Why are we “pressed by life”?
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “ Chaos University ” (ID: hundun-university), author Liang Wendao.
What do we say when we say we are having a hard time?
At the beginning, Chaos University invited me to talk about the topic “2019, why are we so difficult”. My first reaction was :
Which year is easy? People find it particularly difficult in 2019, of course, it makes sense.
At a macro level, the situation in the world is not very good. If you are as concerned about environmental issues as I am, you will know that the results of the UN Climate Conference are not too ideal; when it comes to the country, people can feel the downward pressure on the economy; as a company, I am in a small company called “seeing ideals” It is also very difficult to work.
I have been in the media for decades, and I have many opportunities to communicate with others. Many young people told me that they could n’t find the opportunity to practice their ideals at work, and they felt distressed and stressed. Slightly older people said that they could not find their goals, and they were stressed … < / p>
Another very common word is “anxiety.” I spend about a third of my year in other countries, and I find that people in other countries rarely speak of the word “anxiety.” The general situation in China is that everyone is “anxious” and does not want to express it.
What the hell are you anxious about? It took me a long time to listen carefully. Those who told me anxiety were anxious.
“I am forced by life”
I find that many people like to use thisOne expression: “I am forced by life.”
For example, to do a job that I don’t like and often needs “996”. For another example, marriage, children, residence, retirement, etc., we all say “forced by life.”
This sentence is very interesting. There is something behind me that chases me, persecutes me, makes me breathless, and it is actually called “life”? Want to get rid of it, is it that we don’t want to live? If everyone wants to live, but they say they are forced by life, what are we talking about? When does life change from something we should embrace and enjoy, to something we must run away from and avoid? This is strange.
I know it best. I found that the biggest problem for young friends around me is: In order to maintain my life, I have to work, and the work itself puts a lot of pressure on us. For example, “996”, which became a keyword this year. In 2019, it seems that people in every field are facing 996 issues.
So, we usually say “forced by life”, which means that we are breathless from work. It is not a life at all. It is a livelihood. It is a job I use to maintain my life. So, we must first separate livelihood from life. When we are so tired and forced to work, we need to rethink a question: What is life?
Livelihood is not the same as life. It is a dichotomy that is very common today. It can also explain why many people work willingly in the “996” style. In publicly responding to the “996” controversy, Ma Yun said: “ We who can” 996 “should feel happy. Because everyone wants to be successful and respected by others, why don’t you redouble your efforts to get them? ”
This presentation structure is that we all want something, so we need to pay some price (double hard work).
There is a significant dualistic relationship between livelihood and life. In fact, this phenomenon only appeared late in human history. Probably after the Industrial Revolution, Chinese talents began to separate work and life. The typical sign is the appearance of Saturday and Sunday. The time rhythm system of Saturday and Sunday is also a product of the industrial revolution.
This in turnOne idea that has solidified us-work is painful, I am forced, and the real life stays on Saturday and Sunday. It ’s better to die at work, and to be happy after work.
This idea extends to all of our careers. What are those thinking about volunteering for “996” work? They are all eager to retire early and achieve financial freedom at an early date. After realizing financial freedom, I began to enjoy life.
This idea divides our lives into two halves. If you are lucky, you can divide the front and back equally. If you are unlucky, there is only a small piece of real Sunday in your life. You have been suffering for the first five or six days, “Forced by life” . This dual time structure has led to a new social order that no one can escape-we are gradually getting used to a new concept:
“Plan-driven life.”
The problem of “plan-driven life”
The word is actually used by many philosophers, anthropologists, and sociologists. The lives of our modern people are plan after plan, one thing after another. Open the mobile phone to see the schedule. Every job to be completed is called a terminating activity in linguistics, which means, The goal of this thing is to eliminate it.
