I often see terms like “class beauty” and “school beauty” on X, Xiaohongshu, and even in novels. But in reality, consensus around these titles isn’t as concentrated as one might think—it’s actually quite dispersed. I remember before the Gaokao, a few guys in my class were casually chatting during lunch about the prettiest girls in our class. We were surprised to find that each of us had a different girl in mind as the most attractive. In other words, there was general agreement on which girls were considered beautiful—but the title of “class beauty” was split among three or five different girls. And this was just a sample from the boys; if the entire class had voted, the distribution would likely have been even wider. So every time I hear terms like “department beauty” or “school beauty,” I just take it with a grain of salt. A single class can have three or five class beauties; a whole university might have dozens—or even hundreds—of school beauties. Of course, there are exceptions. When someone like Liu Yifei emerges, all other titles naturally fall to her. Back then, in the class next to ours, there was a girl with a celebrity face—very similar to the “milk tea girl” aesthetic—and the boys in her class had extremely concentrated consensus because her beauty was a level above everyone else’s. She was almost certainly the undisputed “grade beauty” across the entire senior year. I suddenly thought of this because a few days ago—I can’t recall which blogger—I saw a Tweet about first-order, second-order, and third-order problems in crypto trading. First-order: retail traders start researching a coin’s fundamentals. Second-order: retail traders start researching how other retail traders view the coin. Third-order: developers or whales study when retail traders will begin analyzing how others perceive the coin—and then manipulate accordingly. First- and second-order dynamics are classic Keynesian beauty contest theory: First-order: Who is the most beautiful? — Retail traders Second-order: Who do people think is the most beautiful? — Smart money / higher-tier players Third-order: When will people start asking “Who do people think is the most beautiful?” — Devs / Whales Third-order devs and whales time their利好 announcements, pump runs, and hype cycles strategically—like posting a photo of a popular girl on the campus bulletin board at just the right moment. First-order looks at Value (fundamentals). Second-order looks at Consensus. Third-order looks at Consensus Acceleration. Ultimately, what we’re trading isn’t just the asset—it’s consensus itself, and the speed at which consensus forms. As I wrote this, it struck me that this is also analogous to options theory: First-order: Spot (Is this girl actually beautiful?) Second-order: Delta (Are more and more people starting to see her as class beauty?) Third-order: Gamma (Is the number of people who believe she’ll become class beauty accelerating?) Given recent market conditions, shouldn’t you sell a coin when Gamma peaks—like Pons? Damn. I feel like I just realized this a little too late.