Author: icefighter
Source: Tianji Intelligence Bureau (ID: qiqilibrary)
By our human nature, we are too accustomed to linear extrapolation. The boom of globalization over the past few decades makes us think that many of the stories that have happened in history have become eternal history.
Unfortunately, prosperity does not last forever, and the stories that have happened in history will eventually return.
Cycles are eternal.
Looking back at human history, the era of true prosperity is not long. There have been several prosperous dynasties throughout the dynasties. The reasons for the prosperity are also very simple. Because every dynasty was built from the ruins. At the beginning of the founding of the dynasty, there were few people and many lands, and resources were abundant. Even if there is no action, the economy can develop rapidly when there are few people and too many land.
Unfortunately, prosperity is destined to be short-lived. Economic development is accompanied by an intractable chronic disease, and the gap between the rich and the poor is divided. Soon, land and other resources were concentrated in the hands of a small number of people, the gap between rich and poor was huge, and the economy began to struggle.
As mentioned in the previous article, the time at which the culmination of the gap between the rich and the poor in a dynasty can be estimated by the interval from the establishment of each dynasty to the beginning of reform:
Establishment of the Han Dynasty (202 BC) – Liu Xiu "Du Tian" (39 AD): 241
Establishment of the Tang Dynasty (618 AD) – Tang Dezong Two Tax Laws (780 AD): 162
Founding of the Ming Dynasty (1368 AD) – Zhang Juzheng (1573 AD): 205
Establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty (960 AD) - Fan Zhongyan's Reform (1025 AD) - Qingli New Deal (1043 AD) - Wang Anshi Transformation Law (1069 AD): 65, 18, 26 years
Among the above dynasties, the Song Dynasty had the shortest time from the establishment of the dynasty to the beginning of reform. Of course, this reason has also been mentioned, because the Song Dynasty was born insufficient. The founding of the Song Dynasty was relatively smooth, not rebuilt on a ruin, but achieved through a glass of wine to release the military power, which also led to the Song Dynasty did not reshuffle land resources. Due to the "unhindered annexation", the land resources of the Song Dynasty were concentrated faster, and the gap between the rich and the poor quickly reached its peak.
There is no doubt that the world has faced a huge turning point, and the quiet of the past years is no longer there.
Money is getting harder and harder to earn. Internet giants like Facebook still plummeted 26% in one day. I can only sigh that no one has Noah's Ark.
What about ordinary people? One way to do this is to look for answers in history and see how smart people did in past times of crisis.
Recently I saw a story that impressed me. The horrific Great Depression broke out in 1929.
An American has also failed to find a job in this economic crisis. At this time, he resolutely made a move that surprised people.
He took his sister and friends and went into seclusion in the forest.
In the deserted forest, he stayed for five years, with no work income and severe material shortage.
But his spirit is very relaxed.
"I set myself a schedule during the Great Depression.
When there's no job or no one telling you what to do, you have to find out for yourself what to do.
I divide the day into four periods, each four hours.
I read books in three of these sessions, and in the other I am free to do.
I wake up at 8 a.m. every morning and start reading a book at 9 a.m. That meant I used the first hour after waking up to make breakfast and tidy up the room.
Then read a book with the remaining three hours of the first four-hour period.
Next spend one hour for lunch and another three hours reading.
Next are the sections that you can choose from.
Usually I spend three hours reading, one hour going out to eat, then three hours of free time, and another hour packing up and going to bed.
So I go to bed at about 12 o'clock every day. ”
For five consecutive years, he studied for 9 hours a day, and he learned a lot of subjects, spanning anthropology, biology, literature, philosophy, psychology, religion, art history and other fields, collecting different myths and legends under various cultures.
Later, he wrote several books on mythology. Time Magazine named one of the "Heroes with a Thousand Faces" one of the 100 most important books of the 20th century. The famous Hollywood director George Lucas also referred to his "Hero with a Thousand Faces" when creating "Star Wars".
That man was Joseph Campbell. He elaborated on his life story in his biography Journey of heroes.
Of course, the clever one you may find a problem, he lived in seclusion in the forest for 5 years, did not go to work, where did the money come from?
Joseph Campbell explained the problem:
"My dad lost all his money, I used to play in jazz bands as a student and saved some money during those years. With the support of this money, I retreated into the woods hut. ”
Joseph Campbell's life story will inspire us a lot.
Heroes with a Thousand Faces became an important source of inspiration for George Lucas' Star Wars, and Campbell became Lucas's lifelong spiritual mentor.
In his book "Principles", the founder of Bridgewater Investment Company in the United States, Ray Dalio mentioned that he gave Joseph Campbell's book "Heroes with a Thousand Faces" to many "heroes" he knew around him.
The biggest inspiration for me by Joseph Campbell's story is that the more times of crisis, the more we must maintain peace of mind.
Stillness Is The Key。
The famous French mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal, at the age of 16, famous for the study of conic curves, invented projective geometry, founded probability theory and integration, studied binomial unfolding, discovered pascal triangles, proved the existence of vacuum, and discovered Pascal's law on fluid pressure transfer.
Pascal famously said:
"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."
"All the problems of human beings stem from the fact that they cannot sit alone in a room."
When we are at peace with ourselves, we can respond more calmly to changes in the external environment.
We can stop and think, what is our purpose in life?
Some people may begin to consider that they are no longer simply making money as their primary goal in life. After all, Shanghai has told us that even if you live in a mansion of tens of millions, hundreds of millions, you may still need to grab vegetables to eat.
Well, you can even consider leaving the big city, going to the town to buy land to build a house, install roof photovoltaics, reserve more materials, and the anti-fragility ability will only be better than most people living in the elevator building in the big city.
Some people may start thinking about making money more actively. After all, in the same epidemic, some people are called the hardest workers, working until the early hours of the morning every day, sometimes going to four or five places a day. There are also people who are busy every day, busy between different hotels and clubs.
Every crisis is not entirely dangerous, but also organic, and someone can still rise from it to counterattack. However, the opportunity for such a counterattack is destined to be very rare.
To be able to seize this opportunity requires hard preparation and a calm mind. Bad mentality, easy to be affected by the amount of the account, even if there is such an opportunity to counterattack, it is likely to be missed.
Of course, you may say that I want to live in a small town, but I have no money and there are no job opportunities in the town, what should I do? As you might expect, Buffett lives in the small town of Omaha. Of course, the town is actually a little bigger than we thought, with a population of nearly 500,000.
In a small town far from Wall Street, he can be more calm inside, but it helps him resist temptations and make better investment decisions.
"On Wall Street, my father would have had a completely different life." Buffett's son, Peter, said, "He might also go after what other people want." ”
You might say that these people are cattle people who can live in small towns. What about ordinary people? In fact, it is also possible. Some tasks, such as programming, taking product pictures, writing articles, shooting short videos, etc., can actually happen remotely.
There are now small towns in the United States where the government is paying for subsidies to attract people who work in big cities to come and live. They can work remotely in small towns, the income is still quite large, and the cost of living is very low, why not enjoy it?
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