Metadata
original_title: The Surprising Power of The Long Game
source: https://fs.blog/long-game/
Notes
我经常想起一句老话，是我的朋友彼得·考夫曼传给我的：“如果你做其他人正在做的事情，那么你不应该对得到与其他人相同的结果感到惊讶。”除非你很幸运，否则做其他人所做的事情可以确保获得平均结果。问题是我们不希望得到与其他人相同的结果。我们想要不同的结果。不同的结果来自于做不同的事情或以不同的方式做事。
每一个动作都是朝着短局或长局迈出的一步。 你不能选择退出，也不能在所有事情上都进行长期博弈。你需要选择对你来说重要的事情。但在你所做的每一件事中，时间都会放大短期有效的策略和长期有效的策略之间的差异。
长时间的游戏可以让你获得复合结果。玩的时间越长，奖励就越大。需要考虑的问题是何时何地进行长期游戏。一个好的起点是复合事物：知识、关系和财务。
Origin
In a world where most people play the short game, playing the long game offers a huge advantage.
在大多数人都玩短游戏的世界里，玩长游戏提供了巨大的优势。
There is an old saying that I think of often, passed to me by my friend Peter Kaufman, “If you do what everyone else is doing, you shouldn’t be surprised to get the same results everyone else is getting.” Unless you’re lucky, doing what everyone else does ensures average results. The problem is we don’t want the same outcomes as everyone else. We want different outcomes. Different outcomes come from doing different things or doing things differently.
我经常想起一句老话，是我的朋友彼得·考夫曼传给我的：“如果你做其他人正在做的事情，那么你不应该对得到与其他人相同的结果感到惊讶。”除非你很幸运，否则做其他人所做的事情可以确保获得平均结果。问题是我们不希望得到与其他人相同的结果。我们想要不同的结果。不同的结果来自于做不同的事情或以不同的方式做事。
It’s easy to overestimate the importance of luck in success and underestimate the importance of investing in success every single day. Too often, we convince ourselves that success is just luck.
人们很容易高估运气对成功的重要性，而低估每天为成功进行投资的重要性。很多时候，我们说服自己成功只是运气。
We tell ourselves the school teacher that left millions was just lucky. No. She wasn’t. She was playing a different game than you were. She was playing the long game.
Here’s the thing about the long game: It’s simpler to win than the short game. Simple but not easy. It requires repeatedly doing hard things today that make tomorrow easier.
长局的特点是：比短局更容易获胜。简单但并不容易。它需要不断地做今天困难的事情，让明天变得更容易。
We play the short game because we lack patience. Everyone wants to win, but there is a difference between trying to win the moment and trying to win the decade. As I’ve said before, a lack of patience changes the outcome.
我们玩短游戏是因为我们缺乏耐心。每个人都想赢，但试图赢得当下和试图赢得十年之间是有区别的。正如我之前所说，缺乏耐心会改变结果。
The most successful people in any field all play the long game. The long game isn’t particularly notable. It doesn’t attract a lot of attention. In fact, from the outside, the long game looks boring. The tiny advantages that accrue aren’t noticed until success becomes too obvious to ignore.
任何领域最成功的人都在打持久战。漫长的比赛并不是特别引人注目。它并没有引起太多关注。事实上，从表面上看，这场漫长的比赛看起来很无聊。直到成功变得显而易见而不容忽视时，人们才会注意到所产生的微小优势。
The short game is intermittent. It’s as if Sisyphus pushes his huge boulder halfway up a steep hill, gets tired, lets it roll down the hill, and says to himself, “I’ll come back and do this tomorrow.” This is the human condition.
短游戏是间歇性的。这就好像西西弗斯把他的巨石推到陡峭的山坡上，累了，就让它滚下山，然后对自己说：“我明天再回来做这件事。”这就是人类的状况。
The Short Game 短游戏
Immediate and visible benefits seduce you into the short game. You win today but lose tomorrow. The short game is taking advantage of your counterparties. The short game is spending more than you earn. The short game is not sleeping as much as you need to. The short game is not investing in your relationships when you don’t need them.
