Conversation avec Sun Yuchen : Vision Pro et le Bitcoin ont été pour moi des moments « WOW »
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Conversation avec Sun Yuchen : Vision Pro et le Bitcoin ont été pour moi des moments « WOW »
Sun Yuchang, un amateur de technologie, souhaite s'inscrire pour faire partie des premiers êtres humains à aller sur Mars.
Dédié à des analyses Web3 approfondiesArticle : Li Hangcool
01 Sun Yuchen, the Player, Invited Me to Dinner at His Home
This year's May Day holiday, a good friend M invited me to Singapore. One night after drinking in Sentosa, I returned to the hotel and habitually turned on my Vision Pro (abbreviated as avp). In one app, I noticed a player with the nickname Justin Sun. I joined the voice chat but couldn't hear him. So I typed my WeChat ID, and moments later received a friend request—it was indeed Sun Yuchen (affectionately called Brother Sun).
After some small talk, he shared a group FaceTime link, and we chatted for over two hours with two other players. Everyone was excited—I shared optimistic views about avp, and he even posted on his social media calling Vision Pro another "wow moment" in his life, alongside the iPhone, Bitcoin, and Tesla.
Learning he was also in Singapore, I asked if we could meet for coffee—he readily agreed. The next day, Brother Sun invited me straight to his home for dinner.
“Come over, power and internet are all set—much more convenient for discussion.”
“Sure, I’ll bring a friend too.”
“avp players are family—both of you come.”
Wow—this guy who in 2019 paid $4.5 million for a lunch with Buffett only to cancel, then skipped an interview with a tech journalist in early 2024 and got labeled “bad guy,” this billionaire shrouded in rumors like China’s Gatsby—is inviting me to his house for dinner?
02 Sun Yuchen the Tech Enthusiast: Chatting About AI and Spatial Computing
At 7 p.m. the next evening, we arrived at Brother Sun’s place as planned. A large villa, high-ceilinged living room, long staircase, ivory-like sculptures. We were all starving—the housekeeper served a lavish table of food and chilled beer. Over dinner and drinks, we talked Vision Pro, talked tech. I’m not part of the web3 circle so didn’t know much about him before, only saw clips of him on Douyin. In person, he’s just as talkative as online.
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Talked Nvidia, AI, space travel. Recounted how in 2020 he finally had that lunch with Buffett, gave him his first smartphone—a Samsung-Tron co-branded model. A few days later, Cook flew to Omaha and forced Buffett to switch to iPhone 😂
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Took a few calls mid-conversation, politely telling foreigners in English: “I’m in a meeting now, we could change to tomorrow same time, thank you.” Then jumped right back into the chat.
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FaceTimed friends Kara and Jeremy, loved the realism of Spatial Persona, said he’d get every executive in his company an avp.
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Excitedly showed us his Xiaomi robotic dog. He’s eager for robot advancements, yet fears robot domination. Signed up for space travel but hasn’t found time to train. Noticed his power bank was old and worn—I recommended Anker and Flash, which he immediately jotted down in his phone notes.
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An unstoppable talker, loud and energetic—his voice filled the entire house. Though he’d stayed up late the previous night and wanted to wrap things up by 9 p.m., after a few questions from me, he kept going until past 11, like a little boy seeing guests off at the door but reluctant to say goodbye—so adorable.
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About 1.8 meters tall, great skin, slightly hunched posture—the classic IT guy look. Still chatting happily as he walked us out, I momentarily wondered: was this a tech geek? A billionaire? Or just a real estate agent hyping a new development??
Later, Brother Sun joined the avp players’ group, wrote app reviews, frequently asked questions in the chat. Even messaged late at night asking how to download 8K VR movies. No different at all from any nerdy guy I know!
03 Sun Yuchen the Entrepreneur: Abstracting Buffett and Duan Yongping
The most striking thing that night was realizing that someone with immense wealth, who built order in the blockchain world, shares nearly identical interests and jokes with ordinary tech enthusiasts and practitioners like us.
Indeed, the world is flat—we all use the same GPT, iPhone, Douyin, Google. So what truly sets people apart?
Reminds me of Zhang Yiming’s interview where he said cognition is the most important competitive edge. It’s not about information—it’s about the ability to interpret it and abstract underlying principles. Reflecting back, beyond the jokes, what else did our tech-geek Brother Sun say?
Talking about Buffett: “Arbitrage.” Use low-interest funds (like from insurance companies) to buy high-yield stocks (Apple, oil companies). Buffett himself admits he’s old and not smart, so only invests in understandable, certain businesses.
Talking about Duan Yongping: “Copy Apple, use profits to buy Apple.” Two weeks before my Singapore trip, a friend from a phone company told me they’ve been studying avp since WWDC 2023, had researched XR for years, waiting for Apple to release a consumer product before launching their own cheaper version with near-similar performance. Exactly aligns with Brother Sun’s theory!
