Camellia Yang

I WRITE ABOUT digital transformation, cultural observation AND unclassifiable short STORIES.

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24/6/2022

Buddha girl with AK47 | My time in Portugal

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They call me buddha girl with an AK47 in Aveiro.

One moment I sit there working and meditating, calm and in peace.

Next minute I unleash my inner wilderness, dancing and singing like nobody is watching. 

Five months of living in Aveiro is serendipitous and surreal to me. Tourists often consider here a Portuguese Venice for its canals, traditional boats (moliceiro) and unique natural landscapes. 

But to me, I consider Aveiro as the salt city, as most locals do, because my grandfather was born in Salt City (盐城, Yan Cheng) in China. And watching the sunset at the Aveiro salt pans is one of my favourite activities, and I felt a subtle connection with the name and sentimental sense. 

My story with Aveiro started with a random encounter in Madeira. I met a Chinese digital nomad in Madeira who introduced me to using Workaway to find my next destination. I registered, browsed around, and found VIC Aveiro Art House stand out from other places for its multiple functionalities as the art centre, guest house and label brand. 

I messaged the owner and art director, Hugo Branco. Soon, I received his email to find someone with my skill set and professional background to help them with marketing and communications. So I made my trip to Aveiro, a place I had never heard about. 

When I arrived at this historical Art House, I noticed two Maori mascots at the door’s entry. As a Chinese Kiwi, I hardly find any NZ elements in Portugal. The feeling of seeing something connected with home was elastic! After all, it’s been over three years since I left Aotearoa.

Hugo explained that his grandfather Vasco Branco was involved in various arts, especially in ceramic, painting, cinema and literature, winning numerous awards worldwide, including a couple of trophies from the New Zealand Film Association. 

Vasco Branco, a prolific polymath artist, was honoured as a legend in Aveiro. If you walk along the streets and lanes here, you can find many ceramic installations and art projects he left that became beautiful landmarks in this city. 

Talking with Hugo about his grandfather reminded me of my grandpa Qi Kaimin, a scholar and artist from China. Both our grandfathers made achievements in arts and literature and suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in their late years. Another connection between Aveiro and me that I didn’t expect.

When I arrived, an Argentina musician Santi Lesca also landed to help Hugo with the upcoming music projects. Hugo took us to tour around a house, and I was amazed by this legacy house his grandfather left for him — a gallery, secret cinema, art studio, guest houses and countless art pieces from corner to corner. 

While walking around the house, I kept thinking about my grandpa, who left many books, poems and memories to my family, guided me through my life, and set up the foundation of my roots. I miss him so much, and I understand Hugo’s vision to develop this house in his grandfather’s name.

Not long after Santi and I settled down, we started to plan the VAGA Festival, the first unclassifiable music festival in Portugal. Working with Santi was blissful because his energy and devotion to music and life constantly impacted me. His knowledge of Yi Jing and Dao De Jing impressed me the most. He made a music installation that combined Yi Jing’s philosophy with the Dart Game to tell oracles, which was super successful at the music festival. 

Santi’s Argentina background brought me back to a miracle time while I was travelling in Buenos Aires. Back then, I was in a toxic relationship and tired of my corporate job. I didn’t realise how depressed I was until my body broke down with a panic attack. I escaped to Argentina to learn Tango dance under the influence of Wong Kar-wai’s movie, Happy Together and Tim Ferriss’ story about his Argentina life.

When I connected my mind and body with intense and emotional dancing moves, I started to get a clear vision to save my life. I broke up with my boyfriend when I returned from Argentina and felt the urge to leave New Zealand to pursue my literature dream. 

It took me another ten months to quit my fat-salary job in the corporate finance world. Once I got enough savings to prepare for my upcoming uncertain life, I left immediately. I could still taste the freedom of the moment I jumped out of the successful life with a stable job and a beautiful place to live. So I purchased a one-way ticket to London. 

However, my new life didn’t go as planned due to the global pandemic, but it rewarded me with a large chunk of solitude. Since I lived near Hyde Park, I had the lifestyle of Henry David Thoreau in Walden, walking, writing, and living with nature as a daily routine.

Living in a foreign country as a newcomer during a pandemic sounds challenging. Still, I followed my interest to visit writers, poets and artist residencies, watched a couple of football games live in stadiums, and published one memoir and novella during the lockdown. 

After living in England for more than two years, my itchy foot led me to go on the road again and started to seek my next destination. Portugal popped into my mind because 

1) it’s the first choice of the digital nomad;
2) my favourite writer Fernando Pessoa’s home country; 
3) my birthday was the exact date when Macao returned from Portugal to China (a subtle connection between my Chinese root and Portugal); 
4) one of my online friends I admired mentioned he’d move there soon. 

So, that’s how everything started, and I ended up in Portugal. 

Training with Madeira Fitness Friends, attending regular Purple Friday at the digital nomad village, hiking between two peaks, swimming in the Atlantic sea, embracing the first sunrise of 2022 on a boat, experience a profound psychedelic trip in the forest, celebrating Christmas and birthday with Portuguese friends, dealing with countless paperwork with SEF, and finally having a base in Lisbon. 

Now I’m settling in Portugal, though I have no idea how long this settle-down will last with my serious commitment issue. I want to listen to my therapist’s suggestion to forget about all my backup options, behave like this is the only country I can stay in, and try to attend regular meet-ups with a fixed group of people to deepen my relationships. Never quit or escape because of stupid reasons like the road is dirty, I’m moving away, or this friend uses an odd perfume, I don’t want to talk to her anymore etc.  

Here I am, waiting for a flight to Madeira to revisit those lovely people I encountered on this magical island. I started to realise once I reached out to a certain point to experience the width of life, now it’s time to dig deep into the length of human relationships. 

As a person with thousands of masks, including contradicted identities like buddha girl and Chinese snipper, I’m still on the road to exploring my identity and finding a group of soulmate-ish friends to walk the journey together. 

Portugal treats me well with its open-minded and friendly environment and gains the power to attract digital nomads and remote workers worldwide. I’m here to stay, to create, to stick around with friends and if I’m lucky enough, maybe form a family. 

This is not a typical giving-tips post of a digital nomad living in a foreign country but an honest reflection on my journey to settling down here. And last but not least, as a retired ex-food/travel blogger, I do have tips to share to make your Portugal life more colourful. Enjoy! 

  • CY Lisbon Tips
  • CY Madeira Tips
  • CY Aveiro Tips

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23/6/2022

Ryan Holiday | 35岁学到的35堂课

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Photo by eberhard □ grossgasteiger on Unsplash
导语:
​
Ryan Holiday在本月迎来了35岁的生日,我之前总结过很多他的文章和每年的生日反思(结尾附上总结),今天编译一下他最新发布的《35岁学到的35课 35 Lessons on the Way to 35 Years Old》。


​正文



​我今天35岁了。这对我来说感觉非常奇怪,因为我清楚地记得就在我的第一本书发布的前夕,也就是我25岁生日时写下了「生日感悟系列」的第一个版本。

这就是生活的本质,随着年龄的增长,漫长的时间感觉何其短暂,就像海明威那句著名的台词一样,「慢慢地,然后一下子 slowly and then all at once」。所以,我在进入三十岁后半段的此时,撰写此文,反思我所学到的东西。

在过去的十年里,我写了10多本书,结婚了,有了两个孩子,买了一栋房子,拥有了一个农场,然后又买了一栋140年的老建筑,在里面开了一家书店。我走遍了大江南北,读了很多书,犯了很多错误(正如我去年所述),见过诸如全球疫情之类的狗屁事情,也学到了一些东西(虽然还远远不够)。

像往常一样,这就是我想在这篇年度文章中谈论的内容,包括过去35年里学到的规则、教训、见解、琐事。你可能会对一些内容赞同有加,发现其他一些完全不可理喻,甚至是错误的,这都没关系,这是我的文章,诠释在你。

- 不要拿自己与其他人比较。你永远不知道谁在服用类固醇,谁淹没在债务中,谁又是个大骗子。

- 我在奥斯汀跑步的步道边上有一个标志,是花钱修建这个步道的人放在那里的。上面写着:「离开这个地方时比你刚找到它时变得更好 Leave This Place Better Than You Found It」。对我来说,这就是生命的真谛,无论大事小事(但主要是小事)。

- 让我一直很吃惊的是即使名誉双全、有权有势的人,依旧喜欢听到人们对他们最近的电视亮相、取得的成就或工作项目的赞美之词。我并不想说 「名人也是普通人」,而是说如果赞美在他们那个层面都能引起共鸣,你认为这对你的孩子、同事、员工、兄弟姐妹和朋友来说意味着什么呢?

- 你无需解释自己。桑德拉·戴·奧康納(Sandra Day O'Connor)的一个书记员说,她最佩服这位最高法院大法官的地方是,她在说「不」之前从不说「对不起」。如果她不能或不想做某事,就会说「不」。因此,你也应该给自己设立界限,选择直接说不。你可以向亲朋好友解释,他们需要找一家酒店,而不是住在你家里。你可以选择自己觉得最舒服的生活方式,而无需向他人解释,更不需要为此而道歉。

- 你不必去任何地方,也不必做任何事。所有的压力都是大脑编造出来的。

- 在临终前,你会为了再度过一个普通的夜晚、再一次送孩子上学、再吃一个多汁的桃子、再在公园的长椅上多坐一个小时而付出任何代价。然而我们却让这些看似琐碎的小事在我们生命中转瞬即逝,或是抱怨,或是吐槽,或是着眼于未来,而没有活在当下去体会。你不能在生命的尽头添加更多的东西,也不能浪费现在摆在你面前的事物。

- 你年龄越大,就越难发现你曾经接受的完全正常的事情是多么的离谱,甚至是完全疯狂的。你会在有了孩子时注意到一个趋势,人们会自豪地向你解释他们过去对孩子做的疯狂、危险或残忍的事情,「我以前都让孩子......」。重要的是要反击这一点,不要让认知失调阻止你享受一个更好、更安全且不同的现在和未来。

- 说到随着年龄增长而发生的变化,我特别讨厌一个说法,「如果你年轻时不是自由派,你就没有心,如果你年老时不是保守派,你就没有脑子」。我们先把这句话的政治性放在一边,其中的含义是随着年龄的增长,你应该停止听从你的内心。这与你想要的人生恰恰相反。我们的目标应该是随着年龄的增长,变得更加仁慈,更赋有同情心。

- 多喝水。你很可能没有喝足够多的水,相信我,多喝水会让你感觉更好。

- 散步也是如此。散步几乎可以改善一切。

- 我一直以来最喜欢的小说之一是 《What Makes Sammy Run?》, 在花了整本小说希望主角「得到应有的惩罚」之后,作者舒尔贝格终于意识到,对主人公萨米的真正惩罚是他必须成为萨米。萨米生活的环境中处处充满了束缚,但真正束缚他的却是他的脑袋,是他关于生活的思考。报应并不是以某种突然事件的形式出现,而是像舒尔贝格所说的那样,它存在于微妙且隐蔽的日常生活中。

- 作为一个自豪的大学辍学生,我想说当下流行的「反精英运动」荒谬且愚蠢。我钦佩的每个人和每件事都是精英的写照。我喜欢斯蒂芬·库里的投篮方式,罗伯特·卡罗的写作方式,以及海豹突击队能做什么。现在我们却庆祝普通人和他们对事物的平庸看法,这种想法致使一切事物都变得比平均水平更糟糕。

- 拉长时间线。由于全球疫情的影响,我的书店The Painted Porch推迟了一年开业。这遵从了霍夫斯塔特定律:即使你考虑到了霍夫施塔特定律,项目的实际完成时间总是比预期的要长。 

- 我开始相信人类中存在着一种黑暗的能量:某种恐惧、邪恶、无知、残酷、暴民的组合。这种黑暗能量一直伴随着我们。当人们烧死女巫时,它就在那里;当人们用狗袭击想要获得投票权的抗议者时,它就在那里。它在那里对同性恋们大喊大叫,告诉女人们滚回厨房。这种能量可以被阻挡,但永远不会被打败。它就像水一样汇集在一起,然后寻找下一个出口。当我们面对每一个政治和社会问题时,问问自己是否已经被这种黑暗能量所腐蚀,或是已经把自己交给了这种能量。

- 如果你不能退出交易,那么它可能首先就不是一个交易。

- 斯多葛派的塞内卡说,「我很乐意支付生活的税款」。他不单单指给政府交税。烦人的邻居是你购买房子时需要交的税;交通延误是对旅行的一种征税;负面评论和仇视者是对拥有一个油管频道的税收。如果你成名了,人们会编造关于你的谣言;如果你做慈善工作,人们会质疑你的意图和动机;如果你有孩子了,你会失眠... 生活中的一切都有税,你可以对它发牢骚,或者像塞内卡说的那样,高兴地支付生活的税款,然后继续前进。

- 我的孩子经常在车里打盹,通常是一个小时左右。我在他们睡觉开车时,总会注意到速度表,然后想,为什么我要开得这么快?现在的我无处可去,开车的全部意义就在于等待... 但是我为什么还总想着赶时间?

- 如果我们并不需要打破纪录或者更上一层楼呢?如果生活的真谛仅仅是完成手头的事情,成为一个好父母、好配偶和好的人呢?

- 一两年前,我决定停止投放一切和我生意有关的广告,然后把这些钱用于创造视频和文章内容上。我这样做的原因是觉得花在广告上的钱基本上没有对世界产生任何积极影响,但文章和视频至少可以被人们享用,即使它们没有和广告一样的投资回报率。从长远来看,这些内容将永远存在,并具有更大和更有意义的影响力。考虑到我的生意规模,这只不过是一个小小的决定,但如果人们愿意花更多的时间,最大限度地提高他们所做事情带来的积极外部影响而不是优化短期利润,我想他们会更开心,也会做得更好。

- 我的桌子上有一幅画,是休·麦克劳德送给我的。上面写道:「我像个混蛋一样,把他/她/它视为理所当然」。

- 我在过去几年意识到,好的领导和正确的想法如果没有良好的沟通就会失败,坏的领导和可恶的想法可以通过良好的沟通实现成功。好东西和好想法光是对的还远远不够,你必须学会如何推销它们。

- 绝望和愤世嫉俗只会助长问题的发生。希望、诚信、和对自己的信念是推动改变的特质,尽管主流叙事正在诋毁这些良质。

- 现代生活充满了艰辛。从科学技术到实现文明社会的不成文规则,一个人从醒来的那一刻起就被大量的信息所吞噬,还需要提高自己的情感敏锐度来应付日常的交际。当你理解了这一点,就会发现大多数的人并不具备生活的能力,这也解释了很多人的行为。这将帮助你待人接物时更有耐心。

- 当塞内卡说,贫穷不是拥有太少,而是想要更多,他谈论的不是穷人,而是富人。这使我明白了一些事情:实现财富是不需要经常考虑钱的问题。可悲的是,很多富人其实过得十分贫穷。

- 美国歌手布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀有很多伟大的歌词,但让我思考最多的是如下的歌词:

我们为了什么而努力奋斗 We fought hard over nothing
我们奋斗到一无所剩 We fought ’til nothing remained
我已经带着那份虚无东西走了很久 I’ve carried that nothing for a long time

- 我从成功的写作生涯中学到的最重要的一课是一切事物开始时都处于不确定的混乱状态,甚至让你绝望地认为永远都不会有好的结果。在我写上一本书时经历了低潮期,我发现了一张自己曾经写下的便条,上面写道,「写下便条,这本书会成功的」。生活中的每件事都是这样的,经历这个过程会让你达到目的。你越相信这一点,并不断地去实践这个过程,你就越容易信任这个过程。

- 我们倾向于认为「自大」是百万富翁或亿万富翁才会有的毛病,是困扰成功者的东西。事实上,它对有前途的人、早期阶段的团队和项目造成的损害最大。

- 最近我在读书时,可以感觉到头脑中有一个想法,那就是把书中人物所面对的问题归咎于他们自己。我反思了一下这样做的原因,如果这是他们的错,那么我就不必真正去关心了。我不需要做任何事情,也不需要改变任何信念。我认为正是这种想法解释了今天世界上发生的很多情况。你必须与头脑中的这个想法作斗争,即寻找不关心的理由,这是与魔鬼抗争的魔法。

- 如果你能负担得起,就把问题外包出去;如果你还负担不起,就把它自动化。时间是我们最宝贵的资源。

- 最好的教练和领导并不是那些只在球场上或会议室里成功的人。评判真正的伟人是看他们影响并激励了其他人做了什么。

- 大多数人宁愿为现实争论,也不愿为现实做些什么。

- 当我收到那些因为我的政治言论而生气的人的电子邮件和评论时,我有时会提醒他们,我并不是通过告诉人们他们想听的东西来建立受众,我是通过表达自我来吸引关注者的。此外,如果因为担心自己会付出代价而对自我言论进行审查,那么你其实并没有多成功。

- 彼得·泰尔是著名的「逆向思维者」。他曾告诉我,成为逆向思维者是一种糟糕的方式。你不能只是把别人的想法和做法倒过来,关键是要为自己思考。如果你发现自己不断地反对每个人和每件事,这可能表明你并没有做太多思考,只是在表面上把事情倒过来看而已。

- 每个人都有行为模式,有一个自我。追随潮流是他人干的事,不是你应该做的,我说的对吗?
​
最后就用塞内卡的说法结尾吧,过去的时间就像死亡一样。我并没有朝着死亡更近一步,而是已经又死了一年。所以在往后的每一年、每一月、每一天、每一分钟都要问自己一个问题,当我身处其中时,是否真的活在其中?

Ryan Holiday 内容合集

  • 《如何让生活变得更好的100条短建议》
  • 《你本可以今天做出改变,但却非要等到明天》
  • 《RYAN HOLIDAY | 34岁学到的失败和教训》
  • 《11条拉丁「人生法则」》
  • 《12个改变一生的问题》
  • 《28种方式助你通往成功和快乐之路》

​

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18/6/2022

Reflection on a new relationship between writers & readers in web3

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Photo by Andrew Seaman on Unsplash
I got into crypto in 2017 because my ex-boyfriend was an Ethereum miner. Out of curiosity, I started to step into this mysterious world to study, invest and run experiments (thanks ex!). 

Web3 frens always say 2020 was the year of DeFi, 2021 was the year of NFTs and 2022 is the year of DAO. I went with a flow and dived deep into cryptocurrency, purchasing NFTs and participating in DAOs in my spare time.

Early in 2022, I discovered one of my favourite modern writers Mark Manson was about to issue The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck NFTs on the BookCoin platform. It made history for that was the first time a major bestseller to give an attempt in web3. By minting his The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck NFTs, readers get access to an unreleased chapter, join his private Zero Fucks Club and attend Subtle Art School for free. 

In a traditional world, there is always an invisible wall between readers and writers. Readers can purchase writers’ works or follow them on social media but rarely be able to prove their loyalty, engage with other readers on a large scale, interact with writers or participate in their creative process (don’t learn from this episode from Inside No.9!).  

Luckily enough, web3 gave readers a chance to form a central community to bond with like-minded fans and build relationships with their favourite content creators. 

In Mark Manson’s club, I had the opportunity to ask him questions face to face (via zoom) and saw him actively appear on the private Discord channel to answer questions from readers. 

As a content creator myself, I am running a 100 True Fan experiment by hosting an NFT-gated community where paid readers can get access to my private study notes, learn my creation process and have a 1:1 chat with me every month. 

What’s more, I have done some research in the web3 space on the future relationship between content creators and readers. Projects like Story DAO, Fire Lily DAO, Story Quest at NFT NYC and Storyverse empowered readers and community members to co-create or contribute to stories with established and emerging writers, and to co-own the story on the blockchain.

Recently, I was at a Twitter Space run by BookCoin featuring Sitka World to discuss #BookNFTs and opportunities for readers and content creators in web3. I love the vision shared by Sitka World founders that they want to become the go-to network for creative writers in web3. It also sparked my interests in the new way on co-creation and building a new relationship between readers and writers. My takeaways are:

  • Web3 will empower authors to skip the line of the gated traditional publishing world and truly own and distribute content with the help of the community.
  • BookNFT serves as a tool to make a real connection between authors and readers by offering exclusive incentives such as private community and unreleased content. 
  • Fans get a chance to participate in authors’ creative process and gain royalty and can resell their stake in a project.

Packy McCormick published an article on “The Cooperation Economy”. The core idea is a collection of like-minded people with like-minded goals can work together to make progress towards those goals beyond typical employment contracts (DAOs). People have the freedom to fluidly move between projects and organisations, contributing their skills wherever they fit.

The significant impact of this Cooperation Economy is on the publishing and media industries because their products and business models are relatively homogeneous. We are seeing many creators have already broken free from the traditional media and build their own brands and self-publishing/distribution channels based on technology and community support. 

While I was about to publish this article, I came across an exciting project Bored & Dangerous – the first novel set inside of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, and it’s the first true novel that spun out of Web3. NFTs aren’t just expensive downloadable JPEGs but a hammer to smash the traditional content creation process and pave the way to a new era of human creativity.

BAYC leveraged DAO structure, a new way of collaboration that brings together project financing, community management and value sharing. It empowers community members who are passionate about storytelling to co-create a novel and build the custom Web3 e-reader experience for members to interact with the book.

We are transitioning from an era of centralized, bureaucratic value-creating corporations to an era of decentralized, permissionless value-creating networks. There is no better timing than now to participate in the creator economy and form a niche community to generate values and achieve common goals. 

I’m on this journey and I’ll see y’all down the road! 

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15/6/2022

Tom Morgan | 人生二十一条法则

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Source: Getty images.

导语

我的线上导师汤姆·摩根(Tom Morgan)将过去几年撰写的邮件订阅和播客采访集结一体,发表了《21 Useful Ideas. 1 Big One》。在征得他的同意后,我总结编译了这篇令我受益匪浅的文章,并向我们共同的老师「龙虾教授」乔丹·彼得森致敬,将这篇文章的中文版命名为《人生二十一条法则》。
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正文

在这个似乎一切都在变化的时代,发现那些反复出现且不会改变的模式显得特别有价值。如果你在进化论、商业、投资、哲学、神话或物理学中可以找到共通的观点,那么其中很可能有一些东西对你大有裨益。
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1. 现实过滤器。
人类进化的目的并不是为了体验一切,而是体验最重要的东西。我们的意识会自觉过滤掉很多东西,因此我们只经历了「真实世界」的百万分之一,甚至一万亿分之一。我们并没有生活在完全真实的世界中,而是生活在描绘这个世界的地图之上。有能力平衡这种脱节和完善现实过滤器的准确性,在很大程度上决定我们能否拥有蓬勃发展的生活。如果我们完全与真实世界脱节,则很容易陷入抑郁;如果我们完全接纳真实世界,大批量的信息将会压得我们喘不过气。关键是获取恰到好处的信息,使我们能够在面对现实时做出迅速且恰当的反应。最佳的认知状态是在头脑的理性期望和身体接受的感官信号之间达成平衡。

2. 现实打败地图。
如果我们接受了大量的超过大脑理解范围的外部刺激,那么现实生活中隐蔽力量对我们的影响将从神秘的幕后走向必然的幕前。精神科医生和作家伊恩·麦基尔克利斯特(Iain McGilchrist)博士的代表作《事物的问题 The Matter with Things》一书,可以在根本上帮助我们理解上述这种相互作用。他提出了一个重要的观点:大脑强调整体性的右半球,有着照顾充满限制性和竞争性的左半球的义务。大脑右半球的语言能力较弱,但却以更有意义的方式与身体和世界相连。大脑左半球看到的是事物具体的分类,而右半球看到的则是整个流动的状态,从而可以直接从现实的疆域获得无限的数据。伊恩·麦基尔克利斯特博士在其著作中的核心论点是:如今人类大脑左半球篡夺了右半球的地位,我们需要立即矫正这个失调的状态。
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Source: Duncan Austin.

3. 追寻我心
我们充满探索性的注意力,即在不自觉情况下容易被吸引的东西,是指导我们未来发展的最佳指标,这也是大脑右半球的一个基本特质。大脑在不自觉时比自觉注意的情况下会获取更多的信息(自觉/不自觉是一个粗略的区分),因此,人类应该追求那些能够吸引和保持我们注意力的东西,多做那些能给我们带来能量并在事后感觉良好的事情。此时,我们需要培养一种自觉臣服的态度。这个悖论在《道德经》的篇章中得到了体现:「圣人无为而无不为」。我们需要有足够的行动力做出努力,但又不能太执着,以免凭借意志力压倒有利的外部影响。巧合的发生是你走在正确道路上的征兆:这就是外部世界对你「无为而无不为」的反应。

4. 爱是原力。
爱并不是一个感性的想法,而是一种驱使我们迎接复杂性和拥抱幸福感的力量。我们通过身体,尤其是内心来感受这股隐蔽的力量。我们的心脏并不是单纯的供氧器官,也是非常敏感的电磁信号发射器和接收器。大量的科学研究证实,宇宙中电磁波谱的无形力量正在深刻地影响着生物调控的每一个方面。一项元分析显示,大脑右半球在接收和解释来自心脏的信息时占据主导地位,这是无意识的力量与有意识的认知相遇的地方。

5. 培养生命力需要脆弱感。
如果我们在精神或意识形态上对不断涌现的外部想法持保守的封闭态度,我们就有可能停滞不前。勇气是由我们主动暴露的脆弱感来定义的。寻求安全感和保持活力成反比。如果你寻求掌控生命,那就准备好牺牲生活吧;如果你寻求生命力,那就准备好放弃控制吧。还是像上面说到的那样,我们需要在两者之间找到平衡,并向寻求生命力的一方倾斜。

6. 汇编收集线索。
如果你有意识地罗列出对你有吸引力的东西(即你「爱」的东西),这些线索将为你提供指示,告诉你什么是对你有意义的事物,并引导你的注意力,将它们聚焦到正确的方向。你需要整理这些生活中大大小小的线索,然后思考总结它们的共性,最后知行合一。

7. 简化=>分离=>整合。
麦吉尔克利斯特博士谈到,我们在现实世界获取经验时都是先从大脑右半球开始,然后转移到左半球进行解剖和分析,随后又回到右半球将其整合。音乐家听到一支美妙的音乐时,将其分解成音符并努力练习,最终凭借直觉进行表演。这个过程便是我们在现实世界生活的秘方,也是英雄之旅的和实现最佳认知的途径。现代社会和科学往往倾向于停在还原主义阶段,将事物分解后便没有了下文,没能最终回归到大脑右半球进行整合创造。

8. 善用比喻是天才的标志。
集大成式的创作行为是可以将不同的观点和想法整合到一起。这样做的结果可以揭示规律,产生新的突破,并使你对现实有更清晰的认识。如果你能善用比喻,这就代表着你已经成功找到了各个思想之间的正确联系。

9. 培养身心合一的能力。
当大脑忙碌地向我们传递来自外部世界的信号和感觉时,我们很容易迷失在大脑形成的抽象概念中。如果此时可以自觉的将意识从大脑移动到身体进行感知,便可以拥有一种真实的扎根落地的感觉,从而减少焦虑。这样做的目的有助于我们统一身心,促使有意识和无意识间的沟通。

10. 发展情绪粒度(emotional granularity)。
我们能否行之有效的解释和阐述身体感知和情绪的能力,与实现良好的身心健康之间有着密切的关系。这表示你正在有意识地学习大脑无意识的语言。如果你能及早地解释身体给你的信号,它就不需要对你大喊大叫。这也是我正在努力教给我孩子的一项技能,这项技能高于其他一切技能。​
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Source: The Junto Institute.
11. 你可以成为蝴蝶。
众所周知,我们生活在一个本质上来说不可预测且无限复杂的环境中。然而,我们却有可能实现「天人合一」的状态,甚至可以对系统本身产生一连串的积极影响。这是一个需要调整、行动和臣服的过程,也是成为「道家圣人」的必经之路。

12. 了解你的「英雄之旅」。
纵观历史,我们发现同样的故事结构反复出现,为人类实现平衡的演变提供了指导。最受欢迎的故事不仅不知不觉的反映了我们的心理,而且揭示了社会发展的方向。「英雄之旅」是人类历史上最主要的故事,因为它为个人和文化的演变提供了精确的操作指令,同时也揭示了大脑控制权从左半球转移到右半球的过程。
​
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13. 在创新中颠覆并重构生活模式。
摧毁旧有的现实模式并不代表着可以重建一个新的模式。有意识打造的模型往往会被无意识的解决方案所取代。我们需要在游戏、模拟器或者战略演练中寻找快速和安全的解决方法。

14. 直觉建立在快速重复的过程之上。

涉猎领域越广,对直觉的依赖就越大。直觉是我们积累的经验与基于该经验之上的无意识推理的综合体现。「经验」不一定与你做某事的时长挂钩,而与建立某模式数据库的重复次数有关。经验可以看做是可供大脑有意识访问的一大串无意识相关信号的数据库。

15. 实现心流状态。
实现心流的状态需要三个条件:清晰的信息、紧密耦合的反馈信息和不断试错。心流状态不仅是人类可实现的最佳体验,同时还为你在生活中发展新的洞察力创造了环境。实现心流需要拥有一个具有挑战性的目标,追求目标的过程对你来说像是在玩游戏,但对其他人来说却是工作和苦力。在这一过程中,你需要将只有你能做的事情与这个世界需要的东西相匹配。在心流状态下我们更容易培养直觉。

16. 培养边界期。
对我个人来说,边界期指得是处于睡眠和清醒之间的时期,或是在中速跑步、按摩和冷水浴中获得。边界期允许大脑在有意识和无意识之间进行转移,最关键的一步是整合并回应在这种状态下收到的信号。

17. 学会处于不和谐的环境中。
容忍矛盾和悖论是天才的一项重要能力。矛盾和悖论的产生往往因为大脑左半球和右半球认知发生了冲突。爱因斯坦曾说道,「并不是我有多聪明,只是我在问题上停留的时间更长」。实现突破似乎是大脑有意识地组合正确信号,然后从无意识中整合并产生解决方案的结果。

18. 追求活物,而不是死的概念。
当你优化单一且抽象的变量时,你的整个生命将变得脆弱且易受伤害。理想的做法是专注于平衡生命的创造力和质量本身。那些明星级的商人往往对平衡生命有一种直观的感觉,知道可以在哪里松懈。

19. 说真话。
我们大脑的左半球在不知道答案的情况下会编造谎言,而右半球则不会。认知神经科学的主要研究者之一迈克尔·加扎尼加(Michael Gazzaniga)称这是大脑分裂研究中最惊人的发现。这意味着撒谎会在脑中产生不和谐的现象,使我们与现实世界打交道时发生隔阂,并在有意识和无意识接收外部世界信息时产生脱节。

20. 戏剧性的演化看起来是不合理的。
1932年,美国遗传学家休厄尔尔·赖特(Sewall Wright)在他的一篇经典论文里,第一次提出把基因型和生物生存能力的关系用适应度地形(fitness landscape)来进行描述。适应度地形是描绘进化这个抽象概念的一个很好的视觉比喻。任何物种的目标都是达到尽可能高的「适应度」高峰。大脑左半球的自我意识和行动带你上山,右半球的探索性注意力带你下山。如果理性或者特定的行为模式已经将你带到了一个高峰,那你需要利用超理性的探索精神从山上走下来,以便攀登更高的山峰。但这个过程并不是每个人都可以接受的,大多数的人不愿意牺牲体能和成就重新返回谷底。当你陷入窘境时,找出自己需要牺牲的地方,以便触及属于你的「适应性」高峰。

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21. 在迷茫时期将注意力放在眼前的二元选择上。
你的时间框架越远,你的控制力就越小,因此而产生的焦虑就越大。荣格分析学家罗伯特·约翰逊(Robert Johnson)提出了「纤细的线Slender Threads」的概念,描绘了宇宙中有一股超越人类认知的无形力量在操控着我们的命运。我们能做的就是做好眼前当下的事,比如说养成良好的习惯,而对于未来,更应该臣服于高等的力量,而不是用我们有限的认知去设定追逐虚无缥缈的抽象概念。


总结:平衡、边界和道

上述内容和商业投资有什么关系呢?在我最近的一期邮件订阅中,提到了威廉·格林(William Green)对投资人阿诺德·范登堡(Arnold Van Den Berg)的采访。
​

如果我不得不从过去四分之一个世纪我所采访的所有杰出的投资者中只选择一个榜样,那就是阿诺德·范登堡。
大屠杀的幸存者和价值投资者范登堡在过去50年里一直在研究潜意识的本质。作为最广为人知的投资者之一的他都在强调意识和无意识,你是不是也应该注意一下这个领域呢?

理想的平衡状态是我们「有意识的」大脑左半球自愿为「无意识的」右半球服务。这样我们就获得了在正确的时间对正确的刺激采取自发准确行动的敏感性。

麦吉尔克利斯特博士的论点是,我们的社会由于过度依赖大脑的左半球而严重与现实脱节。我们的文化与自然分离,被数字模拟和网格状的城市所支配,人们对归纳分析过度依赖。博士认为我们需要纠正这种不平衡的状态,大脑左半球可以保持竞争的状态,但前提是在右半球的督导之下。这种过渡正需要通过上述的一系列法则来实现。

这种持续流动的平衡状态可以称之为「道」。可悲的是,这种平衡的状态却永远无法用精确的语言来阐述,因为一旦我们这样做了,「道」便成为静止的状态,这与「道」的定义相违背。我能提供的最好描述便是与生命共舞实现流动的状态:你越接近它,越能与它保持一致,你的生活往往就越好。

下面用我的设计天赋来展示一下:​​​
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Source: Tom Morgan's elite Figma design skills.
根据麦吉尔克利斯特博士的论点,我们的世界过于倾向于大脑左半球。这就为我们提供了一个乐观且有意义的思考方向:我们如何在现实世界中向大脑右半球进行过渡?这也是我近年来的思考议题,我称之为「相变」。

再来展示一下我的设计天赋:
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Source: Tom Morgan's elite Figma design skills. Again.
调和这些紧张和矛盾将决定我们余生的生活状态。道家认为,追求中庸之道的平衡状态是人类与整个世界和谐共处的繁荣基石。正如汉学家森舸澜(Edward Slingerland)在他的畅销书《Trying Not to Try》中写道的那样:
​
「所有这些思想家都在阐释一个概念:如果我们能进入一种完全自发的无意识状态,其他一切都会顺利进行。我们将与宇宙和谐共处,我们将拥有德,即一种可以实现社会和政治成功的诱人力量,让万事万物穿过自己,以超自然的轻松方式生活在物质世界中。」

读物推荐:

 
  • 约瑟夫·坎贝尔《神话的力量 The Power of Myth》
  • 伊恩·麦基尔克利斯特《事物的问题 The Matter with Things》 
  • 菲利普·谢泼德《彻底的完整性 Radical Wholeness》
  • 托尔·诺瑞特兰德斯《用户错觉 The User Illusion》
  • 老子《道德经》
 
原文链接:https://thekcpgroup.com/insights/21-weird-ideas-1-big-one 
Tom Morgan做客Chiwi Journal播客

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11/6/2022

浅谈身份认知、尼克凯夫和存在意义

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Photo credit: Eberhard Grossgasteiger
最近和好友们聚会时聊到,某位友人的女朋友已经很久没来参加我们每周五的固定聚会了,问起缘由,原来这位姑娘不喜欢被冠上「xxx女朋友」的头衔,但每次跟着友人出去参加他的朋友圈的活动,难免会被介绍为的「xxx女朋友」。这种介绍方式当然没有错,姑娘觉得自己的主要身份(可能是工作头衔或者其他标签)被大家忽视了也情有可原。想起之前看过的一个故事:一天,英国维多利亚女王和丈夫吵架了,丈夫独自先回到卧室,把门锁上不出来。女王回卧室时,只好敲门。丈夫问:“谁?”维多利亚傲然地回答:“女王。” 里面既不开门也没有任何声音。她只好再次敲门。丈夫又问:“谁?” 女王回答:“维多利亚。” 里面还是没有动静。女王再次敲门。丈夫再问:“谁?”女王放下架子,柔声地回答:“你的妻子。”这一次,门打开了。

这则故事的真实性不可考,但推及到友人经历的这件事上,体现了人是复杂多面的,在不同的场合需要扮演不同的角色。就像莎士比亚在《皆大欢喜》中说过的那样,「世界是一个舞台,所有男女都只是演员,各有其入场和出场」。如果你戴着在公司舞台上的面具在家中表演,把颐指气使的老板态度带到和妻儿交往的生活日常中,肯定会引起矛盾和争端;如果轮到你上场出演一个严肃判案的法官,此时却把和朋友们在一起插科打诨的状态拿出来,也是完全不合时宜的。

当你是某人的男女朋友时,也需要为了亲密关系而扮演相应的角色,你当然可以是XX公司的CEO甚至是女王,但是在与恋人和他们的朋友圈子打交道时,暂时摆脱一下「高贵」的身份又有什么不妥呢?我们在不同场合与不同人们打交道时,审时度势的戴上不同的面具,满怀信心地了解自己是一个多面的个体,不会因为一个面具就被轻易的定义。同时怀抱一个开放的态度,不随随便便地给他人贴标签下定义,在理解复杂的个体时,将他们局限到狭隘的盒子里。

说到身份问题,出国以来,我经常容易陷入多元文化影响下的身份认知失调的问题。像我这样出生和早期教育都在中国,成年基本在国外生活的人来说,很多情况下就像「边缘人」,可以隶属于多个文化,但同时又仿佛不被任何一个文化所接纳。时时刻刻需要活得像一只变色龙,和特定文化背景的人群打交道时就要变得更倾向于对方的文化。学术圈有一个特定的词汇「第三文化儿童Third Culture Kid」(简称TCK)来描述那些在性格形成期没有生活在父母祖国的儿童们。像我们这些成年后出国留学的学子和移民,也许可以用「第三文化成人Third Culture Adult,TCA」来形容。但归根结底这个「第三文化」究竟是什么?可以重新帮助我们定义身份吗?会在全球化和数字游民的浪潮下成为未来发展的主流趋势吗?
 
