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对话陆奇:做一件长期有价值的事,不被人理解是必然的

Dialogue with Lu Qi: To do something worthwhile for a long time, it is inevitable that no one will understand

晚点LatePost ·  Dec 12, 2019 13:11

(by Song Wei, Wu Yang and Yinghui, a willow in the palace)

If everyone says you're wrong, maybe this is the closest you can get to being right. Lu Qi's 30 years in the United States and his three years in China seem to prove this truth.

Lu Qi started his career later than most, and could not even afford an application fee of $45 before he went to study for his doctorate at Carnegie Mellon University in 1998. He joined the company for the first time at the age of 37, joined Yahoo as an ordinary engineer and became a senior executive vice president of Yahoo in 10 years. After that, he joined Microsoft Corp and took the position of global executive vice president. He became a Chinese holding the top management position in the US technology industry.

When Lu Qi returned to China three years ago, he encountered a series of new problems. On the one hand, he was loved and widely praised, but on the other hand, there were sudden interruptions or changes in his two career choices after he returned home. He didn't want to talk about Baidu, Inc. in the interview because of his professional ethics. But the experience was like a black box, and few people knew what really happened, but people could feel that he had encountered a setback.

To some people who have come into contact with Lu Qi, Lu Qi seems a little different. For example, he will acquiesce that what a person says, thinks and does is the same; for example, he quotes an article by Paul Graham, founder of YC, that good people and moral people are more likely to succeed.

Lu Qi is a person who seeks the optimal solution, and he has a systematic and fixed way to solve any problem-that is, to turn it into a very rational equation that can be broken down into tasks. These are effective in a mature business society. But in China, it is not so effective in some ways.

So when Lu Qi came to China for three years, he said he was still adapting, understanding and learning. But considering that YC China is only one year old and the feat has just begun, it took seven years for YC America itself to be accepted by the public. Lu Qi still has a long way to go.

There are still a lot of people optimistic about Lu Qi, they want him to succeed, but at the same time, they are worried that he will not succeed. These two ideas are contradictory and unified. Understanding this is probably part of Lu Qi's compulsory Chinese course.

It is inevitable that something worth doing and valuable for a long time will not be understood.

"later": one year after joining the YC, he broke away from the new fund and set up a new fund. Is this independence forced?

Lu Qi:No, it was the current leader of YC who made what he thought was the most rational and best judgment in the current environment, and we also had the most sincere communication with each other. This is a two-way choice.

"later": so your career at YC ends early because of two emergencies, one is the replacement of YC global CEO, and the other is the change of the international situation.

Lu Qi:Mainly the big environment. Personally, I am very grateful to YC, and I must emphasize this point. They sent us as far as they could.

"later": compared with the ten-and eight-year career experiences of Yahoo and Microsoft Corp, Baidu, Inc. and YC both started by accident and ended hastily. Why do you think?

Lu Qi:YC is not over, it's just an adjustment. This is really not the way I wanted to go at first. At first, I thought that 80% of my energy would be YC China and 20% would be YC research. Now it is 100% investment for the time being.

"later": you will make detailed short-term and long-term plans for your life, but these plans do not show you the changes in Sino-US relations and the international situation?

Lu Qi:Doesn't see it.

"later": if you really want to do something in the long run, it's best if you have complete control over it. Does it mean that you don't regard it as a long-term or even lifelong career if you don't choose to do it on your own at first?

Lu Qi:I didn't choose to be independent in the first place because I paid more attention to YC's global alumni resources, and YC could inject capital directly. I didn't expect financing to be so difficult and important. But it turns out that I also want to do it for 15 years, and I want to do it for 15 years.

"later": life is not 15 years. How far a person thinks depends on whether he thinks about what happens after death, not after retirement.

Lu Qi:I think the first stage of building a first-class enterprise often takes 15 years. I may retire in my 70s, but then there will be better people to take over.

For me, my life is divided into stages, my personal mission is know more, do more, be more, the first stage is know more, to do academic research, the second stage is to do more, the third stage is to experience more.

The greatest opportunity to create wealth in this century is entrepreneurship, but 20 and 30 years later, I think new forms of scientific research will create the most wealth, such as the carbon dioxide solidification the world needs. There are more and more entrepreneurs, the level is getting higher and higher, but the commerciable technology will not be enough; at the same time, the essence of early entrepreneurship is to satisfy the unserved market with products, but some markets are upside down, and the market demand is there. what it needs is technology, such as the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

There will be a new organizational structure in the future, today is a company, and in the future is a new species, which has both companies (research and development, marketing, etc.), investment and scientific research. Only when these three are combined can we know more, do more, and experience more.

