Prioritize Long-Term Growth Over Short Tasks | Generated by AI
Question: Does Zhang Yiming’s (ByteDance founder) advice to his Nankai University classmates make sense — where some wanted to pay off their mortgage sooner by doing part-time outsourcing projects, but he thought it was not a good idea because it’s repetitive labor work that doesn’t help in the long term?
Answer:
Yes, Zhang Yiming’s perspective makes a lot of sense, especially when viewed through the lens of long-term career growth, skill compounding, and opportunity cost — principles he has emphasized in various talks and writings about personal development and work.
From what is publicly available in his reflections (particularly from his Nankai University alumni sharing and early career insights):
- Zhang himself did take on many outsourcing projects during university (building websites, fixing computers, etc.), which helped him earn money, gain practical experience, and even meet his wife. So he wasn’t against side projects or freelancing in principle — he benefited from them early on.
- However, the key distinction is context and life stage. In college, those small outsourcing gigs were low-risk ways to build skills, earn pocket money, and learn real-world programming. They had high learning value when you are starting from zero.
When advising classmates (likely post-graduation or early-career), the situation changes:
- Repetitive / labor-intensive outsourcing (e.g., building similar CRUD apps, maintenance work, low-complexity freelance coding) often becomes maintenance-heavy rather than creative or skill-building. It trades time for immediate money but rarely builds deep, differentiated expertise or leverage.
- Paying off a mortgage faster via this route sounds responsible, but it can trap someone in a short-term optimization loop: you grind evenings/weekends on low-leverage work → reduce debt a bit faster → but delay investing time in higher-upside activities (learning advanced skills, building products, networking, joining/growing innovative companies, starting something of your own).
- Zhang has repeatedly stressed qualities like curiosity, long-term orientation, high standards, and choosing work with compounding effects over purely transactional labor. He observed that many talented classmates/colleagues stagnated because they didn’t pursue work with greater leverage or learning potential.
Why it makes sense in most cases
- Opportunity cost is high for technically capable people (especially software engineers from good universities like Nankai). Spending 20–30 hours/week on $20–50/hour repetitive coding gigs might pay the mortgage 1–3 years earlier, but it could cost you years of skill growth, network building, or equity upside in a high-growth company/startup.
- Compounding works in skills and career capital just like money. Time spent on repetitive work has low compounding; time spent on challenging, innovative, or high-responsibility projects compounds much faster (better roles → better learning → better future opportunities).
- Financially, unless the mortgage interest rate is extremely high (rare in China for housing loans), the return on investing in yourself usually outpaces the interest savings from early payoff. Many successful Chinese tech people (including in ByteDance’s orbit) prioritized career acceleration over ultra-early debt freedom.
When it might NOT make sense to follow his advice
- If someone has very high-interest debt or urgent financial pressure (medical, family support), short-term cash flow has to come first — outsourcing can be a rational bridge.
- If the person truly enjoys the work and has no higher-aspiration goals, then steady outsourcing + mortgage payoff can be a perfectly valid lifestyle choice.
But for most ambitious, technically skilled young professionals (the audience Zhang was likely addressing), his view aligns with a high-agency, long-term-maximizing mindset. Prioritizing leverage, learning, and optionality over grinding repetitive labor usually leads to much better life outcomes — even if it means carrying the mortgage a few extra years.
In short: yes, his reasoning holds up well for people who want outsized long-term results rather than just steady, linear progress.
References:
- Zhang Yiming’s reflections on college outsourcing projects and early career insights
- Nankai University alumni sharing by Zhang Yiming (Chinese)
- Pandaily summary of Zhang Yiming on characteristics of outstanding youth and classmate observations