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本篇文章来源于Farnam Sreet，昨天翻译了一篇关于查理芒格的文章，主要讲的是介绍其他人或者肯定自己的意见或者观点之前需要做什么？那就是弄清楚事实，弄清楚对方的真实的意图和观点，而非诸如网上的喷子对聪明的定义：
所谓聪明，就是观点和我一样的人就是聪明，和我观点不一样的人就是傻逼。
而要做到这个很重要的一点就是要清楚自己的能力圈，也就是自己的能力范围，所谓知己知彼，百战不殆，说的也就是这个道理。我认为知己和知彼中最重要的还是知己，了解自己。因为只有在清楚自己的条件之后，才能结合对方的状况，下一个合适的判断。
希望这篇文章对你有帮助。
能力圈
“I’m no genius. I’m smart in spots—but I stay around those spots.”
— Tom Watson Sr., Founder of IBM
我不是天才，我只是在某些领域很聪明，然后我就呆在这些领域。
——汤姆·沃森，IBM创始人
***
The concept of the Circle of Competence has been used over the years by Warren Buffett as a way to focus investors on only operating in areas they knew best. The bones of the concept appear in his 1996 Shareholder Letter:
能力圈这个概念已经被沃伦·巴菲特使用了很多年了，他通过能力圈提醒投资者要只关注自己最擅长，最了解的领域。这个概念的骨架最早出现在1996年巴菲特致股东的信中：
What an investor needs is the ability to correctly evaluate selected businesses. Note that word “selected”: You don’t have to be an expert on every company, or even many. You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital.
一个投资者最重要的能力是正确地评估被选定的企业的能力。注意这个词“被选定的”：你不需要研究透每个公司或者大多数的公司，成为研究这些公司的专家。你只需要有能力评估在你能力圈之内的公司即可。这个“圈”究竟有多大并不重要，重要的是清楚它的边界在哪里。
Circle Of Competence能力圈
Circle of Competence is simple: Each of us, through experience or study, has built up useful knowledge on certain areas of the world. Some areas are understood by most of us, while some areas require a lot more specialty to evaluate.
能力圈很简单：我们每个人都会通过经验或者学习，由此在世界的某些领域建立起一套有用的知识系统。某些领域很容易被我们大多数人理解，而有些领域则需要更多的专业技能和知识才能评估。
For example, most of us have a basic understanding of the economics of a restaurant: You rent or buy space, spend money to outfit the place and then hire employees to seat, serve, cook, and clean. (And, if you don’t want to do it yourself, manage.)
举个例子，我们大多数人对餐馆经济学都有基本的一些了解：你租赁或者购买一个门市，花钱装修，之后雇佣员工招待、服务、烹饪和清洁。（如果你不想自己做的话，就进行管理）
From there it’s a matter of generating enough traffic and setting the appropriate prices to generate a profit on the food and drinks you serve—after all of your operating expenses have been paid. Though the cuisine, atmosphere, and price points will vary by restaurant, they all have to follow the same economic formula.
接下来的问题是要吸引足够的客流量，制定合理的价格，以从你提供的食物和饮料等服务中获得利润。——毕竟所有的运营成本都已提前被支付。尽管每个餐馆的菜系、环境和价格各式各样，但都遵循同一个经济学原理。
That basic knowledge, along with some understanding of accounting and a little bit of study, would enable one to evaluate and invest in any number of restaurants and restaurant chains; public or private. It’s not all that complicated.
这些基本的知识，连同对会计的一些基本理解和研究，将会使一个人有能力评估和投资任意数量的餐馆和餐饮连锁;无论是公共投资还是私人投资。这个一点都不复杂。
However, can most of us say we understand the workings of a microchip company or a biotech drug company at the same level? Perhaps not.
但是，我们当中会有那么多的人站起来说自己知道微型芯片公司或者生物制药公司的运营模式吗？可能没有多少。
But as Buffett so eloquently put it, we do not necessarily need to understand these more esoteric areas to invest capital. Far more important is to honestly define what we do know and stick to those areas. Our circle of competence can be widened, but only slowly and over time. Mistakes are most often made when straying from this discipline.
但是，正如巴菲特所说，我们没有必要了解这些深奥的领域再进行资本投资。而更重要的是诚实地指出哪些是我们所知晓的，然后坚持就OK了。我们的能力圈会扩大，但只会随着时间慢慢地扩大。而当我们违反了这个简单的规律，错误就会随之出现。
***
Circle of Competence applies outside of investing.
