https://great-work-eta.vercel.app/src/articles/how-to-do-great-work/data.js?v=3

1// Generated from the original inline essay data. Edit this file to add languages or revise article content.
2const article = {
3  "id": "how-to-do-great-work",
4  "slug": "how-to-do-great-work",
5  "template": "cinematic-essay",
6  "title": {
7    "en": "How to Do Great Work"
8  },
9  "author": "Paul Graham",
10  "description": {
11    "en": "An independent reading edition of Paul Graham's essay, with notes, source attribution, and a link to the original."
12  },
13  "source": {
14    "label": "Original essay",
15    "authorLine": "by Paul Graham",
16    "copyright": "Original essay © Paul Graham",
17    "url": "https://paulgraham.com/greatwork.html",
18    "urlLabel": "paulgraham.com/greatwork.html"
19  },
20  "languages": [
21    {
22      "code": "en",
23      "shortLabel": "EN",
24      "label": "English",
25      "menuTitle": "English",
26      "menuDescription": "Original text only",
27      "primary": true
28    },
29    {
30      "code": "zh",
31      "shortLabel": "中",
32      "label": "中文",
33      "menuTitle": "English ＋ 中文",
34      "menuDescription": "Bilingual, line by line"
35    }
36  ],
37  "defaultLanguage": "en",
38  "door": {
39    "ariaLabel": "Reading entrance",
40    "video": "assets/door-entrance-8s-scrub.mp4?v=8s-20260629a",
41    "poster": "assets/door-entrance-8s-poster.jpg",
42    "purpose": "Independent reading edition",
43    "cue": "Enter"
44  },
45  "hero": {
46    "note": "An independent reading edition of Paul Graham's original essay.",
47    "primaryAction": "Start reading",
48    "scrollCue": "Scroll",
49    "originalLinkLabel": "See Paul Graham's original essay"
50  },
51  "footer": {
52    "quote": {
53      "en": "The discoveries are out there, waiting to be made. Why not by you?"
54    },
55    "quoteEmphasis": "Why not by you?",
56    "credit": "An independent learning interface for study, commentary, and close reading. Not affiliated with Paul Graham; chapter titles, translations, and reading tools are added as study aids."
57  },
58  "chapters": [
59    {
60      "n": 1,
61      "title": {
62        "en": "The Shape of the Intersection"
63      },
64      "essence": {
65        "en": "Great work isn't a mystery or just “work hard” — across every field it has a definite, learnable shape."
66      },
67      "words": 88,
68      "ideas": [
69        {
70          "take": {
71            "en": "Across every field, great work has one definite shape"
72          },
73          "quote": {
74            "en": "And one thing this exercise shows is that it does have a definite shape; it's not just a point labelled \"work hard.\""
75          },
76          "paragraphs": [
77            {
78              "text": {
79                "en": "If you collected lists of techniques for doing great work in a lot of different fields, what would the intersection look like? I decided to find out by making it.",
80                "zh": "如果你把许多不同领域里做出杰出成就的方法各收集成一份清单，它们的交集会是什么样子？我决定亲手做一遍，看个究竟。"
81              }
82            },
83            {
84              "text": {
85                "en": "Partly my goal was to create a guide that could be used by someone working in any field. But I was also curious about the shape of the intersection. And one thing this exercise shows is that it does have a definite shape; it's not just a point labelled \"work hard.\"",
86                "zh": "我的目标之一，是写出一份任何领域的人都能用的指南。但我也好奇这个交集到底长什么样。而这件事至少表明，它确实有一个明确的形状；它不只是一个标着\"努力工作\"的点。"
87              }
88            },
89            {
90              "text": {
91                "en": "The following recipe assumes you're very ambitious.",
92                "zh": "下面这套办法，假定你非常有抱负。"
93              }
94            }
95          ],
96          "footnotes": []
97        }
98      ]
99    },
100    {
101      "n": 2,
102      "title": {
103        "en": "What to Work On"
104      },
105      "essence": {
106        "en": "Choose work you have a natural aptitude for and a deep interest in, get to the frontier of it, and great work hides in the gaps you start to notice."
107      },
108      "words": 714,
109      "ideas": [
110        {
111          "take": {
112            "en": "Choose for aptitude and deep interest — then work your way to the frontier"
113          },
114          "quote": {
115            "en": "The way to figure out what to work on is by working."
116          },
117          "paragraphs": [
118            {
119              "text": {
120                "en": "The first step is to decide what to work on. The work you choose needs to have three qualities: it has to be something you have a natural aptitude for, that you have a deep interest in, and that offers scope to do great work.",
121                "zh": "第一步是决定做什么。你选择的工作需

121要具备三个特质：是你有天赋的、是你有浓厚兴趣的、是有空间做出杰出成就的。"
122              }
123            },
124            {
125              "text": {
126                "en": "In practice you don't have to worry much about the third criterion. Ambitious people are if anything already too conservative about it. So all you need to do is find something you have an aptitude for and great interest in. [1]",
127                "zh": "实际操作中，第三个标准你不太需要担心。有抱负的人在这点上往往已经过于保守了。所以你要做的，就是找到一件你有天赋又有浓厚兴趣的事。"
128              }
129            },
130            {
131              "text": {
132                "en": "That sounds straightforward, but it's often quite difficult. When you're young you don't know what you're good at or what different kinds of work are like. Some kinds of work you end up doing may not even exist yet. So while some people know what they want to do at 14, most have to figure it out.",
133                "zh": "这听起来简单，却常常相当困难。年轻时你并不知道自己擅长什么，也不知道各种工作究竟是什么样子。有些你最终会去做的工作，甚至可能现在还不存在。所以，虽然有些人14岁就知道自己想做什么，大多数人还是得慢慢摸索。"
134              }
135            },
136            {
137              "text": {
138                "en": "The way to figure out what to work on is by working. If you're not sure what to work on, guess. But pick something and get going. You'll probably guess wrong some of the time, but that's fine. It's good to know about multiple things; some of the biggest discoveries come from noticing connections between different fields.",
139                "zh": "弄清楚该做什么的办法，就是去做。如果你不确定该做什么，那就猜。但要挑一件事，然后动起来。你有时候大概会猜错，但那没关系。多了解几样东西是好事；有些最重大的发现，正是来自注意到不同领域之间的关联。"
140              }
141            },
142            {
143              "text": {
144                "en": "Develop a habit of working on your own projects. Don't let \"work\" mean something other people tell you to do. If you do manage to do great work one day, it will probably be on a project of your own. It may be within some bigger project, but you'll be driving your part of it.",
145                "zh": "养成做自己项目的习惯。别让\"工作\"变成别人吩咐你去做的事。如果有一天你真的做出了杰出的成就，那多半会是在你自己的项目上。它也许身处某个更大的项目之中，但你会主导属于你的那一部分。"
146              }
147            },
148            {
149              "text": {
150                "en": "What should your projects be? Whatever seems to you excitingly ambitious. As you grow older and your taste in projects evolves, exciting and important will converge. At 7 it may seem excitingly ambitious to build huge things out of Lego, then at 14 to teach yourself calculus, till at 21 you're starting to explore unanswered questions in physics. But always preserve excitingness.",
151                "zh": "你的项目应该是什么？凡是在你看来令人兴奋地有抱负的事。随着年岁渐长、你对项目的品味不断演变，令人兴奋的事和重要的事会逐渐重合。7岁时，用乐高搭起庞大的东西也许显得令人兴奋地有抱负；到14岁，是自学微积分；到21岁，你已经开始探索物理学中尚未解答的问题。但任何时候都要保住那份兴奋感。"
152              }
153            },
154            {
155              "text": {
156                "en": "There's a kind of excited curiosity that's both the engine and the rudder of great work. It will not only drive you, but if you let it have its way, will also show you what to work on.",
157                "zh": "有一种兴奋的好奇心，既是杰出工作的引擎，也是它的舵。它不仅会驱动你，而且只要你任由它发挥，它还会告诉你该做什么。"
158              }
159            },
160            {
161              "text": {
162                "en": "What are you excessively curious about — curious to a degree that would bore most other people? That's what you're looking for.",
163                "zh": "有什么是你过度好奇的——好奇到会让大多数人觉得无聊的程度？

163那就是你要找的东西。"
164              }
165            },
166            {
167              "text": {
168                "en": "Once you've found something you're excessively interested in, the next step is to learn enough about it to get you to one of the frontiers of knowledge. Knowledge expands fractally, and from a distance its edges look smooth, but once you learn enough to get close to one, they turn out to be full of gaps.",
169                "zh": "一旦找到一件你过度感兴趣的事，下一步就是把它学得足够深，深到把你带到知识的某个前沿。知识是以分形方式扩展的，远看它的边缘很平滑，可一旦你学得足够近，就会发现那里满是缝隙。"
170              }
171            },
172            {
173              "text": {
174                "en": "The next step is to notice them. This takes some skill, because your brain wants to ignore such gaps in order to make a simpler model of the world. Many discoveries have come from asking questions about things that everyone else took for granted. [2]",
175                "zh": "下一步是去注意这些缝隙。这需要一点本事，因为你的大脑总想忽略它们，好把世界建成一个更简单的模型。许多发现都来自对人人都视为理所当然之事发问。"
176              }
177            },
178            {
179              "text": {
180                "en": "If the answers seem strange, so much the better. Great work often has a tincture of strangeness. You see this from painting to math. It would be affected to try to manufacture it, but if it appears, embrace it.",
181                "zh": "如果答案显得古怪，那就更好了。杰出的工作往往带着一丝古怪。从绘画到数学，你都能看到这一点。刻意去制造它就成了做作，但如果它自己冒出来，那就拥抱它。"
182              }
183            },
184            {
185              "text": {
186                "en": "Boldly chase outlier ideas, even if other people aren't interested in them — in fact, especially if they aren't. If you're excited about some possibility that everyone else ignores, and you have enough expertise to say precisely what they're all overlooking, that's as good a bet as you'll find. [3]",
187                "zh": "大胆追逐那些异类的想法，哪怕别人对它们毫无兴趣——事实上，恰恰要在别人没兴趣的时候追。如果你为某个人人都忽视的可能性而激动，又有足够的专业能力说清楚他们到底漏看了什么，那就是你能找到的最好的赌注。"
188              }
189            },
190            {
191              "text": {
192                "en": "Four steps: choose a field, learn enough to get to the frontier, notice gaps, explore promising ones. This is how practically everyone who's done great work has done it, from painters to physicists.",
193                "zh": "四个步骤：选定一个领域，学到足以抵达前沿，注意缝隙，探索其中有希望的那些。几乎所有做出杰出成就的人都是这么做的，从画家到物理学家都不例外。"
194              }
195            },
196            {
197              "text": {
198                "en": "Steps two and four will require hard work. It may not be possible to prove that you have to work hard to do great things, but the empirical evidence is on the scale of the evidence for mortality. That's why it's essential to work on something you're deeply interested in. Interest will drive you to work harder than mere diligence ever could.",
199                "zh": "第二步和第四步会需要艰苦的努力。也许无法证明做出伟大的事就一定要努力工作，但这方面的经验证据，分量不亚于人终有一死这件事的证据。这正是为什么必须做一件你深感兴趣的事。兴趣会驱使你比单凭勤勉努力得更狠。"
200              }
201            },
202            {
203              "text": {
204                "en": "The three most powerful motives are curiosity, delight, and the desire to do something impressive. Sometimes they converge, and that combination is the most powerful of all.",
205                "zh": "三种最强大的动机是好奇、喜悦，以及做出令人惊叹之事的渴望。有时它们会汇到一起，而那种组合是最强大的。"
206              }
207            },
208            {
209              "text": {
210                "en": "The big prize is to discover a new fractal bud. You notice a crack in the surface of knowledge, pry it open, and there's a whole world inside.",
211                "zh": "最大的奖赏，是发现一个新的分形芽。你注意到知识表面的一道裂缝，把它撬开，里面竟是一整个世界。"
212              }
213            }
214          ],
215          "footnotes": [
216            {
217              "n": 1,
218              "text": {
219                "en": "I don't think you could give a precise definition of what counts as great work. Doing great work means doing something important so well that you expand people's ideas of what's possible. But there's no threshold for importance. It's a matter of degree, and often hard to judge at the time anyway. So I'd rather people focused on developing their interests rather than worrying about whether they're important or not. Just try to do something amazing, and leave it to future generations to say if you succeeded.",
220                "zh": "我认为没办法给\"伟大的工作\"下一个精确的定义。做出伟大的工作，意味着把某件重要的事做得极好，好到拓宽了人们对\"什么是可能的\"的认知。但重要性并没有一条门槛线，它是程度问题，而且往往在当时也很难判断。所以我宁愿大家专注于培养自己的兴趣，而不是去操心它够不够重要。只管去做一件了不起的事，至于你是否成功，就留给后人去评判吧。"
221              }
222            },
223            {
224              "n": 2,
225              "text": {
226                "en": "A lot of standup comedy is based on noticing anomalies in everyday life. \"Did you ever notice...?\" New ideas come from doing this about nontrivial things. Which may help explain why people's reaction to a new idea is often the first half of laughing: Ha!",
227                "zh": "很多脱口秀都建立在留意日常生活中的反常现象之上。\"你有没有注意到……？\"对那些不那么琐碎的事情这样发问，就会冒出新想法。这或许也能解释，为什么人们对一个新想法的反应常常是\"哈！\"——也就是笑声的前半截。"
228              }
229            },
230            {
231              "n": 3,
232              "text": {
233                "en": "That second qualifier is critical. If you're excited about something most authorities discount, but you can't give a more precise explanation than \"they don't get it,\" then you're starting to drift into the territory of cranks.",
234                "zh": "第二个限定条件至关重要。如果你为某件大多数权威都不看好的事感到兴奋，却又说不出比\"他们没看懂\"更确切的理由，那你就开始滑向民科的地盘了。"
235              }
236            }
237          ]
238        }
239      ]
240    },
241    {
242      "n": 3,
243      "title": {
244        "en": "The Hard Problem of Choosing"
245      },

246      "essence": {
247        "en": "Choosing what to work on is genuinely hard; when unsure, optimize for interestingness and follow curiosity over loyalty."
248      },
249      "words": 953,
250      "ideas": [
251        {
252          "take": {
253            "en": "Choosing is genuinely hard — when unsure, optimize for interestingness"
254          },
255          "quote": {
256            "en": "When in doubt, optimize for interestingness."
257          },
258          "paragraphs": [
259            {
260              "text": {
261                "en": "Let's talk a little more about the complicated business of figuring out what to work on. The main reason it's hard is that you can't tell what most kinds of work are like except by doing them. Which means the four steps overlap: you may have to work at something for years before you know how much you like it or how good you are at it. And in the meantime you're not doing, and thus not learning about, most other kinds of work. So in the worst case you choose late based on very incomplete information. [4]",
262                "zh": "我们再多聊聊\"弄清楚该做什么\"这件麻烦事。它之所以难，主要是因为大多数工作究竟是什么样，你不亲自去做就无从知晓。这意味着那四个步骤是相互重叠的：你可能要在一件事上干上好几年，才知道自己有多喜欢它、又有多擅长它。而与此同时，你没在做、因而也没在了解其余大多数种类的工作。所以最坏的情况是，你迟迟才在极不完整的信息下做出选择。"
263              }
264            },
265            {
266              "text": {
267                "en": "The nature of ambition exacerbates this problem. Ambition comes in two forms, one that precedes interest in the subject and one that grows out of it. Most people who do great work have a mix, and the more you have of the former, the harder it will be to decide what to do.",
268                "zh": "抱负的本质会加剧这个问题。抱负有两种形式，一种先于对该主题的兴趣，另一种则从兴趣中长出来。大多数做出杰出成就的人两者兼有，而你前一种越多，就越难决定该做什么。"
269              }
270            },
271            {
272              "text": {
273                "en": "The educational systems in most countries pretend it's easy. They expect you to commit to a field long before you could know what it's really like. And as a result an ambitious person on an optimal trajectory will often read to the system as an instance of breakage.",
274                "zh": "大多数国家的教育体系都假装这件事很容易。它们指望你在还根本不可能知道某个领域真实样貌之前，就一头扎进去。结果，一个走在最优轨迹上的有抱负之人，在体系眼里往往会被读作一桩故障。"
275              }
276            },
277            {
278              "text": {
279                "en": "It would be better if they at least admitted it — if they admitted that the system not only can't do much to help you figure out what to work on, but is designed on the assumption that you'll somehow magically guess as a teenager. They don't tell you, but I will: when it comes to figuring out what to work on, you're on your own. Some people get lucky and do guess correctly, but the rest will find themselves scrambling diagonally across tracks laid down on the assumption that everyone does.",
280                "zh": "他们要是至少肯承认这一点就好了——承认这个体系不仅帮不了你多少忙去弄清该做什么，而且它的设计本身就建立在一个假设上：你会在青少年时期不知怎么地凭空猜对。他们不会告诉你，但我会：在弄清该做什么这件事上，你只能靠自己。有些人运气好，真就猜对了，其余的人则会发现自己在那些假定人人都会猜对的轨道上斜着乱窜。"
281              }
282            },
283            {
284              "text": {
285                "en": "What should you do if you're young and ambitious but don't know what to work on? What you should not do is drift along passively, assuming the problem will solve itself. You need to take action. But there is no systematic procedure you can follow. When you read biographies of people who've done great work, it's remarkable how much luck is involved. They discover what to work on as a result of a chance meeting, or by reading a book they happen to pick up. So you need to make yourself a big target for luck, and the way to do that is to be curious. Try lots of things, meet lots of people, read lots of books, ask lots of questions. [5]",

