在实现职业目标的道路上，我得到了七个教训

原标题：Seven Things I Learned on the Way to Not Achieving My Career Goal

by 沈向洋（
Harry Shum） > Eng <、> Chn <

When I graduated with my PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon, I had a career goal—to become a computer science professor. I would help shape young minds and contribute world-class research to the field.

当我从卡内基梅隆大学获得机器人学博士学位时，我的职业目标是成为一名计算机科学教授。我将帮助塑造年轻人的思想，并为该领域贡献世界级的研究成果。

I aspired to emulate my professors, like Raj Reddy, who delivered some of the greatest lessons of my life. It was all set. I’d follow the path to tenured professor in about ten years.

我渴望效仿我的教授，比如 Raj Reddy（雷伊·雷蒂），他给我上了人生中最重要的一些课。一切都安排好了。我将在十年后成为一名终身教授。

But that didn’t happen.

但这并没有发生。

I made a series of choices that took me away from that goal. I don’t think I realized it, but with hindsight and experience, I can see that I was driven by another force.

我做了一系列选择，使我偏离了那个目标。我觉得，我没有意识到这一点，但事后看来，我发现，我被另一股力量驱使着。

Years ago, the mathematician Richard Hamming gave a speech, You and Your Research, that stuck with me. He asked: “What are the most important problems of your field? If what you are doing is not important, and if you don’t think it is going to lead to something important, why are you even working on it?”

几年前，数学家 Richard Hamming（理查德·汉明）发表了一篇演讲——《You and Your Research》（你和你的研究），让我印象深刻。他问道：「你所在领域最重要的问题是什么？如果你正在做的事情并不重要，如果你认为它不会取得什么重要的成果，那你为什么还要做呢?」

Many of us think about a specific career goal—to be a manager, to be a VP, and on and on. But instead of asking “What do I want?” perhaps we should ask, “What does my field need?”

我们很多人都有明确的职业目标——成为一名经理，成为一名副总裁，等等。相较于「我想要什么?」也许我们应该问:「我的领域需要什么?」

If we do, Hamming’s suggestion to follow the most imperative problems could lead us to where we’re supposed to be.

如果我们这样做了，Hamming（汉明）提出的、紧跟最迫切的问题的建议，可能会把我们带到我们应该去的地方。

Here are seven lessons I’ve learned in (perhaps unknowing) pursuit of this philosophy.

以下是我在追求这种哲学的过程中（或许是在不知情的情况下）得到的七个教训。

Lesson #1: You can’t do everything.

1 你不能什么都做

Straight out of school, I decided to become employee #4 at a start-up working on virtual reality, then a technology far ahead of its time.

一出校门，我就决定成为一家致力于 VR（虚拟现实）技术的初创企业的第 4 号员工，当时，VR 是一项远远超前于时代的技术。

At a start-up, you have to do everything and that’s still not enough. At the time, I had a newborn. I quickly realized that two things are mutually exclusive: having a baby and doing a startup. I chose the baby!

在一个创业公司，你必须做所有的事情，但这仍然不够。那时，我有了一个孩子。我很快意识到：照顾孩子和创业是无法兼顾的。我选择了孩子！

For the first time, I realized that my time and energy weren’t endless. You can’t do everything at once.

我第一次意识到，我的时间和精力并不是无穷无尽的。你不能同时做所有的事情。

Lesson #2: Before you go broad, go deep.

2 要想走得宽广，先要走得深入

I joined Microsoft Research (MSR) when it was just getting started. Somehow, I knew it would be a place that would break new ground.

我加入微软研究院（MSR）时，它才刚刚起步。不知怎的，我认为这将是一个开辟新天地的地方。

I met so many extraordinary people like Rick Szeliski, who taught me the importance of really digging into fundamental problems like motion estimation in computer vision. I learned when you take something on, own it, write about it in a compelling way that changes minds, and do it really, really well, it will lead to something bigger. He was right.

