What is better knowledge? 什么是更好的知识？
In life, if you encounter someone who carries an air of superiority or disdain and makes comments such as:
在生活中，如果你遇到一个带着优越感或不屑一顾的人，并发表这样的评论：
“You don’t even know this?!”
“你连这个都不知道？！”
“You just found out about this?!”
“你刚刚发现这件事？！”
“We stopped doing this a long time ago!”
“我们很久以前就不这样做了！”
you’re better off avoiding them. They are typical attention-seekers who are extremely concerned and only interested in their current status. They are even willing to trample on others in order to elevate their own “image” or “status”.
你最好避开它们。他们是典型的寻求关注的人，他们非常关心，只对自己的现状感兴趣。他们甚至愿意践踏他人，以提升自己的“形象”或“地位”。
Not all information constitutes knowledge. It’s quite obvious, isn’t it? Only valuable information can be considered knowledge. Even within valuable information (i.e., knowledge), there are distinctions in value, which should also be quite obvious. In my opinion, knowledge falls into two categories:
并非所有信息都构成知识。这很明显，不是吗？只有有价值的信息才能被视为知识。即使在有价值的信息（即知识）中，也存在价值差异，这也应该非常明显。在我看来，知识分为两类：
Knowledge without reproductive ability
没有生育能力的知识
Knowledge with reproductive ability
具有生殖能力的知识
Obviously, knowledge with reproductive ability is more valuable than knowledge without reproductive ability, and knowledge with strong reproductive ability is more valuable than knowledge with poor reproductive ability.
显然，有生育能力的知识比没有生育能力的知识更有价值，生殖能力强的知识比生育能力差的知识更有价值。
What is knowledge with reproductive ability? It’s best to illustrate this with an example. The scientific methodology is a form of knowledge with reproductive ability, and it’s the most productive knowledge I have acquired so far.
什么是具有生殖能力的知识？最好用一个例子来说明这一点。科学方法论是一种具有繁殖能力的知识形式，它是我迄今为止获得的最富有成效的知识。
It allows me to distinguish between what is scientific and what is not, what is worth studying and what is not, what needs to be verified and what requires further verification, what conclusions can be accepted and what cannot, what conclusions are pending observation… It plays an indispensable role in the process of sifting and accumulating knowledge, optimizing knowledge structure.
它使我能够区分什么是科学的，什么是不科学的，什么是值得研究的，什么是不值得研究的，什么是需要验证的，什么是需要进一步验证的，哪些结论可以接受，哪些不能接受，哪些结论有待观察……在知识的筛选和积累、知识结构的优化过程中，起着不可或缺的作用。
In other words, knowledge with reproductive ability stimulates thinking, action, and change, creating new perspectives, and that kind of knowledge will help you absorb, understand, and apply more knowledge with reproductive ability. For example, probability and statistics not only help us understand the world more accurately, but can even be used directly to make money…
换句话说，具有生殖能力的知识会激发思考、行动和改变，创造新的视角，而这种知识将帮助你吸收、理解和应用更多具有生殖能力的知识。比如概率和统计，不仅能帮助我们更准确地了解世界，甚至可以直接用来赚钱……
What kinds of knowledge almost have no reproductive ability? For example,
什么样的知识几乎毫无繁殖能力？例如
What does the Chinese character “鬯” mean and how is it pronounced?
汉字“鬯”是什么意思，它是如何发音的？
In the name of Jia Pingwa, the third character is pronounced “wà”;
在贾平瓦的名字中，第三个字发音为“wà”;
In the name of Chen Yinke, the third character is pronounced “kè” (yes, not “què”, it’s “kè”). Who was the first to propose “knowledge is power”?
在陈寅珂的名字中，第三个字的发音是“kè”（是的，不是“què”，而是“kè”）。谁是第一个提出“知识就是力量”的人？
How many cities are there in China?
中国有多少个城市？
How many people are there on Earth now?
现在地球上有多少人？
Knowledge without reproductive ability isn’t useless, but it’s not very useful, even expendable, a bit like the human appendix, it’s there, but we don’t know what it’s for, and it won’t make much difference whether it’s there or not.
没有生殖能力的知识不是没用的，但它不是很有用，甚至是消耗性的，有点像人类的阑尾，它就在那里，但我们不知道它是干什么用的，它是否存在也不会有太大的区别。
It’s like there are people creating beautiful melodies in the world every day, but we can’t know all of them, and knowing one more or less doesn’t make much of a difference; however, if we learn to create beautiful melodies, then we can create them. Although we can’t say that the beautiful melodies we don’t know are useless, we also shouldn’t and don’t need to feel superior because we know some beautiful melodies that others don’t (but most people like this kind of superiority feeling, which actually undermines things); on the other hand, if we really can create, it’s also necessary to have a little bit of superiority feeling, isn’t it?
这就像世界上每天都有人在创作美妙的旋律，但我们不可能知道所有的旋律，知道或多或少一个也没什么区别;但是，如果我们学会创造优美的旋律，那么我们就可以创造它们。虽然我们不能说我们不知道的优美旋律是无用的，但我们也不应该也不需要因为我们知道一些别人不知道的优美旋律而感到优越感（但大多数人都喜欢这种优越感，这实际上破坏了事物）;另一方面，如果我们真的可以创造，也需要有一点优越感，不是吗？
Hey, I’ve been using the character “鬯” as an example for over a decade, and it finally feels like it has some productivity for me… Over the years, every time I mention Chen Yinke, I get looked down upon, which is quite a bizarre experience. Generally speaking, knowledge with reproductive capacity:
嘿，十多年来我一直在用“鬯”字作为例子，终于觉得它对我有一些生产力了……这些年来，每次提起陈银珂，都会被人瞧不起，那是一种相当奇怪的经历。一般来说，具有生殖能力的知识：
- Can accumulate because it has an accumulative effect.
