双语反思：放慢你的脚步

 In praise of procrastination¹

　　赞美“拖延”

　　THERE is nothing like a deadline to focus the mind. This columnist² finds that, whenever his editor starts yapping, his mind focuses on the following subjects. (1) His toenails. Surely they need to be cut? (2) Walter Russell Mead³. What is the bearded sage⁴ saying about East Timor in his blog? (3) His dogs. They seem desperate for a walk. (4) His inbox. It would be rude not to reply to that graduate student from the University of Tomsk.

　　没有什么像截止日期一样能够让人“精神集中”。本专栏作者发现，每当他的编辑开始大喊大叫时，他脑子里想的就集中在以下几件事上：（1）他的脚趾甲。它们确实该剪了吗？（2）沃尔特．米德。这个大胡子的智者在博客中发表了关于东帝汶的什么看法？（3）他的狗。它们似乎迫切地想要出去遛遛。（4）他的收件箱。不回复托木斯克大学毕业生发来的邮件是不礼貌的行为。

　　Life is getting trickier⁵ for timewasters. Businesses that depend on just-in-time delivery cannot tolerate lateness. Stockmarkets trade millions of shares every minute. Twenty-four-hour news channels bombard us with information. Blogs and tweets provide a blizzard⁶ of instant comment. The situation is so dire⁷ that a quarter of Americans eat fast food every day.

　　对那些浪费时间的人来说，生活正变得更加棘手。依赖准时交货的企业不能容忍货物迟交。每分钟有数百万的股份在股票市场进行交易。24小时新闻频道用信息“炮轰”着我们。博客和推特提供大量的即时评论。形势如此严峻，以至于四分之一的美国人每天都吃快餐。

　　Employers are getting better at squeezing out time-wasting. ODesk, an American firm that links employers with freelances over the internet, boasts that its software gives buyers an “unprecedented ability” to monitor the people they hire. Last year the Tokyo Stock Exchange shortened its lunch break from a leisurely⁸ 90 minutes to a miserable⁹ 60. High-tech¹⁰ companies such as Google and Hewlett-Packard used to pride themselves on giving their employees time to pursue their own projects. Now they are either cutting back on “tinkering time” or policing it more carefully. And employees are policing themselves: digital tools such as RescueTime allow you to ration¹¹ your access to the internet or to incoming e-mail.

　　在杜绝浪费时间上，雇主们正变得更加精明。美国ODesk公司通过网络建立起雇主和自由职业者之间的联系。令该公司引以为豪的是，它的软件给了买主们一种“前所未有的能力”，这些买主可以通过该软件监视他们雇佣的人。去年，东京股票交易所缩短了午间休市时间，从宽裕的90分钟缩短至只有区区60分钟。谷歌、惠普等高科技公司过去以给员工们时间追求他们自己的项目而感到自豪，现在它们不是缩短了“鼓捣时间”，就是更为仔细地控制这一时间。而且员工们也在自我控制：诸如RescueTime（一款时间管理软件）的各种数字工具能够让你对上网和查收邮件设定时间限制。

　　Compensation is becoming more short-term. The proportion of Americans who are paid by the hour has been rising since the 1970s. Today 59% of Americans (including professionals such as lawyers) are paid by the hour.

　　报酬也正变得更为短期。自20世纪70年代起，按小时付报酬的美国人的比例一直在增加。今天，59%的美国人（包括像律师这样的专业人士）都是按小时付工资。

　　But is it wise to be so obsessed¹² with speed? High-speed trading can lead to market meltdowns, as almost happened on May 6th 2010, unless automatic breaks are installed. And is taking one’s time so bad? Regulators are always warning people not to buy things in the heat of the moment. Procrastinators have a built-in cooling-off period. Businesses are forever saying that they need more creativity. Dithering can help. Ernest Hemingway told a fan who asked him how to write a novel that the first thing to do was to clean the fridge. Steven Johnson, a writer on innovation, argues that some of the best new products are “slow hunches”. Nestlé’s idea of selling coffee in small pods went nowhere for three decades; now it is worth billions.

