Written by: Li Hangcool
01 Player Sun Yuchen invited me to his house for dinner
This May Day, my friend M invited me to Singapore. One night after drinking in Sentosa, I went back to the hotel and habitually opened Vision Pro (avp). I found a player nicknamed Justin Sun in an app, but I couldn't hear the other party's voice. I typed my WeChat ID and received a friend request in a moment. It turned out to be that Justin Sun (Sun Ge for short).
After a few pleasantries, he shared a multiplayer FaceTime link and chatted with two other players for more than two hours. Everyone was very excited, and I threw out some optimistic estimates for AVP. He also posted on WeChat Moments that Vision Pro, like iPhone, Bitcoin and Tesla, was a wow moment he had experienced.
I found out that he was also in Singapore, so I asked if we could have a coffee together. I readily agreed. The next day, Sun invited me to have dinner at his house.
"Come to my house. We have power and internet, so it's convenient to discuss anything."
“Okay, I have a friend with me.”
"AVP players are family, come on over"
Wow, this billionaire who auctioned off lunch for 4.5 million US dollars in 2019 and then canceled it with Buffett, and canceled it with a certain technology media reporter in early 2024 was labeled a bad guy. There are many rumors online that this billionaire with a net worth of tens of billions of dollars is like the Chinese Gatsby. Now he directly invites me to his house for dinner?
02 Technology enthusiast Justin Sun talks about AI and spatial computing
At 7pm the next day, we went to Sun's house as planned. It was a big villa with a living room with a high ceiling, a long staircase and imitation ivory sculptures. Everyone was very hungry, so Auntie prepared a sumptuous meal and cold beer. While eating and drinking, we talked about Vision Pro and technology. I didn't know him well because I was not in the web3 circle. I had only seen his TikTok before. It turned out that he was just as talkative in real life as he was on TikTok.
Talking about Nvidia, AI, space travel, and talking about it for 20 years, I still had a meal with Buffett and gave him his first smartphone in his life, a Samsung Tron co-branded model. But a few days later, Cook flew to Omaha and forced Buffett to change his Samsung to an iPhone 😂
I received several calls and replied to the foreigner, "I'm in a meeting now, we could change to tomorrow same time, thank you." Then I continued chatting.
FaceTime with online friends Kara and Jeremy, I really like the real experience of Spatial Persona (spatial self-image), and I want to equip each executive with an avp
He excitedly showed us his Xiaomi robot dog. He was looking forward to the development of robots, but was also afraid that robots would take over the world. He signed up for a space trip but had no time to exercise. Seeing that the power bank he used was very old, I recommended Anker and Shanji to him, and he quickly took notes on his mobile phone memo.
He is very talkative, and his voice is so loud that the whole room can hear him. He stayed up very late the night before, and wanted to end it at around 9 o'clock, but after asking him a few questions, he kept talking until around 11 o'clock. He was like a little boy standing at the door to see off a guest but was reluctant to let him go. He was so cute.
He was about 1.8 meters tall, had good skin, and looked like an IT guy with a slightly hunched back. He was still happily chatting before seeing the guests off. I was confused and didn't know if the person in front of me was a tech fan, a billionaire, or a real estate agent selling new properties? ?
After that, Sun joined the avp player group, wrote app reviews, and often asked questions in the group. He would also ask how to download 8k vr movies late at night. He is no different from every otaku I know!
03 Entrepreneur Sun Yuchen, abstract Buffett and Duan Yongping
What shocked me the most throughout the night was that the big guys who possessed huge wealth and built order in the blockchain world talked about almost the same information and jokes as us ordinary technology enthusiasts and practitioners.
It turns out that the world is really flat. GPT, iPhone, TikTok and Google are all the same. So what is the essential difference?
This reminds me of what Zhang Yiming said in a previous interview: cognition is the most important competitive advantage. What is important is not information, but the ability to recognize information and abstract the laws behind it. Recalling what did the tech geek Sun Ge say besides telling jokes?
Talking about Buffett, "arbitrage". Use the money from insurance companies with low interest rates to buy high-yield stocks such as Apple and oil companies. Buffett himself said that he is old and not smart, so he only buys companies that he is sure of and understands.
Talking about Duan Yongping, "Copy Apple, make money and buy Apple". It reminded me that two weeks before I went to Singapore, a friend from a mobile phone factory told me that they started researching AVP since 23wwdc, and the company has been researching XR for several years, waiting for Apple's consumer-grade product to be released before launching a cheaper product with similar performance. It matches Sun's theory!
When asked why he bought Ethereum, the news said he lost a lot of money. He interrupted, "Don't be affected by noise, most of the information is worthless." "Because Ethereum is so powerful, we learn about Ethereum and buy Ethereum when we make money." I learned this from Duan Yongping.
Haha, the truth is simple!
Diligence, hard work, advanced cognition, enthusiasm for new technologies, and the ability to abstract the essence from massive amounts of information may be the things that ordinary people should learn from Brother Sun besides media reports and rumors, right?
