聽力課堂TED音頻欄目主要包括TED演講的音頻MP3及中英雙語文稿,供各位英語愛好者學習使用。本文主要內(nèi)容為演講MP3+雙語文稿:我的拖延癥終于洗白了!竟然可以激發(fā)創(chuàng)新,希望你會喜歡!
【演講人】Adam Grant
【演講主題】我的拖延癥終于洗白了!竟然可以激發(fā)創(chuàng)新
【演講文稿-中英文】
翻譯者 Hancheng Li 校對 Jiawei Ni
Seven years ago, a student came to me and asked me to invest in his company. He said, "I'm working with three friends, and we're going to try to disrupt an industry by selling stuff online." And I said, "OK, you guys spent the whole summer on this, right?" "No, we all took internships just in case it doesn't work out." "All right, but you're going to go in full time once you graduate." "Not exactly. We've all lined up backup jobs." Six months go by, it's the day before the company launches, and there is still not a functioning website. "You guys realize, the entire company is a website. That's literally all it is." So I obviously declined to invest.
七年前,一個學生找到我,請求我為他們的公司投資。他說,“我和三位朋友合作,我們要在網(wǎng)上賣東西,然后顛覆整個行業(yè)?!比缓笪艺f,“好吧,你們整個夏天都在做這個,對吧?” “沒有啊,我們都參加了實習,以防萬一它沒有成功。””好吧,但是你們畢業(yè)之后要全職投入在這個項目中啊?!啊辈煌耆珜Π?。我們都想好了備選的工作?!傲鶄€月過去了,他們的公司還有一天就開張了,但是他們的網(wǎng)站還不能正常運營?!澳銈冞@些家伙要知道,整個公司就是一個網(wǎng)站,網(wǎng)站就是公司的全部。”所以顯然我拒絕了給他們投資。
And they ended up naming the company Warby Parker.
最后他們把公司命名為“瓦比·帕克”。
(Laughter) They sell glasses online. They were recently recognized as the world's most innovative company and valued at over a billion dollars. And now? My wife handles our investments. Why was I so wrong?
(笑聲)他們在網(wǎng)上銷售眼鏡。他們最近被認定為世界上最有創(chuàng)新力的企業(yè),估值超過十億美金。結(jié)果現(xiàn)在呢?我的妻子接管了所有投資項目。為什么我犯了這么大的錯誤?
To find out, I've been studying people that I come to call "originals." Originals are nonconformists, people who not only have new ideas but take action to champion them. They are people who stand out and speak up. Originals drive creativity and change in the world. They're the people you want to bet on. And they look nothing like I expected. I want to show you today three things I've learned about recognizing originals and becoming a little bit more like them.
為了弄明白這點,我開始研究 一些我稱為“原創(chuàng)者”的人。原創(chuàng)者不墨守成規(guī),他們不僅有嶄新的想法,也通過實踐去捍衛(wèi)它們。他們從人群中脫穎而出、暢所欲言。原創(chuàng)者驅(qū)動著全世界的創(chuàng)造與變革。你敢于在他們身上下注。他們看起來與我的想象完全不同。我想與各位分享我對原創(chuàng)者所了解的三點內(nèi)容,以及自己努力成為其中之一的經(jīng)歷。
So the first reason that I passed on Warby Parker was they were really slow getting off the ground. Now, you are all intimately familiar with the mind of a procrastinator. Well, I have a confession for you. I'm the opposite. I'm a precrastinator. Yes, that's an actual term. You know that panic you feel a few hours before a big deadline when you haven't done anything yet. I just feel that a few months ahead of time.
我拒絕瓦比·帕克的第一個原因就是,他們走出第一步的速度實在太慢了。我相信各位非常熟悉拖延癥患者的大腦里的情景。好吧,我得向大家承認:我與之相反,是個“提早癥”患者。對,那個詞是存在的。你們都知道那種恐慌的感受: 最后期限還有幾個小時就到了,然而你還什么都沒做。我只是在幾個月之前就有這感覺了。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So this started early: when I was a kid, I took Nintendo games very seriously. I would wake up at 5am, start playing and not stop until I had mastered them. Eventually it got so out of hand that a local newspaper came and did a story on the dark side of Nintendo, starring me.
