I’ve been recording a lot of podcast interviews for my upcoming book, Ultralearning.One of the reurring themes I’ve noticed in our conversations is that how people feel about learning is the overwhelming cause of the results they experience.
我为我的新书《超级学习》(Ultralearning)录制了很多播客采访，我注意到对话中一个反复出现的主题，即决定学习效果的主要因素是人们对于学习的感受。
Yes inteligence, talent, great teachers and schools all matter.
确实，智力、天赋、好的老师和学校都很重要。
But if you feel like learning something is too hard, scary or not interesting enough to merit the effort, none of those things will help you.
但如果你觉得学习一件事非常困难、可怕，或者不够有趣，不值得你的付出，那么以上种种对你
都没有用。
The people who fail to learn languages are, overwhelmingly, the people who don’t even try to learn a language.The people who “can’t” learn math, coding, business, marketing or dance, aren’t those who tried and failed - they never even attempted it seriously in the first place.
没能学会新语言的人大体上甚至根本没有尝试去学。“学不会"数学、编程、商业、市场营销或跳舞的人，都不是尝试之后失败的–他们甚至一开始就没有认真地想要学习。
Learing is Frustration
学习令人失败
It’s easy to be dismissive of this attitude.“Don’t those people realize that you can learn anything, as long as you’re persistent and use the right approach?
我们很容易对这种看法不屑一顾。“那些人难道不知道只要坚持不懈，而且用对了方法，就可以学会任何事吗?”
But feeling aren’t rational, so taking a nagging stance to encourage people to learn hard things is a waste of time.If you feel like you can’t learn math, French or samba, me telling you differently won’t change things.
但感觉不是理性，因此唠唠叨叨地鼓励别人去学困难的东西是在浪费时间。如果你觉得自己学不会数学、法语或桑巴舞，即使我告诉你不是这样，也不会对你有任何改变。
The truth is, I’ve had my own moments of doubt and frustration, and not even that long ago.
事实上，我自己也有过怀疑和挫败的时刻，甚至就在不久之前。
In January, I started learning salsa dancing with my wife.She has danced for years, although never salsa, whereas I’ve done very little.
1月份时，我开始和我的妻子一起学习萨尔萨舞。她已经跳舞跳了好几年，虽然之前从未跳过萨尔萨，而我则没怎么跳过舞。
Immediately, in the first classes, the overwhelming feeling was, “I hate this.” Not because I don’t think learning to salsa couldn’t be cool, but because I see myself in the mirror.My steps are out of sync.I’m not on the rhythm.When I do partner dancing, I forget how to do it, and then we switch partners before I get a chance to figure it out
很快，在最开始的几节课上，我铺天盖地的感受就是:“我讨厌这个。"不是因为我认为学习萨尔萨舞一点都不酷，而是因为我在镜子里看到了自己，我的舞步跟不上音乐，踩不到节奏的点上。当和舞伴一起跳时，我忘了该如何跳，而在我有机会纠正过来之前，我们就换舞伴了。
The thing is, I know this is just the frustration barrier.I know that once I get past that novice level and start being able to do it(which is going to happen with enough practice),I will stat to enjoy it.If I put in enough time,I might even really love salsa dancing.
重要的是，我知道这只是令我感到挫败的障碍一旦跨过了新手水平，开始能够顺利地跳了(经过足够的练习就可以实现)，我就会乐在其中。如果我投入了足够的时间，我甚至可能真正爱上萨尔萨舞。
But that’s not how if feels.My brain sees me slightly underperforming and the immediate, visceral sense is:“You’re not good at this, you should stop right now and quit embarrassing yourself.”
但我的感受可不是如此。大脑看到我的表现略逊，立刻发自本能的感觉就是:“你不擅长这件事，应该立刻停止，免得自取其辱。”
How do you change your beliefs about learning?
如何改变对学习的信念
I think there’s a few approaches you can take to overcome these sorts of learning challenges:
我认为可以采取一些方法来克服这类学习的困难
- Dive straight in
- 一头扎进去
Ultralearning, in my opinion, often works well because it compresses the frustration barrier to a shorter period of time.Going no-English to learn a language is stressful, but the stress lasts for a couple weeks, rather than a couple years as it can in traditional classrooms.
在我看来，超级学习通常很有效，是因为它把令人挫败的障碍压缩到很短一段时间。通过不说英语来学习一门语言令人很有压力，但这种压力只持续几周时间，而不是像传统课堂教学那样持续好几年。
Because the stress is short, you can more easily leap over it compared to the non-stop grind of emotional stuggle you can feel when a skill never quite gets out of that frustration period.
由于压力持续时间很短，你就可以相对容易地跨过这个阶段，而不像学习一门永远跨不出挫败阶段的技能时所体会到的无尽的情绪折磨。
2.Avoid comparison.
2.避免比较
My feelings about salsa were largely driven by my classmates.They were better than me.Whenever we, as human beings, sense a comparative disadvantage, it’s as if our brain immediatley tries to avoid practicing the skill.
