Erika Meng
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Translated from Chinese by AI~2 min read

Reliable Young Creatives: A Rare Kind of Talent in Any Era

Creative self-motivation and perfectionism both support and pull against entrepreneurship. Some thoughts on the beauty of engineering and science, and two pursuits worth respecting.

Static cover image of the interview with 徐沪生, founder of 一条
Video cover: “The rarest talent in the content era: reliable young creatives.”

Young creatives (文艺青年, people with literary and artistic interests) have one great strength: self-motivation.
The drive, persistence, and patience to refine a piece of work.

Their greatest weakness probably comes from the same place—perfectionism.
It is somewhat at odds with entrepreneurship.

But I really agree with that saying: what goes beyond business must be art.

The relationship between the two is fascinating.
They are symbiotic, yet at odds.
They help each other flourish, yet also pull against each other.

If I hadn’t gone away back then, I probably wouldn’t have studied engineering.
But I would still have discovered the beauty of engineering later on.

When you take all sorts of differently shaped mechanical parts
and put them together into an efficient, precise, functioning system,
that is a kind of art too. It is beautiful.

Later, I came to think:
alongside engineering, the world of technology also pursues “beauty.” It is called science.
Continually opening up and expanding the boundaries of human understanding is science.
Optimizing a system within finite boundaries is engineering.

One leads progress; the other brings it into the real world.
Both matter, and both kinds of people deserve respect.

That’s all.
Some thoughts after seeing a good piece of content. (Video source: 徐沪生, founder of 一条, a Chinese media company.)

Art and books in an interview setting
Subtitle: “My strongest impression is that your company is very artistic.”
Art and architecture exhibition shown in the interview
Subtitle: “People who studied art or history, and someone with a doctorate in theatre.”
Close-up from the interview with 徐沪生
Subtitle: “Against the system, management, evaluations, and leadership.”
徐沪生 discussing the strengths of young creatives
Subtitle: “I think young creatives have one great strength.”
Interview frame with the subtitle 自驱力
Subtitle: “Self-motivation.”
Interview frame describing work approached as a creative work
Subtitle: “He treats everything he does as a piece of creative work.”
徐沪生 discussing product managers and young creatives
Subtitle: “The best product managers should be young creatives.”
Interview frame with a Chinese passage about a flower and perception
Text in the image: “Before you looked at this flower, the flower and you were both in stillness. When you came to look at it, its colors suddenly became clear. Then you knew that the flower was not outside your mind.”
Steve Jobs clip with Chinese and English subtitles about choosing a direction
Subtitles ask: “How do you know what’s the right direction?”
Steve Jobs clip with Chinese and English subtitles about taste
Subtitle: “Ultimately, it comes down to your taste.”

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