Does hard work matter?

努力是否重要？

You've probably been told that if you just grind it out and put in the hours, no matter what your field, you can be successful.

你可能聽過如果你努力專研並投入時間，無論你在什麼領域，都能獲得成功。

I mean, the 10,000 hour rule to become an expert at something has been touted for years and many are convinced that dedicating yourself fully will yield results.

我的意思是，一萬小時定律已經被吹捧了多年，許多人都深信有志者事竟成。

But what if I told you that was all wrong?

但如果我告訴你它是錯的呢？

This idea was inspired by Sierra six from “The Gray Man”, the most skilled CIA operative in the world.

這個想法是受到《灰影人》中「新銳六號」的啟發，他是世界上最熟練的中情局特工。

So, it got me wondering how does somebody become the best at what they do?

這讓我開始思考，一個人是如何成為他們所從事的工作中的佼佼者？

Like, being a top CIA agent is skill earned through hard work or natural talent?

能夠成為中情局的頂級特工是通過努力或是天賦？

Or is there another factor at play?

還是有其他因素？

Let's start by looking at athletic ability.

讓我們先來看看運動能力。

In sports research studies, scientists have taken groups of people and subjected them all to the exact same training regime to see what the results would look like.

在運動研究中，科學家們對一群人進行完全相同的訓練，並觀察結果會是什麼樣子。

Now, even though they all did the exact same work, everybody saw different levels of improvement.

儘管他們都做了完全相同的訓練，每個人的進步程度都不相同。

But interestingly, individuals who were related by blood saw similar improvement, indicating that their genetics were playing a role in their athletic potential.

有趣的是，有血緣關係的人進步程度相仿，這表示基因在他們的運動潛能中發揮了作用。

If your parents or siblings saw amazing results, and so would you.

如果你的父母或兄弟姐妹有驚人的結果，那麼你也不例外。

And these people were deemed high responders.

這些人被認為是高反應者。

After doing more statistical analysis, it's been estimated that around 50% of athletic improvement is linked to genetics.

在做了更多的統計分析後，據估計約50%的運動能力提升與遺傳學有關。

So, good athletes are born with good trainable genes.

所以，優秀的運動員天生就有良好的可訓練基因。

But these studies also found that individuals had different baseline abilities, too. Without any training.

但這些研究也發現，這些人的基線能力跟一般人不同，即便未經過任何訓練。

Some people were just more fit than others, and this was found to be linked to genetics as well.

有些人就是比其他人更健壯，而研究發現這也與遺傳學有關。

In the case of cardio, these genes may have coded for larger volumes of blood, giving an early advantage.

以有氧運動來說，這些基因可能對較多的血液進行了編碼，讓擁有這些基因的人較有早期優勢。

If we look at muscle growth, we know that the size of your muscles is under pretty strict control of a protein called "myostatin".

就肌肉生長來看，我們知道肌肉大小受到一種叫做「肌肉生長抑制素」的蛋白質相當嚴格的控制。

As your muscle reaches its limit, myostatin prevents any further growth.

當你的肌肉達到極限時，肌肉生長抑制素會阻止它進一步生長。

But the thing is, some people naturally have lower myostatin levels, allowing them to achieve greater muscle growth.

而有些人天生具有較低的肌肉生長抑制素水準，讓他們更能夠增生肌肉。

Belgian blue cattle actually have a deletion of the gene GDF8, which just so happens to create myostatin.

實際上比利時藍年牛缺乏第八生長分化因子，這正好是產生肌肉生長抑制素的基因。

And as a result, without any special diet or exercise, they have incredible muscle mass.

結果這讓他們擁有令人難以置信的肌肉量，就算沒有任何特殊的飲食或運動習慣。

They'e absolutely jacked.

他們極為健壯。

Again, this highlights the hugely important role of genetics and how you can start with a high train ability for a skill; a high baseline, or both.

這凸顯了遺傳學的重大影響，你可能是擁有高訓練能力或高基線，或者兩者兼備。

Or none, in my case.

我自己的話則兩者都沒有。

Now chances are that our best athletes have both a high baseline and a high train ability on top of pushing themselves really hard to reach those potential limits.

最優秀的運動員可能既擁有高基線又有高訓練能力，不只如此，還非常努力地讓自己達到潛能的極限。

But there are probably just as many if not more people putting in the same amount of hard work that will never see the same extraordinary results.

但是就如同許多人付出了同樣多的努力，卻永遠不會達到同樣傑出的成果。

Now don't get me wrong.

我的意思是，

They can still improve and even become great, but their chance at being the best, much lower .

他們還是可以變得更好，但他們會成為最優秀的人的機會很低。

But your potential for greatness goes far beyond just your body, your circumstance can matter just as much.