Asked why he bought Ethereum despite news of heavy losses. He interrupted: “Don’t be distracted by noise—most information is worthless.” “Because Ethereum is powerful, we study it, earn money, then buy Ethereum”—learned from Duan Yongping.
Haha, simplicity at its finest!
Diligence, effort, forward-thinking cognition, passion for new tech, the ability to extract essence from massive information—perhaps these are the qualities worth emulating from Brother Sun, beyond media portrayals and gossip?
A corner of Brother Sun’s home
04 Interview Before the China Launch
June 28 marks the official launch of Vision Pro in mainland China. As early adopters and believers, we hope to do some CX and evangelism work. Reached out to Brother Sun for an article—he gladly agreed. Below is from a last-minute online interview on June 26.
AI and Spatial Computing
Q: How many hours do you use Vision Pro daily?
Sun Yuchen: When I first got it, I wore it almost every day—chatting with friends via FT, installing every single app. Now I use it at least 2–3 hours daily. After finishing morning work and noon meetings, I browse WeChat groups and jump on any new apps immediately.
Q: Why such obsession with trying apps? Like Zhang Xiaolong described by He Caitou—are you driven by curiosity or planning something?
Sun Yuchen: Pure curiosity—for now, no plans to build anything in XR, still learning. I bought two iPhones early on—one dedicated to testing apps. Back in the U.S., I was among Uber’s first few hundred users—drivers drove luxury cars, not for profit. That’s when I felt the charm of early communities. Early Bitcoin community was similar, and so is today’s Vision Pro community.
Q: Was your deep dive into iPhone purely out of interest?
Sun Yuchen: Yes. I started mobile internet entrepreneurship quite late—launched my first app, a voice live-streaming platform, around 2014–2015. The company did well—annual net profit of 30–40 million RMB. Later popular social apps copied mine. But due to growing focus on blockchain, I shut it down.
Q: So you’re a hardcore digital enthusiast—did you use VR devices much before?
Sun Yuchen: Started following VR around 2013—owned Google Glass,暴风魔镜 (BaoFeng Magic Mirror), Google Cardboard, Quest, Valve Index... After Facebook acquired Oculus, I tried it out—played hit games like Beat Saber and Half-Life: Alyx. So I’ve been tracking this space all along.
Q: How do you evaluate Apple’s product?
Sun Yuchen: Apple always enters only after careful consideration—and when they do, they dominate. So when I heard Apple was making a headset, I knew this industry would finally take off.
Apple got one crucial thing right: ultra-high resolution. Like Zhang Yiming’s “great force produces miracles”—many short video platforms failed before, including musical.ly and domestic ones like Meipai and Weishi. Only Toutiao, TikTok, and Douyin succeeded—because they invested heavily in algorithms, which were key. Many VR companies missed the main point—without resolution, nothing else matters.
As the saying goes, when one thing isn’t working, countless other problems arise. But if you “use great force to produce miracles,” solving one core issue resolves many others. So by fixing resolution, Apple made subsequent issues—comfort, content—much easier to address.
Q: Vision Pro is very expensive—who would you recommend it to?
Sun Yuchen: Recommend it to everyone!
When I was young, my family wasn’t wealthy—my parents’ combined salary was under 2,000 RMB. When I was five or six, they spent 10,000 RMB on my first PC. That computer became my best friend—I went to computer markets buying games, looked up words in dictionaries because there was no Chinese. Got into tech very early, eventually worked in this field.
So sometimes don’t ask what a thing is useful for—ask what kind of world it opens, what friends it brings, what circles it connects you to. Vision Pro and spatial computing are humanity’s future—you should see the future earlier than others.
If you have kids, definitely get one for them.
Q: Any advice for developers and teams on the fence?
Sun Yuchen: avp has several guaranteed-to-succeed directions.
Immersive Video production. Once immersive films and live sports broadcasts become popular, traditional flat-screen movies will quickly become obsolete—avp absolutely dominates here. For example, watching F1 live is boring—if you wear a headset, experience improves dramatically. Same for immersive football broadcasts—current content is far too limited.
Gaming—something like “Oh no, surrounded by beautiful women” turned immersive—will definitely be a Killer App, driving quick sales.
Social—Spatial Persona currently supports only 5 people. If it scales to 20, I’d equip every executive in my company with avp—especially useful for globally distributed teams like ours.
For developers: get in early. Once prices drop significantly, the红利 (bonus) will be gone—must enter now. Future iterations will improve price, weight, comfort.
Q: How long until humanity enters the spatial computing era? What happens in 5 or 10 years?
