After the Spring Festival, the stunning fireworks made many people feel that 2023 is full of hope, thinking that we will soon embrace so many new opportunities and new vitality.
However, I want to remind everyone here - don't forget that the impact of the past three years had just ended and many people are still feeling lingering fear. The challenges in all industries in 2023 are still huge, and those who do not understand or do not know how to embrace uncertainty will still be defeated by time.
Just after the New Year vacation, I finished watching the TV series "The Three-Body Problem" and recently read a book called "Future Shock." So I can't help but think further. Will we soon face various changes or various imaginable or unimaginable impacts, such as a new virus?
In the face of such uncertainty, how do I adapt?
Transformation is life itself
Let's start by synchronizing a concept: transformation is life itself.
The book was published in 1980, but the author also accurately summarizes the characteristics of the future society into three key words: transience, novelty, and diversity.
Transience refers to the fact that the advancement of technology means that the time needed for progress is getting shorter and shorter, the life cycle of various objects is becoming shorter and shorter, changes and migration are becoming normal, and the importance of regions in people's lives is declining-we feel this impact every Spring Festival holiday.
Novelty means that we will continue to face a series of amazing events, discoveries, conflicts and dilemmas in the future, and concepts such as organizations and families are changing continuously.
Finally, the diversity of the future makes our head ache. The main driving force of this era is the speed of change, and we are creating a transient, unfamiliar, and complex environment, and our adaptability is gradually collapsing, which is what is called the "impact of the future".
Now let's think about what kind of impact this impact will have on us?
Physically, although we human beings may be able to withstand heat and cold and now we can walk on the moon, we are indeed fragile. In the face of a changing environment or the stimulation of viruses, we are really tiny.
In addition, mental health is not to be ignored. For example, "information overload" can make us unable to effectively integrate, organize, and internalize the information we need, which will affect our work, life, and interpersonal relationships.
In real life, some of the knowledge and professions that we now think are very cool may also be changed at any time by the speed of this change. Stick to old ideas and you'll be eliminated quickly.
At the same time, we may always be pushed to go, and no longer feel life as our ancestors did.
How to deal with changes?
Facing the inevitable trend of change and evolution, what should we do as individuals or organizations?
I think we need to stick to long-termism and do what is difficult but right.
As Zhang Lei said in his book "Value": long-termism is a kind of sobriety that helps people establish a rational cognitive framework, unaffected by short-term temptations and distractions, and a mindset for both individuals and entrepreneurs.
When we encounter problems, when we encounter uncertainty and can't see the current situation clearly, we need to constantly ask ourselves what we should do and how we should understand the future and ourselves.
This is also what I have been reflecting on and exercising lately - to concentrate, to focus, to specialize, to trial and error within long-termism, to gradually focus in the process of trial and error, and then to find the correct direction through iteration, and to deeply focus.
I wish you can also find this inner strength.