有些人越努力，就越平庸

L是一个典型的上班族。

L is totally a typical office worker.

他很努力，简直就是那种教科书式的努力。

He works really hard, the textbook-type hard.

但是他的生活却一直没有任何起色，总是越来越糟。

But so far his life has never gotten any better because of this. On the contrary, it gets worse.

他不知道这是怎么回事。

He has no idea why this is happening.

每次主管布置的任务，他都一口接下。

Every time he got a mission from his supervisor, he took it without a second word.

第一次做不好，他就做第二次；第二次做不好，他就做第三次。

If he fails in doing it the right way, he tries twice. If he fails twice, he tries a third time.

如果这些事在正常上班的时候做不完，他会毫不犹豫地加班，有时候连整个周末都会搭进去。

And if he can’t finish it within the normal office hours, he’ll work overtime without any hesitation. Sometimes he spends his whole weekends working.

但他依旧觉得自己的工作越来越跟不上了，同事们对他也变得没什么耐心。

But still, he can feel that it’s becoming more and more frequently for him to not be able to make his work done. And his co-workers are all losing patience on him.

而反观他身边，有那么些同事，每天的状态虽然也不能叫轻松，但似乎总是游刃有余，几乎每天都能正常下班。

If you check around him, you would find that there are a bunch of colleagues who get off work on time almost everyday. You can’t say that their jobs are easy, but their days really don’t seem tiring.

可是，这些人的工作却一直比他做得好，加薪的速度也更快。

However, their performance are better than L’s and their salaries are rising faster.

而且，其他的人好像都更喜欢这些人。

And, by the way, they are more popular among the People there.

其实，这种困境从学生时代开始就一直困扰着L。

In fact, problems like this have been troubling L ever since he was still a student.

每节课，只要老师在黑板上写了东西，他都必然会记到笔记本上。

In every class, once the teacher writes something down on the blackboard, L would undoubtedly write them down on his notebook.

他的笔记本总是用得很快，一本一本地叠得很高，比他身边同学的高很多。

His notebooks ran out of space pretty fast. And the notebooks full of notes were piling higher and higher, way higher than those of the students around him.

他为此感到很自豪，觉得这是自己的一枚勋章。

He felt proud of that. It was like a medal for him.

然而事实是，他的成绩一直都不算太好。

But the truth is his scores were never quite high.

而那些笔记本很薄的同学里，却有不少人一直比他优秀。

And many of those students who had less notes than him were doing better than him.

对，这就和他现在遇到的情况一样。

Yes, it was just like the situation that he is facing now.

唯一的不同，是当初的那个他，那个身为勤奋学生的他，深得老师的喜爱。

The only difference is that back then he, the he being that hardworking student, was liked by the teachers.

也正因为如此，他觉得自己才是走在正确道路上的人，他觉得自己的态度才是正确的态度。

Because of this, he thought that he was the one moving on the right path and that his attitude was the right attitude.

也正因为如此，他才时不时地感叹：“明明知道了很多道理，怎么还是过不好这一生？”

Also because of this, he often sighs and asks that why his life is still a mess although he knows so much about what’s right in life.

但是，真的是这样吗？

But is what he thinks really the truth?

不，完全不是的，像L这样的人，并没有他们自己想象得那么美好，他们是典型的“劣质勤奋者”。

No, it’s totally not the truth. People like L are not as highly as they think of themselves at all. They are typically what we call cheap hard-workers.

可悲的是，世界上的大多数人，都和L一样；为了避免思考，他们愿意做任何事。

Sadly, a good half of the world is made of people like this. They will do anything to avoid thinking.

他们忍受不了深度思考带来的不安，他们忍受不了思维升级带来的痛苦。

They cannot bear the uncertainty that comes with deep thinking, nor can they bear the pain that comes with upgrading mindsets.

于是，他们让自己淹没在繁重的机械动作之中，并将这称之为“勤奋”。

So, they bury themselves in countless mechanical actions and call it working hard.

这就好像是小时候做作业一样，如果当天的作业分别是抄课文和做数学题，绝大部分人都会选择先去抄课文。

This is just like doing homework back when we were kids. If what the teachers assigned were copying texts and doing math, almost all the people would choose to copy the texts first.

毕竟，抄课文并不需要动什么脑子，而且还让你不断地觉得自己在完成一样东西。

Because you don’t really need to think much when you copy the text. And it keeps making you feel like you’re accomplishing something.

而做数学题嘛，就是个真的需要动脑子的事了，所以没有多少人喜欢去做。

And doing math really takes a lot of thinking. That’s why few people prefer to do it.

是的，这就是我们大部分人在做的事情：

Yes, this is what most of us are doing:

试图用行动上的勤奋，去弥补思想上的懒惰。

Trying to make up for the laziness to think by putting out more and more mechanical actions.

就像L，上学时的他，并没有想过到底为什么要记笔记，也没有想过记哪些东西才能真正帮助自己学习，更没有去研究怎么记。

This is what L does. When he was still in school, he never thought about why he made those notes. Neither did he think about what exactly he should be writing down or how to write them.

他只是不停地记，而他记的那些东西，他从来都没有真正看完过。

He just kept making notes, although he never really finished reading all those notes he made.

上班的时候，他也从未想过自己这个角色到底为何而存在。

As an office worker now, he has never thought about the role of his current position.

因此他从不衡量自己的时间和现有能力，只是不断地接下一切需求，但却往往不能在时限内完成。

That’s why he never evaluates the time available and his own capacity. He just accepts every task that has been thrown on him. And he usually can’t finish them within the deadlines.

结果是，他既没有帮团队解决多少问题，还让自己忙得焦头烂额，既没有时间休息，也没有时间去提升自己。

The result is that he didn’t really help his team solve many problems. But he still made himself overwhelmed without any time to rest nor any time to improve himself.

最终，他越努力，就变得越平庸。

Eventually, the harder he tries, the more mediocre he becomes.

而职场和学校不一样，这里不以过程来评判你，这里只会用结果来评判你；不会有人赞赏你这种劣质的勤奋，他们只会骂你不靠谱。

Work place is nothing like the schools. Here, people don’t judge you by what attitude you’re showing when you do things. They judge you by whether you make it done or not. Nobody here will give you credit for putting out some cheap hard-work. They’ll just blame you for not being reliable.