Volume D-2 | Wisdom Dictionary (Part 2): 12 Advanced Concepts

This is an English translation of 中文原文

Opening: From Foundation to Advanced

In the previous volume, we understood 12 foundational concepts.

This volume continues deeper, understanding another 12 advanced concepts.

These concepts will help you understand: how to build consensus, how to identify traps, how to maintain resilience, how to measure value.

Let’s begin.

Concept Thirteen | Consensus Sampling: Find Appropriate Alignment Rhythm

Common Definition: For teams to maintain consensus, regular “alignment” is needed. Alignment frequency must match the speed of change.

How to Practice:

• Things change fast, alignment frequency must be high (like daily).
• Things change slow, alignment frequency can be low (like monthly).
• If alignment frequency is too low, “talking past each other” chaos appears.

Examples: A startup team in sprint phase adjusts strategy daily, so needs daily stand-ups. If they only align once a week, by the time everyone syncs information, the situation has already changed.

Misconception: Not everything needs “daily meetings,” nor can everything go “a month without contact.” The key is matching change speed.

Concept Fourteen | Metaphor/Symbol: Use Structure to Compress Complexity

Common Definition: Good metaphors are not “sounds beautiful,” but “preserve core structure, reduce comprehension cost.”

How to Identify:

• A good metaphor makes people “understand immediately,” and doesn’t go wrong when “transferring reasoning.”
• A bad metaphor sounds very vivid, but leads to errors when reasoning.

Examples:

• “Process like flowing water” is a good metaphor because it preserves “continuity,” “irreversibility,” “directionality” structure.
• “Employees are screws” is a bad metaphor because it reinforces “replaceable,” “no initiative” impression, but ignores people’s creativity and emotions.

Misconception: Don’t sacrifice “accuracy” for “vividness.” Good metaphors are structural mappings, not surface similarities.

Concept Fifteen | Filter Bubble: Quantification of Information Cocoon

Common Definition: If the information you see differs too much from public information distribution, you’re in a “filter bubble.”

How to Identify:

• Is your information source singular? (Only read certain public accounts, only listen to certain people)
• Are your views extreme? (Differ greatly from mainstream views, and you think “only I’m right”)
• Do you reject different voices? (See different opinions and immediately think “they’ve been brainwashed”)

How to Break:

• Actively contact information from different sources.
• Listen to arguments of people with opposite views, not just those who agree with you.
• Regularly ask yourself: “If I’m wrong, what evidence would I see?”

Examples: You only discuss investment in a certain small circle, everyone is bullish on a certain asset, you also think “guaranteed profit.” But if you step out of the circle, you’ll find mainstream views are completely different. Then you must be alert: have you fallen into a “filter bubble”?

Concept Sixteen | Alignment: Maximize Shared Value Under Constraints

Common Definition: “Alignment” is not “abandoning your own position,” but “within constraint boundaries, find solutions good for both sides.”

How to Practice:

1. Clarify both sides’ core demands.
2. Find “common interests” and “conflict points.”
3. Cooperate on common interests, negotiate on conflict points.

Examples: Company and employee alignment:

• Company wants efficiency, employees want growth and income.
• Common interest: make good product, company has revenue, employees have sense of achievement and bonuses.
• Conflict point: short-term interest (overtime rush work) vs. long-term health (work-life balance).
• Alignment solution: moderate overtime at key nodes, but maintain reasonable rhythm normally, and provide overtime compensation.

Misconception: “Alignment” is not “unprincipled compromise,” but “seeking win-win within principle boundaries.” If both sides’ core demands fundamentally conflict, then not suitable for collaboration.

Concept Seventeen | Explainability: Simplification That Preserves Key Information

Common Definition: A decision is “explainable” if you can use simple logic to reproduce more than 80% of decision results.

