Recently, something small has left me feeling unexpectedly exhausted.
My skin has always been on the dry side. A friend gave me two bottles of agarwood essential oil, but after using them for a while, I didn’t notice much difference. Later, she recommended that I try AFU rose hydrosol. I saw plenty of positive reviews and promotional content online, so I decided to give it a try.
But my skin still felt dry, and the problem hadn’t noticeably improved.
I started wondering: Was the product simply not right for me, or was there something else going on with my skin?
So I asked AI for advice. It reminded me that a product isn’t necessarily right for me just because it is well marketed or receives good reviews. Before buying skincare products, it helps to understand their ingredients and what they do, then consider whether they suit my skin’s current condition. If dryness persists or gets worse, it may be worth seeing a dermatologist to understand what is causing it rather than continually switching products.
The advice all made sense.
And yet, the more I learned, the more exhausted I felt.
What had started as a small problem I hoped to solve simply seemed to open a door into an unfamiliar world.
I now had to learn about different skincare ingredients and what they were supposed to do. I had to sort through brand claims, read customer reviews, and try to figure out what might actually work for my skin. The long ingredient names and technical terminology were overwhelming.
Even after spending time researching, I still couldn’t be sure which product would truly suit me.
A few days ago, I talked about it with another friend. She recommended Kans, saying that its products focused on hydration. I bought one and used it for two days. My skin seemed a little more moisturized, but my face also started feeling uncomfortable.
I couldn’t tell what was causing the discomfort, and I didn’t want to keep experimenting with new products.
You see how something seemingly simple can keep expanding. One product doesn’t work, so you try another. Someone offers a recommendation, so you want to test it. You come across a new explanation and start wondering whether there might be an even better option.
After all that effort, the problem remained unresolved, but I had already spent a considerable amount of time and energy on it.
What we lack is not more products, but knowing what we need.
Why Are We Getting More and More Tired?
This made me think of my childhood.
Back then, the skincare products we kept at home were simple. A basic cream like Xuehua Cream was enough for many everyday needs. We didn’t spend much time researching ingredients, nor were we faced with the enormous range of brands, marketing claims, and product choices we see today.
Of course, that doesn’t mean the skincare products of the past were necessarily better, or that people didn’t have skin problems back then. It simply means we had less information to process and fewer options to compare.
Today, living standards are higher, products are more plentiful, and information is much easier to access. In theory, our lives should be easier than they were before.
But that doesn’t always seem to be the case.
When we want to buy something, we compare brands, prices, specifications, and reviews. When we want to solve a problem, we find tutorials, personal experiences, and expert explanations. Every perspective seems to make sense, yet every option comes with its own potential drawbacks.
We have more choices, but we also have more decisions to make.
Sometimes, what exhausts us isn’t the complexity of the problem itself. It’s not knowing what to trust, what to choose, or how much time we need to spend before we can arrive at a reasonably reliable answer.
This is especially true of things we never wanted to spend much time researching in the first place, but have to deal with anyway.
I don’t want to become a skincare ingredient expert. I simply want my skin to feel comfortable and to find a few products that work for me, so that when I need to buy them again, I know what to choose without having to start my research from scratch every few months.
That doesn’t seem like too much to ask.
I’ve been using Apple computers, phones, headphones, and smartwatches for more than ten years. Over time, these products have become familiar, reliable choices for me. When it’s time to replace something, I generally know what to look for. I don’t need to research the entire market from the beginning every time.
My "Apple" Journey of 15 Years: A Story of Trust and Happiness
I’m not suggesting that skincare should work exactly like electronics, or that I should commit to one brand forever. Different products serve different purposes, and our skin changes over time.
I simply hope that, after some trial and error, I can develop a relatively stable routine of my own: knowing which products suit me, when I might need to make adjustments, and whom to turn to when something goes wrong.
That way, the issue can gradually return to its proper place in my life instead of repeatedly taking up my attention.
What we really want isn’t a life in which we never have to make choices. It’s a life in which we don’t have to keep spending the same time and energy on the same unresolved problem.
A Better Life Shouldn’t Come at the Expense of Living
I’ve always believed that we should do what we can to make our lives better.
Taking care of our health, looking after our appearance, making our homes more comfortable, learning new things, and finding more efficient ways to work—all of these are worthwhile pursuits. If life can be improved, why shouldn’t we try?
The problem is that the pursuit of a better life can itself become a burden.
To improve our skin, we research skincare products. To become more productive, we spend time looking for better tools. To make wiser decisions, we consume more information and compare more options.
