One of the things that I enjoy is learning new things.

學習新事物是我眾多興趣之一。

How long does it take to acquire a new skill?

習得一個新的技能需要多久呢？

You know what I found?

你知道我發現什麼嗎？

10,000 hours?! Nooooooo!

1 萬個小時？不不不不不！

I am never going to be able to learn anything new ever again.

這樣我再也不可能學習任何新的東西。

But that's not true.

但事實並非如此。

The 10,000 hour rule came out of studies of expert-level performance.

一萬小時法則出自於一些達到專家級成就的研究結果。

Professional athletes, world-class musicians.

職業運動選手、世界級音樂大師。

The folks at the tippy top of their fields put in around 10,000 hours of practice.

在各領域中的頂尖人物都投入了約 1 萬個小時的練習時間。

But that last statement, it takes 10,000 hours to learn something?

但是真的像剛剛說的，需要 1 萬個小時來學新的技能嗎？

It's not true.

其實不然。

This is the learning curve, and the story of the learning curve is when you start you're grossly incompetent and you know it.

這是學習曲線，說明了在剛開始學習時你是完全不會的，我想你也知道。

With a little bit of practice, you get really good really quick.

而只要一點點的練習，你很快就可以達到相當好的水準。

And then at a certain point, you reach a plateau, and the subsequent gains become much harder to get.

然後在某個時間點你會進到停滯期，且隨後提升水準將變得更困難。

How long does it take from starting something and being grossly incompetent and knowing it to being reasonably good?

那從知道自己完全不會進步到合理的好水平需要多久時間呢？

Here's what my research says:

以下是我的研究結果：

20 hours, that's it.

20 個小時就夠了。

You can go from knowing nothing, if you put 20 hours of focused deliberate practice into that thing, you will be astounded at how good you are.

若是你刻意投入 20 個小時專心練習，就你可以從完全不懂，進步到讓自己驚訝的水準。

20 hours is doable.

20 個小時是可行的。

It's about 45 minutes a day for about a month.

就只是持續每天練習 45 分鐘約一個月。

There's a method to doing this.

這是有訣竅的。

The first is to deconstruct the skill.

第一，將這項才藝技能解構。

Decide exactly what you want to be able to do and break it down into smaller and smaller pieces.

決定你確切想要達到的水準，並將它拆解成許多小單元。

The more you're able to decide what are the parts of this skill that will actually help me get to what I want, you'll be able to improve your performance in the least amount of time possible.

你越能夠決定出該技能真正可以讓自己達到目標的部分，就越有可能在最短的時間內提升成果。

The second is learn enough to self-correct.

第二，學到足以自我矯正。

Get three to five resources about what it is you're trying to learn.

準備 3 到 5 個想學的東西的學習資源。

It could be books, could be courses, could be anything.

書籍、課程，什麼都可以。

What you want to do is learn just enough that you can actually practice and self-correct.

你只需要學到自己確實能獨自練習和自我修正的程度就夠了。

Noticing when you're making a mistake and then doing something a little different.

注意自己所犯的錯誤，然後一點一點改變。

The third is to remove barriers to practice—distractions, television, Internet.

第三，移除任何練習時的障礙，讓人分心的東西、電視、網路。

And the fourth is to practice for at least 20 hours.

而第四點就是至少練習 20 個小時。

Now, most skills have what I call a frustration barrier.

注意，大部份的技能學習都會出現我所謂的挫折障礙。

By pre-committing to practicing whatever it is that you want to do for at least 20 hours, you will be able to overcome that initial frustration barrier and stick with the practice long enough to actually reap the rewards.

無論想學什麼，事先自我許諾至少練習 20 個小時，就能克服一開始的的挫折障礙，進而堅持練習到足以獲得回饋。

That's it, it's not rocket science.

就是這樣，這並不難。

The major barrier to learning something new is not intellectual.

學習新事物的主要障礙並不是智能上的問題。

The major barrier is emotional.

而是情緒上的。

Feeling stupid doesn't feel good.

覺得自己愚蠢並不愉快。

And the beginning of learning anything new, you feel really stupid.

而在剛開始學習新事物時，一定會覺得自己愚不可及。

But, put 20 hours into anything.

但是就投入 20 個小時吧！

Do you want to learn a language?

想要學新的語言嗎？

Do you want to learn how to cook?

想學烹飪嗎？

Do you want to learn how to draw?

想學畫畫嗎？

Go out and do that thing.

去試試看吧！

It only takes 20 hours, have fun.

只需要花 20 小時。開心去學吧！