Huawei Xinsheng community released the minutes of talks between president Ren and scientists and experts in the field of system engineering. During the talks, Ren Zhengfei said that the purpose of the "Huang Danian tea house" was to hope that everyone would "talk nonsense" about science and technology, as long as it did not involve social science issues. Every scientist and expert who comes to Huawei will tell you what you are best at. It doesn't matter even if everyone in Huawei doesn't understand it, because it stays in people's hearts. If you knock his brain open, he won't be closed.
If you want to approach our company for research, we would like to thank you, but it is not what we need most. We do specific work and have a short vision. What we need most is the small part we can't see. We need to see "the green hills outside the mountains and the buildings outside the buildings". You see far, and what you say is just what we don't understand. Just tell us. When I was young, I listened to a scientist of computer control system. He said, "computers are used for bus ticket management." I was confused. Computers are digital. How can they be used for ticket management? At that time, there was a question mark in my heart. Later, I realized that it was true. Therefore, we should establish a ten-year or a hundred year hypothesis about social things. Suppose we start to do these things, the scientists we have brought in will be the bases in ten or twenty years. They will not participate in the "pig killing" either. We only require some of them to take part in the "pig killing" battle with "scalpels".
The following is the full text:
1、 Systems engineering is not only a theory, method and practice, but also an open thought and philosophy.
We should use the idea of system engineering to blow up the "walls" in the company, destroy all kinds of "earth fences", open the confinement of ideas, form an open mind, slowly digest and absorb, constantly accumulate organizational capabilities, and better face the future. Now the implementation of the cadre tenure system is a measure to continuously lower the departmental "fence". It is meaningless to concentrate a small number of people on system engineering to solve a problem. Only when tens of millions of people go to system engineering and have the concept of system engineering, can they really play their value. Everyone in our company should learn to model, repeat modeling and repeat modeling. After finishing one thing, we should summarize what has been done well and what has not been done well, and establish a preliminary model; Then use this model to do the second thing. If there is any deviation, come back and repeat the correction. Repeat the correction again and again to build a small model; Several of our teams got through, and several models collided again, using theory to guide practice. If the model becomes larger and the system changes, the competitiveness will be improved by reducing unnecessary energy consumption. In the past, we did not summarize the practice and did not practice the theory. The two were disconnected, which resulted in low efficiency and high cost.
Why should systems engineering be raised to this level? We are gradually leading the world in the field of communication. For example, we have gone deep into the "root" in the optical network. Now our main backbone transmission is 400g. There is no need for electrical relay for transmission over 2000 kilometers away. A single optical fiber can transmit 80 waves of 400g, that is, 32t; In addition, some technologies of 6G have been applied in 5g. In the computing power network, storage network and computing network, the demand for collaboration in all aspects is becoming more and more prominent, and system engineering is more necessary. The era of big computing power has come. We are turning to this big computing power network. We need to understand and participate in the changes of this era. In this era of great computing power, we are converging 5g+ cloud +ai to give full play to the comprehensive competitiveness of cloud, pipe, end and core. We must use scientific methods to dismantle the "fence" under the idea of "small peasant economy", and through the idea of system engineering, let us give up the "small peasant" idea and face the future.
2、 System engineering is a scientific method. Even a screw has system engineering.
Human reproduction and inheritance for thousands of years is a system engineering in itself, and the whole earth is also a natural system engineering. Naturally, they lack competitiveness. Only by optimizing and improving nature can they be competitive.
First, systems engineering should not be monopolized. If only a few experts can do it and only a small number of people can do it, they will fall behind. We should have a "light" on system engineering, and anyone can do system engineering. The "Beidou plan" aims to build an operating system for billions of servers in the future from the top down. The reference path to guide the "mountaineering" to tackle key problems, from 30000 servers to hundreds of thousands of servers... Hundreds of millions of servers are an operating system, allowing experts to practice "nonsense". They just give a path reference to the "mountaineering forces" who attack from bottom to top. Everyone can climb the "high mountain" of system engineering, and everyone can contribute a little, which naturally forms system engineering. Everyone should understand system engineering and how to apply it in his own place.
