有时候问题不在于你，或你的某个习惯，而是你所处的环境阻碍了你的成功。看看那些比你成长更快的人，问自己:他们是否处在一个不同的环境，有利于这种进步?
Mistake #4: Being a Short-Term Perfectionst
错误四:只做短期的完美主义者
Nobody wants to be found out.Nobody wants the people around them to realize that they are the only one who doesn’t understand the lecture, who can’t solve the problem on the blackborad or who speaks with an accent.
没人想要暴露自己的无能。没人希望周围的人发现自己是唯–个没听懂讲座的人，唯-一个不会解黑板上的题目的人，或唯-一个说话有口音的人。
The solution many people take is to wait until they are ‘ready’.Wait until you’ve fully mastered something before trying to use it or get feedback on it.Unfortunately, with this attitude you’ll never be ‘ready’.
很多人采取的办法是一直等到自己“准备好”，等到完全掌握了某样东西才开始使用它或者收到反馈。不幸的是，抱着这种态度，你永远都不会“准备好"。
Fail early and fail often is a better motto.Make mistakes so you can learn why they are mistakes.Many misunderstandings are like landmiines-hiden until you walk over them accidentally.Only by walking that terrain thoroughly can you expose them all.Your ego may be bruised a little, but the benefits exceed the cost.
尽早犯错，经常犯错才是更可取的座右铭。犯了错才能知道为什么错。你很多错误的理解就像地雷–除非偶然踩上去，否则就一直藏在那里。只有在那个领域彻底地排查过，才能把“地雷"全部暴露出来。你的自尊或许会小小地受损，但是所得远远超过所失。
Mistake #5 : Not Being a Long-Term Perfectionst
错误五:不做长期的完美主义者
Short-term perfectionism is bad.This is the kind of “wait until I’m ready” approach that keeps you from learning quickly.
短期的完美主义者是有害的。“一直等到我准备好"的想法阻碍了你迅速学习。
Long-term perfectionism is good.This is the kind of perfectionism that doesn’t wait to attempt, but doesn’t settle on your current level being good enough.There’s always room for improvement, and the long-term perfectionist isn’t happy with adequacy.
长期的完美主义者则是有益的。这类完美主义者不是一直等着不去尝试，而是不满足于当前的水平。长期的完美主义者不会沾沾自喜，永远都觉得还有提高的空间。
Language learning perfectly demonstrates the contrast.On the one hand, you have short-tern perfectionists who resuse to attempt a conversation, out of fear that they’ll make a mistake or look dumb.On the ohter hand, you have people who aren’t long-term perfectionists, who are happy saying an expression incorrectly repeatedly as long as the other person understands them.
语言学习完美展现了这两种完美主义者的差异。一方面，短期完美主义者拒绝尝试对话，担心自己会犯错或出丑;另一方面，长期完美主义者即使说错了也乐于表达，只要对方能够理解他们就行了。
The key to cultivating the good kind of perfectionism without the bad kind is to (a) never hold back but, (b) remember to learn something from every attempt.
培养长期的完美主义而避免短期的完美主义的关键在于:(a)永远不要退缩;(b)记得从每一次尝试中学习。
Mistake #6: Learning Without Constraints
错误六:不设具体约束条件地学习
I frequently get emails from someone who says they want to “master programming” or “learn Chinese”.These aspirations are great, but most people will never do anything with them.It isn’t enough to acually have a system for learning it.
我经常收到一些人的邮件，说他们想要"掌握编程"或“学习中文"。 这些愿望很好，但绝大多数人永远不会去用这些技能做点什么。光想要学习某样东西是不够的，你需要设计一个包含约束条件的方案来确保学习的有效进行，
The problem with most systems is that they try to do too much.Mastering programming, for example, isn’t an actionable goal.Picking out a a specific Ruby course and learning it deeply over the next month is.You need to convert your learning aspirations into projects that make choices about what you plan to learn and what you won’t (or under what constraints you’ll follow).
大多数方案的问题在于，它们试图一下把事情做全，不加限定。举例来说，掌握编程技能就不是一个可行动的目标，而选择一门具体的Ruby课程并在下个月深度地学习则是可具体操作的。你需要把你的学习愿望转化成具体的学习项目，选择你将要学习的内容(或者你将遵循的约束条件)。
Both my current language-learning experiment and the MIT Challenge benefited from this approach.With the MIT Challenge, I knew I wanted to learn more about computer science.There were many different approaches I could have taken, but I settled on working through MIT’s computer science curriculum.This had certain advantages, such as strong fundamentals in mathematics I might not have put the effort into learning otherwise(even though they are critical for advanced topics like artificial intelligence).But it also had disadvantages-web programming wasn’t a course I took, even though it’s a skill I’d still like to develop.
