Volume B-3 | Gate of Future: Four Laws for Facing the Future
This is an English translation of 中文原文
Opening: Can the Future Be Shaped?
Some say the future is unpredictable, so we can only “take one step at a time.”
Others say the future is predetermined, so we can only “resign to fate.”
But actually, neither statement is completely correct.
The truth is: The future has stable parts and changing parts. The stable parts can be predicted and shaped, the changing parts need flexible response.
The Gate of Future speaks of how to find certainty in uncertainty, find direction in change.
Law Nine | Destiny Pattern Seal: Distinguish “Fate” from “Fortune”
Story: What Can You Change, What Cannot Be Changed?
A young person wants to start a business.
His friend advises: “Look, your family background isn’t as good as others, resources aren’t as good as others, this is ‘fate,’ can’t be changed, better find a stable job.”
He thought about it and said: “I can’t change my family background, this is ‘fate.’ But I can choose what to learn, who to collaborate with, how to do things, this is ‘fortune.’ What I need to do is optimize my ‘fortune’ as much as possible on the basis of ‘fate.’”
Ten years later, his company does quite well. That friend who advised him asked: “How did you succeed?”
He said: “I didn’t succeed, I just did my best with the controllable parts.”
Law’s Core: Fate Is Long-Term Stable, Fortune Is Short-Term Adjustable
What is “fate”?
- Your genes, your origins, your era—these are long-term stable, hard-to-change “underlying structures.”
- Like a system’s “steady state,” determined by long-accumulated factors, can’t change in short time.
What is “fortune”?
- What choices you make today, who you interact with, what skills you learn—these are short-term adjustable “transient perturbations.”
- Like a system’s “fluctuations,” though each fluctuation is small, long-term accumulation can gradually move you away from the original trajectory into a new steady state.
So, smart people’s strategy is: Accept your “fate,” but constantly optimize your “fortune”.
Practical Point: List Your “Fate” and “Fortune”
Do a simple exercise:
- List those “you cannot change”: like origins, age, past choices.
- List those “you can change”: like what to learn today, who to collaborate with, how to allocate time.
Then, focus energy on the second list. Don’t waste time and emotion on the first list.
Law Ten | Inquiry Symbol Method: Use Little Information, Test Quickly
Story: How to Make Decisions with Insufficient Information?
A doctor encounters a patient with complex symptoms, possibly several diseases.
But if every disease requires comprehensive examination, time and money are unaffordable. What to do?
The experienced doctor’s approach:
- First do the most critical examinations, rule out the most dangerous possibilities.
- Based on examination results, decide the next step.
- If certain indicators are clearly abnormal, examine deeply in that direction; if all normal, switch directions.
This is “sequential decision-making”: Don’t collect all information at once, but collect, decide, and adjust direction while going.
Law’s Core: Information Is Expensive, Use It Sparingly
When information is sufficient, decision-making is simple: lay out all data, calculate, choose the best.
But in reality, information is often expensive:
- Collecting information takes time.
- While waiting for information, opportunities might slip away.
- Some information simply cannot be obtained in advance, only known after doing.
So, smart people’s approach: Use minimal information, test quickly; adjust dynamically based on feedback.
This is the wisdom of “Inquiry Symbol Method”: not “plan without omission, hit with one strike,” but “test in small steps, iterate quickly.”
Practical Point: Set “Early Signals”
Before making major decisions, first set several “early signals”:
- If signal A appears, this direction is viable, continue investing.
- If signal B appears, there’s risk, be cautious.
- If signal C appears, direction is wrong, stop loss immediately.
Then, use minimal cost to test whether these signals appear.
For example:
- You want to start a business, don’t immediately quit job, rent office, hire team. First use spare time to make a small product, see if anyone is willing to pay.
- You want to change industries, don’t immediately fully transform. First do some part-time or projects in the new field, see if you adapt.
This way, even if judgment is wrong, the cost isn’t too high.
Law Eleven | Earth Vein Array: Optimize Configuration in Space
Story: Why Are Some Places Especially “Prosperous”?
Opening a cafe in the same way, some places are bustling, others deserted.
