I was forced to start the second round because I was raised in poverty

Chapter 235 I'm number one in math!
"No matter what the plan is, if one or two out of ten can be completed, that's already extremely good!"

Su Cheng gave Zhang Yangwen many examples.

“The Boston highway project was planned to be completed in 10 years, but it took 20 years.”

"The Sydney Opera House was originally planned to be completed in 6 years, but it took 16 years."

"The online writer plans to finish a day's worth of manuscripts in one or two hours, and at most no more than three hours."

"When we finished the call, it took three or four hours longer than the slowest possible time, totaling six or seven hours."

Examples of such miscalculations abound.

Because we don't know what subjective or objective factors might occur.

That's just how human thinking is; it's always prone to making wrong judgments and estimations.

When planning, the data is 100% rational on paper, but in reality, it is influenced by feelings, emotions, and thoughts.

The same applies to an individual's economic situation.

"If you have time, you can search for file A0098 in the database. It contains detailed investigation statistics and conclusions."

Ye Li had never seen this set of files before. She casually took out her phone and searched for it, and found that it was a set of files from 1998.

The author is currently still employed by the group, serving as the CEO of a financial branch of the Dihao Group.

"I can give you a brief overview of what's inside."

"It means that you think you can spend 1000 yuan this month, but you end up spending 1700 yuan."

"You might be more accurate if you refer to your actual spending of 1640 last month."

"Two years later, he conducted another statistical survey on these respondents, and they still predicted that they would only need to spend 1000 yuan a month."

“If these respondents had the intention to save money and predicted that they would spend less this month, they might have thought that they only needed 800 yuan this month. But in reality, they spent no less, or even more, exceeding the previous average.”

so.

Su Cheng's advice to Zhang Yangwen was: forget about the plan.

The plan is a pile of dog shit.

There will always be various expenses that need to be incurred, eventually causing the plan to collapse.

Be especially wary of credit products like Pinduoduo's "Use Now, Pay Later" and Alipay's Huabei.

Because there is no 'pain' when paying, people are more likely to spend money.

In reality, these people are just postponing this feeling. When the repayment date arrives, they feel heartbroken and continue to spend money the following month, and the cycle repeats itself.

This is why so many e-commerce platforms go to great lengths to get users to enable "use now, pay later".

And you must be extremely wary of things like "small-amount password-free" transactions.

This thing can be traced back to the 90s in Japan and the United States, mainly used for public transportation card payments and high-frequency consumption scenarios such as fast food.

Until 06, EMVCo established a global framework for contactless payment standards, particularly for small transactions, marking a milestone in standardization.

In the business world, this thing is arguably one of the greatest design innovations ever.

But for ordinary consumers, it's a disaster and a nightmare.

Apple Pay set a bad precedent, with e-commerce platforms like Alipay expanding their use of this feature.

The constantly streamlined payment process and optimized payment procedures make it easier for money to flow out of your wallet.

Originally, consumers would have to spend a few minutes or days thinking about whether to buy or not. But because of the simplicity of this process, before their minds have even processed it, their hands have already clicked, and their money has already flowed out.

For people with low incomes, a few dozen yuan can add up to several hundred yuan in a few orders.

"Yes, yes, that's me! I often use Pinduoduo's pay-later service, and before I know it, it deducts two or three hundred yuan from my account." Qin Fen was very excited after hearing Su Cheng's words. "I didn't think I spent that much. After carefully calculating, it really does add up to three or four hundred yuan."

“I think you can try using cash first,” Su Cheng explained, “which is the simplest and easiest method to implement.”

The underlying logic is to do the opposite of this, increasing the steps involved in consumption.

There will be five more steps involved in any future purchases.

First, take out your wallet.

Second, choose between a 100-yuan bill or small change.

Third, hand the money to the cashier.

Fourth, wait for the teller to give you change.

Fifth, put the received change back into your wallet.

People can intuitively feel the physical and mental sensations of banknotes and have a deeper concept of money.

Instead of simply pressing fingerprints or scanning faces, making it easy for money to slip through your fingers.

Zhang Yangwen suddenly understood after listening.

You can really learn a lot from hanging out with Su Cheng!
He silently repeated to himself:

Use cash, use cash, use cash.

No plans, no plans, no plans.

Su Cheng also emphasized to Zhang Yangwen: "You must understand the logic behind this matter."

2 x 2 = 4.

Why does it equal 4?

It can be verified through intuitive physical operation.

It can also be derived using addition, recursive multiplication, or the Peano axioms system, instead of using multiplication tables. If the teacher teaches 2x2=4, then it equals 4.

Su Cheng didn't delve too deeply into this kind of arithmetic problem.

Multiplication tables are also useful; they are something that has been refined.

But if you only know how to extract things, you can't become a mathematician; at most, you can become a math teacher.

The essence of not making a plan is that you can't just focus on the plan.