I hope to do a good job in making great achievements, lay a solid foundation, and then gradually expand it to scientific research in the future. I didn't start a business in the past, because it's part of my exploration. As for when and what I start a business, I'm still in the process of exploring.

"later": the scale of VC is getting bigger and bigger, and there are fewer and fewer opportunities for big innovation. Where are the opportunities for miracles to achieve success?

Lu Qi:Money is not the most important thing for entrepreneurs, and there are many people who can invest money to them. What matters is the ability improvement and valuable resources you can bring to entrepreneurs. Our core value is to help startups increase value at an early stage. We do essentially the same job as the mentor who tutored a doctoral thesis.

"later": Kai-fu Lee said that the word entrepreneurial mentor is two mutually exclusive words, because a really good entrepreneur, he thinks he doesn't need a mentor.

Lu Qi:It may be that there are different ideas about the definition of "entrepreneurial mentor". We work hand in hand with entrepreneurs to solve their core problems. Do you need a mentor to do a doctoral thesis? Does MIT have any value in existence? Doing a doctoral thesis is essentially the same as in the early stages of starting a business, both of which have to solve an unsolved problem independently.

"later": has there been any good entrepreneur who has succeeded in this path in the past?

Lu Qi:YC's successful experience over the past 15 years has confirmed this. There are many enterprises accelerated by YC, such as AirBnB, Dropbox, Stripe. China's entrepreneurial ecology has done very well in the past. In the past, there was basically no need for original technology-based innovation, but China needs it now and in the future. Copying successful foreign startups or changing business models cannot be a long-term driving force. Why does the world need MIT, Tsinghua University? Need a doctoral advisor? If the papers could be done by themselves, the world would be very different.

I have done serious thinking about this problem, not to do it without thinking clearly. I hope you can pay more attention to the entrepreneurs of 22 enterprises in the start-up camp, who have the most say in this issue.

"later": the doctoral instructor only brings one or more students at a time, but you have 22 enterprises in the first period. can you bring them here?

Lu Qi:YC has two partners in the United States plus two part-time partners, and can bring 50 people in the first phase. People don't know anything about YC, so they all think that they go to class. No, we help them solve problems hand in hand. In essence, during the start-up camp, no one was doing what we did in their co-founder-- China entrepreneurial ecology.

"later": some investors and entrepreneurs say that we respect and love Lu Qi, but we are not optimistic about what he does. Because China has passed the dividend period of the entrepreneurial cycle.

Lu Qi:When I decided to be YC China, almost all my Chinese friends opposed it and none of them supported it. This is not surprising to me, but in a sense it is my argument.

It is inevitable that something worth doing and valuable for a long time will not be understood. If you are understood by everyone, you can't do much, because everyone wants to do the same thing, then they will all be your competitors.

Choose a large platform, through which I will have a greater impact than starting a business.

"later": has there been one that moved you in the past and made you want to give up all the opportunities to start a business?

Lu Qi:When I left Yahoo in 2008, I thought about going back to China to start a business. Finally, it was Ballmer (former CEO of Microsoft Corp) who persuaded me to join Microsoft Corp. If I start a business, I have a lot of zero-to-one work to do. If I choose a large platform, I will have a greater impact through it.

"later": in your three career choices (Yahoo, Microsoft Corp, Baidu, Inc.), why did you choose the most mature and stable large enterprise instead of the newest and most potential company at that time?

Lu Qi:In terms of career choice, I mainly consider whether I can work at the forefront of technology-driven innovation, and I also have the ability to make valuable contributions while learning and improving. For example, Yahoo developed a lot of innovative business in the early Internet, Microsoft Corp has always had great potential in large-scale computing platform innovation.

"later": watching Yahoo decline step by step, why didn't you leave earlier?

Lu Qi:Because I promised Yang Zhiyuan to do it for 10 years. At that time, Yahoo entered a crisis. Yang Zhiyuan came to me and said that there is a tradition in China that friends should not leave when they are in trouble. I said, then I won't leave.

"later": I heard that Zhang Yiming went to the United States to see you in the headline C round, hoping you could join the headlines, but you didn't see him.

Lu Qi:I don't know about it. I heard it today, and I appreciate it.

"later": if you met at that time, would you consider leaving Microsoft Corp to go to Toutiao?

Lu Qi:Maybe not at that time, when I didn't know the headlines as much as I do today. I have some contact with Zhang Yiming. Today, I think Yiming and Toutiao have a good chance, just like it is not the search engine that defeats the search engine, and the one who defeats Facebook Inc is not the same as Facebook Inc. I think it may be Douyin.