朋友豆子曾经推荐给我一本由英国作家Afua Hirsch所著的《Brit(ish)》。Afua在书中讲述了她作为黑白混血在英国遭遇的种族歧视、身份认同和归属感的问题。通过展现她作为黑人移民具有代表性的家族史,带着读者重温了那段黑暗的英国殖民史和主流社会所谓的文化包容和多样性。以前我总认为政治正确性有点矫枉过正了,黑人这一波运动也太夸张了。当你真正了解其背后的历史后才发现,黑人们经历了太多丧心病狂的奴役和灭族的惨剧。但在白人掌控的话语权下,他们绝大多数的故事被埋没于历史的长河中,如今终于有机会可以平权,现在的所作所为其实完全可以被我们理解。就像朋友说的,过去的历史太过黑暗和压抑,缓慢的推进可能起不到激进改革的作用,无论是女性还是少数裔,比起我们现在得到的,我们失去的还是太多太多了。
 
第二次世界大战总共5年之久,现在有400多部电影以二战为主题;而贩卖黑奴有400多年的历史,现在只有不到20部电影来描述... 包括我在内的大多数民众对于这一部分历史几乎一无所知,而突然又想到,英国主流影视有人拍过鸦片战争的电影吗?我在看《绿皮书》电影时,对一幕镜头深有感触:颇有成就的黑人钢琴家穿着得体还有白人司机为自己效劳,当他下车时望向不远处的田野,看到的是黑人同胞衣衫褴褛做着苦力... 双方彼此注视内心的波澜可想而知。此时想起我去新西兰驻英国大使馆参加活动,全场宾客除了我一个亚洲面孔以外,其他全是白人,而且以中年白人男性为主,但是在场的服务人员却以亚裔和黑人居多。当我衣着华丽和同胞们四目相对之时,那种感觉真的很难用语言来描述出来。
 
多元文化的融合和分裂始终是个大议题,而像我们这种经历了众多文化洗礼后觉得「处处是家,又无处是家」的TCA来讲,更应该着重思考这个议题。一方面可以帮助我们缓解身份焦虑,一方面又让我们有能力去理解和包容那些不同文化的种族和人群。宏观角度来看,我们都是世界公民,都有义务去延续人类这个整体的发展和进步,在这个漫长的道路上,「人性」将我们与其他物种区别开来,也赋予我们力量成为地球的主宰。当宗教和国家主义逐渐衰退,「人性」终将帮助我们找到生命的意义,也会减少彼此的冲突,让世界向着更美好的方向去发展,当所有文化和种群的同胞们都能彼此了解和毫无芥蒂地沟通,那将会是一个什么样的世界啊?
​

人生意义

当我第一次听到《野玫瑰生长的地方Where the Wild Roses Grow》这首歌时,便迷上了唱作人尼克·凯夫(Nick Cave)。他那暗黑又诗意的歌词和邪典哥特的个性让尚处于青春期的我产生了诸多共鸣。那时,我觉得他的歌词 「所有的美好都必须死去All beauty must die」与佛教中的「无常」很是相似。在我当时的认知下,我们周身的一切,包括生命本身,都无法长久留存下去,既然一切终究会消亡,那么还有什么值得我去投入,一切仿佛都不重要,毕竟一切都会消失在虚无当中。

这么多年过去了,尼克·凯夫似乎在时间的洗礼下治愈了丧子的悲痛,理解了生活的的真谛。他在介绍自己时,也把过往音乐人的定位换成了「我是一个父亲和丈夫」的角色。他甚至在网站开通了专栏,倾听别人的痛苦,并给予暖心的建议。而我也在成长的过程中理解了「无常」的本质:虽然没有什么东西会永远存在,但存在本身就是意义,就有价值。

上个月在葡萄牙看了尼克·凯夫的纪录片《我知道这是真的This Much I Know To Be True》,描绘了尼克和创作人沃伦·埃利斯制作最新两张专辑《Ghosteen》和《Carnage》的幕后花絮。花了10欧就可以体验一场音乐和舞台视效盛宴简直是太过瘾了。影片中尼克和沃伦采访对话让我受益匪浅,引发我去思考关于如何以不同方式看待世界的议题。

也许我们来到这个世界的目的并不是要给世界带来什么,或者盲目的去寻找意义。世界本身就是意义,而我们作为在其上的生命,通过与彼此连接,让这个意义借由我们的生命显现出来。
美国先锋记者和小说家亨特·汤普森曾经写过一篇《人生应该如何度过》的文章:

「我认为人生就是一场悲剧,我们总是在努力为自己设定目标,却不花费心思探索自我。我们设立了一个目标,为了达成它不断地调整自身,只为满足一个概念,一个实际上虚无的概念。这样调整我们的生活,只为适应一个目标的需要,是不是看起来很蠢?

举例来说,你很小的时候想成为消防员,但是,现在你的目标还是成为消防员吗?我可以比较肯定的说,大多数人现在的志向都和小时候的志向大相径庭。这是为什么呢?因为你的经历和思想发生了改变,你在成长道路上所做的每一个决定都会把你塑造成不同的人,所以我们并不是为了一些会轻易改变的目标而活着,我们不是为了成为律师而活着,不是为了成为银行家而活着,我们是为了成为自己而活着。

我们必须让目标顺应个人,而不是让个人顺应目标。人这一生是活一个过程,目标不过是一个附属品,如果一个人不为自己选择一条路,那他人和环境就会在不知不觉中为你做了选择。

不要去寻找目标,而是创造一条实现自我价值的路,思考一下你想过怎样的一生,然后想想如何才能让自己做到这一点。没有谁非得穷尽余生做他不想做的事,不必接受现有的生活递给你的选择。

生活远不止如此。」

生活远不止如此。

​但愿你也能早日和内心的恶魔达成和解,像尼克一样将战胜黑暗后拾获的阳光分享出去。


最后引用Lex Fridman的一条推文结尾:

「I look for the good in people. Sometimes I get hurt for it, but it's rare and it's worth it. You may hear me say optimistic things that sound naive. I'm not naive. I've read too much history to be naive. I just think love wins out over the darker parts of human nature in the end.
我寻找人类美好的一面,有时候会受伤,但是这种情况又少且值得。你也许听到我说了很多乐观又幼稚的事情。但我并不幼稚,我读了太多太多历史了。我只是认为爱最终会战胜人类的黑暗面。」01:50

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3/6/2022

浅谈内容产出、模仿欲望和拉丁文人生守则

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Photo credit: Rob Bates
前两天心血来潮,更新了「理想屯」中文播客(小宇宙独家播放),复盘了我如何从一个情绪波动大,容易焦虑和担忧未来的人,成长到现在可以保持平和的心态并顺势而为的心路历程。除了「冥想」的辅助之外,持续产出内容的方法也功不可没。

「内容为王」曾是我做市场营销工作时的第一法则。从长远的角度来看,用高质量的内容去打动客户和消费者,远比投放无脑的广告达到的功效更好。创造内容不仅可以打造品牌,而推及到个人生活上,也是基本解决我所有问题的答案。

- 小学的时候和同班同学一起创造虚幻小说,并看到我们的文字被印成铅字,发掘了自己对于写作的热爱之情,并从那时起坚持写日记,记录自己的生活琐事和所思所想。

- 高中的时候开始在MySpace写博客,以文会友,结识了来自天南海北的热爱足球和文学的朋友。

- 出国后开始写微博写博客,在领英和推特发表自己的看法和见解,拓宽了人脉,获得了数不尽的职场机会。

- 疫情隔离期间出了一本英文小说,在写作的过程中治愈了我多年以来的心结和困惑。

- 完成「龙虾教授」的线上写作心理辅导项目「Self-authoring」,3万+字的复盘总结、优缺点分析和未来规划让我实现清晰地自我认知。

- 翻译硅谷大佬们的文章,并将历年的学习笔记整理为合集,12万字的内容开放给CY CIRCLE的订阅者,在信息爆炸的世界里和大家一起过滤分享有价值的信息。


你看,我生活中几乎无时无刻都在与内容打交道,而写作也让触及到现在正在阅读这篇文章的你,尽管我们远隔万里,却能因为我分享的观点而实现脑波共鸣。创造内容不仅帮助我个人解决问题,同时也邀请读者朋友们一起踏上成长的旅程,通过外观多彩世界,实现内修精彩自我。

我相信每一个人都是为了创造、建设和成长而生,生命就是一段发掘并实现自我潜力的过程。然而,我见过很多人放弃了生命,被动地坐在他人驾驶的火车上驶向死亡的终点,害怕失败,害怕犯错,害怕未知,而选择压抑自己的天赋,以便能够安全地到达死亡的温床。

那些创造者们则在持续输入和输出的过程中实现了人生价值,因为在时间的加持下,量变总会实现质变,只要简单地记录下你正在做的事情,学到的东西,致力于持续回答自己的母题,贡献令你感兴趣的内容,世界这么大,你总有一天会发现解决问题的方法,找到属于你的受众。

行动方案:
- 30天写作习惯养成计划
- David Perell《50天线上写作课程》


​阅读推荐

这周听了一期「跟少楠和Vivi聊聊《纳瓦尔宝典》」的播客,少楠在节目中提到了对硅谷大佬彼得·蒂尔影响颇深的法国社会理论家勒内·吉拉德(René Girard)的「模仿欲望Mimetic Desire」理论,这里简单分享一下关于这个理论的一些学习笔记。

- 勒内·吉拉德的「模仿欲望」理论之于心理学,就如万有引力之于物理学一样。吉拉德认为,人类并没有本能的欲望机制,而是经常依靠外部参照物向我们展示什么是我们应该或者想要的,这就是人性中的模仿欲望。

- 我们满足欲望的终极目的,是希望向别人展示自己是一个什么样的人,即在社会中获取地位游戏的冠军。许多时候我们并不是直接想要一个东西,而是看到了身边的人拥有了这个东西,所以才想要。

- 回想一下你的梦想大学和梦想工作,你是从哪里得来这个想法的呢?青春期的学生非常容易受到周围环境的影响,他们时常会去模仿他人的欲望,走上不属于自己的人生道路。社交媒体更是加倍地推动了模仿欲望的影响力,问问现在的孩子们长大后想做什么,十有八九的答案是成为油管博主或者网红达人。

- 竞争是人类行为的核心所在,因为人类倾向于想要别人想要的东西,这自然会使我们陷入竞争。当差异被消除时,冲突就出现了,每个人都开始为同样的事情而争斗。很多时候人们在赢得竞争时,并没有收获预想的快乐和满足感,因为这场零和游戏本就不是你打心底想要的东西,是他们灌输给你的欲望。

- 彼得·蒂尔在《从零到一》一书中写道,每个人都应该避免竞争,完全竞争只能导致完全没有利润,创新垄断才能创造利润。培养独立思考的能力,和大众群体保持距离。

- 一旦我们意识到自己处在一个模仿环境或者有模仿行为时,此时应该怎么做呢?请彻底诚实地进行自我反省,想想最近打过交道的人,审阅最近听读的内容,尽管我们无法完全摆脱模仿欲望对我们的影响,但却可以将其影响力在自省的过程中减至最低。通过把生活建立在更深层次的东西上,把自己从从众的心态中解放出来。


延伸阅读:
- David Perell和Jonathan Bi共同录制的关于模仿欲望的线上课程
- Luke Burgis的著作:《欲望:日常生活中模仿欲望的力量Wanting:The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life》


​11条拉丁语的「人生法则」

最近在StepN玩得不亦乐乎,也结识了一批可爱有趣的跑友。某StepN跑步群的荣姐姐看到我的纹身后,问我是不是还懂拉丁文?我唯一认识的拉丁文就是和线上导师Ryan Holiday学的吧,分享一下他在博客上总结的11条拉丁语写就的「人生法则」。

1. Festina Lente (Make Haste Slowly,欲速则不达)

Festina Lente是罗马第一位皇帝奥古斯都的座右铭。他认为一位训练有素的领导者一定不会草率行事。追求速度不总是一件好事。

林肯曾经描述过砍树的最好方法是先花几个小时磨斧子。你如果不知道自己为什么做这件事,以及如何做这件事,但却一股脑的扎进这件事中,那通常都不会有好的发展。

欲速则不达,人们总会因为急躁而付出代价。我们每个人都需要三思而后行,用思考、智慧和耐心去发掘问题的根源。先慢慢的,然后事情就会快起来。

2. Carpe Diem (Seize The Day,抓住当下)

诗人贺拉斯在《奥德赛》第一卷中写道:"抓住当下,明天并不可靠。”

我们很多人认为时间是免费的,可以随便浪费。我们甚至讲如何「打发时间」「消磨时间」。但过去的每一分一秒都在提醒我们,我们离死亡越来越近。

塞涅卡写道,我们以为生命短暂,其实只是在浪费生命。罗马皇帝马可·奥勒留时刻告诫自己,今天能做的事不要拖到明天,因为今天是他唯一能控制的事情。斯多葛派宣扬的教义也指出:命运不可预知,死亡随时来临。因此,把时间视为理所当然是一种愚蠢的罪恶。

3. Fac, si facis (Do It If You're Going to Do It,有想法就去行动)
很多人都会想:我应该成立一家公司,我有一个拍电影的好主意,我想写一本书,如果我足够努力,我可以成为____...  而这些人中有多少人真正去建立公司,发行电影,出版书,或者成为他们声称可以成为的任何角色呢?很遗憾,几乎没有。

艺术家奥斯汀·克莱恩曾说过,人们想做名词而不是动词。我们不是靠说说就可以成事,而是用行动证明自己。

4. Quidvis recte factum quamvis humile praeclarum (What Is Rightly Done, However Humble, Is Noble,凡是你做的好的,无论多么卑微,都是高尚的工作)

亨利·莱斯爵士的父亲在他9岁时过世,他为了减轻家庭的经济负担去工作,卖过报纸、送过电报、制作工具、修过路灯。21岁时,他成立了自己的公司来制造电器配件;26岁时,他的兴趣转向了新兴的汽车工业。不久后,创办了劳斯莱斯汽车公司。

莱斯爵士生命前20多年做的这些工作看似毫不起眼,但实际上,正是他从事的那些体力劳动,做的那些看似不起眼的工作,培养了罗斯爵士对于卓越的理解。他后来还在自己家壁炉上方的墙壁上刻下这句拉丁名言:Quidvis recte factum quamvis humble praeclarum。

没有什么工作或任务是卑微的。我们如何做某件事,也代表我们如何做任何事。

5. Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful,永远忠诚)

奥托·弗兰克在第一次世界大战中结束后并没有如期回家。不,这不是因为他受伤或死了;也不是因为他被一个女孩耽误了,而是因为在战争期间,他的部队从波美拉尼亚的一个小农场征用了一些马匹,一战结束后,他觉得有责任物归原主。所以,当战争结束时,几乎每个士兵都急着赶回家和家人团聚,而弗兰克却决心履行自己的义务,将马匹带回给当地的农夫。

罗马皇帝马可·奥勒留一直提倡要坚持做有道德的事情,尽管那意味着尽管重任在肩还需再添负担,或是不被他人理解和注意到。「永远忠诚 」是美国海军陆战队的座右铭,队员们会为了坚定不移地完成自己的使命而牺牲和奉献,但那是正确的事情,也是对自己人格的回报。


6. Per Angusta Ad Augusta (Through Difficulties To Honors,不经历风雨怎能见彩虹)

人们希望生活可以按计划进行,希望事情不会出错,这样我们就可以享受生活,而不用担心来自困难的考验。可惜,一帆风顺的生活不太可能发生。这就给我们留下了一个问题:经历困难到底能为我们带来什么好处呢?

温斯顿·丘吉尔的妻子克莱门汀·丘吉尔传记中的这段话值得我们思考。「逆境和顽强的意志力将克莱门汀这个原本胆小、自疑且神经敏感的女孩打磨成一位无比沉稳、且智慧和勇气具备的首相妻子。早年生活中经历的许多苦难就如大火一般,铸就了她面临之后人生时的钢铁内核。等到第二次世界大战时,那个曾经对父亲感到恐惧的幼童,已经成长为一个不畏惧任何事情的女人。」

斯多葛派认为,逆境是不可避免的。逆境来临之时往往打得我们措手不及。但逆境并不一定是一件坏事,因为它让我们变得更强大,它给我们一个机会来证明自己。

7. Amor fati (Love Of Fate,热爱命运)

作家博尔赫斯曾经说过,发生在人身上的每一件事情都是一种资源。你所经历的一切都有目的。尤其作为作家和艺术家,必须更强烈地认识到这一点。发生在我们身上的一切,包括我们的屈辱、不幸、尴尬,都可以成为艺术创作的原材料。

我们要学会从发生在自身上的每一件事情中找到快乐。我们必须明白很多事情的发生虽不受控制,但我们却可以利用这一切。不幸生病久卧病榻,可以给予我们充足的时间反思人生;在工作中遇到棘手问题,可以激励我们发明新产品和新解决方案。

罗马皇帝马可·奥勒留说过,熊熊烈火能使投入其中的一切产生火焰和光明。这就是我们想要成为的样子。我们要成为能将痛苦、挫折甚至屈辱转化为美的艺术家。我们要成为将自己苦难经历,转换为人生哲理供他人参考借鉴的人。

爱你命运中发生的一切事情,因为你可以享用它提供的一切。

8. Fatum Ingenium Est (Character Is Fate,性格决定命运)

沃克·珀西在上大学时给叔叔兼养父威尔·珀西写信,表达了自己在学校的困扰。他原本以为会收到一封叔父批判他成绩,或者训斥他让家人失望的回信。结果叔父非但没批评他,反而劝解他道,人生的意义不在于追求荣誉和成就,而在于人格的塑造。

古希腊哲学家赫拉克利特指出,性格就是命运。性格决定了我们是谁,会做什么。培养良好的品性就是我们的立世之道。马可·奥勒留也写下了:人生苦短,这一生所收获的果实就是良好的性格。反之亦然,好的生活也是基于好性格的果实。

9. Semper Anticus (Always Forward,勇往直前)

人们很喜欢怀旧,或是埋怨或是自怜,但这些行为毫无意义,过去的就已经过去了,摆在我们面前的只有当下,如果幸运的话我们也会有未来。

自行车运动员兰斯·阿姆斯特朗的播客就叫做「The Forward(前进)」,因为他不能回到过去改变已经发生的事情,就像在比赛中一样,你既不能倒退,也不能停下来,你唯一能做的就是继续前进。

我们必须趁着现在还能抓住当下而全力以赴,不管过去发生了什么,做错了什么,过去给我们带来哪些多少痛苦,有什么遗憾,甚至多少欢笑和胜利,我们都应该通通抛下,然后带着勇气、节制、智慧、正义这些美德勇往直前。

10. Vivere Militare Est (To Live Is To Fight,活着就是战斗)

奥德修斯在经历了漫长的十年战争后离开特洛伊准备回家,却没料到这一趟归家的旅途又花费十载年华。他要面对风暴、诱惑、独眼巨人、致命的漩涡和六头怪兽,也要遭受波塞冬的愤怒惩罚,面对在家乡等待他的仇敌。

罗马皇帝马可·奥勒留把生活描述为一场充满战争和远离家乡的旅程。斯多葛派也讲到一个人必须像一个拳击手或摔跤手一样过完人生,随时准备迎接突如其来的攻击。

这就是生活。它把我们视为皮球一样踢来踢去。生活中充满了事与愿违与艰难苦险。塞内卡写道,只有经历伤痕累累的训练和比赛,一个拳手才会在下一场比赛中信心满满地走上擂台。我们要在生活中做好战斗的准备,我们可以被打倒,但要有跌倒后随时爬起来的勇气和能力。

11. Memento Mori (Remember Death,人固有一死)

塞内卡认为,一个人如果把每一天都当作生命的终点,在晚上冥想自己的死亡,那当他们醒来时,就会有一种超能力。

这就是一个人应该有的生活方式。感激生命又让你过了一整天的生活,也许你可能不会见到明天的太阳,但如果你真的在第二天醒来,你应该把接下来二十四小时的每一秒都看作是一种奖赏。

「你现在就可能死去,」马可·奥勒留写道。「就让它决定你的所作所为和所说所想吧。」

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30/5/2022

Chiwi Journal #14: Nick Cave, Love & Nihilism, Beyond Order, Multi-verse, and Body & Mind

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Quick update from me

​I’ve been living in Lisbon on and off for two months but still have a FOMO of sun. When the sun is out (almost every day), I subconsciously have the urge to go outside (PTSD from living in London for a while ?). Spending most time outdoors made me realise I’m probably solar powered because just going out to enjoy the sun makes my worries and stress gone!

Since I’m still in tourist mode in Portugal, I walk 13,000 steps daily. My friend introduced me to a move2earn web3 lifestyle app STEPN, where I get an NFT Sneaker and walk, jog or run outdoors to earn rewards. What I like most about this app are the Gami-Fi and Social-Fi elements that encourage a group of my friends to embrace a healthier lifestyle by walking or jogging on a daily base. Also, in a web3 group chat, we take this app as a case study to discuss the gamification ecosystem and investment philosophy in web3. Definitely a triple-win game to play! If you are interested in playing and would like to get an invite code, please DM me on Twitter.

Last but not least, please remember no matter which markets are we in, treat yourself as core capital, design a compound system and invest it!
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OK, let’s get into this month’s content.

Book of the Month

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​The Chinese version of Beyond Order by Dr Jordan B. Peterson has been launched in China this month! 

I started the translation process in April 2021 with Steve Shi and Marcel Zhang. After four months of hard work and back and forth editing and auditing from the publisher. We finally see the 289,000 words and 322 pages book out on China market!

In 2019, I participated the Oxfam Trailwalker, completing the 100km trek in under 32 hours and raising 10,000 NZD with three team members. In preparation for this challenging event, I encountered Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life and gained the courage and wisdom from reading it, which helped me accomplish this seemingly impossible task. Since then, I have followed Dr Peterson’s YouTube and podcast channels and dug deep into his works.

In 2021, while quarantined in England, I saw a tweet posted by Steve Shi, the Chinese translator of 12 Rules for Life, seeking collaborative translators for Dr Peterson’s new book Beyond Order. I immediately signed up and completed the trial translation based on my familiarity with his works. It was not long before I received the news that I had officially joined the translation team and had the privilege to translate Chapters nine to twelve of his new book, focusing on intimate relationships, past memories, truth-seeking, and gratitude for life.
Dr Peterson wrote this new book while battling his illness, and he relied on the idea of completing this book to push himself through the many difficulties in his life. While translating this book, I was also in a challenging life stage, living alone in a new country without family and friends’ support and unclear about my future and career path.

Reading his book and participating in the translation process served as a healing process for me. Dr Peterson shared many clinical cases to show us how people who have gone through hardships can get back on track through effective counselling and self-awareness. It also made me realise that many difficulties facing me are not unique but universal, and there are solutions to that, thus giving me hope and encouragement to get through that dark period.
Everyone is carrying an inevitable burden in this world. There is probably an ugly and painful struggle underneath every glamorous and beautiful face. Compared with Dr Peterson’s previous book, I could feel his compassion in this new book, and I was moved to tears many times during the translation process. If we can be less judgmental and resentful of others but be more empathetic, if we can still be grateful when we suffer, gratitude and love will save us from the abyss.

I also recommend readers sign up for Dr Peterson’s brain baby Self-Authoring, a series of online writing programs that collectively help you explore your past, present and future. An unexamined life is not worth living. After reading this book, I hope you will have the courage and confidence to explore your path, nourishing yourself and those around you with love. Most importantly, have faith in life and be grateful despite your suffering.
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Click to purchase the Chinese copy.


​Movies of the Month

I melted in tears while watching CODA and Everything Everywhere All at Once.

When I watched the trailers of both films, the former made me feel cliche, and the latter made me feel like a pop-corn no-brainer movie. However, under my friends’ consistent recommendation, I gave them a go and found the touchy point from them.
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Just like reading the summary/abstract of a book is totally different from reading the whole book, when I sit down patiently and indulge in the story, I can get rid of my prejudice, forget about my reality for a while, and generate empathy with characters and even manifest something inside me that I didn’t seem aware of.
CODA​
“CODA” stands for “child of deaf adults.” The film portrays the story of a teenage CODA girl who’s caught between helping her family’s fledgling fish business in a small village and pursuing her singing aspirations in college. Sounds cliche, right? But when you watched those deaf actors’ spectacular performances and emphasized the life struggle between dream and reality, even though we’ve heard so many of that kind of stories, it still worked.
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It reminds me of La La Land, where the main character has to make the decision between love and dream. We all have to make compromises in our life because we can’t have everything, but we can get anything we REALLY want. The most valuable way to help others is not by offering your time and energy to solve problems on their behalf but by devoting your passion to do what you REALLY love. By doing so, your inner sparks and dedication will ignite expansive light among people around you, empowering more people to step into their Hero’s Journey.
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​Everything Everywhere All at Once
I assume many overseas Asians will resonate with this family’s story: hard working parents, lack of communication between couples, misunderstandings between generations, and cultural conflict living in western counties. The moment you think you know where the movie is headed, the director turned it into an unclassifiable Sci-fi story that blew your mind with cutting edge visual effects and unexpected narrative quirks.

The basic philosophy of this movie is between ‘love’ and ‘nihilism’. It doesn’t simply advocate the cliche message of ‘love conquers it all’ but embeds the fundamental core concept of eastern philosophy: the balance of yin and yang (pay attention to the Bagel and Weird Eye). Love can be a dangerous weapon if people don’t know the balanced way to receive and give. Especially in eastern culture, some parents usually use love as a moral chain to constrain their children’s personal development. Others might be too uncomfortable to express their love verbally and physically.

This movie also reminds me of one of my favourite Sci-fi writers Ted Chiang‘s Story of Your Life: once you know the whole story of life, will you dare to live it? How could we face the absurdity of this world and find the meaning behind meaningless things?
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On a happy note, two directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert left many Easter eggs in this movie and paid tribute to those directors before them. E.g. In the Mood for Love, The Wedding Banquet, The Grandmaster, Rick and Morty, Kill Bill, The Matrix, A Clockwork Orange, Ratatouille, Joker, Star Wars and many more! Enjoy :)


​Documentary of the Month

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​When I first heard Where The Wild Roses Grow and watched the MV, I was obsessed with Nick Cave in my teenage years. His poetic lyrics, painful past and maverick personality resonated with me in many ways. Back then, I felt his famous line “All beauty must die” is similar to one of Buddhism’s sanbōin “impermanent” within my limited understanding. I thought all things, including us and life itself, are impermanent. Therefore, nothing matters since everything would disappear into the void.

All those years passed by, Nick Cave seemed to have healed and defined himself from a musician to a father or a husband and opened an online mailbox to listen to others’ pain. I also gained my knowledge to understand the true essence of “impermanent”. Although nothing will exist forever, the existence itself is worth everything in this world.
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Watching This Much I Know To Be True, a documentary that captures behind the scenes of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis making their last two studio albums (Ghosteen and Carnage), is full of joy and tears (I know this month I cried a lot, but all in a good way ?). The music, songs and stage visual setup are sensational, and Nick and Warren’s conversations and interviews made me think a lot about how we see our world differently. Once we are open and connected ourselves with others and the world, everything seems to make sense now.
“Our purpose isn’t to bring meanings to this world, the very nature of this world is meaningful and we’re just beings in it.”


​Podcast of the Month

​I usually avoid recommending mainstream media’s content, but The Ezra Klein Show (New York Times) is exceptional. The host Ezra Klein is a famous American news commentator, columnist and political analyst. His show focuses on current affairs and book recommendations with high-quality interviews and up-to-date and diverse topics. I’ve listened to several episodes about the Russia-Ukraine war, where I get a chance to learn about this global event from multiple angles from intellectuals and geopolitical experts with different backgrounds.

This month, I listened to an episode that featured a renowned psychiatrist and best-selling author, Bessel van der Kolk (thanks to Tom Morgan’s newsletter). It revealed how trauma reshaped our brains from a neuroscience perspective and shared a couple of ways to reconnect with ourselves and others by conditioning the body and training mindfulness thoughts.

Bessel van der Kolk’s book The Body Keeps the Score, based on his 30 years of clinical experience, unravels the problematic question of how the human brain can turn on self-protection mechanisms after trauma to bury the memory or fall into deep remorse and shame. Still, the body won’t forget the trauma and subconsciously reminds us of the need to deal with it. 
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Many people think that only those who have experienced war or major disasters will have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Unbeknownst to us, trauma is everywhere. From domestic violence to school bullying, from childhood neglect to natural and man-made disasters, from break up to a loss of family, from betrayal to isolation, trauma has become one of the most critical mental problems in modern society. If you have experienced those above and found it hard to digest the pain, this episode and the book would be beneficial.


​AMA

Last month, I shared my immigration journey with Rebase.co to get Portuguese residency visa as a non-EU citizen.
READ DETAILS HERE.
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People also wonder how I become a New Zealand citizen.
READ MY DIY ROADMAP HERE.
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As discussed in my recent interview with Lauren Razavi, our passport system is a recent invention and needs to upgrade to encourage global mobility in today’s world. I’m an advocate for freedom of movement and freedom of speech. And I’m so glad to see projects like Plumia and 1729 that empower people to build the Internet country, accelerate digital transformation and form an engaged community beyond border limitations.

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27/5/2022

浅谈创伤治疗和《人生十二法则2》

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撒花庆祝!我和史秀雄、张鹏程联合翻译的「龙虾教授」乔丹·彼得森的新书《人生十二法则2》终于出版啦!

