https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJZFUEQebbI
无作者
What is the price of freedom?28-year-old Jared was once a big tech AI engineer, To escape the toxic nine nine six grind, he shattered his golden rice bowl to become a freelancer, But freedom comes with a cost, By day he trains cutting edge AI models, in a leaky, un airconditioned rooftop shack, Doesn’t the roof leaking bother you at all?As long as it doesn’t leak over my gear, I’m good.By night he puts on a delivery uniform, plunging into torrential rain just to scrape together his meager rent, He is the ultimate reflection of a global generation, desperate to escape the nine to five How did he rebel against the system, And is his freedom truly free?Once you get a taste of freedom, there’s no going back.Let is follow the lens into Jared’s world, a day that is both cyber and starkly real, Here is Chengdu China, The main character of this video, Jared and his girlfriend, live right on the rooftop of this old residential community, According to local regulations living on the rooftop is not allowed.
We will check out later exactly how Jared managed to live up here, This is the old urban district of Chengdu, Most of these buildings were built in the 1990s, presenting a unique aesthetic of chaotic and messy beauty, Right now it is 9:30 in the morning, and we agreed to meet at 10:00 I decide to go ahead and knock on his door early, to see if he is even awake yet.I’ve been waiting out on the terrace for you to wake up.It’s ten already.You could’ve just knocked on the door earlier.We’re fixing up some crawfish right now.Want some coffee?Sure, I’ll take some.Have you had breakfast?I usually skip breakfast.This is Jared and his wife who have been married for just one year, They rent and live in this rooftop apartment, It has two rooms one used as an office for work, and the other as a bedroom, It also includes a tiny kitchen and a very small bathroom, In a strict sense this apartment is actually, an illegal structure on the top floor, By law there should be no buildings on the rooftop.
and it cannot belong to any individual, The only reason all of this exists, is basically due to problems left over from history, How are you even allowed to build a house up here on the rooftop?These are old collective housing blocks from way back.It’s part of the very first residential buildings put up around here.So who do you pay rent to?The people living right below you?Yeah, to the landlord on the floor right underneath me.Does that neighbor actually own this rooftop terrace?To be exact there’s no official property title for this.It’s completely unpermitted DIY construction.But this illegal structure has been here for so long, that the government can’t really enforce a demolition anymore.So the landlord downstairs just decides whether you can stay or not?Exactly.Did you sign a lease with him?Nope, no contract.I just transfer him 1,000 RMB ($140) every month.How many years have you been living here?This is my third year now.The wife of Jared works at a hospital pharmacy nearby.
and they chose to live here mainly because it is close to her workplace, Aside from being cheap this apartment has absolutely no advantages, Since it could be demolished at any moment, the landlord has zero motivation to upgrade or renovate it, Even though the air conditioner ownership rate, among Chinese urban households is as high as ninety eight percent, Jared still lives a life without any air conditioning, The foam boards right above his head provide no thermal insulation at all, and it is hard to imagine how he survives the scorching summer heat, in a place like this This is the latest setup I came up with this year.In previous years, I used this gadget.A manual pressure sprayer.I’d just spray water on the walls like this to cool things down.But this year, I figured out a new approach.I upgraded to power tools.It’s got an adjustable nozzle right here.Pretty cool, right?Yeah Here, let me give you a quick spritz.Whoa, hold on, hold on…My camera isn’t waterproof.
Do you just use this inside the room?Yep.Spraying water indoors just to cool it down?If it gets unbearably hot, you gotta do what you gotta do.It’s my newest method for this year.But since summer hasn’t officially kicked in yet,we haven’t really seen how well it works.Jared has a great imagination and excellent hands on skills, Since becoming a freelancer, he finally has plenty of time to develop his passion for DIY projects, I use this whenever I’m too lazy to sweep the floor.He has purchased a large variety of, different tools Now he can repair and customize all the household appliances, and even the complex circuit boards by himself, It heats up instantly.It melts solder in just two seconds.Pretty wild, huh?This is an ESP32 micro-controller.You can actually program it.I wrote a script for it.It uses PWM to control the power output here.This is my custom electronic temperature-controlled cooling system.Even if I push my CPU to its absolute limit, my computer will never crash.
