What is involution?

The word "involution" has been around my life since last summer vacation. Since the article "Grade Point is King", the anxiety about involution has gradually spread from the top universities in 985 to every corner of society. In fact, involution is a very elite vocabulary, and the group it faces is actually very small. At least in my school and my major, most people don't make efforts worth involution.

The essence of involution is that you can allocate less resources than before, and you have to spend several times of effort or even do something meaningless to show your Excellence in order to get the same resources as before, and it is difficult to quit. In the past, you could divide a piece of cake with a plastic knife, but now you have to hit it with a chainsaw. If you don't cut it, you will be hungry. And how can our society divide who can get more resources? What is the so-called "knife"? Achievement, education.

Endless competition, fierce competition

Involution was originally a sociological term, which generally refers to the stagnation of the development of social and cultural models. Nowadays, many college students use involution to refer to irrational internal competition, which is similar to supporting each other and fighting each other. Originally, it was possible for everyone to get a reward with 70% efforts, but some people only paid 80% or more efforts, and finally almost everyone had to pay 100%.

In the process of human development, competition is an eternal topic, and there is a very classic "prisoner's dilemma" in game theory.

The story of "Prisoner's Dilemma" tells that two suspects were caught by the police after committing a crime and were held in different rooms for interrogation. The police knew that the two men were guilty, but they lacked sufficient evidence. The police told everyone: if both people deny it, they will be sentenced to one year each; If both confess, they will be sentenced to eight years each; If two people have a confession, a denial, a confession, and a denial, they will be sentenced to ten years. ?

Resources are limited and competition is infinite, so it is undeniable that involution is "irrational", but it is the necessity of human nature.

There is a joke: two people go to Africa for treasure hunting. Unfortunately, they met a lion. At this time, one of them put down his things, opened the bag behind him and quickly put on his running shoes. The other man was puzzled and said, "Can you outrun the lion?" I only heard the man say, "Yes! Of course you can't run it, but as long as you run faster than you. " ?

Endless competition, fierce competition

One of the manifestations of involution is that classmates or colleagues have completed extra tasks that have not improved themselves in order to gain the affirmation of teachers or leaders, so that they have to keep up with classmates or colleagues. For this kind of behavior, 45% respondents believe that it should not be imitated; There are also 39.5% who think this behavior should be imitated, and 15.5% doesn't matter.

Generally speaking, rational competition can promote people's development to a certain extent. What about irrational competition? 66.5% of the respondents think that involution has improved their ability; 33.5% people think that involution is not helpful to improve their ability.

When asked about the influence of involution on personal ability improvement, 45% of the respondents think that they can make themselves more competitive, understand their gap with others and find their own goals; 32.5% think it makes them more self-disciplined and actively urge themselves to learn and progress; There are also 22.5% people who think that involution has forced them to do useless work and have no effective gains.

Endless competition, fierce competition

I have always believed that craftsman is the happiest profession in the world, and craftsman spirit is the antidote to involution. As long as I concentrate on my work enough, I put everything I have into the immediate things, and those external anxieties will not infect me. Besides, when I am obsessed with this thing enough and become an expert in this field, I will definitely have my own value in the eyes of more people. People have many needs, whether they are actual needs or vanity needs. The essence of "artisan spirit" is to castrate their other needs, so that their needs are only the works in front of them, so that they don't have to bear more anxiety. This is an escape, but it is very effective.

adequate rest

Nowadays, involution has become a common phenomenon in society, and many people turn pale at the smell of it, but in fact, involution is not terrible, so don't worry. Benign competition and moderate involution are not necessarily bad things, but it should be noted that when dealing with involution, we should avoid falling into a vicious circle of competition.