2019年,我报名参加了国际乐施会(Oxfam International)组织的百公里毅行者慈善徒步活动,在不到32个小时的时间内完成了100公里的山地徒步,并和团队内的其他三位成员共同筹集了约一万纽币的善款。正是在准备这场挑战身心的活动中,我邂逅了乔丹·彼得森的《人生十二法则》,并在阅读的过程中收获了勇气和智慧,协助我完成了这项看似不可能完成的任务。自那以后,我又关注了彼得森教授的视频和播客频道,追随着他的内容在心理层面进行深刻地自我探索。

2021年,正当我在英国因疫情影响在家隔离时,看到了《人生十二法则》译者史秀雄发布的一则微博,招募乔丹·彼得森新书的协作译者。对于经常在微博分享彼得森教授内容的我来说,这无疑是一个天大的好消息。我立马投入到试译的工作中,并通过邮件和史秀雄分享了我与彼得森教授的渊源和他带给我的积极影响。没过多久,我就收到了正式加入翻译团队的消息,有幸参与翻译新书的第九章到第十二章。

彼得森教授在接受采访中提到,生活是由有序和无序两部分组成,《人生12法则》聚焦无序,《人生12法则》2则聚焦有序。我翻译的四个章节涉及亲密关系、过去记忆、求真务实和感恩生活,很适合那些陷入生活泥潭无法自拔,被过去记忆折磨无法摆脱,苦恼于如何教育子女,以及不知道如何处理亲密关系的人来阅读。

彼得森教授是在生病期间一边与病魔抗争,一边书写这本新书,他靠着完成这本书的意念支撑着自己战胜生活中的屡屡困难。而我在翻译这本书的处境也颇为波折,独身一人旅居海外,没有家人和朋友的陪伴,对自己的前程纠结不已,阅读这本书并参与整个翻译过程,对我来说也很有治愈功能。彼得森教授列举了很多临床案例,向我们展示了历经生活苦难洗礼的人们,如何通过有效的心理辅导和改善自我认知,重归生活的轨道。同时也让我意识到很多问题并不是我独有的,而是普世的,也一定会有解决之道,从而给了我希望和鼓励,让我度过那一段黑暗的时期。

世上的每个人其实都背负着一定的负担,外表光鲜靓丽之下很有可能埋藏着内心艰苦的挣扎。《人生12法则2》与上一本相比,读来更能感受到他的恻隐之心,我也多次在翻译过程中因感动而流泪。如果我们能减少对他人的评判和怨恨,多一份共情;如果能在遭受苦难时,依然心存感激,那感恩之情将是我们可以走出深渊的良药。

彼得森教授在书中引用了大量的古籍经典和现代流行文化的示例,通过他独特的观察角度带领我们走上一条反思自我和探索生活其他可能性的道路。我建议读者朋友们在遇到这些援引内容时,可以回归到内容出处,亲自体会一下这些文化符号背后的象征意义,比如说「托马斯小火车的动画形象为什么会有一张笑脸?」「孩子们为什么会被《匹诺曹》这样的动画所吸引?」「为什么《圣经》包含着奠定西方文明的最原始故事?」等等。

同时,我推荐大家可以参与彼得森教授在书中提到的「书写个人成长史」的活动,通过审视自己的人生,领悟到成长是一个需要勇气的过程。尤其是当你自强不息,但身边的人却停滞不前的时候,这时你很有可能因此失去朋友和伴侣。但是,如果你不采取行动,不勇于迈出远离不适合自己环境的第一步,那长远来看你将会活在悔恨与自责当中。

最后,感谢两位译者同伴在翻译过程中的指教和帮助,感谢湛卢文化编辑们的真诚反馈,感谢读者朋友们的宽容和耐心。我希望大家在阅读完毕后,拥有更大的勇气和信心去探索属于自己的人生道路,在沿途中用爱滋养自我和身边之人。就像彼得森教授写道的那样,生活是一场艰辛的斗争,但最终是值得的。

购买方式:
登陆湛庐出版社官网或者点击当当网站进行购买。

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播客推荐

《纽约时报》旗下的播客频道【The Ezra Klein Show】是一档聚焦时事评论和书籍推荐的节目。主播埃兹拉·克莱因(Ezra Klein)是美国当下炙手可热的新闻评论员、专栏作家和政治分析家,他的播客节目凭借高质量的访谈和新锐多元的话题而备受追捧。尤其是在俄乌战争阶段的几期时事评论分析节目,让我得以从不同背景的知识分子和地缘政治专家身上对该国际事件有一个宏观的理解。

这周听了一期埃兹拉采访知名精神科医生和畅销书作家贝索尔·范德寇(Bessel van der Kolk)的节目,从神经科学的角度看清创伤(trauma)如何重塑我们的大脑,检讨了过往的药物和谈话治疗的有限效果,以及如何通过调节身体和训练正念思想,重建跟自己以及和别人的连结。

贝索尔·范德寇经过三十多年的临床经验写下了《心灵的伤,身体会记住The Body Keeps the Score》这本著作,解开人类遭遇创伤后大脑会开启自我保护机制而掩埋记忆,拒绝谈论或者陷入深深自责和羞愧当中,但是身体却不会忘记创伤,并以各种症状提醒我们需要处理那些回避的问题的难解之谜。通过阅读本书,遭受心灵创伤的人可以通过一系列新的干预疗法,实现自救或者帮助他人,贝索尔表示,「只有一件事能使治疗创伤的工作成为可能,那就是怀抱敬畏之心对待患者为了求生所做出的努力。」

简单总结一下这期播客:

- 现实生活中,人们往往忽视了创伤带给我们的伤害,大多数人觉得经历过战争或者重大灾害的人才会有创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)。殊不知,创伤无处不在。从家暴到校园霸凌,从童年长期遭受忽视到经历天灾人祸,从丧亲到失恋,从背叛到孤立,创伤成为了现代社会中存在着的最主要的精神问题之一。

- 经历过创伤的人群规模极其庞大,有没有人霸凌过你?有没有人调戏过你?你有没有看到过父母发生肢体冲突?你有没有经历失恋和丧亲?这些人们认为很普遍的事情,其实在潜移默化中影响着我们的大脑。一旦你受到创伤,它就会改变你的脑回路,改变你看待世界的方式,改变你身体对环境的反应。压力荷尔蒙不断侵蚀着你的身体,导致患病几率的增加。尽管我们理性的一面觉得有些事只不过是小事儿一桩,殊不知身体却不会健忘。

- 我们的大脑有动物性的一面(吃喝拉撒),也有构造意义的一面(受早期经验影响)。如果你在孩童时期对照顾你的人感到恐惧,那么你很有可能在长大后对有权力的人非常顺从,希望他们不会伤害你;或是走到另一个极端,对所有的事物都充满着愤怒。你之所以形成这样为人处世的态度,并不可能通过谈话式的心理咨询得到治愈,我们的大脑回路并不会因为了解到问题就会做出改变,想想知行合一有多么难吧。

- 遭受虐待的小孩子往往觉得自身有缺陷才会受到如此的待遇,他们头脑中隐藏的叙事是:如果我是好孩子,大家就会爱我;我之所以遭到猥亵或者暴力,是因为我是一个坏孩子,我自己有问题。而这些孩子长大成人后为此付出的代价便是陷入极其深刻的自我厌恶,经常鄙视自己,总是惹麻烦。这是因为他们始终带着童年形成的叙事「反正我不是个好孩子」去生活,将自己置于危险之中,通过酗酒吸毒打架等行为继续证实「我不值得被爱,我是个坏人」的叙事。

- 对于创伤幸存者来说,羞耻感是最普遍的情绪。比如说,有一个特别友善的人对你很好,但是你却有想杀了他的念头,这时你就会反思,我到底是怎么了?我肯定是疯了才会想杀了这个好人,此时便会产生羞耻感。其实,在大脑深处,这个人的声音容貌或者气味可能唤醒了你童年时遭到毒打的记忆,你的身体还会记着这份愤怒,但是大脑却可能为了自我保护而选择忘记。羞耻和内疚还不一样,后者是一种个人情绪,前者则是一种社会情绪,你羞耻的事情往往是害怕被别人知晓的真相。

- 人是社会动物,受到创伤后如果有社会的支持,则会比较容易复原。诸如911之类的大型灾难,大家因为可以公开谈论、分享情绪和行为,从而在集体的帮助下得到解脱。老兵协助会和匿名戒酒会等组织也因为提供了安全的空间,让共享过痛苦经历的人们可以公开而无羞耻感的谈论自己的问题,对治疗创伤起到了很好的帮助。

- 谈话性质的心理治疗可以让你了解你为什么在遇到特定事情的时候会有特定的反应,但却不能帮助你避免下次遇到同样的事情就不会出现同样的反应。你需要重新构建大脑和身体的连结,无论是瑜伽、舞蹈、太极,甚至是迷幻剂(psychedelic)都是重建连结的方式。而当前普遍应用的治疗创伤的方法是「眼动减敏与历程更新疗法Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing」,俗称「眼动身心重建法」,通过帮助人们对触发或创伤性记忆进行再处理,使被治疗者不再感情用事,减轻消极记忆和情感的认知。

- 治疗创伤的另一种方式是帮助人们体验新的现实。人们的记忆是十分灵活的(有时甚至不可信),你身边肯定有一些总是在讲老生常谈故事的人,比如说他有一次钓到了一条大鱼,但他每次讲述这个故事时,鱼的尺寸总是在不知不觉的变大。但如果你去采访经历过战争创伤的老兵,他们的故事基本不会改变,因为他们的身体会将他们带回到当时的情境,触发痛苦的感觉,由内而外的塑造他们的叙事模式。如果你有兄弟姐妹的话,尝试着回忆你们小时候发生的一件相同的事情,得到的故事都是不同的版本,因为人们会根据自己的需要来重造记忆。帮助创伤患者的方式就是先解放身体,然后再重造叙事(龙虾教授的新书《人生十二法则2》第九章便提到了这个解决痛苦和创伤的方法)。

- 人的性格和行为模式不是静止不动而是动态的。你与不同的人在一起表现也会不同,他人身上的某些特质很可能会激发出你的一些隐藏情绪和行为。所以在人际交往中,我们都应该帮助彼此认清彼此的盲点,了解到底是什么触发了潜意识中未知的记忆。创伤患者往往拒绝社交活动,因为羞耻心作祟,总将自己视为渺小且不值得存在的生物,关闭头脑和心灵,试图控制自己的行为举止。而迷幻剂(LSD,死藤水)则通过放松头脑对固有思维模式的限制,让我们体验更深层次的情感,并开始为它们分配意义和故事,打开一个全新的宇宙,使患者有一份强烈的归属感。

- 贝索尔·范德寇医生建议美国小学应该添加「自我调节」的课程。我们当前的社会陷入了药物滥用的状态,人们身体一不舒服就去吃药,而不是内观身体和头脑,找到真正不舒服的原因。我们都知道运动是好的,但是还没有一套完整的科学理论去解释为什么气功、瑜伽和原始舞蹈可以帮助人们应对创伤,缓解焦虑和压力。有时候让大人平静下来的方法其实很简单,就像我们对待婴儿那样,抱抱抚摸轻言轻语,但是这种方式却不被现代的「男子气概社会」所接纳。


延伸阅读:
1. 浅谈左右半脑、具身运动和生活状态
2. 既然人生意义没有标准答案,何不肆意书写自己的故事
3. 万物静观皆自得 | 10天内观冥想(Vipassana)体验
4. 浅谈前沿科技(web3 & NFTs)、致幻疗养和聊天规则
5. 浅谈人生审计、改善健康和东西交流
6. 浅谈生活悖论、人生法则和公开创业


(免责声明:本文不提供任何医疗建议,完全是翻译总结嘉宾的意见和建议,请酌情参考)

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20/5/2022

浅谈V神论文、a16z加密市场现状报告和web3的领英平台

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PicturePhoto credit: Milad Fakurian

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本周看了两份web3的相关报告,一份是V神的《去中心化社会:寻找Web3的灵魂Decentralized Society: Finding Web3's Soul》;一份是a16z的《2022加密市场现状报告Introducing the 2022 State of Crypto Report》,简单总结一下报告的精华部分。
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《去中心化社会:寻找Web3的灵魂》


- 当前的web3聚焦于资产交易和金融化,但没有着重解决社会关系的信任问题。但是我们绝大多数的核心经济活动,例如无抵押贷款和建立个人品牌都是基于持久且不可转让的社会关系上面。V神建议在未来推出「灵魂绑定代币soulbound tokens (SBTs)」,这是一种永远不可转让的NFT,将永久存在于你的灵魂钱包(Soul wallet)中,作为参与和声誉的凭证。

- V神此篇论文的合著者E. Glen Weyl表示,SBT将于2022年底投入市场使用,并在2024年迎来上升周期。

- 永远不可转让的NFTs有什么实用意义呢?①大学可以给毕业生提供SBT学位,不能转让或出售。②一家公司正试图雇用参加过X会议的人,因为X会议向与会者发放了SBT徽章,没有人可以在公开市场上买到徽章。然后,该公司可以筛选验证参与X会议的候选人。③DAO社群可以将SBT空投给参与者。与会者和环保项目的毕业生。

- V神和他的团队认为在web3骗子和造假者层出不穷,拥有真正的链上凭证才是打造「去中心化社 Decentralized Society (DeSoc)」的关键和灵魂。而SBT将增强治理机制,鼓励社区间的信任和合作,同时保护网络不被捕获和支配。有了这种增强的社会性,web3可以摒弃当前过度金融化的特点,而选择一个更具变革性和多元化的未来发展。

V神报告完整版:https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4105763 

《2022加密市场现状报告》


#1 我们正处于第四个「价格-创新周期」的中间阶段。
市场是有节律的,加密货币也不例外。虽然暂时来看加密货币尚不稳定,且周期混乱,但正如a16z合伙人Chris Dixon和加密货币工程师Eddy Lazzarin在2020年首次指出的那样,加密货币的市场周期存在着潜在的逻辑。

在很多行业中,价格往往是业绩的滞后指标,而在加密货币中,价格则是领先指标,就像钩子一样提起人们的兴趣,推动加密货币项目的发展,从而又推动了创新,我们称这种反馈循环为「价格-创新周期」。自2009年比特币诞生以来,该周期一直是推动加密货币行业发展的得力引擎。

正如传奇投资人本杰明·格雷厄姆(Benjamin Graham)曾经说过的那样,最好不要理会「市场先生」,他经常回旋于繁荣和兴奋以及绝望和沮丧当中。所以在当前的市场情形下,最好的对策是「建造Build」。想想那些在2000年代初期因为互联网泡沫,然后发誓不再触碰科技和互联网的创始人吧,他们错过了往后十年发展的最佳机会:云计算、社交网络、流视频、智能手机等等。现在是时候考虑在web3中会有哪些相似的案例,又有哪些创始人和创造者可以顶住压力,继续打造他们认为可行的产品。

#2 web3对创作者来说比web2好太多了!
a16z团队经过数据统计和分析后发现,2021年基于以太坊的NFTs(ERC-721和ERC-1155)初级销售,以及OpenSea二级市场销售支付给创作者的版税共计39亿美元,平均每位创造者可以获得17.4万美元的收益。尽管从绝对数字上来看Spotify和YouTube向创作者支付的费用更多(分别为70亿美元和150亿美元),但人均差距却非常惊人,Spotify平均向每位音乐人支付了636美元,YouTube平均向每个频道支付了2.47美元。尽管当前的web3创作者体量仍然很小,但是力量却极为强大。
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#3 加密技术(Crypto)正对我们的现实世界产生巨大的影响。
创造者的报酬只是加密技术好处的一个例子,我们再来看一下金融系统。根据世界银行的报告显示,全球超过17亿的人口没有银行账户,这些人当中有10亿人拥有手机,而加密货币便为他们提供了享受金融服务的机会。

加密技术也可以解决信息透明化和可追踪的问题。人们无需再依赖中心化的大企业作为中介,而可以主动掌握自己的数据和信息,不再受谷歌和Meta等巨头的控制。同时,去中心化的自治组织(DAO)的诞生向我们展示了陌生人之间如何通过智能合约协调合作实现目标。加密技术远不止是一种金融创新,更是一种社会、文化和技术上的创新。

#4 以太坊主导着web3的发展,但也面临着竞争。
以太坊的领先优势与它的早期起步有很大关系,而且它还拥有健康发展的社区。以太坊目前拥有最多的建设者,每月有近4000名活跃开发者,紧随其后的是Solana(有近1000人)和比特币(约500人)。

以太坊压倒性的优势可以解释为什么用户平均每天愿意支付超过1500万美元的费用来使用以太坊区块链。但它的流行是一把双刃剑。由于以太坊历来重视去中心化而不是加速扩展,其他区块链(诸如Solana、Polygon、BNB Chain、Avalanche和Fantom)会以更好的性能和更低的费用来吸引用户。

同时,我们也看到了跨链交易和第二层技术的迅猛发展。当前的区块链技术就像90年代的个人电脑和2000年代的宽带,还有很大的发展和创新空间,该领域势必会诞生更多的赢家。
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#5 是的,我们现在还处于早期阶段。
虽然我们很难知道web3用户的确切数量,但可以推算出大概的规模。根据各种链上指标显示,今天大约有700万到5000万活跃的以太坊用户。类比早期的商业互联网的发展来看,我们仿佛处于1995年左右,而互联网在2005年则达到了10亿用户。就在web2开始形成的时候,Facebook和YouTube这样的未来巨头也刚开始崭露头角。如果我们预测的趋势没错的话,那么到2031年,web3将会达到10亿用户。换句话来说,如果你现在已经在混迹在web3,那已经领先了绝大多数的人,我们仍有许多工作要做,让我们继续建设吧!

a16z报告完整版:https://a16zcrypto.com/state-of-crypto-report-a16z-2022/


​Talent Protocol

还记得在读研的时候,我听从导师的建议设立了完整的领英(LinkedIn)页面,也因此被新西兰航空的猎头发现,一毕业就拿到了工作Offer。十年飕飕,看着我的领英上面的联系人与日俱增,每个人都在「卖弄」着自己的工作成就,这个当初助我一臂之力的平台现在已经演化到和FB,IG毫无两样,充斥着肤浅的人际关系和粉饰过的生活琐碎。我们的世界正以惊人的速度发生着改变,但传统web2平台却没能跟上发展的脚步,尤其是在职场方面。我们的工作变得越来越个人化,我们的周围有无数被埋没的隐形人才,在web3的生态环境中,有没有一个类似领英这样的职场平台,可以发掘高潜力的人才,并在他们之间建立连结呢?


去年我便发现了一个名为Talent Protocol的项目(以下简称TP,创始人希望TP可以成为web3的领英),通过引入社会代币(Social Token)的概念,帮助人才在链上打造个人简历,并通过发售个人代币来获得财务支持(话说我的$CAM代币目前已经突破千元大关,欢迎支持哈哈哈)。目前项目刚刚成立一年,已经从Protocol Labs和Flori Ventures等基金和诸如Alex Masmej和Rene Reinsberg等天使投资人那里筹集了265万美元(公司估值约为5000万美元)。

当前在西方社会普遍存在着虐待人才的问题,很多有才华的青少年不得不背负沉重的学生贷款债,没日没夜的在投资银行实习打工,白白浪费着自己的创造力和无限的潜能。而TP存在的意义便是通过找到这些有主观能动性的年轻人,通过社区投资和一系列的激励措施,将他们从传统的工作中解放出来,在不用为生计发愁的情况下做着自己感兴趣的项目。

上个月,TP便为20多名活跃在web3的年轻人免费提供机票和食宿,送他们去参加在巴塞罗那举办的Celo Connect大会。我也有幸认识了来自俄罗斯、巴西、加拿大、美国、葡萄牙、西班牙等地的一票青少年创业人,在与他们交谈的过程中,总能被他们的专业能力和旺盛的生命力所打动。其中一位19岁的小伙子还给我提供了一些经营媒体公司的建议,以及邀请我去他的社群做演讲。在web3的世界里,没有年龄和国界的限制,大家本着共同的志向,在协作的过程中打造美好的未来。TP将于今年7月资助web3的从业人员前往巴黎参与EthCC大会,免费申请表格?
https://talentprotocol.typeform.com/talenthouse2?typeform-source=t.co

TP的联合创始人兼首席市场营销官Filipe Macedo介绍说,人才代币(Talent Tokens)是社会代币的一种形式,其价值与发放人的影响力和社区支持挂钩。随便举个例子,比如说C罗发行了$CR7代币,他可以规定拥有10个$CR7的人可以获得签名照片,100个$CR7的人可以获得比赛门票,1000个$CR7的人可以和他面对面交谈。

2021年,全球所有社交代币的总市值超过3.03亿美元,比去年同期增长了500%。人才代币就是将个人视为股份公司,通过融资,人才和他们的支持者都会随着时间的推移得到红利。推出人才代币就像首次公开募股(IPO),筹集的资金可以为项目融资或者偿还学生贷款,有能力给讨厌的老板说一句「F*** off」。作为人才的支持者,投资他人的代币除了可以解锁独家福利之外(当你投资的人才成功时,他们的福利也会变得更有价值,代币价值也随之增加),你的声誉也会随之增加,就像彼得·泰尔(Peter Thiel)早年投资FB和LinkedIn取得成功一样,你可以因为投资人才而获得声誉。任何在TP上推出人才代币的人都会在首页出现,并推广给相关的投资人,而平台也会通过激励手段,在社会范围能征集人才,如果你发现周围有下一个C罗,也会因为推荐此人而获得奖励。

TP在一年的经营过程中,已经有超过1000名投资者在310名人才身上投资了45万美元。目前人才库还在内测阶段,并没有对公众开放申请,主要还有几大问题需要解决:

- 人是一个特别大的变动因素,而人才代币的稳定性也会因此受到影响,当一个人无法实现他向投资人保证的计划和目标时,他们的代币会面临崩溃吗?人才会因为失信面临人身危险吗?

- 一切金融产品都有投机和风险的存在,如何围绕人才设计一套成熟的金融产品以创造最大的积极影响,也是TP正在探讨研究的问题,从而确保支持者出于好意购买人才代币,而不是为了赚取快钱。

登陆https://www.talentprotocol.com/了解项目具体信息或者加入Discord蹲一个内测邀请。

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14/5/2022

Naval合集 |《纳瓦尔宝典》中文版上市!

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前有彼得·考夫曼的《穷查理宝典》,收录了查理·芒格的个人传记、投资哲学,以及过去20年来芒格主要的公开演讲和媒体访谈;现在埃里克·乔根森(Eric Jorgenson)整理了纳瓦尔·拉维坎特(Naval Ravikant)十年来的一万七千多条推文、采访和演讲,以及播客访谈和博客论文出版了《纳瓦尔宝典Almanack of Naval Ravikant》, 聚焦如何实现财福双全的生活。本周,中文版的终于出版上市了,撒花庆祝一下!

我在这两年在文章中多次介绍过Naval这位大神,现在终于有一本书可以系统地了解他的生活哲学,十分感谢Eric花费三年时间整理并集结成册。此书还得到知名博主Tim Ferriss有史以来第一次同意写序言,以及其他我喜欢的博主的推荐(比如Shane Parrish和Tucker Max)。总结一下历年来我翻译过的Naval的推文和播客内容。
​

如何不靠运气致富

Naval最有名的推特风暴算是推特史上转载最多的推文之一了。核心内容就是你无法靠出卖自己的时间致富,你需要拥有资产(公司、股票或实体),或者能在你睡觉的时候帮你赚钱的技术(代码或媒体)。
  1. 寻求财富,而不是金钱和地位。拥有财富意味着在你睡觉时也有资产为你赚钱。金钱代表着我们如何转移时间和财富。地位代表着你的社会阶级。
  2. 认清有道德地创造财富是可能的。如果你私下鄙弃财富,财富也会躲避你。
  3. 远离寻求地位的人,他们依靠攻击创造财富的人来获取自己的地位。
  4. 你不会因为出租自己的时间而变得有钱,你必须拥有资本:比如说一家公司,来帮助你获取财务自由。
  5. 你会因为提供给社会一个它想要却不知道如何得到的东西而致富,且是大规模的致富。
  6. 选择长线共事的人和可持续发展的产业作为你的游戏对象。
  7. 互联网极大程度地扩大了职业的选择性,大多数的人还没有意识到这一点。
  8. 玩迭代游戏。所有生活中的回报,无论是财富、关系、还是知识,都是从复利中获得的。
  9. 选择拥有高智商、高精力的商业伙伴,最重要的品质是诚实正直。
  10. 不要与愤世嫉俗者和悲观主义者合作。他们的信仰只是实现自我。
  11. 学习如何销售,学习如何创造,如果你可以同时做到这两样,那没有人可以阻挡你。
  12. 用专业知识(特殊技能)、责任感和影响力武装自己。
  13. 专业知识(特殊技能)意味着人们无法通过训练得到。如果这个社会可以把你训练成这样,那也可以训练别人来取代你。
  14. 专业知识(特殊技能)是靠你的好奇心和热情去追寻得到的,而不是靠追寻热点。
  15. 建立专业知识(特殊技能)对于你来说就像玩一样,但在他人看来却十分困难。
  16. 当人们教授专业知识(特殊技能),通常是通过学徒制度,而不是通过学校。
  17. 专业知识(特殊技能)通常需要高技巧和高创造性,无法被自动化或是外包。
  18. 接受问责,并以自己的名义承担业务风险。社会将嘉奖于你责任感、资本和影响力。
  19. 主动担责的人拥有独一无二的、知名度高且高风险的品牌:例如奥普拉、特朗普、侃爷和埃隆·马斯克。
  20. 给我一根足够长的杠杆和一个支点,我就能撬动地球。—— 阿基米德
  21. 创造财富需要杠杆。商业杠杆来自资本、人力和没有边际复制成本的产品(例如代码和媒体)。
  22. 资本意味着金钱。为了筹集资金,运用专业知识(特殊技能)和你的影响力,并表现出良好的判断力。
  23. 拥有劳动力意味着有人给你打工,这是最古老也是竞争最激烈的杠杆形式。劳动力杠杆会让上一代的人为你骄傲,但不要浪费生命来追逐它。
  24. 资本和劳动力是受限制的杠杆。每个人都在追逐资本,但是你需要有人给你资本;每个人都想去领导别人,但是你需要有人跟随你。
  25. 编程和媒体是不受限的杠杆。它们是新晋富豪的武器。你可以创造出在你睡觉时都能为你赚钱的软件和媒体内容。
  26. 大量的机器人都是免费的,使用它们吧。
  27. 如果你不会编程,那就写书和博客吧,或者做视频和播客。
  28. 杠杆是你判断力的力量倍增器。
  29. 判断力基于经验,但通过学习最基础的技能可以加速养成。
  30. 没有称之为“商业”的这项技能。远离商业杂志和商业课程。
  31. 研究微观经济学、博弈论、心理学、谈判理论、伦理学、数学和计算机科学。
  32. 阅读比听更快。做比看快。
  33. 你想要保持整洁的日历就应该避免那些无意义的咖啡会议。
  34. 设定自己的小时费率。如果解决问题的成本低于你的小时费率,忽略这个问题;如果外包这个问题的成本低于你的小时费用,则将其外包。
  35. 尽可能地努力工作,尽管和谁一起工作以及工作的项目比努力工作更重要。
  36. 把自己培养为世界上做某事最好的人。不断地重新定义自己所做的事情,直到成为最好的。
  37. 世上没有一夜暴富的神话。那只是别人通过你而致富。
  38. 通过杠杆作用并利用自己的专业知识(特殊技能),最终你将得到你该得到的东西。
  39. 当你终于获得财富的时候,你会发现它并不是你一开始就寻求的东西。这是另一个话题了。​

​十大简单的真相

  • 如果现在假新闻横行,想象下我们的历史吧。
  • 人类正逐渐地从与苦难作斗争转变为与快乐作斗争。
  • 如果你不想有老板的话,你最好有能在荒野生存的能力。
  • 困难的决定→简单的生活;简单的决定→困难的生活。
  • 不想要什么东西和拥有这个东西一样好。
  • 想要避免侮辱带来的伤害,停止夸大表扬的力量。
  • 冥想没有任何价值,这才是你冥想的原因。
  • 未经审视的自我会伪装成你讨厌的东西在世界流窜(当你讨厌一个人或者一件事的时候,大多数情况下都是在这个人和事件中看到了自己的影子)。
  • 独善其身。
  • 到最后,你不得不接受世事皆为奇迹,或是世上本没有奇迹。
  • 已知创造出了宁静,未知创造出了情绪。


历年金句

  1. 健康的体魄,平静的心灵,满满的幸福感,这些东西都是买不来的,而是靠自己争取来的。
  2. 最不切实际的幻想就是,世界上存在一种能让你永远幸福快乐的东西。
  3. 我们在尘世的时光不过弹指一挥间,我们做的一切事物都无法长久留存。你会消亡,你所做的一切都会了无痕迹,你的思想将不复存在,你的后代也会死亡,整个地球都会灭亡,太阳也会,所有的一切都会。
  4. 我不做计划,我倾向于活在当下,解放自我,享受当下。
  5. 欲望就是你和自己签订的一份不快乐的合约,合约截止日期就是你满足欲望的时刻。
  6. 生活中所有重要的事物都受益于复利:金钱、关系和习惯。
  7. 人类就是「习惯机器」,学会如何打破旧有的坏习惯,培养好习惯是人类最应该学习的技能。
  8. 从根本上考虑问题,学会利用「第一原则」来解释问题,忘掉陈旧的社会准则,控制自己的情绪。
  9. 现实是中性的,一切取决于我们如何定义自己的现实。天堂和地狱都在自己的一念之间。
  10. 想要避免侮辱带来的伤害,停止夸大表扬的力量。
  11. 生命是一场单机游戏,你需要找到自己的玩法,了解自己的欲望和想要实现的目标,建立自己的人生信仰和看待事物的方法。
  12. 互联网上没人在乎屏幕后面的是猫是狗,人们在乎的是你输出的内容。
  13. 好点子+执行力是白手起家创业者们的成功的秘诀,那些总是抱怨自己没有资本和人脉的「假创业者」都在找借口。
  14. 世上没有统一的人生意义,如果有的话,那我们全会成为实现这个意义的奴隶。既然人生意义没有标准答案,那就为自己创造一个意义,书写自己的人生故事。
  15. 你不能拥有全部的东西,但你会得到你最想要的东西。看清自己的欲望,以及摸清欲望的来源。知生命之意者,便可承受生命之重。
  16. 朝九晚五是现代的奴役生活,而工资就是让人们上瘾的毒药。
  17. 人最会欺骗的就是自己。时刻审视自己的生命,找寻自己的「真相」。
  18. 如果斯大林、希特勒或者马丁路德金生活在现代,那Clubhouse是他们最好的号召工具。因此,也要警醒那些在平台上有大量拥簇的说话者。
  19. 大多数的物理假说一开始看上去都是疯言疯语,比如说量子力学和多重宇宙,但是后来逐步地得到科学证实,这样的例子以后会有更多。
  20. 当今社会不缺信息和道理,缺的是知行合一。不把理论融合在实践当中,那不算属于你的知识和智慧。
  21. 好的社会环境接受人们犯错并提供及时反馈。
  22. 科学就是用我们的已知去解释未知,世间没有永恒的真相,只有暂时未被证伪的真相。
  23. 推荐阅读物理学家David Deutsch的书《The Beginning of Infinity》。
  24. 坐下来想想五年前的生活,想想现在的你会给当时的你哪些建议?然后再想想十年前的生活,想想现在的你会给当时的自己哪些建议?你是你自己最好的治疗师,你会发现无论生活再怎么改变,你的一些行为模式都会重复,一些未解决的问题总会涌现,是时候从源头出发去解决本质问题了。
  25. 生命不是零和游戏,宇宙为我们提供了无限的资源,我们需要做的是不断创新并学会使用这些资源。
  26. 训练自己成为试错-纠错的机器,这是通往「真相」唯一的道路。
  27. 面对问题你总有选择:接受、改变或者忽略。
​

Joe Rogan采访Naval

  1. 人们会对拥有多重不相关标签的人感兴趣,比如说Joe Rogan既是脱口秀演员,又是UFC评论员,还是主播;Naval是天使投资人,推特哲学家,也是主播。现今这个世界,不需要专才,需要的是多重身份的创造者。
  2. 如果你想拥有高峰的表现力,你必须拥有一颗平静的内心。
  3. 工业革命时期的8小时工作制度不适用于现今的脑力劳动者。脑力劳动者应该像运动员那样,训练--冲刺--休息--评估,再重复这个循环。
  4. 社会总会创造新的工作,被机器和人工智能取代了的工作基本都是不需要创造力的工作。我们虽然无法预测未来会有多少新工作被创造出来,但可以肯定的是,那些重复性强不需要创造力的工作必然会被自动化取代。
  5. 找个舒适的地方,坐下来,闭上眼,什么也不干,让大脑自由遨游,不去干涉,冥想就是这么简单。
  6. 不管你多有钱,地位多高,如果有人告诉你在某时某地必须来某处工作,你就不是一个自由的人,你还不够富有。
  7. 找到一个在别人眼里是苦力,但你自己却乐在其中的工作来做。
  8. 你最真实的简历就是一份罗列你人生所受之苦的清单。
  9. 我们知道的大多数事情都是靠记忆和背诵,而不是靠理解。
  10. 读书是为了满足自己的求知欲和好奇心,而不是为了读完它。
  11. 幸福是一种选择,如果你自认为是聪明人,那怎么没想明白怎么获取幸福呢?
  12. 现在世界上最有权势的人是给Facebook, Twitter和Google写算法的人,他们控制着人们如何接受信息和接受何种信息,他们创造了如今的社会文化。
  13. 我们每天都被无数的信息轰炸,人类已经被算法和代码所控制,唯一的解决办法就是下线。
  14. 人类最大的问题就是无法自己在屋里安安静静地独处三十分钟。
  15. 关于生命的意义并没有一个标准的答案,人们在追求这个答案的过程中会不断地了解自己,你也可以把这个贯穿一生的行动当做自己生命的意义。
  16. 摆脱竞争的最好方法就是做最真实的自己。
  17. 低调又富有> 有名但贫穷。
  18. 有两种瘾很难戒掉:海洛因和每个月的工资。
​

Tim Ferriss采访Naval ​

  1. Naval赚钱是为了实现时间自由,这样他就可以把精力聚焦在对他更重要的事情上。金钱能解决所有钱的问题,却解决不了你的所有问题。
  2. Naval的偶像都是科学家,他尤其偏爱理查德·费曼,因为他是一个博学多才又好玩有趣的人。推荐阅读费曼的《别逗了,费曼先生!》《你干吗在乎别人怎么想》。
  3. Naval每天早上起床后的第一件事就是60分钟的冥想,这是对他来讲最重要的事情。Naval讲的冥想并不是形式上坐在那里一动不动,而是给自己创造一个机会,通过和自己独处来审视自己的想法和情绪。审视自己的其他方法还包括见心理咨询师、读哲学书、以及长时间漫步等等。
  4. Naval推荐的哲学家有叔本华、奥修、Kapil Gupta和Anthony de Mello。阅读这些哲学书的目的不是为了读懂,而是让自己在阅读的过程中得到启发,从而回归到自我层面进行审视。
  5. Naval认为加密货币是人类历史上最伟大的发明之一。疫情以来Naval观察到大量的人群开始转向加密货币来保护自己的资产。
  6. Naval总结所有的自我帮助类型的书籍都有一个相同的主题:玩一个长远的游戏。如果每个人都能用长远的眼光看问题,生活会简单很多。
  7. 复利的力量是伟大的,体现在财富积累、人际关系和身体健康上面。
  8. Naval认为生活就是一场游戏:找到好工作的游戏,找到好伴侣的游戏,这些都是多玩家的游戏;但生活的本质其实是单机游戏。多玩家游戏充满了竞争,一旦你赢得游戏,这个游戏其实已经结束了,但是你的单机游戏却是贯穿你一生的游戏,怎么玩好这个游戏值得思考。
  9. 「适当地审视自己的生活会让你完全改变现有的生活方式。会让你离开现有的关系,会让你反思人与人之间的边界,会让你辞掉工作,会让你改变饮食习惯,会让你更改阅读书籍的种类,会让你多花时间和自己相处。如果你并没有做出任何改变,那说明你在审视自我时不够到位」。
    请时刻谨记:未经审视的生活不值得活。
​

Akira The Don采访Naval ​

  1. Naval认为现在是艺术创作的黄金时代,任何人都可以依靠互联网的力量进行创作和传播。与此同时,人们也面临着筛选内容的困扰。
  2. 创造内容的核心在于不受时代的局限,想要内容长久流传,首先要选择常青的话题。Naval认为社交媒体上的热门话题是最浪费时间的读物,学习社会科学也没有任何价值(自然科学从现实中获得反馈,而社会科学则从社会中获得反馈,是变相的政治学)。
  3. 比特币是大势所趋的货币实验,以太坊则是势不可挡的应用实验。Naval认为拥有区块链技术支持的社会将比其他社会领先几十年。
  4. 如果你不主动选择自己的信仰,别人将为你做出选择(父母、社会和周围环境)。
  5. Naval认为当前的美国社会正在压制言论自由、行动自由和创新自由。这些是美国建国的根基,如若继续下去,美国的发展将会受到限制。
  6. 当前互联网的发展正在一步步地削弱组织和机构的力量,而赋权于个人。在媒体界,优质记者们使用Substack这样的工具自立门户,他们通过直接与读者建立关系,撰写文章建立付费社区以此谋生。大型新闻媒体公司正面临着人才流失的危机,读者也会转而支持那些能够固定产出优质内容的创造者(此时应该插播一则广告,欢迎加入我的CY CIRCLE :))
  7. 我们即将迎来区块链技术搭建的社交媒体平台。区块链有内置的支付功能,读者可以支持喜欢的创作者;创作者可以与读者建立直接关系;区块链是开源的技术,任何人都可以参与混编和决议。
  8. 追求真理是开启幸福生活的开端。在生活中,任何不忠于本我的决策和生活方式,都将导致痛苦。


