Liu Yuewei: Every year on World Book Day, you will definitely receive a lot of interviews, are there any questions that are asked every year?
Fan Deng: The most common question is what to do if you can't read the secretary. I will generally tell you that learning itself is a process accompanied by forgetting, no one will forget when they learn, and they must see more of the parts they remember, so that you will remember more.
Learning allows the brain to secrete dopamine, which is something that brings pleasure, so you find that anything that makes people happy learns very quickly. But because of the bad habits we developed from childhood to adulthood, we always like to criticize ourselves, so if you read and stare at the part of yourself that you haven't learned, your progress will become very slow.
Don't be so harsh on yourself, be a little better with yourself, and you will be more and more rewarding in your reading.
Liu Yuewei: Just now you mentioned that reading books of interest will secrete dopamine. Do you recommend reading purposefully, or indiscriminately?
Fan Deng: Both are very good entry points. The books I first talked about in the "Fan Deng Reading" APP are very instrumental, how to speak, how to talk to people, how to market, how to develop leadership, are tools, which gives me a good reason to read, because I am not a person who loves to read so much since I was a child, and when I get to the job, I find that I need to continue to learn. Then the best entry point at this time is definitely the things that can make a difference for you immediately, which is nothing to blame.
Liu Yuewei: But in the past, some intellectuals especially liked to say, "We must read useless books.", how can this be understood?
Fan Deng: What books are useless? For example, is the Book of Verses a useless book? I think it's a monopoly. Meaning, we know that this book is good, but you can not know that this is a high-level expression.
I prefer to let everyone know that the Analects are useful, the Book of Poetry is useful, philosophy is useful, and history is useful. Don't be so sensitive to the word useful, as soon as you hear useful, you feel that it is pragmatism, in fact, you go to pragmatism to get a better feeling.
Liu Yuewei: Is there a chain of contempt for reading? For example, from a media perspective, reading a paper book, reading a Kindle, or reading on the move seems to be a chain of contempt from top to bottom. But in fact, I think the convenience is the opposite in terms of the results of obtaining information.
Fan Deng: This problem has been basically solved, and there is a recent paper in an authoritative scientific journal that the soothing effect of paper books, including the adjustment of human breathing, blood pressure, eye fatigue, etc., is far better than e-books. Even reading coated paper books is not as relaxing as reading ordinary books, because coated paper is more likely to reflect light.
Reading should not exist in the chain of contempt, people read kindles, you read paper, you feel that you are more advanced, this is self-deception. Including what you think this person reads is very childish, this person is reading the books you read when you were a child, that is not necessarily bad, he has just started.
Everyone has their own rhythm of life, everyone has their own time to enter the learning, you should be happy and admired for him, and you should not feel that this is uncultured. A person who always feels that he has more culture than others is a manifestation of no culture.
Liu Yuewei: We encourage the diversity of reading, but in the cognitive habits of many people, there is also a standard for reading quality. For example, I heard a saying that encourages you to read more books about the dead, less books about the living, and no bestsellers.
Fanden: I've seen this in Taleb's book, he wrote Black Swan and Antifragility, and these are two of my favorite books. Taleb said that he liked to read the books of the ancient dead, and had little to do with modern people, and only those who died could keep the classics after the verification of time.
But when you want to understand what the metaverse is, who would write this by the ancients? Or if you want to know how to have children now, you look for a book from 100 years ago and read it, and the content is definitely outdated.
I once talked about a book called "Speculation and Position", and in that book it said that if you especially like to obsessively read books of a certain era, you will be easily imprisoned by it. Therefore, if a person wants not to be limited by a certain era, he should choose some books to read every two or three hundred years in human history, and if it is ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, your horizons will be much broader.
Since we are born as human beings, reading is a right, not an obligation. The most essential difference between humans and other animals is that we have developed a powerful brain vestibule, the brain vestibule can breed curiosity, with curiosity, humans can learn more about what they don't know.
The joy of reading does not come from who I can despise, from whom I am better than, but from being happy. You feel that you know a little more about the world, and you understand the feeling of opening your heart.
Liu Yuewei: Just now you affirmed the reading value of current books, but in fact, we have many platforms and means to obtain information and knowledge. Compared with other means of acquiring knowledge and platforms, where is the irreplaceable value of today's books?