286                "zh": "如果你年轻、有抱负，却不知道该做什么，该怎么办？你不该做的，是被动地随波逐流，指望问题自己解决。你需要行动起来。但并没有什么系统的步骤可以照搬。读那些做出杰出成就之人的传记，你会惊讶于其中有多少运气的成分。他们是在一次偶然的相遇中、或在随手翻到的一本书里，发现了自己该做的事。所以你得把自己变成一个让运气容易瞄准的大靶子，而做到这一点的办法就是保持好奇。多尝试，多结识人，多读书，多发问。"
287              }
288            },
289            {
290              "text": {
291                "en": "When in doubt, optimize for interestingness. Fields change as you learn more about them. What mathematicians do, for example, is very different from what you do in high school math classes. So you need to give different types of work a chance to show you what they're like. But a field should become increasingly interesting as you learn more about it. If it doesn't, it's probably not for you.",
292                "zh": "拿不准时，就以\"有趣\"为优先。领域会随着你了解得更多而改变。比方说，数学家所做的事，和你在中学数学课上做的截然不同。所以你得给不同种类的工作一个机会，让它们向你展示自己究竟是什么样。但一个领域，应当随着你了解得越多而越显有趣。如果它没有，那它多半不适合你。"
293              }
294            },
295            {
296              "text": {
297                "en": "Don't worry if you find you're interested in different things than other people. The stranger your tastes in interestingness, the better. Strange tastes are often strong ones, and a strong taste for work means you'll be productive. And you're more likely to find new things if you're looking where few have looked before.",
298                "zh": "如果你发现自己感兴趣的东西和别人不一样，别担心。你对\"有趣\"的口味越古怪越好。古怪的口味往往也是强烈的口味，而对工作有强烈口味意味着你会高产。而且，如果你看的是少有人看过的地方，你更可能发现新东西。"
299              }
300            },
301            {
302              "text": {
303                "en": "One sign that you're suited for some kind of work is when you like even the parts that other people find tedious or frightening.",
304                "zh": "你适合某种工作的一个标志是：连别人觉得乏味或可怕的部分，你都喜欢。"
305              }
306            },
307            {
308              "text": {
309                "en": "But fields aren't people; you don't owe them any loyalty. If in the course of working on one thing you discover another that's more exciting, don't be afraid to switch.",
310                "zh": "但领域不是人；你不欠它们任何忠诚。如果在做一件事的过程中，你发现了另一件更令你兴奋的事，别怕换。"
311              }
312            },
313            {
314              "text": {
315                "en": "If you're making something for people, make sure it's something they actually want. The best way to do this is to make something you yourself want. Write the story you want to read; build the tool you want to use. Since your friends probably have similar interests, this will also get you your initial audience.",
316                "zh": "如果你是在为人们造东西，要确保那是他们真正想要的。做到这一点最好的办法，是造你自己想要的东西。写你自己想读的故事；造你自己想用的工具。既然你的朋友多半和你兴趣相近，这也会顺带给你带来最初的受众。"
317              }
318            },
319            {
320              "text": {
321                "en": "This should follow from the excitingness rule. Obviously the most exciting story to write will be the one you want to read. The reason I mention this case explicitly is that so many people get it wrong. Instead of making what they want, they try to make what some imaginary, more sophisticated audience wants. And once you go down that route, you're lost. [6]",
322                "zh": "这本应是从那条\"兴奋感\"法则里自然推出的。显然，最令你兴奋去写的故事，就是你自己想读的那个。我之所以把这种情况特意点出来，是因为太多人在这里搞错了。他们不去造自己想要的东西，反而去揣摩某个想象中、更老练的受众想要什么。而一旦走上那条路，你就迷失了。"
323              }
324            },
325            {
326              "text": {
327                "en": "There are a lot of forces that will lead you astray when you're trying to figure out what to work on. Pretentiousness, fashion, fear, money, politics, other people's wishes, eminent frauds. But if you stick to what you find genuinely interesting, you'll be proof against all of them. If you're interested, you're not astray.",
328                "zh": "当你试图弄清该做什么时，有许多力量会把你引入歧途。装腔作势、潮流时尚、恐惧、金钱、政治、他人的期望、声名显赫的骗子。但只要你坚守你真正觉得有趣的东西，你就对它们统统免疫。只要你真有兴趣，就不会走偏。"
329              }
330            }
331          ],
332          "footnotes": [
333            {
334              "n": 4,
335              "text": {
336                "en": "Finding something to work on is not simply a matter of finding a match between the current version of you and a list of known problems. You'll often have to coevolve with the problem. That's why it can sometimes be so hard to figure out what to work on. The search space is huge. It's the cartesian product of all possible types of work, both known and yet to be discovered, and all possible future versions of you. There's no way you could search this whole space, so you have to rely on heuristics to generate promising paths through it and hope the best matches will be clustered. Which they will not always be; different types of work have been collected together as much by accidents of history as by the intrinsic similarities between them.",
337                "zh": "找到值得做的事，并不只是把当下版本的你和一份已知问题清单做匹配那么简单。你往往得和问题共同演化。这正是有时

337很难弄清该做什么的原因。搜索空间太大了。它是所有可能的工作类型（已知的和尚待发现的）与所有可能的未来版本的你之间的笛卡尔积。你不可能搜遍整个空间，所以只能依靠一些启发法，去生成一些有希望的路径，并寄望于最好的匹配恰好聚集在一起。但它们未必如此：各类工作被归到一起，往往更多是历史的偶然，而非它们之间真有内在的相似。"
338              }
339            },
340            {
341              "n": 5,
342              "text": {
343                "en": "There are many reasons curious people are more likely to do great work, but one of the more subtle is that, by casting a wide net, they're more likely to find the right thing to work on in the first place.",
344                "zh": "好奇心强的人更可能做出伟大工作，原因有很多，其中比较微妙的一条是：因为他们撒下了一张大网，所以一开始就更可能找到那件对的事去做。"
345              }
346            },
347            {
348              "n": 6,
349              "text": {
350                "en": "It can also be dangerous to make things for an audience you feel is less sophisticated than you, if that causes you to talk down to them. You can make a lot of money doing that, if you do it in a sufficiently cynical way, but it's not the route to great work. Not that anyone using this m.o. would care.",
351                "zh": "如果你为之创作的受众，是你觉得不如自己有品味的人，那这件事也可能很危险——前提是这让你开始居高临下地对他们说话。用足够犬儒的方式这么做，是能赚到不少钱的，但这不是通往伟大工作的路。当然，凡是用这套路数的人，也不会在乎这一点。"
352              }
353            }
354          ]
355        },
356        {
357          "take": {
358            "en": "Follow your interests boldly, right past the obstacles"
359          },
360          "quote": {
361            "en": "The trouble with planning is that it only works for achievements you can describe in advance."
362          },
363          "paragraphs": [
364            {
365              "text": {
366                "en": "Following your interests may sound like a rather passive strategy, but in practice it usually means following them past all sorts of obstacles. You usually have to risk rejection and failure. So it does take a good deal of boldness.",
367                "zh": "追随你的兴趣听上去像是一种相当被动的策略，但实际操作中，它通常意味着追随它们、穿过各种各样的障碍。你往往得冒着被拒绝和失败的风险。所以这确实需要不小的胆量。"
368              }
369            },
370            {
371              "text": {
372                "en": "But while you need boldness, you don't usually need much planning. In most cases the recipe for doing great work is simply: work hard on excitingly ambitious projects, and something good will come of it. Instead of making a plan and then executing it, you just try to preserve certain invariants.",
373                "zh": "但尽管你需要胆量，通常却不需要太多规划。在多数情况下，做出杰出成就的办法很简单：在令人兴奋地有抱负的项目上努力工作，好东西自然会从中诞生。你不是先做计划再去执行，而只是设法守住某些不变量。"
374              }
375            },
376            {
377              "text": {
378                "en": "The trouble with planning is that it only works for achievements you can describe in advance. You can win a gold medal or get rich by deciding to as a child and then tenaciously pursuing that goal, but you can't discover natural selection that way.",
379                "zh": "规划的麻烦在于，它只对那些你能事先描述清楚的成就管用。你可以从小立志要拿金牌或要发财，然后死死咬住那个目标去追，但你没法用这种方式发现自然选择。"
380              }
381            },
382            {
383              "text": {
384                "en": "I think for most people who want to do great work, the right strategy is not to plan too much. At each stage do whatever seems most interesting and gives you the best options for the future. I call this approach \"staying upwind.\" This is how most people who've done great work seem to have done it.",
385                "zh": "我认为，对大多数想做出杰出成就的人来说，正确的策略是别规划太多。

385在每个阶段，做那件看上去最有趣、又能为将来留下最多选择的事。我把这套办法叫做\"守住上风\"。大多数做出杰出成就的人，似乎都是这么做的。"
386              }
387            }
388          ],
389          "footnotes": []
390        }
391      ]
392    },
393    {
394      "n": 4,
395      "title": {
396        "en": "How to Work"
397      },
398      "essence": {
399        "en": "Working on it is a skill of its own: work hard but sustainably, beat project-sized procrastination, and let effort compound."
400      },
401      "words": 1147,
402      "ideas": [
403        {
404          "take": {
405            "en": "Working hard is its own skill — and starting is the hardest part"
406          },
407          "quote": {
408            "en": "It will probably be harder to start working than to keep working."
409          },
410          "paragraphs": [
411            {
412              "text": {
413                "en": "Even when you've found something exciting to work on, working on it is not always straightforward. There will be times when some new idea makes you leap out of bed in the morning and get straight to work. But there will also be plenty of times when things aren't like that.",
414                "zh": "即便你找到了一件令人兴奋的事去做，做起来也并不总是一帆风顺。有时，某个新念头会让你早晨一跃而起、立刻开工。但也会有许多时候，事情根本不是那样。"
415              }
416            },
417            {
418              "text": {
419                "en": "You don't just put out your sail and get blown forward by inspiration. There are headwinds and currents and hidden shoals. So there's a technique to working, just as there is to sailing.",
420                "zh": "你不是把帆一张，灵感就把你吹着往前走。还有逆风、有暗流、有看不见的浅滩。所以工作是有技巧的，正如航行有技巧一样。"
421              }
422            },
423            {
424              "text": {
425                "en": "For example, while you must work hard, it's possible to work too hard, and if you do that you'll find you get diminishing returns: fatigue will make you stupid, and eventually even damage your health. The point at which work yields diminishing returns depends on the type. Some of the hardest types you might only be able to do for four or five hours a day.",
426                "zh": "举例来说，你固然必须努力工作，但也可能努力过头，而一旦如此，你会发现回报递减：疲劳会让你变笨，最终甚至损害你的健康。工作开始回报递减的那个临界点，取决于工作的种类。有些最艰难的种类，你也许一天只能做四五个小时。"
427              }
428            },
429            {
430              "text": {
431                "en": "Ideally those hours will be contiguous. To the extent you can, try to arrange your life so you have big blocks of time to work in. You'll shy away from hard tasks if you know you might be interrupted.",
432                "zh": "理想情况下，那几个小时是连成一片的。在你力所能及的范围内，尽量把生活安排得让自己有大块的时间可以工作。如果你知道自己可能随时被打断，你就会对艰难的任务望而却步。"
433              }
434            },
435            {
436              "text": {
437                "en": "It will probably be harder to start working than to keep working. You'll often have to trick yourself to get over that initial threshold. Don't worry about this; it's the nature of work, not a flaw in your character. Work has a sort of activation energy, both per day and per project. And since this threshold is fake in the sense that it's higher than the energy required to keep going, it's ok to tell yourself a lie of corresponding magnitude to get over it.",
438                "zh": "起步去工作，大概比保持工作更难。你常常得骗自己一把，才能跨过那道最初的门槛。别为此烦恼；这是工作的本性，不是你性格的缺陷。工作有一种激活能，每天有，每个项目也有。而既然这道门槛是\"假\"的——意思是它比维持下去所需的能量要高——那么为了跨过它，对自己撒一个相应分量的谎也无妨。"
439              }
440            },
441            {
442              "text": {
443                "en": "It's usually a mistake to lie to yourself if you want to do great work, but this is one of the rare cases where it isn't. When I'm reluctant to start work in the morning, I often trick myself by saying \"I'll just read over what I've got so far.\" Five minutes later I've found something that seems mistaken or incomplete, and I'm off.",

444                "zh": "如果你想做出杰出的成就，骗自己通常是个错误，但这是少数几个例外之一。早上不太想开工时，我常这样骗自己：\"我就把已经写好的部分读一遍。\"五分钟后，我便发现某处似乎有误或不完整，于是就动起来了。"
445              }
446            },
447            {
448              "text": {
449                "en": "Similar techniques work for starting new projects. It's ok to lie to yourself about how much work a project will entail, for example. Lots of great things began with someone saying \"How hard could it be?\"",
450                "zh": "类似的技巧也适用于开启新项目。比方说，对一个项目要花多少工夫，骗骗自己也无妨。许多伟大的事，都始于某人说一句\"这能有多难？\""
451              }
452            },
453            {
454              "text": {
455                "en": "This is one case where the young have an advantage. They're more optimistic, and even though one of the sources of their optimism is ignorance, in this case ignorance can sometimes beat knowledge.",
456                "zh": "这是年轻人占优的一种情形。他们更乐观，而尽管乐观的来源之一是无知，但在这种情形里，无知有时反而能胜过知识。"
457              }
458            },
459            {
460              "text": {
461                "en": "Try to finish what you start, though, even if it turns out to be more work than you expected. Finishing things is not just an exercise in tidiness or self-discipline. In many projects a lot of the best work happens in what was meant to be the final stage.",
462                "zh": "不过，你开了头的事，要尽量做完，哪怕它最后比你预想的要费更多工夫。把事情做完，并不只是整洁或自律的一种练习。在许多项目里，许多最精彩的工作，恰恰发生在本以为是收尾的那个阶段。"
463              }
464            },
465            {
466              "text": {
467                "en": "Another permissible lie is to exaggerate the importance of what you're working on, at least in y

467our own mind. If that helps you discover something new, it may turn out not to have been a lie after all. [7]",
468                "zh": "另一个可以接受的谎言，是夸大你手头工作的重要性，至少在你自己心里这么做。如果这能帮你发现新东西，那它到头来也许根本就不是谎言。"
469              }
470            }
471          ],
472          "footnotes": [
473            {
474              "n": 7,
475              "text": {
476                "en": "This idea I learned from Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology, which I recommend to anyone ambitious to do great work, in any field.",
477                "zh": "这个想法我是从哈代的《一个数学家的辩白》里学到的。这本书我推荐给任何怀有雄心、想在任何领域做出伟大工作的人。"
478              }
479            }
480          ]
481        },
482        {
483          "take": {
484            "en": "Beware the procrastination measured in years, not hours"
485          },
486          "quote": {
487            "en": "When you're procrastinating in units of years, you can get a lot not done."
488          },
489          "paragraphs": [
490            {
491              "text": {
492                "en": "Since there are two senses of starting work — per day and per project — there are also two forms of procrastination. Per-project procrastination is far the more dangerous. You put off starting that ambitious project from year to year because the time isn't quite right. When you're procrastinating in units of years, you can get a lot not done. [8]",
493                "zh": "既然“开始工作”有两层意思——每天的开始和每个项目的开始——那么拖延也就有两种形式。论项目而拖延要危险得多。你年复一年地把那个雄心勃勃的项目往后推，因为时机总不太对。当你以年为单位拖延的时候，能耽误掉的事可不少。"
494              }
495            },
496            {
497              "text": {
498                "en": "One reason per-project procrastination is so dangerous is that it usually camouflages itself as work. You're not just sitting around doing nothing; you're working industriously on something else. So per-project procrastination doesn't set off the alarms that per-day procrastination does. You're too busy to notice it.",
499                "zh": "论项目的拖延之所以这么危险，原因之一是它通常把自己伪装成工作。你并不是闲坐着无所事事；你正勤勤恳恳地忙着别的事情。所以论项目的拖延不会像论每天的拖延那样拉响警报。你忙得没工夫察觉它。"
500              }
501            },
502            {
503              "text": {
504                "en": "The way to beat it is to stop occasionally and ask yourself: Am I working on what I most want to work on? When you're young it's ok if the answer is sometimes no, but this gets increasingly dangerous as you get older. [9]",
505                "zh": "对付它的办法是时不时停下来问自己：我正在做的，是不是我最想做的事？年轻时如果答案偶尔是“不是”，那没关系，但随着年纪渐长，这会变得越来越危险。"
506              }
507            }
508          ],
509          "footnotes": [
510            {
511              "n": 8,
512              "text": {
513                "en": "Just as we overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do over several years, we overestimate the damage done by procrastinating for a day and underestimate the damage done by procrastinating for several years.",
514                "zh": "正如我们高估自己一天能做成的事、低估自己几年里能做成的事一样，我们也高估了拖延一天造成的损失、低估了拖延几年造成的损失。"
515              }
516            },
517            {
518              "n": 9,
519              "text": {
520                "en": "You can't usually get paid for doing exactly what you want, especially early on. There are two options: get paid for doing work close to what you want and hope to push it closer, or get paid for doing something else entirely and do your own projects on the side. Both can work, but both have drawbacks: in the first approach your work is compromised by default, and in the second you have to fight to get time to do it.",
521                "zh": "你通常没法靠做你最想做的事来挣钱，尤其是在早期。有两个选择：要么做一份接近你想做的事的工作来挣钱，盼着能把它往你想要的方向推；要么靠做完全不相干的事来挣钱，业余时间再做自己的项目。两条路都行得通，但都有缺陷：第一条路里，你的工作天然就被打了折扣；第二条路里，你得拼命

