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English to Indonesian: Deep Work General field: Social Sciences Detailed field: Management
Source text - English Benn is a smart guy. He graduated from an elite college (the University of Virginia) with a degree in economics, and like many in his situation he had ambitions for his career. It didn’t take him long to realize that these ambitions would be thwarted so long as his main professional skills could be cap‐ tured in an Excel macro. He decided, therefore, he needed to increase his value to the world. After a period of research, Benn reached a conclusion: He would, he declared to his family, quit his job as a human spreadsheet and become a computer programmer. As is often the case with such grand plans, however, there was a hitch: Jason Benn had no idea how to write code.
As a computer scientist I can confirm an obvious point: Programming computers is hard. Most new developers dedicate a four‐year college education to learning the ropes before their first job—and even then, competition for the best spots is fierce. Jason Benn didn’t have this time. After his Excel epiphany, he quit his job at the financial firm and moved home to prepare for his next step. His parents were happy he had a plan, but they weren’t happy about the idea that this return home might be long‐term. Benn needed to learn a hard skill, and needed to do so fast.
It’s here that Benn ran into the same problem that holds back many knowledge workers from navigating into more explosive career trajectories. Learning something complex like computer programming requires intense uninterrupted concentration on cognitively demanding concepts—the type of concentration that drove Carl Jung to the woods sur‐ rounding Lake Zurich. This task, in other words, is an act of deep work. Most knowledge workers, however, as I argued earlier in this introduction, have lost their ability to perform deep work. Benn was no exception to this trend.
“I was always getting on the Internet and checking my e‐mail; I couldn’t stop myself; it was a compulsion,” Benn said, describing himself during the period leading up to his quitting his finance job. To emphasize his difficulty with depth, Benn told me about a project that a supervisor at the finance firm once brought to him. “They wanted me to write a business plan,” he explained. Benn didn’t know how to write a business plan, so he decided he would find and read five different existing plans—comparing and contrasting them to understand what was needed. This was a good idea, but Benn had a problem: “I couldn’t stay focused.” There were days during this period, he now admits, when he spent almost every minute (“98 percent of my time”) surfing the Web. The business plan project—a chance to distinguish himself early in his career—fell to the wayside.
Translation - Indonesian Benn pria yang cerdas. Ia lulus dari perguruan tinggi elite (Universitas Virginia) dengan gelar di bidang ekonomi, dan seperti banyak orang dengan situasi serupa, ia memiliki ambisi dalam berkarier. Tak butuh waktu lama untuk menyadari bahwa ambisi itu kemungkinan akan gagal, seiring dengan keterampilan profesional utamanya dapat diambil alih oleh fitur makro Excel. Oleh karena itu, ia memutuskan perlu meningkatkan bobotnya bagi dunia. Setelah melalui masa penelitian, Benn mencapai kesimpulan: Ia akan, setelah mengumumkan pada keluarganya, berhenti dari pekerjaannya sebagai manusia pengolah angka dan menjadi pemrogram komputer. Seperti yang sering terjadi pada rencana besar pada umumnya, terdapat satu halangan: Jason Benn sama sekali tidak tahu cara menulis kode.
Sebagai ilmuwan komputer aku dapat menegaskan poin yang sudah jelas: pemrograman komputer itu sulit. Sebagian besar pengembang baru mendedikasikan empat tahun pendidikan perguruan tinggi untuk mempelajari teknik-teknik pemrograman sebelum pekerjaan pertama mereka—dan bahkan setelahnya, persaingan untuk mendapatkan posisi terbaik sangatlah sengit. Jason Benn tidak punya waktu selama itu. Setelah peristiwa pencerahan Excel-nya, ia berhenti dari pekerjaan di perusahaan keuangan dan pulang ke rumah untuk mempersiapkan langkah selanjutnya. Orangtuanya senang ia memiliki rencana,
namun mereka tidak senang jika gagasan kepulangannya ini bersifat jangka panjang. Benn perlu belajar keterampilan teknis, dan harus melakukannya dengan sangat cepat.
Di sinilah Benn mengalami masalah sama yang menghambat banyak pekerja intelektual ketika beralih ke jalur karier yang lebih eksplosif. Mempelajari sesuatu yang kompleks seperti pemrograman komputer membutuhkan konsentrasi kognitif yang kuat tanpa gangguan—jenis konsentrasi yang mendorong Carl Jung menyendiri ke hutan di sekitar Danau Zurich. Tugas ini, dengan kata lain, adalah aktivitas kesungguhan kerja. Namun, sebagian besar pekerja intelektual, seperti yang kukatakan sebelumnya dalam pendahuluan ini, telah kehilangan kemampuan mereka untuk bekerja sungguh-sungguh. Tidak terkecuali Benn.
“Aku selalu terhubung dengan internet dan mengecek surel; aku tidak bisa menahan diri; seperti kecanduan,” kata Benn, menggambarkan dirinya pada periode menjelang ia berhenti dari pekerjaan keuangannya. Untuk mempertegas kesulitannya, Benn bercerita padaku tentang proyek yang diberikan oleh atasannya di perusahaan keuangan tersebut. “Mereka menginginkanku membuat rencana bisnis,” jelasnya. Benn tidak tahu cara membuat rencana bisnis, sehingga ia memutuskan untuk mencari dan membaca lima rencana yang sudah ada—membandingkan dan mengontraskannya untuk memahami apa yang dibutuhkan. Ini ide bagus, tetapi Benn memiliki masalah: “Aku tidak bisa tetap fokus.” Pada masa ini, ia mengakui, bahwa ia menghabiskan hampir setiap menit (“98 persen waktuku”) dengan menjelajahi web. Proyek pembuatan rencana bisnis—sebuah kesempatan untuk unjuk diri di awal karier—hilang begitu saja.
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Translation education
Bachelor's degree - University of Indonesia
Experience
Years of experience: 11. Registered at ProZ.com: May 2022.