Fan Deng: If you were a contemporary of Confucius, you might also feel that Confucius's set of things was not very good. Because his contemporaries will have a kind of arrogance, thinking that you have not yet passed the test of time, but that is also a good thing, so some of our contemporaries today may also be able to stay in history in the future, and since you are in an era with him, you have the opportunity to read his books and may also know this person, which is another kind of fun.
There is a book called "Crossing the Impossible", which talks about a very important one, that is, in today's society, compared with other media, reading is still a very efficient way of acquiring knowledge.
Liu Yuewei: In our conversation, I found that you have memorized all the books you have read in your mind, which is really powerful. Do I need talent to read? For many people, books may be forgotten after reading them, and I am like this, seeing wonderful passages with pen lines, even copied in their own memos, but still forget.
Fan Deng: It is useless to draw the key points on the book and label them with different colors. This is not what I said, there is a book called "Cognitive Nature", which writes that many people like to do things that look very hard when reading, and when you take the strokes, you look very hard, but in fact your brain has not been rubbed, there is no pain, so you forget it the next day.
What is friction? For example, if you read a paragraph of text and think it is very good, the book is put together, write a circle of friends, and this thing is strengthened in the process of writing the circle of friends. The next day I went to work to meet my colleagues, share it with them again, talk about it two or three times, and I can't forget it in my life.
My book looks the same as new, because you draw your own brain, draw the structure of the book, so that the book really enters your head. This is a deliberate practice process, reading has no talent, like Gu Ailing's skiing is to have talent, ordinary people want to have talent in reading.
I didn't go to school very well, there were about 10 in the class in college, and I didn't like to study science and engineering, so I never felt like a reader. Later, because I had nothing to do when I was working at CCTV, I began to read the Analects and the Tao Te Ching, and I thought it was quite interesting to read.
The big leap in my real reading ability came from the fact that after I did "Fan Deng Reading", it forced me to talk about one book a week, you know that I used to talk about one book a week was a lot of work for me, and at that time, although it seems that although it is a book with a low reading threshold today, it is still very painful. I'm reading a book right now and I feel completely different from reading a book 5 years ago.
5 years ago, I hardly dared to question everything said in this book, because you didn't understand it, so you could only follow people's homes. You can see him say this now and you think of a lot of books, other fields are related to it. Then this feeling is practiced, nothing else.
Liu Yuewei: Then how do you judge whether a book is worth reading? When you consciously look for a book to read, half of it feels like a waste of time when you find that the book has nothing to talk about and is not worth reading.
Fan Deng: There are many books that feel like they can't do it after reading it, which is a very common experience. Like a tool book you don't have to be so picky, as long as this book can bring us some new knowledge, practical references, can change some of our lives, you just thank it.
Literature books, finding your favorite style, translations, etc., is a slow process of exploration. One of the core of my reading method is not to be arrogant, we should not be arrogant to the author, be humble, and you will find a lot to learn.
But some people like to pick mistakes when they read books, "No, this case is not OK, this translation is wrong", you will find that you can't accept anything, you absorb less, the people who pick the wrong people are to meet their own feelings, but the people who learn are to find a gap, which is a different mentality.
Liu Yuewei: Everyone's reading is based on his own knowledge structure or some of his experiences, and his interpretation and feelings of this book are different, just like a thousand readers have a thousand Hamlets in their hearts. For you, what is the relationship between storytelling and opinion output?
Fanden: In the field of literature, a thousand viewers have a thousand Hamlets in their hearts. Therefore, it is best to read the novel yourself, even if you can't understand it.
Outside of literature, I emphasize literacy. Plain means simplicity, that is, respect for the original meaning of the book. For example, there was a time when entrepreneurs liked to discuss the book "Anti-Fragility", and many times their views were not in this book. It is likely that he himself holds a certain point of view, and it happens that there is a certain sentence in the book that seems to be related to his point of view, and he thinks that this is the meaning of the book.
What I ask of myself is to read from the perspective of a student, not from the perspective of a critic. Each chapter of the book is talking about something, not how I feel based on the book's content.
