The concept is the cornerstone of all knowledge. 概念是所有知识的基石。
Our brain has its own operating system and needs to be actively and continuously upgraded by us. The operating system mainly consists of two closely related parts, which are nothing but:
我们的大脑有自己的操作系统，需要我们积极不断地升级。操作系统主要由两个密切相关的部分组成，它们只不过是：
Concepts and their associated methodologies
概念及其相关方法
Concepts are the cornerstone of all knowledge structures. The term “independent thinking” – a rare ability possessed by few – can be described simply as:
概念是所有知识结构的基石。“独立思考”一词——一种少数人拥有的罕见能力——可以简单地描述为：
Being able to independently and correctly use the correct concepts.
能够独立和正确地使用正确的概念。
(One) （一）
In this aspect, I was extremely fortunate – I had a mother who worked in the library. When I just entered junior high school, my mother spent a few minutes teaching me how to read textbooks:
在这方面，我非常幸运——我有一个在图书馆工作的母亲。刚上初中的时候，妈妈花了几分钟教我看课本：
Look, even though this book is thick, it’s really just a few concepts; it takes up a whole chapter to explain one concept. Structurally, it’s basically the same, just one concept after another, to explain clearly what it is, what it is not, its similarities and differences with other concepts. Then there are the associated methodologies, such as what to pay attention to when using it, how to use it correctly, how to use it incorrectly, and where mistakes are likely to occur… Once these are understood, one concept can be considered thoroughly understood, and if all these concepts are understood, then the book is considered understood; it’s that simple.
你看，这本书虽然厚，但实际上只是几个概念;它用了整整一章来解释一个概念。从结构上讲，它基本上是一样的，只是一个接一个的概念，清楚地解释它是什么，它不是什么，它与其他概念的异同。然后是相关的方法，例如使用时要注意什么，如何正确使用，如何错误地使用，以及哪里可能发生错误……一旦理解了这些，一个概念就可以被认为是彻底理解的，如果所有这些概念都被理解了，那么这本书就被认为是理解的;就是这么简单。
This is actually the methodology for learning any concept! It was like a light bulb going off – my mother only spent a few minutes. My academic performance was very good when I was young, and it definitely stemmed from this few minutes of education – in that instant, I upgraded:
这实际上是学习任何概念的方法！这就像一个灯泡熄灭了——我妈妈只花了几分钟。我小时候的学习成绩很好，这绝对源于这几分钟的教育——在那一瞬间，我升级了：
I learned the importance of concepts;
我学到了概念的重要性;
I understood the structure of textbooks…
我了解教科书的结构……
The rest came naturally – I naturally developed a whole set of methodologies:
其余的都是自然而然的——我自然而然地开发了一整套方法：
At the start of each new semester, after getting the textbooks, the first thing I did was not covering them, but copying down all the important concepts from each chapter, and then memorizing them word for word…
每逢新学期开学，拿到课本后，我做的第一件事不是复习，而是把每一章的重要概念都抄下来，然后一字一句地背下来……
Whether I fully understood it didn’t matter. Those concepts that were going to be digested and absorbed through learning, understanding, application, practice, etc., were already completely memorized in my mind, so I could call them up at any time, but those who didn’t memorize weren’t necessarily able to call them up at any time – they couldn’t remember the complete and specific definitions without looking at the book.
我是否完全理解并不重要。那些通过学习、理解、应用、实践等方式消化吸收的概念，已经完全记在了我的脑海里，所以我可以随时调用它们，但那些不记住的人不一定能够随时调用它们——他们不看书就无法记住完整和具体的定义。
This “being able to call up at any time” is very important. It’s like the information is stored in memory, or on the hard drive, or in the cloud, it’s different for the central processing unit (CPU); others have to wait for it to be downloaded from the cloud to the local system for processing, but I can use it directly – not only is this an efficiency issue, but more importantly, it significantly enhances the “cumulative application frequency” due to efficiency, which is an invisible difference, with a huge power that is real and tangible despite being completely invisible.