Our lives are made up of countless end-of-life activities, such as exams, studying, going to college, postgraduate entrance examinations, when to earn the first bucket of gold after work, and when to start a business … >
This has encountered a problem that typical philosophers like to discuss: Desire . Desire itself is interesting, but once it is satisfied, it becomes boring. ^
When you reach your goal, you will not feel that your life is perfect from now on. Most of the time you just take a breath and then immediately start to feel empty and boring. Schopenhauer, a philosopher known for his pessimism in the history of philosophy, said: “ Life is a pendulum, always swinging between pain and boredom. Otherwise it is pain, it must be It ’s not boring. ” Why? It is because our lives are plan-driven. This kind of planning is problematic, because of a perfect plan, it usually fails perfectly .
First I want to show you a photo. This simple-looking house is now a small and well-known tourist attraction in Vienna, because the man who built it is one of the 20 greatest philosophers in the world, Wittgenstein.
Why is Wittgenstein interested in architecture? Because philosophy is to figure out the logic and principles of human thinking, this logic and principle should be very clear and organized like building a house.
So does his view of architecture. Therefore, the proportion of this house is very beautiful and complete, strictly in accordance with his requirements. The entire building was completed with his almost obsession with mathematics and logic.
In the history of architecture, this house is also very meaningful. —— It is a perfect failure building. What is perfect failure? Wittgenstein’s thinking changed completely in his later years, saying the house was “unhealthy.” The so-called “unhealthy” means that the house is very rigid. Because it only cares about the digital proportions and does not consider various issues such as light, people are not comfortable living in it.
This is a typical perfect plan that is implemented in the real world and then fails. It is also common in life.
Wittgenstein has a good friend, Adolf Ruth, who is a great architect. However, the two are very different. Wittgenstein wanted to present all his ideas about architecture in a perfect case, but Ruth was a person who had been building for his entire life. For him, every case has room for mistakes, and when there is compromise, he allows himself to try again and again in his long life.
The two English words Career and Job are familiar to everyone. From the etymology, Career originally refers to a flat road, while Job refers to a pile of coal or wood to be moved. This etymology already tells us the difference between the two: “ The work is a bunch of tasks waiting for us to carry them, and Career A long, theoretically evenSmooth road. ”
The misunderstanding we have now about work is that we see it as one task after another, not a road.
“Craftsman” and “Dedication”
Zh
In the early years, Marx spent a lot of time thinking about this question: What is the meaning of work?
He also sees that work should pursue a complete life, not a dualistic relationship between life and livelihood. He believes that my best life can be found at work. How to understand this wonderful state? It is the spirit of craftsman that is very popular today.
smith What is it? Marx said that craftsman is a form that gives form to material. For example, a piece of wood is carved into a wooden pole, and a stone is carved into a marble carving. And what is a tradesman? Of course it’s the people who do this kind of thing.
The special thing about a craftsman is that everything he makes has his own shadow. Why should I make a teapot better? Not because I want this teapot to be more popular than my previous teapot, but because in the process of making this teapot, my life is complete and my skills and knowledge are constantly growing.
Of course, if Marx is still alive, each of us will ask, how can I be a craftsman programmer at work in the company? So, I want to introduce another equally great founder of social science, Max Weber. He has used the term vocation in several important speeches.
It means that the more you engage in one thing, the more you will find that your knowledge, skills, and abilities are constantly accumulating, and you will increasingly feel that this is something I was born to do thing. You can feel this calling even if you don’t believe in God at all.
If you are doing cumulative work, how much coal and coal are moved today? There is no difference except the accumulation of quantity, but it is more tiring. But in your career, you will find that doing 10 things and 10,000 things is completely different.
Ability has changed, so has my understanding of myself. —— This is called Zhiye, it is not a profession. A career is the livelihood we talked about at the beginning, and it is the livelihood you have to do. When you are doing your career, your life is complete, or it is gradually being completed.
These two scholars, one is a craftsman, the other is a professional. I was talking about different things, but I put them in the same background, because two early modern thinkers saw the problems of the modern world very early : We Livelihoods and lives are cut apart.
