Bai Yansong once said in a program:

Although people today have Baidu and Google, it is extremely easy to obtain information and knowledge, but there is little knowledge but no knowledge. wisdom. It was not easy for the ancients to acquire knowledge, but they had more wisdom than knowledge.

In short, the information explosion makes it easier for us to access knowledge, and the complicated information always occupies our attention, but it makes us lose the ability to pursue wisdom and deep thinking. Most of this knowledge is neither needed nor important.

In fact, more than just information, modern society is extremely rich in materials, information, and opportunities. However, more does not necessarily mean good. It may also make some people indulge in material indulgences, feel anxious about the future, and worry about opportunities and opportunities. Choose to feel confused.

News like this emerges in endlessly:

With a monthly salary of 3,000, in order to satisfy his appetite, he eats more than 2,000 pieces of crayfish every month;

16-year-old Indian A boy played a game of chicken for 6 consecutive hours and died suddenly;

A white-collar man obsessed with money took out a million-dollar loan to invest in P2P, but ultimately lost all his money;

A nurse born in the 1990s wanted to pursue a refined life. He was kicked out of the house by his parents with debts of hundreds of thousands;

The white-collar worker changed 24 jobs in 5 years and submitted dozens of resumes but no one responded...

In this impetuous society, We often think that "fast" and "more" are hard truths, while "slow" and "less" seem to be a kind of original sin. But in fact, people who truly live to the extreme are often simple and restrained, and those who are truly advanced are precisely "Slow" and "less".

With the great enrichment of society’s material environment, more and more young people are pursuing exquisite life and indulge themselves materially. They would rather borrow debt to maintain the “exquisiteness” that is not consistent with their income. .

True sophistication does not mean indulging one’s consumption desires, but elegance in taste, which makes life more leisurely and enjoyable.

This is what Su Dongpo said after he was demoted to Huangzhou and tasted the wild vegetables such as polygonum and new bamboo shoots prepared for him by his friends: "The taste in the world is pure joy."

Many people think that sophistication means indulging material desires with high consumption, which means using a few bottles of La Prairie, checking in at a few Internet celebrity tourist destinations, wearing a few pairs of AJ and YEEZY shoes, and using the best Mechanical keyboard...

There is a theory of "lustism" in communication science. After young people who originally lived in poverty see a dazzling array of products through the media, their desire for consumption may be instantly ignited.

The poorer people live, the more likely they are to be captured by sensualism, the more they need to satisfy their vanity through high consumption, and the more likely they are to sink into material desires and be unable to extricate themselves.

But whether you can restrain your desire to consume determines whether your financial situation is healthy.

We published an article some time ago, telling the story of Li Mei, a nurse born in the 1990s. With a monthly salary of 8,000, she owed hundreds of thousands in online loans in order to pursue a refined life, and was eventually evicted by her parents. Out of the house.

When Li Mei goes out, she always calls for an online taxi. When she sees an internet celebrity restaurant, she makes sure to eat there. When she gets thirsty on the road, she grabs a cup of Starbucks. She also buys the jewelry and bags that her colleagues have. Can't fall behind.

Whenever I have time on weekends and evenings, I go shopping and go to bars with my friends.

When she saw her favorite tourist attraction, even if she only had two days of vacation, she would fly there and check in many cities such as Qingdao, Chongqing, and Yunnan.

She finally relied on borrowing money to live a so-called "exquisite" life, but she was saddled with huge debts.

Some people on the Internet even said, "In our lives, it is not uncommon to give up love or sex. What is rare is to quit Huabei."

But do you know? , the daily interest rates of many online loans seem very low, but the annual interest rates are terrifyingly high.

For WeChat Weilidai, if the daily interest rate is 0.045, the annual interest rate is as high as 16; for Alipay Borrow, if the daily interest rate is 0.05, the annual interest rate is as high as 18.25; for JD Baitiao and Alipay Borrow, the interest rate is roughly the same, and the annual interest rate is also About 18...

You must know that the multi-year average return rate of stock god Buffett and financial tycoon Soros is only 20. In other words, even if your earning power catches up with Buffett and Soros, the speed at which you make money It's nothing more than a flat loan interest rate.

Do you dare to use this kind of money?

Li Ka-shing has been carrying a Citizen watch for more than ten years, which only costs 1,000 Hong Kong dollars; Buffett still lives in the old house he bought 61 years ago; Zong Qinghou, the founder of Wahaha, spends no more than 50,000 yuan a year; Geely Founder Li Shufu rarely wears clothes that cost more than 500 yuan...

Isn't it a bit ironic that you, with a monthly salary of just over 10,000 yuan, are borrowing money to spend?

Many people are being sucked dry by their indulgent desire for consumption, and this is not an alarmist statement.

If you want to become richer, then I advise you to give up credit cards, loans, Huabei, and IOUs as soon as possible, and live within your means until you become rich and can choose your life as you like. Way.