这种“能够随时打电话”非常重要。这就像信息存储在内存中、硬盘驱动器或云中一样，中央处理器 （CPU） 就不同了;其他人要等从云端下载到本地系统进行处理，但我可以直接使用它——这不仅是一个效率问题，更重要的是，它显着增强了由于效率而产生的“累积应用频率”，这是一个无形的差异，具有巨大的力量，尽管完全看不见，但真实而有形。
So, back when I was in school, I really felt that learning was easy. For children, how difficult is it to concentrate in class, right? Because the important concepts the teachers were going to discuss were actually “callable at any time” in my mind, so as long as the teacher was discussing the main points, I always seemed to be magically “summoned back”…
所以，当我在学校的时候，我真的觉得学习很容易。对于孩子来说，在课堂上集中注意力有多难，对吧？因为老师们要讨论的重要概念，在我的脑海里其实是“随时可以调用”的，所以只要老师在讨论要点，我似乎总能神奇地“召唤回来”……
It sounds mystical, but the explanation is simple:
这听起来很神秘，但解释很简单：
Those things that were previously “rote memorized” actually installed many “sensors” in your brain, so once someone mentions them, because you’re familiar with them, your brain will respond. If you’ve never rote memorize those concepts, they simply don’t exist in your mind, so even if someone mentions those things while you’re zoning out, your brain won’t respond at all.
那些以前“死记硬背”的东西，其实在你的大脑里装了很多“传感器”，所以一旦有人提到它们，因为你熟悉它们，你的大脑就会做出反应。如果你从来没有死记硬背过这些概念，它们根本不存在于你的脑海中，所以即使有人在你分区时提到这些东西，你的大脑也不会有任何反应。
As I got older, most of my friends had children; in a few years, those children also began to go to school, and I would share my experiences with these parents who had become parents already. Although it’s simple, my friends were all deeply moved… Not long after, when they went to pick up their children from school again, their conversations went something like this:
随着年龄的增长，我的大多数朋友都有了孩子;几年后，这些孩子也开始上学了，我会和这些已经为人父母的父母分享我的经验。虽然很简单，但朋友们都深受感动……没过多久，当他们再次去接孩子放学时，他们的谈话是这样的：
What did you learn today?
你今天学到了什么？
Is xxx yyy? xxx 是 yyy 吗？
Why isn’t xxx yyy? 为什么xxx不是yyy？
What’s the use of yyy?
yyy有什么用？
Can I use yyy like this?
我可以像这样使用 yyy 吗？
Who used yyy wrong today?
今天谁用错了yyy？
…
Actually, developing a child’s learning ability is a very simple matter – most people just don’t know. From this perspective, many adults have actually never learned how to learn – the vast majority have never even realized the importance of concepts… It’s really frightening. Fortunately, such a simple thing can be learned in an instant, and it’s never too late to start, at the very least, learning it can then educate the next generation, and try to prevent them from suffering so much.
其实，培养孩子的学习能力是一件很简单的事情——大多数人只是不知道。从这个角度来看，许多成年人实际上从未学会如何学习——绝大多数人甚至从未意识到概念的重要性……这真的很可怕。好在这么简单的事情，一瞬间就能学会，开始也为时不晚，至少，学习它，可以教育下一代，尽量不让他们吃那么多苦。
When we want to describe a person’s lack of capability or total incompetence, we often say: “xxx has no concept of yyy at all.”
当我们想形容一个人缺乏能力或完全无能时，我们经常说：“xxx根本没有yyy的概念。
“Having no concept” is indeed an accurate phrase. In my early school years, I was fortunate to have “a little concept” – at least I understood the structure of textbooks, which set me apart from those who lacked this crucial concept, whether in behavior patterns or in thought processes.
“没有概念”确实是一个准确的短语。在我上学的早期，我很幸运地拥有“一点概念”——至少我理解了教科书的结构，这使我与那些缺乏这个关键概念的人区分开来，无论是在行为模式还是在思维过程中。
However, as I grew older, I wasn’t always that fortunate and often found myself falling into various pitfalls, requiring great effort to climb out.
然而，随着年龄的增长，我并不总是那么幸运，经常发现自己陷入了各种陷阱，需要付出很大的努力才能爬出来。
Before my colleagues and I founded Knewone in 2011, I had no idea about internet entrepreneurship, and Knewone started somewhat haphazardly. Looking back, I realize how foolish I was at the time. I was running an internet project without even knowing some fundamental concepts such as activity levels, retention rates, Net Promoter Scores, and so on.
