Begin To Think
Home
This blog post was translated by Mistral
In the “Shallow Talks on the Secrets of Life” article, it is mentioned that approaching life with a relaxed attitude and enjoying contemplation is probably the secret of life. However, I often forget this myself and it’s necessary for me to write another article as a reminder.1. In this increasingly competitive world, I have come to realize that thinking is becoming increasingly important. In the financial and tech world, knowledge is becoming more valuable. For those who invest, making money is an easy task. For Buffett and Dalio, if they had no money and no connections today, they could still become wealthy through investing in stocks. For those who write, gaining influence is an easy task. For them, they understand society’s desires and know how to fulfill them. For those who enjoy hands-on exploration, writing good code and finding good jobs is an easy task. For them, they are curious about how things work.
All these are knowledge. Knowledge mainly relies on self-study. A teacher’s role is rather small. The main point is that everyone is an ordinary person. It’s hard to meet a good teacher. At school, the main point is for students to rely on themselves. Genetics are important. And self-study, whether it’s reading books or watching videos, has a limited effect. For self-study, the most important thing is thinking.
This year, I have thought about finding a big company to work for and looked at job listings on Boss directly. I started looking at Java engineer, Java technology expert, and technical manager positions. I came to realize that although I have programmed using many languages and done many projects, my technical level is still at a relatively beginner stage. Although I looked around at everyone, my level seemed not too bad, only I had done various things for several years, while others had studied and accumulated in one direction for several years, so naturally they were more proficient in that direction. I came to realize that maybe the real difference between us was not time but how much we had thought about that direction. Mann, a physicist who won the Nobel Prize, participated in the investigation of the Challenger space shuttle explosion in 1986 as an external expert. His investigation and thinking led to the discovery of the cause, having a significant impact on the investigation results. He was not the designer of the spacecraft, nor did he participate in its launch or related work, but he was the first to find the cause. This is the significance and value of thinking.
In the past, when I studied programming, I directly googled for answers to problems. I was programming towards Google. When encountering problems, I hated to wait for answers immediately. When a solution required reading an English article, I couldn’t bear to finish it and instead looked for simpler and more concise answers. It was like Sister Bao Bao on Douyin saying, “Sister, focus on the main points.” I also googled for answers, but when faced with lengthy webpages, I said to them in my heart, “Brother, focus on the main points.” I have been studying programming this way for a long time, solving one problem after another by searching on Google. If you ask me what I have learned programming, I find it hard to tell you. However, I have been able to solve many problems.
I have always wanted to learn machine learning. I read a book on it on the WeChat Reading app and occasionally read related articles. However, I haven’t practiced or thought about it. When I wanted to pick up the book again, I realized I had read too many books in the past. I realized that it’s not about reading, but about thinking. If I hadn’t spent an entire day thinking about machine learning, pondering over the knowledge points I had learned, and using my own knowledge and experience to think about the essence and applications of machine learning, then reading the book would have been pointless. The knowledge in the book won’t magically appear in my head, only my brain can come up with it.
I often find reading books tedious, as I don’t fully engage my brain when listening to others speak or reading what others have written. However, when I take the time to think, I find that thinking is more enjoyable. I can take my time to ponder, and I don’t force myself to think too quickly. We don’t read too slowly, but rather too quickly. We soon forget what we have read. I have realized that although I often think and ponder, my thinking is not deep or broad, but rather a repetition of certain things. After writing a six-thousand-character article on “What I Will Do in the Future,” I realized that I had been pondering these things for several years, yet I had not thought more deeply or more broadly. If I could think deeply about many things and write several thousand words about my reflections, I could become wiser and more at ease in this fiercely competitive world.
Writing is a good complement to thinking. We can only write clearly if we have thought things through. Writing is like teaching what we have learned to others. The more we write well, the more we teach well. When we write and clarify things, we sometimes discover new ideas. That’s why I often use “I have realized” as the opening for my articles. I write this way because I often find myself thinking of new ideas after writing something down. I treat writing as a form of thinking. Writing, exchanging ideas with friends is certainly good. However, I have found that writing is most beneficial to myself. After writing “The World of Desire,” I discovered that I saw the world differently. Begin to understand each person’s desires, leading people to have a new perception of this society and world. I realized that sometimes, when I add friends on WeChat, they may not reply to me. For instance, when it comes to finding a job, I told a former colleague that they might not reply to me right away, but if I approached them on Boss Direct, they might respond more quickly. I realized that when I contacted friends, the matter was more about them, they would definitely reply. For example, when they posted a plea for help or an introduction on their Moments, I would immediately private message them, and they would definitely reply, as it helped them fulfill their desires. However, if I had something I wanted from them, they might not reply, as it was about my desire.
There are quite a few examples. Although I have many friends on WeChat, who can provide me with a job or help me find one? This depends entirely on them. This only happens if their company or team is hiring and they can introduce me, giving them a chance to earn money by doing so. In this case, it matters that they benefit from it. Some friends are also my customers, who have given me projects. However, whether they hire me or not depends on their company’s hiring situation and whether I am a good fit. So, as “The World of Desire” says, feelings are becoming less important, what’s important is desire, and what drives the world is desire.
Recently, I read an article “My Failure and Greatness: Interview Recruitment Techniques,” written by a friend. He tried various recruitment methods, including his QQ group and contacting individuals personally. In the end, he found that Boss Direct was effective. Trying to persuade someone to change their established path to join my startup company is difficult. Trying to persuade someone to switch to another company is also challenging. Everyone is smart and has their growth plans. The world is driven by desire, and when we want to recruit, we can only talk to those who want a job, and this is how we match desires. It’s hard to make someone who doesn’t have this desire at the moment want it. Changing people is difficult, so we have to go with the flow. I also want to find a good job, and I can make it happen in my social circle, it’s just a matter of having the right timing. It’s like when friends approached me for freelance work, by the end of the year, one friend or another would come to me. Let’s understand the value of time. There’s a way to spend two to three months finding a job, during which time I continuously tell everyone that I’m looking for work. This is similar to fundraising. Showcasing abilities and using time to seize opportunities. This also depends on what kind of job I’m looking for, a 30k, 50k, or 80k salary job. At this point, I need to understand the desires of various companies. Which companies will appreciate me, which people will appreciate me. These years of software project clients, why do they trust me?