How to Test:

• Can you explain the main basis of the decision in three sentences?
• If changing a certain key factor, does the decision change accordingly? (Causal consistency)
• Can others make similar decisions in similar situations based on your explanation? (Transferability)

Examples: A loan approval system:

• Unexplainable: “AI says this person has good credit, so approve.” (Black box)
• Explainable: “This person has stable income, no bad records, low debt ratio, so approve.” (Clear logic)

Misconception: “Explainable” is not “simple and crude,” but “reasonable simplification that preserves key information.” Oversimplification loses important details, over-complexity makes no one understand.

Concept Eighteen | Diagnosis—Treatment—Recovery: Three-Stage Control

Common Definition: Problem-solving requires three steps: accurate diagnosis, optimal treatment, continuous recovery.

How to Practice:

1. Diagnosis: Find the root cause of the problem, don’t be fooled by surface phenomena.
2. Treatment: Use minimal cost method to solve core problem.
3. Recovery: Establish mechanism to prevent problem recurrence.

Examples: A team has low efficiency:

• Diagnosis: Is it a process problem, personnel problem, or unclear goals? Through data and interviews, determine it’s “unclear goals.”
• Treatment: Realign goals, establish clear priorities.
• Recovery: Establish weekly goal review mechanism, prevent goals from becoming unclear again.

Misconception: Most people only do “treatment,” don’t do “diagnosis” and “recovery.” Result is: treat headache when head hurts, treat foot when foot hurts, problems recur.

Concept Nineteen | Resilience: Maintain Function Under Disturbance

Common Definition: “Resilience” is not “not getting hurt,” but “recovering quickly after getting hurt.”

How to Establish:

1. Redundancy: Key links have backups, avoid “single point of failure.”
2. Diversity: Don’t put all resources in one basket.
3. Quick feedback: Discover problems promptly, adjust promptly.

Examples: A resilient team:

• Key positions have backups, someone leaving doesn’t cause project collapse.
• Income sources diversified, a client leaving isn’t fatal.
• Weekly review, discover problems promptly, adjust quickly.

Misconception: “Resilience” is not “no problems,” but “able to withstand after problems.” Excessive pursuit of “zero risk” actually makes systems fragile (because no redundancy, no response experience).

Concept Twenty | Value and Price: Net Effect and Marginal Cost

Common Definition:

• Value: The real meaning of something to you, considering benefits and costs.
• Price: Market tag, or marginal cost you pay for it.

How to Calculate: Value = Expected benefit - Cost × Shadow scale

Examples: You’re deciding whether to get an MBA:

• Expected benefit: Knowledge, connections, career opportunities.
• Cost: Tuition, time, opportunity cost (these two years you could do other things).
• Shadow scale: Your marginal value of time and money (for someone earning 10k/month vs. 100k/month, same tuition has different cost).

Only when “expected benefit > cost × shadow scale” is getting an MBA worthwhile.

Misconception: Don’t only look at “price,” but at “value.” Some things are expensive but have higher value, worth investing; some things are cheap but waste time, not worth doing.

Concept Twenty-One | Learning—Memory—Forgetting: Knowledge Lifecycle

Common Definition:

• Learning: Acquire new information, test error decreases.
• Memory: Information in your “stable subspace,” can be retrieved anytime.
• Forgetting: Infrequently used information gradually decays, eventually can’t be retrieved.

How to Combat Forgetting:

• Spaced repetition: Don’t learn all at once, but distribute over time, each review interval gradually lengthens.
• Retrieval practice: Don’t just read, but actively recall, apply.
• Establish connections: Connect new knowledge with existing knowledge, form network.

Examples: Learning English words:

• Wrong method: Memorize 100 in one day, forget 80 the next day.
• Right method: Memorize 20 on first day, review on third day, review again on seventh day, intervals gradually lengthen. Each review try to make sentences with these words (retrieval practice).

Misconception: “Learn fast” doesn’t equal “remember well.” Learn slowly, practice repeatedly, seems slow, actually more efficient.

