Learning isn’t studying. Studying matters, but for most of us it’s only a small slice of our lives. If you aren’t a student you might not study at all.
学习不等于温书。温书很重要，但对大多数人来说，它只是我们生活中的一小部分。如果你不是学生，可能根本就不温书。
Learning, however, underpins your entire life:
而学习，是你整个生活的基础。
Relationships. Understanding your partner and knowing how to communicate.
在亲密关系方面，了解你的伴侣，知道如何沟通交流。
Work. A great career comes from being good at rare and valuable skills.
在工作方面，好的职业生涯需要擅长稀缺而有价值的技能。
Health. Not merely what to eat or when to exercise, but learning to stick with it long-term.
在健康方面，也不仅是知道吃什么、何时锻炼，而是学习如何长期坚持。
Your sense of meaning in life. We aren’t born knowing how to live. It’s for each of us to figure out.
在生活的意义感方面，我们不是生下来就知道如何生活，每个人都需要自己摸索。
Given the omnipresence of learning, it makes sense to understand how it works. How can you get better at not just academic topics, but the things you do every day?
既然学习无处不在，那么理解它的工作原理就是合情合理的了。如何才能不仅在学术课题上做得更好，而且在每天都要做的事情上获得长进？
One might counter that even if learning is everywhere, don’t we just learn automatically? The key to getting better is just putting in the work, right?
有人也许会反驳说，即使学习无处不在，我们不就是自动地在学习吗？想要做得更好，关键就是投入时间，对不对？
The idea that ten thousand hours is a “rule” for expertise has always been somewhat silly. First, the research the rule was based on suggested it was only an average, not a fixed amount. Second, the rule implies just getting a lot of hours is the key. In fact, the research showed pretty much the opposite.
所谓投入一万小时才能成为专家的“定律”一直显得有些愚蠢。首先，这个定律所依据的研究表明，一万小时只是一个平均值，而不是固定的；其次，这个定律意味着关键只是投入大量的小时数。事实上，研究表明情况恰恰相反。
More time with a skill doesn’t lead to mastery. Instead, we reach a comfortable level of ability and get stuck. Improvement is the exception, not the rule.
在一项技能上投入更多时间并不一定带来精通。相反，我们达到一个舒适的能力水平，然后就卡住了。提高是例外，而不是定律。
Early research on professional typesetters was one of the first pieces of evidence that led to Anders Ericsson’s formulation of deliberate practice. It was found that many of them plateaued in speed, even after over a decade of experience.
早年关于专业排字工的研究，是让安德斯·埃里克森提出“刻意练习”理论的第一批证据之一。研究发现，尽管有了十多年的经验，许多排字工人的速度也会达到一个平台不再提高。
Maybe they had just hit their limit though? Most tasks have a speed limit, and perhaps the typesetters had reached theirs?
也许他们只不过是达到了自己的极限？大多数任务都有一个速度极限，或许排字工人也只是达到了他们的极限？
Turns out this was false. Given feedback, training and financial incentives, speed improved by as much as 93%. Doing something every day doesn’t guarantee mastery, it only guarantees adequacy.
事实证明这种说法是错误的。通过提供反馈、训练和金钱激励，他们的速度提高了93%之多。每天都做一件事并不能够保证精通，只能保证充分练习。
Ericsson’s insight was that practice had to be deliberate to provoke improvement.
埃里克森的看法是，要引发进步，练习必须是刻意进行的。
His research on violinists found that those who went on to become concert performers didn’t practice more, but the ratio of time spent in this deliberate practice to play was much higher.
他对小提琴家的研究发现，那些后来成为音乐会演奏家的人并不是练得更多，而是演奏中花在刻意练习上的时间比例高得多。
Deliberate practice means overcoming automaticity and new innovations to push performance higher.
刻意练习意味着克服自动行为、产生新的创新，从而推动表现更上一层楼。
The origin of research on deliberate practice came from studies on digit span. Digit span is the ability to remember a string of numbers and repeat them back—one in which most humans are famously limited to 5-9 items.
关于刻意练习最早的研究来自数字记忆广度。数字记忆广度是指记住一串数并将它们重复出来的能力——大多数人都被限制在记忆5-9个数。
Working deliberately, however, one participant managed to boost his digit span from all the way to 82. He did this by creating mnemonic strategies for translating the numbers into running terms (the participant was a serious runner).
