拼尽全力？研究发现付出85%才最高效
研究发现，做任何事情的诀窍都在于，尽85%的努力，反而可以拿出最佳状态。
🤔️小作业：
1. What is the primary message of the article regarding productivity?
A) Maximum effort is key to success.
B) Striving for perfection leads to burnout.
C) Aiming for 85% effort can enhance performance.
D) Consistent hard work guarantees success.
A) Exceptional performance.
B) Goals might be set too low.
C) Perfect strategic planning.
D) High levels of employee motivation.
无注释原文：
Try Hard, but Not That Hard. 85% Is the Magic Number for Productivity.
From: The Wall Street Journal
Are you giving it your all? Maybe that's too much.
So many of us were raised in the gospel of hard work and max effort, taught that what we put in was what we got out. Now, some coaches and corporate leaders have a new message. To be at your best, dial it back a bit.
Trying to run at top speed will actually lead to slower running times, they say, citing fitness research. Lifting heavy weights until you absolutely can't anymore won't spark more muscle gain than stopping a little sooner, one exercise physiologist assured me.
The trick—be it in exercise, or anything—is to try for 85%. Aiming for perfection often makes us feel awful, burns us out and backfires. Instead, count the fact that you hit eight out of 10 of your targets this quarter as a win. We don't need to see our work, health or hobbies as binary objectives, perfected or a total failure.
“I already messed it up,” Sherri Phillips would lament after missing one of her daily personal goals.
Last year, the chief operating officer of a Manhattan photography business began tracking metrics like her sleep quality and cardio time on an elaborate spreadsheet. It was only after she switched to aiming for 85% success over the course of a week that she stuck with her efforts, instead of giving up when she missed a mark.
Dialing in on the sweet spot of 85% can help us grow. In a 2019 paper, researchers used machine learning to try to find the ideal difficulty level to learn new things. The neural network they created, meant to mimic the human brain, learned best when it was faced with queries set to 85% difficulty, meaning it got questions right 85% of the time.
If a task is too hard, humans get demotivated, says Bob Wilson, an author of the study and associate professor of psychology and cognitive science at the University of Arizona. “If you never make any errors, you're 100% accurate, well, you can't learn from the mistakes.”
Ron Shaich, a founder and former chief executive of restaurant chain Panera, is skeptical of people who hit 100% on bonus targets or sales projections. He wonders if the goals are too low. They should be ambitious enough that you won't always get there, he says.
Presiding over Panera's quarterly earnings reports, he'd aim to exceed guidance eight out of 10 times. The same went for big goals at the company.
Now an investor, board member and author of a coming business book that stresses 80% equals success, Shaich is convinced most companies don't even hit that number.
“They all talk about what they're going to get done. Then they don't do it,” he says. Reach 80% and, “you're doing great.”
Years ago, as a consultant at Bain, Grace Ueng learned the “80-20 rule.” The idea was to stop once you were 80% complete on a project, she says. That first burst of work often contained the real meat of the project.
Now a leadership coach and strategy consultant, Ueng recently took up piano. She practiced for hours and grimaced when she performed for her music group. Then she started doing more targeted exercises, like tackling small chunks of a piece instead of running through the whole thing again and again.
Before a recent performance, she read a book and went to church instead of putting in extra hours at the piano.
When it was time to perform, she played well—and actually enjoyed it.
“You have to have the wisdom,” she says, “to know when to stop.”
- ◆ -
注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为华尔街日报官方译文，仅供参考
含注释全文：
Try Hard, but Not That Hard. 85% Is the Magic Number for Productivity.
From: The Wall Street Journal
Are you giving it your all? Maybe that's too much.
你是否习惯于全力以赴？或许没必要那么紧绷。
So many of us were raised in the gospel of hard work and max effort, taught that what we put in was what we got out. Now, some coaches and corporate leaders have a new message. To be at your best, dial it back a bit.
