感谢翻译群初翻分享！仅做校对与修改。

1. 能力草丛的故事  A story about Competency Brushwood

我太太有位大学同学，非常非常非常地努力（请原谅我使用了3个非常，因为不如此的话实在无法表达出她努力的程度）。

念大学的时候就考了两个本科学位，一是法律，一是经济，还是两个不同学校的。其代价就是在学校里多呆了一年,所以我太太毕业后基本就不了解她的情况了。但2013年微信朋友圈逐步火起来之后，这位同学的动态就开始夹杂在太太跟我分享的八卦中了。

My wife has a classmate in college, who works very, very, very hard.(Please forgive me for using three times “very“, since I cannot express how hard she works.)

In college years, she got two bachelor's degrees, one in law and another in economics in two different schools. As a result, she spent one more year in school. My wife didn't get in touch with her after graduation. However in 2013 when Wechat “Moments” became popular, her life began to appear in gossips from my wife.

“我那个同学又考了证券从业资格证了！”
"我那个同学这周六又去参加口才培训了，周日还要去参加国家心理咨询师考证培训。她怎么还那么爱学习呢？”
“我那个同学今天又去听一个什么台湾法师的课了，还分享了一篇南怀瑾的文章。”
一句话总结就是：这位学霸每个周末不是在学习，就是在去学习的路上。

"Again, She got a qualification for Securities Fund Employee!"
"She went to a public speaking training class on Saturday and she will take the training for National Qualification of Psychological Counseling on Sunday. Why does she love studying so much?"
"She attended a seminar by a Taiwan master and she shared an article of Nan Huai-Chin finally."
In a nutshell: This queen of studying is either studying, or on the way to it every weekend.

不过最近一次我太太又跟我八卦她同学考了什么人力资源师认证时，我脱口问了一句： “你同学在公司是不是连个小部门的经理都不是啊？”

她愣了一下，想了一会跟我说：“哎，你这么一说，还真是。她今年8月有发一个朋友圈，说手下管的两个大学毕业生，多么多么地不爱学习，她挺恨铁不成钢的。如果只管两个大学毕业生的话，应该没到部门经理级别吧。你是怎么知道的呢？”

“因为她能力树没形成，基本没构建出自己的能力…”

“怎么会？”没等我说完，太太就打断了我“她考了很多证，有会计证、有人力资源师证、有证券从业资格证，有心理咨询师证；又经常听很多公开课，口才啊、演讲啊、创业啊等等，很多能力啊。”

“这不是能力树，是能力草丛吧。”不知为何，当时我脑海里冒出了下面这张杂草丛生的图片。

为何这么想呢，因为她同一时间段里学习的东西没有一根应用的主线，感觉就是乱草丛，到处都有一点，但没有方向或趋势。看似学了很多东西，实际上作用有限，这也是我判断她职位不高的原因。

Recently, my wife told me that she just did a certificate related to Human Resource Professional. Simultaneously I asked: Is she not even a manager in a minor department?

My wife paused and said," No, she doesn't. It's true. In august of this year, she posted  one line in wechat and mentioned the two fresh graduates didn't want to study at all. She regrets that their attitude does not meet her expectations. I don’t think she is already manager level. However how do you know that?"

"Because she didn’t form her own competency tree yet…"

"What?" My wife interrupted me and said: She got so many certificates, including accountant, human resource, qualification for Securities Fund Employee, Qualification of Psychological Counseling; She also attended lots of courses including public speaking, startup and so on."

"It’s competency brushwood, not competency tree." At that time, the image of brushwood below appeared in my mind.

why do I think so? Because she learned things with no main line which looks like a brushwood. She learned many things everywhere without any direction or trend. It seems that she has learnt a lot with limited result. That is the reason I think she doesn't hold high ranking in the firm.

2 放任能力长成草丛的危害
Consequence from the Competency Brushwood

能力树首先有个主干——这个主干是能力应用的方向或领域，通常是某个职位或角色——因此后续所有的能力积累和应用都是围绕这个主干延展出来的。而能力草丛不是以应用为导向的，因此没有一个共同方向或领域，导致能力的积累是盲目且零散的。

Competency tree should have a trunk first. The trunk should be the direction or area that the competencies can be applied. The direction or the area is always a specific position or role. Therefore, the following competency accumulation and application should spread on the trunk. Meanwhile, competency brushwood is not application-oriented and there is no common direction or area, therefore the competency accumulation becomes blind and scattered.

