總算是讀完了。四月的時候，在 freakonomics 上有一期How to Become Great at Just About Anything, 講得非常吸引人是介紹一本書叫《Peak: Secret from new science of expert》，作者是 ANDERS ERICSSON，中文取叫做《刻意練習》，拖了很久沒有讀。上周下決心一口氣讀完。覺得收獲非常的多。如果有繁體中文版的話，十分推薦給大家。Freakonomics，還做了第二期，訪問了一萬個小時理論，outliers 的作者 Malcolm Gladwell，也是個很有趣的訪問。

以下是我的讀書筆記和想法整理在這裡，這本書的中文書名翻得很有趣，因為整本書，最常提到的兩個字就是 deliberate practice, 刻意練習。Ericsson 認為，通往宇宙真理的唯一道路、通往大師、成為高手的大師，就只有這四個字， 刻意練習 。

We named this universal approach “deliberate practice.”

有經驗不等於有刻意練習

Research has shown that, generally speaking, once a person reaches that level of “acceptable” performance and automaticity, the additional years of “practice” don’t lead to improvement.

大家都會開車吧，或是常常有聽到一些長者會說，我開車這麼多年了…但是開車這麼多年，真的有比較厲害嗎？你開車這麼多年了，你可以去參加 F1 方程式大賽嗎？可以嗎？不行。為什麼？或是老醫師一定比年輕的醫師厲害嗎？有經驗就真的能力比較好嗎？或是你的興趣是打網球，你打了十來年了、或是你興趣是彈吉他，但好像好幾年下來就到一個程度就沒有往上，就維持了一個程度，就只能這樣了。為什麼？這本書說，因為，你一開始會很認真的練習，會去駕訓班上課、每個過彎都注意；會花錢請老師教你吉他、每天還會練習；會在網球社團裡練基礎動作、練抽球。但這些技能、興趣，你可以開車不撞到、你可以彈幾首歌、你開始可以和朋友對打、還打得不錯。你就沒有再練了。所以你不會再進步，你就停留在這個 水準 而已。

有目標的練習

• Without such a goal, there was no way to judge whether the practice session had been a success.
• Purposeful practice is all about putting a bunch of baby steps together to reach a longer-term goal.
• Purposeful practice is focused.
• Purposeful practice involves feedback.

刻意練習，換句話說就是，有目標的練習。你知道你想要達成什麼樣的水準，而往那個方向去練習，並且在舒適圈之外，而且，你可以得到回饋、你在做這個練習時，很專心；這就是刻意練習。加上一點一點、一小步一小步的累積，就可以成為專家。

離開舒適圈是什麼？

1. Getting out of your comfort zone means trying to do something that you couldn’t do before.
2. If you never push yourself beyond your comfort zone, you will never improve.

就是去做你不會做的事情，一再重複做你會的、你熟練的，就不是刻意練習。如果你不持續練習你不會的，你就是停留在某個水準而已。刻意練習最主要的精神就是要你離開自己感到舒服的階段。

It is comfortable again. The changes stop. So to keep the changes happening, you have to keep upping the ante: run farther, run faster, run uphill. If you don’t keep pushing and pushing and pushing some more

如果你覺得這個階段，你很 OK，你很熟練、做這個用反射動作就好了。那恭禧你！你達到新的舒適圈。但是只要你停下來，你就不會再進步了。你想要跑得更快、跳得更高，就需要再讓自己變得 更不舒服 ，舒適圈表示你的大腦和你的身體體能習慣了這個新的平衡，而要離開這個平衡會很不舒服、但不離開，就不會再進步了。

Mental representation

因為不是翻譯大師，這個有點不知道怎麼翻譯， mental representation, 心理表徵？

• 書上是這樣翻的：

A mental representation is a mental structure that corresponds to an object, an idea, a collection of information, or anything else, concrete or abstract, that the brain is thinking about.

