ted英文演讲稿:犯错的价值

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每个人都防止犯错误,但也许防止犯错误本来就是一种不正确?可以看下列这篇“犯错误家“凯瑟琳萨金特告诉我们,也许大家不只该认错,更应该全力相拥人的本性中“我的错故我在“的实质。

So it's 1995, I'm in college, and a friend and I go on a road trip from Providence, Rhode Island to Portland, Oregon.

当时是95年 我还在读大学 我和一个好朋友开车去玩 从罗得岛的波尔多庄园区考虑 到奥勒冈州的波特兰市

And you know, we're young and unemployed, so we do the whole thing on back roads through state parks and national forests -- basically the longest route we can possibly take.

大家年青、待业 ,因此全部旅途都是在乡间小道 通过州立生态公园 和我国保护树木 大家尽量绕着最长的路径

And somewhere in the middle of South Dakota, I turn to my friend and I ask her a question that's been bothering me for 2,000 miles.

在南凡妮莎哈金斯州当中某点 我转为我的好朋友 问她一个 2000公里路程上 一直苦恼我的缺点

"What's up with the Chinese character I keep seeing by the side of the road?"

"马路边那一个一直发生的中文本究竟是什么?"

My friend looks at me totally blankly.

我的好朋友外露困惑的眼神

There's actually a gentleman in the front row who's doing a perfect imitation of her look.

如同如今坐到第一排的这三位男性 所漏出的眼神一样

(Laughter) And I'm like, "You know, all the signs we keep seeing with the Chinese character on them."

(欢笑声) 我讲"你知道的 我们一直见到的那一个指路牌 写着汉语的那个啊"

She just stares at me for a few moments, and then she cracks up, because she figures out what I'm talking about.

她瞪着我的脸一阵子 忽然笑开 因为她终于知道我所说为什么

And what I'm talking about is this.

我说的是这一

(Laughter) Right, the famous Chinese character for picnic area.

(欢笑声) 没有错,这就是意味着野炊区域那一个文字

(Laughter) I've spent the last five years of my life thinking about situations exactly like this -- why we sometimes misunderstand the signs around us,

(欢笑声) 过去的五年 我一直在思索 刚刚我所表述的情况 为什么我们会对身旁的预兆 产生误解

and how we behave when that happens, and what all of this can tell us about human nature.

当误会产生时大家做何反映 及其这一切所告诉我们的人的本性

In other words, as you heard Chris say, I've spent the last five years thinking about being wrong.

也就是说,如同 Chris 刚刚说的 过去五年的时长 我还在思索不正确的使用价值

This might strike you as a strange career move, but it actually has one great advantage: no job competition.

你也许感觉这是个奇特的技术专业 但是一项益处是毋庸置疑的: 并没有竞争对手。

(Laughter) In fact, most of us do everything we can to avoid thinking about being wrong, or at least to avoid thinking about the possibility that we ourselves are wrong.

(欢笑声) 实际上,咱们绝大多数的人 都竭尽全力不思考不正确的使用价值 或最少防止想起大家有很有可能犯错误。

We get it in the abstract.

众所周知这一模糊不清的定义。

We all know everybody in this room makes mistakes.

众所周知这儿的每个人以前犯错误

The human species, in general, is fallible -- okay fine.

人们原本便会犯错误 - 没什么问题

But when it comes down to me right now, to all the beliefs I hold, here in the present tense, suddenly all of this abstract appreciation of fallibility goes out the window -- and I can't actually think of anything I'm wrong about.

一旦这一念头临到大家本身 我们现在所有的 所有的信仰 对人们很有可能犯错误的抽象化随后被大家抛下 我没法想起是我哪儿出差错

And the thing is, the present tense is where we live.

可是,大家身处如今

We go to meetings in the present tense; we go on family vacations in the present tense; we go to the polls and vote in the present tense.

大家召开会议,去家庭旅游 去网络投票 全都是现在式

So effectively, we all kind of wind up traveling through life, trapped in this little bubble of feeling very right about everything.

大家如同如今一个小泡泡里 历经人生道路 感觉自己一直对的

I think this is a problem.

我觉得这是个难题

I think it's a problem for each of us as individuals, in our personal and professional lives, and I think it's a problem for all of us collectively as a culture.

我觉得这个是每一个人私生活 和岗位生活中的问题 我觉得大家作为人群,也造成了文化艺术难题

So what I want to do today is, first of all, talk about why we get stuck inside this feeling of being right.

因此,我今日想要做的是 先谈一谈为什么大家会 陷在这类自以为是的心理状态中

And second, why it's such a problem.

