关于学习

最近一段时间经常有新闻报道，大学生一毕业就找不到工作，毕业就失业的问题。我对此深有感慨。我觉得这个问题可以分成四个方面来解释，社会环境层面、家庭环境层面、学校环境层面、学生个体层面。

这里我只想分析学校层面和个人层面。其实在全世界范围内，大学都已经不能代表最先进的知识了。一项技术从它在实验室被发现再到产业化应用再到广泛普及，再到进入课本编写的范围，再到经过编辑印刷成书，最后形成教学大纲，在课堂上传授给学生，中间这个链条是需要花费十几甚至几十年的时间的。今天的学校已经远远不能满足我们这个科学技术日新月异的社会了。如果仅仅把学校当做一个传授知识的场所，那么全世界大多数进入大学的大学生，大概率是会失望的。今天你在互联网上就能看到全世界最顶尖大学最顶级的教授，在这个领域最顶级的专家在视频上以最高密度的信息传授课程，信息壁垒已经早已不是大学之间划分的主要标准。如果想学习最先进的知识，最好的方法是去工业界，简单来讲就是去参加工作，在工作中学习。社会是最好的教育场所，老话说的好，”人教人教不会，事教人一教就会。“

那么大学有什么作用呢？我认为大学有三个作用。1.认识志同道合的人，拓展自己的人际关系，提升人际交往能力。2.得到通识教育，成为一名合格的”社会人“。3.认识自己，知道自己是谁，擅长做什么，我能为社会做一些什么。

个人层面，我们的大学生没有经历过一个正确的，培养认识自己的过程，简单来讲不知道自己该做什么。这是我们的教育导致的。从小到大，我们的目标都是很清晰的：初中努力学习，考上一个好高中；高中努力学习，考上一个好大学……人生的目标似乎一直都是比较确定的，而且并不需要自己制定目标——因为周围的人都这么干，只要随着大流走，别人怎么努力我也怎么努力，我大概率会落到一个平均数以下的结果。

但人生不是这样的，人生的意义需要自己去探寻。你是否思考过几个问题，1.你想过什么样的人生？2.你的理想生活状态是什么？3.你对社会的价值是什么？很多人，包括我自己，直到大学快毕业了才开始想清楚这个问题。有些人很早就想清楚了，所以他们往一个方向坚定不移的努力，并且不会分心把自己有限的注意力转移到别的纷繁复杂的方向上。

具体到工作层面，很少大学生对自己向往的工作缺乏了解，甚至，很多人不知道有一些工作的存在。这才是最恐怖的，比起不知道怎么达到目标，连自己不知道目标这一现状都意识不到。比如如果你是学新闻、导演、数字媒体技术相关的专业，是否知道”追焦员“这个职业的存在？另外就是掌握的知识和成为一名优秀的生产力分子有很大差距。比如，令人震惊的是，我见过不少新闻学专业毕业的学生，到大四用相机拍照还在用自动挡，拍照片不知道用raw，剪视频只会用剪映，拍摄的视频素材缺乏规范的素材命名法和数据备份习惯….然而这些知识都不是别人会教你的，你得自己知道”我需要学某些东西，书上不会讲，这些东西至关重要“。学计算机专业的学生，不会用git，写代码没有规范的版本管理，遇到bug只会问周围人而不是先在搜索引擎上先寻找相关的答案。这种人我们一般称之为”伸手党“，指望着有一个人能把问题的答案喂进脑子里….老实说，上面的内容都是我经历过的，很多错误我也犯过。

这四年我吸收到最深刻的教训就是：搞清楚目标是什么，并且知道正确清晰达到目标的方法，比努力本身更重要。找到一份好工作最核心的问题是：你给别人解决了一个什么样的问题？一名优秀的前端程序员能解决构建用户界面，用户体验（UX）优化的问题；一名优秀的视频剪辑师能解决电影画面传达不够直观，不够有吸引力的问题；甚至有些本身不创造价值的金融公司，他们解决了金融市场的某些不确定性的问题。简单来讲，你要么成为一个能给雇主解决问题的雇员，要么成为一个能给社会某个问题提供解决方案的雇主。

但我们很多人缺乏这个过程，一是不清楚自己将来要做什么，因为1.不能挖掘自己的长处2.不知道社会需要什么劳动力3.不知道自己喜欢什么样的生活，二是学习的知识并不能直接转化成生产力，简单来讲学的知识和社会需要的知识存在严重脱节。

所以应该怎么做呢？应该去进行一次发现自己的旅程。可以抽出一天的时间，一个人独处，不要摄入外来信息（比如刷手机），做在一个环境优美的地方，认真做一次纯粹的思考。现在很少人会这么做了。譬如在一家城市郊区的咖啡厅里，点杯咖啡望向窗外，静静回顾自己过去几年的得与失。可以准备一个笔记本，把自己所经历的事情写下来，并认真分析优点和缺点。

或者呢？走出自己的舒适圈，去体验不同的生活，去不同的行业实习，和不同专业不同领域的人深入聊天（2小时）以上，多听听那些一线工作者的亲身经历，比刷两个小时知乎管用得多。

今天就写到这里，明天再想想写什么。

English Version

Recently, there have been frequent news reports about college graduates struggling to find jobs immediately after graduation, leading to the issue of “graduation equals unemployment.” This has deeply resonated with me. I believe this problem can be explained from four aspects: the societal environment, the family environment, the school environment, and the individual student level.

