Exams
In the life of modern Chinese people, there are probably three to four important exams. The first is the high school entrance exam, and the second is the gaokao. If you do not take the graduate entrance exam, the third is what I call the “social exam”: it decides whether you can receive a job offer from society when you graduate from university. If you choose to take the graduate entrance exam, then the third becomes that exam, and the “social exam” is postponed to become the fourth.
In other words, many exams before the “social exam” ultimately serve it. Finding a job has almost become the final goal on this path.
When thinking about problems, I am used to first asking about the essence, then looking for solutions according to first principles. So what is finding a job for? To make money. If so, why not study around “how to make money” from the beginning?
Many people fall into a misconception here: they believe only studying, and only finding a job through studying, can make money. This is actually a major misunderstanding.
You will find that whether a person has received a good education or not, they can understand the importance of money. Money has long been deeply embedded in our culture. Westerners say “Happy New Year” during the New Year; we say “wish you wealth.” Even relatives who have not seen you for years often first ask what job you do and how much you earn. They may not be malicious. They are just quickly calculating how to evaluate you and how to adjust their attitude toward you.
What is strange is that how to make money is treated like a taboo topic. If someone systematically explains how to make money in a livestream, the stream may quickly be shut down. Even if someone truly wants to teach you, you probably may not believe them. Because in our default cognition, no one will sincerely teach others such a good thing as “making money.” So once someone says they want to teach you how to make money, people’s first reaction is often: this person is probably a scammer.
As a result, we almost avoid talking about “how to make money.” On one hand, people do have a selfish side; on the other hand, we also assume by default that others must be selfish.
So when you tell others that you are preparing for the graduate entrance exam, studying 8 hours every day for 9 months straight, people will think you are hardworking and approve of your effort. This is understandable.
But if you tell others that you spend 4 hours every day studying stock trading theory, combining it with practice, and also systematically studying microeconomics, macroeconomics, social psychology, and related knowledge, also for 9 months, many people’s first reaction may be: did something happen to you? Are you starting to dream of getting rich?
But in fact, even many traders who have already achieved financial freedom may not have studied investment so systematically. In other words, if a person is willing to seriously study and continuously practice this trading knowledge, they will probably not be trapped by economic problems in the future. Going further, becoming wealthy is not completely impossible.
More importantly, this knowledge does not become invalid because of one failed trade. The time you invest in cognition, experience, and practice will not be reset to zero because of a loss. From this perspective, the risk of this kind of learning is far lower than many people imagine. By comparison, the opportunity cost and uncertainty carried by the graduate entrance exam are unacceptably high.
Then why do so few people do this?
This brings us to human instinct.
Over the long course of evolution, humans usually did not actively chase invisible possibilities in order to save energy, because that meant huge trial-and-error costs. If a primitive person saw an elephant, he would not rush up to fight it one-on-one, because he had never seen anyone do that and succeed. People naturally prefer to do things within their cognitive range.
This is also why few people put the same energy they use for the graduate entrance exam into learning trading, investment, and the ability to make money: they have not personally seen enough credible successful examples. This instinct allowed humanity to reproduce until today in a low-risk, low-return way.
But today is different. The internet has greatly reduced information gaps. If you are willing to actively understand, you will find that many people are trading: they may be chefs, security guards, programmers, teachers, or people from all kinds of ordinary professions. Of course, most people have not made money. The reason is simple: they are not professional.
Making money is such an important matter, yet it is often treated in an extremely unprofessional way. That is absurd in itself. After all, even a third-rate programmer needs basic professionalism, let alone someone directly operating money and risk.
I say this not to encourage everyone to learn trading, and certainly not to encourage everyone to speculate in stocks.
What I really want to express is this: as long as you are willing to seriously study “how to make money,” making money is not something so mysterious that it cannot be touched.
When you first graduate, even if you can only save 3,000 yuan a month, more would of course be better, you can first save it. When you have saved 50,000 yuan or more, if you really do not want to keep working for others, you can seriously consider the next step. What you need to do next is use the capital in your hands and the money-making knowledge you have learned to make the money grow. For someone who truly has the ability to make money, time itself is like an ATM.