第二是为什么这是个难题

And finally, I want to convince you that it is possible to step outside of that feeling, and that, if you can do so, it is the single greatest

最终我觉得劝服大伙儿 摆脱这种感觉 是很有可能的 并且一旦你做到了 这将成为你社会道德上

moral, intellectual and creative leap you can make.

智性上和艺术创意上最高的发展

So why do we get stuck in this feeling of being right?

为什么大家会陷在 这类自以为是的心理状态中?

One reason actually has to do with a feeling of being wrong.

实际上这和犯错误的觉得相关

So let me ask you guys something -- or actually, let me ask you guys something, because you're right here: How does it feel -- emotionally --

我想问问你们 让我问问台子上的大家 如果你意识到自身犯错了

how does it feel to be wrong?

你感觉如何?

Dreadful. Thumbs down.

真糟糕。很差劲。

Embarrassing. Okay, wonderful, good.

尴尬。非常好,是的。

Dreadful, thumbs down, embarrassing -- thank you, these are great answers, but they're answers to a different question.

很糟糕,很差劲,很尴尬。 感谢你们给予这种回答 但这种回答并没有回答我的问题

You guys are answering the question: How does it feel to realize you're wrong?

大家回复的问题是: 如果你观念到你犯错误的时,你的感觉怎样?

(Laughter) Realizing you're wrong can feel like all of that and a lot of other things, right?

(欢笑声) 观念到你犯错了就会出现刚常说的这种觉得,不是吗?

I mean it can be devastating, it can be revelatory, it can actually be quite funny, like my stupid Chinese character mistake.

让人消沉,暴露了一些真正 有的时候乃至有一些搞笑 像我误认为指路牌是中文本

But just being wrong doesn't feel like anything.

但犯错误自身 实际上毫无感觉

I'll give you an analogy.

让我给你一个事例

Do you remember that Loony Tunes cartoon where there's this pathetic coyote who's always chasing and never catching a roadrunner?

你还记得可爱卡通里 哪个一直在追求 却从没捉到猎食的土狼吗?

In pretty much every episode of this cartoon, there's a moment where the coyote is chasing the roadrunner and the roadrunner runs off a cliff,

基本上在每一集里 牠的猎食 - 一只走鹃鸟 都是会往下跳悬崖峭壁

which is fine, he's a bird, he can fly.

总之牠是鸟,牠可以飞

But the thing is, the coyote runs off the cliff right after him.

但土狼还会跟随牠一起坠崖

And what's funny -- at least if you're six years old -- is that the coyote's totally fine too.

那很好笑 假如你是个六岁儿童 土狼也很好

He just keeps running -- right up until the moment that he looks down and realizes that he's in mid-air.

牠就那么继续跑 直至牠往下看 察觉自己穿行在半空中

That's when he falls.

此刻他才能掉下来

When we're wrong about something -- not when we realize it, but before that -- we're like that coyote after he's gone off the cliff and before he looks down.

在人们犯错误时 在人们意识到大家犯错误时 大家如同那只土狼 还没意识到自身奔出悬崖峭壁

You know, we're already wrong, we're already in trouble, but we feel like we're on solid ground.

我们已经不对 早已惹上麻烦了 但仍然感觉像走在地面上

So I should actually correct something I said a moment ago.

我该改变我以前的观点

It does feel like something to be wrong; it feels like being right.

犯错误的感受就和 准确的觉得一样

(Laughter) So this is one reason, a structural reason, why we get stuck inside this feeling of rightness.

(欢笑声) 实际上大家这类自认为对的体会 是有构造性的因素的

I call this error blindness.

我称作不正确盲区

Most of the time, we don't have any kind of internal cue to let us know that we're wrong about something, until it's too late.

绝大部分的时间里 大家身体里没有体制 提示大家不对 直至悔之晚矣

But there's a second reason that we get stuck inside this feeling as well -- and this one is cultural.

但也有第二个原因 艺术性的原因

Think back for a moment to elementary school.

回忆小学时代

You're sitting there in class, and your teacher is handing back quiz papers, and one of them looks like this.

你坐到课堂里 老师送回中考试卷 像这样的中考试卷

This is not mine, by the way.

尽管这张不是我的

(Laughter) So there you are in grade school, and you know exactly what to think about the kid who got this paper.

(欢笑声) 你从小学时代 就明白该对拿这张试卷的同学们 下什么评价语

It's the dumb kid, the troublemaker, the one who never does his homework.

