2025, a magical year.
13,350,000 college entrance exam candidates are rushing towards a narrow bridge, only to find that on the other side, 12,220,000 university graduates are lining up to jump into the sea.
In the past, we said that education changes destiny; now it feels more like a delayed curse.
Medical students struggle for ten years only to find they are receiving basic welfare, while 985 civil engineering graduates are doing jobs that pay 722, which is even worse than manual labor. Humanities graduates are worse off; their majors have been removed by the school, which directly tells them that they cannot find a sense of existence in society.
The offer rate for master's and doctoral graduates has dropped to 44.4%. There is even a bizarre phenomenon where bachelor's degree holders are competing for the jobs of technical school graduates.
The 'degree', once a hard currency that could not be harder, is facing unprecedented inflation.
Many people panicked, so they turned their attention to the cryptocurrency market.
After all, this place does not ask about background, does not look at degrees, but only at courage. Some mock this as a gambler's mentality, but what I see is young people desperately probing the last bit of madness for class ascension.
Because for those who have been trapped by their degrees for more than a decade, they desperately need a windfall to prove that their years of hard study were not in vain.
But is this really a way out? I want to throw a bucket of cold water; this is not a racetrack, this is a cliff.
The more terrifying storm has actually just begun.
A few days ago, I revisited Musk's speech from earlier this year, and it sent chills down my spine.
The man who wants to send humans to Mars has coldly sentenced countless white-collar workers to death. He said very plainly that all jobs involving clicking keyboards and moving mice can be done by AI better, faster, and cheaper than you.
Even including programming, writing, and data analysis—those intellectual labors we pride ourselves on—will become cheap in front of AGI.
This made me realize a harsh truth: the devaluation of degrees we are experiencing is not a fluctuation of the economic cycle, but a species cleansing of industrial revolution level.
In the past, degrees proved you were a qualified knowledge repository. Because back then, knowledge was scarce; whoever had more books in their head was more valuable.
But what is AI now? It is a super brain's super storage device hanging in the cloud. If you finish college and find that you can only memorize, only solve problems, only execute standardized instructions from your boss, then I’m sorry, AI is not only your competitor but also your terminator.
Degree devaluation does not devalue that piece of paper; it devalues the gold content of standardized talent.
This is why many 985 graduates cannot find jobs, while a vocational school student who understands AI operations and can repair precision machine tools can earn over ten thousand a month. Because the former can be mass-produced and replaced at any time, while the latter is a scarce interface person.
Facing this rotten start, what should we do?
First, stop being infatuated with the halo of being a problem solver.
Whether you are a fresh graduate or a young person lost in the workplace, please immediately stop your self-satisfied efforts. That linear thinking that as long as I work hard, memorize, and take more exams, things will get better is suicide in the AI era. Admit it, the world has changed, the rules have changed.
Second, either become an operator who harnesses AI or a real person that AI cannot replace.
Two paths, choose one.
One path is to seriously tackle technology, to learn how to command AI and how to make AI your super assistant. In the future, the distinction of classes will not be whether you understand code, but whether you can use AI to do the work of ten people.
Another way is to return to humanity. To do the dirty, tiring, and meticulous work that AI cannot do. To engage in complex communication, to provide emotional value, to do those jobs that require high aesthetics, empathy, and creativity. In this cold algorithmic world, the warmth of real human experience is the most expensive luxury.
Third, stabilize your mindset, don't go to the casino.
I know it's hard; I know seeing classmates get rich can make you envious. But the cryptocurrency market, being a zero-sum game, is destined to be life and death. For young people without a moat, the biggest capital is not the principal but time.
Spend time honing those irreplaceable skills, spend time waiting for AI, new energy, and other new dividends to really take root, this is the victory of long-termism.
Finally, I want to tell all young people that the cold water of degree devaluation, although it splashed painfully, has also awakened us. It forces us to jump out of the comfort zone of being boiled like frogs in warm water and rethink the value of being a person.
This is indeed the worst of times, where degrees are worthless and the rat race has no end.
But perhaps this is also the best of times because when the old standards collapse, new orders have the chance to be established.
Do not deny your value as a person just because a piece of paper is devalued. As long as you do not see yourself as a standard part, AI will never be able to replace you.
Stay steady, don’t break down, we are all in the same boat.