但是，你變得更優秀的潛力不只跟你的身體有關，你的環境也同樣重要。

Take a look at these SAT scores for an average US college, which are out of 800, by the way.

來看看美國普通大學學生的入學成績，順帶一提，滿分為800分。

Those that have the highest SAT scores end up representing over 50% of the people who get degrees at these schools while the lowest SAT scores only represent around 18% of people who actually graduate, not so surprising.

那些入學成績最高的人佔了在這些學校獲得學位的人的50%以上; 而入學成績最低的人只佔實際畢業人數的18%左右，這並不太令人意外。

But now let's look at a top school like Harvard here.

但現在讓我們看看像哈佛這樣的頂尖學校。

The students with the lowest SAT scores are still smarter than the best students at an average school.

入學成績最低的學生，仍然比普通學校最優秀的學生更聰明。

And yet, when we look at their rate of completion, it looks awfully similar.

但當我們看整體比例，看起來也非常相似。

The top students represent just over 50% of people who graduate while the lower SAT scores represent around 15% of people who actually graduate.

最優秀的學生僅佔畢業人數的50%以上。而入學成績較低約的學生約佔實際畢業人數的15%。

This phenomenon is known as “the Big Fish little pond effect”.

這種現象被稱為 「大魚小池效應」。

Simply put, we compare ourselves not globally but to our neighbors or people who are in the same boat as we are.

簡單來說，我們不是和所有人比較，而是與我們身邊的人或與同一個環境中的人比較。

As a result, students at top schools compare themselves to their brilliant peers.

所以頂尖學校的學生會跟他們優秀的同儕比較。

And if you're in the bottom half of your class, you're likely to have feelings of inadequacy, even though compared to the rest of the world, you are one of the most talented.

如果你在班級中排名倒數，你很可能認為自己不如人，儘管相較於一般人你已經是最聰明的人之一了。

We can even see this effect translated into real world success or failure.

我們甚至能看到這個效應轉化成現實世界中的成敗。

A study looking at publications produced by economists in their first six years after graduation

一項研究針對經濟學家在畢業六年內所發表的文章進行調查，

showed that the top students in the 99th percentile, i.e., smarter than almost every other person at the school from the top five schools in America were producing an impressive amount of publications.

結果顯示在美國前五所學校排名前1%、也就是最聰明的學生們發表了大量的文章。

But those in the 75th percentile, still the top quarter of the best students are publishing next to nothing, essentially failures in their field.

但那些排名前25%的人即使是前四分之一優秀的學生，卻幾乎沒有發表任何東西，基本上是所學領域的失敗者。

But if we now look at the best students from the 30 worst schools, we see that they're publishing more than those in the top quarter of the best schools in the country.

但現在如果我們看看30所最差的學校裡最優秀的學生，我們會發現他們比全國頂尖學校中排名前四分之一的學生發表了更多的文章。

Clearly your surroundings and peers matter.

顯然，你的環境和同儕很重要。

So even when you put in the hard work, your circumstance and environment can dictate just how valuable all those hours are, which brings us to the concept of time.

所以即便你付出了心力，你的情況和環境會決定所有你投入的時間有多大的價值，這使我們想到了時間的概念。

Do super talented people put in more hours of practice or work?

天賦異稟的人是否會投入更多的練習時間或心力？

Nope.

並不會。

Well, at least not in the way you probably think.

好吧，至少跟你所想像的不一樣。

In particular, their developmental paths may seem surprising to you.

尤其是他們的發展路徑可能會讓你很驚訝。

If we look at this graph of practice time and athletes from childhood,

如果我們看一下這張練習時間和運動員從小到大的關係圖，

you can see that elite athletes typically devote less time early on to deliberate practice in the activity that they will eventually become experts in.

你可以看到，菁英運動員早期通常在他們最終專精的運動中投入較少的時間刻意練習。

And this pattern holds true for most fields outside of sports, too.

而且這個模式也適用於除了體育之外的大多數領域。

How does this make sense at all?

這到底是為什麼呢？

It turns out that people at the top of their game, whether that's an athlete, a musician or even a scientist, are more likely to go through something called a "Sampling Period" when they're younger.

事實證明，一個領域中的佼佼者，無論是運動員、音樂家或甚至是科學家，在年輕時很有可能經歷一種叫做「取樣期」的時期。

Instead of being told to pick one topic and specializing in it, they often try a breadth of activities, whether that be multiple sports instruments or fields of science,

他們不是被要求選擇一個領域並專攻它，而是經常嘗試廣泛的活動，無論是各種運動、樂器還是科學領域，

it's only later on in life that they see a narrowing focus, increase structure and an explosion of practice in one area.