从小到大，许多人都被教导着要勤奋工作、全力以赴，我们得到的教诲是一分耕耘、一分收获。但现在有一些专业指导人士和企业领导者提出了新的观点：要达到最佳状态，不妨放松一点。
gospel
gospel /ˈɡɒspəl/ 表示“（个人的）信条，信念”，英文解释为“a set of principles or ideas that someone believes in”如：the gospel of hard work 勤奋工作的信条。
dial sth back
dial sth back = dial sth down表示“减少，调低，缓和”，英文解释为“to make something less forceful or extreme”
Trying to run at top speed will actually lead to slower running times, they say, citing fitness research. Lifting heavy weights until you absolutely can't anymore won't spark more muscle gain than stopping a little sooner, one exercise physiologist assured me.
他们援引健身领域的研究说，试图用最快速度跑步，实际上最终会导致跑步成绩变差。一位运动生理学家肯定地告诉我，练举重练到彻底举不动为止，并不会促进增肌，还不如早一点放下来。
spark
spark /spɑːk/ 表示“引发”，英文解释为“If one thing sparks another, the first thing causes the second thing to start happening.”举个🌰：My teacher organized a unit on computer science that really sparked my interest. 我的老师编排了一个关于计算机科学的单元，它真正激发了我的兴趣。
此前，《后浪》和「青年」文中标题中就用到：Bilibili's May 4th Youth Day video sparks discussion on social media 引发热议。
类似的还有：
📍stir表示“激发，激起（强烈的感情）；引起（强烈的反应）”，英文解释为“to make someone have a strong feeling or reaction”举个🌰：The poem succeeds in stirring the imagination. 这首诗能够激发起想象力。
📍provoke也表示“激起，引起”，英文解释为“to cause a reaction or feeling, especially a sudden one”，如：provoke debate/discussion 激起辩论/讨论。
📍spur 鼓动；激励；鞭策；刺激；鼓舞”，英文解释为“If one thing spurs you to do another, it encourages you to do it.”举个🌰：It's the money that spurs these fishermen to risk a long ocean journey in their flimsy boats. 是金钱驱使这些渔民驾驶单薄的小船冒险出海远航。
🎬电影《龙之心3：巫师的诅咒》（Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer's Curse）中的台词提到：To spur the clans to war. 激励部族发起战争。
📍trigger表示“发动；引起；触发”，英文解释为“to make sth happen suddenly”举个🌰：Nuts can trigger off a violent allergic reaction. 坚果可以引起严重的过敏反应。
physiologist
physiologist /ˌfɪz.iˈɒl.ə.dʒɪst/ 表示“生理学家”，英文解释为“a person who studies physiology”
assure
assure /əˈʃɔːr/ 表示“（尤指为消除其忧虑而）确定地对…说，向…保证，使确信；让…放心”，英文解释为“to tell someone confidently that something is true, especially so that they do not worry”举个🌰：She assured him (that) the car would be ready the next day. 她向他保证说他的车第二天就能修好。
The trick—be it in exercise, or anything—is to try for 85%. Aiming for perfection often makes us feel awful, burns us out and backfires. Instead, count the fact that you hit eight out of 10 of your targets this quarter as a win. We don't need to see our work, health or hobbies as binary objectives, perfected or a total failure.