Since freelance income is quite unstable, doing projects by himself allows Jared, to achieve great results with very little money, Therefore as long as he can build it himself he will absolutely never buy it, The project that makes him the most proud, is a custom sound system he assembled completely from scratch, What do you think?Not too bad, right?I’m totally used to it by now.It hits way harder if you stand right here and listen.I also put in a network sharing setup.My phone, tablet, and everything else can connect to it.Now that someone has moved in next door, I don’t dare turn it up too loud.Back when I was here by myself, it was a blast.That full surround sound completely wraps round you.When I’m coding, I get completely lost in it.Just totally enveloped by the music.It’s an amazing feeling.Even though I am here to film him today, Jared still treats me as a guest and went to the market early in the morning, to buy crawfish to entertain me.
In China crawfish is considered a relatively expensive ingredient, and the price is two times that of pork, If I were not here visiting today Jared would usually just prepare a random, and simple meal for himself What do you usually eat when you’re at home?I just eat pre-packaged meals.The ones in those cardboard boxes.But that’s the same stuff those cheap takeout places use.Yeah, exactly.I guess it’s super cheap?It’s about 5 RMB ($0.7) a pack.This kind of cheap pre packaged food is full of, high salt, low quality oil, and additives, which is often a compromise people make for saving money and time, Usually the daily diet of Jared is extremely casual, and he only gets to enjoy a proper meal, when his wife is free Although the two of them are busy cooking, with great enthusiasm right now, I notice that this rented room does not even have enough space, to place a dining table, It is hard to imagine where we are going to eat our lunch later, What this does is,when the rain pours off the eaves,
it stops the water from splashing back inside.Plus, it doubles as a tabletop.It seems that this small balcony is, where we are going to eat our lunch, However the potted plants here are growing way too thick and lush, making it almost impossible for us to find a place to sit down, You should probably clip that branch.I don’t think it’s ever going to grow back.Do you guys usually eat this well?Uh… sometimes, yeah.How often do you treat yourselves to a nice meal?Depends on my wife’s mood, honestly.The wife of Jared is a great cook, and the food she prepares tastes absolutely amazing, For young couples like them living in a major city with low income, owning no apartment, and owning no car, being able to get married and live in a cheap rented room, with such harsh conditions is extremely rare, In reality even if the couple themselves agreed to it, the parents on both sides would usually try their best to stop them, When our parents first met at my place,her dad took one look around, thought we were dirt poor,
and wanted to turn right back around and leave.In the end, I had to do some serious smooth-talking, just to drag him back inside.My dad’s only issue was that the mountains out here were too high.But the mountains have nothing to do with us.It’s not like we’re moving back into the hills.Your life seems pretty comfortable right now.Not a whole lot of pressure.The pressure starts once you have a kid.Are you guys planning to have kids?We’re actually trying for a baby right now.The daily work of Jared mainly involves, taking online orders and writing computer programs for various clients, However he openly admits that this kind of work is highly unstable, This constant uncertainty about income, is actually one of the biggest pain points, of being a freelancer What are your plans for your career moving forward?Are you just going to keep things as they are?I’m looking at two different directions.First is developing my own products.Second is developing products for other companies.
But I’m leaning more toward working on products for companies.Another major pain point is personal laziness, Jared feels that working by himself at home, without the strict rules of a company makes him gradually become lazy, This lack of discipline causes him a great amount of distress, When I first started freelancing,I was incredibly driven, like I was constantly on a adrenaline rush.I treasured every single second of the day.The moment I opened my eyes in the morning, I’d jump right out of bed,sit straight down at my computer and start working.But now, that initial spark is kind of gone.These days, when I wake up, I just want to lounge around a bit more,or scroll through my phone in bed.I’ve gotten lazy.I’ve given this a lot of thought, though.And I think it’s just…an inherent laziness.It’s just hardwired into human nature.Like,if you stay in the same job for two or three years,you’ll end up feeling exhausted just the same.You just get hit with this unexplainable fatigue.
