A few days ago, I came across an article that divided people's cognition into four levels: don't know you don't know, know you don't know, know you know, don't know you know. I think this kind of classification is quite interesting and reliable. Based on this, I write this article with proper play, so that you can avoid detours on the road of research.

Level 1: I don't know. I don't know

People at this level take it for granted that they know everything and can do everything, so they show the giant baby behavior of extreme blind self-confidence, but in fact they can't distinguish between appearance and essence, imagination and facts, objectivity and Subjectivity - they lack basic common sense and judgment ability. Such people are usually folk science lovers or confused scholars recruited by them.

Level 2: know what you don't know

People at this level understand the boundlessness of knowledge and the limitations of their own cognition, understand the truth of "there are mountains outside the mountain, there are days outside the sky, and there are people outside the people", and always maintain awe and curiosity about the unknown field. Such people are mainly ordinary scholars, but there is a huge room for improvement in the future.

Level 3: know you know

People at this level are aware of the "ceiling" of their cognition and ability, so their positioning is clear - they only cultivate and express their opinions in a certain professional direction; It can solve problems that are not difficult and has a certain influence in the industry. Such people can be called experts in the industry.

Level 4: don't know you know

People at this level are good at integrating the knowledge they have learned, and take this ability as a sharp weapon that they can use at any time; Be good at looking at problems from multiple and multi-level perspectives, and be able to grasp the essence of problems; Be good at exploring ways to solve problems by intuition and instinct; Be good at turning complexity into simplicity and finding the "golden key" to solve problems; Be good at solving problems with knowledge + inspiration + rationality + demonstration. In addition, when necessary, such people can easily and freely "reduce the dimension and directly attack" other people's wrong perceptions, so that they can suddenly see the light, just like being enlightened. In terms of image, this kind of person, like the top Wulin experts, can achieve "Qi with the heart, retract and release freely and adapt to changes", that is, he has reached the state of "no move wins with move", which is also a wise man.

Obviously, by constantly improving their cognitive level, scholars can achieve twice the result with half the effort. So, what should we do?

1. Expand knowledge

The British philosopher Bacon once said: "reading history makes people wise, reading poetry makes people smart, mathematics makes people thoughtful, science makes people profound, ethics makes people solemn, logic and rhetoric makes people eloquent; all learning becomes character." Therefore, scholars can broaden their thinking by reading more literature (especially books on the history of Science), which is helpful to find "another village in the dark".

2. Improve academic literacy

Academic literacy is the comprehensive quality presented by scholars in the research process, which is mainly composed of academic consciousness, academic knowledge, academic ability and academic ethics. By improving academic literacy, scholars' insight and decision-making ability will be enhanced, and their creativity and academic appreciation will also be enhanced, which will help to avoid traps and reach the other side of victory.

3. Often communicate with experts

Playing chess with players who are better than themselves can improve their chess skills; Similarly, communicating with scholars at a higher level will benefit a lot. However, many scholars are unwilling to do so because they are afraid of losing face due to their own bad knowledge in the communication with experts. This is to worry about your ears, because often communicating with experts is just a shortcut to sublimate bad knowledge into wisdom; With wisdom, why worry about the failure of great cause; Only when great achievements are made can scholars have real face.

At this point, looking through the window, I saw snowflakes flying, silver clothes everywhere and jade trees and branches. When Qingsong's poem is about to turn into Xuesong's, he says: "when Qingsong's poem is about to turn into Xuesong's, it's about to turn into Xuesong's poem." Yes, in the face of the vast unknown world, scholars can not waste their life unless they constantly surpass themselves with the indomitable spirit of Qingsong, move forward to the steep academic peak and add glory to the noble academic palace. What is a true scholar? Only this ear!