然而，通过刻意训练，一位参与者成功地将他的数字记忆广度一下子提高到了82。他的做法是创建记忆策略，把数字转换成跑步术语（这位参与者是一位认真的跑步爱好者）。
How can you truly get a little better every day, instead of spinning your wheels?
如何才能真正做到每天进步一点点，而不是原地踏步？
Here’s five simple suggestions:
以下是五个简单的建议：
Plateaus occur because when our performance is adequate, we make it automatic. This calcifies bad habits and creates a barrier to improvement.
出现平台期是因为，当我们执行足够多次后，就会使动作成为自动的。这固化了坏习惯，而且给提高水平制造了障碍。
Upping the challenge in a new situation, where you’re no longer adequate, is a good way to switch back to the fast part of the learning curve.
在一个你没有足够练习的新情境下提高挑战，是让学习曲线回到快速上升状态的好办法。
Coaching was always a central feature of deliberate practice. While coaches are available for everyone, you can still pay to get access to high-quality instruction and feedback.
教练一直是刻意练习的核心特征。尽管每个人都可以找教练，但你仍然可以付费获得高质量的指导和反馈。
If you’re on a tight budget, informally asking for feedback can often work too. The key is to be the kind of person people want to help. Be proactive and humble, willing to soak up advice.
如果你的预算紧张，非正式地询问反馈通常也能奏效。关键是成为人们想要帮助的那种人。要主动、谦虚、愿意吸收建议。
Improvement comes in two flavors:
改进有两种：
做同样的事情，但是做得更好。
做不同的事情，得到新的结果。
It’s important not to neglect the latter. Without new methods, you can easily get stuck improving something that’s obsolete.
重要的是不要忽视后者。如果没有新的方法，你很容易陷入僵局，一直在试图改进已经过时的东西。
YouTube is an incredible tool here. Learning how to mince garlic properly made cooking easier for me. But it’s the kind of thing I’d never have discovered by experimentation alone.
视频网站（YouTube 等）在此是一个非常棒的工具。学习如何正确地切蒜末让烹饪对我而言变得更容易，但这是我光靠尝试永远也发现不了的事情。
Learning isn’t best in isolation. We’re designed to learn from the experience of others.
孤军奋战不是学习的最好方式。我们天生要从其他人的经验中学习。
As a great example, look at Tetris. When the game first came out, it was played by hundreds of millions. Now, despite having far fewer players, people are much better at it. How? Because they have a community that can share methods and learn from each other.
作为一个很好的例子，看看俄罗斯方块。当这个游戏刚出来的时候，有上亿人在玩。现在，尽管玩家少了很多，但人们的技术却好了很多。怎么做到的？因为他们有一个社区，可以分享方法，互相学习。
The heart of deliberate practice is focused attention on a specific area of improvement. In everyday things, there’s thousands of details that contribute to the outcome. Don’t try to improve everything. Aim at a specific enhancement you could make each time.
刻意练习的核心是把注意力集中在一个特定领域的改进。在日常事务中，有成千上万的细节共同导致了结果。不要试图改进一切，每次瞄准一个你可以改进的具体方面。
Cooking a recipe? What if you got better at dicing the onions?
烹饪一道菜谱？如果你把洋葱切得更好了呢？
Writing an email? Pick one sentence and rewrite it to make it more clear.
写一封邮件？挑一个句子重写，使它变得更清晰。
Lifting weight? What’s one part of the movement you could perfect?
举重？你可以完善哪个部分的动作？
Let’s apply these lessons from deliberate practice to something simple in your life:
让我们把从刻意练习中得到的知识应用到你生活中一些简单的事情上：
1. Pick one thing you do every day. It could be writing an email, folding your clothes or chopping vegetables.
选择一件你每天都会做的事，可以是写一封邮件、叠衣服，或者切菜。
2. Do a Google search for ways you can do it better. See if there are any tutorials from experts.
搜索一下可以做得更好的方法，看看是否有任何专家教程。
3. The next time you do it, focus on doing it a little bit better.
下次再做的时候，集中精力做得更好一点。
4. Share your plan in the comments.
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