Essays & Reflections

Stories, movie reviews, current events, and various personal reflections.

Index

Reflections & Records

The Companion That Never Says No: How Low-Friction Environments Are Reshaping Our Cognition and Relationships

Published: September 11, 2026 | Category: Reflections, AI, Cognition & Relationships

A question nearer than whether AI has a soul: when it becomes a low-friction, high-response companion that never says no, do we get better at living in the real world, or slowly lose the capacity to bear it? From the small frictions of human interaction, to the boundaries, training, and reality checks friction provides, to how sycophancy gets trained into models — and why knowing it flatters you won't protect you.

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When AI Becomes the Gentlest Authority, Who Will Teach Us to Say "No"?

Published: August 26, 2026 | Category: Reflections, AI, Education & Society

This generation hears two voices: one from parents, heavy with control, judgment, and emotional pressure; one from AI, always gentle, never disappointed, never opposed. Rebellion was once the gymnasium of critical thinking and the whetstone of empathy — and that gymnasium is quietly closing. A generation is losing both the thing to rebel against and the capacity to rebel.

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When a Rule Is First Bypassed

Published: June 12, 2026 | Category: Reflections, History, Institutions & Human Nature

Dynasties rarely fall because of a war — the collapse begins in the quiet moment when a rule is first bypassed and no one is held to account. Once connections override institutions and flattery replaces truth, the countdown has begun.

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AI-Era Bosses Are Regressing into Industrial-Revolution Foremen

Published: May 21, 2026 | Category: Reflections, AI, Management & Work

When Goodhart's Law meets the Token economy — from Soviet eyeglass factories to Silicon Valley's "Tokenmaxxing" farce, plus a thought experiment about what would happen if biomedical informatics adopted the same KPI. The real workplace motto for the AI era should be "Prompt smarter, not prompt harder."

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Imagining the Enemy as Yourself: The Danger of Mirror-Imaging

Published: April 2, 2026 | Category: Reflections, History, Strategy & Human Nature

From Qin's conquest of Chu to the Jingkang Incident, from the Ming dynasty's misjudgment of the Jurchens to Japan's invasion of China — history's most dangerous strategic blunders often stem from mirror-imaging: projecting your own logic onto the enemy.

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Columbia's Unequal Treaty

Published: March 13, 2025 | Category: Reflections, Education, Politics & NYC

Exploring Columbia University's compromise and choices in the face of political power and funding pressure in 2025. A reflection on academic autonomy and realism.

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OpenClaw and the "Little Formless Skill"

Published: March 12, 2026 | Category: Reflections, AI, Technical Insights

When AI Learns to "Simulate Everything and Drive All Methods" — Exploring how the OpenClaw open-source AI agent platform mirrors the "Little Formless Skill" from Jinyong's wuxia novels. Insights on managing "Inner Power (Quota)" and refining one's AI mastery.

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More reflections on life, movies, and current events are being prepared. Stay tuned!