What's this?
This sentence comes from "Lu Shi Chun Qiu·Cha Jin". The full text has fourteen characters, and its meaning is very straightforward:
> Observe yourself and you can understand others; observe the present and you can understand the past.
In today’s words:
> You are not "guessing" others, you are "reading" yourself.
> You are not "memorizing" history, you are "looking" at today.
Note that this sentence is not a moral preaching about "respecting oneself and others". It talks about cognitive laws - human psychology and behavior, and the underlying code is shared. There is essentially no difference between how you react when you are angry and how others react when they are angry. Your social media anxiety today is essentially the same as the fear ancient people had when facing new technologies.
This is not the chicken soup of "empathy", this is the formula of cognitive efficiency.
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Why is it important?
Most people live in the world with an illusion: Other people are completely different from me.
So we spend our lives studying other people - reading psychology, reading horoscopes, learning faces, and doing user research. But Lu Shi Chunqiu tells you: The most accurate "tool for identifying people" is not to look outside, but to look inward. The most profound "historical wisdom" is not to read ancient books, but to look at the present.
Come, take a look at some amazing examples.
Case 1: When a child lies
A mother discovered that her child had lied. What was the first reaction? "Why is this kid so dishonest?" Then anxiety, education, and punishment begin.
But what if this mother did one thing first - Recalling when she was a child, had she ever told the same lie?
Nine times out of ten, she will discover that she has done it too. Not to do evil, but to avoid punishment, to protect self-esteem, and to make adults happy.
Once she "examines herself", she immediately "knows others" - the child is not a bad child, but a child. She doesn't need a child psychology textbook, she just needs to face her childhood honestly.
In the twenty-five years since I came to Europe, I have seen too many parents get angry with their children, only to realize that I was exactly the same way back then. Anger is not the child's fault, it's the parents' memory that hasn't been opened yet.
Case 2: When the boss complains about his employees
A boss complained: "Today's young people are really unreliable. They are late, resign, and don't work overtime."
But if this boss does one thing first - recall his state of working in his twenties - he may find that he has been late, skipped jobs, and thought, "I won't get into this bad class."
Once he "examines himself", he immediately "knows others" - the young man has not degenerated, but the society has changed, but his needs have not changed. To feel safe, to be respected, to be able to see the future—these needs are exactly the same two thousand years ago as they are today.
The bosses of Italian family businesses know this well. I have been in Europe for 25 years, and I have seen Italian family businesses passed down by three generations. Their secret to retaining employees is not high salary, but the boss himself remembering the feeling of being an apprentice.
Case 3: When history "repeat itself"
During the 2020 epidemic, global social media was awash with panic, conspiracy theories, and information wars. Some people lamented: "How come humans never change?"
"Because this is history," historians say. Rumors, panic, and scapegoating in medieval Europe during the Black Death were exactly the same as today's social media carnival. It’s just that it was horse-drawn carriages that spread rumors back then, and now it’s Wi-Fi.
"You can know the past by observing the present" - you don't need to read the entire history of the European Middle Ages, you just need to observe today honestly. Today’s group psychology is the source code of history.
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This reminds me of the projection effect in psychology
There is a concept in modern psychology called Projection: People tend to "project" their own thoughts, emotions, and motivations onto others. If you think others are stingy, it may be because you are stingy; if you think others are friendly, it may be because you are friendly.
"Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals" says "You can know others by examining yourself", which is completely consistent with this finding - Your judgment of others is essentially a mirror of your self-understanding. The only difference is that it took psychologists two hundred years to conduct experiments to confirm that Lu Buwei's retainer finished the sentence in fourteen words two thousand years ago.
What is even more interesting is the warning of British historian E.H. Carr: He warned historians not to fall into the trap of "Presentism" - not to judge the ancients by today's standards. But "Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals" says that "observing the present can reveal the past" is exactly the opposite of this method: it is not judgment, but understanding.
> I am not judging the ancients by today’s standards, I am using today’s humanity to understand the ancients.
When you see the crowd cheering in the ancient Roman gladiator arena, don't rush to criticize "barbarism" - think about your own excitement when watching a UFC game. Human nature has not changed, only the form has changed.
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How to do it?
1. Every time you feel like judging someone else, ask yourself the question "Am I too?"
"Why is he so lazy?" → "Have I ever had a time when I didn't want to work?"
"Why is she so sensitive?" → "Have I ever been hurt by someone's words?"
"This person is so selfish." → "Have I ever neglected others for my own benefit?"
After coming to Europe for 25 years, I found that the most useful thing at the negotiation table is not words, but honesty. When you can honestly admit that you have the same weakness, your attitude toward the other person changes from "confrontation" to "understanding."
2. When reading history, first find a "corresponding version today"
Reading the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty - what does it correspond to today? Infighting within the company, transfer of power, and the expansion of heroes.
Reading The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – What Does it Correspond to Today? Overexpansion, fiscal deficits, cultural identity crisis.
In the 25 years since I came to Europe, I have watched the rise and fall of the Renaissance in Florence and the cycle of today’s technology entrepreneurship. The patterns are surprisingly similar. It's not a coincidence, it's human nature that hasn't changed.
3. Before doing user research, do "self-research" first
A common mistake product managers make: Spending three months conducting user interviews, but not spending three minutes asking themselves - "If I were this user, what would I choose?"
You don’t need a thousand samples to understand your users. What you need is to be honest with yourself. Because you are one of the users, your responses are a reasonable sample of their responses.
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when?
"If you examine yourself, you can understand others; if you examine the present, you can understand the past." It is not just for scholars. It is a bottom-level thinking that you can use almost every day in your life:
When you can't understand your partner - Don't rush to argue. Ask yourself first: "If I were him or her, how would I feel in this situation?"
When you're interviewing people - don't just look at the resume, ask yourself: "What was the most nervous thing about me when I was interviewing for the first time in my twenties?"
When you read history and feel it's far away - Ask yourself: "Is the core conflict in this period of history still happening in another form today?"
When you are doing product design - Don't rush to send out questionnaires. Ask yourself first: "If I were a user, would I use this feature? When would I give up?"
When you feel that "young people in this class are not good" - Ask yourself: "Did my parents also think that I was not good in this class?"
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Where?
The rule of this sentence is applicable everywhere.
In psychology, the core of Carl Rogers' "person-centered therapy" is that the therapist must first understand himself before he can truly understand the client. It's not a technique, it's an extension of "self-examination".
In history, the best historian is not the one with the best memory, but the one with the strongest observation. From today's political polarization, they can read the logic of internal strife in ancient Greek city-states; from today's social media algorithms, they can read the rules of information dissemination during the Reformation.
In business, Amazon's Jeff Bezos has a famous method: when making major decisions, he will write a "press release" - pretending to be a user and describing the experience of using this product. This is the application of "check oneself" in product design.
In artistic creation, when a writer writes a character, the most advanced skill is not to study others, but to explore oneself. Haruki Murakami said: "Every character I write is a fragment of myself." This is the literary version of "Observe yourself and you will know others."
In Italian family businesses, the secret to three generations of inheritance is not the system, but understanding. I have been in Europe for 25 years, and the bosses of the longest-lived Italian family business I have ever seen can tell you every feeling they had when they were apprentices. It’s not that they forgot where they came from, but they remember it too well. If you remember, you will understand.
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One sentence summary
> What you understand about others is what you understand about yourself.
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Original article by Coach Liu. Please cite source when sharing.