Liu Yuewei: Can the work you do be called a knowledge porter or an information juicer?
Fan Deng: It's what a high school physics teacher does, just like in high school, I haven't seen anyone who teaches physics by self-study. It is the teacher who tries to be as vivid as possible on the stage, as interesting as possible, and explains the truth clearly.
Liu Yuewei: In fact, the books we can access are limited, and then choose to read after seeing, more limited, even if we transfer knowledge, there are still risks and difficulties. What you're trying to pass on is a book that most people don't know they're interested in.
Fan Deng: As soon as the bookstore enters the door, the pile will only put the best-selling books, so it is very difficult for the public to go to the bookstore to choose a high-grade book, unless it is a professional.
Professionals know that by going inside the bookshelf, going deepest, you can find good books. The best-selling books will not be particularly high-grade, and the books with particularly high-grade will not be too best-selling.
Liu Yuewei: In fact, just like buying luxury goods, the counter at the front of the first step must be an entry-level high-selling product, and good things are hidden in the back.
Fan Deng: But the tastes of the majority of readers will be swayed by the best-seller list, and everyone will buy what is on the list. Then our responsibility is to turn out those good books, to turn out those books that are impossible to be on the list, and then to improve the taste of public reading.
Liu Yuewei: Everyone has been singing about the decline of the publishing industry for a long time, saying that no one is reading, and everyone is watching short videos on mobile phones. But in fact, we have also seen a survey report, since the epidemic, more and more people have read books, especially about the art and technology of books, the number of reading is still rising quite fast, so we do not have to be so pessimistic, reading will not decline and die.
Fan Deng: The mobile phone has played a role in differentiation, because of the push mechanism of the mobile phone, the information it provides to you is basically known, or almost quickly known, and it is difficult to break the circle through the mobile phone. In addition, mobile phone traffic relies on mobilizing people's emotions, so there is no verified information.
Conversely, when you read some classic books, such as the Analects, Confucius has nothing to ask for from you and will not consider earning your traffic. So now people start to read books like this, and there is a lot of fun when they encounter knowledge.
So I suggest that you take a look at how long your phone has been used and be alert to yourself. Many people are on the phone to deal with work, the mobile phone is even more than 8 hours active time, I try to keep my mobile phone active time within 3 hours, so that you can have more time to read something you didn't know before.
Liu Yuewei: Can reading solve most of life's problems?
Fan Deng: Basically, except for the inevitable states of life, old age, illness and death, the answer to life is in the book. Although there is no solution to life, old age, illness and death, our attitude towards life, old age, illness and death can be chosen, and this choice is the change and improvement of your cognition.
Different coping methods come from different ways of looking at things, and these methods do not come out of thin air, two days ago a very famous entrepreneur chatted with me, and finally he came to a conclusion, he said that his biggest problem in recent years is not reading. He used to think more importantly, so he thought for himself every day, and then the company encountered a crisis, but his thinking was repeated at the same level.
Only when you see people who are taller than you, it is possible to go up, and those people you can't see in life, you can only find in books.
Liu Yuewei: Since reading can solve most of life's problems, why do philosophers seem less happy?
Fan Deng: If you see the nature of the trouble clearly, you will find that there is nothing to worry about. Philosophers who are suffering, perhaps because they have not yet found a better philosophy, may also be divided into different levels.
That's why some people understand so many truths, but still can't live this life well, but some people keep a maxim that is enough.
Liu Yuewei: Then do you have any books that you can't read, for example, most people just can't read "One Hundred Years of Solitude".
Fan Deng: There must be wow, such as a math book, my father wrote one two days ago, I look at the whole book is a formula, not even many Chinese characters, this kind of book I can't do.
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" is actually very good, but if you want to understand "One Hundred Years of Solitude", you can first read an autobiography of Marquez, called "Living to Tell", and then you will find that "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" are not magic realism, they are realism, he wrote about their family, those people are really so strange. It doesn't matter if you can read it or not, and you don't have to read all the books in this life.
Liu Yuewei: Do you think that reading books can be a measure of a person's interest and connotation? Rich and interesting people, what do you need besides reading more?
