Stories like "marking the boat to find a fallen sword" and "waiting by a tree stump for a rabbit" are familiar because they capture a common failure in practice: clinging to old methods, rigid formulas, and habits of thought even after circumstances have changed. In today’s terms, that is fixed thinking and path dependence. At a time when domestic and international conditions are shifting rapidly and new problems keep emerging, deeper reform and high-quality development require the courage to break out of those mental ruts.
A fixed mindset in problem-solving usually grows out of accumulated knowledge, past experience, and established concepts. These can be useful, but they can also harden into reflexes. Once that happens, people fall easily into empiricism or dogmatism, relying too heavily on what worked before and losing the flexibility to explore other possibilities. When thinking becomes trapped in familiar patterns, it can slow problem-solving and hold back development.
From the perspective of dialectical materialism, everything is in motion and change is constant. Human society develops the same way: conditions evolve, tasks change, and undertakings move forward. What was once reasonable may no longer fit the present. Methods that remained effective for years can begin to lose their force. If tasks have been upgraded and circumstances have shifted, but work is still carried out entirely according to old assumptions and old routines, setbacks are almost inevitable. New situations, new missions, and new challenges demand a willingness to rethink how things are done. Only by breaking with fixed patterns of thought can reform be pushed forward in a deeper and more comprehensive way, and only then can social vitality be fully released.
This requires adapting to the times, responding to local realities, and acting in accordance with changing conditions. It means consciously freeing one’s thinking from outdated ideas, outdated practices, and outdated institutional constraints. The goal is to step outside rigid frameworks so that thought matches reality and subjective judgment aligns with objective conditions.
In practice, some places have shown what becomes possible once old habits of thinking are abandoned. At Lugu Lake in Lijiang, Yunnan, the area’s distinctive natural beauty and ancient Mosuo culture drew large numbers of visitors. Yet for a time, tourism development followed a mindset of building around the lake. That approach brought increasingly visible problems: people moved in, the lake receded, and environmental pollution became more serious. After that development logic was reconsidered, the area shifted away from "encircling the lake for development." Ecological relocation was carried out, and projects for intercepting and treating sewage around the lake, along with ecological restoration, were put in place. A new model was explored: sightseeing by the lake, with dining and lodging moved outside the lake area. That helped create a distinctive tourism industry, while ecological gains continued to turn into development dividends.
In the Beian Forest Farm of the Greater Khingan Range in Inner Mongolia, forestry workers also found a different path by rethinking what it meant to rely on the forest. Instead of simply cutting trees, they developed forest tourism and proved that prosperity did not have to depend on logging. These cases show that when the way of thinking changes, the space for development opens up. Clear waters and green mountains are not only natural and ecological assets; they are also social and economic assets. The key lies in the kind of thinking used to put that principle into practice.
Breaking fixed thinking also requires a broader vantage point. Problems cannot be approached only at close range or through the lens of immediate habit; they must also be viewed strategically. Strategic thinking helps people read major trends, grasp direction, plan development, and move work forward with a clearer sense of purpose.
Across China’s vast inland regions, many provinces are neither coastal nor on the border. Such geographic conditions have, to some extent, limited development and also encouraged a certain kind of path dependence. But with the deeper implementation of major regional strategies, coordinated regional development, and major initiatives such as the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in the western region, areas once regarded simply as inland hinterlands can become new frontiers of opening up. Many inland places have broken out of inherited assumptions, moved beyond old dependencies, linked national strategies with their own distinctive industrial strengths, and integrated more deeply into Belt and Road cooperation. In doing so, they have expanded their room for development and released new momentum.
The present moment makes this even more urgent. Both domestic and international conditions continue to evolve, while a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is advancing rapidly. To gain the initiative in development, leading officials must raise their level of strategic awareness, judge the broader situation accurately, plan scientifically, and have the courage to leave behind habitual patterns of thought.
None of this is easy. It is far simpler to speak of breaking fixed thinking than to actually do it. Without a strong grounding in theory, a sufficiently broad base of knowledge, and an expansive field of vision, it is difficult to truly overcome mental inertia and escape path dependence. That is why officials need to keep strengthening their capacity for learning. They need a serious grasp of Marxist theory, especially the Party’s innovative theories for the new era, and a deep understanding of the worldview, methodology, and underlying standpoints, viewpoints, and methods embodied in Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. At the same time, they need familiarity with economics, politics, law, culture, society, ecology, and international affairs, so that the knowledge system required to fulfill their responsibilities becomes more complete. Only with broader horizons and fresher thinking can they truly break out of fixed patterns and respond effectively to a changing world.