521去争取时间来做它。"
522              }
523            }
524          ]
525        },
526        {
527          "take": {
528            "en": "Great work takes unreasonable time — and it compounds"
529          },
530          "quote": {
531            "en": "People who do great things don't get a lot done every day. They get something done, rather than nothing."
532          },
533          "paragraphs": [
534            {
535              "text": {
536                "en": "Great work usually entails spending what would seem to most people an unreasonable amount of time on a problem. You can't think of this time as a cost, or it will seem too high. You have to find the work sufficiently engaging as it's happening.",
537                "zh": "伟大的工作通常意味着在一个问题上花掉在大多数人看来不合情理的时间。你不能把这段时间看成一种代价，否则它会显得太高。你得在做的过程中就觉得这件事足够引人入胜才行。"
538              }
539            },
540            {
541              "text": {
542                "en": "There may be some jobs where you have to work diligently for years at things you hate before you get to the good part, but this is not how great work happens. Great work happens by focusing consistently on something you're genuinely interested in. When you pause to take stock, you're surprised how far you've come.",
543                "zh": "也许有些活儿，你得在自己厌恶的事情上勤勤恳恳干上好几年，才能熬到精彩的部分，但伟大的工作不是这样发生的。伟大的工作，靠的是持续专注在你真正感兴趣的事情上。当你停下来盘点一下，会惊讶自己已经走了这么远。"
544              }
545            },
546            {
547              "text": {
548                "en": "The reason we're surprised is that we underestimate the cumulative effect of work. Writing a page a day doesn't sound like much, but if you do it every day you'll write a book a year. That's the key: consistency. People who do great things don't get a lot done every day. They get something done, rather than nothing.",
549                "zh": "我们之所以惊讶，是因为我们低估了工作的累积效应。一天写一页听上去不算什么，但要是你天天写，一年就能写出一本书。这就是关键：持之以恒。做出伟大成就的人，并非每天都干得很多。他们是干了点什么，而不是什么都没干。"
550              }
551            },
552            {
553              "text": {
554                "en": "If you do work that compounds, you'll get exponential growth. Most people who do this do it unconsciously, but it's worth stopping to think about. Learning, for example, is an instance of this phenomenon: the more you learn about something, the easier it is to learn more. Growing an audience is another: the more fans you have, the more new fans they'll bring you.",
555                "zh": "如果你做的是能产生复利的工作，就会得到指数式的增长。大多数这么做的人是无意识地在做，但值得停下来想一想。学习就是这种现象的一个例子：你对某样东西了解得越多，就越容易学到更多。培养受众也是：你的粉丝越多，他们带给你的新粉丝就越多。"
556              }
557            },
558            {
559              "text": {
560                "en": "The trouble with exponential growth is that the curve feels flat in the beginning. It isn't; it's still a wonderful exponential curve. But we can't grasp that intuitively, so we underrate exponential growth in its early stages.",
561                "zh": "指数增长的麻烦在于，那条曲线在一开始感觉是平的。其实它并不平；它依然是一条美妙的指数曲线。但我们没法凭直觉把握这一点，所以在指数增长的早期阶段，我们会低估它。"
562              }
563            },
564            {
565              "text": {
566                "en": "Something that grows exponentially can become so valuable that it's worth making an extraordinary effort to get it started. But since we underrate exponential growth early on, this too is mostly done unconsciously: people push through the initial, unrewarding phase of learning something new because they know from experience that learning new things always takes an initial push, or they grow their audience one fan at a time because they have nothing better to do. If people consciously realized they could invest in exponential growth, many more would do it.",
567                "zh": "某样东西若能指数式增长，它最终可能变得极其有价值，值得你为让它起步而下一番非凡的功夫。但既然我们在早期会低估指数增长，这件事也大多是无意识地在做：人们硬撑过学习新东西那段初期没什么回报的阶段，是因为他们凭经验知道，学新东西总是需要一开始推一把；或者他们一个一个地积累粉丝，是因为反正也没更好的事可做。要是人们能有意识地意识到自己可以投资于指数增长，会有多得多的人去这么做。"
568              }
569            }
570          ],
571          "footnotes": []
572        },
573        {
574          "take": {
575            "en": "Let your mind wander — and protect your idle hours too"
576          },
577          "quote": {
578            "en": "There's a kind of undirected thinking you do when walking or taking a shower or lying in bed that can be very powerful."
579          },
580          "paragraphs": [
581            {
582              "text": {
583                "en": "Work doesn't just happen when you're trying to. There's a kind of undirected thinking you do when walking or taking a shower or lying in bed that can be very powerful. By letting your mind wander a little, you'll often solve problems you were unable to solve by frontal attack.",
584                "zh": "工作并不只在你刻意去做的时候才发生。你在散步、洗澡或躺在床上时所做的那种没有方向的思考，可以非

584常有威力。让你的思绪稍微游荡一下，往往能解开那些你正面强攻时解不开的难题。"
585              }
586            },
587            {
588              "text": {
589                "en": "You have to be working hard in the normal way to benefit from this phenomenon, though. You can't just walk around daydreaming. The daydreaming has to be interleaved with deliberate work that feeds it questions. [10]",
590                "zh": "不过，你得先按常规方式努力工作，才能从这种现象中得益。你不能光是四处晃悠做白日梦。这种神游必须与刻意的工作交替进行，由后者给它喂去问题。"
591              }
592            },
593            {
594              "text": {
595                "en": "Everyone knows to avoid distractions at work, but it's also important to avoid them in the other half of the cycle. When you let your mind wander, it wanders to whatever you care about most at that moment. So avoid the kind of distraction that pushes your work out of the top spot, or you'll waste this valuable type of thinking on the distraction instead. (Exception: Don't avoid love.)",
596                "zh": "人人都知道工作时要避开干扰，但在这个循环的另一半里，避开干扰同样重要。当你让思绪游荡时，它会游向那一刻你最在意的东西。所以要避开那种会把你的工作从首位挤下去的干扰，否则你就会把这种宝贵的思考浪费在那个干扰上。（例外：别躲开爱情。）"
597              }
598            }
599          ],
600          "footnotes": [
601            {
602              "n": 10,
603              "text": {
604                "en": "If you set your life up right, it will deliver the focus-relax cycle automatically. The perfect setup is an office you work in and that you walk to and from.",
605                "zh": "如果你把生活安排得当，它就会自动给你提供\"专注—放松\"的循环。最理想的安排，是有一间你去工作、并且步行往返的办公室。"
606              }
607            }
608          ]
609        }
610      ]
611    },
612    {
613      "n": 5,
614      "title": {
615        "en": "Taste & Earnestness"
616      },
617      "essence": {
618        "en": "Build a discerning taste and aim to be genuinely good; then drop affectation and be earnest — honest and unselfconscious."
619      },
620      "words": 886,
621      "ideas": [
622        {
623          "take": {
624            "en": "Cultivate your taste, then aim to be genuinely good"
625          },
626          "quote": {
627            "en": "if you don't try to be the best, you won't even be good."
628          },
629          "paragraphs": [
630            {
631              "text": {
632                "en": "Consciously cultivate your taste in the work done in your field. Until you know 

632which is the best and what makes it so, you don't know what you're aiming for.",
633                "zh": "有意识地培养你对本领域内作品的鉴赏力。在你弄清楚哪一个最好、它好在哪里之前，你并不知道自己要瞄准的是什么。"
634              }
635            },
636            {
637              "text": {
638                "en": "And that is what you're aiming for, because if you don't try to be the best, you won't even be good. This observation has been made by so many people in so many different fields that it might be worth thinking about why it's true. It could be because ambition is a phenomenon where almost all the error is in one direction — where almost all the shells that miss the target miss by falling short. Or it could be because ambition to be the best is a qualitatively different thing from ambition to be good. Or maybe being good is simply too vague a standard. Probably all three are true. [11]",
639                "zh": "而那正是你要瞄准的，因为如果你不努力去做到最好，你连好都做不到。这个观察被那么多领域里的那么多人提过，也许值得想一想它为什么是对的。可能是因为，雄心是一种几乎所有误差都偏向同一个方向的现象——几乎所有打偏的炮弹，都是因为没打够远而落空。也可能是因为，立志做到最好和立志做到好，在性质上是两回事。又或许，“好”这个标准本身就太含糊了。三种原因大概都对。"
640              }
641            },
642            {
643              "text": {
644                "en": "Fortunately there's a kind of economy of scale here. Though it might seem like you'd be taking on a heavy burden by trying to be the best, in practice you often end up net ahead. It's exciting, and also strangely liberating. It simplifies things. In some ways it's easier to try to be the best than to try merely to be good.",
645                "zh": "幸运的是，这里存在一种规模经济。虽然看上去，努力去做到最好像是给自己背上了沉重的负担，但实际上你往往会净赚。这令人兴奋，也奇妙地让人解脱。它把事情简化了。在某些方面，努力去做到最好反倒比只想做到好更容易。"
646              }
647            },
648            {
649              "text": {
650                "en": "One way to aim high is to try to make something that people will care about in a hundred years. Not because their opinions matter more than your contemporaries', but because something that still seems good in a hundred years is more likely to be genuinely good.",
651                "zh": "把目标定高的一个办法，是试着去做一件一百年后人们仍会在意的东西。这不是因为他们的看法比你同时代人的更重要，而是因为一件一百年后看上去依然不错的东西，更有可能是真正的好东西。"
652              }
653            }
654          ],
655          "footnotes": [
656            {
657              "n": 11,
658              "text": {
659                "en": "There may be some very unworldly people who do great work without consciously trying to. If you want to expand this rule to cover that case, it becomes: Don't try to be anything except the best.",
660                "zh": "也许有些极不通世故的人，没有刻意追求就做出了伟大的工作。如果你想把这条规则也涵盖进这种情况，它就变成了：除了成为最好的，别想成为任何其他的样子。"
661              }
662            }
663          ]
664        },
665        {
666          "take": {
667            "en": "Don't chase a style — it emerges on its own"
668          },
669          "quote": {
670            "en": "Style is doing things in a distinctive way without trying to."
671          },
672          "paragraphs": [
673            {
674              "text": {
675                "en": "Don't try to work in a distinctive style. Just try to do the best job you can; you won't be able to help doing it in a distinctive way.",
676                "zh": "别刻意去追求一种与众不同的风格。只管尽你所能把事情做到最好；你想不带出自己独特的样子都不行。"
677              }
678            },
679            {
680              "text": {
681                "en": "Style is doing things in a distinctive way without trying to. Trying to is affectation.",
682                "zh": "风格就是在不刻意为之的情况下，把事情做得与众不同。刻意为之就成了做作。"
683              }
684            },
685            {
686              "text": {
687                "en": "Affectation is in effect to pretend that someone other than you is doing the work. You adopt an impressive but fake persona, and while you're pleased with the impressiveness, the fakeness is what shows in the work. [12]",
688                "zh": "做作实际上就是假装是别人而不是你在做这件事。你套上一个唬人却虚假的人设，你为那份唬人沾沾自喜，而那份虚假，恰恰会在作品里露出来。"
689              }
690            },
691            {
692              "text": {
693                "en": "The temptation to be someone else is greatest for the young. They often feel like nobodies. But you never need to worry about that problem, because it's self-solving if you work on sufficiently ambitious projects. If you succeed at an ambitious project, you're not a nobody; you're the person who did it. So just do the work and your identity will take care of itself.",
694                "zh": "想成为别人的诱惑，对年轻人最为强烈。他们常常觉得自己是无名小卒。但你其实根本不必为这个问题发愁，因为只要你去做足够雄心勃勃的项目，它就会自行化解。如果你在一个雄心勃勃的项目上成功了，你就不是无名小卒了；你就是做成那件事的那个人。所以只管把工作做好，你的身份会自然而然地解决。"
695              }
696            }
697          ],
698          "footnotes": [
699            {
700              "n": 12,
701              "text": {
702                "en": "This gets more complicated in work like acting, where the goal is to adopt a fake persona. But even here it's possible to be affected. Perhaps the rule in such fields should be to avoid unintentional affectation.",
703                "zh": "在表演这类工作里，情况会更复杂些，因为它的目标本就是去扮演一个虚假的角色。但即便在这里，也仍然可能落入做作。或许这类领域的规则应该是：避免无意中的做作。"
704              }
705            }
706          ]
707        },
708        {
709          "take": {
710            "en": "Drop affectation — be earnest and intellectually honest"
711          },
712          "quote": {
713            "en": "The core of being earnest is being intellectually honest."
714          },
715          "paragraphs": [
716            {
717              "text": {
718                "en": "\"Avoid affectation\" is a useful rule so far as it goes, but how would you express this idea positively? How would you say 

718what to be, instead of what not to be? The best answer is earnest. If you're earnest you avoid not just affectation but a whole set of similar vices.",
719                "zh": "“不要矫饰”作为一条规则，在它适用的范围内很有用，但要怎么从正面表达这个意思呢？怎么说该成为什么样的人，而不是不该成为什么样的人？最好的答案是：真诚。如果你真诚，你避免的就不只是矫饰，而是一整套类似的毛病。"
720              }
721            },
722            {
723              "text": {
724                "en": "The core of being earnest is being intellectually honest. We're taught as children to be honest as an unselfish virtue — as a kind of sacrifice. But in fact it's a source of power too. To see new ideas, you need an exceptionally sharp eye for the truth. You're trying to see more truth than others have seen so far. And how can you have a sharp eye for the truth if you're intellectually dishonest?",
725                "zh": "真诚的核心是智识上的诚实。我们从小被教导要诚实，把它当作一种无私的美德——一种牺牲。但事实上它也是一种力量的来源。要看见新想法，你需要一双格外敏锐、能看清真相的眼睛。你想要看到比别人迄今所见更多的真相。可如果你在智识上不诚实，又怎么可能有一双看清真相的敏锐眼睛呢？"
726              }
727            },
728            {
729              "text": {
730                "en": "One way to avoid intellectual dishonesty is to maintain a slight positive pressure in the opposite direction. Be aggressively willing to admit that you're mistaken. Once you've admitted you were mistaken about something, you're free. Till then you have to carry it. [13]",
731                "zh": "避免智识上不诚实的一个办法，是朝相反方向保持一点轻微的正向压力。要主动而积极地愿意承认自己错了。一旦你承认自己在某件事上错了，你就自由了。在那之前，你都得背着它。"
732              }
733            },
734            {
735              "text": {
736                "en": "Another more subtle component of earnestness is informality. Informality is much more important than its grammatically negative name implies. It's not merely the absence of something. It means focusing on what matters instead of what doesn't.",
737                "zh": "真诚还有一个更微妙的成分，就是不拘形式。不拘形式远比它在语法上带有否定意味的名字所暗示的要重要。它不只是某种东西的缺席。它意味着把注意力放在重要的事情上，而不是不重要的事情上。"
738              }
739            },
740            {
741              "text": {
742                "en": "What formality and affectation have in common is that as well as doing the work, you're trying to seem a certain way as you're doing it. But any energy that goes into how you seem comes out of being good. That's one reason nerds have an advantage in doing great work: they expend little effort on seeming anything. In fact that's basically the definition of a nerd.",
743                "zh": "形式主义和矫饰的共同点在于：你在做事的同时，还想让自己显得是某个样子。但凡是花在“显得怎样”上的精力，都是从“把事情做好”上扣下来的。这就是书呆子在做出伟大工作上占优势的一个原因：他们几乎不花力气去显得是什么样子。事实上这基本上就是书呆子的定义。"
744              }
745            },
746            {
747              "text": {
748                "en": "Nerds have a kind of innocent boldness that's exactly what you need in doing great work. It's not learned; it's preserved from childhood. So hold onto it. Be the one who puts things out there rather than the one who sits back and offers sophisticated-sounding criticisms of them. \"It's easy to criticize\" is true in the most literal sense, and the route to great work is never easy.",
749                "zh": "书呆子有一种天真的胆量，而这正是做出伟大工作所需要的。它不是学来的，而是从童年保留下来的。所以要紧紧抓住它。要做那个把东西拿出来示人的人，而不是那个坐在一旁、对别人的东西提出听起来很高明的批评的人。“批评很容易”这句话在最字面的意义上是真的，而通往伟大工作的路从来都不容易。"
750              }
751            },
752            {
753              "text": {
754                "en": "There may be some jobs where it's an advantage to be cynical and pessimistic, but if you want to do great work it's an advantage to be optimistic, even though that means you'll risk looking like a fool sometimes. There's an old tradition of doing the opposite. The Old Testament says it's better to keep quiet lest you look like a fool. But that's advice for seeming smart. If you actually want to discover new things, it's better to take the risk of telling people your ideas.",
755                "zh": "也许有些工作里，愤世嫉俗、悲观会成为一种优势，但如果你想做出伟大的工作，乐观才是优势，哪怕这意味着你有时会冒着显得像个傻瓜的风险。有一个古老的传统主张反其道而行之。《旧约》说，最好闭嘴，免得显得像个傻瓜。但那是教你怎么显得聪明的建议。如果你真的想发现新事物，那么冒着风险把你的想法告诉别人，反而更好。"
756              }
757            },
758            {
759              "text": {
760                "en": "Some people are naturally earnest, and with others it takes a conscious effort. Either kind of earnestness will suffice. But I doubt it would be possible to do great work without being earnest. It's so hard to do even if you are. You don't have enough margin for error to accommodate the distortions introduced by being affected, intellectually dishonest, orthodox, fashionable, or cool. [14]",

761                "zh": "有些人天生真诚，有些人则需要有意识地去努力。哪一种真诚都够用。但我怀疑，不真诚是不可能做出伟大工作的。就算你真诚，这件事都已经够难了。你没有足够的容错空间，去消化由矫饰、智识上不诚实、墨守成规、追逐时髦或耍酷所带来的种种扭曲。"
762              }
763            }
764          ],
765          "footnotes": [
766            {
767              "n": 13,
768              "text": {
769                "en": "It's safe to have beliefs that you treat as unquestionable if and only if they're also unfalsifiable. For example, it's safe to have the principle that everyone should be treated equally under the law, because a sentence with a \"should\" in it isn't really a statement about the world and is therefore hard to disprove. And if there's no evidence that could disprove one of your principles, there can't be any facts you'd need to ignore in order to preserve it.",
770                "zh": "当且仅当某些信念也是不可证伪的，把它们当作不容置疑的来对待才是安全的。比如说，\"人人都应在法律面前受到平等对待\"这条原则，持有它是安全的，因为一个带\"应该\"的句子其实并不是关于世界的陈述，因此很难被证伪。而既然没有任何证据能推翻你的某条原则，那也就不会有什么事实是你为了维护它而不得不无视的。"
771              }
772            },
773            {
774              "n": 14,
775              "text": {
776                "en": "Affectation is easier to cure than intellectual dishonesty. Affectation is often a shortcoming of the young that burns off in time, while intellectual dishonesty is more of a character flaw.",
777                "zh": "做作比智识上的不诚实更容易治愈。做作往往是年轻人的一种毛病，会随时间慢慢消退；而智识上的不诚实，更接近一种品格上的缺陷。"
778              }
779            }
780          ]
781        }
782      ]
783    },
784    {
785      "n": 6,
786      "title": {
787        "en": "Consistency & Elegance"
788      },
789      "essence": {
790        "en": "Make the work consistent with itself: cut what doesn't fit, strip to essentials, and reach for elegant, general solutions."
791      },
792      "words": 498,
793      "ideas": [
794        {
795          "take": {
796            "en": "Make it consistent and elegant — cut, and generalize"
797          },
798          "quote": {
799            "en": "If you express your ideas in the most general form, they'll be truer than you intended."
800          },
801          "paragraphs": [
802            {
803              "text": {
804                "en": "Great work is consistent not only with who did it, but with itself. It's usually all of a piece. So if you face a decision in the middle of working on something, ask which choice is more consistent.",
805                "zh": "伟大的工作不仅与做它的人是一致的，它自身也是一致的。它通常浑然一体。所以如果你在做某件事的过程中面临一个抉择，那就问问哪个选择更一致。"
806              }
807            },
808            {
809              "text": {
810                "en": "You may have to throw things away and redo them. You won't necessarily have to, but you have to be willing to. And that can take some effort; when there's something you need to redo, status quo bias and laziness will combine to keep you in denial about it. To beat this ask: If I'd already made the change, would I want to revert to what I have now?",
811                "zh": "你可能不得不把东西扔掉重做。你未必非得这么做，但你得愿意这么做。而这可能要费一番功夫；当有什么东西需要你重做时，维持现状的偏好和懒惰会联手让你对此视而不见、自欺欺人。要打败这一点，就问自己：如果我已经做了那个改动，我还愿意退回到现在这个版本吗？"
812              }
813            },
814            {
815              "text": {
816                "en": "Have the confidence to cut. Don't keep something that doesn't fit just because you're proud of it, or because it c

