From now on, please view the future from the perspective of AI.
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From now on, please view the future from the perspective of AI.
AI is just such a trend-level opportunity—an opportunity that even enables more people to participate.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Lao Mao
You might already be a user of some AI model—using AI to help you revise code, edit images, translate, or even create videos and compose songs. AI is an excellent tool; that’s an undeniable fact. But have you ever imagined how AI will shape our lives over the next decade?
Long-time readers know I was one of those who went all-in on Bitcoin ten years ago. Many of my writings from back then about Bitcoin's future value can still be found online today. Limited by the understanding of that time, some of my views were indeed flawed. Yet my core judgment about Bitcoin’s long-term value has proven resilient and actionable, and I’ve benefited greatly by sticking to it. However, ten years later, I believe the era of explosive price growth for Bitcoin is over. Of course, if you consider a 3x to 5x rise as "explosive," I won’t argue with you.
I left the e-commerce industry around the time Alibaba went public, so it’s only natural that my mindset toward Bitcoin has shifted again now that Bitcoin has become an ETF. I still firmly believe that Bitcoin is the best store of value, because for the first time in human history, technology enables individuals to truly own their wealth. But as an investor, ignoring the most visible, transformative shift happening in the world right now would be laughable.
I don’t care about live-streaming e-commerce, the metaverse, Web3, stock market theatrics, or wave after wave of meme coins—because these are small opportunities, not major trends. What I’m waiting for is a large-scale trend that allows meaningful investment positioning.
I am absolutely convinced that AI represents exactly such a structural opportunity—one that may allow far more people to participate meaningfully. Because I can already see the world reshaped by AI. Looking ahead ten years, the following changes seem almost inevitable.
Education and Living
The other day, I casually asked an AI to teach me binary. In under half an hour, it helped me understand and master manually converting simple numbers into binary at a fundamental level. Of course, I could have used Google to learn and verify this, but the difference is that learning interactively via search engines is far more complex than using AI. For deeper topics, relying solely on search engines becomes nearly impossible. With AI, as long as you’re willing to learn, it can teach you until everything clicks. This immersive, interactive style of learning surpasses even the best human teachers.
Extending this idea further: if an AI robot could tutor my child, why would I spend so much money on tutoring centers? And why rely on local schoolteachers instead of AI trained by top-tier educators? What purpose would schools serve then? Socialization training? Etiquette? Physical education? Anything else? If AI takes over the core function of knowledge transmission, the very existence of schools may fundamentally change. Concepts like “school district housing” would then seem like relics from ancient times. As a result, housing demand will increasingly reflect preferences for environment rather than educational access. Real estate investment logic will rapidly transform due to AI. Recently, when planning the house I want to build in a few years, one key consideration has been how best to integrate Tesla’s full product ecosystem.
Hobbies and Interests
I have two hobbies: Go and billiards. Suppose I were raising a child—between the two, which should I encourage? Ten years ago, I’d have chosen Go without hesitation. Go embodies a kind of strategic thinking: how to plan ahead, accumulate advantages, break through adversity, and finish strong. Learning Go cultivates big-picture thinking and decision-making skills—skills with real value. Billiards? Not playing wouldn’t be a big loss. But today, I’d definitely choose billiards, and let the child decide whether to learn Go. The reason is simple: Go has been completely mastered—and arguably ruined—by AI. The logical, strategic thinking once represented by Go has been replaced by AI’s often inscrutable approach. When actions no longer lead to logically coherent outcomes, the value of learning diminishes. Billiards, on the other hand, requires not just strategy but also physical coordination and control. Due to physical constraints, the day when general-purpose robots defeat human billiards champions remains distant. Choosing activities where AI struggles is itself a way of respecting the trend.
War and Peace
Even five years ago, I belonged to the “war anxiety” camp—I worried about the possibility of large-scale wars breaking out between nations. Yet today, despite years of war between Russia and Ukraine, I increasingly believe true large-scale wars will become rarer. The Russia-Ukraine conflict may well be the last major interstate war involving direct ground combat in human history. The reason is simple: there’s no need anymore. Israel’s use of pagers against Hezbollah was traditional warfare, but its targeted assassinations of enemy leaders clearly involved AI technology. Collaboration between drones and AI makes the consequences of initiating war unbearable for aggressors. I don’t think any leader wants to spend their life hiding like a mole, provoking a full-scale national retaliation. Local conflicts and power plays will always exist, but advances in AI technology will continue to reduce the likelihood of large-scale, destructive ground wars.
Investment and Business
Investments and businesses under the AI trend require broader, more macro-level thinking. When evaluating any choice, I now always take AI’s future potential as a starting premise. Investors who backed NVIDIA have already earned their first fortune—that’s well deserved, and a reflection of their foresight. For a long time to come, NVIDIA will remain highly attractive—but it’s far from representing the whole picture of AI.
I’ve invested in Tesla and plan to buy more over the next two years without selling. Why? Because Tesla is the strongest player on the AI application side. But even this isn’t the full story. Many companies are deeply tied to AI, and I’m not limiting myself to Tesla alone. A valuable AI-related company might emerge in a field you’re familiar with. Such opportunities may not be rare during the early phase of the AI megatrend.
Business ideas also require imagination. Suppose your city’s main highway has a remote, inexpensive entry point in the suburbs. Buying up land there now and building a large-scale wind-and-solar-powered charging and energy storage service platform before Tesla’s robotaxis launch could turn into a thriving business. Imagine hundreds or thousands of autonomous taxis constantly arriving to charge and get cleaned. That sounds like a solid venture. If given the chance, I’d love to invest in companies like that.
I’ve always had confidence in my ability to make choices. Making decisive moves at critical moments is what I do best.
In the past, my decision-making logic was: in the long run, does this choice add or subtract meaning from my life? Now, I’ve added a second criterion: from the perspective of AI’s development trajectory, is this choice meaningful or utterly pointless? This applies not just to investments and business, but to every aspect of life. With these two filters combined, I find that the number of things truly worth pursuing is actually quite limited. Observation and thinking, however, remain among the most meaningful activities of all.
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