Brief introduction:For R & D students, exploring the nature of things is the most basic and core skill that needs to be mastered first.

Author: He Xuexie

Technology, not jobs, more technical personnel working in company in a state of mind, this series is suitable for all want to work on everyday “much more know how to” technology, with the tools of theoretical guidance, combining his own practice experience, realized the harvest, so as to accelerate the process of growth. There are thousands of great truths, and the true meaning of those who are predestined to learn lies in their deeds rather than in their appearances.

In the future period of time, Alibaba middleware public number will continue to release a series of articles, welcome attention.

Previous series of articles on technology No.1 methodology:

What is tech number one?

background

There are all kinds of things happening all the time in our life, some of them are related to us, some of them seem to have nothing to do with us. No matter how big or small the things are, we always need to set aside some energy to deal with them, more or less. In the process of dealing with these things, when I contact with some people, I always feel that they have a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of things. Listening to what they say is like a clam of wisdom. Such people tend to hit the nail on the head and get twice the result with half the effort; However, when communicating with other people, they may feel that their cognition of a certain thing is superficial. They often fail to grasp the key points to solve problems. They work very hard but are mostly useless. So what accounts for the difference? Is there any way or means to bridge this difference?

As a technical researcher, I am always faced with a variety of demands. There are always predecessors who constantly emphasize the reuse of technology and the reconfiguration of code. However, it is often the temporary demand that the backward deadline forces the research and development to go online faster, resulting in the unclean online picking up of the hairs on the floor and leaving an endless technical debt. Why do developers never seem to keep up with the ever-changing business needs? Most of the time, people instinctively blame the product manager for not thinking clearly. Has anyone ever thought about what is wrong with the product manager or operation staff that we work with every day, so that our R & D students keep reworking themselves? What they don’t think clearly, do we never think clearly? These things, we should not think, can you think clearly, is there any benefit? What skills do developers need to master to cope with ever-changing business needs?

As system architect, in the face of the complex business systems, start operation often fierce like a tiger, three years planning five years evolution, but after years of construction, are simply left behind many see the ancestral code following instead, new requirements need to find cracks in the old business logic “solution”, a line of developers is not only to avoid “lead a launch whole body” of all kinds of curved around, Perhaps even the architecture itself, not to mention the evolution of the architecture, has become obscure. It will spiral out of control until one day there will be a tipping point where there will be another toppling of the refactoring, and the chaos will start all over again, and a new cycle of technical debt will begin, of course, with a system 2.0 or 3.0 (we haven’t seen a 4.0 system yet). But what about the scalability of the architecture and the abstraction? What is the relationship between the architecture itself and the business, and what is the relationship between the evolution of the architecture and the growth of the business, and how can architects break the mantra that the architecture design and evolution process is repeatedly hit in the face by reality?

As the leader of the R & D team, I lead my own people to do the demand delivery. While resisting the impulse to write code in person, I have to do the project management, but at the same time, I may be doubted by the people below about my technical ability. All kinds of inverted deadlines seem to be lined up like red lines for debt collection. Seeing these red lines circle my team’s brothers with black eyes, crawling and rolling in one pit after another like cannon fodder, while I can only act like a large outsourcing resource manager, unable to do anything about this situation in practice. In addition to the thought of the need to constantly add people feel powerless. How can team members not be consumed as resources in the process of doing business, but grow in value as assets? How can we make use of the prediction of business development trend to break the rules and advance the layout, and master the initiative in strategy, so that we can not only make stable products ahead of our rivals in the battle, but also have enough time to polish the products so as to improve the user experience?

Different roles of technical people, whether in work or in life, faced with a series of cliche problems, perhaps hope to have a touch of magic, a silver bullet out, can leave a widely sung myth of the people month. However, under the current conditions of productivity, there is neither a silver bullet nor a panacea for technical personnel, and the myth of man and month is always a myth. All things, all problems, want to be solved, have to go back to the original point: what is the nature of this thing? In other words, the starting point of our daily work is not to use some tool to solve a problem, but to recognize the issue first — to recognize the nature of a matter, is the premise and foundation of all subsequent actions. Do business requirements analysis, architecture design easel composition, computer language, the selection of technology stack, and relevant solutions for construction is on the one hand, and “based on the understanding of the business for business modeling and combined with the business development of the continued evolution” is extremely important, but it is often neglected in another way.

