汪世界

成功不必靠運氣，努力在「不出錯」也可以

最近美國網路上有一篇名文，作者是一位網路人，也是業餘鋼琴家及業餘的棋士，應該是很聰明也很厲害的一個人，他跑出來教大家，怎樣才可以快速的「成功」。

注意，不只是成功，而是「快速」的成功！怎麼快速的成功？他說，成功的捷徑，就是「不要做白癡的事」（stop doing stupid shit）。
這是一個有趣的道理，他說，你可以做一些「對」的事，達到成功，但這些事就像中樂透，可遇不可求，別傻了！這時候，你還是想成功，而且想快速成功，怎麼辦？這時候，不應該是想辦法中樂透，而是「不要做白癡的事」。他舉了一個例子，當年他有一個很會下棋的大學同學，他請教這位同學，怎樣才能快速的進步他的棋藝？這位同學想了想，告訴他，在棋盤上面不要「露出弱點」，就贏了一大半！這傢伙恍然大悟，跑去買了幾本下棋的書，專心研究下棋的時候何時才是被「封殺」、「將軍」，然後記在心裡，以後不要讓自己做這些白癡的動作，造成可能被對手打敗的可能，一心求著在棋盤上活愈久愈好，他說，才過了一個月，再次和人下棋，竟然打敗了玩棋多年的老手。

他再舉例，當年他練琴八年後，換一個鋼琴老師，這個老師上任第一件事並非教他什麼特別的曲目，而是先將他的一些「壞習慣」改掉，他沒有細講是什麼壞習慣，但猜想可能是練琴的態度或是彈琴的姿勢等等，他回憶，接下來的兩年，他進步神速。他語氣一轉指出，事實上，鋼琴比賽比的其實是誰「不出錯」，不出錯的不見得是彈得最好，但有可能因為錯誤最少而贏了，所以這傢伙提出他自己的新的「80/20理論」，想要打敗80%的人，只要修改掉這件事最底部、最基本的20%，讓它看起來「不出錯」，就贏了。

我覺得這篇文章很有道理，給大家一個新的方向──
我自有一番詮釋，我認為，這是一種「藉別人之力來成功」的新的配置方法──的確，「做得好」不容易被看到，「做不好」誰都感受得出，所以，當你不要「做不好」，你就比較容易在你的競爭的環境中，脫穎而出；如果你有100分的「力氣」，你應該花90分在「不出錯」，然後，奇妙的事情就會發生：

因為你「不出錯」，你可能開始得到另一個「助力」──

鋼琴比賽，只要你暫時全心全意在「不出錯」，你可以得到評審的讚賞、得到獎牌，接下來你就得到更多的資源、更多的注意，你不再需要全力「成功」，因為這些資源與注意與貴人會推動你「成功」。下棋的時候，只要你暫時全心全意在「不出錯」上面，時間一久，對方可能自己會出現錯誤，他會拱手將明明可以到手的勝利「讓」給你，讓你看到，進而攻擊致勝。上班的時候，「不出錯」也很重要，有些人看起來很有想法、話很多，但他講了十句話只要偶有一句出錯，我們就會覺得這個人是否其實不太清楚狀況，他之前做得很不錯也都沒有用了、一筆勾消了，反而，當有些人看起來不怎麼會說話、好像不是很厲害，看起來卻「無懈可擊」，他花時間在讓自己看起來很棒，「想像空間」又大又美好，雖然他已經沒有任何表現，但就會有「上司」會想辦法幫助他，讓他可以表現，表現的努力就不必這麼多了，他可以藉別人給他的資源，來強化成功的機會。一個人的時間就這麼有限，天才再厲害，若能得到別人的幫助，成功會更快！所以，成功加速之道，可以將每一分努力都花在刀口上，花在「不要做白癡的事」，讓自己看起來「不出錯」，讓別人來幫助你成功，也算是一招啦！

(摘自Mr.6)

How to seem good at everything: Stop doing stupid shit
Back in college, one of my best friends was a prodigious chess player. He'd won a few regional championships and was pretty highly rated. Before I met him, I'd considered myself a competent player. Back in school I'd placed in a few high school tournaments, and in general played a better game than most of my friends. I'm a competitive guy, so I'd challenge him constantly only to get trounced. It was a lot like repeatedly banging my head into a wall. At some point, I caved and made the mistake of asking him what the quickest way for me to improve my chess skills was. What followed was some of the most insulting and profound advice I've ever received in my life. He pulled me aside and bluntly said "Josh, stop doing stupid shit."After that, I gave up chess for some time, as I was busy working on a piano performance degree while maintaining a healthy competition and performance schedule. Later, after renewing my interest in the game, I took his advice to heart. The impact it had was profound.

What constitutes "not doing stupid shit" at the chessboard? At the most basic level, it means not hanging pieces or falling for basic tactics. I spent about a month addressing these issues. I bought a couple of chess books and spent a couple hours a day drilling tactics that involved spotting pieces that could be captured "en prise" (about to be hanged) and basic tactics such as forks, pins and skewers. I should mention that at the end of the month I read up on a couple of openings. After a month had passed, I decided to start playing again. I was shocked by the drastic improvement in my playing. I was regularly wiping the floor with people rated between 1400-1550. In case you're wondering, that's about the rating of an average adult tournament player, most of whom have been playing for years.

The experience of improving so quickly and so much by "eliminating stupid shit" was profound. After some reflection, I found that it applied to so many other areas of my life. Playing the piano has always been a big part of my life. Growing up, I was always better than the average piano student. In high school and college, I won several competitions and even gave a few concerts in fairly large venues. Looking back though, the biggest moment in my musical career was the moment I "stopped doing stupid shit." At that point, I had been playing for about 8 years and had just switched to a new piano teacher. She spent about a month beating numerous idiotic habits out of me. After that, followed the most productive two years of my musical career. My skills grew explosively during this time. Even without the explosive growth in skill that eliminating stupidity usually comes with, it's surprising how far just not making dumb mistakes will get people. Looking back on some piano competitions, it seems like the vast majority of the time, winners were chosen simply because they didn't do anything that was stupid enough to be easily criticised. This seems to apply to software too. Not doing anything dumb will place you firmly above the average in terms of developer quality.Since I've received that bit of advice, it's been my firm goal to approach new skills with the mindset of "learning how to not do anything stupid." It's amazing how much this has revolutionised the way I learn.

Learning how to reflexively avoid stupidity is a key ingredient to attaining great heights with any skill. It's amazing how many hours you can piss away trying add new and interesting techniques to your repertoire before you've really mopped up the basics.As a parting shot, I'd like to make a reference to the Pareto Principle. It's been my experience that "Not doing stupid shit" will get you past the bottom 80% really fast