(This article was first published in the "Liu Run" public account, subscribe to the "Liu Run" public account, and I have an insight into the essence of business)
Some time ago, a classmate on Evolution Island asked a question,
The rise of the Internet, the flood of information. After the mobile Internet, precision drip irrigation.
Information is readily available, how can you extract useful information?
How to think?
This problem is very common.
The Internet has brought explosive growth in the amount of information, brought about a mushrooming platform, and brought about a scramble for information feeding.
Perhaps as a feeder, you feel the fear of being dominated. You see the inability of "words speak louder than facts."
One-sided, untrue, noisy, noisy. You seem to be wrapped up, passively accepting, difficult to distinguish between true and false, difficult to distinguish between right and wrong.
But the world must be complex and changeable, and information must be like a flood, roaring in.
How to be independent?
You have to master a scarce ability. Thinking.
Let's talk about it today.
(This sharing is from the daily sharing of the Evolution Island community)
— 1 —
Know Yourself:
The brain is more prone to error than you think
I was in Evolution Island before, and I recommended a book to my classmates, "How to Think Independently."
The author is Dr. Steven Novella, Ph.D. of Yale University.
The central idea of this book is that the brain is more prone to error than you think.
Everyone should know themselves and, then, doubt themselves.
In Steven's original words,
The brain prefers simple, clear, reassuring explanations, and our memories are actually a mess, and there are many preconceived prejudices in our thinking.
Therefore, we cannot take the stories, traditional ideas and beliefs of life that are passed down by word of mouth.
Whether it is a matter of lip service or reason, whether it is a charismatic person or our own memory, it is not necessarily so reliable.
On the contrary, we should make an assessment of any claim that it claims to be insightful.
Pull it out and look at your brain again.
Only then did you find out that it was often lazy and often lying to you.
The book gives a few examples that are both heart-wrenching and common.
For example, visual blindness.
In 1999, Daniel Simmons and Christopher Chablis shot a video and did a test.
In the video, there is a group of people wearing white and black T-shirts passing the ball to each other.
Your task is to count the number of passes of people in white T-shirts.
Now start watching.
Okay, it's over. I ask you, how many orangutans are there in the picture?
It is said that 40% of the people did not notice the orangutan.
Obviously, an orangutan appears under your eyes, and you just turn a blind eye.
(Image source: Internet)
This is visual blindness.
When you have only one thing in your head, you ignore most of the images in front of you.
The brain, deceived you.
For example, overconfidence.
We always misestimate our abilities and feel that we are quick-witted and efficient.
In fact, the task list of the day is full, but there are very few.
For example, memory bias.
The brain is not a camera, and many times, we will unconsciously rewrite our memories without knowing it.
When you talk about a past event, in fact, your companion is full of doubts and can't bear to poke you.
……
In addition, there are many, many mistakes that the brain makes. Appeal to authority. Improper inference. False attribution. Black and white. Resort to hypocrisy. Error analogy.
And so on and so forth.
The brains that live with us day and night are actually more likely to make mistakes than imagined.
But, however, we still have to continue to live in peace, but what should we do if we act at its behest?
Recognize reality, then find a tool and hone it over and over again.
Steven's advice is to develop scientific thinking and master critical thinking skills.
Science is not omnipotent, but it is objective, it is self-correcting, and it can bring us closer and closer to the truth.
Try your best to be truthful.
When looking at a thing, we must not only know what it is, but also know why it is so.
Behavioral economist, Kahneman said,
The human brain is inherently resistant to thinking.
If you can't use your brain, you can't use your brain, it's nature.
Staying curious and trying to be truthful is anti-nature.
To achieve great things, sometimes you need to be a little brave against nature.
— 2 —
Ask more why:
Always be curious
I shared a passage with my classmates in Evolution Island before.
There was a science fiction writer in England, Called Grasse.
He said that before the age of 15, people will feel that all the things I have seen are to help me change the world. This is the most suitable time to face change.
By the age of 35 or so, the worldview and outlook on life began to be complete, and the logical closed loop was formed.
Since then, it has been difficult for him to adapt to change and understand new things.
However, everyone is different, and some people may be 25 years old and have already entered the closed loop.
And some people, at the age of 70, are still trying new things.
So, want to evolve, want to innovate. What is most needed is to remain perpetually curious.
When I encounter confusion, I always like to ask why, which is curiosity.
For example, children always like to pestering adults to ask,
Why is the sky blue?
Why are the grass green and the flowers multicolored?
However, when we grow up and become accustomed to many things, curiosity will slowly disappear.
There was once a movie where the heroine crossed out of a black-and-white movie.
In her original world, there was no color. Therefore, she was full of curiosity and joy about the yellow umbrella, the seven-colored rainbow, the purple vine, the red maple leaves, everything.
However, this joy is common to the male protagonist, and even incomprehensible.
He would say that the umbrella was this color. Rainbows are colorful. The vine is purple, and the maple leaves turn red in autumn.
Nothing special.
Nothing special, a particularly terrible spell.
It seals your curiosity, declares your path to truth, and ends here.
More than two hundred years ago, Darwin landed on the Galapagos Islands, a small volcanic island more than 1,000 kilometers from the South American continent, and discovered that there was a species of finches there. They all look alike, only the beak is different.
