Core

  • Value Contribution — Plan and identify problems, anticipate directions, and make strategic layouts
  • Technical Competency — Abstract cognitive understanding, good architectural design skills, awareness of upstream and downstream architecture and planning, continuous improvement capability, and the ability to anticipate and mitigate system stability risks
  • Openness and Growth — How to achieve organizational impact

Use the STAR method to summarize and present your work.

Systems Thinking

Enables us to consistently make stage-optimal choices when facing options without missing critical choices. Enhances learning efficiency and allows us to draw broader inferences from single instances.

Extended reading: MBA Lib Encyclopedia — System Archetypes

Key Points

  • Deconstruction — Break down a complex problem into multiple less complex problems, and then continue breaking those down into simple problems
  • Building Logical Relationships: Cause-and-Effect, 5W2H — Interacting, interrelated, and interdependent parts form a complex yet unified whole with a specific purpose
  • Prioritization (ROI)

Thinking

  • Deep Thinking — Move from superficial phenomena to the essence of things
  • Holistic Thinking — Consider the whole rather than just local parts
  • Dynamic Thinking — Understand that every person and business area is constantly changing

It is a process of Zooming Out and Zooming In.

The Iceberg Model

  • Events — What is happening right now?
  • Patterns — What has changed, and what are the trends?
  • Structure — Why is this happening, and how can the cause be explained?
  • Values — What philosophy drives this, and what are the underlying assumptions?

Tools and Methods

Causal Loop Diagrams

  • Variables — Factors in the modeled system structure whose values change over time; generally nouns
  • Links — Links formed between variables, which are causal links
  • Loops — Multiple links can form a loop. If there is a link from variable A to variable B, and there is also a link from variable B back to variable A through a series of other variables, a loop is formed.
    • Reinforcing Loop (Snowball Effect)
    • Balancing Loop (Links reach balance without continuous increase. E.g., adjusting shower water temperature to a comfortable level, which exhibits fluctuations and time delays)

5 Basic Causal Loop Archetypes

  • Fixes that Fail (A temporary solution brings balance initially, but causes future problems after a time delay. It leads to a balancing loop on one hand and a vicious reinforcing loop on the other, getting worse in the long run)
  • Shifting the Burden (Architecture optimization has a time delay in improving delivery efficiency, so temporary solutions may still be used)
  • Eroding Goals (Lowering goals and diminishing the determination to achieve them, which speeds up action in the short term)
  • Limits to Growth (A reinforcing growth loop on one side meets a ceiling on the other)
  • Tragedy of the Commons (E.g., growing traffic through pop-ups decreases user tolerance and threshold, eventually forcing everyone to rely on pop-ups)

Guiding Questions

Ideally loop 3 times (5 Whys) — Resourceful in planning, decisive in judgment:

  • To solve the practical business problems in my sub-domain, what are the current potential solutions?
  • What are the pros and cons of these solutions, and what scenarios are they suitable for?
  • What are the characteristics of my specific scenario?
  • Which solution best fits my scenario?

Example

A cup holds one liter of water. How can you fit two liters of water into the cup?

  • First, deconstruct core elements — Look from multiple perspectives for as many possibilities as possible: cup, water, gravity (First Principles)
  • Build intrinsic relationships
  • Identify which actions contribute the most to the solution

Description: Target water level → Perceived gap → Faucet adjustment speed → Faucet flow rate → Current water level → Perceived gap…

Impact

  • If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together
  • Two hands can’t fight four
  • Three cobblers equal one Zhuge Liang (Two heads are better than one)

Key Points:

  • What are the stakeholders’ needs?
  • What solution can be built to satisfy the core needs of these stakeholders, convincing them to commit resources and time to make the project successful?
  • Project process and mechanism management
  • Risk management

Guiding Questions:

  • What is the background of the project?
  • What is the core goal of the project?
  • What are the obstacles to project execution?
  • What potential solutions can help overcome these obstacles?
  • Which solution should be chosen to overcome these obstacles?