Working for wages is essentially saving ransom money, not striving to become the emperor of the wage-labor order. A person should be worthy of the education they have received. The way to break the situation is actually here.
Ideology
People are often naive and childish. Whether they are university students in their twenties or adults in their forties or sixties, they may think some things are too simple and other things too complicated.
Failing a university course, they feel life is over; failing CET-4 or CET-6, they feel they are failures; getting into graduate school, they feel they have finally reached the shore, as if everything will be fine from then on.
From childhood to adulthood, many people receive a fixed narrative: study hard, get into a good university; after entering a good university, join a good company; after joining a good company, earn a lot of money; after earning a lot of money, buy a house; after buying a house, get married; after getting married, have children; after having children, make them study hard too. Around and around this loop goes. When does it end?
If your family background is good, life may be relatively easy no matter how you live. But if your family is ordinary or even difficult, and you strictly follow this track, life can easily become a disaster.
This society hopes everyone takes on a mortgage, then works hard, and gradually gives up other possibilities in the process. Then they raise a child and work even harder. This is the current life pattern of many ordinary people.
Can we change the whole society? It is difficult. But at least we can change ourselves.
After graduation, you can first earn money for a few years, but do not buy a house lightly. Once a house is bought, most of life’s possibilities are basically locked. If you are unlucky and encounter unemployment or falling housing prices, you may end up defaulting and seeing the house auctioned. After going through that loop, even a strong person will be badly damaged. Working hard for years, then losing hundreds of thousands: examples like this are countless. Even worse is buying a presale property, then having the house auctioned while you have never even seen what the house truly looks like.
Then does that mean not getting married? This question itself precisely reveals the existence of social ideology.
What is social ideology? It is the collection of consciousness, values, and default judgments commonly held by many people in a region or society.
For example, almost all of Chinese society believes people should go to university. This is a kind of social ideology. Basically, no high-performing high school student or parent seriously thinks, “Do I really need to go to university?” or “Does my child absolutely have to go to university?”
Another example: people should get married in this life. This is also a social ideology. But this set of ideas has already been questioned by young people. Many people no longer like marriage, so today there are quite a few people who do not get married.
We can continue discussing other social ideologies.
For example, young people should buy houses in cities. This may be one of the most ridiculous and tragic social ideologies. It has ruined countless young people who originally had bright futures. Chinese people have an obsession with “home,” and houses hit this weak point exactly. If this idea were imposed on Americans, they might find it unbelievable: why take on such high debt just to live in an apartment? Unless one is already rich enough, what exactly is the point of buying a house?
Another example: people should be obedient. This ideology is even more absurd. The key is that it is systematically cultivated starting from primary school, middle school, and high school. Writing this, I can hardly avoid feeling angry. It is almost a crude discipline imposed on thought. Due to limited space, I will not expand with specific examples here.
There is also the idea that good grades mean a good student, and bottom grades mean a bad student. This is even more ridiculous. I once watched a video in which a parent said to a teacher: “Although my child studies very poorly, he is still my beloved child. I hope he grows up happily.” To me, that sentence is true clarity in the human world.
Let me give another example from around me. My cousin spends all day dealing with game accounts and also does so-called game farming, earning around 8,000 yuan a month. But his parents always oppose it, thinking it is not a proper occupation. The so-called “proper occupation” is essentially part of social ideology too. What is a proper occupation? The concept itself is very suspicious.
Every joule of work that wage workers do on objective objects is ultimately for money. If money can be earned reasonably, why distinguish between proper and improper occupations?
So when facing these social ideologies, the most important method is to figure out what you truly want.
Do you really want a mortgage? Do you really want to live every day as if fighting a war? Do you really want to be anxious every day, afraid of being laid off? If you do not want these things, do not be pushed along by social ideology. Refusal is an ability.
Social ideology is terrifying. If one is slightly careless, it can destroy a person’s whole life. In the torrent, a person must repeatedly confirm: what exactly do I truly want?