We have absolutely no interest, meaning, or emotion in our work. My life and the meaning of life must be complete outside of work-what will happen if it is so divided for a long time? That’s what I talked about at the beginning. You are “pressed by life” and you feel bored after doing everything.
I have some friends who are pursuing retirement at the age of 40. He really did. After retirement? More boring. This is because your life is not dedicated, you have not lived as a craftsman. Your life is a series of Jobs, without a Career.
I know that these words are a bit extravagant for many very young friends. They think, I don’t like what I’m doing, but I have to do it to make money. What should I do?
Buddhists like to say “Live in the moment”. I think that even a person without any such spiritual background can understand the secular meaning of “living in the present.”
Most people find it difficult today because our goals are not in sight, in the future.
Suppose I’m going to go home and treat home as a final action. I just want to go faster and more efficiently. But you can also change your perspective. What if I do n’t call it “home” but “walk”? The purpose of a walk is itself .
Unfortunately, most of us Chinese will not take a walk today, but only look at mobile phones and watches to remind ourselves how many steps we have taken. Almost everyone lacks enjoyment of the process, eating for one thing, walking for one thing, Doing everything is for something other than itself . Can such a plan-driven life be difficult?
Your achievements are not in the future, they are now
Zh
Finally, let me give you a suggestion that sounds boring. There are many things in this world that make us unsatisfactory, Mencius said, The poor are alone, and the world can benefit the world . We cannot change a lot of things, but at least we can do it alone. Also, what if you just do nothing for nothing? Is there any problem with this pure waiting time?
Sociologists specialize in waiting time. They found that people are less and less good at waiting now, and waiting becomes a completely blank, meaningless time . Everything we do is based on the elimination of waiting states. ^
But our ancestors once had no opinion on waiting for this. People who loved someone before would write to her. For example, when I am a soldier outside the Yumen Pass and write a letter back to Changan, it may take two to three months or even half a year to send this letter back.
Such a long waiting time, do you suffer? Bitter, but there is a special taste in it that we do not understand today. Today, we sent a WeChat saying “Do you love me?” You did n’t reply for three seconds, but you did n’t love me.
Similarly, can we experience the waiting time on the way home from a different angle? Can it be regarded as a blank, tormenting and painful thing without regard to it? So in the end I want to say that 2019 is not harder than 2017 and 2018, and even next year may be harder than this year. When we ca n’t change a lot of things, Only adjusting your subjective feelings about hardships This subjective feeling determines how you think about work.
I believe many people have encountered difficulties this year, but if we do n’t look at the tasks this year, but see what we have accumulated in our lives, then this year ’s difficulty is like a more difficult stone. Know, as a sculptor, I will never encounter only good materials.
I hate being used as a life coach by others, but I do n’t know why. Philosophers always like to talk about these things in the end. I do n’t want to use something pureThe amount of empty talk to encourage everyone, but seriously think that looking at human history, our views on life, work, and occupation are all problematic.
Don’t be trapped by “difficulty,” or even decide where to go in the future.
At a macro level, the situation in the world is not very good. If you are as concerned about environmental issues as I am, you will know that the results of the UN Climate Conference are not too ideal; when it comes to the country, people can feel the downward pressure on the economy; as a company, I am in a small company called “seeing ideals” It is also very difficult to work.
What the hell are you anxious about? It took me a long time to listen carefully. Those who told me anxiety were anxious.
I find that many people like to use thisOne expression: “I am forced by life.”
For example, to do a job that I don’t like and often needs “996”. For another example, marriage, children, residence, retirement, etc., we all say “forced by life.”
This sentence is very interesting. There is something behind me that chases me, persecutes me, makes me breathless, and it is actually called “life”? Want to get rid of it, is it that we don’t want to live? If everyone wants to live, but they say they are forced by life, what are we talking about? When does life change from something we should embrace and enjoy, to something we must run away from and avoid? This is strange.
I know it best. I found that the biggest problem for young friends around me is: In order to maintain my life, I have to work, and the work itself puts a lot of pressure on us. For example, “996”, which became a keyword this year. In 2019, it seems that people in every field are facing 996 issues.