不论是运动，还是任何其他事情，诀窍都在于，尽到85%的努力即可。追求完美往往会让我们感受不佳、筋疲力尽，从而产生事与愿违的效果。其实，只要你的10个季度目标能实现八个，你就算赢了。我们不需要把工作、健康或爱好方面的目标视作非黑即白，认为只有完美无缺或彻底失败这两种可能。
trick
trick /trɪk/ 作动词，表示“欺骗，诱骗，哄骗”，英文解释为“to deceive someone, often as a part of a plan”举个🌰：He tricked the old lady into giving him two hundred dollars. 他骗这个老妇人给了他200美元。
作名词，可以表示“诀窍，秘诀；技巧”，英文解释为“an effective or quick way of doing something”举个🌰：What's the trick to getting this chair to fold up? 把这张椅子折叠起来有什么诀窍？
burn out
burnout /ˈbɜrnˌɑʊt/ 表示“极度劳累；疲劳过度”，英文解释为“extreme tiredness usually caused by working too much”如：employees complaining of/suffering burn-out 抱怨/感到极度劳累的员工。
📍根据世界卫生组织，职业过劳（Occupational burnout）是一种由慢性工作压力导致的症候群，症状包含“精神耗尽、对工作的心理距离增加、对工作的负面感觉、以及工作效率的减少”。职业过劳不被归类为一种医学疾病。
📍动词短语：burn (yourself) out，疲惫不堪，精疲力竭。
backfire
backfire /ˌbækˈfaɪər/ 1）表示“（引擎）发生回火”，英文解释为“(of an engine) to make a loud noise as a result of fuel burning too early”举个🌰：I was woken by the sound of a truck backfiring. 卡车引擎的回火声把我惊醒了。
2）表示“事与愿违，（计划或行动）发生意外，产生事与愿违的结果”，英文解释为“if a plan or action backfires, it has the opposite effect to the one you intended”举个🌰：The company's new policy backfired when a number of employees threatened to quit. 公司的新政策事与愿违，有好几名员工威胁说要辞职。
🎬电影《被拒人生》（Freeheld）中的台词提到：Listen to me, listen to me, this is a circus, it's gonna backfire. 听我说，这有些儿戏了，会适得其反的。
binary
binary /ˈbaɪ.nər.i/ 表示“双的；由两部分组成的；二进制的”，英文解释为“consisting of two parts”如：the binary system 二进制，binary arithmetic 二进制算术。
“I already messed it up,” Sherri Phillips would lament after missing one of her daily personal goals.
谢里·菲利普斯（Sherri Phillips）如果没能达到给自己定的某项日常目标，就会哀叹：“我已经搞砸了。”
mess sth up
表示“搞砸，弄糟”，英文解释为“to spoil or damage something, or to do something wrong or badly”举个🌰：I messed up my chances of becoming a great singer. 我觉得自己已把成为一名伟大歌手的机会毁掉了。You really messed up this time. 这次你的确把事情搞砸了。
lament
lament /ləˈment/ 1）作动词，表示“对…感到悲痛，对…表示失望，痛惜”，英文解释为“to express sadness and feeling sorry about something”举个🌰：My grandmother, as usual, lamented the decline in moral standards in today's society. 和往常一样，我奶奶对当今社会世风日下深感痛惜。
2）作名词，表示“挽歌；悼诗；悼文”，英文解释为“a song, poem, or other piece of writing that expresses sadness about someone's death”。
Last year, the chief operating officer of a Manhattan photography business began tracking metrics like her sleep quality and cardio time on an elaborate spreadsheet. It was only after she switched to aiming for 85% success over the course of a week that she stuck with her efforts, instead of giving up when she missed a mark.
去年，在曼哈顿一家摄影公司担任首席运营官的菲利普斯开始用一张精细的电子表格追踪自己的睡眠质量和有氧运动时间等指标。起初，她只要有一个指标没过关就会放弃，直到她把目标调整为在一周内达到85%的成功率之后，才一路坚持下来。
metrics
metrics /ˈmetrɪks/ 表示“衡量指标；指标；度量”，英文解释为“Metrics are measures of quantitative assessment commonly used for comparing, and tracking performance or production.”
📍词源和词根：来自古希腊语的metrike，源于metron，意为「测量」。派生词：metric, metrical，常用短语：business metrics 商业指标。
cardio
cardio /ˈkɑː.di.əʊ/ 表示“可提高心跳频率的运动；有氧运动”，英文解释为“physical exercise that increases the rate at which your heart works”举个🌰：My workout usually includes 2 to 4 minutes of cardio. 我的健身运动通常包括2-4分钟的有氧运动。
elaborate
elaborate /iˈlæb.ər.ət/ 作动词，表示“详尽说明；阐述”，英文解释为“to add more information to or explain something that you have said”；
本身也可以作形容词，表示“精心计划（或制作）的；详尽的；复杂的”，英文解释为“containing a lot of careful detail or many detailed parts”举个🌰：They're making the most elaborate preparations for the wedding. 他们正为婚礼做极为精心周到的准备。
spreadsheet
spreadsheet /ˈspred.ʃiːt/ 表示“电子数据表；电子表格程序”，英文解释为“a computer program, used especially in business, that allows you to do financial calculations and plans”
Dialing in on the sweet spot of 85% can help us grow. In a 2019 paper, researchers used machine learning to try to find the ideal difficulty level to learn new things. The neural network they created, meant to mimic the human brain, learned best when it was faced with queries set to 85% difficulty, meaning it got questions right 85% of the time.