這很早就開始了:我還小的時候,我很認真地對待任天堂游戲。我會在早上5點醒來,開始打游戲,在打通關之前絕不休息。 最后我徹底失去了控制, 以至于當?shù)氐囊患覉蠹堈业轿遥缓髮懥似适?,講述任天堂的黑暗面,主角就是我。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
(Applause)
(掌聲)
(Laughter) But this served me well in college, because I finished my senior thesis four months before the deadline. And I was proud of that, until a few years ago. I had a student named Jihae, who came to me and said, "I have my most creative ideas when I'm procrastinating." And I was like, "That's cute, where are the four papers you owe me?"
(笑聲)但是這在大學里反倒幫了我,因為我在最后期限之前四個月就完成了我的畢業(yè)論文。我對此非常自豪,直到幾年之前。我有一個名叫吉哈的學生,她對我說,“我在犯拖延癥的時候,想到了最有創(chuàng)造力的點子?!比缓笪业姆磻褪牵昂苡幸馑?,你欠我的四篇論文在哪里?”
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
No, she was one of our most creative students, and as an organizational psychologist, this is the kind of idea that I test. So I challenged her to get some data. She goes into a bunch of companies. She has people fill out surveys about how often they procrastinate. Then she gets their bosses to rate how creative and innovative they are. And sure enough, the precrastinators like me, who rush in and do everything early are rated as less creative than people who procrastinate moderately. So I want to know what happens to the chronic procrastinators. She was like, "I don't know. They didn't fill out my survey."
不,她是我最有創(chuàng)造力的學生之一,作為一位組織心理學家,這是我要測試的一些想法。我向她提出挑戰(zhàn),讓她找些數(shù)據(jù)。她跑過了一大堆公司。她讓員工填了問卷,了解他們多經(jīng)常犯拖延癥。之后她讓他們的老板評估每個人的創(chuàng)造力水平。不出所料,像我這樣的提早癥患者,他們急匆匆把所有事做完,他們的創(chuàng)造力不如一些中度的拖延癥患者。我很想知道,重度拖延癥患者是怎樣的。她回答我,“我不知道啊。他們沒填我的問卷?!?/p>
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
No, here are our results. You actually do see that the people who wait until the last minute are so busy goofing off that they don't have any new ideas. And on the flip side, the people who race in are in such a frenzy of anxiety that they don't have original thoughts either. There's a sweet spot where originals seem to live. Why is this? Maybe original people just have bad work habits. Maybe procrastinating does not cause creativity.
開個玩笑。這是我們的結(jié)論。你的確可以看到,不到最后一刻不做事的人大部分時間都是混過去的,他們根本沒法產(chǎn)生新想法。在另外一側(cè),那些把事情匆忙做完的人一直處在狂暴的焦慮狀態(tài),他們也沒法產(chǎn)生新想法。在中間似乎有一個恰好的點,這就是原創(chuàng)者聚集的地方。為什么會這樣呢?可能只是原創(chuàng)者工作習慣不好??赡芡涎影Y并不直接引發(fā)創(chuàng)造力。
To find out, we designed some experiments. We asked people to generate new business ideas, and then we get independent readers to evaluate how creative and useful they are. And some of them are asked to do the task right away. Others we randomly assign to procrastinate by dangling Minesweeper in front of them for either five or 10 minutes. And sure enough, the moderate procrastinators are 16 percent more creative than the other two groups. Now, Minesweeper is awesome, but it's not the driver of the effect, because if you play the game first before you learn about the task, there's no creativity boost. It's only when you're told that you're going to be working on this problem, and then you start procrastinating, but the task is still active in the back of your mind, that you start to incubate. Procrastination gives you time to consider divergent ideas, to think in nonlinear ways, to make unexpected leaps.
