I’ve always had a very clear picture of who I’m writing for.
First, ideally, readers should be 30 or older — below that age, it’s nearly impossible to truly grasp lessons that cut to the bone.
Second, ideally, readers should be middle class or above — at a management level or higher. Otherwise, they simply won’t have the depth of understanding to make sense of what I write.
If there’s a third threshold, it’s this: readers need to be strong enough to bear the weight of my insight-heavy, unapologetically gray wisdom — the kind that walks the line between righteous and ruthless.
Student Question: Hello Master, my supervisor said I didn’t communicate properly on a project and wasn’t thorough enough in my thinking. But I’m just an executor — I don’t need to know everything. Some things should be handled at the leadership level. Am I wrong to think that way?
Master Chi’s Response:
Your supervisor is actually right. You’re responsible for this project, which means it’s on you to understand all the relevant information. Not only should you execute on what your supervisor already knows — you should go out and bring back information your supervisor doesn’t know. That’s what doing your job properly looks like.
Improving your work capabilities in the real world is nothing like the grand theories you’ll find online — it’s a system built from countless small details, stacked one upon another.
Growing your skills is a process where quantitative change gives rise to qualitative transformation.
Doing every task at hand with genuine care and steady effort — that is the most essential foundation.
Let’s stop dragging ourselves to bed at eleven or midnight, phone pried reluctantly from our hands, then throwing an under-rested body at a brand new day.
New year, new month — both demand a full tank of energy before anything opens up for you.
Listen to me: go take a shower, then set the air conditioning to a comfortable 24°C — nothing colder than that.
Then lie down, sink into the bed, let your mind go blank. Breathe slow and easy. Listen to the night wind and the rain outside the window, and just… follow that feeling down into sleep.
If you’re past thirty and still feel like you’re just drifting through life — stop overthinking it.
Start subtracting from your life. Right now. Immediately. Without delay.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that at your age, with so many responsibilities, making subtractions means letting people down or causing harm. That’s not how it works. Subtraction isn’t about giving up. It’s about reorganizing yourself so you can travel lighter — moving with more ease and grace.
Brothers and sisters who truly understand never need much explanation — straight to the core advice:
★ - If the past forty years of changing your fate depended on daring to fight and seizing opportunities, then as times grow more stable, what matters now is whether you can reduce the probability of making life-altering mistakes.
★ - At my age, once you’ve accumulated enough experience and standing, you come to understand: a person’s overall achievements are always a reflection of their overall abilities. Rich or poor, noble or humble — that alone says everything.
This article went through two rounds of revisions before it could finally be published.
Honestly, at first I didn’t even understand which parts were so sensitive. Then I realized — a great deal of what I wrote was simply too sharp, not exactly what the general public would comfortably absorb.
Fine. Some things got softened. But the core hasn’t changed.
It’s still brutally honest. Read at your own risk — and once you’re done, I’d suggest saving it somewhere you won’t lose it.
Let me be straight with you: if you truly want to grow, the two most important things are reading good books and working hard. The stuff you find online may seem reasonable — and it is, to a degree — but that’s all it is.
Everyone grows up in different circumstances, with different personalities and different natural gifts. There really isn’t a single methodology that works for everyone.
I used to go online with the intention of learning. Did it help? Yes — but nowhere near as much as I imagined.
Yesterday, a reader asked me: Master Chi, why were you able to summon the courage to break through your own darkest moments — and yet here I am, trapped in the same abyss, completely crushed by pressure, drowning in despair and helplessness, without even a trace of will to fight back? Please, I’m reaching out for help — what should I do?
After reading this question, I paused to reflect. What came to me is something I can only describe as half-wisdom, half-instinct — yet it cuts straight to the core.
In this world, countless cruel and malicious concepts have been invented specifically to describe and demean the poor.
Words like shortsighted, ignorant, lazy, uninformed, reckless, blind… and on and on.
But in my eyes, the poor person’s greatest problem is actually just one thing: chaos.
Why am I so certain in giving this answer?
There was a time when my family’s fortunes collapsed, and I experienced genuine poverty myself — not merely the kind where income drops to zero, but the kind where you’re buried under mountains of debt.