Fan Deng: Whether a person is interesting or not is difficult to measure by the amount of reading, some people are easy to be funny, he may have some romantic colors in his bones, that is a result. When you can't control this result, you can put a little effort into reading.
The most important thing about reading is to let yourself see the world you didn't know before. So we advocate that even if you don't read, listen to me. A person's own reading has a category, but colliding with each other can collide with many interesting books.
Our concept is called gentleman not instrument, which is Confucius's words, a person can not live as a tool. In fact you can be all kinds of people, you have all kinds of possibilities, so you can read all kinds of books.
Liu Yuewei: Our readers are more concerned about women's workplace problems and solve the problem of psychological anxiety, can you recommend some methods or corresponding books to them?
Fan Deng: There are a lot of books on this subject, but it is not good. To address anxiety at its roots, you may have to understand the source of anxiety, and any book that lowers your ego can reduce anxiety.
Don't put yourself very big, the smaller you are, the less trouble you have, and the more you feel great, the more trouble you have. I especially like to talk about the chaotic world of books, you read the books of the chaotic world, your mood will be calm, you will feel that today's life is particularly good, you and the past than your pressure is not called pressure, you can still eat, what else are you worried about?
Liu Yuewei: Standing at a higher level to see your own problems, rather than treating your head with headaches and treating your feet with foot pain.
Fan Deng: Yes, grandly, there is a book that makes this truth particularly clear, called "Solving Puzzles", and the author of "Solving Puzzles" is called Schumacher, and he has written this book all his life.
He said that there are two kinds of problems in this world, one is the problem of convergence, such as inventing a bicycle, or inventing a mobile phone, and finally people all over the world make it the same, and it has a standard answer. There is also a category of divergent questions, such as whether you should be more diligent or more relaxed, there is no standard answer.
Schumacher said that there are solutions to all divergent problems, that is, you have to go up to a higher level to look at the problem, so that it is no longer a problem, which is the only way to solve all divergence problems.
This statement inspired me greatly, he said exactly the same as Einstein, Einstein said that the answer to a difficult problem is definitely not at the same level as this problem, if you want to solve Newton's gravitational problem, you can't solve it with Newton's system, you must enter the relativistic system to solve the problem of gravity.
Liu Yuewei: Only when your own realm is improved can you solve those seemingly insoluble problems.
Fan Deng: After your level changes, the problem is no longer a problem, and this is the solution to all divergent problems. But the upper level is a matter that only you can solve, and it is useless for others to write a three-trick and eight-style. You must read and experience it yourself, be willing to think, and one day suddenly feel that this matter does not need to be troubled, this is the real truth.
Liu Yuewei: Is the biggest pleasure you get in reading the process or the result of reading? When I was young, I wanted to say that I had to read so many books every day, and if I had the memory bread in Doraemon, it would be easy to eat knowledge into my stomach. After another twenty or thirty years, there may be a so-called brain memory interface, everyone reading a book may be directly transmitted to your brain in a few seconds, if the craft of reading will be lost, what will you do?
Fan Deng: I really have to try it, and see if I am happy or unhappy. Just like now everyone uses a search engine, I don't know which thing to search immediately, as if I know a lot, but this can't change your life state. A person who can search and a person who has this thing in his head are two completely different kinds of people.
Once I was talking to Robin Li about search, he was a search enthusiast, I said there is one thing you can never find, he was very vigilant, asked what it was, I said when you don't know what to search for.
When you don't know what to search for, you don't know what to put that thing in, so the content of human knowledge itself determines your point of view of the problem. Don't think I'm just a good person, because you don't even know the definition of a good person.
The so-called good and bad, good and evil are all related to the content of your knowledge, which comes from another very interesting book called "The Great Migration of Knowledge". Reduce the judgment and demands of others a little, and work more on yourself, and you will find that there are many places where you can find happiness.
Source: Fashion COSMO April issue
EDIT: Joffy
Interview finishing: Wang Yijie
Vision: Bian Yuqing
Photo: Zhao Hua
Makeup and Hair: Xie Li (Liu Yuewei), Yin Ying (Fan Deng)
Styling: Li Mengmeng
Assistant: Li Zikang
Venue Support: Model Bookstore Poetry Space
Image source
Fashion COSMO / Respondents offer
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