Ordinary people’s thinking is either black or white, staying in a single dimension of linear thinking; Master’s thinking is diversified, good at analyzing the gray boundary of things, so as to understand the essence of things.
Gray thinking, black and white decision-making, it seems that two completely opposite ways of thinking, how can be fused together? Masters have their own thinking and playing methods. After analyzing many science and technology leaders, it is found that the difference between masters and ordinary people lies in grayscale thinking and black and white decision-making.
As “The Great Gatsby” said, the test of first-class intelligence is whether you can hold two opposing ideas in your head at the same time and still maintain the ability to act normally. What should we think about luck? The answer lies in whether or not you can invoke this first-class intelligence.
Chinese people pay attention to meet each other half way. Between husband and wife, brothers, colleagues and classmates, if you have to distinguish who is right and who is wrong, you will be separated at the end. Although you live together every day, sometimes you are worse than passers-by. Even if you’re right, even if you’re right, even if you’re good, you still can’t be unreasonable. You have to always look at what you’re not perfect for. You should look at how you can improve, and even get your partner to improve with you. That’s the big picture.
There are a lot of people think they are doing the right thing, and then drill into the tip of the cow, to people, a reason to walk around the world, aggressive. But in the end, such a person is often hated and calculated by others. Too many people through the ages have suffered in this matter.
So, if you don’t know how to be careful, the more you do the right thing, the more people you will offend. Because you always think you’re right, and you won’t give up, you’re isolated. Therefore, we must understand a truth: true to false place true also false, false to true false also true. True and false, right and wrong, can be transformed at any time, there is often wrong, there is often right, this is also called gray philosophy.
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1. What is grayscale thinking |
Grayscale thinking is the mode of thinking closest to the truth of the world. The real world is not angular, not black and white, but round, chaotic, impermanent, it has white in black, white in black, black can be turned into white, white can be turned into black at any time, this is gray.
Grayscale thinking is the area between the two levels of cognition of a thing. You will find that the range of this area is very large, that is to say, most things in life and work are grayscale. Ordinary people’s cognition is still in a qualitative state, that is, black and white, binary opposition, and there is a lack of grasp of degree, quantity and degree. The problem is that the cognitive dimension of the transaction is stuck in the linear thinking process of yes and no, being and nothing, and being and not, and it is difficult to jump out of the process, so it is difficult to get appropriate results.
Westerners pay more attention to the fairness of the process, while Chinese people pay attention to the fairness of the result. Grayscale thinking can integrate the process and reach the result. For example, we should allow others to make mistakes. We should not be too demanding of others. We should turn a blind eye to many things happening in front of our eyes.
The essence of grayscale thinking is to always keep an open mind to dynamically recognize things and always be ready to accept all kinds of uncertain factors. It is the art of thinking of the highest state to have the courage to face uncertain factors, balance — imbalance — rebalance, repeat this process constantly, and be good at balancing the situation.
Ren Zhengfei is the entrepreneur who knows gray philosophy best. He once said: A clear direction is generated in chaos and stands out from gray scale. The direction changes with time and space, and it often becomes unclear. It’s not all or nothing.
He added: “Don’t hate evil and see black and white… It is normal for cadres to have some ideas or problems. No one has problems.”
It can be seen that Ren Zhengfei is the real “master of human nature”, his deep insight into human nature, can be described as clear to the bottom.
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2. Grayscale thinking is ubiquitous in life |
Understanding grayscale thinking, so how to use it in work and life? Grayscale thinking has been widely used in all aspects of work and life. For example, the release of Internet products, due to the rapid iteration of Internet products and a large number of users, new versions are frequently released. Once mistakes are made, the impact is too great and the cost of trial and error is too high. Therefore, it is common to cut off some users to play the new version in order to collect data, get feedback from users, and then cut off all users after the version is stable, which is gray scale release.
This careful verification, bold implementation of the way, gray axis is the user range, a small range of pilot, a large range of spread, most of the analysis of things can be accompanied by gray testing, smooth transition to black and white choice, can avoid a lot of wasted costs.
Last year, my friends wanted to try community e-commerce. As those who have done e-commerce before, we all know how deep the water is. If you deny it directly, it will definitely discourage your friend’s initiative of innovation. If you agree with your friend’s plan, millions of costs will be invested. Electricity is then used the gray level thinking, community electricity future direction, worth exploring, so suggest to form a team around 10 people, half a year’s time, if for a day, 1000, will continue to invest their resources can stop project targets, the core members of the project after project success, can assign some options. It not only solves the problem of trial and error cost, but also solves the problem of team benefit distribution. Later, it was proved that the tuition was worth paying. The project itself was not successful, but it trained talents and made them have a deeper understanding of the industry and the enterprise itself. Later, the project team achieved great success in other projects.
In grayscale thinking, a small range of trial and error, failure on the timely stop loss, successful continue to increase investment. Free from the single linear thinking of doing and not doing, standing on the axis of trial and error cost, found a way out.
The essence of life is to look for light in gray scale. The essence of gray scale is to recognize things dynamically with an open mind and always be ready to accept all kinds of uncertain factors. The management art of the highest realm is to have the courage to face uncertain factors, balance — imbalance — rebalance, repeat this process constantly, and be good at balancing the situation.