Naval播客第三季《无穷的开始》

  1. 《无穷的开始》阐述了著名哲学家卡尔·波普尔关于什么是科学的理论,同时涵盖了其他哲学思想、认识论、量子力学、多元宇宙理论、和数学等学科知识。Naval说在过去的十年里,多伊奇和塔勒布的书影响了他看待世界的方式。大多数的思维模型都没什么新奇的,但是这两位作者的真知灼见却为他打开了思路,让他对「真实世界」有了更深刻的认识。
  2. Naval的人生信仰之一是「Nullius in verba」,这是英国皇家学会的会训,用拉丁文撰写,意思是「不轻信任何人的话语」,鼓励人们挑战权威,独立思考真理。
  3. 学会一些基本理论可以帮助你更好地理解世界:- 量子理论- 计算机原理- 自然选择和进化学说- 认识论,即个体的知识观。
  4. Naval认为读书不应该追求数量,而是选择100本书然后反复阅读。目前他正在研读多伊奇的两本著作《无穷的开始》《真实世界的脉络》 ,并买了其所有版本的书籍(平装、精装和有声书)。
  5. 多伊奇精通数学、物理和哲学三门学科,并对世界的发展持乐观态度。他认为人类有能力理解现实,一切不违背物理定律的事情都有可能发生,问题也都可以解决。人类是很好的解释者,我们不断地用更好的解释迭代旧有理论,然后去理解世界。宇宙是我们可以利用的学习资源。
  6. 人类通过知识改变了世界。人类可以将自然界平平无奇的东西加以利用来创造文明。物理定律可以帮助我们解释在宇宙中看到的一切,但却无法解释曼哈顿的出现。如何解释文明的诞生?我们必须要超出只解释自然现象的限制,把人类的行动和选择也纳入解释范围。如果我们真的想理解宇宙,需要考虑人类的存在。
  7. 霍金认为人类只不过是一个中等大小星球上的化学渣滓。但多伊奇不同意他的说法,他认为以我们现在的知识储备来看,人类是宇宙中唯一能够通过运用知识来改造现实的生物。知识的发展毫无边境,我们无法预测未来知识的发展前景。就知识的性质而言,知识创造出的都是未知的东西,如果你能预测,那你已经有办法将其发明出来。
  8. 信息本身没有价值,除非有接收端对其处理并加以利用。人类便可做到这一点。
  9. 好的科学解释是可检验、可证伪的。但一个理论可以被证伪,并不意味着它背后会有一个好的解释。比如说有人告诉你吃1公斤的草可以治疗感冒,这一条便可检验也可证伪,但背后却没有什么很好的解释。好的解释代表着不会被轻易推翻和改变,还需精确。古希腊人通过各式各样的神话故事对季节变换进行解释,但科学的解释是地球绕太阳公转的结果。前者可以替换神明的名称,后者则是不可被改变的事实。
  10. 人类可以利用知识不断更新迭代旧有的认知,我们处于无穷的开始阶段,宇宙没有终极的真相。11. 粒子物理学的核心是基本粒子。曾经我们认为原子是基本粒子,直到后来又发现了原子核和电子;现在我们说夸克是基本粒子,但通过继续探究我们还会发现更小的粒子。数学被认为是创造真理的学科,但也存在未解之谜,也会存在错误。
  11. 所有的知识都建立在我们现阶段的认知之上,我们怎么可以肯定公理就是对的?对所有的假设提出质疑才会促使真正的进步。爱因斯坦质疑二维空间几何学的定律从而发明了广义相对论。
  12. 基础物理学中存在着一个矛盾问题:我们现实世界的基本性质到底是什么?量子理论表明,事物都是离散的。存在最小不可分割的粒子,其他一切均从它而来;广义相对论的观点则截然相反,包括时间和空间在内的事物都是连续且可无限分割的。目前物理学家正试图将量子理论和广义相对论统一起来,以解决这一矛盾。(Eric Weinstein据说已经找到了「万物理论」,但以我的智商没看明白他说的什么.. 感兴趣可以自己研究一下https://geometricunity.org/)
  13. 芝诺悖论在现实生活中很容易被证伪。我们不是生活在一个纯数学的抽象世界里,而是活在一个受物理定律束缚的世界里。
  14. 数学家们认为他们可以跳出物理学定律的束缚,其实不然,就连他们的大脑也受限于物理定律。我们创造的电脑也受限于物理学定律。也许跳出当前物理学定律可以帮助我们证明一些其他定理,但是却毫无意义。
  15. 不确定性、随机性和概率都是主观的。当你掷骰子的时候,对于你来说结果是不确定的,但是对于宇宙来说并非如此。根据量子理论,可能发生的事情都会发生。关于双缝实验目前最好的解释是存在多元宇宙。
  16. 我们谈论不可观测的东西总会引起异议,但是没有人见过活着的恐龙,关于恐龙的一切都是根据化石推导得来,是背后的故事让人们相信恐龙的存在。没有人真的看到了太阳的核心,但我们却可以推导出恒星核聚变的情况。大多数科学实验的结果都是通过仪器探测和推导得来的结果,并非我们亲眼所见。
  17. 科学史见证着人类知识系统的迭代和对现实的理解:地心说---日心说---太阳系只是数十亿恒星中的一颗---银河系是数千亿个星系中的一个---多元宇宙学说。
  18. 人类痴迷于用归纳法来解释周遭的世界,用过去的经验去预测未来。某种现象反复发生,不代表在未来还会继续出现。如果一个生物学家在欧洲只观察到白天鹅,他可能会预测所有的天鹅都是白色的,但他错了,西澳大利亚有一群和欧洲白天鹅同属的黑天鹅。黑天鹅证明了归纳法的漏洞。另一个例子是观测日出,如果你每天看到太阳升起,是否会预测明天太阳照常升起?如果你搬到南极洲,你将有几个月看不到日出。还有一个例子是每天都被喂食的火鸡,也许它会觉得主人将永远这么做下去,直到感恩节来临。
  19. 科学不是对过去发生事件进行汇总,并假定它们会在未来再次发生。科学重在得出合理的解释。
  20. 科学的真谛在于不断试错,提出大胆的假说,然后通过实验去测试。好的科学解释是可检验的、可证实的、并难以改变。爱因斯坦说他并不比大多数人聪明,是好奇心和想象力一路引导着他,他需要运用这两点来解释他所观察到的东西。
  21. 科学的目的是解释我们的世界,即使无法肯定的预测未来会发生什么。科学永远没有尽头,我们应该始终对新的想法和解释持开放态度。**在我们无限的无知中,人人平等。**即使那些自称是某一领域专家的人,也对超出其领域的事情一无所知。你永远不知道下一个伟大的想法会从哪里诞生,学生甚至可以挑战专家的权威。
  22. 我们依靠归纳法预测未来会创造出人工通用智能(AGI),并推断随着人工智能的发展,它们很快可以自行思考。类似的推断还有人类正在破坏地球,而不断增长的人口将导致人类的灭亡。但是人类的发展不是线性的,用线性的方式预测未来并没有意义。我们被迫成为悲观主义者,因为毁灭的风险实在是太大了。从进化角度来看,悲观主义者的基因更容易被传下来,比如说你听到身旁有动静,乐观的认为不过是风吹草动,如果你是对的,并没有什么损失,但如果你错了(老虎出没),你就完了。
  23. 知识分子往往会因为持有悲观观点而得到奖励。解释正在发生的问题以及它们的危害性似乎才是学术上的严肃表现。但是促进人类社会进步的企业家则因为乐观地认为有解决措施而得到奖励。到目前为止,大多数对于灾难的悲观预测都是错误的。悲观主义者不承认我们可以通过科技和创新解决问题。
  24. 成为理性的乐观主义者才是人类的出路。我们之所以面临重重问题,是因为知识面还不够广阔。只有通过启发创造力,才能提出更好的解释或想出更好的方法来改善人类的生活。
​

其他

- Naval认为加密货币是人类历史上最伟大的发明之一。疫情以来Naval观察到大量的人群开始转向加密货币来保护自己的资产。

- Naval总结所有的自我帮助类型的书籍都有一个相同的主题就是:玩一个长远的游戏。如果每个人都能用长远的眼光看问题,生活会简单很多。复利的力量是伟大的,体现在财富积累、人际关系和身体健康上面。

- Naval认为生活就是一场游戏:找到好工作的游戏,找到好伴侣的游戏,这些都是多玩家的游戏;但生活的本质其实是单机游戏。多玩家游戏充满了竞争,一旦你赢得游戏,这个游戏其实已经结束了,但是你的单机游戏却是贯穿你一生的游戏,怎么玩好这个游戏值得思考。

- Naval的偶像都是科学家,他尤其偏爱理查德·费曼,因为他是一个博学多才又好玩有趣的人。推荐阅读费曼的《别逗了,费曼先生!》《你在意其他人想什么》。

- Naval每天早上起床后的第一件事就是60分钟的冥想,他说这是对他来讲最重要的事情。Naval讲的冥想并不是形式上坐在那里一动不动,而是给自己创造一个机会,通过和自己独处来审视自己的想法和情绪。审视自己的其他方法还包括见心理咨询师、读哲学书、以及长时间漫步等。

- 健康的体魄,平静的心灵,满满的幸福感,这些东西都是买不来的,而是靠自己争取来的。

- 最不切实际的幻想就是,世界上存在一种能让你永远幸福快乐的东西。

- 我们在尘世的时光不过弹指一挥间,所以我们根本不值一提,我们做的一切事物都无法长久留存,所以你会消亡,你所做的一切都会了无痕迹,你的思想也不复存在,你的孩子也会消亡,整个地球都会灭亡,太阳也会,所有的一切都会。

- 我不做计划,我倾向于活在当下,解放自我,享受当下的快乐。

- 欲望就是你和自己签订的一份不快乐的合约,合约截止日期就是你满足欲望的时刻。

- 生活中所有重要的事物都受益于复利:金钱,关系和习惯。

- 人类是「习惯机器」,学会如何打破旧有的坏习惯,培养好习惯是人类最应该学习的技能。

- 从根本上考虑问题,学会利用「第一原则」来解释问题,忘掉陈旧的社会准则,控制自己的情绪。

- 现实是中性的,一切取决于我们如何定义自己的现实。天堂和地狱都在自己的一念之间。

- 想要避免侮辱带来的伤害,停止夸大表扬的力量。

- 生命是一场单机游戏,你需要找到自己的玩法,了解自己的欲望和想要实现的目标,建立自己的人生信仰和看待事物的方法。

- 互联网上没人在乎屏幕后面的是猫是狗,人们在乎的是你输出的内容。

- 好点子+执行力是Naval和其他白手起家的创业者们成功的秘诀,那些总是抱怨自己没有资本和人脉的「假创业者」都在找借口。

- 世上没有统一的人生意义,如果有的话,那我们全会成为实现这个意义的奴隶。既然人生意义没有标准答案,那就为自己创造一个意义,书写自己的人生故事。

- 你不能拥有全部的东西,但你会得到你最想要的东西。看清自己的欲望,以及摸清欲望的来源。知生命之意者,便可承受生命之重。

- 朝九晚五是现代的奴役生活,而工资就是让人们上瘾的毒药。

- 人最会欺骗的就是自己。时刻审视自己的生命,找寻自己的「真相」。

- 大多数的物理假说一开始看上去都是疯言疯语,比如说量子力学和多重宇宙,但是后来逐步地得到科学证实,这样的例子以后会有更多。

- 当今社会不缺信息和道理,缺的是知行合一。不把理论融合在实践当中,那不算属于你的知识和智慧。

- 好的社会环境接受人们犯错并提供及时反馈。

- 科学就是用我们的已知去解释未知,世间没有永恒的真相,只有暂未被证伪的真相。

- 坐下来想想五年前的生活,想想现在的你会给当时的你哪些建议?然后再想想十年前的生活,想想现在的你会给当时的自己哪些建议?你是你自己最好的治疗师,你会发现无论生活再怎么改变,你的一些行为模式都会重复,一些未解决的问题总会涌现,是时候从源头出发去解决本质问题了。

- 生命不是零和游戏,宇宙为我们提供了无限的资源,我们需要做的是不断创新学会使用这些资源。

- 训练自己成为试错-纠错的机器,这是通往「真相」唯一的道路。

- Naval认为现在是艺术创作的黄金时代,任何人都可以依靠互联网的力量进行创作和传播。与此同时,人们也面临着筛选内容的困扰。

- 创造内容的核心在于不受时代的局限,想要内容长久流传,首先要选择常青的话题。Naval认为社交媒体上的热门话题是最浪费时间的读物,学习社会科学也没有任何价值(自然科学从现实中获得反馈,而社会科学则从社会中获得反馈,是变相的政治学)。

- 比特币是大势所趋的货币实验,以太坊则是势不可挡的应用实验。Naval认为拥有区块链技术支持的社会将比其他社会领先几十年。

- 如果你不主动选择自己的信仰,别人将为你做出选择(父母、社会和周围环境)。

- 当前互联网的发展正在一步步地削弱组织和机构的力量,而赋权于个人。在媒体界,优质记者们使用Substack这样的工具自立门户,他们通过直接与读者建立关系,撰写文章建立付费社区以此谋生。大型新闻媒体公司正面临着人才流失的危机,读者也会转而支持那些能够固定产出优质内容的创造者。

- 我们即将迎来区块链技术搭建的社交媒体平台。区块链有内置的支付功能,读者可以支持喜欢的创作者;创作者也可以与读者建立直接关系;区块链是开源的技术,任何人都可以参与混编和决议。

- 追求真理是开启幸福生活的开端。在生活中,任何不忠于本我的决策和生活方式,都将导致痛苦。
​​

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13/5/2022

威廉·格林采访投资人阿诺德·范登堡播客总结

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Picture
知名财经记者威廉·格林(William Green)在过去25年的职业生涯中采访了数百位世界顶级的投资人,并将他的独家专访和所学所得集结成书《Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the World's Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life》,向我们展示了这些大师级别人士的投资智慧和人生感悟。本周,威廉在他的播客中表示,「如果我不得不从过去四分之一个世纪我所采访的所有杰出的投资者中只选择一个榜样,那就是阿诺德·范登堡(Arnold Van Den Berg)」。

阿诺德·范登堡是世纪管理金融顾问公司(Century Management)的首席执行官和联合首席投资官。他出生于荷兰阿姆斯特丹,和安妮·弗兰克(《安妮日记》的作者) 住在同一条街。当纳粹德国入侵荷兰并开始追捕犹太人时,阿诺德的父母分别被抓到集中营,而他则躲在孤儿院里长大成人。阿诺德勉强读完高中后,在没有任何大学教育或正式培训的情况下自学投资,并克服重重逆境,取得了卓越的投资成就。这期播客并没有聚焦在阿诺德的投资理念上,反而深入地讨论了他如何通过控制自己的思想来改变人生,实现了超越物质所获的充盈生活,以及我们可以从他身上学到什么。


简单总结一下这期令我受益匪浅的播客:

1. 阿诺德之所以可以逃脱被送往集中营的命运,归功于一位17岁女孩的帮助。这位女孩听从她的牧师爸爸的指示,冒着被纳粹发现的生命危险将阿诺德送上逃离的火车。在往后的日子里,阿诺德总是对父女俩的做法百思不解,到底是什么样的力量可以让他人对陌生人伸出援手,甚至牺牲自己的生命?25年后,阿诺德在咨询了一位心理医生后找到了答案。医生说,「如果你的原则比你的生命更重要,你就会牺牲生命。如果你的生命比你的原则更重要,你就会牺牲原则」。正是这对父女虔诚的信仰,让他们坚信无论在何种情况下都要帮助别人。


2. 阿诺德得知信仰的力量后,也因此深深地参与到宗教研究中,他与拉比交谈,与牧师交谈,研究圣经的预言,研究佛学等。但他却发现各种宗教和信仰之间充满着种种的矛盾,到底谁对谁错?有一天阿诺德的脑海中突然闪过一些东西,他突然意识到纠结对错其实是在错误的轨道上,世间万物复杂至极,并没有简单的非黑即白的评判标准。如果把聚焦点放在追寻真理上面,才能更好地认清现实。追寻真理也成了阿诺德后来的人生守则和投资哲学,帮助他取得一系列的成功。


3. 阿诺德的父母是集中营的幸存者,他的母亲也许是受到了精神刺激,总是不停地向他们兄弟四人灌输着,「结婚是可以的,但千万不要有孩子」。四个男孩中没有一个人有自己的亲生孩子。但是阿诺德却不满足于现状,总想有一个亲生的孩子,于是花费了五六年的时间备孕尝试一切方法,但总没有结果。在万般无奈之际,阿诺德尝试了催眠疗法,也是在那时意识到他母亲的话语已经深深地印刻在他的潜意识中,导致身体也会配合这个「千万不要有孩子」的想法。经过心理治疗后,阿诺德终于摆脱了这个枷锁,有了自己的女儿。我们往往意识不到在年轻时接受的教育和他人的话语是如何影响我们的思想,甚至成为我们实现目标的绊脚石。你可能听说过很多这样的案例,那些不能生孩子的人一旦收养了孩子,不久就会怀上自己的孩子,很明显这是心理上的恐惧担忧和一种匮乏感阻碍了自己拥有想要的一切,看看心灵是多么的强大吧,甚至可以阻止你有一个孩子。


4. 阿诺德和妻子有一次在去看望父母的路上遇到一间花草店,他想着买点东西给父母,于是他开始闻闻这闻闻那,挑选心仪的植物。就在他闻到一棵植物的时候,泪水突然从他眼中喷涌而下,阿诺德完全不知道发生了什么情况,这时他的背部也开始疼了起来。阿诺德挣扎地走上车,来到父母家,他知道一定是心理上出了什么问题,才会出现这种泪流满面且身体疼痛的状况。他借用了父母的卧室开始回想,这时候他意识到那株植物的味道就是他小时候在孤儿院经常吃的东西的味道。当时孤儿院在战乱下并没有能力为孩子们提供伙食,所以大家经常会去野外采摘植物来吃,而这植物就是阿诺德经常会吃的东西。意识到这点后,阿诺德做了一个放松的冥想训练,10分钟后他不再哭泣,背部的疼痛也得到了缓解。我们在儿时的诸多遭遇都会在潜意识中给我们留下深刻的印记,且大多会透过身体症状向我们揭露一些被主动或者被动掩盖的事实,这时候需要我们有能力去面对愉快或者悲痛的事实,将自我从回忆中解放出来。


5. 阿诺德的爸爸在被抓去集中营后,因为身体强壮可以干活儿,所以并没有立即被处以死刑,而是被拉去做苦工。他爸爸的工作环境极其恶劣,经常在没有饭吃的情况下,在零度以下的天气中扛着重物行军24小时不停歇,当时的大雪没过了膝盖,很多人都因为严寒和营养不良死在了行军的道路上。阿诺德的爸爸告诉阿诺德,当时他从不会想自己有多饿有多冷,而是把全部注意力集中在双腿上,因为他知道只要一直走下去就会有活着的希望。当一个人如此专注时,反而产生了巨大的能量。如果他当时想到自己要在这种情况下走24小时,那根本没有活命的可能性,自己的理性头脑肯定会否定这疯狂的举动。但是一旦将注意力聚焦在腿上,只想着眼前走动的事情,心无旁骛,自然而然就坚持了下来。


6. 阿诺德从小被迫与父母分离,在少不更事的时候他一直觉得是父母主动抛弃了他,从而导致了他拥有极低的自尊心,觉得自己一无是处。同时,在成长过程中因为营养不良,也影响了他的身体和大脑发育,不仅比同龄人矮小很多,在学校的学习成绩也不尽人意。于是他选择了爬绳这个项目强身健体,全队五个人,前四个人攀爬25英尺绳子的成绩都在6秒左右,而阿诺德则是8.6秒,他的队友都羞于与他为伍。但是阿诺德却没有放弃,他从教练口中得知其他学校有个人因为采用不同的技巧,能将时间控制在4.6秒内,于是阿诺德便跑去观察,每天半夜对着镜子模仿练习,这样过了大半年,阿诺德竟然靠着这项新技巧拿到了冠军。阿诺德的逆袭秘方也许和刻苦练习有关,但是更重要的是他首先在心理上视觉化了自己拿冠军的场景。阿诺德后来回忆道,当他第一次看到那个人靠着新技巧爬出4.6秒的成绩时,他毫无理由地充满着兴奋激动之情,并且被深深地吸引住了,同时脑海中浮现出自己夺冠的场景。尽管当时没人相信阿诺德这个吊车尾的可以取得冠军,但是他却有着这样的信念。我们生活中唯一最重要的事情就是你的信念。你的信念支配着你的感觉,你的感觉创造了你的态度,你的态度构造了你的现实。阿诺德的心理医生后来告诉他,他培养信念的方法被广泛地用于运动心理学之中,伟大的运动员首先会想象自己夺冠或者破纪录的场景,然后全神贯注于实现目标的行动上,并且义无反顾的相信这个愿景,这就是他们成功的秘诀。


7. 阿诺德的投资知识完全来自自学,他从本·格雷厄姆(Benjamin Graham)以及他的妈妈那里学到的购买便宜货和批量购买的知识。他意识到挑选股票的关键是有纪律性地购买便宜货,尤其是在1979年美股大跌之时的抄底行为,让阿诺德一举致富。而现在的他,正看好大家都瞧不起的石油和矿产能源股票,而不去触碰大热的科技股。


8. 阿诺德承认自己花了比别人多得多的时间来建立世纪管理金融顾问公司。无论遇到何种困难,阿诺德始终怀抱着公司一定会成功的信念,而他的潜意识也一直在引导着他找到合适的人,进入合适的环境。与爱因斯坦齐名的天体物理学家阿瑟·爱丁顿爵士(Sir Arthur Eddington)曾经说过,「我相信头脑有能力影响原子组,甚至可以用原子行为的几率进行调节。世界的进程也不是由物理法则决定的,而可能被人类的意志所改变」。这就意味着你的想法可以影响周围的人和环境,乃至整个世界和宇宙。现在很多量子物理学家正在验证我们的潜意识能够做到的事情,这不是秘密。一旦你理解了这一点,便可以在潜意识的指导下采取行动,你会被引向正确的环境,从而创造成功。每个人都是自己命运的设计师,我们生活中的每一个经历或状况,贫穷或富有,成功或失败,健康或疾病,都是由头脑中的目标设定和所采取的行动所影响的结果。我们需要使用与生俱来的创造性的力量做出心理暗示或规划一张蓝图,在潜意识上刻上我们想要实现的梦想,从而在头脑中打造出实现目标的条件。


9. 阿诺德在阅读《巴伦周刊 Barron's》时被一张图片所吸引,照片中的投资人穿着三件套的西装,自信满满地站在办公桌前,阿诺德当即就在脑海中勾画出一幅一模一样的图像,而主角则是自己。没想到过了不久,一份杂志便邀请阿诺德撰写文章,当他们看完阿诺德写的文章后,觉得他个人的故事也很有意思,便提出了给阿诺德做专访的请求,还请来专业的摄影师为阿诺德拍照,就这样,阿诺德成了封面人物,而他的封面照片和他当时幻想的一模一样,甚至连脸上的阴影都丝毫不差。


10. 研究过潜意识的人们都知道,潜意识的语言和意识的语言完全不同,我们需要通过图像、气味和感觉与潜意识交流沟通。很多广告正是通过重复的视觉刺激,将信息植入到我们的潜意识中,尽管我们觉得这类广告愚蠢又无趣,但是潜意识却将它们记住,在潜移默化中影响我们的购买行为。很多在减肥的人,稍微吃一点不健康的东西就陷入深深地自责,觉得减肥不成功就是因为自己没有坚持控制饮食,其实是我们的自责影响了这个过程,潜意识得到的信号是我们理应得到惩罚。我们需要做的是改变负面的想法,带着快乐的心情去享受食物。为什么有些人看着每天在胡吃海喝,却依然保持着美好的身材,因为他们给潜意识的信号是这些食物可以为我带来快乐,为我带来美好的身材,而不是担心,哎呀我又要胖了。我们可以重新对自己的潜意识进行编程,尤其是重新定义童年中所接受的负面话语。


11. 每当有一个消极的想法时,阿诺德从来不会让它生根。他首先用一个积极的想法来取代它,告诉自己,「我是快乐的、健康的、富有的、有智慧的」。每当做一件事情时,首先设立一个目标,然后在脑海中想象目标实现后的画面,这个目标一定要及其具体,这样你才可以全神贯注于此。想象你有一个放大镜,把它对着太阳就能将纸燃烧,人的思想也同样如此。设定目标,将其可视化,专注于此,付诸行动,相信实现的可能。


12. 当你饿了渴了的时候,你的本能会告诉你需要吃饭喝水了。潜意识也是如此,一旦你的潜意识知道了你的目标,便会本能的做出行动,你无须逼着自己去工作,反而会因为做出相关的行动而感到兴奋,因为你会意识到,这不是无用的工作,而是实现目标的必经之路。一位伟大的舞蹈老师曾经说过,「我不收那些想要跳舞的人,我只收那些不得不跳舞的人」。当你意识到自己别无选择只能跳舞的时候,你就会全力以赴,拥有惊人的能量和驱动力。


13. 外界的东西并不重要,因为它都是你意识状态的反映。重要的是你的内心是什么,因为所有的一切都会相应地被反射在外。


14. 安德鲁·卡内基(Andrew Carnegie)曾说过,「我不为这个世界上的穷小子感到难过,而对富家子弟感到遗憾,因为他们被剥夺了一种成就事业的动力」。痛苦创造了洞察力。阿诺德想告诉所有正在受苦的听众,想想是什么导致了你的痛苦,然后想想你能做什么,在你的脑海中勾画出可以减轻痛苦的画面,并开始努力实现它。当你朝着目标努力时,就会创造出内在的快乐。亚伯拉罕·林肯(Abraham Lincoln)有一句话,「当我做好事时,我感觉很好;当我做坏事时,我感觉很糟糕。这就是我的信仰」。相信自己的感觉,以正确的方式生活,你就会感觉更好。而当你感觉更好时,你会体验到快乐而不是痛苦。


推荐阅读
  • 《内在的精灵The Genie Within》哈利·卡本特(Harry Carpenter)
  • 《思考与致富 Think and Grow Rich》拿破仑.希尔(Napoleon Hill)
  • 《从贫穷到权力The Path to Prosperity》詹姆斯-艾伦(James Allen)

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7/5/2022

浅谈书写人生、创业人剧集推荐和一周书摘

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Photo credit: Lucas Calloch
过去几周见过我的朋友们都表示「你气色好太多了」「整个人都在发光」「感觉又年轻了不少」,除了在英格兰的乡村待了一个月静养和参加了十天的内观冥想以外,大量的写作时间也让我有机会把脑海中有意识或者无意识困扰我的事情显现在纸面上,从而可以更清晰地感知我的想法,解放自己的焦虑和不安,对自我有更深刻的认知。

除非从繁忙的生活中抽出时间反思自我,不然你永远不知道什么才能让自己达到真正满足的状态。仅仅实现了当下的冲动和渴望,只会为人类带来一时的快乐,并不能为人们带来长远的幸福生活。独处和记日记便是一种投资回报比很高的反思生活的方法。除此之外,心理学家乔丹·彼得森(Jordan Peterson)发明创造的「书写人生Self-Authoring」项目也是一个很不错的通过写作了解自我的工具。

过去几个月我便花费了大量的时间在该网站上书写我的过去、现在和未来(目前已完成1/3)。书写过去可以让你知道自己究竟是谁;书写现在可以帮助你评估优缺点;书写未来则让你思考自己真正想要的是什么。

我们的大脑总是本能地忙碌于确定所处环境的危险程度。当不好的事情发生时,我们的头脑和身体自然而然地视当前环境是危险的,并准备采取紧急行动。这个准备的过程将会消耗我们的脑力和体力。一旦发生了不合我们心意的事情,我们肯定会想如何避免未来发生同样的事情,这时我们的心灵就失去了往日的平静。

当我们通过回忆那些悲伤或者痛苦的不好的事情时,往往会感到害怕、羞愧,内疚、愤怒,或受伤,如果这些引起我们身体反应的记忆已经超过一年半了,那就代表着我们还没有从过去的事情中解放出来,我们的心灵依然背负着过去的重担。

当过去未解决的问题使我们身心产生负面反应时,就好像我们一直生活在危险的环境当中,这时大脑和身体就会时刻处于警惕状态,从而消耗大量的能量。长期往复,压力荷尔蒙将损害我们的神经和免疫系统,对健康造成不良的影响。

那么,这和写作有什么关系呢?写作是一种复杂的思考形式,通过思考我们可以更好地感知问题并作出相应的行动。当我们把困扰自己的事情从脑海中释放到纸面上,挖掘和罗列一条条线索,串联事物的相关性,便可以清晰地识别事情发生的原因。就像做白日梦那样,让脑海中产生的思想和图画带着你遨游,而不去试图控制,尤其是当负面的情绪产生时,不要害怕,不要逃避,只需将它们写在纸上。

这个过程往往会占据大量的时间,但却是可以将自我与尘封的记忆和情绪进行连接的必要过程。在使用Self-Authroing的写作过程中,我们会感到很困难,但却不应该感到分心或者无聊。因为这项工作在情感上特别有挑战性,毕竟是一种迫使我们去面对问题的过程,如果在写作的过程中感到一种特别想马上完成或者心烦意乱的感觉,那么就停下来,休息休息,找其他合适的时间来完成这个任务。

想像一下,现在我们花费几周或者几个月的时间,处理过去缠绕我们几年几十年的问题,这个投入回报比还是很高效的。不仅如此,在之后的人生中,我们因为摆脱了过去幽灵的缠绕,就会减轻身心压力水平,重拾冷静的头脑,对自己也会有更清晰的认知。书写现在和未来,也会让我们对当前的事态和自我有更深刻的洞见,从而可以在正确的道路上持续前行。

希望更多的小伙伴们加入到Self-Authoring或者其他相关的写作项目上,早日与自己和解,重拾一颗平静的内心。

附赠关于CAMELLIA的一切。

剧集推荐

推荐两部与创业有关的剧集
《超蓬勃:优步之战 Super Pumped》
这是一部讲述优步(Uber)创始人特拉维斯·卡兰尼克(Travis Kalanick)的故事。主创布赖恩·科普曼(Brian Koppelman)是我很喜欢的一名创作者,他的《亿万Billions》和播客节目《The Moment》都是我曾经推荐过的佳作。

整部剧的节奏又快又燃,让我联想到同样是话唠+飞速的电影《社交网络The Social Network 》和电视剧《新闻编辑室The Newsroom》。

主创甚至请来了我超爱的导演昆汀·塔伦提诺做旁白,以及大女神乌玛·瑟曼扮演赫芬顿邮报的创始人阿里安娜·赫芬顿(Arianna Huffington),女神的口音和神态学得惟妙惟肖,实在是本剧的一大加分点。

据说,第二季将聚焦脸书创始人马克·扎克伯格的故事,拭目以待!

《初创玩家WeCrashed》
首先,这是一部爱情故事。人生当中能遇到不顾旁人眼光,一起特立独行并肩作战的伴侣是何等的幸事,纵然在创业的旅途中困难重重,甚至跌到谷底,能有一个人目光深切的看着你,信任你,义无反顾的支持你,这样的生活也值了!

和优步创始人一样,WeWork的创始人亚当·诺伊曼(Adam Neumann)也被董事会炒了鱿鱼,很难想象当创始人被迫离开自己一手打造的公司时的心情,应该就像亲生孩子被夺走那样痛心疾首吧。

莱托少爷和安妮·海瑟薇把诺依曼夫妇的魅力无边又雅痞邪典的气质演绎的淋漓尽致,做大事情的人往往有着常人无法理解的决心和自信心,在灵性发展逐渐成为主流叙事的今天,也许我们都应该时刻提醒自己和身旁的人,We are a supernova.

读书笔记

最后,分享最近阅读的部分图书的精彩段落。

《存在主义咖啡馆》

1. 有时候,受过最好教育的人,却往往最倾向于不拿纳粹当回事儿,认为他们太荒唐可笑,不可能成什么气候。卡尔·雅斯贝尔斯后来回想起来,认为他自己就是犯此错误的人之一,而在柏林的法国学生中间,波伏娃也观察到了类似的不屑情绪。无论如何,大多数不赞同希特勒意识形态的人,很快就学会了不表达自己的观点。如果一支纳粹的游行队伍从街上经过,他们要么溜之大吉,要么一边像其他人那样不得已地敬礼,一边自我安慰说,我不信仰纳粹,所以这个动作不会有任何意义。心理学家布鲁诺·贝特尔海姆(Bruno Bettelheim)后来曾写道,这一时期,几乎没有人会为举起胳膊这种小事而冒生命危险——但人们那种抵抗的能力,正是这样被一点点侵蚀掉的,最终,人们的责任心与正直感也会随之消失。哈夫纳认为,现代性本身要承担部分责任:人们已经成为习惯和大众传媒的奴役,忘记了停下来思考,或者中断各自的日常事务,腾出点足够的时间来质问一下到底发生了什么。 


2. 诗人和艺术家“听任事物存在”,但他们也让事物出来,并显示自身。他们协助事物慢慢进入“无蔽”状态(Unverborgenheit),这是海德格尔对希腊词altheia的翻译,这个词通常被译为“真理”。不过,这是一种更深层次的真理,而不仅仅是表述与现实之间的一致,比如我们说“猫在垫子上”,然后指着一块上面有只猫的垫子。早在我们能这么做之前,猫和垫子都必须要“从遮蔽中出来”。它们必须不再隐藏自身。


3. 让事物不再隐藏自身,是人做的事:这是我们独特的贡献。我们是一片“林中空地”(clearing),是疏朗处(Lichtung),是一块敞开、亮堂的林中空地,存在者在这儿可以像树林里的小鹿一样,腼腆地站出来。或者,你也许应该把这想象成存在者就像一只园丁鸟在灌木丛中清整出来的场地上那样,来到林中空地上跳舞。虽然把林中空地等同于人类意识有些过于简单化,但差不多是这个意思。我们通过意识到它们,来帮助事物出现在亮光之下,而且我们是以诗意的方式意识到了它们,也就是说,我们是带着尊重去关注它们,允许它们展现自己本来的面貌,而不是屈从于我们的意志。

《知觉之门》

1. 当然,感觉到“我”不同于在“那边”的胳膊和腿,也并不同于这整体的、客观的躯干、脖子,甚至头脑,这实在怪异;但是人很快会适应这种感觉。无论如何,身体似乎能完美地照顾好它自己。的确,实际生活中,身体总是自己照顾自己的。清醒的“自我”所能做的一切,不过是构思想法,然后由某些力量来执行,而“自我”对这些力量只有在极少数情况下才能予以控制,并且对其不能完全了解。当“自我”要做更多的事情——比如过度努力,或产生焦虑,或对未来忧心忡忡——那么,就会降低那些力量的效果,甚至会导致身体虚弱,就此病倒。目前在我这种状态下,意识并不等同于“自我”,可以说,意识自行其是,这意味着控制身体的生理性智力同样也自行其是。于是很幸运的是,在清醒时刻总想操纵我们人生的那个神经过敏的干扰势力——“自我”,此刻远离了我。  


2. 基型世界的意象是象征性的。但是,由于身为个体的我们并不创造出这种意象,而是发现它们“就在那儿”,在集体潜意识之中,所以,它们至少显示出既定的现实的一些特性,并且是有色彩的。内心的两极中那些非象征性的“居民”本身就存在着,并且像外在世界的既定事实,是有色彩的。事实上,它们比外在的数据更加具有强烈的色彩。之所以如此,至少可以用以下的事实部分加以说明:我们用以进行思考的字语性观念,通常会遮蔽我们对于外在世界的知觉。我们不断努力要把事物转变成符号,以适合我们自己所发明的那些比较可理解的抽象观念。但是,在这样做时,我们剥夺了事物的很多本然。


3. 个别艺术家如此,整个艺术学派也可能如此。有很多事物,人们经历了,却不想表达出来;或者,他们可能努力要去表达自己所经历过的事物,却只以多种艺术中的一种来表达。有时,他们则会以另一些方式来表达,而这些方式与原来的经验并没有立即可辨识的相似关系。就最后这种情况而言,A.K.库马拉斯瓦米 (23)博士在谈到远东的神秘艺术时,说了一些有趣的事。这儿所谓的远东的神秘艺术是指:在这种艺术中,“明指与暗指无法分开”,“一件东西的‘本然’与它的‘所指’之间没有区别”。这种神秘艺术的最重要例子是禅宗风景画——在中国的宋代兴起,并于四个世纪之后在日本再度兴起。印度与近东都没有神秘风景画,但是它们有对等的东西——“印度的毗湿奴绘画、诗与音乐,其中的主题是性爱;波斯的苏菲诗歌与音乐,赞美酒醉的状态”。

《西藏生死书》

1. 佛陀安详而庄严的禅坐着,天空就在他的四周上方,好像在告诉我们:坐禅时,你的心要像天空一般开放,却稳固在大地。天空就是我们绝对的本性,没有藩篱,无边无际;大地则是我们相对的现实,我们的相对心和凡夫心。我们坐禅时的姿势,象征我们正在连接绝对与相对、天空与大地、天堂与人间,就像鸟的双翼,融合了我们如天空般的无死心性,和虚幻有限的凡夫心地。 


