The most rewarding personal activity (1) - What is the most rewarding personal activity

by Mr. Y

To begin with, we must first define "The most rewarding personal activity".

In his best-selling book, The Road to Financial Freedom, Xiaolai Li repeatedly emphasizes the point that without a clear and accurate definition, concepts are essentially "useless" in discussions.

The question, "What is the most rewarding personal activity?" involves two concepts: “rewarding” and “personal activity”. We will start with these two concepts and eventually derive the answer.

I bet the answer will surprise many people.

First, let's clarify that personal activities fall into two categories. Depending on whether one actively mobilizes his/her attention, it can be divided into output type and input type. Output type are activities in which participants actively focus their attention on their body organs to complete something, such as writing, playing football, and playing the piano. In contrast, input type activities mean that a person's attention is drawn to something external, such as reading a novel, watching a live football game, or listening to music.

We can naturally realize that from the perspective of personal growth, output-oriented activities are better than input-oriented activities, and much better. For example, it's impossible to become a muscular man or develop a massive physique simply by getting a massage. For muscles to grow bigger, the brain must drive the muscles to actively contract and perform external work, such as fitness. Although massage can force muscles to deform similarly to what happens during fitness by applying intermittent external pressure, it does not mean that the muscles are trained and sculpted.

For the other concept, whether an activity is “rewarding” should be determined by whether it contributes to personal growth. If an activity enables significant and rapid growth, we can consider it to be a high reward. Obviously, output type activities generally bring higher reward to individuals than input type. If a person consistently participates in output type activities, they will inevitably experience growth in certain skills or abilities. As the 1,000-hour and 10,000-hour laws state, individuals who consistently practice will inevitably become proficient in a particular skill.

The Chinese tale of an oil peddler (a seemingly unremarkable old man who sold the oil on the roadside, known for his skill of pouring oil through a small hole in a copper coin into a gourd without getting the coin wet) symbolizes the saying "practice makes perfect," implying that any skill can be achieved through long-term, extensive practice.

Since any normal person can master any skill through persistent and repetitive training, the next question is, which abilities or skills bring people the greatest rewards? I'm sure every reader has their own priorities.

Some may prioritize physical fitness and desire a strong physique.

However, when it comes to rewards, we know that human physical limits are constrained by human genes, and the extent to which they can be expanded is very limited. For example, no matter how well someone practices health and wellness, they can't live to 200. And no matter how hard someone trains, they can't become as strong and powerful as an adult elephant.

Many people will undoubtedly consider making money the most important thing in this era, and many others may desire good interpersonal relationships.

While these are certainly an extremely important part of our lives, they are not tied to any specific personal activity that can be practiced. The key criterion for clarity in an answer to a real-world question is whether it's actionable, so ideally, it should be an action or a verb.

Looking at the news and media, the hottest field today is AI (Artificial Intelligent), whether it is Chatgpt or drones on the battlefield between Russia and Ukraine. So, computer programming is perhaps the most powerful skill in the world today.

However, wait, from a personal perspective, business marketing may be the activity with the highest rewards. After all, Sam Altman, the owner of ChatGPT, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and numerous other entrepreneurs are all marketing gurus.

On the other hand, self-media has given countless people the opportunity to shine on the public stage, with Trump being the most successful example. From another perspective, Warren Buffett and Elon Musk are also considered media masters, which exponentially amplifies their achievements and abilities in their professional fields.

The fields with the most opportunities and the richest rewards in this era are undoubtedly: AI, marketing, and media. However, a closer look reveals that the underlying skills in all these three fields are essentially the same: language skills.

Developing artificial intelligence requires computer language skills, while using A.I. requires appropriate prompts, which fall under the realm of natural human language. Marketing and media, on the other hand, rely entirely on natural language.

Futurists and scientists have identified the jobs most difficult to be replaced by A.I., and a large portion of them require high emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills. A person skilled in language not only has broader career prospects but also reaps enormous benefits in all aspects of life.

Language is the bond that maintains and develops interpersonal relationships: emotions and feelings need to be expressed and communicated through language, and cooperation and exchange of ideas between people can only be achieved through communication. Today's human beings can hardly live without language for a moment. In his 2010 Chinese bestseller, Treat Time as a Friend, Xiaolai Li advises his readers: "Speaking well is the most useful skill in this era."

Whether you're arguing with customer service, talking to colleagues, or negotiating with a business, good communication is essential. And the ability to communicate effectively not only determines whether a thing goes smoothly or not, success or failure, but sometimes even determines life or death.

