TOPIC: ISSUE25 - "Anyone can make things bigger and more complex. What requires real effort and courage is to move in the opposite direction-in other words, to make things as simple as possible."
WORDS: 607
TIME: 00:45:00
DATE: 2009-2-25 13:59:06
There are three kinds of thinkers all around the world, populaces, elites and sages. The difference between them is the way of thinking, simple or complex. Beginners make things bigger, while elites make things smaller. When it comes to sages, they again make things complex. On one hand, with simpler thoughts of things, one can achieve her goal in a direct way. On the other hand, we cannot omit the significance of thinking comprehensively.
The first level of them is the populaces, who usually think things in a complex way, make things hard to do and hesitate in pursuing them. They are destined to achieve little success. Sometimes, it is not the circumstance but our thoughts that tied our foot and render us hard to accomplish our goals. One always think about all aspects of one problem may achieve nothing as an end. For instance, a girl in a folktale is always thinking about the future. One day, when she was on her way to the market to sell a basket of eggs, she cannot help thinking about the money she could get from the eggs. Then she began to think about purchasing more chickens, getting more money, more chickens and more money. At last, she thought about the husband she would marry to and the children she would give birth to. When she was going to hit one nick boy, she cannot keep balance by ignoring what was lying on the way under her foots. Eggs break, so was her fantasy.
As a matter of fact, one needs efforts and courage to make things simpler. The success of elites would illustrate them effectively. We know Alexander the Great, who authorized the whole area of ancient Egypt and left a plenty of stories. One famous story which describes his courage is the Gordian Knot. Gordian Knot was described as a question to challenge the intelligence and courage of the future king of that distract. Nobody solved it, except Alexander the Great. When he knew the story, he thought for a while, took his sword and cut that knot. Admit it or not, the direct way of his thinking played a important role in his success.
The highest level is sages, who think things again in a complex way and make philosophy theory from the very piece in daily life. Yet it is not for everybody, only those who have great wise and diligence may achieve that goal. In retrospect, Issac Newton must be one of greatest masters in science along the history of the developments. What can one think from an apple? Common people may wander whether it is rape. Businessmen may think a little further about the economy profit of an apple, which would lead them to achievements in economy as well. But sages do think about them in a more complex way. Newton saw gravity from it, and concluded the Newton's Laws afterwards, which promoted the level of science and technology in a fast pace. No great achievements to the whole society would be accomplished in a direct way, nor does them to one.
Besides, if one fails to consider one issue in a comprehensive and complex way, he or she may confront several problems in solving them. As an old saying goes, every sword has two edges. We need to think about one issue from different views; thus we would miss big mistakes before making a decision.
Generally speaking, we should have courage and efforts to make things simple, for it is the direct way to success. Yet we should keep the comprehensive ideas in mind as well, for it is the surest way to success.作者: cora.s 时间: 2009-2-25 14:27:12