　　但是如此“痴迷”于速度是明智的吗？高速交易能导致市场崩溃，2010年5月6号发生的事几乎就是这样，除非安装自动停板系统。而且“慢慢来”不好吗？监管者总是警告人们不要冲动购物。拖延者会在心里给自己设定一段冷静期。企业们永远在说它们需要更多的创造力。犹豫可以帮助它们产生创造力。欧内斯特?海明威的一位粉丝曾经问他如何写一部小说，海明威告诉他第一件要做的事是清理冰箱。谈论创新思维的作者史蒂芬?杰克逊认为一些最好的新作品都是“渐进式灵感”的产物。雀巢公司将咖啡装在胶囊里出售的想法曾经30年没有出路，现在它却价值数十亿。

　　These thoughts have been inspired by two (slowly savoured) works of management theory: an obscure article in the Academy of Management Journal by Brian Gunia of Johns Hopkins University; and a popular new book, “Wait: The Art and Science of Delay”, by Frank Partnoy of San Diego University. Mr Gunia and his three co-authors demonstrated, in a series of experiments, that slowing down makes us more ethical¹³. When confronted with a clear choice between right and wrong, people are five times more likely to do the right thing if they have time to think about it than if they are forced to make a snap decision. Organisations with a “fast pulse” (such as banks) are more likely to suffer from ethical problems than those that move more slowly. (The current LIBOR scandal engulfing¹⁴ Barclays in Britain supports this idea.) The authors suggest that companies should make greater use of “cooling-off periods” or introduce several levels of approval for important decisions.

　　这些想法受启发于两大（需要慢慢品味的）管理理论作品：其一是刊登在《管理科学学报》上的一篇深奥的文章，作者是约翰霍普金斯大学的Brian Gunia，其二是一本广受欢迎的新书《等待：拖延的艺术与科学》，作者是圣迭戈大学的弗兰克?帕特诺伊。Gunia和他的三位合著者以一系列的实验论证：放慢速度可以使我们的行为更加合乎道德。当人们面对在对与错之间做出清晰的选择时，如果他们有时间思考，选择做正确的事情的可能性要比他们被迫迅速做出决定大五倍。那些“脉搏跳得很快”的机构（如银行）比那些慢得多的机构遭遇道德问题困扰的可能性更大（眼下英国巴克莱银行卷入LIBOR丑闻一事就支持了这样的观点）。两位作者建议公司们应该更多地利用“冷静期”或者引入多个层级批准重要的决定。

　　Mr Partnoy argues that too many people fail to recognise what good public speakers and comedians¹⁵ all understand: that success depends on knowing when to delay, and for how long. The important thing is not to do things first but to do them right. And doing them right often involves taking a bit more time.

　　弗兰克?帕特诺伊认为太多人没有认识到好的公众演讲者和喜剧演员都明白的一点：成功靠的是知道什么时候拖延，以及拖延多长时间。重要的不是把事情做快，而是把事情做对。而且把事情做对通常花的时间要更多一点。

　　It’s Just Lunch, a dating agency for professionals, prevents customers from judging each other on first impressions by not allowing them to post their photos on its website. Warren Buffett, the world’s most successful investor¹⁶, holds stocks for the long term rather than churning them. He writes that: “lethargy bordering on sloth¹⁷ remains¹⁸ the cornerstone of our investment style.” Fabius Maximus, a Roman general nicknamed “The Delayer”, wore Hannibal’s invading army down by avoiding pitched battles.

　　一家为专业人士提供约会服务的机构It's Just Lunch不允许客户在网上上传自己的照片，以防止他们通过第一印象评判彼此。世界上最成功的投资者沃伦?巴菲特是长期持有股票，而不是经常倒换股票。他写道：“近乎于懒惰的怠倦一直是我们投资风格的基石。”绰号“拖延者”的古罗马将军Fabius Maximus就是通过避免大规模作战而将汉尼拔?巴卡的入侵部队拖垮的。

　　Make haste slowly

　　放慢你匆忙的脚步

　　Delay even works in fields where time might seem to be of the essence. Doctors and pilots can profit from following a checklist, even when doing things they have done many times before. A list slows them down and makes them more methodical, as Atul Gawande describes in “The Checklist Manifesto”. The best sportsmen wait until the last split second before hitting the ball.

　　甚至在时间可能看上去及其重要的领域，拖延也是发挥作用的。即使是在做之前做过很多次的事情，医生和飞行员按照清单做事也是有好处的。正如阿图·葛文德在他的“清单宣言”中描述的那样，一份清单能够使他们放慢速度，让他们更加有条不紊。最好的运动员都是在最后一刹那才击球。

　　Mr Partnoy argues that people need to learn how to manage delay just as they learn how to manage everything else. Sometimes putting things off makes sense: the silliest impositions on our time occasionally have the decency¹⁹ to self-combust. Still, the rules of sensible time-management apply to procrastinators as much as everyone else. Don’t delay tackling problems that will grow worse if ignored, such as your credit-card bill. And create a to-do list to fool yourself into doing your second-most-important job while procrastinating²⁰ over the most important one.