816ost you a lot of effort.",
817                "zh": "要有勇气去删。不要因为你为某样东西自豪，或者因为它花了你很多力气，就把这个其实不合适的东西留着。"
818              }
819            },
820            {
821              "text": {
822                "en": "Indeed, in some kinds of work it's good to strip whatever you're doing to its essence. The result will be more concentrated; you'll understand it better; and you won't be able to lie to yourself about whether there's anything real there.",
823                "zh": "事实上，在某些工作里，把手头做的东西剥到只剩本质是件好事。结果会更凝练；你会更理解它；而且你也没法再自欺欺人，假装那里头有什么实在的东西。"
824              }
825            },
826            {
827              "text": {
828                "en": "Mathematical elegance may sound like a mere metaphor, drawn from the arts. That's what I thought when I first heard the term \"elegant\" applied to a proof. But now I suspect it's conceptually prior — that the main ingredient in artistic elegance is mathematical elegance. At any rate it's a useful standard well beyond math.",
829                "zh": "数学上的优雅，听起来可能只是个从艺术里借来的比喻。我第一次听到有人用“优雅”来形容一个证明时，也是这么想的。但现在我怀疑它其实在概念上更靠前——艺术上的优雅，其主要成分就是数学上的优雅。无论如何，它都是一条远超数学范围、很有用的标准。"
830              }
831            },
832            {
833              "text": {
834                "en": "Elegance can be a long-term bet, though. Laborious solutions will often have more prestige in the short term. They cost a lot of effort and they're hard to understand, both of which impress people, at least temporarily.",
835                "zh": "不过，优雅可能是一场长期的赌注。费力的解法往往在短期内更有声望。它们耗费了大量精力，又难以理解，这两点都会让人印象深刻，至少是暂时如此。"
836              }
837            },
838            {
839              "text": {
840                "en": "Whereas some of the very best work will seem like it took comparatively little effort, because it was in a sense already there. It didn't have to be built, just seen. It's a very good sign when it's hard to say whether you're creating something or discovering it.",
841                "zh": "而有些最出色的工作，看起来仿佛没费多大力气，因为它在某种意义上本来就在那里。它不需要被建造，只需要被看见。当你很难说清自己究竟是在创造还是在发现某样东西时，这是个非常好的迹象。"
842              }
843            },
844            {
845              "text": {
846                "en": "When you're doing work that could be seen as either creation or discovery, err on the side of discovery. Try thinking of yourself as a mere conduit through which the ideas take their natural shape.",
847                "zh": "当你做的工作既可以看作创造、也可以看作发现时，宁可偏向发现这一边。试着把自己看作一个纯粹的导管，让想法通过你、呈现出它们本来的样子。"
848              }
849            },
850            {
851              "text": {
852                "en": "(Strangely enough, one exception is the problem of cho

852osing a problem to work on. This is usually seen as search, but in the best case it's more like creating something. In the best case you create the field in the process of exploring it.)",
853                "zh": "（说来奇怪，有一个例外，就是选择要做什么问题这件事。这通常被看作一种搜索，但在最好的情况下，它更像是创造某样东西。在最好的情况下，你是在探索一个领域的过程中创造了这个领域。）"
854              }
855            },
856            {
857              "text": {
858                "en": "Similarly, if you're trying to build a powerful tool, make it gratuitously unrestrictive. A powerful tool almost by definition will be used in ways you didn't expect, so err on the side of eliminating restrictions, even if you don't know what the benefit will be.",
859                "zh": "同样地，如果你想造一个强大的工具，就把它做得毫无必要地不设限。一个强大的工具几乎从定义上就会被以你意想不到的方式使用，所以宁可偏向于去掉限制，哪怕你还不知道好处会是什么。"
860              }
861            },
862            {
863              "text": {
864                "en": "Great work will often be tool-like in the sense of being something others build on. So it's a good sign if you're creating ideas that others could use, or exposing questions that others could answer. The best ideas have implications in many different areas.",
865                "zh": "伟大的工作往往具有工具的性质，也就是说，它是别人可以在其之上继续构建的东西。所以，如果你在创造别人能用得上的想法，或者在抛出别人能回答的问题，那是个好迹象。最好的想法在许多不同领域都有它的意涵。"
866              }
867            },
868            {
869              "text": {
870                "en": "If you express your ideas in the most general form, they'll be truer than you intended.",
871                "zh": "如果你以最一般的形式来表达你的想法，它们会比你本来想说的还要真。"
872              }
873            }
874          ],
875          "footnotes": []
876        }
877      ]
878    },
879    {
880      "n": 7,
881      "title": {
882        "en": "Originality"
883      },
884      "essence": {
885        "en": "Originality is a habit of mind, not a process: feed it new material, notice the obvious others miss, and break rules."
886      },
887      "words": 1379,
888      "ideas": [
889        {
890          "take": {
891            "en": "Originality is a habit of mind, not a process"
892          },
893          "quote": {
894            "en": "Originality isn't a process, but a habit of mind."
895          },
896          "paragraphs": [
897            {
898              "text": {
899                "en": "True by itself is not enough, of course. Great ideas have to be true and new. And it takes a certain amount of ability to see new ideas even once you've learned enough to get to one of the frontiers of knowledge.",
900                "zh": "光是真，当然还不够。伟大的想法既要真，又要新。而即便你已经学得足够多、到达了知识的某个前沿，要看出新想法仍需要一定的能力。"
901              }
902            },
903            {
904              "text": {
905                "en": "In English we give this ability names like originality, creativity, and imagination. And it seems reasonable to give it a separate name, because it does seem to some extent a separate skill. It's possible to have a great deal of ability in other respects — to have a great deal of what's often called technical ability — and yet not have much of this.",
906                "zh": "在英语里，我们给这种能力起了些名字，比如独创性、创造力和想象力。给它单独起个名字似乎是合理的，因为它在某种程度上确实像是一种独立的技能。一个人完全可能在其他方面有很强的能力——拥有大量通常所说的技术能力——却没有多少这种能力。"
907              }
908            },
909            {
910              "text": {
911                "en": "I've never liked the term \"creative process.\" It seems misleading. Originality isn't a process, but a habit of mind. Original thinkers throw off new ideas about whatever they focu

911s on, like an angle grinder throwing off sparks. They can't help it.",
912                "zh": "我从来不喜欢“创造过程”这个说法。它似乎有误导性。独创性不是一个过程，而是一种思维习惯。有独创性的思考者，无论把注意力放在什么东西上，都会甩出新想法，就像角磨机甩出火花一样。他们身不由己。"
913              }
914            },
915            {
916              "text": {
917                "en": "If the thing they're focused on is something they don't understand very well, these new ideas might not be good. One of the most original thinkers I know decided to focus on dating after he got divorced. He knew roughly as much about dating as the average 15 year old, and the results were spectacularly colorful. But to see originality separated from expertise like that made its nature all the more clear.",
918                "zh": "如果他们专注的东西是他们不太懂的，这些新想法可能就不怎么样。我认识的一位最有独创性的思考者，在离婚后决定把注意力放在约会上。他对约会的了解大概跟一个普通的十五岁孩子差不多，结果是花样百出、惊世骇俗。但看到独创性这样脱离了专业能力地呈现出来，反倒把它的本质显得更清楚了。"
919              }
920            },
921            {
922              "text": {
923                "en": "I don't know if it's possible to cultivate originality, but there are definitely ways to make the most of however much you have. For example, you're much more likely to have original ideas when you're working on something. Original ideas don't come from trying to have original ideas. They come from trying to build or understand something slightly too difficult. [15]",
924                "zh": "我不知道独创性能不能培养，但要把你现有的那点独创性发挥到极致，肯定是有办法的。比如，当你正在做某件事的时候，你更有可能产生原创的想法。原创的想法不来自“努力去产生原创想法”。它们来自试图去建造或理解某样稍微有点超出你能力的东西。"
925              }
926            },
927            {
928              "text": {
929                "en": "Talking or writing about the things you're interested in is a good way to generate new ideas. When you try to put ideas into words, a missing idea creates a sort of vacuum that draws it out of you. Indeed, there's a kind of thinking that can only be done by writing.",
930                "zh": "谈论或写下你感兴趣的东西，是产生新想法的好办法。当你试图把想法诉诸文字时，一个缺失的想法会制造出一种真空，把它从你身上吸出来。事实上，有一种思考只能通过写作来完成。"
931              }
932            },
933            {
934              "text": {
935                "en": "Changing your context can help. If you visit a new place, you'll often find you have new ideas there. The journey itself often dislodges them. But you may not have to go far to get this benefit. Sometimes it's enough just to go for a walk. [16]",
936                "zh": "改变所处的环境会有帮助。如果你去一个新地方，常常会发现自己在那里有了新想法。旅程本身往往就会把它们抖落出来。但你未必非得跑很远才能得到这个好处。有时候，出去走一走就够了。"
937              }
938            },
939            {
940              "text": {
941                "en": "It also helps to travel in topic space. You'll have more new ideas if you explore lots of different topics, partly because it gives the angle grinder more surface area to work on, and partly because analogies are an especially fruitful source of new ideas.",
942                "zh": "在主题的空间里游历也有帮助。如果你探索许多不同的主题，你会有更多新想法，一部分是因为这给了角磨机更大的工作面，一部分是因为类比是新想法一个特别多产的来源。"
943              }
944            },
945            {
946              "text": {
947                "en": "Don't divide your attention evenly between many topics though, or you'll spread yourself too thin. You want to distribute it according to something more like a power law. [17] Be professionally curious about a few topics and idly curious about many more.",

948                "zh": "不过，别把注意力平均分配到很多主题上，否则你会摊得太薄。你想要按照更接近幂律的方式来分配它。对少数几个主题保持职业性的好奇，对更多的主题保持随意的好奇。"
949              }
950            },
951            {
952              "text": {
953                "en": "Curiosity and originality are closely related. Curiosity feeds originality by giving it new things to work on. But the relationship is closer than that. Curiosity is itself a kind of originality; it's roughly to questions what originality is to answers. And since questions at their best are a big component of answers, curiosity at its best is a creative force.",
954                "zh": "好奇心和独创性密切相关。好奇心通过不断给独创性提供新东西去琢磨，来滋养它。但这种关系还更紧密。好奇心本身就是一种独创性；大致来说，独创性之于答案，犹如好奇心之于问题。而既然最好的问题本身就是答案的一大组成部分，那么最好的好奇心就是一种创造性的力量。"
955              }
956            }
957          ],
958          "footnotes": [
959            {
960              "n": 15,
961              "text": {
962                "en": "Obviously you don't have to be working at the exact moment you have the idea, but you'll probably have been working fairly recently.",
963                "zh": "显然，你不必恰好在产生想法的那一刻正在工作，但你多半是在不久前才工作过。"
964              }
965            },
966            {
967              "n": 16,
968              "text": {
969                "en": "Some say psychoactive drugs have a similar effect. I'm skeptical, but also almost totally ignorant of their effects.",
970                "zh": "有人说致幻类药物也有类似的效果。我对此持怀疑态度，不过我对它们的作用也几乎一无所知。"
971              }
972            },
973            {
974              "n": 17,
975              "text": {
976                "en": "For example you might give the nth most important topic (m-1)/m^n of your attention, for some m > 1. You couldn't allocate your attention so precisely, of course, but this at least gives an idea of a reasonable distribution.",
977                "zh": "比如说，对于某个 m > 1，你可以把 (m-1)/m^n 的注意力分给第 n 重要的话题。当然你没法把注意力分配得这么精确，但这至少给出了一个合理分布的样子。"
978              }
979            }
980          ]
981        },
982        {
983          "take": {
984            "en": "See the obvious others miss; seize on broken models"
985          },
986          "quote": {
987            "en": "When an idea seems simultaneously novel and obvious, it's probably a good one."
988          },
989          "paragraphs": [
990            {
991              "text": {
992                "en": "Having new ideas is a strange game, because it usually consists of seeing things that were right under your nose. Once you've seen a new idea, it tends to seem obvious. Why did no one think of this before?",
993                "zh": "产生新想法是个奇怪的游戏，因为它通常就是看见那些一直摆在你眼皮底下的东西。一旦你看见了一个新想法，它往往会显得理所当然。怎么以前没人想到呢？"
994              }
995            },
996            {
997              "text": {
998                "en": "When an idea seems simultaneously novel and obvious, it's probably a good one.",
999                "zh": "当一个想法既显得新颖、又显得理所当然时，它多半是个好想法。"
1000              }
1001            },
1002            {
1003              "text": {
1004                "en": "Seeing something obvious sounds easy. And yet empirically having new ideas is hard. What's the source of this apparent contradiction? It's that seeing the new idea usually requires you to change the way you look at the world. We see the world through models that both help and constrain us. When you fix a broken model, new ideas become obvious. But noticing and fixing a broken model is hard. That's how new ideas can be both obvious and yet hard to discover: they're easy to see after you do something hard.",
1005                "zh": "看见显而易见的东西，听起来很容易。可经验告诉我们，产生新想法其实很难。这个表面上的矛盾从何而来？原因在于，看见那个新想法通常要求你改变看世界的方式。我们透过一些既帮助又束缚我们的模型来看世界。当你修好一个出了问题的模型，新想法就变得显而易见了。但要注意到并修好一个出了问题的模型，是很难的。新想法之所以既显而易见、又难以发现，道理就在这里：在你做完一件难事之后，它们就很容易看见了。"
1006              }
1007            },
1008            {
1009              "text": {
1010                "en": "One way to discover broken models is to be stricter than other people. Broken models of the world leave a trail of clues where they bash against reality. Most people don't want to see these clues. It would be an understatement to say that they're attached to their current model; it's what they think in; so they'll tend to ignore the trail of clues left by its breakage, however conspicuous it may seem in retrospect.",
1011                "zh": "发现出问题的模型的一个办法，是比别人更较真。出了问题的世界模型，会在它撞上现实的地方留下一连串线索。

1011大多数人不愿意去看这些线索。说他们依恋自己当下的模型，都还说轻了；这模型就是他们用来思考的工具；所以他们往往会忽视这模型出问题时留下的线索，哪怕这线索事后看来再怎么显眼。"
1012              }
1013            },
1014            {
1015              "text": {
1016                "en": "To find new ideas you have to seize on signs of breakage instead of looking away. That's what Einstein did. He was able to see the wild implications of Maxwell's equations not so much because he was looking for new ideas as because he was stricter.",
1017                "zh": "要找到新想法，你得抓住这些“出问题”的迹象，而不是把目光移开。Einstein 就是这么做的。他之所以能看出 Maxwell 方程组那些惊人的含义，与其说是因为他在找新想法，不如说是因为他更较真。"
1018              }
1019            },
1020            {
1021              "text": {
1022                "en": "The other thing you need is a willingness to break rules. Paradoxical as it sounds, if you want to fix your model of the world, it helps to be the sort of person who's comfortable breaking rules. From the point of view of the old model, which everyone including you initially shares, the new model usually breaks at least implicit rules.",
1023                "zh": "你还需要的另一样东西，是愿意打破规则。这听起来很矛盾，但如果你想修好自己看世界的模型，那么做一个对打破规则感到自在的人会有帮助。从旧模型的角度看——包括你在内，每个人最初都共享这个旧模型——新模型通常至少打破了一些隐含的规则。"
1024              }
1025            },
1026            {
1027              "text": {
1028                "en": "Few understand the degree of rule-breaking required, because new ideas seem much more conservative once they succeed. They seem perfectly reasonable once you're using the new model of the world they brought with them. But they didn't at the time; it took the greater part of a century for the heliocentric model to be generally accepted, even among astronomers, because it felt so wrong.",
1029                "zh": "很少有人明白这需要打破规则到何种程度，因为新想法一旦成功，就显得保守得多了。一旦你在使用它们带来的那个新的世界模型，它们看起来就完全合情合理。但在当时并非如此；日心说花了将近一个世纪才被普遍接受，连天文学家也是如此，因为它给人的感觉太不对劲了。"
1030              }
1031            },
1032            {
1033              "text": {
1034                "en": "Indeed, if you think about it, a good new idea has to seem bad to most people, or someone would have already explored it. So what you're looking for is ideas that seem crazy, but the right kind of crazy. How do you recognize these? You can't with certainty. Often ideas that seem bad are bad. But ideas that are the right kind of crazy tend to be exciting; they're rich in implications; whereas ideas that are merely bad tend to be depressing.",
1035                "zh": "事实上，如果你想一想就会发现，一个好的新想法必然在大多数人看来是坏的，否则早就有人去探索它了。所以你要找的，是那些看起来很疯狂、但又是对的那种疯狂的想法。你怎么认出它们呢？没法有把握地认出。很多看起来坏的想法确实就是坏的。但对的那种疯狂的想法往往令人兴奋；它们含义丰富；而仅仅是坏的想法则往往令人沮丧。"
1036              }
1037            },
1038            {
1039              "text": {
1040                "en": "There are two ways to be comfortable breaking rules: to enjoy breaking them, and to be indifferent to them. I call these two cases being aggressively and passively independent-minded.",
1041                "zh": "对打破规则感到自在有两种方式：享受打破规则，以及对规则漠不关心。我把这两种情况分别称为积极地独立思考和消极地独立思考。"
1042              }
1043            },
1044            {
1045              "text": {
1046                "en": "The aggressively independent-minded are the naughty ones. Rules don't merely fail to stop them; breaking rules gives them additional energy. For this sort of person, delight at the sheer audacity of a project sometimes supplies enough activation energy to get it started.",
1047                "zh": "积极独立思考的人是淘气的那一类ã€

1047‚规则不仅拦不住他们；打破规则还给他们提供额外的能量。对这种人来说，对一个项目本身那份大胆的快感，有时就足以提供启动它所需的激活能量。"
1048              }
1049            },
1050            {
1051              "text": {
1052                "en": "The other way to break rules is not to care about them, or perhaps even to know they exist. This is why novices and outsiders often make new discoveries; their ignorance of a field's assumptions acts as a source of temporary passive independent-mindedness. Aspies also seem to have a kind of immunity to conventional beliefs. Several I know say that this helps them to have new ideas.",
1053                "zh": "打破规则的另一种方式，是不在乎规则，或者甚至根本不知道它们存在。这就是为什么新手和外行常常做出新发现；他们对一个领域的种种假设一无所知，这种无知充当了一种暂时的、消极的独立思考的来源。阿斯伯格人似乎也对传统观念有某种免疫力。我认识的好几位都说，这帮助他们产生了新想法。"
1054              }
1055            },
1056            {
1057              "text": {
1058                "en": "Strictness plus rule-breaking sounds like a strange combination. In popular culture they're opposed. But popular culture has a broken model in this respect. It implicitly assumes that issues are trivial ones, and in trivial matters strictness and rule-breaking are opposed. But in questions that really matter, only rule-breakers can be truly strict.",
1059                "zh": "较真加上打破规则，听起来是个奇怪的组合。在大众文化里，它们是对立的。但大众文化在这一点上有一个出了问题的模型。它隐含地假设所有问题都是无足轻重的，而在无足轻重的事情上，较真和打破规则确实是对立的。但在那些真正重要的问题上，只有打破规则的人才能真正较真。"
1060              }
1061            }
1062          ],
1063          "footnotes": []
1064        },
1065        {
1066          "take": {
1067            "en": "Overlooked ideas hide in plain sight"
1068          },
1069          "quote": {
1070            "en": "An overlooked idea often doesn't lose till the semifinals."
1071          },
1072          "paragraphs": [
1073            {
1074              "text": {
1075                "en": "An overlooked idea often doesn't lose till the semifinals. You do see it, subconsciously, but then another part of your subconscious shoots it down because it would be too weird, too risky, too much work, too controversial. This suggests an exciting possibility: if you could turn off such filters, you could see more new ideas.",
1076                "zh": "一个被忽视的想法，往往要到半决赛才会出局。你确实看见了它，是在潜意识里看见的，但接着你潜意识的另一部分又把它击落了，因为它太怪、太冒险、太费事、太有争è®