為了研究這點,我們設計了些實驗。我們要求受試者想一些新的商業(yè)計劃,然后,我們讓獨立的第三方評估受試者的創(chuàng)造力和實踐力。有些人被要求立即著手做這個任務。另外一些人被隨機地要求拖延一陣子,在他們電腦上開個掃雷游戲,讓他們玩5或10分鐘。不出所料,中度拖延者比另外兩組受試者創(chuàng)造力高出16%。掃雷是很棒的游戲,但不是導致這個效應的真正原因,因為如果你在了解任務之前就去玩游戲,是沒有創(chuàng)造力加成的。只有在你被告知 你要完成某一項任務之后,然后你開始拖延,任務的想法還活躍在你腦海里,這時才會產(chǎn)生新想法。拖延行為讓你有時間發(fā)散性思考,以非線性的模式思考,然后獲得意想不到的突破。
So just as we were finishing these experiments, I was starting to write a book about originals, and I thought, "This is the perfect time to teach myself to procrastinate, while writing a chapter on procrastination." So I metaprocrastinated, and like any self-respecting precrastinator, I woke up early the next morning and I made a to-do list with steps on how to procrastinate.
正當我要完成這些實驗時,我開始寫一本有關原創(chuàng)者的書,我在想,“這是最佳時機了,現(xiàn)在我就在寫有關拖延癥的章節(jié),我要教教自己如何拖延?!苯Y(jié)果我拖延得很古怪,像任何一位自尊心很強的提早癥患者一樣,我第二天早早醒來,寫了一份待辦清單,里面是拖延的詳細步驟。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And then I worked diligently toward my goal of not making progress toward my goal. I started writing the procrastination chapter, and one day -- I was halfway through -- I literally put it away in mid-sentence for months. It was agony. But when I came back to it, I had all sorts of new ideas. As Aaron Sorkin put it, "You call it procrastinating. I call it thinking." And along the way I discovered that a lot of great originals in history were procrastinators. Take Leonardo da Vinci. He toiled on and off for 16 years on the Mona Lisa. He felt like a failure. He wrote as much in his journal. But some of the diversions he took in optics transformed the way that he modeled light and made him into a much better painter. What about Martin Luther King, Jr.? The night before the biggest speech of his life, the March on Washington, he was up past 3am, rewriting it. He's sitting in the audience waiting for his turn to go onstage, and he is still scribbling notes and crossing out lines. When he gets onstage, 11 minutes in, he leaves his prepared remarks to utter four words that changed the course of history: "I have a dream." That was not in the script. By delaying the task of finalizing the speech until the very last minute, he left himself open to the widest range of possible ideas. And because the text wasn't set in stone, he had freedom to improvise.
然后我刻苦工作,努力達到我“不取得任何進展”的目標。我開始寫有關拖延癥的章節(jié),然后有一天,我已經(jīng)寫完一半了,我在寫了半句話之后就放下筆,持續(xù)了幾個月。這簡直是煎熬。但當我重新提起筆時,我滿腦子里都是新想法。正如阿蘭·索金所說,“你把它叫做‘拖延’,我把它叫做‘思考’。”這個過程中,我發(fā)現(xiàn),歷史上很多偉大的原創(chuàng)者都是拖延癥患者。比如列奧納多·達·芬奇。他斷斷續(xù)續(xù)工作了16年,畫了一幅《蒙娜麗莎》。他覺得很失敗。他在日志里傾訴了很多。但是他在其他時間里對光學的研究,大大改變了他塑造光效的方式,讓他成為了一個更出色的畫家。馬丁·路德·金又如何呢?他一生中最重要的演講之前的晚上,那是三月,在華盛頓州,他凌晨三點還醒著,完善他的講稿。輪到自己上臺前,他坐在觀眾席里,還在演講稿上奮筆疾書。當他走上臺,過了11分鐘,他沒按照準備的內(nèi)容來講,卻念出了改變歷史進程的幾個字:“我有一個夢想?!边@不是寫在稿子里的。通過盡可能推遲演講稿最終確定的那一刻,他可以隨時向其中添加任何的想法。而正因為講稿不是固定不變的,他就有了即興發(fā)揮的自由。
Procrastinating is a vice when it comes to productivity, but it can be a virtue for creativity. What you see with a lot of great originals is that they are quick to start but they're slow to finish. And this is what I missed with Warby Parker. When they were dragging their heels for six months, I looked at them and said, "You know, a lot of other companies are starting to sell glasses online." They missed the first-mover advantage. But what I didn't realize was they were spending all that time trying to figure out how to get people to be comfortable ordering glasses online. And it turns out the first-mover advantage is mostly a myth. Look at a classic study of over 50 product categories, comparing the first movers who created the market with the improvers who introduced something different and better. What you see is that the first movers had a failure rate of 47 percent, compared with only 8 percent for the improvers. Look at Facebook, waiting to build a social network until after Myspace and Friendster. Look at Google, waiting for years after Altavista and Yahoo. It's much easier to improve on somebody else's idea than it is to create something new from scratch. So the lesson I learned is that to be original you don't have to be first. You just have to be different and better.