没有了应用导向，知识学习和技能打造就变得随机，看到别人学什么就跟着学什么。特别是一些盲目努力的人，越努力其能力草丛就越杂乱，成为典型的“万金油”或“书呆子”。不以应用为导向的能力草丛其实对你的整体能力几乎是无益的，它会导致：

Without the application-oriented approach, the acquisition of knowledge and skills becomes random. Learners will follow others. Especially for those “blindly hard worker”, Harder they work, more disorder their competency brushwood will be. As a result, they become typical “jack of all trades” or nerd. Competency brushwood, without application-oriented approach, will brings no value for your overall ability. It will lead to:

▲ 第一， 个人整体能力积累低效，甚至无效

First, the accumulation of the overall personal ability becomes less effective or invalid.

心理学对能力的定义是“完成一项目标或者任务所体现出来的心理特征”。从这个定义可以看出，知识或技能若不能用于在实际中完成目标或任务，则意味着其无法被转化为能力。因此，知识或技能的学习方向与实际应用所需方向偏离的话，个人能力积累的速度就会放缓，方向偏离过大的话对个人整体能力的提升甚至会毫无帮助。

the state of metal reflected from a target or task completion. 

the metal condition from completing a target or task. 

Competency refers to the characteristics of mentality from completing a target or task in psychology term. From this definition, we could see if the knowledge cannot be applied in completing target or task in real world, it means they cannot be transferred into competency. Therefore, if the direction of knowledge or skills deviates from the practical application, the pace of personal competency will become slow or zero if the deviation is too obvious.

《庄子·列御寇》中有一个典故“朱泙漫学屠龙于支离益，殚千金之家，三年技成而无所用其巧。”，意思是说有个叫朱泙漫的人，耗巨资跟着支离益学习杀龙的技术，整整花了三年学成，但却没有龙可以给他杀。

There is a story in Chuang Tzu. There was a man named Pingman Zhu, who spent a lot learning how to kill a dragon from master Li Zhi. He accomplished the skills in three years but no dragons for him to kill at all.

不以应用为导向而学习的知识或技能就是现代的“屠龙术”，对能力积累无益，徒费时间精力！能力草丛中的绝大多数能力都是通过应激式学习（考证或应付某个突发工作）积累的，与个人整体能力应用方向偏差很大，因此对个人能力积累的作用就非常有限。

Skills or knowledge learnt without the application-oriented approach is modern version of the above story. It is useless for competency accumulation and just a waste of time! The most competencies in brushwood is acquired from response learning (learning for exam or one urgent task), which deviates a lot from the application of personal overall ability. Therefore, it will contribute very little to personal overall ability.

就像我太太的同学，做着会计工作，考了“证券从业资格证”、“人力资源师认证”，但在工作中却全无用武之地，考取的这些证对她个人整体能力的提升几乎没有任何帮助。

Same as the classmate of my wife, she is an accountant but she has got qualification for Securities Fund Employee and the certificate for human resources. These two certificates help very little and contribute nothing to her overall ability.

▲ 第二，永远停留在浅层学习，能力积累深度不足

Second, Stop forever in surface learning, no deep learning

浅层学习（surface learning）是一种机械式的学习方式，学习者为了完成任务（如考一个认证或通过一门考试）被动地接受学习内容，把信息作为孤立的、不相关的事实来接受和记忆。

Surface learning is a mechanic way of learning. Learners accept the studying information to complete a task (for example, exam or certificate) passively. The information is treated as isolated and irrelevant facts to accept and memorize.

与浅层学习相对应的是深度学习（deep learning）。深度学习的研究最早是由两位美国学者Ference Marton 和Roger Saljo提出来的，1976 年他们做了一项研究：让学生阅读一份学术方面的文章，并告诉学生读过之后会有一个关于这个内容的测验，结果发现学生在阅读学习过程中使用了两种不同的策略。一种策略是试图去理解整个文章的思想，领会学术内涵，这样的学习被认为是深度学习。另一种策略是记住文章中所提到的一些事实，他们所关注的是接下来的测验会问到文章中的哪些内容，这样的学习被认为是浅层学习。

The opposite side of surface learning is deep learning. Deep learning is researched by two American scholars Ference Marton and Roger Saljo. In 1976, they did a research. They asked their students to read an academic article and tell their students there would be a test about this article later. Then, they found their students used two strategies in studying process. One is to try to understand the whole thought of the article and understand the academic connotation in it. This strategy was regarded as deep learning. Another was to memorize the facts mentioned in the article. What these students cared were the information that might appear in the exam. This strategy was regarded as surface learning.

