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If you were to examine the birth certificates of every soccer player in 2006's World Cup tournament, you would most likely find a noteworthy quirk:
如果你打算在 2006 年世界杯錦標賽上調查所有足球運動員的出生證明，那么你很有可能發現一個引人注目的巧合：
elite soccer players are more likely to have been born in the earlier months of the year than in the later months.
優秀足球運動員更可能出生于每年的前幾個月而不是后幾個月。
If you then examined the European national youth teams that feed the World Cup and professional ranks, you would find this strange phenomenon to be even more pronounced.
如果你接著調查世界杯和職業比賽的歐洲國家青年隊的話，那么你會發現這一奇怪的現象甚至更明顯。
What might account for this strange phenomenon?
什么可以解釋這一奇怪的現象呢？
Here are a few guesses: a) certain astrological signs confer superior soccer skills;
下面是一些猜測：a）某種占星術征兆使人具備更高的足球技能；
b) winter-born babies tend to have higher oxygen capacity, which increases soccer stamina;
b）冬季出生的嬰兒往往具有更高的供氧能力，這增加了踢足球的持久力；
c) soccer-mad parents are more likely to conceive children in springtime, at the annual peak of soccer mania;
c）熱愛足球的父母更可能在春季（每年足球狂熱的鼎盛時期）懷孕；
d) none of the above.
d）以上各項都不是。
Anders Ericsson, a 58-year-old psychology professor at Florida State University, says he believes strongly in “none of the above.”
58歲的安德斯·埃里克森是佛羅里達州立大學的一名心理學教授，他堅信"以上各項都不是"這一猜測。
Ericsson grew up in Sweden, and studied nuclear engineering until he realized he would have more opportunity to conduct his own research if he switched to psychology.
在瑞典長大的埃里克森，一直研究核工程，直到他認識到，如果他轉向心理學領域，他將會有更多機會從事自己的研究。
His first experiment, nearly 30 years ago, involved memory:
他的首次試驗是在大約30年以前進行的，與記憶相關：
training a person to hear and then repeat a random series of numbers.
訓練一個人先聽一組任意挑選的數字，然后復述這些數字。
“With the first subject, after about 20 hours of training, his digit span had risen from 7 to 20,” Ericsson recalls.
"在經過大約 20小時的訓練之后，第一個試驗對象（復述）的數字跨度從 7個上升到 20個，" 埃里克森回憶說。
“He kept improving, and after about 200 hours of training he had risen to over 80 numbers.”
"該試驗對象不斷進步，在接受大約 200個小時的訓練后，他復述的數字已經達到 80多個。"
This success, coupled with later research showing that memory itself is not genetically determined, led Ericsson to conclude that the act of memorizing is more of a cognitive exercise than an intuitive one.
這一成功，連同后來證明的記憶本身不是遺傳決定的研究，使得埃里克森得出結論，即記憶過程是一種認知練習，而不是一種本能練習。
In other words, whatever inborn differences two people may exhibit in their abilities to memorize, those differences are swamped by how well each person “encodes” the information.
換句話說，無論兩個人在記憶力能力上可能存在怎樣的天生差異，這些差異都會被每個人如何恰當地"解讀"所記的信息所掩蓋。
And the best way to learn how to encode information meaningfully, Ericsson determined, was a process known as deliberate practice.
埃里克森確信，了解如何有目的地解讀信息的最佳方法就是一個為人所知的有意練習過程。
Deliberate practice entails more than simply repeating a task.
有意練習需要的不僅僅是簡單地重復一個任務。
Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.
相反，它包括確定明確的目標、獲得即時的反饋以及技術與結果的濃縮。
Ericsson and his colleagues have thus taken to studying expert performers in a wide range of pursuits, including soccer.
因此，埃里克森和他的同事開始研究包括足球領域在內的廣泛領域中專業執行者。
They gather all the data they can, not just performance statistics and biographical details but also the results of their own laboratory experiments with high achievers.
他們收集了能夠收集的所有資料，不只是表現方面的統計數據和傳記詳細資料，還包括他們自己對取得很高成就的人員進行的實驗室實驗結果。
Their work makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated.
他們的研究得出了一個非常令人驚奇的結論--我們通常稱為天分的特征被高估了。
Or, put another way, expert performers - whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming - are nearly always made, not born.
或者，換句話說，專業執行者――無論是在記憶還是手術方面，在芭蕾還是計算機編程領域――幾乎總是培養的，而不是天生的。