Second, the industrial Internet is a system engineering. We should do a good job in the cloud base of the industrial Internet. Each industry has its own application platform, such as coal mine, highway, railway, airport, etc. they all have strong personality and industry characteristics. These are system engineering, and we need to work together and make contributions together. These efforts have helped all walks of life gradually move towards the industrial Internet.
Industry should first move towards mechanization, mechanization towards electrification, electrification towards informatization and informatization towards intellectualization. Only then can we have the opportunity to transform China's manufacturing industry into an industrial Internet. Germany is now ahead of us. In this process, it is important for Huawei to make its own contributions, such as optical sensing, optical transmission, 5g connection, and cloud base.
3、 Science is an endless frontier. Don't be eager for quick success.
First, the state attaches importance to theoretical construction, so it is necessary to prevent being eager for quick success and instant benefit. For some pure theoretical scientists who cannot create value in the short term, we should understand them and let them have a decent life, so that the country can have a future. In my opinion, theoretical science is the future "water tower" of our country. The Yellow River and the Yangtze River are mother rivers. Where is mother's milk? In the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, the mother's milk is the snow water of the Himalayas. The Yellow River and the Yangtze River all depend on the snow water of Tibet. More snow in Tibet means that the country will have a bumper harvest next year. The contribution of "climbing the Himalayas" is great. The "farms" and "pastures" in the lower reaches should share some food with the scientists who "climb the snow mountains", so that they cannot starve to death in the "Himalayas".
The "snow mountain climbers" of our company spend more than a billion dollars every year. The cooperation department supports a lot of money to do cutting-edge research in Colleges and universities. In fact, it has no commercial value to us, because the theoretical research is completely open and shared by all mankind. Just because we have more than 100000 engineers with a particularly strong digestion ability, it is possible to give priority to the digestion of these theories. For example, Professor Arikan of Turkey published a mathematical paper more than ten years ago. Two months after publication, we found this paper and made 5g polar code according to his theory. Therefore, theoretical science can be divorced from reality. It does not have to be combined with reality, nor does it have to solve practical problems.
Second, respect intellectuals, respect their inventions and allow them to make mistakes. Thought is a shining light. For example, software is a complex system. It is not only necessary to "pierce the sky" in theory, but also more important to "root" and "root" is more difficult than "pierce the sky". What we can solve is only the information network. The difficulty of software is unimaginable. We should find a way to solve it step by step in 3-5 years or more.
Third, we should attach importance to basic education and allow some differentiated education. The current education system may still be in the era of industrial revolution. The theoretical construction is not enough and is not suitable for the information age. I hope that we can really pay attention to education and allow some "weird" students to grow up. The most important thing for a talented young man in our company is his ability to solve problems, not his overall quality.
4、 "Green hills outside mountains, buildings outside buildings", encourage "nonsense" and freely discuss scientific and technological issues.
The purpose of our "Huang Danian tea house" is to hope that everyone will "talk nonsense" about science and technology, as long as it does not involve social science issues. Every scientist and expert who comes to Huawei will tell you what you are best at. It doesn't matter even if everyone in Huawei doesn't understand it, because it stays in people's hearts. If you knock his brain open, he won't be closed. If you want to approach our company for research, we would like to thank you, but it is not what we need most. We do specific work and have a short vision. What we need most is the small part we can't see. We need to see "the green hills outside the mountains and the buildings outside the buildings". You see far, and what you say is just what we don't understand. Just tell us. When I was young, I listened to a scientist of computer control system. He said, "computers are used for bus ticket management." I was confused. Computers are digital. How can they be used for ticket management? At that time, there was a question mark in my heart. Later, I realized that it was true. Therefore, we should establish a ten-year or a hundred year hypothesis about social things. Suppose we start to do these things, the scientists we have brought in will be the bases in ten or twenty years. They will not participate in the "pig killing" either. We only require some of them to take part in the "pig killing" battle with "scalpels".
"Huang Danian tea house" is an open exchange platform, which can do a good job of internal and external communication, and can connect domestic universities with foreign universities in the future. You scientists and experts do not need to provide computing power by yourself. You can use our cloud platform, including AI algorithms, storage, etc. If you focus on the front end, we can support you on the back-end platform.