If you’ve ever worked a regular job you know exactly what that feels like.You don’t know why, but you’re just completely wiped out.But my current work setup feels pretty comfortable.I haven’t hit that wall yet.I still push myself to work hard every day.Currently Jared and his wife make a combined income of, around one thousand dollars per month, Compared to the first two years when he just started freelance work, his income has actually decreased significantly, The main reason behind this decline is, that the impact of artificial intelligence, is simply too massive AI has greatly improved the efficiency, of writing code which in turn has driven the pricing of the orders, Jared receives lower and lower, The more you understand AI, the more lost you feel.The smarter it gets, the more terrifying it becomes.You realize everything becomes too easy.Getting it to do something is just effortless.It literally takes a single prompt.If someone else figures out that prompt, they can do the exact same thing.
Does that scare you?However Jared is also modifying his daily workflow, and actively embracing artificial intelligence, He is striving to adapt so that he will not be wiped out, by this massive wave of the new era, AI allows me to learn things, I knew nothing about before.Before AI came along, when you ran into a technical bottleneck,you had to dig through piles of documentation.You had to figure out the cause, the effect, and all the context.Trudging through all of that took a massive amount of time.But now, grasping a new technology with AI might only take an hour or two.Because AI synthesizes all that knowledge for you.What percentage of your code do you still write completely by hand now?That’s hard to quantify.If I give a prompt to the AI and the output isn’t great,or it doesn’t quite hit what I’m looking for,I’ll write a sample code snippet myself,and then feed it back to the AI to optimize it for me.If it executes my idea flawlessly,I’ll actually study how the AI structured that code.
Writing code is a work state that Jared truly enjoys, However his current income can no longer cover, the basic living expenses of his household, Fortunately his schedule is relatively flexible, Every afternoon he chooses to go out and deliver food, to supplement his income, He uses this hard physical labor to support his current lifestyle, or just to avoid returning to a full time office job, When it comes to different jobs,I’m in two completely different zones.Do you know what my mindset is like when I’m delivering food?What’s it like?I just move incredibly fast.Will it be hard for you to keep up?Not at all.Alright, I’m logging on to take orders now.An order just popped up.Since you’re filming, I’ll adjust the settings.I’ll cap it at three simultaneous deliveries.What’s the most orders you’ve taken at one time?The most I’ve done is five at once.For delivering food Jared chooses a strategy of, taking multiple low paying orders, at the same time The orange dots are the pickups.
The green ones are the drop-offs.In China delivery riders have many different working modes, Riders can independently choose their own work intensity, based on their desire to earn money, The hourly wage generally ranges from two dollars to five dollars, For someone like Jared who works extremely hard with high intensity, his hourly wage barely reaches four dollars, Most delivery drivers constantly complain, about the high commission fees of the platform, and feel they are being exploited by capitalism, However Jared has a completely different perspective on this, As the courier pool gets overcrowded,the platform gains the leverage to drive down delivery fees.It keeps testing the waters to see how low it can go.From a capitalist perspective,cutting operational costs is simply their core mission.So I don’t see it as the platform maliciously slashing fees.The platform is inherently designed for its shareholders—it serves the capital.Making money is their sole purpose.
