I patiently read this book from beginning to end. Compared to the online video courses of Chaos University, the text provides a stronger sense of digestion, and I have gained deeper insights after reviewing it.
Breaking Cognitive Boundaries = Reductionism#
First principles are not the central idea of a system, but a meta-premise outside and before the system. Every rational system can be simplified to a fundamental principle. In fact, the central idea is not the first principle itself, but the result of deducing from the first principles.
In my previous shallow understanding, first principles were rooted in the causal chain within the system. Therefore, to break boundaries, one needs to go from the inside out, trace back to the fundamental basis, and then break it.
Now, reading this, I realize that this idea I had before was flawed. Tracing back to the source from within the system, the highest possibility is that you touch the boundary of your own cognition. However, breaking it is as difficult as jumping from three-dimensional space to four-dimensional space.
But if you stand outside the system, like standing on a higher-level system of four-dimensional space, your understanding of the entire three-dimensional space will be simpler, and breaking the boundaries of three-dimensional cognition will be effortless.
Therefore, to achieve breakthrough innovation, one needs to first break free, see a larger cognitive system, and then easily break boundaries. Within the original system, exhausting the entire causal chain may not necessarily lead to breaking boundaries; it may only result in more fractals.
Conformity & Cultural Refreshment#
Everyone has a deep-seated conformity psychology, and we tend to regard mainstream thoughts in society as truth.
The mainstream thoughts in society, or the consensus of the group, are constructed based on certain needs such as survival. In a sense, they can all be seen as "culture." Starting from classical mythological stories, the five thousand years of Chinese history can be seen as a record of cultural refreshment.
From the feudal imperial system ordained by heaven to Mr. Sai, Mr. De, and even Mr. Sun's Three Principles of the People, the group consensus under the feudal system, accompanied by changes in the times and social needs, has been constantly "refreshed" or "awakened" under the counter-consensus of the predecessors.
Any culture initially exists to maintain the survival of the carrier in a specific environment. However, as the environment changes, almost all cultures in a changing environment will become harmful to the carrier. How to eliminate this harm? The answer is to change the thinking structure.
I have doubts about the above statement. While refreshing culture by changing the thinking structure can indeed help the carrier to continue to survive better, when considering the dimension of time and space, the reasons for the change of dynasties include not only cultural beliefs but also productivity, distribution of power and responsibility, and the gains and losses of human nature. Therefore, simply changing the thinking structure to refresh organizational culture may not fundamentally last.
To truly last, organizations also need to maintain abundant productivity, fair distribution of wealth and rights and responsibilities, and a balance of human gains and losses.
Finally, there are two sentences in the book that particularly touched me, and I would like to share them:
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The key to adult learning lies not in increasing the amount of information, but in improving one's thinking models. In a low-level thinking model, adding more content is just low-level repetition. Only by raising the level of thinking models can we accept more high-dimensional information and knowledge.
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We should dare to shatter everyone's glass ceiling, break the limitations of every life, dare to touch the big questions and essential problems, and dare to present the infinite brilliance of life in infinite thinking tension. I think this is Musk's inspiration for us and for this era, and its significance has far exceeded commerce.