The Lesson to Unlearn
December 2019 The most damaging thing you learned in school wasn't something you learned in any specific class.
2019 年 12 月 您在学校学到的最具破坏性的东西并不是您在任何特定课程中学到的东西。
It was learning to get good grades.
这是为了取得好成绩而学习。
When I was in college, a particularly earnest philosophy grad student once told me that he never cared what grade he got in a class, only what he learned in it.
当我上大学时，一位特别认真的哲学研究生曾经告诉我，他从不关心自己在课堂上取得的成绩，只关心自己在课堂上学到了什么。
This stuck in my mind because it was the only time I ever heard anyone say such a thing.
这件事深深地印在我的脑海里，因为这是我唯一一次听到有人这么说。
For me, as for most students, the measurement of what I was learning
对于我和大多数学生来说，衡量我所学内容的标准
completely dominated actual learning in college.
完全主导了大学的实际学习。
I was fairly earnest; I was genuinely interested in most of the classes I took, and I worked hard.
我是相当认真的；我对我参加的大部分课程都非常感兴趣，而且我也很努力。
And yet I worked by far the hardest when I was studying for a test.
然而，当我准备考试时，我的学习是迄今为止最努力的。
In theory, tests are merely what their name implies: tests of what you've learned in the class.
从理论上讲，测试正如其名称所暗示的那样：测试您在课堂上学到的内容。
In theory you shouldn't have to prepare for a test in a class any more than you have to prepare for a blood
从理论上讲，您不必像准备血液一样准备课堂测试
test.
测试。
In theory you learn from taking the class, from going to the lectures and doing the reading and/or assignments, and the test that comes afterward merely measures how well you learned.
理论上，你可以通过上课、听讲座、做阅读和/或作业来学习，而随后的测试只是衡量你学习的程度。
In practice, as almost everyone reading this will know, things are so different that hearing this explanation of how classes and tests are meant to work is like hearing the etymology of a word whose meaning has changed completely.
在实践中，几乎每个读到这篇文章的人都会知道，事情是如此不同，以至于听到关于课程和测试如何运作的解释就像听到一个含义完全改变的词的词源一样。
In practice, the phrase "studying
在实践中，“学习”这句话
for a test" was almost redundant, because that was when one really studied.
考试”几乎是多余的，因为那是一个人真正学习的时候。
The difference between diligent and slack students was that the former studied hard for tests and the latter didn't.
勤奋的学生和懈怠的学生的区别在于，前者为了考试而努力学习，而后者则不努力。
No one was pulling all-nighters two weeks into the semester.
开学两周后，没有人熬夜。
Even though I was a diligent student, almost all the work I did in school was aimed at getting a good grade on something.
尽管我是一个勤奋的学生，但我在学校做的几乎所有作业都是为了在某件事上取得好成绩。
To many people, it would seem strange that the preceding sentence
对于很多人来说，前面这句话似乎很奇怪
has a "though" in it.
里面有一个“虽然”。
Aren't I merely stating a tautology?
我这不是在陈述同义反复吗？
Isn't that what a diligent student is, a straight-A student?
这不就是一个勤奋的学生，一个学霸吗？
That's how deeply the conflation of learning with grades has infused our culture.
这就是学习与成绩的结合深深地融入了我们的文化。
Is it so bad if learning is conflated with grades?
如果学习与成绩混为一谈，有那么糟糕吗？
Yes, it is bad.
是的，这很糟糕。
And it wasn't till decades after college, when I was running Y Combinator, that I realized how bad it is.
直到大学毕业几十年后，当我经营 Y Combinator 时，我才意识到情况有多么糟糕。
I knew of course when I was a student that studying for a test is
我当然知道，当我还是一名学生时，为考试而学习是很重要的。
far from identical with actual learning.
与实际学习相差甚远。
At the very least, you don't retain knowledge you cram into your head the night before an exam.
至少，你不会记住考试前一天晚上塞进脑子里的知识。
But the problem is worse than that.
但问题比这更糟糕。
The real problem is that most tests don't come close to measuring what they're supposed to.
真正的问题是大多数测试并没有达到预期的效果。
If tests truly were tests of learning, things wouldn't be so bad.
如果考试真的是学习的考试，事情就不会那么糟糕。
Getting good grades and learning would converge, just a little late.
取得好成绩和学习会融合在一起，只是有点晚了。
The problem is that nearly all tests given to students are terribly
问题是几乎所有给学生的测试都非常糟糕
hackable.
可破解的。
Most people who've gotten good grades know this, and know it so well they've ceased even to question it.
