When the "Cries from Afar" Become Everyday Noise

We seem to be living in an era surrounded by the "cries from afar."

This is not the philosophical debate about the value of art and life that Li Dan argued about, but a more common, more trivial daily experience: in phone notifications, Silicon Valley elites argue vehemently over the AI bubble; in news feeds, financial pundits beat their chests over every rise and fall of the Crypto market.

These grand narratives from the "temples" of technology and finance, laden with anxiety and urgency, are like incessant fire alarms, constantly transmitting the "cries from afar" to us.

Thus, we have grown accustomed to a certain kind of life: waking up in the morning, our first glance is not at the sunlight outside the window, but at the Nasdaq index; before falling asleep at night, the last thing we can't put down is not the warmth around us, but some big shot's sharp prophecy.

We know the fluctuations of capital markets thousands of miles away like the back of our hand, yet we might not know our next-door neighbor's name; we can clearly distinguish the pitch of every "cry," but we cannot hear the faint voice within our own hearts yearning for peace.

Our attention is thus generously "commandeered" by an invisible force.

We unwittingly suffer from a cognitive "farsightedness"—able to precisely analyze the mirages in the distance, yet often unable to see the potholes on the road beneath our feet or the land beside us awaiting cultivation. This excessive empathy for the distant world and detachment from our immediate surroundings, this cognitive dissonance of internalizing others' problems as our own anxiety—perhaps this is the true source of the widespread fatigue and confusion of our time.

We immerse ourselves in listening and trying to understand all these "cries," believing it to be a sign of depth and foresight.

But is it possible that when all the "afar" are vying to cry out, what they converge into is merely a massive noise that obscures our path forward?

Isn't it time to ask ourselves: Beyond the debate of saving the fire or saving the cat, have we neglected our own quiet backyard, the place where we can truly settle and build a life?

Dissecting the Noise – Why Are We Always Captured by the "Cries from Afar"?

If we admit that we are surrounded by noise, then a more fundamental question emerges: Why can these "distant" issues, which have little to do with our immediate well-being, so easily hijack our minds and hold us captive? The answer is far from simple, like "information overload"; it is deeply rooted in our psychological mechanisms and the operational logic of modern media.

1.1 The Allure of the "Social Script": Low-Cost Mental Adventure

We can understand grand narratives like the AI bubble, international conflicts, and巨头 battles as elaborately orchestrated "social scripts."

Starring elites, directed by the media, they feature distinct roles (like Musk's "madman," Altman's "prophet"), clear conflicts (bull vs. bear battles, technical route disputes), and continuous plot twists (policy shifts, earnings surprises).

Immersing ourselves in these scripts offers us a low-cost, high-stimulation mental adventure.

We can experience the twists and turns of the technological frontier by following AI trends without actually bearing the risks of entrepreneurship; we can feel the thrill of wealth creation and destruction in the Crypto market's rises and falls without investing real money.

It's like watching an immersive play; we identify with the characters, sharing their glory and pathos, thus gaining a virtual sense of participation.

In that moment, we are no longer tired office workers or parents bogged down in household chores, but "spiritual shareholders" or "cloud strategists" maneuvering and foreseeing the future. This temporary elevation of identity is an efficient escape from the平庸日常.

1.2 The Cognitive Shortcut: Why Thinking About the "World Order" is Easier Than "Personal Planning"

This sounds counterintuitive, but the human brain has a peculiar habit: sometimes, thinking about grand, abstract problems is "easier" than thinking about specific, personal ones. Because the former requires no responsibility and no immediate action.

Thinking about "the ethical boundaries of AI" or "the Fed's interest rate hike cycle," we can hold forth, quoting classics, without offering any practical solutions. It's an open-ended thought experiment with no right answer, and thus no cost of failure.

However, when we turn to think, "How can I use AI to enhance my professional skills?" or "How should I optimize my household finances to cope with inflation?" the problems immediately become heavy and concrete.

It requires self-examination, decision-making, and bearing the consequences. This kind of thinking is difficult; it forces us out of our comfort zone, confronting our own inadequacies and the real dilemmas of life.

Thus, as a form of cognitive laziness, we instinctively slide towards that more distant, safer realm of thought. Paying attention to the "cries from afar," in a sense, becomes an umbrella for avoiding the "sighs from nearby."

1.3 Social Currency and Belonging: Finding Identity by Taking Sides on Issues

In the digital age, knowledge of and stance on hot-button issues have themselves become a hard currency—"social currency."