"late": did you resign from Microsoft Corp in 17 years because you broke your leg on your bike, as the outside world said?

Lu Qi:The main reason is indeed this. Another factor is the desire to go back to China. I am very grateful that Bill Gates has been asking to stay. He said, "I will give you whatever Baidu, Inc. can give you." I said, you can't give me 'China'.

"later": it is said that when you are at the home of Terry Gou, Terry Gou and Kaifu Lee advise you to start a business and do whatever you want. They provide funds. They can give you China, why don't you choose?

Lu Qi:Because I think the overall driving lever of the national economy is a big underlying foundation and platform. So my first choice is to find a big platform that can let China rise and bring all the enterprises together to join.

"later": looking back, was it a wrong choice to join Baidu, Inc.?

Lu Qi:I'm sorry, I really don't want to talk about Baidu, Inc..

Later: you can talk about Microsoft Corp, but avoid talking about Baidu, Inc.. Why?

Lu Qi:It's work ethic. I don't want to bring any Distraction to it.

Compared with the success or failure of a product, helping enterprises to build long-term vitality is the most important.

"later": after Microsoft Corp achieved the highest position of Chinese in the American technology circle at that time, why do you think it was you?

Lu Qi:I am lucky to meet a lot of people in my career who trust me and are willing to help me.

Later: what makes these people willing to trust you and help you?

Lu Qi:May be Integrity (integrity), every communication I tell the truth, if I promise you anything, I will try my best to do, and be willing to help others.

"later": how do you evaluate your products and business capabilities? For example, Bing search is the main product you do in Microsoft Corp, but many people will think that Bing is not a successful product.

Lu Qi:The value of Bing is to build a technical ability for Microsoft Corp to expand Microsoft Corp's innovative genes. In the past, Microsoft Corp's Internet service gene and machine learning gene were relatively weak. With a search engine, it laid the foundation for Microsoft Corp's AI development ability and cloud's underlying ability. Many of the core teams of Azure (Microsoft Corp's cloud-based operating system) were moved by Bing.

Compared with the success or failure of a product, it is most important to help enterprises build the vitality of long-term innovation.

"later": you also took over Skype,Skype in Microsoft Corp. Have you ever reflected on how to miss the huge market of IM?

Lu Qi:Skype did teach me a painful lesson-don't think that your product will be safe because it has a high market share, and you may end up in a pot one day.

The team's culture and goals at that time attached too much importance to voice interaction and thought that SMS was technically too simple. When I looked back later, I realized that texting is actually a very important part of cognitive improvement in human history.

Human communication tools are either non-real-time, with a lot of information, such as letters and mailboxes, or real-time, such as telephone and Skype. But what I don't realize is that Skype's real-time user collaboration is too expensive. We must make an appointment in advance to use Skype. What time are you free and what time am I free? In order to reach a call agreement, we may have to send a lot of other information to coordinate. Because collaborative cost is one of the biggest factors in economic cost.

Text messages do not need to cooperate, as soon as you reply, I will know that you are online, we can contact immediately. Text messages can send not only text and images, but also money and anything. There has never been such a communication tool in human history, which can be immediate without paying the cost of collaboration. That's why I'm bullish on Wechat. When I figured this out and pushed it as hard as I could, it was too late.

"later": synergy cost is the core reason why Skype loses its competitiveness-how did you sum up this?

Lu Qi:Talk to a lot of people, think about it, and read a lot of history. I asked customers why they chose WhatsApp and Zoom over Skype. They will tell you a lot of superficial reasons, and only when you talk too much can you abstract the answer.

Later: WhatsApp developers didn't do text messages because they realized the collaborative cost of voice interaction. Was it luck that they chose the latter path in the first place?

Lu Qi:The WhatsApp experience is very hard, and the fluency in the weak network is very good. Skype ignores the fact that Skype is difficult to use in a weak network. It takes both luck and effort to do anything well.

"later": Microsoft Corp has experienced from traditional IT to Internet to mobile. What did you learn from Microsoft Corp's several leaps?

Lu Qi:The clarity of the strategy and the discipline of implementation are at the core of Microsoft Corp's transition to cloud and services. This is what I have observed in the past few years and is the best thing for other companies to learn from.

But Microsoft Corp's success is the cloud transformation, mainly the success of the business model, it has not yet made a new mainstream product. This means that the current success is to bring it more time, and its future success depends on new mainstream product innovation.