2. 因此,无论生起怎样的思想和情绪,就让它们生起和消退,像大海的波浪一般。不管你发现你在想些什么,就让那个思想生起和消退,不要加以限制。不要紧抓它,喂养它,或纵容它;不要执着,不要让它具体化。不要随着思想跑,也不要迎请它们;要像大海看着自己的波浪,或像天空俯视飘过的云彩一般。很快你会发现,思想就像风,来了又去。秘诀是不要去「想」思想,而是要让它们流过心,不在心中留下任何痕迹。在凡夫心中,我们看到思想之流连续不断;但事实却非如此。你自己将会发现,每两个思想之间都有间隙。当过去的思想过去了,而未来的思想尚未生起时,你将发现当中有间隙,本觉或「心性」就在其中显露出来。因此,禅修就是要让思想缓慢下来,让间隙越来越明显。 


3. 负面的经验往往最容易误导人,因为我们总是把它们当作坏的象征。事实上,在我们修行中的负面经验,却是伪装的福报。试着不要去厌恶,反过来却要了解它们的真实面目,它们只是经验而已,如梦幻泡影。体悟经验的真实本质,可以让你免除经验本身造成的伤害或危险,这样一来,即使是负面的经验,也可以变成大福报和成就的来源。自古以来,就有无数的大师,在负面的经验上用功,将它们转化为觉悟的催化剂。 


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30/4/2022

凯文·凯利的103条生活感悟

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Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash
凯文·凯利(Kevin Kelly)本月迎来了70大寿!在每年生日之时,他会撰文分享诸多生活经验和感悟。我在前两年翻译过他的两篇文章:
- 凯文·凯利的99条生活感悟
- 网络文化教父KK的68条生活感悟
今年继续延续传统,分享一下这位给我带来诸多思考的线上导师的最新文章,谢谢KK,生日快乐!
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- 大约99%的情况下,正确的时间就是现在。


- 除你自己之外,没有人对你的财产印象深刻。


- 永远不要为你不想成为的人工作。


- 培养12个爱你的人,这比拥有1200万喜欢你的人更有价值。


- 不要老是犯同样的错误;要尝试犯新的错误。


- 如果你停下步伐听音乐人或看街头艺人表演超过一分钟,你就欠他们一美元。


-  「但是」之前的任何话都没什么意义。


- 当你原谅别人时,他们可能不会注意到,但你自己会被治愈。宽恕不是我们为别人做的事情,而是给自己的礼物。


- 礼节无需花钱。比如说用完马桶后把马桶盖放下;让电梯里的人先出来你再进去;把购物车放回指定区域;归还所借之物时,维护或者提供一个更好的状态(装满或者清洁)。


- 每当双方各执己见时,找到一个第三方的论点。


- 提升效率被高估了,玩物丧志被低估了。定期给自己安排休息日、假期和漫无目的的闲逛时间。顶尖的表现力需要相匹配的休息时间,最好的工作之道是懂得劳逸结合。


- 作为领导,你真正的工作是培养更多的领导者,而不是积累更多的追随者。


- 私下里批评,公开地赞美。


- 生活的教诲会按照必要的顺序呈现给你。掌握课程所需的一切都在心中。一旦你真正学会了一课,就会进阶到下一门课。如果你还活着,就意味着你仍然有东西要学。


- 从老师那里得到一切是学生的责任,从学生那里得到一切也是老师的责任。


- 如果在一场游戏中获胜变得过于重要,那就改变规则吧,让游戏变得更有趣。改变规则可以成为新的游戏。


- 向资助人要钱,他们会给你建议;但向他们索取建议,他们会给你钱。


- 不要将以更好的方式尽快完成任务作为目标,而是致力于找到更好的任务,这样你可以一直乐此不疲的做下去。


- 尽快支付供应商、工人、承包商的工资。他们下次会不遗余力地优先与你合作。


- 我们告诉自己的最大谎言是 「我不需要写下来,因为我会记住的」。


- 评估有意识地成长的一项指标是看你愿意进行多少次不舒服的谈话。


- 说话时要自信,就好像你是对的;倾听时要细心,就好像你是错的。


- 伸展臂长=身高。


- 连贯性(锻炼、陪伴、工作)比数量更重要。没有什么比每天坚持做同样的小事更重要,这比偶尔做大事重要得多。


- 做艺术不是自私的,而是为他人服务。如果荒废艺术才能,就是在欺骗大众。


- 永远不要问一个女人是否怀孕了。如果她怀孕了,就让她亲自告诉你。


- 你需要三种能力:不放弃某件事情直到它成功的能力;放弃不起作用事情的能力;以及信任其他人来帮助你区分这两种情况的能力。


- 公开演讲时,要经常停顿。换新说法之前要停顿,说了认为重要的事情之后要停顿,把停顿作为一种缓和的手段,让听众有时间笑话细节。


- 没有所谓的准时之说。你要么迟到,要么早到,这是你的选择。


- 问问你钦佩的人:他们走运的时机都是发生在远离主干道的弯路之上。生活对任何人来说都不是一条直线,绕道走走弯路没什么不好。


- 在互联网上获得正确答案的最好方法是发布一个明显错误的答案,并等待有人来纠正你。


- 鼓励好的行为而不是惩罚坏的行为,会得到10倍的效果,特别是针对儿童和动物时。


- 写邮件时,花费与写内容同等的时间想一个好题目十分重要,因为题目往往是人们阅读的唯一内容。


- 不要等待暴风雨过去,而在雨中起舞。


- 当检查求职者的推荐信时,前雇主可能不愿意或被禁止说任何负面的话语。所以给前雇主发送一条信息,"如果你强烈推荐这位求职者,请给我回信。" 如果他们不回复,就当作是对求职者的否定。


- 使用密码管理器。


- 接受教育的一大半目的是学习你可以忽视的东西。


- 拥有一个看似不可能实现的雄伟目标的好处是为自己设定了非常高的标准,所以即使是失败,也可能会达到普通人眼中的成功。


- 了解自己的一个好方法是认真反思你在别人身上发现的一切令人恼火的特质。


- 住酒店时,让所有的东西都显而易见,不要放在抽屉里,并全部集中在一个地方。这样你就不会落下任何东西。如果你需要在角落里充电,在充电器旁边放几件其他的大件物品,这样就不会忽视它们的存在。


- 拒绝或回避赞美是不礼貌的。即使你认为它们名不副实,也要心怀感激地接受它们。


- 阅读纪念碑旁边的牌匾。


- 当你取得成功时,会有一种冒名顶替者的感觉。但当你凭借自己的独特才能和经验创造出只有你才能做到的事情时,那么你绝对不是冒牌货,而是受命者。在只有你能做的事情上努力奋进是你的职责。


- 你在糟糕的日子里做的事情比在好日子里做的事更重要。


- 创造对人们有好处的东西。


- 开油漆的时候无论多小心都会溅到衣服上。


- 为了让调皮捣蛋的孩子们在公路旅行中维持良好的表现,准备一袋他们最喜欢的糖果,每当他们行为不端时,就向窗外扔一块。


- 你无法让聪明人仅仅为了钱而尽心尽力工作。


- 当你不知道该为某项任务付给某人多少钱时,问问他们怎样才算合理?他们通常会给你答案。


- 90%的东西都是糟粕。如果你认为你不喜欢歌剧、爱情小说、TikTok、乡村音乐、素食、NFT,继续尝试,看看你是否能找到那10%的精华。


- 人们将根据你是否可以善待那些不能为你做任何事情的人来评判你。


- 我们倾向于高估一天能做的事情,而低估十年内能取得的成就。十年的时间可以诱发奇迹。复利的长期游戏甚至可以战胜大的错误。


- 感谢改变你生活的老师。


- 最好的工作是你觉得不会胜任的工作,因为这能锻炼你的能力。事实上,只申请你觉得不会胜任的工作。


- 买二手书,去图书馆。


- 你可以成为任何想成为的人,所以做那个提前结束会议的人吧。


- 一位智者说:「在你说话之前,让话语通过三道门。在第一道门问自己:"这是真的吗?" 在第二道门问:"这有必要吗?" 在第三道门问:"这是善意的吗?」


- 走楼梯。


- 不是所有的价格都出现在标签上,实际成本往往是市场价格的2倍,因为你需要花费精力、时间、金钱来设置、学习、维护、修理和做最后的处置。


- 当你入住酒店时,先找紧急出口。这只需要一分钟时间。


- 回答 「我现在应该做什么?」的唯一富有成效的方式是首先解决 「我应该成为谁?」这个问题。


- 在超过平均水平的时间内保持平均收益会产生非凡的结果。买入并持有。


- 对无礼的陌生人极度礼貌是很刺激的。


- 一个不太聪明的人,如果能很好地沟通,有可能比一个不能很好沟通的超级聪明人做得更好。这是一个好消息,因为提高你的沟通能力比提高你的智力要容易得多。


- 偶尔受骗是相信每个人都是好人所需付出的小小代价,因为当你相信别人都是好人时,他们一般也会对你很好。


- 培养孩子的最好方法是只在他们身上花你认为应该花的一半的钱,但花双倍的时间与他们在一起。


- 购买最新的家乡版旅游指南。每年扮演一次游客,你会学到很多东西。


- 不要排队打卡网红餐厅。


- 迅速揭示你刚认识的一个人的真实性格的方法是,把他们转移到一个慢得不能再慢的网络连接上,观察他们的反应。


- 成功的处方之一:做一些奇怪的事情,让怪异成为一种习惯。


- 至少有一个物理备份和一个云端的备份。备份你的备份。如果你丢失了数据、照片、笔记,你会花多少钱来找回它们?与遗憾相比,备份很便宜。


- 不要相信你认为自己相信的一切。


- 发出紧急信号的三原则;三声呼喊,三声喇叭,或三声口哨。


- 三分之一原则:把1/3的时间花在探索新事物上,2/3的时间花在深化旧事物上。


- 真正的好机会不会在标题栏写着「好机会」。


- 当和某人初次结识时,要有4秒钟的眼神接触,你们都会记住对方。


- 如果你发现自己在想 「我的好刀呢?或者,我的好笔在哪里?"」,这意味着你有不好的东西,扔掉它们吧。


- 当你感到卡壳时,向别人解释你的问题。通常情况下,简单地列出问题就能让你想出解决方案。


- 购买花园水管、延长线或梯子时,要买一个比你认为需要的长得多的。这才是正确的尺寸。


- 不要费力地与旧事物作斗争;专注建立新事物。


- 向团队时不时的表达感激之情,他们因此能做出超出你想象的伟大事情。


- 发表公众演讲时,将目光固定在几个人身上比扫视每个人更好。你的眼神会向别人传达你是否真的相信自己所言。


- 习惯比灵感要可靠得多。通过养成习惯来取得进步。不要把注意力放在减肥塑身上,要专注成为从不错过锻炼的人。


- 谈判时,不要以争取更大的蛋糕为目标;要以创造一个更大的蛋糕为目标。


- 如果把今天所做的事情重复365次,你明年会达成想要的目标吗?


- 人与人打交道时,你只看到对方的2%,而他们只看到你的2%,让彼此适应隐藏的98%吧。


- 人们在回忆自己所经历的美好时代时,总会回到自己10岁左右的时光。


- 你的时间和空间是有限的。移除、扔掉生活中那些不再能激发快乐的东西,以便为那些能激发快乐的东西腾出空间。


- 我们的后代将取得令我们惊讶的成就,如果我们想象力足够充沛的话,后代们会用我们今天创造出的材料和工具来继续打造美好的未来。


- 为了获得巨大的回报,对你不感兴趣的事情要怀有好奇之心。


- 专注于方向而不是目的地。没有人能够预知自己的命运,但保持正确的方向,你就会到达你想去的地方。


- 每一个突破一开始都是可笑又荒谬的。事实上,如果它一开始不是可笑和荒谬的,就不会产生突破。


- 如果你借给别人20美元,而他们因为拒绝还钱而消失了,那他们就值20美元。


- 抄袭他人是一个好的开始。抄袭自己是一种令人失望的结束方式。


- 为新工作谈判薪水的最佳时机是在他们说要你之后,而不是之前。让招聘方先给你一个数字对你有利。


- 与其过着一成不变的生活,不如直接去主动体验充满惊喜意外的生活。


- 用信用卡租车,不要购买额外的保险。


- 如果你对一个问题的意见可以从你对另一个问题的意见中推理预测出来,你可能受困于一种意识形态。当你真正为自己思考时,你的结论往往不可预测。


- 争取死后一贫如洗。把钱在死之前分给受益人,或是花光所有的钱。你的最后一张支票应该交给殡仪馆。


- 防止变老的主要方法是保持对事物惊讶的态度。

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29/4/2022

Chiwi Journal #13: Vipassana Meditation, Global Natives, Tech Founders Shows, Derek Sivers and Moving to Portugal

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Greeting from Lisbon!

I moved back to Portugal this month after getting my residency visa sorted. Thanks to Pieter Levels who built up the Rebase.co that helped me with the immigration process (here is the road map of my application). Lisbon will be my temporary base for now. Say Hi when you’re here, and let’s meet IRL!

This month I ticked a box of a decade long dream — visited Camp Nou and watched Barca’s victory at the home ground! Nothing can compare with the joy of a childhood dream coming true. Més Que Un Club! Barca represents Catalonia’s rebellious spirit and Cruyff’s philosophy, which had a massive impact on me throughout my teenage years to now.

Thanks for the invitation from the Talent Protocol team so I can fly to Barcelona to attend the Celo Connect conference and tour this amazing city! I’ve learnt so many tools and knowledge in web3 and Packy McCormick (one of the speakers) wrote a detailed blog post about Celo and ReFi, a highly recommended read.
​
OK, let’s get into this month’s content.

Course of the Month

No mobile phone, no talking, no reading or writing, no listening to songs or watching shows, no physical contact with others, no killing, no drinking or eating meat… plus getting up at 4 am every morning and sitting in meditation for 12 hours. This has been my life for the past 10 days.

When I first heard about the Vipassana Meditation course from a friend and read the rules above, my first impression was, ‘WTF… who’d like to go to this meditation prison? Especially for someone like me who heavily depends on digital devices for work. But out of curiosity, I decided to give it a go. So I enrolled in a course at one of the Vipassana Centres in England to learn this thousand-year-old Buddhist meditation technique.

I can’t exaggerate that these 10 days were a life-changing experience but provided me with a brilliant tool to deal with my emotional burdens. To look at thoughts and emotions objectively, rather than be led by them or avoid their existence. To know everything will pass, whether happiness or sadness, pleasure or pain, rather than attach “I” to those sensations. We realise impermanent is the true nature of life.

An unexamined life is not worth living. We need to observe and experience reality with consciousness. If we are lucky, we’ll be able to achieve a state of oneness and live a peaceful and harmonious life. 
​
Read the detailed reflection HERE.

Show of the Month

Recommend two hyper-fast-paced and top-notch shows that focus on the tech world.
Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber
​
First of all, if you could guess who did the voiceover in this show without Googling, you are my people LOL! American showrunner Brian Koppelman (his podcast The Moment is my frequent-listened show) co-created this limited series that revealed the rise and fall of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. Uma Thurman’s performance as Ariana Huffington is perhaps the most eye-catching part of the series. According to Brian, Season 2 will feature Mark Zuckerberg’s story. Something to look forward to!

WeCrashed
This miniseries is based on the podcast WeCrashed: The Rise and Fall of WeWork, featuring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway as Adam Neumann and Rebekah Neumann. The biggest takeaway from this show is no matter in high or low, it’s extremely important to have someone who shares the same values, deep trust and faith along your side. Adam and Rebekah are full of charismatic (cult-leader like) and have a strong ambition in their life. Though ordinary people might not understand their lifestyle and vision, I can see many great people in history who shared the same path.
​
Remember this is a LOVE story. Love what you do and may y'all find someone who can look at you in the eyes and tell you ‘You are a Supernova’. 

Book of the Month

Many people (especially from China) are curious about my digital nomad life. Now, there is a book to help us understand the history of nomads, global mobility and borderless living. Lauren Razavi, an early adopter of remote work who has lived as a digital nomad since 2013, recently launched a comprehensive book, Global Natives in this domain. She documents her insights from living and working across 40+ countries and advises policymakers to establish nomad hubs based on the increasing need for global mobility.

When I searched the history of digital nomads, Lauren’s tweetstorm popped up and helped me understand the origin of this concept. Her newsletter Counterflows focused on borderless living and featured the six best links on the topics to enhance people’s knowledge of digital nomads every week. Next month, I’ve scheduled an interview with Lauren to talk more details about her book. Stay tuned if you are interested in this topic :)
​
MY BOOK/PODCAST/NEWSLETTER RECOMMENDATION

Mentor of the Month

In 2018, I read every single article on Derek Sivers’s website after listening to some of his podcast interviews. His soothing voice and easy-to-understand life advice helped me to get out of the dark moment in my life. From Hell Year or No to Move to Big City, from NOW page movement to being a solitary socialite… While indulging myself in Derek’s pearls of wisdom, I found out he lived in New Zealand! So I reached out to him and met him in Wellington just before he was about to leave New Zealand for good (now he happily lives in NZ again).

Consuming Derek’s content and meeting him in person was eye-opening because I resonated with his thinking in many ways, but I found it hard to put them into words. His sharp writing unchained my abstractive thought onto paper so I could see myself clearly. Plus, that was the first time I was brave enough to meet my online mentor IRL and his kindness and friend attitude comforted my nerves and encouraged me to reach out to more like-minded online friends in the future.

I volunteered to translate many of Derek Sivers’ articles into Chinese and participated in his book project Your Music and People. I couldn’t express more gratitude for life. While I was lost, the universe sent him to help me walk through the darkness toward light. Derek’s previous decision to move to Portugal also planted a seed in my mind, and now I made it happen. Thanks, Derek!
​
Highly recommend anyone who feels stuck in life read his brilliant book collections. 

Something web3

  • Current most popular web3 app in China: STEPN, a blockchain-based GameFi platform and fitness app turning miles into money.
  • As a Talent House #1 participant, I highly recommend this brilliant initiative to all web3 enthusiasts! Apply now and get a chance to get to join Talent House #2 and go to Paris!

Big news from @TalentProtocol!

Talent House #2 is happening at @EthCC Paris! □□

This initiative is a joint effort between @CeloOrg and @talentProtocol to enable people from around the world to attend their first web3 event.

Interested? Apply below ⤵️https://t.co/iiS9yxiP0I

— Celo (@CeloOrg) April 28, 2022

AMA

​Question from people interested in Rebase.co service to move to Portugal.
How helpful does Rebase in your process? What’s the whole process look like?
​Answer:

I documented my journey with Rebase with the price on a Notion page.

In the beginning, I was planning to run the whole immigration process myself since I could find everything I needed to know online. Out of curiosity, I booked the call with Rebase. I was impressed by the lawyer’s customised solution to my complicated situation as a non-EU citizen who had a UK residency with an NZ company and had already temporarily worked in Aveiro, Portugal.

So I paid for her service since it would save me tons of time and flew back to England to submit my application at the Portuguese Embassy in London. It usually takes 60 -120 days to get the D visa. Still, since my UK residency is expiring soon and I have to make international travel during the application period, I got my visa within a month (just a day before my Barcelona trip LOL).

Whether you choose to use Rebase, other immigration services, or DIY really depends on your OWN situation. I can only say this service has helped me a lot because my goal is to save time and have someone to consult with whenever I have questions about the process, so I don’t mind paying money. I DIYed my NZ permanent residency and citizenship application by myself because back then, I had just started my career and didn’t have much money to spend, plus people speak English in NZ so I could ask the bureau directly.

That’s it. Check out my process if you’re interested in immigrating to Portugal. Hope to see you at nomads meet-ups sometime soon! 
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Signing off this newsletter with a pic of me watching Barca's game this month!

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27/4/2022

Flowism: My Philosophy of Living

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Photo credit: Ashley Batz

TABLE OF CONTENT

  • Preface
  • Flowism
  • Life Principles
  • Origins
  • Tibet Trip
  • Meditation Journey
  • Psychedelic Experience 
  • Ultimate Goal
 

Preface


​When I was little, I was obsessed with my Dad’s study room. How come he could pick up some colourful and heavy things on the shelf and lock himself in the room for the whole day? I imitated his behaviour but hardly understood a word from his accounting, economy and management books.

One day, I browsed my Dad’s treasures and found one book rather fascinating. The Life of Friedrich Nietzsche by Daniel Halévy (The Chinese translation version of that book called Friedrich Nietzsche: I’m the Sun《尼采传:我是太阳》) triggered me because that’s the only few words I could recognise at the young age. I felt highly excited like Archimedes leapt out of the bath and rushed home naked crying, “Eureka! Eureka!” I thought I found the universal truth that the Sun is this beard and weird-looking guy!

My family made fun of me about how I secretly told everyone, “do you know the Sun has a name called Ni Cai (Nietzsche’s pronunciation in Chinese)?” and how I regarded myself as a detective scientist who decodes the identity of the Sun. Silly, right? That childhood mystery followed me for ages until I learnt at school what metaphor is and who the real Nietzsche is, and apparently, there is a conventional rule to name things in our society, including the Sun. 

My old friend’ Nietzsche didn’t fade away with my stupidity but lingered around my life and led me to dig more about him and his fellow philosophers. As his saying goes, he who has a why to live can bear almost any how. Like many rebellious, moody and self-centred teenagers in my adolescent years, I blamed my parents for everything because “I didn’t choose to be born”. My early 20s also filled enormous pains from internal self-doubt and disturbing external facts. I didn't know why I was here and what's it for.​

I wrote numerous suicide notes in my diaries but never made it into action. I suffered from a constant existential crisis but never fell into mental illness. I don’t know if I am a coward or a survivor in this life game.

Now I want to share my journey of discovering my WHY (aka, my philosophy). This article is my guiding principle for my short life on earth. I hope you will find your path and live life on your own terms. 
​
 

Flowism
​

​My life philosophy is Flowism, a term I made up when my friend James asked why I constantly change my mind and never settle down on one idea, a place, a job or a person.

I joked, “I go with a flow. I’m practising Flowism.”

That’s how Flowism came to life, and I think it’s a great term to define my living principle. 

Going with a flow doesn’t mean I am a fence-sitter or flip-flopper. It’s a state of following the universe’s rhythm and constantly evolving my thoughts and ideas. As Alan Watts said, “there is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity”. 

If the universe was an ocean, what we understand is only a drop of water. I am aware of my limited knowledge, but I can explore everything with intellectual curiosity. Therefore, it’s necessary to change my mind regularly with new information based on my critical thinking.

The concepts of time and space and cause and effect are an illusion. Nobody has the ability to define the objective truth based on our current understanding of the universe. What we need to do is ask honest questions and obtain a good explanation. 
 
All things are neutral, and everything depends on our perspectives. We have the choice to fall into nihilism or make everything meaningful to ourselves. As Albert Camus said, “the struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy”. Choose the suffering we enjoy the most. 

All things, including people, come and go. Nothing is certain. Nothing is for sure. Everything is impermanent. The secret to living a peaceful life is not forcing, not interfering, just accepting everything as they are. 

Remember we wecome to this world alone and will die alone. Life is a single-player game with sufferings from desire, departure and detestation. Once accepted in this setting, everything we encounter in life will be more bearable. 

Everyone has their own hero journey. The most important question we need to keep in mind is whether we dare to face the uncertainty and walk through this lonely journey. 

Our thoughts and ideas, or so-called free wills, are inextricably tied to language, and language is socially constructed. We are all socially conditioned. The only way to escape the circle of the condition is to seek truth and beauty and follow your bliss.

The meta meaning of living is existing. We are loved just for being who we are. We didn’t come into this world but came out of it. We are part of the universe, and everyone is connected with love. 

What I say here may sound different from what I really mean, but it doesn’t matter. Go with our own understanding of flowism because others, including myself, are an illusion.

Life only makes sense when we look back and connect the dots together. So, go with flow forward and collect as many dots as possible on the way.

Remember, all things come to those who flow the way, as all wild streams and unruly torrents eventually drive to great rivers and the sea. 
​
 

Life Principles
​

I summarise and update my life principles on my birthday every year. Here are my 30 principles to live by (Chinese version): 

  1. When facing a dilemma, choose the option that will bring more opportunities in the future; choose the path that looks complicated for now. 
  2. Experience a religious ritual or psychedelic retreat. We don’t have to believe in it or be addicted to it but keep an open mind for unexpected healing effects.
  3. Invest in a good pillow, mattress and eye mask. A good night’s sleep is a free remedy to repair our bodies.
  4. Regularly review our friends and colleagues circle - do they inspire me or hold me back? Try our best to surround people with whom we’d like to play a long-term game. 
  5. An information diet is as essential as a healthy diet. 
  6. In web3, there are no adults but curious children who are constantly learning and trying things out. No one knows what they are doing, and no one cares what we are doing, so feel free to try new things and run experiments. 
  7. Make it done/work first. THEN make it pretty.
  8. We can’t have everything, but we will get what we want the most. Be focused and understand our true desires.
  9. Sooner or later, we’ll find out we can’t please everyone all the time. There will always be somebody who misjudges or misunderstands us. One must learn to stop living one’s life based on the expectations of others but live on our own terms. 
  10. If we improve 1% every day, we’ll not improve by 365% at the end of the year, but by 3800%. This is the power of compound interest.
  11. Simple rules can generate highly complex systems. e.g. Mandelbrot Set and the Game of Life. Focus on the fundamental principles and let them grow and evolve organically.
  12. If we focus too much on optimising our lives, we’ll miss the opportunity to live at the moment. Be here and now and feel. 
  13. We are at the golden age for creators. Find the niche where we serve the person we used to be. 
  14. “Every transformation demands as its precondition ‘the ending of a world’—the collapse of an old philosophy of life.” — C.G. Jung
  15. We have been given life as a gift to discover what the gift in our life is. When we figure out something that could give back value to our world, it’s our responsibility to fulfil this mission.
  16. Most people prefer ugly certainty to potentially beautiful uncertainty. The biggest question you need to answer is whether you dare to step on the unknown journey. 
  17. People are not seeking the meaning of life but want to experience life and feel what it is like to be alive. 
  18. My underlying logic of human interaction is that we can always learn from everyone we encounter. Don’t judge but learn. 
  19. Any relationship is a good relationship as long as we are a whole person rather than a person having a hole to seek for others to fill the gap. 
  20. There are countless paths in the world, and each unique individual should avoid competition and take their own course. The guaranteed way is not the suitable way for everyone. 
  21. The problems in life are features, not bugs. Find the ones you like to solve and make peace with them.
  22. We spend our whole lives unlearning in order to find our lost true nature. 
  23. Mastering storytelling as a skill. If we look back at history, the stories that have been repeated again and again formed our society. 
  24. Sources of suffering: treat maps as territory and treat stories as reality.
  25. When we give up controlling our life, the universe takes us to the perfect place. The universe has a much better plan for us than the one we envisage with your short-sightedness and limited knowledge. 
  26. Amor Fati. Memento Mori. 
  27. Logic is a human being’s creation. The universe doesn’t give a damn about that. We all try to figure out the correlation and causation and brag about the pattern we discovered. However, there are so many black swans events happening around us. Maybe randomness is the key message we should bear in mind.
  28. Be careful with others’ compliments, and then we won’t pay much attention to their criticism. Our ability has a benchmark and won’t change based on others’ thoughts. But be humble to take constructive feedback.  
  29. Action speaks louder than words. If we’d like to know people’s values, just look at their actions. 
  30. “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” --Albert Einstein 
 

Origins 
​

I was born in Jinan, China, where under the tremendous influence of Confucianism, emphasised personal and governmental morality. The societal values are to respect and obey authorities and elders and sacrifice individual welfare to achieve a group goal.

Throughout primary school, I studied very hard, obeyed all the rules, and was awarded as a Merit Student. I remember so vividly on graduation day, my best friend Shixin told me, “You have such a beautiful pair of eyes, but I can’t find any happiness inside them. I wish you a happy life.”

I was shocked and then cried for many days.

That was the first time I realised I lived a pretentious life and never was a happy kid deep inside. All I did was oppress my free spirit to adapt to mainstream society to get approval from others. What’s for? Why do I do that? What’s my purpose? Those self-examination questions lead me to so many depressing hours during my childhood.

Thanks to my grandparents, Qi Kaimin and Sun Yuzhen, the Cultural Revolution survivors, who were highly educated and cultured. They devoted their retiring life to researching Yi Jing (also known as I Ching or Book of Changes) and other Chinese ancient classics, including Three Teachings (Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism). They proposed changing my name from Chenlu to Yixuan to alter my fate based on Yi Jing’s statement. 

I had no idea why I changed so dramatically after the name change (puberty hormonal changes?). I started to behave in such a rebellious way, disobeyed authorities, wrote political-sensitive content, and asked numerous questions about existence that drove adults crazy. My parents saw through my personality and thought it would be better to send me overseas than live in a traditional Chinese society where my free spirit was suppressed. 

I joined the exchange student program and went to New Zealand to study. The language barriers and culture shock took me to another round of loneliness and depression. I came across a Baptist Church near my school and prayed for Christian God to save me from suffering. Meanwhile, I attended a campus counselling service and tried to cure myself based on psychological practice. I also found libraries and bookstores as my shelters where I could temporarily escape from reality and enjoy my solitude time.

After I moved from New Zealand to the UK, I got a chance to meet and talk with people from different cultures and backgrounds where I could learn about Muslim, Orthodox and other schools of religions and philosophy that originated from the northern hemisphere. I read from Greek saints to German philosophers, from ancient gurus to contemporary thinkers, and then developed my philosophy by standing on those giants’ shoulders.

Apart from reading, I also tried different religious experiences, meditation and psychedelic retreats, drugs and alternative therapies. 

Here is the list of names and schools that influenced my philosophy to my awareness:
  • Stoicism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism and Existentialism
  • Plato, Rene Descartes, Friedrich Nietzsche, Immanuel Kant, Soren Kierkegaard, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, David Deutsch, Jed McKenna, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Martin Heidegger, Ayn Rand, Mark Manson, Ryan Holiday, Derek Sivers, Naval, Kapil, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Maharishi Mahesh, Alan Watts and Alain de Botton
  • Among hundreds of books I read, this is the list of the top books I recommend where I benefit a lot from those writers: https://mostrecommendedbooks.com/user/camelliayang
​​
 

Tibet Trip
​

In 2015, I quit my full-time job at a well-known New Zealand corporate because I lost my motivation and inspiration as a content creator. I went to America and indulged myself in materialistic pleasure. It was a fun month, but this kind of action provided me with a temporary solution rather than a permanent cure.

I fell into a void and emptiness.

Back then, my Dad made his trip to Tibet and shared photos of those majestic palaces and magical natural scenery with me. I have always been fascinated by Tibetan Buddhism and the profoundness of Tibetan culture. Since I was a child, I heard Princess Wencheng entering Tibet and marrying Songtsen Gampo and the story of how Tibetan used human skin to make drums. 

I longed for this sacred and mysterious land, and it was time for me to pay for a visit. 

It took me 24 hours by train to arrive in Lhasa, Tibet. I went through horrible altitude sickness (headache and accelerated heartbeat plus breathing difficulty), but the grand scenery along the way made me survive this mammoth trip. 

I visited many villages where I saw the national five-star red flag flying in almost every house. I had no idea if it’s the government’s efforts or Tibetans voluntarily did so. My journalist background drove me to talk with everyone I met, but many elder villages could not speak Mandarin. Although we could not communicate, their genuine and innocent smiles made me feel very comfortable.  

What impressed me most was the Tibetan Buddhism Prostration. Tibetan Buddhism believers prostrate themselves on the ground, with the head, arms, and knees down on the ground, and move forward slowly, following every step with a kowtow. This was the way to express their most honest hearts to the Buddha, as they walked from their hometown to Lhasa, one kowtow with every three steps they took until they arrived in Lhasa (usually took a couple of months with 100,000 kowtows!). 

I was shocked because I never saw hundreds of people prostrating this ritual along the way. What made them so devoted? What’s the purpose for them to do so? What would they want to achieve?

Reflecting on my life, I had never focused on one thing, not to mention committed to any practice like that. I talked with the locals and prostrators and learnt that Buddha said our world is an illusion. Human beings can strip themselves of this illusion through meditation and self-denial to achieve enlightenment. The prostration practice is essential to the mind’s purification and freeing it from lousy karma due to harmful doings or thoughts. 

Although I’ve read a couple of Buddhism books before and had an idea of the Tibetan prostrator. Words on paper could not compare with seeing them practising at the Dazhao Temple in front of me! I was so touched by their actions and devotion. Moreover, visiting Dazhao Temple made me emerge the hope to our human race. 

The Dazhao Temple owns its fame to its life-sized statue of the Buddha at age 12, brought to Lhasa as part of the Chinese Princess Wencheng’s dowry in 641.  1000 years later, another notable event happened in the temple’s long history: Chinese Emperor Kangxi’s visited here as a part of governing inspection.

How glad to see different ethnic groups could live harmoniously in one land throughout history. Although conflicts and wars had happened occasionally, the mixed ethnic culture memes would find their way to survive and left essences to the future generation. 

One of the highlights of my Tibet trip was visiting the Potala Palace. Songtsen Gampo built this world wonder to marry Princess Wencheng from mainland China over 1,300 years ago. The Potala Palace was built on top of the mountain with more than 2,000 rooms full of paintings, books and exotic treasures.

The whole trip was mind-blowing with awe. Although human beings only existed in this universe for such a short period, the hard labour of creating those fantastic buildings and arts have always made me so emotional. ​
​
According to Tibetan Buddhist culture, if you circumambulate Mount Kailash clockwise on foot in the Year of Horse, it will bring good fortune because Mount Kailash is considered a home of Buddha Cakrasaṃvar, who represents supreme bliss; If you walk around Lake Namtso clockwise on foot in the Year of Sheep, it will bring buddha’ blessings because Lake Namtso is the holy lake in the Tibetan world.

​The sixth Dalai Lama, Cang Yang Gyatso, once wrote a poem about his experiences walking around the mountain and the lake, “In this lifetime, circumambulating the mountains, the lake and stupas but not to seek rebirth, only to meet you along the way”. How romantic! 

I also wrote a piece to this beautiful land that blessed me with her beauty and holiness. 


告别西藏,
难忘那白云朵朵蓝色静谧的天空,
难忘那浪花淘淘绿色磅礴的江水,
难忘那蓝白红绿黄代表天地五行的经幡,
难忘那东西南北中虔诚扣头敬拜的教徒。

布达拉宫依旧在旭日的照耀下璀璨生辉,
藏香袅袅,佛音阵阵,
美好一天又轮回,
我在告别,
你在守候,
何日我们再相会?


Farewell to Tibet, 
The Potala Palace shining brightly under the rising Sun.
Farewell with the prayer flags with five pure lights.

Farewell to Tibet,
The Tibetan incense is curling up, 
Farewell to its white clouds, blue sky, and colourful lands.

Farewell to Tibet,
The Buddhist chanting is bursting out,
Farewell to devoted people from the bottom of my heart.

A beautiful day has come and gone.
I’m saying goodbye.
You are staying hereby.
We are fated to meet again,
Between the dark and dawn.
​

 

Meditation Journey
​

If you’ve never tried it before, meditation can seem both improbable and pointless. You might wonder what the point is of sitting quietly for twenty minutes. It looks like a waste of time that doesn’t have any tangible benefits! But countless people and books talk about how important meditation is for your health, so I wondered: shall I give it a go and see what would work for me? 

Transcendental Meditation (TM)

In 2018, after researching many different ways of meditation, I signed up for the Transcendental Meditation (TM) course, primarily influenced by Ray Dalio, whose Principles was one of my favourite books. In this six-week course, my teacher taught me a mantra (he said everyone’s mantra is different. The mantra itself is meaningless, and it’s just an anchoring tool to help you focus). All I have to do is practice meditation for 20 minutes twice a day, once after waking up in the morning and once before dinner, in any setting or comfortable position.

