These past few days, the popularity of OpenClaw has been gradually spreading, and many friends around me have been asking how to install it. Everyone who has successfully installed it is excited and amazed.
This reminds me of two past eras: In the 1990s, when building PCs, I could spend an entire afternoon researching the motherboard, graphics card, and RAM parameters. The dial-up modem would ring, and after a few minutes, I’d be ready for the next image—thinking back now, I realize I was not excited about the technology itself, but about the sense of "I understand the underlying logic." Later, pre-built brand computers became popular, and ordinary people no longer cared about AGP slots or southbridge chips. In the early 2000s, the Windows Mobile wave was similar: flashing ROMs, installing third-party software, turning phones into computers—geeks thought the future had arrived. Then the iPhone came out, directly eliminating complexity, not even allowing you to see system folders. Today, people playing with AI Agents are just as excited—configuring models, tuning APIs, calculating tokens—just like the PC building enthusiasts of the past. But history never lies: technological breakthroughs → DIY prosperity → platform integration → user indifference. AI is still in the "assembly era," but that "iPhone moment"—the one that hides complexity—may not be far off. The true force that changes the world is never the group that understands the most technology, but the platform that allows even non-technical users to use it.
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These past few days, the popularity of OpenClaw has been gradually spreading, and many friends around me have been asking how to install it. Everyone who has successfully installed it is excited and amazed.
This reminds me of two past eras:
In the 1990s, when building PCs, I could spend an entire afternoon researching the motherboard, graphics card, and RAM parameters. The dial-up modem would ring, and after a few minutes, I’d be ready for the next image—thinking back now, I realize I was not excited about the technology itself, but about the sense of "I understand the underlying logic."
Later, pre-built brand computers became popular, and ordinary people no longer cared about AGP slots or southbridge chips.
In the early 2000s, the Windows Mobile wave was similar: flashing ROMs, installing third-party software, turning phones into computers—geeks thought the future had arrived. Then the iPhone came out, directly eliminating complexity, not even allowing you to see system folders.
Today, people playing with AI Agents are just as excited—configuring models, tuning APIs, calculating tokens—just like the PC building enthusiasts of the past.
But history never lies: technological breakthroughs → DIY prosperity → platform integration → user indifference.
AI is still in the "assembly era," but that "iPhone moment"—the one that hides complexity—may not be far off.
The true force that changes the world is never the group that understands the most technology, but the platform that allows even non-technical users to use it.