In break rooms, in WeChat groups, being able to talk knowledgeably about Nvidia's latest earnings or opine on a Crypto mogul's prediction signals that you are someone who "stays connected" and is "insightful." Conversely, ignorance might risk marginalization, as if being shut out of the era's conversation.

This fear drives us to constantly refresh our information feeds, greedily consuming every trending topic.

We confirm that we are "of the same kind" by focusing on and discussing common issues, thus gaining a virtual sense of community belonging.

We debate whether AI has a bubble, whether Crypto is dead. In the collision and alliance of viewpoints, we accomplish not just an analysis of facts, but also a declaration of identity and tribal recognition. In this process, the rights and wrongs of the issue itself no longer matter; what matters is its role as a medium maintaining our connection to the social network.

1.4 The Exclusivity of Noise: A Game You Can Never Win

Ultimately, the design of all these grand narratives contains a fatal characteristic: exclusivity.

They are set up as highly complex, informationally asymmetric, and perpetually unresolved. Ordinary people can never grasp all the data or see the deals under the table. This means that no matter how much effort you invest, you can almost never reach a conclusive finding that can guide your actions.

This is a carefully designed trap: it gives you the illusion that "if I just study hard enough, I can discern the truth," but never lets you cash in the reward.

You invest vast amounts of time and cognitive resources into a race with no finish line. In the end, what you harvest is not wisdom, but sustained attention and anxiety.

Your attention, not your conclusions, becomes the final commodity consumed in this information ecosystem.

When we see this clearly, we have a sudden realization: our zeal for listening to the "cries from afar" stems not from a broad-minded concern for the world, but more from a complex psychological inertia—a craving for adventure, an avoidance of difficulty, a need for belonging, and a competitiveness that refuses to quit in the face of a giant puzzle.

However, just as listening to fire alarms cannot replace building a fireproof house with your own hands, indulging in these "social scripts," aside from consuming the precious energy we could have used to build our own lives, is futile.

Only after recognizing the nature of this game can we actively choose to: log off, quit the race, and then invest all the saved mental effort into the one domain we truly own and can reap real rewards from—our own "nearby."

Returning to the "Nearby" – Building Your Ark of Certainty in the Flood of Uncertainty

Seeing through the temptations and traps of the "cries from afar" does not mean sinking into nihilistic cynicism, but rather making a decisive turn: withdrawing our dissipated attention and reinvesting it in the only domain we can truly control—the long-neglected "nearby."

Here, the "nearby" is not purely a geographical concept, but a philosophy concerning one's radius of action and circle of influence.

It is your skills, your health, your intimate relationships, your small ventures, the real, small community you can serve and influence. It is the entire ecosystem where you can directly exert influence and receive real, immediate feedback.

If the "afar" is a turbulent, unfathomable ocean, then the "nearby" is the ark you can measure, reinforce, and rely on for survival with your own hands.

2.1 The "Nearby" of AI: From "Prophesying Miracles" to "Holding the Tool"

In the scripts of the "afar," AI is an epic about human survival, a trillion-dollar capital gamble, a prophecy about when AGI will arrive.

But in your "nearby," AI's true face is much more朴实 and powerful: it is an unprecedented lever of efficiency and amplifier of capability.

* Stop being a "spiritual shareholder"; become a "super individual."

Instead of纠结 over whether Nvidia's stock price has peaked, delve into how to use ChatGPT or Copilot to triple your efficiency in writing reports and提炼 information; learn to use Midjourney or Sora to generate unique promotional images for your small e-commerce store, or create captivating short videos for your personal brand.

While others debate whether AI will replace humans, those silent "AI super users" are quietly using this powerful tool to build huge competitive advantages in their own fields.

* Bridge the "knowledge gap"; achieve a "skill leap."

An ordinary marketing specialist can use AI to quickly analyze market data, generate creative copy, simulate user personas, and thus propose strategic insights comparable to those of a senior director.

The "nearby" of AI gives every ordinary person willing to learn the possibility of touching cutting-edge knowledge and compensating for lack of experience at an extremely low cost.

Here, the question of certainty is no longer "Do large models have a soul?" but "**How can I make AI bring me a visible improvement in my work and life next month?**" The answer lies not in any debate, but in your every specific call, debug, and practice.

