山姆·阿尔特曼对生产力的理解

写在前面（有些劝退的意思）

l本文是OPEN AI CEO 自己总结的关于生产力的理解，的一篇博文

l每一个时代人物，在站上潮头后，他们的一言一行都会被奉为金科玉律

l哪怕这些内容很多是被重复过的话，哪怕有更系统的书或者课程

l哪怕这些话是同一个人在几年前说的，但是当时就没有人觉得：“诶，TM的怎么说得这么有道理”

PS：下文其实就是山姆·阿尔特曼6年前写的，最近却被翻了出来，我也因此才看到

l如果可能的话，辩证的看。

l看哪些适合自己的，看哪些是幸存者偏差的，看哪些是正确的废话。

l不过哪怕有一句能够真正记住并在今后的践行，这篇文章也算没看。

l时代人物更大的作用之一其实不就是影响力吗？影响一个时代的人。

l产生向往也好、激起热血也好、原来一个肉人是可以这么强的

lJust do it！不服就干！

PS：下文全部由Chat GPT翻译（感觉质量基本碾压了Google，甚至有点超出DeepL。诶，降维打击啊）

再PS：博文原地址：https://blog.samaltman.com/productivity

好的，以下逐段的中英对照文，有点长、慢慢看，或者可以先收藏。

Productivity/生产力

I think I am at least somewhat more productive than average, and people sometimes ask me for productivity tips. So I decided to just write them all down in one place.

我认为我至少比平均水平要高效一些，人们有时会向我询问提高生产力的建议。因此，我决定将它们全部写在一个地方。

Compound growth gets discussed as a financial concept, but it works in careers as well, and it is magic. A small productivity gain, compounded over 50 years, is worth a lot. So it’s worth figuring out how to optimize productivity. If you get 10% more done and 1% better every day compared to someone else, the compounded difference is massive.

复合增长作为一个金融概念被讨论，但它在职业生涯中同样适用，这简直是魔法。小小的生产力提升，经过50年的复合增长，价值巨大。因此，弄清楚如何优化生产力是非常值得的。如果你每天完成的工作比别人多10%，并且每天进步1%，那么复合后的差异是巨大的。

What you work on/你为了什么而工作

It doesn’t matter how fast you move if it’s in a worthless direction. Picking the right thing to work on is the most important element of productivity and usually almost ignored. So think about it more! Independent thought is hard but it’s something you can get better at with practice.

如果方向错误，你移动得再快也没用。选择正确的工作重点是生产力最重要的元素，而这通常几乎被忽视。所以，多考虑这个问题！独立思考是困难的，但通过练习你可以做得更好。

The most impressive people I know have strong beliefs about the world, which is rare in the general population. If you find yourself always agreeing with whomever you last spoke with, that’s bad. You will of course be wrong sometimes, but develop the confidence to stick with your convictions. It will let you be courageous when you’re right about something important that most people don’t see.

我认识的最令人印象深刻的人对世界有着坚定的信念，这在一般人群中是罕见的。如果你发现自己总是同意你最后交谈的人的观点，那是不好的。你当然有时会犯错，但要培养坚持自己信念的信心。这将使你在大多数人看不到的重要事物上勇敢地站出来。

I make sure to leave enough time in my schedule to think about what to work on. The best ways for me to do this are reading books, hanging out with interesting people, and spending time in nature.

我确保在我的日程中留出足够的时间来思考要做什么。对我来说，最好的方式是阅读书籍、与有趣的人相处以及在大自然中度过时间。

I’ve learned that I can’t be very productive working on things I don’t care about or don’t like. So I just try not to put myself in a position where I have to do them (by delegating, avoiding, or something else). Stuff that you don’t like is a painful drag on morale and momentum.

我已经学到，对于我不关心或不喜欢的事情，我无法保持高效。所以，我只是尽量不让自己处于必须做这些事情的位置（通过委派、避免或其他方式）。不喜欢的事情会严重拖累士气和动力。

By the way, here is an important lesson about delegation: remember that everyone else is also most productive when they’re doing what they like, and do what you’d want other people to do for you—try to figure out who likes (and is good at) doing what, and delegate that way.