1076®ã€‚这暗示了一种激动人心的可能性：如果你能关掉这类过滤器，你就能看见更多新想法。"
1077              }
1078            },
1079            {
1080              "text": {
1081                "en": "One way to do that is to ask what would be good ideas for someone else to explore. Then your subconscious won't shoot them down to protect you.",
1082                "zh": "做到这一点的一个办法，是问：什么会是适合别人去探索的好想法？这样一来，你的潜意识就不会为了保护你而把它们击落了。"
1083              }
1084            },
1085            {
1086              "text": {
1087                "en": "You could also discover overlooked ideas by working in the other direction: by starting from what's obscuring them. Every cherished but mistaken principle is surrounded by a dead zone of valuable ideas that are unexplored because they contradict it.",
1088                "zh": "你也可以反方向操作来发现被忽视的想法：从遮蔽它们的东西入手。每一条被珍视却又错误的原则周围，都环绕着一片由有价值的想法构成的死区，这些想法之所以无人探索，正是因为它们与那条原则相抵触。"
1089              }
1090            },
1091            {
1092              "text": {
1093                "en": "Religions are collections of cherished but mistaken principles. So anything that can be described either literally or metaphorically as a religion will have valuable unexplored ideas in its shadow. Copernicus and Darwin both made discoveries of this type. [18]",
1094                "zh": "宗教就是一堆被珍视却又错误的原则的集合。所以，任何在字面上或比喻意义上可以被称为一种宗教的东西，其阴影里都会藏着有价值、尚待探索的想法。Copernicus 和 Darwin 都做出了这一类的发现。"
1095              }
1096            },
1097            {
1098              "text": {
1099                "en": "What are people in your field religious about, in the sense of being too attached to some principle that might not be as self-evident as they think? What becomes possible if you discard it?",
1100                "zh": "在你的领域里，人们对什么是“信奉”的——也就是说，太过执着于某条其实并不像他们以为的那样不证自明的原则？如果把它丢掉，又有什么会变得可能？"
1101              }
1102            }
1103          ],
1104          "footnotes": [
1105            {
1106              "n": 18,
1107              "text": {
1108                "en": "The principles defining a religion have to be mistaken. Otherwise anyone might adopt them, and there would be nothing to distinguish the adherents of the religion from everyone else.",
1109                "zh": "界定一种宗教的那些原则，必定是错的。否则任何人都可能接受它们，那这门宗教的信徒就和其他所有人没什么区别了。"
1110              }
1111            }
1112          ]
1113        }
1114      ]
1115    },
1116    {
1117      "n": 8,
1118      "title": {
1119        "en": "Choosing Problems"
1120      },
1121      "essence": {
1122        "en": "Where you aim your originality matters most: choose important, often unfashionable problems, and prize great questions."
1123      },
1124      "words": 789,
1125      "ideas": [
1126        {
1127          "take": {
1128            "en": "Originality in choosing problems matters even more than in solving them"
1129          },
1130          "quote": {
1131            "en": "Originality in choosing problems seems to matter even more than originality in solving them."
1132          },
1133          "paragraphs": [
1134            {
1135              "text": {
1136                "en": "People show much more originality in solving problems than in deciding which problems to solve. Even the smartest can be surprisingly conservative when deciding what to work on. People who'd never dream of being fashionable in any other way get sucked into working on fashionable problems.",
1137                "zh": "解决问题时，人们表现出的原创性，远多于在决定该解决哪些问题时。哪怕是最聪明的人，在选择研究方向时也可能保守得惊人。那些在其他任何方面都绝不会追逐潮流的人，却被卷进了对时髦问题的研究里。"
1138              }
1139            },
1140            {
1141              "text": {
1142                "en": "One reason people are more conservative when choosing problems than solutions is that problems are bigger bets. A problem could occupy you for years, while exploring a solution might only take days. But even s

1142o I think most people are too conservative. They're not merely responding to risk, but to fashion as well. Unfashionable problems are undervalued.",
1143                "zh": "人们在选择问题时比选择解法时更保守，原因之一是问题是更大的赌注。一个问题可能占据你好几年，而探索一个解法也许只要几天。但即便如此，我仍觉得大多数人还是太保守了。他们不只是在回应风险，也在回应潮流。不时髦的问题被低估了。"
1144              }
1145            },
1146            {
1147              "text": {
1148                "en": "One of the most interesting kinds of unfashionable problem is the problem that people think has been fully explored, but hasn't. Great work often takes something that already exists and shows its latent potential. Durer and Watt both did this. So if you're interested in a field that others think is tapped out, don't let their skepticism deter you. People are often wrong about this.",
1149                "zh": "最有意思的一类不时髦问题，是那种被人们以为已经彻底研究透了、其实并没有的问题。伟大的工作常常是拿起某个已经存在的东西，揭示它潜藏的可能性。Durer 和 Watt 都做过这样的事。所以如果你对一个别人认为已经挖空了的领域感兴趣，别让他们的怀疑吓退你。在这件事上人们常常是错的。"
1150              }
1151            },
1152            {
1153              "text": {
1154                "en": "Working on an unfashionable problem can be very pleasing. There's no hype or hurry. Opportunists and critics are both occupied elsewhere. The existing work often has an old-school solidity. And there's a satisfying sense of economy in cultivating ideas that would otherwise be wasted.",
1155                "zh": "研究一个不时髦的问题，会让人非常愉快。没有炒作，也不必赶时间。投机者和批评者都忙着别处。已有的工作往往带着一种老派的扎实。而且培育那些本会被浪费掉的想法，会有一种令人满足的节俭感。"
1156              }
1157            },
1158            {
1159              "text": {
1160                "en": "But the most common type of overlooked problem is not explicitly unfashionable in the sense of being out of fashion. It just doesn't seem to matter as much as it actually does. How do you find these? By being self-indulgent — by letting your curiosity have its way, and tuning out, at least temporarily, the little voice in your head that says you should only be working on \"important\" problems.",
1161                "zh": "但最常见的一类被忽视的问题，并不是明确意义上的不时髦。它只是看起来不像它实际上那么重要罢了。怎么找到这些问题？靠放纵自己——让你的好奇心放开手脚，至少暂时把脑子里那个说你只该研究“重要”问题的小声音调到静音。"
1162              }
1163            },
1164            {
1165              "text": {
1166                "en": "You do need to work on important problems, but almost everyone is too conservative about what counts as one. And if there's an important but overlooked problem in your neighborhood, it's probably already on your subconscious radar screen. So try asking yourself: if you were going to take a break from \"serious\" work to work on something just because it would be really interesting, what would you do? The answer is probably more important than it seems.",
1167                "zh": "你确实需要研究重要的问题，但几乎所有人对什么算得上重要都太保守了。而如果你身边就有一个重要却被忽视的问题，它多半已经在你潜意识的雷达上了。所以不妨问问自己：如果你打算从“正经”工作里抽身一阵，仅仅因为某件事真的很有意思而去做它，你会做什么？答案多半比它看上去更重要。"
1168              }
1169            },
1170            {
1171              "text": {
1172                "en": "Originality in choosing problems seems to matter even more than originality in solving them. That's what distinguishes the people who discover whole new fields. So what might seem to be merely the initial step — deciding what to work on — is in a sense the key to the whole game.",
1173                "zh": "在选择问题上的原创性，似乎比在解决问题上的原创性更要紧。正是这一点区分开了那些开创全新领域的人。所以，那个看似不过是起步一步的环节——决定做什么——在某种意义上才是整盘棋的关键。"
1174              }
1175            }
1176          ],
1177          "footnotes": []
1178        },
1179        {
1180          "take": {
1181            "en": "Don't underrate questions — a really good question is a partial discovery"
1182          },
1183          "quote": {
1184            "en": "A really good question is a partial discovery."
1185          },
1186          "paragraphs": [
1187            {
1188              "text": {
1189                "en": "Few grasp this. One of the biggest misconceptions about new ideas is about the ratio of question to answer in their composition. People think big ideas are answers, but often the real insight was in the question.",
1190                "zh": "很少有人领会这一点。关于新想法，最大的误解之一就是它们当中问题与答案的比例。人们以为大想法是答案，可真正的洞见往往在于那个问题。"
1191              }
1192            },
1193            {
1194              "text": {
1195                "en": "Part of the reason we underrate questions is the way they're used in schools. In schools they tend to exist only briefly before being answered, like unstable particles. But a really good question can be much more than that. A really good question is a partial discovery. How do new species arise? Is the force that makes objects fall to earth the same as the one that keeps planets in their orbits? By even asking such questions you were already in excitingly novel territory.",
1196                "zh": "我们低估问题，部分是因为它们在学校里被使用的方式。在学校里，问题往往只短暂存在便被解答，像不稳定的粒子一样。但一个真正好的问题远不止于此。一个真正好的问题本身就是一项不完全的发现。新物种是如何产生的？让物体落向地面的那股力，和让行星保持在轨道上的那股力，是同一种吗？仅仅是提出这样的问题，你就已经身处令人兴奋的崭新天地了。"
1197              }
1198            },
1199            {
1200              "text": {
1201                "en": "Unanswered questions can be uncomfortable things to carry around with you. But the more you're carrying, the greater the chance of noticing a solution — or perhaps even more excitingly, noticing that two unanswered questions are the same.",
1202                "zh": "悬而未决的问题揣在身上可能让人不舒服。但你揣得越多，注意到某个解答的机会就越大——或者，更令人兴奋的是，注意到两个未决的问题其实是同一个。"
1203              }
1204            },
1205            {
1206              "text": {
1207                "en": "Sometimes you carry a question for a long time. Great work often comes from returning to a question you first noticed years before — in your childhood, even — and couldn't stop thinking about. People talk a lot about the importance of keeping your youthful dreams alive, but it's just as important to keep your youthful questions alive. [19]",
1208                "zh": "有时一个问题你会揣上很久。伟大的工作常常来自重新回到一个你多年前——甚至在童年——就注意到、却始终放不下的问题。人们常谈起守护年少时梦想的重要，但守护你年少时的问题同样重要。"
1209              }
1210            },
1211            {
1212              "text": {
1213                "en": "This is one of the places where actual expertise differs most from the popular picture of it. In the popular picture, experts are certain. But actually the more puzzled you are, the better, so long as (a

1213) the things you're puzzled about matter, and (b) no one else understands them either.",
1214                "zh": "这正是真正的专业素养与人们想象中的它差别最大的地方之一。在大众的想象里，专家是笃定的。可实际上，你越是困惑越好——前提是（a）让你困惑的事情很重要，并且（b）别人也都不明白它们。"
1215              }
1216            },
1217            {
1218              "text": {
1219                "en": "Think about what's happening at the moment just before a new idea is discovered. Often someone with sufficient expertise is puzzled about something. Which means that originality consists partly of puzzlement — of confusion! You have to be comfortable enough with the world being full of puzzles that you're willing to see them, but not so comfortable that you don't want to solve them. [20]",
1220                "zh": "想想一个新想法被发现之前那一刻发生了什么。往往是某个具备足够专业素养的人对某事感到困惑。这意味着原创性有一部分是由困惑——是由迷茫构成的！你得对“世界充满谜题”这件事自在到愿意去看见它们，却又不能自在到不想去解开它们。"
1221              }
1222            },
1223            {
1224              "text": {
1225                "en": "It's a great thing to be rich in unanswered questions. And this is one of those situations where the rich get richer, because the best way to acquire new questions is to try answering existing ones. Questions don't just lead to answers, but also to more questions.",
1226                "zh": "拥有大量未决的问题是件好事。而这正是那种“富者愈富”的情形之一，因为获取新问题的最好办法，就是试着去回答已有的问题。问题不只通向答案，也通向更多的问题。"
1227              }
1228            }
1229          ],
1230          "footnotes": [
1231            {
1232              "n": 19,
1233              "text": {
1234                "en": "It might be a good exercise to try writing down a list of questions you wondered about in your youth. You might find you're now in a position to do something about some of them.",
1235                "zh": "做这样一个练习也许会有帮助：试着写下你少年时代思索过的那些问题。你或许会发现，如今你已有能力对其中一些做点什么了。"
1236              }
1237            },
1238            {
1239              "n": 20,
1240              "text": {
1241                "en": "The connection between originality and uncertainty causes a strange phenomenon: because the conventional-minded are more certain than the independent-minded, this tends to give them the upper hand in disputes, even though they're generally stupider. The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.",
1242                "zh": "原创性与不确定性之间的联系，造成了一个奇特的现象：因为循规蹈矩的人比独立思考的人更笃定，这往往让他们在争论中占了上风，尽管他们通常更蠢。优秀者全无信念，而卑劣者却满怀炽烈的激情。"
1243              }
1244            }
1245          ]
1246        }
1247      ]
1248    },
1249    {
1250      "n": 9,
1251      "title": {
1252        "en": "Prolific, Versions & Risk"
1253      },
1254      "essence": {
1255        "en": "Carry your questions, be prolific, evolve through successive versions, and take as much risk as you can afford."
1256      },
1257      "words": 674,
1258      "ideas": [
1259        {
1260          "take": {
1261            "en": "Carry your questions; be prolific; evolve through versions"
1262          },
1263          "quote": {
1264            "en": "The best questions grow in the answering."
1265          },
1266          "paragraphs": [
1267            {
1268              "text": {
1269                "en": "The best questions grow in the answering. You notice a thread protruding from the current paradigm and try pulling on it, and it just gets longer and longer. So don't require a question to be obviously big before you try answering it. You can rarely predict that. It's hard enough even to notice the thread, let alone to predict how much will unravel if you pull on it.",
1270                "zh": "最好的问题在回答的过程中会不断生长。你注意到当下的范式里露出了一根线头，试着去拉它，它却越拉越长。所以别要求一个问题在你动手回答之前就显然很大。这一点ä

1270½ å¾ˆå°‘能预先判断。光是注意到那根线头都已经够难了，更别说预测拉下去会扯出多少东西。"
1271              }
1272            },
1273            {
1274              "text": {
1275                "en": "It's better to be promiscuously curious — to pull a little bit on a lot of threads, and see what happens. Big things start small. The initial versions of big things were often just experiments, or side projects, or talks, which then grew into something bigger. So start lots of small things.",
1276                "zh": "更好的做法是漫无节制地保持好奇——在许多线头上都稍稍拉一拉，看看会发生什么。大事都从小处起步。大事的最初版本往往只是些实验、副业，或一次演讲，后来才长成了更大的东西。所以多去开很多个小头。"
1277              }
1278            },
1279            {
1280              "text": {
1281                "en": "Being prolific is underrated. The more different things you try, the greater the chance of discovering something new. Understand, though, that trying lots of things will mean trying lots of things that don't work. You can't have a lot of good ideas without also having a lot of bad ones. [21]",
1282                "zh": "多产被低估了。你尝试的不同事情越多，发现新东西的机会就越大。不过要明白，尝试很多事就意味着会尝试很多行不通的事。你不可能在没有很多坏想法的同时拥有很多好想法。"
1283              }
1284            },
1285            {
1286              "text": {
1287                "en": "Though it sounds more responsible to begin by studying everything that's been done before, you'll learn faster and have more fun by trying stuff. And you'll understand previous work better when you do look at it. So err on the side of starting. Which is easier when starting means starting small; those two ideas fit together like two puzzle pieces.",
1288                "zh": "尽管先去研究前人做过的一切听上去更负责任，可你通过动手尝试反而会学得更快、玩得更开心。而且等你真去看前人的工作时，你会理解得更透。所以宁可偏向先开始。而当“开始”意味着从小处开始时，这件事就更容易了；这两个想法像两块拼图一样严丝合缝地拼在一起。"
1289              }
1290            },
1291            {
1292              "text": {
1293                "en": "How do you get from starting small to doing something great? By making successive versions. Great things are almost always made in successive versions. You start with something small and evolve it, and the final version is both cleverer and more ambitious than anything you could have planned.",
1294                "zh": "怎样从小处开始一路做到了不起的程度？靠做出一个又一个版本。伟大的东西几乎总是在一连串版本中做成的。你从一个小东西出发，让它演化，而最终的版本比你能事先规划出的任何东西都更聪明、也更有抱负。"
1295              }
1296            },
1297            {
1298              "text": {
1299                "en": "It's particularly useful to make successive versions when you're making something for people — to get an initial version in front of them quickly, and then evolve it based on their response.",
1300                "zh": "当你是在为别人做东西时，做出一个个连续的版本尤其有用——先尽快把一个初版摆到他们面前，再根据他们的反应让它演化。"
1301              }
1302            },
1303            {
1304              "text": {
1305                "en": "Begin by trying the simplest thing that could possibly work. Surprisingly often, it does. If it doesn't, this will at least get you started.",
1306                "zh": "从最简单、有可能行得通的做法入手。出人意料地，它常常就行了。即便不行，至少也能帮你起个头。"
1307              }
1308            },
1309            {
1310              "text": {
1311                "en": "Don't try to cram too much new stuff into any one version. There are names for doing this with the first version (taking too long to ship) and the second (the second system effect), but these are both merely instances of a more general principle.",
1312                "zh": "别试图把太多新东西塞进任何一个版本里。对第一个版本这么干有个说法（迟迟发不出去），对第二个也有（第二系统效应），但这两者都不过是一条更普遍原则的具体表现而已。"
1313              }
1314            },
1315            {
1316              "text": {
1317                "en": "An early version of a new project will sometimes be dismissed as a toy. It's a good sign when people do this. That means it has everything a new idea needs except scale, and that tends to follow. [22]",
1318                "zh": "一个新项目的早期版本有时会被当成玩具而遭轻视。当人们这么做时，反倒是个好兆头。那意味着它已经具备了一个新想法所需的一切，只差规模——