深度学习要求在理解的基础上，学习者能够批判地学习新思想和事实，并将它们融入原有的认知结构中，能够在众多思想间进行联系，并能够将已有的知识迁移到新的情境中，做出决策和解决问题的学习。深度学习本意是指学习认知触及事物本质的程度或事物向更高阶段发展的程度。

Deep learning requires learners could accept new thoughts and facts critically and emerge them into the existing cognitive structure. Meanwhile, a connection among different thought can be set up and the old knowledge can be transferred into new context so that learners can make decision or solve the problem. Deep learning refers to the level of learning and cognizing nature of things to higher stage of development.

能力树中的能力是以应用为导向有序积累的，不仅被融入到了原有的能力结构中，而且会不断在实践应用中提升。而能力草丛中的能力却是应激式无序积累的，不但无法与原有能力形成一个整体，也没有应用环境去检验和提升，其结果就只能是一直停留在初级层次上。

The competencies in competency tree accumulated along with the application-oriented approach. It can be emerged into the existing cognitive structure. and could be improved in practical application. The ability in competency brushwood is gathered in response learning. It cannot be formed into a whole with the existing competency and there is no environment to test and improve it. As the result, the ability stops in the basic level.

像我太太同学这样虽然好学，但一大堆初级认证距离触及事物的本质相距很远，同时因为不是以应用导向去学习的，也就没有实践环境将这些初级知识往更高阶段发展，这种浅层学习即使重复1万遍，也是很难发展出精深能力的。

Like the classmate of my wife, who loves learning so much, but she only gets many basic facts, which are far away from the nature of things. Furthermore, the competency is not application-oriented so there is no practical environment to promote the basic knowledge to higher level. This kind of surface learning cannot develop into deep competency, even if it is repeated for ten thousand times.

▲ 第三，能力分散，无法形成整体应用

Third, the scattered competency cannot form into the overall application.

人类社会的初期，社会生产力十分低下，原始人群内部只存在按性别和年龄划分的自然分工，没有社会分工。但随着生产力不断发展，现代分工越来越细,这也意味着现代人的能力也越来越分散，每个现代人至少都掌握几十到几百种能力。如果不能将各种能力以应用导向整合为一个整体的话，这些能力就是一盘散沙，能发挥的价值就很小很小。

In the beginning of human society, the productivity is very low. The population groups were divided for work only by genders and ages. There was no social division of labor. However, along with the development of productivity, modern division of labor is more and more particular, which means the competency of modern people is scattered. At least, every person in modern times need grasp of ten times to hundreds of competencies. If all kinds of competencies cannot consolidate into one with the based on application-oriented approach, these competencies will become sands in a dish and become useless.

职场中有一种“万金油”式的人士，意思是掌握的能力很多，基本啥都能干一点。但是职场“万金油”的命运有两种：一种是成长为总经理或独挡一面的地方大员；另一种是停留在打杂的小职员上。同为“万金油”，他们的区别就在于：

In workplace, there is a kind of people named “jack of all trades”, which means they have a lot of skills and can do things in every area. There are two future roads for them. One is to grow up as general manager or local governor who can deal all the things independently; another is to become minor staff who can only do minor tasks. The differences are:

1. 总经理型“万金油”的能力是相关联的（一棵树），能综合在一起为某项任务或目标启用

1.The competencies of general manager are correlated (like a tree), which can be integrated in specific task.

2. 打杂型“万金油”的能力是分散无序的（一根根草），只能单个点单个点的启用，无法综合在一起应用

2. The competencies of minor staff are scattered and disorder. (like grass). It is used for one-to-one but can’t be integrated together

能力树因为以应用为导向，因此能够将各种能力综合成主干、树枝、叶子，形成了一个应用整体；而能力草丛因为缺失同一方向，各种能力之间缺乏关联的纽带，自然也就无法被整合起来统一应用。

Competency tree is application-oriented so the competency can be integrated into trunk, branch and leaves. The competency brushwood is lack of direction and connection between individual competency. They could not be integrated naturally.

还是举我太太同学的例子，如果她是CFO（首席财务官）或以CFO为目标，那么学习的证券、人力资源、心理学、演讲等知识和技能都是有用的，可惜的是她以考证为导向，而非CFO的能力应用为导向，导致即使学的是一样的知识，CFO能将这些知识整合为一颗能力树发挥出整体价值，而她的各种初级认证却只能是一根根杂草，无法对她的会计工作产生帮助。

Once again refer to my wife's classmate example, if she were CFO or took CFO as target. the knowledge and skills of securities, human resource, psychology and public speaking, etc, would be useful. Unfortunately she did that based on certificate-oriented approach instead application-oriented approach for CFO work. Even if she learnt the same knowledge with CFO, the latter can integrate the knowledge into whole value, but her certificates can only be grass, which will never help her accounting work.

原文见：http://posts.careerengine.us/p/5878367c9946ad382715d1ff