This is not to say that opportunities are unimportant, but it means that you do not need to seize all opportunities. You only need to find the opportunity that belongs to you, cultivate your own little advantages, and through continuous iteration, It is enough to maintain this advantage.

In this process:

You must overcome countless temptations, verbosity, irritability, and your own restless heart, and develop an iron mouth, steel teeth, and a wooden butt;

You don’t need to focus on short-term price fluctuations, breaking news, windows of opportunity, or other people’s success;

You only need to focus on your own long-term value and build a product that can withstand the test of time.

If you can do these, you will definitely succeed.

German writer Rolf Doberg mentioned two very interesting examples in his book "The Strategy of Clear Thinking":

The first example is that the most important example in history is The best-selling books are not those on the best-seller list now, but the classics that have been in print for decades or centuries, such as the Bible, the Communist Manifesto, The Little Prince, and The Lord of the Rings. , no publishing house can survive without these long-term bestsellers.

The second example is that the most successful car in history was not developed in recent years, but the Toyota Corolla (Corolla) launched by Toyota in 1966. This car is still around today Innovating with the old and bringing forth the new, the 11th generation update has put this car at the top of the global best-selling list.

You don’t need to frequently look for opportunities or change tracks. You just need to find a good field and work hard, "broad vision, narrow incision, deep study", and maintain your advantages for a long time. Will definitely win.

But some people may say, if I don’t try as much as possible, how will I know that the opportunity belongs to me? After all, as Lei Jun said: If you have the chance, you must give it a try. The cost of trial and error is not high, but the cost of missing out is very high.

Many people think that the core of this sentence is "the cost of trial and error is not high", but in fact the core of this sentence is "if there is a chance."

We are faced with opportunities, large and small, every day. Many people are easily attracted to the idea and want to try every idea. However, not every opportunity belongs to you. Many people do not give any thought. , research, and started to try blindly. The cumulative cost of trial and error is considerable.

I think a more reasonable attitude towards opportunities should be "never advance lightly, never retreat lightly".

When facing opportunities, you must study and think deeply, and only seize decisively when you think the opportunity is right; now that you have identified it, don’t give up easily even if you encounter setbacks.

Work hard before entering the pit.

A recent article conducted an in-depth analysis of Hillhouse Capital, a well-known investment institution, and I found that they are a model of this strategy.

In 2014, online dividends are far from fading. Many investment institutions believe that an aging society is coming and are preparing to enter the "senior care" field in a big way. Hillhouse does not follow the herd, but thinks in reverse, believing that the elderly will need companionship in the future, so the pet market has huge potential.

However, Hillhouse did not rush into this field, but conducted detailed and in-depth research on this field.

Gaoling specially assigned an executive director and led a research team of hundreds of people to spend two years reviewing the information of the entire industry: analysis of national consumption levels, pet segmentation track pattern , maps of pet hospitals in various provinces, maps of key figures in the industry...

Gaoling’s research report puts many KOL (opinion leader) experts who have been in this industry for decades to shame.

After in-depth understanding, Hillhouse decided to fully enter this field, gradually entering pet hospitals, pet stores, industry SaaS systems, supply chain finance and other fields, and penetrated every aspect of the pet industry.

With a rate of opening 300 stores a year, Hillhouse has integrated pet hospital brands in more than 10 domestic cities. Three years later, Hillhouse has invested in more than 700 pet hospitals, ranking first in the industry in terms of absolute number.

By 2018, when many anxious investment institutions realized the potential opportunities in the pet field, they were shocked to find that Hillhouse was “everywhere” in this industry.

American university professor Mark Bowery once raised a thought-provoking question in his book "The Stupefiest Generation":

Throughout human history, knowledge has never been It has never been as ubiquitous as it is now: libraries, museums, universities, the History Channel, Wikipedia, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, everything is at the click of your mouse, but we don’t see that among young people, at least young Americans. People, including high school students and college students, improve their historical knowledge, civic awareness, reading scores, and international competitiveness.

Why?

“Because they spend all their time on social networking sites, IM (instant messaging software) and mobile phone text messages.”

This is true for Americans, and why is it not true for Chinese people? Woolen cloth?

One of the signs of a person's maturity is to understand that 99% of the things in the world are not important or have nothing to do with you.

But in reality, everyone spends a lot of time on these things that are unimportant or have nothing to do with themselves.

You scroll through Weibo every day to follow the gossip of celebrities, but you have no time to study and work hard;

You follow how much money others make online every day, and give advice on the country, but you have no time to plan. Your own career;

You browse the food and cosmetics of Internet celebrities on Douyin every day, but you have no time to exercise and manage your body;

You browse the Internet every day There are domineering presidents and peerless masters in novels, but they don’t have time to read real classics;

You spend every day thinking about which takeout app and which store is on sale, but you don’t have time to think about how to make money...

