英文原文来自于《5 Simple Principles for Becoming an Expert》。
There aren’t shortcuts.
Merely direct paths.
Most people don’t take them, because they frighten us.
Things that look like shortcuts are usually detours disguised as less work.
-Seth Godin
For the past month, I’ve been studying people who have become skilled and knowledgeable enough to be called “experts” in preparation for the launch of a new blog.
在过去的几个月内，为了准备发布一篇博文，我研究了一些有丰富技能和渊博知识的称为“专家”的人。
I’ve interviewed experts, spent time with them and have asked them whether shortcuts exist to becoming an expert (and received some incredible responses like the one from Seth Godin above). I’ve even read books by people who study success and expertise (expertologists?).
我已经采访许多专家，与他们在一起问他们善于是否存在一条捷径成为专家（其中的Seth Godin给出了不可思议的回答）。许多研究成功学和专家知识的人写的书我都读过。
Part of me expected to find some secret shortcuts to becoming an expert, and part of me knew better. I’m most interested in how people gain expert-level skills and knowledge on multiple subjects quickly. Being a renaissance man has always appealed to me, as has getting very good at just a couple of things. Both types of expertise are as fascinating as they are useful.
Despite wanting to believe secrets and shortcuts to expertise exist, deep down I think I’ve always known what you probably know too: becoming an expert takes hard work, focus and dedication.
There are certainly ways to become an expert faster than traditional teaching might dictate, but there’s no getting around putting your time in.
The good news is, becoming an expert is much like changing a habit. The fact that secrets don’t exist is a good thing in my book, because we can stop wasting time searching for secrets and start making direct progress towards our goals.
Instead of looking for secrets, rely simply on these best practices for becoming an expert:
1. Realize expert is a relative term.
专家是一个“相对的”概念。
I’m a big believer in relative expertise. For most purposes, you don’t need to be the world’s foremost expert on something to benefit from what you know. Being expert enough means knowing enough or being good enough to accomplish your goals, however modest or grand they may be.
Someone once told me to think about expertise as a scale from one to ten, not as an absolute. If you’re a two or three on the scale, you’re expert enough to help people who are ones and twos. In fact, you might be better suited to helping beginners than a ten on the expert scale, because you’re closer to their level and better understand where they’re coming from.
可以把专家分为1到10级，如果你是2、3级的水平，你就足以成为1、2级水平的专家，此时让10级水平的专家来指导初级水平者并不一定适合，因为你的水平与初学者更接近，你更了解他们的情况。
2. Learn from books and experience.
从书中学习并实践。
There’s a time for learning and a time for practicing. A true expert needs to have both expertise (book learning) and experience (real-world practice).
For example, if you want to become a bodybuilder, all the reading you can possibly do won’t help you actually build muscle (unless they’re really heavy books). On the other hand, would-be bodybuilders who just jump into lifting weights without learning about best practices won’t know time-saving techniques and principles for optimum rep counts, resting time between sets, nutrition, supplements and more.
There’s a balance between learning and doing. Most people spend far too much time doing one or the other. If you’ve been mostly learning, it’s probably time to start doing. If you’ve long been practicing without the results you’re looking for, it’s time to learn more and time to focus, which brings us to point #3.
在学习和实践2方面进行平衡。不能只学不做，也不能只做不学。
3. Focus.
专注。
Just as Leo advocates for changing habits, focus is a powerful ally for gaining expertise (especially in the beginning).
When you start learning something new, it’s easy to become daunted by everything you have to master to reach your final goal. Instead of just focusing on the very next step you need to take, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the bigger picture.
Focus is critical for two reasons. First, it helps you pay attention to the task at hand so you don’t become paralyzed by the thought of everything to follow. Second, you have to focus so you can ignore all the possible distractions that are always waiting to pull you off your path.
You can follow Leo’s four steps for changing habits to focus on what you need to become an expert:
1. Start very small.
2. Do only one change at a time.
3. Be present and enjoy the activity (don’t focus on results).
4. Be grateful for every step you take.
4. Get outside help.
寻求外界帮助。
When I asked productivity coach Charlie Gilkey about whether shortcuts exist to becoming an expert, he pointed out another critical aspect of gaining expertise:
When you look at peak-performing experts, you’ll often see that they have either coaches, involved mentors, or a pack of growth-oriented friends that help them excel. You simply can’t gauge your performance as well as someone external can, and, past the “competent” stage of skill acquisition, it gets increasingly harder to both observe what you’re doing and find quick and easy answers as to how to improve.
At some point, learning and practicing will only get you so far. You need feedback from outsiders to uncover more opportunities for improvement.
5. Make mistakes.
犯错。
Fear of failure might be the biggest opponent you’ll face on your road to learning new things.
Take something as simple as learning a language. As language hacking expert Benny Lewis explains, people who speak a language learn it. People who don’t speak a language don’t learn it. It’s simple: you need to learn and practice. What keeps many people from practicing a language is the fear of making mistakes and embarrassing themselves.
You have to be willing to make mistakes in order to learn and grow. That’s what practice is. The sooner you get comfortable with making mistakes, the quicker you’ll learn your new skill.
学习和实践的过程中肯定会不断地犯错，没有错误就没有进步。
What’s on your wish list to learn and do?
你会学习或执行哪一条？
Maybe there’s a skill you’re actively trying to get better at, or maybe you’ve been afraid to get started. In either case, try these five simple principles and see if you can make a breakthrough.
在这些原则里，可能你正努力实践中，也可能望而却步，不管是哪种情况，试试这5个简介的原则可能你会有所突破。
Try becoming a (relative) expert in something you’ve always wanted to learn or do. There are few things as rewarding and fun as acquiring new skills and knowledge that enrich your life.
Corbett Barr is founder of Expert Enough, where he helps people become experts of all levels. Read the full answers to the question he recently asked a group of experts: do shortcuts exist to becoming an expert?.