Later: looking back, what was the biggest setback in your 20-year career?

Lu Qi:In a sense, Microsoft Corp's mobile ecology was completely wiped out, and we didn't catch it.

Before Microsoft Corp bought Nokia, one of the ideas I pushed was that I thought APP was ecologically unreasonable. I wanted to push an assistant, that is, there was no APP in the phone, only services and assistants. We tried to cooperate with Motorola and use their hardware + Microsoft Corp's software to do it, but didn't do it. In the end, Microsoft Corp bought Nokia.

"later": when you have a strong idea but are not adopted, don't you want to leave your job to achieve it yourself?

Lu Qi:There was no such consideration at that time. But it triggered a lot for me, and I thought a lot about the mobile ecology as a whole-the cost of getting customers made it impossible for most 2C startups to survive. So WeChat Mini Programs is feasible. Zhang Xiaolong is a person I admire very much. China Mobile Limited ecology has gone far, a big factor is Wechat, Wechat is probably one of the best products of the contemporary era.

If you want to really change the world on a large scale, you must be the founder of this business, or you will always be limited by your employer.

"later": here are some questions about the company's strategy and organizational management. You are considered to be an efficient manager, how to activate a confused company? What are you thinking.

Lu Qi:First of all, we should clearly judge the direction of the company. The direction is composed of three circles, technology, demand, market, always look at the intersection of three. Needs are the most difficult to judge, which are met and what new opportunities there are after they are met. For example, zoom, there are many companies that do video interaction, but zoom has a deep observation on the needs, with an average delay of 14 minutes for phone calls in the United States. in addition, it is important whether the requirements such as video quality, experience and complexity are really met.

'customers are never satisfied, 'Mr. Bezos said in a shareholder letter last year. A really good entrepreneurial team should continue to observe the satisfied market, technology is always the driving factor, you have to control the technology, technology will bring new opportunities to the market that has been satisfied.

"later": to change the company, first adjust the business or adjust the organization and people first?

Lu Qi:The first step is to make a strategic judgment. Which tracks should you enter? Which tracks are there? The common problem of most companies is that they should not come out, and then enter too early. Only after you have made the decision to go in and out will you know how to adjust the organization.

But only if the CEO has enough ability and his team is strong enough. Before you make decisions about going in and out, you need to make sure that there are people good enough to help you. If not, you have to find this person first.

"later": is it a single point of change or a comprehensive change?

Lu Qi:Management must be reformed in the whole company and in all directions. The failure of the second growth curve of most companies is not a product problem, not a technical problem, but a management problem and internal friction problem. The original contributors are all on the first product line, so CEO must participate, otherwise the warlords will kill the second curve.

"late": the new core direction conflicts with the old business, which tends to be replaced violently or moderately improved?

Lu Qi:Cannot be drastically replaced, this is an omni-directional, comprehensive and balanced solution.

"later": in the management of a large company, how to penetrate the management and really understand the front-line situation?

Lu Qi:What I used to ask myself to do is that I can do the work of each of the people under two floors under me. In this way, no one in the whole company dares to deceive you or fool you. This is very important, most of the middle level of enterprises are bluffing, resources are actually wasted.

"later": a department leader, the ability is extremely strong, the values are extremely weak, will it still be reused?

Lu Qi:If his values are completely inconsistent with corporate values, you have to let him go.

"later": many managers are always complaining that people can't do it. What's your advice?

Lu Qi:You need to think about it the other way around. If people can't keep up with you, what you need to solve is, first, to open up your awareness, second, to narrow your scope of operation, to let out your power, and to let better people in.

"later": the CEO of several companies you have worked for have different personalities. How do you get along with your boss? what do you learn?

Lu Qi:Mainly in the high pressure and disagreement in the case of effective communication and coordination. For example, Mr. Gates and I spend a lot of time, he is sometimes more Demanding (harsh), what he has to do must have an immediate result. So I worked out a system with him-- if we don't agree, there are only three possibilities for us to continue the discussion:

One is that you are right and I am wrong, and I will find the evidence to prove that you are right and I am wrong, then I will do it your way; one is that I am right and you are wrong, and when I find the evidence, we will do it my way; and finally, if we do not agree on the goal of this matter, then the matter should be discussed at the board of directors.

If there is tension with my boss, I will solve any problem in a systematic way-that is, turn it into a very rational way that can be broken down into tasks.

"later": is there any time when the above methods don't work?

Lu Qi:A big challenge for me is that if what a person says to you is not consistent with what he thinks and does, he can't really live together.

