The cost of being in the middle class has never been so severe.

Introduction: "Class solidification," "the difficulty for common families to produce outstanding children," "the return of the middle class to poverty"… These terms permeate the air in Chinese discourse, becoming a collective anxiety. We worry about the invisible yet solid starting line and fear the helplessness of the "rich dad" era.

But what if I told you that we might be stockpiling the wrong ammunition for a war that has already ended? While people are still intensely discussing the "class" of the old world, a new era of AI-driven, more thorough, and more brutal "great divergence" has quietly begun.

This time, a person's position is no longer measured by wealth or background, but by dimensions of cognition, judgment, and creativity.

For the past decade, the most enduring topic on the Chinese internet has been "class solidification." Countless articles, discussions, and memes narrate the same story: the ladder of social mobility is narrowing, and the value of individual effort appears pale in the face of the wealth and resources of previous generations.

From "I worked hard for eighteen years just to sit here and have coffee with you," to discussions on "run studies," and then to lamentations about the "vulnerability of the middle class" amid layoffs at major companies, this anxiety is real; it stems from the acute pain of a resource stock game era.

We seem to have accepted a default premise: the structure of the world is relatively stable, like a pyramid that has already been built. What we can do is struggle to climb within the established boxes, praying not to slip. We calculate how many generations of accumulation are needed to establish a foothold in a first-tier city; we worry about how to pave the expensive track to elite education for the next generation.

However, we must be wary of a cognitive inertia—using the maps of the past to navigate a brand new world. Because while we are anxious about "solidification," an unprecedented technological force, like magma deep within the earth's crust, is accumulating enough energy to reshape the entire landscape. This force is artificial intelligence.

AI is not just another "Internet+"; it is not another round of technological innovation. It is a paradigm shift, a catalyst capable of dissolving old social structures. What it is doing is making the very concept of "class" itself precarious.

The accelerating arrival of a new great divergence

Recently, Silicon Valley venture capital guru Paul Graham posted: "For a period of time, AI will widen the gap in job returns. Average-level programmers are now finding it difficult to get jobs, but top programmers are earning more than ever."

He also said: "This trend has been around since the Stone Age. Technological progress always widens the gap in job returns. The income of the bottom can go to zero, while technology allows the top income to keep breaking through."

Now, let's look at this timeline depicting human technological development.

For millions of years, there was almost a flat line, which began to rise after the Industrial Revolution, and then in our "now," that red line suddenly turned into a vertical cliff. Behind this cliff is the insane acceleration of technological evolution—transformations that once took a century to digest can now be iterated in five years, or even one year.

This exponential power is forged by the twilight of Moore's Law and the dawn of the law of accelerating returns, making all attempts at "solidification" seem futile.

In such a rapidly changing environment, those seemingly solid "class barriers"—whether based on capital, information asymmetry, or specific licenses—could be washed away overnight. The business of a century-old bank could be overturned by a financial application built by a few genius programmers using AI; an education group relying on a large faculty could be challenged by a platform that offers personalized AI tutoring.

The advantages of the old world are rapidly depreciating. When AI can generate legal documents, business contracts, code, and design drawings at nearly zero cost, the traditional "middle class" moats that rely on licenses and procedural knowledge are instantly filled in.

In the past, wealth could be inherited, but in this era, the ability to understand and harness AI cannot be directly inherited. A "second-generation rich" person who is numb and slow to the new world may be far less competitive than a small-town test-taker who can skillfully use AI tools.

So, the key question has changed. The core challenge we face is no longer how to climb up in a solidified class but how to cope with this brand new, massive divergence centered around "cognition" and "creation." To understand the rules of this divergence, we need to look back at history and listen to a tragic fable about human value amidst the roar of steam and steel.

Most people are engaged in a race destined to fail

Let’s look at a classic story. The story takes place in the 1870s after the American Civil War.

It was an era filled with pioneering spirit and iron will, as a vast railway network was rapidly spreading across the North American continent, cutting through mountains and filling valleys. In the rugged mountains of West Virginia, a railway company needed to carve out a long, winding tunnel that was a mile long.

In that era, mountain excavation relied mainly on human labor. The workers, mostly newly freed African Americans, challenged the hard rock inch by inch with heavy steel drills and hammers. The strongest among them were known as "steel drivers."

And John Henry was a legend among them. It is said that he stood two meters tall, was incredibly strong, and could wield a 14-pound hammer in each hand, alternating his swings with unmatched efficiency and rhythm. His singing and hammering were the most inspiring symphony on the tunnel construction site.

