How long have you not listened to your inner voice and only reacted passively to the outside world? How often have you encountered a problem instead of seeking a solution but first venting your emotions, and you are trapped in the vortex of emotions and can't extricate yourself?
We are accustomed to being blind keyboard warriors, melon-eating masses, and cut leeks, and it is too easy to be rhythmic and caught in the instigation of others. The vast majority of our decisions, which seem independent, are in fact passive, herding, impulsive, and even emotional. To solve all these problems, to break the game and jump out of the predicament, the only way to think independently.
Recently, the launch of Huang Zhengyu's new book "Independent Thinking: Who Is Influencing Whom" (published by China Encyclopedia Press) was held on the Tencent conference platform. A number of writers and media people recorded videos and highly recommended them. Tian Yanyou, founder and chief planner of humble cultural platform, presided over the new book launch and had an in-depth dialogue with the author Huang Zhengyu on how to "think independently" and how to "think independently".
Independent thinking, the world needs
"Independent Thinking: Who Is Influencing Whom" is another new masterpiece by Huang Zhengyu, the author of fan deng's recommended lifelong learning leader, best-selling books "Lifelong Learning: Six Lessons after Harvard Graduation", "Thinking Story: Controlling the Script of Life", "Journey to America: Standing at the Tip of the Pyramid to See America", and mentor of "Lifelong Learning • Beyond Growth Camp".
Zheng Yuhuang, ph.D. supervisor of marketing at the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University, quoted the famous saying of Chen Yinke, a master of traditional Chinese studies, "the spirit of independence, the idea of freedom", and believes that independent thinking is very important for everyone Chinese, especially young people, and it is also the most lacking in thousands of people, hoping that this book can help everyone.
Yang Jinlin, a well-known media person, current affairs commentator, columnist and founder of Splendid Qilin Media, believes that the title of Huang Zhengyu's book is "Independent Thinking", which actually puts forward a very serious topic for Chinese readers and puts forward the necessity of independent thinking from a professional point of view. We all know that people who have the ability to think independently must have an independent personality, independent speculation, and independent position. The space-time conditions of independent thinking need to be fought for, and if there is no time to express it for a while, then we can recharge and continue to think. One day, when independent thinking becomes a habit of thinking for this nation, the hope of the nation should be even greater than it is now.
Lifelong learning, integrated practice
Huang Zhengyu is a lifelong learning leader and practitioner with enough "positive energy", after being published in 2018 by the China Encyclopedia Publishing House "Lifelong Learning: Six Lessons after Harvard Graduation", on this basis, he continued to explore and practice, forming his own methodology, that is, the in-depth and expansion of the concept of "thinking story". As a result, in 2019, the book "Thinking Stories: Controlling the Script of Life" was published in the Encyclopedia of China Press.
The new book "Independent Thinking: Who Is Influencing Whom", published in 2021, still continues his concept of constantly breaking through himself and striving for progress. "Thinking Story: Controlling the Script of Life" is the continuation and concept refinement of "Lifelong Learning: Six Lessons After Harvard Graduation", and "Independent Thinking: Who Is Influencing Whom" has elevated "Thinking Story: Controlling the Script of Life" from the level of the individual to the level of the group.
People in the era of artificial intelligence should pay more attention to the exploitation of their own potential, and achieve enrichment of life, blooming themselves, leading groups, and continuous growth by rewriting their own thinking stories and even group thinking stories.
Huang Zhengyu said that everyone has the opportunity to continuously improve and enhance their thinking stories, and obtain a more complete, happy, successful, meaningful, and beneficial life for themselves and others. When you improve your own individual thinking story, you also have the opportunity to understand the individual and even group thinking stories of others, and you who practice the concept of lifelong learning will definitely resonate with similar individuals and groups, become a better peer group, examine yourself from the perspective of a qualified leader, and better help yourself and others grow.
Looking back at these three books in the past few years, Huang Zhengyu has his own logical approach, and he has a gradually deepening understanding of life, society and even the world. Tian Yanyou proposed that if wine, coffee, and tea were used to correspond to these three books, how should they be arranged? Huang Zhengyu said that in 2013, he "rested" for a year, successively learned from some top experts in the East and west, and formed a life course that truly belongs to himself and can be learned for life, which is used to break the "bad record" of the continuous cycle of life, from the perspective of vigilance, "lifelong learning" is like coffee, refreshing the mind; this experience also allows him to integrate different views from the East and the West on six aspects, combined with the "inspiration mode", and extracts the concept of "thinking story", so the book "Thinking Story" is like drinking tea, you can taste it again, Each time there is a different taste; "Independent Thinking" focuses on rewriting the thinking story to deal with the relationship with the outside world and with group thinking, seeing how the dual contradictions between individuals and groups affect our actions, how to affect the relationship between countries and nationalities, so that their vision and perspective of looking at the whole world are different, so it is like red wine, with a long aftertaste.