Why is that?
Curiosity prompted him to explore, discover environmental choices for biological evolution, and eventually wrote "The Origin of Species", which shocked the world.
If Darwin had said it, nothing special, wouldn't it have been a finch? Perhaps the process of human curiosity will be rewritten.
Curiosity doesn't just lead to great discoveries.
Curiosity can also help us solve practical problems in life.
I went to get vaccinated last summer.
After the fight, the doctor told me not to take a shower today.
I didn't hold back and asked, why?
The doctor was stunned, probably most people just did it, but they didn't expect that someone would ask him.
He said that although you can't see it with the naked eye, the place where the needle is given leaves a wound. If it does not heal, it is wet, which may breed bacteria and induce inflammation.
I went on to ask, what if I want to take a shower?
He said, you can put a waterproof sticker.
A why, not only solved the confusion, but also helped me find a way.
So, it's important to ask more "why.".
Only by being curious about knowledge can it be possible to make better solutions based on the same principles.
With curiosity, force your brain to spin.
Use curiosity to fight the growing inertia.
— 3 —
Press the mute button fiercely:
Turn passive acceptance into active thinking
Recently, the metaverse is very hot, and there is a lot of discussion on the Internet, what should I think? What are the opportunities to participate?
The concept of carbon neutrality has been very popular recently, how to quickly familiarize yourself with this field, and how to choose investment?
Indeed, metacosmities, carbon neutrality, are important, even about the future.
Indeed, metaversms, carbon neutral, very hot, countless articles are talking about.
So what exactly is the metaverse? What is carbon neutrality?
You seem to be standing in the middle of a bustling square, your ears filled with shouting, arguing, shouting.
One after another, it was noisy and noisy.
You try to find rational, scientific analysis and discussion. However, it was helpless to find that they had been hidden and buried.
Gradually, you don't know which ones are true and which are false.
I think of a quote from Professor Kahneman's new book, Noise.
Noise is the black hole that affects our judgment.
If you encounter a black hole in the universe, the only way to do it is to avoid it.
However, in the information universe, noise is everywhere.
If you can't hide, then take the initiative to press mute it.
I have prepared 4 tools for you to help you turn passive acceptance into active thinking.
(1) Stop brushing and actively search.
Quit feeding platforms. Quit self-media with traffic as the sole purpose.
Today we look at some information, short video platforms, it will push content according to your preferences.
Immersed in it, we are like a crammed duck, silently being fed.
What's more, there are still some media in the platform that are not surprisingly dead in order to earn traffic.
Some time ago, there was a Japanese drama called "True Murderer Label", which satirized a blogger who wanted to win eyeballs, fabricate facts, and stir up emotions.
What to do?
Stop brushing and actively search.
Set yourself an information filtering benchmark and choose a platform and media with a relatively high source.
Focus on people who are truly worthy of attention.
Immerse yourself in such an environment and improve your judgment.
----
(2) Stay away from the "why + opinion" question.
Why + point of view, is a terrible syringe.
Why are Virgo people so shafty?
Why are fat people lazy?
Why read so many books and still can't find a job?
Why are young people not responsible?
So, are Virgo people really all shafts? Are fat people lazy? People who read a lot can't find a job? Don't young people have a sense of responsibility?
Of course not.
However, as soon as the word "why" appears, your attention is all taken away.
You begin to think unconsciously about the answer, without even doubting whether the point behind it is correct.
Why + point of view, is a terrible syringe.
Stay skeptical and take the initiative to stay away from it.
(3) More communication, more chat.
Plato said,
It is only in constant discussion that we can move toward the truth.
The search for truth is an ascetic.
It needs to be gradually learned in constant contact with others.
If you're confused about something. Try to find different people and ask them what they think.
In evolution island, there are many students every day, sharing their own questions, answering the doubts of others, and growing together in the collision of ideas.
(4) Exercise structured thinking.
Structure is the lowest of thousands of methods.
Without structure, all methods become a mess.
So, how is structured trained?
There are three points: clearly define the problem. Follow the meCE laws. Logical communication.
To define the problem clearly is to find why before a whole bunch of what, how.
You plan to start a project next month.
So, you list a series of questions. What is the project cycle? How many stages? Who do I need to ask for support?
But, however, to interrupt, why start it? How is it different from other schemes? What effect does it have?
Keep asking questions to find the real goal.
Follow the meCE laws. It is independent of each other, completely exhausted.
No more, no less, just right. Just like the puzzle, if the puzzle is correct, in the end there must be no more than one, not a lot. Your mind is completely panoramic.
Communicate logically. That is, you can understand what I say. I can understand what you say.
For example, when you report to your boss, you may wish to try structured expression.
Explain the background, grasp the contradictions, throw out questions, and give answers.
Structured thinking helps you grasp the key points and find the key to solving problems.
This is the basic skill, otherwise you will always be able to go around in chaos.
Final words
Today I talked to you about how to think independently.
The first thing is to recognize your own innate flaws and then confront them.
Accept the complexity and change of the world, stay curious, and stay enthusiastic.
Press the mute key proactively. Turn passive acceptance into active thinking.
In the torrent of information, temper the ability to think.
Remember, you're not alone. Share.