大多数取得好成绩的人都知道这一点，而且知道得如此之深，以至于他们甚至不再质疑它。
You'll see when you realize how naive it sounds to act otherwise.
当你意识到不这样做听起来是多么天真时，你就会明白了。
Suppose you're taking a class on medieval history and the final exam is coming up.
假设您正在上中世纪历史课，期末考试即将来临。
The final exam is supposed to be a test of your knowledge of medieval history, right?
期末考试应该是测试你对中世纪历史的了解，对吗？
So if you have a couple days between now and the exam, surely the best way to spend the time,
因此，如果从现在到考试还有几天时间，这无疑是度过时间的最佳方式，
if you want to do well on the exam, is to read the best books you can find about medieval history.
如果你想在考试中取得好成绩，那就是阅读你能找到的关于中世纪历史的最好的书籍。
Then you'll know a lot about it, and do well on the exam.
然后你就会了解很多，并在考试中取得好成绩。
No, no, no, experienced students are saying to themselves.
不不不，有经验的同学都在自言自语。
If you merely read good books on medieval history, most of the stuff you learned wouldn't be on the test.
如果你只阅读有关中世纪历史的好书，你学到的大部分内容都不会出现在考试中。
It's not good books you want to read, but the lecture notes and assigned reading in this class.
你想读的不是好书，而是这堂课的讲义和指定阅读。
And even most of that you can ignore, because you only have to worry about the sort of thing that could turn up as a test question.
甚至大部分你都可以忽略，因为你只需要担心那些可能作为测试问题出现的事情。
You're looking for sharply-defined chunks of information.
您正在寻找明确定义的信息块。
If one of the assigned readings has an interesting digression on some subtle point, you can safely ignore that, because it's not the sort of thing that could be turned into a test question.
如果其中一篇指定的阅读材料在某些微妙的问题上有有趣的题外话，你可以安全地忽略它，因为它不是那种可以变成测试问题的东西。
But if the professor tells you that there were three underlying causes of the
但如果教授告诉你，造成这种情况的根本原因有三个：
Schism of 1378, or three main consequences of the Black Death, you'd better know them.
1378 年的分裂，或者说黑死病的三个主要后果，你最好了解一下。
And whether they were in fact the causes or consequences is beside the point.
至于它们实际上是原因还是结果，那就不是重点了。
For the purposes of this class they are.
就本课程而言，它们是。
At a university there are often copies of old exams floating around, and these narrow still further what you have to learn.
在大学里，经常会有旧考试的副本到处流传，这些副本进一步缩小了你必须学习的内容。
As well as learning what kind of questions this professor asks, you'll often
除了了解这位教授会问什么样的问题之外，您还经常会
get actual exam questions.
获取实际考试题。
Many professors re-use them.
许多教授重复使用它们。
After teaching a class for 10 years, it would be hard not to, at least inadvertently.
教了一堂课10年之后，很难不这么做，至少在不经意间是这样。
In some classes, your professor will have had some sort of political axe to grind, and if so you'll have to grind it too.
在某些课程中，你的教授可能有某种政治斧头要磨，如果是这样，你也必须磨它。
The need for this varies.
对此的需求各不相同。
In classes in math or the hard sciences or engineering it's rarely necessary, but at the other end of the spectrum there
在数学、硬科学或工程课程中，很少有必要这样做，但在另一方面，也有必要这样做。
are classes where you couldn't get a good grade without it.
如果没有它，你就无法取得好成绩。
Getting a good grade in a class on x is so different from learning a lot about x that you have to choose one or the other, and you can't blame students if they choose grades.
在 x 的课程中取得好成绩与学习有关 x 的很多知识有很大不同，因此您必须选择其中之一，并且如果学生选择成绩，您就不能责怪他们。
Everyone judges them by their grades graduate programs, employers, scholarships, even their own parents.
每个人都根据他们的成绩来评判他们——研究生课程、雇主、奖学金，甚至他们自己的父母。
I liked learning, and I really enjoyed some of the papers and
我喜欢学习，我真的很喜欢其中的一些论文
programs I wrote in college.
我在大学写的程序。
But did I ever, after turning in a paper in some class, sit down and write another just for fun?
但我是否曾经在某堂课上交完一篇论文后，坐下来写另一篇论文只是为了好玩？
Of course not.
当然不是。
I had things due in other classes.
我还有其他课要交的作业。
If it ever came to a choice of learning or grades, I chose grades.
如果要选择学习或成绩，我会选择成绩。
I hadn't come to college to do badly.
我来大学并不是为了表现不好。
Anyone who cares about getting good grades has to play this game, or they'll be surpassed by those who do.
