Clear Thinking and Consistency
by 碧树西风
Thinking Clearly
Introduction
Lots of people like to chase the “hot” things because they think their success depends on opportunity.
But I think that only applies to a handful of people. Most people lack clear thinking and consistency.
Interview Exp
I don’t like interviewing people but I have at least interviewed a few hundred applicants.
Most of them gave me the impression that they weren’t clear with what they wanted in their lives.
If you ask a person, even if someone in management:
What do you want in 5 years? In 3 years? In 1 year? What is your plan this quarter, this month, this week, today?
If today’s plan doesn’t go as planned, what is your alternative plan?
Only very very few people can answer that.
That is what I described it as “living without clear thinking.”
If you ask him for his goals, he could still drop a few vague items, or a few unrealistic ones.
For instance, I want to be rich; I want to get the promotion, I want to find a pretty girl, I want xxx… Such as being a CEO, married a white-rich-pretty, achieving conventional success…
But then how do you execute that plan?
How much time do you need? 5 years, 3 years?
If 5 years, how do you break it down to different milestones?
What are the conditions for each milestone? what conditions you have met, what conditions you haven’t met? What do you do for the conditions you haven’t met? How do you leverage your resources?
This is why I said, most of the people failed in strategy.
Lots of parents thought getting into a good college is enough to thrive in life. But this is just the beginning. Most of the people I interviewed were Masters and PHDs from elite colleges. They still lacked the “clear thinking.”
Thus, most applicants couldn’t even reach the Techlead position, and ended up staying as an engineer for most of their lives. Even if some got promoted, it was because all the capable ones were gone and he was the most senior one left.
Their main source incomes were salary and bonus, then they waited for their companies to IPO. Once their companies IPO, they could cash-in big, otherwise their lives would stay stagnated.
Rarely people work with a clear purpose. For instance, I have to become a techlead / PO in 2 years, become a manager in 4 years. What if I can’t achieve goal 1, or goal 2.
Do I start a technology coup and force out my boss, or move to another company?
If you want to start a coup, you have to have a plan first.
For instance, you probably want to get the support of the core technical staff; maintain a good relationship with the higher management; or you get along with the marketing and sales people, use the name of a big customer’s need to propose an architectural change, to force out the original team.
Similar principles with job-hopping. Do you really think sending your resume is the way? Most of the higher positions are driven by relationships.
Many people may question why would applicants discuss such confidential information such as personal goals?
In fact, experienced interviewers can tell if you have “clear thinking” within a few minutes.
Consistency
Having “clear thinking” is just a good start. Without that you can’t catch any opportunities even if they are right in front of you.
In addition, you also need to be consistent.
This is already a cliche. But I am going to explain to you how “clear thinking” relates to “consistency”: one reinforces the other.
Everyone knows that this blog has been around for 2.5 years.
Everyday I wrote an article with a few thousand words. Now I have written enough word for a few long novels.
You can try to write 3 thousand words every day to explain one thing clearly. It is actually very difficult.
One can write an article when he has an idea. But people don’t naturally get an idea every day.
To write an article, first you have to be clear with whatever you are writing about, otherwise you can’t even understand your own words.
So whenever you write, you are forcing yourself to think clearly.
If you force yourself to think clearly every day, day after day, year after year, gradually you will “think clearly” and have a clear goal.
Thinking and Action, Planning and Execution are mutually reinforcing each other.
I didn’t start this blog to write articles, I started this blog to share what I have already been doing every day: think.
Every day I write an article, then my thinking becomes clearer.
Conclusion
What are you going to do? How are you going to do it?
How can you connect your plan and your execution, to create a positive feedback loop?
Are you ready?
Empowering others
Wechat has a new policy, if you don’t star a blog’s article, it may not recognize you as a frequent reader , thus you may miss the daily publication.
Today a reader asked, she doesn’t want others to know that she is reading my blog, but she also worries she may not be able to read the articles if she doesn’t “star” my articles.
I replied, I shared my articles to you For Free, and you still don’t want to share with others, how can you become rich?
You can only get on the stage to let others understand you, so that you can make more meaningful connections, so that you can become richer.
But then she deleted her comment. It seems she was afraid that her friends would see that comment.
My editor later explained to me that she was not afraid of letting others understand her, but afraid of others becoming smarter to overwhelm her.
I thought it was weird, if your friends became stronger, you would become stronger as well.
Then the editor explained to me some more theories.
My editor was from a super rural area. He was very smart and kept on getting into good schools. He also explained to me how his relatives and people in his villages kept on sabotaging others from getting rich.
He used to have that kind of thoughts as well, but later he realized those thoughts were ruining him. Then he tried so hard to counter what was taught from his original family.
Then I finally understood. This kind of toxic thought from the original family, is the biggest barrier for the poor to become the rich.
Noone can become rich by sabotaging others from becoming rich. Because your wealth is the avg wealth of your circle. Thus, you can only hope for the best of people around you.
To improve one’s socioeconomic status, a poor person has to cut off the toxic thoughts to lower other people. Not only for himself but also for his descendents not to be inhibited by those thoughts.
It is actually much harder to remove the original thoughts in your brain than moving a mountain.