—— Preface of Joseph Regel's Life Hacker

Since studying Huang Tingchan in 2009, Lao He has met many different types of practitioners: Mr. F who gave up all his career and devoted himself to meditation and education promotion; Miss M, a Buddhist who specializes in hospice care in the hospital; Another patient with severe insomnia has become an excellent hypnotist through his unremitting efforts, which can help many insomnia patients get out of the insomnia dilemma. Recently, CSI met a friend of a pharmaceutical factory, Mr. Y. Mr. Y gave up the rich material comforts of big cities and lived a simple and happy life in a hot spring town far away from big cities. He swims 4000-5000 meters every day (including winter swimming), and at the same time insists on various fitness exercises, meditation and healthy eating. Mr y, who used to be thin and ill, has now become a strong and energetic man. They all have one thing in common, that is, they have their own firm beliefs and clear goals (and they must not be for fame and fortune), and they can work wholeheartedly, conscientiously and perseveringly to keep moving forward!

Teacher Zhou once said: The only important thing is to do what you really like and conform to your nature. By doing what he likes perfectly, he has an unbreakable home in this world.

Recently, CSI studied the preface of "Life Hacker" given by teacher Wan Weigang to Joseph riegel in the logical thinking club, and found it very enlightening. It is worth recommending to friends who are interested in learning and practicing, and it is worth studying and thinking seriously!

Life Hacker-Modern Practitioner

Preface to Joseph Regel's Life Hacker

The day before yesterday, we released a new book, Life Hacker. This book was introduced to readers for the first time in China through teacher Wan Weigang's interpretation of the App course "Elite Day Class" and was welcomed by the majority of users.

After a year of hard work, the Chinese version of this book finally came out. We asked Mr. Wan to write a preface to the recommendation. Next, let's listen together.

The Chinese version of Life Hacker that we watched in the third season began. Teacher Wan Weigang wrote a preface for the Chinese version of this book, and today's lecture is the full text of this preface.

I once went to China Supermarket in Philadelphia with a college classmate I haven't seen for several years, and wanted to buy some delicious food to take away. He recommended several things to me and suddenly asked me, do you boycott Japanese goods?

I said I wouldn't resist. He said you could buy this. It is delicious.

My classmate is really an excellent modern person. I don't have a strong position on Japanese goods, and my classmate doesn't boycott Japanese goods, but he respects those who boycott Japanese goods. This is like saying that you may not be religious or vegetarian, but you will take care of other people's religious beliefs and dietary preferences. This kind of care may be the survival wisdom of peaceful coexistence to a great extent, because in modern society, there are more and more people who are "particular".

China may not be obvious yet. It is easy for you to meet a strict vegetarian, or an enthusiastic environmentalist, or a tough Trump opponent, or a high-profile meditator in the United States. Personally, I think it's quite good. This society is more interesting. I think people who pay attention to it live more seriously. They don't do it occasionally, but live systematically like those practitioners in ancient times.

Joseph riegel's Life Hacker also describes such a group of "exquisite people", who are determined self-perfectors.

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I believe you will often watch some "life tips" videos, read some inspirational books and look up all kinds of "how to do" on the Internet. These are all very good, especially now there are some scientifically proven methods that are really effective. The book Life Hacker lists various methods that are considered to be effective.

You can use the principle of "giving priority to important things" to improve work efficiency, you can control yourself from wasting time by improving your will, you can manage your health by quantifying yourself, you can get rid of your obsession with material things through essentialism, you can optimize romantic relationships through psychology and economics, and you can establish a set of emotional norms through Stoic philosophy.

However, if you only regard these methods as practical means to solve problems, and only think of or use them when using them, and stay at the level of asking whether they are useful, how useful they are and how to use them, then you are not as good as a life hacker.

Will graduate students ask their tutors in professional courses how useful that knowledge is for scientific research? Does the athlete need that action to take effect immediately when practicing basic skills? All Taoist priests know that "immortality" is an illusory legend. Why do they practice so seriously?

In my opinion, the key to distinguish life hackers from ordinary problem solvers is that what they really care about is not usefulness, but a sense of control over their personal lives. They are like Taoist priests in the novels of cultivating immortals. They always look at themselves, formulate a strict system of principles and disciplines for themselves, and are bent on improving themselves by implementing this system.

This kind of promotion is not something like promotion, further study and promotion-those are just by-products-but the improvement of internal qualities such as personal efficacy, health and will quality. What they care about is not whether a thing can be done well, but what kind of state it can achieve.

When you meet a strict monk or Taoist, even if you don't agree with his beliefs, you will be in awe of him. Life hackers respect not how powerful they are, nor how advanced their methods are, but their spirit of self-improvement.

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The spirit of self-improvement has existed since ancient times. Athens' philosophy, Indian Buddhism, China's Taoism and Confucianism have never said that we are just discussing theories, and we should all practice and surpass them. Mencius was good at "nurturing my noble spirit". Benjamin Franklin had a small notebook to keep moral accounts for himself. Zeng Guofan sat quietly, read history books and kept a diary every day. They can also be called life hackers.

Who is a hacker in modern life? Reginald has done a lot of investigation and research. Like an anthropologist, he has made a comprehensive description of the classification genre, historical inheritance, ideological context and behavior habits of life hackers. We will find that hackers in modern life are at least three different from ancient practitioners, which is their advantage.

First, the goal of life hackers is more practical.