1318而规模往往会随之而来。"
1319              }
1320            },
1321            {
1322              "text": {
1323                "en": "The alternative to starting with something small and evolving it is to plan in advance what you're going to do. And planning does usually seem the more responsible choice. It sounds more organized to say \"we're going to do x and then y and then z\" than \"we're going to try x and see what happens.\" And it is more organized; it just doesn't work as well.",
1324                "zh": "“从小东西出发再让它演化”的另一种选择，是事先规划好你要做什么。规划通常的确显得是更负责任的选择。说“我们要先做 x，再做 y，再做 z”，听上去比“我们要试试 x，看看会怎样”更有条理。它也确实更有条理；只是没那么管用罢了。"
1325              }
1326            },
1327            {
1328              "text": {
1329                "en": "Planning per se isn't good. It's sometimes necessary, but it's a necessary evil — a response to unforgiving conditions. It's something you have to do because you're working with inflexible media, or because you need to coordinate the efforts of a lot of people. If you keep projects small and use flexible media, you don't have to plan as much, and your designs can evolve instead.",
1330                "zh": "规划本身并不好。它有时是必要的，但那是一种必要之恶——是对苛刻条件的应对。你之所以不得不规划，是因为你在跟不灵活的媒介打交道，或者因为你需要协调一大群人的行动。如果你把项目保持得小，又用灵活的媒介，你就不必规划那么多，你的设计也可以靠演化来成形。"
1331              }
1332            }
1333          ],
1334          "footnotes": [
1335            {
1336              "n": 21,
1337              "text": {
1338                "en": "Derived from Linus Pauling's \"If you want to have good ideas, you must have many ideas.\"",
1339                "zh": "源自鲍林（Linus Pauling）的那句话：\"如果你想有好点子，就必须有很多点子。\""
1340              }
1341            },
1342            {
1343              "n": 22,
1344              "text": {
1345                "en": "Attacking a project as a \"toy\" is similar to attacking a statement as \"inappropriate.\" It means that no more substantial criticism can be made to stick.",
1346                "zh": "把一个项目斥为\"玩具\"，跟把一句话斥为\"不合适\"是一回事。它意味着，再也找不出更实质的批评来站得住脚了。"
1347              }
1348            }
1349          ]
1350        },
1351        {
1352          "take": {
1353            "en": "Take as much risk as you can afford"
1354          },
1355          "quote": {
1356            "en": "If you're not failing occasionally, you're probably being too conservative."
1357          },
1358          "paragraphs": [
1359            {
1360              "text": {
1361                "en": "Take as much risk as you can afford. In an efficient market, risk is proportionate to reward, so don't look for certainty, but for a bet with high expected value. If you're not failing occasionally, you're probably being too conservative.",
1362                "zh": "在你承受得起的范围内，尽量多冒险。在一个有效的市场里，风险与回报成正比，所以别去找确定性，而要找一个期望值很高的赌注。如果你不时不时地失败，那你多半是太保守了。"
1363              }
1364            },
1365            {
1366              "text": {
1367                "en": "Though conservatism is usually associated with the old, it's the young who tend to make this mistake. Inexperience makes them fear risk, but it's when you're young that you can afford the most.",
1368                "zh": "尽管保守通常和年长联系在一起，可恰恰是年轻人更容易犯这个错。缺乏经验让他们害怕风险，但其实年轻时你才承受得起最多的风险。"
1369              }
1370            },
1371            {
1372              "text": {
1373                "en": "Even a project that fails can be valuable. In the process of working on it, you'll have crossed territory few others have seen, and encountered questions few others have asked. And there's probably no better source of questions than the ones you encounter in trying to do something slightly too hard.",

1374                "zh": "哪怕一个失败的项目也可能很有价值。在做它的过程中，你会跨越很少有人见过的地界，遇上很少有人问过的问题。而要说问题的来源，恐怕没有比你试着去做一件略微偏难的事时所遇到的那些更好的了。"
1375              }
1376            }
1377          ],
1378          "footnotes": []
1379        }
1380      ]
1381    },
1382    {
1383      "n": 10,
1384      "title": {
1385        "en": "Youth, Schools & Gatekeepers"
1386      },
1387      "essence": {
1388        "en": "Youth's real edge is fresh eyes and freedom from received nonsense — so shed school's passivity and need for permission."
1389      },
1390      "words": 899,
1391      "ideas": [
1392        {
1393          "take": {
1394            "en": "Use the advantages of youth — energy and freedom"
1395          },
1396          "quote": {
1397            "en": "Use the advantages of youth when you have them, and the advantages of age once you have those."
1398          },
1399          "paragraphs": [
1400            {
1401              "text": {
1402                "en": "Use the advantages of youth when you have them, and the advantages of age once you have those. The advantages of youth are energy, time, optimism, and freedom. The advantages of age are knowledge, efficiency, money, and power. With effort you can acquire some of the latter when young and keep some of the former when old.",
1403                "zh": "趁年轻时用上年轻的优势，等你拥有年长的优势时再用上它们。年轻的优势是精力、时间、乐观和自由。年长的优势是知识、效率、金钱和权力。下些功夫，你可以在年轻时就获得一些后者，也可以在年老时仍保有一些前者。"
1404              }
1405            },
1406            {
1407              "text": {
1408                "en": "The old also have the advantage of knowing which advantages they have. The young often have them without realizing it. The biggest is probably time. The young have no idea how rich they are in time. The best way to turn this time to advantage is to use it in slightly frivolous ways: to learn about something you don't need to know about, just out of curiosity, or to try building something just because it would be cool, or to become freakishly good at something.",
1409                "zh": "年长者还有一个优势，就是知道自己拥有哪些优势。年轻人常常拥有这些优势却浑然不觉。其中最大的大概是时间。年轻人根本不知道自己在时间上有多富有。把这些时间转化为优势的最好办法，是用得稍微“不务正业”一点：去了解一些你并不需要知道的事，纯粹出于好奇；或者只因为某样东西够酷就试着去做做看；又或者把某件事练到出奇地好。"
1410              }
1411            },
1412            {
1413              "text": {
1414                "en": "That \"slightly\" is an important qualification. Spend time lavishly when you're young, but don't simply waste it. There's a big difference between doing something you worry might be a waste of time and doing something you know for sure will be. The former is at least a bet, and possibly a better one than you think. [23]",
1415                "zh": "那个“稍微”是个重要的限定。年轻时要大手大脚地花时间，但别白白浪费它。做一件你担心可能是浪费时间的事，和做一件你明知一定是浪费时间的事，两者有很大区别。前者至少是个赌注，而且很可能是个比你以为的更划算的赌注。"
1416              }
1417            },
1418            {
1419              "text": {
1420                "en": "The most subtle advantage of youth, or more precisely of inexperience, is that you're seeing everything with fresh eyes. When your brain embraces an idea for the first time, sometimes the two don't fit together perfectly. Usually the problem is with your brain, but occasionally it's with the idea. A piece of it sticks out awkwardly and jabs you when you think about it. People who are used to the idea have learned to ignore it, but you have the opportunity not to. [24]",
1421                "zh": "年轻——更确切地说是缺乏经验——最微妙的一个优势，是你在用全新的眼光看一切。当你的大脑头一回接纳一个想法时，有时两者并不严丝合缝。通常出问题的是你的大脑，但偶尔出问题的是那个想法。它有一块别扭地支棱着，每当你想到它就硌你一下。习惯了这个想法的人已经学会无视它，而你却有机会不去无视。"
1422              }
1423            },
1424            {
1425              "text": {
1426                "en": "So when you're learning about something for the first time, pay attention to things that seem wrong or missing. You'll be tempted to ignore them, since there's a 99% chance the problem is with you. And you may have to set aside your misgivings temporarily to keep progressing. But don't forget about them. When you've gotten further into the subject, come back and check if they're still there. If they're still viable in the light of your present knowledge, they probably represent an undiscovered idea.",
1427                "zh": "所以，当你头一回了解某样东西时，要留意那些看起来不对劲或像是缺了什么的地方。你会忍不住想忽略它们，毕竟有 99% 的可能是你自己的问题。而且为了能继续往前走，你或许不得不暂时把这些疑虑搁在一边。但别把它们忘了。等你在这门学问里走得更深，回过头来看看它们是否还在。如果以你现在的知识来看它们依然站得住脚，那它们多半代表着一个尚未被发现的想法。"
1428              }
1429            }
1430          ],
1431          "footnotes": [
1432            {
1433              "n": 23,
1434              "text": {
1435                "en": "One way to tell whether you're wasting time is to ask if you're producing or consuming. Writing computer games is less likely to be a waste of time than playing them, and playing games where you create something is less likely to be a waste of time than playing games where you don't.",
1436                "zh": "判断自己是否在浪费时间，有一个办法，就是问问你是在生产还是å

1436œ¨æ¶ˆè´¹ã€‚写电脑游戏比玩电脑游戏更不容易是浪费时间，而玩那种让你创造点东西的游戏，又比玩什么都不创造的游戏更不容易是浪费时间。"
1437              }
1438            },
1439            {
1440              "n": 24,
1441              "text": {
1442                "en": "Another related advantage is that if you haven't said anything publicly yet, you won't be biased toward evidence that supports your earlier conclusions. With sufficient integrity you could achieve eternal youth in this respect, but few manage to. For most people, having previously published opinions has an effect similar to ideology, just in quantity 1.",
1443                "zh": "还有一个相关的好处是：如果你还没公开说过什么，你就不会偏向那些支持你早先结论的证据。只要有足够的操守，你在这方面本可以永葆青春，但很少有人能做到。对大多数人来说，曾公开发表过的观点，其作用类似于意识形态，只是数量为 1 而已。"
1444              }
1445            }
1446          ]
1447        },
1448        {
1449          "take": {
1450            "en": "Inexperience means fresh eyes — so unlearn school's passivity"
1451          },
1452          "quote": {
1453            "en": "Much of the nonsense left in your head is left there by schools."
1454          },
1455          "paragraphs": [
1456            {
1457              "text": {
1458                "en": "One of the most valuable kinds of knowledge you get from experience is to know what you don't have to worry about. The young know all the things that could matter, but not their relative importance. So they worry equally about everything, when they should worry much more about a few things and hardly at all about the rest.",
1459                "zh": "从经验中获得的最有价值的知识之一，就是知道哪些事你不必去操心。年轻人知道所有可能要紧的东西，却不知道它们彼此之间的轻重。于是他们对什么都同等地担忧，而其实他们应该对少数几件事多担忧得多，对其余的几乎不必去管。"
1460              }
1461            },
1462            {
1463              "text": {
1464                "en": "But what you don't know is only half the problem with inexperience. The other half is what you do know that ain't so. You arrive at adulthood with your head full of nonsense — bad habits you've acquired and false things you've been taught — and you won't be able to do great work till you clear away at least the nonsense in the way of whatever type of work you want to do.",
1465                "zh": "但你不知道的东西，只是缺乏经验带来的一半问题。另一半是你以为自己知道、其实并非如此的东西。你带着满脑子的胡言乱语步入成年——那些你养成的坏习惯，以及别人教给你的错误东西——而你必须至少清除掉那些挡在你想做的那类工作前面的胡言乱语，才有可能做出伟大的工作。"
1466              }
1467            },
1468            {
1469              "text": {
1470                "en": "Much of the nonsense left in your head is left there by schools. We're so used to schools that we unconsciously treat going to school as identical with learning, but in fact schools have all sorts of strange qualities that warp our ideas about learning and thinking.",
1471                "zh": "你脑子里留下的那些胡言乱语，很多是学校留下的。我们太习惯学校了，以至于会不自觉地把上学等同于学习，可学校其实有种种古怪的特性，扭曲了我们对学习和思考的看法。"
1472              }
1473            },
1474            {
1475              "text": {
1476                "en": "For example, schools induce passivity. Since you were a small child, there was an authority at the front of the class telling all of you what you had to learn and then measuring whether you did. But neither classes nor tests are intrinsic to learning; they're just artifacts of the way schools are usually designed.",
1477                "zh": "比如说，学校会让人变得被动。从你还是个小孩子起，教室前面就有一位权威，告诉你们所有人必须学什么，然后再来衡量你们学没学到。但课堂也好、考试也好，都不是学习本身固有的东西；它们不过是学校通常那种设计方式的产物罢了。"
1478              }
1479            },
1480            {
1481              "text": {
1482                "en": "The sooner you overcome this passivity, the better. If you're still in school, try thinking of your education as your project, and your teachers as working for you rather than vice versa. That may seem a stretch, but it's not merely some weird thought experiment. It's the truth economically, and in the best case it's the truth intellectually as well. The best teachers don't want to be your bosses. They'd prefer it if you pushed ahead, using them as a source of advice, rather than being pulled by them through the material.",
1483                "zh": "你越早摆脱这种被动越好。如果你还在上学，不妨试着把你的教育当成你自己的项目，把老师当成是为你工作，而不是反过来。这听上去或许有点牵强，但它并不只是某种古怪的思想实验。从经济上讲它就是事实，而在最理想的情况下，从智识上讲也同样是事实。最好的老师并不想当你的老板ã€

1483‚比起拽着你穿过那些教材，他们更希望你自己往前冲，把他们当成一个征求建议的来源。"
1484              }
1485            },
1486            {
1487              "text": {
1488                "en": "Schools also give you a misleading impression of what work is like. In school they tell you what the problems are, and they're almost always soluble using no more than you've been taught so far. In real life you have to figure out what the problems are, and you often don't know if they're soluble at all.",
1489                "zh": "学校还会让你对工作是什么样产生误导性的印象。在学校里，他们会告诉你问题是什么，而且这些问题几乎总能用你迄今学到的东西就解出来。可在现实生活中，你得自己弄清楚问题是什么，而且你往往根本不知道它们到底能不能解。"
1490              }
1491            },
1492            {
1493              "text": {
1494                "en": "But perhaps the worst thing schools do to you is train you to win by hacking the test. You can't do great work by doing that. You can't trick God. So stop looking for that kind of shortcut. The way to beat the system is to focus on problems and solutions that others have overlooked, not to skimp on the work itself.",
1495                "zh": "但学校对你做的最糟糕的事，也许是训练你靠钻考试的空子来取胜。靠那样是做不出伟大工作的。你糊弄不了上帝。所以别再去找那种捷径了。战胜这套系统的办法，是去关注别人忽略掉的问题和解法，而不是在工作本身上偷工减料。"
1496              }
1497            }
1498          ],
1499          "footnotes": []
1500        },
1501        {
1502          "take": {
1503            "en": "Don't wait for a gatekeeper's “big break”"
1504          },
1505          "quote": {
1506            "en": "The qualities that impress admissions officers and prize committees are quite different from those required to do great work."
1507          },
1508          "paragraphs": [
1509            {
1510              "text": {
1511                "en": "Don't think of yourself as dependent on some gatekeeper giving you a \"big break.\" Even if this were true, the best way to get it would be to focus on doing good work rather than chasing influential people.",
1512                "zh": "别把自己想成要仰仗某个守门人来给你一个“重大机遇”。即便真是如此，得到它的最好办法也是专注把工作做好，而不是去追逐有影响力的人。"
1513              }
1514            },
1515            {
1516              "text": {
1517                "en": "And don't take rejection by committees to heart. The qualities that impress admissions officers and prize committees are quite different from those required to do great work. The decisions of selection committees are only meaningful to the extent that they're part of a feedback loop, and very few are.",
1518                "zh": "也别把被各种委员会拒绝放在心上。能打动招生官和评奖委员会的那些素质，和做出伟大工作所需要的素质相当不一样。选拔委员会的决定只有在它们属于某个反馈回路的一部分时才有意义，而极少有委员会是这样的。"
1519              }
1520            }
1521          ],
1522          "footnotes": []
1523        }
1524      ]
1525    },
1526    {
1527      "n": 11,
1528      "title": {
1529        "en": "Copying & Colleagues"
1530      },
1531      "essence": {
1532        "en": "Learn by copying well — especially across fields — then surround yourself with the best possible colleagues."
1533      },
1534      "words": 981,
1535      "ideas": [
1536        {
1537          "take": {
1538            "en": "Learn by copying — the right way, and across fields"
1539          },
1540          "quote": {
1541            "en": "Originality is the presence of new ideas, not the absence of old ones."
1542          },
1543          "paragraphs": [
1544            {
1545              "text": {
1546                "en": "People new to a field will often copy existing work. There's nothing inherently bad about that. There's no better way to learn how something works than by trying to reproduce it. Nor does copying necessarily make your work unoriginal. Originality is the presence of new ideas, not the absence of old ones.",
1547                "zh": "刚进入一个领域的人常常会模仿现有的作品。这本身没什么不好。要弄懂一样东西是怎么运作的，没有比试着把它复现出来更好的办法了。模仿也未必会让你的作品变得缺乏原创。原创是新想法的在场，而不是旧想法的缺席。"
1548              }
1549            },
1550            {
1551              "text": {
1552                "en": "There's a good way to copy and a bad way. If you're going to copy something, do it openly instead of furtively, or worse still, unconsciously. This is what's meant b

