Cognitive poverty is a person’s greatest poverty

In the future, the biggest gap between people will no longer be information asymmetry, but cognitive asymmetry.

(This article was first published in the Evolution Island community and has been slightly deleted)

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Cognitive poverty leads to cognitive limitations

When a group of people were fighting over a piece of gold, someone picked up a diamond and left.

The group of people who robbed the gold were not incapable of robbing the diamonds, but:

From the beginning to the end, no one told them that there was something more valuable than gold.

This is the difference between high and low cognitive abilities.

What is arsenic to you is honey to others. It is also knowledge. What you think is worthless is treasure in the eyes of others.

If you have strong cognition, you can see the essence of things earlier than others, and see through the mid- to late-stage development of your industry in advance, and even the ending.

You will know more about the problems of your business model, its advantages and disadvantages, what kind of person you need to find to operate it, which track or even which company he will most likely appear in, and you will also know better where the money is. .

The above is the understanding of cognition shared by Long Dongping, a student in the Evolution Island community, and I would like to share it with you.

Many times, people with similar starting points have different thinking and different results.

The way we understand the world determines whether when you face difficulties, things will go to the "Valley of Despair" or the "Slope of Enlightenment."

In the past year, one of the questions I have been asked a lot in the Evolution Island community is:

Mr. Run, doing business now is tiring and hard. You work hard enough, but you are still struggling on the edge of survival.

Coupled with the sudden impact of the epidemic, the situation is even worse.

What should I do?

This question is actually very representative.

Dividends have become a red ocean, profits have become thinner and thinner, competition has become increasingly fierce, and changes have occurred suddenly.

In the words of Professor Zeng Ming:

"The easy money is definitely gone, and everyone will have to do harder things in the future."

Every next step will test our cognition and choice.

In other words:

From now on, you have to rely on your skills to make money.

What ability?

Build strategic potential and use “scarce capabilities” to support “value space”.

What does it mean?

I met an entrepreneur before and he said something that touched me very much.

He said: We will never make money from customers. We only do one thing. We only help customers save money, and we take a little bit of the money saved.

What does he do? He works in the central kitchen to help high-end restaurants prepare prepared dishes.

I said, oh, what do you cook? Do you want to make fish head with chopped pepper? Can you make steamed saury?

He said, we don’t do it because that kind of dish is too simple. For example, for steamed saury, just steam it.

So what do you do?

We only cook dishes that require a lot of time to prepare in restaurants, such as braised pork, sweet and sour short ribs, and lion head.

I do it in the central kitchen, so the labor cost is much cheaper than doing it on site.

We use our skills to help users save money, and then we share a little bit of the money saved.

During the epidemic, not only was their business not affected, but it increased by 300 yuan year-on-year.

This is the crushing of high-dimensional cognition over low-dimensional cognition.

The low-hanging fruit is gone.

The fruits of cognition are growing vigorously.

Under adverse circumstances, you can only make money by relying on your own skills.

In the midst of change, we can only rely on cognitive growth.

The same industry, the same business model, and even almost the same products.

Some face challenges and rise from the ashes.

Some collapsed and fell into the sand, unable to recover.

In the final analysis, it depends on our cognitive level of viewing the world.

There are boundaries in cognition, and there are also boundaries in thinking.

Cognitive poverty is a person’s greatest poverty.

So, how to break the shackles of "cognitive poverty"?

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The biggest competition among people for cognition

In fact, it is the competition of information density

Breaking "cognition" "Poverty" shackles are mainly divided into four steps.

First, change the "restrictive thinking" model of the poor and reshape the "goal-oriented" thinking model of the rich.

What is "restrictive thinking"?

For example:

When people with "restrictive thinking" buy a house, they first consider:

"How much deposit do I have and what is my monthly income?

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Let’s work backwards to figure out whether and what kind of house to buy.

When people with a “goal-oriented” mindset buy a house, they first consider:

“I. Do you want to buy a house? What kind of house do you want to buy? Then calculate how much is missing and how to solve it. ”

People with “restrictive thinking” will do as much as they can;

People with “goal-oriented” will cultivate as much ability as they want to do. .

Then break down a specific big goal into sub-goals, and solve these sub-goals in stages.

No one can ask for help, no money can be borrowed, no. If you understand, you can outsource, you can circumvent restrictions, you can make peace with your enemies, and you can bribe your opponents.

No matter what difficulties you encounter, I believe there will always be a solution.

The gap between the rich and the poor in cognition. This is how it started to expand step by step.

Second, the dimensionality information environment and decision-making model

The biggest competition among people in cognition is actually the competition in the amount of information input.

Your knowledge structure, your information environment, and your decision-making model determine your choices.

Your choices determine your destiny.

A few days ago, when "Hello, Li Huanying" was on the air, a joke went viral on the Internet.

Many netizens beat their chests and sighed: What a good card, Jia Ling beat her to pieces. .

Why don’t you dare to risk your life and wealth to do something and invest all your money in it?

But what about others who dare to go all-in and even borrow money to do it?

Because you feel that you are not completely sure about this matter.

Why?

Cognitive poverty leads to cognitive limitations.

Why do others dare?

He can see the ultimate outcome, which you cannot, and he can withstand failure.

We are always in an information asymmetric environment.

The higher the cognitive dimension, the more likely you are to see more and further.

Third, learn from the predecessors and advanced people, and let the experts show the way.

The purpose of adult learning should be to pursue better thinking models, not more knowledge.

In a backward thinking model, no matter how much information is added, it is only low-level repetition.

Chat with different people, especially experts from all walks of life, and you will gain different perspectives and wisdom on the world.

