My First Social at Shanghai Tower: Turning Fear into a Starting Point for Growth

On July 19, at Shanghai Tower, I went to my first social.

It was a very unusual experience. I used to be afraid of approaching strangers, and I’d worry that I didn’t have anything worth sharing. But that day I met a lot of people from China and abroad: PhD students from UCB, CMU, Tsinghua and Peking University, founders building companies, and people who started doing things very early — one had been starting companies since high school back in 2009.

They’re all impressive, they all have big dreams, and they’ve been working toward their goals all along.

My first social, a group photo with friends from all kinds of backgrounds.

Seeing a bigger world

For the first time, this event made me feel concretely that in this same city there are so many excellent people with ideas who are seriously getting things done.

This may be the strongest group of people I’ve encountered so far. Talking with them, I found that everyone has their own direction, their own judgment, and their own story. Some are going deep on the academic path, some are building startups and products, and some started companies back in high school, turning ideas from long ago into real things.

The gap made me nervous at first, but later I came to think of it as a reminder: the world is big, there are many things worth doing, and I still have a long way to go.

The conversations at the event were more natural than I expected. Once you actually open your mouth, the fear slowly disappears.

I also saw myself again

Since December 2025, I’ve been learning AI — recommendation algorithms, LLMs, Agents — and I’ve spent a lot of time reading material, understanding concepts, and practicing along with projects.

But when things go quiet, I still ask myself:

What is there that has actually settled into something I can genuinely call my own work?

As it stands, I don’t have results that are clear and quantifiable enough, and I have very little research experience. Having studied a lot of things is not the same as having left something behind. Knowing some concepts is not the same as being able to turn them into projects, papers, products, or results other people can verify.

This isn’t a repudiation of what I’ve learned; it’s an honest inventory. It made me realize that from here on I can’t just stay in “keep learning more” mode — I have to force myself to turn input into output, and turn ideas into concrete things.

From left to right: my senior Cui Jiahao, Teacher Zidonghua, and Chi Guangyao from Yuhe Technology.

Look inward, and also step outward

This experience made me more certain that growth isn’t only about continuing to study; it also means actively going out, meeting people, and expressing yourself.

If I can’t even control myself — can’t overcome the fear of speaking up, can’t keep acting toward my own goals — how could I ever get what I truly want?

So I started reminding myself: don’t always wait until you’re perfectly prepared to act. Many things don’t cost much to begin with, especially an honest conversation. Since there isn’t much to lose, why be afraid of making mistakes?

Before my first social, I worried about being awkward, about saying the wrong thing, about not being impressive enough. Only after going did I realize that what really matters isn’t packaging yourself as someone who has already succeeded, but honestly saying what you’re working on, who you want to become, and what problems you’re still facing.

You don't need to wait until you're perfectly prepared. Start with one real conversation.

See you in five years, in ten years

I hope that in five years, in ten years, we can still meet again and keep talking and sharing.

By then, I hope we’ll all have walked a new stretch of road, with more real results and more stories that can inspire each other. The people I met today may cross my path again at some point in the future. Looking back then, we might find that many important changes started from a meeting that seemed perfectly ordinary.

Outside the window is Shanghai; inside are people who came from all different directions.

This is where my growth starts

I don’t want this post to end up as an empty slogan. I really do have a lot of shortcomings right now: not enough results, not enough research experience, and my communication still needs practice.

But at least from this day on, I don’t want to turn down new experiences out of fear anymore.

Go experience things, go live through them, go meet more excellent people, go express my own ideas, and go seriously finish the things that are mine to do. First keep myself moving forward, then talk about more distant goals.

I want to step onto the world stage, and I want to become someone who is genuinely capable, who has real work to show, and who has judgment. I believe that as long as I keep acting, I can get there too.

This social is where my growth starts.

I hope that years from now, we’ll still meet again.

Recording this meeting, and holding on to the anticipation of the next one.

A few shots from after the event wrapped up.