都说兴趣是最好的老师，遗憾的是，不是所有人都能随心所欲地只接触自己感兴趣的领域，我们总是免不了要面对一些自己并不怎么感兴趣的事情。那么，怎样专注于自己不感兴趣的领域呢?
身为典型的“数学恐惧症患者”(prototypical mathphobe，注：phobe是名词，意思是“恐惧”)却最终成为一名工程学教授的作者给了我们一些思路。
原文
The young version of me would have been shocked to learn that I would eventually become a professor of engineering, enchanted with mathematics and comfortable in the world of technology. As I’ve discovered from both personal experience and research, it is possible to learn to like — even to grow to love — subject areas that look boring or that you once loathed. In today’s fast-changing business environment, the ability to develop new passions is particularly important.
年轻时的我如果知道自己最终会成为一名工程学教授，痴迷数学，在科技世界里如鱼得水，一定会很吃惊。正如我从自己的个人经历和研究中发现的那样，我们完全可能学会去喜欢——甚至慢慢爱上---那些看起来很无聊或是你曾经痛恨的领域。在今天这个瞬息万变的商业环境下，培养新的热情的能力尤为重要。
eventually 最终;最后
be enchanted with 痴迷，为…而陶醉
loathe 憎恨
这位工程师教授提供了一些方法。
02.第一、首先要有动机
原文
Find a seed of motivation. The first step in building passion for a subject you don’t like is to identify a reason to learn it. One of the best motivators is wishing to make an improvement in your life. Wanting a lifestyle upgrade allows you to make a mental contrast between where you are now (say, in a job as an office assistant) and where you want to be (say, a certified public accountant).
找到动力的种子。培养一个你不喜欢的学科的激情的第一步是找出一个学习它的理由。最好的动力之一是希望自己的生活得到改进。想要一种生活方式的升级，这使得我们在当前的处境(比如在办公室当助理)和想要的状态(比如注册会计师)之间进行心理对比。
motivation 动机;动力
identify 识别;找到
accountant 会计师
03.第二、别怕苦，别拖延
原文
Overcome the pain in the brain. When we even think about something we don’t like or want, it can activate a portion of the brain — the bilateral dorsal posterior insula — that is involved in our experience of pain. This means, for example, that thinking about math if you don’t like math (or studying English if you don’t like English) can actually feel physically painful. The result can be that your brain diverts your attention away from whatever sparked the pain. In other words, you procrastinate.
克服脑中的疼痛。当我们想到一些我们不喜欢或不想要的东西时，它可以激活大脑中的一部分——双侧背后脑岛，这与我们的痛苦经历有关。这意味着，如果你不喜欢数学(或者不喜欢英语的情况下学习英语)，那么思考数学就会让人感到身体上的疼痛。结果可能是，你的大脑将把你的注意力从任何能引发疼痛的事物上转移。换句话说，你就开始拖延了。
activate v. 刺激，激活
spark 引发
divert one’s attention away from sth. 将注意力从…中转移
procrastinate v. 拖延，耽搁
而克服拖延症(overcome procrastination)的方法是什么呢?
作者提到了Francesco Cirillo提出的番茄工作法(Pomodoro technique)，具体步骤是：
1. Turn off all distractions 屏蔽所有的干扰项目
2. Set a timer for 25 minutes. 将计时器设置为25分钟
3. Focus intently for those 25 minutes. 在这25分钟内全神贯注
4. Reward yourself for at least five minutes when you’re done (music, talking with a friend, getting coffee). 结束后奖励自己至少五分钟的时间(听音乐、和朋友交谈、喝一杯咖啡等)
04.五分钟的休息时间也是至关重要的
原文
Those little breaks help the brain consolidate material, which would have allowed me to build my understanding while minimizing frustration.
这些片刻的休息时间帮助大脑巩固掌握的材料，这使得我建立起理解能力，最大程度地减少沮丧感。
consolidate v. 巩固
minimize v. 使…最小化
05.第三、别被挫折打倒
原文
Realize it’s perfectly normal to not understand something on your first try. People often don’t realize that the brain has two quite different ways of experiencing the world. The first one occurs while focusing on a topic, which activates what psychologists call task-positive networks. The second way occurs when we’re not focusing on anything in particular. Most people need to go back and forth between focused and diffuse modes in order to learn a topic. When you can’t solve something in the first focus, you’re not stupid — you just need to allow time to toggle to the diffuse mode. This second mode gives your brain a chance to consolidate and consider the material from a different perspective.
我们要意识到在第一次尝试中不理解某事是完全正常的。人们通常没有意识到大脑有两种完全不同的体验世界的方式。第一种发生在关注一个话题的时候，这激活了心理学家称之为“任务积极网络”的模式。第二种发生在我们没有专注于任何特定事物的时候。为了解一个话题，大多数人需要在集中和分散两种模式间来回切换。当你不能在第一个模式解决问题时，你并非愚蠢——你只需要时间切换到分散模式。第二种模式让你的大脑有机会从不同的角度来巩固和考虑材料。
toggle to 切换到
diffuse 分散的
06
原文
No one would ever sing a song just one time and think it had been truly mastered. Developing expertise involves easy recall of and automaticity with key concepts and tools.
The bigger your collection of neural chunks related to solving different problems, the greater your expertise. And the greater your expertise, the more you will like what you’re learning.
没有人能够只唱一次就觉得自己真的掌握了一首歌。培养一项专业技能涉及到对关键概念和工具的轻松回忆和自动化。
积累的关于解决不同问题的神经模块越大，你的专业知识也会越渊博，而专业知识越渊博，你就会越喜欢所学的事情。
expertise 专业技能
recall 回忆
