Zhang Xiaolong's reading

In the article, Zhang Xiaolong introduced his concern that the WeChat team is getting bigger and bigger, and the introduction of possible "organized" behavior in this process will reduce the overall agility of the team. To this end, Zhang Xiaolong recommended the book "A Brief History of Humanity" to his internal colleagues. This book introduced that in primitive society, due to the lack of language communication tools, the village team could only maintain a maximum of about 150 people. Now, the entire WeChat team has reached 1,500 internal employees. How to maintain the creativity that a "small team" should have? Around this point, Zhang Xiaolong gave his thoughts.
Zhang Xiaolong has always been known as a super product manager. As the creator of WeChat, Zhang Xiaolong is used to getting his understanding of the world and human nature from books. In some public occasions, as well as on the relatively private Fanfou blog, Zhang Xiaolong has repeatedly developed in-depth thinking based on the content of the books he has read. So, besides "A Brief History of Humanity", what other books have Zhang Xiaolong read? What are your thoughts and evaluations on these books?
Weird Behavior,

authored by Dan Ariely, focuses on the economic forces behind some inexplicable behaviors in life. The author uses a light-hearted and humorous way to tell us what is behind these behaviors and how to change them. For this book, Zhang Xiaolong commented:


Dan Ariely used a large number of historical cases and practical experience to prove in "The Science of Weird Behavior" that in many cases, it is not the consumer's willingness to buy that affects the market price, but the market price. Consumer expectations, which in turn influence purchases.
"Steve Jobs Biography"

Zhang Xiaolong is a "fan" of Jobs, this is no secret. So for the only authorized official biography of Steve Jobs, he can't wait to read it for the first time.

According to internal rumors, Zhang Xiaolong will ask his product managers to have a copy of "Jobs Biography". Zhang Xiaolong has shared some thoughts in the process of reading this book on Fanfou many times, such as: (Please ignore the problem of capitalization errors in English words, this is what Zhang Xiaolong wrote)


"Some idiots use very stupid methods. For example, jobs, when he finally decided that the iPhone can't be replaced, he suddenly wondered if the decision was too stupid. But the words have been spoken and cannot be taken back, so he can only use more stupid The only way to justify his decision was to make the iPhone a success. He did it, proving that other people are bigger idiots."


He sees himself as an artist, which fuels his passion for design. enhanced. When designing the original Macintosh in the early 1980s, he repeatedly emphasized that the design should be "more friendly." This concept was at odds with the computer hardware engineers of the time. His solution was to make the front of the Mac a bit like a human face, and he even thinned the plastic strips on the display so it didn't look like a Neanderthal face with thick eyebrows.

After reading "Jobs Biography", Zhang Xiaolong commented on Fanfu: "Jobs tells the story of a colorblind who has been diligently pursuing color throughout his life. Regarding Jobs, Zhang Xiaolong commented,


"Old Joe is a narcissist and a color paranoid. , Shape Paranoid, Glass Paranoid, Grumpy Paranoid, Dylan Paranoid, Shawl Paranoid, Anti-Kitsch Paranoid, Pullover Paranoid, Closed Paranoid. "

The Origin of Women"

Zhang Xiaolong is accustomed to researching products and the human nature behind them, especially the female group. In this regard, he once revealed the user strategy of WeChat products on Fanfou, that is, to attract women to use them first, and then drive them Men use.


"Those "cross-coat" softwares that rank quickly on the appstore, although they are up fast, they also fall down fast. We don't want that, so our strategy is to attract women, let them use them first, and then let them drive men. "

Based on his research on female users, he also cited the description of human evolution in the book "The Origin of Women" on Fanfou.