2.2 The "Nearby" of Crypto: From "Speculative Casino" to "Infrastructure"

In the喧嚣 of the "afar," Crypto is the frenzy of prices, the gambling instinct of going all-in, the game of regulation. But in your "nearby," blockchain technology is silently and steadfastly completing a "trust infrastructure."

* Shift perspective: from "price charts" to "functional tools."

Don't just stare at Bitcoin's K-line chart, restless. Go and personally experience: how to use a decentralized wallet to truly "own" your digital assets, without any intermediary; how to use stablecoins to complete a cross-border transfer in minutes,感受 its low cost and high efficiency.

This hands-on, physical understanding will make you understand what "peer-to-peer value flow" means far better than a thousand market analysis articles.

* See the trend: the "quiet搬家" of finance.

Wall Street institutions may be using Crypto for high-risk speculation, but they are simultaneously doing something extremely certain: "tokenizing" traditional assets like stocks, bonds, and real estate, moving them onto the chain.

This process, like the move of all information to the internet back in the day, is an irreversible trend of certainty. Your "nearby" question is not "Is it a bull market now?" but "**When this new financial infrastructure is built, will I possess the knowledge and skills to survive and thrive on it?**"

2.3 The Source of Certainty: Anchoring Ourselves in "Creation" and "Connection"

Whether it's AI or Crypto, the essence of returning to the "nearby" is transitioning from being a passive "consumer" and "onlooker" to an active "user" and "creator."

* Creation brings a sense of control:

When you use AI to assist in completing a project, deploy a smart contract with code, or even just write an excellent prompt, you are engaging in a微小创造.

This process gives you the most real sense of control—your input directly causes a微小改变 in the world. This feeling cannot be obtained by chewing on ten thousand pieces of second-hand information.

* Connection provides anti-fragility:

Cultivating your "nearby" means building more authentic and牢固 connections with your customers, your readers, your community.

This trust network based on value exchange is the most effective buffer against external storms. When the financial markets "afar" are turbulent, a person with 1,000 staunch user supporters has far more certainty in their endeavors than a lone gambler holding a million chips.

Ultimately, returning to the "nearby" is a cognitive return to sovereignty.

It declares that our attention, our time, the focus of our lives are no longer held hostage by externally set agendas. We choose to pour our mental energy into the land that can bear fruit, rather than indulging in the viewing of mirages.

On this territory of our own, every微小 but certain harvest brought by each sowing and cultivation will converge into the true peace and strength within our hearts.

Becoming the Curator of Your "Nearby" – A Practical Guide to Living Awake

Recognizing the value of the "nearby" is only the first step in awakening the mind. Integrating this awareness into your bloodstream, making it an instinct that requires no willpower, requires a set of practical methods.

This is not a rigid "to-do list," but a mental operating system designed to help us gradually reclaim sovereignty over our attention, transforming from passive information consumers into active "curators" of our own lives and work.

3.1 Implement an "Attention Budget": From Squandering to Investing

In modern commercial society, we know to budget our money meticulously, yet we let our most precious capital—attention—leak away indiscriminately. The first step in managing attention is to establish a "budget" consciousness.

* Step One: Audit.

Spend a day honestly recording where your attention flows. You will discover how much time is spent aimlessly scrolling through social media, immersed in arguments irrelevant to you. This "audit report" itself can be hugely shocking.

* Step Two: Allocate.

Like allocating monthly expenses, set "spending categories" for your attention. For example:

* "Distance Information Fund": Strictly limit the daily time spent on macro news and industry trends (e.g., 30 minutes in the morning). Use a timer; when time's up, close it immediately.

* "Skill Investment Fund": Fixed daily investment of 1-2 hours for deep learning or practicing a tool or skill of practical value to you (e.g., AI drawing, smart contract development, a foreign language).

* "Relationship Nourishment Fund": Ensure high-quality, uninterrupted time for family, close friends, and important partners.

* Core Principle: Treat attention as your venture capital angel investment. Every unit should be invested in "projects" that bring growth, health, or joy, not "tipped" away to content platforms designed to harvest your traffic.

3.2 Reframe Your Questions: From "Why" to "How"

A clear sign of being trapped in noise is having our minds occupied with questions starting with "Why do they...". Changing the way we ask questions is the most direct switch to change our cognitive channel.

* Ineffective Questions (Lead to Anxiety):

* "Why are they messing up the market?"

* "Why hasn't that policy been released yet?"

* "Why does AI hallucinate?"

