the gen z i've met in china fall into two categories: 996 grinders who feel the fomo and are sprinting to get ahead or 躺平 (tǎng píng) the kids "lying flat" fully opting out of work/ the game at large.

what does that look like? well, yesterday i was at the park in shanghai with some friends playing 二十四点 this card game where you flip four cards and race to hit 24 using any math operation. this one 躺平 girl is smoking us all. she's played it since she was a kid (it's mostly a pattern based/memorization game so if you've been playing awhile you're locked to win). anyways, i suggest a new game so the rest of us have a shot. she immediately refuses to play "i don't play games i can't win."

it really struck me because it felt like the mentality of half the generation in one sentence. one half open to learning, open to working. the other half checking out the second they have to learn something new. it's the same attitude that's getting eric schmidt booed off that commencement stage for telling kids to take ai seriously. if the game looks unwinnable, lie flat. refuse the tools. opt out before you can lose.

the agency gap is the new class line.

— povkeiran (@povkeiran)