Am I really free?
The more rules I set for myself, the freer I feel. Maybe what really traps me is the wide open field where I can do anything.
Alex Hsu
Personal blog about indie development, life, and more
Latest posts
5 games I recommend right now
My takes on Chants of Sennaar, Demon Bluff, StarVaders, Leap Year, and UFO 50, plus two I don't recommend.
IndieWeb Carnival roundup: 25 'No way!?' moments
The roundup of the IndieWeb Carnival I hosted in June on the theme 'No way!?' 25 submissions, 25 facts and stories that made me go 'No way!?', each with my 'No Way Index.'
I once wrote a breakup song too
While digging through an old hard drive, I found a breakup demo I'd completely forgotten existed. Six years later, I'm finally sharing it.
The tuition I pay for procrastinating
One day too late, and my wife's MacBook Pro cost $500 more. My procrastination keeps making me miss one chance after another.
One song, seven ways: covering my own music with AI
Feed your own music to AI, and it spits out surprise after surprise. Here's my one song served seven ways.
The first song I ever made, and also the last
A few years ago I spent 10 days making a math rock track in Ableton. It's not great, but it's something only I would have made.
English class should be reading Harry Potter
Learning should start from interest. Instead of dissecting Shakespeare line by line, let kids read Harry Potter, play games, and watch YouTube.
The forest across the street
As long as I'm not producing something, I'm wasting time. I've spent most of my life caught in that loop.
The app I wanted to buy just won an Apple Design Award
The app I tried to acquire (grug) just won an Apple Design Award. Turns out, the app I most want to buy is the one I should build myself.
IndieWeb Carnival (June 2026): No way!?
I'm hosting IndieWeb Carnival for the first time! The June theme is 'No way!?' Come join!
Cold doesn't cause colds
I believed cold weather caused colds for nearly 30 years. Turns out a myth passed down through generations shaped my fears and priorities in ways I never questioned.
Two dentists
One dentist who hurts and one who doesn't. Which one do you pick?
Anything can happen anytime
One sentence changed how I deal with uncertainty.
Why I turned off comments
I tried enabling comments for a month. Here's why I shut them down.
Game mindset: as long as you're still playing, it's not game over
In games, dying isn't game over. The real game over is when you press quit and never come back.
Game mindset: level 99 is just the beginning
Hitting max level and logging out? You're missing the best part of the entire game.
How Taiwan and China rename English movies (and why it's a mess)
The same movie gets three different Chinese names across Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong. Some translations are creative. Most are just baffling.
The tale of two translation houses
There were two translation houses in town. They translated the same things, but they could never be the same.
Game mindset: gear up before the boss fight
We over-prepare for trivial things and wing it for the moments that actually matter. You've come this far. Why walk in at half HP?
Want new friends? Try going on the offensive
From not being able to answer 'what new friend did you make this year' to meeting 11 people in 7 days. Change starts with one extra question.
I thought I was an introvert
One letter in a personality test changed the entire story I told myself.
Game mindset: guard your EXP or you're wasting time
Every dollar you have was earned by grinding. The whole world is trying to take it from you.
Game mindset: easy mode is not fun
In games, you pick hard mode. In real life, you pray for easy mode. Something doesn't add up.
Game mindset: when you're stuck, look up a walkthrough
In games, looking up a walkthrough when you're stuck is obvious. In real life, we tough it out and feel ashamed to ask. Other people's hard-won lessons are your best signposts.
Game mindset: team up with players near your level
The best party isn't the people you've known the longest. It's the people at your level right now, leveling up alongside you.
The omakase blog: building an opinionated personal site
I removed the Simplified Chinese toggle and Light Mode. Then I finally added the bold Noto font I'd been wanting for a year.
Game mindset: you're not the protagonist, you're just a player
There's no plot armor in games, and there's none in real life either. Stop waiting for destiny to kick in. Be a player. Start grinding.
Five years since I quit Meta: an indie developer's pathless path
I left Meta with the best performance review of my career, missed out on at least $2.5 million, and built a life I don't want to trade back.
Game mindset: today's boss will be tomorrow's trash mob
The things keeping you up at night won't matter when you look back.
Game mindset: some dungeons can't be soloed
You can be the strongest player on the server, but some content you just can't experience alone.
Game mindset: alts always level faster than mains
You're not a level 1 newbie. You're an alt carrying your main's experience.
Game mindset: you can only control your own character
The enemy's moves, your teammates' plays, the weather, the terrain — none of that is yours to control. The only thing you can control is yourself.
The Disappear Test
If this thing vanished from the world tomorrow, would you be sad? A simple thought experiment to figure out what's worth keeping.
Blog questions challenge
Answering the 8 blog questions challenge: why I started blogging, what platform I use, how I find inspiration, my favourite post, future plans, and more.
Game mindset: Level 99 doesn't happen in a day
When you see a level-99 player decked out in glowing gear, you don't assume they're a genius. But when we see overnight success, we forget to ask: how long did they actually grind?
Game Mindset: Don't forget to train your passive skills
Active skills solve the problem in front of you. Passive skills amplify everything you do. Beginners only train actives. Veterans know passives compound.
I used to love writing code, until I started Vibe Coding
AI writes code faster than me, better than me, prettier than me. So why am I finding less and less joy in it?
My passing obsession: Fuchiko on the cup
The story of how I collected 200+ tiny cup-hanging figures during my time chasing dreams in Japan.
Should a blog have a comments section?
A question that's been bugging me for a while. Let's see what others think, then try it out.
How many blog posts do I have left?
If I have 10 years of blogging left, every single post is a countdown.
Your RSS posts might only live half as long as everyone else's
If you self-host a static site and don't handle publish times, your posts might not even last 24 hours in your readers' RSS feeds.
Auto-spacing between Chinese and English text with CSS
Manual spacing between CJK and Latin characters is typesetting's job, not the writer's. CSS text-autospace lets the browser handle it.
Game Mindset: Unexplored maps only light up when you walk through them
The map starts dark. The only way to reveal it is to walk through it. Real life works the same way.
I bought a $100 book from Paul Millerd
I flew back to Taiwan just to buy a hardcover book in person. On why books are absurdly underpriced, and why the authors are the real rock stars.
Going to the gym to listen to podcasts
I'm not going to the gym to work out. I'm going to listen to podcasts. The workout is just a side effect.
What does level 99 even mean
Should we measure mastery by effort or by outcomes? Both sides make sense. Both sides fall apart.
A day of catching up on sleep and doing nothing
I had plenty of time to write today, but zero energy. Some days are just like that.
The ideal day: making every 1440 minutes count
Thinking of a day as 1440 minutes instead of 24 hours changes how you see your time.
The art of decluttering your investments
The daily ups and downs are all noise. Pick a cheap index fund, then wait thirty years.