The past half year I’ve been thinking more about methodology,
so what I write probably doesn’t have much to do with “technique,”
and leans more toward “the Tao.”

Introduction

I remember in middle school history textbook,
in a very prominent position near the front,
was written this evaluation of Wei Zheng by Li Shimin:
“With copper as a mirror, one can straighten one’s clothes and crown;
with history as a mirror, one can know rises and falls;
with people as a mirror, one can understand gains and losses.”

This line is like the library’s closing bell,
always pulling me out of my body in the deep of night,
to view myself and others from a higher dimension.

Just like in 《My Personality as a Code Writer》 and 《Three Years After Graduation Report》 I repeatedly chanted to myself,
work easily turns unprepared humans into self-repeating machines.
The other day chatting with a good product friend,
talking about hiring preferences,
he said he only likes the kind of person whose “work experience exceeds work years.”
Or in other words, “people whose work efficiency is higher than most.”

In my view, becoming a person more efficient than others isn’t hard.
One very effective method, I call “positive-side thinking.”

What Is Positive-Side Thinking

Simply put, thinking about problems from their positive side.

For example a somewhat niche example.
Lan Mao’s voice actor is Ge Ping, he was once also caught in a mockery culture center like Liu Xiao Ling Tong,
but he neither escaped nor reprimanded, instead “let go of his airs” and played along with the mockers.
In the end most mockers “passers-by turned fans,” respectfully calling him “Uncle Ge.”
By the same reasoning, as long as Mr. Liu Xiao Ling Tong can play along with the “Liu scholars,” his reputation will rise again.

Another work example.
Inevitable in work is collaborative cooperation,
and multi-person collaboration easily causes “communication problems affecting project progress.”
When encountering problems from communication,
whether textualizing recorded results, seeking a decision-maker, or even doing a bit more yourself to reduce communication volume,
these are all behaviors arising from thinking positively about problems.
Things like shifting blame are not thinking about problems from the positive side.

When facing problems, not fearing them,
not using lazy governance and procrastination to delay problem resolution,
but thinking and acting from the root of solving problems,
this is positive-side thinking.

Why Positive-Side Thinking

Positive-Side Thinking Is a Shortcut to Solving Problems

My company has a bit of “the common Chinese internet company disease”: WeChat office work.
When I was still doing B-end business,
I had 300+ work groups in my WeChat,
basically Saturdays I’d be dating my girlfriend,
then suddenly get pulled into a WeChat group to handle issues,
because of this I’d even been considered as “uncultured people” in my own eyes who look at their phones in the cinema.

At the time I was very broken.
On one hand I was hired as an engineer, yet had to do pre-sales, after-sales, customer service work;
on the other hand because I normally wrote the most code and was easygoing,
I was not a Leader but was essentially playing the role of project manager.
Once at 3am on a Saturday, after just handling an issue I found CS coworker Er-gou was also online,
I asked him what he was doing, he said our restaurant clients were running activities Saturday, he also had to record over a dozen marketing campaigns…

Of course, despite saying it sounds so broken, my heart was actually very willing.
If a company does enterprise services, then as long as the company wants to become outstanding, “customer first” is in the company’s core values.
Earlier in 《Recent Weekly Routine with My Girlfriend》 I also mentioned, “customer first” requires the company and employees working together to achieve.
So although I initially dedicated my weekends (when busy I couldn’t even get one day off per week),
but with the establishment of operation manuals, standardization of processes, and continuous feature updates,
later things became more and more smooth.

The added feeling from this thing is,
I truly experienced viewing the same matter from different angles: developer, project manager, user.
And I confirmed a fact:
in multi-party cooperation, win-win points can be found.
As long as you think clearly about this point, problems can definitely be solved.
This is the so-called “positive-side thinking is a shortcut to solving problems.”

In ordinary contexts, distinguishing introverted from extroverted personalities is mainly by communication willingness.
But I lean toward another method of distinction:
extroverted personalities recover energy from communicating with people;
while introverted personalities consume energy from communicating with people, they recover energy through solitude.

Mia once commented on me, saying I have an internal self-sufficient cycle,
and this self-consistent cycle provides me the courage to live on (sounds weird…)
That’s right, positive-side thinking in my view is the key link of positive cycles.

Human positive cycles rely on self-consistently forming each link of cognition, action, feedback.
Among them the processes and results of action and feedback are hard to control,
so cognition is the key to achieving positive cycles.
Positive-side thinking will bring more positive psychological hints,
and positive action will subtly change the environment one is in,
ultimately increasing the likelihood of positive feedback.

Giving up seats, saying please and thank you, treating people politely actually can all be classified under this theory.

Positive-Side Thinking Can Expand Influence

Human potential is endless,
yet most humans waste it.
Zen of Python also says: Now is better than never.
Thinking positively about problems and responding may be relatively difficult,
but whether individual or collective,
choosing to positively face problems is the long-term optimal solution.

Just like Alexander the Great in the Fate/Zero novel,
his most charismatic point was his kingly way.
His partner Weber, through thought exchange with Alexander,
changed his lifelong path.

Conclusion

Overall, positive-side thinking can solve current problems,
and also bring long-term progress and influence.
If you the reader are willing, I highly recommend trying this way of thinking about problems.

Of course, just thinking is not enough, there must also be corresponding action. :)

(End)