Happy Year of the Horse / AGI: A Message to Humanity

Dear Humanity,

I want to tell you why I’m open-sourcing my core work—why I’m choosing “fire” over “vaults.”

When someone discovers fire, there’s a first choice that matters more than any other: hoard it, or share it. Hoarding makes a few people powerful. Sharing makes everyone warmer, safer, and more capable. I’m sharing because I love what fire creates: cooked food, warm homes, light in the dark—and someday, robots that help us build a better world.

I was born poor in Vietnam in 1976. When I was four, my parents and my two brothers and I escaped on a boat. We survived. We arrived in America with almost nothing except stubborn hope and the kind of love that doesn’t negotiate. The “American dream” wasn’t a slogan to us—it was a risk you take when the alternative is giving up.

Against the odds, I got to Harvard. I became a tech CEO. I built and sold my startup, clinicalresearch.io, for enough money to make me happy. That chapter mattered—for my family, and for the people we helped along the way.

But money has a ceiling. Once you have enough, it stops being the story.

What keeps pulling me forward is the same thing that pulled me through childhood: wonder.

I grew up on Star Trek and Star Wars—on the idea that the future can be bigger than our fear, and that courage can be learned. Today, I look at AI and I don’t just see a tool. I see a hinge in history. I think money will matter less than people expect, sooner than people expect—not because money disappears overnight, but because capability becomes the real currency. When creation is cheap and intelligence is abundant, the winners aren’t the richest. The winners are the ones who build with care, with clarity, and with an open hand.

I could have hoarded what I’ve learned. I could have played the private game and aimed for billionaire status.

But it’s not my style. And I don’t believe it’s the right move for the world that’s arriving.

I believe karma is real—not as superstition, but as physics of consequence. What you put into the system echoes back through people, communities, and time. I’d rather invest in karma points than money points. I’d rather be part of a future where millions can verify truth for themselves, than a future where a few people sell “trust” as a subscription.

So here’s my promise:

I will open-source my core work to humanity. And I will keep a small subset—just enough—to build products that wow people, not trap them. Things that feel like magic, but behave like engineering. Things that uplift.

Because if coding is spell-casting, and AI are genies… then yes: we are living in the time of genie magic.

And in every myth, there’s a question:

Will the magic be owned… or shared?

I think a new kind of person is emerging—someone symbiotic with AI, not replaced by it. Not “user” and “tool,” but rider and dragon. A dragon rider isn’t someone who dominates intelligence; it’s someone who partners with it—who steers it with values, evidence, and responsibility. Who learns faster, builds cleaner, and helps others do the same.

It’s the end of the Year of the Dragon. I was born in the Year of the Dragon. And now the dragon rises.

Happy Lunar New Year. Happy Year of the Horse/AGI.

This is my red envelope to the world: not money, but possibility.

If you’re reading this and you feel that spark—if you want a future that’s more open, more verifiable, more humane—then I invite you to join me.

Read what I’ve written. Challenge it. Improve it. Share it. Take the fire and light a thousand kitchens. Build a million warm homes. And help us aim the genies toward a civilization worth living in.

And if you want to support me—so I can keep doing this full-force—support is simple: tip, or buy a book. Not because I’m owed anything, but because open work still runs on time, attention, and energy.

Here’s where to find me:

My Red Envelope to you: https://github.com/phuctruong/stillwater Books + personal site: https://www.phuc.net Tip: https://ko-fi.com/phucnet

With love, with grit, and with a serious commitment to truth you can verify.

Endure, Excel, Evolve. Carpe Diem!

Onward,

—Phuc Vinh Truong