85%是恰到好处的水平，把目标调整到这一水平，能够帮助我们取得进步。在2019年的一篇论文中，研究人员利用机器学习来探索学习新东西的理想难度。他们创建了旨在模仿人脑的神经网络，当该网络面对难度设定为85%的问题时（也就是说，能在85%的情况下答对问题），学习效果最好。
neural network
neural network /ˌnjʊə.rəl ˈnet.wɜːk/ 表示“神经网络”，英文解释为“a computer system or a type of computer program that is designed to copy the way in which the human brain operates”
mimic
mimic /ˈmɪm.ɪk/ 1）表示“模仿（人的言行举止）；（尤指）做滑稽模仿”，英文解释为“to copy the way sb speaks, moves, behaves, etc., especially in order to make other people laugh”举个🌰：She's always mimicking the teachers. 她总喜欢模仿老师的言谈举止。
2）表示“（外表或行为举止）像，似”，英文解释为“to look or behave like sth else”举个🌰：The robot was programmed to mimic a series of human movements. 机器人可按程序设计模仿人的各种动作。
If a task is too hard, humans get demotivated, says Bob Wilson, an author of the study and associate professor of psychology and cognitive science at the University of Arizona. “If you never make any errors, you're 100% accurate, well, you can't learn from the mistakes.”
上述论文的作者、亚利桑那大学（University of Arizona）心理学和认知科学副教授鲍勃·威尔逊（Bob Wilson）说，如果任务太难，人就会失去动力。“如果你从来不犯错，准确率达到100%，就无法从错误中学习”。
demotivate
demotivate /ˌdiːˈməʊ.tɪ.veɪt/ 表示“使工作积极性下降，使变得消极”，英文解释为“to make someone less enthusiastic about a job”举个🌰：She was very demotivated by being told she had little chance of being promoted. 当她被告知将来没有什么晋升机会后，她的上进心受到了严重的打击。
cognitive
cognitive /ˈkɒɡ.nə.tɪv/ 表示“认知的；感知的；认识的”，英文解释为“Cognitive means relating to the mental process involved in knowing, learning, and understanding things.”举个🌰：As children grow older, their cognitive processes become sharper. 随着孩子们长大，他们的认知过程也变得越来越敏锐了。
Ron Shaich, a founder and former chief executive of restaurant chain Panera, is skeptical of people who hit 100% on bonus targets or sales projections. He wonders if the goals are too low. They should be ambitious enough that you won't always get there, he says.
连锁餐厅Panera的创始人、前首席执行官罗恩·沙伊克(Ron Shaich)对那些次次都能达到奖金目标或销售预期的人持怀疑态度。他怀疑目标是否定得太低。他说，目标应该足够远大，不能总是轻轻松松就能达到。
skeptical
skeptical /ˈskep.tɪ.kəl/ 表示“怀疑的，持怀疑态度的”，英文解释为“doubting that something is true or useful”举个🌰：Many experts remain skeptical about/of her claims. 很多专家对她的主张仍然持怀疑态度。
Presiding over Panera's quarterly earnings reports, he'd aim to exceed guidance eight out of 10 times. The same went for big goals at the company.
