While some choices can indeed be significant, life is far too complex. There are too many decisions, too many efforts, and too many factors intertwined.
Many say that choosing your major is one of the most critical decisions in life, and there’s even a saying that “choice outweighs effort.” What do I think?
In reality, I believe choice and effort are two different things. Sure, some choices matter—it depends on what you’re choosing. Unless you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth and your path is already laid out for you, for most ordinary people, I personally think effort matters more.
Choice is important, but no single decision determines your entire life. You might not succeed in your first business venture. When building a product, you don’t always get the direction right the first time—should you make product A or B? Should you target consumers (2C) or businesses (2B)? In truth, success doesn’t come from one big choice. Sometimes a product isn’t born from meticulous planning but from continuous iteration and refinement. That’s why effort matters.
Secondly, I believe both your field of study and your work are important. What you learn in university is a way of thinking. For example, if you study physics, how often do you need to calculate acceleration in daily life? If you study advanced math, when do you ever need to derive equations while grocery shopping? But what you gain from studying math, physics, or chemistry isn’t just factual knowledge—it’s a mental model. This model helps you analyze, abstract, and reason through problems.
Let me give an example. Large AI models learn programming and solve math problems not just to perform those specific tasks, as some narrowly assume. Instead, through learning these skills, they develop logical reasoning abilities. This reasoning ability then helps them break down and evaluate problems across many other domains.
We shouldn’t underestimate the human brain. Like AI models, our brains can generalize and transfer knowledge—it’s not that learning calculus only makes you good at math. What you study in college may just be an introduction—it’s about building problem-solving skills, communication skills, and overall competence. Your real professional learning begins after you leave university.
That’s why I firmly believe effort is crucial. I’ve never heard of anyone guaranteed success just because they went to a certain school or chose a certain major. If such a school existed, everyone would be rushing to get in. But no such place exists.
I hope young people today develop a healthy attitude toward learning. Whether you’re satisfied with your university or your major, I think it’s essential to focus on learning—not for grades, but for your interests and your future after college. Your success depends on your learning ability and foundation, not solely on your choice of major. What makes the difference? Effort. And what is effort? It’s about effective learning methods.
Let me conclude: I oppose simplifying life’s journey into a basic formula. It’s far more complex. The idea that one school or one major determines your future creates an illusion that I find very misleading.
Life is too complicated—too many choices, too many efforts, too many factors interacting. If you’re in an open-minded city and a broad-minded university, your major might not matter as much. What matters is whether you’re willing to work hard: engage in social, improve your interpersonal skills, empathy, communication, and leadership; take courses across departments and fields; read widely—STEM students exploring humanities, humanities students diving into science; engage in interdisciplinary projects and hands-on practice.
As a student, being involved in one or two real projects helps you develop not specialized skills alone, but versatile capabilities. These comprehensive abilities will serve you well after graduation. Even if you end up in a temporary job like food delivery, you might identify needs that later help you start a business—and you might even outperform those who followed a more traditional path.