What if I gave you a real, bottom-tier student from a social perspective and taught them? Can you still teach them?

He may be full of flaws. He struggles with self-discipline and can’t focus on what you’re saying for more than a minute—your words go in one ear and out the other.

His foundational knowledge is weak. Forget industry jargon—he may not even have a solid grasp of middle school or elementary school material. You have to keep using analogies, turning complex ideas into jokes wrapped in trending topics, soap opera plots, or popular IP references, delivering them like comedic banter so he might catch a sentence or two occasionally.

His mindset is off. He can’t figure out what he has, what he wants, or what he’s willing to give up. His emotions are unstable, and his self-planning is lost. You have to keep inventing simple little tricks that work immediately—things that actually make money—to tease him into growth, slowly nudging him toward insight.

…

Because it’s so hard, you only screen people—you don’t try to educate them. And even those you screen for can be tough to manage.

From birth, you are constantly being filtered.

You got into Tsinghua, so you join the Tsinghua alumni network. Why don’t you bother with your elementary school reunion?

Look around the alumni networks of top schools—are they filled with business owners, investors, celebrities, and experts? Where are the ordinary alumni who spent their lives as engineers?

Have you not noticed that this relentless filtering process is slowly isolating you from the rest of the world?

Maybe your best friend from childhood is sweeping streets today. Maybe you still dream about him at night, but you can’t reach him—your secretary wouldn’t let him see you.

Isn’t that what HR departments do all day long—screening resumes? That’s exactly isolation in action.

As you climb higher, one day everyone around you will be birds—and not just any birds, but eagles, the top of the feathered class. At that point, you’ll mistakenly believe the world is made only of birds and eagles: eagles are excellent, birds are mediocre. But you’re wrong. This world is made of bugs. You simply fought your way out, evolved into an eagle, and now find yourself isolated among fellow eagles.