Volume D-1 | Wisdom Dictionary (Part 1): 12 Core Concepts

This is an English translation of 中文原文

Opening: Why Redefine These Words?

“Holiness,” “mercy,” “miracle,” “destiny”…

We’ve used these words since childhood, but few can clearly explain their true meanings.

Most of the time, these words are just “emotional expressions,” not “precise concepts.”

But actually, these ancient wisdom terms all have very precise logical structures behind them. If you can understand their true meanings, you can transform “vague feelings” into “actionable methods.”

This volume uses modern language to redefine 12 core wisdom concepts.

Concept One | Sacred: Time-Tested Stable Structure

Common Definition: Principles that are repeatedly used and remain stable in various situations are “sacred.”

How to Identify:

• It’s been repeatedly used by many people over a long time.
• When facing various disturbances, it remains stable.
• When violating it, consequences are often serious.

Examples:

• “Integrity” is sacred because for thousands of years, across various cultures, integrity has been the foundation of commerce.
• “Balanced diet” is sacred because no matter how science develops, “overeating” and “extreme dieting” are ultimately proved harmful.

Misconception: “Sacred” is not “perfect,” but “stable.” A principle may not be optimal, but if it remains stable in long-term use, it has “sacred” value.

Concept Two | Divine Core: Invariants in Change

Common Definition: In a system’s change process, those parts that remain unchanged are the “divine core.”

How to Identify:

• Surface changes, but underlying logic doesn’t.
• Form changes, but core function doesn’t.
• Personnel change, but culture doesn’t.

Examples:

• A company’s business might shift from A to B, from offline to online, but the “customer first” value never changes—this is the divine core.
• A person might change jobs several times, but the “continuous learning” habit never changes—this is the personal divine core.

Misconception: Divine core is not “stubbornly unchanging,” but “identifying what should not change.” Some things must change with environment (like specific business forms), some cannot change (like core values).

Concept Three | Merciful Correction: Use Minimal Cost to Correct Deviation

Common Definition: True mercy is not “forgiveness at any cost,” but “use minimal cost to get things back on track.”

How to Practice:

• Don’t “overthrow and restart,” but “fine-tune and correct.”
• Don’t “strike them down completely,” but “give room for improvement.”
• Don’t “unprincipled tolerance,” but “gentleness with boundaries.”

Examples:

• An employee made a mistake—don’t immediately fire (overthrow and restart), but analyze causes, provide training, observe improvement (small-step correction).
• A project deviated from direction—don’t immediately stop (overthrow and restart), but adjust strategy, supplement resources, realign (small-step correction).

Misconception: Mercy is not “without principles,” but “within principle boundaries, find the solution with minimal cost.” If someone repeatedly makes mistakes and refuses to improve, “parting ways” is actually the better choice for both sides.

Concept Four | Three Corrections: Eliminate Three Types of Structural Errors

Common Definition: Most errors can be classified into three types: aliasing, insufficient correction, tail neglect. Eliminating all three error types is “three corrections.”

How to Practice:

1. Aliasing check: Have you mixed information from different sources, times, natures together?
2. Correction check: Is your method too crude, missing key corrections?
3. Tail check: Have you considered extreme cases?

Examples: An investment decision:

• Aliasing check: Have you treated “media reports” the same as “field research”?
• Correction check: Have you considered industry cycles, team capabilities, policy risks?
• Tail check: If the worst case happens (market crash, founder leaves), can you bear it?

Misconception: “Three corrections” is not “pursuing perfection,” but “avoiding low-level errors.” You can’t eliminate all errors, but you can avoid the most common three types of structural errors.

Concept Five | Mirror Double-Test: Role Swap Examines Fairness

Common Definition: True fairness is “if I swap positions with the other party, I can still accept this rule.”

How to Practice: When making rules, allocating resources, making evaluations, ask yourself:

• If I were the other party, how would I view this rule?
• If two groups swap positions, does the rule still hold?

Examples:

• A boss making assessment system asks: “If I were an employee, could I accept this system?”
• A teacher grading asks: “If this were my own child, would I give this score?”

Misconception: “Mirror double-test” is not “absolute equality,” but “procedural justice.” Results may differ (due to different abilities, effort levels), but the rules themselves must withstand role-swap testing.

Concept Six | Minimum Closed Loop: Five-Minute Executable Action

Common Definition: Any plan must be broken down into “specific actions that can be completed within five minutes without additional decisions.”

How to Practice: Break down the abstract goal “I want to lose weight” into:

• Today’s five minutes: make this week’s exercise plan, write on calendar.
• Tomorrow’s five minutes: do ten squats.
• Day after tomorrow’s five minutes: record today’s diet, find one area to improve.

Examples: Starting a business project:

• First five minutes: write down the three core problems this project should solve.
• Second five minutes: draw the simplest product sketch.
• Third five minutes: find a friend to describe this idea, record their reaction.

Misconception: “Five minutes” doesn’t mean “everything must be done in five minutes,” but “any big goal can be broken down into a series of five-minute small actions.” One hundred five-minute actions is the embryonic form of a project.

Concept Seven | Revelation: Discover Patterns in Multiple Independent Sources

Common Definition: When you see the same pattern in completely independent sources, that’s “revelation.”

