有些人越努力，就越平庸

L是一個典型的上班族。

L is totally a typical office worker.

他很努力，簡直就是那種教科書式的努力。

He works really hard, the textbook-type hard.

但是他的生活卻一直沒有任何起色，總是越來越糟。

But so far his life has never gotten any better because of this. On the contrary, it gets worse.

他不知道這是怎麼回事。

He has no idea why this is happening.

每次主管佈置的任務，他都一口接下。

Every time he got a mission from his supervisor, he took it without a second word.

第一次做不好，他就做第二次；第二次做不好，他就做第三次。

If he fails in doing it the right way, he tries twice. If he fails twice, he tries a third time.

如果這些事在正常上班的時候做不完，他會毫不猶豫地加班，有時候連整個週末都會搭進去。

And if he can’t finish it within the normal office hours, he’ll work overtime without any hesitation. Sometimes he spends his whole weekends working.

但他依舊覺得自己的工作越來越跟不上了，同事們對他也變得沒什麼耐心。

But still, he can feel that it’s becoming more and more frequently for him to not be able to make his work done. And his co-workers are all losing patience on him.

而反觀他身邊，有那麼些同事，每天的狀態雖然也不能叫輕鬆，但似乎總是遊刃有餘，幾乎每天都能正常下班。

If you check around him, you would find that there are a bunch of colleagues who get off work on time almost everyday. You can’t say that their jobs are easy, but their days really don’t seem tiring.

可是，這些人的工作卻一直比他做得好，加薪的速度也更快。

However, their performance are better than L’s and their salaries are rising faster.

而且，其他的人好像都更喜歡這些人。

And, by the way, they are more popular among the people there.

其實，這種困境從學生時代開始就一直困擾着L。

In fact, problems like this have been troubling L ever since he was still a student.

每節課，只要老師在黑板上寫了東西，他都必然會記到筆記本上。

In every class, once the teacher writes something down on the blackboard, L would undoubtedly write them down on his notebook.

他的筆記本總是用得很快，一本一本地疊得很高，比他身邊同學的高很多。

His notebooks ran out of space pretty fast. And the notebooks full of notes were piling higher and higher, way higher than those of the students around him.

他爲此感到很自豪，覺得這是自己的一枚勳章。

He felt proud of that. It was like a medal for him.

然而事實是，他的成績一直都不算太好。

But the truth is his scores were never quite high.

而那些筆記本很薄的同學裏，卻有不少人一直比他優秀。

And many of those students who had less notes than him were doing better than him.

對，這就和他現在遇到的情況一樣。

Yes, it was just like the situation that he is facing now.

唯一的不同，是當初的那個他，那個身爲勤奮學生的他，深得老師的喜愛。

The only difference is that back then he, the he being that hardworking student, was liked by the teachers.

也正因爲如此，他覺得自己纔是走在正確道路上的人，他覺得自己的態度纔是正確的態度。

Because of this, he thought that he was the one moving on the right path and that his attitude was the right attitude.

也正因爲如此，他才時不時地感嘆：“明明知道了很多道理，怎麼還是過不好這一生？”

Also because of this, he often sighs and asks that why his life is still a mess although he knows so much about what’s right in life.

但是，真的是這樣嗎？

But is what he thinks really the truth?

不，完全不是的，像L這樣的人，並沒有他們自己想象得那麼美好，他們是典型的“劣質勤奮者”。

No, it’s totally not the truth. People like L are not as highly as they think of themselves at all. They are typically what we call cheap hard-workers.

可悲的是，世界上的大多數人，都和L一樣；爲了避免思考，他們願意做任何事。

Sadly, a good half of the world is made of people like this. They will do anything to avoid thinking.

他們忍受不了深度思考帶來的不安，他們忍受不了思維升級帶來的痛苦。

They cannot bear the uncertainty that comes with deep thinking, nor can they bear the pain that comes with upgrading mindsets.

於是，他們讓自己淹沒在繁重的機械動作之中，並將這稱之爲“勤奮”。

So, they bury themselves in countless mechanical actions and call it working hard.

這就好像是小時候做作業一樣，如果當天的作業分別是抄課文和做數學題，絕大部分人都會選擇先去抄課文。

This is just like doing homework back when we were kids. If what the teachers assigned were copying texts and doing math, almost all the people would choose to copy the texts first.

畢竟，抄課文並不需要動什麼腦子，而且還讓你不斷地覺得自己在完成一樣東西。

Because you don’t really need to think much when you copy the text. And it keeps making you feel like you’re accomplishing something.

而做數學題嘛，就是個真的需要動腦子的事了，所以沒有多少人喜歡去做。

And doing math really takes a lot of thinking. That’s why few people prefer to do it.

是的，這就是我們大部分人在做的事情：

Yes, this is what most of us are doing:

試圖用行動上的勤奮，去彌補思想上的懶惰。

Trying to make up for the laziness to think by putting out more and more mechanical actions.

就像L，上學時的他，並沒有想過到底爲什麼要記筆記，也沒有想過記哪些東西才能真正幫助自己學習，更沒有去研究怎麼記。

This is what L does. When he was still in school, he never thought about why he made those notes. Neither did he think about what exactly he should be writing down or how to write them.

他只是不停地記，而他記的那些東西，他從來都沒有真正看完過。

He just kept making notes, although he never really finished reading all those notes he made.

上班的時候，他也從未想過自己這個角色到底爲何而存在。

As an office worker now, he has never thought about the role of his current position.

因此他從不衡量自己的時間和現有能力，只是不斷地接下一切需求，但卻往往不能在時限內完成。

That’s why he never evaluates the time available and his own capacity. He just accepts every task that has been thrown on him. And he usually can’t finish them within the deadlines.

結果是，他既沒有幫團隊解決多少問題，還讓自己忙得焦頭爛額，既沒有時間休息，也沒有時間去提升自己。

The result is that he didn’t really help his team solve many problems. But he still made himself overwhelmed without any time to rest nor any time to improve himself.

最終，他越努力，就變得越平庸。

Eventually, the harder he tries, the more mediocre he becomes.

而職場和學校不一樣，這裏不以過程來評判你，這裏只會用結果來評判你；不會有人讚賞你這種劣質的勤奮，他們只會罵你不靠譜。

Work place is nothing like the schools. Here, people don’t judge you by what attitude you’re showing when you do things. They judge you by whether you make it done or not. Nobody here will give you credit for putting out some cheap hard-work. They’ll just blame you for not being reliable.