拖延癥會導致生產(chǎn)力的下降, 但也可能會是新創(chuàng)造的搖籃。 各位在原創(chuàng)者身上看到的特質(zhì), 就是他們開頭做得很快,最終完成卻要很久。這就是我錯過瓦比·帕克的一點原因。當他們拖拖拉拉六個月之后,我對他們說:“你們知道,很多其他公司已經(jīng)開始在線銷售眼鏡了。”他們失去了先動者優(yōu)勢。但是我沒有意識到,他們在那一大段時間里都在研究如何提高顧客在線購買眼鏡的舒適度。后來我才發(fā)現(xiàn),先動者優(yōu)勢其實只是個流言。有一個很經(jīng)典的研究項目,調(diào)查了超過50個類別的商品,將開辟市場的先動者,與改進市場的改變者相比較。 你可以看到,先動者的失敗率是47%,與之相比,改變者失敗率只有8%。 讓我們看看Facebook,它想在Myspace和Friendster之后打造一個新的社交網(wǎng)絡。再看看谷歌,等待了很多年,才在AltaVista和雅虎之后面世。改進其他人的想法比從零開始創(chuàng)造想法要更簡單。我從中學到的就是:想做原創(chuàng)者,你不必最先行動。你只需要做得不同、做得更好。
But that wasn't the only reason I passed on Warby Parker. They were also full of doubts. They had backup plans lined up, and that made me doubt that they had the courage to be original.
但這不是我拒絕瓦比·帕克的唯一理由。他們自己充滿困惑。他們準備了一系列后備方案, 這讓我十分懷疑他們是否具有原創(chuàng)的勇氣。
Now, on the surface, a lot of original people look confident, but behind the scenes, they feel the same fear and doubt that the rest of us do.
從表面上看,很多的原創(chuàng)者看上去很自信,但是在背后,他們也像所有人一樣,感受恐懼和疑慮。他們只是以不同方式來面對。
Now, in my research, I discovered there are two different kinds of doubt. There's self-doubt and idea doubt. Self-doubt is paralyzing. It leads you to freeze. But idea doubt is energizing. It motivates you to test, to experiment, to refine, just like MLK did. And so the key to being original is just a simple thing of avoiding the leap from step three to step four. Instead of saying, "I'm crap," you say, "The first few drafts are always crap, and I'm just not there yet." So how do you get there? Well, there's a clue, it turns out, in the Internet browser that you use. We can predict your job performance and your commitment just by knowing what web browser you use. Now, some of you are not going to like the results of this study --
在我的研究中,我發(fā)現(xiàn)兩種不同的疑慮。自我疑慮,以及想法疑慮。自我疑慮會使人麻痹。 它讓你思維凍結(jié)。但是想法疑慮是激勵性的。它促使你去測試、實驗、改進,就像馬丁·路德·金一樣。所以說做原創(chuàng)者的關鍵,其實非常簡單,就是避免從第三步走到第四步。你不去說“我超爛”,而是說“最初的想法都是超爛的,我只是還沒做完而已。”所以你怎樣繼續(xù)做呢?其實我發(fā)現(xiàn)有一個小事,有關你用的網(wǎng)頁瀏覽器。我們可以預測你的工作表現(xiàn)或是責任承擔情況,只需要了解你用哪款瀏覽器。你們中有些人肯定不會喜歡這個研究的結(jié)果——
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
But there is good evidence that Firefox and Chrome users significantly outperform Internet Explorer and Safari users. Yes.
但是我們找到了確鑿證據(jù),說明火狐和谷歌Chrome用戶表現(xiàn)顯著好于IE瀏覽器和Safari用戶。好耶!