* Effective Questions (Lead to Action):

* "How can I use market volatility to review and optimize my asset allocation?"

* "Under the current policy, how can I find and serve my first 100 customers well?"

* "How can I reduce the probability of AI errors and make it serve me better by optimizing my prompts?"

Install a "question filter" in your thinking. Whenever a grand question about "them" arises, consciously translate it into a specific, actionable question about "me."

This process repeatedly pulls your focus from judging the external world back to building yourself.

3.3 Create "Tiny Certainties": Countering Delusional Anxiety with Real Achievement

The fear of uncertainty is human instinct, and the most effective way to counter it is not to predict when the storm will end, but to weave a tight raincoat with your own hands.

This raincoat is woven from countless "tiny certainties."

* What is a "Tiny Certainty"? They are those small things that you have complete control over, can accomplish, and bring immediate positive feedback. For example:

* Today, you fully automated a workflow you used to perform manually using an AI tool.

* This week, you successfully deployed a simple smart contract and understood how it works.

* You stuck to a 15-minute meditation session, completed a 30-minute morning run.

* You successfully attracted a new paying customer for your small project.

* Its Psychological Significance:

Every completed "tiny certainty" is a powerful confirmation of your "self-efficacy." They are like solid bricks, gradually building the fortress of your inner confidence.

When the惊涛骇浪 of the "afar" arrives, you, inside the fortress you built, feel not powerless and fearful, but the certainty that "the external world may be chaotic, but here I have order."

3.4 Build Your "Mental Immune System"

Ultimately, the purpose of all these practices is to build a powerful mental immune system for you. It helps you identify and resist those "attention viruses" trying to invade your mental world.

* Establish Rituals:

Design your own "start-up ritual." For example, after making a cup of tea, enter a 90-minute deep work session, isolating all external information during that time. Rituals give your brain a clear signal: now entering "creation time," "noise visitors" are declined.

* Regular Digital Detox:

Set a half-day "offline day" each week. Leave your phone and computer. Go for a walk, read a book, talk to people face-to-face. This resets your stimulus threshold, allowing you to regain the ability to focus and find peace.

* Reflection Moments:

At the end of each week, spend 15 minutes asking yourself: "This week, where did I invest my most precious attention in things that bring long-term returns? And how much was consumed by 'noise'?" Continuous reflection keeps your actions aligned with your inner compass.

Becoming a "curator of your nearby" is not an overnight goal, but a continuous practice.

It means you finally accept this fact: you cannot change the wind, but you can adjust your sails.

By managing your budget, reframing questions, and creating certainty, you are precisely forging that most resilient, most flexible sail with your own hands. While everyone else is exhausted from listening to the "cries from afar," you are silently piloting your ark towards the new continent of possibilities that belongs to you alone.

The World Won't Automatically Get Better, But You Will

We finally understand that the "cries from afar" lingering in our ears are, for the vast majority, nothing more than carefully orchestrated theater sound effects.

They don't require us to actually fight the fire; they only expect us to maintain constant anxiety and围观. We once thought that was depth; later we discovered it was more like an escape—an escape from taking responsibility for the sovereignty of our own lives.

The world is becoming more uncertain; this is perhaps the only certainty in the future. But history tells us that in every great upheaval and change, there is always a group of people who not only survive but thrive against the odds. Their secret has never been foreseeing all the storms, but never stopping their work of cultivation, even in the wind and rain.

Voltaire wrote at the end of Candide: "We must cultivate our garden." This simple adage, traversing centuries, remains the most清醒 way of life for this era. Your "garden" is your "nearby"—your skills, your creations, your health, your connections with loved ones.

Here, every attentive watering brings visible growth; here, the chaotic external world is shut out, and you hold the only, precious sovereignty.

So, please turn off those incessant "fire alarms." Let the elites debate whether the Mona Lisa called "the future" should be saved or is doomed to burn. What you need to do is bend down, pick up the kitten named "the present" at your feet, and feel its real warmth and vitality.

Don't worry that this will make you narrow-minded.

On the contrary, when you deeply cultivate your own garden and build an unshakable internal order and value, you can instead face, even influence, that "afar" with a more composed and powerful stance. You are no longer a passive listener, but an active creator.

The world won't automatically get better, but you will. When countless individuals choose to light up their own small "nearby," we no longer need to fear the night of any era. Because true light never comes from gazing into the distance, but originates from nearby, from those countless, certain lamps lit by our own hands.