Communicate frequently with experts, and your thinking operating system will be subtly upgraded over time.

The environment often shapes people's thinking and personality more thoroughly than reading and school education.

Everyone needs balance, not single path dependence.

Successful people, failed people, hard-working people, down-and-out people, different life scenes, individual confusions, desires and struggles, accumulate different experiences.

The problems you encountered may have been encountered by experts as well.

The dilemma you are facing now has been experienced by masters.

The pits you step on may also be stepped on by experts.

You feel that there is an abyss ahead and start to give up on yourself.

Experts feel that if they continue into the so-called bottomless abyss, they will have a bright future.

Continuously learn from predecessors, advanced people, and masters.

The circle determines the idea, and the idea determines the way out.

Fourth, think for yourself, experience and practice for yourself.

Standing on the first floor and looking outside, you can see all the details, the things nearby, quarrels in the market, and illegal parking.

Standing on the 10th floor and looking outside, you can see parts. The details slowly disappear and the outline relationship appears.

Standing on the 100th floor and looking outside is to see the overall situation. You will realize the distribution of natural resources and the boldness of urban design.

When you are on the first floor, you should be more willing to take the initiative to run to the 5th, 8th, and 10th floors to see what you can see.

When you return to the first floor to implement it, you will have a better understanding of the depth of looking at the problem from different perspectives, and you will not forget the details.

Having a God’s perspective, you can instantly pull yourself up into the air and look down on the overall situation.

You also need to have trader skills, being able to dive to the ground in an instant to focus on details.

Know when to be in the air and when to be on the ground.

If you have not awakened yourself, others cannot give it to you, and if they are given to you, you cannot take it.

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There are boundaries in cognition

There are also boundaries in thinking

In the Evolution Island community, I treat my classmates They say:

"Cognitive poverty" leads to cognitive limitations.

Cognitive limitations bring restrictions, and people can make the wrong decision every time based on their strength at critical intersections.

Regarding "cognitive poverty", I also want to share a concept with you:

"Value Space".

A few days ago, a friend whom I have known for many years called me.

He helped me very early on, so I have a sincere "inter-temporal gratitude" to him.

So we chatted for a long time about his entrepreneurial project. I won’t talk about the project itself. involving his trade secrets.

Let me talk about what I shared with him during our chat. I personally use the logic to judge whether a project has a future and how promising it is.

This is my own logic. I share it with you in the hope that it might be of some inspiration to you.

When I judge whether a project has opportunities, I first have to look at whether the project creates "value space".

What is value space?

After you started your business like a tiger, has the entire transaction chain obtained more value at the same cost?

Give an example. In the past, 25 pounds of oil could be extracted from 100 pounds of peanuts.

You say, I am awesome, I have improved the pressing process, and I can squeeze out 40 kilograms without changing the quality.

Oh? Not bad. This project has a future. Because you have found a "value space".

Between someone else’s 25 pounds and yours 40 pounds, the extra 15 pounds of oil is your value space.

You can take the extra 15 kilograms of oil and distribute 5 kilograms of oil to consumers.

In other words, users can buy 30 pounds of oil at the same price. They will be more than happy to run away from your competitors and run into your arms.

Then, you share the other 5 pounds with your partner. The partners are also very happy.

This way, more people will be willing to help you sell oil. How about 5 pounds more? Keep it to yourself.

This is the part you deserve. This is the "value space".

With value space, everyone wants you to succeed.

If you say, no, no. No matter who squeezes today, they can only squeeze out 25 kilograms. No one can squeeze out 40 pounds. Everyone is the same.

Then I am very confused, why did you do this?

You said, because this is my feeling. I grew up using peanut oil. I know the value of peanut oil. I hope that Chinese people can use healthier peanut oil for cooking.

I work hard and I can persevere. I believe that what others can do well, I can also do well. I can do better.

You may be excited. However, I still frown inwardly.

Personally, I think it is very difficult to succeed in this matter.

Because your feelings are not a value space. Consumers won’t help you. It doesn’t matter who I buy from, why should I change? Am I familiar with you?

Partners won’t help you.

The purchase price is the same, so why take the risk and cooperate with you?

You might have a hard time, and you might just barely survive.

However, this is not entrepreneurship. This is working in the name of starting a business.

So, I asked my friend, what value space will you create by doing this?

If there is no value in the matter, if you are not familiar with it, I will stay away silently;

If you are very familiar with it, I will persuade him to turn around as soon as possible.

Value space, value space, value space.

How can we grow better in the future?

Never fall into the cognitive limitations of how to make money.

People who go there for money often fail to make money.

Without long-term cognitive advantages, any short-term rapid growth has no future.

Think about it: What value space did I create by doing this?

Instead of thinking: Can I make a lot of money by doing this?

There are boundaries in cognition, and there are also boundaries in thinking.

If the boundaries of cognitive dimensions are different, the results will be very different.

Final words

In the future, the biggest gap between people will no longer be information asymmetry, but cognitive asymmetry.

The biggest competition among people in cognition is actually the competition in the amount of information input.

Cognition is the basic physical ability of entrepreneurs.

If the basic physical skills of cognition are not enough, then your epiphany may only be the basic skills of others.

Every penny you earn is the realization of your knowledge of the world.

Every penny you lose is due to your flawed understanding of the world.

You will never make money beyond your cognition unless you rely on luck, but the money you make by luck will often be lost due to lack of strength.

The greatest fairness in this world is:

When a person's knowledge is not enough to control the wealth he possesses, this society has 10,000 ways to harvest him.

Until your wealth and knowledge match.

Cognitive poverty is a person’s greatest poverty.