This past week, I launched TaiwanSounds.com to the world.
This project has been in my mind for far too long. I’ve spent the past few years traveling to Asia when I can and visiting friends and family in Taiwan. Taiwan has always been a special place for me. The feeling I get there is the same feeling that seems to be described in Human Nature by Michael Jackson. That quiet wonder and curiosity. The city lights, the food, the culture, the pace of daily life, and especially the sounds. Every visit feels new, no matter how many times I go.
But this recent trip was different. For a while, I’ve felt like my creativity was stuck. It was like something inside me was trying to get out, but I just kept pushing it down. I realized that I hadn’t actually built and launched anything in years. And that struck me because building websites is something I’ve loved since I was really young. It was always part of who I was. But life got busy. Work, bills, routines, stress. And somewhere along the way, I stepped off the path. So I needed to change that and create something.
One of the things I love most about Taiwan is its background noise. The ambience of everyday life. The MRT announcements, temple sounds, storefront chimes, late-night scooters, the hum of the city. These sounds are subtle, but they carry the soul of the place. A lot of it is even by design. Whenever I return to the US, I miss those sounds more than I expect.
So I decided to capture them.
I spent hours walking around the city with my phone and the voice memos app, just listening, recording, and observing. Letting the environment move at its own pace.
TaiwanSounds is a collection and soundboard of those iconic everyday sounds, so that anyone, anywhere, can tap into a little piece of Taipei. I don’t know where this web project will go, and that’s not really the point. I built it for me. To bring back the feeling of being there. To reconnect with something when it’s far away.
More importantly, it represents a restart.
A return to making things. To following curiosity again. To creating and releasing, even when it’s imperfect, even when people might critique it. That’s the whole point.
If you’ve been wanting to create something, whether it’s a website, a piece of art, music, photography, woodworking, or something else. This is your reminder. Get back on your path too. Life’s routines are strong, and it’s easy to let things slip away. But the cost of not creating is too high. We lose part of ourselves.
So start. Today. With me.
Develop a bias for action.
In Taiwan, people say in Mandarin: 加油 (jiā yóu). It’s a simple phrase you’ll hear everywhere. It means “keep going,” “you’ve got this,” “push forward.”
So to you, and to myself:
加油.
And don’t forget to check out TaiwanSounds.com to hear the vibe of Taipei.