Born in '95, geek, designer, developer — doesn’t it seem surprising to find all these labels on one person? Len Chou is the owner of all these tags. Born in 1995, his hobby is tinkering, and he’s made quite a name for himself in his respective fields.

About Me

My name is Len Chou, commonly known online as @ZhouLiangZhouLiang. I’m a broke student born in '95 — many people like to call me “the minor.” My biggest hobby is tinkering. I’ve written code, built websites, and was once somewhat well-known in the WordPress community. Technically I should be a college freshman, but I chose not to attend university, though I’m still in school… A few months ago, I started working with my current boss on a fitness app. I’m responsible for the product’s UI and interaction design, and then shamelessly gave myself the title of “Design Director.”

Work Setup

I mainly stay at school. Since it’s a boarding school with no internet access, I primarily use mobile devices. My main device is the iPhone 6 I recently picked up, which I use for information gathering (social media), reading, writing articles, and more. As an extreme app enthusiast, I spend a great deal of time every day discovering outstanding apps. My phone has roughly over 1,400 apps installed, which is why I went with the 128GB iPhone — only that kind of storage capacity can satisfy me. My backup devices include a 16GB iPhone 5 and a Nokia 210. I also have a Meizu MX gathering dust at home — it was the first phone I ever bought with my own earnings, so it holds special significance.

My main work involves design and some front-end coding. I have a non-Retina MacBook Pro, purchased in late 2013. Apart from being a bit heavy, it handles all my daily work just fine.

When working from the Hangzhou office, I have a Dell 2414h monitor as an external display. It rotates 360 degrees, so whether I’m watching videos and designing layouts in landscape mode or writing code in portrait mode, it has me covered.

At home, the MacBook + mStand combo works really well. Of course, as a designer, the Apple Magic Mouse and Bluetooth keyboard are essential. Many designers also have a graphics tablet — I own a Bamboo CTL671, but I barely use it, so it’s not much help to me.

Hobbies and Interests

I have a particular fondness for smart hardware devices and have bought quite a few. From the UP24 to Bong’s first and second generation fitness bands — I’ve owned them all. The UP24 looks pretty cool, but it stopped charging after not too long. The first-generation Bong is probably my favorite wearable device. Currently I’m not wearing any band — the Bong 2 I was using recently broke, and the Misfit Shine I ordered from overseas hasn’t arrived yet. I’ve wanted one for a long time, and once it arrives, I plan to just wear it as a necklace…

I also drink from a Cuptime smart water cup. When I first brought it to school, many classmates asked me what this magical gadget was — a cup that syncs with your phone???

I love reading, so I frequently used my Kindle. But since I managed to break it by dropping it, I’m stuck reading on my phone now…

As a shameless, self-proclaimed geek, I naturally need some cool gear. I have a Ziiiro watch — the same brand as tech reviewer Wang Zirou’s, which has earned me plenty of teasing from friends. Though it’s not actually the same model; mine is the Ziiiro Celeste, which I think looks way cooler than the one in his video.

I also have a pair of ic! berlin glasses imported from Germany. I don’t wear glasses often, but supposedly they’re the most suitable eyewear for programmers, and they’re assembled without a single screw (it’s just physics, really). That sounded cool enough that I couldn’t resist placing the order… Buy! Buy! Buy!

As a broke student, that’s about all I own — or rather, all I can afford…

What’s on the Wishlist?

There are actually many things I want to buy, but I’ve divided them into necessities and non-necessities, made a list, and I’m saving up to acquire them gradually. The nearest necessity is probably a mechanical keyboard… Getting the right keyboard for myself is a must.

There are many non-necessities: the Moto 360, Apple Watch — basically all wearable devices, because I want to study the app interaction design on both of these watches.

I pretty much copied the original text over, but many things have changed since then. For instance, I no longer plan to buy a mechanical keyboard — instead, I’m considering the full-size Apple Keyboard. The other day I came across this line on Jaskni’s blog: “The designers I admire, look up to, and hope to approach or even surpass all use Macs. Most of them use the Apple Keyboard rather than that wired Bluetooth keyboard, and they almost all use the Magic Mouse rather than third-party mice. I believe ‘there must be a reason’ is reason enough for me.” That resonated deeply.

The KnewOne interview can be found here: http://knewone.com/entries/549a3a9a31302d0bc1f80000