In our life, study and work, we constantly accumulate experience and lessons, form our own ideas, and live, study and work according to our own ideas. At the same time, once a person's ideology is formed, it is difficult to change. These ideas may be academic or wrong. If we don't have the right opportunity, we may never find the mistakes in our own ideas. Even if we are pointed out, we may not be willing to correct them, so we always adhere to such wrong ideas. Extensive reading, whether reading online materials or traditional books, may expose us to other ideas and ideas, and may give us the opportunity to correct our own ideas. Here are three examples to illustrate the problem of correcting ideas in reading.

For example 1, I once saw a passage by Mr. Yang Zhenning on the Internet. The core meaning is that he thinks that his most important work is to study the gauge field theory and study this problem. He noticed this problem, but no one noticed it. Mr. Yang Zhenning said that later he also felt strange, how can others not pay attention to this problem? None of his contemporaries developed in this direction, but he developed in this direction.

When I first saw this passage of Mr. Yang Zhenning, I was shocked because it was different from one of my ideas. I have always thought that if no one else has studied a problem, it means that it is not important. Otherwise, how can no one else have studied it? The example of Mr. Yang Zhenning makes me understand: the problems that others have not studied may be that others have not noticed them, that others have not studied them for the time being, or that others have not come up with any results and have not published corresponding papers publicly. In any case, we can't judge the quality of a research problem by whether others have research or not.

Second, I once saw a material on the Internet about Mr. Ding Zhaozhong's interview with CCTV reporters in June 2002. He frankly said that he "didn't know" about many problems. The reporter said helplessly: "I found that in the process of our conversation, the most common sentence you said was" I don't know. " Mr. Ding Zhaozhong made a positive reply this time: "yes! It's true. You can't say you know what you don't know. "

The first time I saw such materials, it was also a shock. Mr. Ding Zhaozhong's ideas and practices also effectively corrected my ideas. Before that, I tried my best to give a reasonable answer to the questions raised by others, whether in formal or private occasions, and I was secretly happy for my wit, although I knew that some of my answers were specious. The key is that I want to give an answer, no matter whether I can give an answer or not! After reading the case of Mr. Ding Zhaozhong, I decided to have the courage to say frankly and sincerely, "I don't know."

For example 3, when I read Mr. Chen Xilu's a brief history of mathematical statistics, I saw that the author clearly pointed out in the introduction that "mathematical statistics only analyzes problems from the level of quantitative expression, and does not touch the professional connotation of problems at all", and stressed that "mathematical statistics is a neutral tool, and it has no claim on any problems, We will not defend any interests or adhere to any theory in any discipline. "“ As the mathematical statistics method only analyzes the problem from the superficial quantitative relationship, its conclusion can not be confused with causality. "（ p. 3) "to make clear and mark the two characteristics of mathematical statistics method, namely, the neutrality and instrumentality of the method, and its uncertainty of causality, can make statisticians stand aloof and avoid falling into some unnecessary arguments."（ pp.3-4）

Seeing this point of view, I suddenly realized, applauded, and repeated reading! When it comes to statistics, many people often emphasize that the significant results of statistical test can not show the significance of professional theory, so it seems that statistics is not brilliant, because its significance test can not provide the significance of professional theory, which I also deeply think. When I saw Mr. Chen Xilu's point of view, I was filled with emotion. It turned out that I had misunderstood statistics for a long time; It turns out that many people who use statistical techniques have misunderstandings about statistics; It turns out that the weakness of statistics is actually its advantage!

Why can extensive reading correct misconceptions quickly and effectively? From the perspective of psychology, there are two main reasons. First, we have seen examples. As the previous examples show, the examples of the three members are very typical and their views are very clear. After seeing them, people feel shocked. They can deeply touch the ideas of the readers and are willing to take them as examples for their own learning. Second, it avoids embarrassment. It's embarrassing and shameful to show or expose one's own ideological mistakes, so one's natural reaction is to defend, to negate or defend. Reading materials, without face-to-face embarrassment, individuals are more likely to reduce the intensity of self-defense, and they are more likely to accept the fact that their ideas are wrong, so as to carry out pure correction.