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Do Not Lose Your Tangible “Prize” for Sweet-Sounding Praise

发布时间：

2026-09-04

Do Not Lose Your Tangible “Prize” for Sweet-Sounding Praise

Sun Zuodong

Most people are familiar with the ancient fable The Fox and the Crow. A crow perches on a branch holding a piece of meat in its beak. Instead of seizing it by force, the fox below heaps lavish compliments, extolling how wonderfully the crow can sing. Carried away by flattery, the crow opens its beak to belt out a song, and the meat drops straight down. The fox walks off with the meat effortlessly.

This little tale remains highly instructive for today’s world. The fox never resorts to brute-force robbery. Instead, it spins illusions with honeyed words, luring its target into voluntarily giving away something precious.

If we reflect carefully, many of us have been like that crow. Told you have “great vision”, you surrender interests you ought to have safeguarded. Praised for your “lofty mindset”, you grow reluctant to stand your ground or negotiate terms. You may save face outwardly, yet lose what truly matters inside. When real hardship strikes, none of those who sang your praises will offer you so much as a sip of water.

Not every compliment is worth trading your hard-won gains for.

Countless new concepts keep emerging across today’s emerging industries. Brain-computer interfaces, artificial intelligence, humanoid robots — these are forward-looking fields brimming with potential, promising much for the future and worthy of our anticipation. Even so, we must stay level-headed: amid surging capital flows, expectations are frequently overhyped and inflated. Many promotional narratives frame technologies still in experimental phases as all-purpose solutions ready for widespread real-world deployment, drawing public attention with grand storylines.

We do not deny the intrinsic value of such technologies. Cutting-edge science and technology will indeed reshape the future. Still, we must draw a clear line between conceptual visions and practical implementation. Appealing storylines and ornate rhetoric are just like the fox’s compliments. Drenched in excessive praise, one may easily get carried away and mistake imagination for reality. Ordinary members of the public and investors may well hand over their hard-earned wealth and trust amid rounds of applause.

This phenomenon is by no means confined to the tech sector; it can be observed across all walks of life. At times, people care less about tangible outcomes than about how compelling a story sounds. Take farmers tending their land and grain: land is the foundation of survival. Should they be misled by beguiling narratives and abandon their fundamental assets too readily, they will end up losing their vital footing.

The crow in the fable was not at fault for possessing the meat. Its mistake lay in failing to resist beguiling sweet talk. True wisdom is not to reject all praise outright, but to learn to distinguish objective facts from self-serving flattery meant to secure advantages.

We may hold high hopes for new technologies, yet we must not get swept up in conceptual bubbles. We ought to pay closer attention to hard experimental data and real-world deliverables, instead of indulging solely in rosy fantasies. Praise may be heard, but never give away what you value most merely because of flattering remarks.

Many traps in the world do not come in the form of blatant plunder. Instead, they are wrapped in flowers and applause. By retaining rational judgment, telling visions apart from reality, and keeping your head amid flashy rhetoric, you can safeguard your own hard-won gains. The fox’s compliments are merely its stratagem, while the meat in your mouth is what underpins your security and livelihood.