Fahd Saleh is a restaurant owner. He is very interested in food and loves his restaurant. It is called Marmar Restaurant and it is in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Everyone enjoys eating his food, but he was not very happy.

After all his customers left his restaurant each day, he looked in his kitchen. There were always a lot of dishes with food on. The customers didn’t eat all their food. Why not? Didn’t they like it? The waiters(服务员) explained that the customers said they liked the food. They left the food because they had ordered too much. The customers were full and couldn’t eat anything else.

Mr. Saleh decided to do something about it. By the next morning, he had written a new sign. He put it on the wall in the restaurant.

The first customers the next day were three men. Before the waiter pointed to the sign, they had ordered four starters(开胃品), some fish, some meat and rice, and two vegetable dishes. After they read the sign, they changed their order. They ordered three starters, followed by some meat, rice and one dish of vegetables. Why did they do that? Here’s the sign.

Thank you for eating in Marmar Restaurant.

We want to wasteless food. So we are asking you to think carefully before you order. Please do not order too much food. From now on, you have to pay extra(额外收费) for food you don’t eat.

A few months later, there was less waste in Marmar Restaurant. Mr. Saleh is very happy. He says,” Customers are thinking before they order. Then they eat what they order.”

Do you have the experience of taking a class online? Today, taking a class online becomes a more and more popular way of learning for not only students but also many other people on work. However taking a class online is quite different from sitting in a classroom. There aren’t usual class time and in-person interactions (互动), so it can be difficult to focus on the material and homework.

Below are useful online success strategies (策略) to use when taking an online course for the first time, or to review even if you’ve taken online courses before.

Making Time

Set a specific (明确的) study time each week, and make this a time that you honor and commit to every week.

Having Your Learning Space

It is very important for taking a class online to have a quiet study space with reliable (可靠的) internet. Maybe this is your home, or a relative’s home. It could be a public space, such as a coffee shop. Whatever it is, make it work for you, and try to put your heart into study. This will be your “classroom”.

Thinking About Your Goals

Develop your study goals. What do you want to get from your course? Maybe you want to improve your study, or learn new skills. Whatever this goal is, write it down ahead of the course and focus on it during your course.

Do Your Work

Complete all of your homework and projects on time.

Start Early

Do not wait until the last minute to complete homework.

Online learning allows you to be responsible for your own success. At last, it is up to you to stay organized, manage your time, ask questions, and complete all coursework on time.

According to a theory (理论) which is called social proof (社会认同) theory, people like to follow the crowd when they are not sure about the direction that they are supposed to take. This means that a large number of people could be following other people without understanding what is right and what is wrong! This lures (引诱) more people into following them and the result is that most of the people move in a certain direction even if it is not right.

A man who wants to be successful always wishes other people to give him some advice, and he usually follows the same path of most people, but the question that this man never asked himself is: are all of those people successful? Of course they are not! If you want to follow a crowd, then follow a successful one. However, in real life you will only find one successful person among hundreds of people, and that is why the crowd makes no sense at all.

Most people act emotionally (冲动地) without thinking in a wise manner or acting in an emotionally clever way. If you always follow other people because they are greater in number than you, then sooner or later you will discover that you are taking emotional decisions which you are likely to regret later.

However, should we never follow the crowd? No. I am not trying to say that you should never follow the crowd, but instead I am just asking you to use your mind well before you make a decision. If you find that other people are right, then there is no problem in following them, but if you do not have confidence in the direction in which they are moving, then do not follow them in a blind way.