Make Something First, Then Wait for People on the Same Wavelength

This afternoon, I watched a livestream about AI reshaping organizations and ways of living. As the conversation turned to AI entering real life and work, Zhang Xiaoyu casually said:

People who do things are optimistic. People who don't are pessimistic.

That sounds a little absolute. In the context of the conversation, he was talking about how people often discover new possibilities after encountering needs in real life and solving problems themselves. I prefer to understand it as optimism through action.

I rarely think of myself as a pessimist. Especially in the last two months, I've used AI to make quite a few things I'd previously been stuck on, and I've been feeling quite happy. The website is one of them.

First, let the website work

Many years ago, I asked a friend to help me make a website. The domain I'm using now is the one I used then. Later, I didn't keep maintaining it. My friend probably forgot about it too, and the domain was reclaimed.

This time, I bought the first year again through Tencent Cloud for 83 yuan. Back then, just hearing about domains, servers, and all the software was enough to make my head spin. I don't understand code, and the learning cost was high. Of course I'd thought about having a website, but usually I would think about it and then leave it there.

This time, after perhaps two or three days of work, the site's basic functions were in place. Registering the domain and waiting for the filing took additional time. I no longer remember the exact order, but the whole process was far more convenient than in the past.

I wouldn't call this version good-looking yet. I simply asked AI to use the orange and green I often use on my WeChat official account and get the pages made. Motion effects, fonts, and where to place images can all be changed gradually later. For now, let it work.

Building the mini program feels like Lego

The mini program has been much the same. It generates a version, I check a version. Add a feature here, present something differently there, then look at the next version. It feels a little like building with Lego. Get the structure standing, then add things to it. For a creator, the process itself is interesting.

There haven't been any dramatic obstacles in these two or three days. When I don't like what AI produces, I keep adjusting it. It works slowly in the background; I wait a while, then come back to check the result. Perhaps being a Taurus is useful after all: I can tolerate that kind of waiting. There's no client pressing for delivery anyway. It just needs to pass my own standards first.

A lot of ideas used to get stuck at execution. Now AI takes on a large share of that work. My part is to provide context, explain what I want, and judge whether what it produces is usable. The experience left by more than a decade of freelancing finally has a chance to be organized bit by bit and become articles, a website, and new work.

What do we talk about after “That's amazing”?

When I share these things, the most common response is usually: “That's amazing.”

I know, of course, that it comes from kindness. But after hearing it often, it's hard to keep the conversation going. People who haven't made websites or mini programs probably don't know what to ask. People who work in technology are mostly solving company problems or building startups, which isn't quite the same setting as mine as an independent creator.

Occasionally, I see independent creators talking about AI on Xiaohongshu. Their content often leads toward courses and traffic. That's another way of doing things, and different from where I am right now. I'm not in that circle for the moment, and I don't have someone I can share this particular happiness with at any time.

Still, that doesn't stop me from carrying on. The website first meets my own needs. I want to gradually organize the work and experiences of more than a decade. I also want to see how far an independent creator can take their own work with AI.

Why did you make this page that way? What will change in the next version? What did AI help with, and what still needed your decision? When we reach questions like these, we're really talking about the same thing.

I haven't met that person yet, so I'll keep making things. Improve the website after it goes live, revise the mini program version by version, and keep writing as usual. When I meet new creators online or in person, at least I'll already have something concrete to bring into the conversation.

Let an idea take a very small shape first

Zhang Xiaoyu said people who do things are optimistic. My understanding of optimism probably has little to do with certainty about results. When an idea takes shape in front of you, you know where you can keep changing it, and what you can do next.

Will the market accept it? When will I meet people on the same wavelength? There are no answers for now. Going a little slowly is no great disaster.

If you also have an idea you've put aside for a long time, you can first let it take a very small shape.

A page, an image, a piece of writing you can share: any of those will do. Once the thing exists, the questions become specific, and people who truly care about it can find you more easily.

Keep making it for now. When we meet, we'll naturally have something to talk about.

The comments about “people who do things are optimistic” come from the August 28, 2026 livestream discussion, AI Reshaping Organizations and Ways of Living.

The views, experiences, and final judgments in this article are the author's. AI assisted with organizing the text and generating illustrations.