Gazing at the Stars and Deliberate Curiosity

Deliberate practice is now likely a widely recognized concept. To reach a high level of mastery in a particular field, you need to practice with focus, repetition, volume, and speed, and only practice within your learning zone.

Taking vocabulary memorization as an example, the most efficient way to memorize a vocabulary book is to first memorize the first word in each chapter, then the first two; then the first three; and so on, until you reach the last word N. After that, reverse the order of the chapter and memorize it again using the same method. Additionally, apply the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve to schedule your review sessions. This is akin to Mario jumping through warp pipes, or Xiao Lin discovering the secret sword manual.

Deliberate Practice is Not Surprising

Deliberate practice is especially important in the software engineering industry because programming is essentially a craft. The question we need to ask today is: can you dominate the industry solely through deliberate practice and your exceptional skills?

The answer is, of course, no. We both know that simply writing good code is far from enough. I often say that there are three factors for promotion: having resources, having people, and having credibility. Resources refer to whether you can handle your work with ease; people refer to whether the decision-makers for your promotion are in your network and willing to advocate for you; credibility refers to whether your achievements and words can convince others. Writing good code, at best, accounts for one-third of the equation. If you fail in the other two-thirds, you risk losing your job!

The book "People Who Won't Be Replaced by Machines" tells a story about Southwest Airlines hiring a highly skilled IT engineer who isolated himself in his office, focusing solely on his work and refusing to engage with others. The boss told him that this approach was not acceptable because the company culture at Southwest Airlines emphasized communication, and he was subsequently fired.

Technology is Not a Moat

You might say, "Fine, I won't collaborate with others. I don't need a company; the genius code I develop through deliberate practice can serve everyone on my own." Can this lead to global domination?

The answer is likely no—unless your development and learning speed can sustain the entire lifecycle of large-scale internet services all by yourself.

Uber's founder, Travis Kalanick, once said that technology is layered; once a layer of technology matures, it gradually becomes less important, while new layers become more advanced and iterate faster based on the previous ones. Therefore, we can conclude that the skills you painstakingly practice begin to lose their significance from the moment they are formed. I strongly agree with what Ruan Yifeng mentioned:

In software development, technology changes so rapidly that the time you invest in learning technologies and tools can render your knowledge worthless once those technologies are replaced, as most of it consists of implementation details.

It's no wonder Warren Buffett's moat theory also asserts that technology is not a moat because it will ultimately be replicated by others.

Steve Jobs' Answer

I once pondered deeply: since the internet age is fleeting, how can I ensure that I won't be swept aside? Upon reviewing Steve Jobs' speech at Stanford University, I found the answer. Although he shared three stories and offered one piece of advice, I believe it essentially boils down to two points.

==First, face life's uncertainties with love and death==. Because of your passion, you imbue your work with immense meaning. Life is short; if you don't pursue it, you might as well die. Therefore, even if you are cast out, even if you achieve financial freedom and retire at 30, you will still persist in doing meaningful things you love. Faust's life is filled with suffering, yet the divine grants him ultimate redemption. Don Quixote's life is also fraught with hardship, yet readers are inspired by his spirit.

==Second, be a fool and never be satisfied==. Jobs believed that regardless of whether you achieve great success through the first point, you should never settle for the status quo—strive for your ideals, break conventions, persevere, and always protect the inner child within you.

You may wonder, "These lofty worldviews are indeed fascinating, but what relevance do they have for you and me? Or what guiding significance do they hold for our lives?"—"I understand the principles, yet I still struggle to live well."

I believe that borrowing from the concept of deliberate practice, exploring the unknown in a structured and methodical way is what we call ==deliberate curiosity==. Curiosity is not about hosting banquets, writing articles, or painting; it cannot be that elegant, that composed, that refined, or that humble. Curiosity is a rebellion, a fierce action of an individual exploring a complex world.

Deliberately Explore the World

This fierce action must be organized and premeditated. You need to manage your reading, chatting, watching, and listening inputs like you manage your financial investments. Your investment portfolio consists of 24 hours a day—what percentage do you allocate to health, work, family, and input? Within that input, what percentage do you dedicate to technology, economics, management, psychology, design, politics, the future, and history? What channels do these pieces of information come from? Are those channels trustworthy?

==The information we input shapes our thoughts, just as the food we eat shapes our bodies. In his book "The Creative Curve," Allen Gannett interviewed numerous creative individuals and summarized this principle: 20%. To create and maintain cultural awareness and understand what resonates with the public, you must spend 20% of your waking time each day absorbing knowledge in your field.==

This is not easy, but at the very least, we can ask ourselves daily: before meeting someone today, did I prepare any interesting questions to ask them? When solving a problem today, did I consider faster, better, or stronger solutions? During a meeting today, did I ask myself what else I could learn from the other person? Hu Shi said, "Talk less about ideologies, ask more questions," which embodies deliberate curiosity.

Final Summary

Gaze at the stars with deliberate curiosity, and stay grounded with deliberate practice. What worries do we have that our daily endeavors won't come to fruition?