How to Think Clearly

如何清晰地思考

“Clear thinker” is a better compliment than “smart.” “清晰的思考者”比“聪明”是更好的赞美。

Real knowledge is intrinsic, and it’s built from the ground up. To use a math example, you can’t understand trigonometry without understanding arithmetic and geometry. Basically, if someone is using a lot of fancy words and a lot of big concepts, they probably don’t know what they’re talking about. I think the smartest people can explain things to a child. If you can’t explain it to a child, then you don’t know it. It’s a common saying and it’s very true.

真正的知识是内在的，它是从头开始建立起来的。举个数学例子，如果不懂算术和几何，你就无法理解三角学。基本上，如果有人使用了很多花哨的词汇和大量的大概念，他们可能不知道自己在说什么。我认为最聪明的人可以向孩子解释事情。如果你不能向孩子解释，那你就不知道。这是一句俗语，也是非常正确的。

Richard Feynman very famously does this in “Six Easy Pieces,” one of his early physics lectures. He basically explains mathematics in three pages. He starts from the number line—counting—and then he goes all the way up to precalculus. He just builds it up through an unbroken chain of logic. He doesn’t rely on any definitions.

理查德·费曼(Richard Feynman)在他早期的物理讲座之一的“六个简单的片段”中非常著名地做到了这一点。他基本上用了三页纸来解释数学。他从数行计数开始，然后一直到微积分预科。他只是通过一个不间断的逻辑链来建立它。他不依赖任何定义。

The really smart thinkers are clear thinkers. They understand the basics at a very, very fundamental level. I would rather understand the basics really well than memorize all kinds of complicated concepts I can’t stitch together and can’t rederive from the basics. If you can’t rederive concepts from the basics as you need them, you’re lost. You’re just memorizing. [4]

真正聪明的思想家是头脑清晰的思想家。他们在非常、非常基础的层面上理解基础知识。我宁愿很好地理解基础知识，也不愿记住各种复杂的概念，这些概念我不能拼凑在一起，也不能从基础知识中重新推导出来。如果您不能根据需要从基本概念中重新派生出概念，那么您就失败了。你只是在死记硬背。

The advanced concepts in a field are less proven. We use them to signal insider knowledge, but we’d be better off nailing the basics. [11] 某一领域的高级概念较少得到验证。我们用它们来传递内幕消息，但我们最好还是把基本知识钉牢。

Clear thinkers appeal to their own authority. 头脑清晰的人求助于他们自己的权威。

Part of making effective decisions boils down to dealing with reality. How do you make sure you’re dealing with reality when you’re making decisions? 做出有效决策的一部分可以归结为面对现实。当你做决定时，你如何确保你面对的是现实？ By not having a strong sense of self or judgments or mind presence. The “monkey mind” will always respond with this regurgitated emotional response to what it thinks the world should be. Those desires will cloud your reality. This happens a lot of times when people are mixing politics and business.

没有强烈的自我意识、判断力或者精神状态。“猴心”总是会以这种反胃的情绪反应来回应它认为的世界应该是什么样子。这些欲望会让你的现实蒙上阴影。当人们把政治和商业混为一谈时，这种情况经常发生。

The number one thing clouding us from being able to see reality is we have preconceived notions of the way it should be.

阻碍我们看清现实的第一件事是我们对它应该是什么样子有先入为主的观念。

One definition of a moment of suffering is “the moment when you see things exactly the way they are.” This whole time, you’ve been convinced your business is doing great, and really, you’ve ignored the signs it’s not doing well. Then, your business fails, and you suffer because you’ve been putting off reality. You’ve been hiding it from yourself.

痛苦时刻的一个定义是“你看到事物的本来面目的那一刻”。一直以来，你都确信你的生意做得很好，而实际上，你忽略了它做得不好的迹象。然后，你的生意失败了，你遭受了痛苦，因为你一直在拖延现实。你一直在瞒着自己。

The good news is, the moment of suffering—when you’re in pain—is a moment of truth. It is a moment where you’re forced to embrace reality the way it actually is. Then, you can make meaningful change and progress. You can only make progress when you’re starting with the truth. 好消息是，当你处于痛苦中时，痛苦的时刻就是真相的时刻。这是一个你被迫接受现实的时刻。然后，你才能做出有意义的改变和进步。只有从真相出发，你才能取得进步。

The hard thing is seeing the truth. To see the truth, you have to get your ego out of the way because your ego doesn’t want to face the truth. The smaller you can make your ego, the less conditioned you can make your reactions, the less desires you can have about the outcome you want, the easier it will be to see the reality.

