This article comes from the WeChat official account:Mr. L said (ID: lxianshengmiao) , author: Lachel, title figure from: vision China
How do people grow up and become stronger? Regarding this question, different people will have their own answers.
Some people may think: Only through setbacks and failures can people grow up;
Some people may think that the growth of a person is lifelong learning, constantly breaking through the past self;
Some people may think that only by experiencing as many things as possible can people really grow up…
Are these correct? We are all. But I want to think about and discuss this issue from a lower perspective.
Let’s review ourselves:
When we go to college, you will feel that it seems that a new door has been opened, and I have never thought of a lifestyle like this.
When we graduated from college and started looking for the first job, you will find that the knowledge you learned in the past does not seem to play a role. You need to adapt to society.
And when you have a certain career and certain achievements, you will feel that the understanding of this world will be more profound, and the angle and perspective of the problem will be completely different…
This is how a person grows up. It can be said that growing up means constantly using new cognition, breaking old cognition and rebuilding one’s own way of thinking.
What is its essence?
If we view the world as a naturally evolved, large and complex system that distinguishes our “mental world” from the “real world”, then we can say:
The process of becoming stronger is actually the fitting of “mental world” to “real world”.
This is the foundation of everything and the root of everything.
What is the “mental world”?
Since we were born, our brain has been performing a difficult task: modeling the world.
What do you mean? Our brain will “guess” what the world looks like through input from the outside world. This is the “mental world”. Then, by intervening with the outside world and obtaining feedback, this “guess” is corrected and adjusted to bring the “mental world” closer to the true appearance of the “real world”.
What does this “mental world” include? Specifically, it can be divided into three parts: concepts, rules, and frameworks.
The concept is our naming of everything in the external world. For example: every bird is different, but we all call them “birds”; every book is different, but they are all called “books.”
Concepts are the basis we use to understand the world. With concepts, we can think about the outside world.
But concepts alone are not enough. In the real world, different things will be connected through various relationships and interact. The way of this connection is called the rule.
For example, the reason why we go to work is because we (and the company) accept this set of rules: we complete the tasks assigned by the company , The company pays us a salary;
The reason why we go to the supermarket to buy things is that we believe that under the actual industrial supply chain, the things in the supermarket are reliable and formal, which is the rule;
In the event of a problem, we can also fight for our legitimate rights and interests through complaints. This is also the rule.
Rules are both motivation and constraints.
Finally, the framework. What is a framework? It refers to: our mental world, from the “known” part to the “unknown” part when exploring and trying, a set of thinking methods followed.
An example: When children read stories and watch movies, they always like to ask: who is good and who is bad?people? This is a kind of “framework”. In the minds of children, people in the world can always be simply divided into good people and bad people. Therefore, when a new person appears, he is either a good person or a bad person-this is an exploration of the “unknown” using the framework.
These three are in fact closely connected: rules can help us understand the new situation and provide us with a “framework” to think about and deal with new problems; and the way we deal with new problems and new situations can be reversed. Come here to precipitate and refine into new “rules” to enrich our mental world.
And these rules and frameworks we have accumulated, we will name them, categorize, organize, and store them to help improve our “concept” system.
What is a good model? Your “mental world” is constantly absorbing external information, constantly expanding its boundaries, trying to fit the external real world, and extracting new concepts, rules, and frameworks from it to optimize and update old models.
This is a growth cycle.
Why is the mental world the essence of growth? Because, all the inflow of our information must be interpreted by the “mental world”; similarly, we, all our external actions, must also be spread out through the “mental world”.
So, if the mental world is inconsistent with the real world, we will be in trouble.
An example: Many people will always fall into a trap when reading and studying: learning is to be skilled, and I remember everything, that is, learning well.
This is actually wrong. The reason for this is that we have a deep-rooted “exam” thinking: everything has standard answers, and I am going to “do it right” for my answers.
This is bound by the “rules” of the past. They did not realize that school and society are two sets of rules. This set of rules that apply in schools does not apply in society. What we want to pursue is not rote memorization, but integration.
