空，我为它拧了一颗螺丝，虽然贡献的不多，但参与其中难道不兴奋激动吗？

=家庭篇

25年我的travel比往年减少了30%，但依旧和先生在地球仪上“走南闯北”了一番。在非洲看动物，在北欧看雪。共同开启了许多人生第一次经历：在夏威夷看鲨鱼，在天津自己主持自己的婚礼。每一段都是珍贵的回忆。先生顺利博士毕业，遇到各种砍funding依然找到了教职，我们也对未来的生活充满了期待

在外人眼中我们就像神仙眷侣，甚至我们还有自己的CP粉丝团🤣但实际上我们其实挺搞笑的更像是逗比夫妇。在家里经常会因为一些小事而笑得在地上打滚（字面意思，因为笑得肚子痛），因为我和先生都有一些生活习惯长在对方奇怪的笑点上👻除了绝大多数时候都很完美，也有一两次沟通方式上的摩擦，但好在两个工作狂NTJ在遇到矛盾的时候也会说“稍等一下我先开个会，等下/晚上/X点我们再讨论一下这个事”……当我们面对面冷静理智心平气和地交流各自的想法和做事逻辑的时候，我们就能找到和对方理解不同的地方，然后我们会像开会对齐一样把这些discrepancy都写下来，我还会问大模型怎么改进沟通方式，并写在便利贴上贴在我的工位上｛贴图｝

我基本不会闹脾气，如果我想闹，也会小小闹一下，先生会很快来哄我，我也知道他会哄，他也知道我知道他会哄。两个人总能有这样心照不宣的默契，闹小脾气也变成一种生活情趣。我一直觉得信任是人性中的奢侈品，它来源于我们对另一个生命的渴望和想象，人生不如意事十常八九，但若有人信任，那份被滋养出的安全感足以覆盖不如意事带来的落差。有人说结婚不是婚姻的开始，有了小孩才是。我承认养育小孩是项重大任务，也不敢保证未来一定会怎么样，但我想如果两个人同心同德，相互信任，经济基础好（对的本人还是非常理性主导），抗风险能力就能提高，也许到那时候会付出更多辛苦，但也会获得更多幸福的体验吧

2025: A Post-Mortem on Efficiency Overall, 2025 was a relatively comfortable year. I distanced myself from toxic environments; I distanced myself from inefficiency and futility.

But for me, comfort never means ease. After setting a goal at the beginning of the year to “take it slow,” my work intensity dropped to 95% (in previous years, it was always a 120% overload). I spent a significant amount of time on sports, especially badminton. I also stopped explaining to investors and founders that I have time for meals, coffee, and chats not because my work is “light,” but because—despite already being slammed—I am willing to work until 11 or 12 at night to make up for that time.

Time is the only non-renewable resource. If how one allocates wealth is a matter of privacy, then how one allocates time should be a proprietary secret, haha. However, I often say that a person has 24 hours in a day: 8 hours for sleep (yes, I need a lot of sleep), 8 hours for the primary career, and 8 hours for the side business. That said, over this past year, my primary work followed a “985” rhythm; including weekend overtime, 60 hours per week was the baseline. The year yielded significant returns; I am satisfied with the projects I completed, I accumulated substantial hands-on experience, and the results have elevated my resume to a new level.

= The Primary Career

The story begins with the wreckage of 2024, a year of depression and FMLA triggered by severe workplace bullying. By Q3, I was at the end of my rope, desperate to escape. Morale in the organization was fractured; high-performers were fleeing, and the colleagues I respected left one by one. Just as I prepared to exit, a friend introduced me to the team of M, a leader at YouTube. I wanted to build Multimodal; M’s team lacked LLM Quality expertise. YouTube is the natural—perhaps the ultimate—place for Multimodal. Having lost faith in the company, I was cautious. After 5 hours of vetting M (3 sessions: 1 hour online, two 2-hour offline meetings), I chose to trust the company one last time. This was my first “true” team change in 5 years at Google (previous reorgs were passive events I submissively accepted). I don’t know why I endured for so long; perhaps it was a fear of proactive change, so I let the environment dictate my reality. If you choose to endure, you will keep enduring 😅. From another perspective, perhaps I wanted to blame the environment rather than take responsibility for myself.