"later": how to get along with subordinates? Your former colleague of Baidu, Inc. said, you never eat with them. You always eat Vegetables Salad alone in your office or hotel room.

Lu Qi:Form doesn't matter. I communicate with the team, one is to maintain the mentality of equality, I am your boss, but the positions of the two of us are different. Second, when the first mission of leadership is to serve, you should serve the employees under your hands, because they give you their career.

"later": how to find a good deputy, what is your standard?

Lu Qi:There are two ways to recruit the top talent, even if there is no suitable position. The common fault I made in the past is to wait for the position and organization to design and then recruit good people, but he won't wait for the good ones.

Second, you need a good talent base. If you can't find someone, you will try your best to find the first awesome person. I set up a research institute at Yahoo not for business, but to recruit people. You have to use a mechanism, which can be a technical project or a research institute, attracting the first awesome people, and then, like fishing for hairy crabs, a bunch of them will come.

The really good person in the world is concerned about what he does and who he cooperates with. If you want to hire a good person, it will take you at least two to three years to convince him. My name is courtship.

"later": some CEO say they are worried about how to build a strong fighting team. do you have any suggestions?

Lu Qi:I think the core reason for not winning the battle often lies in the products and in the cultural soil of the enterprise. In the past, it was very difficult for me to make mobile products in Microsoft Corp. I thought that if I got Apple Inc's people, I could innovate, but Apple Inc's people couldn't do it, so managers should pay more attention to the soil and environment.

Strong combat effectiveness we call high performance, but this is contrary to high adaptivity (strong adaptability). Strong combat effectiveness can be fierce in a fixed market, but when the market changes, they don't know how to change. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve the right balance, and the combat effectiveness itself is not difficult.

"later": what is the excellent CEO like in your heart? Who is your role model?

Lu Qi:The strongest person is willing to come for you, this is the best CEO in my opinion. I think Jack Ma did a good job in China.

"later": what stages have you observed in the growth of an excellent CEO, and what are the hallmarks?

Lu Qi:Reid Hoffman has a book called Blitzscaling (Lightning expansion), which mentions that CEO started out as a parent, the early days of the company as a family, the second stage as a tribal leader, the third stage as a village head, the fourth stage as a mayor, and the fifth stage as a national leader.

Small companies can be controlled by products and technology, while large companies can only be controlled by values and missions. Of course, these stages can be crossed.

"later": are there any problems in your life? It seems that you have a way to deal with all the problems.

Lu Qi:It depends on your goal, if your goal is to be God, it may be difficult, if your goal is to be mortal like us, then all problems can be solved.

"later": as a successful professional manager, what do you think is the biggest difference between yourself and the entrepreneurs you think are good?

Lu Qi:What is the difference between a professional manager and an entrepreneur? I've thought about it a lot. If you want to really change the world on a large scale, you must be the founder of this business, or you will always be limited by your employer. When the platform is built with your own hands, the energy and scope you can exert is the fullest.

Things can flow, people can flow, don't just stare at the highway and do it without restriction.

"later": as a technical consultant, how do you understand the prospects for the development of distributed AI technology?

Lu Qi:Personally, I am very optimistic about Pinduoduo and Huang Zheng. Our starting point is a more philosophical discussion-is there more centralized or distributed opportunities to create large-scale value? He and I both prefer the latter philosophically.

The ecology of the distributed system is more stable, and the risk coefficient of the centralized system is higher. Search engine is a typical centralized system. But human society is distributed in nature, with a lot of high wisdom in a university or an enterprise.

"later": Huang Zheng once said that the value of media is greater than that of Pinduoduo, while the value of Pinduoduo is greater than that of artificial intelligence companies. He thinks that 10,000 artificial intelligence companies are not as important as allowing people outside the Fifth Ring Road to buy good toilet paper. Do you understand and agree with him?

Lu Qi:My interpretation of what Huang Zheng said is that he is worried that the growing gap between the rich and the poor will cause more and more instability. Because artificial intelligence companies may accelerate greater inequality between the rich and the poor.

In Silicon Valley, a small percentage of Americans control a lot of wealth because they control capital and technology. When we have 10,000 artificial intelligence companies, the gap is likely to get bigger and bigger.

"later": with the in-depth penetration of artificial intelligence in various industries, machines can do most things in human society in the future. What can people do?

Lu Qi:We are thinking about how to redesign the system of human society. The YC Research Institute has a research project on what happens to everyone's attitude towards work under basic income.

"later": when AI technology is gradually mature and combined with traditional industries, which industry will you choose to start?