　　弗兰克?帕特诺伊认为人们需要学习如何管理拖延，就像他们学习管理其它事情一样。有时拖延事情是有道理的：the silliest impositions on our time occasionally have the decency to self-combust（这句实在无能为力了）。然而，合理的的时间管理的规则和其他任何人一样也适用于拖延者。有些问题如果忽视就会变得更为严重，处理这样的问题时就不应该拖延，比如你的信用卡账单。而且列一个要做什么事情的清单，在你拖延最重要的工作时，“哄骗”自己去做重要度排在第二位的工作。

　　This sounds too clever by half. But Mr Partnoy is right to warn against business’s growing obsession²¹ with speed for its own sake. And he is right to skewer²² the notion, always popular among managers, that time can be sliced up into segments of equal worth. The secret of modern brain work is that it requires a combination of fast and slow. Brain workers dither for ages but then are struck by a flash of insight or a burst of creativity. Remove all deadlines and you are left with dithering. Become too obsessed with deadlines and you are left with the intellectual equivalent of fast food—and toenails that need cutting.

　　这听起来未免过于聪明了。但是弗兰克?帕特诺伊对企业为了自己的发展越来越“痴迷”于速度提出警告是正确的。而且他反对在管理者中始终很流行的观点，即时间可以被切分成等值的部分也是正确的。现代大脑工作的秘诀是要求快慢结合。脑力工作者犹豫的时间很久但是犹豫过后会突然闪现一个深刻见解或者爆发创造力。取消所有的截止日期会使你一直犹豫不决。老是想着截止日期你脑子里想的事情就只剩下快餐和需要剪的脚趾甲了。

1 procrastination   

n.拖延，耽搁

参考例句：

• Procrastination is the father of failure. 因循是失败的根源。
• Procrastination is the thief of time. 拖延就是浪费时间。

2 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

3 mead   

n.蜂蜜酒

参考例句：

• He gave me a cup of mead.他给我倒了杯蜂蜜酒。
• He drank some mead at supper.晚饭时他喝了一些蜂蜜酒。

4 sage   

n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的

参考例句：

• I was grateful for the old man's sage advice.我很感激那位老人贤明的忠告。
• The sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.这位哲人是百代之师。

5 trickier   

adj.狡猾的( tricky的比较级 )；（形势、工作等）复杂的；机警的；微妙的

参考例句：

• This is the general rule, but some cases are trickier than others. 以上是一般规则，但某些案例会比别的案例更为棘手。 来自互联网
• The lower the numbers go, the trickier the problems get. 武器的数量越低，问题就越复杂。 来自互联网

6 blizzard   

n.暴风雪

参考例句：

• The blizzard struck while we were still on the mountain.我们还在山上的时候暴风雪就袭来了。
• You'll have to stay here until the blizzard blows itself off.你得等暴风雪停了再走。

7 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

8 leisurely   

adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的

参考例句：

• We walked in a leisurely manner,looking in all the windows.我们慢悠悠地走着，看遍所有的橱窗。
• He had a leisurely breakfast and drove cheerfully to work.他从容的吃了早餐，高兴的开车去工作。

9 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

10 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

11 ration   

n.定量(pl.)给养，口粮；vt.定量供应

参考例句：

• The country cut the bread ration last year.那个国家去年削减面包配给量。
• We have to ration the water.我们必须限量用水。

12 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

13 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

14 engulfing   

adj.吞噬的v.吞没，包住( engulf的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• A photographer had fused the lights,engulfing the entire house darkness. 一位摄影师把电灯的保险丝烧断了，使整栋房子陷于黑暗当中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A professional photographer had fused the lights,engulfing the entire house in darkness. 一位职业摄影师把保险丝烧断了使整所房子陷于黑暗当中。 来自辞典例句

15 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句

16 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

17 sloth   

n.[动]树懒；懒惰，懒散

参考例句：

• Absence of competition makes for sloth.没有竞争会导致懒惰。
• The sloth spends most of its time hanging upside down from the branches.大部分时间里树懒都是倒挂在树枝上。

18 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

19 decency   

n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重

参考例句：

• His sense of decency and fair play made him refuse the offer.他的正直感和公平竞争意识使他拒绝了这一提议。
• Your behaviour is an affront to public decency.你的行为有伤风化。

20 procrastinating   

拖延，耽搁( procrastinate的现在分词 )； 拖拉

参考例句：

• Begin while others are procrastinating. Save while others are wasting. 当别人拖延时你开始。当别人浪费时你节约。
• Before adjourning, councillors must stop procrastinating and revisit this controversial issue. 在休会之前，参议员必须停止拖延，重新讨论这个引起争议的问题。

21 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

22 skewer   

n.（烤肉用的）串肉杆；v.用杆串好

参考例句：

• I used a skewer to make an extra hole in my belt.我用扦子在腰带上又打了一个眼儿。
• He skewered his victim through the neck.他用扦子刺穿了受害人的脖子。