Similarly, many novice managers who have just brought a team have difficulty changing their roles. They still get used to getting started when they encounter problems because they still maintain the framework of an “executor”: I want to get things done. Therefore, it is difficult to bear the feeling of initial running-in, authorization and “out of control”.
But in fact, management is not about doing the transaction at hand—the transaction can never be done. The essence of management is that you can cultivate a strong team to deal with new problems. This requires you to be able to adjustAdjust your own thinking framework, transition from the old model to the new model.
So, why are some people more comfortable facing the same new situation and new problems? Why is it that at the same starting point, some people can adapt to the environment faster and find their own rhythm? The main reason is that they can more effectively update their mental world to adapt to changes in the external environment.
This is also the characteristic of “wisdom”. A wise person does not lie in how good his memory is and how fast his brain turns, but in whether he can always keep an open mind, quickly understand new situations, and adjust his state in time so that he can always ” be ready”.
Psychologist Robert Sternberg has proposed a “triple model of intelligence” (Triarchic theory), which includes: dealing with new situations Ability (Creative intelligence), ability to adapt to changes in the environment (Pratical intelligence)< /span>, and analytical capabilities (Analytic intelligence).
So, we said that a person grew up, what is it? It means that he can realize that the outside world has changed. The old mental world and mode of thinking may no longer be applicable. I need to adjust the parameters to better fit my “mental world” to the new external world.
This new fitting is not to destroy the reconstruction, but to optimize on the old model, so that the mental world can “fit” a wider variety of models.
However, as I wrote in a patch for the brain: every step we take is training our brain.
Similarly, all the concepts, rules and frameworks we have acquired have not only expanded the boundaries of the mental world, but also been the cage that bound us.
Why do you say that? Because the mental world will be “reinforced” and “solidified”. Simply put: the longer you stay in the same position, the more familiar you will be with it. Then, It will be more and more central in your mental world. You will be more inclined to start from it, take it as the center, look at other things, and let other things adapt to it.
I call this phenomenon the “centralization effect”.
Take a simple example: if you are in a department and the department’s ethos is to please the boss, then over time, you will be accustomed to dealing with problems with a “fawning” mode of thinking. This is a framework.
You don’t think about it anymore: Is this thing good, right, or should it be done, but it will put “whether you can please your boss” first-even if you change the environment, it is difficult jump out.
Even your mental world will change accordingly. You would think that the job is to please the boss, and everything else is sideways and useless. This belief will firmly occupy the center of your “mental world” and form a new and solidified “rule”. This is centralization.
Similarly, if you use a method to solve a problem for a long time, you will develop a path dependence on this method and ignore other paths;
Long-term stay in a certain position, a certain skill, you will be trapped by it, it is difficult to adapt to the state of leaving it;
Long-term adoption of a certain model to live and work, you will get used to this model, so you can not imagine other possibilities.
What does this mean? Your mental world has solidified, staying in a small, localized fragment that can no longer expand and grow.
It just so happens that this fits exactly the needs of the brain-the brain has a basic need: the fewer “accidents” it receives, the better.
This will lead to, in order to ensure less “accidents” and higher guess “correctness”, what will the brain tend to do? Stay in the same position and keep it as it is, no longer changing.
So, our thinking pattern naturally tends to be “stable”. We will think that the “rules” and “framework” we have accumulated are stable. They apply today and tomorrow, and they will still apply in the future.
Because if it is not applicable, the brain needs to revise it and perfect it, and this will consume a lot of energy.
Therefore, the brain constructs a cage that traps us firmly in it, continuously strengthens our inherent views and beliefs, and makes us firmly believe that “we are right”-if foundWrong, it must be the world wrong.
Science fiction writer Douglas Adams wrote an ironic “Three Laws of Science and Technology”, which is very interesting, and the same reason is said:
1) Any technology that I had when I was born is a part of the world;
2) Any technology that was born between the ages of 15-35 is a revolutionary product;
3) Any technology that was born after I was 35 is anti-human and will be condemned.