簡單說就是你有一個心靈地圖，譬如高雄市的司機可以把地圖記在心理、知道哪裡有測速照相機、哪裡紅綠燈少、怎麼從甲地到乙地的最快時間，就是心靈表徵。這個是練習得來的。如果用記憶來說明的話，就是把這些變成長期記憶。隨時可以調用。只要記憶進入長期記憶，就可以記再多也不會漏。

不過作者提到 mental representation 有一個小缺點，就它是 domain specific 的。就像你記好了高雄市的心靈地圖，但你不可能用在台北市。在某個領域的大師，他的心靈地圖只有在那個領域而已。

A key fact about such mental representations is that they are very “domain specific,” that is, they apply only to the skill for which they were developed. We saw this with Steve Faloon: the mental representations he had devised to remember strings of digits did nothing to improve his memory for strings of letters. there is no such thing as developing a general

書中說了個例子，譬如記數字的大師，他可以一次記上百個隨機的數字，但是在數字之外的記憶，是不可能比較好的。

the key benefit of mental representations lies in how they help us deal with information: understanding and interpreting it, holding it in memory, organizing it, analyzing it, and making decisions with it.

所以，練習可以增加記憶、可以記更多；而記更多，你在處理的效能就會提升。（以下說練習，都是指刻意練習）

• the more skilled you become, the better your mental representations are, and the better your mental representations are, the more effectively you can practice to hone your skill.
• It’s like a staircase that you climb as you build it. Each step of your ascent puts you in a position to build the next step. Then you build that step, and you’re in a position to build the next one. And so on.

所以你越練習，你就有更好的心靈地圖；而有更好的心靈地圖，你就可以走得更快、爬得更高。

成功的快速道路

以下是本文，還有各位看這本書最想要知道的重點。你說了這麼多，我知道 刻意練習 很重要、 心靈地圖 也很重要。那要怎麼做？有什麼快速道路可以讓我成功嗎？聽起來很迷人，怎麼做才是重點吧？

1. First, there are always objective ways—such as the win/loss of a chess competition
2. Second, these fields tend to be competitive enough that performers have strong incentive to practice and improve.
3. Third, these fields are generally well established, with the relevant skills having been developed over decades or even centuries.
4. fourth, these fields have a subset of performers who also serve as teachers and coaches and who, over time, have developed increasingly sophisticated sets of training techniques that make possible the field’s steadily increasing skill level.

是的，以上就是黃金通道。第一，要有客觀可以評斷的標準、可以量化、可以測量。譬如下棋、跑步，因為這樣才可以給回饋、才可以知道自己在哪個階段。第二，要可以比較的，有比較才會讓人想要去改善，如果全世界只有你會這一項技能，那幹麼練習。第三，這個東西有業界的最佳解，你不用自己去開創一條道路出來，你就照練就好。第四，這個領域有老師有教練，他們有特定的學習法可以教你。

這不是廢話嗎？

不是的，這是操作行定義。你要測量成功、要先知道所謂的成功是什麼？如果你是這個領域的開創者，那無論怎麼做你都是正確的，因為你是第一個；如果沒有人會，只有你會，那也無法刻意練習，因為練習要有方向，如果沒有特定的目標，就沒有方向，也就無法練習。要可以量化才可以有回饋、才知道現在程度在哪裡了。

他有一個小小的研究是這樣的，請音樂學院的學生寫問卷，先請教授或是有客觀的成績標準，分成三組：最好、不錯、還可以的學生。他們到底差在哪裡，唯一有差的就是，他們的練習時間。也就是說， 不是因為天份、也不是智商造成的不一樣。而是練習。

The crucial finding was that there was only one major difference among the three groups. This was the total number of hours that the students had devoted to solitary practice. the best violin students had, on average, spent significantly more time than the better violin students had spent.

哪有可能，你胡說，就是有人有天才。因為書中寫了很多實驗的細節，去闡述這個結論，有興趣的人可以一看。不過，我信了。我相信，只要努力，會變得不一樣。

作者是這樣描述的：

to become an excellent violinist requires several thousand hours of practice. We found no shortcuts and no “prodigies” who reached an expert level with relatively little practice.

沒有捷徑，讓你們失望了，沒有黃金通道、快速道路、神奇的方法論，也沒有所謂的天縱英才，只有每次比別人多一點點的努力而已。

刻意練習可以自己來嗎？

• Deliberate practice requires a teacher who can provide practice activities designed to help a student improve his or her performance.
• Deliberate practice involves well-defined, specific goals and often involves improving some aspect of the target performance;
• Deliberate practice is deliberate, that is, it requires a person’s full attention and conscious actions.

