A Foot of Jade Is Not Treasure
Updated 2026-08-22
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Chi bi fei bao, cun yin shi jing, from the Thousand Character Classic, says a foot of jade is not a true treasure while an inch of time is what you compete for, because time cannot be renewed. The model is the time value of time: put the time cost on the balance sheet when deciding. A project that earns a fortune but consumes the team's core energy for three years may be a loss.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Price the time: compute the hours and years a decision will actually consume before judging its return. - Value the non-renewable: treat the team's core energy and attention as the scarce factor. - Defend the deep blocks: protect the hours that cannot be replaced once they are spent.
Anchor fast decisions
Money and jade can be replaced and time cannot, so a return measured in currency alone understates a project whose cost is paid in years of the team's finite attention. Once the time is spent it is gone whether the project succeeds or not, which is why the same cash profit can be a gain in one configuration and a loss in another.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- zh.wikipedia.orghttps://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8D%83%E5%AD%97%E6%96%87verified
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