4. How to cultivate grayscale thinking

Cheng Wei, the founder of Didi, especially likes reading books about war. He looked at business competition in the same way he looked at war, believing that competition should be the same as war: you die or I live. But as time went on, he found more and more that there was something wrong with it. Didi won two fierce battles with Kuaidi and Uber, but it also lost a lot of money. Since then, Cheng Wei began to reflect on whether his idea of “you without me, I without you” really works in reality.

In an interview with Caijing, he said, “IN the past, I read a lot of books on war and studied the methodology of war. It’s all about winning and survival. But slowly, I realized that the smartest strategy is not to fight everyone in a dark forest. You can’t run out of enemies.”

Not playing games with everyone, allowing others to exist at the same time, not competing with each other, is a sign of being open to uncertainty.

We live in a world where many things are uncertain. This is unfortunate news for obsessive-compulsive disorder, but the fact is that none of us can change it, we can only accept and embrace it.

1) Keep an open mind and accept uncertainty

² Keep a positive attitude: three points are destined, seven points depend on hard work. Generally speaking, we can deal with up to seven points of uncertainty through our own hard work, and the remaining three points are beyond our control no matter how hard we try, such as the passage of time, physical and mental decline, some people are getting further and further away. Only by accepting uncertainty and working hard on the seven-point certainty that one can control, and remaining calm and calm on the three-point uncertainty that one cannot control, can one have full confidence and confidence.

² More probability thinking: the reason why poker masters can win more than others is because they will use probability to think. Instead of focusing on a particular outcome, they focus on what might happen. The emphasis is on predicting the likelihood of certain scenarios and adjusting responses based on real-time, constantly updated information — making big bets when it suits you and not when it suits you. The same is true when we make decisions. Most of the time, although we cannot directly judge which option is more appropriate, we can infer the success rate of each option by evaluating its strengths and weaknesses, existing conditions and missing conditions, and then make a more scientific choice.

2) Grasp the scale and discretion, do not go to extremes

Huawei’s Ren Zhengfei is a model of grayscale thinking, and his grayscale, to a large extent, is reflected in the grasp of scale, not to go to extremes. When Huawei entered the European market, it used a higher pricing strategy. Ren Zhengfei was interviewed by a journalist and said that according to Huawei’s ability, it can keep the price very low and seize the market share in Europe quickly. Why not do so? Ren replied: “I don’t want to take too much of the market, because I want our competitors to survive. After all, killing other people is not the goal, so that you will not live long. And new technologies can be overturned and replaced at any time. Only by common development can the renewal and replacement stay longer and longer.”

Everything has its limits. Haste makes waste. A lot of things, only learn to grasp the appropriate, can manage, twice the result with half the effort. So, how should we hold good degree? Is to learn to give others leeway.

(2) Keep your mouth shut: We should learn not to express our opinions on matters of which we are not sure, and when we do open our mouths, we should do so thoughtfully. For those who are in unfortunate situations, we must learn to remain silent. Even if you already know or understand, don’t express your feelings and opinions easily. After all, everyone’s life situation is different, and their thoughts and feelings are different.

Don’t do it all: First, don’t haggle over every ounce. People who want to kill their competitors are bound to be retaliated and attacked by their rivals, and the final result is often to kill one thousand enemies and lose eight hundred. Secondly, we should learn to put ourselves in others’ shoes. To save face for others, down the steps, in fact, is to pave their own way back, save people.

3) Move beyond opposing options and find a third solution

In addition to embracing uncertainty and grasping the degree, learning to come out of the two opposing options and find a third solution is also an important way to cultivate grayscale thinking. Cultivating grayscale thinking sometimes requires us to move beyond black and white alternatives and find more solutions.

So how do you find the third solution? Is to use “third choice” thinking. The third choice is not a third choice, but a third dimensional choice. It is not a compromise or a compromise between the two opposing options. It is to find a third dimension in the two-dimensional world of a plane, adding one dimension to an unworkable and impossible plane. So how do you do that?

(2) Get out of the problem and find the essence: not to criticize, not to praise, but to maintain the peace of the moment without losing principle. When faced with a dilemma, do not rush to choose one or the other, but ask yourself: What is the ultimate goal I want to achieve? Is there an alternative to the current choice?

² Use a third party’s perspective: In addition to discovering the nature of a problem, sometimes learning to see a problem from a third party’s perspective can help us find more solutions. So how do we do that? You can pretend to be your friend and give yourself advice, or you can think about your idol or someone you admire and how they would handle this situation. When you step out of the “either/or” mindset, you will definitely feel that the world is getting wider.

We have to make a lot of decisions in an uncertain environment every day. Keeping gray thinking can make us more calm and rational. However, thinking can be grayscale, but decision-making cannot be grayscale. Because we have to make quick decisions and make choices to move things forward. So, if we want to make more scientific judgment and decision, we can remember this sentence: gray cognition, black and white decision.

Gray-scale cognition is to consider options of various dimensions openly and seek better solutions. Black and white decision making is about considering the outcome and making clear and decisive choices. Both collocation use, is the great wisdom of life!


5. To summarize

A really capable person can do the following two things at any time:

² The first point is “compatibility between upper and lower levels”. It refers to the tolerance of people of higher and lower levels. He can play with people of all levels at any time.

² The second point is “left and right harmony” : it refers to finding the most appropriate point between right and wrong, often grayscale, which is the most accurate grasp of degree.

In other words, truly talented people can always blend in with their surroundings, rather than be rejected by others.

However, in order to truly reach this level of wisdom, a person must be able to give up or lower down a lot of things at any time, including many innate prejudices, as well as innate understanding and ability.

We must understand one truth today:

² Gray thinking is the normal state of life;

² The gray area is the normal state of society.

The essence of life is to look for light in gray scale. There is only one heroism in this world, which is to see through the truth of the world and still love the world. Those who can lead us to see hope from despair, is the real hero of the world, so there are really many people with great wisdom, never simply use “right” and “wrong” to judge things, but in the constant balance of the “degree”, “degree” grasp, the overall situation will not chaos. Grayscale thinking is the mode of thinking of the highest realm. Grasp the scale, is the key point of our power.

In the Diamond Sutra, it is said that all phases are false. If see all phase is not phase, namely see tathagata. The meaning is: all appearances, are our heart in the imaginary, if you can see the nature behind all kinds of appearances, you will understand! That is to say, in ordinary life, what we see is black and white, are only superficial. Do not cling to these appearances, is the so-called “not phase”, to be able to see the truth from the appearance.

Hence it is said that the test of a man’s ability is whether he can hold two opposing thoughts in his head at the same time and still maintain the ability to act normally. In fact, life is the most rare, not you see through the truth after the wind and rain. Life is the most rare, when you see through the truth, but also to hold that original mind.

Embrace uncertainty, give yourself more freedom, and give life a better chance!

This article refer toYonyou Research Institute,Yonyou Developer CompetitionandYonBuider Development Centerdata