剛剛提到是有目標，而且不是有長期目標；而是有人指導之下，可以拆成許多小目標，而且可以給你回饋，告訴你現階段做得如何，你如何到下一個階段。也就是說，有人教你、手拉著手的帶你的練習才是有效的。我們常常會以為花時間練習就會進步，這是錯的。要把時間花在 刻意練習 才算數而且需要你的全心全意地投入在練習裡頭。不然，都不算。如果真的有什麼快速方法論， 就是找一個方法，不行就換掉再找下一個，不要浪費時間，可以的話，找人教你。

1. If you find that something works, keep doing it; if it doesn’t work, stop.
2. The best approach is almost always to work with a good coach or teacher.

更殘酷的事，我們習以為常，覺得只要有經驗就會變厲害，是種錯覺，

The reality is, however, that all of these things—managing, selling, teamwork—are specialized skills, and unless you are using practice techniques specifically designed to improve those particular skills, trying hard will not get you very far

譬如領導、販賣、管理，都是可以量化、有人教的，如果你只想要自己來、只要花時間就會進步。這不是刻意練習。這是你的幻覺。

人人都可以成為神奇寶貝大師

The deliberate-practice mindset offers a very different view: anyone can improve, but it requires the right approach.

是的，人人都可以成為神奇寶貝大師，只要你用對方法刻意練習。你可以問自己以下幾個問題，就知道自己有沒有在正確的道路上：

1. Does it push people to get outside their comfort zones and attempt to do things that are not easy for them?
2. Does it offer immediate feedback on the performance and on what can be done to improve it?
3. Have those who developed the approach identified the best performers in that particular area and determined what sets them apart from everyone else?
4. Is the practice designed to develop the particular skills that experts in the field possess?

你有沒有(被)要求離開舒適圈？你有沒有得到立即的回饋並且改進？你要學的這個技能有沒有已經有最佳解、最好的訓練方式了，如果有，你用上了嗎？還是自己土法煉鋼？

要成為神奇寶貝大師，有以下一些方法 4F: find a good teacher, focus, feedback, and fix it.

找一個好的老師

找一個好老師教你有些好處，第一，可以建立正確的心靈地圖，可以讓你在後來的學習之路，有個正確的心靈地圖，才不會迷路。第二，可以取得立即的回饋，並且快速修正，減少走歪路的時間。但是，不是你找到老師就好了。你還是要大量的練習、譬如寫練習題或是做基本功的練習。不是有好老師教就好，那僅僅是取得正確 刻意練習 的方法，最重要的，還是練習。

• It is particularly difficult early in the learning process, when your mental representations are still tentative and inaccurate; once you have developed a foundation of solid representations, you work from those to build new and more effective representations on your own.
• No matter how many sessions a week you have with an instructor, most of your effort will be spent practicing by yourself, doing exercises that your teacher has assigned.
• one of the most important things a teacher can do is to help you develop your own mental representations so that you can monitor and correct your own performance.

專心學習

• There was focus but no joy.whatever you are doing, focus on it.
• we started a routine, a practice routine, and from then on I really started to practice where it was a consciousaction working towards a specific goal, not just hit balls or putt.
• where much of the practice consists of seemingly mindless, repetitive actions, paying attention performing those actions the right way will lead to greater improvement.

舉一個例子好了，不少人有再練慢跑，但每天跑怎麼都沒有進步？為什麼那些選手可以跑那麼快。我也天天都有去慢跑啊。請問你慢跑在做什麼，聽音樂啊，慢跑這麼無聊。所以這就是你不會進步的原因。慢跑專家在跑步時是全神貫注在他的呼吸、配速、他的哪一個肌肉疼痛、他有計時、他還有心率器。他知道他在上坡時會變得慢，所以你清楚知道自己的弱點，他會加強這一塊；他會注意飲食、睡眠。你呢？會嗎？你有專心跑嗎？如果你有進步，當你在做這個活動時，請專心。而不是漫無目標的重複、不是放空、不知道自己在幹麼。全神貫注一點都不輕鬆，這個過程一點都不好玩，甚至感到痛苦。這才是 刻意練習

取得回饋, 並且修理它(fix it)

當你專心、當你有好老師教你時，你就可以知道哪裡做錯，得到回饋，從而改進。

they were paying attention to what they got wrong each time and correcting it.

the purpose of the repetition is to figure out where your weaknesses are and focus on getting better in those areas, trying different methods to improve until you find something that works.

