This era can make someone famous overnight, or it can expose someone to being scrutinized by countless eyes all at once. The more tumultuous the times are, the more we need to maintain our own judgment and walk our own path calmly and steadily.
Preface :
A few days ago, I just wrote an article about Zhong Shu interviewing Chen Danqing - "Know Yourself, Accept Yourself: There is no shortcut in life, wisdom comes from long-term accumulation".
A video of Zhong Shu interviewing Nolan went viral on the internet. A post received millions of views, and her personal brand suddenly became extremely popular. Someone almost became a public expert overnight.
Out of curiosity, I watched her video, but my focus was not on Zhong Shu, but on the conversation between her and the interviewee Chen Danqing, on how to distinguish whether someone's words are true or false：
【Chen Danqing mentioned that as people grow older, they become increasingly capable of distinguishing true from false.
Zhong Shu also gave an example: If someone has truly seen and studied thousands of genuine paintings, they will gradually develop the ability to distinguish between genuine and fake paintings.】.
Not long after this article was published, voices questioning Zhong Shu began to multiply online, saying that some of her works were not original and that the use of translation or AI-assisted content was questioned.
In just a few days, Zhong Shu plummeted from the peak to the bottom. This is the speed of the internet!
When you are still unknown, you long for attention;
When you finally gain attention, you find that behind it there is a price.
I have also experienced this process myself.
This point was deeply felt by me when I was writing my blog.
When I was just starting to build my independent website, I was actually completely confused.
I didn't know what to write about in the blog, nor did I know what kind of article was good, nor did I know what kind of update frequency was appropriate.
Later, I saw some good articles and translated and organized them before publishing.
The writing speed was indeed very fast.
One article a day was not difficult.
But later, I discovered a problem that made me start to reflect: My articles were not widely indexed by Google.
I began to look for the reasons and gradually realized that although the past articles were well-organized, they lacked something truly belonging to me - personal experience.
So I began to change my writing style, recording my own observations, experiences, through the understanding of a book, a social event, or an investment viewpoint. I realized that my writing speed suddenly slowed down.
Not one article a day. Maybe 2-3 articles a week.
Because of my own feelings. My own experiences, my own understanding, it requires time to organize my thoughts.
But before this, I might not have continued to think along my own feelings, but was accustomed to looking for "what others have already written".
These two types of writing are completely different.
One is producing articles.
The other is producing one's own thoughts.
True originality is inherently slow.
This is something I have increasingly felt in the AI era.
Now using AI to write is too fast.
Translation, summarization, organization, rewriting, title, article structure, even video script, can all be completed in a very short time.
The efficiency of information production has changed dramatically.
But there is one thing that AI cannot directly provide for us:
The life you have truly experienced.
AI can help you write an investment article.
But it has not experienced the panic you felt when facing a sharp decline for the first time.
It can summarize a book.
But it doesn't know why you read a book ten years later and suddenly truly understand a sentence in it.
It can help you organize an opinion.
But it cannot bear:
Is this opinion truly something you believe in?
So I increasingly feel that what is truly scarce in the AI era is not information.
But:
Personal experience, independent judgment and true thinking.
Previously, we lacked information.
Now we have too much information.
The truly difficult part is actually finding one's own thing among so much information.
The more traffic there is, the greater the temptation.
This has also made me understand why the era of high traffic is actually a huge test for an individual.
When there is no traffic, we hope to be noticed.
When someone pays attention to us, we are happy.
But when a person truly has a large amount of attention, things become complicated.
Because traffic not only brings applause, but also scrutiny.
The words you say today may be remembered by someone.
The mistakes you made ten years ago may also be brought up by someone.
The articles you wrote, the things you said, and the actions you took in the past may all be put under the spotlight again.
And the platform keeps telling you:
You must be productive.
You must maintain popularity.
You must follow trends.
You must keep producing.
A very dangerous cycle may emerge:
More content → More traffic → Higher expectations → Greater pressure → Continued high-frequency production.
Finally, a person may no longer ask:
"What do I really want to say?"
Instead, they start to ask:
"What has traffic?"
"What do people want to see?"
"What does the algorithm like?"
"How can I maintain my current image?"
At this point, traffic may turn from a tool into a cage.
