Small early say: all say oneself is dry goods, exactly how identify dry goods?
Dry goods
Last week, I saw a popular answer from Dai Yusen, the former co-founder of the company, on Zhihu: Is the so-called “dry goods” really useful?
In most cases, the driest works come from the classic works in the field of textbooks (except in the field of rapid development like the Internet, where textbooks lag behind the industry). However, many people do not want to read textbooks, but may prefer to listen to zhihu Live, which is not so professional and refined.
Why is that? Many people don’t really want to learn, but just a “feeling of learning.”
I have made some observations of my own and have divided learning into two categories: serious learning and recreational learning. In fact, everyone has two parts to study, but I think the utility of serious study is far greater than that of recreational study.
Serious learning – to really study in order to go deeper into a particular field – to read accepted classics, textbooks, etc. – to consult with the real authorities in the field if you can find them – to put in long hours and spend a lot of time practicing over and over again – to focus on discussion rather than proving yourself right
Recreational learning – study for the purpose of getting an idea, or talking about something in front of others, or for satisfaction – likes to collect, give oneself the feeling that “I am studying” – a sense of ritual over content, and a preference for frequent, shallow, short periods of time. I like quick and collective content — I like to go straight to the conclusion without in-depth understanding of the process and historical background of the conclusion, and I don’t like practice — I like to argue rather than discuss, and I like to prove myself right — I like to download a bunch of e-books, zhihu Live, answer points, value points, fruit shells, get, etc
This is not to say that recreational learning is not good, in fact, most of everyone’s learning content is recreational learning, many friends are right, just want to know food, do not have to learn from textbooks (but in fact, starting from classic books to learn wine, coffee, etc., in fact, is more accurate and efficient than reading Zhihu). If we look at it from the T-shaped talent model, that’s the T bar. However, if there is no serious learning, or the depth of serious learning is not enough, there is often a limit to one’s expertise, that is, the height of the T.
I thought it was great, very inspiring. At the same time, I also add some imperfections that I think are not perfect. Only communication collision can spark inspiration.
Let me explain it step by step.
Step 1: Information collection phase
The information collection stage includes “zhama step hard knowledge” and “tuyere type knowledge”.
Zama Step hard knowledge: The basic skills that have been summed up through hundreds of years of experience are the content that requires serious learning in Dai Yusen’s answer, so “textbooks” are the most effective place to acquire dry goods. For example, I need to learn the basic knowledge of finance, accounting, investment, macro and micro economics and other skills for strategic investment.
What are the biggest obstacles to learning the hard way?
Timothy Taylor, Stanford’s most popular economics professor, summed it up well:
“Anecdotes” are not “data.”
For example, many popular answers in Zhihu just tell a heart-stirring story, which is indeed very readable, which is called “putting a face in the news” in news writing techniques.
But storytelling is far from dry, because you can’t take a novel story and solve another real problem.
This is why you can often get a novel story + a fresh argument by listening to the 60-second audio of Thinking Series, but it is difficult to solve practical problems. The fundamental reason is very simple: Luo Fat 60 seconds voice goal starting point is to guide to sell lessons + sell books, the story is more novel the better, rather than let you understand a “zhama step hard knowledge”.
Zama Walk Hard Knowledge counts everyone, not just a few faces in anecdotes or news reports.
Tuyere type knowledge: The rapidly changing industry is full of uncertainties, and the knowledge in textbooks cannot keep up with the updating speed of the industry. Therefore, in the information collection stage, it is necessary to pay close attention to the latest global information, such as the Internet, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering and other industries.
The best way to gather information is to go to the forefront and read the latest information from around the world, not textbooks.
For example, I went to the CES conference in January this year. I watched Li Yaoshou go to the F8 developer conference of Facebook and David Walleerstein, “chief exploration officer” of Tencent, explore new projects around the world.
Step 2: Think about the summary stage
In the thinking summary stage, the focus direction of “zama step hard knowledge” vs “tuyere type knowledge” is different.
The summary direction of “Zama Step Hard Knowledge” is to establish the connection between knowledge and get feedback through real cases.
As I was in a management consulting project and the client’s accounting personnel to discuss the financial statements, general accounting may have accounting theory knowledge and understanding of the company’s financial situation, but every day I look at financial information industry at home and abroad, every month on a business trip to about 8, and talk about the accounting companies in different industries related issues, Encountered a variety of cracking window-dressing financial statements, naturally to the accounting of this kind of “zhama step hard knowledge” has a deeper understanding.
The second step of “tuyo-style knowledge” is to summarize the rules. Few people are able to do this, and most of them are still at the stage of reading strange stories. For example, ofo is a “magic mirror of national quality” and how many ofo bikes have been damaged. Facebook announced a new VR and AR product at F8, which will make watching movies and dating more exciting.