(Applause)
(掌聲)
They also stay in their jobs 15 percent longer, by the way. Why? It's not a technical advantage. The four browser groups on average have similar typing speed and they also have similar levels of computer knowledge. It's about how you got the browser. Because if you use Internet Explorer or Safari, those came preinstalled on your computer, and you accepted the default option that was handed to you. If you wanted Firefox or Chrome, you had to doubt the default and ask, is there a different option out there, and then be a little resourceful and download a new browser. So people hear about this study and they're like, "Great, if I want to get better at my job, I just need to upgrade my browser?"
順便提一句,他們的在職時間也要長15%。為什么?這不是一個技術(shù)性的優(yōu)勢。用這四種瀏覽器的人平均打字速度差不多,而且他們都對電腦有相同程度的了解。這有關你如何獲取這些瀏覽器。因為如果你用IE或者Safari,那些已經(jīng)預裝在電腦上了,你自然接受了廠商提供的默認選擇。如果你想換火狐或Chrome,你得要質(zhì)疑默認選擇,問問自己,是否有其他選擇,然后就稍稍隨機應變一下,去下載個新的瀏覽器。所以聽說這個研究的人反應就是,“棒極了,如果我想工作得更好,我只需要升級下瀏覽器就行了?”
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
No, it's about being the kind of person who takes the initiative to doubt the default and look for a better option. And if you do that well, you will open yourself up to the opposite of déjà vu. There's a name for it. It's called vuja de.
不對,這與你是什么樣的人有關,你是否主動地去質(zhì)疑默認選項,然后尋找一個更好的選擇。而且如果你找得不錯,你就將自己置于“似曾相識”感的對立面。它其實有個名字,叫做“識相曾似”感。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Vuja de is when you look at something you've seen many times before and all of a sudden see it with fresh eyes. It's a screenwriter who looks at a movie script that can't get the green light for more than half a century. In every past version, the main character has been an evil queen. But Jennifer Lee starts to question whether that makes sense. She rewrites the first act, reinvents the villain as a tortured hero and Frozen becomes the most successful animated movie ever. So there's a simple message from this story. When you feel doubt, don't let it go.
“識相曾似”感的意思是,你再次面對一個無比熟悉的事物,但是突然用一種新的眼光去看待。有個電影劇本作家,她看著一份電影劇本,它超過半個世紀都沒被獲準拍攝。在之前的每一個版本里,故事主角都是個邪惡的女王。但是這位詹妮弗·李開始思考這個想法是否合理。她重寫了第一幕,把那個惡棍重新塑造成一位受盡苦難的英雄,于是《冰雪奇緣》成為了歷史上最賣座的動畫電影之一。這個故事傳遞了一個簡單的信息。當你感到困惑,切勿“隨它去吧”。("Let it go"是電影主題曲名)
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
What about fear? Originals feel fear, too. They're afraid of failing, but what sets them apart from the rest of us is that they're even more afraid of failing to try. They know you can fail by starting a business that goes bankrupt or by failing to start a business at all. They know that in the long run, our biggest regrets are not our actions but our inactions. The things we wish we could redo, if you look at the science, are the chances not taken.
恐懼又如何呢?原創(chuàng)者也會感到恐懼。他們害怕失敗,但是他們與我們其他人所不同的是, 他們更害怕不去嘗試。他們知道可以因創(chuàng)業(yè)公司倒閉而失敗,他們更知道可以因不嘗試創(chuàng)業(yè)而失敗。他們知道,從長遠來看,我們最大的悔恨不是自己做了什么,而是自己沒做什么。 就科學這個領域,有些事我們希望能重做一遍,就是把握溜走的機會。
Elon Musk told me recently, he didn't expect Tesla to succeed. He was sure the first few SpaceX launches would fail to make it to orbit, let alone get back, but it was too important not to try. And for so many of us, when we have an important idea, we don't bother to try. But I have some good news for you. You are not going to get judged on your bad ideas. A lot of people think they will. If you look across industries and ask people about their biggest idea, their most important suggestion, 85 percent of them stayed silent instead of speaking up. They were afraid of embarrassing themselves, of looking stupid. But guess what? Originals have lots and lots of bad ideas, tons of them, in fact.