我目前的语言学习实验和 MIT挑战都受益于这一方法。对于MIT挑战，我知道我想多学一些计算机科学的知识。有很多不同的方法可以实现这一目的，但我最终选择完成MIT计算机科学项目的课程。这样选择有其裨益，例如如果不是这个项目的课程，我可能不会花这么多精力在艰深的数学原理上(尽管数学原理对于高阶领域至关重要，例如人工智能)。但同时也有不利的一面–我没能够学习网络开发，虽然这是我一直想学习的技能。
In my current language learning project, restricting the learning efforts to not speaking English also constrained the project.I could have easily put the constraint on taking a certain number of hours of classes, or prparing for a CEFR exam.Each would have then dictated somewhat different learning focuses.
在我目前的语言学习项目中，“不说英语"是这个项目的一个约束条件。我其实可以很容易地增加其他约束条件，例如上完一定小时数的课程，或者为 CEFR考试做准备。每个不同的约束条件都会使学习侧重点有所不同。
Designing constraints is an important step that a few months.Interview other past learners and see what constraints (formal and informal) they used.
设计约束条件是重要的一步，需要做一些调研，尤其在你打算花几个月学习某样东西时。你可以采访之前学过这些内容的人，看他们都使用了那些(正式或非正式的)约束条件。
Mistake #7: Not Being Interested in What You Learn
错误七:对你所学的内容不感兴趣
Many people have convinced themselves that boringness is intrinsic to a subject.If you dislike accounting, math or French, it’s because those subjects are dull, and the best you can do is grind through those classes.
许多人说服自己相信，枯燥乏味是一门学科内在的本性。如果你不喜欢会计、数学或法语，那是因为这些学科很无趣，而你所能做的也就是熬过这些课。
This is false.Subjects are interesting both for their natural appeal and now you choose to learn them.Meaning you can choose to learn something in an interesting way or ini a boring way, irrespective of how inspiring your book or teacher is.
这是错误的。任何科目本质上都是有趣的，但取决于你如何学习它们。这意味着，不论你的课本或老师多么给人启迪，你都既可以选择以一种有趣的方式学习，也可以选择以一种无趣的方式学习。
You can make a subject more interesting by deliberately connecting it to things you care about.Accounting may be boring , but perhaps your own money isn’t.Math may be boring, but the patterns in nature it describes are fascinating.Connections breathe life into subjects boxed into esoteric compartments.
你可以通过刻意地让一门学科与你关心的事情产生联系而使其变得有趣。会计也许很无聊，但将自己的钱代入可能就不无聊了。数学也许很无聊，但它所描绘的自然规律充满了神奇。与你生活的联系使那些幽居暗室的艰深学科也变得生气勃勃。
The second way you can make a subject more interesting is to hunt for questions.Ask yourself why things are the way they are.Curiousity is the antidote to boredom, but if you don’t cultivate curiosity about a subject you can’t blame it later for being boring.
让一门学科变得有趣的第二种方法是寻找问题，问问自己事物为什么是现在这个样子。好奇心是无聊的解毒剂，但如果你没有培养起对一门学科的好奇心，日后就别怪它无聊了
Not all topics will inspire.Others you might hate for reasons completely aside from their inherent boredom.Even if you use this method, you’ll still like some subjects more than others.But that doesn’t negate the potential to make a class more interesting by making connections and developing a curiosity about it.
并非所有主题都会激发你的兴趣。你也可能厌恶一些学科，完全与它们内在的无趣无关。即使你用了这个方法，依然会喜欢某些学科甚于其他。但这并没有否定通过建立联系和发展好奇心让一门课变得更有趣的可能。
Making a subject more interesting also makes it easier to learn.Believing a subject is dull is a sure way to make it needlessly more difficult.Believing a subject has the potential to be interesting helps you avoid all of the previous mistakes I’ve written about above.
让一门学科更有趣也使它变得更容易学习。认定一门学科乏味必然无谓地使它变更难;而相信一门学科可能很有趣会帮你规避我上面写到的所有错误。
