Reading Notes of Alien

The subtitle of Alien is: Different Apocalypse of Success, so I should have predicted that this is a book on success, and success is my most repugnant book category. However, after reading it, I think it has a strong rigor and scholarship in popular reading, which is much more interesting than the typical chicken soup for success (such as "Be the Best Yourself"), and there are also some good points. If I give it a score when I study in Douban, I will hesitate between three stars and four stars-it is still a little rewarding, so here is a brief summary.

An isolated and autonomous American town composed of immigrants from the Italian town of rossetto unexpectedly attracted the attention of doctors-people here almost never suffer from heart disease. The secret of their health is not a reasonable diet, but their social culture is calm and calm, and their interpersonal relationship is United and simple.

The first example of "otherness" appears: most of the books discuss this extremely abnormal (more remarkable) phenomenon, and further analyze the real reason why the past behind these phenomena is not known or paid attention to. All the data in the book are true and reliable, but the disadvantages of over-interpretation exist.

Family background can determine whether you can run for the presidency, and the date of birth (even the month of birth) can determine whether you will become an elite in the sports team. Because of subtle factors such as institutional rules, times, coincidence, etc., the tiny gap between individuals will accumulate and enlarge over the years-the stronger the strong, the weaker the weak.

World-class level in any field needs about 1, hours of training, and if you don't reach this accumulation before the age of 3, you will basically have no chance to get ahead.

This seemingly "hard work theory" view does not conflict with the "opportunity theory" in Chapter 1-if you don't have the opportunity to work hard for 1, hours, then the reason for your failure comes from both aspects, not just one of them. For example, if you were born at the end of the year and lost the opportunity to advance to the elite sports team, then you won't get 1 hours of elite training.

IQ has a threshold effect-the IQ of "Terman people" (a group of teenagers with super-high IQ in a long-term follow-up study) all exceeds a certain level, but the intelligence factor will only play a role below this level, that is, people who are too stupid are difficult to succeed; And beyond this level, the role of other factors began to appear. For example, people who perform better in the "divergent thinking test" (as opposed to the "convergence test" in general IQ tests, that is, excluding all wrong answers-just the opposite) often have a better chance of winning the Nobel Prize. During the decades of research, Terman's position has gradually changed: he has gradually moved from a fanatical advocate of Terman to a new attitude: there is not really such a big correlation between intelligence and achievement.

above the threshold, there is a kind of "Practical Intelligence" that is getting more and more attention: "knowing what to say to whom, when to say it, and how to say it to achieve the best effect". This kind of "practical intelligence" has little correlation with the "logical analysis ability" embodied in the general IQ test, but it successfully predicts the different development trajectories of two people with the same logical analysis ability.

where does this kind of "practical intelligence" which is a bit like "emotional intelligence" come from? It's not natural. The conclusion of the study shows that this is related to the educational model that children receive: < P > There must be some cruel recognition-this is the essence of "class superiority". The conclusion of the study shows that half of the "Termans" have entered the "unsuccessful group" contrary to expectations, and the only significant difference between them and the "successful group" is the family background in which they grew up. Of course, "economic strength" is only a part of family background, and parents' knowledge, concepts and family culture also shape children's growth.

The environment of your time (such as the low birth rate) is an important opportunity for success.

opportunities are often hidden in crises and difficulties. If you have a long-term vision (if you are lucky, it doesn't matter even if it is not long-term), it is not necessarily a bad thing to engage in a business that is unpopular and unpopular now.

Family environment has a great influence on children's social attributes.

in this chapter, the contingency of the "chance theory" has also been weakened. I don't like half of the books so far, but I seem to understand the sentence "Opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared" more specifically.

Appalachian model, or "honor culture" in the southern United States, is deeply implanted in the blood of local people. Cultural inheritance is a powerful force behind many events. Even if economic, social and demographic conditions have disappeared, culture will remain intact. Culture directly determines our way of looking at the world and behavior patterns, and it also plays a decisive role in personal development.

at some time in the last century, the plane crash rate of Korean Air was significantly higher than that of other parts of the world. The reason behind it turned out to be that the co-pilot and the random engineer were too polite to the captain-they addressed each other with honorific words, and their tone was humble, so that the captain often failed to understand that other members of the flight operation were questioning, which eventually led to great disaster.

I'm not a scholar of culture, and I'm even hostile to the study of "culture"-a rather boring factor. However, this chapter shows me a very good cross-cultural research framework, which makes me feel that cross-cultural research is also a bit interesting (intellectually, understanding this framework is also one of the biggest gains from reading this book):

It is worth mentioning that the United States is most inclined to individualism in the third dimension, while China and Hong Kong are most accepting "ambiguity" in the second dimension, or the most tolerant-very intuitive.

In the most striking dimension, the power distance refers to people's attitude towards higher-ranking classes than themselves, especially the degree of attention and respect for authority-and South Korea ranks second in the world in this dimension. High power distance index doesn't always mean bad things, but this aspect of Korean culture greatly increases the risk factor in situations such as aircraft operation. Linguistically speaking, the communication style of westerners is "speaker-oriented", which means that the speaker has the responsibility to express his meaning clearly; Many countries in Asia are "listener-oriented", which means that whether the meaning is clear depends on the listener himself, that is, "implication". But implicit expression will take a lot of energy to think and analyze-which is impossible for a highly nervous and tired captain.

Why do people in China easily achieve success in mathematics?

depending on chance (I don't like to say talent), for example, numbers in Chinese can always be pronounced in a very short time, and the structure of numbers above 1 is simpler than that in English. It is this tiny advantage that babies have in learning languages, but China children will eventually expand the gap to amazing heights in mathematics.

Second, relying on the diligence in cultural factors, farmers in China have always used farming as their main means, and they have always paid as much as they believe; Nomads may lose all their livestock overnight; People in sparsely populated areas tend to have fun instead of working all the time. They can't understand why farmers in China are "busy all the year round". Under the rice field civilization, Asians have a natural diligence, and this diligence is especially suitable for such tasks as "learning mathematics"-racial advantage is produced under the combined action of opportunity and culture.

I don't know why this chapter advocates a diligent and enterprising "KIPP-style" education model of "more class hours and less holidays". Here, the KIPP model seems to be more suitable for children from poor families-the study found that there was no significant difference in the progress of children from poor families, middle-class families and rich families during the semester, but after a long summer vacation (3 months), because children from rich families had more opportunities to continue studying, reading, reflecting/giving feedback during the holidays, they would keep children from poor families at a distance in each school year.

"Aliens" are those who get special opportunities-those who wait patiently and seize the opportunity when it comes.

The excellence of the successful people is neither rock-breaking nor mysterious (this sentence is still very "chicken soup for success"). They are in the center of the network of advantages and cultural inheritance (this sentence I prefer). Some of them are born, while others are acquired. Some things are won by themselves, others are just luck-but all these are an inseparable part of their success.