任何想取得好成绩的人都必须玩这个游戏，否则他们就会被那些想取得好成绩的人超越。
And at elite universities,
而在精英大学里，
that means nearly everyone, since someone who didn't care about getting good grades probably wouldn't be there in the first place.
这意味着几乎每个人，因为那些不关心取得好成绩的人可能一开始就不会在那里。
The result is that students compete to maximize the difference between learning and getting good grades.
结果是学生们竞相最大化学习和取得好成绩之间的差异。
Why are tests so bad?
为什么测试如此糟糕？
More precisely, why are they so hackable?
更准确地说，为什么它们如此容易被黑客攻击？
Any experienced programmer could answer that.
任何有经验的程序员都可以回答这个问题。
How hackable is software whose author hasn't paid any attention to preventing it
作者没有注意预防的软件有多容易被黑客攻击
from being hacked?
免受黑客攻击？
Usually it's as porous as a colander.
通常它像漏勺一样多孔。
Hackable is the default for any test imposed by an authority.
Hackable 是权威机构实施的任何测试的默认设置。
The reason the tests you're given are so consistently bad so consistently far from measuring what they're supposed to measure is simply that the people creating them haven't made much effort to prevent them from being hacked.
您所接受的测试之所以始终如此糟糕（始终无法衡量其应衡量的内容），很简单，因为创建这些测试的人没有付出太多努力来防止它们被黑客攻击。
But you can't blame teachers if their tests are hackable.
但如果老师的测试是可破解的，你就不能责怪他们。
Their job
他们的工作
is to teach, not to create unhackable tests.
是为了教学，而不是创建无法破解的测试。
The real problem is grades, or more precisely, that grades have been overloaded.
真正的问题是成绩，或者更准确地说，成绩已经超负荷了。
If grades were merely a way for teachers to tell students what they were doing right and wrong, like a coach giving advice to an athlete, students wouldn't be tempted to hack tests.
如果成绩只是老师告诉学生什么是对的、什么是错的一种方式，就像教练给运动员提供建议一样，那么学生就不会想要破解测试。
But unfortunately after a certain age grades become more than advice.
但不幸的是，到了一定年龄之后，成绩就不再是建议了。
After a certain age, whenever you're being taught, you're usually also being judged.
到了一定年龄后，每当你接受教育时，你通常也会受到评判。
I've used college tests as an example, but those are actually the least hackable.
我以大学考试为例，但这些考试实际上是最难破解的。
All the tests most students take their whole lives are at least as bad, including, most spectacularly of all, the test that gets them into college.
大多数学生一生参加的所有考试至少都一样糟糕，其中最引人注目的是让他们进入大学的考试。
If getting into college were merely a matter of having the quality of one's mind measured by admissions officers the way scientists measure the mass of an object, we could
如果进入大学只是让招生人员测量一个人的思想质量的问题，就像科学家测量物体质量的方式一样，我们可以
tell teenage kids "learn a lot" and leave it at that.
告诉十几岁的孩子“学到很多东西”，然后就这样了。
You can tell how bad college admissions are, as a test, from how unlike high school that sounds.
作为一项测试，你可以从听起来与高中的不同之处看出大学录取有多糟糕。
In practice, the freakishly specific nature of the stuff ambitious kids have to do in high school is directly proportionate to the hackability of college admissions.
实际上，雄心勃勃的孩子在高中必须做的事情的特殊性与大学招生的可破解性成正比。
The classes you don't care about that are mostly memorization, the random "extracurricular activities" you have to participate in to show
你不关心的课程大多是背诵，你必须参加的随机“课外活动”才能表现出来
you're "well-rounded," the standardized tests as artificial as chess, the "essay" you have to write that's presumably meant to hit some very specific target, but you're not told what.
你“全面发展”，标准化考试像国际象棋一样人为，你必须写的“论文”大概是为了达到一些非常具体的目标，但你不知道是什么。
As well as being bad in what it does to kids, this test is also bad in the sense of being very hackable.
除了对孩子的影响之外，这个测试也很糟糕，因为它很容易被黑客攻击。
So hackable that whole industries have grown up to hack it.
如此容易被黑客入侵，以至于整个行业都在成长起来，可以破解它。
This is the explicit purpose of test-prep companies and admissions counsellors, but it's also a significant
这是考试辅导公司和招生顾问的明确目的，但也是一个重要的因素。
part of the function of private schools.
私立学校职能的一部分。
Why is this particular test so hackable?
为什么这个特殊的测试如此容易被破解？
I think because of what it's measuring.
我认为是因为它所测量的内容。
Although the popular story is that the way to get into a good college is to be really smart, admissions officers at elite colleges neither are, nor claim to be, looking only for that.
