Shared in the internal group of the company.
The night before last, I couldn't sleep and watched "The Great Battle" again. After 6 years, there are still lines in it that can touch me. I think we will all encounter them while working at Alibaba, so I want to share them.
"Wei Lihuang said: Do not underestimate the enemy because of the heavy military, do not go against the majority because of individual opinions, do not take rhetoric as inevitable. The president has taken all three of these 'do not' words."
The phrase do not take rhetoric as inevitable in this context resonates with me deeply at Alibaba.
We have many smart people in our company, but everyone has different positions:
If I want you to believe in something or guide you to do something, I will make it sound very reasonable, logically closed, and have a structured sense of hierarchy. I will make it irrefutable. Sometimes, I even use rogue logic by borrowing instructions from higher-ups or misinterpreting policies to strengthen my argument.
However, whether something is possible or not depends on logic.
Whether something has a high probability of happening or has already happened depends on data and reality.
In the world of logic, there are countless possibilities. I describe a possibility to you as inevitability through various language arts, logical abstractions, and the borrowing of power, making it impossible for you to refute.
But being unable to refute it does not mean that you should change what you believe in.
Language and thinking are two different levels of problems. You must have your own thinking and persistence. Don't think that the winning side in a debate is always right. "Hearing the wind as rain" cannot make a good TL.