Life is actually more like an extremely complex and constantly changing equation, full of variables: era, environment, family, opportunities, health, cognition, personality, choices, and even luck. And these variables are not simply superimposed, but influence and restrict each other.

But many people always like to understand life as a linear “input-output” relationship, as if as long as they invest something, they will definitely get the corresponding result.

For example, some people think: “As long as you work hard enough, you will definitely succeed.” But they often ignore that success never exists independently of the environment. The same effort, in different eras, different platforms, and different resource conditions, may lead to vastly different final results: some people rise with the wind, while others exhaust their lives in the headwind. Effort is of course important, but it is only one of the variables, not a universal formula that decides everything.

For another example, some people feel: “Make money desperately when you are young, and you can be happy when you are old.” But the problem is, no one can determine in advance that they will definitely reach that “old age” smoothly. Even many times, it is precisely the long-term overdrawing of the body, sacrificing health, and squeezing the spirit when young that ultimately causes the body to collapse first. As a result, before people have time to enjoy the future, they have already lost the ability to move towards the future in advance.

Many times, reality is not a stably running assembly line; it is more like a dynamic system—variables change at any time, conditions can be reset at any time, and formulas that held true in the past may not necessarily hold true in the future. Many seemingly natural life logics are essentially just phased experiences under a certain specific environment, rather than universally applicable truths.

Therefore, what people really need is perhaps not to cling to a certain fixed life formula, but to always retain awe for “variables.” Knowing that life cannot be absolutely controlled, and understanding that many things are not guaranteed to be obtained just because you “worked hard,” or realized just because you “planned well.”

This cognition is not pessimistic; on the contrary, it means that a person begins to truly understand the complexity of reality, and therefore knows better how to balance, exercise moderation, and cherish the present.

And this is what it truly means to understand the four words ‘life is impermanent."