When the "Cries from Afar" Become Everyday Noise

We seem to be living in an era surrounded by the "cries from afar."

This is not the philosophical debate about the value of art and life that Li Dan argued about, but a more common, more trivial daily experience: in phone notifications, Silicon Valley elites argue vehemently over the AI bubble; in news feeds, financial pundits beat their chests over every rise and fall of the Crypto market.

These grand narratives from the "temples" of technology and finance, laden with anxiety and urgency, are like incessant fire alarms, constantly transmitting the "cries from afar" to us.

Thus, we have grown accustomed to a certain kind of life: waking up in the morning, our first glance is not at the sunlight outside the window, but at the Nasdaq index; before falling asleep at night, the last thing we can't put down is not the warmth around us, but some big shot's sharp prophecy.

We know the fluctuations of capital markets thousands of miles away like the back of our hand, yet we might not know our next-door neighbor's name; we can clearly distinguish the pitch of every "cry," but we cannot hear the faint voice within our own hearts yearning for peace.

Our attention is thus generously "commandeered" by an invisible force.

We unwittingly suffer from a cognitive "farsightedness"—able to precisely analyze the mirages in the distance, yet often unable to see the potholes on the road beneath our feet or the land beside us awaiting cultivation. This excessive empathy for the distant world and detachment from our immediate surroundings, this cognitive dissonance of internalizing others' problems as our own anxiety—perhaps this is the true source of the widespread fatigue and confusion of our time.

We immerse ourselves in listening and trying to understand all these "cries," believing it to be a sign of depth and foresight.

But is it possible that when all the "afar" are vying to cry out, what they converge into is merely a massive noise that obscures our path forward?

Isn't it time to ask ourselves: Beyond the debate of saving the fire or saving the cat, have we neglected our own quiet backyard, the place where we can truly settle and build a life?

Dissecting the Noise – Why Are We Always Captured by the "Cries from Afar"?

If we admit that we are surrounded by noise, then a more fundamental question emerges: Why can these "distant" issues, which have little to do with our immediate well-being, so easily hijack our minds and hold us captive? The answer is far from simple, like "information overload"; it is deeply rooted in our psychological mechanisms and the operational logic of modern media.

1.1 The Allure of the "Social Script": Low-Cost Mental Adventure

We can understand grand narratives like the AI bubble, international conflicts, and巨头 battles as elaborately orchestrated "social scripts."

Starring elites, directed by the media, they feature distinct roles (like Musk's "madman," Altman's "prophet"), clear conflicts (bull vs. bear battles, technical route disputes), and continuous plot twists (policy shifts, earnings surprises).

Immersing ourselves in these scripts offers us a low-cost, high-stimulation mental adventure.

We can experience the twists and turns of the technological frontier by following AI trends without actually bearing the risks of entrepreneurship; we can feel the thrill of wealth creation and destruction in the Crypto market's rises and falls without investing real money.

It's like watching an immersive play; we identify with the characters, sharing their glory and pathos, thus gaining a virtual sense of participation.

In that moment, we are no longer tired office workers or parents bogged down in household chores, but "spiritual shareholders" or "cloud strategists" maneuvering and foreseeing the future. This temporary elevation of identity is an efficient escape from the平庸日常.

1.2 The Cognitive Shortcut: Why Thinking About the "World Order" is Easier Than "Personal Planning"

This sounds counterintuitive, but the human brain has a peculiar habit: sometimes, thinking about grand, abstract problems is "easier" than thinking about specific, personal ones. Because the former requires no responsibility and no immediate action.

Thinking about "the ethical boundaries of AI" or "the Fed's interest rate hike cycle," we can hold forth, quoting classics, without offering any practical solutions. It's an open-ended thought experiment with no right answer, and thus no cost of failure.

However, when we turn to think, "How can I use AI to enhance my professional skills?" or "How should I optimize my household finances to cope with inflation?" the problems immediately become heavy and concrete.

It requires self-examination, decision-making, and bearing the consequences. This kind of thinking is difficult; it forces us out of our comfort zone, confronting our own inadequacies and the real dilemmas of life.

Thus, as a form of cognitive laziness, we instinctively slide towards that more distant, safer realm of thought. Paying attention to the "cries from afar," in a sense, becomes an umbrella for avoiding the "sighs from nearby."

1.3 Social Currency and Belonging: Finding Identity by Taking Sides on Issues

In the digital age, knowledge of and stance on hot-button issues have themselves become a hard currency—"social currency."