A corner of Sun Ge's house
04 Interview before the National Bank release
On June 28, Vision Pro was launched in China. We, the early players and believers, hope to do something about CX and evangelism. I asked Sun Ge to write an article, and he readily agreed. The following content comes from a temporary online interview late at night on June 26
AI and spatial computing
Q: How long do you use Vision Pro every day?
Justin Sun: When I first got it, I wore it almost every day, chatting with friends on FT, and installed all the apps. Now I use it for at least 2 to 3 hours a day. I finish my work in the morning, have a meeting at noon, and then start reading the discussions in the WeChat group. If there is a new app, I will try it immediately.
Q: Why are you so addicted to experiencing the app, just like Zhang Xiaolong described by He Caitou? Is it out of curiosity or do you have other plans?
Justin Sun: I am just curious. I have no plans to do anything in the XR field for now. I am still studying and researching. I bought two iPhones very early, one of which is used to experience various apps. At that time, I was probably one of the first few hundred users of Uber in the world in the United States. At that time, Uber drivers drove luxury cars and were not in it for money. I felt the charm of the early community at that time. In fact, the early Bitcoin community and our current Vision Pro community are very similar.
Q: Was your in-depth experience with the iPhone purely out of interest?
Justin Sun: Yes, I started my mobile Internet business very late. I made my first app in 2014-2015, which was a voice live broadcast app. The company was quite successful, with a net profit of 30 to 40 million yuan a year. The social apps that became very popular later were copied from me. Because I was doing more work on blockchain, I closed the app at that time.
Q: So you are a serious digital enthusiast. Have you used VR devices a lot before?
Justin Sun: I started paying attention to VR in 2013. I bought Google Glass, Baofeng Magic Mirror, Google Cardboard, Quest, and Valve Index. I tried it after Facebook acquired Oculus, and I played the popular Quest games Beat Saber and Half Life. So I have been following this field.
Q: How do you evaluate this Apple product?
Justin Sun: Apple always enters the market after careful consideration, and it will definitely be the reaper when it enters the market. So when I learned that Apple was going to make a headset, I felt that this industry was finally going to succeed.
Apple did one very important thing right, ultra-high resolution. For example, Zhang Yiming likes "Dali Chu Miracle". Many short video platforms have failed before, including musical.ly and domestic Meipai and Weishi. Only Douyin and TikTok and the earlier Toutiao have succeeded, all because of Dali Chu Miracle's algorithm, which is the most critical. Many VR companies did not grasp the main contradiction before, and everything else was useless if the resolution could not be achieved.
We often say that if you don't do one thing well, it won't just be that thing that will have problems, you will have countless other problems. You need to work hard to achieve miracles, and solve countless problems by solving one problem. So if Apple solves the resolution problem, then other problems such as the wearing experience and the lack of content will be easy to solve later.
Q: Vision Pro is very expensive. Who do you recommend buying it?
Justin Sun: Recommend anyone to buy!
When I was a kid, my family wasn't very rich. My parents' combined salary was less than 2,000 yuan. When I was five or six, they spent 10,000 yuan to buy me my first PC. That computer became my best friend. I went to the computer mall to buy all kinds of games. If there were no Chinese games, I would look up dictionaries like crazy. It was like I entered the technology field very early, and later I worked in this industry.
So sometimes we should not think about what something is useful for, but what kind of world it brings you into, what kind of friends you make, and what kind of circle you enter. Vision Pro and spatial computing are the future of mankind. I think you have to see the future earlier than others.
If you have children at home, you must buy one for them.
Q: What suggestions do you have for developers and teams waiting on the sidelines?
Justin Sun: There are several directions in which AVP can definitely succeed.
Immersive Video shooting. After the popularity of immersive film and event broadcasts, the previous flat films quickly became meaningless, and AVP was completely random. For example, it was boring to watch F1 live. If I wore a headset, the experience would be much better. There are also immersive football game live broadcasts, etc. There is too little content now.
Games like "I'm Surrounded by Beautiful Women" which are immersive will definitely be a Killer App, which will boost sales quickly and efficiently.
For social networking, Spatial Persona (spatial self-imaging) can currently only be used by 5 people. If it can support 20 people at the same time, then all executives in my company will be equipped with AVPs. There are many companies like ours with globally distributed offices.
From the developer's perspective, you should get on board as soon as possible. If the price drops to a very low level, there will be no bonus, so you must get out as soon as possible. In the future, the price, weight, and wearing comfort will be optimized.
Q: How long do you think it will take for humans to enter the era of spatial computing? What will happen in 5 and 10 years?
Justin Sun: I think I am a person who is easily brainwashed. Now I am a 100% believer in spatial computing and believe that spatial computing is the future of mankind. If you are a friend who uses PUA, it is your problem if it is uncomfortable to wear, not Apple's problem. (Laughs)
And it’s a bit selfish to say this, I have a very contradictory feeling now. Just like when I first joined the Bitcoin community, my work was to let more people get in touch with Bitcoin, but sometimes I hope that Bitcoin can remain a niche. So every time Bitcoin skyrocketed when it was a few dollars, I felt very sad, because after the surge, more people would definitely come in, and then everyone would know about it. To make an inappropriate analogy, it’s a bit like my high school crush was Fan Bingbing, and soon everyone in the country paid attention to her, that’s how it felt. (Laughs)
I feel the same way about Vision Pro now.