Yuval harari put forward the concept of "God Man" and thought that there would be a new human being with genetic modification and man-machine integration in the future. Brain-computer interface is really a hot topic now, and elon musk and others may put it into production soon. This is the same as the ancient people practicing immortality. But as far as I know, most life hackers don't have the extreme pursuit of "becoming superman".

They just want to be better than ordinary people-or, more strictly speaking, they just want to surpass their mediocre selves. Life hackers are not hermits in the mountains, they belong to what riegel called "innovative class" and are the products of modern society. They are engaged in professions that require creativity, such as engineers, educators, artists and designers. They have free time and need independent thinking and judgment.

If you are free, you have two choices. You can develop some hobbies such as food and travel to enjoy life, while life hackers choose to improve themselves. They want to do more when no one stipulates how much they do.

Second, life hackers pay attention to modern technology.

Life hackers are called hackers because they are good at cracking life with the latest technology. They are the first to use new wearable devices, and they use smart phones for time management. They can outsource "daily chores" such as finding a partner and making an appointment to several Filipinos through the Internet, and they are also willing to try to completely replace three meals a day with a nutritious formula protein powder.

And life hackers are also very experimental. Since the human body is so complicated, even doctors can't say for sure that nutrition is such a thing, so life hackers simply do experiments on themselves. The movement of "Quantify yourself" has been rising for many years. Recently, with the popularity of smart watches and smart rings, it will become more popular. Life hackers will monitor in detail, such as the length of REM sleep, and expect to customize an optimal sleep plan.

Third, life hackers love to share.

In ancient times, if any sect had any profound kung fu, it had to be hidden, but modern life hackers not only didn't mind at all, but also took the initiative to share their experiences with others. What is lacking in this era is not knowledge, but attention and willpower-life hackers find that the attention of others helps to improve their willpower. They will publish their working methods and work plans on social networking sites, and some even broadcast their every move 24 hours a day. Welcome netizens to supervise.

And if you can attract enough fans, sharing becomes a serious matter. A number of masters have emerged among life hackers.

Franklin and Zeng Guofan sometimes love to tell people some life experiences, but now Tim Ferris, kevin kelly and others have taken sharing life experiences as their official work to some extent. They are very willing to take the lead in trying new things, inventing new terms, explaining and advocating everywhere, and enjoying the feeling of "life mentor". The ideological market of life hackers is now full of competition and excitement.

And because these tutors understand the truth of "* * * win" very well, they always recommend each other and flatter each other, and never belittle others' behavior of raising themselves. The life hacker tutor market is not like the bottom rivers and lakes where crosstalk performers competed with each other in the past, but a cultural industry that pays special attention to the company's brand image.

However, life hackers can't completely get rid of the fate of ancient practitioners: they risk being possessed.

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A key difference between the works of serious scholars and the chicken soup inspirational book of life mentor is that the latter only provides positive energy: there is a method that I used effectively, and so did Jobs Musk Munger and others, and so can you! If you can't do it, there is something wrong with your own thinking, and you don't deserve success. Serious scholars will tell you that no method is so magical, success is largely luck, and every method has side effects. Life is actually a series of contradictory choices.

Reginald is a serious scholar. The book Life Hacker lists many methods and studies, but it is not encouraging you to become a life hacker. Choice is conditional, virtue is pro-enemy, method is risky, and Excellence comes at a price.

Every time Reginald talks about ways to solve life, he will provide relevant reflections. You can choose to outsource trivial matters to others because you have certain economic conditions. Minimalist lifestyle is just like Apple's products ... expensive, and because it is more unwilling to compromise, it is a kind of persistence. Nutrition is not a mature science, but it should not be a good idea to test the extreme regimen with your own body. Is the romantic relationship "managed" by psychology and economics still romantic?

Like all practitioners, the "optimization" of life hackers will become "blackened" if they come to a fork in the road.

But then again, like all practitioners, life hackers are not looking for "real effectiveness", but meaning.

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David Brooks said in his book The Second Mountain that an ideal life should have a promise, which can be translated into a vow. The oath is one-sided, only about one's own constraints, no matter how much the outside world gives in return. You do this not because of the thing itself, but because through this behavior, your choice has a direction, your life has a meaning, you have a sense of control over yourself, and you have gained self-identity.

I think this is also a paradox. People with vows may only get psychological satisfaction in the end, while those without vows are more likely to go far. Life hackers advocate science, but as long as it is a cultivation system, faith must be more important than science. Since life is full of uncertainty anyway, we should pay a little respect to those who are willing to devote themselves to a field.

It is indeed a kind of luck to be a hacker in life. After all, it's another chance. To be a life hacker, you don't need a degree, there is no hard talent requirement, there is no threshold, and most projects actually cost little.

So I'm a little more active than Reginald. I hope there will be more life hackers in China, and everyone will find a sect that suits them and take it seriously. Maybe the following scenarios will become more and more common-

"Do you believe in the Mediterranean diet? There are many fruits and vegetables here, as well as low-fat milk. "

"Thank you, I have tested it myself. The Mediterranean diet doesn't suit me. I have a meeting later. Now I need to eat more protein and some sugar. I need a brain! "

"Can you give me 30 seconds? I want to give you an elevator speech and have a new idea. "

"Don't worry, you said slowly, I'll give you 8 minutes for feedback! I am practicing my attention. "

……

The hacker of life may be fooling around, but it is really good for everyone to strive for self-realization by all modern means.