Progress and retreat, happen independently, and coexist.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Add a little less class” (ID: lishaojia2015) , author Li Shaojia.
“You must always run to stay in place.” – “Alice in Wonderland”
Many people feedback:
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The ability to advance rapidly in the first few years of work, after three or five years, capacity bottlenecks, income growth slowed down;
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You know everything, but the reality is often hit, and you can’t solve it;
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I often feel inexplicably anxious, unhappy, and most of the concerns have never happened;
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All walks of life, the “leadership backbone” of mediocrity and good form can be seen everywhere like ;;
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……
At first glance, the above events are irrelevant.
The only commonality is that it occurs in greasy mature adults.
There is an unwritten golden rule in the field of economics that gives us inspiration – economic growth can solve all the intractable diseases (although no one knows exactly what happened).
Under the enlightenment of economics, it is not difficult for us to find an insightful answer to the above problem – progress is stagnant.
When an adult “stagnates”, the above events will be triggered at the same time.
But, and slow, this answer is unacceptable to many of us – you said that my ability to work is stagnation is acceptable, but in amateur (after school) time, we try to recharge and learn, why do we think we have stopped improving?
The answer is very simple – we are still “progressive”, but the step of “regressing” is bigger!
I am not a word game.
“Progress” and “Regression” have never been a relationship between one or the other, black and white. They both exist independently from beginning to end and coexist.
It’s just that we only see the former in the long run and ignore the latter.
Similar relationships, as well as development and aging.
Intuitively, aging occurs after development stops. But the fact is that aging and development occur simultaneously from birth, but the apparent changes in development are conspicuous, concealing the concealment of aging.
Before eradicating the extensive intractable diseases caused by “regression”, it is necessary for us to first figure outWhat “regression” will be transparent in our cognitive world, so that we hurt us invisible?
I.Transparent “regression” in thinking
“Learn well, go up every day.” ——Admission slogans for generations
If two independent events support the same point of view, then this view can easily be disguised as truth.
Of course, this is for people who lack the ability to think. (This is also a common trick for scammers to fool middle-aged and older people.)
But don’t forget, when we were young, whether you are “less alert, beautiful” or “talented”, but after all, the cerebral cortex has not matured, in the end “lack of speculation.”
At this stage, there are two separate events happening simultaneously:
1. The intuitive feeling of school education, the higher the grade, the more knowledge, the more knowledge, and at the same time, our body is growing taller… All signs are unintentionally “learning” and “progressing” An equal sign.
2. In order to overcome insecurity, human infants and young children have adopted a very simple strategy – the belief of forming a “fair world assumption” – efforts should be rewarded.
For example, study hard and go up every day, especially in line with this belief. (This belief is likely to be rooted in genes during a long evolutionary process.)
These two independent events point to an obvious conclusion:
Progress = learning.
Social psychology tells us that once the roots of belief formation are forgotten in the years, this belief will become unbreakable.
This explains why most people are affected by their childhood experiences throughout their lives.
In the deep-rooted belief of “progress = learning”, if you progress slowly and progress is stagnant, it is purely lazy and not working hard. Regression? It’s awkward.
But if one day you find out that you have learned a lot, you have not progressed, but you have regressed. What will happen?
As I said just now, human beings rarely question the beliefs and values that young people are deeply rooted in, which exacerbates our fear of “resolving” and “reverse facts.”
The only reasonable explanation is that the problem lies with oneself.
You will question your ability, doubt your IQ, and feel desperate about learning.
Or go to the other extreme, indulging in the quick-funding theories of scammers, such as the recent quantum “speed reading”.
Worse, your anxiety about “progress” is not easy to talk to, and it is a matter of dignity.
If you are suffering from thisFrom now on, you can be relieved.
The nature of human thinking determines that in the “learning” (regardless of narrow or broad sense), the retreat and progress are the positive and negative aspects of gold coins, they are always delivered together, and the frequency of recurrence occurs. Progress is as common as usual.
