About me

I’ve been a Software Engineer since 2011. I’m also the Scrum Master and Product Owner of a product team. I learned Agile and Scrum in 2017. Since then, I become enthusiastic about and thrilled to learn more and uncover better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. I started this blog in 2022. In the beginning, I wrote on random topics. In 2023 spring, I decided to focus more on my profession. By blogging, I can summarise my knowledge from various mediums or experiences and spread it through the Internet. ...

10 July, 2024 · 1 min · Oscar Li

The Power of Deliberate Practice: Accelerate Your Learning Journey

Since last year, I have been logging the books I have read. Last year, I read 15 books. It is not an impressive number for someone who wants to develop a reading habit. However, for me, it is a significant achievement. In addition to reading books, I have subscribed to several podcast channels on Agile and productivity and have spent over a thousand hours immersed in them. “How did you manage that?” my friend asked, who wants to cut down on mindlessly scrolling through social media. “You cannot possibly have more than 24 hours a day to do all these things.” ...

8 January, 2024 · 3 min · Oscar Li

The End of My Solo Living

In 2020, I moved away from my parents’ home and started living alone. During these three years, I learned to live alone, cook my own dinners, and fix the problems at home. Now my solo living is coming to an end – I moved to a new flat and started living with my girlfriend. Flashback to the day before I started living alone, I talked to my girlfriend about my move. Since I didn’t have any experience living alone, except when I lived in the university dorm where almost no housework was required, I had to train myself by living alone before we could proceed with the next stage. ...

28 August, 2023 · 2 min · Oscar Li

Reading Log

It records books I have read since 2023 and acknowledges inspiring writers. 2023 January On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction – William Zinsser April Scrum Pocket Guide – Gunther Verheyen May Software in 30 Days: How Agile Managers Beat the Odds, Delight Their Customers, and Leave Competitors in the Dust – Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World – Cal Newport June Scrum Mastery: From Good to Great Servant Leadership – Geoff Watts July Flow Metrics for Scrum Teams – Daniel Vacanti, Will Seele The Kanban Pocket Guide – Daniel Vacanti, Prateek Singh, Colleen Johnson 人生は、運よりも実力よりも「勘違いさせる力」で決まっている (Chinese Translation) – ふろむだ September Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World – Cal Newport October Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability: An Introduction – Daniel Vacanti November User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product – Jeff Patton Tidy First?: A Personal Exercise in Empirical Software Design – Kent Beck December When Will It Be Done?: Lean-Agile Forecasting to Answer Your Customers’ Most Important Question – Daniel Vacanti Fixing Your Scrum: Practical Solutions to Common Scrum Problems – Ryan Ripley, Todd Miller The Responsibility Process: Unlocking Your Natural Ability to Live and Lead with Power – Christopher Avery 2024 January ...

31 July, 2023 · 3 min · Oscar Li

On Hosting Friends

I have been inviting friends to my home ever since I started living alone three years ago. I love hosting them and making them feel comfortable in my home. In today’s world, people heavily rely on social platforms. Instant messaging is convenient, but it can be difficult to tell if we’re truly connecting with others. Are we talking to real people, or just chatbots? Additionally, social platforms often present a filtered version of people’s lives. How about their true selves We probably can never know. ...

17 July, 2023 · 2 min · Oscar Li

On Eating Out (in Hong Kong)

In the previous article, I suggested readers cook meals instead of eating out. In reality, there are chances that you have to eat out. Having rehearsals outside the living place recently, I ate out with my girlfriend frequently. Often times the restaurants upset us. It’s almost a trend for restaurants to increase their meal price after the Chinese New Year – usually a couple of dollars per dish. One day, we went to a cafe. We could still recall the menu from last year. Half of the dishes were HKD 90 or less. Today, these dishes are gone – most cost over HKD 150. “This might be the last time we eat here,” I told my girlfriend. We didn’t want to spend too much as we thought it was a bit overpriced, so we ordered the cheapest dish, a dessert and an espresso. Luckily, the waiter still served us well – at least they weren’t rude. ...

2 February, 2023 · 4 min · Oscar Li

Entering the Cinema after 2.5 Years – The First Slam Dunk

During the pandemic era, there were a lot of restrictions on cinema in Hong Kong. Cinemas were closed for over a hundred days. There was a time when customers couldn’t eat or drink in cinemas. Some people weren’t allowed to enter the cinemas for many reasons. The restrictions ruined the atmosphere of watching movies. Instead of going to the cinema, people watch Netflix at home if the movies are available there. ...

16 January, 2023 · 3 min · Oscar Li