21世纪文盲

People want to become experts at all kinds of things, but the truth is most people don’t actually want to put in the effort becoming an expert really requires. Here’s my question for you: has the art of becoming good at things been lost on today’s instant gratification2 society?

And if we have become a society of armchair3 experts, what does that mean for those of us who actually like to get good at things? Is it easier or harder to acquire new skills given all the resources (and distractions) that exist today?

More and more our society craves4 entertainment. We love to be spectators5.

The pride and satisfaction of really learning and practicing something long enough to become good at it is competing with all forms of entertainment, and entertainment is winning.

Americans on average spend two months per year glued to the TV set.6 Kids spend nearly eight hours a day consuming media, including TV, playing video games and surfing the Internet7.

Learning and doing are losing to watching and playing.

Sure, TV and the Internet can be used to learn useful things, but they can’t replace real world experience. And let’s be honest, how many of those eight hours a day do you think are really spent learning?

Actual skills and knowledge have taken the back seat8. Real world skills are losing out to9 video games, and knowledge is losing out to beliefs.

Intellectuals10 are losing to those with the loudest beliefs. We know stunningly less and less and yet have stronger and stronger beliefs.

We’re experts at passive consumption of media and belief without fact, but little else. If consumption alone were a business, we’d all be wealthy entrepreneurs11.

I point out these sobering statistics on the lazy state of society not to depress you, but to counter an argument we all hear (and use) all the time: “I’m just too busy.”12 I’d love to get in shape, or learn the guitar, or spend more time with my kids or learn another language, but I’m just too busy. Really? How many hours of TV did you watch this week? How much time did you spend mindlessly13 surfing the Internet?

Let’s set aside14 the broader societal points for a minute. What everyone else does might be depressing, but we can only really change our own behavior. But most of us could use more doing and less consuming. If you want to acquire new skills, live an interesting life and do adventurous15 things, you have to get good at putting in the effort it takes to actually do those things.

Side note16 on definitions of “expert”: I’m a big believer in relative expertise17. For most purposes, you don’t need to be the world’s foremost18 expert on something to benefit from what you know. Being expert enough means knowing enough or being good enough to accomplish your goals, however modest or grand they may be.19

Think about all the things you’d love to be good at or know how to do. What’s on your list of cool things you want to know and do?

Now think about how many of those things you’ve really put effort towards over the past year. When I say “effort,” I don’t mean that you read 27 articles about it or watched a TV show on the subject. I’m talking about real learning, real doing, taking classes, practicing and asking someone who knows more about it for help.

How much of that level of effort have you put in?

If you’re lacking some of the abilities from your list, I’ll hazard20 a guess that you haven’t really put much effort in. Or, maybe you put some decent effort in, but you’ve been bouncing around from one pursuit to another or from one method to another without seeing results.21

In either case, there’s hope.

You can learn to do practically anything you want to, it’s just a matter of deciding what you want, focusing, putting in the time and getting serious about measuring your progress. It might also involve cutting out a little media consumption time, but I bet you were thinking that already.

With deliberate practice progress can be made, in astonishing time.22 For example, over the past three years I’ve learned how to sail, taken acting classes, taken up surfing, built three successful blogs, got a lot fitter, learned enough Spanish to be useful and traveled the world for 15 out of 36 months.

That’s not to say I’m an absolute expert in any of those things, but I’m expert enough to have used those skills and knowledge to dramatically impact my life.

This all started with a conversation I had with myself about the life I was living vs. the life I wanted to live. I took a step back and thought about how I wanted to spend my time, what I wanted to learn and do.

Have you had that conversation with yourself yet? If so, what are you doing to make it happen? If not, what are you waiting for……

1. Alvin Toffler: 阿尔文・托夫勒（1928― ），美国当今最具影响力的社会思想家之一。他凭先后出版的《未来的冲击》、《第三次浪潮》和《权力的转移》等未来三部曲享誉全球，成为未来学巨擘，对当今社会思潮有广泛而深远的影响。

2. gratification: 满足。

3. armchair: 只说不做的，空谈的。

4. crave: 渴望。

5. spectator: 观众，旁观者。

6. on average: 平均来看；be glued to: 盯着……看。

7. surf the Internet: 网上冲浪浏览因特网。

8. take the back seat: 居次要地位，退居二线。

9. lose out to: 输给，被……取代。

10. intellectual: 知识分子。

11. entrepreneur: 企业家。

12. sobering: 使人清醒的；depress:使沮丧；counter: 反驳。

13. mindlessly: 不动脑筋地。

14. set aside: 把……放置一边，不理会。

15. adventurous: 冒险的。

16. side note: 边注。

17. expertise: 专门技能/知识。

18. foremost: 最重要的。

19. modest: 不太大的，适中的；grand:宏伟的。

20. hazard: 冒昧提出，大胆猜测。

21. bounce: 上下跳动，此处用比喻义；seeing: 看见的。

22. deliberate: 慎重的；astonishing:惊人的。