为什么成年人失去了学习动力及能力

Why Does Adults Lose the Learning Capability and Enthusiasm?

People usually think that only senior citizens are struggling to learn how to use new gadgets and computer, however, more and more adults begin to complain that their brains seem too stuffed to fill in new knowledge and skills. 

人们时常认为只有老年人在费劲地学习使用电脑和智能设备，因为他们学习能力很弱。而事实是越来越多的成年人也开始抱怨自己的脑子像生锈了，吸收不了新知识新技能。

It is true that youngsters invent more new technology and ideas. People feel that once reaching middle age, e.g. 40s, their innovation and creativity will plumped and even catching up the trend is a challenge. Therefore, on one side, we see parents urge their children to study harder and achieve good grade in school, but on the other side, they themselves rarely explore their learning capability beyond their daily work realm.

不可否认，新技术和新想法往往来自于年轻人。到了四十不惑之年，创造力和创新性似乎都在直线下跌。因而我们看到，一方面父母不断地催促孩子努力学习获得好成绩，另一方面自己却驻足不前，终日在自己熟悉的知识和业务领域徘徊，失去了持续学习的热情和动力。

So what are the factors to affect the continuous study capabilities of adults?

那么究竟是何原因导致成年人的学习能力及动力持续下跌呢？

One reason is just simple: lack of time. People often said that they have been fully bound by their daily working schedule, household stuff and children, so they do not have bandwidth to learn. However, rarely people will forget to spend spare time browsing social media content. 

其中一个最简单的原因是：没时间。人们常说日程繁忙，完全被日常工作，家务及照顾孩子填满了，余下的星星点点的空隙时间，只容得下喘口气，刷刷视频看看朋友圈了。而事实是，那些看朋友圈、看公众号文章的零星时间积累起来，每日少则一两个小时，多则四五个小时，分出一些时间来绰绰有余呢。

The other reason might be that people relate studying as a short-term investment. They want to know the accurate return before they embark on studying. Often we hear people ask “Is it useful to learn this knowledge?” or “How much more could I earn if I get that certificate?” I will say that knowledge or skill might not reflect their value in a short horizon. The achievement feeling will enrich your spirit immediately, but you may wait for a longer time before it unfolded its economic return to you sometime in your life. 

另外一个原因也许是人们将学习看作一种短期投资行为，迫切地想先计算投资回报率。我们经常会听到有人问起“学习这个有用吗？”或者“考到这个证书我能涨多少工资？”我想说新学的知识或技能也许不会迅速变现。获取知识的成就感能够迅速被感知，但是经济回报也许在你生命的下一个拐角不期而至。

Third, people may not master self-learning capability, which should have been formed in their formal education period. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” The education system should teach not only the knowledge, but also the capability to learn.Often we will say that interest is the best teacher, but if you really want to explore some fields in depth, you need to build up a knowledge framework of the field, learning in the width first, and then depth in a few aspects. That is why I often suggest people who lost direction at their career to join in an MBA program because it offers a framework to learn all the business related science. Another example, a guy in TED introduced his way to self learn computer science based on MIT’s Computer Science undergraduate course list. He did it because he has set up a framework for that new knowledge realm, and of course, persistence is compulsory. 

第三，人们缺乏必要的自学能力，而该能力在系统的学习阶段就应该掌握了，这一点也暴露了教育体系中缺失的一块。“授人予鱼不如授人予渔”，教育体系中该教的不仅是知识，更重要的是获取新知识的能力。我们常常说兴趣是最好的老师，可是单靠兴趣不足以支撑向知识的纵深处继续探索。极其必要的是建立该领域的知识框架，先量广度，再攻纵深。这就是为什么我经常推荐那些处于职业转型迷茫期的朋友参加MBA课程的学习，因为它能帮你搭建一个商业管理的知识框架。举另外一个例子，一个在TED发表演讲的年轻人讲述了自己如何自学麻省理工大学的计算机科学本科教程，所采用的方法就是框架学习法。他下载了该学位所需通过的课程列表，然后根据网上课程逐一攻破，当然，毅力必不可少。

Last but not the least, adults set invisible boundary for their own capabilities and social roles. After graduating from school, they embedded their mindset in their major in school and daily work and restrained themselves from expanding their knowledge. Gradually, they lose the potential to learn and even look not as smart and acute as they were young. The most important is to “open up your mind”. Do not think about your current job and defined role, but think about other possibilities. After all, multiple careers have become a new fashion in our era.

最后也是很重要的一点，成人们对能力和社会角色自我设限。自从学校毕业之后进入社会，人们容易习惯性地被日常工作牵制，不自觉的设定了自身能力的范围，久而久之失去了继续学习的能力，整个人看起来也不如年少时聪慧敏捷。所以牢记一句老套的宣传语“打开你的心胸”，不要让你当前的工作角色限制自己，而是多想想生活的其它可能。毕竟，拥有多种身份和职业选择已经成为当前时代的新时尚。

Finally, wish everyone could enjoy the learning. 

最后祝大家都能享受学习的乐趣。