Tell us about the last thing you got excited about.
The last thing that got me really excited was traveling abroad again.
Kobe.
No matter how many times I travel,
the moment I step onto the airplane always feels the same—
pure excitement, like my heartbeat rushing ahead of me.
The city waiting on the other side,
the food, the streets, the unexpected moments—
but most important of all,
going there together with the one I love. 🥰
How would you design the city of the future?
When I was a kid playing SimCity 3000,
I loved turning resources to unlimited.
No fear of bankruptcy, no complaints from citizens—
just building a city, piece by piece, the way I liked.
The one thing I remember most
wasn’t the skyscrapers or the parks,
but the waste-to-energy plant.
Expensive, highly polluting,
yet it handled garbage and produced power at the same time.
I always built it at the city’s edge,
letting the pollution drift outward,
selling the extra capacity to neighboring towns.
Back then, it felt perfect.
Now I see—it was just exploitation.
The city of the future can’t work that way.
Trash isn’t something to “get rid of.”
It should return to the cycle, become a resource again.
Energy shouldn’t come from burning and consuming,
but from flowing and sharing,
like sunlight and wind—
no one has to be sacrificed, and everyone is lit.
In my future city,
it’s not the buildings or the roads that matter most,
but people willing to share,
willing to live together.
Where did your name come from?
My name is Yichun Kao.
When I was a kid, I once went to the “Xuehai Academy” to look up our family genealogy. I can’t really remember the details anymore, but at least there was some sort of lineage, a thread that connects me to the past.
As for the meaning behind my given name? Honestly, I have no idea.
But my nickname, that’s another story.
For the longest time, I thought it was my grandfather who gave me the name Xiao Pi. Recently, while chatting with my sister, I found out it was actually her idea. She borrowed it from a character in some old cartoon.
Back then, most of the cartoons we watched were imported. Their names often got “localized,” shaped by the habits and imagination of the translators. Especially the nicknames—they were loose, playful, sometimes even random.
So maybe Xiao Pi was originally just some dubbing actor’s buddy’s nickname. And somehow, it stuck with me. 😆
What motivates you?
The reason I keep going?
Of course, it’s my loved one.
Whether it’s a simple message on my phone,
or memories of our journeys together,
just thinking of her
is more than enough.
Because love gives life its direction,
and makes tomorrow worth waiting for.
What are your top ten favorite movies?
What stayed with me were never the full stories.
Not the plots, not the endings—
but the fragments, the music, and the words that echoed long after the screen went dark.
When I was a child, my favorite films were Miyazaki’s animations.
Especially Castle in the Sky.
I didn’t understand any deeper meaning back then—I was simply fascinated by the floating city and the flying machines. It felt like a secret base hidden in a dream, something I wanted to revisit again and again.
In junior high, Titanic became the talk of our generation.
Everyone could hum the theme song, and some even shouted “I’m the king of the world!” on the schoolyard. The plot has faded in my memory, but that shared moment of youth has stayed.
As time went on, I forgot most of the stories, yet certain fragments remained.
Like the U.S. president’s final speech in a doomsday movie: “God bless, and good luck to you.”
Or that scene in the Japanese drama Chance, where Takuya Kimura stood before the crowd and said: “I am the same as all of you.”
And then, there was the music.
The grand themes of disaster films, carrying a sense of tragic heroism.
Way Back Into Love, a gentle spark of hope from my youth.
The soundtrack of Orange Days, soft and tinged with melancholy.
The full stories may have slipped away, but the fragments and the music stayed.
They are markers in time, reminding me of the moments when my heart raced, when my eyes grew warm, and when life—just for an instant—felt different.
What do you enjoy most about writing?
I often realize how I’ve really been doing only when I start to write.
The chirping of insects and birds outside the window finds its way into the words.
So does the vibration of my phone on the desk.
That sound makes me feel safe and happy, because most of the time it means a message from my love.
Sometimes writing is about memories, sometimes about reflection.
