Is life to pick out gold or filter out sand?

First, the argument about methods? totally different

I like to listen to "Get" audio when running. A while ago, I listened to the third season of Letter from Silicon Valley, an annual day course in Wu Jun. The letter "is life to pick out gold or filter out sand?" "This letter Fan Fei is very encouraged!

There are two ways to find gold. The first method is to spread gold ore sand on the ground and pick out gold particles that shine in the sun. The second method is to filter out the sand, and the rest is naturally gold.

Theoretically speaking, you can say that panning out gold and filtering out sand are actually the same thing. But in fact it symbolizes two different ways of doing things. These two methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. For example, the first method has an obvious defect, that is, it is not difficult for you to pick a few large gold, but many small gold sands may not be found, and it is inevitable to hang a leak. So today, people who mine gold mines mostly use the second method, filtering out the sand and leaving gold (of course, there is another method to separate the sand from the gold with mercury, which is a technical problem and will not be discussed here).

The author said that according to his observation, there are more people who do things in the second way in life. But at the same time, it is also found that people who achieve great things almost always adopt the first method.

Let me give a simple example in my letter. A few years ago, Mr. Wu Jun started taking photos with professional photographers. Then he found that professional photographers only choose a few good photos from a large number of photos, while amateur photographers usually delete bad photos and leave the rest.

For example, when I was young, I always took pains to brush from the first page to the last. Looking back now, I really feel stupid and cute. This is a typical "sand filter". I always feel that I can't miss anything good, but I don't know that spending time for it is the biggest cost. Of course, at that time, I was poor and only had time! Online shopping is not very fast now. Basically, what you want to buy depends on the platform recommendation, sales volume and the evaluation of similar competing products ranked in the top three to five. Comparing product introduction and buyer evaluation, three times five divided by two will be done. This is the correct way to "pick gold".

Second, the weak water is 3,000, only one scoop is taken.

In fact, there are many opportunities in this world, just like placer gold in the sand. There are billions of people in the world, so many that we can't catch them.

If you compare yourself to an investor, there may be thousands of projects worth investing in the world (so-called "success opportunities"), but it is not enough for an investor to catch dozens of them all his life.

Buffett, an investment guru, once said: "Every investor should assume that he has only one investment decision card that can play 20 holes. Every time he invests, he will make a hole in the card until he runs out. " This is to remind us not to make decisions often, not to seize every opportunity, that is, not to expect to filter out sand, not to let go of every gold, but to be grateful to pick out a few big ones!

Peter Tiller also summed it up in his best-selling book "From 0 to 1": the world is out of proportion and only conforms to the 28 th Law. Therefore, investment only looks for the best, because the best can generate more value. Investors found that among the invested enterprises, the first place brought more benefits than all other enterprises combined; And the second place brings more benefits than everyone except the first place.

Therefore, it is better to do one thing right and achieve a professional level than to do a lot of things perfunctory. As romain rolland said, "It is better to spend the same time and energy to dig a deep well than to spend a lot of time and energy to dig many shallow wells."

Third, the sand picks up gold, and the waves rush for gold.

Or return to the soul of the article-is life to pick out gold or filter out sand?

We might as well compare "picking out gold" to "picking out gold from sand", which means "selecting the essence from a large number of things". It is what Wu Jun said in his letter that the standard for the first filtration should be set higher; That "filtering out the sand" means "washing the sand with big waves", which means "being tested and screened in fierce struggle"

It seems that "filtering sand" will not miss any opportunity, but in fact, giving up active filtering is equivalent to handing over success or failure to the external environment, which means that "filtering sand" seems to be diligence, at best, it is "tactical diligence"; "Picking gold" seems simple, but in fact it is "strategic improvement". Never use "tactical diligence" to cover up "strategic laziness". Therefore, it is better to pick up gold in the sand than to wash the sand with big waves.

Dan ariely, a former professor at MIT, said in his book Weird Behavior: Predictable Irrationality that when faced with multiple choices, people are reluctant to give up the other choices easily, even though they know that one of them can achieve the greatest success. Because our brains naturally reject and resist risks. So few people can achieve great success in wealth, and they can overcome that psychological instinct.

It will be inefficient to consider and screen everything you encounter for fear of losing opportunities. After all, it takes time, resources and energy to judge and screen one thing. When a person tries too many things for fear of losing opportunities, he will often get nothing in the end.

Our life is limited, and the correct way is always to pick up gold directly in the sand instead of trying to pick out every gold in the sand. Whether doing things or making friends with people, to improve efficiency, the first thing to understand is this truth.

As the saying goes-money is the most scarce thing for the poor, and time is the most scarce thing for the rich. Being poor and rich is only the result, and how to treat money and time is the reason!