Summing up rules requires an extremely rigorous logical thinking ability, which I think Wang Xing of Meituan Dianping is very good at. For example, in his recent remarks:
“Ofo came up with a concept of connected bikes, which I think is a wrong and ill-thought out concept. There is no connected bike, it doesn’t make sense and it’s not going to happen.”
You can clearly see that ofo, which used to lack technical content and is “plain looking”, has encountered many problems. It is now transforming to mobike model, including replacing push-button smart locks, explosion-proof tires, and de-emphasizing the connection of other bicycle brands such as Flying Pigeon and Phoenix on the platform. Passive factors include government requirements to add features such as GPS.
It can be seen that Mobike’s business logic was clearer than Ofo’s from the beginning.
For example, my successive articles on Facebook and Snapchat research were not just tidbits.
The third step: gray knowledge
Among the “tuyere knowledge”, there is a part of “gray knowledge”, including business model innovation and organizational behavior.
Ren Zhengfei of Huawei first proposed the concept of “gray scale” in the paper “Gray Scale of Management”.
“The clear direction of an enterprise emerges from chaos and emerges from gray. The direction changes with time and space, and it often becomes unclear. Reasonable grasp of the appropriate gray level, is to make a variety of factors affecting the development. A clear direction comes from gray scale. The important quality of a leader is direction and rhythm. His level is the appropriate gray scale. The right direction of perseverance comes from grayscale, compromise and tolerance.”
Ma Huateng has also explained “gray scale” from seven perspectives (demand, speed, flexibility, redundancy, openness and cooperation, evolution and innovation). The characteristic of “gray knowledge” is that it needs to be replenished by “hard knowledge” and “tuyere knowledge” constantly, forming a complete knowledge structure iteratively.
For example, business model innovation, on the one hand, you need to understand classic theoretical knowledge: disruptive innovation, Porter’s Five Forces, value chain analysis, business model canvas, etc. Please note that “understand” is not “understand”.
On the other hand, feedback from practical experience is needed. I recommend paying attention to the blog of Paul Graham, founder of SILICON Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator. For example, he writes: How to Get Startup Ideas? How to find startup ideas?
The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. It’s to look for problems, preferably problems you have yourself. The very best startup ideas tend to have three things in common: they’re something the founders themselves want, that they themselves can build, And that few others realize are worth doing. Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Google, and Facebook all began this way.”
“The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas, but to look for questions, and the best questions are your own questions. The best startup ideas tend to have three things in common: they are something the founders themselves want, something they can build themselves, and something others recognize as worth doing. Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Google and Facebook all started that way.”
— graham
The characteristics of “gray scale knowledge” are: some seemingly simple knowledge systems are accumulated in a large number of practices, and people are most prone to make mistakes. For example, “user thinking”. Recently, Apple opened fire on wechat public account, just like the 3Q war in 2010. Is it really “user thinking”?
Step 4: Application layer
“Dry goods” in the end enough dry, only use to know.
Wang Xing once said an interesting passage:
“To admit that foreign countries are indeed more advanced than us, especially in the Internet field, it is true that they first invent things, then encounter problems, and then solve the needs of users. Just like today’s cars have four wheels and one steering wheel, instead of four wheels in foreign countries, making five wheels in China is innovation.”
There are echoes of what The American strategic thinker John Galbraith once said:
“Looking at India and China from our experience in the United States is half wrong and half wrong.”
What said here is “incomprehensible” and “wrong”, mainly refers to the difference between dry goods in the “application layer”.
For example, if Americans use Apple Pay at Starbucks, it’s hard to imagine that all pancake sellers in China have started using wechat Alipay QR codes to Pay. I attended a lecture at Tsinghua university some time ago, and I met many people from Silicon Valley who came to learn how technology is being implemented in China.
The feature of the “application layer” is that any new development that breaks through the time and space constraints of people, products and information will have a huge impact on the way businesses operate.
For example, the maturity of mobile payment and GPS functions drive the development of shared bikes, and even the business model reform of rural chess and card games (for those who are interested, please check out the legendary case of kunlun Wanwei, a listed company, participating in the 2 billion yuan acquisition of Xialai Interactive Entertainment).
conclusion
1. Distinguish between “cramming hard knowledge” and “cramming knowledge.”
2. “Hard knowledge” emphasizes establishing connections between knowledge, while “draught knowledge” emphasizes summarizing experience rather than staying at “anecdotes”.
3. Pay attention to the iteration of “gray knowledge”.
4. The “dry stuff” is only effective when it is applied, as it was when I decided to write this article, otherwise the dry stuff is just passing through your mind.
Author: Little Danny Zhang Gan. The author authorizes the morning reading class to publish, reprint please contact the author.
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Edit: Morning Reading Don -Verna
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