How to Upgrade Your Cognition

Zhang Yiming says: “Cognition is a person’s greatest competitive advantage—your understanding of something is your competitive edge in that domain. In theory, all other production factors can be assembled: how much capital you raise, from whom, who you hire, and so on. The deeper your understanding, the stronger your edge.”

So—how do we actually upgrade our cognitive capacity?

Here’s a working formula: C = I × I, or the Cognition-I² Formula.

What does it mean?

  • C: Cognition—the level of your understanding
  • I: Information—your ability to access high-quality, meaningful, wisdom-rich information (not fragmented snippets from Douyin or WeChat Moments)
  • I: Interpretation—your ability to analyze deeply, cut to the essence, and align insight with real-world goals

Cognition depends on both elements—neither alone suffices.

Take an extreme example: even if you hand a person with zero interpretive capacity a piece of information worth ¥100 million, it’s useless. Their interpretation “I” is zero—so C = I × 0 = 0.

How to strengthen Information ability:

  • Enter high-cognition circles
  • Connect with people who are significantly more capable
  • Read timeless, foundational books

How to strengthen Interpretation ability:

  • Practice mindful meditation
  • Cultivate independent thinking
  • Engage in deliberate practice
  • Strive to become an expert—not just in skill, but in seeing patterns, asking first-principle questions, and refining mental models

Why You Need Role Models

  1. A role model is fundamentally a reference point—a stable benchmark against which you calibrate your own progress.
  2. Without such a reference, what happens?
  3. You risk losing clear principles, stalling improvement, failing to spot your blind spots—and gradually narrowing your thinking.
  4. Having a role model anchors you. It helps you see where you fall short—not to shame yourself, but to identify concrete, meaningful growth opportunities. That’s where real development begins.
  5. Crucially: having a role model doesn’t mean diminishing your own worth. Every person is unique, with irreplaceable strengths and value.
  6. Must you have only one role model? No. You can—and should—have different ones across domains.
  7. For example: my piano role model is Beethoven; my entrepreneurial role model is Elon Musk; my education role model is Zhang Bangxin; my investing role model is Warren Buffett; my writing role model is Han Han.
  8. What ties them together? Each embodies a direction I aspire to in that specific domain—and each aligns with my personal traits and values. That alignment is what makes the role model meaningful—not imitation, but resonance.

A Calm Mindset

A calm mindset is profoundly important—not as passive detachment, but as the steady ground from which clear action emerges. It means staying composed and rational no matter the scale of the challenge, so your rational brain—not emotion or panic—leads the way to the best solution.

Calmness isn’t innate—it’s trainable. What you’re training is the switching capacity between your rational brain and your emotional (or even reactive “survival”) brain.

Under stress, the emotional brain often fires first—and it’s terrible at problem-solving. So strengthening your rational brain’s ability to engage calmly and promptly is essential.

How to train it:

  • First, learn to let go of what’s already happened. If you’ve lost ¥1 million, that fact is fixed. If you collapse emotionally, you trigger suppressed anger or despair—none of which help solve anything. The most effective response is to acknowledge the reality directly, without resistance.
  • Second, gather key facts objectively—what’s verifiable, what’s relevant, what’s missing—so your analysis stays grounded, not distorted by mood.

With consistent practice, this composure becomes automatic—a habit, not a struggle.

What Is Emotional Drain?

In any two-person relationship—be it romantic, familial, or friendship—ask one simple question to detect emotional drain (neihao, or “inner consumption”):

Does one person’s judgment of the other outweigh their support?

  • If judgment > support: the relationship is draining.
  • If judgment < support: healing and growth begin.

By “judgment,” I mean criticism, labeling (“You’re so lazy”), moralizing lectures, or unsolicited advice that implies inadequacy.
By “support,” I mean: You try. I don’t reject you when you fail. I celebrate you when you succeed.

This logic applies widely—to partners, parents, children, friends, even colleagues. When judgment dominates, energy leaks. When support leads, energy flows—and grows.