埃隆·馬斯克最近告訴我,他并不指望特斯拉會成功。他非常確信,SpaceX公司的前幾次發(fā)射一定不會進入預定軌道,更不會重新回收,但是不去嘗試才是最失敗的。對于我們中的大多數(shù)人,當我們有一個重大的想法,我們往往懶得嘗試。但是我有些好消息。他人衡量你的標準不是你的壞主意。很多人都以為是這樣的。當你走訪各大行業(yè),然后問問其中的人,他們最重大的想法、建議是什么,85%的人保持沉默,不敢發(fā)聲。他們害怕自己難為情、看上去很蠢。但是你猜怎么著?原創(chuàng)者有很多的糟糕想法,事實上是一大堆。
If you look across fields, the greatest originals are the ones who fail the most, because they're the ones who try the most. Take classical composers, the best of the best. Why do some of them get more pages in encyclopedias than others and also have their compositions rerecorded more times? One of the best predictors is the sheer volume of compositions that they generate. The more output you churn out, the more variety you get and the better your chances of stumbling on something truly original. Even the three icons of classical music -- Bach, Beethoven, Mozart -- had to generate hundreds and hundreds of compositions to come up with a much smaller number of masterpieces. Now, you may be wondering, how did this guy become great without doing a whole lot? I don't know how Wagner pulled that off. But for most of us, if we want to be more original, we have to generate more ideas.
如果你研究各個領域,偉大的原創(chuàng)者是那些失敗最多的人,因為他們是嘗試得最多的人。以一些最好的古典作曲家為例。為什么有些人在百科全書里內(nèi)容比其他人多,而且他們的作品被重新錄制更多遍?其中一個最好的預測,就是他們產(chǎn)出的作品的量有多大。你產(chǎn)生的輸出越大,你的作品種類越多,你就越有可能做出一些真正原創(chuàng)的東西。即使是三位古典音樂偉人——巴赫、貝多芬、莫扎特,都必須寫出數(shù)百份作品,才能獲得相當少量的杰作。你們可能在想,這個家伙沒做多少事,又是怎么獲得成功的呢?我不知道瓦格納怎么做到的。但是對于大部分人,如果我們想要變得更有原創(chuàng)性,我們必須大開腦洞。
The Warby Parker founders, when they were trying to name their company, they needed something sophisticated, unique, with no negative associations to build a retail brand, and they tested over 2,000 possibilities before they finally put together Warby and Parker. So if you put all this together, what you see is that originals are not that different from the rest of us. They feel fear and doubt. They procrastinate. They have bad ideas. And sometimes, it's not in spite of those qualities but because of them that they succeed.
瓦比·帕克的創(chuàng)始人,當他們思考如何命名公司的時候,他們想要找相對復雜、特別的詞,而且沒有負面的歧義,以此打造一個零售品牌,他們嘗試了超過兩千種可能性,最后才找到兩個詞拼在一起:“瓦比”和“帕克”。如果你綜合來看,你會發(fā)現(xiàn)原創(chuàng)者與我們其他人差別并不是那么大。他們也會害怕、疑慮。他們犯拖延癥。他們有糟糕的想法。有時,這些品質(zhì)并不妨礙他們,而是正因這些,他們才能成功。
So when you see those things, don't make the same mistake I did. Don't write them off. And when that's you, don't count yourself out either. Know that being quick to start but slow to finish can boost your creativity, that you can motivate yourself by doubting your ideas and embracing the fear of failing to try, and that you need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones.
所以當你們看到這些時,千萬別犯像我這樣的錯誤。不要無視他們。如果這個人是你,你也別無視了自己。你要知道,快速地開始、緩慢地結(jié)束可以提升你的創(chuàng)造力,你可以通過質(zhì)疑自己的想法來激勵自己,勇敢地面對放棄嘗試的恐懼感,并且知道自己想到很多壞主意后 才能獲得幾個好主意。
Look, being original is not easy, but I have no doubt about this: it's the best way to improve the world around us.
做原創(chuàng)者并不容易,但是我對此深信不疑:這是改變我們周圍世界的最好方式。
Thank you.
謝謝各位。
(Applause)
(掌聲)