重複練習，譬如說看電影學英文，你看一段片段，你跟著讀一段。你反覆地讀，不是無意識地讀。而是專心地去聽自己的聲音和電影的人說有什麼不一樣，音調、字詞、表情，使用時機。不是無意義地重覆；你每一次的重覆，都是有意義，都是你嘗試修正後的重覆。

what the expert performer can do, fail, figure out why we failed, try again, and repeat—over and over again.

所以把目標切成每個小小的目標，失敗、再去思考、再嘗試。一次又一次地、一點點地前進。

我信了，你最好也信

Furthermore, once you assume that something is innate, it automatically becomes something you can’t do anything about: If you don’t have innate musical talent, forget about ever being a good musician. If you don’t have enough willpower, forget about ever taking on something that will require a great deal of hard work. This sort of circular thinking—“The fact that I couldn’t keep practicing indicates that I don’t have enough willpower, which explains why I couldn’t keep practicing”—is

哪有可能每個人都可以成為大師，有人就是有天份啦。

只要你這麼想，你就落入了”fix mindset”，因為你用這個說法去說服你自己不用去努力，因為有人就是天才，你做不到。有人就是天生有毅力，我就是沒有啦。這些都是你的藉口而已。 你做不到，是因為你不想做。 。如果你有 growth mindset ，你相信人是會進步的，你才有可能透過刻意練習，達成你的目標。

但是什麼原因讓人可以一直練習呢？

Maintaining the motivation that enables such a regimen has two parts: reasons to keep going and reasons to stop.

每個人都有自己的一個理由，找到那個可以支撐你一直跳出舒適圈的理由。你也有你的理由停下來不練習。所以，先問問你自己，你要學會這個技能幹麼？要學到什麼程度？因為 刻意練習 很苦啊，我們下意識會不想去做。所以作者又問了小提琴的大師、學得好的學生，你們怎麼逼自己練習的？

• I found that most of them preferred to practice as soon as they got up in the morning.They had set up their schedules so that there was nothing else to do at that time. It was set aside specifically for practice.
• Identifying that period as their practice time created a sense of habit and duty that made it less likely they’d be tempted by something else.which indicates that they made more of an effort to plan their time.
• Good planning can help you avoid many of the things that might lead you to spend less time on practice than you wanted.

每天早起就去做這個練習。不要去想、養成習慣、自動化去做。就可以減少一些排斥感。所以你有什麼想要練習的嗎？請把它放在每天早起要做的第一件事，而且不要想為什麼要做。張開眼睛、立刻去做！而且是有計畫的，每周計畫、每月計畫，今天要練習什麼，可以讓你省下更多的時間。

The second thing is to limit the length of your practice sessions to about an hour.

每次練習大約一個小時就好，休息一下再戰。太長久，你自己也撐不住。作者提出這樣的建議：一個小時左右的練習。如果你很專心，這就是很長的腦力消耗了。

再來就是要催眠自己：

Another key motivational factor in deliberate practice is a belief that you can succeed.The power of such belief is so strong that it can even trump reality.

灌自己雞湯喝，天天喝。相信你自己在這個技能樹上可以點開點好點滿。因為你不相信的話, 你就會學到一半就不想學了；你覺得你做不到就不做了。所以，先灌自己滿滿的信心。如果你不相信自己，你就會撐不過去，可能會有一段停滯期、感覺都沒有進步。但只要你一離開、一停止，就永遠停在那了。所以，先相信自己可以，而且絕對不要放棄。就像灌籃高手的安西教練說的：放棄，比賽就結束了。

if you stop believing that you can reach a goal, either because you’ve regressed or you’ve plateaued, don’t quit. Make an agreement with yourself that you will do what it takes to get back to where you were or to get beyond the plateau, and then you can quit

自己的雞湯喝不夠，還可以找人幫你灌。找你的家人、朋友、讓他們替你打氣。或是找志同道合的人，在學習的路上不孤單，也可以讓你減少放棄的念頭。

所以，要怎麼樣讓自己撐下去，一直刻意練習？

1. 早上起來的第一件事就去做
2. 一次一小時左右
3. 相信自己可以，絕對不放棄
4. 找人幫你打氣、找同伴一起學

要變強只能有痛苦？

的確是這樣，但是如果是小孩呢？或是你是初學者呢？怎麼辦？

1. 先覺得好玩。先覺得這東西不錯。想要讓小孩學小提琴、鋼琴、畫畫？先讓他們覺得好玩、有趣、想學，是我的興趣。
2. 接下來就會想要好好練習、想要變厲害。這時，讓他們去知道為什麼要學比起如何學來得重要。先有核心信念
3. 這時他們就會有，我想要比其他人厲害、或是覺得這個技能是他們的一部分，這時，他們就會 下定決心

