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BarrySchwartz_2014U-_被毁掉的工作观_
Today I'm going to talk about work. [00:12]
And the question I want to ask and answer is this: "Why do we work?" [00:15]
Why do we drag ourselves out of bed every morning instead of living our lives just filled with bouncing from one TED-like adventure to another? [00:21]
drag:v.拖曳;生拉硬拽;拖动;n.拖累;令人厌烦的人;累赘;绊脚石; adventure:n.冒险;奇遇;经历;冒险游戏;v.探险;以…冒险;大胆进行;闯;
(Laughter) [00:32]
You may be asking yourselves that very question. [00:34]
Now, I know of course, we have to make a living , but nobody in this room thinks that that's the answer to the question, "Why do we work?" [00:37]
make a living:谋生,维持生活;
For folks in this room, the work we do is challenging, it's engaging , it's stimulating , it's meaningful . [00:44]
engaging:adj.有趣的; v.吸引住(注意力、兴趣); (engage的现在分词) stimulating:adj.激励人的; v.促进; (stimulate的现在分词) meaningful:adj.严肃的;重要的;重大的;意味深长的;
And if we're lucky, it might even be important. [00:52]
So, we wouldn't work if we didn't get paid, but that's not why we do what we do. [00:55]
And in general , [01:00]
in general:总之,通常;一般而言;
I think we think that material rewards are a pretty bad reason for doing the work that we do. [01:01]
rewards:n.[劳经]奖励; v.[劳经]奖赏;
When we say of somebody that he's "in it for the money," [01:06]
we are not just being descriptive . [01:10]
descriptive:adj.描写的,叙述的;描写性的;
(Laughter) [01:13]
Now, I think this is totally obvious, but the very obviousness of it raises what is for me an incredibly profound question. [01:14]
obviousness:n.显而易见;明显;显著性; incredibly:adv.难以置信地;非常地; profound:adj.深厚的;意义深远的;渊博的;
Why, if this is so obvious, why is it that for the overwhelming majority of people on the planet, the work they do has none of the characteristics that get us up and out of bed and off to the office every morning? [01:21]
overwhelming:adj.势不可挡的; v.压倒; (overwhelm的现在分词) majority:n.大部分:大多数:多数票:成年人: characteristics:n.特征;特点;品质;(characteristic的复数)
How is it that we allow the majority of people on the planet to do work that is monotonous , meaningless and soul-deadening? [01:38]
monotonous:adj.单调的,无抑扬顿挫的;无变化的;
Why is it that as capitalism developed, it created a mode of production, of goods and services, in which all the nonmaterial satisfactions that might come from work were eliminated ? [01:47]
capitalism:n.资本主义; eliminated:v.排除;清除;消除;(比赛中)淘汰;消灭;(eliminate的过去式和过去分词)
Workers who do this kind of work, whether they do it in factories, in call centers, or in fulfillment warehouses , do it for pay. [02:00]
fulfillment:n.履行;实行; warehouses:n.仓库,货栈;货仓;(warehouse的名词复数)
There is certainly no other earthly reason to do what they do except for pay. [02:09]
earthly:adj.地球的;尘世的;可能的;
So the question is, "Why?" [02:15]
And here's the answer: the answer is technology . [02:18]
technology:n.技术;工艺;术语;
Now, I know, I know -- yeah, yeah, yeah, technology, automation screws people, blah blah -- that's not what I mean. [02:23]
automation:n.自动化;自动操作; screws:n.[机]螺丝; v.用螺钉固定; blah:n.废话;空话;瞎说;int.废话;
I'm not talking about the kind of technology that has enveloped our lives, and that people come to TED to hear about. [02:29]
enveloped:n.折叠条;v.包围(envelop的过去分词);
I'm not talking about the technology of things, profound though that is. [02:36]
I'm talking about another technology. [02:41]
I'm talking about the technology of ideas. [02:43]
I call it, "idea technology" -- how clever of me. [02:47]
(Laughter) [02:50]
In addition to creating things, science creates ideas. [02:52]
In addition to:除…之外;
Science creates ways of understanding. [02:56]
And in the social sciences, the ways of understanding that get created are ways of understanding ourselves. [02:59]
And they have an enormous influence on how we think, what we aspire to, and how we act. [03:06]
enormous:adj.庞大的,巨大的;凶暴的,极恶的; influence:n.影响;势力;感化;有影响的人或事;v.影响;改变; aspire:v.渴望(成就);有志(成为);
If you think your poverty is God's will, you pray. [03:12]
poverty:n.贫困;困难;缺少;低劣;
If you think your poverty is the result of your own inadequacy , you shrink into despair . [03:16]
inadequacy:n.不适当,不充分;不完全;不十分; shrink:v.收缩;减少;退缩;畏缩;n.精神病学家;心理学家; despair:v.绝望;失去希望;丧失信心;n.绝望;
And if you think your poverty is the result of oppression and domination , then you rise up in revolt . [03:23]
oppression:n.压抑;镇压;压迫手段;沉闷;苦恼; domination:n.控制;支配; revolt:v.反抗;叛逆;违抗;使惊骇;n.叛乱;起义;违抗;
Whether your response to poverty is resignation or revolution, depends on how you understand the sources of your poverty. [03:29]
response:n.响应;反应;回答; resignation:n.辞职;放弃;辞职书;顺从; sources:n.来源;出处;起源;根源;原因;v.(从…)获得(source的第三人称单数和复数)
This is the role that ideas play in shaping us as human beings, and this is why idea technology may be the most profoundly important technology that science gives us. [03:37]
profoundly:adv.深刻地;深深地;极度地;
And there's something special about idea technology, that makes it different from the technology of things. [03:51]
