 November 2022 2022 年 11 月 In the science fiction books I read as a kid, reading had often been replaced by some more efficient way of acquiring knowledge. Mysterious "tapes" would load it into one's brain like a program being loaded into a computer. 在我小時候讀的科幻小說裡，閱讀經常被某種更有效率的知識獲取方式所取代。 神秘的「磁帶」會像將程式載入電腦一樣，將知識載入人的大腦。 That sort of thing is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Not just because it would be hard to build a replacement for reading, but because even if one existed, it would be insufficient. Reading about x doesn't just teach you about x; it also teaches you how to write. [1] 這種事情不太可能很快發生。 不僅因為很難製造出取代閱讀的東西，而且即使存在，它也是不夠的。 閱讀關於 x 的內容不僅能讓你了解 x，還能教會你如何寫作。[1] Would that matter? If we replaced reading, would anyone need to be good at writing? 這有關係嗎？ 如果我們取代了閱讀，還會有人需要擅長寫作嗎？ The reason it would matter is that writing is not just a way to convey ideas, but also a way to have them. 之所以重要，是因為寫作不僅僅是傳達想法的方式，也是產生想法的方式。 A good writer doesn't just think, and then write down what he thought, as a sort of transcript. A good writer will almost always discover new things in the process of writing. And there is, as far as I know, no substitute for this kind of discovery. Talking about your ideas with other people is a good way to develop them. But even after doing this, you'll find you still discover new things when you sit down to write. There is a kind of thinking that can only be done by writing. 一個好的作者不只是思考，然後像謄本一樣寫下他的想法。一個好的作者幾乎總是在寫作過程中發現新的事物。而且據我所知，沒有任何東西可以取代這種發現。與他人討論你的想法是發展它們的好方法。但即使這樣做了，你仍然會發現當你坐下來寫作時，你會發現新的事物。有一種思考只能透過寫作來完成。 There are of course kinds of thinking that can be done without writing. If you don't need to go too deeply into a problem, you can solve it without writing. If you're thinking about how two pieces of machinery should fit together, writing about it probably won't help much. And when a problem can be described formally, you can sometimes solve it in your head. But if you need to solve a complicated, ill-defined problem, it will almost always help to write about it. Which in turn means that someone who's not good at writing will almost always be at a disadvantage in solving such problems. 當然，有些思考可以在不寫作的情況下完成。如果你不需要太深入地研究一個問題，你可以不用寫作就解決它。如果你正在思考兩個機械零件應該如何組合在一起，寫下來可能沒有太大幫助。而且當一個問題可以用形式化的方式描述時，你偶爾可以在腦海中解決它。但是，如果你需要解決一個複雜、定義不明確的問題，寫下來幾乎總是有幫助的。這反過來意味著，不擅長寫作的人在解決這些問題時幾乎總是處於劣勢。 You can't think well without writing well, and you can't write well without reading well. And I mean that last "well" in both senses. You have to be good at reading, and read good things. [2] 不善於寫作就無法好好思考，不善於閱讀就無法好好寫作。而我說的最後一個「好好」有雙重含義。你必須擅長閱讀，並且閱讀好東西。[2] People who just want information may find other ways to get it. But people who want to have ideas can't afford to. 只想獲取資訊的人可能會找到其他方法。但想要產生想法的人卻不能這樣做。 Notes 筆記 [1] Audiobooks can give you examples of good writing, but having them read to you doesn't teach you as much about writing as reading them yourself. [1] 有聲書可以給你好的寫作範例，但聽別人讀給你聽，不如自己閱讀更能學到寫作技巧。 [2] By "good at reading" I don't mean good at the mechanics of reading. You don't have to be good at extracting words from the page so much as extracting meaning from the words. [2] 我說的「擅長閱讀」並不是指閱讀的技巧。你不需要擅長從書頁中提取文字，而是要擅長從文字中提取意義。 |
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 Japanese Translation日文翻譯 | | Chinese Translation 中文翻譯 |
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| Italian Translation 義大利文翻譯 | | French Translation 法文翻譯 |
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