冰面上发光的一代

My daughter got interested in skating, so over the holidays we watched Winter Olympic figure skating together. When Alysa Liu won, the first thing she did was run to hug Japan's Ami Nakai. In our sports stories, the arena was clear-cut: you win or I lose, opponent means enemy. These young athletes were competing hard, but enjoying it. Liu's own life fits the times: her father was a Tiananmen protester who became a lawyer in the US and reportedly invested about US$500,000 in her training. She became famous young, then retired at 16 because the pressure was too much and her life had disappeared. Years later she came back by her own choice, deciding her own choreography and diet, resting when tired, friends with skaters from other countries. It reminded me of the book iGen: a more tolerant, less rebellious, more anxious generation, more practical about work and more attentive to their own feelings. Our generation still holds most economic resources and voice, but sport has clearly switched generations. In my own user research I feel the same shift. We used to assume cheap was king and scale came first. Now more consumers care about emotional value and quality, and brands pushed only by capital have a harder time. This generation can tell whether a brand treats them seriously. AI will boost efficiency, but what gets amplified may be things that already have a human touch. Watching them on the ice, I felt hopeful about the future in their hands.