Just do it

Song Gil-young

The author is a data analyst and writer.

When one person at a marketplace cries out that a tiger has appeared, people pay little attention. The second time, they also dismiss the claim. But when a third voice repeats the warning, everyone begins to tense up and move. 

The Chinese idiom saminseongho captures this lesson, and social psychologist Solomon Asch later proved it through experiments. He showed that when people were asked to judge the length of lines, they doubted their own eyes if others gave the wrong answer. The effect was strongest when the number of people providing the misinformation was three.

Three, then, is not just a number. It marks the threshold where suspicion becomes conviction, rumor becomes truth and possibility becomes reality. That is why a third voice, a third testimony, carries special weight. After my first book “Era Forecast” (2021), I now return with a third volume. Perhaps this follows the same principle.

The first book, “The Era of the Nuclear Individual” (2021), examines how each person gains the power to choose their own life, standing as a single point of independence. The second, “The Calling Society” (2022), observes how those points are drawn together into lines of connection. The third, “The Birth of a Lightweight Civilization” (2025), argues that these lines now form a new order. Civilization, it suggests, is shedding "heavy" structures for "lighter" forms of cooperation. Human intelligence is combining with artificial intelligence (AI) to establish new rules of production and collaboration, creating a world more agile and profound.

Since publication, I have spoken about these ideas in many places. Audiences, caught between expectation and anxiety, often raised two common questions.

The first was, “How should our children prepare?” My answer: “Adults must learn more than children.”

Today’s children are born in the age of AI. Like a fish in water, they will swim naturally, cooperating with AI to achieve more than we could before. The problem lies with adults like me. Born before AI, we learned only how to work with other people. We are like land mammals suddenly faced with rising water, forced to master new ways of breathing. That is why adults must work harder to learn.

The second question was, “Must we really accept this change?” My answer is unequivocal: “Just do it.”

The reason is that a "light" civilization involves not consumption but production and cooperation. Consumption can be a matter of choice. If one dislikes e-commerce, one can still shop at a traditional market. It takes more time, costs may be higher and carrying heavy bags to the car and then home is inconvenient, but that remains a personal option.

Production, however, leaves less room for choice. A reporter submitting an article must use the newsroom’s system. Even from a remote location, the desk and editors must receive information in real time. If one insists on writing in calligraphy instead, collaboration becomes impossible. In a light civilization, where broad and deep cooperation is routine, those who reject innovation inevitably lose opportunities to participate.

Now, “nuclear” individuals are augmented by AI, competing with organizations. Light individuals forming horizontal unions will outpace complex old structures, with agility as their advantage. For those trying to remain productive, entering a light civilization is not optional. A more efficient order will push any "heavy" civilization into decline.

Consider again the number three. One point is potential. Two points create a line but still appear coincidental. The third point creates a trajectory, revealing intention. Today, our third point is “light.” The center of gravity is shifting from heavy to light, from centralization to combination, from command to protocol. This is the trajectory of a new order, where human intelligence joins with an artificial one.

Evolution toward efficiency is inevitable. It is not a matter of personal choice. My 2021 book was titled “Do Not Just Do It.” Yet in this time of civilizational transition, the advice must change.

“Just do it.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.