Author: Sleepy
Over the past weekend, Kimi hosted a celebration banquet at a nightclub in Beijing.
A three-line message was displayed on the nightclub's big screen:
K3, scale up
K4, scale the fuck up
To the moon
That night, someone posted on Xiaohongshu, stating that Kimi's programmers were quite reserved, sitting in their booths playing with their phones. When they tried to approach them to add them on WeChat, they were rejected. Entrepreneur Zhang Yutong from Linkdoc was reportedly present as well.
The following day, feedback on social media and in the community described the atmosphere as impetuous, hedonistic, and suggested that those focusing on scaling models should not behave in such a manner. Some claimed that their technology was not yet world-class, but they were already indulging in alcohol.
Kimi hosting a celebration banquet at a nightclub should not have attracted so much criticism. Kimi's K3 had recently caused a stir internationally, arguably serving as a key catalyst in the recent controversies within the American tech industry and political arena regarding open-source models. The team naturally had reasons to celebrate.
However, what was supposed to be a simple celebration in Beijing turned into a trial of their original intentions.
Oddly enough, the same scenario in a different location would have yielded a completely different impression.
Silicon Valley Worship
Imagine if it were a Silicon Valley company celebrating at a nightclub in Silicon Valley; wouldn't it be much more acceptable?
A group of engineers who had just finished training their model, wearing T-shirts, getting drunk at a bar, with the founder in the middle of the crowd, and a slogan with profanity on the screen. The next day, tech media would write about it, with headlines likely featuring words like ambition, madness, and youth. Readers would say, "That's just Silicon Valley."
When discussing Silicon Valley, we have always been lenient.
The most valuable products in Silicon Valley are not just chips, models, and software. It has also produced a whole set of language to explain success.
Steve Jobs in a black turtleneck all year round: that's called focus. Mark Zuckerberg wearing slippers to meet investors: that's called not caring about conventions. Sleeping in the office is dedication to your career, attending Burning Man after making money is seen as releasing creativity.
Silicon Valley sells the world not only chips, models, and software but also a whole set of rhetoric to explain why a person is successful and what they should do to be considered respectable after success.
Silicon Valley residents can be proud, they can be offensive, they can swear a few times after drinking too much and no one will care. They don't have to constantly prove that they are good students, because in this rhetoric, they are automatically seen as representing the future.
However, Chinese companies have never received this kind of treatment.
First, they have to prove that the technology is real, the growth is real, and the valuation is not exaggerated. Once all of this has been proven, they have to prove again that they have not become arrogant. If they speak too much English at a press conference, some people accuse them of being too Westernized. When the founder expresses opinions, some say he is only good at marketing. When the company makes money, and employees go out to celebrate, there are concerns that they may have lost their original intentions.
To put it bluntly, there is a kind of Silicon Valley worship going on.
For a long time, Silicon Valley has not only been the birthplace of advanced technology, but also the birthplace of modern life. From garage startups, hacker culture, venture capital, equity incentives, to flat management structures, even the rebellious attitude has been learned from there.
The problem lies exactly here. We can accept Chinese companies learning how to endure hardships from Silicon Valley, but we can't quite accept that Chinese people have also learned to enjoy life like successful Silicon Valley personalities.
This is actually a kind of hidden cultural inferiority complex. The Silicon Valley worship here is not simply thinking that Silicon Valley is more advanced. It is a subconscious belief that:
Western successful individuals have the right to define their lifestyle, while Chinese successful individuals only have the obligation to be judged for their lifestyle.
The Information recently had an article titled "Private Jets Are Scarce. Blame the Gusher of AI Wealth," which described a reality like this:
Today, about 30% of the consumers of high-end private jets in the United States come from Silicon Valley. This group not only includes tech company founders, but also thanks to the crazy performance of AI in the capital markets, many AI company researchers and engineers have also started consuming private jets.
The top AI engineers in the United States have started researching buying a Gulfstream G650, while we are still discussing whether Chinese AI engineers drinking at the Workers' Stadium is too frivolous.
We are not advocating for a luxurious lifestyle. Frankly speaking, if you are one of these top talents, in which media environment would you prefer to work?
The Ethic of Suffering
We are particularly tolerant of American technology elites, but especially harsh on our own people. This is not only because of Silicon Valley worship, but also because the education we have received since childhood tells us that dignified success should come through great suffering.
We learned early on to judge a person's character based on their willingness to endure hardship.
