I Made a Box and an Edge Tape Strip — Reflections on Less Being More
The “Mozarti” blade — the FL shakehand version still has twenty or thirty units to ship next week; they will come with this new edge tape I just made. This is not ordinary edge tape, though it is still edge tape. To those waiting, I sincerely apologize for the delay.
The ST shakehand and CS penhold versions all shipped today.
Now to the main topic: I made a box and a strip of edge tape. Is this article only about those two things? Not entirely.
First, the box. It is a variation of the original box design, now used on the latest Mozarti blades. The text on the back is still from an article I wrote earlier.
Now, the edge tape.
This is not a unique product on the market. But it is genuinely my favorite style. Those carbon fiber or metal edge tapes feel too heavy or subtly alter the feel. Before, I just bought the same material Yasaka version on the market — but at 30 to 40 RMB a strip, it was too expensive. Now I found the factory and made this anti-collision edge tape myself.
Am I mainly planning to sell it? No, no — mainly if you buy a B-Horse (Yinhe B-Horse custom blade), I can throw one in as a gift. I just wanted to share: this strip of edge tape has become my favorite thing I have ever made in the B-Horse series — producing quality I am satisfied with at minimal cost. That is one of life’s small perfect moments.
Let me also talk a bit about life lately. It is all somewhat gear-related anyway.
Less Is More
There are quite a few things I could write reviews about right now. Just on lightly tacky rubbers alone: K3 VIP, Joola Hugo Trinity Charged — and I also got the national-team special D09c and K3 Pro to compare. Then yesterday at dinner with Wang from Liulan, he was enthusiastically recommending that the Trinity Dynamic backhand is really great to play. Well, I have that rubber too — the problem is I have no time to actually play it.
This is not about boasting how much gear I have. It is that after testing so many things, you become less sensitive to any one of them. Without three or four sessions on something, it is hard to fully read its performance. And I genuinely do not want to give a rubber a superficial review.
Maybe the more products you test, the more you want to slow down and truly savor one at a time. Less is more. That is just human nature.
Another version of “less is more”: I have been doing too many things, and as a result I cannot do any of them well enough. That includes reviews and writing. Because I also work a day job and handle sales. And I am the kind of person who needs time alone to think and create. Energy is clearly running low right now. That is probably why many reviews have been delayed. Hard to keep up with the pace of the bigger online creators.
Hair Goes Gray
In just two or three years, some friends I had not seen now have heads full of white hair. That was the big impression from the sports expo. Even though they are a bit older than me, it still should not come this fast.
Everyone faces different hardships and carries different pressures. Once your business grows, you are no longer carrying just your own livelihood — you carry the livelihoods of everyone in the company. That becomes a road with no exit. The more money you make, the faster things scale, the heavier the burden those friends carry. When things slow down, the hair goes white. And once it does, outside of dyeing it, it rarely goes back.
Sometimes others can see your state more clearly than you can.
At a recent alumni match, for example, my rhythm was very slow — but I did not notice it myself. My teammates did. On reflection, it is probably the chronic sleep deficit of the past year, eating away at my energy and vitality.
Those days I would get home past 2 a.m. and still go into the office the next morning. A colleague told me: watching you from behind, you look exhausted. But in my own head, I kept telling myself I was fine, still had fuel in the tank.
Maybe you only realize how tired you actually are when you finally lie down to sleep.
Take care of yourself. Less is more — do fewer things, and maybe that is the blessing. Young people are happier partly because their minds carry less. Boredom might actually be happiness itself.
— At least, that is what I was thinking looking out at the sea in Xiamen.
