For example, we don't have to taste all the food before deciding what to eat; To go to a new city, you don't have to know the whole city planning before you go to the streets.

But why are people who like reading eager to build a knowledge system?

I thought about this question for two days and came up with these four words-"complex positioning."

In life, most problems can be decided by "simple positioning".

For example, if you pass by a roadside fruit stand and sell cherries, you will know whether you buy them or not. "Delicious" → "buy", "not delicious" → "don't buy" is a simple positioning. See which restaurant is pleasing to the eye, just go in and eat, which is also a simple positioning.

Why are most things in life "simply oriented"?

In fact, it is because the social order behind you has helped you solve most of the "uncertainties". You don't have to worry that the restaurant will suddenly be attacked by terrorists, and you don't have to worry that the cherry vendor will cheat you.

But if we explore unfamiliar territory. How did you start a business? How to start writing? How to plan your own promotion? How to find the meaning of life?

These problems are full of all kinds of "uncertainties", any of which needs to be solved by yourself.

For example, to start a business, we need to care about product positioning, how to market, team management, market competition and other factors. You may even worry that employees will be in a bad mood one day, which will lead to work lag. All these factors can be combined to determine your entrepreneurial road. This is "complex positioning", and then you need a system.

People who like reading are always people who want to solve bigger problems. If the knowledge system is compared to a map, ordinary people can travel through the city without a map. And a few people are like exploring in the jungle, so a detailed survival map is definitely needed.

So, how do we build a knowledge system? There are three cores, all of which are indispensable.

| Extensive collection of "heuristic knowledge"

The path of establishing knowledge system should be a "smile curve". As shown in the figure, firstly, the knowledge is absorbed from the breadth, and a framework is established from a certain depth in the middle. Finally, the whole knowledge tree is filled and enriched according to the framework.

Why does the first step need to absorb knowledge in breadth? There are two reasons:

First, because the knowledge system is a network, it is difficult to form a network without enough knowledge points.

Second, knowledge points need to be constantly verified and must be input in large quantities. There is only contact and verification between them.

For example, if you want to know what EQ is, it may not be enough to look at Gorman's theory. You can learn more about psychology and cognitive neurology.

The first step, your main task is to collect "enlightening knowledge", that is, when you see a piece of knowledge, you have a feeling of "so it is".

For example, "Why do people have emotions?" One issue of Luo Ji thinking explained:

In fact, emotion is a "shortcut" to the human brain system. For example, we love sweets. Eating sweets will make us happy, because sweets are high in calories and can help us replenish energy. Another example is fear. When you see a tiger, you turn and run away to avoid danger. The primitive jungle is so complicated that we have to produce many brain shortcuts to help us react quickly.

For example, if you understand the importance of "story", you can see what the Jews say:

"Truth" came to the village, naked, and everyone was too scared to look directly at it.

Later, the wise old man invited Truth to his home and dressed it. At this time, truth takes "story" as the pen name.

The story spread to the village and everyone liked it.

When you collect "enlightenment knowledge", you will enjoy it very much.

Generally speaking, a "heuristic knowledge" consists of two parts, namely "theory" and "case". Some theoretical parts of knowledge are enlightening, such as "Emotion is a shortcut to the human brain". The case part of some knowledge is better, such as the difference between "truth" and "story" told by Jews mentioned above.

The most important thing to collect "heuristic knowledge" is that you can search and call at will in the future. Especially when you have thousands of messages, you should consider what method to use.

For example, my method has only two steps, which is enough to ensure that I can think of any message:

1, a theoretical statement. For example, I just said, "Emotion is a shortcut to the human brain." This let me know what this is all about.

2. Label it. The label on it must be "emotion". I will write all the topics related to "emotions" in the future, and I can see them as soon as I search.

In fact, when there are more and more enlightening knowledge, your brain can't help but relate all kinds of knowledge, which is our second step.

| Deeply build a "knowledge framework"

The second step is the bottom of the "smile curve", that is, when you have accumulated some knowledge, you need to establish a framework in a certain field.

For example, I have always been interested in cognitive subjects such as philosophy and psychology, and collected many knowledge points such as attachment mechanism, subconscious, stoicism and personality theory. Now I need to work hard to build a psychological framework.

Again, we need to know the knowledge first, and then build the framework. This process is like listening to a song and getting familiar with sentences over and over again. It's easy to write down all the lyrics one day.

The "knowledge framework" sounds high, but in fact you need to use the minimalist principle. That is "Occam's razor principle"-if you encounter multiple different versions of the explanation on the same question, choose the simplest and practical one.

For example, you see all kinds of posters in subway stations or elevators every day, which is very complicated. A reader once told me that he wanted to be a graphic designer, but it was too complicated to understand many theoretical explanations.

However, Kenya Hara, the chief designer of MUJI, once put forward a concept that can make you understand graphic design at once.

Kenya Hara said, "No matter how complicated the print advertising design is, it is built on three layers: background layer, graphic layer and information layer. Good design works must have its advantages on the third floor. "

For example, Kenya Hara personally designed the poster for the 2005 World Expo. The background layer is light gray, the graphic layer creates a combination of rabbits, forests and shapes, and the information layer creates a combination of words close to gold. These three layers are arranged in the order of bottom, middle and top, forming a masterpiece.

Next, when you look at the posters around you with the concept of "background layer, graphic layer and information layer", you will find yourself getting in touch with graphic design.

So you will find that when the "knowledge framework" is established, it needs to be based on a large amount of knowledge reserves and understanding.

The core principle of this step is to combine and split a large number of knowledge points. You can imagine that this is a process of playing with tall building blocks. You can refer to other people's structural drawings, but try to put them together yourself.

For example, the last article "How to answer questions when communicating with people" discussed how to introduce yourself. I spliced "role", "experience" and "values" into a self-introduction framework.

The structure of splicing can be simple juxtaposition or certain logic, and the relationship between them can be established according to different specific knowledge points.

| Form a "knowledge system"

Here you should understand:

The first step is to collect "heuristic knowledge", in fact, you are collecting all kinds of Lego bricks;

The second step is to build a "knowledge framework", which is to build a small structure with building blocks, such as a small house and a bridge.

The third step to form a "knowledge system" is to form a huge Lego city on the basis of various structures and knowledge points.

The third step is to return to breadth, and in this process, a knowledge system is truly formed. But the expansion of Lego City is best based on the previously established "knowledge framework". This process is also like a tree, spreading its branches and leaves on the basis of the trunk. So many people, such as elon musk, call their knowledge system "knowledge tree".

What a "Lego City" or a "knowledge tree" should look like is a random evolution, and everyone is different.

But there is a very important principle in this process, that is, we must combine work and life to form an "output".

Seeing many articles about learning efficiency, I moved out of the learning cone theory put forward by American scholar Edgar Dale. In other words, "output" is the best learning efficiency. If you can export the learned knowledge, you can master more than 90% of the original knowledge.