Daily work, many researchers tend to focus on a variety of computer language and its technology stack, people will spend time reading all kinds of technical books, to explore the principle behind all kinds of technical scheme, and then promote personal technology ability through business practice, all to promote the growth of the individual are almost all around the “technical” two words, however, Especially for the students who have been engaged in business research and development for many years, do you realize that besides “technology”, you also need to master “business” related knowledge, among which, exploring the essence of things is the most basic and core skill that needs to be mastered first? None of them. It is the basis for building the big picture of the business at the strategic level, and it is the basis for arranging troops and launching key battles. It is also the basis for analyzing business requirements at the tactical level, for designing architecture, and for modeling business domains. All the tools and methodologies that the technology number one needs to master, all the starting point is it, all the theoretical tools and methodologies are ultimately its application, projection and simplification in a certain field.

What is the essence of things

A philosophical definition of the nature of things

The abstract discussion of the essence of things involves the philosophical level. At present, I do not have the relevant ability to carry out detailed theoretical demonstration. Here I directly excerpt the discussion on the unity of opposites between the essence of things and phenomena in Marxist philosophy to see what the essence of things is in the philosophical level:

• Essence is the fundamental nature of things and the relatively stable internal connection between the components of things themselves. — Principles of Marxist Philosophy (5th Ed., by Chen Xianda and Yang Geng)
• Essence is the fundamental nature of things, the relatively stable internal connection between the components of things themselves, and the special contradictions of things themselves. — Baidu Baike
• The cosmological view of materialist dialectics advocates studying the development of things from the inside of things and from the relationship of one thing to other things, that is, the development of things is regarded as the inevitable internal movement of things, and the movement of each thing is interrelated with and affects each other with other things around it. The fundamental cause of the development of things is not outside of things but inside them, and lies in the contradictions within them. In everything there is this contradiction, which gives rise to the movement and development of things. The contradiction within things is the fundamental cause of the development of things, and the mutual connection and influence between things is the second cause of the development of things. — “On Contradiction” Mao Zedong
• In studying a problem, we should avoid subjectivity, one-sidedness and superficiality. The so-called subjectivity, is do not know to look at a problem objectively, that is, do not know to look at a problem from a materialistic point of view. I have already made this point in the article “On Practice”. The so-called one-sidedness means that one does not know how to look at a problem in an all-round way. — “On Contradiction” Mao Zedong

An analysis of the unity of opposites between the essence of things and phenomena

1. Essence and phenomenon are unity of opposites. Everything has two sides: essence and phenomenon. There is no essence in the world that does not manifest itself as a phenomenon, and no phenomenon exists without its essence. Essence and phenomenon are unified, but they have differences and contradictions. Essence defines the nature of things and its basic developing direction on the whole, while phenomenon expresses essence from different sides. Essence is composed of internal contradictions of things, which is relatively simple, stable and profound, and can only be grasped by thinking. Phenomena are rich, variable, superficial things that are perceptible to the senses. Illusions show the essence of things from the negative side, giving people a completely opposite impression of things, covering up the essence. The existence of illusion manifests the contradiction between essence and phenomenon. It is therefore impossible to simply identify the phenomenon with the essence. — Baidu Baike

The essence of things and phenomena are the unity of opposites. This is objective dialectics. The application of this dialectics to human cognitive process requires that people should neither talk about the essence of things without breaking away from the phenomenon nor stay on the phenomenon of things, but grasp the essence of things through the phenomenon. (Note by the author of this article: look through the appearance to see the essence, this sentence is understood by everyone, but exactly how to do, this article is to try to give.)

Therefore, we should observe a large number of phenomena on the basis of practice and occupy perceptual materials as much as possible, which is the prerequisite for cognition to grasp the essence through phenomena. (Note to the author: This is the rationale for “no investigation, no right to speak.”) In the observation of social problems, we must learn to distinguish between essence and phenomenon, and grasp the essence and mainstream, which is one of them.