We can also rewrite it like this:
1) Anything before my mind world solidifies is taken for granted;
2) Anything that appears during the solidification of my mental world is extremely important and must be noted;
3) Any new things that appear after the solidification of my mental world are all fallacies and nonsense.
In a person’s growth, the most terrible thing is not the change of the external world, nor the impact, but the solidification of the mental world, no longer growing.
So, how can we keep our mental world alive and keep growing?
Share a few simple tips, I hope it will be useful to you.
1. Non-integrated
As I said before, the brain will set us a cage, let us firmly believe that “we are right”, and enter a dead end that constantly strengthens itself.
To counter this, we need to exercise our “non-integration ability”. What does that mean? It refers to “the ability to tolerate inconsistent beliefs in the mental world.”
In short:
Old model: Our mental world is centered on certain beliefs, and other beliefs that conflict with them are either distorted or abandoned to ensure the balance of the mental world.
New model: Our mental world is full of various beliefs. They may contradict each other and contradict each other, but I can tolerate them and allow them to exist independently, succumb to each other, and resist each other, No integration is required.
How to achieve this? This requiresI’m going to train more in the usual time:
1) When you come into contact with a message that you disagree with or reject, don’t rush to get rid of it, let it go around in your head and think about its rationality;
2) When you receive and pay attention to one side of a thing, try to imagine the other side of it;
3) Don’t rely on old rules and frameworks, always be mentally prepared to “update” your knowledge system.
This will help you keep jumping out of the “comfort zone” of your brain and keep your thinking alive.
2. Overall perspective
After staying in a position for a long time, your field of vision will gradually narrow, confined to your own one-third of an acre, so that the mental world will lose space.
How to break this restriction? This requires you to look at the whole system where you are from a higher level and from the whole.
1) Try to get rid of location restrictions and get in touch with things you wouldn’t normally do. For example: if you are dealing with things, you may wish to try to get in touch with people; if you are dealing with people, you may also try to hone your vision and taste of the product.
2) If you have been immersed in a certain industry and a certain position, try to jump out and think from the entire business chain to find new opportunities and entry points, so as to enhance your perspective on things.
3) When encountering and discovering problems, do not look at the problem in isolation, but put the problem in the entire system to think about: where is the root of the problem? What factors may have affected the existence of the problem?
Slowly, you may find that the world is much larger than you think.
3. Diversity
Friends who know me will know that I have always been a fan of diversity. why? Because unity means vulnerability, only by increasing diversity can we simultaneously improve our own robustness and anti-fragility.
Whether it is lifestyle, way of thinking, working style, career, or asset allocation, I do not recommend “putting all the eggs in one basket”, but trying to enrich my choices.
Learn a skill, develop a hobby, develop a side job, and dabble extensivelyOther areas…If you have the opportunity, you may wish to try other possibilities.
They may not be useful, they may not be useful, but they will certainly help you to understand the world.
You will know more clearly how the world works and what other possibilities exist where you cannot see it.
4. Experimental thinking
I have a habit of constantly being in touch with new things, and in the process, keep observing, thinking, reviewing and reflecting, and extract new concepts, rules and frameworks from this new thing to enrich my original Some mental world.
This is “experimental thinking.” Not only for the purpose of success, but for the purpose of exploration and thinking, to experience it to the maximum, understand it, think about it, to expand their ability boundaries.
These new things, from a skill, a tool, to a function, a field, an industry, are all objects I can go to “experiment” and gain experience.
5. Connect everything
The world is always connected.
May wish to maintain the belief that what we have seen and known so far is just a small part of this huge network of the world. We feel that there are always traces of novel phenomena, and there are principles to explain. These principles can be dug down to further connect more phenomena and applications to form a star-studded structure.
What is “cognitive upgrade”? In fact, it was through a certain opportunity, a key node, that all obstacles were suddenly cleared, and various scattered points in the past were connected in series to form a network.
This is the highest level of happiness. It is also an inexhaustible driving force for us to constantly break through cognitive boundaries and expand our mental world.
This article comes from the WeChat public account: said Mr. L (ID: lxianshengmiao) , Author: Lachel