能力圈还可以应用到投资以外的领域。
Buffett describes the circle of competence of one of his business managers, a Russian immigrant with poor English who built the largest furniture store in Nebraska:
巴菲特描述了他的一位商业经理的“能力圈”，这个人是一个英语都说不明白的俄罗斯移民，她在内布拉斯加州建立起一个最大的家具商店。
I couldn’t have given her $200 million worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock when I bought the business because she doesn’t understand stock. She understands cash. She understands furniture. She understands real estate. She doesn’t understand stocks, so she doesn’t have anything to do with them. If you deal with Mrs. B in what I would call her circle of competence… She is going to buy 5,000 end tables this afternoon (if the price is right). She is going to buy 20 different carpets in odd lots, and everything else like that [snaps fingers] because she understands carpet. She wouldn’t buy 100 shares of General Motors if it was at 50 cents a share.
当我买下她的公司时，我无法给她价值2亿美元的伯克希尔哈撒韦的股票，因为她根本不懂股票。但她懂现金，她还了解家具以及不动产。她不懂股票，所以把股票给她根本没有什么用。如果你和B女士在她的能力圈中打交道的话......她会在一个下午买5000张桌子（如果价格合适的话），她会买20个不同的地毯，以及其他类似的东西，因为她很了解地毯。但她不会买100份通用汽车的股票，哪怕每股的价格只有50美分。
It did not hurt Mrs. B to have such a narrow area of competence. In fact, one could argue the opposite. Her rigid devotion to that area allowed her to focus. Only with that focus could she have overcome her handicaps to achieve such extreme success.
能力圈如此狭小，但却没有使B女士受到限制。且实际情况与通常认为的正好相反。对一个领域极其投入使她获得了强大的专注。正是因为这种强大的专注力才使她克服了自己的不足并获得了极大的成功。
In fact, Charlie Munger takes this concept outside of business altogether and into the realm of life in general. The essential question he sought to answer: Where should we devote our limited time in life, in order to achieve the most success? Charlie’s simple prescription:
查理芒格则把这个概念完全应用到了商业以外的领域，将其带入了日常的生活之中。他想找到这个基本问题的答案：为取得尽可能的成功，我们应该把有限的时间投入到生活的哪些领域？查理的简单的描述：
You have to figure out what your own aptitudes are. If you play games where other people have the aptitudes and you don't, you're going to lose. And that's as close to certain as any prediction that you can make. You have to figure out where you've got an edge. And you've got to play within your own circle of competence.
你必须要整明白的是你的天赋才能到底是啥。就像玩一场游戏，别人很有天赋，但你没有，那你必输无疑。这与你能做出的任何预测都是很接近的。你必须要整明白你的优势。然后在你的能力圈之内参与这场游戏。
If you want to be the best tennis player in the world, you may start out trying and soon find out that it's hopeless—that other people blow right by you. However, if you want to become the best plumbing contractor in Bemidji, that is probably doable by two-thirds of you. It takes a will. It takes the intelligence. But after a while, you'd gradually know all about the plumbing business in Bemidji and master the art. That is an attainable objective, given enough discipline. And people who could never win a chess tournament or stand in center court in a respectable tennis tournament can rise quite high in life by slowly developing a circle of competence—which results partly from what they were born with and partly from what they slowly develop through work.
如果你想成为世界上最好的网球运动员，你开始尝试，但不久之后发现似乎没有什么希望——别人对你的打击是对的。但如果你想成为贝基德最好的管道承包商，那可能拿出你能力的三分之二就能做到。这是一个可达到的目标，只需要付出足够的努力。而一个从未在国际象棋联赛或者在瞩目的网球锦标赛中获胜过的人，如果仅是通过缓慢地扩大自己的能力圈，是无法在一生中取得如此之高的进步的——部分原因是由于与生俱来的天赋，部分原因是因为要通过努力才能缓慢提升。
So, the simple takeaway here is clear. If you want to improve your odds of success in life and business then define the perimeter of your circle of competence, and operate inside. Over time, work to expand that circle but never fool yourself about where it stands today, and never be afraid to say “I don’t know.”
所以，总结一下这个简单的道理：如果你想在生活和商业当中提升自己获胜的概率，那么就找到你的能力圈的边界到底在哪，然后在圈内保持专注。随着时间的推移，努力扩大你的能力圈，但千万别忽悠自己个儿当下的能力范围有多大，而且永远都不要害怕说：“我不知道”。
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