Writing on Balazs Fejes / FB2 / Asia

A Cup Full of Pencils

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This year, I’ve spent the majority of my nights in hotels and Airbnb apartments. Business travel is part of the reason, but so is the renovation of our two apartments. In fact, even now, I’m about to fly to Penang to join the family at an Airbnb, impatiently waiting for our own condo renovation to finish.

So, as you can imagine, I care deeply about travel, hotels, and hospitality experiences. The last week and a half was particularly exciting for me, as I traveled to the US: I hadn’t been back since the pandemic. I had a work appointment in Philly, but I decided to spend a long weekend in New York first, getting used to the time zone and soaking up some art experiences.

Five Not-So-Easy Pieces

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

August stretched and twisted me in all kinds of directions, then spat me out in pretty poor shape. Let me tell you (and show you in photos) how it all went down.

I started the month at home base. Hong Kong is definitely one of my Happy Places, but for the short week I had in the city, the priorities were client meetings and time with my team in the office. I made sure to get at least one great bowl of wonton noodle soup and a plate of char siu rice. I couldn’t have faced myself in the mirror if I’d been to Hong Kong without them. The highlight of the week was waking up to a beautiful sunrise in our beautiful new apartment. I was in my Happy Place for a week and barely stepped into it.

Everyday Carry: Balazs in Asia, 2026 Edition

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Everyday Carry (EDC) is a special genre of YouTube videos, shorts and websites, focusing on gleaming, precise, luxurious items that men carry on a day-to-day basis. I’ve seen one end of the spectrum that is very tips’n’tricks-oriented with special items from Muji or other consumer brands. Examples include mini pouches that you can hang on your main pouch and make you look ridiculous. The other end of the spectrum is a slightly twitchy guy showing a phone, then a Swiss Army multitool, then some big freaking blade and then the handgun that is his everyday carry.

Books: I Need Somebody in There

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Despite all the noise online and offline about the decline of reading and the decline of literature, I’m still reading books. Quite a lot of them. I had some difficult years when personal grief took all my emotional capacity and I couldn’t read novels with any kind of conflict in them. Even then, I was reading non-fiction. Recently I’ve been tearing through book after book. Some of them I really liked. I do believe some of the novels that came out in the last few years are as good as any of the classics.

So... I Went Back to Budapest After 9 Years

Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

So, how does it feel? This is what everybody is asking when they find out it’s my first trip to Hungary in nine years. Last time, in 2017, I came for my father’s funeral, and I have not been back since. How it feels is not an easy question, and it requires a lot of self-reflection. I guess the city I was born in is exactly the place I should self-reflect in.

LLMs.txt for Balazs Fejes, 2026 Edition

Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I get it. You try to personalize the content on your website to keep me around and “engaged” as long as possible, while directly injecting ads into my eyeballs. It’s not working so well. I hate your website. Let me help you save precious computing resources and give you personalization recommendations for me instead!

What I don’t want

I don’t care about the World Cup. I never did, I never will.
I am not drinking your morning green goo. Even if lumberjack scientists advertise it.
I don’t care about Taylor Swift’s wedding. I am neither interested in nor upset by the flaunting of wealth and status. I am married, twice now; I see what’s coming for them.
Don’t give me honeytrap content. I have the testosterone level of a 52-year-old overworked wreck who lives in a household with four women.
I don’t care about theories, opinions, hacks, your breathless excitement about Anus 4.9, CPR 5.6, or whatever new model came out. I am as excited as a metalworker when a new hammer is given to him for the morning shift.

What I want to hear about

Did the world blow up while I was asleep? No? Thanks.
Did the stock recover while I was asleep? No? Thanks.
Should I take an umbrella?
Should I try that new restaurant?
Is there a book that just came out that I should read?

That’s about it. Post-apocalypse, I hope we downgrade back to Bulletin Boards and Fidomail. And I’ll get excited again, as that sexy gif slowly downloads over the dial-up modem, line by line, not a single bit wasted, all at human speed.

Sensory Overload, 2026

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

It’s hot and humid this morning in Hong Kong. The rainy season is here, and the air is heavy and wet. A storm is coming as I embark on my commute. I’m trying to stay cool and collected. This Monday morning, I’m working pretty hard to calm my worried brain.

I’m sitting in my usual spot on the ferry; there are only a few rows of seats where you can avoid looking at the giant flashing screens. The displays repeat the same three-minute videos about cybercrime and why you should visit Discovery Bay. If I have them in my peripheral view, I cannot avoid looking at the flashing images; the reptilian brain senses danger.