顺便说一下，关于委派的一个重要教训是：记住，当其他人做他们喜欢的事情时，他们也是最高效的，做你希望别人为你做的事情——尝试弄清楚谁喜欢（并且擅长）做什么，然后以这种方式委派。

If you find yourself not liking what you’re doing for a long period of time, seriously consider a major job change. Short-term burnout happens, but if it isn’t resolved with some time off, maybe it’s time to do something you’re more interested in.

如果你发现自己长时间不喜欢正在做的事情，请认真考虑进行一次重大的职业变动。短期的倦怠是会发生的，但如果休息一段时间后问题仍未解决，也许是时候去做一些你更感兴趣的事情了。

I’ve been very fortunate to find work I like so much I’d do it for free, which makes it easy to be really productive.

我非常幸运地找到了我非常喜欢的工作，我甚至愿意免费做它，这使我能够非常高效。

It’s important to learn that you can learn anything you want, and that you can get better quickly. This feels like an unlikely miracle the first few times it happens, but eventually you learn to trust that you can do it.

学会你可以学习任何你想学的东西，并且可以迅速变得更好，这一点很重要。最初几次感觉像是不太可能的奇迹，但最终你会学会相信你能做到。

Doing great work usually requires colleagues of some sort. Try to be around smart, productive, happy, and positive people that don’t belittle your ambitions. I love being around people who push me and inspire me to be better. To the degree you able to, avoid the opposite kind of people—the cost of letting them take up your mental cycles is horrific.

做出伟大工作通常需要某种形式的同事。尝试与聪明、高效、快乐和积极的人在一起，这些人不会贬低你的抱负。我喜欢与能推动我并激励我变得更好的人在一起。在你能做到的程度上，避免与相反类型的人相处——让他们占据你的心智成本是可怕的。

You have to both pick the right problem and do the work. There aren’t many shortcuts. If you’re going to do something really important, you are very likely going to work both smart and hard. The biggest prizes are heavily competed for. This isn’t true in every field (there are great mathematicians who never spend that many hours a week working) but it is in most.

你必须同时选择正确的问题并完成工作。没有多少捷径。如果你打算做一些真正重要的事情，你很可能既要工作得聪明又要工作得努力。最大的奖励是需要激烈竞争的。这不是在每个领域都适用（有些伟大的数学家从不在一周内花费那么多小时工作），但在大多数领域是这样。

Prioritization/优先级

My system has three key pillars: “Make sure to get the important shit done”, “Don’t waste time on stupid shit”, and “make a lot of lists”.

我的系统有三个关键支柱：“确保完成重要的事情”，“不要浪费时间在愚蠢的事情上”，和“做很多列表”。

I highly recommend using lists. I make lists of what I want to accomplish each year, each month, and each day. Lists are very focusing, and they help me with multitasking because I don’t have to keep as much in my head. If I’m not in the mood for some particular task, I can always find something else I’m excited to do.

我强烈推荐使用列表。我列出了我每年、每月和每天想要完成的事情。列表能让人非常集中注意力，并且它们帮助我进行多任务处理，因为我不必在脑海中保持太多东西。如果我对某个特定任务没有心情，我总能找到其他我感兴趣的事情去做。

I prefer lists written down on paper. It’s easy to add and remove tasks. I can access them during meetings without feeling rude. I re-transcribe lists frequently, which forces me to think about everything on the list and gives me an opportunity to add and remove items.

我更喜欢将列表写在纸上。这样添加和删除任务很容易。我可以在会议中查看它们而不会觉得失礼。我经常重新抄写列表，这迫使我思考列表上的每一件事，并给我机会添加或删除项目。

I don’t bother with categorization or trying to size tasks or anything like that (the most I do is put a star next to really important items).

我不会费心对任务进行分类或尝试评估任务的大小之类的事情（我所做的最多就是在非常重要的项目旁边放一个星号）。

I try to prioritize in a way that generates momentum. The more I get done, the better I feel, and then the more I get done. I like to start and end each day with something I can really make progress on.

我尝试以一种能够产生动力的方式来确定优先顺序。我完成的事情越多，我感觉越好，然后我就能完成更多的事情。我喜欢以我能够取得实际进展的事情开始和结束每一天。

I am relentless about getting my most important projects done—I’ve found that if I really want something to happen and I push hard enough, it usually happens.

