最佳自学者的7个习惯7 habits of the best self-directed learners

Nowadays, self-directed learning is less of a cultural curiosity and more of an economic necessity. New knowledge accumulates so quickly, and industries change so rapidly, traditional education paths can’t keep pace.

如今，自主学习不再是一种文化奇观，而更多是一种经济需要。新知识积累得如此之快，行业变化如此之快，传统的教育途径无法跟上步伐。

Need help getting into the practice? Here are seven habits shared by the best self-directed learners.

需要帮助养成这种习惯吗？以下是最佳自学者共有的七个习惯。

Take ownership of your learning

对你的学习负责

Malcolm Knowles was an educator and a champion for adult learning (a.k.a. andragogy). He described self-directed learning as a process “in which individuals take the initiative, with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human and material resources for learning, choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes.”

马尔科姆·诺尔斯是一位教育家，也是成人学习（又称成人教育学）的倡导者。他将自主学习描述为一个过程，“在这个过程中，个人在有或没有他人帮助的情况下，主动诊断自己的学习需求、制定学习目标、确定学习所需的人力和物力资源、选择和实施适当的学习策略，并评估学习成果。”

The habits we’ll discuss here address all these points, but the first step is always to take the initiative.

我们在这里即将讨论的习惯覆盖所有要点，但第一步始终是采取主动。

As Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, told Big Think, “There is this illusion that is created in our classical education system that someone is teaching it to you.”

正如可汗学院创始人萨尔曼·可汗告诉Big Think那样，“我们的传统教育体系给人一种错觉，认为有人在教你。”

Traditional education can inadvertently saddle students with fixed mindsets (i.e., students are either naturally gifted at a subject or not, and their grades will reflect this). A growth-mindset student, on the other hand, knows that improvement is possible, even if it isn’t easy.

传统教育可能会让学生不自觉地形成固定心态(即学生要么天生擅长某一科目，要么没有，他们的成绩会反映这一点)。而具有成长心态的学生则知道，即使进步并不容易，但仍然是可能的。

Set SMART goals

设定SMART目标

Once you have the initiative, you need to set goals. Otherwise, rewards will always remain nebulous and unobtainable, and rewards are necessary if you are to remain motivated.

有了主动性之后，你需要设定目标。否则，成果将永远是模糊且无法获得的，而如果你想保持动力，成果是必不可少的。

The best self-directed learners know to set SMART goals. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Time-defined. Any goals you set should meet these criteria.

最优秀的自学者知道要设定SMART目标。SMART是具体、可衡量、行动导向、现实可行和时间限定这五个英文单词首字母的缩写。你设定的任何目标都应符合这些标准。

Self-directed learning is generally done in our few, precious off-hours. Break it down into smaller chunks and give yourself time.

自主学习通常是在我们为数不多的宝贵业余时间进行的。把它分成更小的部分，给自己一些时间。

If you’re curious, the opposite of a SMART goal is a VAPID one—that is, Vague, Amorphous, Pie-in-the-sky, Irrelevant, and Delayed. Don’t be a VAPID learner.

如果您好奇的话，SMART目标的反面是VAPID目标，即模糊、不定形、不切实际、不切实际和拖延。不要成为VAPID学习者。

Franklin’s five-hour rule

富兰克林的五小时规则

Benjamin Franklin was an author, statesman, inventor, and entrepreneur. He also left school when he was 10. How did he amass the knowledge necessary to succeed in so many trades with so little schooling? He set aside an hour every weekday for deliberate learning. He would read, write, ruminate, or devise experiments during that time.

本杰明·富兰克林是一位作家、政治家、发明家和企业家。他10岁就辍学了。他是如何在如此有限的学校教育下，积累起在众多行业取得成功所必需的知识呢？他每个工作日都会留出一个小时来进行刻意学习。在这段时间里，他会阅读、写作、沉思或设计实验。

Author Michael Simmons calls this Franklin’s five-hour rule, and he notes that many of the best self-directed learners use some form of the method.

作者迈克尔·西蒙将此称为富兰克林的五小时法则，并指出许多最佳的自我导向型学习者都采用了某种形式的方法。

Be sure to spread your five hours throughout the week. Your brain wasn’t designed for cram sessions, and trying to squeeze a week’s learning into one day will ensure you forget a lot of the material.

确保将你的五个小时分散到一周内。你的大脑不是为死记硬背而设计的，试图将一周的学习内容压缩到一天内会让你忘记很多内容。

Additionally, our brains’ neural networks need to time process information, so spacing out our learning helps us memorize difficult material more efficiently.

此外，我们大脑的神经网络需要按时间处理信息，因此分散学习时间有助于我们更有效地记住困难的内容。

Active learning

主动学习

Active learning helps students better understand the material and know when to apply which skills. It is easy to engage actively with gardening or math problems, but what about subjects like history, where participation comes mainly through reading books?

