Student Question
Hello, Master. I have a question about career transitions and role changes — and about conducting industry analysis. How can one quickly learn new knowledge or skills?
Master Chi’s Response
To understand things broadly and learn quickly, you need to get the following right.
1. Preparation
The prerequisite is that you must build a framework for this new field — in other words, its structure.
Once you have a knowledge structure for the new field, your learning becomes both fast and smooth, because you know exactly where each thing you’re studying fits within that structure.
Think of the structure like a tree. You plant the sapling first, then watch it grow branches and leaves.
That’s how the knowledge structure of a field takes shape. Without it, you’re just picking up fallen leaves at the start — scattered, fragmented pieces of information. You collect a pile of them, and when you actually need to use them, you can’t find anything. And once some external force comes along — say, a gust of wind — those leaves scatter and disappear. Every bit of time and effort you invested is wasted.
So how do you build a knowledge structure for a new field?
2. How to Build a Knowledge Structure in a New Field
First: stand on the shoulders of giants.
Since we’re here to learn, not to invent, we need to know how to draw on what already exists. That’s what standing on the shoulders of giants means. There’s a wealth of material you can reference — books, major works, articles.
For example, there was a member in our community who worked with Xiaohongshu (a Chinese social content platform similar to Instagram). The platform is primarily made up of two types of accounts: individual creators and brands. He wanted to master audience-content matching — essentially, how to align with the Xiaohongshu algorithm — so he laid out a one-week learning plan for himself:
- Understand the Xiaohongshu algorithm
- Content logic: images + written content, design layout and styling
- Operations strategy
- Monetization methods and back-end fulfillment
- Paid promotion approaches
- Gap analysis and filling in the blanks
With that groundwork in place, when his company suddenly threw him into a live project, he delivered well — and the client was very satisfied.
Second: keep asking yourself “why?” and “then what?”
This is highly effective for tackling real-world problems. In the process, you don’t just solve the problem — you build a foundational framework for handling that entire class of problem.
Then there’s using process maps to organize your thinking.
Equally effective for real-world challenges. It shows you what knowledge you need to acquire and how each step in the process works.
For example: if you want to understand how a course goes from concept to bestseller, the process involves these steps:
- Confirm the topic and find the instructor
- Define the course positioning — target audience and core objectives
- Hold the first curriculum co-creation session
- Create an MVP mini-course and run a trial, online or offline
- Write the first complete script and initial slide deck
- Internal review by the course product team
- Invite MVP beta users to trial and give feedback
- Instructor iterates the course based on internal and external feedback; course goes live for sale
- Produce course sales and promotional content
- Prepare course delivery
- Deliver the course online or offline
Follow the process map, and your action plan becomes crystal clear. And with this approach — say, when refining a course — you can also draw on the skills and experience of others around you.