The “Tortoise Philosophy” is Raymond Hou’s (Raymond’s) long-standing response to his background and circumstances. It can be summed up in a line he often uses to describe himself: “He runs fast, so I’ll go explore the ocean floor.” This belief compares life to the race between the tortoise and the hare, but rejects competing on the same track the hare has chosen. Instead, it changes the track and the standards of evaluation. Its foundation is Raymond’s blue-collar family background and the process by which his early resentment over class inequality gradually became a drive to act and escape the “average fate.” This entry synthesizes several public reflections from 2017 to 2025. Specific details about his family of origin, economic disparities, and personal resentment fall within the scope of privacy; this entry records the argument, development, and evidence for the belief without reproducing those details.
The Belief’s Argument
Raymond treats one’s background as a set of starting conditions, not a verdict on personal worth. He often summarizes the disadvantaged person’s circumstances this way: “The cruelest thing in reality is encountering someone who has a better background than you, is smarter than you, and may even work harder than you.” He brings his response down to one question: “Then what is something I can do?” This question replaces complaint and self-pity, becoming the operational core of the Tortoise Philosophy. The conclusion is not “work hard and you can catch up with the hare.” Rather, it acknowledges that diligence cannot erase the gap on some tracks, so the real option is to find a different ocean. For Raymond, “exploring the ocean floor” means leaving a single yardstick of achievement—grades, elite universities, and large companies—and redefining oneself in a field with different standards of evaluation (see Growth Mindset).
From Resentment of the Rich to Action
The early form of the Tortoise Philosophy carried a clear resentment over class inequality. In a 2018 introduction on the Youzhi WeChat account, Raymond described himself as “born into a blue-collar family, once resentful of the rich, harsh toward people, and disgusted by this unequal society.” At the same time, he set a goal: “to be a hard-working, optimistic tortoise in the race between the tortoise and the hare, with a place to stand.”1 These two statements together show the turning point in the belief: resentment was the starting point, but he chose not to remain in the emotion. Instead, he turned it into an inclination to act and “keep a place to stand.” Looking back in 2025, this emotion had settled into a more neutral structural observation. Using a “Taiwan privilege scale” proposed by an online user, he rated himself as an “ordinary person” with a relatively low starting score. He focused on the thought that “I cannot take the conventional path to achievement and produce a different outcome, so I need to study how to use the internet, technology, and information.” This redirected recognition of inequality toward methodology rather than resentment.2
Its Relationship to a Blue-Collar Background
The Tortoise Philosophy draws concrete nourishment from Raymond’s account of his blue-collar background. He has said many times that people who first meet him often assume he grew up privileged, while those who know him well learn the truth. As a teenager, he sometimes avoided talking about the nature of his family’s work; as an adult, he began acknowledging it publicly and even included having helped at construction sites as part of his account (details in Childhood and Adolescence). This background gave him firsthand experience of the fragility of “using material things to gain group acceptance,” which he calls “fake connections.” It also led him to separate “being good at something” from “loving it”: the conventional path asked him to compete on whether he was good at something, so he chose to redefine what he would compete over through what he loved. This distinction later became the underlying logic behind changing majors twice, leaving a stable career path, and moving toward self-employment and content creation (see Six Years at National Cheng Kung University: Changing Majors Twice and Extending Graduation and Career Development).
Evidence and What Followed
The “success side” of the Tortoise Philosophy became visible after Raymond left the conventional track. Writing, remote freelance work, and later a solo business helped him achieve on a non-mainstream track what would have been difficult to reach on the original one (see Writing Takes Off (2017–2018) and Super Individual). The “failure side,” or cost, is the long-term exposure to mockery and uncertainty along this path, which requires continual momentum from survival pressure and self-efficacy. Raymond once added this reminder to himself: “No one needs to fit a particular role expectation especially closely in order to live. You may dislike people who step outside their roles, but please do not curse them.” This line responds to the labels he faced and extends the Tortoise Philosophy from a personal survival strategy into a stance that accepts different ways of living. He also frames this belief as a case to refer to, not copy wholesale, warning that the same choice could be a story for one person and an accident for another.
Sources
Footnotes
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Raymond Hou, “[365-Day Countdown] About Us—How Much More Can We Imagine?” WeChat public-account article, 2018-08-15. View original ↩
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Raymond Hou, “What Is Your Score on the Taiwan Privilege Scale?” public Facebook post, 2025-12-31. View original ↩