What happen if a shortcut was blocked? 另辟蹊径的小故事 | 月旦评

Above was a part of a route that I will get through every morning to get to office. In fact, it was meant to be a dead end shielded by a plant wall as you can see, it is a sort of a corner garbage collection point. However this corner falls on the straight route between a bus stop and many offices. And yes, this is not the only way for the workers to get attend their work but this is the fastest route.

The red circle has somehow become a 'breakthrough' and this was the shortcut for most of the workers including me. After a couple of months, maybe the traffic has annoyed the operators at garbage center, or this shortcut is not supposed to be allowed, someone blocked it with a pile of obstacles. Will the people now make a detour just because the shortcut was blocked?

No, they make a new shortcut.

The green circle spot was a thinner spot for the plant wall, the cost of passing through that spot is every part of your body will be scratched by the branches and leaves. Uncomfortable experience, but the trespassers also breaking some little branches and leaves at the same time. The thin spot becomes thinner. As more people passing by the gap-to-be weak spot(including me), we have a brand new shortcut within a few weeks.

People are not only lazy to take a further tour, they make a new door for their greater good when the authority closed the other.

This reminds me very much of cryptocurrency resistance by the weak-minded government in closing down exchanges or bank accounts that has something to do with this illegal currency. They close down the path of people cashing out their crypto into fiat, in the hope of deterring people from joining the activity of crypto. Does that make us get rid of crypto?

No, we make a new way out.

We can start trading peer to peer instead of relying on the centralized exchanges. Agent or black market appear just to fill the blank of this demanding market. Or even better, some of us choose to stay in crypto which will eventually speed up the growth of this ground-breaking technology.

If someone blocks the way between you and what you are believing in, the only thing you should do is make your own path to it.

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上图是我每天早上上班的常用途径。图中可以看到这本不该是一条路，而是一个由植物墙围起来作为垃圾处理站的死胡同。但是偏偏这个地点就落在附近主要巴士站和办公室区的直线路径上，虽然不是上班族抵达公司的必经之路，但绝对是省时省力的一条捷径，此为故事背景。

早些时候，红圈中的树墙不知何时出现了一个缺口，然后附近上班的人们很自然的就把这条路变成了主要途径之一。这样过了好几个月，不知道是垃圾站的工人受不了人潮或是这本不是一条正常的路，这个缺口就被人堵上了。那你猜猜，人们是不是就这样放弃捷径而去绕远路？

不会，他们会开创新的缺口。

绿圈所示的缺口本来不是如今这般大，它本来是树墙中比较稀薄的一区，硬生生走过去要付出的代价，就是全身上下都会被树枝树叶抚摸个遍，不太好受。然而总会有想抄捷径的人。第一个人穿越此处时虽然会有点难受，但在过程中却也折断了些许小树枝树叶，稀薄的树墙变得更稀薄了。此后贪方便的人们一来一往，不出几个礼拜，就成了图中的样子，新的捷径就这样出现了。

这让我联想到币圈这阵子所遭遇的抵抗，尤其是来自思想落伍的政府政客们。为了让人们远离非法的加密货币，关闭提供变现通道的交易所为最常见的手段。然而，人们是不是因为这样就会乖乖就范？

不会，他们会用别的方法变现。

时下流行的用户对用户式交易就是去中心化的交易管道之一，随之而来的还有各种代理和黑市崛起，以填补市场上忽然出现的强烈需求。有者更甚，干脆留在币圈里不变现了。这样倒好，政府的阻扰反而加速了加密货币的普及。

所以，要是有人尝试在你和你所信仰的事物之间设立障碍，另辟蹊径是你唯一该做的事情。

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