傻瓜,淘气鬼 从来不做课程的坏学生

So by the time you are nine years old, you've already learned, first of all, that people who get stuff wrong are lazy, irresponsible dimwits --

你只不过才九岁 你早已明白,最先 这些犯错误的人 全是懒散、不负责任的傻子

and second of all, that the way to succeed in life is to never make any mistakes.

第二 要想在人生中取得成功 就不必犯错误

We learn these really bad lessons really well.

大家很早获得这种不正确信息

And a lot of us -- and I suspect, especially a lot of us in this room -- deal with them by just becoming perfect little A students,

而我们 特别是在是这个服务厅里的很多人 都为此变成优秀生 拿全A

perfectionists, over-achievers.

完美主义者、绝不令人满意

Right, Mr. CFO, astrophysicist, ultra-marathoner?

不是吗? 会计长、星体科学家、超级马拉松先生们?

(Laughter) You're all CFO, astrophysicists, ultra-marathoners, it turns out.

(欢笑声) 结果是大家全成了会计长、星体科学家、跑超级马拉松

Okay, so fine.

那非常好

Except that then we freak out at the possibility that we've gotten something wrong.

但一旦人们看到有很有可能犯错误 就逐渐不知所措

Because according to this, getting something wrong means there's something wrong with us.

由于按照要求 犯错误 意味着我们一定也是有什么不太对

So we just insist that we're right, because it makes us feel smart and responsible and virtuous and safe.

因此大家固执己见 由于那使我们觉得聪慧、得当 安全性和靠谱

So let me tell you a story.

让我告诉你们一个故事

A couple of years ago, a woman comes into Beth Israel Deaconess medical center for a surgery.

几年前 一个女人到 Beth Israel Deaconess 门诊所动手术

Beth Israel's in Boston.

Beth Israel 在墨尔本

It's the teaching hospital for Harvard -- one of the best hospitals in the country.

是美国哈佛大学的课堂教学附院 全国各地数一数二的医疗中心

So this woman comes in and she's taken into the operating room.

这个女人被送入开刀房

She's anesthetized, the surgeon does his thing -- stitches her back up, sends her out to the recovery room.

麻醉剂,外科医师做完手术 手术缝合,将她送进修复室

Everything seems to have gone fine.

一切看起来都很好

And she wakes up, and she looks down at herself, and she says, "Why is the wrong side of my body in bandages?"

她醒来时,往自身身上一看 说“为什么我的左脚绑着纱布?”

Well the wrong side of her body is in bandages because the surgeon has performed a major operation on her left leg instead of her right one.

她应当接受治疗的是右脚 但为他做手术的外科医师 却把刀设在左脚

When the vice president for health care quality at Beth Israel spoke about this incident, he said something very interesting.

当副院长出去为医疗机构的医疗效果 和此次出现意外作出表述时 他说了句很有趣的话

He said, "For whatever reason, the surgeon simply felt that he was on the correct side of the patient."

他说道“不管怎样 这名外科医师觉得 他开下的刀是在恰当的一侧”

(Laughter) The point of this story is that trusting too much in the feeling of being on the correct side of anything can be very dangerous.

(欢笑声) 小故事的重点是 相信自己的判断能力 坚信自己立在对的一边 是非常危险的

This internal sense of rightness that we all experience so often is not a reliable guide to what is actually going on in the external world.

大家心里常常感到的 理直气壮的觉得 在真实的世界中 并非个靠谱的指导。

And when we act like it is, and we stop entertaining the possibility that we could be wrong, well that's when we end up doing things

在我们依此做事 不会再思索大家是不是犯错误 咱们也有很有可能

88.like dumping 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, or torpedoing the global economy.

把二百湾加仑的原油倒入中国海域 或者刷新全球经济

So this is a huge practical problem.

这是个很具体的难题

But it's also a huge social problem.

那也是个挺大的社会问题

Think for a moment about what it means to feel right.

“觉得对”到底是什么含意

It means that you think that your beliefs just perfectly reflect reality.

这象征着你认为你的信仰 和真正是一致的

And when you feel that way, you've got a problem to solve, which is, how are you going to explain all of those people who disagree with you?

当我们有这种感觉的时 你的问题就变大 由于假如你是对的 为什么还有人与你持不一样意见?

It turns out, most of us explain those people the same way, by resorting to a series of unfortunate assumptions.

因此大家通常用同一种 思考方式去解读这种质疑

The first thing we usually do when someone disagrees with us is we just assume they're ignorant.

第一是当别人不同意他们的观点 大家便认为她们愚昧

They don't have access to the same information that we do, and when we generously share that information with them, they're going to see the light and come on over to our team.

