1.3 The Last Human Territory: Vision, Taste, and Execution
The conclusion of the previous chapter is cold and clear: inside that business machine named "One-Person Unicorn," you, as the human architect, possess attention that is the ultimate energy driving everything, the "new oil" on which this empire relies to operate.
This conclusion immediately leads to a challenging corollary: Since every drop of your "attention" is so precious, where exactly should you "burn" it?
When AI can handle almost all tactical problems of "How" at nearly the speed of light, the only territory left for humans, and thus infinitely amplified in value, remains the strategic decisions concerning "What" and "Why." They cannot be quantified, cannot be outsourced, and cannot be truly understood by current AI. They constitute the last and most solid three value fortresses of humans in the intelligent age.
Vision: The Human Anchor That Cannot Be Coded
The first, and most important fortress, is Vision.
This is by no means the kind of pretty slogan plastered on company walls and fabricated by PR departments. It is a unique combination deeply rooted in your personal history, curiosity, and values, what investor Naval Ravikant defines as "Specific Knowledge"[^1].
According to Naval's theory, "Specific Knowledge" is knowledge you cannot learn in school. It is not obtained through classes or training, but accumulated slowly through the process of following your inner true curiosity, doing what you consider "play" while others consider "work." It is highly personalized and almost impossible to be taught or replicated. Your obsession with a certain type of music, fanaticism for a certain historical period, understanding of a rare insect, a failed chemistry experiment in your childhood... these seemingly unrelated fragments collectively constitute your unique knowledge graph.
In the AI era, this long-term pursuit driven by personal passion constitutes precisely the chasm that machines find difficult to cross. AI's "thinking" is based on pattern matching and probabilistic calculations of massive data. It can make the optimal solution under a clearly defined goal (such as "increase user click-through rate"). However, it cannot create a goal worth pursuing for more than ten years from scratch and genuinely. It has no childhood, no dreams, and no "heart's desire."
Therefore, your vision is the only "North Star" you set for the massive AI legion. It answers the most fundamental question: "Why are we here?" The answer to this "Why" determines whether your AI team is aimlessly producing information garbage or charging for a great problem sufficient to change a corner of the world. AI can help you manufacture all vehicles in human history, but which galaxy to sail to—the power to set the navigation beacon—is forever in your hands. This is the highest authority and responsibility of the "Architect": defining purpose. Without purpose, even the most powerful execution is just a carnival rushing towards a cliff.
Taste: The Economic Moat in the Age of Infinite Content
The second fortress is Taste.
When AI can generate a thousand images and ten thousand articles in a second, "creation" itself has inflated extremely. If you still think your value lies in creating content "from zero to one," then you are standing on a beach about to be submerged by the AI wave. In the age of infinite content, true scarcity has shifted from "creation" to "selection."
This is precisely the core capability Steve Jobs spent his entire life demonstrating to the world. Taste, superficially a perception of "beauty," is essentially a harsh judgment of "good" and a powerful ability to build and lead consensus[^2].
Imagine walking into a huge, eternal museum housing endless artworks generated by AI. Each one is skilled in technique and conforms to all aesthetic theories. In this case, the role of the "painter" is insignificant, while the role of the "Curator" becomes crucial. It is the curator who decides which works are exhibited, in what order, and how to endow these independent paintings with a unified theme and soul through combination and narrative.
Your taste is your ability to play the "Curator" in the ocean of information generated by AI. It determines what temperament your product presents, what tone your brand conveys, and what style your content possesses. Why do users choose your AI-generated podcast over a thousand other AI-generated podcasts? The answer lies in your taste. It is your taste that filters and attracts followers who share the same values and aesthetics as you, building a "brand community" that cannot be easily replicated.
This has catalyzed the birth of the "Curation Economy." When the cost of information production approaches zero, saving "choice cost" for users itself creates huge economic value[^3]. An architect with excellent taste can continuously output high-quality, consistent-style content by issuing precise instructions with strong personal style to AI, thereby building their own "taste moat." What this moat protects is not production capacity, but user trust and following. This is the ultimate embodiment of the "Auditor" role: defining the only "correctness" amidst infinite possibilities.
Initiative: The Will from 0 to 1
The third, and most fundamental fortress, is Initiative.
