Why Can't KIMI Celebrate at a Nightclub?
Written by Sleepy
This past weekend, Kimi held a celebration at a nightclub in Beijing.
The big screen in the nightclub displayed three lines:
K3, scale up
K4, scale the fuck up
To the moon
Someone posted on Xiaohongshu that Kimi's programmers were quite reserved, sitting in a booth looking down at their phones, and when they tried to add them on WeChat, they were rejected. It is said that co-founder Zhang Yutong was also present.
The next day, comments on social media and community platforms were restless, criticizing the extravagance and suggesting that those who work on large models shouldn't behave this way. Some said their technology hasn't reached world-class standards yet, but they were drinking first.
Kimi's celebration at the nightclub shouldn't have attracted so much criticism. The Kimi K3 was recently released and has already caused a stir internationally, arguably becoming one of the key triggers for the recent controversies surrounding open-source models in the U.S. tech industry and politics, so the team certainly had reasons to celebrate.
However, what should have been a simple celebration turned into a trial of their original intentions once it reached Beijing.
Interestingly, if the same scene occurred in a different place, the perception would be completely different.
Worship of Silicon Valley
Imagine if it were a Silicon Valley company celebrating in a nightclub there; wouldn’t it seem much more acceptable?
A group of engineers who just finished training a model, wearing T-shirts, getting drunk at a bar, with the founder standing in the crowd and a slogan with profanity on the screen. The next day, tech media would likely write headlines featuring words like ambition, madness, and youth. Readers would say, "This is Silicon Valley."
When we talk about Silicon Valley, we tend to be forgiving.
The most valuable products from Silicon Valley are not just chips, models, and software. It also produces a whole set of language to explain success.
Steve Jobs wore a black turtleneck for years, which was called focus. Mark Zuckerberg wore flip-flops to meet investors, which was seen as disregarding conventions. Sleeping in the office is dedication to work, and going to Burning Man after making money is seen as a release of creativity.
Silicon Valley sells not just chips, models, and software to the world, but also a whole set of narratives to explain why a person is successful and what is considered dignified after achieving success.
People in Silicon Valley can be proud, can offend others, and no one cares if they say a few profane words after drinking too much. They don’t have to constantly prove they are good students because, in this narrative, they are assumed to represent the future.
However, Chinese companies have never enjoyed such treatment.
They first have to prove that their technology is real, that their growth is genuine, and that their valuation is not inflated. Once all that is proven, they still have to show that they are not getting carried away. If they speak too much English at a press conference, some accuse them of being overly Westernized. If a founder expresses himself, some say he only knows marketing. When a company makes money and employees go out to celebrate, others worry that it has lost its original intention.
To put it bluntly, there is a kind of worship of Silicon Valley in this.
For a long time, Silicon Valley has not only been the birthplace of advanced technology but also the origin of modern life. Garage startups, hacker culture, venture capital, equity incentives, flat management, even the posture of rebellion has been learned from there.
The problem lies precisely here. We can accept that Chinese companies learn how to work hard from Silicon Valley, but we struggle to accept that Chinese people also learn to enjoy life like successful people in Silicon Valley.
This is actually a form of implicit cultural inferiority. The worship of Silicon Valley here does not simply mean that we think Silicon Valley is superior. Rather, it is our subconscious belief that:
Western successful individuals have the right to define lifestyles, while Chinese successful individuals only have the obligation to accept judgments about their lifestyles.
The Information recently published an article titled "Private Jets Are Scarce. Blame the Gusher of AI Wealth," which describes this reality:
Today, about 30% of consumers of high-end private jets in the U.S. come from Silicon Valley, and this includes not just the founders of tech companies. Thanks to the crazy performance of AI in the capital markets, many researchers and engineers from AI companies are also starting to consume private jets.
The top AI engineers in the U.S. have already started looking into buying Gulfstream G650s, while we are still discussing whether it is too extravagant for Chinese AI engineers to drink at Gongti.
We are not advocating a luxurious lifestyle. To be fair, if you were one of these top talents, in which public opinion environment would you prefer to work?
The Morality of Suffering
We are particularly lenient towards American tech elites, but we are particularly harsh on our own, not only because of the worship of Silicon Valley but also because the education we received from a young age tells us that a respectable success should come with a lot of hardship.
