Freedom is not about blind rebellion or completely discarding standards; it means no longer being defined by unreasonable external rules. It is about independently thinking and then establishing your own standards and self-discipline.
💬 Deep Dive
Happy New Year!
After turning 26, relatives in the same generation at home are getting married and having children again. During the Spring Festival, I inevitably face endless marriage pressure.
What’s amusing is that relatives are even more persistent than family members, always finding every possible opportunity to steer the conversation toward marriage and childbearing.
When I ask why, the most common response is that generations before have always done the same.
But just because all our ancestors did it, does that mean it’s right?
1. Rebellion
In Zhang Chun's podcast on Luyu, it was said:
Bad habits like depression, smoking, procrastination, and laziness might be a way to prove one’s existence. This is because authorities in this world dictate what the “right” choices are, always telling you what to do and what not to do. To avoid following others, to make your own choices, you end up choosing options outside those prescribed, which are often considered “bad” choices.
There was a time when she failed many times trying to quit smoking. But the final attempt happened in an instant.
At that moment, she realized she didn’t even like smoking, and no one else could dictate whether she smoked. She no longer needed to be different just for the sake of it or to rebel for rebellion’s sake, so quitting smoking became a natural outcome.
Sometimes, making an unconventional choice is not a true reflection of what is in our heart, but rather an act of defiance against the imposed standards—of choosing not to be swayed by others.
Yet such rebellion is not genuine freedom; instead, it may lead us into another form of constraint.
2. Independence
Before the New Year, I came across a clip from Zhan Qingyun’s new national debate video. In the video, Zhan Qingyun was asked, “If loving beauty for women is not freedom, then is being sloppy and casual a sign of freedom?”
He replied:
Freedom is about liberating oneself from the discipline of constant scrutiny, not about escaping from a particular image. It isn’t about imposing a new shackle on women by saying that loving beauty is unfree and therefore not allowed. Rather, it means transcending these standards to pursue true freedom—only by not caring about these standards can one achieve it.
Freedom is not about deliberately defying the rules handed down by our ancestors or opposing all traditions. It is about rising above society’s default standards—even if in the end the choices we make align with our ancestors’ expectations, the choices remain our own rather than a mere act of conformity or rebellion.
The essence of freedom lies in making an “independent choice,” whether or not it meets external expectations.
3. Self-Discipline
When you stop rebelling just for the sake of rebellion and stop caring about default standards, you gain the freedom to express yourself and take action, allowing you to make decisions independently.
This is the state in which Chai Jing finds herself now. A decade after resigning from CCTV, she returned to the public eye as an independent media figure, freely creating content on YouTube.
Not belonging to any media institution, she is not bound by any particular stance. Her greatest freedom is that she only has to focus on the accuracy and reliability of information. Using her standard of professionalism, she can provide diverse, firsthand information without restrictions.
Cui Yongyuan praised Chai Jing for being very restrained—she is not overly emotional, does not hastily jump to conclusions, and despite having the freedom to do whatever she likes, she manages to remain composed, considerate of the facts, and respectful of the truth. This is indeed rare.
True freedom does not mean abandoning all standards; rather, it means establishing your own standards on the basis of objectively respecting natural laws.
I admire Chai Jing. I like her—she is free, calm, restrained, sincere, and brave.
Fin
Truth and falsehood, right and wrong have never been governed by our ancestors’ rules.
Freedom is not about blind rebellion, nor is it about completely discarding standards; it is about no longer being defined by unreasonable external rules. It is about independently thinking, establishing your own standards, and charting your own course, regardless of others’ expectations.
💎 Curated Gems
1
On Bilibili, I watched Rotten Bench, Is It Better than Any Ergonomic Chair? and learned an unconventional conclusion: having an appropriate desk is far more important than an ergonomic chair.
The chronic back and waist pain from long hours at a desk largely comes from an unsuitable desk height, which fails to support the elbows and arms perpendicularly. This causes the body to lean forward, putting severe strain on the back. When the body is either leaning forward or reclining, and the weight is not distributed vertically on the sit bones, it can lead to a herniated disc.
We become fixed in the position we hold for the longest time in a static posture.
2
Qu Kai, the founder of 42 Chapter JingChuang, in his 2024 AI Year-End Summary shared two insights that inspired me:
- Former Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella mentioned that Bill Gates always emphasized that there is only one category in the digital realm: information management.
- And Agent = Information + Action. Perplexity might be considered an Agent company, helping people find answers to all questions and assisting them in completing all tasks. For example, it can provide you with the most suitable pair of shoes, and you can "order it directly" online. In other words, you can gather all the information and complete all tasks in one place, without having to rely on workflows across multiple apps.
- The shift in how AI impacts SaaS industry payments might involve charging based on the outcome of the software service rather than on usage rights.
3
During the Spring Festival break, DeepSeek became a global hit. Shortly thereafter, Claude’s founder, Dario Amodei, published a lengthy article calling on the White House to tighten regulations on Chinese AI. In this piece from Silicon Base, I came across a rather ironic observation:
I couldn’t help but remark: The core figures of America’s new generation of AI companies—whether it’s Sam Altman of OpenAI, Dario Amodei of Anthropic, or even Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Alexandr Wang of Scale.ai—seem to embrace American “nationalistic” discipline so naturally and swiftly. In contrast, most Chinese AI entrepreneurs—most recently represented by DeepSeek and its founder Liang Wenfeng—are subject to a discipline of cosmopolitanism and globalization. This is truly an interesting phenomenon.
🎾 One More Thing
Over the Spring Festival, I’ve been reading Social Animals (9th Edition). I noticed some readers on Douban mentioning that the translation isn’t very good. After reading three chapters, I did find it a bit tedious—the book is mostly filled with experiments and the translation feels rather stilted. I plan to take another two weeks to read it thoroughly without putting too much pressure on myself.
After that, I intend to finish reading Li Songwei’s Lecture on Psychology, a manuscript from the Dedao column. A quick glance shows that it is much easier to read than Social Animals.
So, my reading theme for February is psychology.
In 2025, I plan to read only 20 books, and I’ll commit myself to not skimming through them as in previous years, but rather to read carefully and patiently.
I want to read more systematically to explore the boundaries of cognition. Because once you grasp those boundaries, there won’t be much panic or fear—just like holding a map with confidence, knowing which knowledge to apply in various situations.
Having traveled to many cities, you learn the similarities and differences between them. This not only helps you make a choice in where to live without regrets but also allows you to feel happier in your daily life.