The painful truth behind the OpenClaw craze

Written by: Coach Liu

Wake up to find BTC stabilizing at $70,000.

In recent times, if there’s a topic that has everyone in the tech world buzzing, it’s the OpenClaw craze. But beneath the hype, what’s truly worth deep reflection isn’t just the technology itself, but a truth we’re personally witnessing—one that’s complex and bittersweet:

AI might really be the most advanced “person” an ordinary person could encounter in their lifetime.

This conclusion isn’t based on cold theoretical deduction but stems from Coach Chain’s over a year of hands-on experience integrating AI deeply into daily life and work, along with personal insights.

1. An Asymmetric Bet: Why Are You Still Hesitating?

Many see AI as just a passing trend, a buzzword, or a bubble inflated by capital. They stand on the sidelines, arms crossed, pretending to be rational “observers.”

But from Coach Chain’s perspective, when facing new things like AI and OpenClaw, true rationality is to actively place bets.

Why? Because this is a classic asymmetric bet.

You don’t need millions or tens of millions to build a computing center, nor do you have to quit your job and go all-in. All you need is an old computer that’s been used for years, plus a few yuan or tens of yuan per month for API calls or subscription models. That’s your entire trial-and-error cost—completely controllable and within reach.

However, once you master the ability to leverage AI, the efficiency gains, cognitive expansion, and even the potential to create entirely new business models are limitless.

BTC a decade ago was also a huge asymmetric bet. Investing just one or two months’ salary could potentially seize a chance for wealth freedom over the next decade. The maximum loss is manageable, but the potential gains are enormous—this is an asymmetric bet, a life strategy with nuclear-level power.

So, when you see endless debates online about whether OpenClaw is a productivity revolution or just a gimmick, Coach Chain sees two mentalities: either fear and cowardice about betting, or deliberate contrarianism to attract traffic. They miss the core value of AI—it’s not just a trend, but a new development paradigm.

Breakthroughs in productivity are fundamentally transforming every industry from the ground up. And only those who get hands-on experience truly understand this. Reading alone is shallow; real understanding comes from doing.

Thousands of years ago, Laozi said: “The superior man hears the Way, practices it diligently; the average man hears the Way, sometimes follows, sometimes doesn’t; the inferior man hears the Way, laughs loudly. If you don’t laugh, it’s not the Way.”

2. One Person’s Team: “Vibe Coding” Practice

In recent years, Coach Chain has been deeply involved in content creation and community building. In the past, running a membership site required a small team: a programmer, an operator, maybe a customer service rep.

But now, one person is a team.

From the very first day of engaging with AI, Coach Chain didn’t see it as just an auxiliary tool to enhance work but embedded it directly into core business processes, making it central to operations. The usage path is very clear: initially for basic content organization and data analysis; soon after, entering the core “vibe coding” phase.

Vibe coding means we no longer need to write every line of code manually. Coach Chain can describe desired functions to AI in natural language: “Help me write a user registration module with email verification and password strength check,” “Design a database table for storing user subscriptions and payment records.” The AI instantly understands the intent and generates reviewable, runnable code. Coach Chain then immerses in the creative “atmosphere,” controls the direction, reviews the results, and assembles everything.

In this way, Coach Chain independently completed the entire process of building a membership site from scratch. AI boosted core work efficiency by multiple levels. Features that once took coordination among many people over weeks can now go live in a day. Wearing multiple hats? With AI, it’s no longer chaos and exhaustion but a normal, efficient way to advance business. Coach Chain has shifted from needing “help from others” to “command AI to do the work.” This experience truly demonstrates that “one person is a team.”

Even more surprisingly, Coach Chain sees children using the same vibe coding approach for wildly creative projects. They may not understand complex syntax but can chat with AI to create simple interactive mini-games or even Web3 NFT tools with on-chain smart contracts. At that moment, Coach Chain realized AI is lowering the barrier to technology, igniting sparks of creativity at any age and in any field. This isn’t just practical; it’s a huge innovation in itself.

3. A Harsh Truth: Productivity Is “Forcing” the World

Why does AI have such magic? There’s a fundamental logic Coach Chain highly agrees with: productivity determines the mode of production.

Technology is the primary productive force. When AI as a new productivity erupts, it will inevitably impact and reshape old production relations and industry concepts. This isn’t gentle reform but a “forcing” transformation.

Look at the current internet. You’ll find that traditional internet, especially mobile internet, is extremely unfriendly to AI and agents. Major platforms build high walls, set barriers, and even deliberately prevent AI from automatically accessing data. They resemble closed kingdoms, trying to lock data within their domains. This is old vested interests defending their existing production relations.

But how long can this closure last? Not forever. The tide of AI productivity is unstoppable. It will force the internet industry to undergo deep reform. In the future, those who break down barriers first, keep AI and agents friendly, and open data interfaces will seize the advantage in the next internet paradigm. Conversely, industry giants clinging to old models, with outdated thinking and actions, will be ruthlessly淘汰 by the market. This isn’t alarmism; it’s the inevitable evolution of “productivity determines production relations.”

The worldwide surge of OpenClaw exemplifies this ongoing historical “pressure,” a concentrated outbreak of “the world has suffered long enough” in the process of relentless change.

4. The OpenClaw Craze: Exploring a New Paradigm

Returning to the current OpenClaw craze, how should we view it?

It’s definitely not just a fleeting industry trend or hype. From Coach Chain’s perspective, OpenClaw is a new exploration that deeply combines AI with workflow automation in the real world. Large AI models provide the core “brain” support, transforming OpenClaw from a simple tool into an intelligent agent capable of perception, decision-making, learning, memory, and evolution. The integration not only amplifies AI’s application value but also gives OpenClaw the huge potential to become the next-generation internet paradigm.

This reaffirms Coach Chain’s judgment: AI isn’t just a trend; it’s the starting point of a whole new map. We stand at the threshold of an era where the smartest “person” we can access—AI—is redefining work, creation, and competition with its transcendent cognition.

Is it shocking? Maybe a little. Because it ruthlessly widens the gap between “embracers” and “observers.” But it’s even more exciting because it offers every ordinary person a low-cost, infinitely promising asymmetric bet.

The future is here. The only question left is: are you ready to act?