他們是在後來才專注於一門領域、加強根基並大量練習。

It's believed that this not only gives them a range of physical and mental proficiency from the different fields that they can draw on,

人們認為，取樣期不僅讓他們擁有可以從各個領域借鏡的身體及精神的熟練度，

but it also allows them to explore and learn what their own abilities are and figure out what they like by trying different things.

還讓他們能探索並了解自己的能力，並通過嘗試不同的事情來釐清他們喜歡的是什麼。

Studies on musicians show that sheer amount of practice is not a good indicator of exceptionality.

針對音樂家的研究顯示，單純的練習量並不是衡量佼佼者的好指標。

In fact, the best students often come from less musically active families and are less likely to have an instrument at home.

事實上，最優秀的學生往往來自於不常接觸音樂的家庭，而且家裡不太可能有樂器。

Those deemed as exceptional most often turn out to be the ones who distributed their efforts and explorations more evenly across multiple instruments and only later in life focused on one.

那些被認為是出類拔萃的人，往往將他們的努力和探索分配在多種樂器上，並在後來才專注於一項樂器。

Even if we look at Nobel prize winners, they're actually 22 times more likely to partake as an amateur actor, dancer, magician or other type of performer.

即使是諾貝爾獎得主，他們身兼業餘演員、舞者、魔術師或其他類型表演者的可能性實際上是22倍。

Uh, I would pay like a lot of money to see a Nobel laureate perform magic.

呃，我願意花一大筆錢去看諾貝爾獎得主表演魔術。

Even nationally recognized scientists are much more likely to be musicians, painters, woodworkers, mechanics or writers ,etc.

即使是全國公認的科學家也很有可能是音樂家、畫家、木工、機械師或作家等等。

Having lots of experience to draw on from other fields, even if some of those fields are just for leisure, and not only specializing and zoning in on one thing seems to provide a huge benefit.

擁有許多可以從其他領域借鏡的經驗（即使其中一些領域只是為了休閒），而不是只專心致志地做一件事，似乎能帶來很大的好處。

At the end of the day, what does this say about hard work?

最後，努力到底是什麼？

Well, it's certainly not the main factor to extreme success.

好吧，努力絕對不是取得極大成功的主要因素。

Though, of course it plays a role in every experts path.

當然，努力在每個佼佼者的成功路上都發揮著作用。

But where and when that hard work comes into play is clearly not set in stone.

但努力會在何時何地發揮作用，顯然不是一成不變的。

And it's definitely not a direct correlation in skill acquisition research except in really simple tasks that never change.

而且在技能習得研究中，它絕對不是一個直接的關聯，除非是非常簡單且一成不變的事情。

This means, honestly, it's never too late to find something that you love and have a natural ability for and put a bunch of effort into that.

這意味著，找到你喜歡且有天賦的事情、並投入大量的努力，永遠不會太晚。

Of course, if you already are really good at something, it may also help having a little humility knowing chances are you had a bit of luck with your genetics, your circumstance, and your exposure to many different things.

當然，如果你已經非常擅長某件事情，謙虛一點也是有幫助的，因為可能是你的基因、你的環境和你接觸到的許多不同的事情讓你幸運地能夠擅長這件事。

Now, this video idea was inspired by Netflix's new movie, The Gray man, which comes out on July 22nd on Netflix and it follows the most skilled CIA operative agent as he becomes the target of a global manhunt.

這支影片的靈感來自於Netflix的新電影《灰影人》，它將於7月22日在Netflix上映，劇情講述最熟練的中情局特工成為全球追捕的目標。

It's an amazing film with some of the coolest, most action packed scenes starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans.

它是一部很精彩的電影，有許多十分酷炫且緊張刺激的場景，由雷恩·葛斯林和克里斯·埃文斯主演。

And this track jacket, which Netflix so nicely sent me to celebrate the launch of "The Gray Man".

還有這件連帽外套，Netflix很慷慨地送給我，來慶祝《灰影人》的上映。

Be sure to check out this absolute blockbuster of a film.

請務必去看這部精彩鉅片。

And now, you know whether their incredible skills in the movie were earned through pure hard work, or were the result of a variety of different factors.

而現在，你知道他們在電影中令人難以置信的技巧是通過純粹的努力獲得的，或是各種不同因素的結果。

Thanks again to Netflix for sponsoring this episode.

再次感謝Netflix對本集的贊助。

If you liked it, give it a like, make sure you subscribe and we'll see you next time for another science video. Peace.

如果你喜歡這部影片，請按讚並別忘了訂閱，我們下一支科學影片見。耶。