This time, I took full agency. I investigated meticulously, weighed the variables, and went “all in” on my own judgment.

The bet paid off. I escaped unreliable bosses and political colleagues, and moved away from the chaos of repeated reorgs (writing this in January 2026, I noticed my former boss’s team has turned over entirely again, and his own manager has switched to an IC…). I also achieved a “V-shaped” recovery in my ratings. Because I transferred in October 2024, my former boss withheld my performance rating to fill his M quota. Moving from M to O this year was fueled by a refusal to lose. Of course, a rating is just a blunt summary of a year’s work. In my current team, I’ve learned a hard truth: I truly do not understand the game of corporate ladder-climbing, nor do I understand “manager-speak.”

This isn’t new. Friends always ask: “Why are you still at Google?” Even former bosses tell me I am a high-potential individual who shouldn’t be confined to Google. But I am rebellious and competitive; watching peers move to the next level, I constantly ask myself why I haven’t.

But life is a zero-sum game of gains and losses. There are things I (temporarily) cannot do because I have achieved things elsewhere.

= The Side Business

As my homepage shows, my side business is angel investing. In 2025, I backed 5 projects: 2 in Robotics, 1 in AI Education, 1 in Infra, and 1 in NeoLab. These were all Seed/Family round entries. Some moved fast; an investment made in Q1 reached a 4-5x markup by year-end. Some projects placed me in the same cap table as giants like Jeff Dean or Yann LeCun. Others were founded by people I once only admired through a screen. To me, this is an “Endowment” business (赋业). First, others see my talent for VC—I won’t self-congratulate, but the core is a surplus of energy and curiosity about how the world works. Second, working on the AI technical front line every day empowers me to identify founders, vet technology, and “speak their language.” This is why I refuse to do VC full-time (despite 50+ inquiries and multiple offers). In this technological explosion, leaving the front line is putting the cart before the horse. The best war correspondents are closer to the front than the soldiers; early-stage technical investing requires that same frontline sensitivity. Furthermore, I don’t treat this as a “career” (业). Unlike those who seek rental yields in real estate, I know that early-stage success is as random as a lottery ticket. No one treats the lottery as a career. I treat it as “Schooling” (学业). My capital is tuition. Engaging with elite founders replenishes my E-type social energy and distills their wisdom. If a startup is a rocket, I am tightening a single screw. The contribution is small, but the participation is exhilarating.

= The Family

In 2025, travel decreased by 30%, but my husband and I still covered the globe—wildlife in Africa, snow in Northern Europe. We shared many “firsts”: sharks in Hawaii, and self-hosting our wedding in Tianjin. These are precious memories. My husband finished his PhD and secured a faculty position despite the funding crunch. We are optimistic.

To outsiders, we are a “celestial couple”; we even have our own “shippers” 🤣. In reality, we are a “goofy couple.” We literally roll on the floor laughing over trivialities because our habits trigger each other’s strange humor 👻. Aside from being near-perfect, we’ve had friction. But as workaholic NTJs, we handle conflict with: “Wait, I have a meeting, let’s discuss this at X o’clock.” When we finally sync, we communicate with cold logic. We document discrepancies like meeting minutes. I even consult LLMs on communication optimization and post the advice on my workstation.

I rarely throw tantrums. If I do, it’s a “mini-tantrum”; my husband coaxes me, and we both know the script. It’s a tacit understanding—a form of domestic “spice.” Trust is a luxury in human nature; it comes from our imagination of another life. Life goes wrong 80% of the time, but the security of trust covers the deficit. Some say marriage only begins with children. Raising a child is a mission-critical task. I can’t predict the future, but I believe that with shared alignment, mutual trust, and a solid economic foundation (yes, I am still led by rationality), we increase our risk resistance. The work will be harder, but the expected happiness is higher.