Concept Twenty-Two | Risk and Defense: Antifragility and Robustness

Common Definition:

• Risk: Potential loss brought by uncertainty.
• Defense: Measures to reduce risk.
• Antifragility: Within a certain range of pressure, actually becomes stronger.

How to Establish:

1. Identify risks: List places that might go wrong, assess probability and impact.
2. Establish buffers: Key resources have margins, don’t run at full capacity.
3. Stress test: Actively apply small pressure to system, test if it can withstand.

Examples: Personal finance antifragility:

• Don’t invest all money in high-risk assets, keep some cash and low-risk assets as buffer.
• Regularly review expenses, if income suddenly drops, know which expenses can be cut.
• Actively reduce living costs for one month, experience “minimalist life,” test your endurance.

Misconception: “Defense” is not “no risk-taking,” but “taking bearable risks.” Completely no risk-taking means no growth; taking excessive risks means one failure brings total ruin.

Concept Twenty-Three | Ethical Net Increase: Quantifiable Definition of Good and Evil

Common Definition:

• Good: Under conservation budget, stability net increase (benefit > cost).
• Evil: Under conservation budget, stability net decrease (benefit < cost).

How to Quantify: Net increase = Stability improvement - Cost × Shadow scale

Examples: An enterprise decision:

• Improve employee benefits (increase team stability), but costs rise.
• If “stability improvement” brings long-term benefits (reduce turnover, improve efficiency) greater than “cost rise,” this is “good.”
• If it’s just “face project,” employee actual feeling doesn’t improve, but costs greatly increase, that’s “evil.”

Misconception: “Good” is not “doing good at any cost,” but “within bearable range, make system more stable.” Unaffordable “good” often isn’t sustainable.

Concept Twenty-Four | Governance Four-Piece Set: Transparency—Mirror-Test—Three-Corrections—Closed-Loop

Common Definition: Governance’s minimum executable closed loop:

1. Transparency: Make window and scale public, let everyone know what standard you’re using.
2. Mirror-Test: Key decisions must pass “role swap” test, ensure fairness.
3. Three-Corrections: Eliminate aliasing, insufficient correction, tail neglect three types of errors.
4. Closed-Loop: Break decisions into five-minute actions, ensure execution.

How to Practice: For each major decision:

• Make public your information sources and judgment standards.
• Do a “mirror-test”: If I were the affected person, could I accept?
• Do “three-corrections”: Check three types of structural errors.
• Break down into specific actions, five minutes per step, ensure implementation.

Examples: A team adjusting performance assessment:

• Transparency: Announce new assessment standards and weights in advance.
• Mirror-Test: Managers imagine being employees, can they accept this standard?
• Three-Corrections: Have we confused “effort” with “results”? Ignored team collaboration? Considered extreme cases (like someone getting sick)?
• Closed-Loop: First week, communicate new standards one-on-one with everyone; second week, pilot run and collect feedback; third week, fine-tune and formally implement.

Misconception: “Governance” is not “control,” but “making system self-operate more stably.” Good governance reduces chaos, increases certainty, benefits everyone.

Conclusion: From Concept to Action

These 12 advanced concepts help you understand more complex systems:

• Consensus Sampling: Alignment rhythm must match change speed.
• Metaphor/Symbol: Use structure to compress complexity.
• Filter Bubble: Break information cocoons.
• Alignment: Seek win-win under constraints.
• Explainability: Simplification that preserves key information.
• Diagnosis—Treatment—Recovery: Three-stage problem solving.
• Resilience: Maintain function under disturbance.
• Value and Price: Consider net effect and marginal cost.
• Learning—Memory—Forgetting: Knowledge lifecycle.
• Risk and Defense: Antifragility and robustness.
• Ethical Net Increase: Quantifiable definition of good and evil.
• Governance Four-Piece Set: Transparency, mirror-test, three-corrections, closed-loop.

From foundation to advanced, these 24 concepts constitute a complete “wisdom operating system.”

Understand them, you can transform “vague intuition” into “precise methods.”

And this is the key from “knowing” to “doing.”