8月英文原版读书会 图/Eric
Reflection:
从小到大，我们最讨厌也最羡慕的一直都是那个“别人家的孩子”，不是歌唱得好，就是琴弹得好，要么有超群的记忆力，要么是解题高手......我们羡慕嫉妒恨之余，只能自嘲自己没有这个天赋，就算再努力都没有用。于是，我们心安理得的继续得过且过着，时而羡慕嫉妒别人一下，时而自我感伤一下......
我也曾一度抱有这样的想法，直到开始阅读《刻意练习》这本书以后。两位作者通过30多年的科学研究，告诉我们所谓的“天才”并不是真的“天赋异禀”，只是因为他们天赋“知晓如何刻意练习（deliberate practice）”的能力，而这个能力恰恰是我们每一个人都与生俱有的，只是我们尚未能发觉并很好的利用而已。
作者在引言部分提到，各种不同练习之间的差别，在于对人类的大脑和身体的适应能力的利用程度不同。我们的身体会适应改变而重新达到“体内平衡”（Homeostasis），而我们的大脑也会 “不用则退”，因此我们若想进一步提升自己，就要挑战我们的体内平衡，走出“舒适区”，迫使我们的身体或大脑来适应新的变化，只有这样我们才能发掘并构筑自己的潜力。
English Summary:
Why are some people so amazingly good at what they do? Most of people naturally tend to answer it as, "They are gifted".
But is that really so?
The book "Peak: Secrects from the New Science of Expertise" has a totally different and fresh answer for this question. Over more than thirty years of studying experts in various fields, the authors came to realize that the most effective approaches to improving performance all follow a single set of general principles, which is "deliberate practice".
Instead of directly introducing "deliberate practice", the authors first have explained thoroughly the differences between "naive practice" and "purposeful practice" by citing different kinds of studies and examples.
Naive practice is essentially just doing something repeatedly, and expecting that the repetition alone will improve one's performance.
By contrast, purposeful practice requires us to get ouside our comfort zone but do it in a focused way, with clear goals and specific plans, and a way to get instant and effective feedback. And most of all, we should find our motivation to do this, otherwise we can't keep doing it until the end.
Although "purposeful practice" is generally possible to improve to a certain degree with focused practice and staying out of our comfort zone, that’s not all there is to it. There still are some important aspects to practice and training that are often overlooked.
Therfore, only "deliberate practice" remains the gold standard for anyone in any field who wishes to take advantage of the gift of adaptability of the human brain and body to build new skills and abilities.
With deliberate practice, however, the goal is not just to reach our potential but to build it, to make things possible that were not possible before. This requires challenging homeostasis—getting out of our comfort zone—and forcing our brain or our body to adapt. But once we do this, learning is no longer just a way of fulfilling some genetic destiny; it becomes a way of taking control of our destiny and shaping our potential in ways that we choose.
Selected Words and Expressions:
Thus, the body is equipped with various feedback mechanisms that axt to maintain the status quo.
status quo, 名词，意思是“现状”，[singular]: the current situation : the way things are now. 常见搭配有：maintain/preserve/defend the status quo (=not make any changes).
延伸知识点：行为经济学上有个 status quo bias(维持现状偏见)，指的是：人在作决策的时候会把现状作为基准，而任何改变都会被当成是一种损失，因而会倾向于维持现状。比如，我们会选择熟悉的食物，熟悉的品牌等；
例句：He is content with the status quo and does not like change.
仿造句：If you want to change your status quo, you have to get ouside your comfort zone.
This is naive practice in a nutshell: I just played it...
in a nutshell, 作为副词，表示 “极其简括地说；简单地，简约地”；used when you are stating the main facts about something in a short clear way.
例句：Okay, that’s our proposal in a nutshell. Any questions?
仿造句：It's good for human resource manager to read your resume if you sum it up in a nutshell.
Purposeful practice is all about putting a bunch of baby steps together to reach a longer-term goal.
baby steps, 指一小步一小步蹒跚而走，如: take baby steps 慢慢来。
longer-term goal 和文中的 long-range goal 可以替换表达，都是“长期目标”的意思。
putting a bunch of baby steps together to reach a longer-term goal, 可对应中文的 “积跬步，以至千里” 的意思。
仿造句：Learning a new language is all about putting a bunch of baby steps together to reach a longer-term goal.
He gave himself an excited pep talk, seemingly conscious of nothing but the approaching task.
pep talk, 可数名词，非正式用法，表示 “鼓舞士气的讲话”，informal: a short speech that is given to encourage someone to work harder, to feel more confident and enthusiastic, etc. 常用搭配有：give somebody a pep talk.
例句：The coach gave the team a pep talk before the game.
仿造句：Everytime when I feel nervous, I wil give myself a pep talk.
That still left one loose end, ...
loose end, 可数名词，表示 “未了结的零星问题”，a part of something (such as a job or story) that has not been completed；常用作复数（loose ends）；
固定搭配有：at loose ends (美式) 或者 at a loose end（英式）: not knowing what to do / not having anything in particular to do 不知做什么事好；无所事事。
例句：We still have one more loose end to deal with before we're finished with the project.
例句：He was at a loose end.
仿造句：Please call me if you find yourself at loose ends this weekend.
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