An ancient maxim circulating in the startup circle is: "Ideas are cheap, execution is everything"[^4]. In the AI era, the correctness of this maxim is amplified countless times. When AI can generate a hundred business plans and a thousand growth strategies for you overnight, "having a good idea" has thoroughly lost its scarcity. The real bottleneck, also the last value highland for humans, lies in the will to transform that "good idea" into the first rough product in the real world.
AI possesses powerful "execution ability," but it has no "initiative." It can perfectly execute every one of your instructions, but it has no internal impulse to initiate any action itself. It is a passive engine waiting for instructions, while the human architect must be the one who presses the "start" button and provides fuel for the engine. This starting will from 0 to 1 can be called "initiative." It consists of two closely related human traits that AI cannot imitate.
The first trait is "Bias for Action."
This is one of the core leadership principles Amazon holds as a standard[^5]. It advocates a culture of "shoot first, aim later," that is, facing an uncertain future, preferring to choose quick action and learning in practice rather than falling into endless "analysis paralysis." Many decisions are not life-and-death; their consequences are reversible. Waiting for perfect information and foolproof plans is the culprit killing innovation and opportunity.
The emergence of AI provides unprecedented weapons for this "Bias for Action." You can let AI build a product prototype, a landing page, or a market survey questionnaire for you in minutes. The cost and cycle of testing an idea are compressed to the extreme. However, AI cannot make that decision to "start testing" for you. The architect's "initiative" is embodied here: is it being complacent in the countless "possibilities" generated by AI, or choosing one of them to immediately throw into the real market to get feedback, even if it's a failure? People with "Bias for Action" will instinctively choose the latter.
The second trait is "Grit."
If "Bias for Action" determines whether you can go from 0 to 0.1, then "Grit" determines whether you can go from 0.1 to 1, and finally to 100. Famous psychologist Angela Duckworth defines "Grit" as "passion and perseverance for long-term goals"[^6]. Her research shows that in any field, what ultimately determines a person's success is often not talent, but this quality of never giving up in the face of setbacks and boredom, bordering on stubbornness.
The process of turning an idea into reality is never a smooth path; it is inevitably full of mistakes, failures, and frustrating "dark moments." AI can help you fix bugs in the code, but it cannot provide you with the psychological energy to persist when users show no interest, investors refuse, and competitors copy. This energy stems from your deep belief in the "Vision" (passion) and an optimism that transcends rationality (perseverance). This is a pure human emotion, a complex driving force mixed with hope, desire, ambition, and a sense of responsibility. AI has no emotions, so there is no so-called "Grit."
Therefore, "Initiative" in the AI era is a combination of "Bias for Action" and "Grit." Together, they form the bridge across the widest chasm between "having an idea" and "creating value" for human architects. It is a profound personal will that cannot be replaced by AI.
Vision, Taste, Initiative—these three together constitute the crown of the "Architect" in the AI era. They are your remaining territories that cannot be replaced, and also the core human levers you need to command the AI legion to expand territory. They collectively define the height your commercial entity can ultimately reach, the appearance it presents, and the speed of its evolution.
Mastering these three core human capabilities, the next step is to understand how to combine them with AI, this unprecedented "Meta-Leverage," to pry up the entire world.
[^1]: Naval's "Specific Knowledge" theory emphasizes its highly personalized and passion-driven characteristics, making it difficult to be standardized teaching or imitated by AI. Reference his blog post. Naval Ravikant on Specific Knowledge
[^2]: In the era of information explosion, taste as an ability to screen and build consensus becomes increasingly economically valuable. Steve Jobs' demanding requirements for product details were essentially using his taste to build a unique value proposition for Apple users.
[^3]: The core of the "Curation Economy" is that through professional screening and organization, it saves consumers time and cognitive costs in finding value in massive information, thereby creating new economic models. Reference relevant discussion articles. The Curation Economy
[^4]: "Ideas are cheap, execution is everything" is a consensus in the startup and business fields, emphasizing the decisive importance of transforming concepts into actual results. Reference OnPoint Consulting's article, "Execution Is The Bridge Between Ideas and Results". Article Link
[^5]: "Bias for Action" is one of Amazon's core leadership principles, emphasizing the importance of speed in business and making quick decisions and taking action when risks can be borne. Reference Niagara Institute's article, "How To Use Amazon's Bias For Action Leadership Principle". Article Link
[^6]: "Grit" was proposed by psychologist Angela Duckworth, who believes that passion and perseverance for long-term goals are important factors predicting success. Reference her famous speech at TED, "Grit: The power of passion and perseverance". Speech Link