Think about stories, take control of your life
The book "Independent Thinking: Who Influences Whom" introduces the concept of "group thinking story", from the perspective of the mutual influence between individuals and groups, tells how to think independently from the perspective of qualified leaders, take into account internal and external growth, examine and promote the development of individual and group thinking stories, so as to have a better chance to improve individuals and become qualified leaders who lead the development of groups.
Both this book and the author's previous "Thinking Story: Mastering the Script of Life" are from the perspective of "thinking story". In contrast, Thinking Stories: Mastering the Script of Life focuses more on the thinking stories of individuals, while this book focuses on groupthink stories and the interaction between individuals and groups.
Huang Zhengyu said that this book is indeed in line with "Thinking Story: Controlling the Script of Life". The reason why the concept of "thinking story" was first proposed in the book "Thinking Stories: Controlling the Script of Life" is to note that behind everyone's opinions, thoughts, habits and actions, there is a thinking story of our own, which affects how we see ourselves, others and the world. Different people have different thinking stories, so they have different lives. Different groups, different eras, regions, cultures, etc., naturally have different group thinking stories.
After understanding the principles, you can rewrite and improve the "thinking story" in a scientific way. Individuals can improve in six areas: parents, emotions, happiness, success, diversity, and peers, and naturally groups. However, to improve the group thinking story, especially the need for individuals to learn to think independently, the core of growth lies in the real understanding and continuous improvement of their own thinking stories, but also in learning to diversify the thinking stories of others and look at their own thinking stories.
Tian Yanyou proposed how to practice, how to overcome his own laziness and habits, persevere, rewrite? Huang Zhengyu told everyone that scientific research has found that the surface feeling of the self and the body's response will be different, for example, when people enjoy food and exercise when they feel different, but the body will choose the feeling of exercise, more inclined to bring benefits to the body "good energy". In this sense, true freedom is not the kind of complete freedom to do as we please, but we can choose what we want to do, and we can avoid what we don't want to do, which requires us to think independently.
Dual sexual contradictions and games
Tian Yanyou mentioned in the interview that individuals belong to groups, so how can we maintain independent thinking without the influence of groups?
Huang Zhengyu said that the contradiction between the maximization of personal interests and the maximization of group interests, and the contradiction between personal thinking stories and group thinking stories, constitute a dual contradiction. Maximizing individual interests and maximizing group interests are fundamental contradictions that will always exist. When human beings exist as individuals, they are relatively weak in nature. In order to better survive and reproduce, individuals gather into groups, help each other, and compete with each other, which also produces a dual sexual contradiction. Human beings gradually realize that in order to maximize their individual interests, they need to maintain the existence of groups, and they need to cooperate with other individuals to pay for the group. It is precisely because of the strength and efficiency of the group that human beings can create a brilliant civilization from the thorny jungle of species evolution and pass it on to this day, but the maximization of individual interests will also make the smooth operation of the group constantly challenge and obstacle.
Every individual wants more, but often to the detriment of other individuals and even groups, and every current system needs to find a balance in it. Saying this does not mean that there is no right or wrong in this world, people must have a thinking story to react to the objective world, and the thinking story at this stage is indeed the most suitable for us, we are based on these thinking stories to adapt to and promote the current objective world, but what should be recognized is that there is a deeper dual contradiction behind right and wrong.
Balance both inside and outside to avoid imbalances
Huang Zhengyu said that external growth has brought great benefits to today's human beings. It promotes social progress, promotes technological development, and enables human beings to enter an era of unprecedented material abundance, experiencing more products, services and other benefits. With the development of the economy, more and more social problems are also prominent, and Tian Yanyou noticed that the second chapter of "Independent Thinking: Who Is Influencing Whom" talks about "the imbalance of growth". So, what is the imbalance of growth, is it only the pursuit of financial status? What is true internal and external growth?
Huang Zhengyu said that the imbalance of growth refers to the excessive focus on external growth, especially economic growth, which has brought about a huge negative impact. While pursuing the continuous improvement of material living standards, any individual cannot ignore the enrichment and growth of the inner world such as emotions, thinking, and morality, and the same is true for society and the country. The rapid change of the times has created a great challenge to inner growth, and the fallacy of "freedom of choice" has emerged.
In the face of social phenomena and problems such as food addiction, shopping addiction, drug addiction, entertainment addiction, and pornography addiction, individuals need to learn to think independently, realize that they have choices, and have the ability to choose, be inclusive, and save the best, so as to make the "right choice" - which are the thinking stories that can be owned and which are the thinking stories that need to be rewritten.
Huang Zhengyu believes that only by knowing and making good use of thinking stories can we overcome inner anxiety and achieve true growth. So in this sense, independent thinkers will not be like those who catch up with the trend, those who are trapped in the fallacy of "freedom of choice" and cannot extricate themselves, will soberly realize what they want, and the real success is internal success rather than external success. Only in this way can you bring yourself inner peace, and you can have the opportunity to influence the people around you and affect the group.
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