Student Question
Hello Master, I met this man who is still working on his PhD. From my perspective, he seemed to have great prospects ahead of him — a future annual salary of over a million, willing to hand over his paycheck to his future wife, cook for her, and take her home.
But he told me that doing his PhD left him no opportunities to meet women. That immediately felt off to me. Shanghai has more women than men, his university is no exception, and there are plenty of social mixers on any college campus.
Against All Expectations
Two years back, a wave of pledge crises swept through public companies — the unintended consequence of a well-meaning policy. To prevent excessive market volatility, rules barred major shareholders and executives from selling large blocks of shares through normal market transactions. Under this framework, the only way shareholders could convert holdings into cash was by pledging them as collateral. The result: it became standard practice for controlling shareholders and key executives to pledge 70–80% of their equity stakes to unlock liquidity.
If you want consumer spending to rise while simultaneously siphoning away the money people could spend, consumption won’t go up — it’ll shrink even further. When people feel financially insecure, they cut expenditures. That’s precisely why Alibaba bet wrong while Pinduoduo seized the moment: Alibaba gambled on a national consumption upgrade, while Pinduoduo gambled on a national consumption downgrade.
Many people are waiting for a money-printing story that drives housing prices back up. That story is not going to happen.
Student Question:
My current job is in e-commerce operations. I’ve been at my first company for two years and have been thinking about making a move — what you might call “riding a donkey while searching for a horse.” I’ve been scheduling interviews after work each day.
You previously mentioned three dimensions to consider when evaluating a job: first, whether you can learn and grow; second, whether you have a good boss to learn from and a positive work environment; third, whether the salary is high. Any job that satisfies two of these three is a good job.
If you cannot be your own master, others will master you. Sometimes you struggle your entire life only to find you’ve spent it fighting to break free from a trap someone else set for you. This is why all human effort ultimately serves one purpose: to claim sovereignty over one’s own destiny. This applies equally to individuals and to any collective.
Before the First World War, Britain served as the world’s dominant power. As its grip on the world began to loosen, it started planning for what came next. Britain controlled the world and ruled the seas for four hundred years from three small islands — achieved through two strategies: divide and conquer, and a global colonial economic system built before anyone else could. The former fragmented others into pieces too small to resist; the latter made Britain’s own position ever more secure — the more players drawn into the system, the stronger Britain’s footing, and the greater the profits extracted through the system’s built-in bias.
Student Question
Hello Master, I work in a technical role. I have no issues on the technical or business side. My question is: how do I practice upward management? When communicating with superiors, how can I achieve my goals while also maintaining some measure of balance with them?
Master Chi’s Response
Let me cover three main points.
First: Understand the Rules Before You Play — and Understand Others Before You Help Yourself
Stole some time last night to catch the film The Volunteers: Strike of the Mighty Army before it left theaters. What a waste of a superb subject — the director simply didn’t deliver.
The dialogue scenes do capture the weight of difficult decisions — particularly a scene where a returning overseas Chinese presents cold, hard comparative data to the decision-makers, arguing there was no chance of winning. Premier Zhou’s final answer: “Everything you’ve said is true, and it’s scientifically sound — but we can only survive through victory.” And later, old General Peng says: “Every generation must bear its own cost. Our generation is already covered in blood and mud — let us be the ones to pay.” These emotional dramatic scenes work well enough, and the logic of survival competition rings true: if the grandfather didn’t strive, the father must strive; if the father strives but still falls short, the son must work doubly hard just to reach an ordinary standard of living.
Monday — let’s talk about something grand.
Note: this article has no answers. It is purely some personal reflections from someone with a modest understanding of world history who has achieved financial freedom.
So — read, think, leave a comment. Every step matters.
One more thing: every article I write has a target audience.
This one is written for the core guiding leader of every family. Meaning: if your parents or spouse are not the kind of people who engage in deep thinking and make decisions about the whole family’s direction, then you need to read this carefully. Every family needs a reliable guiding leader. That person is you.
Today, an extraordinarily significant historical variable has emerged.
Hamas, the Palestinian militant organization, launched a massive surprise offensive against Israel. In an astonishingly short period of time, Hamas achieved simultaneous infiltration by land, sea, and air — while firing over 5,000 rockets in a coordinated barrage.
Strictly speaking, we are in all likelihood witnessing the opening of the Sixth Middle East War. As things stand, none of this has a direct bearing on us.
Today I’ll just get things started. The rest, I hope you’ll share in the comments. 🌞
After this recent trip to North America, the impression that stuck with me most is this: life overseas — especially in North America — is getting harder and harder.
The most obvious signs? Housing prices and the cost of living are brutal. Even white communities, who have generally never been known for watching their spending, are starting to think twice about every dollar.