異類之不一樣的成功啟示錄 第159期:數(shù)學(xué)能力高低的因素

That's how we think about math.We assume that being good at things like calculus and algebra is a simple function of how smart you are.

也揭示了我們對數(shù)學(xué)的看法。我們假設(shè)，依據(jù)微積分和代數(shù)成績就可以辨別一個人是否足夠聰明。

But looking at the differences in number systems between east and west suggests something very different that being good at math may also be something rooted in a group's culture.

但中西方在數(shù)學(xué)體系上的不同也揭示了其他方面的不同，或許在數(shù)學(xué)上的卓越能力是源于其所處群體的文化。

In the case of the Koreans, one kind of deeply rooted legacy stood in the way of the very modern task of flying an airplane.

歷史沿襲下來的文化禮節(jié)是造成韓國飛機(jī)失事的重要因素

Here we have another kind of legacy, one that turns out to be perfectly suited for twenty-first-century tasks.

當(dāng)然，也有一些社會歷史文化傳統(tǒng)為實(shí)現(xiàn)21世紀(jì)的社會大業(yè)推波助瀾。

Cultural legacies matter, and once you've seen the surprising effect of things like power distance, and numbers that can be said in a quarter as opposed to a third of a second,

正如我們在以上事例中看到的那樣，文化傳承的重要性，體現(xiàn)為權(quán)力距離指數(shù)上的重要差別，這種差別不僅是三維度或者兩個維度，而是四個維度上的差別，

it's hard not to wonder how many other cultural legacies are there that have an impact on twenty-first-century intellectual tasks.

我們不能理解，還有很多社會歷史傳統(tǒng)會對21世紀(jì)的科研任務(wù)有所影響。

What if coming from a culture shapes by the demands of growing rice also makes you better at math?

是不是在一種以糧食為主導(dǎo)的文化背景下，你的數(shù)學(xué)能力就一定會很好？

Could the rice paddy make a difference in the classroom?

稻田是否會對課堂上的成績產(chǎn)生影響？

The most striking fact about rice paddy, which you never quite grasp until you actually stand in the middle of one, is its size.It's tiny.

如果你想了解水稻，你就一定要了解一下它的面積。水稻的面積小到讓人意想不到，

A mu, which roughly corresponds to the size of a typical rice paddy, is one fifteenth of a hectare.That's about as big as a hotel room.

如果你不是親自站在田里，你不會想到一畝地也就是酒店里一間房間的大小，只有一公頃的十五分之一。

A typical Asian rice farm is two or three mu.

一名亞洲的農(nóng)民一般也就能耕種2～3畝地，

A village in China of 1,500 people might support itself entirely with 450 acres of land, which in the American Midwest would be a size of a typical family farm.

如果有一塊450英畝的土地，在中國，這需要村子里的1500人去耕種。但是如果在美國中西部，這只是一家農(nóng)民耕種的面積。

At that scale, with families of five and six people, living off a farm the size of two hotel rooms, agriculture changes dramatically.

按照這樣的比例，通常，一個農(nóng)民家庭中的五六個人就依靠著兩個酒店房間大小的土地來謀生。

Historically, western agriculture has been "mechanically" oriented.

農(nóng)業(yè)的差別非常大，從歷史的角度看，西方農(nóng)業(yè)是屬于“機(jī)械化作業(yè)”。

In the west, if the farmer wanted to be more and more efficient or increase his yield, he introduced more and more sophisticated equipment,

在西方，如果一個農(nóng)民想變得更有效率并且能夠增加產(chǎn)量，他就必須要引進(jìn)更多精密的農(nóng)業(yè)設(shè)備，

which allowed him to replace human labor with mechanical labor: a threshing machine, a hay baler, a combine harvester, a tractor.

如打谷機(jī)、稻草打捆機(jī)、混合收割機(jī)、拖拉機(jī)，這樣他就可以用機(jī)械操作代替更多的人力，從而開發(fā)更多的土地并且增加耕種面積。