[中英]仅仅优秀是不够的
Being good isn’t enough
Giving good career advice is hard. Maybe it’s because careers can look more alike than they really are. Two people can have the same title but what helps one could be rubbish for another.
提供好的职业建议并不容易。也许是因为职业看起来比实际更相似。两个人可能拥有相同的职位头衔，但对一个人有益的事情，对另一个人却可能是毫无用处的。
Or maybe it’s that “good advice” itself is fuzzy. It depends entirely on the person receiving it. For some people it means finding work they love. For others it’s about meaning. For many it’s just getting promoted. Still, here’s what I usually say.
又或者，“好的建议”本身本身就模糊不清。它完全取决于接受建议的人。对一些人来说，这意味着找到自己热爱的工作；对另一些人来说，这关乎意义；而对许多人而言，这只是为了获得晋升。不过，以下是我通常会给出的建议。
You have to be good at the technical work first, whatever that means for you. It’s the thing you were hired for and this has to be your first priority. And the better you are, the further this can take you. You write better code, or better reports, or better designs, and people notice. That’s enough for a while.
首先，你必须在技术工作上表现出色，无论对你来说这意味着什么。这是你被聘用时所具备的能力，也是你的首要任务。而且，你越出色，就越能走得更远。你写出更好的代码、撰写更好的报告或设计出更好的方案，人们就会注意到。这足以让你在一段时间内保持领先。
But eventually it’s not. Everyone around you is technically strong too. So for most of us, you won’t stand out anymore. You need to increase your impact in other ways.
但最终，这种优势会消失。因为周围的人都同样具备出色的技术能力。因此，对我们大多数人来说，光靠技术能力已经不足以让你脱颖而出。你需要通过其他方式来提升自己的影响力。
The biggest gains come from combining disciplines. There are four that show up everywhere: technical skill, product thinking, project execution, and people skills. And the more senior you get, the more you’re expected to contribute to each.
最大的进步往往来自于跨领域的结合。有四个领域随处可见：技术能力、产品思维、项目执行和人际技能。随着职位的提升，你被期望在这四个方面都做出贡献。
Technical skill is your chosen craft. Product thinking is knowing what’s worth doing. Project execution is making sure it happens. People skills are how you work with and influence others.
技术能力是你所选择的专业技能；产品思维是知道哪些事情值得去做；项目执行是确保这些事情得以实现；人际技能则是如何与他人合作并影响他们。
Every successful effort needs all four. Try to imagine an endeavor that wouldn’t benefit from improving in these areas. I can’t think of one. If you squint, together they mean one thing: making stuff that matters actually happen. That’s how you increase your impact.
任何成功的努力都需要这四个方面的共同作用。试着想象一下，有没有哪项事业不会从提高这些方面的能力中受益？我想不出来。如果你仔细观察，它们其实可以归结为一件事：让真正重要的事情发生。这就是你提升影响力的途径。
You’ll naturally pick them up over time, but slowly. You can go faster if you push yourself.
这些能力自然会随着时间逐渐积累，但过程会比较缓慢。如果你主动推动自己，就能更快地掌握它们。
This is harder than it sounds because the less competent we are at something, the more likely we are to overestimate ourselves. It’s easy to think you’re working on what matters, or that you’re doing great technical work, but that might not be true. So how do you find your weaknesses?
这听起来比实际操作起来要难，因为我们对自己不擅长的事情往往高估自己的能力。我们很容易认为自己正在做重要的事情，或者认为自己的技术工作做得很好，但实际上未必如此。那么，你该如何发现自己的弱点呢？
I’m pretty confident you only need two things. Feedback and humility, and they work best together. Feedback shows you what to work on, and humility lets you actually hear it.
我非常确信，你只需要两样东西：反馈和谦逊，而且这两者结合起来效果最佳。反馈告诉你需要改进的地方，而谦逊则让你能够真正倾听并接受这些反馈。
So find your weakest discipline and work on that. The fastest way is to get feedback from someone you admire and then act on it. Don’t wait for the perfect plan, doing something is almost always better than doing nothing.
所以，找出你最薄弱的领域，并专注于此。最快的方法是向你敬佩的人寻求反馈，然后根据反馈采取行动。不要等待完美的计划，行动起来几乎总是比什么都不做更好。
Find a mentor, be a mentor. Lead a project, propose one. Do the work, present it. Create spaces for others to do the same. Do whatever it takes to get better.
寻找一位导师，也做一个导师；领导一个项目，或者主动提出一个项目；亲自完成工作，并展示成果；为他人创造机会去展现他们的能力。尽一切可能让自己变得更好。
And do it in the open. A common mistake is assuming work speaks for itself. It rarely does.
并且，这一切都要公开进行。一个常见的错误是假设工作本身会为自己说话，但事实很少如此。
But all of this requires maybe the most important thing of all: agency. It’s more powerful than smarts or credentials or luck. And the best part is you can literally just choose to be high-agency. High-agency people make things happen. Low-agency people wait. And if you want to progress, you can’t wait.
然而，所有这些都需要最重要的东西：主动性。它比聪明才智、资历或运气都更有力量。最棒的是，你完全可以主动选择成为一个高主动性的人。高主动性的人会让事情发生，而低主动性的人只会等待。如果你想取得进步，就不能再等待下去。
This advice is like any other, fuzzy. But it does go further than simply “work harder”. It will take work and it will be hard, but it might be the difference between effort and progress.
这条建议和其他建议一样，也有一定的模糊性。但它确实超越了“更加努力工作”这个简单的说法。它需要付出努力，也会很艰难，但或许正是它决定了你的努力能否转化为真正的进步。
And in the long run, the best way to get what you want is to deserve it.
从长远来看，获得你想要的东西最好的方法就是让自己配得上它。
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