“A good book. Sincere recommendation.” — Mo Yan, writer, Nobel Prize laureate in Literature

“Whether exploring the logic behind thought or reflecting on behavioral motivation, the author’s courage and action in pursuing ‘big questions’ are meaningful.” — Ma Huateng, Chairman and CEO of Tencent

“A seriously underrated good book. His highly discerning insights into human nature and weaknesses will offer good inspiration or warning to anyone seeking self-reflection and progress. It rewards repeated reading and can be passed down.” — He Gang, Editor-in-Chief of Caijing, Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Business Review Chinese Edition

“If entrepreneurs and business leaders could see the thinking traps described in this book and change their thought circuits early, their success rate would greatly improve; if young people could understand the book’s refined analysis of ‘making mistakes,’ they would avoid many detours in life.” — Chen Mingzhe, University of Virginia Chair Professor, Lifetime Fellow and Former President of the Academy of Management

“The author proposes effective methods for knowing oneself. Regardless of readers’ professional backgrounds, whether or not they have thought about the questions in the book, they can read it enjoyably and come away with a better understanding of the mysteries of mind and the logic of behavior.” — Fang Fang, Dean of Peking University School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences

★ Dr. Chi Yufeng started from scratch and founded Hongen Education, Perfect World Games, Perfect World Pictures, and Quanzhishi. Their business covers over 100 countries and regions. He distilled human behavioral patterns observed from managing tens of thousands of employees and serving hundreds of millions of users into the core model of this book.
★ Recommended by Mo Yan (Nobel Prize laureate in Literature), Ma Huateng (founder of Tencent), Fan Deng (founder of Fanbook), He Gang (editor-in-chief of Caijing), Chen Mingzhe (former president of the Academy of Management), Fang Fang (dean of Peking University School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences), and others.
★ The book proposes the “All-Cause Model,” using five modules—equilibrium state, negative feedback, experience value list, comparator, and spring person—to analyze the logical chain of most daily behaviors and decisions. 7-level progress ladder × 26 mental gymnastics, for people at different career stages, analyzing common mistakes and providing actionable methods.
★ Life can keep improving; progress means “making fewer mistakes and making correct decisions.”

This series includes 2 books:
“The Panorama of Books: A Map to Happiness, Success, and Wealth”
“The Human Panorama: Spring People, Mental Gymnastics, and Progress”

This book answers a fundamental question: under the same objective conditions, why do people’s cognition, decisions, and growth trajectories differ so vastly? The book argues that the key lies not in the absolute amount of knowledge or effort, but in whether we understand the built-in “programs” and “loopholes” of our own thinking system.

Through years of observation and deep reflection, the author identifies subtle traits in everyone—such as equilibrium state, spring person, comparator, and duckling—and uses them to answer questions about how motivation arises, what the root of failure is, how people can improve, and how values are formed.

The author also creates a methodology for understanding behavioral patterns—the All-Cause Model—which uses only five modules to analyze and explain the vast majority of behaviors and phenomena in life. Once understood, readers can dismantle their own behavior anytime, anywhere, greatly improving the utilization of their abilities and the accuracy of their judgment.

The book further presents the different problems people face at different career stages and their solutions—the 7-level ladder and 26 mental gymnastics—combining self-analysis and reflection with practical, actionable methods for all-round improvement.

In the author’s view, everyone is a sports car, but most people do not understand their own hidden characteristics and therefore do not know how to control it, often driving off the track.

This is not only a successful person’s book of thinking, but also a manual for understanding yourself. Reading it, you will find the opportunity to change yourself and effective methods for success.

Dr. Chi Yufeng
·Practice Professor, Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University
·Course Professor, x-lab, Tsinghua University
·Doctor of Business Administration, Singapore Management University
·Doctor of Business Administration, University of Minnesota
·Bachelor of Chemistry, Tsinghua University
·Founder of Hongen Education, Perfect World Pictures, Perfect World Games, Zongheng Chinese Network, and Quanzhishi
He founded Hongen Education and developed educational software such as Creating the World and Everything Worry-Free; in recent years, he launched apps including Hongen Literacy and Hongen Children’s English, and the animated series Cosmic Guard. He founded Perfect World Games, whose titles such as Perfect World and Zhu Xian are widely acclaimed and have long ranked among China’s top game exports. He founded Perfect World Pictures, which produced award-winning films including The Piano in a Factory and Love Is Not Blind. He founded Quanzhishi (formerly Quanlishi), which uses AI knowledge graphs to present panoramic humanities and social science knowledge.
He has received honors including 2012 China Cultural Industry Person of the Year, 2014 China Internet Person of the Year, 2016 Chinese Economic Person of the Year, and 2019 Internet Economy Person of the Year.