Lu Qi:We summarize a preliminary entrepreneurial methodology of artificial intelligence: if you want to have a wide closed loop of industry scene, you must take the support of data as the core, it must be open and long-term platform, and the data is multi-dimensional. if there is interaction should be based on natural interaction; often need to do both hardware and software.

"later": what are your favorite three AI landing scenes?

Lu Qi:At present, there are two, smart places and new mobile. Intelligent place, refers to any space (retail stores, hospitals, etc.) have intelligent capabilities; the new mobile is the robot's autopilot, automatic, walking system.

"later": take self-driving as an example, do you prefer traditional car companies like GM to buy start-ups (Cruise) for self-driving or start-ups with Internet genes (such as Tesla, Waymo)?

Lu Qi:I think it is more likely that the entrepreneurial team based on a new generation of technological genes will introduce genes from the automobile industry, rather than introducing new genes from the auto industry in reverse.

"later": Waymo, Cruise, Tesla, Inc., Uber, and Baidu, Inc. and BABA, who are working on open platforms, among the many self-driving paths, which one do you like best?

Lu Qi:I don't want to judge clearly. But I can talk about one latitude-self-driving like the real L4L5 is not a purely technical problem.

1, the real commercial landing needs infrastructure (road network, laws and regulations construction). 2, from the point of view of engineering research and development, we have not invented an engineering development method that can reliably meet the safety requirements of the vehicle gauge level, the safety requirement of the vehicle gauge level is that the failure rate is 10 to the 8th power-- very low, and the aircraft is 10 to the 9th power. I think it will be a long process to really meet the safety requirements of the car rules and complete commercial landing at the same time.

"later": what are the biggest misunderstandings about self-driving among entrepreneurs and investors?

Lu Qi:Many people focus on the commercial form of self-driving that a car can walk on its own-- what you need to think about is that self-driving is first and foremost an ability-- to establish an autonomous system. We should treat self-driving as an ecology and a type of technology, which means that it will have many different commercialized forms.

My own view is that early low speed or limitation is the core of the path of commercialization, and based on this conclusion, you can have a lot of room for imagination. High-speed and unrestricted is the current challenge, because it has too high requirements for regulations and technology. Things can flow, people can flow, do not just stare at the highway unrestricted to do.

"later": it can not be a car, not four wheels.

Lu Qi:In the long run, cars may not be the most effective means of transportation for human beings, because you have to build roads and infrastructure on a large scale.

If you talk to professors and students of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, many people will tell you that in nature, snakes can walk on any terrain with very low energy, and they move on bones, which is better than animals with feet. This is similar to the dragon imagined by China before.

Maybe someone can make something like a robot dragon in the future, and in the future, the new generation of tools may be neither a car nor an airplane, but a new thing. Don't think of self-driving just as building a car, but as a new ability, an ability that has never been seen in human history, and we can build a system that we can move.

Think of your career as showing a movie. You can go home after the movie, and you can start again tomorrow.

Later: you have mentioned many times that your favorite novel is Roman Roland's John Christopher. What does it mean to you?

Lu Qi:I like this book so much that I copied it twice. To me, it is an epic work describing human nature. Its biggest touch to me is that if you do not work hard, do not overcome, do not pursue, do not persistently pursue, the really good human nature can not be reflected.

"later": what is "really good human nature" for you?

Lu Qi:The beauty of human nature has many levels, and for people like me, it may be to make a system. The embryonic form of the hero of this book is Beethoven, who represents a better example of human beings in overcoming difficulties, because the road he has taken in his life is very difficult.

The first time I heard that Beethoven was in high school, I almost couldn't go to college because there was an operation here. At that time, what I was most afraid of was that I couldn't take the college exam and almost collapsed. At that time, Beethoven's symphonies were my only spiritual support. I could basically recite the main theme of 9 symphonies. I survived by playing Beethoven's music in my head every day.

Say "overcome and triumph" in English. Beethoven is the best example of mankind to me. His victory is not a success at some point. His life has brought a truly valuable experience to mankind, and his music is the wealth of all mankind.

Later: do you still listen to Beethoven when you are anxious?

Lu Qi:Now anxiety is basically taking a bath. As the saying goes, it is very useful to me to take a step back.

I have a mentor, Fred Kofman, who has written two books, Conscious Business (Business with conscience) and The meaning revolution (Revolution of meaning). Why do we feel anxious too much every day, professional obstacles, in fact, too little meaning, we lack meaning.

Fred Kofman mentioned that everyone should have a safety harness (seat belt), in which you can find a way to restart. You can think of your career as showing a movie, and you can go home after the movie, and you can start again tomorrow.

