真正的学习高手只问自己一个问题

谢谢关注缓慢思考。

原文来自Reid Hoffman发表在Linkedin上的文章。Reid提出了一个重要的问题来看你是不是真正的学习者：如果一件事情重做一遍你将如何do differently? 看似简单的问题，实际上看一个人如何反思，如何提炼，如用应用，最后以至于可以分享。Enjoy！

In Silicon Valley, intelligence is both abundant and coveted. Because of this fact, Silicon Valley job interview questions have gotten tougher — and weirder — as interviewers devise queries designed to identify the best of the brightest. Consider, these brainteasers that various companies have asked job candidates in recent years:

硅谷是个充满了智慧同时又人人渴望智慧的地方。因为这个事实，硅谷的求职面试问题变得越来越困难 - 而且越来越奇怪 - 因为面试官设计了旨在识别最聪明人才的问题。看看下面这些硅谷的求职者遇到的智力挑战问题：

• How many golf balls can you fit in a school bus? 你可以在校车上放多少个高尔夫球？

• If you had to paint all the buildings in New York, how much paint would it take? 如果你必须给纽约所有建筑物涂色，那需要多少油漆？

• How do you weigh an elephant without using a weigh machine? 如何在不使用称重机的情况下称重大象？

• How could you solve humankind’s biggest crisis given $1 billion and a spacecraft? 如果你有 10 亿美元和一艘航天器，怎么能解决人类最大的危机？

If you can quickly come up with plausible good answers to these — especially the last one — then I predict you will have a set of very successful interviews!

如果你能快速找到合理的好答案 - 特别是最后一个 - 那么我预测你会有一系列非常成功的面试！

Compared to the questions above, the interview question I pose most often to entrepreneurs and job candidates is fairly straightforward — but also more reliably revealing:

与上述问题相比，我最常向企业家和求职者提出的面试问题相当直接 — 但也能更可靠地测试对方的智慧：

• Thinking back to a significant project you worked on in the past, what’s the most important thing you’d tell your then-self to do differently?

  回想你过去曾经做过的一个重要项目，如果可以重来，你认为你可以做的不一样的最重要的事情是什么？

In asking this question, I’m hoping to find out a number of things about a person. What do they see as the most relevant variables in a given job objective? How do they characterize risk and opportunity? How do they measure improvement?

在提出这个问题时，我希望找到关于这个人的一些事情。在给定的工作目标中，他们所判断的最相关的变量是什么？他们如何描述风险和机遇？他们如何衡量改进？

In other words, I’m not just looking for insights into what they learned. I’m interested in understanding how they learn. How do they conceptualize their takeaways from the experience? How do they communicate them to others? Are they what I call an “explicit learner”?

换句话说，我不只是在寻找他们学到的见解。我的兴趣在于了解他们的学习方式。他们如何从经验中提炼他们的智慧？他们如何与他人沟通？他们是我所谓的 “ 显性的学习者 ” 吗？

Along with sheer intelligence, grit and creativity are other key characteristics employers and recruiters seek out in Silicon Valley. These are highly valuable traits to have. But what I’ve found in my experience is that truly breakout performers also tend to place an unusually high emphasis on improving their capabilities and performance over time. They’re infinitely curious individuals who always want to read one more book on a subject, conduct one more experiment or test, and ask one more question. Coupled with this facet of their personality, they also have an extremely well-developed ability to share the knowledge they acquire with others. They’re explicit learners.

除了纯粹的智慧，勇气和创造力是硅谷的雇主和招聘人员寻求的其他关键特征。这些是非常有价值的特征。但是，根据我的经验，我发现真正有突破能力的人往往非常注重提高他们自己的能力和表现。他们是无限好奇的人，总是想再读一本关于某个主题的书，再进行一次实验或测试，再问一个问题。和他们这个个性相匹配的，他们也具有非常发达的能力可以与他人分享他们所获得的知识。他们是显性的学习者。

Our capacity to learn is a foundational characteristic of humanity. Other species possess this capacity to some extent as well — but there’s no such thing as dolphin kindergarten. Humans are such devoted learners we organize the first 18 years of our lives around immersive obligatory learning in many countries. And many people make systematic learning — aka formal education — their primary pursuit for even longer than that.