在2011年我和我的同事创立Knewone之前，我对互联网创业一无所知，Knewone的起步有些随意。回想起来，我意识到当时我是多么愚蠢。我正在运行一个互联网项目，甚至不知道一些基本概念，例如活动水平、保留率、净推荐值等。
Then in 2013, when I ventured into angel investing, once again, I had “absolutely no concept.” I didn’t even know how many pitfalls I had stumbled into or how much I had suffered.
然后在2013年，当我涉足天使投资时，我再一次“完全没有概念”。我甚至不知道我绊倒了多少陷阱，或者我遭受了多少痛苦。
“Having no concept” is actually very frightening. Many people only realize how lacking their understanding was after they have obtained a driver’s license and hit the road. I have asked many novice drivers, and they generally believe that the top three things they had not thought through or simply did not know were:
“没有概念”其实很可怕。许多人在获得驾照并上路后才意识到自己是多么缺乏理解。我问过很多新手司机，他们普遍认为他们没有考虑清楚或根本不知道的前三件事是：
- There are blind spots that drivers cannot see while sitting in the car.
有些盲点是驾驶员坐在车里看不到的。 - A car does not stop instantly when the driver wants it to.
当驾驶员希望汽车停下来时，汽车不会立即停下来。 - Pedestrians wearing dark clothes walking on the roadside at night are very dangerous.
晚上穿着深色衣服的行人走在路边是非常危险的。
Most drivers change their behavior when they become aware of the important “concepts” they didn’t know or hadn’t paid attention to before. When I walk as a pedestrian now, I no longer rush through red lights or wear dark clothes on the roadside.
大多数司机在意识到他们以前不知道或没有注意的重要“概念”时会改变他们的行为。现在我以行人的身份走路时，我不再匆匆闯红灯或在路边穿深色衣服。
In any field, the lack of knowledge of crucial concepts is akin to being a fool – this has nothing to do with one’s intelligence level. Therefore, learning is the process of becoming smarter, acquiring the most important concepts in a domain, and understanding the relevant methodologies, which immediately makes a person “less foolish.”
在任何领域，缺乏关键概念的知识都类似于傻瓜——这与一个人的智力水平无关。因此，学习是变得更聪明，获得一个领域中最重要的概念，并理解相关方法的过程，这立即使一个人“不那么愚蠢”。
Some concepts are concepts that should be abandoned and removed from our operating systems.
有些概念是应该放弃并从我们的操作系统中删除的概念。
There used to be a concept called “phlogiston”, which has now been discarded. In the past, people did not know about the presence of oxygen in the air – the concept of “oxygen” did not exist in people’s minds at that time – so they could not understand the mechanism of combustion. At that time, people thought that an object could be ignited because it contained “phlogiston”. So, wood contained phlogiston, while earth did not… This concept led to the development of a relatively complete theory, which initially seemed reasonable.
曾经有一个概念叫做“燃素”，现在已经被抛弃了。过去，人们并不知道空气中氧气的存在——当时人们的脑海中还不存在“氧气”的概念——所以他们无法理解燃烧的机理。当时，人们认为一个物体可以被点燃，因为它含有“燃素”。所以，木头含有燃素，而泥土则不含……这个概念导致了一个相对完整的理论的发展，最初似乎是合理的。
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlogiston_theory
It can be interesting to explore these two pages as well:
探索这两个页面也可能很有趣：
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caloric_theory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_heat
After a concept has been abandoned and new, more accurate, and more valuable discoveries have appeared, what benefit is there to stubbornly continue using this obsolete concept? Only harm, right?
在一个概念被抛弃，新的、更准确、更有价值的发现出现之后，顽固地继续使用这个过时的概念有什么好处呢？只有伤害，对吧？
Don’t think that no one does this. For example, today’s people generally still use the concept of “having too much internal heat” without realizing that it should have been discarded a long time ago. The correct concept is “inflammation” or “insufficient vitamin supply”.
