In recent years, many of Sun Yuchen’s judgments have continued to spark debate. In 2016, he suggested that people born in the 1990s (post-90s) should temporarily delay buying homes or cars and instead use the funds to invest in their own cognition and cutting-edge assets, which was widely controversial at the time. A decade later, on re-examination, some of the logic has indeed been corroborated. Recently, around the key year 2026, he has again put forward several judgments, with the core focus on the switching of technology cycles and adjustments to individual strategies. The viewpoints themselves are worth examining, rather than dismissing them just because of who said them. The following breaks down his core logic into three dimensions.
Judgment One: Make AI the primary channel for information exchange, reducing reliance on inefficient interpersonal interactions
His wording is fairly aggressive. He says they should “clear out the contact information of people born before 90.” The real meaning is not to exclude by age, but to remind individuals to be wary of having their time and energy continuously drained by outdated cognitive patterns. When information acquisition has a cost, the traditional approach is to ask around and accumulate connections. But with AI assistance, tasks like searching for materials, generating copy, and organizing ideas can be structured and completed efficiently. Clinging to traditional information channels is like choosing feature phones in 2010—you're not eliminated immediately, but your competitiveness steadily declines. In 2026, AI assistant adoption may reach a tipping point, and differentiation in efficiency will become even more pronounced.
Judgment 2: Ten-year technology cycles turn over, and 2026 is the budding phase of a new platform cycle
Douyin was born in 2016 and, in ten years, achieved 1.1 billion daily active users—essentially defining the short-video track. But in Sun Yuchen’s view, 2026 is precisely the moment when such mature platforms reach their peak and entirely new platforms begin to emerge. The underlying logic is the规律 of technology cycles: one cycle every ten years. Early Douyin in 2016 was rough and simple, yet it captured the dividend from the rollout of 4G and the explosive growth of short video. In 2026, AI intelligent agents, spatial computing, brain-computer interfaces, and next-generation hardware platforms will gradually mature. At present, the emerging applications that seem niche and rudimentary may well be the foundational infrastructure for the next decade. For ordinary people, this means you don’t have to compete in mature tracks that have already developed for ten years—instead, pay attention to: what products could replace existing platforms? What entirely new business models will AI bring about?
Judgment 3: The long-term potential of physical AI surpasses conversational AI
He believes that conversational AI, centered on language interaction, is gradually reaching a narrower development space. The next wave of industrial transformation will land in the real world: humanoid robots, AI drones without pilots, spatial computing, and so on will become a new layer of foundational infrastructure. According to disclosures, the scale of his AI fund has increased from $100 million to $1 billion, with a comprehensive shift toward building real-world technology businesses. The logic behind this view is that breakthroughs at the software layer will inevitably penetrate the physical world, and the room for hardware and real-world scenario modification is far greater than what pure information interaction can offer.
Three kinds of people who may face challenges
Influenced by the above trends, Sun Yuchen proposes three types of people or groups that may enter a period of adjustment: First, those who continue to obtain information through traditional paths—when something happens, they look things up in books and ask people; their efficiency lags behind the generation gap created in the AI era. Second, those who continuously deepen their focus on already mature tracks; for them, entering the scene is already a field that has surged for the past decade, and the growth space is basically locked in. Third, those who are used to competing alone and reject collaborators. He cites the “Tianhuo Tongren” hexagram image, implying the dawn of an era of pooling efforts and working together. In the future, competition will no longer be a contest of individuals versus individuals, but rather an efficiency showdown between collaborative entities.
Three actionable items for ordinary people
Based on the views above, there are three individual strategies that can be implemented in 2026. First, use AI tools to reconstruct your work process, with the goal of raising your personal output capability by an order of magnitude—you don’t necessarily need to learn programming, but you should integrate AI into every stage, such as information filtering, drafting documents, organizing data, and planning learning. Second, start a long-term personal project whose marginal cost keeps falling. Prioritize directions like content, IP, software products, or community operations rather than heavy-asset investments, because AI can significantly accelerate your growth. Third, build a mindset of collaboration: find several partners with complementary skills, and rely on AI-assisted teamwork—overall efficiency can be far higher than burying yourself in solitary hard work.
History will not simply repeat itself, but the rhythm of technology cycles often resembles prior ones. In 2016, most people chose to wait in response to advice to delay buying a home and invest in themselves. In 2026, when calls to “embrace AI and clear inefficient connections” appear again, most people may still choose to wait. From the PC internet to the mobile internet, traffic entry points shifted from search engines to recommendation algorithms; from the mobile internet to the AI internet, information retrieval is moving from passive searching to proactive AI services. Each transition comes with a reshuffling of wealth and power. 2026 is the starting point of this round of change—whether individuals continue to wait or take action is up to each person.