Here, Li Shaojia will explain from the shallower to the deeper, from the cognitive, psychological, belief, and spiritual levels. How does “regression” happen, and how do we fight with the “backflow vortex”? Fighting. (The level of belief has been detailed in the topic a brief history of self-destruction, click on the underline link to review)
Second, the darkness before dawn, the retreat that must pass before progress
It’s generous and it’s late. ——The Tao Te Ching
But there is something that makes him panic: he argues with his colleagues, the answer is no longer the flow, the response is slow, and many conclusions are no longer certain.
If you encounter this situation, do not panic. This is a normal phenomenon in the process of knowledge growth.
Unlike the exams in the student era, you can “answer” if you know the relevant questions. If you don’t understand, you will lose points. In the “test” model, the more you know, the greater the probability of correct answers mean. ( exam is an ideal subject of human coined, is a “closed knowledge”, the “right”, “wrong” parts)
But the real world is an “open” model with open questions and open answers.
In the real-life model, as the knowledge (knowledge material) increases, the number of raw materials available for thinking analysis increases, which inevitably increases the complexity of “brain computing”, which is why the response is slow.
Second, more insights mean that you can see the shortcomings of the “good answer”, but how to fix the drawbacks or come up with a better answer, you can’t internalize new knowledge, naturally you can’t make a “better answer” “So, there is a feeling of “unsure of many conclusions.”
In order to facilitate a more intuitive understanding of the relationship between knowledge and ability, I drew a cognitive model of the brain. Note that the figure below is a cubic sphere, not a sphere.
The surface area of the sphere represents our knowledge, that is, all the general knowledge accumulated.
So, does the volume of the sphere represent our ability?
No.
Our ability (that is, internalized knowledge) is only the volume of the spherical shell, and the vast hollow area inside the spherical shell represents our ignorant area;
But this ignorance, I call it “lowercase ignorance”, that is, the ignorance we can realize.
It’s not hard to understand that the more we learn, the larger the surface area of the sphere and the larger the volume, the more ignorance we can realize.
The growth rate of ignorance is always greater than known. (The ratio of sphere volume divided by surface area is one-third of R.)
This is the old saying: the more people you know, the more you feel ignorant.
The infinite area outside the sphere belongs to the “ignorance of capitalization”, that is, the ignorance that we can’t even imagine.
This model is very inspiring, it elegantly explains what happens when we learn, and what is going on:
Your knowledge increases, meaning that “lowercase ignorance” is also increasing, and your ability (internalized knowledge) is temporarily unable to cover this new area, and it is bound to be associated with you (previously Internalization) creates conflicts and disorders.
It is the disorder caused by the tearing of the “ignorance vacuum” of new knowledge and old knowledge, allowing you to experience the feeling of “regression”.
Nature always inadvertently reveals the truth. If you look at life with your heart, you will find that this is more in line with the real logic:
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If you want to jump very high, then you must first squat very low.
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You want to hit a punch, then you have to take a step back.
In short, in order to progress, you have to tolerate regression.
It is quite ironic that all kinds of successful scholars, successful knowledge writers, and mad people are pursuing “progress”, but few “necessary retreats” are mentioned (I have not seen anyone). How long will this change the reader’s mind?
If we keep a close eye on “progressive” feedback, zero tolerance for a short “regression” means that we can never achieve “substantial progress.”
So, how do we dissolve the dark side of the regression?
The idea is both difficult and simple – first of all, understand the principle (just explained), accept your own cognitive confusion, backward state, maintain a normal heart, give yourself a little time.
Secondly, as I have repeatedly told “The dark intelligence” students said that learning is the most greedy and greedy, but “natural”, “slow”, trying to connect and practice between old and new knowledge, waiting for knowledge and skills. Internalization. ( “Slow” learning also has a benefit, it can precipitate knowledge, make a strong network of connections between old and new knowledge, reduce the rate of forgetting, can effectively avoid the “use and retreat” effect, not to “learn by the side Forget.)
The above is only a “regression” at the cognitive level. Let us look at the psychological level below.
Three, Psychological Vision: Return to Ignorance
“The standard for testing first-class intelligence is to see if you can have two opposite ideas in your brain and maintain your ability to act normally.” – Fitzgerald
Study in a certain field, a higher threshold, or more “market value” of “progress”, often reflected in the depth of knowledge (fine and complex) in the field.