In fact, the only time many people use their brains every day is to think about what to eat today.

But have you ever thought that these things that are neither important nor urgent are consuming your precious energy?

American psychologist Baumeister once proposed that " Ego-depletion theory.

The so-called self-depletion means that even though you have done nothing, every choice, entanglement, anxiety, and distraction is depleting your psychological energy; every time you consume a little psychological energy, your execution ability and will Strength will decrease.

This is why I say that the simpler people are, the more efficient they are, and the more restrained people are, the further they go.

Because they know what is really important, they spend their time studying, working, spending time with their families, enjoying life, and staying away from the 99% irrelevant and unimportant things.

As the saying goes, "It is simple but no one in the world can compete with it for beauty."

”

When you say no to the unimportant things in life, you will be truly efficient and your heart will be able to enjoy real peace.

It is said that philosophy Kant lived within 16 kilometers of K?nigsberg all his life;

After Darwin traveled around the world, he spent his life in his own house;

Obama, Jobs, Zach Big names such as Berg and Bill Gates have been wearing the same or similar clothes for decades...

This is what the philosopher Russell said, "The life of a great man" Apart from a few great moments, there's nothing exciting about it. ”

Because they know that most choices are not that important. Instead of spending time on irrelevant things, it is better to simplify life and do what is really important.

I have these 20 suggestions

I believe you must have discovered that most materials in life are not needed by you, most opportunities at work have nothing to do with you, and most of the world’s Things are unimportant and distract you.

What is truly advanced is not necessarily "more" and "fast", but "slow" and "less" that are simple and restrained.

So how to achieve simplicity and restraint, I have 20 suggestions:

1. Never borrow money to spend, the cost is much higher than you think

2. Buy. Things follow the principle of "one out, one in". The pile of items at home is an important reason for the decrease in happiness.

3. Buy commonly used necessities that are more expensive and more durable. Don't buy them.

5. If you have debt, please tighten your belt and pay off the debt first, even if the hardship lasts longer, otherwise the debt snowball will become an avalanche.

6. Throw things away regularly. What you won't use in six months, you probably won't use in six years. At the same time, clean up expired food, medicine, and daily necessities in a timely manner

7. Whether it is choosing an opportunity or making friends. In a relationship, you have to be cautious. If you are not cautious in the early stage, you will have to spend 5 times or 10 times to clean up the mess later.

8. Clean up those old ads and group posts in time. Advertisements, rude words, and WeChat friends who test to delete friends will never bring you value, but will only cause psychological damage.

9. Quit Douyin, Kuaishou, and Toutiao, and use less. Weibo and WeChat, you have to know that behind the screen, there is a professional team of hundreds of people studying how to make you more addicted and more like "swiping". Your self-control is not worth mentioning in the face of modern industry.

10. Pay less attention to or ignore entertainment and social news as much as possible. Most things have nothing to do with you and will also consume your inner energy. Don't express opinions at will. You think your opinions are important, but in fact you are just reading. It’s just one in a million.

11. For social relationships that require kneeling and licking to maintain, social relationships that make you miserable, and ineffective social relationships, please decisively give up making friends for the sake of happiness. and progress, not to gain pain.

12. You can try mindfulness meditation and try to pay attention to your true physical and mental state. Many people may not pay attention to "themselves" in their lives except when they are sick.

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13. The body is really the capital of revolution. It is best to exercise more than three times a week and choose the exercise you like.

14. Stay away from foods that make your body uncomfortable. , quit high-fat, high-salt, high-sugar, and late-night snacks.

15. Don’t let anything affect your life, work, or sleep. If you have insomnia for a month, it is recommended to see a psychiatrist. You may be depressed.

16. Everyone should have a few good clothes in their wardrobe that can support the occasion. The price may not be too expensive, and the brand may not be good, but the fabric of the clothes must be good and the style must be as classic as possible. Such clothes may Will not go out of style if worn for many years. Especially for boys, the fabric of clothes is really important. Please throw away clothes that are prone to wrinkles and pilling as soon as possible.

17. Learn to be alone. When you reach a certain age, you will find that maintaining large and complex social relationships outweighs the benefits.

18. Please pay close attention to the quality of sleep. People spend one-third of their time in bed, but most people don’t pay enough attention to it.

19. Find the one thing you must do well and say no to other things. Don't be afraid of losing face. You need to get used to rejecting others, and others need to get used to being rejected by you. Just practice.

20. Spend time with your family and good friends. When you reach a certain age, you will find that it is your family that can really accompany you throughout your life. As long as they are healthy and happy, that is enough. Nothing else matters. .

Finally, I would like to give you a quote from cartoonist Cai Zhizhong:

"Every piece of wood can become a Buddha, as long as the excess parts are removed."