After all, getting good at things takes a long time, and only those who are in it for the long haul can expect to reach the pinnacle of their craft.

畢竟，要做好一件事需要很長的時間，只有那些長期堅持的人，才有望達到技藝的巔峰。

Given that common association, I found it interesting to hear the opposite perspective from Butch Harmon, Tiger Woods coach during the best years of his golfing career.

鑑於這種常見的聯想，我覺得從泰格-伍茲高爾夫生涯最輝煌時期的教練布奇-哈蒙（Butch Harmon）那裡聽到相反的觀點很有意思。

Those golfers who insist on being patient and letting the game come to them rarely play up to their potential.

那些堅持要有耐心，讓比賽來找自己的高爾夫球手，很少能發揮出自己的潛力。

They play well, maybe win a time or two, but they never reach the great heights their talents dictate.

他們打得很好，也許贏過一兩次，但卻從未達到他們的天賦所要求的高度。

The players who want to learn, get better, and win right now, this second, no waiting, are the ones who exceed in their natural abilities and become the game's great overachievers.

那些想學習、想進步、想贏球的球員，此時此刻，無需等待，他們就能超越自己的天賦能力，成為比賽中的偉大超越者。

Harmon later goes on to explain why Tiger was one of the least patient people he had ever met.

哈蒙後來解釋了為什麼老虎是他見過的最沒有耐心的人之一。

When Tiger wants to do something with his golf swing, he wants it done now, no phasing it in and no long-term planning.

當老虎想在高爾夫揮杆上有所作為時，他希望現在就做，而不是分階段進行，也沒有長遠規劃。

Once he decides to make a change, he makes it fully and immediately.

一旦他決定做出改變，就會立即全力以赴。

Then he works himself ragged until he perfects it, exhibiting little or no patience along the way.

然後，他拼命工作，直到把它做到盡善盡美，一路上幾乎沒有耐心可言。

In Harmon's view, patience was often wishful thinking, the hope of future proficiency preventing you from really working today at what you want to improve, the five minutes per day problem and learning hard things.

在哈蒙看來，耐心往往是一廂情願的想法，對未來熟練程度的希望阻礙了你今天真正去做你想改進的事情，每天五分鐘的問題和學習困難的事情。

So Harmon's quote made me think about a phenomenon I've often seen in self-improvement circles.

是以，哈蒙的這句話讓我想到了我在自我提升圈子裡經常看到的一種現象。

It is the idea that what matters most is doing a tiny bit of something every day over a very long period of time.

它認為，最重要的是在很長一段時間內每天做一點點事情。

This approach is exemplified by the language learner who plans to become fluent in a language by playing on Duolingo for five minutes a day, the would-be novelist who commits to writing one page a week, or the aspiring photographer who insists on taking one picture a day.

語言學習者計劃通過每天玩五分鐘 Duolingo 來熟練掌握一門語言，想寫小說的人承諾每週寫一頁，或者有抱負的攝影師堅持每天拍一張照片，都是這種方法的例證。

Now, it feels mean to be discouraging of this approach.

現在，我覺得不鼓勵這種做法是不對的。

After all, most people do nothing toward their aspirations, so doing something, even a little bit, is better than nothing, isn't it?

畢竟，大多數人都沒有為自己的理想做任何事情，所以做一些事情，哪怕是一點點，也比什麼都不做強，不是嗎？

However, I can't help feel that this approach is akin to the wishful thinking exemplified by Harmon's patient golfers, people who use the slowness of eventual mastery to dodge the demanding work of learning something hard, the logic of minimal habits.

然而，我不禁感到，這種方法類似於哈蒙筆下耐心的高爾夫球手所體現的一廂情願的想法，他們用最終掌握的緩慢來回避學習艱苦事物的繁重工作，迴避最小習慣的邏輯。

Okay, so at this point it's probably helpful to revisit why this approach is so popular in self-improvement circles.

好了，說到這裡，我們不妨再來看看為什麼這種方法在自我提升圈子裡如此流行。

Atomic Habits, a fantastic bestseller written by my friend James Clear, is one of the most obvious proponents of the start small approach to self-improvement.