"later": is your signature "Do more, know more, be more" the meaning of your life?

Lu Qi:Yes. The information architecture of any intelligent ecology is always made up of these three parts. What people pursue is always want to know more, want to do more, experience more, the three spiral rise, never-ending. At the same time, you need to reduce entropy, knowledge can help you reduce entropy, the core of entropy reduction is to build a better structure. Or the world will be in chaos.

Sam Altman has analyzed the factors of successful companies in YC2000 companies, and it is important that the analysis results are the personal motivation of the founding team. The two founders of Airbnb are typical, not to make money, but to be the best of themselves.

"later": Gandhi said, be the change you want to see in the world. Wouldn't the latter push people to go further to become a better self and build a better world?

Lu Qi:The self makes people more permanent. Making a lot of money, building a successful company, and even building a country and the world are all external goals. If a goal is external, you will always become empty after you reach it.

"later": there are some businessmen whose goal is to win. They enjoy it and don't seem to be empty.

Lu Qi:Your pursuit is based on the fact that others lose. Why does someone in the world have to lose before you think your life is valuable? I think the goal of a person is yourself, not any external factor.

Later: do you abstract the world into a program to make it easier to understand or to knock it down and reconstruct it?

Lu Qi:I attach importance to mathematics, mathematics is an eternal truth, it can use symbols and structures to describe all the information in the world.

The core of my worldview is that everything in the world is made up of energy and information. Any enterprise or person is a function, that is, changing information from one state to another. You know what kind of function it is and you know how to change it.

"later": what functions are Microsoft Corp, Baidu, Inc. and YC respectively?

Lu Qi:Most VC is a valuation function, which calculates the value of the invested enterprise and the return on the investment. YC does not need a valuation, as long as we pass the pass line, we will vote, so YC is a function to calculate whether to pass or not, it is very simple.

Microsoft Corp is a very complex function, it makes a large product matrix and creates a very complex value. It also has something to do with the way Mr. Gates started the company. He is more concerned about complexity. The core function of search companies is to find business models with large-scale data through large-scale computing.

"later": if everything is mathematical and you want to vote for people, how do you understand people in terms of functions?

Lu Qi:I have a good colleague in Baidu, Inc.. We talked about how to select people and find teams in a quantitative way. He has a good starting theory on people, starting with the Book of changes, such as whether five people in a team match? Gold, wood, water, fire and earth, which one were you born? In fact, the understanding between people in ancient times is probably higher than that of people today, because today we are disturbed every day, it is very difficult to calm down and observe people, and the ancients may sum up a deeper observation of people.

This is our starting point. I think as long as we accumulate more data, we can quantify the selection of people. For example, YC does not watch BP (business plan), we only ask you 18 questions, watch your one-minute video, we have a scoring system, this is also quantification, just a very rough quantification.

"later": there is a question in the questionnaire of Qiji Chuangtan training Camp. What ideas do you have that others disagree with but which you insist on? How would you answer this question?

Lu Qi:I like programming very much, and I think any human relationship, even love and affection, has its information and mathematical structure "the mathematic of love", but I never tell anyone my view because it will be controversial.

People need to have enough to eat, rest and sleep, so we have hotels and families. We have effective ways to solve all these problems today.

I think love also has its own mathematical structure, it is still energy + information. Suppose we understand what the information structure of love is, and under what circumstances will there be love? To what extent? Because I don't understand it now, love is random for me most of the time. But if we can answer these questions, we have a chance to create more love.

"when we gain new knowledge, the starting point is to ask questions, and sometimes when we ask the right questions, you can basically walk based on this question for most of your life. "

Later: what's the most amazing thing you've ever done?

Lu Qi:I haven't done anything great. If I have to mention one, I'm actually very embarrassed to say it. I have a patent, which was selected as MIT Technology Review's patent of the year in 2000, which is a very simple idea.

"later": if you just graduated now, how old is or20, what kind of industry will you choose to join and what kind of things will you do?

Lu Qi:Or will choose the technology to build an underlying system. I told my daughter that most people have only a vague sense of what they want to do in life before the age of 25.

Ideally, when you join Alphabet Inc-CL C for 5 years or Facebook4 years, because such a company gives you the most opportunities to learn, after 5 years in a big company, you are basically financially independent. Then you can find a better place, so that you are free to pursue what you are passionate about.

"later": what advice do you have for young people aged 20, 30 and 40?

