Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao: Hiring Based on Proactivity
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao told students at a book club in Hong Kong that the only criterion for joining Binance is proactivity. The company operates remotely, making it easy to slack off for a few hours a day; lacking proactivity can lead to no results in two months. He mentioned that he deals with many matters and often forgets them, generally not following up; if someone does not proactively report, and after two months he asks about progress only to find out they worked for a week and then stopped, he will fire that person. He needs subordinates to push progress to him, rather than waiting for the boss to check performance. The host noted that everyone present had to constantly email the organizers and submit questions to be selected. The event took place on the 40th floor of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and after a red rain warning, he landed at 3 AM and appeared in the morning, with attendees from universities such as HKU, HKUST, CUHK, Imperial College, and LSE.
He broke down proactivity into two points: 80% of success in life is about showing up; if you don’t participate, you miss opportunities; and considering what not to do is often more important than what to do, as few people cut out ineffective actions when responding to every message. The discussion also touched on working at large companies for two to five years, Hong Kong's Web3 having advantages in finance and talent, while the impact of electricity costs on AI is not obvious. The book is a type of entrepreneurial memoir titled "The Binance Life," not a new personnel policy document.
The buyer is a crypto exchange looking to fill remote positions; the seller is a founder who translates proactivity into observable behavior. The focus has shifted from licensing and litigation narratives to recruitment slogans. Beneficiaries are remote employees who can drive progress themselves; those under pressure are positions that wait for checks before taking action. The event was driven by open discussions, not layoff announcements.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Zhao Changpeng shifts management costs onto the memory of subordinates. The founder not following up equates project status to an employee's survival obligation. In a remote company without workstation supervision, two months without results is the only dashboard. Firing someone who "worked for a week and then stopped" uses forgetfulness as a filter: only those who can remind him are worthy of staying in the contact list. Showing up accounts for 80%, equating socializing with opportunity; the entry ticket is already an email bombardment, mirroring Binance's recruitment tone.
The capital path is for global remote organizations to reduce office space, replacing middle management supervision with proactivity. Binance leverages this to extend its structure across multiple time zones, while compliance and product advancement are pushed onto individuals. After experiencing regulatory settlements and serving time, he re-emerged at the book club, shifting the narrative of discipline from courtrooms to campuses. Money remains in trading and blockchain infrastructure, but the criteria for selecting people are framed as personality tests. Not doing something is more important than doing something, reflecting product logic under scarce attention: responding to every message makes it impossible to accomplish tasks requiring two months of constant pushing.
The benchmarks are Bezos's written memo culture, Musk's distrust of remote work, and the consulting industry's "don’t make me chase you" mentality. The current phase is control: remote empires use proactivity as attendance. Control lies with those who can turn a forgetful boss into a regular push in the inbox.
Structurally, technology replaces office supervision. The mechanism is: after space disappears, follow-up shifts from manager responsibility to employee responsibility; those who cannot self-broadcast progress will be eliminated within a two-month cycle. Proactivity is not a virtue advertisement; it is the operating system of remote companies.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
- In places where the boss does not follow up, proactivity is attendance.
- If results cannot be delivered in two months, remote positions will disappear.
- Showing up accounts for 80%; not responding to every message is necessary to complete a task.