Original: Duan Hongbin source: official account: Lao Duan’s viewpoint
Two days ago, I saw such a post on a forum. The owner of the Post said that he worked for two years and finally saved 40000 yuan. He felt very happy. On the Internet, where the per capita annual salary is one million yuan, many netizens were surprised to see such a grounding post, so they were happy for the landlord.
The following is a screenshot of the original post:
The original author mentioned that he had the opportunity to save 40000 yuan last year, but his family was sick and his mother had tuberculosis, so he spent a lot of money on treatment, but this year he finally saved enough 40000 yuan.
After working for two years, you can save 40000 yuan, which is equivalent to 1700 yuan per month. In this society, 40000 yuan can not buy anything. But for a person who has only worked for two years, it is a great thing to save money. You should know how many young people are moonlight people.
Looking at the post of the landlord, I think back to 20 years ago. This year is the 20th anniversary of my graduation. I remember very clearly that 20 years ago, one afternoon in August, I took a taxi to a company for an interview. When the car came to a bridge hole, the water was too deep to continue to move forward. Because the typhoon was blowing these days, I had to get out of the car and take a detour to the interview. When I got there, I was almost soaked.
The reason why I went to this company for an interview is also very simple. In the summer after graduation in 2002, I always played the new Warcraft 3 at home. Then I thought, since I like playing games so much, why not go to the game company? And I could get money, so I went to interview the general agent of Warcraft 3 in China.
After the interview, I went back and waited for a few days, but I didn’t give up. Maybe someone else gave up. But I wasn’t. I called directly and asked, “when do I start to work?” The other person was a little confused when I asked him this. In fact, he didn’t remember who I was, but he finally said, “come to work tomorrow.” In this way, the only interview after graduation was successful.
The monthly salary of the first job is 2500 yuan. Since the first month is less than one month, I only get 1800 yuan, which is 1800 with the strongest sense of happiness. At that time, it was sent in cash. It was wrapped in a letter and put in my pocket. Then I began to daydream about what to buy, such as a laptop? At that time, the laptop computers were more than 10000 yuan, which meant that I needed to save them for one year.
This company is only an agent company and does not develop games. The boss is from Hong Kong, and the vice president is always Singaporean. It is said that he can watch Feng Shui. When the boss asked someone to watch Feng Shui, he recruited this vice president. The vice president appreciated me very much and said that the small end game was good. Then you can help me test the game.
He gave me all the CDs from foreign game fairs, let me play at work, and then told him which games could be represented and which could not. My game test is different from others. Others test whether there are bugs. I test whether it is fun. The company is located on the roadside of Nanjing. After playing the game, I can sneak out for shopping. This is my happiest time, although the income is the lowest.
Many years later, even though my income has increased a lot, I still think that the happiest days are the two years after graduation. Because people’s happiness is inversely proportional to their desire, I want very few things in those two years. I still have money to play games. What other extravagant expectations can I have?
Later, with the rapid rise of house prices, my happiness became lower and lower, because I suddenly realized one thing: why can anyone afford such an expensive house? How much money did they make? Anyway, I can’t afford this income, and those around me have the same income, so where are the rich people?
In today’s China, almost all people worry about why they are not rich. Psychologists have found that people will only become more and more depressed after material improvement. A study conducted in the United States shows that people born in the middle of the 20th century are 10 times more likely to suffer from severe depression than those born in the early 20th century, and these 50 years are a period of rapid development of human material civilization. At present, the probability of human suffering from depression is higher than ever before. At present, almost one in every 10 adults is suffering from depression.
After 40 years of reform and opening up in China, many people have become rich first. However, those who become rich first will soon encounter a dilemma. Their own happiness will not increase in proportion to their wealth, and the satisfaction brought by wealth can only last for a short time.
When you earn 1 million yuan, you feel very happy, but when you enter the millionaire club, you find that this money is actually nothing, and the little pleasure you have just gained disappears instantly. So I thought that if I made 10 million yuan, I might be satisfied. When I worked hard and successfully entered the multimillionaire club, I found myself worthless again. So he set a goal of 100 million for himself
At this time, we may find that everything is a samsara. It is like the radish placed in front of the donkey. Every time the donkey speeds up its pace, it seems that the radish is one step closer to itself. Unfortunately, it soon becomes far away. A millionaire and a billionaire actually have the same happiness, but as long as they compare with the people on the rich list, their happiness immediately drops.
From the perspective of evolutionary psychology, since mankind is a hierarchical society, the last elimination system has been implemented since ancient times. The few at the top occupy the most resources, while the majority at the bottom live a very hard life. Therefore, everyone has the impulse to climb up. In modern society, “money” provides a good standard of measurement. The more money, the higher the status in the social hierarchy, Therefore, when wealth rises to a higher level, you will feel great happiness. Maintaining a wealth level will not bring you happiness.
From this, we also know a truth: wealth itself does not bring happiness, but the comparison of wealth brings happiness. But the next question is, how can we make an intuitive comparison? Obviously, you can’t write your bank account balance on your face, so the value of luxury goods is reflected. The rich crowd into the major luxury stores to buy happiness with money, not for the best, but for the most expensive.
“Peacock tail theory” tells us that those obviously cumbersome, wasteful and flashy things are actually very important. The male peacock drags a huge tail, which is not helpful for its survival. On the contrary, it makes it easier for natural enemies to catch it and consumes a lot of energy to support it. But the message is that I have such cumbersome, wasteful and flashy things, but I still live well, which shows that I am really strong.
Apart from the most basic satisfaction for survival, most of human consumption behaviors are aimed at distancing themselves from others. To gain happiness by making money is similar to queue jumping. A group of people are queuing up, and you jump in front of others. For you, you feel that efficiency is improved and time is saved. When others see you jump in the queue, they also choose to jump in the queue. This is the driving force of GDP growth.
By the way, we also explained why people especially hate the gap between the rich and the poor in the process of economic development. The so-called “sailing against the current without advancing or retreating” means that you do not make money when others make big money. Although it seems that you do not have any loss, you will feel inexplicable anger when you see so many people jump in front of you.
With the rise of short videos, those who originally had no money can also shoot videos to show off their wealth through cheap packaging, such as shopping for celebrities. In this way, it seems that everyone on the Internet is a local tycoon, with an annual salary of one million per capita, and everyone drives a luxury car and lives in a luxury house. Looking at those fictitious people, your happiness suddenly drops to the bottom. So I said, with more Internet, it’s hard for you to feel happy. Others are hell.
Recently, netizens have criticized Wang Chengcheng, Zhou Gongzi and Jia Qianqian for the same reason. They suddenly found that there are so many “second generation” who easily jump in front of themselves with the help of their parents. Because they do not have such a father, they have to work hard to brush questions. Moreover, even if they become the king of brushing questions, they may not be able to get the same position. It is unbearable!
Finally, I would like to use the game to make an analogy and make a summary. An online game, if you want to make people feel funny, the most important thing is fairness. You can never plug it in all over the world. Otherwise, it will become very funny for others to work hard to upgrade. No matter how hard he tries, others can easily plug in front of him. Is his efforts meaningful? I might as well lie flat. Therefore, the operator must find a way to block the plug-in.
But there is another situation. What if the plug-in is too difficult to handle? Then you need to circle these people who use plug-ins. You can’t let them show their face everywhere, and you can’t let them easily stimulate other people. As long as netizens can’t see others using plug-ins, they won’t be angry.
Now you can understand why the women of Yijiao want to wrap themselves like zongzi. In a polygamous society, a few men occupy a large number of women, and the remaining men are all bachelors. In order to avoid stimulating them, they can only wrap the women.