Lu Qi:At the age of 20, you need to do something that allows you to walk fast, learn quickly and fail quickly. At the age of 30, you need to allow yourself to go far, and establishing a core support system will allow you to go far. The system includes your body, your solid family foundation and a few like-minded friends you can trust.

When a person reaches the age of 35, when it comes to the prime time of building a product, I have paid close attention to the talent at this age, because he / she has already made a lot of mistakes. He / she most needs to make a good product to make an essential improvement in his / her career.

After the age of 40, the ideal situation is to find a stage where you can make the most of it. A person's talent and a company's talent can realize its value only if it is really released. If this stage is your own best.

"later": looking back on the past ten years, what do you think you have done too much, and what do you think you haven't done enough?

Lu Qi:I like to write programs, and my thinking may be a little fixed. I imagine everything I do as an interface and operation in a system. The advantage is to make thinking more structured. It is not good to simply and rudely ignore some details, especially when I simply abstract the delicate relationship of people into an information system, which is not necessarily true.

"later": after getting up at 4: 00 in the morning for more than ten years to run and work, have you ever thought of doing something else in the morning?

Lu Qi:Never thought about it. I used to get up at 4: 00 to do the Email, then run, run for 30 minutes, take a shower and go to the office. The first pair of running is good exercise for the respiratory system, the second is that I can sweat, and the third is that I can run and listen to books without wasting time. Sometimes I would put the PPT on the treadmill and look at it.

I can't do it now, because I hurt my leg by riding a reverse bike. I can walk flat, but I can't go up and down or run at all. So at present, I am not satisfied with the efficiency of my life, and I haven't found a way to make me feel smooth every day.

"later": what do you think of adventure?

Lu Qi:I will have a framework to risk trial and error, basically 8% of the opportunity cost to risk, but 8% of the risk, I will decide systematically and rationally. Once I find that the direction is wrong, I will turn around and even give up immediately.

"later": is it an unbearable consequence of risk-taking that you can't run because you broke your leg to practice riding your bike in the opposite direction?

Lu Qi:It's not an adventure. It's my own fault. Because I think it should be no problem to ride a bike, I run every day in good health. But sometimes it's just a bad fall.

"later": do you often put too much faith in your own power?

Lu Qi:Yes. My wife always thought I was too confident. She always thinks I'm self-righteous.

"later": you are considered to be a very diligent person. What is the most effective way for you to learn?

Lu Qi:Any intelligent system to really learn knowledge, these three are inseparable-perception (observation system), thinking (intelligence system), action (activity system). This is true for people, an enterprise and a country.

I know that it is not naturally suitable for me to manage the enterprise and make products. I like to do systems, write code to do underlying systems, and always want to do it behind closed doors. But I know that if you don't make products, you don't do business, if you don't do it, you can't really improve your knowledge.

"later": you once said that experience is the best way to learn, so you will ride your bike backwards.

Lu Qi:When we gain new knowledge, we start by asking questions, and Sam often says, what are the big questions we haven't asked in the next five years? Sometimes when you ask the right question, you can basically walk on it for most of your life.

Bicycle is the most typical example of experiential learning. If you want to learn bicycles, you can't read and learn. You have to fall and fall, but the magic is that you will never forget what you have learned. I used to read a lot of books. Why do I ride my bike backwards? I just want to rearrange my brain.

"later": have you encountered anything contrary to your past value system during your return to China?

Lu Qi:A lot. But I am such a person that you won't be surprised if I don't set any expectations before accepting a new job. You will try to understand the reality and try to do it. I think it's the only way.

"later": you communicate frequently with Pinduoduo founder Huang Zheng, who is considered to be one of the entrepreneurs who understand China best. does he have any suggestions for you?

Lu Qi:He met and chatted with me for the first time for two or three hours, and the two people had different views on each issue, but I learned a lot and was willing to continue the conversation.

"later": what is your different understanding of China?

Lu Qi:Very different, Huang Zheng said, "Qi, you are very American, you are not Chinese at all." he thinks I will suffer in many places, and he is right.

These three points are very important to get along with people-what you say, what you think, what you do, some cultures are very close, and some cultures are very far away. I think China is a little far away at present. If everyone else is far away and you are close to yourself, you can't get used to it.

"later": how to adjust? Do you choose not to trust these people or to be farther away from yourself?

Lu Qi:It depends on the situation to make adjustments. I want to adjust my cognition, adjust my thoughts, and do things in a more approachable way. I don't think my learning speed is fast enough, I don't have enough channels to acquire knowledge, and I still need to know a lot about China's innovation ecology.

Edit / emily

The translation is provided by third-party software.


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