In break rooms, in WeChat groups, being able to talk knowledgeably about Nvidia's latest earnings or opine on a Crypto mogul's prediction signals that you are someone who "stays connected" and is "insightful." Conversely, ignorance might risk marginalization, as if being shut out of the era's conversation.

This fear drives us to constantly refresh our information feeds, greedily consuming every trending topic.

We confirm that we are "of the same kind" by focusing on and discussing common issues, thus gaining a virtual sense of community belonging.

We debate whether AI has a bubble, whether Crypto is dead. In the collision and alliance of viewpoints, we accomplish not just an analysis of facts, but also a declaration of identity and tribal recognition. In this process, the rights and wrongs of the issue itself no longer matter; what matters is its role as a medium maintaining our connection to the social network.

1.4 The Exclusivity of Noise: A Game You Can Never Win

Ultimately, the design of all these grand narratives contains a fatal characteristic: exclusivity.

They are set up as highly complex, informationally asymmetric, and perpetually unresolved. Ordinary people can never grasp all the data or see the deals under the table. This means that no matter how much effort you invest, you can almost never reach a conclusive finding that can guide your actions.

This is a carefully designed trap: it gives you the illusion that "if I just study hard enough, I can discern the truth," but never lets you cash in the reward.

You invest vast amounts of time and cognitive resources into a race with no finish line. In the end, what you harvest is not wisdom, but sustained attention and anxiety.

Your attention, not your conclusions, becomes the final commodity consumed in this information ecosystem.

When we see this clearly, we have a sudden realization: our zeal for listening to the "cries from afar" stems not from a broad-minded concern for the world, but more from a complex psychological inertia—a craving for adventure, an avoidance of difficulty, a need for belonging, and a competitiveness that refuses to quit in the face of a giant puzzle.

However, just as listening to fire alarms cannot replace building a fireproof house with your own hands, indulging in these "social scripts," aside from consuming the precious energy we could have used to build our own lives, is futile.

Only after recognizing the nature of this game can we actively choose to: log off, quit the race, and then invest all the saved mental effort into the one domain we truly own and can reap real rewards from—our own "nearby."

Returning to the "Nearby" – Building Your Ark of Certainty in the Flood of Uncertainty

Seeing through the temptations and traps of the "cries from afar" does not mean sinking into nihilistic cynicism, but rather making a decisive turn: withdrawing our dissipated attention and reinvesting it in the only domain we can truly control—the long-neglected "nearby."

Here, the "nearby" is not purely a geographical concept, but a philosophy concerning one's radius of action and circle of influence.

It is your skills, your health, your intimate relationships, your small ventures, the real, small community you can serve and influence. It is the entire ecosystem where you can directly exert influence and receive real, immediate feedback.

If the "afar" is a turbulent, unfathomable ocean, then the "nearby" is the ark you can measure, reinforce, and rely on for survival with your own hands.

2.1 The "Nearby" of AI: From "Prophesying Miracles" to "Holding the Tool"

In the scripts of the "afar," AI is an epic about human survival, a trillion-dollar capital gamble, a prophecy about when AGI will arrive.

But in your "nearby," AI's true face is much more朴实 and powerful: it is an unprecedented lever of efficiency and amplifier of capability.

* Stop being a "spiritual shareholder"; become a "super individual."

Instead of纠结 over whether Nvidia's stock price has peaked, delve into how to use ChatGPT or Copilot to triple your efficiency in writing reports and提炼 information; learn to use Midjourney or Sora to generate unique promotional images for your small e-commerce store, or create captivating short videos for your personal brand.

While others debate whether AI will replace humans, those silent "AI super users" are quietly using this powerful tool to build huge competitive advantages in their own fields.

* Bridge the "knowledge gap"; achieve a "skill leap."

An ordinary marketing specialist can use AI to quickly analyze market data, generate creative copy, simulate user personas, and thus propose strategic insights comparable to those of a senior director.

The "nearby" of AI gives every ordinary person willing to learn the possibility of touching cutting-edge knowledge and compensating for lack of experience at an extremely low cost.

Here, the question of certainty is no longer "Do large models have a soul?" but "**How can I make AI bring me a visible improvement in my work and life next month?**" The answer lies not in any debate, but in your every specific call, debug, and practice.