最难的是看到真相。要看清真相，你必须把你的自负放在一边，因为你的自负不想面对真相。你的自我越小，你的反应就越不受约束，你对你想要的结果的欲望就越少，就越容易看到现实。

What we wish to be true clouds our perception of what is true. Suffering is the moment when we can no longer deny reality.

我们希望成为真实的东西模糊了我们对真实的认知。苦难是我们不能再否认现实的时刻。

Imagine we’re going through something difficult like a breakup, a job loss, a business failure, or a health problem, and our friends are advising us. When we’re advising them, the answer is obvious. It comes to us in a minute, and we tell them exactly, “Oh that girl, get over her, she wasn’t good for you anyway. You’ll be happier. Trust me. You’ll find someone.”

想象一下，我们正在经历一些困难的事情，比如分手、失业、生意失败或健康问题，我们的朋友都在建议我们。当我们建议他们时，答案是显而易见的。它立刻出现在我们面前，我们准确地告诉他们，“哦，那个女孩，忘了她吧，反正她对你不好。你会更开心的。请相信我。你会找到另一个人的。“

You know the correct answer, but your friend can’t see it, because they’re in the moment of suffering and pain. They’re still wishing reality was different. The problem isn’t reality. The problem is their desire is colliding with reality and preventing them from seeing the truth, no matter how much you say it. The same thing happens when I make decisions.

你知道正确的答案，但是你的朋友看不到，因为他们正处于痛苦和痛苦的时刻。他们仍然希望现实是不同的。问题不是现实。问题是，无论你说多少，他们的愿望都在与现实发生冲突，阻止他们看到真相。当我做决定时，同样的事情也会发生。

The more desire I have for something to work out a certain way, the less likely I am to see the truth. Especially in business, if something isn’t going well, I try to acknowledge it publicly and I try to acknowledge it publicly in front of my co -founders and friends and co -workers . Then, I’m not hiding it from anybody else. If I’m not hiding it from anybody, I’m not going to delude myself from what’s actually going on. [4]

我越是渴望某件事以某种方式解决，我就越不可能看到真相。特别是在商业上，如果事情进展不顺利，我会试着公开承认，也会试着在我的联合创始人、朋友和同事面前公开承认。那我就不会对任何人隐瞒了。如果我没有对任何人隐瞒，我就不会从实际发生的事情中欺骗自己。

What you feel tells you nothing about the facts—it merely tells you something about your estimate of the facts.

你的感觉并没有告诉你任何关于事实的事情—它只告诉你一些关于你对事实的估计。

It’s actually really important to have empty space. If you don’t have a day or two every week in your calendar where you’re not always in meetings, and you’re not always busy, then you’re not going to be able to think.

事实上，拥有空白的空间真的很重要。如果你的日历上每周没有一两天你不总是在开会，而且你也不总是很忙，那么你将无法思考。

You’re not going to be able to have good ideas for your business. You’re not going to be able to make good judgments. I also encourage taking at least one day a week (preferably two, because if you budget two, you’ll end up with one) where you just have time to think.

你将不能为你的企业提出好的想法。你将不能做出正确的判断。我还鼓励每周至少花一天时间(最好是两天，因为如果你预算两天，最后只有一天)，这样你就有时间思考了。

It’s only after you’re bored you have the great ideas. It’s never going to be when you’re stressed, or busy, running around or rushed. Make the time. [7]

只有在你厌倦之后，你才会有好主意。当你压力很大、很忙、四处奔跑或匆忙时，你永远不会有这样的感觉。腾出时间来。“[7]

Very smart people tend to be weird since they insist on thinking everything through for themselves.

非常聪明的人往往很怪异，因为他们坚持自己想清楚每件事。

A contrarian isn’t one who always objects—that’s a conformist of a different sort. A contrarian reasons independently from the ground up and resists pressure to conform.

逆向投资者不是总是反对的人—那是一种不同类型的墨守成规的人。逆向投资者从根本上独立地进行推理，并顶住要求顺从的压力。

Cynicism is easy. Mimicry is easy. Optimistic contrarians are the rarest breed.

愤世嫉俗是很容易的。模仿很容易， 乐观的逆向投资者是最稀有的品种。