她们不像我们明白那么多 在我们慷慨大方地和她们共享他们的专业知识 她们便会了解,并添加他们的队伍

When that doesn't work, when it turns out those people have all the same facts that we do and they still disagree with us, then we move on to a second assumption,

要不是那样 假如这些人和人们取得的信息内容一样多 却依然不认同大家 大家便拥有下一个结论

which is that they're idiots.

就是她们是傻子

(Laughter) They have all the right pieces of the puzzle, and they are too moronic to put them together correctly.

(欢笑声) 她们已经有了所有的信息内容 却笨到没法拼凑出恰当的图象

And when that doesn't work, when it turns out that people who disagree with us have all the same facts we do and are actually pretty smart,

一旦第二个结论也不成立 当这种抵制我们的人 和大家有一样的信息内容 又聪慧

then we move on to a third assumption: they know the truth, and they are deliberately distorting it for their own malevolent purposes.

大家便得到第三个结果 他们知道事实是什么 但却为了自己的益处 有意歪曲真正。

So this is a catastrophe.

这真是个大劫难

This attachment to our own rightness keeps us from preventing mistakes when we absolutely need to and causes us to treat each other terribly.

他们的自高自大 使我们在最需要的时候 没法防止犯错误 更让大家相互之间敌视

104.But to me, what's most baffling and most tragic about this is that it misses the whole point of being human.

对我来说 较大的悲剧是 它使我们错过了作为人宝贵实际意义

It's like we want to imagine that our minds are just these perfectly translucent windows and we just gaze out of them and describe the world as it unfolds.

那么就好像想像 他们的心灵的阳光彻底全透明 大家向外收看 叙述在大家以前进行的世界

And we want everybody else to gaze out of the same window and see the exact same thing.

大家要想每一个人和大家有一样的窗户 对世界作出一样的观查

That is not true, and if it were, life would be incredibly boring.

那不是确实 如果是,人生道路可能多么的无趣

The miracle of your mind isn't that you can see the world as it is.

内心的奇特之处 没有在你知道这一世界是什么模样

It's that you can see the world as it isn't.

只是去了解这些不了解的位置

We can remember the past, and we can think about the future, and we can imagine what it's like to be some other person in some other place.

大家还记得以往 思索将来 大家想像 自身变成别人,在他方

And we all do this a little differently, which is why we can all look up at the same night sky and see this and also this and also this.

他们的想像都有一些不一样 因此在我们抬头看同一个星空 我们看到这一 这一 和这一

And yeah, it is also why we get things wrong.

那也是大家弄错事儿的缘故

1,200 years before Descartes said his famous thing about "I think therefore I am,"

在笛卡儿讲出那句知名的”我思故我在“ 的一千两百年以前

this guy, St. Augustine, sat down and wrote "Fallor ergo sum" -- "I err therefore I am."

圣奥古斯丁,坐下来 写出"Fallor ergo sum" "我的错故我在"

Augustine understood that our capacity to screw up, it's not some kind of embarrassing defect in the human system, something we can eradicate or overcome.

奥古斯丁明白 大家犯错误的工作能力 这并非人的本性中 一个让人下不来台的缺点 并不是我们可以摆脱或解决的

It's totally fundamental to who we are.

这是我们的实质

Because, unlike God, we don't really know what's going on out there.

因为我们并不是造物主 我们不知道大家以外到底发生了什么

And unlike all of the other animals, we are obsessed with trying to figure it out.

而区别于其他小动物的是 大家都玩命的想找到解释

To me, this obsession is the source and root of all of our productivity and creativity.

对我来说 这类找寻的不理智 就是我们生产主力和创新能力的由来

Last year, for various reasons, I found myself listening to a lot of episodes of the Public Radio show This American Life.

由于一些缘由 上年我还在广播节目上 听了许多集的"他们的国外人生道路"

And so I'm listening and I'm listening, and at some point, I start feeling like all the stories are about being wrong.

我听着听着 突然发现 这种小故事全和犯错误相关

And my first thought was, "I've lost it.

我的第一个想法是 “我完后

I've become the crazy wrongness lady.

我写撰写疯掉

I just imagined it everywhere,"

四处都见到相关犯错误的错觉”

which has happened.

说实话是这样

But a couple of months later, I actually had a chance to interview Ira Glass, who's the host of the show.

但好多个月后 我浏览了那一个广播电台节目的节目主持人 Ira Glass

And I mentioned this to him, and he was like, "No actually, that's true.