1552y the famously misattributed phrase \"Great artists steal.\" The really dangerous kind of copying, the kind that gives copying a bad name, is the kind that's done without realizing it, because you're nothing more than a train running on tracks laid down by someone else. But at the other extreme, copying can be a sign of superiority rather than subordination. [25]",
1553                "zh": "模仿有好的方式，也有坏的方式。如果你要模仿什么，就光明正大地去模仿，而不要偷偷摸摸，更不要不知不觉地去模仿。这正是那句被广为误传的话——“伟大的艺术家偷窃”——所要表达的意思。真正危险的那种模仿，那种让模仿背上恶名的模仿，是你毫无察觉地进行的那种，因为那时你不过是一列在别人铺好的轨道上行驶的火车。但在另一个极端，模仿也可以是优越而非从属的标志。"
1554              }
1555            },
1556            {
1557              "text": {
1558                "en": "In many fields it's almost inevitable that your early work will be in some sense based on other people's. Projects rarely arise in a vacuum. They're usually a reaction to previous work. When you're first starting out, you don't have any previous work; if you're going to react to something, it has to be someone else's. Once you're established, you can react to your own. But while the former gets called derivative and the latter doesn't, structurally the two cases are more similar than they seem.",
1559                "zh": "在许多领域里，你早期的作品几乎不可避免地会在某种意义上建立在别人的作品之上。项目很少凭空冒出来，它们通常是对先前作品的一种回应。当你刚起步时，你没有任何先前的作品；如果你要去回应什么，那只能是别人的东西。等你站稳脚跟之后，你就可以回应自己的作品了。可尽管前者会被叫做“衍生之作”而后者不会，从结构上看这两种情形比表面上看起来要相似得多。"
1560              }
1561            },
1562            {
1563              "text": {
1564                "en": "Oddly enough, the very novelty of the most novel ideas sometimes makes them seem at first to be more derivative than they are. New discoveries often have to be conceived initially as variations of existing things, even by their discoverers, because there isn't yet the conceptual vocabulary to express them.",
1565                "zh": "说来也怪，最新颖的那些想法，正因为其新颖，有时一开始反倒显得比实际更像衍生之作。新发现往往在最初——甚至在发现者自己眼中——都不得不被构想成现有事物的某种变体，因为那时还没有用来表达它们的概念词汇。"
1566              }
1567            },
1568            {
1569              "text": {
1570                "en": "There are definitely some dangers to copying, though. One is that you'll tend to copy old things — things that were in their day at the frontier of knowledge, but no longer are.",
1571                "zh": "不过，模仿确实有一些危险。其一是你往往会去模仿陈旧的东西——那些在它们的时代曾处于知识前沿、但如今已不再如此的东西。"
1572              }
1573            },
1574            {
1575              "text": {
1576                "en": "And when you do copy something, don't copy every feature of it. Some will make you ridiculous if you do. Don't copy the manner of an eminent 50 year old professor if you're 18, for example, or the idiom of a Renaissance poem hundreds of years later.",
1577                "zh": "而当你确实要模仿某样东西时，别把它的每一个特征都照搬过来。有些特征你照搬了会让你显得很可笑。比方说，如果你才十八岁，别去模仿一位德高望重的五十岁教授的做派；隔了几百年，也别去模仿一首文艺复兴时期诗歌的语言风格。"
1578              }
1579            },
1580            {
1581              "text": {
1582                "en": "Some of the features of things you admire are flaws they succeeded despite. Indeed, the features that are easiest to imitate are the most likely to be the flaws.",
1583                "zh": "你所仰慕的东西，其有些特征其实是它尽管有却依然成功的缺陷。事实上，最容易被模仿的那些特征，恰恰最有可能是缺陷。"
1584              }
1585            },
1586            {
1587              "text": {
1588                "en": "This is particularly true for behavior. Some talented people are jerks, and this sometimes makes it seem to the inexperienced that being a jerk is part of being talented. It isn't; being talented is merely how they get away with it.",
1589                "zh": "对于行为来说尤其如此。有些有才华的人是混蛋，这有时会让缺乏经验的人误以为当混蛋是有才华的一部分。其实并非如此；有才华只不过是他们得以混蛋而不受惩处的原因罢了。"
1590              }
1591            },
1592            {
1593              "text": {

1594                "en": "One of the most powerful kinds of copying is to copy something from one field into another. History is so full of chance discoveries of this type that it's probably worth giving chance a hand by deliberately learning about other kinds of work. You can take ideas from quite distant fields if you let them be metaphors.",
1595                "zh": "最有威力的模仿方式之一，是把某个领域里的东西搬到另一个领域去。历史上这类偶然的发现多得是，所以特意去了解其他类型的工作，给偶然帮上一把忙，大概是值得的。只要你愿意把它们当作隐喻，你就能从相当遥远的领域里汲取想法。"
1596              }
1597            },
1598            {
1599              "text": {
1600                "en": "Negative examples can be as inspiring as positive ones. In fact you can sometimes learn more from things done badly than from things done well; sometimes it only becomes clear what's needed when it's missing.",
1601                "zh": "反面例子和正面例子一样能给人启发。事实上，有时你从做得糟的事里学到的，比从做得好的事里学到的还要多；有时只有当某样东西缺席时，人们才看清究竟需要什么。"
1602              }
1603            }
1604          ],
1605          "footnotes": [
1606            {
1607              "n": 25,
1608              "text": {
1609                "en": "In the early 1630s Daniel Mytens made a painting of Henrietta Maria handing a laurel wreath to Charles I. Van Dyck then painted his own version to show how much better he was.",
1610                "zh": "在 1630 年代初，丹尼尔·迈滕斯（Daniel Mytens）画了一幅画，画的是亨丽埃塔·玛丽亚（Henrietta Maria）把一顶桂冠递给查理一世。随后凡·戴克（Van Dyck）画了他自己的版本，以显示自己高明多少。"
1611              }
1612            }
1613          ]
1614        },
1615        {
1616          "take": {
1617            "en": "Go where the best people in your field gather"
1618          },
1619          "quote": {
1620            "en": "If a lot of the best people in your field are collected in one place, it's usually a good idea to visit for a while."
1621          },
1622          "paragraphs": [
1623            {
1624              "text": {
1625                "en": "If a lot of the best people in your field are collected in one place, it's usually a good idea to visit for a while. It will increase your ambition, and also, by showing you that these people are human, increase your self-confidence. [26]",
1626                "zh": "如果你所在领域里很多最优秀的人都聚集在一个地方，那么去待上一阵子通常是个好主意。这会增进你的雄心，而且通过让你看到这些人也不过是凡人，还会增强你的自信。"
1627              }
1628            },
1629            {
1630              "text": {
1631                "en": "If you're earnest you'll probably get a warmer welcome than you might expect. Most people who are very good at something are happy to talk about it with anyone who's genuinely interested. If they're really good at their work, then they probably have a hobbyist's interest in it, and hobbyists always want to talk about their hobbies.",
1632                "zh": "如果你足够真诚，你受到的欢迎大概会比你预想的更热情。大多数在某件事上非常出色的人，都乐意和任何真正感兴趣的人聊起它。如果他们对自己的工作确实很在行，那他们对它多半怀有一种发烧友式的兴趣，而发烧友总是想聊自己的爱好。"
1633              }
1634            },
1635            {
1636              "text": {
1637                "en": "It may take some effort to find the people who are really good, though. Doing great work has such prestige that in some places, particularly universities, there's a polite fiction that everyone is engaged in it. And that is far from true. People within universities can't say so openly, but the quality of the work being done in different departments varies immensely. Some departments have people doing great work; others have in the past; others never have.",
1638                "zh": "不过，要找到真正出色的人可能得费一番功夫。做出伟大工作是如此有声望，以至于在某些地方，尤其是在大学里，存在着一种客套的虚构：人人都在从事这样的工作。而事实远非如此。大学里的人没法公开这么说，但不同院系所做工作的质量天差地别。有些院系里有人在做伟大的工作；有些院系过去曾有过；还有些院系则从来不曾有过。"
1639              }
1640            }
1641          ],
1642          "footnotes": [
1643            {
1644              "n": 26,
1645              "text": {
1646                "en": "I'm being deliberately vague about what a place is. As of this writing, being in the same physical place has advantages that are hard to duplicate, but that c

1646ould change.",
1647                "zh": "我在\"地方\"指什么这件事上是有意含糊其辞的。就写下这段话的当下而言，身处同一个物理地点有着难以复制的好处，但这一点将来可能会改变。"
1648              }
1649            }
1650          ]
1651        },
1652        {
1653          "take": {
1654            "en": "Seek out the best colleagues — quality over quantity"
1655          },
1656          "quote": {
1657            "en": "work with people you want to become like, because you will."
1658          },
1659          "paragraphs": [
1660            {
1661              "text": {
1662                "en": "Seek out the best colleagues. There are a lot of projects that can't be done alone, and even if you're working on one that can be, it's good to have other people to encourage you and to bounce ideas off.",
1663                "zh": "去寻找最好的同伴。有很多项目是没法一个人完成的，而即便你做的是一个能独自完成的项目，有别人来鼓励你、和你互相切磋想法也是好事。"
1664              }
1665            },
1666            {
1667              "text": {
1668                "en": "Colleagues don't just affect your work, though; they also affect you. So work with people you want to become like, because you will.",
1669                "zh": "不过同伴影响的不只是你的工作，他们也会影响你这个人。所以要和那些你想成为的那种人共事，因为你真的会变成那样。"
1670              }
1671            },
1672            {
1673              "text": {
1674                "en": "Quality is more important than quantity in colleagues. It's better to have one or two great ones than a building full of pretty good ones. In fact it's not merely better, but necessary, judging from history: the degree to which great work happens in clusters suggests that one's colleagues often make the difference between doing great work and not.",
1675                "zh": "在同伴这件事上，质比量更重要。有一两个出类拔萃的同伴，胜过满满一栋楼相当不错的人。事实上，从历史来看，这不仅是更好，而且是必需的：伟大的工作往往成簇出现，这种程度表明，一个人的同伴常常决定了他能否做出伟大的工作。"
1676              }
1677            },
1678            {
1679              "text": {
1680                "en": "How do you know when you have sufficiently good colleagues? In my experience, when you do, you know. Which means if you're unsure, you probably don't. But it may be possible to give a more concrete answer than that. Here's an attempt: sufficiently good colleagues offer surprising insights. They can see and do things that you can't. So if you have a handful of colleagues good enough to keep you on your toes in this sense, you're probably over the threshold.",
1681                "zh": "你怎么知道自己已经有了足够好的同伴呢？以我的经验，等你真有了，你自己会知道。这也就意味着，如果你拿不准，那你多半还没有。不过或许可以给出一个比这更具体的答案。下面是一个尝试：足够好的同伴会带给你出人意料的洞见。他们能看到、能做到你做不到的事。所以，如果你身边有那么几个好到能在这个意义上让你时刻打起精神的同伴，那你大概就已经过了那道门槛。"
1682              }
1683            },
1684            {
1685              "text": {
1686                "en": "Most of us can benefit from collaborating with colleagues, but some projects require people on a larger scale, and starting one of those is not for everyone. If you want to run a project like that, you'll have to become a manager, and managing well takes aptitude and interest like any other kind of work. If you don't have them, there is no middle path: you must either force yourself to learn management as a second language, or avoid such projects. [27]",
1687                "zh": "我们大多数人都能从与同伴的协作中获益，但有些项目需要更大规模的人力，而发起这样的项目并不适合每个人。如果你想运作那样的项目，你就得成为一名管理者，而管好它和任何别的工作一样，需要相应的天赋和兴趣。如果你不具备这两样，那就没有中间道路可走：你要么逼着自己把管理当成第二语言学会，要么避开这类项目。"
1688              }
1689            }
1690          ],
1691          "footnotes": [
1692            {
1693              "n": 27,
1694              "text": {
1695                "en": "This is false when the work the other people have to do is very constrained, as with SETI@home or Bitcoin. It may be possible to expand the area in which it's false by defining similarly restricted protocols with more freedom of action in the nodes.",
1696                "zh": "当其他人要做的工作受到极强约束时，这句话就不成立了，比如 SETI@home 或比特币那样。或许可以通过设计类似的受限协议、同时给各节点更多自由度，来扩大它不成立的范围。"
1697              }
1698            }
1699          ]
1700        }
1701      ]
1702    },
1703    {
1704      "n": 12,
1705      "title": {
1706        "en": "Morale"
1707      },

1708      "essence": {
1709        "en": "Morale is the foundation of ambitious work — protect it through your outlook, your audience, your people, and your body."
1710      },
1711      "words": 741,
1712      "ideas": [
1713        {
1714          "take": {
1715            "en": "Husband your morale — it's the basis of everything"
1716          },
1717          "quote": {
1718            "en": "It's the basis of everything when you're working on ambitious projects. You have to nurture and protect it like a living organism."
1719          },
1720          "paragraphs": [
1721            {
1722              "text": {
1723                "en": "Husband your morale. It's the basis of everything when you're working on ambitious projects. You have to nurture and protect it like a living organism.",
1724                "zh": "悉心经营你的士气。当你在做有抱负的项目时，它是一切的根基。你得像照料一个活的有机体那样去滋养和保护它。"
1725              }
1726            },
1727            {
1728              "text": {
1729                "en": "Morale starts with your view of life. You're more likely to do great work if you're an optimist, and more likely to if you think of yourself as lucky than if you think of yourself as a victim.",
1730                "zh": "士气始于你对生活的看法。如果你是个乐观主义者，你更有可能做出伟大工作；如果你把自己看作幸运儿，而不是看作受害者，你也更有可能。"
1731              }
1732            },
1733            {
1734              "text": {
1735                "en": "Indeed, work can to some extent protect you from your problems. If you choose work that's pure, its very difficulties will serve as a refuge from the difficulties of everyday life. If this is escapism, it's a very productive form of it, and one that has been used by some of the greatest minds in history.",
1736                "zh": "事实上，工作在某种程度上能保护你免受自身困扰的侵袭。如果你选择的工作是纯粹的，那么它本身的种种艰难，反而会成为你逃避日常生活之艰难的庇护所。如果这算逃避现实，那也是一种极富成效的逃避，历史上一些最伟大的头脑都用过它。"
1737              }
1738            },
1739            {
1740              "text": {
1741                "en": "Morale compounds via work: high morale helps you do good work, which increases your morale and helps you do even better work. But this cycle also operates in the other direction: if you're not doing good work, that can demoralize you and make it even harder to. Since it matters so much for this cycle to be running in the right direction, it can be a good idea to switch to easier work when you're stuck, just so you start to get something done.",
1742                "zh": "士气通过工作而复利增长：高昂的士气帮助你做出好工作，而好工作又提升你的士气，帮助你做出更好的工作。但这个循环也会朝相反方向运转：如果你做不出好工作，那会让你士气低落，进而更难做出好工作。正因为让这个循环朝正确方向运转如此重要，所以当你卡住时，换去做些更容易的工作可能是个好主意，只为让自己开始做出点什么。"
1743              }
1744            },
1745            {
1746              "text": {
1747                "en": "One of the biggest mistakes ambitious people make is to allow setbacks to destroy their morale all at once, like a balloon bursting. You can inoculate yourself against this by explicitly considering setbacks a part of your process. Solving hard problems always involves some backtracking.",
1748                "zh": "有抱负的人犯的最大错误之一，就是任由挫折一下子摧毁他们的士气，像气球被戳破一样。你可以给自己打预防针，办法是明确地把挫折当作你过程中的一部分。解决难题总是免不了要回溯。"
1749              }
1750            },
1751            {
1752              "text": {
1753                "en": "Doing great work is a depth-first search whose root node is the desire to. So \"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again\" isn't quite right. It should be: If at first you don't succeed, either try again, or backtrack and then try again.",
1754                "zh": "做出伟大工作是一场深度优先搜索，其根节点是“想要去做”这个愿望。所以“一次不成，再试，再试”这句话并不完全对。它应该是：一次不成，要么再试，要么先回溯再试。"
1755              }
1756            },
1757            {
1758              "text": {
1759                "en": "\"Never give up\" is also not quite right. Obviously there are times when it's the right choice to eject. A more precise version would be: Never let setbacks panic you into backtracking more than you need to. Corollary: Never abandon the root node.",
1760                "zh": "“永不放弃”也不完全对。显然有些时

1760候，及时抽身才是正确的选择。一个更精确的说法是：永远不要让挫折把你吓得回溯得超过必要的程度。推论：永远不要放弃根节点。"
1761              }
1762            },
1763            {
1764              "text": {
1765                "en": "It's not necessarily a bad sign if work is a struggle, any more than it's a bad sign to be out of breath while running. It depends how fast you're running. So learn to distinguish good pain from bad. Good pain is a sign of effort; bad pain is a sign of damage.",
1766                "zh": "工作艰难未必是坏兆头，正如跑步时喘不过气未必是坏兆头一样。这取决于你跑得多快。所以要学会区分好的痛苦和坏的痛苦。好的痛苦是努力的标志；坏的痛苦是损伤的标志。"
1767              }
1768            }
1769          ],
1770          "footnotes": []
1771        },
1772        {
1773          "take": {
1774            "en": "Keep a real audience close; mind your people and body"
1775          },
1776          "quote": {
1777            "en": "If a handful of people genuinely love what you're doing, that's enough."
1778          },
1779          "paragraphs": [
1780            {
1781              "text": {
1782                "en": "An audience is a critical component of morale. If you're a scholar, your audience may be your peers; in the arts, it may be an audience in the traditional sense. Either way it doesn't need to be big. The value of an audie

1782nce doesn't grow anything like linearly with its size. Which is bad news if you're famous, but good news if you're just starting out, because it means a small but dedicated audience can be enough to sustain you. If a handful of people genuinely love what you're doing, that's enough.",
1783                "zh": "听众是士气的关键组成部分。如果你是学者，你的听众可能是同行；在艺术领域，听众可能就是传统意义上的观众。无论哪种情况，听众都不需要很多。听众的价值并不随着人数线性增长。这对名人来说是坏消息，但对刚起步的人来说是好消息，因为这意味着一小群忠实的听众就足以支撑你。如果有那么几个人真心热爱你所做的事，那就够了。"
1784              }
1785            },
1786            {
1787              "text": {
1788                "en": "To the extent you can, avoid letting intermediaries come between you and your audience. In some types of work this is inevitable, but it's so liberating to escape it that you might be better off switching to an adjacent type if that will let you go direct. [28]",
1789                "zh": "在你力所能及的范围内，避免让中间人横亘在你和听众之间。在某些类型的工作中这无法避免，但摆脱它是如此令人解放，以至于如果换一个相邻的工作类型能让你直接面对听众，你也许更值得换过去。"
1790              }
1791            },
1792            {
1793              "text": {
1794                "en": "The people you spend time with will also have a big effect on your morale. You'll find there are some who increase your energy and others who decrease it, and the effect someone has is not always what you'd expect. Seek out the people who increase your energy and avoid those who decrease it. Though of course if there's someone you need to take care of, that takes precedence.",
1795                "zh": "你相处的人也会对你的士气产生很大影响。你会发现，有些人能提升你的精力，有些人则会削弱它，而某个人带来的影响并不总是你预期的那样。去寻找那些提升你精力的人，避开那些削弱它的人。当然，如果有某个你需要照顾的人，那要优先考虑。"
1796              }
1797            },
1798            {
1799              "text": {
1800                "en": "Don't marry someone who doesn't understand that you need to work, or sees your work as competition for your attention. If you're ambitious, you need to work; it's almost like a medical condition; so someone who won't let you work either doesn't understand you, or does and doesn't care.",
1801                "zh": "不要和一个不理解你需要工作、或者把你的工作看成是在争夺你注意力的人结婚。如果你有抱负，你就需要工作；这几乎像是一种身体上的状况；所以一个不让你工作的人，要么是不理解你，要么是理解却不在乎。"
1802              }
1803            },
1804            {
1805              "text": {
1806                "en": "Ultimately morale is physical. You think with your body, so it's important to take care of it. That means exercising regularly, eating and sleeping well, and avoiding the more dangerous kinds of drugs. Running and walking are particularly good forms of exercise because they're good for thinking. [29]",
1807                "zh": "归根结底，士气是身体层面的。你是用身体来思考的，所以照顾好它很重要。这意味着规律地锻炼，吃好睡好，避开那些更危险的药物。跑步和散步是特别好的锻炼方式，因为它们有益于思考。"
1808              }
1809            },
1810            {
1811              "text": {
1812                "en": "People who do great work are not necessarily happier than everyone else, but they're happier than they'd be if they didn't. In fact, if you're smart and ambitious, it's dangerous not to be productive. People who are smart and ambitious but don't achieve much tend to become bitter.",
1813                "zh": "做出伟大工作的人未必比其他所有人更快乐，但他们比不做这些事时的自己更快乐。事实上，如果你聪明又有抱负，不去高äº

