I have watched "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" many times, and one of the main reasons is that the character Yu Jiaolong fascinates me. I just recently learned about the concept of First Principles in detail, which allowed me to dissect this beloved character from a new perspective. There are usually two ways for people to think. The first and most of them are habitual thinking. We rely on the experience in our minds to form habitual thoughts and decisions. This experience may come from book media, past experiences, and our parents, teachers, and friends. This way of thinking can solve most of the problems in life with the least amount of brain power. For example, we avoid restaurants that are unpalatable in the mouths of our friends and obey the doctor's orders. Therefore, from this perspective, copying what others say is indeed an efficient way to Methods. The second way of thinking is first principles. We discard past experience, jump out of other people's viewpoints, re-examine the nature of things, and draw our own conclusions. When I watched "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" for the first time, the first time I was shocked by the role of Yu Jiaolong was when she and her master "Blue-Eyed Fox" showed off their martial arts skills. The lines are very well written, and I excerpted them all: "Do you think you are teaching me the "Wudang Sword Art Heart" in recent years? Fortunately, you don't know much. Even if you know those words, you can't understand them. I understand, your kung fu can only be practiced here. I hide it and don’t reveal it, just because I’m afraid you’ll be sad. Mistress, my apprentice has been practicing secretly with you since he was ten years old. You gave me a martial arts dream, but one day, I found that I can beat you, you don't know how scared I am, I can't see the edge of the world, I don't know where to go, who can I follow?" Yu Jiaolong's talent is not only because she has talent, but also because she knows she has talent. Knowing that she has talent, she was able to escape from the way her master practiced martial arts, to transcend the boundaries of her master's reach, and to discover another world. When she was a teenager, she learned to think with first principles, not sticking to the master's teaching, and exploring the mystery of "Wudang Sword Art Heart Secret" by herself. Yu Jiaolong has a very powerful ego, and this ego allows her to always establish her perception of the world only from her own eyes. Therefore, the viciousness of the blue-eyed fox failed to obliterate her conscience, and the moral values of Li Mubai and Yu Xiulian also made her doubt and resist. The first principles way of thinking in the subconscious drives her to take the Qingming Sword to personally touch the rivers and lakes in her dreams, not the rivers and lakes in anyone's mouth. Sadly, when she was finally in Jianghu, she found that Jianghu was just a larger disguised cage. Her master, the blue-eyed fox, needed to disguise herself to avoid being hunted by enemies, and the mediocre people in Jianghu needed a long-winded name to hide themselves. She is so incompetent that even heroes like Li Mubai and Yu Xiulian need to hide their feelings, but her attempt to live an unrestrained and unrestrained life has caused a catastrophe. The real arena can't give her the unrestrained freedom she wants. Naval once sent an intriguing twitter: "Groups search for consensus, individuals search for truth". The group needs to establish a consensus on the rules of the organization, while the individual needs to find the truth and the answer to life. The defense of group consensus inevitably replaces individual thinking, as was the case with Li Mubai. He is the guardian of chivalrous morality in the world of Jianghu. In return, Jianghu also gave him fame and fortune as a hero and the authority to preside over justice. At the same time, the lack of first-principles thinking always leads him to use morality to suppress his true desires. Therefore, at the beginning of the movie, Li Mubai failed to retreat and finally decided to retire from the arena and face his love for Yu Xiulian honestly. This is also the beginning of his attempt to examine his life with first principles. Yu Jiaolong has never experienced Li Mubai's struggles, because she has been using first principles to face the problems of her life from the very beginning. Learning martial arts from a teacher, living in the desert with Luo Xiaohu, escaping from marriage, and roaming the arena, although she also disguised herself in the process, she has always maintained her resistance to authority in her heart. At the end, I believe that she reached the realm that Li Mubai could not reach earlier, and realized the "truth" of life, so she could let go of her hatred and look down on life and death. Jump down, leave this imprisoned river and lake, and touch the free world outside of life.
Reference First Principles: The Building Blocks of True Knowledge
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