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.
我最近一直在想这个问题：什么是我们需要的最重要的技能呢？在现代社会中我们最需要的是什么技能？要想回答这个问题，我们要先来分析一下现代社会的特性。
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.
你会用什么样的词语来形容现在这个世界？我想到的是“改变和速度”这两个词。世界一直在改变，而且是快速改变。
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.
既然我们生活在这样一个快速改变的世界里，我以前就认为最重要的技能是“快速学习”，因为我们只有快速地学习才能与时俱进，不管发生了什么样的新变化，我们都能很快适应。
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.
后来我发现光是有快速学习的能力还不够。这个世界变化得太快了，即使有快速学习的能力也跟不上变化的脚步。因此就需要另一项能力：“选择学什么”的能力。这样，我们就不会浪费时间去学习那些没用的东西。我们只去学那些对我们来说很有效用的东西。需要学习的新东西太多了，选择就变得越来越困难。所以，“选择学什么”的能力对我们来说就至关重要了，因为它不仅可以节省我们的时间，更有利于我们整个职业生涯的发展。
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.