Secondly, having a large number of observed phenomena and possessing real perceptual materials does not mean grasping the essence of things. In order to grasp the essence through the phenomena, we must analyze and study a large number of phenomena, real perceptual materials and their relations, which requires mastering scientific methods. (Note from the author of this article: The Principles of Marxist Philosophy does not specify what the scientific method is to be mastered, and this is exactly what the author of this article tries to give with the combination of practical experience, the same note as above.)

Thirdly, the phenomena of things are intricate and complex, and the essence of things has a process of gradually exposing and developing. Therefore, people’s cognition of the essence of things is not completed at one time, but a deepening process from one-sided to comprehensive, from not too profound to profound. — Principles of Marxist Philosophy (5th Ed., by Chen Xianda and Yang Geng)

Knowing the unity of opposites between essence and phenomenon at the philosophical level, some readers may ask, what does this have to do with business development? I’ll give you just one example that seems very small but is actually a big problem: We do a new retail business and the entire process covers the supplier channels, platforms, customers, partners, and consumers of these different business participants, the whole business can let vendors in the platform, to channel customer delivery platforms, channels so that the customers own user able to integral or integral plus cash to buy goods.

One day the product manager made a request to “add a delete button to the vendor console to delete items the vendor doesn’t want to see.” A seemingly simple requirements, in the commodity list add a delete button, should soon be able to online, but in fact, the real business meaning behind the delete items this action and the scene is not a simple technical soft delete the goods data, but “stop supply”, commodity suppliers are trying to remove a large probability has signed agreement online, If the product is delivered to customers of a certain channel at a certain price, the research and development personnel willfully delete the product data according to the demand, then the products already on sale or even in operation activities will suddenly be unable to be purchased, resulting in the loss of customers of the channel or causing public opinion.

R&d staff communication, therefore, the demand for technical solution review, I rejected, requirements related to students to complete the business scenario analysis and discussion, the completion the complete business process behind the delete button, amend the “delete” button on the name to “stop supply” button, and has not any channel sales of goods provide screening alone, It is no longer displayed in the vendor’s merchandise management list by default. So the whole demand was originally a delete button 1 day of work, in fact analysis clear product requirements after the business scenarios and real business meaning behind, and becomes a reference to stop supply update online approval process, the supply agreement, channels for sale goods shelves, and so on a series of linkage complex business requirements, The technical solutions are more complex and have longer timelines than before.

As the technical person in charge of the business, if he cannot grasp the nature behind the business demand, such situation will emerge endlessly. All the temporary plans that are launched quickly will have to be redone with manpower and energy as the demand deepens, and the cost in this aspect will often be transferred to the front-line R&D students.

A way of exploring the nature of things

The abstract philosophical definition does not provide us with the practical operation method to see the essence through the phenomenon, but it points out the composition and key points of the essence of things. We can based on the definition of philosophy and “on contradiction” full text and special reference content in this article, if you want to analyze the nature of a thing clearly, is to analyze things objectively, combing its inner primary and the secondary contradictions, at the same time need to comb it and its external environment within the other things are interrelated and influence each other.

Inherently, we should analyze the constituent parts of the object and the corresponding unity of opposites, so as to get the corresponding primary and secondary contradictions, and clarify the main and secondary aspects of the contradictions. It should be noted that the correlation analysis is based on a certain dimension of things, at a certain stage of their development, and as things develop, the correlation analysis may change. The insides of things determine the essence of things. As shown in the figure below:

Extrinsic analysis in a certain environment, research target things and other things between the correlation and mutual influence. The external of things influences the development of things through their internal relations and influences. This point can be simple to think about a question: an ordinary hammer can break an ordinary glass, the root cause is the hammer or the glass? For those of you who think the root cause is the hammer, consider this: can a normal hammer break through toughened glass, bulletproof glass, steel? As shown in the figure below:

Through the above schematic diagram and the corresponding analysis explanation, we can understand all the key factors in the process of analyzing the nature of the problem. As for the detailed operation steps and instructions, the template will be provided in the fourth chapter of this paper, which is convenient for people to use in their actual work and life.

