Follow One's Own Mind
Updated 2026-08-22
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Shi xin zi yong means taking your own settled prejudice as your teacher and then judging right and wrong by it, which is like declaring you have arrived before you have set out. The model names the cognitive closed loop: the stubborn person is not failing to learn, they are learning only from themselves, reinforcing what they already hold. Breaking it requires introducing an external and differing standard.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Notice the loop: catch yourself learning only from sources that already agree. - Import a different standard: bring in an outside measure that can disagree with you. - Default to maybe wrong: hold I might be wrong as the position you evaluate from.
Anchor fast decisions
An existing framework is the cheapest and most available interpretive tool, so every new input is shaped by it, and each successful interpretation proves the framework again. The loop is self-reinforcing precisely because it never tests itself against anything outside itself, which is why the only repair is an external standard it cannot pre-filter.
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%BA%84%E5%AD%90verified
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