Don't be a poor person with low awareness!

Don’t Be a Poor Person with High Cognition!

Have you ever encountered someone like this:

Whether it’s history,

humanities,

international relations,

or economics,

psychology,

finance,

they have a wide range of knowledge;

can talk confidently on any topic,

and can summarize conclusions that make everyone nod;

are knowledgeable across various industries,

and always speak about development trends in the next 3 to 5 years.

These people’s knowledge reserves

seem to always be far above those around them,

but after understanding,

you find that they are quite unimpressive.

Their minds are full of “knowledge,”

but their pockets are empty.

Those who claim to “know everything” verbally,

are actually just poor people trapped in the “high cognition trap.”

Poor people with high cognition

often fall into the following types.

01 Internal Consumption Type

I once saw a story in a magazine.

A group of people got lost in the desert,

after a long trek,

they finally saw an oasis.

But when they approached,

they realized it was a mirage.

The same scene happened twice,

and everyone started to hesitate: should they go to the next oasis?

Only a mildly mentally challenged patient,

who would get excited and rush forward whenever he saw an oasis.

People mocked him for not knowing it was a mirage,

wasting their effort in vain.

In the end,

the mildly mentally challenged patient crossed many mirages

and successfully reached the real oasis.

People who think they are smarter than him,

lost their courage to move forward in endless hesitation,

and were forever stranded in the desert.

Zhuan Yu in “Luo Ji Si Wei” mentioned:

"Compared to the unknown,

what we already know consumes us more,

because it makes us hesitant,

and leads to deep self-doubt."

The road to Rome is under your feet,

not the principles you’ve heard.

A person always overthinks,

even with “high cognition,”

ultimately gains nothing.

In 1821,

French scientist Arago led student Fresnel

to prove that light is a transverse wave through polarization experiments.

Arago had been deeply involved in optics for many years,

had read numerous academic works,

and knew that the mainstream view in academia was to see light as particles.

He was worried that his findings were too revolutionary,

and if there were any flaws,

he would be forever rejected by the scientific community.

Fresnel, on the other hand, because he didn’t understand the internal struggles of academia,

only wanted to publish the results openly.

Arago repeated the experiments several times,

and after confirming no errors,

he still suffered from insomnia every day.

Even when he finally agreed to let Fresnel publish the paper,

he requested to remove his name the day before submission.

Half a month later,

the conclusion that “light is a transverse wave rather than particles”

shocked the academic world,

and became the cornerstone of modern optics.

Fresnel became famous overnight,

while Arago, as his mentor,

spent the rest of his life in regret.

In this world,

many people who are not doing well are not lacking in cognition,

but because they know too much,

worry too much,

and before life takes action,

they are already exhausted.

Cognition

can be a stepping stone upward,

or a shackle that binds you.

Only by stopping mental internal consumption

can you stand above cognition

and see a broader world.

02 Procrastination Type

When I just graduated,

I worked at an old car company.

Gong, who joined the same year,

often reminded me:

"The share of traditional fuel vehicles will definitely decrease in the future,

if you want to stay competitive,

you need to accumulate skills related to new energy,

or develop a side business."

In the past few years,

I kept cultivating my writing skills,

and finally, before the large-scale layoffs at the car company,

switched to the new media field.

A few days ago, I ran into Gong again,

thanked him for his advice back then,

and couldn’t help but be curious:

His industry outlook was so accurate,

he must have a good future now.

But to my surprise,

when I asked, I found he was still stuck in the same company.

Although he wasn’t laid off,

he faced a salary cut,

and still worries about mortgage payments every month.

Thinking carefully,

Gong is a perfect example of a “poor person with high cognition”:

he plans various feasible paths before bed,

but wakes up still walking the old road.

Cognition may help us see the direction,

but to achieve goals,

action is essential.

Soviet scientist Lyubishchev spent his life publishing over 70 books,

with a total word count exceeding ten million,

covering mathematics,

biology,

philosophy, and dozens of other fields.

When asked how he achieved such productivity,

he simply replied:

“Never procrastinate.”

In his 56-year academic career,

Lyubishchev adhered to one principle: whenever he thought of doing something,

he immediately pressed the stopwatch button to time himself.

The ticking second hand

gave him a sense of urgent time slipping away.

Driven by this sense of urgency,

Lyubishchev always took action first,

regardless of the outcome.

And he ultimately proved to the world that many seemingly insurmountable difficulties

can be overcome as long as you take action,

and solutions can always be found.

Writer Li Shanglong said: Once you have a basic understanding of something, go ahead and do it,

don’t wait for the so-called perfect timing,

because you’ll never find such an opportunity.

Many things,

the longer you delay, the harder they become,

only by doing can you find the answer.

Third-rate cognition combined with first-rate execution

will always surpass first-rate cognition with third-rate execution.

03 “Knowing Molecule” Type

Zhihu user @Feng once had dinner at a small restaurant in his hometown.

The owner, hearing he was a returnee master’s graduate,

immediately called his son.

The owner’s son asked him several questions from knowledge quiz shows.

Due to the very obscure specialty involved,

the user admitted he didn’t know the answers.

When he left,

he heard the owner praising his son enthusiastically: "Knowledge that even top students don’t know,

a primary school student can understand."

Years later,

the user became an executive at a listed company.

One year, during the Spring Festival,

he found the owner still running that small shop,

while his son was just a shop assistant.

Wang Shuo once said:

"Some people seem to know more things,

but at best they are just ‘knowing molecules,’

and can never become intellectuals."

The simple accumulation of fragmented information,

seems to broaden horizons,

but makes it hard to improve.

Only when a person internalizes cognition as a foundation for growth,

can they bridge the gap between “knowing” and “doing.”

Duan Yongping once said,

he didn’t read a complete book after graduating from university.

A netizen claiming to read 100 books a year commented:

"Entrepreneurs who don’t love reading have too narrow a cognition,

no matter how successful they are now,

they are doomed to not go far."

Contrary to this prediction,

Duan Yongping was later rated as an “outstanding business leader” by Asia Weekly,

and even made it onto the global billionaire list.

How did Duan Yongping do it?

In daily work,

he always first clarifies which areas he is lacking in,

then purposefully acquires relevant knowledge through books,

financial reports,

speeches, or industry exchanges.

Because of this,

Duan Yongping doesn’t pursue extensive knowledge,

but always applies learned theories and methods

to ongoing startups or investments.

This reminds me of a sentence from “Cognitive Breakthrough”:

"Your cognitive ability is what enables you to break through in life,

everything else is just redundant information."

In an era where everyone can go online,

more important than knowing what is,

is knowing what you should know.

Blindly acquiring information

won’t elevate your life,

but will trap you in a cocoon of cognition.

On the contrary,

by filtering and internalizing the useful information,

you can update your thinking,

and form your own methodology.

At this point,

every bit of cognition you add

will eventually become a stepping stone

that takes you to a higher platform.

▽

Someone once commented on “poor people with high cognition”:

The significance of increasing cognition

was originally to let frogs at the bottom of the well see beyond the well.

But some frogs at the bottom of the well

use the gravity formula to prove that the well’s mouth is insurmountable,

and use risk models to warn themselves not to act.

In the end, they even connect with other frogs at the bottom of the well through the internet,

and after exchanging information repeatedly, they reach a consensus— the world is indeed only as big as the well’s mouth.

Merely pursuing cognition cannot change the world,

nor can it change personal destiny.

Stop internal consumption,

unite knowledge and action,

focus on yourself,

and you can achieve life through what you learn and know.