Those who frequently visit the doctor will have experienced that for almost every ailment, whether major or minor, different doctors could offer diametrically opposed diagnoses and treatment plans.

This is because the sensations and changes at the site of the lesion can only be conveyed to the doctor through the patient's description. Even with today's advanced medical testing methods and devices, the patient's own description remains a key basis for diagnosis. Whether the patient's condition can be accurately conveyed to the doctor depends not only on whether the patient expresses himself comprehensively and accurately, but also on whether the doctor receives the patient's information comprehensively and accurately.

Even if the patient's accuracy in describing his condition is as high as 90% each time, and assuming that the doctor's accuracy in understanding the patient's description is 95%, then after a back-and-forth communication about the condition, the accuracy rate becomes only 85%. Furthermore, the patient and doctor will likely communicate more than once, and the accuracy of each other's memory of previous conversation will also compromise communication effect.

Every year, so many medical disputes occur around the world that end up in court, or even in tragedy. Misunderstandings caused by language communication must account for a considerable proportion of them.

A century ago, a famous medical accident occurred in China due to poor communication. Liang Qichao, a leading figure in the Hundred Days' Reform in Qing Dynasty, developed kidney disease in his later years and needed to have one kidney removed. However, the surgeon mistakenly removed the healthy lobe, resulting in his death. While the specific details of this famous accident are unknown, it is certain that at least one of the patient and the doctor had severe language impairments.

Language also fundamentally distinguishes humans from other higher species: high-fidelity social learning enabled by "recursive language" drives the "ratchet effect" which in turn fosters large-scale cooperation and the development of external cognitive infrastructure such as writing, mathematics, institutions, and technology.

To put this in plain language, humans possess a language capable of "infinite splicing", such as information containing logical relationships or sequences: "If…then…, Because…therefore…, First A then B, and Don't Do C…".

This allows us to communicate the purpose, steps, key points, and standards of things with exceptional clarity, allowing others to learn it without distortion (this is called high-fidelity social learning). Based on this social learning, humans continue to improve from generation to generation, just like software upgrades-only progress and no regression, this is called the ratchet effect/cumulative cultural evolution.

When knowledge and methods can be replicated and upgraded with high precision, thousands, or even hundreds of millions, of strangers can collaborate to build cities or rockets, centered around shared rules, contracts, currency, and division of labor.

For example, humans began using fire tens of thousands of years ago, using language as a medium and through continuous accumulation of knowledge, they have developed a development chain of "fire-cooking-cultivation-agriculture-science-industry-digitalization", and eventually evolved into today's highly complex discipline system.

Other higher animals, at best, can use fire, but they can't go any further.

And besides humans, no other animal can understand and use virtual concepts, such as norms, contracts, currency, numbers, charts, society, and organizations. Language is the core tool humans use to understand virtual concepts.

There's a saying: "Human civilization is built on the cerebral cortex." This is because all the higher-level mental components that underpin civilization - abstract thinking, symbolic language, long-term planning, rulemaking, technological and artistic creation, and understanding the minds of others - primarily originate in the human cerebral cortex (especially the neocortex). And these higher-level mental abilities are all based on virtual concepts.

Thus, language ability is both the most core human ability and the foundation of human civilization.

However, according to multiple surveys over the past two decades, residents of Western countries have generally experienced a decline in their native language proficiency. I remember watching a street interview video where the host randomly asked Americans about basic English, and one person couldn't answer that the past tense of "go" is "went."

There have been several notable changes in the proficiency of native language residents in Western countries:

First, the average native language proficiency of citizens in many countries has shown a significant downward trend in certain areas, particularly in written expression and in-depth reading, etc.

Second, the differentiation in the individual’s language proficiency becomes greater than in the past. Some people can navigate multiple language environments effectively and flexibly utilize both formal and informal language styles; while others may only be able to communicate at a basic level, lacking the ability to deeply understand others and accurately express themselves.

Third, people are developing and demonstrating stronger multimodal communication skills (text + emoji + voice + image) and self-media expression techniques.

However, one situation that deserves attention is that the general decline in citizens' language skills is probably the root cause of various chaos in Western countries in recent years. Language is humanity's most important tool for thinking. It helps people understand complex logic and engage in deep thought. This widespread decline in language proficiency has led people to increasingly rely on intuition and emotion to determine their views on issues. They either lack the ability to consider the essence of a problem, or become blinded by a single detail, unable to see the larger picture.