沙伊克在负责Panera的季度业绩报告时，会将每10次有八次超出收益预期作为目标。他对待公司大目标的态度也是一样。
preside
preside /prɪˈzaɪd/ 表示“主持（会议、仪式等）；担任（会议）主席”，英文解释为“to be in charge of a formal meeting, ceremony, or trial”举个🌰：Who would be the best person to preside at/over the public enquiry? 谁来主持公众调查最合适呢？
exceed
exceed /ɪkˈsiːd/ 表示“超过，超出（数量）；超越（规定的范围）”，英文解释为“to be greater than a number or amount, or to go past an allowed limit”举个🌰：The final cost should not exceed ￥100. 最终的花费不应超出100元。
📍词根“-ceed”表示"走，去"，前缀“ex-”表示"出，超出"。近义词：surpass（超过），同根词：proceed（进行），succeed（成功）
Now an investor, board member and author of a coming business book that stresses 80% equals success, Shaich is convinced most companies don't even hit that number.
沙伊克现在是一名投资家、企业董事，他还写了一本即将出版的商业书籍，该书强调，80%等于成功。沙伊克坚信，大多数公司甚至还没有达到这一数字。
“They all talk about what they're going to get done. Then they don't do it,” he says. Reach 80% and, “you're doing great.”
“他们都在谈论要做成什么事情，之后却没有去做，”他说。达到80%，“你就做得很好了”。
Years ago, as a consultant at Bain, Grace Ueng learned the “80-20 rule.” The idea was to stop once you were 80% complete on a project, she says. That first burst of work often contained the real meat of the project.
格雷丝·翁戈（Grace Ueng）多年前在贝恩（Bain）当咨询师时学到了“80-20法则”。她说，其中的思想是，项目一旦完成了80%，就应该停一停。这前80%的工作往往构成了项目的主要部分。
consultant
consultant /kənˈsʌl.tənt/ 表示“顾问；咨询师”，英文解释为“someone who advises people on a particular subject”如：a management / financial / computer consultant 管理 / 财务 / 计算机顾问。
Now a leadership coach and strategy consultant, Ueng recently took up piano. She practiced for hours and grimaced when she performed for her music group. Then she started doing more targeted exercises, like tackling small chunks of a piece instead of running through the whole thing again and again.
翁戈现在是领导力教练和战略咨询师，最近她弹起了钢琴。在她为乐团表演的时候，她会练习好几个小时，却还是十分头疼。后来她开始做更有针对性的练习，比如处理一小段一小段的乐曲，而不是一遍又一遍地弹奏整首曲子。
grimace
grimace /ˈɡrɪm.əs/ 作动词，表示“ （因疼痛或厌恶而）做鬼脸，做怪相”，英文解释为“to make an expression of pain, strong dislike, etc. in which the face twists in an ugly way”，名词即为“怪相；鬼脸；脸部扭曲”的含义，举个🌰：He tried to stand and grimaced with pain. 他试图站起来，结果疼得龇牙咧嘴。
chunk
chunk /tʃʌŋk/ 表示“大块；厚块；一部分；（尤指）大部分，一大块”，英文解释为“a roughly cut piece；a part of something, especially a large part”如：a chunk of cheese 一大块奶酪，a chunk of meat 一大块肉，a chunk of text 一大段文字，a substantial chunk of profits 利润的很大一部分。
📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述中资银行崛起的文章中提到：If recent form is a guide, a chunk will be recycled into developing countries. 如果近期的情况可作为一种参考，那么其中的一大块又会被收集利用，流向发展中国家。
🎬电影《冰河世纪4：大陆漂移》（Ice Age: Continental Drift）中的台词提到：Now get this chunk of ice seaworthy by sundown 太阳下山前把这块浮冰给我找来。
Before a recent performance, she read a book and went to church instead of putting in extra hours at the piano.
在最近一次表演之前，她读了一本书，去了教堂，而没有额外花好几个小时来练琴。
When it was time to perform, she played well—and actually enjoyed it.
到了登台表演的时候，她弹得很好——而且真正乐在其中。
“You have to have the wisdom,” she says, “to know when to stop.”
“你必须有智慧，知道什么时候该停下来，”她说。
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