可以积累，因为它具有累积效应。 - Must be applied as it has instructive meaning.
必须应用，因为它具有指导意义。 - Worth spreading as it can benefit the public.
值得传播，因为它可以使公众受益。
In the era before computers, without efficient “external brains” (external storage), the larger the “internal memory” (memory), the more powerful one was. So back then, knowing a little more than others and remembering a little more did give a sense of superiority.
在计算机出现之前的时代，如果没有高效的“外部大脑”（外部存储），“内部存储器”（内存）越大，功能就越强大。所以在那个时候，比别人知道的多一点，记住的多一点，确实给人一种优越感。
Socrates was determined not to write books because he felt it was too tragic if one’s brain couldn’t hold “a little bit” of knowledge. In his day, the total amount of knowledge was only a fraction of what the world has today; yet he was indeed the smartest person of his time. In Benjamin Franklin’s time, congressmen spoke extemporaneously for hours, and it was a competition of who had better memory skills.
苏格拉底决心不写书，因为他觉得如果一个人的大脑不能容纳“一点点”知识，那就太悲惨了。在他那个时代，知识的总量只是当今世界的一小部分;然而，他确实是他那个时代最聪明的人。在本杰明·富兰克林（Benjamin Franklin）的时代，国会议员即兴演讲了几个小时，这是一场谁的记忆能力更好的比赛。
Even great personalities aside, when I was lecturing at New Oriental, I could teach ten reading classes without using a book, guiding students to flip to page 102, then to 47, and then back to page 104… It was often only in the third class that students noticed I had never actually held a book while teaching. It just meant I was more diligent in lesson preparation and more skilled in teaching than others, that’s all.
撇开伟大的人物不谈，当我在新东方讲课时，我可以不用书教十节阅读课，引导学生翻到第102页，然后翻到第47页，然后又翻到第104页……通常只有在第三节课上，学生们才注意到我在教学时从未真正拿过书。这只是意味着我比其他人更勤奋地准备课程，更熟练地教学，仅此而已。
However, in the era of increasingly larger and cheaper hard drives, and ubiquitous cloud storage, while “erudition” is more important, “memory prowess” is no longer an advantage.
然而，在硬盘越来越大、越来越便宜、云存储无处不在的时代，虽然“博学”更重要，“内存能力”不再是优势。
I haven’t taken notes while reading for a long time. Why? Because there are larger hard drives, unlimited cloud storage, and, most importantly, MacOS has system-level embedded full-text search functionality. So, I try to only buy e-books, convert them into ePub format, and store them on my hard drive. While reading, I focus on reading, deliberately remembering a few key words in useful places. When I need them in the future, I can easily find the source through a full-text search. Of course, there are occasional situations where I can’t remember a keyword for several days… As time goes by, the need for writing one or two annotations is decreasing, and if there is inspiration, it’s better to just write a complete article. In other words, inputting the time used for “remembering” directly into “practice” seems more reliable and cost-effective.
我已经很久没有在阅读时做笔记了。为什么？因为有更大的硬盘驱动器，无限的云存储，最重要的是，MacOS具有系统级嵌入式全文搜索功能。因此，我尝试只购买电子书，将它们转换为 ePub 格式，然后将它们存储在我的硬盘上。在阅读时，我专注于阅读，有意识地在有用的地方记住几个关键词。当我将来需要它们时，我可以通过全文搜索轻松找到来源。当然，偶尔也会出现好几天都记不住一个关键词的情况……随着时间的流逝，写一两个注释的需求正在减少，如果有灵感，最好只写一篇完整的文章。换句话说，将用于“记忆”的时间直接输入到“练习”中似乎更可靠，也更具成本效益。
Even with “erudition”, one should no longer just pursue breadth for the sake of breadth; rather, one should strive to select knowledge with “reproductive capacity”. Isn’t this about increasing productivity? I really can’t see the specific benefits of someone being able to list luxury car brands as if showing off their knowledge (if they are not a well-known car show host), nor can I see any efficiency or productivity improvement for someone who is very well-versed in various celebrity gossip. It’s really a waste of life to be so uncomfortable if you don’t read the same “headlines” every day. It’s a big trap to have a curiosity, but if it turns into a novelty-seeking mentality, then it’s falling into a pit. This is a big trap. Young people often suffer because of this, infatuated with some “new” concepts, although these concepts or behaviors are not new at all, just to demonstrate “being different from the previous generation” — which, in fact, is a very ancient behavioral pattern. Some people even, even after becoming adults, have to constantly force “new” concepts to create a presence, which is quite pathetic — because those things simply do not have reproductive capacity.
即使有“博学”，也不应该再只是为了广而求广;相反，人们应该努力选择具有“生殖能力”的知识。这难道不是为了提高生产力吗？我真的看不出有人能够像炫耀他们的知识一样列出豪华汽车品牌的具体好处（如果他们不是知名的车展主持人），我也看不到一个非常精通各种名人八卦的人的任何效率或生产力的提高。如果你不每天阅读相同的“头条新闻”，那么不舒服真的是浪费生命。有好奇心是一个很大的陷阱，但如果它变成一种寻求新奇的心态，那么它就会掉进坑里。这是一个很大的陷阱。年轻人经常因此而受苦，迷恋于一些“新”概念，尽管这些概念或行为根本不新鲜，只是为了证明“与上一代人不同”——这实际上是一种非常古老的行为模式。有些人甚至在成年后，也不得不不断地强迫“新”概念来创造一种存在感，这是非常可悲的——因为这些东西根本没有繁殖能力。
Originally posted 2024-04-06 09:28:31.