我向他提及这件事情 他回答我“实际上

In fact," he says, "as a staff, we joke that every single episode of our show has the same crypto-theme.

你是对的”他说道 “咱们这种工作员一直 开玩笑的说每一集综艺节目当中的 密秘主题风格都是一样的

And the crypto-theme is: 'I thought this one thing was going to happen and something else happened instead.' And thing is," says Ira Glass, "we need this.

这个秘密主题风格便是 "原以为这件事情会那样产生 结论其他事儿发生了" 他说道"可是,这就是我们要的

We need these moments of surprise and reversal and wrongness to make these stories work."

我们应该这种出现意外 这种错乱和不正确 这种小故事才可以创立。"

And for the rest of us, audience members, as listeners, as readers, we eat this stuff up.

而我们作为观众们 观众、阅读者 大家消化吸收这种小故事

We love things like plot twists and red herrings and surprise endings.

我们喜欢小故事转折点 令人惊讶的结果

When it comes to our stories, we love being wrong.

我们喜欢在故事里 见到犯错误

But, you know, our stories are like this because our lives are like this.

但,故事汇这样写 是由于人生就是这样

We think this one thing is going to happen and something else happens instead.

大家认为一些事儿会那样产生 产生的确是其他事

George Bush thought he was going to invade Iraq, find a bunch of weapons of mass destruction, liberate the people and bring democracy to the Middle East.

布什认为他侵入伊朗 会寻找规模性破坏性武器装备 释放中东地区老百姓,为它们产生自由民主

And something else happened instead.

但却不是那样

And Hosni Mubarak thought he was going to be dictator of Egypt for the rest of his life, until he got too old or too sick and could pass the reigns of power onto his son.

穆巴拉克认为 他到死都是会是沙特阿拉伯的专权的人 一直到他年迈或卧病 再把他的权利交到下一代

And something else happened instead.

但却不是那样

And maybe you thought you were going to grow up and marry your high school sweetheart and move back to your home town and raise a bunch of kids together.

或许你想要 你会张大、嫁给你的初恋 搬回家,生一群孩子

And something else happened instead.

但却不是那样

And I have to tell you that I thought I was writing an incredibly nerdy book about a subject everybody hates for an audience that would never materialize.

我一定说 我以为我写的是一本很生僻的书 相关一个人人反感的主题风格 为一些从不存在的阅读者

And something else happened instead.

但却不是那样

(Laughter) I mean, this is life.

(欢笑声) 我们的人生

For good and for ill, we generate these incredible stories about the world around us, and then the world turns around and astonishes us.

不管优劣 我们创造了啦 那包围着这个世界 而全球转过头来,令大家大吃一惊

No offense, but this entire conference is an unbelievable monument to our capacity to get stuff wrong.

说实话,这全部大会 弥漫着那样难以置信的时时刻刻 大家一次又一次地意识到自己的错误

We just spent and entire week talking about innovations and advancements and improvements, but you know why we need all of those innovations

让我们花了整整的一周 探讨自主创新,发展 和改进 你了解大家为什么必须这种自主创新

and advancements and improvements?

发展和改进吗?

Because half the stuff that's the most mind-boggling and world altering -- TED 1998 -- eh.

由于在其中有一半 来源于最应当改变命运的 98年TED 呃

(Laughter) Didn't really work out that way, did it.

(欢笑声) 真的是出乎意料以外啊,不是吗

(Laughter) Where's my jet pack, Chris?

(欢笑声) 我的脱险火箭弹在哪儿,Chris?

(Laughter) (Applause) So here we are again.

(欢笑声) (欢呼声) 因此大家又在这儿

And that's how it goes.

事儿就这样

We come up with another idea.

大家再次想到其他好点子

We tell another story.

大家拥有新的故事

We hold another conference.

大家开另一个大会

The theme of this one, as you guys have now heard seven million times, is the rediscovery of wonder.

此次的主题是 假如你还没有听见耳朵出油得话 是再次寻找想像的能量

And to me, if you really want to rediscover wonder, you need to step outside of that tiny, terrified space of rightness and look around at each other

对我来说 假如你真的想再次寻找想像的能量 你必须离去 那一个小小、自我感觉良好的小圈圈 看一下彼此之间

and look out at the vastness and complexity and mystery of the universe and be able to say, "Wow, I don't know.

看一下宇宙空间的 众多广阔无垠 繁杂神密 随后真真正正地说 “哇,我也不知道

Maybe I'm wrong."

也许对不起。”

Thank you.

谢谢各位

(Applause) Thank you guys.

(欢呼声) 感谢

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