We learned early on to judge a person's character based on their ability to endure hardship.
When a child does poorly in school, parents are often more upset about the lack of effort than the score itself. If a child lacks ability, there is still room for improvement, but if they are unwilling to work hard, it becomes a character issue. Conversely, if a child fails an exam but studies late into the night every day, adults will still say that the child is sensible. The issue of effort has long transformed from a matter of ability into a moral issue, even becoming a debt that children owe to their parents and students owe to their teachers.
This judgment accompanies people as they grow up.
Schools require early rising, workplaces require overtime, and startups require all-nighters. Whether or not something is accomplished is one thing; whether the person doing it shows signs of suffering is another, and the latter is more easily noticed. Dark circles, instant noodles, and offices at 3 a.m. are all evidence that spreads more easily than results.
This mindset has certainly helped many people. In an era of scarce resources and limited opportunities, hard work is one of the few things ordinary people can control. If families cannot provide money, there is no one to rely on, and they can only repeatedly tell their children to endure a little longer and to strive harder.
Chinese children grow up hearing, "Only those who endure hardship can rise above others." "Hardship" gradually transforms from the cost of success into the receipt for success.
This has also shaped our imagination of scientists, which seems to still be stuck in an extremely singular personality template today. The ideal scientist is best unkempt, carrying an old backpack, preferably with a mineral water bottle, devoid of entertainment, consumer desires, and any worldly vanity. Their minds should be filled with formulas and papers. Such scientists are certainly worthy of respect. But the problem is that we are turning one way of life of scientists into a moral template that all scientists must follow.
Thus, the less a scientist cares about money, the more moved we are; the more tattered their clothes, the purer we perceive them to be; the more monotonous their lives, the more we believe they have high academic standards.
Recently, mathematician Wang Hong has resonated with many people: it turns out that mathematicians can also be elegant, beautiful, and wear luxury brands. There is nothing wrong with the lifestyles of Wei Dongyi and Wang Hong; the only problem is with us, the onlookers. When will we understand that lifestyles have nothing to do with academic achievements?
The same goes for AI scientists.
Balancing Silicon Valley Elites and Asceticism
How strong Kimi K3 is should be answered by evaluations, developers, and real users. Whether Moonlight can become a great company depends on whether it can continue to produce products, control costs, and establish a healthy business model in the future.
A nightclub cannot prove these things, but it also cannot overturn them.
Many criticisms are not against the celebration itself but feel that the timing is not right. Chinese companies are still a distance from being number one in the world; how can they first learn the demeanor of the world’s number one? This sentiment is understandable; it is a caution built up over decades, fearing premature celebration and another round of empty joy.
If Kimi had held the celebration at a large hotel, with round tables in the private room, management toasting at each table, and the screen displaying "Create Brilliance Again," some would still criticize it for being bureaucratic and old-fashioned, not at all like a young tech company. Going to a nightclub is seen as frivolous, going to a hotel is seen as pretentious, and staying in the office to eat boxed lunches would inevitably be suspected of performing hardship. No matter what they do, someone will say it’s wrong.
This also indicates that the focus of the controversy has never been about how the celebration should be held. People expect Chinese tech companies to have the ambition and vitality of Silicon Valley while remaining forever restrained and humble, preferably without showing any signs of success even after achieving it.
However, this misunderstanding creates barriers, and over time, people will leave. Perhaps no one wants to drive anyone away; we are just eagerly hoping for these individuals to appear and return from overseas while simultaneously rushing to mold them into the images we have in mind.
That nightclub in Beijing will eventually close. The "To the moon" on the big screen will turn off, the wine glasses will be collected by the waitstaff, and those sitting in booths looking down at their phones will return to their desks to continue working. The challenges remain as difficult as ever, and the cards are still insufficient.
A truly mature tech culture does not need to package nightclubs as a spirit of innovation, nor does it need to determine a company's worth based on a glass of wine. That night holds little weight in these people's lives.
They just accomplished a difficult task and wanted to celebrate for a moment. And if even celebrating requires explanations to others, it indicates that we may not yet be accustomed to something much simpler.
Chinese geniuses can also be happy.
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