下定決心之後，才有可能願意去忍受痛苦、去練習變得厲害。

再說一次，沒有天才這件事

• Studies done in adults have generally found adult chess players to have no better visuospatial abilities than normal non-chess-playing adults.
• The researchers found, was that the elite players with lower IQs tended to practice more, which improved their chess game to the point that they played better than the high-IQ elite players.

作者出來道歉說，抱歉，各位，真的沒有魔術、神奇的超強記憶術，只有不斷的練習。有個研究去比較正常人和圍棋大師組的智力或是他們的圖形感、空間感怎麼樣？我們會覺的大師耶，智力一定比較高。對不起沒有，智力沒有比較高，還比較低。空間感也沒有比較好。而且智力低的大師還更厲害。作者的解釋是，因為智力低就更加願意練習、願意付出。智力高的，反而是一種魔咒。作者認為，沒有誰有什麼優勢比其他人厲害的，一切都是長時間累積下來的。音樂也是，也沒有什麼音樂天才，音樂大師的智力和常人無異。

現在的你就是你自我預言的產物

The predictions come true: the girl who was told to forget about sports never becomes any good at hitting a tennis ball or kicking a soccer ball; the boy who was told he was tone-deaf never learns to play a musical instrument or to sing well; and the children who were told they were no good at math grow up believing it. The prophecy becomes self-fulfilling.

你覺得女生打不好球，那就真的打不好；你覺得自己是音痴，那就真的是音痴；你覺得你一輩子都學不好英文，那你也真的學不好。這些，都是你自己的自我預言。你說你自己如何，你就是如何。請問有哪一個奧運冠軍覺得自己做得很差？哪一個網球球星覺得自己不如人？哪裡小提琴大師覺得自己拉得琴音實在是太難聽了？你覺得你就是數學爛，你學不好微積分的，所以你也真的就學不好。

如果你不相信你可以透過練習學好，那你就真的也做不到了。

我是老師/父母，我要怎麼教我的小孩？

with each step designed to keep students out of their comfort zone but not so far out that they cannot master that step. Then give plenty of repetition and feedback; the regular cycle of try, fail, get feedback, try again, and so on is

把難度降低，但是讓他們也可以走出舒適圈，一次給一點點的不一樣。給他們練習，並且回饋他們，讓他們可以快速修正。進入一個嘗試、失敗、給回饋、再試一次的循環。

結語

But perhaps a better way to see ourselves would be as Homo exercens, or “practicing man,” the species that takes control of its life through practice and makes of itself what it will.

我們或許不是智人了。我們不是地球上最聰明的動物，而是最願意練習的動物。可以的話，讓自己的人生從不斷地練習做點不一樣。最佳解只有一種， 刻意練習

The hallmark of purposeful or deliberate practice is that you try to do something you cannot do—that takes you out of your comfort zone—and that you practice it over and over again, focusing on exactly how you are doing it, where you are falling short, and how you can get better.

書中舉了大量的例子和研究來證明這個說法。不過因為篇幅的關係。文章中就不提到這些研究和例子。但每個例子都很吸引人，讓人願意去相信這個理論是真的。我覺得要去驗證到底是不是真的，最好的方法，就是拿自己來做實驗。失敗了也沒什麼損失啊。有沒有什麼想學的事情？自己的專業上有沒有想要突破的？有沒有想要換工作、換專業的？本來覺得怎麼別人都是天才，自己什麼都不行的？要不要試試看？我自己也開始試試看這書中提到的方式，讓自己來 刻意練習 看看。但有一個有趣的小想法，這本書沒有提到，離開 comfortable zone 、舒適圈是很不舒服的事情，為什麼有些人可以長年累月去做、有些人就是不行？我也知道刻意練習很重要，但我就是沒去做。為什麼有些人可以？下一本書 Grit ，就有提到，怎麼樣做到。這本已經有中文版了：恆毅力。 下一篇再來討論，怎麼樣可以讓自己 刻意練習 。