Amazon laid off more than 14,000 white-collar employees, and many of them went to TikTok to post videos complaining about their miserable experiences. But as far as I know, it is not just Amazon; tech giants like Meta and Microsoft are also conducting large-scale layoffs. In the future, as AI integrates into corporate workflows, Silicon Valley giants shift their competitive focus, and Chinese tech companies pose strong challenges, massive layoffs in Silicon Valley will become increasingly normal. It is worth noting that not long ago, American farmers were crying on TikTok about not being able to sell their soybeans. In reality, not only is traditional employment unstable, but self-employment and even entrepreneurship can have your livelihood taken away at any moment. Except for the ultra-wealthy, ordinary people will feel less and less secure in life.
However, we have also noticed that the first wave of farmers who posted tearful videos on TikTok gained massive followings. They no longer need to farm; instead, they make good income by shooting daily videos tracking soybean issues, rallying farmers to protest the government, urging subsidies, and helping each other. Similarly, the first batch of tech workers who shared their layoff stories on TikTok have gained exposure through the platform. The potential value of their accounts helps them combat unemployment risks and even live better than before.
Yes, building an efficient connection network, increasing both the quantity and quality of connections, and enabling it to grow and expand passively under certain rules, this is a key means to secure survival and gain a sense of security in the future. For ordinary people like us, it is the most important method. Of course, it is not limited to short-video platforms like TikTok. You can also build your social network on YouTube, X, Facebook, Threads, Telegram, or through self-built websites, apps, and chat groups, promoting yourself online to more people. These people may want to learn technology, knowledge, or information from you, or they may simply like your appearance, voice, or story. Whether you provide knowledge, emotional value, or solve problems, you can continuously grow this social network, improve the quantity and quality of your opportunities, establish a virtuous development cycle, and gain psychological security.
Over the past year and more, I have created six YouTube channels, two of which passed YPP and started earning money. I later stopped one, kept the English political commentary channel, and launched a new one called VoidHunzi to share experiences and insights on making money online. The former is my personal hobby and an outlet for emotional release, but it also brings stable income sufficient to cover my daily life. I expect VoidHunzi to start monetizing in three to six months and reach a level that supports my living within a year. Due to limited energy, my planning for this channel is quite casual; if progress lags slightly, I won’t stress, as I still occasionally take programming gigs and update my website. But I am quite satisfied with this model. Once I clear my personal debts, I will stop taking coding contracts entirely and focus on updating these two channels, my personal website, and possibly maintaining a Telegram or X group.
I am Chinese, and my English is very average. I only use it more due to programming work; my spoken English is at a daily conversation level and completely insufficient for hosting English shows. But in previous videos, I explained that due to special circumstances, I am not suitable for appearing on camera in Chinese videos. So I use AI to generate voiceovers paired with animations for political discussions on the MrHunzi channel. AI greatly reduces my workload, eliminating worries about English grammar and the need to spend hours reviewing translation accuracy. Once proficient, errors are kept within acceptable limits.
In my editing process, I also use many AI features, such as automatic subtitles, which dramatically boost editing efficiency. Sometimes, background music triggers copyright issues, so I use AI to generate similar tracks and replace them in minutes. In other words, in the AI era, we can delegate most simple functional and repetitive procedural tasks to it, and it often delivers high-quality results in very little time. Mastering basic AI skills allows us to avoid human collaboration bottlenecks and greatly increase efficiency. What once required several people or a small team can now be easily handled with AI.
Currently, I am updating my personal website. Once the content volume reaches a certain level and traffic is decent, I will showcase AI-developed extensions to enhance professionalism and aesthetics. In my daily freelance work, I am not familiar with the details of most technical issues. For example, I do not know the intricacies of Go syntax, but I prefer using Go for web programs because deployment requires no complex runtime environment and supports simple script execution. AI helps me quickly grasp Go’s features; within hours, I can go from a basic hello world program to mastering core development skills, building the demo I want, and running tests. AI is rapidly transforming programmers’ job responsibilities. Whether you can use AI and how well you use it will become a key factor in increasing personal value in large companies and dramatically boosting efficiency and potential in personal ventures.
I believe many people in artistic creation have also greatly improved efficiency using Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, Kling, and similar AI tools. In advertising and graphic design, the productivity gains are revolutionary. Of course, these AIs will replace a large amount of human labor and cause many people to lose jobs.
But as a heavy AI user, I clearly understand that today’s AI is fundamentally a large-scale intelligent program driven by databases and conventional logic. From any perspective, it does not qualify as true AI. It will not make fools smart; it only makes smart people smarter.
The purpose of this channel is simple: to document the real thoughts of a digital nomad and online worker in each video, sharing experiences and insights on earning money through the internet and AI. Since YouTube launched the YPP partnership program and the self-media era officially began, society has started to move away from reliance on traditional workplaces. From the establishment of human society until now, the essence of acquiring wealth or resources has always been about who can build an efficient and stable connection network and whose connections can replicate virally and grow autonomously. The AI revolution gives ordinary people a chance to close information gaps. The key is whether you can understand the essence of AI and make use of it.
For now, I am a digital nomad who has just gotten started and can support myself. I am still far from being qualified to teach others. But that does not stop me from creating this channel and my website to share my views. If you are interested in such topics, feel free to follow this channel. I cannot promise to make you rich, but I have no problem teaching you how to support yourself on the internet.