The consequence of long-term language deterioration is that people become accustomed to linear and superficial thinking, and become paralyzed when faced with even slightly complex situations, such as long chains of logic, e.g. AàBàCàD (from A, we can deduce B, and then from B, we can deduce C, and then D.).

The extreme environmentalism we see today, the rampant egalitarianism, and the various social problems caused by high welfare can all be seen as the result of the public's oversimplification of a complex world.

Extreme environmentalists simply believe that shutting down all factories will eliminate pollution, ignoring the fact that without modern industry and manufacturing, humanity will revert to the difficult conditions of primitive man, living on raw meat and drinking blood, starving to death.

Equal rights advocates constantly demand that the government give preferential policies to certain ethnic groups, but they fail to see that affirmative action laws violate the natural order of competition, where the fittest survive, and create new kinds of enormous inequality. This disguised "equalization of wealth" will only lead to a decline in competitiveness, waste of resources and a distortion of values, ultimately leading to the collapse of the entire system.

India's current situation illustrates the consequences of affirmative action. Since decades ago, India has produced many outstanding talents in the high-tech field, who occupy all levels of multinational corporations and academic institutions. Indian technical and scientific researchers can be found in almost every corner of the western world. However, India's domestic technological strength stands in stark contrast to the brilliance of Indians abroad, and India's economy has consistently ranked among the world's least developed countries.

The sole life goal of every smart, diligent and academically successful Indian is to go abroad - to study, work, and settle down. This is true for almost all my Indian classmates and colleagues.

The decline in reading and language skills has led to a decline in overall societal cognitive capabilities.

At the same time, a small number of people have exceptional language skills. Elon Musk, Ray Dalio, Steve Jobs, Xiaolai Li and other elites, although in different areas, which one of them is not a Master of Communication, and which one does not have an astonishing amount of reading?

Statistics show that the overall wealth gap in society has been widening in recent years. However, even more serious than the wealth gap, yet overlooked by the public, is the cognitive gap. Statistics showed that more than 70% of today's wealthy people did not inherit their main wealth from their parents. Over 50% of these individuals, such as Musk, Ray Dalio, Steve Jobs, and Xiaolai Li, are self-made.

The cognitive gap is the most profound social crisis today

On a talk show this July (July 2025), Xiaolai Li stated, "The gap between people doesn't stem from wealth, but from cognitive gaps." He also believes that the cognitive gap is the most profound social crisis today and the root cause of global social polarization, the ideological divide, and various conflicts. Therefore, improving language ability is the most profitable way of personal growth in this era, and it is also a redemption that the entire society urgently needs.

So how can one effectively improve one’s language skills? The method is simple and has a long history: it's a single action - reading aloud. Even more effective than reading aloud is reading with your whole heart and soul, such as "reciting", "reading with emotion" and "reading aloud with complete concentration". Reading aloud has been a frequent activity for many outstanding individuals throughout history. Just as fitness exercises the body, reading aloud strengthens the brain. Many great figures have been practitioners and advocates of reading aloud, such as Mahatma Gandhi of India, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the blind and deaf Helen Keller, author of "Three Days to See" and more recently, Steve Jobs.

Coincidentally, corresponding to the general decline in public’s native language proficiency, today people rarely practice the brain-boosting activity of reading aloud. Think about it: how long has it been since you witnessed someone reading aloud in front of you? Or do you know of any friends, relatives, or colleagues who regularly practice reading aloud? I guess many would answer no or don't know.

However, reading aloud has been repeatedly proven to have positive effects on memory, thinking, and mood. French Emperor Napoleon was a military genius with an astonishing memory. In his youth, he was renowned for reading aloud daily from legal codes, history books, and geography books. He could even accurately recall details and map locations from books on the battlefield, providing a basis for military decision-making. He also encouraged his subordinates to study military regulations by reading aloud to enhance their comprehension and memory.

If you desire a successful career, good interpersonal relationships, and a fulfilling life, then read aloud; it is the source of language skills. Just as running is to the body, reading aloud is an excellent mental exercise and a highly rewarding personal activity worth pursuing long-term. It directly improves your language skills and significantly elevates your cognitive level, enabling you to stand out in this era of "large language".

Reading aloud is a personal activity that Teacher Xiaolai Li has repeatedly advocated for and promoted. In the "The most rewarding personal activity" series, I will reprint articles by Xiaolai Li and share my personal reading experience. Through these articles, the extraordinary effect of reading aloud on language ability will be vividly demonstrated and its deep scientific mechanism be revealed.

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© 2025 Mr. Y.

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