1813§æ˜¯å±é™©çš„。那些聪明、有抱负却没什么成就的人，往往会变得愤世嫉俗。"
1814              }
1815            }
1816          ],
1817          "footnotes": [
1818            {
1819              "n": 28,
1820              "text": {
1821                "en": "Corollary: Building something that enables people to go around intermediaries and engage directly with their audience is probably a good idea.",
1822                "zh": "推论：去做一件能让人们绕开中间人、直接与自己受众打交道的东西，多半是个好主意。"
1823              }
1824            },
1825            {
1826              "n": 29,
1827              "text": {
1828                "en": "It may be helpful always to walk or run the same route, because that frees attention for thinking. It feels that way to me, and there is some historical evidence for it. Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Daniel Gackle, Pam Graham, Tom Howard, Patrick Hsu, Steve Huffman, Jessica Livingston, Henry Lloyd-Baker, Bob Metcalfe, Ben Miller, Robert Morris, Michael Nielsen, Courtenay Pipkin, Joris Poort, Mieke Roos, Rajat Suri, Harj Taggar, Garry Tan, and my younger son for suggestions and for reading drafts.",
1829                "zh": "总是走或跑同一条路线也许会有帮助，因为这样能把注意力腾出来用于思考。至少我自己感觉是这样，而且也有一些历史上的佐证。感谢 Trevor Blackwell、Daniel Gackle、Pam Graham、Tom Howard、Patrick Hsu、Steve Huffman、Jessica Livingston、Henry Lloyd-Baker、Bob Metcalfe、Ben Miller、Robert Morris、Michael Nielsen、Courtenay Pipkin、Joris Poort、Mieke Roos、Rajat Suri、Harj Taggar、Garry Tan，以及我的小儿子，感谢他们提出建议并阅读了草稿。"
1830              }
1831            }
1832          ]
1833        }
1834      ]
1835    },
1836    {
1837      "n": 13,
1838      "title": {
1839        "en": "Curiosity, the Key"
1840      },
1841      "essence": {
1842        "en": "One thread runs through everything — curiosity. It picks the field, drives you to the frontier, finds the gaps, and powers the work."
1843      },
1844      "words": 265,
1845      "ideas": [
1846        {
1847          "take": {
1848            "en": "Impress the right people — and let curiosity be your guide"
1849          },
1850          "quote": {
1851            "en": "Your curiosity never lies, and it knows more than you do about what's worth paying attention to."
1852          },
1853          "paragraphs": [
1854            {
1855              "text": {
1856                "en": "It's ok to want to impress other people, but choose the right people. The opinion of people you respect is signal. Fame, which is the opinion of a much larger group you might or might not respect, just adds noise.",
1857                "zh": "想给别人留下深刻印象是没问题的，但要选对人。你尊敬的人的看法是信号。名声，也就是一个大得多、你未必尊敬的群体的看法，只会增加噪音。"
1858              }
1859            },
1860            {
1861              "text": {
1862                "en": "The prestige of a type of work is at best a trailing indicator and sometimes completely mistaken. If you do anything well enough, you'll make it prestigious. So the question to ask about a type of work is not how much prestige it has, but how well it could be done.",
1863                "zh": "一种工作的声望充其量是个滞后指标，有时甚至完全是错的。任何事只要你做得足够好，你就能让它变得有声望。所以，对一种工作要问的不是它有多少声望，而是它能被做得多好。"
1864              }
1865            },
1866            {
1867              "text": {
1868                "en": "Competition can be an effective motivator, but don't let it choose the problem for you; don't let yourself get drawn into chasing something just because others are. In fact, don't let competitors make you do anything much more specific than work harder.",
1869                "zh": "竞争可以是有效的动力，但别让它替你选择问题；别让自己仅仅因为别人都在追逐某样东西就被卷进去。事实上，别让竞争对手逼你做任何比“更努力工作”更具体的事。"
1870              }
1871            },
1872            {
1873              "text": {
1874                "en": "Curiosity is the best guide. Your curiosity never lies, and it knows more than you do about what's worth paying attention to.",
1875                "zh": "好奇心是最好的向导。你的好奇心从不撒谎，而且关于什么值得关注，它知道的比你多。"
1876              }
1877            }
1878          ],
1879          "footnotes": []
1880        },
1881        {
1882          "take": {
1883            "en": "Curiosity is the key to every step of great work"
1884          },
1885          "quote": {
1886            "en": "Curiosity is the key to all four steps in doing great work: it will choose the field for you, get you to the frontier, cause you to notice the gaps in it, and drive you to explore them."
1887          },
1888          "paragraphs": [
1889            {
1890              "text": {
1891                "en": "Notice how often that word has come up. If you asked an oracle the secret to doing great work and the oracle replied with a single word, my bet would be on \"curiosity.\"",
1892                "zh": "注意这个词出现得有多频繁。如果你问神谕做出伟大工作的秘诀是什么，而神谕只用一个词来回答，我会押注在“好奇心”上。"
1893              }
1894            },
1895            {
1896              "text": {
1897                "en": "That doesn't translate directly to advice. It's not enough just to be curious, and you can't command curiosity anyway. But you can nurture it and let it drive you.",
1898                "zh": "这并不能直接转化为建议。光是好奇是不够的，而且你也无法命令好奇心出现。但你可以滋养它，让它驱动你。"
1899              }
1900            },
1901            {
1902              "text": {
1903                "en": "Curiosity is the key to all four steps in doing great work: it will choose the field for you, get you to the frontier, cause you to notice the gaps in it, and drive you to explore them. The whole process is a kind of dance with curiosity.",
1904                "zh": "好奇心是做出伟大工作的全部四个步骤的关键：它会为你选择领域，把你带到前沿，让你注意到前沿处的空隙，并驱使你去探索它们。整个过程就是一种与好奇心共舞。"
1905              }
1906            }
1907          ],
1908          "footnotes": []
1909        }
1910      ]
1911    },
1912    {
1913      "n": 14,
1914      "title": {
1915        "en": "Why Not You?"
1916      },

1917      "essence": {
1918        "en": "He tried to make it short. The factors multiply, there are many paths, and most who could do great work never try. So — why not you?"
1919      },
1920      "words": 435,
1921      "ideas": [
1922        {
1923          "take": {
1924            "en": "The discoveries are waiting — why not you?"
1925          },
1926          "quote": {
1927            "en": "The discoveries are out there, waiting to be made."
1928          },
1929          "paragraphs": [
1930            {
1931              "text": {
1932                "en": "Believe it or not, I tried to make this essay as short as I could. But its length at least means it acts as a filter. If you made it this far, you must be interested in doing great work. And if so you're already further along than you might realize, because the set of people willing to want to is small.",
1933                "zh": "信不信由你，我已经尽我所能把这篇文章写得尽量短了。但它的长度至少意味着它起到了一个过滤器的作用。如果你读到了这里，你一定对做出伟大工作感兴趣。如果是这样，你已经比你以为的走得更远了，因为愿意去想做出伟大工作的人，本就为数不多。"
1934              }
1935            },
1936            {
1937              "text": {
1938                "en": "The factors in doing great work are factors in the literal, mathematical sense, and they are: ability, interest, effort, and luck. Luck by definition you can't do anything about, so we can ignore that. And we can assume effort, if you do in fact want to do great work. So the problem boils down to ability and interest. Can you find a kind of work where your ability and interest will combine to yield an explosion of new ideas?",
1939                "zh": "做出伟大工作的因素，是字面意义上、数学意义上的因子，它们是：能力、兴趣、努力和运气。运气按定义你无能为力，所以我们可以忽略它。而我们可以假定努力是有的，如果你确实想做出伟大工作的话。于是问题归结为能力和兴趣。你能否找到一种工作，让你的能力和兴趣结合起来，引爆新想法的喷涌？"
1940              }
1941            },
1942            {
1943              "text": {
1944                "en": "Here there are grounds for optimism. There are so many different ways to do great work, and even more that are still undiscovered. Out of all those different types of work, the one you're most suited for is probably a pretty close match. Probably a comically close match. It's just a question of finding it, and how far into it your ability and interest can take you. And you can only answer that by trying.",
1945                "zh": "在这里有理由保持乐观。做出伟大工作的方式如此之多，而尚未被发现的方式更多。在所有这些不同类型的工作中，最适合你的那一种，很可能是个相当贴切的匹配。很可能是贴切到滑稽的匹配。问题只在于找到它，以及你的能力和兴趣能带你在其中走多远。而这一点，你只有去尝试才能回答。"
1946              }
1947            },
1948            {
1949              "text": {
1950                "en": "Many more people could try to do great work than do. What holds them back is a combination of modesty and fear. It seems presumptuous to try to be Newton or Shakespeare. It also seems hard; surely if you tried something like that, you'd fail. Presumably the calculation is rarely explicit. Few people consciously decide not to try to do great work. But that's what's going on subconsciously; they shy away from the question.",
1951                "zh": "本可以尝试做出伟大工作的人，远多于真正去尝试的人。让他们止步的，是谦逊与恐惧的结合。试图成为牛顿或莎士比亚，似乎太自不量力。这也似乎很难；如果你真去尝试那样的事，你想必会失败。这种盘算大概很少是明确的。很少有人有意识地决定不去尝试做出伟大工作。但那正是潜意识里发生的事；他们回避了这个问题。"
1952              }
1953            },
1954            {
1955              "text": {
1956                "en": "So I'm going to pull a sneaky trick on you. Do you want to do great work, or not? Now you have to decide consciously. Sorry about that. I wouldn't have done it to a general audience. But we already know y

1956ou're interested.",
1957                "zh": "所以我要对你耍个小花招。你到底想不想做出伟大工作？现在你不得不有意识地做出决定了。抱歉了。要是面对的是普通读者，我不会这么干。但我们已经知道你是感兴趣的。"
1958              }
1959            },
1960            {
1961              "text": {
1962                "en": "Don't worry about being presumptuous. You don't have to tell anyone. And if it's too hard and you fail, so what? Lots of people have worse problems than that. In fact you'll be lucky if it's the worst problem you have.",
1963                "zh": "别担心显得自不量力。你不必告诉任何人。而且如果它太难，你失败了，那又怎样？很多人有比这更糟糕的麻烦。事实上，如果这是你遇到的最糟的麻烦，那你已经很幸运了。"
1964              }
1965            },
1966            {
1967              "text": {
1968                "en": "Yes, you'll have to work hard. But again, lots of people have to work hard. And if you're working on something you find very interesting, which you necessarily will if you're on the right path, the work will probably feel less burdensome than a lot of your peers'.",
1969                "zh": "是的，你将不得不努力工作。但话说回来，很多人都不得不努力工作。而如果你做的是一件你觉得非常有趣的事——而只要你走在正确的路上，你必然会觉得有趣——那么这份工作大概会比你许多同侪的工作感觉起来负担更轻。"
1970              }
1971            },
1972            {
1973              "text": {
1974                "en": "The discoveries are out there, waiting to be made. Why not by you?",
1975                "zh": "那些发现就在外面，等着被做出来。为什么不能由你来做呢？"
1976              }
1977            }
1978          ],
1979          "footnotes": []
1980        }
1981      ]
1982    }
1983  ],
1984  "footnotes": {
1985    "1": {
1986      "en": "I don't think you could give a precise definition of what counts as great work. Doing great work means doing something important so well that you expand people's ideas of what's possible. But there's no threshold for importance. It's a matter of degree, and often hard to judge at the time anyway. So I'd rather people focused on developing their interests rather than worrying about whether they're important or not. Just try to do something amazing, and leave it to future generations to say if you succeeded."
1987    },
1988    "2": {
1989      "en": "A lot of standup comedy is based on noticing anomalies in everyday life. \"Did you ever notice...?\" New ideas come from doing this about nontrivial things. Which may help explain why people's reaction to a new idea is often the first half of laughing: Ha!"
1990    },
1991    "3": {
1992      "en": "That second qualifier is critical. If you're excited about something most authorities discount, but you can't give a more precise explanation than \"they don't get it,\" then you're starting to drift into the territory of cranks."
1993    },
1994    "4": {
1995      "en": "Finding something to work on is not simply a matter of finding a match between the current version of you and a list of known problems. You'll often have to coevolve with the problem. That's why it can sometimes be so hard to figure out what to work on. The search space is huge. It's the cartesian product of all possible types of work, both known and yet to be discovered, and all possible future versions of you. There's no way you could search this whole space, so you have to rely on heuristics to generate promising paths through it and hope the best matches will be clustered. Which they will not always be; different types of work have been collected together as much by accidents of history as by the intrinsic similarities between them."
1996    },
1997    "5": {
1998      "en": "There are many reasons curious people are more likely to do great work, but one of the more subtle is that, by casting a wide net, they're more likely to find the right thing to work on in the first place."
1999    },
2000    "6": {
2001      "en": "It can also be dangerous to make things for an audie

2001nce you feel is less sophisticated than you, if that causes you to talk down to them. You can make a lot of money doing that, if you do it in a sufficiently cynical way, but it's not the route to great work. Not that anyone using this m.o. would care."
2002    },
2003    "7": {
2004      "en": "This idea I learned from Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology, which I recommend to anyone ambitious to do great work, in any field."
2005    },
2006    "8": {
2007      "en": "Just as we overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do over several years, we overestimate the damage done by procrastinating for a day and underestimate the damage done by procrastinating for several years."
2008    },
2009    "9": {
2010      "en": "You can't usually get paid for doing exactly what you want, especially early on. There are two options: get paid for doing work close to what you want and hope to push it closer, or get paid for doing something else entirely and do your own projects on the side. Both can work, but both have drawbacks: in the first approach your work is compromised by default, and in the second you have to fight to get time to do it."
2011    },
2012    "10": {
2013      "en": "If you set your life up right, it will deliver the focus-relax cycle automatically. The perfect setup is an office you work in and that you walk to and from."
2014    },
2015    "11": {
2016      "en": "There may be some very unworldly people who do great work without consciously trying to. If you want to expand this rule to cover that case, it becomes: Don't try to be anything except the best."
2017    },
2018    "12": {
2019      "en": "This gets more complicated in work like acting, where the goal is to adopt a fake persona. But even here it's possible to be affected. Perhaps the rule in such fields should be to avoid unintentional affectation."
2020    },
2021    "13": {
2022      "en": "It's safe to have beliefs that you treat as unquestionable if and only if they're also unfalsifiable. For example, it's safe to have the principle that everyone should be treated equally under the law, because a sentence with a \"should\" in it isn't really a statement about the world and is therefore hard to disprove. And if there's no evidence that could disprove one of your principles, there can't be any facts you'd need to ignore in order to preserve it."
2023    },
2024    "14": {
2025      "en": "Affectation is easier to cure than intellectual dishonesty. Affectation is often a shortcoming of the young that burns off in time, while intellectual dishonesty is more of a character flaw."
2026    },
2027    "15": {
2028      "en": "Obviously you don't have to be working at the exact moment you have the idea, but you'll probably have been working fairly recently."
2029    },
2030    "16": {
2031      "en": "Some say psychoactive drugs have a similar effect. I'm skeptical, but also almost totally ignorant of their effects."
2032    },
2033    "17": {
2034      "en": "For example you might give the nth most important topic (m-1)/m^n of your attention, for some m > 1. You couldn't allocate your attention so precisely, of course, but this at least gives an idea of a reasonable distribution."
2035    },
2036    "18": {
2037      "en": "The principles defining a religion have to be mistaken. Otherwise anyone might adopt them, and there would be nothing to distinguish the adherents of the religion from everyone else."
2038    },
2039    "19": {
2040      "en": "It might be a good exercise to try writing down a list of questions you wondered about in your youth. You might find you're now in a position to do something about some of them."
2041    },
2042    "20": {
2043      "en": "The connection between originality and uncertainty causes a strange phenomenon: because the conventional-minded are more certain than the independent-minded, this tends to give them the upper hand in disputes, even though they're generally stupider. The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity."
2044    },
2045    "21": {
2046      "en": "Derived from Linus Pauling's \"If you want to have good ideas, you must have many ideas.\""
2047    },
2048    "22": {
2049      "en": "Attacking a project as a \"toy\" is similar to attacking a statement as \"inappropriate.\" It means that no more substantial criticism can be made to stick."
2050    },
2051    "23": {
2052      "en": "One way to tell whether you're wasting time is to ask if you're producing or consuming. Writing computer games is less likely to be a waste of time than playing them, and playing games where you create something is less likely to be a waste of time than playing games where you don't."
2053    },
2054    "24": {
2055      "en": "Another related advantage is that if you haven't said anything publicly yet, you won't be biased toward evidence that supports your earlier conclusions. With sufficient integrity you could achieve eternal youth in this respect, but few manage to. For most people, having previously published opinions has an effect similar to ideology, just in quantity 1."
2056    },
2057    "25": {
2058      "en": "In the early 1630s Daniel Mytens made a painting of Henrietta Maria handing a laurel wreath to Charles I. Van Dyck then painted his own version to show how much better he was."
2059    },
2060    "26": {
2061      "en": "I'm being deliberately vague about what a place is. As of this writing, being in the same physical place has advantages that are hard to duplicate, but that c

2061ould change."
2062    },
2063    "27": {
2064      "en": "This is false when the work the other people have to do is very constrained, as with SETI@home or Bitcoin. It may be possible to expand the area in which it's false by defining similarly restricted protocols with more freedom of action in the nodes."
2065    },
2066    "28": {
2067      "en": "Corollary: Building something that enables people to go around intermediaries and engage directly with their audience is probably a good idea."
2068    },
2069    "29": {
2070      "en": "It may be helpful always to walk or run the same route, because that frees attention for thinking. It feels that way to me, and there is some historical evidence for it. Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Daniel Gackle, Pam Graham, Tom Howard, Patrick Hsu, Steve Huffman, Jessica Livingston, Henry Lloyd-Baker, Bob Metcalfe, Ben Miller, Robert Morris, Michael Nielsen, Courtenay Pipkin, Joris Poort, Mieke Roos, Rajat Suri, Harj Taggar, Garry Tan, and my younger son for suggestions and for reading drafts."
2071    }
2072  },
2073  "ack": ""
2074};
2075
2076export default article;