Text Version of Tim's Talk at the Insta360 Annual Meeting

This article is compiled from a talk by Tim, founder of Film Hurricane. It covers reflections on technical moats in the AI era, the core logic of content creation, management methodology, and the ultimate pursuit of “experience.”

Below are the key takeaways from the talk:

1. Technical Moats Are Melting — Only “Creativity” Is Irreplaceable

The pace of AI catching up is extremely fast. Once AI levels the technical playing field, the editing skills, software proficiency, and even programming abilities we once prided ourselves on will no longer form a core moat. Learning technical skills themselves risks becoming obsolete quickly.

In future competition, creativity (sense) is the much harsher and only deciding factor. Creativity has nothing to do with effort — it’s a kind of intuition.

How to train creativity?
The only way is massive input. You need to train yourself like an AI model — watch an enormous amount of videos, whether funny, nonsensical, or serious. Think about why one video got 500K views while another got 50 million. Compared to simply learning how to use a software tool, training this “internet sense” and creativity will be far more valuable in the coming era.

2. The Nonlinear Relationship Between Great Work and Commercial Return

We have to accept a reality: good work does not directly equal high revenue.

Take high-end drones or Pro-series filmmaking gear — they have outstanding performance and image quality, undoubtedly great products, but their sales will never match mass-market consumer products. The Pro series often exists to establish brand prestige rather than generate massive profit directly.

When a company reaches a certain stage, to achieve growth it must broaden its audience reach.

• Phase 1: Film Hurricane positioned itself as tech reviews, reaching about 4 million people.
• Phase 2: It pivoted to natural science, social science, and popular science content, expanding the audience to 100 million, with rapid data growth.
• Phase 3: Consider what content can transcend language and age and be understood by everyone. The answer: variety shows and authenticity (e.g., desert island survival, large-scale livestreams). That expands the potential audience to the billion level.

The scope of your thinking determines the direction of your actions. If you want to go big, you can’t just make products with an ever-narrowing audience; you need to pursue broader reach.

3. Say No to Boredom, Embrace High Signal-to-Noise Ratio

In this era, no one is obligated to endure your boringness.

Whether you’re producing a video, giving a business pitch, or reporting to investors, you must be an interesting person. Elegance and humor should become part of the culture. Strive to increase information density and avoid lengthy rambling — high-density output and engaging delivery are key to capturing attention.

At the same time, beware of “Do stupid things, win stupid prizes.” In large companies, one careless stupid decision can lead to disastrous consequences, and everyone ends up with a ridiculous outcome.

4. Management Philosophy: Manage the Work, Not the People

As a company scales, trying to “manage people” is futile. Everyone is an independent individual with their own soul. The core of management should be “managing the work.”

We shouldn’t obsess over trivialities like when an employee clocks in. Instead, focus on the execution logic of projects. At Film Hurricane, we follow a management principle from Tesla, in this strict order:

1. Make requirements less dumb: Often the requirements themselves are wrong.
2. Delete parts/processes: Boldly remove unnecessary steps.
3. Simplify: After deletion, optimize what remains.
4. Accelerate cycle time: Increase iteration speed.
5. Automate: Only consider automation last.

The mistake many companies make is doing this backwards: forcing automation or acceleration when requirements are unclear and processes are bloated, ultimately generating massive waste.

Additionally, every project must include three steps: initiation, error correction, and retrospective. Without these, mistakes repeat and experience can’t be accumulated.

5. Content Strategy: Experience Borrowing

Building a perfect world from scratch (like a completely fictional film script) is extremely energy-draining and hard to sustain high-quality output.

An efficient content creation logic is to “borrow” the energy already accumulated by society and nature.

• Example: Filming the intangible cultural heritage “dahuo” (molten iron fireworks), or capturing magnificent natural scenery.
• Logic: Nature has accumulated billions of years of beauty; intangible cultural heritage inheritors have accumulated a lifetime of skill. When we point our cameras at them, we aren’t “stealing” — we are “borrowing” the great experiences and energy that already exist.

Stand on the shoulders of giants and use existing wonders to create, so you can maintain high-quality output while keeping a fast publishing cadence.

6. Focus on Process and Experience: 2026 and Beyond

The pleasure from results often lasts only a few minutes. The process is the essence of life.

In 2022 we made a vow: while we are young, we will do our best to experience the world’s complexity and try different ways of living. This understanding of the world brings inner peace and reconciliation.

Based on this philosophy, Film Hurricane has clear plans for 2026:

1. Full global expansion: Rerelease past shows in English (with real voice actors), export knowledge-pay content, and earn money from the world.
2. Full AI adoption: Deploy Gemini Advanced accounts company-wide, embracing the AI era.
3. Ultimate experience project (Everest Plan): The company funds nearly one million RMB, grants one employee a 9-month paid leave, and supports them in climbing Mount Everest.

This is not just a challenge — it’s a complete record of how an ordinary person, through learning and perseverance, can ultimately stand on top of the world. What we want to leave our team members is a life experience they’ll still treasure when they’re old.