立竿见影的好处会吸引您进入短游戏。你今天赢了，但明天就输了。空头游戏正在利用你的对手。短期游戏是花的比你赚的多。最短的游戏就是没有睡够你需要的时间。简而言之，当你不需要人际关系时，不要投资它们。
The longer you play the short game, the harder things get.
你玩短游戏的时间越长，事情就会变得越困难。
Just as the accumulation of tiny advantages makes the future easier, the accumulation of tiny disadvantages makes the future harder.
正如微小优势的积累会使未来变得更容易一样，微小劣势的积累也会使未来变得更加困难。
If you take advantage of people, they won’t want to work with you. If you follow a get-rich-quick scheme, you end up back at zero. If you over-charge your customers, they will leave. If you don’t invest in your relationship, you will come home to an empty house.
如果你利用别人，他们就不会愿意和你一起工作。如果你遵循快速致富的计划，你最终会回到零。如果你向顾客收取过高的费用，他们就会离开。如果你不投资于你们的关系，你回家时就会看到一座空房子。
I like to explain it to my kids like this: Think of playing pool. Your goal is to run the table. The short game sinks the first shot but doesn’t care where the ball goes next. You have the illusion of winning, but when you go to line up the next shot, you realize it’s harder than it needs to be.
我喜欢这样向我的孩子们解释：想想打台球。你的目标是跑桌子。短杆击球击中第一杆，但并不关心球接下来的去向。你有一种获胜的错觉，但当你准备下一次击球时，你意识到这比需要的更难。
Only when the costs become too large to ignore do people realize they played the wrong game.
只有当成本变得太大而无法忽视时，人们才会意识到他们玩错了游戏。
The Long Game 漫长的游戏
The long game is the opposite of the short game. You have to think about where the ball ends up next.
长游戏与短游戏相反。你必须考虑球接下来会去哪里。
From the outside, the long game looks pretty boring:
从表面上看，这场漫长的比赛看起来很无聊：
-
Leaving the party early to make sure you get some sleep
早点离开聚会以确保你能睡个好觉
-
Eating healthy when everyone else is eating junk
当其他人都在吃垃圾食品时保持健康饮食
-
Investing your relationships every day so you have a foundation when something happens
每天投资你的人际关系，这样当事情发生时你就有了基础
-
Going for a walk rather than watching Netflix
去散步而不是看 Netflix
-
Spending less than you make
花的钱比赚的少
… and countless other examples.
…以及无数其他例子。
The long game isn’t really debatable. Everyone knows; to get rich, we should spend less than we make and invest the difference and wait a long time. The formula isn’t debatable. It just requires patience. The lack of patience changes the outcome.
长期游戏其实没有什么争议。大家都知道；为了致富，我们应该花得比赚的少，然后用差额进行投资，并等待很长时间。这个公式是没有争议的。只是需要耐心。缺乏耐心会改变结果。
The first step in the long game is the hardest. You have to be willing to suffer a little today in order to make tomorrow just a little bit easier. And you have to be smart enough to know that just because you can’t see the tiny advantage you created doesn’t mean it’s not there.
长期游戏中的第一步是最困难的。 你必须愿意今天承受一点痛苦，才能让明天变得更容易一点。你必须足够聪明才能知道，仅仅因为你看不到你创造的微小优势并不意味着它不存在。
Conclusion 结论
Every action is a step toward the short game or the long game. You can’t opt out, and you can’t play a long-term game in everything. You need to pick what matters to you. But in everything you do, time amplifies the difference between strategies that work in the short term and ones that work in the long term.
每一个动作都是朝着短局或长局迈出的一步。 你不能选择退出，也不能在所有事情上都进行长期博弈。你需要选择对你来说重要的事情。但在你所做的每一件事中，时间都会放大短期有效的策略和长期有效的策略之间的差异。
The long game allows you to compound results. The longer you play, the bigger the rewards. The question to think about is when and where to play a long-term game. A good place to start is with things that compound: knowledge, relationships, and finances.
长时间的游戏可以让你获得复合结果。玩的时间越长，奖励就越大。需要考虑的问题是何时何地进行长期游戏。一个好的起点是复合事物：知识、关系和财务。
This article is an expansion of something I originally touched on here.
这篇文章是我最初在这里提到的内容的扩展。