Otherwise, delivery platforms wouldn’t even exist, right?Exactly.In China almost all delivery riders ride modified and speeding electric bikes, If you do not modify your bike you simply cannot keep up with the delivery time, required by the platform and you will be eliminated by the system, However riding these speeding electric bikes, is extremely dangerous While Jared was making a delivery to a hospital, a very dramatic scene occurred, One of the orders he was carrying happened to be for another delivery rider, who had just broken his leg from a crashing accident while delivering food, Hey, man.Are you a delivery rider too?Yeah.Man, what happened to you?I hit a rock and wiped out.You hit a rock on your bike?Yeah.Oh shoot, you grabbed the wrong one.Sorry to trouble you.No worries.Hope you heal up soon!Is this the first time you’ve delivered food to an injured rider?He’s the first one who actually told me.He threw in a 10 RMB ($1.40) tip for me.The injured rider did that?Yeah.
If he’s injured and hospitalized will the platform cover his medical bills?Uh…honestly, I have no idea.The reality is that the delivery rider we just saw, most likely only has commercial accident insurance, paid out of his own pocket This is because the official work injury insurance, from platforms for delivery riders, did not officially start execution across all 31 provinces in China, until July 1st,2016, Under the new rules the system pays a daily living subsidy, based on the hospitalization time, provides grants for disability, and even reimburses the cost of crutches and protective gear, However the filming time of this video was May,2026, The delivery rider we just met did not have any of these subsidies, He will have zero income for several months, and still needs to pay the remaining 20% of the medical expenses by himself, Oh my god, it’s pouring!Is that enough?What do you mean by “enough”?Did you get enough footage?Yeah, I think so…You keep doing your thing.I’ll keep filming even in the rain.
I don’t mind getting wet.Do you usually head home when it rains?No, I stay out and keep delivering.The weather is not on our side, We have only been delivering food, for about 1 hour and it suddenly starts to drizzle, However we plan to follow his usual routine, exactly as it is, We will keep riding and delivering, through the light rain and we will decide what to do later, if the rain gets truly heavy How much do you make an hour on average?Around 23 to 30 RMB (about 4).But I only hit that during the evening rush.What’s the hourly rate during the day?During the day, there are a lot of dead hours with no orders.If I strictly stick to evening shifts, where the orders keep rolling in,my hourly rate shoots up.What’s the highest hourly rate you’ve ever made?Around 50 RMB (1.40) per order.Stacked five orders at once.
Knocked them all out in one go and made 50 RMB (415) a month.But I just can’t bring myself to do it.Right now, I’m just pushing to make 1,000 RMB ($140).Just enough to cover my rent.So you’re heading out to deliver less and less now, right?Yeah.Less and less.Are you just losing the motivation to do it?
Yeah, pretty much.It’s just like working a regular job for two years.Every day you open your eyes, you just dread going to work.Except here, I don’t have a boss breathing down my neck.If you’re at a company, they tie you down with performance reviews.With this, there are no KPIs.If I don’t deliver, I just don’t get paid today.Full-time delivery or a full-time office job which one would you choose?I’d choose delivering food.Why is that?Because I’ve gotten used to freedom.Once you get a taste of freedom, you can never go back.It’s just like trying out a wealthy lifestyle—you can never go back to how things were.The price of freedom is often a low income, For Jared freedom is definitely more important, than making money However freedom without a solid financial foundation, can easily turn into a fake freedom, Just like Jared right now when he has to go out and deliver food, simply to survive he has already lost a part of that freedom, What is more realistic is that if they have children in the future.
the pressure of life will force him to compromise with the market, The anxiety caused by this kind of future uncertainty, is not any lighter than the stress of, working a 996 schedule in a big tech company, Yet just as Jared said himself, he is already completely used to his current lifestyle, and there is no going back for the future, For the future he can only continue to move forward along this path, In the evening it was my treat to take Jared, and his delivery rider friend Steven, out for a barbecue dinner We talked a lot about his past experiences, and how he walked into his current life, step by step Please subscribe to my channel because I will share the content of, our deep conversation in the future, In addition Steven is a full time delivery rider, and the video documenting his entire day has already been posted on my main page, You are more than welcome to watch it, Thank you for watching and I will see you in the next video.
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