If success could be easily achieved through sheer effort, it would be an insult to innate talent.

Whether in real life or the digital world, I see far too many people trying to compensate for a lack of innate talent and innovation with diligence and hard work—especially my fellow Chinese. When it comes to effort, I believe few ethnic groups can surpass us Chinese in sheer perseverance. Hard work itself is not wrong, but when effort and persistence can easily match innate talent and creativity to achieve success, it essentially encourages the majority to forgo innovation. This ultimately leads to a path-dependent cycle of relentless effort, resulting in inefficiency and an endless loop of low-value competition.

Take the great scientific breakthroughs as examples—Newton’s law of universal gravitation, Archimedes’ principle of buoyancy, Einstein’s theory of relativity. These were never achieved through mere hard work but rather through the manifestation of extraordinary innate talent in a singular moment of insight.

Now, let’s consider today’s internet platforms. Many creators and accounts flood the platforms daily with massive amounts of low-quality content, lacking original thought, hoping to gain exposure simply through volume and persistence. The reality is, many succeed this way. From the platform’s perspective, it makes sense—they want as many users as possible to generate content, so they encourage frequent posting. This enables a large group of people to gain traffic through sheer quantity and consistency. As a result, more individuals are drawn into this volume-driven race, creating a negative cycle that ultimately buries those with true innate talent and innovation.

But true excellence is never a product of mere hard work alone. I believe that in order to break this cycle, we must impose limits on success driven solely by persistence and volume while amplifying the visibility and encouragement of genuinely innovative content. What qualifies as innovative content? To me, it is content that presents novel perspectives or expands the boundaries of thought.

Ultimately, I hope people learn to show deep respect for innate talent—because that is the true key to making the world a better place.