Q: Let’s talk about something more futuristic. Are you afraid of the approaching singularity and robot rebellion? What is the probability of it happening and when will it happen?
Justin Sun: I think it will happen soon. Humans may become extinct in 20 years. I also talked about this on Douyin. Nvidia controls computing power, and other companies are planning nuclear fusion. When humans are facing energy shortage, AI will devour monsters endlessly, and lithium and electricity will not be enough. Someone proposed to control AI training, but was immediately dismissed by humans themselves. Humans are running wildly on the road to extinction and cannot stop.
Rate Others
Q: Who do you admire most in this world and why?
Justin Sun: Elon Musk, I think it’s a common name now. In 2011, I just went to the United States to study for a master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania. At that time, Elon, an alumnus, came to give a speech, promoting Tesla and attracting graduates to his company. At that time, I thought Musk would change mankind.
Without mentioning the first principles that have been repeated many times, let's talk about his thinking mode. Most people think that new things are troublesome and don't want to use them, but Musk's thinking mode is that this technology is so awesome that you should adapt to it. Tesla's electric sports car Roadster, when a classmate asked about driving a Tesla outside and not being able to charge it and use it normally, Musk said that electric cars are the future of mankind, and we should think about how to build more charging stations, and everyone, including you, should adapt and realize it together.
Q: Do you believe in Musk’s plan to colonize Mars?
Justin Sun: Of course I believe it. Not only that, I also want to sign up to be one of the first people to go to Mars. I also bought a spacecraft ticket from Blue Origin and will go to space in the next two years.
An employee asked me if I was better than Musk since I admire him so much. I said I was weaker than him in every aspect except one aspect, so I thought I was better than him in every aspect, that is, I was 20 years younger than him, and I could realize the dreams that Musk couldn't realize, such as colonizing Mars, hahahaha.
Q: Who is the historical figure you admire most?
Justin Sun: I really like losers in competition, such as Tesla vs. Edison, Leibniz vs. Newton, and the end of dynasties in Chinese history, such as those at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the end of the Yuan Dynasty.
Studying losers can help you avoid becoming a loser, and it can also help you think more about the logic of how the world works. This is what Jack Ma taught us at Lakeside University: pay more attention to losers, and you can also gain insight into the secrets of success.
Q: I don’t know much about blockchain. Are the losers like Tron to Ethereum?
Justin Sun: Hahaha, maybe in 5 years we will be even more powerful, the final word is not yet known😂
Business and Individuals
Q: I don't think you have a lot of material desires. When I visited your home in Singapore, it looked very simple. So you work so hard, are you pursuing wealth, social value, or fame? I'm really curious.
Justin Sun: My motivation is to see more of the future. My daily life is divided into two parts. One is the field where my company is located. I not only want to see the future, but also want to build and realize more of the future. I have to do a lot of things that others haven't done, because others are counting on me to do it. Just like we count on Zhang Xiaolong to make the avp version of WeChat every day; on the other hand, I want to see the future created by others, such as avp and robots.
I recently had another thought. Physics hopes to have a grand unified theory to unify the strong and weak forces. Religion also has the Trinity, the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Son. So, is it possible that AI, space computing, and blockchain will converge together soon in the future? Blockchain is the currency of machines. Robots naturally understand it, and no one can control it even if it is decentralized. Everything is the best arrangement.
(The author declares that I do not quite understand this paragraph and do not agree with it. It is also different from the original dialogue)
Q: What extravagant things have you spent money on? Will your spending habits change as your wealth changes?
Justin Sun: Consumption habits have basically not changed. Now it’s just computers and mobile phones with Vision Pro. The money earned is like the points on the big screen in Ready Player One. The points themselves are useless. Everyone still uses the same set of equipment.
(The author complains, this is too Versailles, if you can give me some points😒)
Q: How does your own company embrace new technological revolutions, such as AI and spatial computing?
Justin Sun: Maybe next year, we will give employees some AVPs as year-end bonuses. We must keep up with the times. I am also thinking of many scenarios that can quickly improve our productivity. It is not ruled out that we will do something in it in the future. I am still a user at present, and I think about following the latest information every day.
Q: Advice for other avp players, many of whom are also your fans. How should ordinary people invest their time and wealth?
Justin Sun: First of all, our group is very dense in information, and there are many people who really do things. There were some such groups in the early days of the cryptocurrency circle, but as the industry grew, everyone became enemies, and the group died. The current state is the best. Everyone has no sense of hierarchy. Every day they do MLM and do some interesting things in it, and they are willing to share with each other.
(Author: Yes, we will attract more interesting developers in the future)
I hope the Android space computing ecosystem will develop as soon as possible, and it should be more lively.
(Author: Yes, the Dream MR released yesterday is very strong)
Regarding investment, everyone has their own areas of expertise, and it is critical to maintain curiosity about at least one or two new things that are not in your main industry. Investments must be made in areas that you are interested in, such as it is okay for AVP players to buy Apple. Knowledge and action are unified.