原子習慣》（Atomic Habits）是我的朋友詹姆斯-克雷爾（James Clear）寫的一本非常暢銷的書，它是 "從小事做起 "自我提升方法最明顯的支持者之一。

The logic of habit building is very compelling.

培養習慣的邏輯非常有說服力。

One, starting is hard.

第一，起步很難。

Two, small habits are easier to commit to.

第二，小習慣更容易養成。

And three, once you start, it's easier to ramp up and do more.

第三，一旦你開始了，就更容易提升並做得更多。

Thus, the logic goes, the person who insists on doing 10 minutes a day on Duolingo is building momentum for a larger habit of speaking with people.

是以，按照這種邏輯，堅持每天在 Duolingo 上學習 10 分鐘的人，正在為養成與人交談的更大習慣造勢。

By lowering the bar for entry, they begin the self-improvement process.

通過降低准入門檻，他們開始了自我完善的過程。

While if they had very high expectations, they may have made it too hard to actually get started.

如果他們有很高的期望，可能就會使實際開始變得太難。

Now, phrased this way, the logic of minimal habits is undeniable.

現在，這樣說來，最小習慣的邏輯是不可否認的。

I think it's an important behavioral technique for getting started with anything, especially when the thing you're trying to do feels unpleasant.

我認為這是開始做任何事情的重要行為技巧，尤其是當你想做的事情讓你感覺不愉快的時候。

I have used this approach when trying to get back into exercising that I haven't criticized someone for starting with a smaller enjoyable habit to break into something they find frustrating and unpleasant but just want to get the outcome of.

我在嘗試重新開始鍛鍊時使用過這種方法，我沒有責備過有人從一個較小的令人愉快的習慣開始，去打破他們認為令人沮喪和不愉快但只想獲得結果的習慣。

My concern is with the third point.

我擔心的是第三點。

So theoretically, it's easy to ramp up and do more once you've started.

是以，從理論上講，一旦你開始了，就很容易提升並做得更多。

But in practice, the minimal habit often becomes the destination, not a warm-up for something bigger.

但在實踐中，最低限度的習慣往往成為終點，而不是更大目標的熱身。

And I'm skeptical that such patient approaches to practice will reliably result in substantial improvements.

而且，我對這種耐心的實踐方法能否可靠地帶來實質性的改進持懷疑態度。

How effective is the patient approach to mastery?

耐心掌握方法的效果如何？

I'm not aware of any research that specifically pits five minutes per day habits against more typical curricula for skills people want to master.

我不知道是否有研究專門將每天五分鐘的習慣與人們想要掌握的技能的更典型課程相比較。

The costs and difficulties of longitudinal studies mean that empirical research is generally somewhat scant over very long time frames.

縱向研究的成本和難度意味著，在很長的時間範圍內，實證研究一般都比較少。

Now, the spacing effect from psychology would seem to support the slower patient approach.

現在，心理學中的間隔效應似乎支持慢點耐心的方法。

Memories tend to be more durable when there are longer intervals between reviewing information than when the same review is massed together, such as when cramming for a test.

當複習資訊的間隔時間較長時，記憶往往比同一複習內容集中在一起復習時更持久，比如在為考試而補習時。

At the same time, real-world studies of language learning tend to find the opposite, finding that more intensive curricula edge out more stretched out approaches.

與此同時，對語言學習的實際研究往往發現相反的情況，即密集型課程的效果優於拉伸型課程。

So my guess is that which approach is more effective, whether it's five minutes daily or intensive bursts, depends on the exact nature of the skill being learned, the practice activities used, and the knowledge the learner begins with.

是以，我認為，無論是每天五分鐘，還是密集突擊，哪種方法更有效，取決於所學技能的確切性質、所使用的練習活動，以及學習者一開始掌握的知識。

So I suspect that more complex skills favor a more intensive approach, whereas broad, knowledge-based subjects often favor a more patient strategy.

是以，我猜想，更復雜的技能更傾向於採用更密集的方法，而廣泛的知識型科目則往往更傾向於採用更耐心的策略。

However, this analysis is probably beside the point because, in general, the sorts of things people do for learning when they opt for a five-minute daily habit are categorically different from those they would do in a typical classroom setting or as part of a focused learning project.