2.2 The "Nearby" of Crypto: From "Speculative Casino" to "Infrastructure"

In the喧嚣 of the "afar," Crypto is the frenzy of prices, the gambling instinct of going all-in, the game of regulation. But in your "nearby," blockchain technology is silently and steadfastly completing a "trust infrastructure."

* Shift perspective: from "price charts" to "functional tools."

Don't just stare at Bitcoin's K-line chart, restless. Go and personally experience: how to use a decentralized wallet to truly "own" your digital assets, without any intermediary; how to use stablecoins to complete a cross-border transfer in minutes,感受 its low cost and high efficiency.

This hands-on, physical understanding will make you understand what "peer-to-peer value flow" means far better than a thousand market analysis articles.

* See the trend: the "quiet搬家" of finance.

Wall Street institutions may be using Crypto for high-risk speculation, but they are simultaneously doing something extremely certain: "tokenizing" traditional assets like stocks, bonds, and real estate, moving them onto the chain.

This process, like the move of all information to the internet back in the day, is an irreversible trend of certainty. Your "nearby" question is not "Is it a bull market now?" but "**When this new financial infrastructure is built, will I possess the knowledge and skills to survive and thrive on it?**"

2.3 The Source of Certainty: Anchoring Ourselves in "Creation" and "Connection"

Whether it's AI or Crypto, the essence of returning to the "nearby" is transitioning from being a passive "consumer" and "onlooker" to an active "user" and "creator."

* Creation brings a sense of control:

When you use AI to assist in completing a project, deploy a smart contract with code, or even just write an excellent prompt, you are engaging in a微小创造.

This process gives you the most real sense of control—your input directly causes a微小改变 in the world. This feeling cannot be obtained by chewing on ten thousand pieces of second-hand information.

* Connection provides anti-fragility:

Cultivating your "nearby" means building more authentic and牢固 connections with your customers, your readers, your community.

This trust network based on value exchange is the most effective buffer against external storms. When the financial markets "afar" are turbulent, a person with 1,000 staunch user supporters has far more certainty in their endeavors than a lone gambler holding a million chips.

Ultimately, returning to the "nearby" is a cognitive return to sovereignty.

It declares that our attention, our time, the focus of our lives are no longer held hostage by externally set agendas. We choose to pour our mental energy into the land that can bear fruit, rather than indulging in the viewing of mirages.

On this territory of our own, every微小 but certain harvest brought by each sowing and cultivation will converge into the true peace and strength within our hearts.

Becoming the Curator of Your "Nearby" – A Practical Guide to Living Awake

Recognizing the value of the "nearby" is only the first step in awakening the mind. Integrating this awareness into your bloodstream, making it an instinct that requires no willpower, requires a set of practical methods.

This is not a rigid "to-do list," but a mental operating system designed to help us gradually reclaim sovereignty over our attention, transforming from passive information consumers into active "curators" of our own lives and work.

3.1 Implement an "Attention Budget": From Squandering to Investing

In modern commercial society, we know to budget our money meticulously, yet we let our most precious capital—attention—leak away indiscriminately. The first step in managing attention is to establish a "budget" consciousness.

* Step One: Audit.

Spend a day honestly recording where your attention flows. You will discover how much time is spent aimlessly scrolling through social media, immersed in arguments irrelevant to you. This "audit report" itself can be hugely shocking.

* Step Two: Allocate.

Like allocating monthly expenses, set "spending categories" for your attention. For example:

* "Distance Information Fund": Strictly limit the daily time spent on macro news and industry trends (e.g., 30 minutes in the morning). Use a timer; when time's up, close it immediately.

* "Skill Investment Fund": Fixed daily investment of 1-2 hours for deep learning or practicing a tool or skill of practical value to you (e.g., AI drawing, smart contract development, a foreign language).

* "Relationship Nourishment Fund": Ensure high-quality, uninterrupted time for family, close friends, and important partners.

* Core Principle: Treat attention as your venture capital angel investment. Every unit should be invested in "projects" that bring growth, health, or joy, not "tipped" away to content platforms designed to harvest your traffic.

3.2 Reframe Your Questions: From "Why" to "How"

A clear sign of being trapped in noise is having our minds occupied with questions starting with "Why do they...". Changing the way we ask questions is the most direct switch to change our cognitive channel.

* Ineffective Questions (Lead to Anxiety):

* "Why are they messing up the market?"

* "Why hasn't that policy been released yet?"

* "Why does AI hallucinate?"