However, the product of the Industrial Revolution—the steam drill—arrived at the site. This steel monster tirelessly consumed coal and water, emitting a deafening roar, promising to drill holes at speeds far exceeding human capability. The workers' livelihoods were directly threatened.

To defend human dignity and value, John Henry challenged the machine. This contest between man and machine attracted everyone's attention. In the 35 minutes of the competition, the steam drill drilled 9 feet deep, while John Henry, with his extraordinary physique and will, swung his hammer, sweating profusely, and astonishingly drilled 14 feet deep.

The crowd cheered; John Henry won the contest. But as soon as he put down his hammer, he suffered a heart rupture and died from exhaustion. He proved with his life that humans could surpass machines at a specific time, but his death also became a cruel fable: attempting to surpass machines on a track defined by machine efficiency is itself a tragedy destined to fail.

The reason John Henry's story has endured is that it touches on an eternal theme: when the wave of technology strikes, what is the value of the ordinary laborer?

John Henry's mistake was in trying to compete with the steam engine on the dimension of "strength and endurance," which is precisely the core advantage of machines. He won a battle but lost the entire war. History soon proved that the future's value does not belong to the stronger "steel drivers," but to those who can design, manufacture, maintain, and operate steam drills—railroad tycoons, engineers, inventors. They did not "race" with machines but stood on the shoulders of machines, gaining unprecedented leverage to reshape the entire world.

More than a century later, we all stand at John Henry's crossroads. Only now, the "steam drill" we face is the intangible artificial intelligence. It challenges not our muscles but our brains.

Now, look around. Artificial intelligence is the "cognitive steam engine" of our time. It is currently and will soon demonstrate overwhelming advantages in the realm of "average-level" cognitive labor.

• When AI can generate 100 "qualified" marketing copies in one minute, an ordinary copywriter, if only competing to "write faster and more," is the new era's John Henry.
• When AI can instantly analyze thousands of case studies and write legal summaries, a junior lawyer, if only competing to "remember better and retrieve faster," is also the new era's John Henry.
• When AI can generate countless "beautiful" design drafts based on instructions, a factory-line artist, if only competing to "master techniques better," is likewise the new era's John Henry.

Competing with AI on "efficiency" and "standard output" is a dead end. Because on this track, its progress is exponential, while ours is not. The essence of this competition is to "dehumanize" oneself to cater to the logic of machines, ultimately being ruthlessly discarded by machines.

This is precisely the cruel starting point of the "great divergence": are you becoming a "better" beast of burden or machine, or are you becoming a "more unique" person?

The cost of mediocrity has never been so heavy, but the rewards of excellence have never been so rich

AI is turning "average-level" cognitive output into a product that can be infinitely replicated at near-zero cost.

When an AI model can provide "70-point" translations, "75-point" designs, and "80-point" code for free, the value of human-provided "85-point" services will plummet. The market will no longer pay for "good" because it is almost free.

Your skills, if they can be clearly described, quantitatively assessed, and have numerous successful cases for AI to learn from, are on the brink of being "commoditized." This not only means lower salaries but also means a zeroing out of value, meaning you could be replaced by an API interface at any time.

This is the harshest punishment for "average." In the past, being in the middle meant stability; in the future, the middle is collapsing.

However, while AI crushes the "average," it also provides an unprecedented amplifier for true "excellence." To understand how AI is driving the "great divergence," we must introduce another key social and economic theory: Power Law, also known as Pareto distribution or the 80/20 rule.

In simple terms, the Power Law refers to "winner-takes-all." In a system that follows a power law distribution, a few top individuals capture the vast majority of resources or returns. For example:

• A few bestselling authors capture most of the sales in the entire book market.
• A few top celebrities earn the vast majority of income and attention in the entertainment industry.
• A few internet giants (like Google, Amazon) seize the vast majority of profits in the market.

The emergence of AI is pushing the effects of the power law to the extreme, turning the gap between "winners" and "ordinary people" from a crack into a bottomless chasm. There are three reasons:

1. Extreme scalability: Products of the industrial age, like cars, are constrained by physical limitations in production and sales. In contrast, AI-driven software or services have almost no marginal cost. A top-tier AI translation model can serve 1,000 users or 1 billion users, with its core costs increasing insignificantly.

This means that as long as an AI product is 5% better than its competitors, it can quickly capture 95% or even 100% of the market through network effects and data flywheels. The survival space for the second and third place is severely compressed, even disappearing.

