考試與工作脫節

It's tempting to conclude that the exam system is wrong to inflict such pain for so little gain. It is not as if we remember the facts that we stuffed into our heads at the very last minute. On the evening of my finals, I could probably have told you about Wittgenstein's view on the indeterminacy of translation but now all I can recall is the picture that was a duck one minute and a rabbit the next.
我們很容易得出這樣一個結論：考試製度造成如此大的痛苦，但換來的收穫如此之少，證明這種制度存在問題。我們根本記不住在最後一分鐘硬塞進腦子裏的那些事實。在期末考試前一天晚上，我或許還能夠告訴你維特根斯坦(Wittgenstein)有關翻譯不準確性的看法，但現在，我只記得起那幅上一分鐘還是鴨子，下一分鐘卻變成兔子的圖片。

Yet that isn't why it's all a waste. Even though I've forgotten what I learnt, I am still proud to have once known it. This seems a less shameful state of ignorance than never having known it at all.
不過，這並不是考試製度一無是處的原因所在。儘管我曾學過的東西都忘記了，但我還是以曾經知道爲傲。與從來不知道相比，這種無知狀態似乎不那麼可恥。

The real problem with the exam system is that it teaches lessons about work itself that you need to unlearn pretty smartly if you want to get ahead in business.
考試製度的真正問題在於，它教授了一些關於工作本身的錯誤知識，如果你想在商界中獲得成功，你就必須很快忘卻這些東西。

First, it teaches you that there is a fairly straightforward relationship between effort and result. In exams, if you work very, very hard in the evenings you are going to do an awful lot better than if you spend your evenings in the pub. In most office life, this is not true. The relationship between effort and reward is much more complicated.
首先，它灌輸給你一個概念，即付出與成績是完全對等的。就考試而言，如果你每天晚上都非常、非常認真地複習，而不是泡在酒吧裏，那麼你的成績就會好很多。但在大多數辦公室生活中，情況並非如此。付出與回報之間的關係要複雜得多。Second, in an exam there is nowhere to hide. If you fail you may try to pin the blame on your teachers or the examiner, but in your heart you know there is no one else to blame but yourself. You either weren't bright enough, or you didn't work hard enough.
其次，在考試中，你無處可躲。如果你沒通過，你可能會試圖怪罪於你的老師或考官，但內心深處，你知道這件事不怪任何人，只能怪你自己。你不是不夠聰明，就是不夠努力。

One of the beauties of office work is that there is no shortage of candidates to blame for one's failures. Management, the market, the culture, one's colleagues, the competitors, an IT failure; the options are endless. You can screw something up royally and get away with it indefinitely. Indeed, so long as you are quite senior you can bring the entire banking system down and still get a big bonus.
工作的一個好處在於，你永遠可以將你的失敗歸咎於其它因素：管理、市場、文化、你的同事、競爭對手、一個IT故障；選項無窮無盡。即使你把事情弄得一團糟，也能永遠避開懲罰。實際上，只要你職位夠高，就算你把整個銀行系統都搞垮，還是可以收到鉅額獎金。