Some say it’s “feng shui,” others say it’s “luck.”
But actually, behind it is very simple logic:
- Places with large foot traffic have more customers.
- Places with complementary businesses around (like bookstores, co-working spaces) match target demographics.
- Places with convenient transportation and comfortable environment have high repeat purchase rates.
This is the “Earth Vein Array”: Optimize configuration in space, let resources flow to the most valuable places.
Law’s Core: Spatial Configuration Affects Efficiency
Not just choosing store locations, many things involve “spatial configuration”:
- In a home, putting the study in a quiet corner is more efficient.
- In an office, putting people who need frequent collaboration together reduces communication costs.
- In a city, concentrating industries in certain areas creates economies of scale.
These are all applications of “Earth Vein Array”: Improve overall efficiency through optimizing spatial layout.
Practical Point: Draw Your “Resource Map”
Do a simple exercise:
- List your key resources (time, money, connections, energy).
- Draw these resources’ “flow diagram”: where are they flowing now? What value do they produce? Is there waste?
- Optimize flow: can resources be more allocated to high-value places? Can low-value consumption be reduced?
Like adjusting home furnishings, seems like a small matter, but long-term, significantly affects your quality of life.
Law Twelve | Miracle Gate: Create Low-Probability Events
Story: Why Are Lucky People Always Lucky?
Some people seem especially “lucky”:
- Opportunities they want always appear.
- Projects they do always succeed.
- People they meet are always benefactors.
But observe carefully, you’ll find: they’re not “coincidentally” lucky, but “deliberately” created more possibilities.
For example:
- They attend various events, so know more people, naturally more opportunities.
- They try many directions, so there’s always one or two that work.
- They stay open to strangers, so can get help from unexpected places.
This is the secret of “Miracle Gate”: Increase test attempts, raise the possibility of low-probability events occurring.
Law’s Core: Miracles Can Be Engineered
Many people think “miracles” are uncontrollable, can only rely on luck.
But actually, miracles can be engineered:
- If something has a 10% success probability, you do it once, success rate is 10%.
- But if you do it ten times, what’s the probability of at least one success? About 65%.
- If you do it twenty times? About 88%.
So, to want “miracles,” increase the number of attempts.
But there’s a key here: Each attempt’s cost must be low enough, otherwise you can’t last until the miracle occurs.
Practical Point: Design “Low-Cost Trial-and-Error” Mechanism
How to increase attempts while controlling costs?
- Modularize your attempts: Don’t “go all out” every time, but first make minimum viable version, verify direction, then decide whether to increase investment.
- Parallel multiple directions: Don’t “put all eggs in one basket,” but try several directions simultaneously, see which succeeds first.
- Stop loss quickly: If a direction clearly doesn’t work, decisively abandon, invest resources in more promising places.
This way, with the same resources, you can try more times, “miracle” occurrence probability naturally higher.
Conclusion: Pass Through the “Gate of Future”
These four laws all speak of “how to face the future”:
- Destiny Pattern Seal: Distinguish “fate” from “fortune,” accept the unchangeable, optimize the changeable.
- Inquiry Symbol Method: Use little information to test quickly, adjust dynamically based on feedback.
- Earth Vein Array: Optimize spatial configuration, let resources flow to the most valuable places.
- Miracle Gate: Increase low-cost trial-and-error attempts, turn low-probability events into high-probability.
These laws are methods for finding certainty in uncertainty.
Many people facing the future are either overly pessimistic “it’s all fate anyway, effort is useless,” or overly optimistic “as long as you work hard, anything is possible.”
Pass through the “Gate of Future” means acknowledging:
- Some things are indeed determined by “fate,” you can’t change them, but you can optimize “fortune” on the basis of “fate.”
- Information will never be perfect, but you can make the best judgment with minimal information.
- Spatial configuration is important, optimizing layout can achieve twice the result with half the effort.
- Miracles aren’t waited for, but “manufactured” by increasing attempts.
The future is not completely predictable, but also not completely random.
Wisdom lies in distinguishing these two, and within the controllable range, doing your best.