尽管流行的说法是进入一所好大学的方法是要非常聪明，但精英大学的招生人员既不也声称只追求这一点。
What are they looking for?
他们在寻找什么？
They're looking for people who are not simply smart, but admirable in some more general sense.
他们寻找的人不仅聪明，而且在更普遍的意义上令人钦佩。
And how
以及如何
is this more general admirableness measured?
这是更普遍的钦佩程度吗？
The admissions officers feel it.
招生人员感受到了这一点。
In other words, they accept who they like.
换句话说，他们接受自己喜欢的人。
So what college admissions is a test of is whether you suit the taste of some group of people.
所以大学录取考的就是你是否适合某些人群的口味。
Well, of course a test like that is going to be hackable.
嗯，当然，这样的测试是可以被破解的。
And because it's both very hackable and there's (thought to be) a lot at stake, it's hacked like nothing else.
而且因为它非常容易被黑客攻击，而且（被认为）存在很多风险，所以它比其他任何东西都更容易被黑客攻击。
That's why it distorts your life so much for so long.
这就是为什么它会这么长时间地扭曲你的生活。
It's no wonder high school students often feel alienated.
难怪高中生经常感到疏远。
The shape of their lives is completely artificial.
他们的生活形态完全是人为的。
But wasting your time is not the worst thing the educational system does to you.
但浪费你的时间并不是教育系统对你做的最糟糕的事情。
The worst thing it does is to train you that the way to win is by hacking bad tests.
它所做的最糟糕的事情是告诉你获胜的方法是破解糟糕的测试。
This is a much subtler problem that I didn't recognize until I saw it happening to other people.
这是一个更加微妙的问题，直到我看到它发生在其他人身上时我才意识到。
When I started advising startup founders at Y Combinator, especially
当我开始为 Y Combinator 的初创公司创始人提供建议时，尤其是
young ones, I was puzzled by the way they always seemed to make things overcomplicated.
年轻人，我对他们总是把事情变得过于复杂感到困惑。
How, they would ask, do you raise money?
他们会问，你如何筹集资金？
What's the trick for making venture capitalists want to invest in you?
让风险投资家愿意投资你的秘诀是什么？
The best way to make VCs want to invest in you, I would explain, is to actually be a good investment.
我想解释一下，让风投想要投资你的最好方法就是真正成为一项好的投资。
Even if you could trick VCs into investing in a bad startup, you'd be tricking yourselves too.
即使你可以欺骗风险投资家投资一家糟糕的初创公司，你也会欺骗自己。
You're investing time in the same company you're asking them to
您将时间投入到您要求他们的同一家公司
invest money in.
投资资金于.
If it's not a good investment, why are you even doing it?
如果这不是一项好的投资，那你为什么还要这么做呢？
Oh, they'd say, and then after a pause to digest this revelation, they'd ask: What makes a startup a good investment?
哦，他们会说，然后在暂停消化这一启示后，他们会问：什么使初创公司成为一项好的投资？
So I would explain that what makes a startup promising, not just in the eyes of investors but in fact, is growth .
因此，我要解释的是，初创企业之所以有前途，不仅是在投资者眼中，而且实际上是增长。
Ideally in revenue, but failing that in usage.
在收入方面理想，但在使用方面却失败了。
What they needed to do was get lots of users.
他们需要做的是获得大量用户。
How does one get lots of users?
如何获得大量用户？
They had all kinds of ideas about that.
他们对此有各种各样的想法。
They needed to do a big launch that would get them "exposure." They needed influential people to talk about them.
他们需要进行一次大型发布，以使他们“曝光”。他们需要有影响力的人来谈论他们。
They even knew they needed to launch on a tuesday, because that's when one gets the most attention.
他们甚至知道他们需要在周二发布，因为那是最受关注的时候。
No, I would explain, that is not how to get lots of users.
不，我要解释一下，这不是获得大量用户的方法。
The way you get lots of users is to make the product really great.
获得大量用户的方法就是让产品变得真正出色。
Then
然后
people will not only use it but recommend it to their friends, so your growth will be exponential once you get it started .
人们不仅会使用它，还会推荐给他们的朋友，所以一旦你开始使用它，你的成长将会呈指数级增长。
At this point I've told the founders something you'd think would be completely obvious: that they should make a good company by making a good product.
在这一点上，我已经告诉创始人一些你认为完全显而易见的事情：他们应该通过制造优质产品来打造一家优秀的公司。
And yet their reaction would be something like the reaction many physicists must have had when they first heard about the theory of relativity: a mixture of astonishment at
然而，他们的反应就像许多物理学家第一次听说相对论时的反应一样：混合着对这一理论的惊讶。
its apparent genius, combined with a suspicion that anything so weird couldn't possibly be right.
