Learning & Education · Cognition & Learning

We all share the same roots and the same soul.

What are our roots and our soul? They are traditional Chinese culture.

Traditional Chinese culture has always attached importance to personal cultivation.

Looking at traditional Chinese culture, we see four aspects: devotion to family and country, social concern, personal character, and cultural cultivation.

Devotion to family and country, for example, involves filial care and patriotism, national feeling, and affection for one’s home region;

Social concern involves benevolence toward people and love for all things, caring about the world, and contributing to society;

Cultivation of character involves honesty and self-discipline, honoring virtue and steadfast resolve, respectful courtesy, modesty, and harmony;

Cultural cultivation involves knowledge of the humanities and history, methods of learning and scholarship, written expression, and the pursuit of scientific and technological invention.

Never be a speck of dust in the ocean of knowledge. Make knowledge serve me: not learning knowledge, but using knowledge.

Those who argue right and wrong are at the level of learning knowledge;

Those who consider winning and losing are at the level of using knowledge.

Never be knowledge’s slave; let knowledge be an addition to me,

Let knowledge become a tool for realizing my dreams.

The prerequisite for possessing learning is trimming learning; the secret behind it is learning the right things.

Knowledge divides into appearance and essence.

Ordinary people see appearances; great achievers go directly into the essence and use it. Solve just one point, and every problem is readily resolved and vanishes.

Two elements are especially important. First, **you must in fact repeatedly listen to other people’s views, then have your own judgment.**

If Western education develops adaptable people, Eastern education mainly develops people strong in logical thinking. This is an important aim of talent cultivation in our country.

If Western education emphasizes breadth of knowledge, Eastern education emphasizes depth and understanding: “Know that it is so, and know why”;

If the West emphasizes practical ability, the East emphasizes reading;

If the West emphasizes individual independence, the East emphasizes collectivism;

If the West makes creativity a thread throughout education, the East greatly values norms, emphasizing that without standards nothing can take proper shape.

**Data + organization = information;**

Professional books, courses, teachers’ notes, papers, conferences, and so on are data. Organizing them through mind mapping produces valuable information.

**Information + insight = knowledge;**

Valuable information combined with insight from your understanding of the industry and profession becomes valuable knowledge, not rote-memorized content.

**Knowledge + experience = wisdom;**

Putting valuable knowledge into operation and practice yields experience that makes you more seasoned. This combination forms your wisdom.

**Wisdom + imagination = talent;**

Information, knowledge, wisdom, plus imagination and innovative thinking make for great talent.

Bringing our ideas to seek advice can easily lead to lengthy explanations. We want to clarify the background and show the effort already invested. Yet more material does not necessarily make the question clearer. If affirmation is what we most want, a long conversation may only add confidence, not understanding.

Before seeking advice, I think it is worth stating what we want tested: the initial premise, an intermediate inference, or a method’s applicability elsewhere? Explain current progress and methods already tried, then locate questions there. This lets the other person’s experience genuinely enter, rather than merely elicit a polite response to an overall picture.

When hearing disagreement, we should distinguish its source. What field does the other person know, what supports their judgment, and does it overlap the matter discussed? Respecting experience need not extend every statement to every problem; maintaining independent thinking cannot mean accepting only comfortable answers.

Seeking advice need not lead to immediate agreement. Finding a condition I had missed or clarifying an unresolved question can help the next decision. I would rather come away with clear questions and reliable grounds than have someone more experienced settle the answer for me.

When someone still has not begun learning, we easily become anxious and start reminding, arranging, and urging. The task may finally move, then stop when reminders stop. What deserves understanding is whether they know why to learn or only that others require it.

I care about how learning moves from willingness to spontaneity, then gradually to organizing oneself and finding methods. Reasons for willingness can be concrete: completing something, entering a beloved field, solving an immediate difficulty. Finding that reason first shows people where they are going more readily than continually adding demands.

Even with willingness, people encounter confusion, fear, and difficulty persisting. We can help them encounter the real process, shrink tasks, demonstrate what is needed, and let them finish a part themselves. Interest, methods, and ability affect each other; they need not form steps everyone must follow identically.

Not every necessary task is enjoyable; its meaning and way of completion can be discussed. Helping someone learn aims to let them gradually arrange things themselves. If only the helper ever knows the destination, learning remains something arranged for them.

Guiding someone through a task often leaves both parties feeling teaching is complete. Steps are clear and results appear. But if different material or a changed condition leaves them unsure where to begin, what they gained may mainly be this one procedure.

Demonstrations should also explain judgments. Why take this step first, which conditions require changing methods, and what information affects later choices? Actions are visible; judgments often hide before them. Remembering only actions risks applying methods to unsuitable problems.

After demonstrating, let the learner handle a similar but different problem independently. Observe how they begin, where they need help, and whether they can explain their reasons. When difficulties arise, first find the difference together, then explain further. This reveals what is understood and what still depends on original prompts.

I hope guided work can become a starting point for later self-learning. The teacher then has less work they must repeatedly do for someone, and the learner gains capacity to keep trying. Mastery must be observed in judgment after conditions change, not confirmed merely by a first successful result.

The result of learning is not collecting knowledge, but changing understanding and action.

Education should pass on knowledge while also cultivating judgment, practice, and independent responsibility.