So, we usually say “forced by life”, which means that we are breathless from work. It is not a life at all. It is a livelihood. It is a job I use to maintain my life. So, we must first separate livelihood from life. When we are so tired and forced to work, we need to rethink a question: What is life?
Livelihood is not the same as life. It is a dichotomy that is very common today. It can also explain why many people work willingly in the “996” style. In publicly responding to the “996” controversy, Ma Yun said: “ We who can” 996 “should feel happy. Because everyone wants to be successful and respected by others, why don’t you redouble your efforts to get them? ”
This presentation structure is that we all want something, so we need to pay some price (double hard work).
There is a significant dualistic relationship between livelihood and life. In fact, this phenomenon only appeared late in human history. Probably after the Industrial Revolution, Chinese talents began to separate work and life. The typical sign is the appearance of Saturday and Sunday. The time rhythm system of Saturday and Sunday is also a product of the industrial revolution.
This in turnOne idea that has solidified us-work is painful, I am forced, and the real life stays on Saturday and Sunday. It ’s better to die at work, and to be happy after work.
This idea extends to all of our careers. What are those thinking about volunteering for “996” work? They are all eager to retire early and achieve financial freedom at an early date. After realizing financial freedom, I began to enjoy life.
This idea divides our lives into two halves. If you are lucky, you can divide the front and back equally. If you are unlucky, there is only a small piece of real Sunday in your life. You have been suffering for the first five or six days, “Forced by life” . This dual time structure has led to a new social order that no one can escape-we are gradually getting used to a new concept:
“Plan-driven life.”
The problem of “plan-driven life”
The word is actually used by many philosophers, anthropologists, and sociologists. The lives of our modern people are plan after plan, one thing after another. Open the mobile phone to see the schedule. Every job to be completed is called a terminating activity in linguistics, which means, The goal of this thing is to eliminate it.
Our lives are made up of countless end-of-life activities, such as exams, studying, going to college, postgraduate entrance examinations, when to earn the first bucket of gold after work, and when to start a business … >
This has encountered a problem that typical philosophers like to discuss: Desire . Desire itself is interesting, but once it is satisfied, it becomes boring. ^
When you reach your goal, you will not feel that your life is perfect from now on. Most of the time you just take a breath and then immediately start to feel empty and boring. Schopenhauer, a philosopher known for his pessimism in the history of philosophy, said: “ Life is a pendulum, always swinging between pain and boredom. Otherwise it is pain, it must be It ’s not boring. ” Why? It is because our lives are plan-driven. This kind of planning is problematic, because of a perfect plan, it usually fails perfectly .
First I want to show you a photo. This simple-looking house is now a small and well-known tourist attraction in Vienna, because the man who built it is one of the 20 greatest philosophers in the world, Wittgenstein.
Why is Wittgenstein interested in architecture? Because philosophy is to figure out the logic and principles of human thinking, this logic and principle should be very clear and organized like building a house.
So does his view of architecture. Therefore, the proportion of this house is very beautiful and complete, strictly in accordance with his requirements. The entire building was completed with his almost obsession with mathematics and logic.
In the history of architecture, this house is also very meaningful. —— It is a perfect failure building. What is perfect failure? Wittgenstein’s thinking changed completely in his later years, saying the house was “unhealthy.” The so-called “unhealthy” means that the house is very rigid. Because it only cares about the digital proportions and does not consider various issues such as light, people are not comfortable living in it.
This is a typical perfect plan that is implemented in the real world and then fails. It is also common in life.
Wittgenstein has a good friend, Adolf Ruth, who is a great architect. However, the two are very different. Wittgenstein wanted to present all his ideas about architecture in a perfect case, but Ruth was a person who had been building for his entire life. For him, every case has room for mistakes, and when there is compromise, he allows himself to try again and again in his long life.