我遇到了很多杰出的人，比如 Rick Szeliski（里克·赛利斯基），他们教会了我真正深入挖掘计算机视觉中运动估计等基本问题的重要性。我学到了，当你接受一些东西，理解它，用令人信服的方式书写它，并且把它做得真的非常好，你将会取得更大的进步。他是对的。

Together with Rick, I wrote a lot, including one influential paper in 1997, titled “Creating full view panoramic image mosaics and environment maps.” Today when you take a panorama with your cell phone, you’re probably using our algorithms!

我和 Rick 一起，写了很多东西，包括 1997 年一篇很有影响力的论文，题目是「创建全景图像马赛克和环境地图」（Creating full view panoramic image mosaics and environment maps）。今天，当你用手机拍摄全景照片时，你可能正在使用我们的算法！

The more you seek imperative problems and solve the tough challenges, the more you put yourself on the path to leadership. Become an expert in something and really make your mark—then branch out.

你越是寻求迫切的问题、解决艰难的挑战，你就越能走上领导的道路。成为某方面的专家，真正做出自己的成绩，然后拓展业务。

Lesson #3: Storytelling matters—even for engineers!

3 讲故事很重要，即使对工程师来说也是如此

In research, business, and life, how you communicate your ideas may be even more important than the work itself.

在研究、商业和生活中，你如何传达自己的想法可能比工作本身更重要。

I learned this from SIGGRAPH—the TED of the computer graphics and interactive techniques field. Over a decade, SIGGRAPH taught me new standards of quality through the high bar set for presentations.

这是我从 SIGGRAPH（计算机图形学与交互技术领域的 TED）中学到的一点。十多年来，SIGGRAPH 通过高标准的演示文稿教会了我新的质量标准。

Even as engineers giving technical presentations, you need stories to explain your ideas to peers, to inspire people to contribute and advance your work. The best work is nothing if people don’t believe in it.

即使是工程师做技术报告，你也需要故事来向同行解释你的想法，激励人们为你的工作做出贡献，推进你的工作。如果没有人相信，即使你做的工作再好，它也什么都不是。

Lesson #4: You get what you measure.

4 你的定位是什么，就会得到什么

I had decided to take the position as director of the new MSR lab in Beijing—and over four years, I truly found out what it means to be #1, the person in charge.

在北京担任微软亚洲研究院院长的四年多时间里，我真正明白了，作为第一负责人意味着什么。

When we set out, we didn’t know what success would look like for an industrial lab for a multinational company in China—we were a first! We developed three goals: (1) advance the field of computer science, (2) contribute technology to Microsoft’s products, and (3) benefit Chinese academia and local industry.

当我们出发的时候，我们不知道一个跨国公司在中国的工业实验室会取得怎样的成功——我们是第一家！我们定了三个目标：（1）推进计算机科学领域；（2）为微软的产品贡献技术；（3）使中国学术界和本土产业受益。

And we worked tirelessly to achieve those goals. Defining success metrics early on really put the lab on the map. My colleagues in China would turn MSR Asia into one of the leading labs in the world. Define your goals wisely.

我们为实现这些目标不懈努力。在早期定义成功的度量标准，确实能让实验室出名。我在中国的同事们将把微软亚洲研究院变成世界领先的实验室之一。明确地定义你的目标。

Lesson #5: Control the controllable, observe the observable, and leave the rest alone.

5 控制可控制的，观察可观察的，不去管其他的

I was asked to return to the U.S. and join Bing, a new effort for Microsoft at the time, as VP of Product Development, although I had little engineering experience in program management, testing or development. I had to relearn the basics: how to survive, learn quickly and add value.

尽管我在项目管理、测试或开发方面几乎没有工程经验，但我还是被要求回到美国，加入微软当时的新项目 Bing，担任产品开发副总裁。我必须重新学习最基本的东西：如何生存、快速学习和增加价值。

I figured out that solving the most important problems in Bing required deep research knowledge: machine learning for search quality and distributed systems for search infrastructure, to just a couple! So I went back to MSR to recruit over 50 people.