But when we try to be in depthBefore the real “progress” is achieved, it will inevitably face a “paradox of knowledge backtracking”, that is, we need to revisit familiar things with strange visions.
This is not easy to understand. Let’s take a look at the picture below. Below, what did you see?
Can you think of it as a collection of “-“s drawn on a plane?
Is it harder than I thought?
It is difficult for us to get rid of the impact of the familiar “square” concept on our “psychological vision”.
After knowing a lot, it is necessary to maintain a kind of “visual” that knows very little, which is more difficult than we expected.
The systematician Kaufman has explained this phenomenon precisely. “Our view of the world depends on our neural system and language interaction (knowledge), both of which are filters that affect Things we can see…”
Our “psychological vision” is characterized by the reshaping of its own knowledge, which determines the relationship between “regression” and “progress”.
Like we breathe the air, you can’t just ask for oxygen, but keep the nitrogen out.
It’s not hard to imagine that every time we master a new concept, like the above cube, it means that we have to “dismember” it in our thinking and see it as a “flat line segment” becomes more difficult. ( This is also known as the “curse of knowledge”, that is, it is difficult for human beings to imagine what the world of people who “do not know a certain knowledge” looks like.)
When we want to take our professionalism a step further, it is essential to “familiarize familiar things”. This process, “regression” will happen at any time.
Here, I use “writing” as an example to illustrate how much challenge we face when we break through the bottleneck of writing.
No matter what your job is, writing is the basic skill we must master. The level of writing is a reflection of your professionalism and has a profound impact on career development.
In general, a person’s writing level will go through three distinct major stages:
(The following grading is just my shallow understanding, and has nothing to do with professional and formal literature)
Phase 1: Translate ideas into symbolic languages.
At this stage, writing is a “painting board” in “Psychological Vision”, and what is thought of is drawn on it.
The writing level of most people in the workplace stays here (of course, some people paint well, some people paint poorly, the level of the same stageThe difference is still large).
The writing level at this stage is sufficient for work communication, emailing, and “recognition of merits”. But if you can raise the level to the next stage, it’s easy to stand out.
Phase 2: Weaving ideas into a “story” that captures readers
At this stage, writing is a “commodity” in your mental vision. You are not so much at writing as you are making a tempting commodity.
However, from the stage to the second stage of the breakthrough process, you will experience the “backtracking” difficulties:
On the one hand, your thinking is focused on presenting your own ideas (ie, the “painting board” of stage one). On the other hand, you have to stand on the “reader’s perspective” to cater to each other’s ideas (story), which are conflicts. of.
It’s quite counterintuitive that the better your previous “painting” paintings, the more difficult it is for you to break through (staged) from stage one to stage two. This is the negative impact of “psychological vision.”
Therefore, when trying to break through the stage, you will experience the feeling of “regression”. For example, the text is not as smooth as before, and the emotion is not so real.
Similarly, when we want to upgrade Phase 2 to Phase 3, we will feel a stronger “regression” pain. I am currently in, and will be at this stage for a long time.
The principle of “regression” is the same as above, and will not be repeated.
Phase 3: Carve ideas into intriguing works of art, pursuing a certain “immortal” component, transcending the value of time.
Maybe you will say, then I am comfortable with the status quo, do not expect self-breakthrough, can not avoid the risk of “regression”?
But let’s not forget that in reality, we often inadvertently learn the wrong concept without knowing it. These “wrong knowledge” will also affect mental vision.
For example, the “magic” effect of various health products has long been confirmed to be no different from ordinary food, but for many years, it has been regarded as a standard by many people, and he has to spend a lot of money to “tonic.”
Is these people stupid? This is not the case. It is more affected by the “psychological vision” after learning new knowledge (good or bad). It is even harder to monitor and correct such “regression”.
For example, it is difficult for ordinary people to understand Einstein’s theory of relativity. The reason is that it is difficult for us to abandon the deep-rooted psychological vision of “time does not exist.”
How to get rid of the negative effects of “psychological vision” brought about by knowledge?
Two suggestions:
1.Soft thinking
Abandoning the non-black and white, non-right and wrong rigid thinking, although this is more difficult than it seems, but we only need to remember one point,