28 posts tagged with "technology"

Old Wang was a senior programmer in the "Fortune to Every Family" project team at a tech company. Simply put, this project was about digitizing and smartening traditional Spring Festival red envelopes. This year's task was particularly heavy, as the company aimed to completely abandon paper red envelopes and achieve the grand goal of "end-to-end digital red envelopes."

In the office, the sound of keyboards was like the low moans of the winter wind, and everyone's face was etched with the weariness of overnight work. Old Wang pushed up his thick glasses, and the dense code on the computer screen looked like ferocious monsters. The slogan "Fortune to Every Family" was shouted loudly, but he only felt like a cog in the machine, being endlessly cranked.

Old Li walked into the company building. Today, his task was to experience the "DeepSeek" company's latest "Efficient Memory Implant" technology. In this day and age, competition has gotten so fierce that it's reached our brains. Whoever has the larger memory capacity is more competitive. Old Li, who barely got by relying on rote memorization, had long been swept aside by the younger generation. He was adopting a "last-ditch effort" mentality, hoping to get out of his predicament with this technology.

"Don't be nervous, Mr. Li," a young man in a white coat said with a smile, placing a helmet-like device on Old Li's head. "This is just a simple memory writing process, and there will be no side effects. We will implant all the content of all the company's important meetings in the past year into your cerebral cortex."

Old Chen sat in the monitoring room, staring at the scene of "The Brain" competition through the screen. The contestants were wearing special electroencephalogram monitors, expressionlessly solving a series of complex logic puzzles. The time on the LED screen ticked away, one second at a time, already at 198 minutes.

He took a deep breath and looked at the tablet in his hand, which displayed the real-time data of the contestants: heart rate, brainwave intensity, body temperature, and sweat secretion volume, all precisely recorded. These numbers determined who was the final winner. This competition, rather than being a contest of brainpower, was more like an extreme test of human endurance.

Hugo was a slightly overweight middle-aged man working in an administrative role in the French Navy. His main tasks each day were organizing files and watering the commander’s potted plants. His favorite thing was to open his step-counting app during lunch breaks to see how many steps he had taken that day. He firmly believed that even in the office, one should maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Li Mingyuan took a deep breath, as if performing some solemn ritual, while staring at the photo of the high-speed rail seat on his phone screen. For three consecutive days, he had been using his four-hour daily commute to study these horns. What was the purpose of those two plastic protrusions that extended from the top of the seat, curved like ram's horns? It couldn't be a “useless” design; there had to be a deeper meaning!

He was a corporate slave in an internet company, "grinding" to the extreme. His cubicle was his battlefield, and these horns on the high-speed rail seat had become his mental refuge from reality. While his colleagues were discussing new project KPIs and his superiors were spouting rhetoric about “struggle culture,” Li Mingyuan was quietly observing these inconspicuous little things.

Old Wang's life after retirement was as bland as water. His only enjoyment was playing a few chess matches at the park entrance's chess stall every afternoon. Recently, Old Wang had something new to talk about: Apple phones, after national subsidies, had fallen below 3000, as cheap as street stall goods. Old Wang's five-year-old flip phone was long overdue for replacement, so he joined the buying frenzy.

That day, Old Wang got up early and squeezed into the crowded shopping mall. After much effort, he managed to grab a nationally subsidized iPhone 16. The phone was brand new, and the box had a strange QR code that prompted, "Scan to activate for first use and sign the User Experience Agreement." Old Wang didn't think much of it. He scanned, signed, and completed the process.

In Zhang Qiang's third month at the company, he was transferred to the "Stellar Observation Department." He initially thought it involved astronomical observation, but on his first day, he was led into an airtight room. In the center of the room was a giant screen displaying mobile phone screenshots, each increasingly red.

“Your task is simple, count the number of stars in each screenshot,” said Department Head Li, handing him a counter with a deadpan expression, as if announcing that lunch would be steamed buns.

The elevator doors opened, and a rich aroma of food rushed out, along with an even stronger sense of "struggle." Zhang Qiang took a deep breath, as if inhaling energy, and then stepped into ByteDance's "park." Here, "park" refers to the company's free three meals, reportedly costing up to 100 yuan per meal.

Zhang Qiang had only been working for three months, and the most anticipated time of his day was mealtime. It wasn't just because it was free, but also because the food here seemed to possess some kind of magic, capable of making everyone mechanical and efficient. During lunchtime, the long lines resembled a moving river, everyone with their heads down, silently sliding towards the food pick-up area. There was no conversation, only the light sounds of plates colliding and the subtle noises of chewing. Everyone ate quickly, as if completing an important task.

Wang Defa has been feeling a bit uneasy lately. It's not because of the new intern who keeps flirting with him, but because of the company's bizarre "Happiness Upgrade" program.

What they call "Happiness Upgrade" is actually forcing everyone to change their phones. The company has made a bulk purchase of new phones from a certain domestic brand, claiming that "technology empowers and improves employee happiness." Old phones are to be traded in, with the amount depending on the phone's condition and your relationship with your direct supervisor. Of course, the official explanation is "big data assessment."

Old Wang was the neighborhood's renowned "Mr. Fix-It." Appliance repairs, plumbing unblocking – there was nothing he couldn't handle. Today, he took on a new job. Mrs. Li, his neighbor, had a broken smart scale. The display only showed a red dot, like an eye, staring eerily.

Mrs. Li complained, “This thing, they said it was so smart and accurate when I bought it. After only two years, it’s just a decoration. It's a real ghost!” Old Wang chuckled in response, he loved these kinds of challenges.