Original video in Chinese.
Key Takeaway
- I hate self-media creators: in China, self-media creators will stop at nothing for traffic/sponsored deals (like hyping up something as a “masterpiece” or “explosive”), and I turned down most collaborations to stay independent; my experience as a Nintendo UP host in the past is similar to today’s AI self-media creators.
- Dual-role positioning: somewhere between an Influencer (explaining AI Why/How, with a high barrier that filters the audience) and a Builder (developing products like knowledge bases/tools, hands-on practice), complementary in terms of sharing experience, multiple income streams, sensitivity to trends, product launches, and making connections.
- AI liberates abilities: AI detaches abilities from professions (for example, writing code), eliminating low-quality jobs; break out of the framework to seize opportunities, with roles like skills that can be switched, and a hopeful path to survival in the AI era.
I especially hate it when people call me a self-media creator. Because in China, those three words, “self-media creator,” carry a really bad reputation. And self-media is not a good business anyway.
For the sake of traffic, self-media creators will say anything.
A few years ago, I used to be a gaming UP host on Bilibili. If you’re a Nintendo fan or a Switch player, then you must have heard of the IDs PlayNintendo or Weatherman. I can say very confidently and proudly that I made a significant contribution to the spread of Nintendo games and ideas in China.
Back then, I noticed that many UP hosts in the gaming category would casually call new games a “masterpiece” just to attract newcomers. Isn’t that a lot like today’s AI self-media creators casually saying something is “explosive”?
For the sake of sponsored deals, self-media creators will praise any product.
To be honest, over the past two years, there have been a lot of sponsored deals that came my way, but in the end I only accepted two. Why? For the other ones, either the company’s reputation was bad—I already found it disgusting as a user, so how could I possibly collaborate—or the product itself was bad—I couldn’t even respect it or wanted to use it, so how could I recommend it?
But if you make your living from self-media, you have to swallow all of that. In the end, there are only two outcomes: either you get cursed to death, or you disgust yourself so much that you don’t want to do it anymore.
I think I’m neither pure self-media nor a pure developer, but a role somewhere between Influencer and Builder.
I do have influence. But that influence doesn’t come from chasing traffic; it comes from my understanding of technology, products, and trends.
One thing I often say is: I’m one of the few bloggers in China who can explain the Why and How of AI clearly. A lot of people attack me for that and think I’m too arrogant.
But if you look at it, the vast majority of people only talk about What—what happened. That’s the easiest thing. Because their ability is limited, once they get to the end they realize they have nothing else to say, and then they can only awkwardly hype things up with words like “magic tool” or “explosive.”
Being able to clearly explain Why and How is definitely rare. There’s a very high barrier to that. It requires strong logical ability and a sensitivity to content.
On top of that, understanding it also has a high barrier. So this direction of content naturally filters people for me. If you can’t understand it or can’t see the value, then it must be because I don’t want you to become part of my audience—we’ll each go our own way.
Besides being an Influencer, I’m also a Builder. In that respect, I actually started even earlier.
This is my first product, launched during the May Day holiday in 2023. I used Figma to design the UI, then handed it off to two part-time developers to build.
This product started out as a pure wrapper, with the goal of making the GPT model accessible to more people. Later, I added knowledge base features, including a personal knowledge base and a team knowledge base. After that, I also added a tool library, which included little tools like web-connected search and so on.
So the Agent and RAG content I later shared wasn’t something I picked up from reading around everywhere—it came from my own practice. I truly built it and did the work with my own hands. If you’ve built it yourself and written it yourself, the results are completely different, and the things you share are completely different too.
For me, the two roles of Influencer and Builder are like two engines:
On the one hand, the Builder identity gives me a steady stream of firsthand experience. I never have to worry about running out of things to share. Besides the videos I publish publicly every week, I’m also sharing every day inside the community. Last year, I wrote 100,000 words in Knowledge Planet. And because I have products, my income sources are more diversified. I don’t have to chase traffic, and I can be bold about filtering; I don’t have to flatter customers, and I can keep my viewpoints and personality independent.
On the other hand, the Influencer identity keeps me highly sensitive to the market and public opinion. Influence can help my own products get off the ground. Influence is also an especially useful business card, allowing me to connect with a lot of people whenever I want.
This in-between state avoids the shortcomings of a single role and a single identity. And being able to do all of this is because of AI.
My own personal feeling is that AI doesn’t actually eliminate people; it extracts abilities from professions, and in doing so eliminates certain professions.
Before AI, abilities and professions were tightly bound together. For example, writing code was highly tied to the profession of software development. Now AI has extracted that part of the ability and handed it to everyone. So among developers, those incompetent ones who only know how to write code are panicking.
So if you can avoid being bound to a profession and instead use AI as the channel to acquire the abilities of different professions, then you can break out of those constraints, respond to the situation, and seize opportunities.
I firmly believe this is the survival path of today.
Whether self-media creator or developer, none of these roles can define me. They’re just an ability, just a set of skills. Maybe after a while, I’ll pick up some new ability. Just like in an RPG, I can switch jobs at will and learn the professional skills I need.
That is the beauty and hope of the AI era.
OK, that’s all for this episode. If you want to understand AI, want to become a super individual, and want to find like-minded people, come join our newtype community. See you next time!