Part I: The Human Panorama

Chapter 1: Deconstructing Thought and Action
Overview of the All-Cause Model
Equilibrium State: To Be or Not to Be
Negative Feedback: The Engine of Thought and Action
Experience Value List: The Basis for Decisions and Actions
Comparator: Igniting Drive or Falling into the Abyss
Spring Person: The Balance Compensation Mechanism in the Mind

Chapter 2: The Thinking Workshop
Induction: "Finding Differences" and "Finding Similarities" — Recognizing Change and Discovering Patterns
Memory: Memory Meadow — Where You Walk Enough, a Path Forms
Compression: Memory Compression — Where Do the Details We Can't Remember Go?
Search: High-Energy Search — Search Patterns for Difficult Problems
Deduction: Pattern Inertia Prediction — Using Patterns to Deduce the Future
Imagination: Information Overlay — The Mind's Sewing Machine
Thinking: Subconscious and Conscious — Unaware and Aware Thinking

Chapter 3: Behavior Boosters
Emotion: The Chemical Factory in the Body — The Essence of Joy, Anger, Sorrow, and Happiness
Happiness: The Happiness Triangle Model — Expectation and Reward
Interest: Interest Fruit — The Sense of Achievement from Doing Well
Desire: Pressure Desire Bank — The Buffer Zone for Imbalance
Security: Interest Fat — Coping with Future Uncertainty
Self-Interest: Self-Interest Tendency — The Underlying Logic of Behavior
Altruism: Self-Interested Altruism — Making the World a Better Place

Chapter 4: Boundaries of Thought and Behavior
Energy Boundary
Information Boundary
Utility Boundary

Part II: Ladder of Progress

Chapter 5: Laying the Foundation: Nature
Instinct Errors — The Lifelong Little Devil
Over-Comparison — Envy Upward, Arrogance Downward
Emotional Loss of Control — Where Do Impulses and Violence Come From?
Infinite Desire — The Evils of Greed and the Happiness of Contentment

Chapter 6: Starting as a Novice: Communication
Hypothesis Information Filling — The Other Person in Your Eyes Is 75% Yourself
One Hundred Percent Misunderstanding — The Need for Confirmation
Interpersonal Communication ABCD — Deconstructing the Entire Communication Process
Fruitless Arguments — Both Sides Have Sufficient Reasons

Chapter 7: Primary Challenge: Concepts
Value Errors — The Need for Conceptual Renewal
Illogical Acceptance — Occupying the Air-Conditioning Cave
Duckling — How Childhood Experiences Shape Life
Pre-concept Judge — Old Concepts Judge New Information
Old Concept Wins — The Battle of Cave Mountain
Unable to Persuade — The Tangled Roots Behind Stubbornness
Multi-Treasure Bean — Embracing New Concepts

Chapter 8: Intermediate Transformation: Change
Change Activation Energy — The Force That Imprisons People and the World
Change Weakness Period — The Necessary Path of Change
Change Inertia — Human Nature Rejects Change
Switchman — Can the Track of Your Life Be Changed?

Chapter 9: Intermediate Leap: Innovation
Innovation Is Not New — Revealing the Essence of Innovation
Ugly Creative Child — Protecting the "Creative Newborn"
Practical Innovation Guide — Becoming an Innovation Expert
Human Innovation Journey — Brilliance Starting from Overlay

Chapter 10: Advanced Stage: The Barrier of Not Knowing
Overlook from the Mountain — The World in the Eyes of Different Levels
Not Knowing What You Don't Know — If You Don't Know Others Have It, You Don't Know You Lack It
Snow Mountain Dilemma — At Heights, Weaknesses Must Appear
Knowing Boundaries — What Is the Key to Success?

Chapter 11: CEO Leap: The Spring Fog
Maintaining Confidence in Judgment — The Resistance to Admitting Mistakes
Expectant Evidence Seeking — Finally Discovering What You Wanted to Find
Memory Modification — Memory Changes for Me
Self-Persuasion — Pre-event Self-Justification, Post-event Finding a Way Out
One-Sided Choice — Self-Interested Choice Under High-Sounding Excuses
Bowl of Rice Justice — Protecting the Bowl in the Name of "Justice"

Chapter 12: Commander Stops: Ultimate Limitation
Self-Check Without Error — The Same Method for Action and Inspection Cannot Detect One's Own Errors

Chapter 13: Comprehensive Progress
Thinking Error Tree — Why People Make Mistakes
Mental Gymnastics — Methods for Rapid Progress
Guiltless Guilt — The Warning for Successful People

Afterword: People and Society
The Purposelessness of the World

Appendix
Image Index
Mental Gymnastics Summary Table
All-Cause Model
References