它表面上是天才，但同时又怀疑如此奇怪的事情不可能是正确的。
Ok, they would say, dutifully.
好吧，他们会说，尽职尽责。
And could you introduce us to such-and-such influential person?
您能给我们介绍一下某某有影响力的人物吗？
And remember, we want to launch on Tuesday.
请记住，我们希望在周二推出。
It would sometimes take founders years to grasp these simple lessons.
有时创始人需要花费数年时间才能掌握这些简单的教训。
And not because they were lazy or stupid.
并不是因为他们懒惰或愚蠢。
They just seemed blind to what was right in front of them.
他们似乎对眼前的事物视而不见。
Why, I would ask myself, do they always make things so complicated?
我会问自己，为什么他们总是把事情搞得这么复杂？
And then one day I realized this was not a rhetorical question.
然后有一天我意识到这不是一个反问句。
Why did founders tie themselves in knots doing the wrong things when the answer was right in front of them?
当答案就在他们面前时，为什么创始人却陷入困境，做错误的事情？
Because that was what they'd been trained to do.
因为这就是他们接受的训练要做的事情。
Their education had taught them that the way to win was to hack the test.
他们所受的教育告诉他们，获胜的方法就是破解考试。
And without even telling them they were being trained to do this.
甚至没有告诉他们他们正在接受培训来做到这一点。
The younger ones, the recent graduates,
年轻的，刚毕业的，
had never faced a non-artificial test.
从未面临过非人工测试。
They thought this was just how the world worked: that the first thing you did, when facing any kind of challenge, was to figure out what the trick was for hacking the test.
他们认为这就是世界的运作方式：面对任何挑战时，你所做的第一件事就是弄清楚破解测试的秘诀是什么。
That's why the conversation would always start with how to raise money, because that read as the test.
这就是为什么谈话总是从如何筹集资金开始，因为这被解读为测试。
It came at the end of YC.
它是在 YC 结束时出现的。
It had numbers attached to it, and higher numbers seemed to
它附有数字，数字越大似乎
be better.
变得更好。
It must be the test.
一定是考验。
There are certainly big chunks of the world where the way to win is to hack the test.
世界上有很多地方，获胜的方法就是破解测试。
This phenomenon isn't limited to schools.
这种现象不仅限于学校。
And some people, either due to ideology or ignorance, claim that this is true of startups too.
有些人出于意识形态或无知，声称初创公司也是如此。
But it isn't.
但事实并非如此。
In fact, one of the most striking things about startups is the degree to which you win by simply doing good work.
事实上，初创公司最引人注目的事情之一就是你通过简单地做好工作而获胜的程度。
There are edge cases, as there are in
存在边缘情况，如
anything, but in general you win by getting users, and what users care about is whether the product does what they want.
任何事情，但总的来说，你通过获得用户而获胜，而用户关心的是产品是否满足他们的要求。
Why did it take me so long to understand why founders made startups overcomplicated?
为什么我花了这么长时间才明白为什么创始人让初创公司变得过于复杂？
Because I hadn't realized explicitly that schools train us to win by hacking bad tests.
因为我没有明确意识到学校训练我们通过破解糟糕的测试来获胜。
And not just them, but me!
不仅是他们，还有我！
I'd been trained to hack bad tests too, and hadn't realized it till decades later.
我也接受过破解糟糕测试的训练，直到几十年后我才意识到这一点。
I had lived as if I realized it, but without knowing why.
我的生活就好像我意识到了这一点，但却不知道为什么。
For example, I had avoided working for big companies.
例如，我避免为大公司工作。
But if you'd asked why, I'd have said it was because they were bogus, or bureaucratic.
但如果你问为什么，我会说那是因为它们是假的，或者是官僚主义的。
Or just yuck.
或者只是恶心。
I never understood how much of my dislike of big companies was due to the fact that you win by hacking bad tests.
我从来不明白我对大公司的厌恶有多大是因为你通过糟糕的测试而获胜。
Similarly, the fact that the tests were unhackable was a lot of what attracted me to startups.
同样，测试不可破解这一事实也是吸引我加入初创公司的一大原因。
But again, I hadn't realized that
但我又没有意识到
explicitly.
明确地。
I had in effect achieved by successive approximations something that may have a closed-form solution.
我实际上通过逐次逼近获得了可能具有封闭形式解决方案的东西。
I had gradually undone my training in hacking bad tests without knowing I was doing it.
我逐渐取消了黑客攻击不良测试的训练，但我并不知道自己正在这么做。
Could someone coming out of school banish this demon just by knowing its name, and saying begone?