So, how do I practise? First, choose a comfortable position, either sitting cross-legged or on a chair or sofa, as long as you are not lying down. Second, close your eyes and sit still for half a minute to a minute. When you feel relaxed, start repeating your mantra in your head. Your brain will generate many mixed thoughts at this time. The ideal state is when the mantra and the thoughts cease to exist, and a feeling of emptiness is achieved.

As it is written in the biography of Steve Jobs, “If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes things worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things — that’s when your intuition starts to blossom, and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse at the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it.” I totally agree. The important part is not controlling your thoughts but letting them go without interruption.

It takes time but worth it. 

Yoga and Meditation Retreats 

Once a year, I took a couple of weeks to do a Yoga or Meditation retreat. In 2019, I joined the Blooming Lotus Yoga retreat in Bali, including daily morning and evening yoga classes, theoretical study of the yoga system, daily morning and evening meditation sessions, and Bali’s cultural tour. 

As an amateur CrossFit girl, I always find yoga too soothing and soft. I prefer to pump and punch in the gym or go to a HIIT class, making me feel like exercising. This seven-day intensive yoga training has changed my perspective on yoga classes in a fundamental way. I had a chance to learn Yin and Yang yoga. One is slightly faster, fluid, energetic and powerful; the other is softer, focusing on stretching and emphasising the endurance to achieve a state of unity between body and mind. 

Yoga is not just a form of exercise but a way of life that unites body, mind and spirit, dating back 5,000 years to the Indus Valley. It has evolved over the millennia into many schools of thought, from the classical five major systems (wisdom yoga, karma yoga, hatha yoga, king yoga, kundalini yoga) and the eight branches of practice (abstinence, practice, asana, pranayama, mindfulness, concentration, meditation and samadhi) to the countless variations in modern society (hot yoga, Iyengar yoga, etc.).

The instructor briefly introduced us to Yoga Nidra, Chakras, Ayurveda and the yogic philosophy of ‘Unity of the Self’, and highlighted how to apply this theoretical knowledge to practical life by adopting healthy eating and exercise habits, self-healing and achieving a state of inner peace through a series of daily rituals. The most exciting part for me was the sister of Yoga: Ayurveda, derived from the Sanskrit word ‘life science’ with 5,000 years of history (Chinese medicine is also derived from Ayurveda). 

Ayurveda believes that everything in the universe is made up of the five elements: Air (Akash), Wind (Vayu), Earth (Prithvi), Fire (Tejas) and Water (Apa), and the same is true of the human body (the five elements of Chinese medicine). These five elements are mixed to form Doshas’s life energy and are divided into three main categories.

Vata = Air + Wind 

Pitta = Fire + Water

Kapha = Earth + Water

The Ayurvedic system teaches people to look within, understand themselves from the inside out, and find out what makes ‘themselves’. The essence of Ayurveda is to find, discover and regulate your own sense of balance, to live in harmony with yourself, with others and with everything in the world. No one can give more than what they have, which is why you must first start loving yourself. Be less obsessive with perfectionism and focus more on caring for yourself.

The most noticeable change since I started meditating is that I have become more aware of my ‘thoughts’ and many things I thought I had forgotten. Also, the emotions I had previously hidden and suppressed have come out (it can be horrifying at the beginning few months of practising meditation because you have to confront those ugly things that you avoided before). 

Sigmund Freud once said, “unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.” No wonder I went through a couple of panic attack in the past years --- my repressed emotions eventually reached their breaking point and suddenly attacked me. 

With the help of meditation, I have more courage to face these deeply buried thoughts and feelings, which, although painful, are temporary, and when they are resolved one by one, I will no longer be disturbed by them and will have a clear-thinking mind.

Meditation, like most things, is a long-term process, and just as the body needs to keep exercising to build muscle, the brain needs to keep meditating to develop awareness. Once you can be aware of yourself rather than follow the crowd, you’ll better understand who you really are and what you really want. And once this fundamental problem has been solved, other secondary issues that arise from a lack of clarity about ‘who you are’ will cease to exist.

Digital Detox Retreat

Due to my work’s nature, I am always on my phone or in front of my computer, swiping through various social media platforms at all times, and actively/passively receiving a lot of fragmented information. Because of the fragmented knowledge in my head, I cannot focus and easily affected by all kinds of redundant and cluttered information whenever I am thinking about complex issues. I constantly feel tired and less productive.

In 2018, I got a chance to check out a digital detox retreat in Auckland. It’s an excellent excuse for me to get away from the screen, be alone with myself and reflect on myself. In those three days, I didn’t touch any of my electronic devices. Each morning, I woke up naturally and practised two full meditation sessions, including 10-15 minutes of yoga, 5 minutes of breathing exercises, 20 minutes of Transcendental Meditation, resting in bed for the last 10 minutes and then repeating the above set of movements.  

The rest of the day was writing journals, reading books, going out, and talking with other participants. I remembered one day I was sitting on my balcony and meditating. The Sun was shining brightly before I closed my eyes. When I woke up from the half-hour-long meditation, it was drizzling outside, and a little bird standing on my balcony, singing freely. 

It reminds me of the time I watched the movieThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The heroine saw a deer strolling on the green grass under the billboard, with the sunray in the backdrop. The heroine could not help but talk to the deer about her love for her daughter, and she returned to nature and facing the soft part of her heart. I shared the same feeling, appreciating nature’s beauty with gratitude.
 
10 Days Vipassana Meditation
​

No mobile phone, no talking, no reading or writing, no listening to songs or watching shows, no physical contact with others, no killing, no drinking or eating meat... plus getting up at 4am every morning and sitting in meditation for 12 hours. This has been my life for the past 10 days.

When I first heard about the Vipassana Meditation course from a friend and read the rules above, my first impression was, 'WTF... who'd like to go to this meditation prison? Especially for someone like me who heavily depends on digital devices for work. But out of curiosity, I decided to give it a go. So I enrolled in a course at one of the Vipassana Centres in England, along with more than 20 new students, to learn this thousand-year-old Buddhist meditation technique.

​​Overview of the Course

Vipassana is a Pali word that means seeing things as they really are. This ancient Indian meditation method was rediscovered and developed by Siddhattha Gotama over 2,500 years ago as a technique to help human beings out of suffering. Vipassana Meditation aims to rebuild the mind-body connection, eliminate distractions from the mind, and cultivate a balanced heart to live with peace, love and compassion.

The course is taught on video by S.N. Goenka, who was born and raised in Burma to a family of merchants and grew up with a luxury lifestyle just like Buddha Siddhattha. After having everything but feeling unfulfilled and unhappy, Mr Goenka started a fourteen-year training with Sayagyi U Ba Khin and learned the technique of Vipassana from him.

In 1969, Mr Goenka moved to India and began teaching Vipassana in person. In 1982, Mr Goenka started to appoint assistant teachers to help him to meet the growing demand for the crouse. Nowadays, there are over 160 Vipassana Meditation centres across the five continents with hundreds and thousands of students from different races, religions and backgrounds. 

Vipassana courses entirely rely on donations from participants and volunteers. Students must follow a strict code of conduct during the ten days and then apply what they have learnt in their daily lives afterwards. Here is a summary of my experience during this 10 days course. 
​​
DAY 1-3 
Upon arrival at the meditation centre, I was assigned to a dormitory with another two girls. After a short break and course induction, we started to live in Nobel Silence (following the rule I mentioned above) with a strict schedule.
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Getting up early and having a long meditation routine is not difficult for me because meditation has already become a part of my life since I started five years ago. I wasn't perturbed about the strict timetable but rather glad that I finally had time to be with myself without any external distractions.

Speaking of the food, breakfast is organic cereal/bread with fruit plates, and there are various nut butter and jams and coffee and tea to choose from. Lunch varies daily: Indian curries, Italian pasta, Middle Eastern dishes, Chinese tofu, and many stir-fries or slow-cooked dishes with rice. There is no supper, but tea breaks where fruit plates are served. 

At the first day, I learned the Anapana technique, a breath-focused meditation that requires focusing on the triangle area between mouth and nose and devoting yourself to inhalation and exhalation activities only. Since I've been practising Transcendental Meditation for a while, this course was an unlearning process for me to get used to this new technique.

Every time thoughts emerge in the head, just let them come and go, bringing your attention back to the breath again and again. I found the first three days was relevantly relaxing because I enjoyed this breath-focused meditation. Moreover, I also indulged myself in daydreaming exercises during each break. There was a wee theatre in my head that featured me as the main character. What a pleasure with imaginative scripts full of pleasure and fun. 

Just when I thought it would be such a free and easy ten days at Vipassana centre, the reality hit me hard.
DAY 4-6 
Day four was the official starting point of practising Vipassana. Mr Goenka explained that our mind and body are ready to enter the deep level after the three days of preparation. We need to scan the whole body from head to toe and not move during the entire one-hour of meditation.

Meditating in solid stillness for 20-30 minutes is easy for me but for one-hour, I was doubted about that. As expected, the first Vipassana session was such a struggle to me mentally and physically. I got tangled up at around the 30-minute mark. Not only did I feel my legs tingle and my back stiffen, but all the cells in my body were howling madly inside and screaming: MOVE! 

I kept using the willpower to convince myself not to move. Well, my monkey mind wouldn't listen and kept popping up fearful thoughts one after another: I'm going to break my legs if I don't move; ah, my face is so itchy, and I need to scratch it; OMG, I'm going to be paralysed for the rest of my life! Every part of my body is hurting so much!!!

Seconds felt like years, and I finally used up my willpower. I burst out with tears from self-blame and pain and started to stretch my legs. At the same time, I was aware that other students around me began to move, and I could even hear the footsteps leaving the meditation hall. I was in a frustrated stage: how come I was too weak to sit still just for one hour? And I cried even more (silently). 

When I researched this course, I heard many students left the meditation centre on the third or fourth day. I thought they were incapacitated, and now I was one of them planning to go. Just the moment I came up with the perfect 'prison-break' plan, the chanting from Mr Goenka hit my ears. The hour-long meditation ended. I felt like his voice was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard in my life. 

I rushed out of the hall to the yard, stretching my limbs. Many other students joined me, and everyone looked like a newly released prisoner who was desperate for fresh air and wide-open space to free their trapped bodies and minds. 

On the fourth day, I had an appointment to talk to the assistant teacher. The moment I opened my mouth, I wept uncontrollably. What a blessing to be able to speak! I spoke to the assistant teacher about my physical pain, weak mind, and desire to leave the course. The assistant teacher, a middle-aged Asian woman, practising Vipassana for over 20 years, looked at me with a gentle smile. 

She said it was customary to experience what I had been described. When the pain appears, we need to observe it, not fight against it, knowing that pain is just a feeling like other pleasurable sensations. It's the MIND that constantly differentiating those feelings and giving them a different meaning. In general, sensations are all the same, all Impermanent.

I had studied Buddhism before, knowing the teachings of the Four Noble Truths. I know I shouldn't crave different sensations and everything will pass away eventually. However, knowing is one thing but doing is another thing. The assistant teacher reminded me that most people have the knowledge, not the Panna (wisdom). Wisdom is about applying what we have learned into practice, continually, due-diligently and persistently.

In the afternoon, I took the teacher's words into mind to observe pain from the third person's perspective by replacing the phrase "I'm in pain" and "I'm going to be paralysed" with "this is the point of pain" and "the pain won't last long". To my surprise, after a few round of attempts, the pain, as if it were a child playing hide and seek, really stopped pestering me when I uncovered it. In the following days, I played this 'hide-and-seek' game with pain, and finally, on the sixth day, I was able to meditate for an hour or more without moving.

DAY 7-9
Without iPhone and iWatch, I didn't know the date and weather. However, those details become irrelevant to me. The repetitional daily schedule took my memory back to the COVID lockdown. Back then, I thought I would be too bored to survive, but eventually, I not just survived but thrived with many personal achievements. The adaptability of human beings is truly immense. It's the mind trying to trick us with different interpretations.

Every evening, Mr Goenka's video lectures were always full of laughter, as he always turned esoteric Buddhism concepts and terms into vivid stories. For example, one night Mr Goenka told us the below story:

Mr Goenka was walking in the dark with five students when one of his students accidentally bumped into a man. The man started to swear and yell at his students, at which point Mr Goenka thought it was funny.

Mr Goenka was walking in the dark with five students when he accidentally bumped into a man. The man started to swear and yell at him, at which point Mr Goenka felt ashamed and embarrassed. 

Mr Goenka was walking in the dark with five students when he accidentally bumped into a man. The man started to swear and yell at him, at which point Mr Goenka found the man was his son, so he felt ashamed and embarrassed and heartbroken. 

The story revealed why we reacted differently to the same thing because we attached emotions to our egos, especially when others attacked 'me'. Even worse, when someone 'I' cared about attacked 'me'. 

Suppose one can look at everything objectively, without associating 'I' with any emotion, knowing that all emotions and feelings follow the law of birth and death and do not last forever. In that case, one can escape from suffering and achieve a state of peace and harmony.
​
DAY 10
On the last day of the course, Mr Goenka shared the art of living. Many students were moved to tears and were grateful that we had completed the course and mastered the Vipassana meditation technique. 

A person who suffers from inner agitation also causes negative vibes to people around them. Imagine the earth full of such people, and then the whole world would be filled with suffering. So how can we maintain inner peace and tranquillity and live in harmony

First of all, we need to understand the origin and cause of suffering, and by looking at it, we see that all suffering is caused by unfulfilled desires. When things don't go as planned, negative emotions arise, and people either express or repress them, the former making the world a violent place. At the same time, the latter may appear harmonious and peaceful on the surface. Still, deep down, those suppressed emotions are like dormant volcanoes that will sooner or later explode.

Avoidance and escaping emotions are not the answer we seek. On the contrary, we need to face the problem. Whenever a negative thought arises in our mind, if we just observe and face it rather than react to it, that emotion will lose its power and slowly vanish. So how exactly should we observe emotions? 

Ancient Indian monks discovered that when our mind becomes polluted and distracted, the body gives signals accordingly, either losing the normal regularity of breathing or having a biochemical reaction to produce certain feelings. With continuous training and practice, we can easily observe the changes and sensations in our breath and body. Once we are brave enough to face this reality, there is no room for emotions to escape, and we can make them disappear by pure observations.

We like to look for the causes of unhappiness from the outside world, not realising that the only solution is the one within. Observing the reality deep inside will free ourselves from false delusion and get away from suffering to enjoy a peaceful and happy life.  ​

Conclusion

Like learning everything, ten days will not make a huge difference; all we need to do is repeatedly apply the techniques we have learned over the rest of our lives

To look at thoughts and emotions objectively, not to be led by them or to avoid their existence, but to put the 'I' out of the way, knowing that it will all pass, whether happiness or sadness, pleasure or pain. Impermanent is the true nature of life.

An unexamined life is not worth living. We need to observe and experience reality with consciousness. If we are lucky, we'll be able to achieve a state of oneness and live a peaceful and harmonious life. 

P.S. On my last day walking in the Vipassana centre, I found a treasure. Perhaps because I had been meditating for 120+ hours in the past ten days, I became more aware of my surroundings. That's where I noticed a broken tennis ball hidden under the grass. When I dug it out, it had my lucky number on the back, which was also my current age, 33!
“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”
​― William Blake
 

Psychedelic Experience
​

In 2021, I had my first psychedelic experience with the Grandfather plant, San Pedro, at The Lighthouse Retreat.

2 trips in 4 days let me ‘saw’ the themes constantly haunted my mind: time, space, reality and dream. We all know language could be limited when you try to describe something overpowering magnificent. Here is my attempt to describe those visions and insights (The Doors of Perception: Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley described better than my words) :
​
Eighty-four thousand thoughts and ideas,
Landscape transformation in the whirligig of time,
Everything is evolving and decaying in front of my eyes.
​
Vivid Colours dancing along with the music of nature,
Infinite fractals emerging and disappearing like the Mandelbrot set and Mandala of Sanskrit.
Van Gogh’s painting in a tangible form.
​
Ram Dass’s message comes into my mind,
“We’re all just walking each other home”.
We are nameless and formless,
We are a pixel and we are a Buddha,
Was vernünftig ist, das ist wirklich,
We’re loved just for being who we are, just for existing.
​
Let’s accept ourselves and others in full,
Try not to control, try not to force, try to surrender to the power of the universe.
Time and space are a total illusion.
The reality doesn’t seem like what we see.
To see beauty, use our heart, not our eyes.
Feel, and we shall know.
Seek, and we shall find.
​
I rise above the earth and travel through abstract concepts and patterns.
A snap of the finger is the moment of eternity.
I could have lived forever in that dazzling and wonderful dream,
But your sweet smile pulls me back to the material world.
​
Remember, remember,
Life is the eighth wonder.
When we genuinely want something,
The whole universe is always on our side.
​
P.S. My teacher Isher at the retreat centre gave me the nickname “Zen Master” because I could sit on the platform for hours, calm and still. He mentioned my peaceful energy would help to balance unstable emotions from others.

Apart from the above experience, I do fully echo with what Steve Jobs once said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future”.

Everything that happened in my life has already connected in a beautiful circle. What I need to do is just follow my intuition and walk through the journey with love. I was also astonished when I found Mandala flowers at the retreat centre! When I studied Buddhism at an early age, I named myself Mandala, and after two decades, I finally met ‘myself’ again.
​
 

Ultimate Goal 
​

Last but not least, my grandpa left a poem to my family before he passed away in 2009.

He was a lifelong learner and independent thinker with intellectual curiosity on many subjects. Although he went through numerous ups and downs in his lifetime, he chose to have an innocent heart with a peaceful mind. 

I hope one day I could reach the same level as what he called oneness between me and the universe.​
​
《静坐吟》
流光荏苒去无踪,富贵如云过眼空。
淡泊生涯游物外,超然世俗学禅宗。
阴阳和化情缘净,动静参修性意通。
精气相乘神内守,天人合一九霄中。 ​​​​

​Meditation
The light of the day is gone without a trace,
Wealth and fame are like clouds passing by.
I am a simple person living a life outside of the material world,
And I have studied Zen from the journey within.
Yin and Yang harmonise and purify my emotions,
 Moving and meditating cultivated my mind.
The essence of the spirit is my inner guard,
The universe and I unified in one.
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26/4/2022

万物静观皆自得 | 10天内观冥想(Vipassana)体验

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Photo credit: rktkn
清除一切迷障,知觉之门将开,万物显出本相:
如其所是,绵延无止。 
— 威廉 · 布莱克
不能使用手机,不能说话,不能读写,不能听歌刷剧,不能和他人有任何身体接触,不能杀生,不能饮酒吃肉... 每天早上四点起床,静坐冥想12个小时,这就是我过去十天的生活写照。

初次了解内观(Vipassana)冥想课程,得知需要遵守如上所述的守则时,我的第一感觉是感觉是这完全就是「冥想监狱」啊,像我这样工作生活完全依赖手机的人,怎么可能十天不上网,不与外界有所联系!但在好奇心的驱使下,我决定给自己一个尝试体验的机会,于是趁着在英国休假的空闲,报名参加了位于萨福克郡的内观冥想中心的课程,和20多位新学员一起挑战着我们身心的极限,学习内观这项流传了千年的佛家冥想技巧。

10天内观课程概述

内观(Vipassana)是巴利语,意思是如其所是地观察事物。这项起源自古印度的古老的静坐方法,在两千五百多年前重新被佛陀释迦牟尼发现并发扬光大,作为帮助众生脱离苦海的技巧,旨在从根本上疗愈尘世的痛苦。内观专注于向内探索,重新发现身心的连结,消除头脑中的杂念,获取强大的专注力和平衡的内心,从而活在充满着爱与慈悲的环境中。

现在的内观课程由S.N.葛印卡先生视频教授,他出生并成长于缅甸的商人家庭,像佛祖释迦牟尼一样从小衣食无忧,过着奢侈的生活。他在拥有一切之后但还是感觉不满足不快乐,于是拜师当时身任缅甸政府高官的乌巴庆长者,开始了长达十四年的内观学习技巧。

1969年,葛印卡老师学成出师移居印度并开始传授内观技巧,吸引了来自世界各地的学员。1982年,葛印卡老师开始委任助理老师协助他指导课程,以应对内观课程日益增长的需求。如今,内观课程中心遍布全球五大洲160多处,普惠了成千上万的来自不同种族和宗教的学员。

为期十天的包吃包住的内观课程毫无任何商业性质,完全依靠学员的捐助。参与者在十天内需要遵循严格的守则,并在之后将所学所得应用于日常生活中。在不间断的内观冥想练习中脱离痛苦,实现解脱。

下面,分享一下我这十天具体的心得体会。

DAY 1 - 3

抵达冥想中心后,我被分配到一间三人的女生宿舍中。短暂地休息过后,我们便正式开始进入「静默(Nobel Silence)」生活,不仅不可以说话,连和他人的眼神接触最好都不要有,并且需要严格地遵守课程的时间表。

每天早上四点起床,洗漱完毕后来到冥想大堂进行两个小时的冥想。六点半早餐,之后是一个小时的集体冥想,随后听从助理教师的安排,或者继续集体冥想,或者回房间单独冥想。十一点午餐,随后是一个小时的休息或者师生答疑时间,此时可以选择午睡、散步或是和助教有短暂地对话交流,之后重复早上的集体冥想和助教安排。下午五点茶歇(没有晚饭,只有水果和饮品),随后是集体冥想,接受葛印卡老师的教诲,集体冥想,九点结束一天的安排,按时熄灯就寝。

对于我来说,早起和长时间的冥想作息并不是一件难事。自五年前正式开始接触「超越冥想」以来,冥想也成了我生活中的一部分。当看到严格的时间表时,我并没有特别地担心,反而心怀庆幸,终于可以有大把的时间沉浸在自己的世界中,免受外界的打扰,好好地对自我进行一番内心审视。

前三天的生活算是悠然惬意,老师教授了专注呼吸的「Anapana」冥想方法,打坐的时候将注意力集中在口鼻之处的三角区域,全身心地投入到吸气-呼气的活动中,当脑海中有杂念时,不去理会,让它们随之来随之走,一次又一次地将注意力拉回到专注呼吸之上。打坐太久身体不适时也可以在自己的坐垫上做些轻微的调整,或是在不打扰他人的情况下静静地走到大堂后面做几分钟的伸展。

早餐以有机麦片面包和水果为主,还有五六种不同的坚果酱和咖啡茶。午餐每天各不相同,印度咖喱、意大利面、中东菜肴,中式豆腐、大杂烩炒菜,有时还有烘焙的饼干和甜点。茶歇时间则会提供果盘,本想着来冥想中心减肥的我,这几天伙食不错且无运动,倒是被养的白白胖胖。

休息时分漫步在冥想中心广阔的花园中,或是倚在草地的躺椅上接受日光浴,让我感觉来这里好似度假一般,再加上我特别擅长做白日梦,前三天除了冥想,就是沉浸在脑海的小剧场中,欣赏着一轮轮的以自己为主角的大戏,在想象的空间中玩得不亦乐乎。

就在我以为这十天都会是如此逍遥自在的生活时,现实狠狠地给我上了一课。

DAY 4 - 6

第四天正式进入内观修行期。老师介绍说经过前三天的适应时期,每个学员的身心此时已经做好了内观的准备,接下来可以学习内观的技巧,从头到尾扫描全身,并要做到一小时冥想期间完全不挪动身体,更不可以离开冥想大堂。

以往冥想时,我可以做到20-30分钟一动不动,第一次内观冥想,便在差不多30分钟左右的时间点纠结起来,不仅感受到腿部发麻,背部僵硬,浑身上下的细胞都在疯狂地嚎叫着想动一动。我不断地用意志力去说服自己不要动,不要动,专注于扫描全身的内观冥想上面,可是头脑却完全不听使唤,一个个的恐惧念头不断地冒出来:再这么坐下去腿肯定要断了,赶紧动一动;啊,我的脸上好痒,背也不舒服,需要挠一挠;天呢,下半生肯定要瘫痪了,腿脚已经痛到不行了... 就这样我以为过了半个小时,其实可能连五分钟都没到,此时眼泪已经不受控制地流下来,而意志力也消耗殆尽,身体随之不自觉地挪动起来。

与此同时,我察觉到周围的学员们也像我一样开始挪动身体,甚至听到了不少人离开冥想大堂的脚步声音。我陷入到深深地自责当中,觉得自己实在是太过虚弱,连一个小时的打坐都没法坚持,随之哭地更加厉害(静默哭泣)。之前听说过很多学员在第三四天逃离了冥想中心,原来觉得不可理喻,现在的我也在头脑中规划起来怎么离开这个地方。就在我想出完美的「越狱」计划之时,葛印卡老师的诵经之声响起,一小时的折磨就此结束。

我迫不及待地冲到草坪上,不断地伸展着四肢,做起来简单的瑜伽动作。此时也有很多其他学员加入了我的行动,可以看出每个人都好似重获新生的囚徒,此时急需新鲜的空气和广阔的天地解放受困的心灵。以前痛恨跑步的我,此时特别想像球员一样在草坪上狂奔,但除了静静地走路和做些轻微的伸展运动外,其他各项活动均被禁止。

在第四天的时候,我和助教老师预约了谈话。三天没说话的我,刚一张嘴便控制不住地开始流泪,第一次感觉到能说话其实也是一种福分,心中充满了感恩之情。我和助教老师讲到了我身体的疼痛,表达了自己的懦弱以及想要提前离开的念头。助教老师是一位修行了内观冥想20多年的中年女性,她看着我微微笑道,其实每个学员都会经历我所经历的一切,这是再正常不过的事情了,当疼痛感浮现出来时,我需要去观察它,而不是抗拒它,要知道疼痛就像快乐以及其他愉悦的感觉一样,都是「感觉」而已,是头脑不断地将不同的感觉进行区分,并赋予它们不同的意义。感觉本身并没有好坏之分,且都是暂时的,我所需要做的便是不断地观察这些感觉,知晓所有的感觉就像世间万物一样都是「无常impermanent」的,在我们不断地观察当中疼痛也会消失殆尽。

起初我觉得老师讲的大道理我都懂,之前研习佛法时也知道「三法印(诸行无常、诸法无我、涅槃寂静)」和「四真谛(苦、集、灭和道)」的教诲:不将自己和这些念头绑定到一起,不心生欲望和执念,知道一切都会消逝,但是真正做到「知行合一」实在是难上加难。而老师也提醒我说,大多数人学到的东西都是知识,而不是「智慧Panna」。智慧是真正地将所学所得应用到实践当中,并在不断地重复和练习中,实现开悟的状态。

我带着老师的教诲在下午的集体冥想当中尝试观测疼痛,且把「我很痛」「我要残疾了」等一系列将自我与感觉联系在一起的话语换成了「这是疼痛的点」「痛点不会存在很久」,以第三方的视角去观测疼痛的存在,神奇地是,当我界定了疼痛感觉的存在时,疼痛放佛是和我捉迷藏的小孩,竟然真的在被揪出来后不再将我纠缠。于是在接下来几天的修行中,我不断地玩着这个「捉迷藏」的游戏,也终于在第六天时可以一动不动地打坐一个小时,甚至更长的时间。

DAY 7- 9

没有手机和手表的日子,我都不知道每天究竟是几月几号,或者当天的天气预报是什么,而这一切也变得不再重要。每日不断重复的日程安排,将我带回到疫情封城的记忆当中,那时觉得自己肯定会被无聊闷死了,现在看来,也不是快乐地活下来了吗?人的适应力真的是无比的强大,也验证了「事无好坏,诠释在人」的真谛。

葛印卡老师每天晚上的视频授课总是充满了欢笑,这位俗家得道大师总会用接地气的生活故事,向我们解释晦涩难懂的佛家教义。我印象最深的一则故事便是同一件事情的不同反应:

葛印卡老师和五个学生在黑暗中行走,他的一个学生不小心撞到了一个人,那个人便开始骂骂咧咧,此时葛印卡老师觉得很好笑。

葛印卡老师和五个学生在黑暗中行走,他不小心撞到了一个人,那个人便开始骂骂咧咧,此时葛印卡老师觉得有点自责和生气。

葛印卡老师和五个学生在黑暗中行走,他不小心撞到了一个人,那个人便开始骂骂咧咧,葛印卡老师发现这个人是他的儿子,此时他觉得特别自责和伤心。

其实事情归结到本质都是一样的,只是因为我们将情绪与自我连接起来,所以会有不同的反应。尤其是当意识到别人在攻击「我」的时候,以及「我」在乎的人攻击「我」时,更容易有强烈的情绪反应。如果可以客观地去观察一切,不将「我」与任何情绪联系在一起,知道一切情绪和感觉都遵从生生灭灭的法则,不会长久的存在,那么人类就可以逃离苦海,实现安祥与和谐的状态。

DAY 10

最后一天的课程上,葛印卡老师讲述了关于生活的艺术,很多学员都感动地流下了眼泪,也庆幸我们终于成功地完成了课程,并掌握了脱离苦海的技巧,简单总结下葛印卡老师的演讲。

每一个痛苦的人,除了自己内心焦躁不安之外,也会令其四周充满着苦楚,如果地球上充满了这样的人,那么全世界都会弥漫着痛苦的气息。那么,我们究竟如何才能保持内心的宁静与安详,并同时维持周遭气氛的和谐呢?

首先我们需要了解痛苦的本源和起因,通过审视我们发现,一切苦皆源于欲望得不到满足。当事与愿违之时,负面情绪就随之产生了,人们或者释放这份情绪,或者压抑转移这份情绪,前者让世界充满了暴力,而后者虽然在表面上呈现出一幅和谐安逸的样子,但是内心深层却犹如沉睡的火山,压抑着负面情绪,迟早会有猛烈爆发的一天。

逃避不能解决问题,我们需要面对问题。每当心生负念时,如果我们只是观察它,面对它,而不是因此做出反应,那这份情绪就会失去力量,慢慢地被根除。那么我们究竟应该如何观测情绪呢?古印度的僧侣发现,当我们心生杂念时,身体也会相应地给出信号,首先是呼吸失去正常的规律,其次是身体开始有生化反应产生某种感受。经过不断地训练与练习,我们便可以很容易地观察到呼吸和身体的变化和感受。一旦我们勇于面对这个实相,情绪就不会有逃离的空间,我们也可以在观测间令其消逝。

以往我们总是习惯在外界寻找不快乐的原因,殊不知只有在内在的源头上解决了问题,我们才可以真正地摆脱痛苦,逐渐地修炼出一颗平静且充满喜乐的内心。这就是佛陀所教授的生活的艺术:藉由观察内在的实相,净化内心的杂染,不断地从痛苦中解脱出来,从而享有真正的安祥和快乐。

结语

就像大多数的冥想技巧一样,十天的内观并不会带来巨大的改变,我们需要做的是在接下来的生活中,不断地将学到的技巧应用于实践当中,在不断地重复当中体验活在当下的感觉。

客观地观察思想和情绪,不被它们牵着鼻子走,也不去逃避它们的存在,而是将「我」置身于事外,知晓无论是快乐还是悲伤,愉悦还是痛苦,一切都会过去,这就是生活的无常本质。

未经审视的生活不值得过活,我们需要充满觉知地去观测和体验现实,最终实现身心合一,天人合一的状态。

P.S. 最后一天在草坪漫步时,也许是这几天冥想让我更容易察觉周围的事物,在每天必经的道路上突然注意到一枚小球,将它挖出来以后,背面竟然印着我的幸运数字,也是我年龄的33!想起当时在葡萄牙体验仙人掌疗养时,最后也在大山深处第一次见到曼陀罗花,冥冥之中自有安排。

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10/4/2022

浅谈巴塞罗那Celo大会、诺坎普朝圣之旅和高迪建筑

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记得2019年刚从新西兰搬到欧洲大陆,我就买了巴萨对阵皇马的球票,一心期待着即将到来的诺坎普朝圣之旅,可惜,加泰罗尼亚地区突然暴乱,国家德比也随之取消。2020年的疫情又将我前往巴塞罗那的旅行计划打乱,这一拖就是两年。这周有幸前往巴塞罗那参加区块链大会,总算有机会一睹诺坎普的真容,膜拜高迪的建筑,结识了一票混迹web3的小伙伴们,现在来分享一下我在巴塞罗那的游记。

Celo Connect 2022

自从2017年开始接触区块链技术以来(感谢前男友带我入坑),一直没有停下学习的脚步,无论是买币、挖NFTs,还是参与相关的DAO项目,在web3的世界玩得不亦乐乎!

去年朋友邀请我试试他搭建在Celo上的项目:Talent Protocol(俗称web3的LinkedIn),正好借机了解了下被人戏称为「难民链」「乌托邦链」的Celo,也促成了此次的趴体,啊不对是学习之旅。

Celo是一个基于区块链技术的去中心化稳定币与金融应用(DeFi)生态系统,旨在打造普惠金融体系,让世界上没有银行账号但是拥有智能手机的人都可以享受支付、借贷等一系列金融服务。简单来讲,Celo通过使用超轻量级的身份协议,借助移动端的优势,将公钥和手机号码的哈希值进行匹配,从而允许用户向任何手机号码发送加密货币,消除了加密货币交易的很多壁垒。

和众多新兴公链(如 Solana、Avalanche、Fantom)一样,Celo拥有更低的gas费和更快的速度,其生态系统还包括去中心化的权益证明(PoS)区块链技术堆栈、原生资产 ($CELO)、稳定币 (cUSD 、cEUR、cREAL),以及Celo基金会(Celo Founations)和研发中心(cLabs)。

Overview of Celo Ecosystem
Since the last time the ecosystem landscape was posted, @CeloOrg ecosystem has had a lot of changes, there are projects that are no longer active as well as many new projects. #CELO #Defi4ThePeople #Defi pic.twitter.com/Jjn99phNsX

— Celo Daily □ (@CeloDailyTK) December 14, 2021
​Celo在世界语(Esperanto)中表示「目的/目标Purpose」,创始人本着打造超越语言和地域限制的金融系统的目标,致力于连接世界各地的人群,解决跨境交易难题,共享全球金融稳定性。主办方此次选择在巴塞罗那举办首届全球大会,因为Barcelona包含了Celo的名字(会玩),一下飞机就在机场看到了gm和wagnmi等一系列web3标语,巴塞罗那市内也随处可见Celo的标识和宣传海报。

Celo Connect会址位于巴塞罗那海滨旁的一栋百年历史哥特式建筑,与会嘉宾和演讲人包括Chris Dixon(a16z)和Packy McCormick(Not Boring)等上百位活跃在区块链领域的投资人和创始人。我也有幸沾沾朋友的光,上台宣传一下社交代币(Social Token,话说我的$CAM代币目前已经突破千元大关,欢迎支持)。

Celo采取的是农村包围城市的策略,先主打非洲拉美,然后再进军欧美和亚太。大多数项目针对气候变化和环保(ReFi)和实现全民基本收入(UBI)。目前该链的亚太地区发展基本为零,所以团队也想在这方面多花点时间和心思,我在大会上和Celo团队的人力资源、生态系统和市场营销团队的人聊了聊,得知他们都很迫切的想招聘熟悉亚太市场的人才(从技术到市场开发到管理等),Celo目前200多位员工遍布世界各地远程办公,通过这一周的接洽,感觉企业文化积极有活力,会是不错的工作环境,感兴趣的小伙伴们(实习全职或者项目相关)可以登陆Celo官网进行详细了解。

Camp Nou

Més que un club!巴萨不只是一家俱乐部,更是一种信仰。

2003年跟随着小罗入坑巴萨,我便了解了克鲁伊夫的足球哲学和管理体系,学到了加泰罗尼亚的文化和历史,见证了巴萨梦二梦三队的辉煌... 上学期间还在校服后面画着大大的巴萨logo招摇过市,在新西兰街头巷尾穿着队服为主队呐喊助威... 