A person originally created for being seen, may end up losing themselves in maintaining being seen.
Suddenly famous, but also suddenly losing trust.
This era can indeed allow a person to become famous very quickly.
A video.
An opinion.
An interview.
A hot topic.
All of these can push an ordinary person to the spotlight.
However, the faster the fame comes, it might also mean that one has to endure greater scrutiny.
Because traffic amplifies a person's strengths as well as his weaknesses.
When an ordinary person makes a mistake, only a few people around him know it.
When someone with millions of followers makes the same mistake, it may be magnified countless times in a very short time.
I increasingly feel:
Fame itself is not the hardest thing.
The truly difficult part is, after being noticed by many people, still being able to maintain authenticity.
This is also why, after seeing the online discussion about Zhong Shu, I didn't particularly want to judge "what she is really like".
What I'm more concerned about is:
Can each of us, when facing traffic, fame, interests, and temptations, hold onto our boundaries?
What is completely different is this kind of life: Planting a forest for decades
In sharp contrast to Zhong Shu's "sudden rise - sudden fall" is this story:
An ordinary woman who has been planting trees in the desert for decades found an American who sponsored her 5,000 US dollars 27 years ago.
The two met, hugged tightly, and moved countless people.
This woman is named Yin Yuzhen. She has spent over 40 years persistently fighting against desertification and planting trees in the Mu Us Desert in Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
At the beginning, she faced a desolate desert.
She believed that she could plant trees. This persistence lasted for decades.
When an American friend "Sai-Koski" who was teaching in Henan, China, saw the report of her tree-planting, he specially brought 5,000 US dollars to the scene to watch her.
When he saw the almost endless desert before him, he said:
"This is impossible."
Yin Yuzhen simply replied:
"possible, possible."
After several decades passed.
One tree.
Another tree.
A forest.
Yin Yuzhen, after 40 years of rooting, transformed the once desolate desert into a forest.
27 years later, "Sai-Koski" returned to China's land. He sincerely praised Yin Yuzhen:
“She is a hero, so amazing, without any technological tools, just by her own hands turned the desert into a forest!”
Yin Yuzhen, even before the result appeared, began to believe that the result would appear.
No one gives her likes every day.
No one asks her to update every day.
No one tells her that she must prove herself quickly.
She just does it year after year...
In this era, perhaps the most scarce thing is "not being carried away by noise".
The information we have now might be more than that of any previous era.
But more information doesn't mean we become more intelligent.
Sometimes, it just makes us more anxious.
Every day, someone tellsyou:
You are lagging behind.
Others have made money.
Others have succeeded.
Others have started this project.
It's the trend now.
If you don't act now, it will be too late.
You must be faster.
If you keep listening to these voices, it's difficult for a person to remain calm.
We start comparing our long-term lives with someone's high-point at a certain stage.
Our ten-year accumulation is compared with someone's sudden burst of fame overnight.
Then we start to doubt our speed.
Doubting our choices.
Even doubting if we are on the wrong path.
But I increasingly feel:
A loud voice doesn't mean it's correct.
A large number of people don't mean it's suitable for you.
High traffic doesn't mean it's truly valuable.
Staying true to your own heart and not being carried away by noise is the most important thing.
Everyone needs to find their own path.
Pursuing "speed" is not impossible, but I increasingly understand: The real "fast" is often composed of countless "slow".
Yin Yuzhen has been planting trees for decades, planting one tree after another, and finally got the forest we see today.
What we see are towering trees and patches of green, but we can't see the roots that have been buried underground for decades.
Life is the same. The truly long-lasting "fast" is not suddenly having a forest, but in places that others can't see, slowly and bit by bit, one's roots are deeply planted.
So, "fast" is not wrong. The mistake lies in prioritizing speed at the expense of stability.
From the controversy of Zhong Shu, what I think more actually is not to evaluate her, but to remind myself:
Of course, we can pursue speed, can hope for the rapid growth of our career, can hope that our works are seen by more people, but the faster the speed, the more you should ask yourself: Is the foundation stable?
Can be fast, but must be stable.
Because the forest that truly belongs to you is never grown overnight.
Only by focusing on the present and accumulating bit by bit slowly.