"There was a time when apes moved from land to long-term beaches to escape the heat due to the heat of the earth, resulting in long hair for babies to hold; babies with great grip; men's hair was useless and bald; body hair was lost to reduce water resistance; the growth of subcutaneous fat; the presence of webs between the thumb and index finger; and most importantly, walking upright for ease of movement in shallow water. "The Origin of Women"

is a prehistory of man from a woman's perspective. History makes a speculative reconstruction, the content is extremely revolutionary and destructive. Zhang Xiaolong highly praised this book. He once recommended this book in a sharing speech within Tencent. He said: "If you don't thoroughly study women's psychology, you will lose half of your users."

"Gender War"

is this An academic book that describes various evolutionary models of biological sexual behavior and the major evolutionary theories of contemporary biology. The animals in the book confide in the doctor about various troubles in sexual life. Answer questions and make the evolutionary biology of sex lively and flexible. Regarding this alternative way of introduction, Zhang Xiaolong commented, "The gender war is very joyful." The book

"Black Swan"

introduces random events in life everywhere, and the same is true in the capital market. People always explain unpredictable events based on their limited life experience and vulnerable beliefs; even professionals who are skilled in calculation cannot guarantee not to be fooled by randomness. In fact, what we should do is to adapt to this unknowable. the future of. Zhang Xiaolong agrees with some of the views in this book.


"The "Black Swan" sums it up very well: people have a natural inductive ability to model complex things. But this also leads to people's cognitive misunderstanding. If you haven't seen a black swan, you think that swans are all white.


" 'Black Swan' showed me how I was being fooled by my experience and my intuition.

" Out of Control and What Technology Wants

Zhang Xiaolong also highly respects the books of KK (Kevin Kelly). On Fanfou, he repeatedly mentioned the views in the two books "Out of Control" and "What Technology Wants". There is even a saying that when Zhang Xiaolong interviews a product manager, he will take reading "Out of Control" as a prerequisite for passing. Zhang Xiaolong once said: "If you do not read this book ("Out of Control"), I think your knowledge is incomplete. He described a group effect from the perspective of biology and sociology. The conclusion is that the IQ of the group is lower than the IQ of the individual."

On Fanfu, Zhang Xiaolong once mentioned:


"KK described in "Out of Control" that if people are locked in a dark room for a day, people will be unable to perceive reality because The world makes my mind wander and go crazy. This makes me fall into contemplation, commonly known as wandering."

"The Selfish Gene"

This is a popular science book on sociology. For this book, Baidu Encyclopedia gave this evaluation: "Dawkins (author)'s breakthrough contribution in "The Selfish Gene" is to put this important part of the social theory based on natural selection in a concise and popular form. This is the first time to introduce it to everyone in a witty language." In order to find this book, Zhang Xiaolong rummaged through Dangdang, but in the end he couldn't find it. After reading this book, Zhang Xiaolong was deeply influenced, so much that he said on Fanfou:


"I think the selfishness of 'The Selfish Gene' is used to analyze the theory of genetic selfishness."


"Ideas are like genes, and there is survival. The idea of ​​value will eventually win the victory of dissemination. This is the point of view on cultural genes in "The Selfish Gene"."

In addition to the above books, Zhang Xiaolong also mentioned the "Evolution: A Life Across 4 Billion Years" that he had read. Records, Shallow: How the Internet Poisoned Our Brains, Outliers, Unfree Companies, and more. However, he also mentioned two books related to Kai-Fu Lee, "The World Is Different Because of Me" and "Weibo Changes Everything". Regarding these two books, he was more of a joke:


"'The World Is Different Because of Me', this boast is too powerful. In the future, my biography will be named like this bird."


"Kaifu actually wrote the book "Weibo Changes Everything". I admire him for writing such a thick book on Weibo."

After reading the above, I think everyone and Lei Feng.com (public account: Lei Feng.com), he was deeply impressed by Zhang Xiaolong’s habit of reading books, but he himself disagreed, as evidenced by the records of his meals:


“Yesterday, a group of colleagues said that I read a lot of books, I am ashamed, and I thought, it’s actually you guys. I can't read two books all year round, and the one I read was bought at the airport." If you don't

read much, you will be disliked.