They followed three black ant colonies composed of 30 ants and observed their division of labor.
It turns out that most ants are very diligent, cleaning their nests, carrying food and taking care of their young.
However, there are a small number of ants who do nothing, walk around the ant colony all day and never work.
Biologists call these ants "lazy ants" and mark them.
Interestingly, when the research team cut off the food source of the ant colony, the diligent ants immediately became a mess.
"Lazy ants" took their time and led the ant colony to move to a new food source.
It turns out that lazy ants are not lazy, but spend most of their time on reconnaissance.
They seem to be idle, but their minds never stop thinking. This is the famous "lazy ant effect".
0 1
I chatted with a senior the other day, and he told me a story.
In the year of graduation, he joined a classmate and practiced in the same company.
In order to impress the boss, he is the first to come to the company and the last to leave every day. During his internship, he worked overtime to 12 almost every day.
And his classmates come to pinch one every day and pinch one when they leave.
Two months later, the company turned positive, and he thought he was stable.
As a result, he failed to become a regular employee, while his classmates managed to stay in that company.
He was very angry and sent a circle of friends to vomit: "60 days of hard work is just a joke!"
The leader of his department saw it and sent him two business reports, one for him and one for that classmate.
His report has several thousand words, which is quite satisfactory.
In contrast, although the other report is only 1000 words, it is clear in logic and focused, which makes people clear at a glance.
Most importantly, in the column of strategic analysis, he only briefly mentioned it, while his classmates pointed out the advantages and disadvantages of the company and the hidden opportunities and risks in the market in a colorful and simple way.
It turned out that while he was busy with trivial things, his classmates had thoroughly studied the strategic issues.
On Douban, there is a group called "Kill Pseudo-Diligence", and there is such a sentence that comes from the heart:
"Behind the mechanical efforts, but is a kind of muscle habitual exercise. This seems to be diligence, but in fact it is laziness in the brain. "
The biggest gap between people is not the degree of effort, but the depth of thinking.
Without in-depth thinking, all diligence is in vain.
Just like my senior, I was paralyzed by my superficial efforts, and I understood diligence as "after working every day 12", ignoring the improvement of my thinking.
It was not until the end that I realized that I was just using tactical diligence to cover up my strategic laziness.
02
Before reading Speed of Thinking, I was particularly impressed by a story in the book.
In a small town in California, there lived a young man who loved writing.
He insists on writing every day and is determined to become an excellent novelist.
But his novels are always unsalable and no one appreciates them.
He was very upset, so he went to the church and asked the priest, "Please tell me, why do I write day and night, but my work has not made any progress?"
The priest didn't answer directly, but asked, "What did you do this morning?"
He was puzzled and said, "I'm writing a novel."
The priest asked again, "What about this morning?"
He replied, "I am also writing a novel."
The priest continued to ask, "What about this afternoon?"
Hearing this, the young man was a little impatient: "I write novels except eating and sleeping every day."
"Then when did you think about it?"
Looking at the young man who didn't know where his problem was, the priest said patiently:
"Your so-called diligence is just a long repetition and endless busyness, and there is nothing difficult. As long as the conditions meet, most people can do it.
The hard part is thinking. Without thought, your novel has no soul. Without thinking, your diligence is meaningless. "
Yes, hard work is the only creative means. Without thinking and summarizing, why should we improve?
There is a passage in the article "The Puzzlement of Our Generation":
Most people seem to be diligent, but in fact they are lazy.
Why do you stay up reading until dawn, and only sleep for a few hours for several days? How long have you had a holiday? If these things are also worth boasting about, then anyone on the assembly line is harder than you. "
A person who is too lazy to think because of trivial matters is doomed to fall into a mediocre predicament.
Getting rid of low-quality diligence and developing the habit of thinking is the first step in your advanced life.
03
MacArthur genius prize winner Cederhill Muranathan has a famous saying:
"For any organization, it is very important to leave some leisure time. It is not a waste of resources, but to make the system run more efficiently. "
Similarly, for individuals, we also need to leave some leisure time for ourselves, think about charging and improve ourselves.
The writer Li Shanglong used to be a teacher of New Oriental.
In the last year of working there, he made a request to the leader who arranged the class: no class on weekend nights.
A colleague advised him: "You will earn four or five thousand less a month like this!"
He gritted his teeth, but still said, "Don't wait in line."
Every weekend night after that, while other colleagues were busy rushing to the company to make money, he stayed at home to study, watch movies, write reading notes and think about his personal value and life direction.
As a result, the teaching and training industry is declining now, and his colleagues have no choice but to lose their jobs or be forced to change careers.
And he has become a best-selling author with an annual salary of one million.
When he recalled this matter in the article "Busy, but Don't Be Poor", he bluntly said:
"No matter how busy you are, you should leave some spare time for yourself and give yourself a free time. Think about whether there is a better direction and a better way.
Just like in a team, there must always be one or two leaders idle, because they are responsible for thinking and making better directions. "
The depth of a person's thinking determines the height of his life.
Just like Li Shanglong, he doesn't work in the whirlpool every day like his colleagues.
On the contrary, he pulled away from his busy life, giving himself time to think and constantly looking for a new way of life.
Pascal, a French thinker, wrote in Capriccio:
Man is just a reed, the most fragile thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed. I think, therefore I am.
People can only listen to the voice in the depths of their souls and find the most valuable path in life if they leave room for thinking in their busy lives.