我们的学习能力是人类的基本特征。其他物种在某种程度上也具备这种能力 - 但是没有像海豚幼儿园这样的东西。人类是如此虔诚的学习者，以至于在许多国家我们生命的前18年都是围绕着沉浸式义务学习的。许多人把系统学习 - 也就是正规教育 - 作为他们的主要追求的时间甚至超过这个。

But formal education is just one kind of human learning, and not always the most important one. When I think of learning, I think of it as the acquisition of skills or knowledge with a deliberate orientation toward improvement. It starts with experience or study, but also demands reflection, subsequent action, and assessment. The goal is not just to know more things, or enjoy a variety of different pastimes. The goal is to systematically prepare yourself for future opportunities; to increase your ability to successfully adapt to both anticipated and unforeseen challenges; to better understand when to make decisions and what variables you should consider before making them.

但正规教育只是人类学习的一种，并不总是最重要的。当我想到学习时，我认为它是对技能或知识的获取，并且有意识地改进。它从经验或学习开始，但也要求反思，后续行动和评估。目的不仅仅是了解更多事物，或享受各种不同的消遣。目的是系统地为未来的机会做好准备 ; 提高你成功应对可预见和不可预见的挑战的能力 ; 更好地了解何时做出决定以及决定之前应考虑哪些变量。

Obviously, people learn in many different ways. You can learn formally or informally. In groups or alone. Intentionally or intuitively. In work settings, I’m most apt to look for people who incorporate learning into their lives in a deliberate, persistent, and explicit way simply because I believe that individuals who’ve developed habits that make learning central to how they interact with the world are more likely to learn more than those who don’t embrace learning so intentionally.

显然，人们用许多不同的方式学习。你可以正式或非正式地学习。一起学习或单独学习。有目的的学习或下意识的学习。在工作环境中，我最倾向于寻找那些以刻意、持久和明确的方式将学习融入他们生活的人，因为我相信那些养成了习惯，围绕学习为中心来与世界互动的人比那些没有意识地拥抱学习的人更有可能学到更多。

Airbnb’s co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky is a good example of this kind of explicit learner. I remember the first time we did a radio appearance together, he immediately turned to me after we had finished and said, “What could I have done better?”

Airbnb 的联合创始人兼首席执行官 Brian Chesky 就是这种显性学习者的一个很好的例子。我记得我们第一次做广播节目时，他做完后立刻转向我说： “ 我能做得更好吗？ ”

Any time I ask Brian similar question about some aspect of his career or past performance, he always has a well-considered answer to share — because thinking about the world in this way is a habit to him.

每当我询问Brian关于他职业生涯或过去表现的某些方面的类似问题时，他总能分享一个考虑周全的答案 - 因为以这种方式思考世界是他的习惯。

Like all explicit learners, Brian understands that while consciously asking questions and gathering data is one aspect of explicit learning, another key part of it involves reflecting on whatever information and feedback you’ve collected, and then synthesizing it into some illuminating way.

像所有显性的学习者一样， Brian 理解虽然有意识地提问和收集数据是显性学习的一个方面，但它的另一个关键部分在于反思你收集的任何信息和反馈，然后将其合成为一些有启发的思想。

And this is ultimately what I’m looking for when I ask people what they’d tell their former selves to do differently if they had a chance to re-do some past project. Can they present they’re learning as a compelling story or anecdote, or a memorable aphorism?

这正是我的面试问题所寻找的特质。（如果你重做以前的一个项目，你会告诉以前的自己如何用不同的方式来做？）他们所展现的学习方式，是一个引人入胜的故事或轶事，还是一个令人难忘的格言？

The process of doing so is useful for two reasons. First, it turns a private observation or revelation into a shareable asset, which has obvious value in a business setting. The more explicit learners you have on your team, the more you all learn from each other; the value of each individual insight compounds across the organization. Second, the attempt to express what may be a vague or somewhat intuitive notion or revelation into a more explicit aphorism or principle encourages you to think more analytically and discerningly about what you’ve learned. What are the most crucial aspects of the insight? Are there ways to broaden it?

这样做有两个原因。首先，它将私人观察或启示转变为可共享资产，这在商业环境中具有明显的价值。你团队中的显性学习者越多，你们就越能相互学习 ; 每个人的洞察力的价值对整个组织会产生复利效应。其次，尝试把可能是模糊的或有点直观的概念或启示表达成更明确的格言或原则，会鼓励你更加分析性地和辨别性的思考你所学到的内容。见解中最重要的方面是什么？有办法扩大它吗？

For example, many years ago I invested in a company started by someone I knew in a social context. Let’s call him Bob. While the investment was significant enough that I would have done a reference if the entrepreneur had been someone I was unfamiliar with, I didn’t with Bob — because I assumed I knew him given our interactions in a social context.