一个刚从学校出来的人，只要知道这个恶魔的名字，然后说走开，就可以驱逐它吗？
It seems worth trying.
看来值得一试。
Merely talking explicitly about this phenomenon is likely to make things better, because much of its power comes from the fact that
仅仅明确地谈论这种现象可能会让事情变得更好，因为它的大部分力量来自以下事实：
we take it for granted.
我们认为这是理所当然的。
After you've noticed it, it seems the elephant in the room, but it's a pretty well camouflaged elephant.
当你注意到它之后，它似乎是房间里的大象，但它是一头伪装得很好的大象。
The phenomenon is so old, and so pervasive.
这种现象是如此古老，而且如此普遍。
And it's simply the result of neglect.
这只是疏忽的结果。
No one meant things to be this way.
没有人想让事情变成这样。
This is just what happens when you combine learning with grades, competition, and the naive assumption of unhackability.
当你将学习与成绩、竞争以及不可破解的天真的假设结合起来时，就会发生这种情况。
It was mind-blowing to realize that two of the things I'd puzzled
意识到我一直困惑的两件事真是令人兴奋
about the most the bogusness of high school, and the difficulty of getting founders to see the obvious both had the same cause.
最重要的是——高中的虚假性，以及让创始人看到显而易见的事情的困难——两者都有相同的原因。
It's rare for such a big block to slide into place so late.
这么大的一块这么晚才滑到位，实属罕见。
Usually when that happens it has implications in a lot of different areas, and this case seems no exception.
通常，当这种情况发生时，它会对许多不同的领域产生影响，这个案例似乎也不例外。
For example, it suggests both that education could be done better, and how you might fix it.
例如，它表明教育可以做得更好，以及如何解决它。
But it also suggests a potential answer to the question all big
但这也为这个重大问题提供了一个潜在的答案
companies seem to have: how can we be more like a startup?
公司似乎都在思考：我们怎样才能更像一家初创公司？
I'm not going to chase down all the implications now.
我现在不打算追究所有的影响。
What I want to focus on here is what it means for individuals.
我在这里想重点关注的是它对个人意味着什么。
To start with, it means that most ambitious kids graduating from college have something they may want to unlearn.
首先，这意味着大多数大学毕业的雄心勃勃的孩子可能都有一些他们想要忘记的东西。
But it also changes how you look at the world.
但它也会改变你看待世界的方式。
Instead of looking at all the different kinds of work people do and thinking of them vaguely as more or
不要着眼于人们所做的所有不同类型的工作，并模糊地认为它们是更多或更多
less appealing, you can now ask a very specific question that will sort them in an interesting way: to what extent do you win at this kind of work by hacking bad tests?
不太吸引人，你现在可以问一个非常具体的问题，以一种有趣的方式对它们进行排序：通过破解糟糕的测试，你能在多大程度上赢得这种工作？
It would help if there was a way to recognize bad tests quickly.
如果有一种方法可以快速识别不良测试，那将会有所帮助。
Is there a pattern here?
这里有模式吗？
It turns out there is.
事实证明是有的。
Tests can be divided into two kinds: those that are imposed by authorities, and those that aren't.
测试可分为两种：由当局实施的测试和非当局实施的测试。
Tests that aren't imposed by
并非由以下机构强加的测试
authorities are inherently unhackable, in the sense that no one is claiming they're tests of anything more than they actually test.
权威机构本质上是不可破解的，因为没有人声称他们正在测试比他们实际测试更多的东西。
A football match, for example, is simply a test of who wins, not which team is better.
例如，一场足球比赛只是测试谁获胜，而不是测试哪支球队更好。
You can tell that from the fact that commentators sometimes say afterward that the better team won.
你可以从评论员有时事后说更好的球队获胜的事实中看出这一点。
Whereas tests imposed by authorities are usually proxies for something else.
而当局实施的测试通常是其他东西的替代品。
A test in a class is supposed to measure not just how well you did
课堂测试不应该仅仅衡量你的表现
on that particular test, but how much you learned in the class.
在那个特定的测试中，但是你在课堂上学到了多少。
While tests that aren't imposed by authorities are inherently unhackable, those imposed by authorities have to be made unhackable.
虽然不是由当局实施的测试本质上是不可破解的，但当局实施的测试必须不可破解。
Usually they aren't.
通常情况下他们不是。
So as a first approximation, bad tests are roughly equivalent to tests imposed by authorities.
因此，作为第一个近似值，糟糕的测试大致相当于当局实施的测试。
You might actually like to win by hacking bad tests.