我对完成最重要的项目毫不松懈——我发现如果我真的想要某事发生，并且我足够努力推动，它通常会发生。

I try to be ruthless about saying no to stuff, and doing non-critical things in the quickest way possible. I probably take this too far—for example, I am almost sure I am terse to the point of rudeness when replying to emails.

我尝试对拒绝事物无情，并以尽可能快的方式做非关键性的事情。我可能做得太过分了——例如，我回复电子邮件时几乎可以肯定我的回复简洁到了粗鲁的程度。

I generally try to avoid meetings and conferences as I find the time cost to be huge—I get the most value out of time in my office. However, it is critical that you keep enough space in your schedule to allow for chance encounters and exposure to new people and ideas. Having an open network is valuable; though probably 90% of the random meetings I take are a waste of time, the other 10% really make up for it.

我通常尝试避免会议和研讨会，因为我发现时间成本巨大——我在办公室的时间获得最大价值。然而，保持你的日程中有足够的空间以便于偶遇和接触新的人和想法是至关重要的。拥有一个开放的网络是有价值的；尽管我参加的随机会议中大约90%是浪费时间的，但另外10%确实弥补了这一点。

I find most meetings are best scheduled for 15-20 minutes, or 2 hours. The default of 1 hour is usually wrong, and leads to a lot of wasted time.

我发现大多数会议最好安排在15-20分钟或2小时内。默认的1小时通常是错误的，会导致很多时间浪费。

I have different times of day I try to use for different kinds of work. The first few hours of the morning are definitely my most productive time of the day, so I don’t let anyone schedule anything then. I try to do meetings in the afternoon. I take a break, or switch tasks, whenever I feel my attention starting to fade.

我有不同的时间段尝试用于不同类型的工作。早晨的头几个小时绝对是我一天中最高效的时间，所以我不允许任何人在那时安排任何事情。我尝试在下午进行会议。每当我感觉我的注意力开始减退时，我就会休息或切换任务。

I don’t think most people value their time enough—I am surprised by the number of people I know who make $100 an hour and yet will spend a couple of hours doing something they don’t want to do to save $20.

我认为大多数人对他们的时间估值不够——我对我认识的很多人感到惊讶，他们每小时能赚100美元，却愿意花几个小时去做一些他们不想做的事情，仅仅为了省下20美元。

Also, don’t fall into the trap of productivity porn—chasing productivity for its own sake isn’t helpful. Many people spend too much time thinking about how to perfectly optimize their system, and not nearly enough asking if they’re working on the right problems. It doesn’t matter what system you use or if you squeeze out every second if you’re working on the wrong thing.

另外，不要陷入生产力色情的陷阱——仅仅为了提高生产力而追求生产力是没有帮助的。许多人花费太多时间思考如何完美优化他们的系统，而几乎不问自己是否在处理正确的问题。如果你做的是错误的事情，无论你使用什么系统或是否压榨出每一秒都无关紧要。

The right goal is to allocate your year optimally, not your day.

正确的目标是最优化地分配你的一年，而不是你的一天。

Physical factors/身体因素

Very likely what is optimal for me won’t be optimal for you. You’ll have to experiment to find out what works best for your body. It’s definitely worth doing—it helps in all aspects of life, and you’ll feel a lot better and happier overall.

很可能对我来说最优的东西对你来说并不是最优的。你将不得不通过实验来找出什么对你的身体最有效。这绝对是值得做的——它在生活的各个方面都有帮助，而且你会感觉总体上更好、更快乐。

It probably took a little bit of my time every week for a few years to arrive at what works best for me, but my sense is if I do a good job at all the below I’m at least 1.5x more productive than if not.

可能每周花费我一点时间，几年才找到最适合我的方法，但我的感觉是，如果我在以下所有方面都做得很好，至少会比不这样做提高1.5倍的生产力。

Sleep seems to be the most important physical factor in productivity for me. Some sort of sleep tracker to figure out how to sleep best is helpful. I’ve found the only thing I’m consistent with are in the set-it-and-forget-it category, and I really like the Emfit QS+Active.

