Luchengming asks: Commander, greetings. I’d like to ask your thoughts on the future of the photovoltaic sector. Right now it looks like many domestic solar companies are nearly dead — there was just an announcement allowing M&A in the solar industry, but then nothing else followed.
Do you think more policies are coming to prop up the solar industry? After all, it wasn’t easy for the country to cultivate a globally dominant sector like this — they wouldn’t just let it die, would they?
The most anxiety-inducing thing about a career is that most of the experience you accumulate consists of conclusions — you rarely understand why things work the way they do, or what factors actually drive the results.
This is because at work, you’re typically responsible for just one piece of the puzzle. You’re not part of the decision-making process, so you can’t see the full picture from where you stand, and you don’t have the access to gather the broader information that would make sense of it all.
Let me share a little-known secret with you.
Women in the middle and lower tiers of life often make a particular mistake: they tend to mistake the girl who’s “quick with a comeback, sharp-tongued, and full of scattered ideas” for someone who possesses genuine wisdom.
But from my years of destiny reading (命理) experience, this type of woman is actually the least likely to break through — and the most prone to that painful situation where she’s been fighting fate tooth and nail for years, yet can’t see any real progress.
Entrepreneurship and employment are two completely different paths:
Entrepreneurs are driven by demand; employees are driven by tasks. Entrepreneurs solve problems in an open-ended environment; employees solve problems within a constrained one. Entrepreneurs face the real market; employees face a false market (the virtual environment constructed by the platform they operate within). Entrepreneurs continuously experiment and embrace failure; employees avoid making mistakes. Entrepreneurs take on responsibility; employees evade it.
How do you make decisions when you don’t have enough information?
How do you close the information gap?
How do you solve problems when resources are scarce?
How do you know what you don’t know?
How do you spot the mistakes you haven’t spotted yet?
How do you expand your sources of information?
How do you bring in external resources to solve problems?
How do you increase your influence?
How do you get others to help you solve your problems?
Trolls are a resource — a strong feedback signal on social ideology.
Internet trolls can serve as lab rats for the humanities and social sciences.
They come with the following advantages:
Large numbers: No need to worry about insufficient sample sizes. Low cost: They’re everywhere online. Just discuss a controversial topic and they’ll swarm in. High data authenticity: Since the cost of speaking online is low and trolls are driven by emotion, their reactions tend to be genuine expressions of their underlying ideology. Common troll experiment scenarios:
[Paid subscriber note: This article is written specifically for ordinary young people aged 18–35 from humble backgrounds. Read it carefully — it can genuinely change the course of your destiny.]
Also: if your parents’ net worth is under nine figures, or if they are not particularly distinguished within their own circles, then it is essentially impossible for them to have distilled the wisdom in this article into the kind of family knowledge that gets passed down to you.
Career content online will constantly — and unconsciously — tell you to master your craft, to specialize deeper, because expertise is the path to promotions and raises.
In reality, this thinking is completely wrong. You should never let your job title limit or define who you are.
The correct logic is: companies exist to make money → your expertise helps the company make money → the company hires you.
In other words, if your skills can’t generate revenue for the company, it doesn’t matter how brilliant you are. And if they can, whether you’re a polished “specialist” or not is completely irrelevant.
Some short pieces I’ve written recently have unexpectedly found quite a following.
It’s telling, really — in times like these, people are hungry for a little lightness and peace.
So tonight, I’ll skip the long essay. Instead, let me share a few Buddhist verses and wisdom sayings (偈语, jīyǔ) that I personally treasure.
Nothing too profound. But read them, and your heart will ease.
For you, whom I care about.
Most people make decisions by following their feelings.
Take this example: I often advise people to spend less time scrolling on their phones.
Some will push back — “I’m worried I’ll fall out of touch with the world. I won’t know what’s happening.”
My response: give me one example. In the past year, out of everything you’ve consumed while scrolling, what was something that — had you missed it — would have seriously impacted your life?