Shen Yu: Knowledge and Action in the Age of AI

Recently, Shen Yu, co-founder of Cobo, had an in-depth conversation with Jin Ming, founder of Jichain Technology, covering multiple dimensions from investment systems, Bitcoin, DeFi, AI Agents to the meaning of life.

Recently, Shen Yu, co-founder of Cobo, had an in-depth conversation with Jin Ming, founder of Jichain Technology, covering multiple dimensions from investment systems, Bitcoin, DeFi, AI Agents to the meaning of life.

During the conversation, Shen Yu shed the aura of an early "mining tycoon" and presented a highly rational self-reflection, admitting that early success had an element of luck, and revisiting the cognitive leap of viewing DeFi as a "200-year condensed history of finance." In the current era where AI deeply takes over cognitive input, this frontier builder firmly adheres to long-termism, maintaining a clear and unique independent thought in the restless crypto circle.

Here are the core observations and insights from this dialogue:

"DeFi is a Compressed Course in Financial History"

Shen Yu views DeFi as an experimental ground for understanding finance. Mechanisms like lending, market making, and liquidity mining essentially re-answer questions that traditional finance has already addressed. Personally participating in protocols is akin to experiencing centuries of financial product evolution in a very short time. For him, the value of DeFi thus becomes a motivation to revisit financial history and theoretical knowledge.

Therefore, his investment framework grows out of practice. Shen Yu mentioned that in the early days, there was no complete investment framework; the method he later formed is closer to a cycle: first practice, accumulate experience in the real market, then abstract rules from the results to form a framework, and finally train it into intuition. The key is to continuously pose questions in action and then supplement financial history and theory in reverse.

"As AI Lowers Execution Costs, Human Will Becomes More Important"

AI is significantly shortening the distance from idea to implementation. In the past, the main obstacle to many ideas was the high execution cost; now, knowledge, tools, and action capabilities are compressed into the hands of individuals. As long as there is a sufficiently clear "seed," it can be quickly tested. The stronger the technology, the more important human direction, judgment, and the will to act continuously become.

However, the increase in possibilities can also amplify the confusion of builders. AI brings almost infinite executable space, and "topic selection" has become the biggest challenge. Shen Yu candidly admitted that he once had a strong sense of mission and creative impulse during the mining era, but now he finds himself in a more confused stage, still searching for a sufficiently large and systematic direction. Nevertheless, he still defines himself as a builder: one of the meanings of existence is to create a little more possibility that did not previously exist in the world.

"Agents Are Transitioning from Efficiency Tools to Cognitive and Self-Understanding External Brains"

Shen Yu has deeply integrated AI and agents into his daily life. At the information input end, the work of reading original long texts, filtering materials, and compressing them into PPTs is completed by a set of note-taking systems based on evolutionary thinking and AI-filtered daily reports that he built himself; in daily interactions and cognitive assistance, he has configured three agents, each with its own role: one is a tool-rational agent that provides highly rational action plans and decision-making suggestions; another is a more feminine, softer agent responsible for emotional analysis and empathy, which even pointed out that he "might have a fear of death"; and the last is a blind spot alert agent that combines historical information and personal behavior to help him identify cognitive blind spots. The role of agents has exceeded that of traditional assistants, extending into a companion-like "cognitive external brain," which not only processes information and tasks for people but also deeply participates in emotional care, blind spot correction, and the construction of a second thinking system.

"Core Assets Must First Have a Sufficiently Large Long-Term Value Space"

Shen Yu also revealed his first principle for selecting core assets during the interview, which is that the Total Addressable Market (TAM) must be sufficiently large, and there must be a macro vision behind it that can support long-term holding. He believes that an asset is only worth entering the core position candidates when it not only has short-term opportunities but also has the potential to shape the technological, financial, or social structures of the next decade or even longer.

He employs a three-tier position management logic: first, discover with small positions, then increase allocation through continuous validation, and finally enter the core phase after seeing the long-term vision, at which point the position may be increased to about 20%. Currently, only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tesla have truly passed this test, while SpaceX is still in the observation and timing phase.

Whether Ethereum can remain in the core position depends on the next round of infrastructure value. Although Ethereum has already entered his core asset list, its status is being reassessed. The new judgment criterion is whether Ethereum can further become the operational and collaborative infrastructure for AI agents. If it can meet the new demands of the machine economy, Ethereum may still maintain its core position; otherwise, the original investment logic needs to be reevaluated.

"Bitcoin is a Better Gold"

The essential difference between gold and Bitcoin lies in the confrontation between two paradigms and camps, namely the "digital currency + AI" camp and the "gold + industrial manufacturing power" camp. Shen Yu believes that "Bitcoin is a better gold," primarily because of its complete lack of intermediaries and the asset disposal rights it grants to sovereign individuals. Traditional gold often requires layers of intermediaries and institutional custody to achieve rights confirmation and liquidity, while Bitcoin can be fully controlled and disposed of by individuals without relying on any intermediary institutions, truly realizing personal asset sovereignty.

There are two types of technologies that significantly enhance sovereign individual capabilities. BTC changes the way individuals control and dispose of assets, allowing value to be held and transferred independently of traditional institutions; AI enhances the boundaries of individual capabilities, enabling a person to accomplish knowledge and execution tasks that previously required an organization. The former strengthens asset sovereignty, while the latter amplifies individual productivity.

"A Philosophy of Investment that is Few but Deep"

Traditional asset allocation emphasizes reducing portfolio volatility through low-correlation assets like gold, stocks, and Bitcoin, but Shen Yu does not agree with this investment philosophy. "Human cognition and energy are limited; there are actually very few assets that can be deeply understood." Rather than purchasing unfamiliar gold to satisfy asset allocation theories, Shen Yu's investment philosophy is closer to "few but deep," believing that defensive capability does not come from holding more asset classes, as correlations tend to converge in extreme situations. In the event of a true systemic crisis (extreme situations), those assets you think are mutually restraining often collapse or perform consistently. Diversification is effective in extremely stable markets, but it often fails in the face of real "disasters."

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