Chapter 4 My Principles

Principles are tools invisible. Yet it exists in our heart and can help us with our mental power.

4.1 Minimalism

Ockham’s Razor: plurality should not be posited without necessity.

4.1.1 Minimalism and rituals

Minimalism is a very powerful principle of thinking and working. When we talk about rituals, we mean that we combine a set of activities together to avoid making decisions for each activity. It’s useful because if we have limited choices, the energy spared could go to our action.

Everyday, I have wasted a lot of my time on wandering. When getting up, I wander around, brew a cup of coffee, eat some eggs. And suddenly I realize it is late for work. I observe that this phenomenon is quite more obvious for my wife.

The antidote for this procrastination is minimalism. I can make my work a ritual. The plan can be made the day before and it can be rehearsed in my mind. Then until the day comes, I can do directly without any hesitation. Plan in Supermemo is a very good tool to put this principal into practice. I can try to make the Plan the night before and treat it as a deal in my heart.

4.1.2 Minimalism and writing

I have this perception that writing in English is easier and more smooth than Chinese. But the reason is still elusive for me. Today I suddenly have a deeper understanding of minimalism and figure out an important mechanism for this. Writing in English is more smooth because I have less choice to make. When telling one thing in Chinese, I have many different ways of expression, and editing comes easily. Writing then turns out to be laborious because the many decisions I have to make. In contrast, when I write in English, I find myself have very limited ways of expression, sometimes merely articulating my thoughts is enough for me. Surprisingly, then I have a lot of words to say, because I can focus on one thing only, that is just writing. When I keep writing, the inertia will keep me writing until I was interrupted by other things. But if I shifted between writing and editing, I constantly change my status and it’s quite easy for me to quit.

4.2 Field

People can change their environment, and then their environment will act back to people. I call this environment field. Through all of our life, we are constantly building our field and living in it. We choose our colleagues, friends and family. We form circles and some invisible things can flow unconstrained inside these circles.

4.2.1 Field and culture

We have culture everything, such as company culture, school culture and national culture. This so called culture is cultural field. It could be perceived as some shared experience, beliefs and emotions among a group of people.

4.3 Incremental Learning

4.3.1 Incremental learning is happy

Is learning happy? I have seen two arguments, one advocating that learning is pleasurable and only right if it is enjoyable for the person learning, and the other wheeling just the opposite, that learning is painful. The latter is more in line with most people’s experience because whether it is learning some subject or learning a skill, it requires constant practice and the process is tedious. My view is that learning is an instinct, and if we follow that instinct, we will enjoy learning.

In the book I would never send my kids to school by Piotr A. Wozniak, Wozniak points out that this instinct is called the Learn Drive. Learn Drive is our brain’s ability to automatically recognize a Novel Pattern, a mechanism by which we adapt to our environment. An infant will recognize moving objects, and by the time he is a little older, he will be able to recognize strangers. When he is able to touch things, he will use his sense of touch to recognize the touch of each thing. In this way, we build up our knowledge of the world little by little.

And, contrary to many people’s beliefs, this internal drive to learn does not diminish with age. From the oldest to the youngest, whenever their minds recognize something new in the environment, they have an instinctive drive to explore it. This instinct is also connected to our reward system, and each activation of the drive to learn gives us an inner reward and a sense of accomplishment. So, if you use it well, you can enjoy the joy of learning.

However, we have to face a question: If learning can be so pleasurable, why is it so difficult for us to experience it normally? This has to do with the way we learn. Self-directed learning is a way of learning that generates internal motivation for learning, and it means that each person knows what kind of learning content and learning style is most suitable for him or her, just like everyone knows which pair of shoes fits his or her feet. The area where we learn cannot be all known, so that the brain does not detect new paradigms and we get bored. Also, the area can’t be all unknown, so the brain would be overwhelmed with new information and there would be a risk that nothing would remain. We need to go to a balance of the known and the unknown, and it is within this zone that learning is most effective. I call this state progressive learning. Incremental learning means that each person finds his or her own sweet spot, an area where we poke our heads out of our known territory and try to put one foot into the unknown first. To take the shoe analogy again, the shoe should both wrap around the foot and not be able to top it, leaving some space. The same is true for the learning of knowledge.

Back to the specific study, I have to find my own boundary. Nowadays, there are so many learning materials on the Internet that it would be an act of cutting my feet to fit my shoes if I were to adapt myself to the learning styles offered by others. I have to find my own sweet spot within which I can experience the benefits of incremental learning. My brain does not get bored by not detecting new paradigms, and my attention is able to stay engaged. Only by fully engaging my internal drive to learn can my learning be lasting and effective.