Every single one of us, every day, faces uncertainty, has to survive and make decisions in gray scale. We should choose liberal arts or science subjects in high school, college entrance examination end to application, like the girls in the university to decide after or not to chase, graduated from the university should choose what kind of work, work, which led to decide to follow even factions to work for a few years later decide to change jobs, don’t jump to decide whether to change the big companies or small companies, or even your own business…
Uncertainty is always present in every decision we make, so we feel confused and anxious. We do a lot to feel safe inside. Some people are so obsessed with security that they are only willing to stay in familiar places and never willing to take a step into the unknown. They briefly gain control of their own destinies and seem secure. But when we stretch it out, we find that sense of security fragile.
The greater rewards, whether in money, career, or relationship, often lie in the darker gray of uncertainty. When you choose a low-risk income stream, you forfeit the opportunity to become rich. When you choose a stable job, you lose the chance of a brilliant career. When you push too hard for emotional security, your partner will pull away from you. To become more successful, we don’t do everything, we do the best possible solution. The optimal solution is a probability distribution, not a definite number.
Ordinary people will pursue a 100 percent result, while expert people will pursue a probabilistic advantage. While ordinary people suffer when they lose, expert people adjust their strategies and move on to the next probability advantage. When you can accept uncertainty, you can also accept failure. You’ll be braver to go after a good girl, bolder to jump ship, bolder to start a business.
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3. Master mind method: gray thinking, black and white decision-making |
First of all, consider a question, which situation is suitable for gray scale, which situation should be black and white? China is a human society, and people are sensitive to their feelings. Many business leaders are masters of understanding human nature.
Ren Zhengfei is a “master of human nature”, his deep insight into human nature can be described as crystal clear.
Ren Zhengfei once said: for the things related to people, we should use gray scale. Try to be black and white for things, gray for innovation, and black and white for execution.
1) Ren Zhengfei: The level of a leader is the appropriate gray scale
Ren zhengfei also experienced painful struggle and countless times hit the wall, to understand this truth. He said, “When I think of the wasted time, I realize how can I be so naive and ridiculous and not understand openness, compromise and gray scale at all?” .
By the time he was in his 40s, Ren was “not confused, but full of uncertainty.” But he plunged headlong into this flood of uncertainty. Over the past 30 years, although Huawei has achieved many miracles and developed into the world’s largest telecommunications company and the second largest mobile phone company, Ren Zhengfei never feels that he can rest easy, and his heart is always full of worries.
When Huawei was on the rise, he wrote “The Winter of Huawei”, warning everyone to prepare for the winter. When the wind is light, he makes the assumption of extreme survival, from the operating system, chips and other aspects, are prepared for the worst.
“We cannot predict the future accurately, but we should still embrace it boldly. “We must not only remain calm in the face of the tides, but remain committed to continuing to transform the organization toward long-term value contributions, even as the company shrinks dramatically.” With a deep understanding of gray scale, Ren adopted the “gray philosophy” when managing the company.
In a speech entitled “The grayscale of management”, Mr Ren argued: “The level [of leaders] is the right grayscale.” Ren Zhengfei believes that a clear direction is generated in chaos and stands out from gray. The direction changes with time and space, and it often becomes unclear. It’s not all or nothing.
Reasonable grasp of the appropriate gray level, is to make all kinds of factors affecting the development of harmony in a period of time, this harmonious process is called compromise, this harmonious result is called gray level.
2) Ma Huateng: The core of Tencent method is gray scale law
Coincidentally, Ma Huateng also made a special “gray law of the seven dimensions” speech. “In Tencent’s internal product development and operations, there is a word that has been repeatedly mentioned, and that is’ grayscale ‘,” he said. Observing and thinking from an ecological perspective, I summed up Tencent’s internal changes and experience gains and losses in the past 14 years as the “gray scale law” for creating biological organizations.
This law specifically includes seven dimensions, namely: demand, speed, flexibility, redundancy, openness and cooperation, innovation and evolution. In fact, Tencent’s product development, has been following the gray principle. Gray scale concept runs through the whole process from the beginning of design to the final product launch. Gray scale test is also an essential step for all Internet companies to develop products. Gray scale under uncertainty is not only the nature of the world, but also the principle that business operation must follow, as well as the method of enterprise management and product development.
3) Zhang Yiming: Gray scale is a probability distribution, what you need to do is to seek the optimal solution
Zhang Yiming is very good at dealing with uncertainty. He is a typical tech nerd, especially calm and rational, and is even called “robot” by his classmates and friends. He likes regular and procedural things and can’t stand uncertainty. He liked his job as a programmer because it was deterministic: you put in the code and the computer output it for you. As long as there are no bugs, the results are completely predictable.
“I don’t like uncertainty,” Zhang said in an interview with Caijing magazine. “It has something to do with my background as a programmer, because the program is certain, but in fact the CEO is the ultimate bearer of anxiety.”