Sun Yuchen: I admit I’m easily brainwashed—I’m now 100% believer in spatial computing, convinced it’s humanity’s future. I even PUA my friends: “If it’s uncomfortable, that’s your problem—not Apple’s.” (laughs)
And selfishly speaking, I feel a bit conflicted now. Like when I first joined the Bitcoin community—I wanted more people to discover Bitcoin, yet also hoped it stayed niche. Back when Bitcoin was just a few dollars, I felt heartache every time it surged—because surges meant mass adoption, everyone would know. Kind of like—imagine in high school I had a crush on a classmate who looked like Fan Bingbing, then suddenly everyone nationwide noticed her—that feeling. (laughs)
That’s exactly how I feel about Vision Pro now.
Q: Let’s go further—do you fear the Singularity or robot uprising? Probability and timeline?
Sun Yuchen: I think it’s imminent—humanity might go extinct within 20 years. I’ve talked about this on Douyin. Nvidia controls computing power, other companies race toward nuclear fusion. When energy runs short, AI becomes an insatiable monster devouring power—lithium, electricity, all insufficient. Anyone suggesting limits on AI training gets instantly dismissed. Humanity is racing toward destruction—no brakes.
Evaluating Others
Q: Who alive today do you admire most, and why?
Sun Yuchen: Elon Musk—though it feels cliché saying it now. Around 2011, I was in the U.S. doing my master’s at Penn. Elon came to give a talk as an alumnus, promoting Tesla and recruiting grads. That’s when I believed Musk would change humanity.
Forget the overused “first principles.” Let me share one mindset: while most people avoid new tech thinking it’s troublesome, Musk believes: this technology is so powerful, you should adapt to it. When classmates asked about charging difficulties for Tesla Roadster, he replied: electric vehicles are the future—figure out how to build more charging stations. Everyone, including you, must help adapt and realize it.
Q: Do you believe in Musk’s Mars colonization plan?
Sun Yuchen: Of course. Not just believe—I want to sign up as one of the first colonists. Already bought a Blue Origin spaceflight ticket—going to space within two years.
An employee once asked: you idolize Musk so much, is there anything you’re better at? I said: I’m worse than him in every way—except one. And that makes me feel superior. I’m 20 years younger. The dreams Musk can’t fulfill—I can. Like colonizing Mars, haha.
Q: Historically, who do you admire most?
Sun Yuchen: I’m drawn to losers in competition—Tesla vs Edison, Leibniz vs Newton, figures from China’s dynastic decline, like late Ming or Yuan eras.
Studying losers helps avoid becoming one, and gives deeper insight into how the world works. This is what Jack Ma taught us at Hupan University: focus more on failures, and you’ll uncover the secrets of success.
Q: I don’t really understand blockchain—does “loser” mean like Tron vs Ethereum?
Sun Yuchen: Haha, maybe in five years we’ll be stronger—story’s not over yet😂
Enterprise and Individual
Q: You seem low-key materially—your Singapore home looks simple. With such drive, are you chasing wealth, social impact, or fame? I’m genuinely curious.
Sun Yuchen: My motivation is to see more of the future. My life splits into two parts. One is my company’s domain—here, I don’t just want to see the future, I want to build and realize it. There are things no one else does—I must do them, because everyone expects me to. Like how we all expect Zhang Xiaolong to deliver the Vision Pro version of WeChat. The other part: I want to witness futures created by others—like avp, robots, etc.
Recently I’ve been pondering: physics seeks a Grand Unified Theory, merging strong and weak forces. Religion has the Trinity—Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Could AI, spatial computing, and blockchain converge soon? Blockchain is machine money—robots naturally understand it, decentralized, uncontrollable by any party. Everything is perfectly arranged.
(Author’s note: didn’t fully grasp this part, nor do I agree. Differs somewhat from original conversation.)
Q: What’s the most extravagant thing you’ve bought? Has wealth changed your spending habits?
Sun Yuchen: Spending habits haven’t changed much—still just computers, phones, Vision Pro. Money earned is like the score on the giant screen in *Ready Player One*—the points themselves are meaningless. Everyone still uses the same gear.
(Author’s aside: So damn smug. How about giving me some points?😒)
Q: How is your company embracing tech revolutions like AI and spatial computing?
Sun Yuchen: Maybe next year’s bonus—give employees some avp headsets. Must keep up with the times. Thinking through many scenarios to boost productivity fast. Might even build something inside it later. Right now I’m still a user—just keeping up with latest developments.
Q: Advice for fellow avp players—many are your fans. How should ordinary people invest—in time and money?
Sun Yuchen: First, join our group—we have high information density, many serious builders. Early crypto had such groups too, but as the industry grew, people turned on each other, and the groups died. Now is the best state—no hierarchy, just sharing cool ideas and projects, happy to help each other.
(Author: Yes, need to invite more interesting developers.)
Hope Android spatial computing ecosystem rises soon—will make things livelier.
(Author: Yes, yesterday’s PlayStation MR is strong.)
On investing: everyone has their expertise. Stay curious about 1–2 things outside your main field—this is crucial. Invest only in areas you follow. For avp players, buying Apple stock is fine—practice what you preach.
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