The necessity of analyzing the nature of things for the technical number one

Business research and development, especially complex business systems research and development, realize the business requirements put forward by the product manager is only its appearance, its real nature connotation, is the use of technical means to solve a particular problem of digital logic, using computer technology to do digital modeling of objective things, logic and data on the basis of as much as possible close to the nature of things, In order to complete the reality and virtual mapping, solve the corresponding problems.

As technical director of research and development team, if the business is the starting point of cognitive product manager document output of product function, the understanding of the business from a steady stream of business requirements, cannot recognize the nature of the business, not to see some possible development trend of the future, then the technical director actually only did respond to business needs, You’ll never really be able to support the business on technology architectures and solutions, let alone use technology to drive the business.

This is also the biggest difference between “technology leader” and “R&D TeamLeader”. The former is the co-builder of the business, who uses the technical background and professional skills to assist the business leader to promote the development of the business, essentially playing the role of decision maker, while the latter is only the coordinator of the R&D resources and the controller of the project schedule. They’re essentially playing the role of executor.

Faced with a very complicated things, we need to be able to have reasonable theoretical tools to support themselves, the complex context out of the trunk, and then analyses why it now is such, the past is what kind of, under what conditions, future will develop into what kind, then analyze which key part is that we can through the practical action to influence, So that it can influence the key parts to guide the future direction of things.

The following is a basic analysis procedure for complex problems.

The operation of analyzing the nature of something

Internal analysis of things

1. Define the scope of the discussion

Clear the scope of the discussion is very important, the same thing, within the scope of the different discussion, the conclusion may be completely on the contrary, the reason is not that we use the theory of tool has a problem, but with the enlargement of the scope, to discuss the composition of the thing itself and the outside world interact with each other and influence each other will change, so there will be different, even opposite conclusions. So in order to solve a fixed problem, the first thing we need to determine is what the scope of the problem is, what the environment is, and what the context of the problem is being discussed. These are the basis of all analysis, and if you don’t align them in the context of multiple discussions, it will be very easy to have different arguments in the discussion.

2. Analyze the internal composition of things and their existing forms

After defining the scope of good things, we need to analyze the various components of this thing and what forms each component exists in.

3. Analyze the roles and responsibilities of the internal components of things

Every part of a thing, in this thing, plays a certain role. This role is an abstraction of the responsibilities and behaviors of a certain part. All behaviors reflect the core interests of this part.

4. Analyze the core interest demands of each role under the limitation of responsibilities

After analyzing the roles of the internal components of the transaction, the next step is to analyze the core interest appeals of the internal components of the transaction under the requirements of the corresponding roles. It should be noted that when discussing the appeal of core interests, the scope of discussion should be defined in combination with the scenarios, otherwise the final appeal of core interests of many things will be excessively abstracted. However, in many cases, a problem is launched by a specific and scoped appeal of interests. It is not convenient to analyze the contradiction points and can not solve the actual problems in a concrete way. Therefore, when discussing the unity of opposites, it is clear that the scope and scene of the core interest appeal should be limited, and abstraction should not be blindly done, and the universality of contradictions should be considered instead of the particularity of contradictions.

Composition 1

• Appeal for core interests

What is the core interest appeal of component 1 of this thing

• Analysis of the origin of core interest appeal

Explain why the core interest appeal of Thing 1 is like this

Composition of things 2

• Appeal for core interests

What is the core interest appeal of component 2 of this thing

• Analysis of the origin of core interest appeal

Explain why the core interest appeal of Thing 2 is this

The analysis of the interaction between things and the outside world

Based on the theory in Mao Zedong’s On Contradiction, if we want to analyze clearly the nature of things, we also need to analyze clearly its relationship with other things in the outside world, so we will make a brief analysis of this part of content.

What is the context of things

By combing the multiple dimensions that influence the thing itself, a multi-dimensional picture of the overall environment can be established.

What are the key events within the context of the event

Analyze the key events that occur in each dimension. These events may have various relationships with things inside.

What are the effects of key events within the context of the event

Analyze the internal impact of each key event.

How the context in which things work might change in the future

Simply predict how each key event in the larger environment is likely to evolve in the future, so as to analyze the possible impact of the future on things themselves.

Analysis of unity of opposites within things

Define the scope and scenario for discussion

Again, clearly discuss the scope of unity of opposites within things.

