As Carving and Polishing
Updated 2026-08-22
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
The image of carving jade and then polishing it, from the Book of Songs, applied to the pursuit of ever finer quality through iteration. As a thinking model it holds that a first version is raw material and that value is created in the cycles of adjustment that follow. The qualification is that polishing needs a stopping rule, since refinement without a defined standard of good enough consumes effort that returns nothing.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Use Feedback Iteration: locate the weakest part from user response and refine only that part. - Use Good-Enough Threshold: define the standard that ends polishing so effort moves to the next item.
Anchor fast decisions
A first attempt reflects the maker's assumptions, and only contact with users or materials reveals which assumptions were wrong. Each cycle corrects one assumption, so quality improves cumulatively, whereas polishing without feedback merely reinforces the original guesses.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
account_treeGenealogyexpand_more
menu_bookReferencesexpand_more
Source support: Explicit
- zh.wikisource.orghttps://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%AB%96%E8%AA%9E/%E5%AD%B8%E8%80%8C%E7%AC%AC%E4%B8%80verified
PRIVATE NOTES · Only visible to you
SAVED Q&A
ENTRY Q&A · Private saving available
Ask with a clear boundary
thinkingmodels answers from published entry context only.
Your question is sent to thinkingmodels. The answer uses public entry context only.
RELATED MODELS