博链《直面大佬》第一期：李笑来（文字实录删减版）

Broadchain "Face the Bigwigs" Episode 1: Li Xiaolai (abridged transcript)

> By Li Xiaolai · 2018-10-24 · [Original link](https://www.panewslab.com/zh/articles/740) (Chinese)
> Only Li Xiaolai's own answers; lines marked (Q) summarize the question and are not the interviewer's wording.
> Our translation from the Chinese original.

**(Q)** With so many titles attached to you, which one do you like best?

What I'm probably most used to is still "teacher," because I've rarely held a regular job and have changed occupations fairly often, and in this process, the time I spent as a teacher was relatively long.

The so-called "richest man in bitcoin" is a label that was put on me for no apparent reason; I may never have been the "richest man in bitcoin."

The actual situation is this: because I didn't care, other people knew I owned bitcoin. In the earliest days, many bitcoin holders thought: "Bitcoin's anonymity is very important to bitcoin."

I felt it shouldn't be thought of that way—the renminbi is anonymous too; the US dollar is anonymous too; the yen is anonymous too; writing your name on money is even against the law. So I don't think anonymity is an important property of bitcoin; earlier I even wrote an article specifically about this.

So I've never hidden from the outside world the fact that I own bitcoin. Later, a CCTV reporter interviewed me around 2013 and asked how many bitcoins I had; what I said at the time was six digits, starting with 1. In fact, under the circumstances then, I knew there were two people in China I knew who had more bitcoins than I did, so at that time I shouldn't have been the so-called "richest man in bitcoin."

In the blink of an eye it was 2018, and I still knew of two people, and two people I know, who had more bitcoins than I did; of course not the two from a few years ago, but another two.

So "richest man in bitcoin" is a rather baffling title; it wasn't true from the start, and it isn't true now.

**(Q)** You attract the affection of so many fans and readers; is it personal charm or some other reason?

First, it's not quite what the outside world imagines; the fact I'm very clear about is that I don't have many fans. My follower count on Weibo is still under 350,000 to this day; 300,000-some fans on Weibo is a small account among small accounts.

Then my WeChat official account: after it rose to 400,000, it became very hard to grow any further; new subscriptions and unsubscriptions basically balance out.

I took a look a few days ago, and it's now around 400,000-some, 470,000 to be exact. Among WeChat official accounts, this subscriber count is also a small account among small accounts.

So the outside world says Li Xiaolai has many fans; compared with an ordinary person, it's somewhat more, but compared with internet celebrities and stars it's not on the same order of magnitude at all; it's two or three zeros short.

Earlier I discussed this with friends: because whether I'm lecturing or writing books, what I teach is independent thinking, and so for (a teacher) who teaches independent thinking, that in essence determines that your fan count won't be large. In school, whoever teaches independent thinking gets lower ratings, because once you teach students independent thinking, the first thing students learn is to question, and you even encourage them to question.

But who is it they question? First they question the teacher, so this is a common situation.

Since I started writing publicly, that is, from 2015, it's been three or four years now, and from the time I started writing, my way of writing has been communication. I don't think writing is expression, and I don't think public speaking is expression either; whether speaking or writing, for me the core is communication.

When reading an article, the reader actually knows you're talking to them; I'll even answer, in the next article, questions readers had from reading the previous one. So I think this feeling of communication is actually very important.

From when I wrote my blog back then, and from the start of 2016 to the end of 2017, when I wrote a column for Luo Zhenyu's Dedao (得到) App, I followed the same principle as before: never delete any comment.

There are a lot of comments, and I read every one; in 2017 on the column, the time I spent reading comments each day should have been about two and a half hours. Those two and a half hours were fixed; I absolutely had to do this. Basically each column post had roughly more than twenty thousand comments. Of course reading them isn't that hard, because a large number of the questions or replies are predictable, so I just glance over them, but I read them very seriously.

I think that (communicating with users) this process isn't the fan-gathering campaign people imagine; it's actually communicating with readers, which of course benefits readers. Conversely, it also benefits me a lot.

So I don't think this is a matter of charm or no charm; it's a universal human need—birds of a feather flock together, and why do they flock? Because they can communicate.

Many of my students from ten years ago have come to work with me, and I say, you all watched me grow up.

Usually a teacher says I watched my students grow up, but I sincerely say it the other way round, because ten years ago when you met me, you were a student and I was a teacher; ten years later when you see me again, you're no longer a student and I'm no longer a teacher; you've grown and I've grown too.

In fact, over the past ten years I've had many investors, and they really have witnessed my growth.

**(Q)** How do you divide your energy between family life and work?

I never think about this question, because my wife and I are highly aligned in our thinking.

She's another kind of workaholic; sometimes we're in the same room, she happily does her work, I happily do mine, and there's no conflict.

At home I rarely face a need to coordinate time; what needs coordinating is rather when things get busy and I have to see outside people.

Also, I think each person's state affects the state of the people around them. And I'm someone who puts a lot of weight on communication; I generally won't, one-sidedly and wishfully, just go do whatever comes into my head. Whenever I go to do something, I also communicate with my family, for example why I'm doing it and how I'll do it, so my family all understand.

Therefore, the reason the vast majority of people feel conflict is that they think work is tiring and play is fun, and so naturally there's conflict.

In my values, creating is what's fun and consuming is what's tiring; once I'm made to go play like other people, as soon as I think that this time is passing with no output at all, I feel weary at heart.

**(Q)** When you make some major decisions, do you listen to your family's advice?

In my family there's basically no one who has absolute say; basically "reason has the say." Family members reason things out, and wherever reason points, that's what we do.

Of course sometimes we judge wrongly; what to do when we judge wrongly? Sum up the lessons learned, and next time don't make such a foolish decision.

So there's very little conflict in my life; I should be someone who lives a relatively calm life, and there really isn't anything to conflict over. My wife and I haven't quarreled in 20 years, and I haven't quarreled with my parents since my adolescent rebellious phase.

Back when I was a teacher at New Oriental, New Oriental colleagues all had a consensus—before getting married, you must treat Mr. Li Xiaolai to a meal for "premarital education."

**(Q)** What do you think your biggest strength and weakness are?

One thing counts as a strength: I'm someone who finds it very hard to give up on things, yet I'm not someone with obsessions, so mine is persistence without obsession, which is very hard (for ordinary people) to achieve.

For example, back when I was learning computer knowledge, there was no teacher around me; I relied entirely on teaching myself. Sometimes when reading a book I'd get stuck, and there was nobody who could help answer, but strangely, I wouldn't just drop it because I was stuck. Half a year later, a year later, I might buy another book and relearn that part, so the many things I've learned were all learned over very long spans of time.

Therefore, if you look in the short term, I may already have given up, but after a while I may pick it back up and get the thing done.

(In fact), many of my hobbies are like this. For example, playing guitar: some pieces I was learning twenty years ago, got too tired, and just left there; then ten or twenty years later, one day I suddenly picked them up again and learned that passage.

As for my personal weaknesses, first, I have many, many weaknesses, but I never hide my weaknesses from others; for example, I'm a rather undisciplined person.

Copyright: © LookMinds. Our own edited text and translation, not a substitute for the original; rights in the original belong to the author and the platform. Please see the original link.