The harder you work, the more unfortunate you become — the involution effect.

Let's discuss involution using the most well-known example: One person gets up to watch a movie when you are viewing it. The individuals standing behind him now get up to watch the movie. At this point, the cinema chairs become decorations, and some individuals might be unable to view the film.

While most students must produce 1,000 words for their papers, a small number are expected to provide 10,000 words. This is the exact embodiment. Others must be pressured to submit more words to avoid being deemed ineligible. The paper's word count will eventually rise, but the quality won't always be assured.

This is called involution when employees are forced to work longer hours and harder to stay ahead in a competitive market. Nevertheless, intense rivalry frequently results in inefficiency and resource waste rather than meaningful increases in output. For instance, employees must invest time and energy into several pointless meetings and initiatives to excel in performance reviews.

There has been a clear drop in education. To improve their children's performance in competitive examinations, parents commit large amounts of financial resources and effort into registering their children in cram schools and extracurricular activities. Though students' workloads and stress levels have grown significantly, the general quality of education has not changed very much. Families pay needless costs for this issue, which also affects children's mental and physical health.

Social life is not exempt from evolution. Individuals persistently seek improved homes, vehicles, and consumer items for greater income. This never-ending quest hasn't, however, actually increased happiness. Rather, it has thrust them into a never-ending state of material competitiveness and psychological strain.

The term "involution" was initially applied to small-scale peasant economies like those in Java. The islanders are stuck in a vicious cycle of cultivating the land, earning a living, having children, and then farming the land because there is limited farmed land on the island. Similar to the working conditions in China today, a large number of individuals are compelled to work long hours, approach their jobs with apathy, show little regard for their potential, never move from their existing location, and fall victim to the never-ending cycle of "the harder they work, the more unlucky they become." A deficiency of innovative motivation mostly causes the involution effect.

"Involution" refers to a process where people or organizations continue to put in more time and effort to compete in situations with limited resources and surroundings. Ultimately, this does not result in major benefits and may even worsen overall efficiency. Involution exposes a problem in the social structure and reflects worry and stress individually.

In China, the concept of involution is pervasive in the workplace. Involution can induce tension and anxiety in people, which can result in mental illness and other health issues. Involution is detrimental to society since it lowers overall efficiency, potentially wastes societal resources, and exacerbates unfair competition.

If you work in China and have seen this state of involution as well, you should:

Set clear career goals. Establish short- and long-term goals, be aware of your true desires, and resist the need to follow pointless competition.

Prioritize important tasks. Utilize time management techniques (such as the GTD approach or the four quadrants method) to prioritize high-value work and differentiate between critical and urgent chores.

Master efficient work skills. To increase job efficiency, master time management, project management, and rapid learning techniques.

Rationally allocate working time. Steer clear of lengthy overtime, balance work and life, and ensure you get enough rest.

Improve professional skills. Increase your workplace competitiveness and professional ability with self-study, training, and courses.

Learn soft skills: These skills, including teamwork, communication, emotional intelligence, etc., are equally vital in the job.

Maintain a good relationship with colleagues: create a support network, lend a hand to one another, and lessen needless internal rivalry.

Internal circulation in China is more of a social issue, and individual change is insignificant. As a result, many individuals who do not want to be internally involved will be pulled into the internal circulation wave.

Two major forces influencing internal circulation are competitive pressure and economic pressure. Due to the high cost of living, which includes housing, education, and healthcare, people are always looking for ways to improve their status and income, leading to a never-ending rivalry. In addition to impacting people's quality of life, this economic pressure worsens social inequality.

Students and parents are compelled to devote significant time and energy to academic competition due to China's unequal distribution of educational resources and the pressure of an exam-focused curriculum. The phenomenon of educational internal circulation has its roots in the absence of high-quality educational resources. Students must fight aggressively to access high-quality educational resources, which negatively impacts their mental and physical health and exacerbates social anxiety.

People in Chinese society are continuously caught up in the internal vortex of chasing success due to the one standard of achievement and the overabundance of admiration for competition. Success is limited to material wealth and social standing. Due to this limited definition of success, people continually chase higher pecuniary ambitions, ignoring their interests, satisfaction, and quality of life.

The involution events have exposed various complex and profound problems affecting people's jobs, quality of life, society's sustainability, and the development of civilization. People should prioritize self-reflection, reject the attitude of constant striving and intense competition, and help create a calm and cheerful view of life.