Based on the core interests of all parties, this paper analyzes the unity of opposites between all parties

Based on the previous analysis of the core interest demands of all parties of a thing, the pair analysis is carried out to analyze the unity of opposites of each two components of the time of a thing. If necessary, the unity of opposites of three parties and four parties can be continued to be analyzed. We need to make it clear that all the unity of opposites revolves around the demands of core interests. There are low-level ways and high-level ways to satisfy the demands of core interests. If the demands of each party’s core interests are met in a low-level way, then the “unity” of all parties is at a low level. If the core interest demands of all parties are satisfied in a high-level way, then the “unity” of all parties is at a high level.

Based on the analysis of the unity of opposites, the main and secondary contradictions in the current stage are determined

Based on the relations of unity of opposites that have been clearly analyzed, the main and secondary contradictions of the current stage of things should be clarified.

Based on the main contradiction and secondary contradiction of the current stage, the analysis of the main aspects of the contradiction and secondary aspects

After identifying the primary and secondary contradictions, we should take a look at what the primary and secondary aspects of the contradictions are, and give solutions respectively. And after determining the main aspects of the contradiction, it is necessary to give priority to solving the main aspects of the contradiction, rather than which simple first to solve which, or at least to say clearly what things have been done in the main contradiction to alleviate, otherwise it will give people a feeling: solving the problem merely scratches the surface, not to the point.

1, the analysis and reconciliation of the main aspects of the contradiction

2, the analysis and reconciliation of the secondary aspects of contradiction

The prediction and intervention of the law of development of things

When we face very complex things, why do we have to spend a lot of effort to analyze its composition, analysis of its primary and secondary contradictions? To be able to look at a very complex situation and see where it might go in the future, so that we can be prepared in advance, and even do things on our own initiative, so that things will develop as we expect.

1. Analyze the solutions to the primary and secondary contradictions based on the analysis of the current primary and secondary contradictions

Analyze the solutions and determine how to resolve the primary and secondary contradictions. In solving the primary contradiction and secondary contradiction, we should abide by at least one very clear principle: the primary contradiction and secondary contradiction of the current thing need to follow the evolution law of the primary contradiction and secondary contradiction of the environment in which it is located.

2. Forecast the evolution trajectory and the development trend of things, find the key points that can affect the development trend of things, and break the rules by using the rules

Is the general rule, for any one thing, if we want unity is greater than the opposition, the opposition between the intensity is reduced, the unity of opposites of the whole affairs should be developed from low level to high level state, that is, from may harm the interests of one side of the core status, gradually evolved into don’t damage the core interests of either party, On this basis, we should seek reasonable methods and modes to meet the demands of the core interests of all parties. At the beginning of the evolution of the entire process, is the pattern or form of unity will play a decisive role, but as a unified level gradually become high, pattern plays the role of the release is exhausted, often need to begin from the productivity, to solve the model by productivity growth can’t solve the problem, or is to make the model more fine, Or it can create new models based on higher productivity that will continue to push unity toward higher levels of evolution.

From the point of view of our daily specific things, we can mainly analyze the following points:

• To predict the development trend of things when the primary and secondary contradictions are not interfered, and to judge whether the trend is conducive to the achievement of our expectations.
• Look for the key points of things and determine the impact of changing the key points on the way things are going to go in the direction we want them to go.

Analysis of the nature of the case sharing

The following is an example of my using this approach for complex business analysis.

1. Without any research, I only relied on the words “traffic realization” and combined with my own e-commerce business to conduct a pure theoretical analysis divorced from the actual business. The main function of this analysis is to let me, who has no business background or experience, theoretically see the broad context of business and technology evolution. So as to provide overall directional support for the follow-up research, architecture design and the final system landing. Why do this, because the future is likely to take over the business is no experience, how to do a good business, this is one of the foundations.

2. On the basis of a lot of research, continue to analyze the core interest appeal of a business participant in traffic realization in this way, and disassemble key business indicators according to the core interest appeal, so as to guide the development of the business with this index and the index after disintegration in the process of business development.

For details of the case, please reply to “Number One” in the backstage of Alibaba Middleware Public Number to obtain detailed information.

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