主动学习有助于学生更好地理解材料，并知道在何时应用何种技能。积极参与园艺或解决数学问题很容易，但像历史这样主要通过阅读书籍来学习的学科呢？

Bill Gates has a solution for that. He uses marginalia—note-taking in the margins of a book—to turn reading into a vibrant conversation with the author. “When you’re reading, you have to be careful that you really are concentrating,” Gates told Quartz. “Particularly if it’s a non-fiction book, are you taking the new knowledge and attaching it to knowledge you have. For me, taking notes helps make sure that I’m really thinking hard about what’s in there.”

比尔·盖茨有一个解决办法。他通过在书页边缘做笔记（即旁注）的方式，将阅读变成与作者进行的生动对话。盖茨告诉《Quartz》杂志：“阅读时，你必须小心，确保自己真的在集中注意力。尤其是当你读的是一本非小说类书籍时，你是否在接受新知识并将其与你的已有知识相结合。对我来说，做笔记有助于确保我真的在深入思考书中的内容。”

Prioritize (the 80/20 rule)

确定优先级(80/20规则)

In the early 20th century, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto noticed that 20% of Italy’s population owned 80% of its land. His analysis was later expanded into the Pareto principle (a.k.a. the 80/20 rule). This rule broadly states that 80% of your results will stem from 20% of your actions.

20世纪初，意大利经济学家维尔弗雷多·帕累托注意到，意大利20%的人口拥有80%的土地。他的分析后来扩展为帕累托原则（又称80/20规则）。该法则大致表明，80%的结果往往源于20%的行动。

The best self-directed learners use this rule to prioritize their study time. They focus on the 20% of actions that net them the most results. If someone wants to learn to crochet, they don’t need to understand the history of primitive textiles to do that (as fascinating as that may be). They need to invest their learning time at hands-on applications and only use spare time to brush up on nålebinding (again, super fascinating).

最优秀的自学者会利用这条规则来安排学习时间。他们专注于能带来最多成果的20%的行动。如果有人想学习钩针编织，他们不需要了解原始纺织品的历史（尽管这可能很有趣）。他们需要将学习时间投入到动手实践中，只利用业余时间来复习钩针编织（同样超级有趣）。

Visit the library

参观图书馆

For most of us, financial limits can interfere with our ability to accrue new supplies. Enter the library. A good research library has books on most any subject, has access to a host of online resources, and can connect you with like-minded professionals or groups.

对于我们大多数人来说，经济限制会影响我们积累新资源的能力。进入图书馆。一个好的研究图书馆几乎涵盖所有主题的书籍，可以访问大量在线资源，并可以让你与志同道合的专业人士或团体建立联系。

Author Ray Bradbury couldn’t afford to go to college and instead visited the local library three times a week. He went on to become one of the most celebrated authors of the 21st century.

作家雷·布拉德伯里没有钱上大学，因此每周三次去当地的图书馆。他后来成为21世纪最著名的作家之一。

“A college cannot educate you; a library can educate you,” Bradbury said. “You go to the library to find yourself. You pull those books off the shelf, you open them, and you see yourself there. And you say, ‘I’ll be goddamed, there I am!’”

“大学不能教育你，但图书馆可以教育你，”布拉德伯里说。“你去图书馆寻找自己。你从书架上取下那些书，打开它们，你就会看到自己在那里。你会说，‘天哪，我就在那里！’”

Employ your own motivation

发挥自己的动力

The traditional education path gives you a very clear motivation: Get a good grade to get a good job. Self-directed learning provides no clear motivation, so you’ll have to create your own.

传统的教育路径会给你一个非常明确的动机：取得好成绩，找到好工作。自主学习没有明确的动机，所以你必须自己创造动机。

Entrepreneur Mark Cuban urges people to never stop learning. The near 60-year-old billionaire is currently teaching himself to code in Python. His reason? He believes the world’s first trillionaire will make their fortune with artificial intelligence, and he doesn’t want to be left behind.

企业家马克·库班敦促人们永不停止学习。这位年近60岁的亿万富翁目前正在自学Python编程。他的理由是什么？他相信世界上第一位万亿富翁将通过人工智能发家致富，他不想落后。

“Whatever you are studying right now, if you are not getting up to speed on deep learning, neural networks, etc., you lose,” Cuban told CNBC. “The more I understand it, the more I get excited about it.”

库班告诉CNBC：“无论你现在在学什么，如果你不了解深度学习、神经网络等，你就会失败。我越了解它，就越感到兴奋。”

Of course, your motivation doesn’t have to be finding the next million-dollar venture. It could be as simple as expanding your liberal education for self-improvement, learning a new skill set to advance in your field, or simply reading a book to share in conversation with others. Whatever the case, the motivation needs to come from you.

当然，你的动机不一定是寻找下一个百万美元的创业项目。它可以很简单，比如扩展你的通识教育以提升自我，学习一套新技能以在你的领域取得进步，或者只是阅读一本书来与他人分享。无论如何，动机必须来自你自己。