不過，這種分析可能並不重要，因為一般來說，人們在選擇養成每天五分鐘的習慣時，為學習所做的事情與他們在典型的課堂環境中或作為重點學習項目的一部分所做的事情截然不同。

Here, patient approaches suffer from serious drawbacks.

在這方面，患者方法存在嚴重缺陷。

First, limited time constrains the type of practice you can do.

首先，有限的時間限制了你可以進行的練習類型。

So, in five minutes per day, you can complete an exercise on Duolingo, but meaningful conversation practice needs more time.

是以，每天只需五分鐘，您就能完成 Duolingo 上的練習，但有意義的會話練習則需要更多時間。

Watching a video of someone doing a painting can be done in five minutes, but actually doing the painting yourself takes more time.

觀看別人作畫的視頻可以在五分鐘內完成，但實際親自作畫卻需要更多時間。

Second, a focus on sustainability means that you're avoiding a lot of necessary effort.

其次，注重可持續發展意味著你可以避免很多必要的努力。

So when you pick activities that are decades, there's a bias against picking anything that's too effortful or hard to do.

是以，當你挑選數十年如一日的活動時，就會有一種偏見，即不要挑選太費力或太難做的事情。

This eliminates a lot of the intense, deliberate practice that you need to get good at anything.

這就省去了很多高強度的、深思熟慮的練習，而這正是你精通任何事情所需要的。

Third, long time frames make it harder to tell if you're making progress.

第三，過長的時間框架會讓你更難判斷自己是否取得了進展。

Improvement is evident when you're learning a lot over a few months.

當你在幾個月內學到很多東西時，進步是顯而易見的。

If you're not making progress, you change your approach.

如果沒有進展，就改變方法。

When improvement is something that you expect to occur years in the future, how do you actually know if you're getting better at the underlying skill?

當你期望在未來數年內取得進步時，你怎麼知道你的基本技能是否有所提高？

So, for these reasons, I'm somewhat skeptical of many of the proposed plans I've heard from readers to achieve mastery via these minimal long-term habits.

是以，基於這些原因，我對許多讀者提出的通過這些最起碼的長期習慣來實現精通的計劃持懷疑態度。

Mastery is slow and impatient.

掌握是緩慢而不耐煩的。

In his research on deliberate practice, Anders Erikson articulated the view of mastery that most closely corresponds with my own.

安德斯-埃裡克森（Anders Erikson）在其關於刻意練習的研究中，闡述了與我的觀點最為接近的掌握觀點。

He argued that mastery is a slow process, and also an impatient one.

他認為，掌握是一個緩慢的過程，也是一個沒有耐心的過程。

Mastery is slow because it takes a long time.

掌握是緩慢的，因為需要很長時間。

And no, my book, Ultralearning, is not an exception to this.

我的書 Ultralearning 也不例外。

I do think it's possible to learn more efficiently, and that effectively designed projects can help people accomplish more than they think is possible.

我確實認為有可能提高學習效率，有效設計的項目可以幫助人們完成比他們想象的更多的任務。

But genuine mastery, not just relatively quick intermediacy, requires a long time, and nothing I've worked on is an exception to that rule.

但是，真正的精通，而不僅僅是相對較快的中級水準，需要很長的時間，我所做的一切都不例外。

Second, mastery is impatient because the work required is deliberate, effortful, and striving.

其次，掌握是不耐煩的，因為所需的工作是深思熟慮的、努力的和奮鬥的。

Deliberate practice was Erikson's to describe the kind of learning efforts put in by elite performers in chess, music, and athletics.

埃裡克森用 "刻意練習 "來描述國際象棋、音樂和田徑領域的精英所付出的學習努力。

It certainly describes Tiger Woods, Harmon's most famous student.

泰格-伍茲是哈蒙最有名的學生。

I believe this is true even if you don't aspire to world-class greatness.

我相信，即使你不渴望成為世界級的偉大人物，這一點也是正確的。

Even getting good enough requires a level of commitment that's difficult to reach with minimal effort.

即使要做到足夠好，也需要付出一定的努力，而這種努力是很難達到的。