您实际上可能希望通过破解糟糕的测试来获胜。
Presumably some people do.
想必有些人是这样的。
But I bet most people who find themselves doing
但我敢打赌大多数人发现自己在做
this kind of work don't like it.
这种工作不喜欢。
They just take it for granted that this is how the world works, unless you want to drop out and be some kind of hippie artisan.
他们只是理所当然地认为世界就是这样运转的，除非你想辍学并成为某种嬉皮士工匠。
I suspect many people implicitly assume that working in a field with bad tests is the price of making lots of money.
我怀疑很多人都隐含地认为，在一个测试不佳的领域工作是赚大钱的代价。
But that, I can tell you, is false.
但我可以告诉你，这是错误的。
It used to be true.
这曾经是真的。
In the mid-twentieth century, when the economy was composed of oligopolies ,
在二十世纪中叶，当经济由寡头垄断组成时，
the only way to the top was by playing their game.
达到顶峰的唯一方法就是玩他们的游戏。
But it's not true now.
但现在情况并非如此。
There are now ways to get rich by doing good work, and that's part of the reason people are so much more excited about getting rich than they used to be.
现在有很多方法可以通过做好工作来致富，这就是人们比以前更热衷于致富的部分原因。
When I was a kid, you could either become an engineer and make cool things, or make lots of money by becoming an "executive." Now you can make lots of money by making cool things.
当我还是个孩子的时候，你要么成为一名工程师并做出很酷的东西，要么通过成为一名“高管”赚很多钱。现在你可以通过制作很酷的东西来赚很多钱。
Hacking bad tests is becoming less important as the link between work and authority erodes.
随着工作和权威之间的联系被削弱，破解糟糕的测试变得不再那么重要。
The erosion of that link is one of the most important trends happening now, and we see its effects in almost every kind of work people do.
这种联系的削弱是目前最重要的趋势之一，我们几乎在人们所做的每一种工作中都看到了它的影响。
Startups are one of the most visible examples, but we see much the same thing in writing.
初创公司是最明显的例子之一，但我们在书面上看到了很多相同的事情。
Writers no longer have to submit to publishers and editors to reach readers; now they can go direct.
作者不再需要向出版商和编辑提交才能接触读者；现在他们可以直接去。
The more I think about this question, the more optimistic I get.
我越想这个问题，就越乐观。
This seems one of those situations where we don't realize how much something was holding us back until it's eliminated.
这似乎是我们没有意识到有多少东西阻碍我们直到它被消除的情况之一。
And I can foresee the whole bogus edifice crumbling.
我可以预见整座虚假大厦即将崩溃。
Imagine what happens as more and more people start to ask themselves if they want to win by hacking bad tests, and decide that they don't.
想象一下，当越来越多的人开始问自己是否想通过破解糟糕的测试来获胜，并决定不这样做时，会发生什么。
The kinds of work where you win by hacking bad tests will be starved of talent,
通过破解糟糕的测试而获胜的工作将会缺乏人才，
and the kinds where you win by doing good work will see an influx of the most ambitious people.
那些通过做好工作而获胜的人将会看到最雄心勃勃的人的涌入。
And as hacking bad tests shrinks in importance, education will evolve to stop training us to do it.
随着黑客攻击不良测试的重要性下降，教育将发展到停止训练我们这样做。
Imagine what the world could look like if that happened.
想象一下，如果发生这种情况，世界会是什么样子。
This is not just a lesson for individuals to unlearn, but one for society to unlearn, and we'll be amazed at the energy that's liberated when we do.
这不仅是个人需要忘记的一课，也是社会需要忘记的一课，当我们忘记时，我们会惊讶于所释放的能量。
Notes [1] If using tests only to measure learning sounds impossibly utopian, that is already the way things work at Lambda School.
注释 [1] 如果仅使用测试来衡量学习听起来是不可能的乌托邦，那么 Lambda 学校已经采用了这种方式。
Lambda School doesn't have grades.
Lambda School 没有成绩。
You either graduate or you don't.
你要么毕业，要么不毕业。
The only purpose of tests is to decide at each stage of the curriculum whether you can continue to the next.
测试的唯一目的是在课程的每个阶段决定您是否可以继续下一阶段。
So in effect the whole school is pass/fail.
所以实际上整个学校都是通过/失败。
[2] If the final exam consisted of a long conversation with the
[2] 如果期末考试包括与老师的长时间交谈
professor, you could prepare for it by reading good books on medieval history.
教授，你可以通过阅读有关中世纪历史的好书来做好准备。
A lot of the hackability of tests in schools is due to the fact that the same test has to be given to large numbers of students.