With things, if the technology sucks , it just vanishes , right? [03:58]
sucks:v.吮吸;吸;咂;啜;抽吸;抽取;(suck的第三人称单数) vanishes:v.[数]消失(vanish的三单形式);
Bad technology disappears . [04:04]
disappears:v.消失;不见;消亡;失踪;丢失;(disappear的第三人称单数)
With ideas -- false ideas about human beings will not go away if people believe that they're true. [04:06]
Because if people believe that they're true, they create ways of living and institutions that are consistent with these very false ideas. [04:16]
institutions:n.机构;慈善机构;风俗习惯,制度;(institution的复数) consistent:adj.始终如一的,一致的;坚持的;
And that's how the industrial revolution created a factory system in which there was really nothing you could possibly get out of your day's work, except for the pay at the end of the day. [04:26]
industrial revolution:n.工业革命;
Because the father -- one of the fathers of the Industrial Revolution, Adam Smith -- was convinced that human beings were by their very natures lazy, and wouldn't do anything unless you made it worth their while, and the way you made it worth their while was by incentivizing , by giving them rewards. [04:37]
convinced:adj.坚信; v.使确信; (convince的过去分词和过去式) you made it:你做到了;你成功了; incentivizing:以物质刺激鼓励;
That was the only reason anyone ever did anything. [04:53]
So we created a factory system consistent with that false view of human nature . [04:56]
human nature:n.人性;
But once that system of production was in place, there was really no other way for people to operate, except in a way that was consistent with Adam Smith's vision . [05:01]
vision:n.视力;美景;幻象;想象力;v.想象;显现;梦见;
So the work example is merely an example of how false ideas can create a circumstance that ends up making them true. [05:12]
merely:adv.仅仅,只不过;只是; circumstance:n.环境,情况;事件;境遇;
It is not true that you "just can't get good help anymore." [05:23]
It is true that you "can't get good help anymore" [05:29]
when you give people work to do that is demeaning and soulless . [05:34]
demeaning:adj.降低身份的;失去尊严的;v.降低身份;贬低;使失尊严;(demean的现在分词) soulless:adj.没有灵魂的;没有精神的;卑鄙的;无情的;
And interestingly enough, Adam Smith -- the same guy who gave us this incredible invention of mass production, and division of labor [05:39]
interestingly:adv.有趣地; incredible:adj.难以置信的,惊人的; mass:n.块,团; adj.群众的,民众的; v.聚集起来,聚集; division:n.师;分配;分开;分歧;
- understood this. [05:47]
He said, of people who worked in assembly lines, of men who worked in assembly lines, he says: "He generally becomes as stupid as it is possible for a human being to become." [05:48]
assembly:n.装配;集会,集合; generally:adv.通常;普遍地,一般地;
Now, notice the word here is "become." [06:01]
'"He generally becomes as stupid as it is possible for a human being to become." [06:03]
Whether he intended it or not, what Adam Smith was telling us there, is that the very shape of the institution within which people work creates people who are fitted to the demands of that institution and deprives people of the opportunity to derive the kinds of satisfactions from their work that we take for granted . [06:09]
intended:adj.预定的;计划的;v.打算;计划;想要;(intend的过去分词和过去式) deprives:vt.使丧失,剥夺; derive:vt.源于;得自;vi.起源; take for granted:认为…理所当然;
The thing about science -- natural science -- is that we can spin fantastic theories about the cosmos , and have complete confidence that the cosmos is completely indifferent to our theories. [06:29]
natural science:n.自然科学; spin:v.旋转;纺纱;吐丝;纺线;n.头晕;(快速)旋转;常用于英式英语;晕头转向; fantastic:奇异的,空想的 cosmos:n.宇宙;和谐;秩序;大波斯菊; confidence:n.信心;信任;秘密;adj.(美)诈骗的;骗得信任的; indifferent to:无兴趣,不关心;冷漠;不在乎;
It's going to work the same damn way no matter what theories we have about the cosmos. [06:43]
damn:v.谴责;该死;n.诅咒;adj.可恶的; no matter what:不管什么…;
But we do have to worry about the theories we have of human nature, because human nature will be changed by the theories we have that are designed to explain and help us understand human beings. [06:48]
The distinguished anthropologist , Clifford Geertz, said, years ago, that human beings are the "unfinished animals." [07:03]
distinguished:adj.尊贵的; v.区分; anthropologist:n.人类学家;人类学者;
And what he meant by that was that it is only human nature to have a human nature that is very much the product of the society in which people live. [07:12]
That human nature, that is to say our human nature, is much more created than it is discovered. [07:23]
that is to say:就是;即;换言之;
We design human nature by designing the institutions within which people live and work. [07:30]
And so you people -- pretty much the closest I ever get to being with masters of the universe -- you people should be asking yourself a question, as you go back home to run your organizations . [07:37]
organizations:n.组织,构造,有机体(organization的复数);组织机构;
Just what kind of human nature do you want to help design? [07:50]
Thank you. [07:54]
(Applause) [07:55]
Thanks. [07:57]