Here, I only want to analyze the school and individual levels. In fact, globally, universities no longer represent the most advanced knowledge. The process from the discovery of a technology in a laboratory to its industrial application, widespread adoption, inclusion in textbooks, editing and printing, and finally forming a curriculum to be taught in classrooms, takes decades. Today’s schools are far from meeting the needs of our rapidly advancing technological society. If universities are merely seen as places for knowledge transmission, most students worldwide are likely to be disappointed. Nowadays, you can watch lectures by the world’s top professors and experts in their fields on the internet, where information is delivered at the highest density. Information barriers are no longer the primary standard distinguishing universities. The best way to learn the most advanced knowledge is to enter the industry, essentially to work and learn on the job. Society is the best educational institution, as the old saying goes, “People can’t teach people, but experiences can.”

So, what is the role of universities? I believe universities serve three purposes: 1. To meet like-minded people, expand one’s social network, and enhance interpersonal skills. 2. To receive a general education and become a qualified “social person.” 3. To understand oneself, know who one is, what one is good at, and what one can contribute to society.

On the individual level, our students have not undergone a proper process of self-discovery, simply put, they do not know what they should do. This is a result of our education system. From a young age, our goals have been clear: study hard in middle school to get into a good high school; study hard in high school to get into a good university… Life’s goals seem to have always been certain, and there was no need to set them oneself—because everyone around was doing the same. Just follow the crowd, work as hard as others, and one would likely end up with an average result.

But life is not like that. The meaning of life needs to be explored by oneself. Have you ever thought about these questions: 1. What kind of life do you want to live? 2. What is your ideal living condition? 3. What is your value to society? Many people, including myself, only start to figure this out as they near graduation. Some figure it out early and work steadfastly towards a direction without diverting their limited attention to other complex directions.

Specifically regarding work, few students have a deep understanding of the jobs they aspire to, and many are unaware of the existence of certain jobs. This is the most terrifying aspect—not knowing how to reach a goal is one thing, but not even being aware of the goal is another. For example, if you are studying journalism, directing, or digital media technology, do you know about the profession of a “focus puller”? Moreover, there is a significant gap between the knowledge acquired and becoming an excellent productive member of society. For instance, it is shocking that many journalism graduates still use automatic settings on cameras in their senior year, do not know to shoot in RAW, only use basic video editing software, and lack standardized naming conventions and data backup habits for video footage… However, these are not things that others will teach you; you need to realize, “I need to learn certain things that are crucial but not covered in textbooks.” Computer science students who do not use Git, write code without proper version control, and seek answers from peers instead of searching online first are often referred to as “help-seekers,” expecting someone to feed them the answers… Honestly, I have been through all of the above and made many of these mistakes myself.

The most profound lesson I have learned over these four years is: understanding what the goal is and knowing the correct and clear method to achieve it is more important than hard work itself. The core issue of finding a good job is: What problem are you solving for others? An excellent front-end programmer solves problems related to building user interfaces and optimizing user experience (UX); an excellent video editor solves problems of unappealing or unclear film visuals; even some financial companies that do not create value themselves solve problems of uncertainty in financial markets. Simply put, you either become an employee who solves problems for employers or an employer who provides solutions to societal problems.

But many of us lack this process, firstly because we are unclear about what we want to do in the future, due to 1. inability to uncover our strengths, 2. unawareness of what the labor market needs, and 3. uncertainty about the kind of life we prefer. Secondly, the knowledge we acquire does not directly translate into productivity, meaning there is a significant disconnect between what we learn and what society needs.

So, what should we do? We should embark on a journey of self-discovery. Take a day off, be alone, avoid external information (like scrolling through your phone), sit in a beautiful place, and engage in pure thinking. Few people do this nowadays. For example, sit in a suburban café, order a coffee, look out the window, and quietly reflect on the gains and losses of the past few years. Prepare a notebook, write down your experiences, and carefully analyze the pros and cons.

Alternatively, step out of your comfort zone, experience different lives, intern in various industries, have in-depth conversations (over two hours) with people from different fields, and listen to the firsthand experiences of frontline workers. This is far more useful than spending two hours on social media.

That’s all for today. I’ll think about what to write tomorrow.