I’m thinking about this question lately: what is the most important skill we need to have? What kind of skill do we need most in this kind of world? To answer it, I guess we need to see what the main characteristicof our world is.

我最近一直在想這個問題：什么是我們需要的最重要的技能呢？在現代社會中我們最需要的是什么技能？要想回答這個問題，我們要先來分析一下現代社會的特性。

What words will you use to describe this world? For me, there are two words which come to my mind: changeand speed. The world is changing and it is changing at increasing speed.

你會用什么樣的詞語來形容現在這個世界？我想到的是“改變和速度”這兩個詞。世界一直在改變，而且是快速改變。

Since we are now living in that kind of world, I once thought that the most important skill is the ability to learn quickly. Of course it contains truth: to be able to keep up with this world we need to learn quickly. This way we can quickly adapt to new changes whenever they occur.

既然我們生活在這樣一個快速改變的世界里，我以前就認為最重要的技能是“快速學習”，因為我們只有快速地學習才能與時俱進，不管發生了什么樣的新變化，我們都能很快適應。

But later I thought that the ability to learn quickly alone is not enough. The world is changing so fast that even those who can learn quickly may not be able to keep up. There’s one more thing required: the ability to choose what to learn. This way we won’t waste our time learning something which is not useful. We learn only those things which are the most effectivefor us. The number of new things to learn is huge that choosing which one to learn becomes increasingly difficult. Mastering the art of choosing what to learn is valuablebecause it will save our time – not to say our entire career.

后來我發現光是有快速學習的能力還不夠。這個世界變化得太快了，即使有快速學習的能力也跟不上變化的腳步。因此就需要另一項能力：“選擇學什么”的能力。這樣，我們就不會浪費時間去學習那些沒用的東西。我們只去學那些對我們來說最有效用的東西。需要學習的新東西太多了，選擇就變得越來越困難。所以，“選擇學什么”的能力對我們來說就至關重要了，因為它不僅可以節省我們的時間，更有利于我們整個職業生涯的發展。

So to summarize, I think this is the most important skill we need to have: the ability to choose what to learn and to learn them quickly. If we master this skill, we will be ready to face whatever new wavescoming in our way.

小結一下，我認為我們需要的最重要的能力就是：選擇學什么和快速學習的能力。如果我們掌握了這個能力，我們就能從容面對前行路上將會遇到的各種挑戰。