* Effective Questions (Lead to Action):

* "How can I use market volatility to review and optimize my asset allocation?"

* "Under the current policy, how can I find and serve my first 100 customers well?"

* "How can I reduce the probability of AI errors and make it serve me better by optimizing my prompts?"

Install a "question filter" in your thinking. Whenever a grand question about "them" arises, consciously translate it into a specific, actionable question about "me."

This process repeatedly pulls your focus from judging the external world back to building yourself.

3.3 Create "Tiny Certainties": Countering Delusional Anxiety with Real Achievement

The fear of uncertainty is human instinct, and the most effective way to counter it is not to predict when the storm will end, but to weave a tight raincoat with your own hands.

This raincoat is woven from countless "tiny certainties."

* What is a "Tiny Certainty"? They are those small things that you have complete control over, can accomplish, and bring immediate positive feedback. For example:

* Today, you fully automated a workflow you used to perform manually using an AI tool.

* This week, you successfully deployed a simple smart contract and understood how it works.

* You stuck to a 15-minute meditation session, completed a 30-minute morning run.

* You successfully attracted a new paying customer for your small project.

* Its Psychological Significance:

Every completed "tiny certainty" is a powerful confirmation of your "self-efficacy." They are like solid bricks, gradually building the fortress of your inner confidence.

When the惊涛骇浪 of the "afar" arrives, you, inside the fortress you built, feel not powerless and fearful, but the certainty that "the external world may be chaotic, but here I have order."

3.4 Build Your "Mental Immune System"

Ultimately, the purpose of all these practices is to build a powerful mental immune system for you. It helps you identify and resist those "attention viruses" trying to invade your mental world.

* Establish Rituals:

Design your own "start-up ritual." For example, after making a cup of tea, enter a 90-minute deep work session, isolating all external information during that time. Rituals give your brain a clear signal: now entering "creation time," "noise visitors" are declined.

* Regular Digital Detox:

Set a half-day "offline day" each week. Leave your phone and computer. Go for a walk, read a book, talk to people face-to-face. This resets your stimulus threshold, allowing you to regain the ability to focus and find peace.

* Reflection Moments:

At the end of each week, spend 15 minutes asking yourself: "This week, where did I invest my most precious attention in things that bring long-term returns? And how much was consumed by 'noise'?" Continuous reflection keeps your actions aligned with your inner compass.

Becoming a "curator of your nearby" is not an overnight goal, but a continuous practice.

It means you finally accept this fact: you cannot change the wind, but you can adjust your sails.

By managing your budget, reframing questions, and creating certainty, you are precisely forging that most resilient, most flexible sail with your own hands. While everyone else is exhausted from listening to the "cries from afar," you are silently piloting your ark towards the new continent of possibilities that belongs to you alone.

The World Won't Automatically Get Better, But You Will

We finally understand that the "cries from afar" lingering in our ears are, for the vast majority, nothing more than carefully orchestrated theater sound effects.

They don't require us to actually fight the fire; they only expect us to maintain constant anxiety and围观. We once thought that was depth; later we discovered it was more like an escape—an escape from taking responsibility for the sovereignty of our own lives.

The world is becoming more uncertain; this is perhaps the only certainty in the future. But history tells us that in every great upheaval and change, there is always a group of people who not only survive but thrive against the odds. Their secret has never been foreseeing all the storms, but never stopping their work of cultivation, even in the wind and rain.

Voltaire wrote at the end of Candide: "We must cultivate our garden." This simple adage, traversing centuries, remains the most清醒 way of life for this era. Your "garden" is your "nearby"—your skills, your creations, your health, your connections with loved ones.

Here, every attentive watering brings visible growth; here, the chaotic external world is shut out, and you hold the only, precious sovereignty.

So, please turn off those incessant "fire alarms." Let the elites debate whether the Mona Lisa called "the future" should be saved or is doomed to burn. What you need to do is bend down, pick up the kitten named "the present" at your feet, and feel its real warmth and vitality.

Don't worry that this will make you narrow-minded.

On the contrary, when you deeply cultivate your own garden and build an unshakable internal order and value, you can instead face, even influence, that "afar" with a more composed and powerful stance. You are no longer a passive listener, but an active creator.

The world won't automatically get better, but you will. When countless individuals choose to light up their own small "nearby," we no longer need to fear the night of any era. Because true light never comes from gazing into the distance, but originates from nearby, from those countless, certain lamps lit by our own hands.