I look back on the road I’ve walked, and I remind myself to be content.
Contentment doesn’t mean life has no challenges—it just means I face them with a calmer mind.
Challenges are always there.
Work pressure, changes in life—I still have to keep finding a way through.
That’s why I write about recent events, or the new technologies I’ve been trying.
Work is also part of life; it can’t be separated.
By the time I reach the end of a piece, my thoughts usually feel clearer.
The future may not be certain, but at least I know I’m still moving forward.
And that is the moment of writing I enjoy most.
What do you love about where you live?
I live close to the mountain.
In the mornings, there are insects and birds.
It’s not downtown, but buses and the MRT are still within reach.
Work is less than twenty minutes away.
And most important of all, my elderly parents are safe.
That’s all I need.
What positive emotion do you feel most often?
當然是愛人的話語。
即使相隔兩地，手機螢幕還是會在某個普通的下午，跳出一顆愛心。
那一瞬間，我會停下手邊的事，笑一下——
因為我知道，那顆愛心不是隨便貼的，它跨過了距離，也跨過了想念的重量。
Of course, it’s the words from the one I love.
Even when we’re apart, a little heart still pops up on my screen on an ordinary afternoon.
In that moment, I pause whatever I’m doing and smile—
because I know that heart isn’t sent casually; it has crossed both distance and the weight of longing.
三不五時，我們會替對方準備早餐、煮好咖啡。
麵包在烤箱裡膨脹的香氣、咖啡冒出的第一縷熱氣，
讓一天在開始前，就先被幸福包圍。
From time to time, we make breakfast or brew coffee for each other.
The bread rising in the oven, the first curl of steam from the coffee—
they wrap the day in happiness before it even begins.
我們在餐桌邊談著最近的話題，
有時是夢境裡的荒唐場景，有時是世界的荒謬現實，
偶爾還會插播幾段親友的八卦，
笑聲在房間裡迴盪——
那笑聲，不只是快樂，更是我們對生活的共同回應。
We sit at the table and talk about whatever’s on our minds—
sometimes the absurd scenes from a dream, sometimes the absurdity of the world itself,
and occasionally, we slip in a bit of gossip about friends and family.
Our laughter fills the room—
and that laughter is not just joy; it’s our shared answer to life.
還有那些一起度過的日子：
在帳篷裡聽雨聲的露營夜晚，
在巷弄裡發現的小餐館，
在陌生國家的街頭邊走邊笑。
從海邊的日落到山上的雲海，
每一段風景都刻在我們的記憶裡。
而我知道，不管未來去到哪裡，
最重要的風景，永遠是彼此身邊的那個人。
And then there are the days we’ve spent together:
camping nights with the sound of rain on the tent,
hidden little restaurants tucked away in city alleys,
wandering foreign streets while laughing side by side.
From sunsets by the sea to seas of clouds in the mountains,
every scene is etched into our memories.
And I know that no matter where we go in the future,
the most important view will always be the person right beside me.
How do you plan your goals?
Just like many office workers,
I’ve flipped through plenty of self-improvement classics:
career planning, time management, the Pomodoro Technique, the 80/20 rule, project management, agile development, accountability culture…
Even the habits of wealthy and successful people — and yes, even The Secret (law of attraction).
My bookshelf and playlist are crowded;
my head is even more crowded.
But in the end, it all comes back to the same old truth —
getting started is hard, but staying the course is what really counts.
I try to turn these complex methods into small steps I can take in daily life, and keep building on them, instead of rigidly following the rules.
Exercising every day, so my body remembers I’m its partner;
staying as healthy as I can, so fatigue doesn’t steal the light from my life;
even the tiniest actions, I stick with them, slowly turning them into strength.
It’s like the phrase I’ve kept close to my heart — keep on keeping on.
Whether fast or slow, in calm seas or stormy weather,
the point is simply — accumulate little by little, and keep moving forward.
Brassai Kao’s Tech Weave 