不要以为没有人这样做。例如，今天的人一般仍然使用“内热过多”的概念，却没有意识到它早就应该被丢弃了。正确的概念是“炎症”或“维生素供应不足”。
Before graduating from high school, most of the concepts we encountered in textbooks had been carefully selected and were unlikely to be misunderstood. After that, the concepts we come across may not be as reliable. It’s like before graduating from high school, we were eating mushrooms in a restaurant – those mushrooms were not poisonous because they had been screened beforehand; but then it’s like walking into a forest where there are all kinds of colorful mushrooms, and not all of them can be eaten, as many of them are poisonous, and some are highly toxic.
在高中毕业之前，我们在教科书中遇到的大多数概念都是经过精心挑选的，不太可能被误解。在那之后，我们遇到的概念可能就不那么可靠了。这就像高中毕业前，我们在一家餐馆吃蘑菇——那些蘑菇没有毒，因为它们事先经过了筛选;但这就像走进森林，那里有各种五颜六色的蘑菇，并不是所有的蘑菇都可以吃，因为很多都是有毒的，有些是剧毒的。
There are indeed quite a few toxic concepts. They are like poisonous mushrooms and should not be casually consumed.
确实有不少有毒的概念。它们就像毒蘑菇一样，不应该随便食用。
As an example, consider reading speed. Based on this originally meaningless concept, many people have suffered through their lives, pondering:
例如，考虑阅读速度。基于这个原本毫无意义的概念，很多人在生活中受苦，思考：
How can I increase my reading speed?
如何提高阅读速度？
Then, there are people who have made a living teaching others how to do things that are impossible to achieve or, even if achieved, are meaningless:
然后，有些人以教别人如何做不可能实现的事情为生，或者即使实现了，也毫无意义：
Speed reading… 速读…
They sell various tricks and techniques, and many believe in them, and from this “invent” a series of useless but seemingly useful concepts: skimming, scanning…
他们出售各种技巧和技术，许多人相信它们，并从中“发明”了一系列无用但看似有用的概念：略读、扫描……
In fact, the concept that is truly meaningful and worth studying is:
事实上，真正有意义和值得研究的概念是：
Comprehension speed. 理解速度。
Input is for processing, and if it is processed haphazardly or cannot be processed, inputting is futile! Reading is not like eating, but even if it is, the material must be digested before it is excreted! It’s uncomfortable not to digest, you know? If reading speed alone could suffice, then no one would be able to beat a photocopier, right? Are you kidding me?!
输入是用来处理的，如果处理随意或无法处理，输入是徒劳的！阅读不像吃饭，但就算是吃饭，材料也必须消化后才能排出体外！不消化是不舒服的，你知道吗？如果仅凭阅读速度就足够了，那么没有人能打败复印机，对吧？开什么玩笑？！
The more accurate and comprehensive concepts and methodologies we have in our minds – that is, in our operating systems – the faster we can understand new concepts and methodologies, and the stronger our ability to integrate and understand. When understanding speed is increased, slowing down reading speed a bit might actually lead to higher efficiency.
我们脑海中的概念和方法越准确、越全面，也就是说，在我们的操作系统中，我们理解新概念和方法的速度就越快，我们的整合和理解能力就越强。当理解速度提高时，稍微放慢阅读速度实际上可能会带来更高的效率。
Do you know how long it takes to listen to Thomas Sowell’s “Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy”, a thick book, in its entirety? Less than 24 hours. But is it possible to fully understand it within 24 hours?
你知道听托马斯·索维尔（Thomas Sowell）的《基础经济学：经济常识指南》（Basic Economics： A Common Sense Guide to the Economy）这本厚厚的书需要多长时间吗？少于 24 小时。但是有可能在24小时内完全理解它吗？
This is why, when I judge a book to be really good, I might just read it aloud in my free time – intentionally slowing down the input speed, allowing my operating system to process it more calmly and fully.
这就是为什么，当我判断一本书真的很好时，我可能会在空闲时间大声朗读它——故意放慢输入速度，让我的操作系统更冷静、更充分地处理它。
You see, even just one concept that shouldn’t be used may be delaying countless generations – and when they educate their children, they won’t forget to drag their offspring into the pit.
你看，哪怕只是一个不该用的概念，也可能耽误了无数代人——当他们教育孩子时，他们不会忘记把自己的后代拖进坑里。
Originally posted 2024-04-05 12:25:28.