So, after transforming from programmer to CEO, Zhang Yiming has been very painful. Because ceos make decisions every day amid uncertainty. “It’s a probability distribution anyway,” Zhang realised. “You just make the best decision.” It is this understanding that enabled Zhang yiming to complete the transformation from programmer to CEO. If zhang had not learned to deal with uncertainty, he would not have made Toutiao, which faces enormous uncertainties in policy, law and industry competition.
4) Wang Xing: Limited and infinite games
Wang Xing, founder of Meituan, recognized this problem earlier. His tolerance for uncertainty seemed innate. From the start, he was fearless, constantly trying new things and not afraid to fail. He often quoted “Only the dead have seen the end of war,” meaning that Only the dead know the end of the war.
One book he highly admires is The Finite and Infinite Game. Finite games have a definite ending, whereas infinite games, where no one wins or loses, can play on and on — that’s his idea of competition. The game with no ending may be unbearable for ordinary people, but Wang Xing never tires of it. Wang xing’s tolerance for uncertainty may have something to do with his family. At the age of one or two, Wang xing’s father became a famous 10, 000 yuan local family and later developed into a billionaire. When Wang Xing was growing up, he never had to worry about money. This superior family situation gave Wang Xing confidence. So that no matter how his business fails, he has no fear. Because the family can always support him. This condition is zhang Yiming and Cheng Wei do not have.
This gives us a lesson: try to create a good environment for children, so that he has a sense of security, his future tolerance of uncertainty, will be relatively high. But this does not mean that the children of ordinary families are not good in this respect, Zhang Yiming’s father is a local grassroots civil servant, at most can be called well-off family. They were desperate for certainty, but eventually, they overcame their own anxieties and fears and learned to live with uncertainty.
So embracing uncertainty, overcoming anxiety and insecurity, can be learned.
Many people pursue security too much, only willing to stay in their familiar places, never willing to take a step into the unknown place. They briefly gain control of their own destinies and seem secure. But when we stretch it out, we find that sense of security fragile. The greater rewards, whether in money, career, or relationship, often lie in the darker gray of uncertainty.
When you choose a low-risk income stream, you forfeit the opportunity to become rich. When you choose a stable job, you lose the chance of a brilliant career. When you push too hard for emotional security, your partner will pull away from you. To become more successful, we don’t do everything, we do the best possible solution. The optimal solution is a probability distribution, not a definite number. Ordinary people will pursue a 100 percent result, while expert people will pursue a probabilistic advantage. While ordinary people suffer when they lose, expert people adjust their strategies and move on to the next probability advantage. But this one would have been better suited to naked apes living in forests or savannas, or farmers during the agricultural age. Today we live in concrete cities, driving cars, using smartphones, connected to the Internet and leading a highly commercialized life.
Today’s competition is very different from forest and grassland.
Coping with uncertainty is the new imperative. Coping with uncertainty is the new imperative. The pursuit of certainty is part of human nature that we need to overcome. So how do we deal with the world’s uncertainty? First, acknowledge the uncertainty of the world. The “butterfly effect” tells us that the world can change a lot because of small factors. Schrodinger’s cat tells us that development is not determinative, but a superposition of quantum states. So we live in a world where a lot of things are uncertain. This is really bad news for OCD. But that’s the way it is, and none of us can change it. We can only accept it. Remember, there is no black or white, gray is the way of the world.
Second, accept the imperfections of the world. If the world is uncertain, then we don’t have to be perfect ourselves, because you don’t know what you are better suited to the future world. Ren Zhengfei and Ma Huateng both allow subordinates to make mistakes and products to fail, so that enterprises can make continuous progress. For families and individuals as well. We have to tolerate flaws in ourselves, in our parents, in our spouses, in our children. Tolerating uncertainty in our dealings with others means we don’t need to please. Often, we don’t want to engage in conflict because we don’t know what it will lead to, and it comes down to fear of uncertainty.
Third, create security borders. With so much uncertainty in the world, we need to build secure borders. Wechat development, is several team internal competition, finally Zhang Xiaolong succeeded. In our daily lives, creating secure boundaries means saving more money, learning more, making more friends, and exercising more. At the same time, allow moderate waste to give yourself, your family and your employees more freedom. The wider your security perimeter, the more comfortable you are with uncertainty and the more comfortable you are with the unexpected.
Fourth, improve determination. The environment is gray, but the decisions are black and white. The weather forecast says there’s a 50-50 chance of rain today. You can’t go out with a 50-50 umbrella. You either take the umbrella or you don’t. This is true of life and business decisions. We make a lot of decisions every day in volatile and uncertain environments.
The development of the world is uncertain, and the human instinct is to pursue certainty. This requires us to sometimes find a way to control our instincts. The ability to embrace uncertainty is one of the key differences between the best and the rest. People with a higher tolerance for uncertainty are more likely to be successful and profitable in politics and business.
Ren Zhengfei of the old generation, Ma Huateng of the Mesozoic era and Wang Xing of the new generation are masters of dealing with uncertainty. Zhang Yiming and Cheng Wei have also gone through a transition from pursuing certainty to embracing uncertainty, which has made them better entrepreneurs.
References are made to yonyou Research Institute, Yonyou Developer Competition and YonBuider Development Center