例如，多年前我投资了一家我在社交场合中认识的人创办的公司。我们且叫他Bob。投资金额足够大，如果企业家是我不熟悉的人，我一般会做一个背景调查。但是，我没有这么对Bob — 因为我认为我在社交场合中和他的互动已经让我了解他了。

But it turns out I knew Bob less well than I thought I did. In reality, he had substance abuse issues and often went completely AWOL for days at a time. This is not a quality you want in a CEO, and especially not in the CEO of a newly launched start-up that needs a steady and vigilant hand steering the ship.

但事实证明，我对鲍勃的了解不如我想象的那么好。实际上，他有药物滥用问题，并且经常在一段时间内完全擅离职守。这不是你想要的首席执行官的品质，特别是新成立的初创企业的首席执行官，新创公司需要一个稳定和警觉的人掌控。

As you might expect, my instinctive takeaway in the wake of this experience was an obvious one: “Don’t do any more business with Bob!”

正如你所预料的那样，在这次经历之后我的本能的总结显而易见： “ 不要再和Bob做生意了！ ”

But that’s not actually a very useful learning because it’s only narrowly applicable. And in thinking about it some more, and trying to formulate a better learning, I arrived at a more broadly useful conclusion. Namely: “Knowing a person in one context doesn’t mean you know them in every context. So if a project or investment would typically require a reference check, and you don’t actually know the person in the relevant context, do a reference check!”

但这实际上并不是一个非常有用的学习，因为它只有很狭隘的适用性。经过更多思考，并试图得到更好的学习，我得出了一个更广泛有用的结论。即： “ 在一个环境中了解一个人并不意味着你了解其他每个环境中的他们。因此，如果项目或投资通常需要背景调查，而你实际上并不知道他们在其他相关背景下的表现，一定要进行例行检查！ “

In this way, I learned more than just how to deal with Bob in the future. I learned how to avoid going into business with other potential Bobs.

通过这种方式，我学到的不仅仅是如何在未来与 Bob 打交道。我学会了如何避免与其他潜在的 Bobs 开展业务。

Inevitably, the reflection and assessment that occurs as you think about how best to express or concretize an insight increases your understanding of it: It’s the old saw about not truly understanding something yourself until you can successfully explain it to someone else.

不可避免的是，当你在思考如何最好地表达或具化你的洞察时所进行的反思和评估会增加你对它的理解：如老的谚语所说，在你不能成功地向别人解释一个东西之前，你没有真正理解它。

This, I believe, is why Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t just choose a new learning goal each year, but also publicly shares his efforts to do so and reports on how it turned out. It’s why Bill Gates doesn’t just voraciously read books, but also regularly publishes reviews of them. Through this process, the student becomes the master.

我相信，这就是为什么扎克伯格不仅每年都会选择一个新的学习目标，而且还公开分享他所做的努力并报告其结果。这就是为什么比尔.盖茨不仅贪婪地阅读书籍，而且还定期发表对它们的评论。通过这个过程，学生成为了老师。

Or to put it in another way, in a contrarian twist on George Bernard Shaw’s well-known aphorism “Those who teach, can do.”

或者换另一种方式，借用 George Bernard Shaw 众所周知的格言改一下， “ 能教者，方能做。 ”

Which, you may have noticed, is the title of this essay. Or at least it is now.

你可能已经注意到，这是本文的标题（译注：原标题 “Those who teach, can do.” ） 。或者至少现在是这样。

When I started writing this essay, I called it “My Favorite Interview Question.” But when, in the process of wrapping things up, I decided to challenge Shaw’s famous quote, I also realized I’d learned a punchier way to title it.

当我开始写这篇文章时，我把标题定为 “ 我最喜欢的面试问题。 ” 但是，当我在写作的过程中，我决定挑战 Shaw 的名言，我也意识到我已经学会了用一种更有力的方式来做标题。

And because this is essay-writing, I actually could go back in time, in a manner of speaking, and tell my first-draft self what to do differently!

因为这是一篇论文写作，某种程度上讲，我实际上可以马上回到过去，并告诉写第一稿的自己如何用另一种方式来做！

缓慢思考一下： 你知道问自己哪个问题了吗？