The two English words Career and Job are familiar to everyone. From the etymology, Career originally refers to a flat road, while Job refers to a pile of coal or wood to be moved. This etymology already tells us the difference between the two: “ The work is a bunch of tasks waiting for us to carry them, and Career A long, theoretically evenSmooth road. ”
The misunderstanding we have now about work is that we see it as one task after another, not a road.
“Craftsman” and “Dedication”
Zh
In the early years, Marx spent a lot of time thinking about this question: What is the meaning of work?
He also sees that work should pursue a complete life, not a dualistic relationship between life and livelihood. He believes that my best life can be found at work. How to understand this wonderful state? It is the spirit of craftsman that is very popular today.
smith What is it? Marx said that craftsman is a form that gives form to material. For example, a piece of wood is carved into a wooden pole, and a stone is carved into a marble carving. And what is a tradesman? Of course it’s the people who do this kind of thing.
The special thing about a craftsman is that everything he makes has his own shadow. Why should I make a teapot better? Not because I want this teapot to be more popular than my previous teapot, but because in the process of making this teapot, my life is complete and my skills and knowledge are constantly growing.
Of course, if Marx is still alive, each of us will ask, how can I be a craftsman programmer at work in the company? So, I want to introduce another equally great founder of social science, Max Weber. He has used the term vocation in several important speeches.
It means that the more you engage in one thing, the more you will find that your knowledge, skills, and abilities are constantly accumulating, and you will increasingly feel that this is something I was born to do thing. You can feel this calling even if you don’t believe in God at all.
If you are doing cumulative work, how much coal and coal are moved today? There is no difference except the accumulation of quantity, but it is more tiring. But in your career, you will find that doing 10 things and 10,000 things is completely different.
Ability has changed, so has my understanding of myself. —— This is called Zhiye, it is not a profession. A career is the livelihood we talked about at the beginning, and it is the livelihood you have to do. When you are doing your career, your life is complete, or it is gradually being completed.
These two scholars, one is a craftsman, the other is a professional. I was talking about different things, but I put them in the same background, because two early modern thinkers saw the problems of the modern world very early : We Livelihoods and lives are cut apart.
We have absolutely no interest, meaning, or emotion in our work. My life and the meaning of life must be complete outside of work-what will happen if it is so divided for a long time? That’s what I talked about at the beginning. You are “pressed by life” and you feel bored after doing everything.
I have some friends who are pursuing retirement at the age of 40. He really did. After retirement? More boring. This is because your life is not dedicated, you have not lived as a craftsman. Your life is a series of Jobs, without a Career.
I know that these words are a bit extravagant for many very young friends. They think, I don’t like what I’m doing, but I have to do it to make money. What should I do?
Buddhists like to say “Live in the moment”. I think that even a person without any such spiritual background can understand the secular meaning of “living in the present.”
Most people find it difficult today because our goals are not in sight, in the future.
Suppose I’m going to go home and treat home as a final action. I just want to go faster and more efficiently. But you can also change your perspective. What if I do n’t call it “home” but “walk”? The purpose of a walk is itself .
Unfortunately, most of us Chinese will not take a walk today, but only look at mobile phones and watches to remind ourselves how many steps we have taken. Almost everyone lacks enjoyment of the process, eating for one thing, walking for one thing, Doing everything is for something other than itself . Can such a plan-driven life be difficult?
Your achievements are not in the future, they are now
Zh
Finally, let me give you a suggestion that sounds boring. There are many things in this world that make us unsatisfactory, Mencius said, The poor are alone, and the world can benefit the world . We cannot change a lot of things, but at least we can do it alone. Also, what if you just do nothing for nothing? Is there any problem with this pure waiting time?
Sociologists specialize in waiting time. They found that people are less and less good at waiting now, and waiting becomes a completely blank, meaningless time . Everything we do is based on the elimination of waiting states. ^
But our ancestors once had no opinion on waiting for this. People who loved someone before would write to her. For example, when I am a soldier outside the Yumen Pass and write a letter back to Changan, it may take two to three months or even half a year to send this letter back.
