When Did I Start Asking Myself, “What Gives Me the Right?”
Recorded in Chinese
Remembering years as a student representative, I am surprised by how readily I once acted. Questions about being qualified, and claims that AI leaves no excuses, make me examine the barriers beyond tools.
00:01 I recently realized something surprising:
00:03 from the time I started school
00:06 until I graduated from college,
00:09 I was always a class officer.
00:13 I used to think
00:15 that before college—
00:18 at least before my second semester—
00:23 I had always been very introverted.
00:27 Maybe less so in elementary school.
00:31 But in my memory,
00:34 middle and high school were six shy years.
00:41 Then I realized that
00:43 even during those six years
00:45 when I felt deeply introverted
00:48 and lived such an introverted life,
00:51 throughout those years,
00:56 if I remember correctly,
00:58 I was always serving
01:01 as a class officer.
01:04 I was either in charge of student life
01:06 or the Youth League secretary.
01:09 I forget if I was ever class president.
01:13 And I thought, my God,
01:16 how did I dare to do that?
01:20 I truly can't remember
01:24 when I chose to become a class officer,
01:28 before making those decisions,
01:31 what exactly I was thinking
01:33 or how I considered them.
01:39 But when I
01:42 compare who I was then with who I am now,
01:45 maybe I just did what I wanted.
01:50 I didn't ask what qualified me
01:54 or why I had any right to do it.
01:56 Before class officer elections,
02:00 you did have to give a speech,
02:02 or there would be
02:05 a moment when a teacher
02:09 or classmate asked you something,
02:11 and you answered.
02:16 But I no longer remember
02:18 how I reacted in those situations.
02:21 Still, every time I ran, I got
02:25 the position I wanted,
02:29 or sometimes another position.
02:33 That feels strange to me.
02:36 Was it something I showed then—
02:43 my presence,
02:45 my willingness,
02:46 or my ability—
02:48 that everyone recognized?
02:50 Or was the position
02:53 actually something
02:55 no one else wanted,
02:59 so
03:00 anyone willing could simply take it?
03:05 I truly don't know.
03:11 But comparing then with now,
03:16 as I just said,
03:18 when I wanted to do those things before,
03:20 I never asked what qualified me.
03:26 But after entering the working world,
03:31 I don't know whether I slowly entered
03:34 a society where I must prove I qualify,
03:37 or whether
03:38 the society outside school
03:40 has always worked that way.
03:44 Whenever I want to do something,
03:47 a voice in my head always asks:
03:51 What qualifies you?
03:53 What gives you the right?
03:56 Whenever that judgment appears
03:59 in my mind,
04:01 I start thinking,
04:03 Right.
04:04 What can I actually do?
04:06 Why should I do this?
04:09 The more I think,
04:10 only seconds earlier,
04:12 the idea had made me feel
04:15 so excited.
04:16 I really wanted to do it.
04:19 But after all that judgment,
04:22 I sigh,
04:23 and decide not to.
04:26 This has happened so many times.
04:32 For a while, I talked with AI
04:37 about creating things independently.
04:40 It mentioned a famous
04:43 Silicon Valley idea
04:46 called something like "Permissionless Apprenticeship."
04:54 I don't remember the exact term,
04:57 but it was about permissionless culture.
05:03 Well...
05:04 I don't know how I felt
05:07 when I heard that phrase.
05:09 But it made me think:
05:12 as AI keeps getting better,
05:15 many people say
05:19 you no longer have an excuse to say
05:22 you can't do this
05:24 or aren't good at that.
05:28 Whenever I hear that,
05:32 I think, wow,
05:35 is that really true?
05:40 The idea can be summed up as:
05:44 Everyone else can do it.
05:46 Why can't you?
05:47 Or:
05:49 AI is already this capable.
05:51 How could you fail to do it?
05:55 I don't think I've understood that logic.
06:01 Or maybe I feel that logic
06:03 resembles certain other situations.
06:06 For example, people say
06:11 everyone has their own traits
06:15 and their own strengths.
06:18 What A is good at may not suit B,
06:22 and what B does well may not suit A.
06:26 People respect
06:27 or accept those differences.
06:30 But in certain situations,
06:33 they turn around and ask:
06:34 Why can you do it, but they can't?
06:37 Or why
06:39 can everyone do it except you?
06:43 Those two positions clearly conflict.
06:49 People also say,
06:53 "No one is stopping you from doing it."
06:59 That sentence makes me feel so hopeless.
07:04 Everyone seems to believe
07:07 that once the tools are powerful enough,
07:10 you can do anything.
07:15 Is it really that simple?
07:18 Why is that slogan
07:19 so easy to say?
07:23 I don't understand.
07:26 It's as though
07:29 once you say you want to do something
07:32 and the tools can support it,
07:34 if you still can't do it,
07:36 everyone thinks you're the problem.
07:40 So am I really the problem?