2. Huge Leverage Effect: AI is an unprecedented "capability amplifier." In the past, a top architect's influence was mainly limited to the projects he could personally participate in designing. Now, a top AI algorithm engineer can create an AI design tool that enhances the work efficiency of millions of junior designers worldwide by tenfold or even directly replaces them.

This engineer and his small team leverage AI to shift the entire industry's value distribution. The immense value they create will be disproportionately rewarded to themselves.

3. The Complete Devaluation of "Average": This is the most brutal aspect of the "great divergence." The steam engine of John Henry's era replaced repetitive physical labor. The last wave of software and the internet replaced repetitive, rule-based cognitive labor (such as calculations and data entry). Today, generative AI is conquering "average-level" cognitive tasks that require a certain degree of creativity at an unprecedented speed.

How to Achieve Excellence in the Age of AI

Excellence here does not mean being "better" than AI in a single dimension, but rather possessing top human capabilities that AI cannot touch.

1. The Ability to Define Problems and Unique Insights: AI is a powerful tool for solving problems, but it cannot independently discover a "worthwhile problem to solve." In business, scientific research, and the arts, the ability to penetrate the surface and perceive unmet needs, undiscovered patterns, and unexpressed emotions is the source of all value creation. If you can ask a question that AI cannot answer but is crucial, your value is limitless.

2. Ultimate Aesthetics, Taste, and Creativity: AI can imitate Picasso, but it cannot become Picasso. It cannot possess the disruptive artistic intuition and unique life experiences that Picasso had. In content creation, product design, and brand building, the top taste that can lead trends and define "beauty" and "style" will become the most scarce and valuable asset. Your work becomes priceless because it is infused with your irreplaceable humanity, emotions, and worldview.

3. Cross-Disciplinary Integration and Systemic Thinking: AI's deep learning capabilities in vertical fields are astonishing, but innovatively "connecting" knowledge, resources, and talents from different fields to build a complex, entirely new value system remains a core capability of human entrepreneurs. Can you, like Steve Jobs, perfectly integrate technology, art, and business into a disruptive product? This systemic top-level design is something AI finds difficult to reach.

4. Genuine Emotional Connection and Leadership: AI can simulate conversation but cannot establish true trust or provide heartfelt encouragement. Leading a team of top talents, inspiring their potential, and uniting them with a shared vision—this kind of leadership based on deep empathy and the brilliance of humanity will become the core engine driving organizations forward in a future of human-machine collaboration.

Those who possess these "excellence" capabilities can leverage AI as an unprecedented tool to amplify their influence a millionfold. A creator with a unique artistic style can use AI tools to complete an animation project in one day that would have taken a team a year to finish. A researcher with groundbreaking scientific ideas can command an AI cluster to conduct billions of simulations, validating or overturning their theories at an unprecedented speed.

This is the reward for "excellence": you are no longer just yourself; you have become a "human + AI" super individual, and your thoughts can be directly transformed into the power to impact the world. This reward will no longer be linear but explosive.

Everything Solid Will Be Turned to Dust

Let’s return to the initial anxiety. Yes, "class solidification" is a real dilemma in the industrial and information ages. But in a future where AI is about to take over all "routine tasks," this topic is rapidly becoming outdated.

The rules of the old world dictated that where you were born largely determined how far you could go. The rules of the new world dictate that how you think determines whether you descend into the divergence or ascend.

This great divergence will ruthlessly punish mediocrity and the average, generously rewarding excellence and outstanding talent; it will mercilessly penalize lazy thinking and outdated skills, generously rewarding those who embrace change, commit to lifelong learning, and strive to cultivate their unique "humanity." It gives everyone a chance to redefine their "starting line."

This new starting line is not determined by your parents' bank account, the location of your school district home, or even which prestigious university you graduated from. It is in your every morning, in the moment you open your phone and computer:

Will you choose to use AI to pass the time, completing repetitive tasks, making yourself a more efficient "cog"? Or will you choose to use AI to learn new knowledge, explore the unknown, and create unprecedented things, making yourself that unique "engine"?

Forget about class solidification; that wall we once desperately wanted to climb over may be dissolving in the tide of the times. What truly determines the future is this clearer, steeper fork in the road before you.

Will you continue to gaze anxiously at the crumbling old wall, or will you turn around, face the turbulent waves of AI, and start learning how to build your own ark?【Understand】

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