Maybe Geniuses Just Got Lucky

 

也许是运气造就了天才

Life is unfair, as even the Bible acknowledges.

生活是不公平的，这一点甚至连《圣经》也不加否认。

We can't all hit a baseball like DiMaggio or sing like the Beatles.

不是每个人都能把棒球打的像迪马乔那样出神入化或把歌唱得像甲壳虫乐队那样震撼人心。

But how much do we understand about those who can·

但是我们对那些能做得如此完美的人究竟了解多少？

Not enough, says Malcolm Gladwell,in his new book, Outliers: The Story of Success.

马尔科姆·格拉德威尔在他的新书《异类:不一样的成功启示录》中指出我们对这方面的了解还只是皮毛而已。

We attribute the Beatles' fabulous success to their amazing musical talents,whereas Gladwell has a different explanation-as a determinant of success, talent is overrated,compared with, among other things, luck.

我们常把甲壳虫乐队的骄人成就归因于他们惊人的音乐天赋，然而格拉德威尔却有着独特的见解—天赋确实是取得成功的一个决定性因素，但是跟其他因素如运气相比，天赋的作用被过分夸大了。

Outliers opens with a typically Gladwellian puzzle:

《异类》一开始就提出了一个典型的格拉德威尔之谜:

why are so many professional hockey players born early in the year？

为什么会有如此多的职业曲棍球运动员出生在一年中的前几个月份？

It turns out that Canadian youth leagues group players by age,based on a calendar year,

原来，在加拿大青少年曲棍球联队，球员的年龄以日历来算，球员根据他们的年龄进行分组。

so a player born in January will be the oldest on his team,enjoying a big difference in size and maturity.

因此1月份出生的球员在球队中年龄是最大的，他们在体格和成熟度方面有很大的优势。

The early birds get more playing time and coaching,advantages that become self-reinforcing,spelling the difference between a National Hockey League career and a job as a high-school coach.

这些早出生的鸟儿有更多的比赛时间和训练活动，并且这种优势不断得到强化，这意味着他们很可能成为全国曲棍球联盟的一名职业选手而不是一名高中教练。

Life is unfair.

生活确实不公平。

Similarly, Gladwell calculates that the best year for a software genius to be born was 1955-just old enough for the start of the personal-computer revolution in the mid-1970s.

同样，格拉德威尔推测软件才子出生的最佳年份是1955年-因为20世纪70年代中期，个人计算机革命才刚刚起步，而这些1955年出生的人此时正是风华正茂，

That is the year when Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were born.

比尔·盖茨和史蒂夫·乔布斯就是在那一年出生的，

Obviously, not everyone born that year became a billionaire;Gates and Jobs had distinctive talents,but they also had unique opportunities growing up.

不过显然也不是每个在1955年出生的人都可以成为亿万富翁；盖茨和乔布斯有卓尔不群的才能，除此之外，他们的成长过程还充满了罕见的机遇。

Almost invariably, Gladwell says,geniuses are made, not born,and it was their families, schools and societies that made them.

格拉德威尔说，几乎可以肯定，天才并非是天生的，而是培养出来的，是他们的家庭环境，学校教育以及社会生活造就了他们。

As evidence Gladwell brings to bear his own history,as the son of a Jamaican woman of limited means who won a scholarship to study at the University of London.

为了更好地证明上述观点，格拉德威尔还摆出了自己的家史，他的母亲出生在一个财力有限的牙买加人家，她获取了奖学金，从而有了到伦敦大学学习的机会。

Her marriage to an Englishman there began the family's ascent into the educated elite.

她和当地一个英国人结婚，这使得他们一家跻身于知识精英行列。

He maintains that his mother was the beneficiary of her own mother's initiative and a favorable environment.

他一直认为他的母亲能有现在这般成就完全得益于他外祖母的努力进取以及那时良好的外部环境。

And so are we all.

而我们同样也是如此。

The reader should feel free to cite counterexamples-Shakespeare, the son of a provincial trader in hides and grain·

读者可以信手拈来，随意举出一些反例-比如，莎士比亚的父亲不过是个乡下交易兽皮和谷物的小商贩；

Einstein, dreaming away in an obscure patent office·

而爱因斯坦不过成天在一个无名的专利办公室虚度时光罢了？

you won't faze Gladwell.

但是这些都难不倒格拉德威尔。

He always builds an argument out of riveting anecdotes and eye-opening statistics,then blithely moves on to his next point,leaving the reader with a faint hint of buyer's remorse about the almost too-perfect package of ideas.

他经常利用引人入胜的趣闻以及令人瞠目结舌的数据来论证他的观点，然后欢快地论述下一个观点，而读者就像一下子买了东西的人那样，在读完他那套几近完美的理论之后不免产生一丝懊悔。

No other writer today can pull this sort of thing off so well.

如今，没有哪一个作家可以做到格拉德威尔这样，

If I hadn't just read Gladwell's book,I'd be jealous of his talent, instead of his luck.

要不是我刚刚度了格拉德威尔的这本书，我羡慕的肯定是他的天赋而不是运气。