When a child performs poorly in school, what parents are most upset about is often not the grades themselves, but the fact that "you didn't even try hard." While there is room for improvement in terms of ability, refusing to endure hardship is seen as a character issue. Conversely, even if a student fails an exam, as long as they stay up late studying every night, adults will still say that the child is sensible. The matter of putting effort into something has long evolved from an issue of ability to an issue of morality, and has even become a debt owed by children to their parents and students to their teachers.
This judgment system stays with people as they grow up.
Whether it's getting up early for school, working overtime at the office, or pulling all-nighters for a startup, whether a task is accomplished is one thing, and whether the person doing it bears the marks of hardship is another. The latter is more likely to be noticed. Dark circles under the eyes, instant noodles, and an office lit at 3 a.m. are all pieces of evidence more easily spread than the actual results.
Of course, this mindset has undoubtedly helped many people succeed. In ages of scarce resources and limited opportunities, hard work is one of the few things that ordinary people can control themselves. When a family cannot provide financial support and there is no one to rely on, they can only repeatedly tell their children to endure a little longer and try a little harder.
Chinese children are taught from a young age that "the more you endure when young, the higher you'll soar when grown." "Endurance" has gradually shifted from being the price of success to being the receipt for success.
This has also shaped our imagination of scientists, which still seems to be stuck in an extremely narrow personality template even today. Scientists are best when they are disheveled, carry an old backpack, preferably have a mineral water bottle, devoid of entertainment, free of consumer desires, and lacking any worldly vanity. Their minds are filled only with formulas and papers every day. While this type of scientist is indeed very respectable, the problem lies in the fact that we are turning one scientist's way of life into a moral template that all scientists must adhere to.
So, the less a scientist cares about money, the more we are moved; the shabbier they dress, the purer we think they are; the more mundane their life, the more we believe in their high academic level.
Recently, mathematician Wang Hong has resonated with more people: it turns out mathematicians can also be elegant, beautiful, and wear luxury goods. The lifestyles of Wei Dongyi and Wang Hong are not the issue; the only issue is us as onlookers—when will we finally understand that lifestyle has nothing to do with academia?
Mathematicians are like this, and so are AI scientists.
Playing the Role of Silicon Valley Elite and Ascetic Monk Simultaneously
How strong Kimi K3 really is should be left to reviews, developers, and real-world usage to answer. Whether the dark side of the moon can become a great company also depends on its future ability to continuously create products, control costs, and establish a sustainable business model.
A nightclub cannot prove these, but a nightclub also cannot refute these.
Many of the criticisms are not actually against celebrating success; instead, they feel it is not the right time yet. Chinese companies still have a distance to go before reaching the top globally, so how can they learn to act like they are already the best in the world? This sentiment is easy to understand; it stems from the caution built up over the past few decades, afraid of being too happy too soon, afraid of another disappointment.
If Kimi were to hold the celebration at a luxury hotel, with round tables in private rooms, the management toasting with wine glasses table by table, and screens displaying "Achieving Brilliance Again," some might also find it bureaucratic and old-fashioned, nothing like a young tech company. Going to a nightclub is seen as impulsive, going to a hotel is considered pretentious, staying in the office to eat boxed lunches will inevitably invite suspicions of putting on a show of austerity. No matter what you do, there will always be naysayers.
This also illustrates that the crux of the controversy never lies in how the celebration should be conducted. People expect Chinese tech companies to have the ambition and vitality of Silicon Valley while always remaining restrained and humble, preferably not even showing a hint of success even after achieving it.
However, this misunderstanding creates a divide. Over time, this divide will drive people away. Perhaps no one intends to drive anyone away. We are eagerly waiting for these people to emerge, hoping for them to return from overseas; yet, at the same time, we are eager to shape them into our own ideal image.
Eventually, that nightclub in Beijing will close its doors. The "To the moon" message on the big screen will turn off, the waiter will collect the wine glasses, and the individuals sitting in the booths engrossed in their phones will return to their workstations to continue their tasks. The challenges will remain challenging, and the bottleneck will remain constraining.
A truly mature tech culture does not need to package a nightclub as innovative spirit nor determine a company's caliber from a glass of wine. That one night in the lives of these people does not hold much weight.
They simply turned a difficult task into an accomplishment and wanted to be happy for a while. If even happiness needs to be explained to others, it indicates that perhaps we are not yet accustomed to something even simpler.
China's geniuses can also be happy.
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