学校测试的许多可破解性是由于必须对大量学生进行相同的测试。
[3] Learning is the naive algorithm for getting good grades.
[3] 学习是获得好成绩的简单算法。
[4] Hacking has multiple senses.
[4] 黑客攻击有多种含义。
There's a narrow sense in which it means to compromise something.
从狭义上讲，它意味着对某事做出妥协。
That's the sense in which one hacks a bad test.
这就是一个人破解了一个糟糕的测试的意义。
But there's another, more general sense, meaning
但还有另一种更普遍的意义
to find a surprising solution to a problem, often by thinking differently about it.
通常通过不同的思考来找到问题的令人惊讶的解决方案。
Hacking in this sense is a wonderful thing.
从这个意义上来说，黑客攻击是一件很棒的事情。
And indeed, some of the hacks people use on bad tests are impressively ingenious; the problem is not so much the hacking as that, because the tests are hackable, they don't test what they're meant to.
事实上，人们在糟糕的测试中使用的一些技巧非常巧妙。问题不在于黑客攻击，因为测试是可黑客攻击的，他们没有测试他们的意图。
[5] The people who pick startups at Y Combinator are similar to admissions officers, except that instead of being arbitrary, their
[5] 在 Y Combinator 挑选初创公司的人与招生官员类似，只不过他们不是任意的，而是
acceptance criteria are trained by a very tight feedback loop.
验收标准是通过非常严格的反馈循环进行训练的。
If you accept a bad startup or reject a good one, you will usually know it within a year or two at the latest, and often within a month.
如果你接受一家糟糕的初创公司或拒绝一家好的初创公司，你通常最迟在一两年内（通常是一个月内）就会知道。
[6] I'm sure admissions officers are tired of reading applications from kids who seem to have no personality beyond being willing to seem however they're supposed to seem to get accepted.
[6] 我确信招生人员已经厌倦了阅读那些看起来没有个性的孩子的申请，除了愿意以他们应该被录取的方式出现之外。
What they don't realize is that they are, in a sense, looking in a mirror.
他们没有意识到，从某种意义上说，他们正在照镜子。
The lack of authenticity in the applicants is a reflection of the arbitrariness of the application process.
申请人缺乏真实性，反映了申请过程的随意性。
A dictator might just as well complain about the lack of authenticity in the people around him.
独裁者也可能会抱怨周围的人缺乏真诚。
[7] By good work, I don't mean morally good, but good in the sense in which a good craftsman does good work.
[7] 我所说的好工作并不是指道德上的好，而是指一个好的工匠做得好的工作。
[8] There are borderline cases where it's hard to say which category a test falls in.
[8] 在某些边缘情况下，很难说测试属于哪一类。
For example, is raising venture capital like college
例如，像大学一样筹集风险投资
admissions, or is it like selling to a customer?
招生，还是像向客户推销？
[9] Note that a good test is merely one that's unhackable.
[9] 请注意，好的测试只是无法破解的测试。
Good here doesn't mean morally good, but good in the sense of working well.
这里的好并不意味着道德上的好，而是指工作良好。
The difference between fields with bad tests and good ones is not that the former are bad and the latter are good, but that the former are bogus and the latter aren't.
测试不好的领域和测试好的领域之间的区别不在于前者是坏的，后者是好的，而在于前者是假的，后者不是假的。
But those two measures are not unrelated.
但这两项措施并非无关。
As Tara Ploughman said, the path from good to
正如塔拉·普洛曼 (Tara Plowman) 所说，从善到善的道路
evil goes through bogus.
邪恶通过虚假。
[10] People who think the recent increase in economic inequality is due to changes in tax policy seem very naive to anyone with experience in startups.
[10] 对于任何有创业经验的人来说，认为最近经济不平等加剧是由于税收政策变化造成的人似乎非常天真。
Different people are getting rich now than used to, and they're getting much richer than mere tax savings could make them.
现在，与过去相比，不同的人变得更加富有，而且他们的富裕程度远远超出了单纯节税所能带来的富裕程度。
[11] Note to tiger parents: you may think you're training your kids to win, but if you're training them to win by hacking bad tests,
[11] 老虎父母请注意：您可能认为您正在训练您的孩子获胜，但如果您通过破解糟糕的测试来训练他们获胜，
you are, as parents so often do, training them to fight the last war.
你就像父母经常做的那样，训练他们打最后一场战争。
Thanks to Austen Allred, Trevor Blackwell, Patrick Collison, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris, and Harj Taggar for reading drafts of this.
感谢 Austen Allred、Trevor Blackwell、Patrick Collison、Jessica Livingston、Robert Morris 和 Harj Taggar 阅读本文的草稿。