"Our own lives are also products of iteration. Starting from the best core, continuously iterating through individual actions and making small choices one by one, you will build your life."
This quote comes from Liang Ning, a "product philosopher" from mainland China. Recently, I've become obsessed with the audio app "得到," and this course on product thinking in 30 lectures is incredibly rich with professional content. I often find myself drawn to a few philosophical fragments that I integrate into my own worldview.
I deeply resonate with her perspective on life as an iterative product. I've also mentioned "human life resource integration" in my own talks, which is actually quite similar to what she's expressing. Upon reflection, I understand why writing has become my primary form of creative output — my writing journey actually began in elementary school.
Children growing up around the 1990s probably all experienced this: being obsessed with certain idols, not just buying complete albums but even writing "fantasy fiction" for them, imagining yourself as the female lead interacting with your idol in amusing scenarios. In media studies, this behavior is called "excessive audiences" in fan culture research — basically, you're a devoted fan of someone or something.
Because I studied media and communication, my thesis used data analysis to conduct cross-strait audience research. (It took me three years to realize this was my specialty!) Let me briefly explain what audience research is.
Audience research has five research directions:
(1) Effects research / (2) Uses and gratifications research / (3) Literary criticism / (4) Cultural studies / (5) Reception analysis
Among these, reception analysis is the research paradigm for fan culture. It places media and media use within a broader framework, where the audience's reception context becomes intertwined with society and life itself as media culture. Therefore, reception analysis should transcend the narrow confines of textual analysis and instead examine how the entire media culture influences audiences as its new research approach.
Simply put, when you become obsessed with someone or something and subsequently produce (textual) works on that subject—whether writing, videos, photos, etc.—to gain relative satisfaction, that's the focus of reception analysis.
Now back to my own story (I rarely write theory because I fear people might skip it): because I was truly obsessed with celebrity culture as a kid, I started writing 6-7 long novels like other fans, complete with proper plots, outlines, chapters, and character development. I was absolutely crazy about it back then—I wonder if anyone else was like me. I had actually forgotten I ever did this, and it was from elementary school sixth grade through junior high second year. My elementary school classmate reminded me one day, bringing back the memories, and even mentioned that I used to share them with everyone. (Oh my!)
So because I started writing long novels in elementary school, I remember one story had 10 chapters and probably over 10,000 words. Typing and writing articles have never been much of a burden for me. I didn't realize this until sophomore year when I took an elective scriptwriting course. It helped quite a bit—when my classmates were taking turns creating scripts, I was noticed for describing details vividly, like when the male protagonist unbuttoned his shirt and exposed his chest, which people found interesting.
But none of this was the key factor that made writing my primary form of creative output. Yet even if it wasn't the key, it's been 17 years from elementary school sixth grade until now. Many people ask me why I write so fast or how I quickly structure articles. I think all of this comes through "life iteration" rather than starting from scratch and gradually gaining attention while building my personal brand.
I don't dare claim my writing is excellent, but what this life journey reveals is that even if you already have a skill or core ability that could be developed, if you don't recognize this core as your value and keep searching for direction, it's pointless. As the saying goes, "where you stand today doesn't matter as much as how you'll continue to iterate over the next few years."
Therefore, to realize your value, it's not about constantly learning new things or switching fields, making yourself a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. Instead, first explore your life history to find something you genuinely enjoy doing, something you can excel at and that helps part of society. No matter how small, if you become the key person in that small area, you can actually find your own value and extend your system from that core value.
This article: 1,424 words | Reading time: approximately 25 minutes
Karen Yang
