What 'The Way of the Heavenly' Taught Me
The compound interest of SEO isn't found in your first post, but in the fiftieth one you write.
Recently, I reread the book The Remote Savior (遥远的救世主). I had previously watched its television adaptation, The Way (天道), and at the time, I thought it was just a touching love story. I heard that the show had been edited and the book was more complete, so I spent three days reading it.
What concepts did I take away from the book? How do they relate to what I am currently doing as an indie developer, and can they provide guidance? Additionally, I am currently reading Game Theory; how is it connected to the two?
I have organized my thoughts, and I will elaborate on them below:
1. Cultural Attributes: Determining Whether You Can Truly Be Independent
The book places the greatest emphasis on strong culture vs. weak culture.
Weak culture: Waiting for others to provide opportunities, relying on platform recommendations, hoping for viral hits by luck, and complaining about the environment when encountering difficulties.
Strong culture: Defining problems for yourself, creating value yourself, and taking responsibility for the outcomes yourself.
Given the same external conditions, people with different cultural attributes will achieve completely different results.
The most vivid contrast is between Liu Bing and Xiao Yawen. One was already in the game but ended up out of it with a cruel fate, while the other was not originally in the game but successfully entered, completing a leap across social strata.
Cultural attributes can, to a certain dimension, be understood as cognition.
As an indie developer in this current AI era, everyone can become a 10x worker. Therefore, those who find a market, unearth needs, find viable promotion paths, and iterate repeatedly will succeed. Only those who take the initiative can escape the fate of being replaced by AI.
2. "Become Your Own Savior"
This sentence could almost serve as the motto for every indie developer.
- No company pays you a salary
- No product manager prioritizes tasks for you
- No marketing department brings you users
- No one provides a safety net when things go wrong
You have to find your own direction, build your own product, acquire your own customers, and face failure by yourself. This path is consistent with that of Rui Xiaodan and Ding Yuanying in the book: Refuse dependency and choose to bear the burden independently.
3. Value vs. Price: Can the Product Sell?
The book repeatedly states: Price is determined by the market, while value is created by yourself. The biggest pitfall for indie developers is thinking:
"I've worked on this for so long, it should be worth this price." "Why don't users understand my product?"
But the reality is that users only pay for the value they perceive. You have created value, but if it is not effectively communicated, the market will still not give you a price. This is the same logic as "you cannot get returns by asking, only by creating value." Effective communication here is marketing; you need to iterate and promote your product based on user data feedback so that users can feel its value.
4. Poverty Alleviation vs. Building Self-Sufficiency: The Logic of Acquisition and Growth
The book critiques "blood transfusion-style" aid and advocates for "self-sufficiency." Applied to indie development:
Relying on paid traffic, subsidies, or temporary platform recommendations = Blood transfusion; you die when it stops. Building your own user perception, product reputation, content assets, and repurchase mechanisms = Self-sufficiency; only then can you be sustainable.
Many indie developers survive early on due to luck or platform dividends, but later, when they realize they lack the ability to be "self-sufficient," they quickly hit a bottleneck.
5. The Connection to Game Theory
The Remote Savior provides the underlying operating system for culture and mindset, while Game Theory provides the analytical tools for making specific decisions.
Cultural attributes determine whether you are willing and dare to make independent decisions (whether to enter a niche, whether to set your own price, whether to give up reliance on platforms). Game Theory helps you figure out how to make more rational specific choices once you have decided to be independent (pricing, competition, signaling).
A person dominated by a weak culture, even if they understand game theory, will easily retreat into "waiting for others" or "relying on luck" at critical moments; only those with a strong culture will truly put game-theoretic thinking into practice.
6. God is the Dao, the Dao follows Nature, Tathagata
This is a highly abstract, core expression in the book:
God is the Dao: The laws (of nature/market) are the highest "God." The Dao follows Nature: Comply with objective laws, rather than subjective delusion. Tathagata: Face it when it comes; what is meant to come will come, do not evade it. Put together, it means that laws are the highest "God." When you work in accordance with objective laws, you can achieve mastery. But in this process, if you encounter problems, face them directly and overcome them continuously.
The expression "Tathagata" reminds me of something Bruce Lee once said: It is not about what happens, but how you face it and the attitude you hold when facing it.
In summary: The Remote Savior explains the deep-seated reasons why indie developers can or cannot keep going; Game Theory is the tool for how to make decisions once you have decided to continue. One governs the underlying mentality and culture, while the other governs top-level strategy.
Recently, I’ve returned to reading books, and I’ve found that reading still allows for deep thinking. You and I should both quit doom-scrolling short videos. The book I am currently reading is Game Theory.