我发现解决 Bing 中最重要的问题需要深入的研究知识: 搜索质量的机器学习和搜索基础设施的分布式系统，而我们只有几个人！所以我回到微软研究院（MSR），招募了 50 多人。

There was tremendous pressure on our inexperienced team to compete with Google. We had to persevere through the hardest of times, and we disagreed a lot. During this time, I developed a saying: “Control the controllable, observe the observable, and leave the rest alone.” People get agitated too quickly by things that are not working, or they push against things that are too difficult to change. You must first look at what’s happening around you. If you can’t step back and observe the big picture, there’s not much else you can do.

我们这支缺乏经验的队伍在与谷歌的竞争中承受着巨大的压力。我们必须在最困难的时候坚持下去，但是我们意见不一致。在这段时间里，我总结了一句话：「控制可控的，观察可观察的，不去管其他的。」人们太容易被那些没有意义的事情弄得焦躁不安，或者他们会抵触那些很难改变的事情。你必须先看看你周围发生了什么。如果你不能退一步观察全局，那么你也就无能为力了。

Lesson #6: Think of your career as a series of projects.

6 把你的职业生涯想像成一系列的项目

I met Jim Gray, a Turing Award winner and great technical leader, at MSR.

我在微软研究院遇到了 Jim Gray（吉姆·格雷），他是图灵奖得主和伟大的技术领袖。

I once asked Jim, “You worked in MSR, and in SQL. It seemed like you never worried about whether you were on a product team or research team.”

我曾经问过 Jim，「你在 MSR 工作过，也在 SQL 工作过。你似乎从不担心自己是在产品团队还是研究团队。」

Jim’s response was that you shouldn’t define your career by your title or discipline—he said that “I follow projects where I can make an impact.” He wasn’t worried about whether it was product or research.

Jim 的回答是，你不应该用头衔或学科来定义你的职业生涯，他说：「我关注那些我能产生影响的项目。」他并不担心是产品还是研究。

Instead, he wanted to think about the kinds of interesting projects you can work on, the hard problems where a team can come together to solve something big. Don’t get caught up in categories. Instead, dive in.

相反，他会思考，有哪些有趣的项目可以参与，有哪些大的难题可以由团队一起解决。不要被类别所束缚。相反，你应该投入其中。

Lesson #7: Always walk in the middle of the road.

7 秉承中庸之道

Wherever you are on your career path, you’ll do a lot—you’ll make decisions, you’ll code, you’ll create, you’ll achieve. But more than doing, be. Who will you be? What will you be known for because of who you are?

无论你在职业生涯的哪个阶段，你都会做很多事情——你会做决定，你会写代码，你会创造，你会实现目标。但不仅仅是做，比这更重要的是，你会是谁? 你会因为什么而为人所知?

Long ago, as a young Chinese student, I was introduced to Confucius’ teaching: the doctrine of the golden mean. The Chinese is actually written as 中庸之道, which literally is about walking in the middle of the road and keeping your direction.

很久以前，当我还是一名年轻的中国学生的时候，我初次受到孔子的教导：中庸之道。中庸之道的字面意思是，走在路中间，并坚持你的方向。

To me, the essence of what Confucius taught was about listening, with balance, to both sides, being thoughtful and respectful. People can be extreme without knowing if their extreme position is right.

在我看来，孔子教导的精髓是倾听、平衡、不偏不倚、有思想、恭敬。人们可能会在不知道自己的极端立场是否正确的情况下走极端。

As you walk the middle, don’t burn bridges. You never know which one of your peers will become your next boss, which of your interns will go on to create the next unicorn.

当你走在中间时，不要过河拆桥。你永远不知道你的哪个同事会成为你的下一任老板，你的哪个实习生会接着创造下一个独角兽。

Be generous, be open, be kind.

要慷慨、开放、善良。

You never know what’s on the horizon. And maybe one day down the road, I’ll be an even better professor.

你永远不知道将会发生什么。也许有一天，我会成为一名更好的教授。