Why is "practical use" the foundation and core of philosophy?

Why

We have passively absorbed many ideas, viewpoints, cultures, and pieces of knowledge since childhood, and most of them came from our family, teachers, friends, colleagues, television, the internet, books, society, and so on.

Through our own practice, we have also come to know a lot of common sense, knowledge, ideas, feelings, etc. Some of them directly entered our brains and bodies, while many others entered our brains and bodies after being explained by our own or others' existing theories.

Whether the things enter our brains and bodies directly or indirectly, as we grow up, the more we experience and the more reality we encounter, the more truths we learn, the more we realize that many of these things are wrong, unsuitable for changing environments, not what we truly want, or have many conditions and limitations.

In our lives, work, and studies, we want to do things better and faster, but influenced by our past thoughts and ways of thinking, we take many detours and waste a lot of time, energy, and resources on things that are meaningless or yield little benefit.

As we experience more setbacks in real life, reflect more deeply on the true nature of reality, and use correct thoughts and ways of thinking more often, we begin to understand which things are wrong and which are right, what we truly need, what has limitations and conditions, what is not suitable for the current environment, and what to do when we encounter the same real-world problems again.

As we ourselves change, we also realize that many people's ideas and ways of thinking have been distorted, and more seriously, solidified. They have become accustomed to it and it is difficult for them to be changed or to change themselves.

In this process, we came to understand the true meaning of "practical use," the true meaning of "reality," how we used it to change ourselves, to rediscover ourselves, others, and the external world, and to redefine many previously familiar words and concepts.

We recognize that only by consistently adhering to and applying the "practical use" principle:

• Only then can we avoid detours, truly understand ourselves, others, and the real world, and effectively handle various matters and relationships in life.

• Only then can we find the right direction and methods, live a grounded and peaceful life, and create truly meaningful things.

• Only then can we learn meaningful knowledge, ideas, viewpoints, principles, truths, etc., and based on these truths that accurately reflect reality, we create, live, transform the environment, and improve ourselves better.

• Only then can we recognize what is wrong and deceptive, and understand that there is no free lunch, no perpetual motion machine, and no shortcut to great rewards without real effort or investment.

What is practical use and reality

The essence and core of practical use is to solve practical problems.

To solve practical problems, we need to understand the real world and take concrete actions.

Practical use is composed of two words.

• Practical

  It represents the real world, actual situation, reality, etc.

• Use

  It means using what's in your mind to act on the real world, through concrete actions or practices, to solve practical problems.

It has two interconnected but opposite aspects or principles:

• From and base on reality
• To and act on reality

What is reality? This concept is crucial, and many people misunderstand it, or only recognize one kind, confuse real reality with the reality in their minds, or fail to recognize the difference between these two.

There are two kinds of reality:

• Objective reality in the real world

• Subjective reality in your mind

Subjective reality is a reflection of objective reality; it's the reality you construct in your mind, simply your perception of the real world.

Why are many of our actions wrong, and why do many of our actions fail to achieve the desired results? A large part of the reason is that the subjective reality in your mind is flawed and fails to accurately reflect objective reality.

Your subjective reality comes from the objective reality you have personally experienced and the subjective realities described to you by others.

Many people mistakenly take the subjective realities described to them by others as the true objective reality. Do you believe what your teacher tells you? Do you believe the world, truths, laws, and theorems described in books?

The subjective reality you experience yourself is direct experience.

The subjective reality described to you by others is indirect experience.

Subjective reality originates from objective reality, but it differs from objective reality and is often erroneous. Some subjective realities are deliberately distorted and misleading. Correctly understanding objective reality is not easy; it requires considerable time for reflection, learning, research, exploration, experimentation, and creation. A completely accurate understanding of all aspects of objective reality is impossible; one can only approach the true objective reality through time and practice.

Whether derived from direct or indirect experience, subjective reality is often or in many situations likely to be wrong, meaning it differs from objective reality. Subjective reality derived from indirect experience, in particular, is highly probable to be incorrect.

Why do ordinary people often feel powerless or frustrated? In short, it is mainly because both your objective reality and subjective reality are poor. In the case of objective reality, you lack money and resources, have a poor family background, lack guidance, and haven't acquired much knowledge. In the case of subjective reality, your thinking is mistaken, distorted, or misled. You believe everything or many things you hear, accepting whatever others say, considering what teachers or books say to be correct, and blindly following orders from superiors. You have unwavering faith in so-called theorems or truths.

Sometimes we need to ask ourselves whether we have truly and consistently understood, adhered to, applied, and used well the "practical use" principle.

How to incorporate the "practical use" principle into the product

Regard the "practical use" principle as the foundation and core of our design principles

You can refer to our design principles.

• Practical

  Solve practical problems quickly, efficiently and effectively

  We primarily follow this principle to create and design our products and the various tools (such as data model and management method, user interface and interaction, data file formats, etc.).

  Not only save and manage data and resources, but more importantly, let these resources provide feedback, truly produce effects (results) and benefits, and truly offer higher value and returns to users.

  Our product is more consistent with the real world and actual situations, so that they can solve users' practical problems faster and better.

Use the "practical use" philosophy to guide the innovation and design of the product

Designing Metaessen involved a lot of choices, such as which technologies to use, which framework or library to choose, what features to implement, which features to prioritize, whether to implement certain features on the front-end or back-end, and how to design the user interface, etc.

How should we make choices or solve these specific problems? Primarily, guided by the "practical use" principle, we solved them based on past experience, specific analysis, and continuous trials and experiments.

In the process of solving these problems, the "practical use" principle was unconsciously integrated into the product. For example, the user interface, the interaction, selected features, the methods to implement features, and the specific problems the product solved.

The product's emergence and design did not arise out of thin air. Similar ideas had been present for many years, along with a wealth of accumulated information and prior attempts. In the past two years or so of creating, designing, and implementing this product, I have incorporated a great deal of my practical experience and created many things along the way.

Help users use the product to solve practical problems

The primary purpose of this product is to help users solve practical problems.

This product has multiple use cases and ways to use, such as collecting and managing bookmarks, saving and managing notes, recording and managing tasks or projects, etc.

We have created a lot of documents, blogs, related resources, videos, etc., to help users.

We will create and share articles showcasing real-world examples of how the product solves practical problems.

We will address and resolve the issues promptly discovered during user using it, and new and useful requirements will be added to the development plan.

We communicate with and assist users through various channels and methods.