Bolyn Weekly is published every week, sharing personal experiences, observations, and things that interest me—even if most of the time it’s just idle talk.
2025-03-29
Those Who Lie Flat Will Ultimately Win
This week, the hottest topic I encountered was undoubtedly the iteration of GPT-4o. Compared to previous versions, its ability to generate images has been greatly enhanced. Below are a few examples I came across:
For those who haven’t experienced it firsthand, the impact might not be immediately obvious. However, since I have been following these developments and using the tool myself, I can deeply appreciate just how fast this technology is evolving.
Before GPT came along, mainstream methods for achieving such results usually involved using the ComfyUI workflow to generate images, which was extremely cumbersome. This even led to a small niche of people making a living from it. Now that this new iteration is available, that approach is effectively obsolete.
There are many pessimistic views online and even more expressions of uncertainty. I wasn’t particularly moved by this; the first thing that came to mind was an article by Wang Chuan titled “Those Who Lie Flat Will Ultimately Win”. If you’re interested, give it a read—the viewpoints are quite intriguing. Although the article discusses things from an investment perspective, its insights apply to many fields.
In my view, the core message of the article is simple: the world is always changing. Some things evolve with the times and are beyond your control, while others can be influenced by your own choices. Pick something that grows steadily and be patient—you will eventually succeed.
In essence, it’s all about the compound interest of time. Yet many people find it hard to wait; witnessing ongoing change makes it difficult to refrain from constant action.
Creativity and Intelligence
It’s disheartening to realize that creativity is actually a more advanced form of intelligence. From a young age, the standard of evaluation was singular, and even when given a choice, most people tended to opt for intelligence over the more intangible concept of creativity because certainty brings comfort.
However, objectively speaking, creativity is undoubtedly more important.
Exercise
Last week, I only managed to run a half marathon before I completely took it easy. I feel that I’ve been running a bit too much this month—my calves have been persistently sore and haven’t recovered yet. I plan to resume running only after I’m fully recovered.
Graduation Thesis Progress
Last week, I completed the final defense of my undergraduate research project and the mid-term thesis defense. It left me completely exhausted and drained. For an undergraduate, only having a thesis defense is typical, so it wasn’t too bad.
I’m quite satisfied with the outcomes of the defenses. My thesis is just as it is; our college mainly pushes us to get things done. I’m nearly finished with my work, and the final model isn’t a big deal. Once I complete the paper, I can finally relax.
The research project went relatively well, with a score of 30 for the proposal, 15 for the mid-term, and a seventh-place finish for the final evaluation. In hindsight, it was quite a struggle. I actually finished the research project during the first week of the term in February, and the teacher initially praised it. However, I didn’t understand what was so good about it, and I didn’t save the parameters. A few days before the final evaluation, I couldn’t locate the parameters, couldn’t reproduce the results, and ended up being scolded.
From now on, I need to have backups for my work—not just for my studies, but also for my articles. I’m now considering compiling all the content I’ve previously written, as everything is stored on my WeChat Official Account and I have no local backups. It’s a real headache.
Ghibli Animation Style
Returning to the beginning, I’ve also experimented with other approaches. Overall, however, the non-photorealistic style is superior. The realistic style still struggles with facial control, but it’s only a matter of time before that issue is resolved.