作为近20年的巴萨球迷,此次亲临诺坎普球场,和近十万名球迷一起唱巴萨队歌,并见证球队赢球,激动的心情难以用言语形容!自打荷兰人克鲁伊夫在我出生的那一年执教巴萨开始,红蓝巴萨和荷兰足球就有了再也逃离不开的关系。克鲁伊夫贵为巴萨足球教父,将荷兰足球的「全攻全守」理念完全贯彻到巴萨的血液里。参观克鲁伊夫纪念展时,我也多次泪奔不止,从他遗留下的影像资料和物品中感受他对足球那深入骨髓的爱意。

话不多说,分享下我在诺坎普球场的照片和比赛视频!

City of Antoni Gaudí

人们都说巴塞罗那是高迪的城市,无论是高耸入云的圣家堂,造型奇特的米拉之家和巴特罗之家,还是色彩斑斓的古埃尔公园,巴塞罗那几乎所有颇具盛名的建筑物都出自高迪之手。

高迪认为艺术必须出自于大自然,因为大自然已经为人们创造出最独特美丽的造型。所以他的建筑设计从来都不是规规矩矩的直线,而是从大自然中汲取灵感的螺旋和曲线设计,他那大胆新颖的设计风格,为后人留下了无与伦比的视觉盛宴。

坐在圣家堂的祷告室中静坐冥想,我也摆脱了时空的限制,沉浸在天人合一的美妙境界中,体会「真」和「美」的能量。感谢从古至今参与打造这些雄伟建筑的艺术家和工匠们,让我们通过人为的媒介,怀着敬畏之情,感受大自然的伟大。正如诗人沃尔特·惠特曼在第一版《草叶集》的序言中写道的那样,「这是你应该做的事情:爱地球,爱太阳,爱动物,蔑视财富,给予他人想要的施舍,为愚蠢和疯狂的人出头,把收入和劳动奉献给他人,对任何已知或未知的东西脱帽致敬,与强大的未受过教育的人还有年轻人自由交往。在你生活的每一年每一季,去户外看看树叶,重新审视你所在的环境和被告知的一切,摒弃任何侮辱自身灵魂的东西,将肉体活成一首伟大的诗,处处充满丰富的流动感」。

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4/4/2022

Personal Energy Management: Live a Fulfilled Life

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Photo credit: Jon Tyson
I often got asked by readers and friends: how come you have extra hours to do so many things: write two newsletters (Chinese and English), run two podcast shows (Chiwi Journal and A Paradise of Poems), publish novels (Chinese and English), found a business, work with clients from four continents, read 50+ books a year, play Fantasy Premier League game, translate well-known writers’ books in Chinese and still have ‘me’ time and social life?  

My secret weapon is personal energy management. 

Before I reveal the information, let’s look back to history to know who contributes to my secret formula. 

Many historical figures with multi-talents made considerable achievements in more than one field of life. Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, devoted his time to politics and government and was also a prolific writer and inventor and had interests in architecture, wine and birds.

Leonardo Da Vinci, the most talented polymath ever in history for his designs, art, cartography, geology, and anatomy, did various sketches in his notebooks that transformed the direction of human civilisation; Isaac Newton, a well-known physicist and mathematician, made contributions in philosopher and alchemist to unlocksome of nature’s greatest secrets…

The list goes on and on. Among all of them, Winston Churchill is the one I look upon the most because I can take the reference of his down-to-earth method of energy management and put them into my daily practice. 

In his lifetime, Winston Churchill published more than 40 books with over 10 million words, won the Nobel Prize for Literature, painted 500+ pictures, and delivered 2,300+ speeches... And, of course, he was a busy politician who led Britain to victory in World War II. 

Looking at Churchill’s daily routine:
He woke up, took a bath, and spent two hours writing and working. Around noon he greeted his wife (Churchill believed the secret to maintaining a good marriage was not to see your lover before noon) and enjoyed lunch. 

After the meal, he took a walk around the house, fed swans and fish, then sat in silence and meditated or read poetry. Around 3 pm, he took a nap and woke up at 5 pm to spend time with his family. 

Later, he would take a hot bath, dress for dinner around 8 pm, and continue writing or working before bed.
Day after day, year after year.

Apart from writing and working, Churchill developed two hobbies during the war to help him relieve stress and charge his energy: bricklaying and oil painting.

Although the skills would not reach the professional level, his hobbies provided him with a solitary mind to think clearly and cope with political disappointments when he was voted out of the parliament after WWII.

I learned from those great minds before me who genuinely believe in the power of daily routine and practice to cultivate a productive lifestyle. Here are my three tips to build up the energy management system that help me to achieve a productive lifestyle. 

1. Calculate everyday time-spending with a value score

As Dan Heath said in his best-seller Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen, we have to tackle the problem at its roots. In this case, we need to look at how we spend our time and where does our energy go and then decide how to use them more effectively.

First, let me share how I spend my day (based on the inspiration from Pieter Level’s blog) and how I value my daily activities (based on the excise from Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art School)
24 hours a day
7 hours of sleep = 17 hours remaining
1 hour to wash, dress, and coffee = 16 hours left
2 hours maintaining website/community channel + emails = 14 hours left
2 hours of walking and gym exercise = 12 hours remaining
1 hour grocery shopping or other chores = 11 hours remaining
2 hours chatting with friends and family = 9 hours remaining
1 hour of mealtime = 8 hours remaining
3 hours of deep work = 5 hours remaining
1 hour meditation and daydreaming = 4 hours remaining
2 hours of reading = 2 hours remaining
2 hours of entertainment (usually watching sports and movies) = 0 hours left
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Once knowing our time allowance and the value of those activities, we can prioritise or arrange the time based on different projects and situations and follow our daily practice accordingly. Here comes my daily routine and practice:
  • Wake up in the morning and meditate
  • Gym session or walk in the park
  • Deep work in the morning
  • Lunch and chat with friends
  • Afternoon writing or reading books
  • Watch football games or movies in the evening or at the weekend
  • Dinner with family (not now since I’m away from home)
  • Keep a journal before bed
When it comes to deep work, the bestselling author and peak performance expert Steven Kotler has summarised well in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.  

We all heard about Flow State, but not many scholars could explain it as clearly as Kotler. He decodes the Flow State at its fundamental level with support evidence from neuroscience and psychology subjects. We have to master the 4-stage sequence to enter the Flow State:  

  • Motivation. Follow your intrinsic curiosity and passion and develop skills such as persistence, grit, and the ability to delay gratification to sustain motivation over the long haul.
  • Learning. Acquire new skills and knowledge, and nurture the ability to understand the process of learning itself via mental models and first-principle thinking. 
  • Creativity. Mastering skills like idea generation, pattern recognition, and risk-taking to produce novel and valuable ideas
  • Flow. Enter the Flow State and live a high-flow lifestyle to achieve impossible tasks. 

2. Journaling and Meditation

It’s easy said than done to enter the Flow State. The best-seller author Nir Eyal shared in his book Indistractable how our emotions prevent us from doing deep work. The tactics include journaling and meditation.

Nir Eyal mentioned that all human behaviour is spurred by the desire to escape discomfort neurologically. Knowing our true feelings about specific scenarios is necessary to understand what we are running from to avoid energy drain. 

I treat the journal as my trustworthy and loyal friend where I can express freely about everything. By consciously pouring out the thoughts and feelings from my head, I bring back to light what is buried deep in my heart. In addition to that, keeping a diary before bed has made me more disciplined and forged the habit of writing on paper instead of scrolling social media feeds that would disrupt my sleep. 

In 2017, I got a chance to learn Transcendental Meditation and started to practise it every day. The most noticeable change from meditating is that I have become more aware of my energy flow. Those hidden and suppressed emotions that suck my energy up are finally coming out. It can be horrifying at the beginning of a few months of meditation because we have to confront those ugly things we avoided before. 

Our distractions have a strong tie with emotion. We have to know the diversity of our feelings and what kind of pains we are trying to escape in order to maintain our energy level at a healthy status. As Sigmund Freud once said, “unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.” Let’s be courageous and face them to cope with the problem at the root cause. 

Last but not least, meditation is a long-term process, and just as the body needs to keep exercising to build muscle, the brain needs to keep meditating to develop awareness. ​

3. Build up a personal dashboard.

As the management guru Peter Drucker famously said, “If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.” Once we understand our daily routine and know our energy consumption, it’s time to build up a personal dashboard to monitor and optimise our system. 

I’d like to share three examples from my fellow 1729er and myself to showcase an example of how we build our personal dashboard:
  • Coleman Foley: The Personal Dashboard
  • Camellia Yang: A Story of My Life
  • @r4bbit.eth (shared in 1729 community Discord)
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Conclusion

​If you are a high-agency person like me, here are my two cents on living a productive, ambitious and creative life. 

  • Record your 24 hours to see where you spend your time and energy and weight each item with a value score
  • Write your ideal day in detail and live towards it with daily practice. 
  • Read Steven and Nir’s books on achieving a flow state without distraction. ​

Only one enemy stands in the way to prevent you from becoming who you are. 

You know the answer, right? Just set yourself free by doing it, my friends!

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30/3/2022

Chiwi Journal #12: Self-Authoring, Ukraine Holodomor, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Personal Monopoly and Fernando Pessoa

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I spend 140+ hours digging insights from Chinese and English books, articles, and podcasts each month and sharing them in a 6-min easy-to-read email.
Subscribe and read the whole piece here.
​

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29/3/2022

Who's Afraid of Mr Jones? From Ukraine Holodomor to Media Manipulation & Disinformation

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Photo credit: Claudio Schwarz
"A propaganda model suggests that the “societal purpose” of the media is to teach and defend the economic, social, and political agenda of privileged groups that dominate the domestic society and the state. The media serve this purpose in many ways: through a selection of topics, distribution of concerns, framing of issues, filtering of information, emphasis and tone, and keeping debate within the bounds of acceptable premises."

- Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky

​If you ask Ukrainians, who is the most memorable and influential British in their history, Gareth Jones’ name is undoubtedly on the record. 

Ukraine’s capital city has renamed a street “Gareth Jones Lane” in honour of him as the first foreign correspondent who dared to uncover Stalin’s Ukraine Holodomor (man-made famine) of 1932-1933. 
​
The hypotheses from Nigel Colley, researcher and grandnephew of Gareth Jones, stated that George Orwell’s renowned fable Animal Farm was inspired by Jones’ works. Orwell named the owner of Manor Farm Mr Jones and alluded to the famine and the cover-up in his novella. 

Who’s Gareth Jones?

The historical thriller film Mr Jones opened the door of the rabbit hole for me. It tells the incredible story of Jones risking his career and life to reveal the truth when Western reports turn their blind eyes to Stalin’s notorious totalitarian crime in the twenties century. 

Gareth Jones was a young and intelligent welsh journalist with a righteous ardour to seek the truth. He used to be a personal advisor to former prime minister David Lloyd George for his political journalism background and language talents (fluent in Germany and Russia). 

Before he entered the Soviet Union in 1933, he had just flown with Adolf Hitler and conducted the interview foreseeing the rise of the Nazi Party. “The Europe of 1933 has seen the birth of the Hitler dictatorship in Germany. What will it see in the Soviet Union?” wrote him.  

He sneaked into the Soviet Ukraine, where he kept diaries of his first-hand witnesses to the widespread starvation, unattended death and extremely crucial cannibalism. 
“I walked along through villages and twelve collective farms. Everywhere was the cry, ‘There is no bread. We are dying’. This cry came from every part of Russia, from the Volga, Siberia, White Russia, the North Caucasus, and Central Asia. I tramped through the black earth region because that was once the richest farmland in Russia and because the correspondents had been forbidden to go there to see for themselves what is happening.”
 
“In the train a Communist denied to me that there was a famine. I flung a crust of bread which I had been eating from my own supply into a spittoon. A peasant fellow-passenger fished it out and ravenously ate it. I threw an orange peel into the spittoon and the peasant again grabbed it and devoured it. The Communist subsided. I stayed overnight in a village where there used to be two hundred oxen and where there now are six. The peasants were eating the cattle fodder and had only a month’s supply left. They told me that many had already died of hunger. Two soldiers came to arrest a thief. They warned me against travel by night, as there were too many ‘starving’ desperate men.”

 - Extract of Jones’ reporting from Soviet Ukraine

​Jones was utterly shocked by the reality because it was the opposite of what his fellow western correspondents reported. He spent two months undercover investigating the truth. And called a press conference in Berlin to reveal his findings: Stalin’s agricultural collectivization campaign forced millions of peasants onto collective farms and attacked the Ukrainian language and culture to form the USSR’s national identity. 
 
However, Jones’ reports were dismissed by his peers, who knew better on judging the situation and deliberately concocted fake news for the interest groups. 

Jones vs Duranty

The New York Times reporter Walter Duranty, who won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting the Soviet Five Year Plan glorifying this new regime, criticized Jones in New York Times by accusing him of jumping to conclusions based on limited facts. “Conditions are bad but there is no famine,” wrote Duranty in 1933. 

Duranty also echoed Soviet propaganda by acknowledging “food shortages” due to “the novelty and mismanagement of collective farming” and shared his thoughts on the situation in Ukraine as “you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs” to cover up the man-made mass murder of millions.

Apart from Duranty, public figures such as George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells also publicly denied the famine in Ukraine. During a visit to Ukraine in 1933, former French Prime Minister Édouard Herriot said that Soviet Ukraine was “like a garden in full bloom”. Gareth Jones lost all his standing and reputation for revealing the Ukraine Holodomor that contradicted his Western peers’ testimonials and reportings.

In 1935, one day before his thirtieth birthday, Jones was kidnapped and murdered while investigating in Japanese-occupied Mongolia. A suspicion has examined the connection between his death and Soviet NKVD, as revenge for his reporting damaged the reputation of the Soviet regime.  

While Jones suffered the tragic consequences of revealing the truth and was shot dead in a foreign country, Duranty, on the contrary, was greeted by ministers and governors at a dinner party in a grand hotel to celebrate the establishment of relations between the United States and the USSR. 
​
The toastmaster on the night introduced Duranty as “one of the great foreign correspondents of modern times, serving a great newspaper of this city”. Sally J. Taylor, the author of Stalin’s Apologist: Walter Duranty, also noted: “he was arguably the best-known foreign correspondent in the world.”

"That part of the world is a cauldron of conflicting intrigue and one or other interests concerned probably knew that Mr Gareth Jones knew too much of what was going on...  He had a passion for finding out what was happening in foreign lands wherever there was trouble, and in pursuit of his investigations he shrank from no risk...  I had always been afraid that he would take one risk too many.  Nothing escaped his observation, and he allowed no obstacle to turn from his course when he thought that there was some fact, which he could obtain.  He had the almost unfailing knack of getting at things that mattered."
- London Evening Standard, quoting former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, 26th August 1935.


​Who’s Afraid of Mr Jones?

Despite the Holodomor being officially denied by the Kremlin for more than half a century, Ukrainians are still fighting for its recognition and understanding of this dark chapter. In recent years, the Ukrainian government opened National Holodomor Memorial in Kyiv and many Holodomor monuments worldwide to commemorate the estimated 3.3 to 5 million deaths during this tragic event. 

Looking at our society, Gareth Jones’s story and the Holodomor continually resonated with us far beyond time and space. The mainstream media in both east and west haven’t given up their agenda to serve political and economic interests, control public narrative, restrict information flow, and contribute to extreme speeches and behaviours. 

In our time where fake news is all over the media landscape, distorting our understanding of reality, it has never been more important to study historic events and recognise the deadly consequences of media manipulation and disinformation. Thanks to journalists like Gareth Jones, their efforts and bravery serve as a moral compass for us to explore truth in the current chaotic situation. 
  
I started my career in media and was taught to follow three rules to be a good journalist: passionate about journalism, fear no hardship and authority and be curious and courageous throughout my life. I regarded Oriana Fallaci and Marie Colvin as my role models for their work ethics and fighter mentality. I also admire writers like Hemingway and Orwell, who took responsibility, threw themselves into the frontline and wrote the truth in war. 

Although I lost many battles against censorship, I never surrendered and never ceased the fire to fight for human rights in freedom of expression. The good news is with the development of technology, I have more tools to seek the truth and protect myself with pseudonymity and decentralisation.

Balaji Srinivasan shares his insights on why the future lies in trusting distributed “cryptographic truth” rather than the values of centralised news organisations. More and more people join the journey in web3 to proactively challenge the mainstream narrative and focus on building sovereignty and agency to navigate complexity.
​
The truth may arrive late, but it never will be absent. Gareth Jones’ name may not have been recognised in his time, but it never will be forgotten. 

How our world came to be.

John Reed, Lenin's journalisthttps://t.co/DaEfIbtDgG

Walter Duranty, Stalin's journalisthttps://t.co/sGZa2Mi50N

Edgar Snow, Mao's journalisthttps://t.co/zr5KoeeFLF

Herbert Matthews, Castro's journalisthttps://t.co/wXEp3lEuTC

— Balaji Srinivasan (@balajis) July 7, 2021
P.S. I wrote a novella after watching Mr Jones in 2020, dedicated Chapter Six to media, and mentioned Jones & Duranty. Also, I chose June 8 as the date to publish my novella to pay tribute to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, which was released on the same date in 1949.

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27/3/2022

Morgan Housel | 关于人类如何思考的17大总结

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投资公司Collaborative Fund合伙人、前《华尔街日报》专栏作家摩根·豪塞尔(Morgan Housel)最近发表了一篇长博文《How People Think》,他描述了在人类漫长的历史中,充满了无尽的想法和故事,尽管每个人都有独特的看待世界的角度和方式,但人类的行为和思维模式却充满了共性,Morgan就「人类如何思考」这一课题,总结出了最常见也最具影响力的17个方面,简单编译一下:

1. 每个人都隶属于部落,并低估了部落对其思维产生的影响。
部落无处不在,包括国家、省市、政党、公司、行业、投资风格、经济理念、宗教、家庭、学校、专业、资格证明。人们之所以喜欢加入部落,因为可以找到志同道合并且怀抱相同目标的同僚。

每个部落都有自己的规则、信仰和想法,你可能对其中的一些规则不以为然,但是却不敢公开表示否定。因为没有个体愿意冒着被部落其他成员攻击的风险去挑战既定的规则,或者质疑自己隶属于部落的身份特征。久而久之人们要么心甘情愿地对糟糕的注意点头,要么被环境腐化,成为部落忠诚的一份子。

2. 人类呈现给世界的东西只占大脑中的一小部分。
美国国会图书馆拥有300万本书,等同于25万亿字的内容。目前互联网上可获取的所有信息总量约为40万亿字节,相当于宇宙大爆炸至今140亿年天天播放高清视频的信息量。这么多的历史已经被记录下来!但是,这只是我们人类公开分享、记录和发表的内容,和实际在人脑中发生的信息相比微不足道。

就算是再高产的创作者,他们分享的经历和想法可能只占其人生故事的千分之一。所以,我们很容易被「幸存者偏差」所误导,毕竟人们分享的内容都是他们希望别人看到的,美化了技能,隐藏了缺陷,夸大了胜利,淡化了失败。

我们生活中的大多数事情都是枯燥乏味且困难的,但是当你把自己的生活和别人分享的成功相对比时,就会觉得自己缺少某项技能或者秘密武器,这也许是事实,但更加真实的一面是你并不知道别人究竟经历了什么才取得今天的成就。

3. 预测是一门关于概率的学问。但旁观者往往以二元对立的方式对预测进行评判,不看概率只看对错。
大多数人都明白一个道理,确定性是很难得的,你能做的是计算事情发生的概率是否对自己有利。聪明人也会失败,蠢蛋也会成功,这就是运气和风险出场的时刻。但是,很少有人真正在现实世界中使用概率,尤其是在评判他人的预测时,人们更关心的是,你到底是对还是错。

不同的概率存在着细微的差别和等级,但是在现实世界中,人们习惯非黑即白。如果你说某件事情会发生,并且它发生了,你就是对的;如果你说某件事会发生而没发生,你就是错的。这就是人们习惯的思考方式,并不用动什么脑子。

人们总想对未知的未来有一个确定的看法,毕竟想摆脱不确定性带来的痛苦是人之常情。如果有人告诉你有60%的概率发生经济衰退,这对消除痛苦并没有什么作用。如果有人说,今年一定会有经济衰退,你便会对未来有了预知。

4. 人类是在一个没什么极端好坏事情会发生的无限持续的世界里生活着的推断机器。
当你身处强大的趋势当中,很难想象有一种力量足以扭转乾坤。但我们往往忽略了一个规则,并不是外部力量改变了现状,而是系统内部产生的微妙副作用改变了这一强大的趋势。

当经济兴旺时,人们会变得自信,然后就会冒险,冒险后需要承担风险,导致经济出现衰退;当市场尚未崩盘时,估值就会上升,随即产生大量泡沫,市场面临崩盘;当危机出现时,人们就会产生动力,随即会疯狂地解决问题,此时危机便会结束... 我们总是在事后总结时才会发现这样屡试不爽的规律,但身处其中时却浑然不知。

当发酵过程产生的酒精浓度达到一定程度时,就会杀死最初启动发酵过程的酵母。大多数强大的趋势也会以同样的方式结束。当我们身处历史的洪流中,除了要考虑「顺势」如何影响人类,也要考虑人类会对此「势」产生哪些行动,从而终止这个趋势。

5. 人类的理智是有限度的,了解乐观主义和悲观主义两者界限的唯一方法就是在边界处再加试探。
杰里·宋飞(Jerry Seinfeld)曾经主持一档电视史上最受欢迎的节目,然后他在节目的顶峰时期宣布退出,因为他深知万事万物皆有规律,顶峰过后便是衰退,虽然他并不知道节目是否还能更火,但他却不想对此冒险。如果你想知道历史上为什么会有那么多非理性的事情发生,是因为大多数的人都没有宋飞的心态,不知道适可而止,而总想试探顶峰的边界。

世界上的大多数事情都混合着事实和情感,例如一家工厂能生产多少钢铁(事实),投资者愿意为这个产量支付多少(情感)。事实可以计算,但情感却无法用公式进行预测。比特币的价值是多少?特斯拉能涨到多高?回答这些问题需要预知人们未来的情绪:他们对此有多乐观?他们选择相信什么?以及描述这些概念的人能否讲一个充满说服力的故事?任何人也无法给出确定的答案。

所以,探索人类情绪极限的唯一方法便是不断地在边界试探,看着事情从繁荣走向衰退,回头总结时才知道,原来那就是极限。

当你回看历史疯狂的事件时,不要觉得当时的人们都疯了,也许他们只不过在理性地寻找事物的极限。

6. 人类选择性地忽视崇拜对象的弱点,当你崇拜一个人独特的一面时,他独特的另一面可能令你厌恶。
我们身边的大多数榜样人物都拥有一些极端甚至离谱的特质,你崇拜他们的理由是因为他们做了普通人不敢或者从没想过的事情。这些特质中良莠并具,当你在欣赏他们的所作所为时,很容易忽略究竟哪些特质是促使他们成功的关键。

坎耶·维斯特(Kanye West)曾经说过,如果欣赏这些疯狂的想法,疯狂的音乐,以及疯狂的思维方式,你要知道这些很有可能来自一个疯狂的人。保罗·格雷厄姆(Paul Graham)这样说道,杰出人士的杰出品质中,有一半其实都是缺点。安德鲁·威尔金森(Andrew Wilkinson)则说道,大多数成功人士只是被多产驾驭着的行走的焦虑症患者。

我们很容易去模仿一些成功人士的不良品质,因为我们相信那是促使他们成功的原因。同时,如果你嫉妒一个人的时候,你不能只看到他们成功的一面,你并不知道他们为了达成你羡慕的目标放弃了多少东西。

奥斯卡影后桑德拉·布洛克在获奖后被媒体爆出她的丈夫是一个通奸的混蛋。所以,你想做这样的交易吗?你会用巨大的事业成功换取婚姻上的不幸吗?如果你不得不花三秒钟以上的时间来思考这个问题,你绝对是疯了。

7. 人类为了实现效率最大化而牺牲容错空间,尽管容错空间是实现长远成功的最重要因素。
我们的世界充满了竞争,如果你错失了机会,你的竞争对手就会抓住机会,并将这个机会利用到极致。这样的竞争推动了世界的发展,但却有一个副作用:当所有的机会都被用尽,市场不再存在容错空间,当没有犯错的余地时,任何暴露于波动和意外中的系统最终都将走向崩溃。

我们可以理解那些总是将效率最大化挂在嘴边的首席执行官们,因为如果他们不这样做,竞争对手就会将他们赶尽杀绝。人类行为模式中有一点很是奇怪,我们总想最大限度地发挥潜力,直至摧毁自己。许多人努力追求高效的生活,不浪费任何时间。但是,当你把日程表排得满满当当,就没有时间让思想自由遨游,去探索新的事物,而放空大脑正是最高效的思维方式。

我们正面临着一个悖论,容错空间对长期生存至关重要,但以消除容错空间的方式实现效率最大化可能对短期生存至关重要。那些拥有着长远视角的人,很容易被别人看作是游手好闲或不求上进,牺牲短期利益谋取长远发展的公司也会被外界认为表现不佳,但是他们却能长久地活下去,收获最后的欢笑和最高的回报。

8. 最好的故事胜过一切。
不是最好的想法,也不是正确的答案,而是最好的故事才能吸引人类的注意力。

夏洛克·福尔摩斯曾说过说,你在世上做过哪些事并不重要,重要的是让人们相信你做过什么事情。摩根·弗里曼(Morgan Freeman)可以将一份杂货清单讲述的让人们泪流满面,而一位不善言辞的科学家在分享治愈疾病的良方时不被人注意。查尔斯·达尔文(Charles Darwin)没有发现进化论,他只是写出了第一本令人瞩目的关于进化论的书籍;安德鲁·卡内基(Andrew Carnegie)把自己的人格魅力和社交能力与商业头脑看得同等重要;埃隆·马斯克(Elon Musk)给投资者描绘愿景的能力和他的工程技能同样重要;罗里·萨瑟兰爵士(Sir Rory Sutherland)最近说过,如果不是因为圣保罗,没有人听说过耶稣。作家埃利亚斯·卡内蒂(Elias Canette)写道,人们总是会被讲故事的人所吸引,会讲故事的人所说的话会比普通人的话语在空中停留更长的时间。

能在人类历史上持久存在的叙事并不是那些最能经受住事实核查的叙事,而是能解决我们最深层次需求和欲望的故事。如果你认为我们的世界被事实和客观性所左右,如果你坚信最好的想法一定会赢,请三思。当你意识到你可以通过使用新的叙述方法去诠释旧有的概念,而无需从零做起改变世界时,你会发现事事皆有可能。

9. 我们被复杂性所左右,殊不知简洁性才是智慧和理解的真正标志。
计算机科学家埃德塞·迪克斯特拉(Edsger Dijkstra)曾写道,我们应该清楚地认识到,简洁是真理的标志,但复杂对人类有着病态的吸引力。当你为学术界的听众做了一场从头到尾都非常清晰的讲座时,听众们会觉得自己被欺骗了。令人痛心的事实是,复杂的东西更好卖。

一条推文可能比一本书更有见地,但人们宁愿花20美元买书,也绝不会花一分钱买成千上万的推文;给客户提供十句话的建议,他们会厌恶地离开,给他们一本厚实的文件阐述,他们会付你一大笔钱,并向朋友推荐你。

这是为什么呢?有几个原因。

其一是,长度往往是标志着努力和深思熟虑的唯一指标。信息消费者很少会客观地剖析一个论点,这实在是太难了。当他们阅读时,他们只想搞清楚作者是否可信。文章的长度和复杂性往往读者做出判断的唯一指标,表明了作者确实有下功夫研究这个论点。

其次是当你遇到不理解的东西时,会觉得理解这一概念的人充满了神秘感,你很难判断理解这个知识点的人在该领域的知识局限,所以更容易相信他提出的长篇大论。

第三个原因是,复杂性满足了人们的控制欲,而简洁性则让人们觉得很难与无知区分开来。你能摆弄的旋钮越多,就越觉得对情况越有掌控。只注意几个变量而忽略其他会让你你看上去略显无知,即使这才是正确的方法。如果客户问你:"这个呢,这里发生了什么?"而你回答说:"哦,我不知道,我不看这个指标。"在客户眼中,你看上去不知所云的几率可能会超过他认为你已经掌握了简洁真理的几率。

10. 你是否愿意相信一个预测,受到你有多希望或需要这个预测为真的影响。
「你一生中最快乐的一天是什么时候」?

纪录片《如何永生How to Live Forever》向一位百岁老人提出了这个天真的问题,老人的回答令人惊讶。

「停战日"」,她说。她指的是1918年第一次世界大战签署停战协议的日子。

「为什么呢」,制片人问道。

「因为我们知道再也不会有战争了」,她说。

结果第二次世界大战在21年后卷土重来,7500万人因此遇难。

在生活中,我们认为很多事情是真实的,是因为我们迫切希望它们是真的,无论是关系、事业、投资还是政治观点。我们每一个人都是白日梦想家,当我们觉得未来会很艰难时,就不会有动力去做事情,除非虚构一个想要的结果,给我们在充满不确定性的世界中带来慰藉。

在现代医学出现之前,几世纪以来人们利用放血疗法、饥饿疗法、在身体上挖洞以释放恶魔等医治方法极为普遍,因为这些糟糕的治疗方法可以给人们带来希望。当你迫切需要一个解决方案时,但又不知道什么才是对你有效的解决方法,那么阻力最小的途径就是主动相信某个解决方案,不仅仅是做出尝试,而是坚信它的确有效。

同样的思维方式发生在投资领域,人们热切地听从那些与猜测无异的预测信息。如果你告诉人们他们想听的东西,你就可以无限期地错下去而不用接受惩罚。
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11. 如果你没有体验过他人生活的世界,就很难对他们的信仰产生共鸣。
《华尔街日报》专栏作杰森·茨威格Jason Zweig写道,如果我在调查问卷中问你是否害怕蛇,你可能会说不害怕。如果我把一条活蛇扔到你的腿上,然后问你是否怕蛇,你可能会说害怕(前提是你还能继续和我说话)。

作为当事人和作为局外人对某事的看法和感受可能相差千里。

按理说大型战争往往相隔20-40年才会发生,因为需要一定的时间来培养没有受到上一场战争的伤害和影响的新一代的选民、政客和将军。其他政治趋势包括社会权利、经济理论、优先事项预算也遵循类似的路径。这并不代表着人类忘记了历史,而是我们的同理心和开放的思想无法真正模拟当事人面对恐惧和不确定性的感觉。

如果你能通过对手的视角来看待世界,并经历他们的生活,那么一半以上的个人、国内国际或者经济分歧都会消失。纳西姆·塔勒布(Nassim Taleb)很好地总结了这一点,他说:「如果某件事看起来不理性,而且长期以来一直如此,那么你对理性的定义很可能是错误的」。

每个人都应该问自己这些问题:
  • 如果我出生在不同的国家或不同的年代,我对自己现在的哪些观点会持有异见?
  • 我没有亲身经历过的哪些事情让我对其运作方式持有天真的看法?
  • 哪些是我认为只会影响到其他国家/行业/职业的问题,最终却会影响到我?

上述问题并不可能完全回答出来。每个人的世界观都存在着盲点。当我们与别人产生分歧时,其实只是揭示了自己不具备相关的经验。

12. 人类之所以无辜地否认自我缺陷是因为我们在脑中会对自己的错误进行辩解,而对待他人的错误却无法一视同仁。
乔治·卡林(George Carlin)曾经开玩笑地指出发现蠢人是多么的容易,「随身携带纸和笔,一天结束时,你会得到三四十个名字。发现其中的蠢人并不需要很长时间,不是吗?大约需要8秒钟」。 

但丹尼尔·卡尼曼在《思考快与慢》一书中提到了一个更重要的事实:识别他人的错误比识别自己的错误更加容易。而我的理论是:把他人的错误归咎于愚蠢和贪婪比怪罪自己更加容易。

这是因为当他人犯错时,我只会根据我看到的情况来判断,又快又容易。但当自己犯错时,我的脑海里会出现一段又长又有说服力的独白,为自己的错误进行辩解,并增加了其他人看不到的重要背景。

每个人都是如此,这很正常。

我的姐夫是一名社工,他最近告诉我,「只要有足够的信息,所有的行为都是有意义的」。 这是一个很好的观点。你看到有人在做一些疯狂的事情,然后想,你到底为什么要这样做?当你和他们坐下来,听听他们的生活,过了一会儿你会意识到,啊,我现在有点明白了。

每个人都是自己生活经历的产物,其他人很少能看到我们生活的全景。对我来说有意义的东西对你来说可能没有意义,因为你并不知道什么样的经历塑造了我,反之亦然。

对于「你为什么不同意我的观点」这个问题可以有无限的答案。有时答案是因为对方是自私、愚蠢、盲目或不知情的。但通常更好的问题是「你有什么经历是我不曾体验过的,导致你相信你所做的事情?如果我经历了你所经历的事情,我会像你一样看待这个世界吗」?