我对萨尔萨舞的感受很大程度上受同班同学的影响。他们跳得比我好。作为人类，每当我们在比较中感到处于不利地位时，我们的大脑就好像立刻试图避免练习这项技能。
I’m not sure if this is an evolved adaptation towards specializing in our strengths(if so, it would have to predate our modern, specialized economy), or whether this is simply because being low-skilled is low-status and our status-seeking insticts override the long-term goals of learning.
我不确定这是否是一种进化的适应性，使我们更加专注于自身的优势(如果确实如此，那应该是在我们现代、专业化的经济出现之前就存在了);还是仅仅因为低技能意味着低地位，而我们寻求高地位的本能压过了学习的长期目标。
However, one simple way to avoid this problem is to pout yourself in projects or situations that defy comparison.
然而，避免这个问题的一个简单办法，就是让自己处于避免比较的项目或情境中
One-on-one tutoring immediately removes the “I’m the worst in the class” feeling.It also removes the “I’m the best in the class” laziness that can afflict high-performing students.
一对一辅导立刻消除了“我是班里最差的"这种感觉，同时也消除了表现优异的学生因为觉得“我是班里最好的"而产生的懒惰。
Even structuring a project that is intense and unusual often avoids this problem.When I was doing the MIT Challenge, I never felt bad about struggling with concepts or ideas because nobody else was doing this self-education thing so there was no expectation of performance.
构造一个高强度且不常见的学习项目，通常也能避免这个问题。我在完成MIT挑战时，从没因为理解概念或思想有困难而感觉糟糕，因为没有其他人在自学同样的内容，因此也就没有对表现的期待。
3.Embrace the Frustration
3.拥抱挫败
“I hate this," isn’t a feeling - it’s a sentence.It’s a sentence you mentally utter in automatic response to certain things going on in your environment. However, recognize that this isn’t a single, unified experience, but several discrete experiences happening in lockstep:
“我讨厌这个"不是一种感受–这是一个句子，是你对环境中的某件事做出自动反应时心里嘟哝的句子。 然而，需要意识到这不是一个单独的、统一的经验，而是几个独立的经验密集地发生。
You notice you’re doing something badly.
(1)你注意到自己某件事情做得不好。
You notice that others may notice you’re doing something badly.
(2)你注意到其他人可能发现你某件事情做得不好。
You feel embarrassed, and start to feel bad.
(3)你觉得丢脸，开始感到糟糕。
You feel like you need to escape or stop.
(4)你感到自己需要逃离或停止。
You say to yourself, “I hate this.”
(5)你告诉自己:我讨厌这个。
This is a train of thought that you can get off at any stop, you just choose to ride it all the way to the terminal station.If you’re mindful of it , you can set it on alternte tracks.
这一连串想法，你在其中任何一步都可以停下来，但却选择一路顺着达到终点。如果你对此保持警惕，就可以换一种思路。
What if when you notice you’re doing badly, you reaffirmed, “But it’s okay, doing things badly is what learning is all about.That’s why I’m here.”?
如果这么做怎么样呢?当你注意到自己做得很糟时，就告诉自己:“但这没有关系，做得不好就是学习的过程。这就是我会在这里的原因。
Or what if you start to feel embarassed and you say to yourself,“It’s okay if people think I’m bad at this.As long as I’m not hurting anyone and trying my best, nobody will hold it against me.”?
或者当你开始感觉尴尬时，就告诉自己:“如果别人认为我做得不好也没有关系。只要我没有伤害其他人而且尽了自己最大努力，就没有人会责备我。”
When you feel you need to escape you sya,“Let’s just go a little bit longer.”?
当你感到需要逃走时，就对自己说:“再坚持一会儿。
As you examine it more closely, the feeling of frustration itself becomes a potential space for new experiences.You realize how much your own feelings of inadequacy straitjacket you into a limited view of your life.The pain you feel from doing badly, ironically, becomes a moment of potential liberation because through it you can rewrite the story of who you are.
更仔细地审视，挫败感本身也成为新体验的可能。你意识到认为自己不够好的感觉多大程度上限制了你对生活的看法。出人意料的是，你从做得不好中感到的痛苦，反倒成了可能的解放，因为你可以借此重写自己的故事，重新定义自己是谁。
Salsa Dancing and overcoming frustration
I’m still not great at salsa dancing.But I have gotten better.The moments whre I say,“I hate this,” are now outnumbered by,“Hey, this is actually pretty fun, once you get the hang of it.”
我的萨尔萨舞仍然跳得不好，但比之前已经好得多了。如今我说"我讨厌这个"的次数已经比说“嗨，一旦你掌握了，这真的很有趣"少得多了。
I know, from learning other skills that “pretty fun” becomes “amazing and life-affirming” if you can keep going a little bit longer.
从学习其他技能的经验中我知道，如果再坚持一段时间，“很有趣"就会变成“超级棒和使人振奋”。
Learning, and ultralearning, to me represent the cultivation of these amazing, life-affirming moments.When you get good at something that previously felt impossible for you,your world becomes just a little bit bigger.This expansion of possibility, more than just achieving a goal, is the stuff of happiness itself.
对我而言，学习，以及超级学习，就代表了培养这些超级棒、使人振奋的时刻。当你掌握了某件之前看来不可能的技能，你的世界就变得又大了一点。 这种潜力的扩展，而不仅仅是实现了一个目标，才是幸福本身。