17 Years of Oscar Completionism: What This Year's Films Say About Hollywood

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

For the last 17 years, I’ve made a habit of watching ALL of the Oscar-nominated movies across the main categories within a three-month period. I usually start watching some of the early buzz movies from December, then really get into it after the nomination announcements at the end of January, and finish them all before the awards ceremony in March. It’s now the 2nd of March, and I am done with this year’s batch of movies: let me share my reflections on them.

The Vibe Police: My Sunday Dance with AI Development

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sing to the tune of Manic Monday by the Bangles:

“It’s just another coding Sunday I’m glad it’s not Monday Today’s my debug day My no-more-Teams-calls day It’s just another coding Sunday.”

It’s Sunday, and I’m knee-deep in code. Over the last several weeks, I’ve dedicated a big chunk of my Sundays to experimenting with an AI-assisted integrated development environment. I decided to use it in combination with chat sessions with a frontier model I have access to, for ideation, planning, and project management. I had an app idea in mind that I’d call a “mid-size” application – non-trivial functionality involving a mobile app, back-end services, relatively complex UI, data storage, file storage, and authentication. This is a REAL app, not a toy.

On Recent Literary Recognition of Hungarian Misery

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This morning, I was reading the newly Booker Prize-winning book by David Szalay, an author of Hungarian origin. It’s a big year for us; earlier this fall, László Krasznahorkai won the literary Nobel Prize. To me, it makes perfect sense that the dismal world of 2025 finally catches up to our grim Hungarian pessimism. Sure enough, the protagonist of this book, István, is a grim, nearly mute character who stumbles through a great deal of misery in the early 2000s Hungarian countryside. It’s a good book, and I still have some faint hope for a not totally nihilistic ending for the poor bastard.

The Hair-brained Future with AI

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been bald for a very long time. Started fully shaving my head in my early twenties when genetics made the decision for me – early-onset baldness runs in my family like a cruel heirloom. My brother has it, my son has it, and I genuinely don’t care. The shaved head is convenient, highly masculine, and blissfully low maintenance.

But here’s a thought: while everyone’s hyperventilating about whether AI will destroy civilization or create a utopian paradise, maybe we should consider the more delightfully trivial advances this technology might deliver. AI-enabled drug research might cure cancer, sure, but what if it also figures out how to regrow my hair after 30 years? If there were a simple, risk-free pill, would I take it? Maybe just for fun – but then I’d have to choose haircuts, schedule barber visits, deal with bed head. I don’t need anything added to my morning routine when I could spend those five minutes enjoying coffee instead.

A Defense of Questionable Food Choices

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Some people love runny eggs, while others will only eat “fully cooked” eggs with yolks as dry as chalk. My wife says runny eggs feel like eating snot – and yes, we’ve all been there as kids. I’m firmly in the runny egg camp, which puts me in the minority of people willing to defend questionable food choices in polite company.

I had many opportunities to indulge in this gooey goodness during our recent Penang summer vacation, where I discovered that my food prejudices were both deeply held and completely arbitrary.

The Qianhai Question

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Last month, we spent a fun weekend with friends just across the border, in Shenzhen. We stayed at the Jen by Shangri-La, in the newly built block of apartments, offices, and parks in Qianhai. We mostly spent our time in an excellent shopping mall that kept our families busy for the weekend. Yes, we spent our weekend in a shopping mall. Judge me all you want, but when you have kids, a mall with three different hot pot options, “pink sand,” and a cat café is basically paradise with air conditioning.

Have A Deep Thought This Friday

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Is There a Non-Dystopian Option, Please?

Standing in the subway car in Hong Kong, en route to a photo walk, I observe the people around me. Every person is on their phone, except one. If we’d show this scene to somebody fifty years ago, they’d think it’s some nightmarish dystopian future.

I see the same in Tokyo, perhaps even worse, as there, people stare at their phone screens to avoid accidental eye contact at all costs. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of what people are looking at. There’s the young, geeky-looking guy playing some one-tap, highly animated action RPG game. The older lady is playing level two thousand of some Candy Crush variant. Many young women are looking at beauty influencer videos. Kids, like my young girls, are watching the worst content imaginable: kids’ influencers on YouTube. Our children’s minds are shaped by these whiny, non-stop-talking nightmare human beings, good God!

What I Saw in Our Smart Mirror

Fri, 15 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve spent a fun weekend in Suzhou recently, showcasing one of our R&D prototypes. We at EPAM have been working with the Suzhou Art & Design Technology Institute to integrate our prototype Smart/Augmented Reality Mirror into the fashion department’s graduation event. The runway show was complemented by our booth area in the exhibition hall, and visitors were able to virtually try on the pieces from the runway show right after the event. It was amazing to see our collaboration resulting in great content & visitor experience! And I’ve got to do a photo shoot for the runway event, that’s a first for me :)