对我来说，睡眠似乎是生产力中最重要的身体因素。使用某种睡眠追踪器来找出最佳睡眠方式是有帮助的。我发现我唯一一贯遵循的是设置后就忘记的类别，我真的很喜欢Emfit QS+Active。

I like a cold, dark, quiet room, and a great mattress (I resisted spending a bunch of money on a great mattress for years, which was stupid—it makes a huge difference to my sleep quality. I love this one). Not eating a lot in the few hours before sleep helps. Not drinking alcohol helps a lot, though I’m not willing to do that all the time.

我喜欢冷、暗、安静的房间和一张好床垫（我多年来一直抵制在好床垫上花一大笔钱，这很愚蠢——它对我的睡眠质量有巨大影响。我喜欢这一款）。睡前几小时不吃太多有帮助。不喝酒也大有帮助，尽管我不愿意一直这样做。

I use a Chili Pad to be cold while I sleep if I can’t get the room cold enough, which is great but loud (I set it up to have the cooler unit outside my room).

如果房间不够冷，我在睡觉时会使用Chili Pad来保持凉爽，这很好但也很吵（我把冷却单元设置在房间外面）。

When traveling, I use an eye mask and ear plugs/旅行时，我会使用眼罩和耳塞。

This is likely to be controversial, but I take a low dose of sleeping pills (like a third of a normal dose) or a very low dose of cannabis whenever I can’t sleep. I am a bad sleeper in general, and a particularly bad sleeper when I travel. It likely has tradeoffs, but so does not sleeping well. If you can already sleep well, I wouldn’t recommend this.

这可能会引起争议，但每当我睡不着时，我会服用低剂量的安眠药（如正常剂量的三分之一）或非常低剂量的大麻。通常我睡眠不好，旅行时尤其如此。这可能有利有弊，但睡眠不好也是如此。如果你已经能够睡得很好，我不推荐这么做。

I use a full spectrum LED light most mornings for about 10-15 minutes while I catch up on email. It’s great—if you try nothing else in here, this is the thing I’d try. It’s a ridiculous gain for me. I like this one, and it’s easy to travel with.

我大多数早晨会使用全光谱LED灯大约10-15分钟，同时查看电子邮件。这很棒——如果你在这里什么都不尝试，这是我会尝试的东西。对我来说是巨大的收益。我喜欢这个，而且携带旅行很方便。

Exercise is probably the second most important physical factor. I tried a number of different exercise programs for a few months each and the one that seemed best was lifting heavy weights 3x a week for an hour, and high intensity interval training occasionally. In addition to productivity gains, this is also the exercise program that makes me feel the best overall.

锻炼可能是第二重要的身体因素。我尝试了几个月不同的锻炼计划，最好的似乎是每周三次、每次一个小时的重量训练，偶尔进行高强度间歇训练。除了提高生产力外，这也是让我整体感觉最好的锻炼计划。

The third area is nutrition. I very rarely eat breakfast, so I get about 15 hours of fasting most days (except an espresso when I wake up). I know this is contrary to most advice, and I suspect it’s not optimal for most people, but it definitely works well for me.

第三个领域是营养。我很少吃早餐，所以大多数日子我会进行大约15小时的禁食（醒来时除了一杯浓缩咖啡）。我知道这与大多数建议相反，我怀疑这对大多数人来说并不是最佳选择，但它对我确实效果很好。

Eating lots of sugar is the thing that makes me feel the worst and that I try hardest to avoid. I also try to avoid foods that aggravate my digestion or spike up inflammation (for example, very spicy foods). I don’t have much willpower when it comes to sweet things, so I mostly just try to keep junk food out of the house.

吃太多糖是让我感觉最糟糕的事情，也是我最努力避免的。我还尝试避免那些会加重我的消化问题或增加炎症的食物（例如，非常辛辣的食物）。对于甜食，我没有太多的意志力，所以我主要是尽量不让垃圾食品进入我的家。

I have one big shot of espresso immediately when I wake up and one after lunch. I assume this is about 200mg total of caffeine per day. I tried a few other configurations; this was the one that worked by far the best. I otherwise aggressively avoid stimulants, but I will have more coffee if I’m super tired and really need to get something done.