Designing a Growth Framework

  • Proactively design learning plans
  • Practice effective time management
  • Leverage feedback mechanisms

Best Practices — Knowledge

Can be explained in one sentence

  • Time management
  • Contextual listening/learning
  • Topic-based learning
  • Structured slide decks
  • Detail-oriented articles
  • Micro-reflections

Cognitive Upgrades — Mindset

Understand underlying principles to drive behavioral change

  • Reflective / Automatic brain
  • Execution capability
  • Meetings
  • Value spending (bargain hunting)
  • Career planning
  • Mentors and benefactors

Expanding Circle of Competence — Skills

Repeated learning and practice

  • Software architecture
  • Management capability
  • Leadership
  • Presentation skills
  • Writing skills
  • Developing others and oneself

Three Major Assets

Attention

Analyze where your attention is spent:

  • Mindlessly scrolling feeds with the crowd (Root cause: insecurity. It relaxes you, but also numbs you)
  • Unconsciously reading articles or official account posts (Thinking you are learning, while actually wasting time and attention)
  • Hobbies and interests (Interests and skills are vital)

True security, sense of achievement, and belonging come from self-growth and self-accumulation.

You don’t need to quit completely; allocate attention reasonably and focus on things that yield cumulative value.

Set learning goals for only 1–2 domains within 60 days, and read books, articles, or courses related only to those 1–2 domains

Immersive healing for attention deficit:

  • Read and understand word for word
  • Think and take notes while reading
  • Write articles or synthesize structured slide decks

Good Habits

Practice pop-up reminders to cultivate good habits. High achievers are elite simply because they are driven by uninterrupted positive habits.

Trigger Condition → Daily Habit → Immediate Brain Reward → Daily Habit Consciousness Reinforcement

When the “off work” event occurs, trigger a pop-up for yourself to change daily habits through multiple choice spaces.

Trigger Condition (Pop-up) → Daily Habit → Achievement/Value Incentive → Daily Habit Consciousness Reinforcement

4 Areas of Refinement

  • Read good books and take notes
  • Summarize frequently and practice architecture
  • Write frequently and capture details
  • Share generously and become a benefactor to others

3 Achievements

  • Sell a single unit of time multiple times
  • Apply deep thinking to handle various scenarios
  • Enhance learning ability to transform cognition

Time

Common activities during the “third 8 hours”:

  • Consumption
  • Transaction
  • Investment

Lock in daily “uninterrupted time.” The difference in life is created by the 3rd eight hours — invest in your own growth.

Spending 2 hours every day plus weekends yields usable annual “uninterrupted time”: 192 + 2 * 365 = 922

Two Major Methodologies

OKR Goal Setting Method

Focus + Priority + Key Results

Objectives + Materials + Output

Wave Output Learning Method

  • Read and listen word-for-word — Understand content and author’s thinking
  • Two-pass note-taking — Summarize key knowledge points
  • Create slide decks — Abstraction and structuring skills
  • Write articles — Synthesis and communication skills

Advanced Growth Path

  • Technical Skills — Professional knowledge and relevant operational capabilities
  • Interpersonal Skills — Communication, coordination, and collaborative organizational abilities
  • Conceptual Skills — Comprehensive analysis to identify trends, opportunities, directions, and goals

Management Capability: Organizational mechanism design, culture building, and team structure layout.

  • Organization Building — Appointment of leads, facilitating synergy, collaboration channels, team communication
  • Cultural Soil — Core values, talent development, succession planning, organizational capability, environment of trust
  • Set/Deconstruct Goals → Progress, Synergy, Efficiency, Risks → Deliver Results

Leadership

Basic Requirements

  • Take ownership and responsibility
  • Honesty and integrity
  • Optimistic and confident
  • Self-driven

Definition: The ability to do things well and do the right things, serving as a role model

  • Timely and effective two-way communication — Minimize surprises, build a safe and trusting communication environment
  • Execution — Emphasize action; the capability to turn goals and plans into concrete results
  • Make decisions and track processes — Pragmatic, standout, proactively contributing value
  • Attention to detail — Focus on specialization; strive for excellence to build technical confidence and product quality
  • Learn methods and act as a coach — Lead learning by example, build talent pipelines, and mentor others
  • Innovation — Emphasize new ideas and methods, maintaining team vitality and creativity