I realized that many projects came to me through friend introductions. So I can also approach these friends to ask, which companies are expanding now, which companies are in desperate need of someone with my background, and then have them write a letter of recommendation for me. I can search for recruitment information in my social circle, ask friends for recruitment information, let friends search for recruitment information in their social circles, research publicly available information, and learn about the moves of large companies from some friends. I’ve strayed a bit off topic with that, but it’s an example of thinking. Have I figured out the origin of every software project I’ve encountered? Have I figured out why every event unfolds?
We can live without knowing what we’re living through. In school, I didn’t know what I was experiencing, or what the world was going through, or what my future would hold.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about what my future will be like. Maybe I’ll have children, growing up with them, taking them to school, arguing with my spouse about their issues. Maybe my parents will get old and fall ill. Maybe I’ll get sick myself. Maybe I’ll have worked hard for years, saved some money, and ended up staying put. Maybe China’s wealth gap will widen, the economy will stagnate. Maybe society will face aging, with many elderly people around. Maybe the entire society will become a low-desire society. What changes will the future bring, and what doesn’t change is what? I write vaguely. This means I haven’t thought it through, haven’t clarified my thoughts. Each point here is worth careful consideration, is it really like this, what is the likelihood of it happening.
Thinking has both breadth and depth, knowledge has both breadth and depth. Similarly, the knowledge I have about computers, what have I thought about, what have I pondered deeply, how much of it is truly in my head, how much can I use to compare with other things. Begin to ponder a type of thing, only then will you fall in love with that type of thing. I’m not interested in many things, in fact, it’s because I don’t think about them enough, I lack sufficient curiosity. For instance, cooking, when we begin to ponder, the essence of cooking is what, why do we use oil to stir-fry, why do we add water sometimes, how to make it more efficient, how to tell which kinds of dishes need to be stir-fried for how long and cooked for how long. When we spend a whole day pondering these questions, we will find that we are very interested in cooking. We use oil to stir-fry because the boiling point of oil is higher than that of water, the temperature is higher, allowing meat and vegetables to cook faster.
Similarly, for machine learning, there are many things to ponder. Is autonomous driving a hoax? Why is autonomous driving possible? Why isn’t autonomous driving impossible? What fields can machine learning be applied to? What is machine learning exactly? Is the world driven by algorithms? What does the algorithm really mean?
When we ponder these questions for a day, we will find that we are eager to read books and seek answers.: My actions depend on where I am and the environment. When I go back to my hometown, I play with elementary school classmates. When I live in a community, I often go to the basketball court which is just a hundred meters away. A person’s behavior is a responder to the environment. What I do depends on the environment, the surrounding objects, the people around, and the physical world around me, as well as the digital world at hand. Where I am, who is around me, and what I’m thinking and wanting to do.
City and countryside differ in many ways. In the city, people work and commute to and from work by car or public transportation, take out mortgages or rent houses, and live by serving others. In the countryside, people have busy and idle farming seasons, do household chores, and live off their own produce. twenty years ago and now what’s the difference? In childhood, our house was roughly the size of a courtyard, with simple furniture. In the countryside, we cooked rice in a pot on a fire, fried vegetables on a square table-top television but had no signal, had to run to the neighbor’s house to watch kung fu dramas, had a bicycle, plastic red stool, no network, no mobile phone, had to go to nearby convenience stores to use the phone, squat toilets, used a ladle to wash, heated water for bathing with coal. Raised chickens and pigs. Washed clothes by hand. The night sky was dark after 9 pm.
Now, around twenty years later, our house has undergone significant changes. Redwood furniture, 65-inch small Mi TV, two desktop computers, three laptops, two Macs, multiple Apple, Huawei, and Xiaomi phones, multiple old computers and old phones, a washing machine, a dishwasher, four air conditioners, two cars, a refrigerator, an oven, a water purifier, natural gas broadband network, a coffee table, a water heater, multiple juice extractors, soy milk makers, noodle machines, a printer, two standing fans, abundant fish and meat, and plenty of fruit that no one eats.
Therefore, the world has undergone significant changes in these twenty years. The things in my house were once provided by others. The changes in my house reflect the changes in society. They reflect the changes that have taken place in society over the past twenty years, as people continue to produce and manufacture. This means that the future will also continue to change in this way. People will always strive for more convenient and comfortable lives. I tried various methods to make money, but I only realized the long-term value of fair transactions when I focused on creating a product or service, setting a price, and making fair deals with people. It doesn’t matter if the product or service is grand. A breakfast stand at a community entrance satisfies people’s needs and makes fair deals, enabling it to continue for a relatively long time. I also realized, like Apple Inc., I don’t need to frequently advertise. I only need to occasionally promote it. The key is to provide quality products or services, find the target audience, satisfy their desires, and make fair deals. Most of my time during the year should be spent building the product or service.
Looking back at our lives, we find that most of the knowledge we possess is self-taught, acquired through our own practice and reflection. However, when we study various articles, videos, and materials to learn on our own, the knowledge does not automatically enter our minds; instead, we must think deeply about it, ponder, and question it. Let us all think deeply about everything, and we will become stronger and more capable of solving increasingly complex problems and facing greater challenges.