Using cash essentially increases the steps involved in consumption, makes it more difficult to consume, and limits the frequency of one's own consumption.

Money is naturally saved.

If you make plans just for the sake of making plans, or use cash just for the sake of using cash, then it's meaningless and just creating trouble for yourself.

Frugality is indeed a good thing. Su Cheng is not criticizing frugality; he also likes it.

But the old man instilled in himself the idea that a few drops of water each month, initially not even enough to wet his hands, would eventually be enough to wash his face.

Su Cheng thought this was just making things difficult for no reason. Any normal person would be thinking about how to get more water!
“I understand, Brother Cheng!” Zhang Yangwen nodded solemnly. “Brother Cheng, you must be very good at math.”

"Yes, I've always been good at math since elementary school, consistently ranking first in my class and first in my grade!" Su Cheng began to talk about her math achievements.

Ye Li then cast a disdainful glance at Su Cheng.

She admitted that Su Cheng's initial approach was impressive, but why did it start to get exaggerated later on?

"Don't listen to his bragging, he's just bluffing you."

Seeing that Ye Li was undermining him, Su Cheng quickly winked at Ye Li, "Sister Chestnut, aren't I the top student in the grade?"

"Yes, yes, I'm first in the grade."

"But I heard someone tell me that someone's elementary school only had one class per grade, and there were only twelve students in that class?"

Su Cheng: ???
Mom!
Ye Lizhen exposed his true colors.

Su Cheng had no choice but to shamelessly continue chatting with them.

"So what if there are only 12 people in the class? I'm still number one!"

"Don't underestimate these 12 people. My elementary school classmates have all achieved great things. The talent pool is quite impressive."

Ye Li glanced at Su Cheng with utter disdain.

What's the significance of being number one among 12 students in a primary school in a village?

"Are all 11 of your classmates going to great lengths?"

Su Cheng felt embarrassed after talking for a while and could only tell the truth: "No, there really isn't one."

"Half of them dropped out of junior high school, but two of them got into our county's public high school."

Ye Li gave Su Cheng a thumbs up: "Oh, you're really amazing."

Su Cheng explained the truth about their county to the three of them: "That's right, let me tell you, in our area, being able to get into our county's public high school is already extremely impressive, okay?"

How could Ye Li not understand? She was also from the county, and Su Cheng's statement was indeed correct.

Public high schools are cheaper, but the quality of education is another factor.

Her classmates were actually similar to Su Cheng's classmates, only the ratio was slightly better.

One-third of them went to public high schools, one-third of them got into public high schools through connections, and another third went to private high schools.

A very small number of them either became isolated by classmates at school, got into fights, were bullied to the point of not being able to stay, or dropped out of university because they couldn't stand it anymore.

Zhang Yangwen and Qin Fen couldn't understand what Su Cheng was saying.

They are from a different world than Su Cheng and Ye Li.

But when it came to the college entrance examination, the four of them still had a lot in common.

Ye Li also revealed a secret that she had never told outsiders before.

Just a few days before her college entrance exam, her grandparents suddenly passed away.

"what?"

"Like this?"

Qin Fen and Zhang Yangwen both expressed their sympathy for Ye Li's regret.

"What's there to regret?" Ye Li asked, puzzled.

Qin Fen frowned: "Isn't it a pity that you didn't get to see your grandparents one last time?"

"No, I saw it."

"what?"

The two of them were still confused.

"Sister Li, didn't you only find out after the college entrance exam?"

"No, a few days before the college entrance exam, my parents went directly to my homeroom teacher to ask for leave so I could go back and help with the funeral arrangements."

Qin Fen: ???
Zhang Yangwen: ???

Even Su Cheng was surprised.

Logically speaking, if a relative passes away before an exam, wouldn't the news only be given after the exam?
Because it can greatly affect your state of mind and mood.

The college entrance examination is a major turning point in life, and it may just rewrite your destiny.

If I don't perform well, then I'm doomed.

Zhang Yangwen and Qin Fen couldn't understand the thought process of Ye Li's parents.

But Su Cheng understood.

It certainly looks like something Ye Haijun and Liu Wenhua would do.

Ye Li did not perform well.

However, it wasn't because of the grief over the passing of my grandparents.

Instead, Ye Li had a big fight with her parents.

"It's alright, this is a good thing."

"Good my foot, otherwise I could definitely have gotten into a 985 university."

"It's definitely a good thing. If you had gone to a 985 university, you might not have met us."

Ok……

After thinking about it carefully, Ye Li realized that it made sense.

She feels that her current life is pretty good.

If she had gotten into a top-tier university (like a 985 university), her life trajectory would have been completely different, and she would never have met Su Cheng.

Before we knew it, it was already dark outside.

"go for meal?"

"What do you want to eat? I don't want hot pot anymore."

"McDonald's?"

"go!"

(End of this chapter)