Xu Guangqi
The Book at the Bottom
When the new things keep changing, find the layer underneath that does not
Matteo Ricci, preface to the Chinese Elements; Xu Guangqi, preface and 'Miscellaneous Remarks'; History of Ming, biography of Xu Guangqi
He picked the driest book on offer. This asks where to start when new things arrive faster than you can learn them.
What actually happened?
In 1606 Xu Guangqi was forty-four, two years past the top civil-service examination and serving at the Hanlin Academy in Beijing. From the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci he could have learned astronomy, calendar-making or firearms, all of them useful at once. He chose a book of points, lines and proofs: Euclid's Elements. He picked the driest book, the one at the bottom of all the others. Ricci explained it aloud, Xu wrote it out in Chinese, and they went through three drafts.
The surface changes, the bottom stays
In his preface Xu called the book the root of all measurement: calendars, surveying, waterworks and machines all draw on it. The applications change every generation. The definitions and proofs underneath had barely moved in nearly two thousand years.
Frameworks turn over every year. The data structures and network protocols underneath have stayed much the same for decades.
At forty-four, from the first definition
As a senior scholar he could simply have memorised ready-made calendar rules. He started from 'A point is that which has no part' and followed each proof in turn. Whoever masters this book, he wrote, can master anything.
Moving into data work, skip the ten tool tutorials and learn the first chapter of statistics properly.
Learn the bottom and the rest holds
In 1629, at sixty-seven, he was put in charge of reforming the calendar, and his writing on water control and farming leans on the same ground. What he learned in his forties served him for the rest of his life.
Someone with solid foundations picks up a new tool in a week.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: New things keep arriving, you chase each one, and each feels out of date as soon as you have learned it.
Ask first: Under all these new things, is there a layer they all rely on that has not changed in years?
Where it goes wrong: Reading it as 'stick to the basics and ignore the new'. Xu learned geometry to use it on calendars, rivers and surveying. The bottom layer is there to catch the new things, not to hide from them.
Lines to keep
The surface changes every year. The book at the bottom does not.
Forty-four, and starting from the first definition.
Learn the bottom layer and new things have somewhere to land.
Same situation, other people are asking
The direction changed and I'm still investing in the old one.How long do I keep giving the old skill one more year?The way I work is proven, and it is quietly going out of date.Something new appears every day and I'm scared of missing it.I can't keep up with the new thing · all 6 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.