How to Identify:

• This pattern appears in different fields, eras, cultures.
• These sources have no possibility of copying each other.
• This pattern explains many previously unexplainable phenomena.

Examples:

• “Compound effect” is a revelation: in investment, learning, health, relationships, you can see the pattern of “small continuous accumulation bringing exponential growth.”
• “Fragility of over-optimization” is a revelation: in biological evolution, corporate management, investment strategies, you can see the phenomenon of “over-optimization to extremes actually losing adaptability.”

Misconception: “Revelation” is not “coincidence,” nor “forced analogy.” True revelation is deep patterns that remain valid after independent verification.

Concept Eight | Miracle: Emergence from Low-Cost High-Frequency Trial-and-Error

Common Definition: Miracles aren’t “waited for,” but “manufactured” through “systematically increasing trial-and-error opportunities.”

How to Practice:

1. Increase attempts: Don’t “put all eggs in one basket,” but “try multiple ways.”
2. Lower single cost: Each attempt, use “minimum viable version,” not “go all out.”
3. Stop loss quickly: If a direction doesn’t work, immediately abandon, shift resources to more promising directions.

Examples:

• A writer wants to become famous—don’t “retreat for three years writing one tome” (all eggs in one basket), but “write one short article per week, post on different platforms” (try multiple ways). After a year, a few will go viral, then deepen in that direction.
• An entrepreneur finding direction—don’t “quit job to start full-time business” (high cost), but “do three small projects in spare time” (low cost). Whichever gets feedback, deeply develop that one.

Misconception: “Miracle” is not “casually trying,” but “systematically increasing trial-and-error opportunities.” The key is having “quick feedback” and “low-cost stop-loss” mechanisms.

Concept Nine | Fate: Long-Term Steady State

Common Definition: “Fate” is those long-term stable, hard-to-change-short-term underlying structures.

How to Identify:

• Your genes, your origins, your era—these are “fate.”
• An industry’s underlying patterns, an era’s major trends—these are also “fate.”

How to Respond: Accept what you cannot change, don’t waste time and emotion on “fate.”

Examples:

• Your height, your family background are “fate,” can’t change short-term. Don’t complain, but optimize your “fortune” on this basis.
• Mobile internet popularization, population aging, climate change are the era’s “fate.” Don’t fight major trends, go with the flow.

Concept Ten | Fortune: Short-Term Perturbation

Common Definition: “Fortune” is those short-term adjustable, changeable-through-effort perturbations.

How to Identify:

• What you learn today, who you collaborate with, how you allocate time—these are “fortune.”
• An industry’s short-term fluctuations, a market’s phased opportunities—these are also “fortune.”

How to Respond: Constantly optimize your “fortune,” through continuous small adjustments, gradually change your “fate.”

Examples:

• You read 30 minutes more every day—this is “fortune.” Can’t see effect in one day, but after one year, ten years, your knowledge reserve will be completely different, then “fortune” accumulates into new “fate.”

Concept Eleven | Feng Shui: Spatial Configuration Optimization

Common Definition: “Feng shui” is not superstition, but “optimizing resource allocation in space, letting resources flow to the most valuable places.”

How to Practice:

• Put the study in a quiet corner, efficiency is higher.
• Arrange colleagues who need to collaborate together, communication cost is lower.
• Spend time on “high-value” matters, not “low-value” trivia.

Examples:

• A cafe, choosing a location with large foot traffic and complementary businesses around (bookstores, co-working spaces), business naturally good. This isn’t “luck,” but wisdom of “spatial configuration.”

Misconception: “Feng shui” is not “place a lucky cat and get rich,” but “understand resource flow patterns, go with the flow.”

Concept Twelve | Sacred Time: Phase Alignment

Common Definition: “Sacred time” refers to “a time point when multiple independent factors simultaneously align, forming a special opportunity window.”

How to Identify:

• Your preparation, market demand, era trends—all three align simultaneously.
• Such opportunity windows don’t appear often, but once they do, must go all out.

Examples:

• When Jobs launched iPhone, touchscreen technology matured, mobile networks popularized, consumer demand for smartphones exploded—three aligned, achieved an era.
• You studied programming for three years, just when a startup team lacks a technical co-founder—this is your “sacred time.”

Misconception: “Sacred time” is not “waiting for perfect timing,” but “when multiple factors align, act decisively.” If you keep waiting for “perfect timing,” you’ll never wait for it.

Conclusion: From Vague to Precise

These 12 concepts are all ancient wisdom terms, but we’ve given them precise meanings with modern language:

• Sacred: Time-tested stable structure.
• Divine Core: Invariants in change.
• Merciful Correction: Use minimal cost to correct deviation.
• Three Corrections: Eliminate three types of structural errors.
• Mirror Double-Test: Role swap examines fairness.
• Minimum Closed Loop: Five-minute executable action.
• Revelation: Discover patterns in independent sources.
• Miracle: Emergence from low-cost high-frequency trial-and-error.
• Fate and Fortune: Long-term steady state and short-term perturbation.
• Feng Shui: Spatial configuration optimization.
• Sacred Time: Phase-aligned opportunity window.
• Covenant: Commitment based on core principles.

Understand these concepts clearly, you can transform “vague feelings” into “actionable methods.”

And this is the first step of wisdom.