Such a long waiting time, do you suffer? Bitter, but there is a special taste in it that we do not understand today. Today, we sent a WeChat saying “Do you love me?” You did n’t reply for three seconds, but you did n’t love me.
Similarly, can we experience the waiting time on the way home from a different angle? Can it be regarded as a blank, tormenting and painful thing without regard to it? So in the end I want to say that 2019 is not harder than 2017 and 2018, and even next year may be harder than this year. When we ca n’t change a lot of things, Only adjusting your subjective feelings about hardships This subjective feeling determines how you think about work.
I believe many people have encountered difficulties this year, but if we do n’t look at the tasks this year, but see what we have accumulated in our lives, then this year ’s difficulty is like a more difficult stone. Know, as a sculptor, I will never encounter only good materials.
I hate being used as a life coach by others, but I do n’t know why. Philosophers always like to talk about these things in the end. I do n’t want to use something pureThe amount of empty talk to encourage everyone, but seriously think that looking at human history, our views on life, work, and occupation are all problematic.
Don’t be trapped by “difficulty,” or even decide where to go in the future.
Zh
In the early years, Marx spent a lot of time thinking about this question: What is the meaning of work?
He also sees that work should pursue a complete life, not a dualistic relationship between life and livelihood. He believes that my best life can be found at work. How to understand this wonderful state? It is the spirit of craftsman that is very popular today.
smith What is it? Marx said that craftsman is a form that gives form to material. For example, a piece of wood is carved into a wooden pole, and a stone is carved into a marble carving. And what is a tradesman? Of course it’s the people who do this kind of thing.
The special thing about a craftsman is that everything he makes has his own shadow. Why should I make a teapot better? Not because I want this teapot to be more popular than my previous teapot, but because in the process of making this teapot, my life is complete and my skills and knowledge are constantly growing.
Of course, if Marx is still alive, each of us will ask, how can I be a craftsman programmer at work in the company? So, I want to introduce another equally great founder of social science, Max Weber. He has used the term vocation in several important speeches.
It means that the more you engage in one thing, the more you will find that your knowledge, skills, and abilities are constantly accumulating, and you will increasingly feel that this is something I was born to do thing. You can feel this calling even if you don’t believe in God at all.
If you are doing cumulative work, how much coal and coal are moved today? There is no difference except the accumulation of quantity, but it is more tiring. But in your career, you will find that doing 10 things and 10,000 things is completely different.
Ability has changed, so has my understanding of myself. —— This is called Zhiye, it is not a profession. A career is the livelihood we talked about at the beginning, and it is the livelihood you have to do. When you are doing your career, your life is complete, or it is gradually being completed.
These two scholars, one is a craftsman, the other is a professional. I was talking about different things, but I put them in the same background, because two early modern thinkers saw the problems of the modern world very early : We Livelihoods and lives are cut apart.
We have absolutely no interest, meaning, or emotion in our work. My life and the meaning of life must be complete outside of work-what will happen if it is so divided for a long time? That’s what I talked about at the beginning. You are “pressed by life” and you feel bored after doing everything.
I have some friends who are pursuing retirement at the age of 40. He really did. After retirement? More boring. This is because your life is not dedicated, you have not lived as a craftsman. Your life is a series of Jobs, without a Career.
I know that these words are a bit extravagant for many very young friends. They think, I don’t like what I’m doing, but I have to do it to make money. What should I do?
Buddhists like to say “Live in the moment”. I think that even a person without any such spiritual background can understand the secular meaning of “living in the present.”
Most people find it difficult today because our goals are not in sight, in the future.
Suppose I’m going to go home and treat home as a final action. I just want to go faster and more efficiently. But you can also change your perspective. What if I do n’t call it “home” but “walk”? The purpose of a walk is itself .
Unfortunately, most of us Chinese will not take a walk today, but only look at mobile phones and watches to remind ourselves how many steps we have taken. Almost everyone lacks enjoyment of the process, eating for one thing, walking for one thing, Doing everything is for something other than itself . Can such a plan-driven life be difficult?