I came across this article online, and it was so good—good enough to revisit and digest again and again—that I wanted to keep a pointer to it on my site. You can read the original here: 如何超过大多数人.
A Short English Guide to the Original
The original essay, “如何超过大多数人” (“How to Get Ahead of Most People”), was written by Chen Hao and published on CoolShell in 2019. It uses satire and reverse psychology to expose habits that quietly hold people back: consuming low-quality information, mistaking fragmented reading for learning, chasing shortcuts, repeating work without reflection, and letting comparison or comfort replace long-term growth.
Its constructive argument is that progress comes from four connected areas: cognition, knowledge, skill, and leadership. Better information sources improve what you can see; systematic learning turns scattered facts into knowledge; deliberate practice, mistakes, and feedback turn knowledge into skill; and high standards, genuine interests, strong habits, and persistence make those abilities compound over time.
This page is only a brief English overview, not a translation or reproduction of the essay. For the full argument, examples, and the author's original wording, please read Chen Hao's article on CoolShell.