"Our own lives are also products of iteration. Starting from the best foundation, through continuous iteration action by action and small choices one at a time, you create your life.
This quote comes from Liang Ning, a mainland "product philosopher." Recently, I've been hooked on the audio app "得到," which has a 30-lecture course on product thinking with professionally rich content. What often captivates me are philosophical fragments that I weave into my own worldview.
I deeply resonate with her perspective on life as an iterative product. In my own talks, I've mentioned "life resource integration," which is quite similar to what she expresses. Upon reflection, I realize my path to writing—now my primary output—actually began in elementary school.
Children from around the 1990s probably all had this phase: becoming obsessed with certain idols, not just collecting complete albums but even producing "fan fiction" where we cast ourselves as the female lead in amusing interactions with our idols. In media studies, this behavior is studied in "fan culture" research and termed "excessive audiences"—basically, fans deeply devoted to someone or something.
Since I studied communications, my thesis used data analysis to conduct cross-strait audience research (it took three years before I realized this was my specialty). Let me briefly explain what audience research means.
Audience research has five research directions:
(1) Effects research / (2) Uses and gratifications research / (3) Literary criticism / (4) Cultural studies / (5) Reception analysis
Reception analysis is the research paradigm for fan culture, positioning media and its use within a broader framework. The audience's reception context is intertwined with society and daily life as media culture. Therefore, reception analysis should transcend narrow textual frameworks and examine how overall media culture impacts audiences as the new research approach.
Simply put, when you become obsessed with someone or something and produce (textual) works on that subject—whether writing, videos, or photos—to gain satisfaction, that's the focus of reception analysis.
Now, back to my own story (I rarely write theory because I worry you'll scroll away). Because I was truly obsessed with idols as a kid, I started writing 6-7 lengthy novels like other fan girls—proper stories with plots, outlines, chapters, and character development. Pursuing celebrities was genuinely wild back then; I wonder if anyone else was like me. I'd actually completely forgotten I'd done this from sixth grade through eighth grade, until a childhood friend reminded me one day and mentioned I used to share these with them (oh my).
Because I started writing long novels from elementary school, I remember one story had 10 chapters and roughly 10,000+ characters, so typing and article writing have never been much of a burden for me. I didn't realize the impact until sophomore year when I took an elective scriptwriting course. When classmates took turns creating scripts, I was noticed for vividly describing details like the male lead unbuttoning his shirt and exposing his chest—people found it interesting.
But these weren't the key factors that made writing my primary output. However, even if not key, from sixth grade until now is already 17 years. Many ask why I write articles so quickly or how I structure pieces rapidly. I believe these skills come from "life iteration" rather than starting from nothing, gradually gaining attention while building my #personal brand.
I wouldn't claim my writing is excellent, but what this life journey reveals is that even if you already have a primary skill or core capability to develop, it's useless to keep searching without recognizing this core as your value. As the saying goes: "Where you stand now matters less than how you'll continuously iterate over the next few years."
To realize your value isn't actually to learn new things everywhere and switch fields constantly, becoming mediocre at everything. Rather, it's to excavate your life history and ask: is there something you genuinely enjoy, can excel at, and that helps part of society? It doesn't matter how small. Once you become a key person in that small area, you can find your own value and extend your entire system from that core. That's the real path.
Word count: 1,424 | Reading time: approximately 25 minutes
Karen Yang
