闭门造车

閉門造車

bìménzàochē

idiom

Meanings

1 to build a cart behind closed doors (idiom)
2 to work in isolation, out of touch with reality

Characters

Examples

做产品不能闭门造车，要多听用户的意见。

Zuò chǎnpǐn bùnéng bìménzàochē, yào duō tīng yònghù de yìjiàn.

You can't build products in a vacuum — listen to users.

他闭门造车写了一年，结果没人感兴趣。

Tā bìménzàochē xiě le yī nián, jiéguǒ méi rén gǎn xìngqù.

He wrote in isolation for a year, and in the end nobody was interested.

Tips

history

From Zhu Xi's 《中庸或问》 quoting an older saying: '闭门造车，出门合辙' — 'build a cart indoors and its wheels still match the ruts outside.' Originally this praised following correct principles; today the phrase is nearly always critical of working divorced from reality.

Stroke Order

闭 bì

门 mén

造 zào

车 chē