We start out wanting to make life easier, only to find ourselves spending more and more time figuring out how to make life better.
We often believe that if we learn a little more or compare a few more options, we might finally find the best answer.
But many things in life don’t have one perfect answer that works for everyone. Even when we find something that suits us now, there’s no guarantee it will remain the right choice forever.
And our time and energy are limited.
If we try to find the optimal solution to every small problem and thoroughly investigate every decision, life can easily become a to-do list that never ends.
We don’t want to settle for less than what suits us, but we don’t want to be held hostage by endless details either. We want to live well and take care of ourselves, but not at the cost of sacrificing too much of the time that should belong to us.
We try to make life better so we can have more time and energy to live—not so we can spend all our time and energy figuring out how to make life better.
Perhaps what we need to reconsider isn’t just how to make better choices, but also how much time and effort each choice deserves.
Some problems genuinely require careful attention, especially those involving health, safety, or major life decisions. But not every issue deserves the same level of investment.
If we can handle something ourselves, we can gradually find a workable approach. If it requires expertise beyond our own, we can seek professional help. And if repeated attempts lead nowhere, we can stop, reassess, and try a different approach.
This isn’t about giving up on a better quality of life. It’s about learning to set boundaries around our time and attention.
Experiences Are Not Always a Waste. Knowledge Takes Time to Build.
And this time, I chose to face the problem rather than ignore it.
I went to see a dermatologist. During the appointment, I mentioned that I had experienced something similar the year before. Back then, my eyes had suddenly become swollen, and the reaction had spread to my face. I had visited both the ophthalmology and dermatology departments at the same hospital. The doctors prescribed eye ointment, topical medication for my skin, and oral medication. Within two or three days, the symptoms had subsided.
This time, the doctor reviewed my previous medical records. Since the cause of my dry skin still wasn’t clear, the doctor referred to my earlier treatment history and prescribed a topical ointment and a course of oral medication. After using them, my skin discomfort eased.
I found myself wondering whether the change of seasons might have triggered a temporary skin reaction. But I still don’t know the actual cause.
The visit didn’t give me a definitive answer, and my dry skin problem hasn’t been fully resolved. Still, the experience helped me understand my situation a little better. It also reminded me that if something similar happens again, I should seek professional advice rather than repeatedly switching skincare products and experimenting on my own.
At the very least, I’ve begun to realize that choosing skincare products shouldn’t be based solely on brand claims and customer reviews. I also need to understand what ingredients a product contains, what those ingredients do, and whether they are appropriate for my skin’s current condition.
Some people may have known this for years. For me, it was a new realization.
Sometimes, an experience doesn’t give us an answer. Instead, it gives us a little more knowledge and a little better judgment for the next time we face a similar problem.
We tend to think that learning happens primarily when we’re in school. In reality, the problems we encounter in everyday life can be some of our most meaningful learning experiences.
They rarely appear in our plans. Sometimes they even disrupt our routines, forcing us to spend time and energy dealing with them. Yet it is precisely through facing problems, searching for solutions, and trying different approaches that we gradually build experience and gain new insights.
Knowledge in our professional lives takes time to accumulate. The same is true of knowledge about everyday life.
At work, we encounter a problem and learn a new method. In daily life, we go through an experience and gain a little more wisdom. Even the wrong turns we take may help us make better decisions the next time around.
Life is a continuous process of experiencing, learning, and gradually developing better judgment.
These seemingly insignificant experiences can leave us exhausted and disrupt our plans. But if each one helps us understand ourselves a little better, learn something new about the world, or discover a more effective way to handle a problem, then the time and energy we spend on them are not simply wasted.
Of course, this doesn’t mean every issue deserves endless research, or that every frustrating experience will automatically lead to growth.
What matters is being willing to face problems and learn from them. When an approach doesn’t work, we need to be willing to change direction rather than keep repeating the same thing.
Know Yourself, Accept Yourself: Wisdom Comes From Long-Term Growth
An experience is not merely a drain on our time and energy. It can also become the foundation for better decisions in the future.
Many problems in life cannot be solved all at once. What we can do is accumulate knowledge and experience over time, so that when we encounter something similar again, we don’t have to start from exactly the same place.
I still haven’t found the real cause of my dry skin. But at least I’ve learned one thing to do differently next time.
Perhaps this is how growth happens. It doesn’t always come with a satisfying outcome, and it doesn’t necessarily make life better overnight. Sometimes, after going through something exhausting, we simply come away understanding a little more than we did before.