我醒来后立即喝一大杯浓缩咖啡，午餐后再喝一杯。我估计这大约是每天总共200毫克的咖啡因。我尝试了其他一些配置；到目前为止，这是最有效的。除此之外，我会积极避免兴奋剂，但如果我非常疲倦并且真的需要完成某些事情，我会喝更多的咖啡。

I’m vegetarian and have been since I was a kid, and I supplement methyl B-12, Omega-3, Iron, and Vitamin D-3. I got to this list with a year or so of quarterly blood tests; it’s worked for me ever since (I re-test maybe every year and a half or so). There are many doctors who will happily work with you on a super comprehensive blood test (and services like WellnessFX). I also go out of my way to drink a lot of protein shakes, which I hate and I wouldn’t do if I weren’t vegetarian.

我从小就是素食者，我会补充甲基B-12、Omega-3、铁和维生素D-3。我通过一年左右每季度进行一次的血液测试得到了这个列表；从那以后它就对我有效（我可能每一年半左右重新测试一次）。有许多医生会乐意与你合作进行非常全面的血液测试（以及像WellnessFX这样的服务）。我也特意喝很多我讨厌的蛋白质奶昔，如果我不是素食者，我是不会这么做的。

Other stuff/其他事项

Here’s what I like in a workspace: natural light, quiet, knowing that I won’t be interrupted if I don’t want to be, long blocks of time, and being comfortable and relaxed (I’ve got a beautiful desk with a couple of 4k monitors on it in my office, but I spend almost all my time on my couch with my laptop).

这是我在工作空间中喜欢的东西：自然光、安静、知道如果我不想被打扰就不会被打扰、长时间段、舒适和放松（我在办公室有一张漂亮的桌子，上面有几个4k显示器，但我几乎所有时间都是在沙发上用我的笔记本电脑）。

I wrote custom software for the annoying things I have to do frequently, which is great. I also made an effort to learn to type really fast and the keyboard shortcuts that help with my workflow.

我为那些我经常不得不做的烦人事情编写了自定义软件，这很棒。我还努力学习快速打字和有助于我的工作流程的键盘快捷键。

Like most people, I sometimes go through periods of a week or two where I just have no motivation to do anything (I suspect it may have something to do with nutrition). This sucks and always seems to happen at inconvenient times. I have not figured out what to do about it besides wait for the fog to lift, and to trust that eventually it always does. And I generally try to avoid people and situations that put me in bad moods, which is good advice whether you care about productivity or not.

像大多数人一样，我有时会经历一两周的时间，我根本没有动力去做任何事情（我怀疑这可能与营养有关）。这很糟糕，而且总是在不方便的时候发生。除了等待迷雾散去，并相信它最终总会散去外，我还没有弄清楚该怎么做。而且，我通常尽量避免让我心情不好的人和情况，无论你是否关心生产力，这都是一个好建议。

In general, I think it’s good to overcommit a little bit. I find that I generally get done what I take on, and if I have a little bit too much to do it makes me more efficient at everything, which is a way to train to avoid distractions (a great habit to build!). However, overcommitting a lot is disastrous.

总的来说，我认为稍微过度承诺一点是好的。我发现我通常能完成我承担的任务，如果我有一点太多事情要做，它会让我在所有事情上变得更高效，这是一种避免分心的训练方式（一个很好建立的习惯！）。然而，过度承诺太多是灾难性的。

Don’t neglect your family and friends for the sake of productivity—that’s a very stupid tradeoff (and very likely a net productivity loss, because you’ll be less happy). Don’t neglect doing things you love or that clear your head either.

不要为了提高生产力而忽视你的家人和朋友——这是一个非常愚蠢的权衡（而且很可能是净生产力的损失，因为你会不那么快乐）。也不要忽视做你爱做的事情或能让你头脑清晰的事情。

Finally, to repeat one more time: productivity in the wrong direction isn’t worth anything at all. Think more about what to work on.

最后，再重复一遍：错误方向上的生产力根本毫无价值。多考虑一下要做什么工作。

作者声明本文无利益相关，欢迎值友理性交流，和谐讨论～