这是一个很难回答的问题,当你想到没有经历过的事情可能会改变你的信仰,这让自己感觉很不舒服,这是承认自己的无知。没有考虑对方的经历和立场就妄下定论是人之常情,也导致了世上的很多分歧。

13. 人类对小事通过复利进化成为非同寻常的大事的认知不足。
宇宙中最令人震惊的力量显而易见,那就是进化。它引领着单细胞生物变成了可以在500G存储空间的iPhone上阅读这篇文章的人类,给了我们20/20的裸眼视力,给了鸟飞行的能力,也为生物带来了免疫系统。在科学领域,没有什么比进化所取得的成就更能让你大吃一惊。

生物学家莱斯利·奥格尔(Leslie Orgel)曾说过,「进化比你更聪明」,因为每当有批评者说「进化不可能做到这一点」时,他们通常只是缺乏想象力。进化的超能力不只是选择有利的特征,这样的话就太乏味了。毕竟大多数物种千年以来的变化都如此微小,甚至无法察觉。

进化的真正魔力在于它在38亿年里一直在选择性状。时间,而不是微小的变化,才是进化的关键,将微不足道的变化与38亿年的时间相加,你得到的结果便与魔法无异。这就是进化真正教给我们的一课。

物理学家阿尔伯特·巴特利特(Albert Bartlett)曾经说过,「人类最大的缺点是无法理解指数函数」。世界上的很多事情都是依靠该函数运作。很多人都听说过复利的力量,或是读过那些关于在20多岁开始储蓄比30多岁开始储蓄会多多少退休金的故事。但很少有人真正去做,因为得出的结果有悖直觉,线性思维比指数思维要直观得多。迈克尔·巴特尼克(Michael Batnick)曾经解释过。如果我让你在脑海中计算8+8+8+8+8+8+8,你可以在几秒钟内完成(是72);如果我让你计算8x8x8x8x8x8x8x8,你的脑袋就会爆炸(答案是134,217,728)。

我们在投资领域经常可以看到不重视复利的故事。霍华德·马克斯(Howard Marks)曾经谈到一个投资者,他的年度业绩从未排在前四分之一,但如果看过去14年总业绩,他则排到了所有投资人的前4%,如果他将这些平庸的年回报再保持10年,他可能会进入同行业前1%,尽管他的年度业绩不值得一提,但是平庸的复利也能在时间的加持下让你出人头地。

如果你了解复利背后的数学,你会意识到最重要的问题不是 「我怎样才能获得最高的回报」 而是 「我可以长期维持的最佳回报是什么?」这就是复利教给我们的重大一课,少关注变化,多关注指数。

14. 知道该做什么事情和真正去做这件事情之间有着天壤之别。
我曾经问过一位医生,「你工作中最困难的部分是什么?」她说,「让病人做我要求他们做的事」。一开始我还不明白,但经过她的解释,我恍然大悟。

「你和病人说,我需要你做这个检验、看这个专家、拿这个药。而他们一个月后回来,却什么都没做」。 她解释说,「一名好医生意味着花更多地时间管理病人,而不是医治疾病」。医学专家知道所有教科书上的正确答案,可以精确地做出诊断,并掌握所有最新的治疗方法;但是从病人的角度来看,看病昂贵又费时,又让人心生恐惧。即使医生给出一个完美的治疗方案,病人丝毫不去遵循也等于是白费功夫。

生活中的许多事情包括投资、关系、健康、职业都是如此,我们知道自己应该做什么,但却没有真正去做。在许多情况下,我们都希望不用付出代价就能通过投机取巧的方式得到想要的东西。病人不想吃得更好,也不想运动,只想要一种药丸来解决一切;投资人没有耐心等上十年,他们只想要一个下周就能翻倍的股票。

我们生活在一个拥有大量简单的解决方案,但人们却懒得去遵循简单建议的世界中。伊萨克·阿西莫夫(Issac Asimov)曾说过,「科学收集知识的速度比社会收集智慧的速度快多了」,这句话很好地总结了大多事情。

15. 人类不擅长设想改变带来的感受,因为做梦时无需背景设定。
当事情进展顺利时,每个人都认为自己有很高的风险承受能力,一旦事情出现恶化,人们就会说,「啊,你知道吗,实际上,这比我想象的要痛苦」。

人们往往会孤立地思考未来的风险,比如说,当我想到市场下跌了40%,我会觉得世上所有东西都没什么变化,除了股票便宜了40%。但股票便宜40%的原因可能是人们认为世界正处于崩溃的边缘,比如经济衰退、大流行病、政治崩溃等等。同样的事情也发生在我们幻想成功之时。

我还没遇到过或知道有谁在取得巨大的成功后,获得了外人期望的那种超高的幸福感。这并不意味着成功不会带来自豪感、满足感或独立性,但这些却和你在实现成功之前想象的很不一样。

吉姆·凯瑞(Jim Carrey)曾经说过,「我认为每个人都应该实现名利双收,做他们曾经梦想的一切,这样他们就会知道,这并不是人生的答案」。我认为部分原因是因为人类很难预测损失:我们很难想象完整的愿景。

如果你幻想未来的自己住在一所全新的豪宅里,周围的一切都是那么美妙。但我们我们很容易忘记的是,住在豪宅里的人可能会得流感、患牛皮癣、卷入诉讼、与配偶争吵、被不安全感所困扰,被政治家所烦扰。在任何特定的时刻,这些琐事都可能取代物质成功带来的快乐。未来的财富是在真空中想象出来的,但现实情况则是好坏交织。

16. 人类对罕见事件的理解不足,导致对世界的脆弱程度视而不见。
约翰·利特尔伍德(John Littlewood )是一位数学家,他试图驳斥奇迹只是简单的统计数字的想法。物理学家弗里曼·戴森(Freeman Dyson)解释说,利特尔伍德的奇迹定律指出,在任何正常人的生活过程中,奇迹发生的概率大约为每月一次。

证明该定律十分简单。我们每天清醒并积极参与生活的时间大约有8小时。按照我们看到和听到的事情以每秒发生一个的速度计算,发生在我们身上的事件总数约为每天3万件,或每月100万件。除了少数例外,奇迹发生的机会大约是每百万分之一,因此我们应该期待平均每个月有一个奇迹发生。

再来看我们称之为百年不遇的灾难,像是洪水、飓风、地震、金融危机、大流行病、政治崩溃、经济衰退等等。这些百年事件并不意味着每100年就会发生一次,而是意味着在任何一年有大约1%的机会发生。看上去概率很低,但是世界上存在着数百个独立的百年事件,其中任何一个在某年发生的概率是多少呢?

如果明年有1%的概率发生新的全球流行病,1%的概率发生严重的经济萧条,1%的概率发生灾难性的洪水,1%的概率发生政治崩溃等等,那么明年或任何一年发生坏事的概率是......令人不适的高。利特尔伍德定律告诉我们,我们可以每月期待一个奇迹。反之亦然,我们也可以预期灾难。这就是历史给予我们的教训,不是吗?

阿诺德·汤因比(Arnold Toynbee)说,历史是 「一个接一个的该死事情」。即使在我们记忆中的繁荣时期,如20世纪50年代和90年代,也有一连串的悲剧发生。1958年经济衰退和1998年的金融市场几近崩溃。世界平均每十年就会发生一次重大的崩盘事件,这是利特尔伍德定律在起作用。世上有无数种不同的灾难,在任意特定的时刻发生任意一个灾难都会对世界造成破坏。

17. 人类无法忍受狗屁事件,导致丧失对世界运行规律的认知。
史蒂芬·普雷斯菲尔德(Steven Pressfield )写了30年才出版了《巴格·万斯传奇The Legend of Bagger Vance》。在那之前,他的职业生涯暗淡无光,甚至住在中途之家(halfway house,又称为「重返社会训练所」或者「社区矫正中心」)只因为那里的租金便宜。

普雷斯菲尔德曾经谈到他在那里遇到的人,「我们经常在厨房里闲逛,彻夜长谈,那里的人是我见过的最聪明也是最有趣的人群之一。在与他们一起共处时我得出了结论,他们一点都不疯狂,他们实际上是看穿了狗屁事件(bullshit)的聪明人。正因为如此,他们无法在这个世界上正常生活。他们无法在企业机构中工作,因为无法忍受那些屁话连篇的没意义的东西,这就是他们的结局。社会认为他们是局外人,但他们却是真正看透了一切的人」。

如果你察觉到狗屁事件无处不在,那是因为狗屁事件确实是无处不在。问题并不是「我怎样才能避免所有的乱七八糟的狗屁事件」而是「我对这些东西的容忍度究竟有多大,可以让我仍然在这个混乱和不完美的世界中继续生活下去」?

如果你对意见分歧、个人动机、情绪效率低下、沟通不畅等问题的容忍度为零,那你就无法继续在这个世界上好好生活。很多人其实都欠缺对狗屁事件的容忍度,他们的期望和世界运作的现实之间存在着距离。

一家杂货店可以通过对每个离开商店的顾客进行脱衣搜身来防患偷窃行为,但那样的话,就不会有人再去那里购物了。你必须接受这一事实,我们无法将防盗基线降为零。人类对于这些烦心狗屁事件的容忍度,是一项被低估的才能。

富兰克林·罗斯福(Franklin Roosevelt)曾经说过,「当你瘫痪在床时,你想喝橙汁,别人却给你送来了牛奶,你要学会说,没关系,然后喝下去」。这种心态值得学习。

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21/3/2022

From Fernando Pessoa to Pseudonymous Identity

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Picture
Imagine a guy who runs more than 80 Twitter accounts. Each account represents a person with a different personality, covering various content from poetry, philosophy to horoscopes and policy in different languages. Would it be possible? 

Imagine that didn’t happen on Twitter but in real life. Would that sound even crazier?

Let’s hop on board a time machine, travel back to twentieth-century Lisbon and meet the guy who made that mission impossible into a mission achievable.

Fernando Pessoa, a trilingual writer, poet, translator, publisher, and philosopher, was one of the most underrated historical figures in literature. If he had Twitter, he would have the most followers in total with his 80+ pseudonyms (more accurately called heteronyms). He would update his 25,000+ manuscripts of poetry, prose, philosophy, criticism, political writings, horoscopes and various other texts in English, French and Portuguese non-stop.

If Fernando Pessoa was still alive today, he would be a grandmaster in the pseudonymous economy.

He created more than 70 heteronyms with distinct biographies, personalities, writing styles and even signatures. pic.twitter.com/iFzWWD7Of3

— Camellia Yang 翊瑄 (@Camelliayang) May 6, 2021
Fernando Pessoa’s acquaintances described him as a delightful man, full of charm and British humour. Still, at the same time, he deliberately kept his distance from the crowd to avoid the potential interference of his daily routine. One man who knew Pessoa in later years recalled, “Never, when I bade him goodbye, did I dare to turn back and look at him; I was afraid I would see him vanish, dissolved in the air.”

Fernando Pessoa didn’t travel much in his short life, but created more than 80 heteronyms that explore the whole universe on his behalf. Pessoa explained the conceptual distinction between pseudonyms and heteronyms: the former is by the author in his own person, except in the name he signs; but the latter is outside the author’s own person with different backgrounds and personalities. 

Pessoa’s famous heteronyms included Alberto Caeiro, a self-claimed the greatest poet in the world; Alvaro de Campos, a bisexual writer who has a similar style and substance to the work of Walt Whitman; Ricardo Reis, a classicist and physician whose works focus on fate and destiny. Most of his heteronyms interactions with each other, exchanging letters and literature critics. Rarely has anyone known those identities are not real until the public discovered this fact after Pessoa’s death. 

As one of my favourites writer Jorge Luis Borges once said:

“There are two aesthetics: the passive aesthetics of mirror and the active aesthetics of prisms.
When guided by the first, art transforms itself into an objective copy of its surroundings or of the physical history of the individual.
When guided by the second, art frees itself, uses the world as its own instrument, and creates beyond any spatial and temporal prison its own personal vision.”
Pessoa was a perfect example of the second kind. He constantly examined human existence through observation and reflection, ignored the limitations of time and space, and freed himself from the prison of physical form to create something from nothingness. It sounds like a guy who lived in Metaverse rather than one hundred years ago, doesn’t it?

In The Book of Disquiet, one of the greatest works of the twentieth century, the writer Bernardo Soares (Pessoa’s semi-heteronyms of) wrote down:
“I am the outskirts of some non-existent town, the long-winded prologue to an unwritten book. I’m nobody, nobody. I don’t know how to feel or think or love. I’m a character in a novel as yet unwritten, hovering in the air and undone before I’ve even existed, amongst the dreams of someone who never quite managed to breathe life into me.”
Pessoa never bound himself with one identity, and he’d rather be nobody and live a life of obscurity. People in his generation probably had zero clue about his motivation in creating numerous identities. However, our generation has a better understanding of his pioneered pseudonymous identities. And his thought and behaviours couldn’t be more applicable in today’s media environment. 

Three days ago, I lost my access to Weibo with 150,000+ followers because I wrote some articles that might trigger the censorship mechanism. 

While winning the weekly writing champion, I’ve lost the access to Weibo □ One of my readers told me there is The Great Translation Movement atm https://t.co/obttFvUtvm
That might explain everything □
Time to say goodbye to my 150K followers and find a new anchor to focus now. pic.twitter.com/eu81Vp5JVg

— Camellia Yang 翊瑄 (@Camelliayang) March 18, 2022
Luckily enough, I never used my real name and avatar on social media platforms, and I’ve already built my decentralised website and community in advance. Although I’ve been de-platformed by Weibo, I still feel safe and have my channel to interact with friends and readers worldwide. Moreover, my earning name (especially in web3) is not tied with my social media names, so I wouldn’t starve because of being cancelled by the most influential social network in China.

As Balaji Srinivasan mentioned, pseudonymity is where society is going. You can reboot under a new name when your statues are unfairly set to zero by the cancellation. Under the influence of Fernando Pessoa, I published hundreds of articles every year in English and Chinese. My works cover a wide range of topics, mediums and voices, which represent different masks I’m wearing on different occasions. Sometimes, I’m a marketing professional who works for a government agency; sometimes, I’m a rock n roll star who tours with music bands; sometimes, I’m a mystery writer who writes unclassifiable stories; and sometimes, I’m an enthusiastic sports fan who play Fantasy online games… 

My friends like to call me chameleon because I change my identities based on the environment. David Bowie had a famous quote to reply back about this tag, “for me a chameleon is something that disguises itself to look as much like its environment as possible. I always thought I did exactly the opposite of that.” I’m not trying to disguise myself into the world (otherwise, I’ll use anonymous names) but choosing to have multiple pseudonyms/heteronyms to navigate the multiple dimensions of my life. 

Balaji advocates the “Pseudonymous Economy” because financial independence is the bottom requirement for being a sovereign individual. With web3 technology, we’ll be able to move wealth and reputation into pseudonymity. While the pseudonymous identities offer self-exploration to Fernando Pessoa, it provides me with the protection to combat discrimination and cancellation and earning ability under pseudonymous identities. LFG! 

P.S. Here is a video clip of how I introduced Fernando Pessoa to Balaji at his 1729 VR Lecture room haha!

On a mission to promote my favourite writer Fernando Pessoa □https://t.co/AVxLbf8LZc pic.twitter.com/6OCdgwDtje

— Camellia Yang 翊瑄 (@Camelliayang) January 27, 2022

Recommended reading from 1729 Writers and other resources:

  • Pseudonymity 101
  • The importance of pseudonymous identities and how to create one
  • Balaji's Vision of the Future: The Pseudonymous Economy
  • When we design our identities from scratch
  • Pre-order Balaji's new book: The Network State
  • My presentation slides about Fernando Pessoa
The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa by camelliayang1220

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19/3/2022

浅谈言论自由、英伦摇滚和网络国家

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Photo Credit: Ana Grave

言论自由

首先悼念一下陪伴了我12年的微博@翊瑄Camellia),因某些不可名状的原因现在被禁止登陆了。虽然我从前年开始逐渐退出中心化的媒体频道(删了知乎、IG、荔枝和喜马),本打算今年年底再退出微博,结果计划没变化快,提前完成了指标。也不知道这个公众号还能存留多久,所以大家且看且珍惜吧哈哈!和我保持联系或者阅读我的内容的最好方式还是登陆我的个人网站,订阅Chiwi Journal,或者加入CY Circle。

为什么要退出中心化的平台呢?线上导师Balaji和「创作者经济」都提倡创作者建立去中心化的平台,将价值和控制权重新交还给用户,而不是赋权于中心化的组织机构。这样创作者可以不受平台限制,自由无畏地创作自己感兴趣同时也能为读者听众带来价值的内容,而内容消费者也可以直接和创作者建立联系,支持自己喜欢的作品。在censorship和cancel culture横行的当下,创作者尽早搭建属于自己的去中心化平台,越能享受创作的自由和作为早期适应者的红利。

此时想起乔治·奥威尔的《1984》。小时候阅读韩寒时,便听闻了奥威尔的大名,村上春树曾写了《1Q84》向他致敬,后来,我在撰写第一本英文小说时,也以奥威尔为线索,向这位深深影响我的作者致意。

是什么原因让奥威尔可以如此准确的预见小说出版二三十年后,或者说当今社会的形态?都说作家的早期经历决定日后的写作动机,而生活的时代决定了写作主题。乔治·奥威尔生活在战争频发的年代,他的童年则是在充满了阶级和极权的社会中消磨,参与西班牙内战时,更是亲身体会到DC者的嘴脸,也为他日后的作品定下了立意和题材--- 揭露和批判极权社会。

《1984》中最让人感到脊背发凉的一段就是当权者可以让一个人彻底消失,亦或是创造一个让人信服的却从未在世上真实存在的假想人物。近代的东西方主流媒体均逃不出政治和经济利益集团的控制,于是导致了现在媒体公信力丧失,言论无自由,信息无流动,极端言行频发。看看现在假新闻横行的当下,我们的历史又有多少真实性呢?

乌云背后总会有光明,好在当前的科技发展加速了信息的传播,部分人已经意识到大众传媒的弊端,并主动寻求打破信息壁垒,挑战单一且有导向性的传统叙事模式。也许在2084来临之际,我们每个人都可以实现「自由之思想,独立之人格」的念想,成为「主权个体」实现多时区、多地区开拓收入来源,合理规避地缘政治的风险,享受人生而拥有的自由。

英伦摇滚

这周临时起意,再次前往利物浦感受下音乐之都的魅力,参观了British Music Experience(BME)和The Beatles Story两个音乐主题的博物馆,亲身上阵玩了玩贝斯和架子鼓,在英伦摇滚和流行乐的陪伴下度过完美的一天。

BME展出了包括披头士、滚石、皇后、大卫·鲍伊、辣妹、绿洲、平克·弗洛伊德、山羊皮、电台司令、阿黛尔、艾米·怀恩豪斯等耳熟能详的英伦歌手的600余件展品,包括舞台服装、乐器、手稿、雕像等等,每半小时还有3D成像音乐人的「现场演唱会」。英伦摇滚充斥着狂放不羁、妖艳迷离,有时又内敛销魂,孤独阴郁,展厅内放映的歌曲,我基本都能跟着旋律哼唱一段。

巧合的是,我刚进展厅便看到乔治男孩(Boy George)的3D虚拟人像在表演《Karma Chameleon》。我的很多洋人朋友都觉得我的名字Camellia Yang和英文单词Chameleon(变色龙)读音相似,也把这首歌当做我的主题曲(看见我就唱...)。想起大卫·鲍伊曾经说过,「我经常被人叫做变色龙,但是变色龙变色是为了融入环境,这和我却截然相反」。宝爷虽然早已仙逝,但他的影响力却时时刻刻笼罩在我和音乐人朋友们的身上,向宝爷学习,多多尝试不同的生活方式和人生轨迹,在不断试错中最终找到适合自己的路子!

前一阵儿花了八小时刷完Peter Jackson指导的披头士乐队纪录片《The Beatles: Get Back》,最大的感受便是世事无常,计划永远没有变化快,没人真正知道自己究竟在干什么,但很多事情就是在追随直觉的「玩耍状态」中搞定了。比如纪录片中Paul McCartney爵士坐在那默默地抚琴,随便弹一弹不一会儿功夫就诞生了一首经典名曲;当年披头士完全不按常理出牌的伦敦街头屋顶演唱会也是计划没变化大的产物,哪知道成为了乐迷心中津津乐道的经典。

我在参观披头士乐队博物馆时眼眶湿润了好几次,看着这四个来自利物浦的年轻小伙子如何从贫穷的音乐爱好者,成长为世界乐坛的巨星,沉浸式的参观旅程带着我穿越时空,来到60年代的卡斯巴(Casbah)、马修街(Mathew Street)、艾比路(Abbey Road)录音室和洞穴(The Cavern)酒吧,接着跟随他们去美国巡回演出,在印度冥想修行...来到约翰·列侬的白色房间时,耳边想起熟悉的《想象Imagine》旋律,在当前混乱的世界局势下,希望他的愿景能在我们这一代实现。

一周杂思

1. 重读济慈的诗歌时,想起了他提倡的培养「客体感受能力negative capability」。人类很少承认自己的无知,总觉得自己有能力知晓一切答案,总想快速地得到解决方案。但是,我们的想法受限于社会环境和周遭人士的影响,由此得到的现实也基于如此,人类看待问题时总会存有偏差,而现实世界中也充满着未知和不被人类理解的事情。我们需要培养自己经得起不安、迷惘和怀疑的能力,耐心地去理解现实,而不是以为不耐烦地获取答案。

2. 英国皇室的藏品中有一幅京巴犬的名画。这只名叫「Looty掠夺品」的京巴犬曾经属于清朝皇室,八国联军火烧圆明园之时,这只小狗也成了侵略军的战利品,跟着成千上万的宝贝一起被运往欧洲,随机被赠送给当时的英国女皇维多利亚。可怜的小家伙在异国他乡顽强地生活了11年最后病逝,不知道当前大英有多少京巴和她有血缘关系?

3. Amor fati (Love Of Fate,热爱命运)
作家博尔赫斯曾经说过,发生在人身上的每一件事情都是一种资源。你所经历的一切都有目的。尤其作为作家和艺术家,必须更强烈地认识到这一点。发生在我们身上的一切,包括我们的屈辱、不幸、尴尬,都可以作为艺术创作的原材料。

我们要学会从发生在自身上的每一件事情中找到快乐。我们必须明白很多事情的发生虽不受控制,但我们却可以利用这一切。不幸生病久卧病榻,可以成为我们反思人生方向的一个机会;在工作中遇到棘手问题,可以激励我们发明新产品和新解决方式。

罗马皇帝马可·奥勒留说过,熊熊烈火能使投入其中的一切产生火焰和光明。这就是我们想要成为的样子。我们要成为能将痛苦、挫折甚至屈辱转化为美的艺术家。我们要成为将自己苦难经历转换为人生哲理供他人参考借鉴的人。

爱你命运中发生的一切事情,因为你可以享用它提供的一切。

4. 最后推荐一下Balaji Srinivasan这周出版的新书《The Network State》!在过去的18周内,我一直在上Balaji的相关主题VR网课,而这本书就是通过集结网课的反馈而诞生出的知识精华。Balaji反复提到「云端先行,土地次之」的「创业城市 Startup City」和「网络国家Network State」的雏形,通过利用新技术先搭建去中心化的网络社区,最终实现众包叙事模式+ 数字货币激励机制的新国家形态:自发形成的守则规范、风俗文化和治理模式。

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14/3/2022

The Art of Being a Bilingual Writer

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Photo credit: Joel Naren
Twenty-three years ago, my dad bought me a PC, which opened a whole new world for me. 

Eighteen years ago, I created my first blog on MySpace and started my online writing journey. 

Ever since connecting on the internet, I was like a kid with a Disneyland VIP ticket that played around freely and happily. I didn’t realise I was indulging myself in the fairy tales of free internet and freedom of speech until one day, I encountered censorship. 

In 2008, while the whole Chinese nation was in such a high spirit of preparing for the Olympic Games, I was in a low mood fighting against Sina Blog because they took off my content that mentioned Twitter. 

I was pissed off as a hot-blood teenage girl and published more writings to attack the system. It was like a battle between David and Goliath. However, in my case, the Goliath was too strong to beat up, and I lost. They deleted my account and all my articles involving 3Ts and other censored topics. 

Censorship & Cancel Culture on Chinese Social Media 

Like many other Chinese bloggers, I learned my lessons and started to play with words to avoid censorship or self-censored when publishing something on Weibo and WeChat. 

​The most iconic example of censorship is described as being “harmonised (和谐 he xie)”. Since “he xie” has a similar sound as river crab (河蟹), if you see an image of a river crab on the internet in China, it’s likely to refer to something being censored.


Weibo launched another strategy to censor content in recent years. Bloggers who trigger the censorship words can still see their content (instead of being deleted straight away). However, we can only see what we posted, not our readers. We call it “traffic control (限流xian liu)”. It’s a gentle way to warn us not to post something against government content guidelines. The next level is either getting our content or account deleted based on the social media credit system. 

Another interesting example is the ban of Winnie the Pooh. When the Chinese resident Xi Jinping had gone to the United States for an official visit, he returned with this nickname. Soon after he met with Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, the nickname meme grew and spread online. Then the censors began erasing and blocking the images of Pooh on social media sites, and poor Pooh was cancelled in China. ​​
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Apart from that, nationalism in China has been on the rise for the past few years. Individuals and western brands who embrace diverse values or hold hostility against China and influencers/celebrities and companies accused of being unpatriotic fell victim one after another to be cancelled online. From well-known fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana to billionaire actress Zhao Wei, from tech tycoon Jack Ma to many influencers who publicly support Ukraine. 
​
The tedious and troublesome writing journey killed my inspiration and drained my energy to a large extent. Therefore, I built up my own website and gradually exited many centralised platforms to establish my sovereignty. 

In 2020, 10 years since I lived in English-speaking countries, I had a light-bulb moment when my online mentor James Altucher initiated a 30 Days Writing Challenge, which empowered me to finish my first English novel. I realised I could actually write in Chinese and English and become a bilingual writer. 

Nowadays, I publish newsletters, podcasts and stories on a regular basis in two languages and gained 160,000+ followers from all over the world. With the censorship and cancel-culture spread across the globe, it’s essential for people who can speak and write more than one language to cultivate digital footprints on different platforms or build up their own decentralised media channel to avoid losing freedom of speech.

I’d like to share my experience and thoughts to guide you through the journey. ​

Why should you write in English, even it’s not your native language? 

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English serves as the world’s favourite lingua franca - the language people are most likely to turn to when they don’t share the same first language. Apart from Pieter Levels’ saying that writing in English can help us reach over a billion people, there are another two advantages:

1. It helped me approach my mind without carrying many burdens from my native cultures. Writing in English provides me with an opportunity to see through the world from a different lens. I have to reassess my knowledge in my native language and cultures and sort through words and ideas to recombine them in a form those who speak English can understand. Take this article on Chinese Netizens' reactions towards Ukraine/Russia crisis as an example; It creates a chance for me to do research from both perspectives and jump out of my own narratives to report neutral truth. 
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 2. It helped me gain confidence and not take myself too seriously. Everybody makes mistakes, so do writers who speak English as their first language. Therefore, I can use “English is not my mother tongue” as an ‘excuse’ to publish my works in English to overcome perfectionism. As long as I can communicate my ideas and thoughts correctly, I don’t need to worry about my imperfect grammar and vocabulary too much. Even though I made mistakes, I could entertain my English readers and learn from practising. 

How to start writing in two languages? ​

Since I was in primary school, I’ve been writing in Chinese from notebook to online platform, twenties years non-stop. I’m a prolific Chinese writer with confidence.

After moving to New Zealand in 2010, I had to learn English to make a living. Back then, I was too embarrassed to speak broken English, not to mention writing fluent essays or articles, which led to my extremely low self-esteem in using English, especially in the writing part. It took me almost a decade to overcome my inner demon - sabotaging myself by saying, you suck! Thankfully, three significant elements set me free:

  • Fernando Pessoa, Elif Safak and Ayn Rand are non-native English-speaking writers. They set up a role model for people like me. By reading their stories and their works, I understand writing in English is a mission achievable. What I need to do is simple - according to Ernest Hemingway, “there is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed” - In my case, I only need to sit in front of my MacBook and let the blood flow washing over the keyboard. 

  • Online writing mentors like David Perrell, who created writing courses (I’m the alumni of Write of Passage Cohort 7) to guide me through the journey and make friends with other emerging writers to support each other. The same thing happened in the 1729 community where Grant and Matt initiated the writing challenge to publish technologically progressive topics. 

  • My English speaking friends (online & IRL) and colleagues are so kind and patient with my English and encourage me to speak and write more. My readers also provide me with constructive feedback and support me with positive engagement. I’ve always appreciated the love I gained on my writing journey. THANK YOU! 

Although I could stay in my comfort zone to speak and write in Chinese, I would miss the opportunity to meet new friends and readers and explore the other side of the world. 

Writing in both languages take time, but the rewarding is enormous. As Bruce Nauman said, “if you want to do it, you do it. There are no excuses”. What I need to do is to build a system and form a good habit to support my writing routine. Trust the process, make the commitment, and you can achieve more than you’d expect. 

How to find audiences as a bilingual writer? ​

Serve the person you once were.

I used to be an international student and a new migrant in New Zealand. So I shared my overseas studying and job hunting experiences with those on the same boat or about to join the same journey to gain my follower base.

My friends Ellen and Summer, who spent years at fitness training and devoted their time to nutrition research, also share their learnings and lessons along the way. Now they build a large online healthy lifestyle community with hundreds and thousands of girls who read their articles, watch videos and try products.

Before, I spent loads of time on WeChat, Weibo and other Chinese social media channels to serve Chinese international students. Ever since I became a digital nomad, I started to produce more English content to make friends and knock doors to career opportunities. 

For instance, I leverage my podcast channel to approach people I admire on Twitter by inviting them to chat and build connections on my show. I also write a monthly newsletter, publishing consistent content to showcase my digital transformation journey and topics I care about (philosophy and history) to attract like-minded people (1,200+ readers in half a year). By consistently publishing content in English and Chinese, I gather along with readers from the globe and never feel lonely like I used to be.

Conclusion

Being a bilingual writer provides a double chance for us to reach more readers and leave our digital footprints online. It’s also essential to learn from Balaji’s pseudonymous economy, lessen our actual identity usage, and build decentralised channels and communities. The ultimate goal is to see truth, health and wealth and create the Network State protocol where people don’t need to overcome so many barriers like what we encountered in the current media environment.

​May we all have the right to express ourselves freely in the upcoming future. 

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13/3/2022

浅谈词根词源、我的天才女友和剧集推荐

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Photo credit: Josue Michel
最近一直在读听读Robert Breedlove的内容,他最新的一篇博文《God and Free Exchange》给予了我很大的启发,简单翻译总结一下:

​当人们提起「上帝/老天爷/神明GOD」这个词汇时,脑海中一般会冒出一个住在天上的白胡子老头的形象,这无疑是受到中世纪教会的影响。在那个知识垄断的时代,教会利用人们的无知去宣传可以为自己谋利的故事,把神明描述为高高在上的父权形象,借此树立权威并依靠贩卖赎罪劵敛钱。

如果我们想了解「GOD」这个词的真正意思和起源,可以追溯到公元5000年前的原始印欧语系(Proto-Indo-European)。梵语是最早被证实的原始印欧语系语言之一,并且保留着数量最多的古代文献。通过研究词源学,「GOD」这个词的词源是梵文的「GHUT」,表示「以物换物,交换交易」。

以物换物代表着涉事双方不通过货币手段自由地选择参与交换价值的过程。纵观人类历史,永恒的道德准则从来都是建立在双方自由平等的交换价值,而诸如撒谎、偷窃和谋杀等遭到道德谴责的事情,都显示出涉事双方有一方的利益被无情剥夺,无法实现自由地交换选择。

热力学的第一定律是能量守恒,它指出在一个孤立的系统内总能量是恒定不变的,但能量可以从一种形式转化为另一种形式。整个宇宙其实就是由无数的交换过程所组成,亚原子粒子不断交换结合,人类文化不断融合,经济贸易相互连接... 我们的宇宙已经在自身内部进行了137亿年的能量交换过程。在这百亿年的交换过程中,甚至诞生出了让人类还无法完全理解的「意识」。我们每个个体就是宇宙的自我反思,我们彼此之间通过价值交换获得自由和意义。

当我们把目光转向影响了西方文明几千年的《圣经Bible》当中,在没有被教会玷污概念之前的神,是否指代的就是交换的过程?而我们是否应该重读此书体会其背后的象征意义?是不是只有通过自由交换才能实现「神的国度」,才能获得自由、真理和爱?拥抱「GOD」就将蓬勃发展;背弃「GOD」就将陷入困境。

“Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.” 1

― Gospel of Thomas

《那不勒斯四部曲》&《我的天才女友》

这周刷完了《我的天才女友》第三季,最后一集的最后一分钟看得我泪流满面。希望未来的我看到现在的我也能露出欣慰的笑容,就像现在的我如果看到过去某些时刻的我,肯定会抱抱她然后说一句,一切都会好起来的!

再次推荐原著《那不勒斯四部曲》!很少有文学作品将女性的友谊刻画地如此细腻和真实:我爱你,但我也恨你,我会在危急时刻站在你这一边,但也会在暗中和你较劲儿希望自己超越你。埃莱娜·费兰特的四部曲以小镇姑娘的视角去描写那跨越不了的阶级,两代人之间的矛盾,女性受到的不平等对待,女性之间复杂的情感关系,还有大院儿孩子们的情愫和冲突.. . 好的作者就是会把你无法用语言形容的感觉描述出来,她讲她的故事,你在其中找到共鸣。

现存的历史叙述大多来自于精英视角,而费兰特的这部小说则是通过一位边缘人物的叙述,向我们展示了在文学和现实生活中对于精英叙事模式的反抗。任何阶级和种族都有广博的文化和历史故事,都值得被听到,而不应该被主流叙事模式所限制而在历史洪流消失殆尽。想起自己写的第一部英文小说《The Invisible Third Cultural Adult》,正是透过边缘女性视角来讲述中国现代女留学生的故事,可以说也是受到了埃莱娜·费兰特的启发。

回想以前的友情中多多少少都会有嫉妒的成分,我们互为镜面,互相攀比,一起较劲儿成长,又彼此依恋,但也因为爱之深而生恨,甚至彼此疏远,互相逃离。感觉长大成人后才可以真正理解独特的同性友情,并且与友人达成和解,引用作者在结尾的话就是,「我希望她在场,这也是我写作的目的。我希望她来删除,来补充,我想和她一起投入地写我们的故事,按照她的灵感,她知道的、她说的,或者想的来写」。

一周杂思

1. 这周的观影任务聚焦纪录片《内马尔:完美乱局》和《一级方程式:疾速争胜》第四季。

看内少的纪录片有三个哭点:
- MSN回忆杀
- 疫情下球队赢得关键比赛,球员隔着外墙和场外球迷共庆(利兹联的纪录片也有类似的一段可把我哭惨了)
- 巴西被虐惨遭出局,画面切到捧杯爷爷那一霎那(RIP)

话说内马尔的爸爸很有长远的眼光,他深知足球运动员生命期的短暂,所以极力打造内马尔的品牌效应,等到儿子退役后,也完全不用为生计发愁。在这样目标的影响下,便形成了爸爸对于儿子7/24的控制,以及无时无刻不在的压力。

内马尔从出道开始被视为下一个贝利,在这样高期望之下,一旦出现任何不尽人意的表现或者负面新闻,大家都会立马把你拉下神坛踩到脚底。贝克汉姆在接受采访时还用个人经历支持内马尔的发展路径,毕竟时代不同了,球员不再是单纯踢球的运动员,而是可以全方位发展的名人,有时候场外的影响力甚至比场内更大。

《一级方程式:疾速争胜》第四季剪辑混乱重复度高,但丝毫不影响作为F1新赛季开赛前的复习资料,今年也首次尝试玩玩Fantacy F1,期待我支持的车手和车队再创佳绩!顺便推荐两部我刚刷完以及正在刷的剧集:《继承之战》和《超蓬勃:优步之战》!节奏快台词犀利,完全符合媒体从业人士和创业者的口味!


2. 我很喜欢的博主Mark Manson最近将其畅销书《The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck》的金句做成了NFT,并在BookCoin网站发行。

BookCoin旨在成为全网第一家聚焦图书NFT的网站,这次和Mark Manson合作发行了1111个NFT,拥有者可以解锁图书未发行的章节,加入独家俱乐部和课程等(感谢CY Circle小伙伴的赠送)。

试水畅销作者的NFT项目之后,BookCoin也致力于打造元宇宙图书馆,现在开放了白名单申请,届时会有发币$BKCN空投活动。暂时来看BookCoin的套路和其他NFT发行方别无二致,但看到Mark Manson作为顾问和参与方,感觉可以观望一下。

顺便再推荐一下Mark的这本畅销书!通常来讲,「自我帮助」类图书经常会教授你如何时刻保持积极的态度,追寻幸福和快乐,灌给你大量的鸡汤让你生活在一个自己编织的美好世界中。Mark Manson则用直白的语言告诉你,恒久的幸福和快乐只在童话中存在,我们需要直面问题和痛苦,并接受生活本就是一场苦旅的事实。

人需要对自己的局限性和弱点有良好的认知,这样才能在逆境来临之时知道拿什么去面对,而不是逃避或者强迫自己保持乐观。人有有限的时间和精力,所以更需要决定自己生命的优先权,对自己在乎的事情说Yes,对那些无关紧要的事情和人说一句「Fuck off」。

In life, we have a limited amount of f*cks to give. So you must choose your f*cks wisely.
- Mark Manson

3. 这周陆续给完成「30天发现真我写作活动」的小伙伴们发送了POAP,感谢大家的反馈!除非从繁忙的生活中抽出时间反思自我,不然你永远不知道什么才能让自己达到真正满足的状态。仅仅实现了当下的冲动和渴望,只会带来一时的快乐而不能为人们带来长远的幸福生活。独处和记日记便是一种投资回报比很高的反思生活的方法。今年还会陆续组织一些「自我认知」相关的活动,欢迎新朋友加入Discord一起来玩!

4. 在伦敦的时候和「大小荧屏」的主播@复洛荔思 一起录制了一期特别的播客节目,两个人一边喝着梅子酒和葡萄酒,一边畅聊我们在英语国家生活的经历。

播客讨论了:
- 80/90后受英美文化的影响
- 我们在伦敦的生活点滴和文化观察(阶级、种族、约会)
- 英美剧集和电影的相似和不同
- 跨文化交际的挑战
- 30岁教会我们的那些事儿

欢迎在各大播客平台搜索Chiwi Journal收听!

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