Hello, Teacher Ye Tan!
Glad your body is recovering. My third aunt also has breast cancer, which has been well controlled. It has been more than ten years since she was diagnosed, and her current condition is relatively stable.
Let’s talk about my family’s situation. It has been a real ups and downs. My father was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008. When he was diagnosed, he was in the advanced stage. Later, he had brain metastasis. I still can’t bear to recall his final state…
That year I graduated from college, my work had to be interrupted, and my life was put on hold at the beginning.
On the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month at the end of 2016, my mother was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia m2, also commonly known as blood cancer. This time, I almost fell to the ground. I am an only child born in the 1980s with no brothers or sisters. After my father passed away, I lived with my mother. After my mother was diagnosed, I fell into a trance and fell while walking up the stairs in the hospital.
I spent the Spring Festival in the ward in 2017, which I will never forget.
Cancer is divided into different types and stages. Leukemia is probably the one that makes my back feel cold the most, even colder than my father's at that time. When I was in the hospital, I can never forget the lonely and helpless look in the eyes of my mother and other patients, including those in their twenties, thirties, fifties and sixties.
The blood circulation throughout the body, the platelets were as low as frightening single digits, and the bleeding in the internal organs and head could not be stopped. My mother didn’t want chemotherapy, knowing that life would be worse than death, but she had to undergo chemotherapy. She knew that chemotherapy would only prolong life, but she still had the desire to live. I am afraid of treatment, afraid of dragging me down, but I also want to accompany me. This conflicting feeling, the helplessness I feel as a son, others cannot understand.
Due to family reasons, I suffered from schizophrenia and depression, and was admitted to a mental hospital. Sometimes, I really felt that life was meaningless and wanted to leave.
I will always remember my mother’s last words: Chao, Chao, you have to live strong… I burst into tears. Thinking of this sentence, I am full of motivation again.
I want to ask Teacher Ye:
1. You have the title of Financial Heroine. You have earned this title by working hard and sacrificing your family. Do you care about this title? If you could live your life over again, what kind of life would you choose to live?
2. Do you regret not having children?
3. What do you think of the meaning of life? Do you care about the length or thickness of life? Do you want to make a lot of money, or have wealth, fame, and social status? Or, like Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, the world is different because of you…
4. What do you think about the issue of class consolidation?
5. With the development of AI, human civilization continues to advance, but AI will also replace many people's existing job opportunities, and unemployment will become the norm; China's large-scale urbanization infrastructure is slowly ending, the population is large, development pressure is great, and political and military challenges are faced. As a financial expert, what suggestions do you have for sustainable development?
Wish you a speedy recovery!
Xiaochao
February 25, 2026
Xiaochao:
Thank you for your blessings, I send the same blessings back to you, and wish you a wonderful life. God has made you suffer so much in order to give you the ability to experience all the flavors of life and to have a different kind of life.
Let me answer some of your questions as I speak.
People who have experienced life and death will lose their measure of life. They have no length, width, height, or thickness. For me, as long as I live for one day, there will be thickness that comes with it. With the thickness of life, there will also be length. I believe that an instant is eternity.
If you went back in time and asked your parents, do they want you to live longer or thicker? I think they will say: I hope my children can live healthy and happy lives, with the value of one day and the taste of each moment.
Abandoning the measurement of society, our lives will show our true value and hear the echo deep in our souls.
Of course, the joys and sorrows in the world cannot be shared. Grief can only be carried by oneself, while joy may lead to jealousy. When you lost your father, when you lost your mother, when you were devastated, when you looked at your teenage children with leukemia, when you couldn't look directly into your mother's eyes, we really couldn't stand by your side and give you timely comfort.
But human kindness will always exist, just like the sun and moon are eternal in the sky. No matter how difficult the situation is, we must believe in the good side of human beings. When I read your letter, I am willing to give you my deep blessings and hugs. I believe that more people who read your letter are willing to do the same. Simply because we are empathetic humans.
Calm down and feel the kindness rolling in. Please live bravely not only for your mother, but also for all kind people.
The AI era will not wipe out human kindness. On the contrary, the premium of human nature will become higher and higher.
Of course, with the development of AI, human productivity is getting higher and higher, and the global unemployment rate will also rise. At the end of February, an article went viral in Silicon Valley and Wall Street, warning of an upcoming "2028 global intelligence crisis." The article predicts that the success of AI may mean the beginning of economic disaster. The original economic model will be completely overturned and enter an era of "smart deflation".
We will see that AI replaces humans, with unemployment rising, income falling, and consumption collapsing, leading to further economic decline. This dire warning runs counter to the mainstream narrative of AI applications in the past two years, increasing productivity, GDP growth, and further economic growth.
After getting sick, I became an optimist, a hopeless optimist as Buffett said. I would rather look at the development of AI from a more optimistic side.
On February 27, the Wall Street Journal published an article mentioning how executives in the field of artificial intelligence describe future career prospects to their children. In one sentence, AI leaders generally do not recommend that children overly pursue current technical skills, but instead emphasize adaptability, critical thinking, liberal arts education (general skills), and maintaining unique human emotions and sense of responsibility.
We should not be bound by short-term tools. The current technical skills (Technical Skills) have a very short shelf life (even less than two years). The core competitiveness of the future lies in the agility (Agility) to respond to changes.
In the AI era, it is more important than ever for people to be human, to have the ability to judge and analyze, and to have empathy. Therefore, after the great material development, people in the future will become more empathic sentient beings, rather than a cold machine. Overall, humans will be kinder and there will be less disease.
Therefore, keep your kindness, cultivate your empathy, and have the ability to learn for life, and you will live with more dignity.
You ask me, do you care about fame and fortune?
Care, but will not be bound by fame and fortune. I care about an independent, dignified and loving life. External things such as wealth serve people and make people's space wider. If fame and fortune become the fetters of the soul, then fame and fortune are not worth mentioning, and may even be a negative asset in life.
I am very grateful to God. When I had time to change, I realized the most important things in life and had the possibility to relax.
I am very satisfied with my life and have no complaints.
I used to work hard for my job, which gave me the confidence to be independent. It is natural that people should be greedy and want everything. Children come into this world because of love. If they have love and ability, then nurture them well; if there is no fate, then work hard for more valuable things.
Everything is the best arrangement, and all environments are appropriate responses to our body and mind.
Xiaochao, you have experienced so much. God is telling you to find what you love, cherish it and work hard for it.
Your sister Tan
Saturday, February 28, 2026
(Sister Tan’s email address: yetanbusiness@163.com. The letter authorizes Yetan Finance to use the content of the email. If you reply, the reply will only be made public and will be commented by readers. At the same time, you are authorized to use it for book compilation. Please be careful when writing.)
