TED英語(yǔ)演講：我們不該放棄對(duì)成功的想象
著名作家Alain檢視我們對(duì)成功和失敗的看法，質(zhì)疑它們所代表的意義。成功都是配得的嗎?失敗呢?聽(tīng)他機(jī)智地解答我們對(duì)成功的迷思，幫助我們擺脫勢(shì)利，重新尋回對(duì)工作的熱情。下面是小編為大家收集關(guān)于TED英語(yǔ)演講：我們不該放棄對(duì)成功的想象，歡迎借鑒參考。
演說(shuō)題目：我們不該放棄對(duì)成功的想象!
演講者：Alain de Botton
中英文翻譯：
For me they normally happen, these career crises, often, actually, on a Sunday evening, just as the sun is starting to set,
我經(jīng)常對(duì)事業(yè)感到恐慌，周日下午，晚霞灑滿天空，
and the gap between my hopes for myself and the reality of my life starts to diverge so painfully that I normally end up weeping into a pillow.
我的理想和現(xiàn)實(shí)的差距卻是這樣殘酷，令我沮喪的只想抱頭痛哭。
I'm mentioning all this -- I'm mentioning all this because I think this is not merely a personal problem; you may think I'm wrong in this, but I think we live in an age when our lives are regularly punctuated by career crises,
我提出這件事是因?yàn)?，我認(rèn)為不只有我這么感覺(jué)。你可能不這么認(rèn)為，但我感覺(jué)我們活在一個(gè)充滿事業(yè)恐慌的時(shí)代，
by moments when what we thought we knew -- about our lives, about our careers -- comes into contact with a threatening sort of reality.
就在我們認(rèn)為我們已經(jīng)理解我們的人生和事業(yè)時(shí)，真實(shí)便來(lái)恐嚇我們。
It's perhaps easier now than ever before to make a good living. It's perhaps harder than ever before to stay calm, to be free of career anxiety. I want to look now, if I may, at some of the reasons why we might be feeling anxiety about our careers.
現(xiàn)在或許比以前更容易過(guò)上好生活，但卻比以前更難保持冷靜，或不為事業(yè)感到焦慮。今天我想要檢視，我們對(duì)事業(yè)感到焦慮的一些原因，
Why we might be victims of these career crises, as we're weeping softly into our pillows. One of the reasons why we might be suffering is that we are surrounded by snobs.
為何我們會(huì)變成事業(yè)焦慮的囚徒。不時(shí)抱頭痛哭，折磨人的因素之一是，我們身邊的那些勢(shì)利鬼。
In a way, I've got some bad news, particularly to anybody who's come to Oxford from abroad. There's a real problem with snobbery, because sometimes people from outside the U.K. imagine that snobbery is a distinctively U.K. phenomenon, fixated on country houses and titles.
對(duì)那些來(lái)訪牛津大學(xué)的外國(guó)友人，我有一個(gè)壞消息，這里的人都很勢(shì)利。有時(shí)候，英國(guó)以外的人會(huì)想象，勢(shì)利是英國(guó)人特有的個(gè)性，來(lái)自那些鄉(xiāng)間別墅和頭銜爵位。
The bad news is that's not true. Snobbery is a global phenomenon; we area global organization, this is a global phenomenon. What is a snob? A snob is anybody who takes a small part of you, and uses that to come to a complete vision of who you are. That is snobbery.
壞消息是，并不只是這樣，勢(shì)利是一個(gè)全球性的問(wèn)題，我們是個(gè)全球性的組織，這是個(gè)全球性的問(wèn)題，它確實(shí)存在。勢(shì)利是什么?，勢(shì)利是以一小部分的你，來(lái)判別你的全部?jī)r(jià)值，那就是勢(shì)利。
The dominant kind of snobbery that exists nowadays is job snobbery. You encounter it within minutes at a party, when you get asked that famous iconic question of the early 21st century, "What do you do?"
今日最主要的勢(shì)利，就是對(duì)職業(yè)的勢(shì)利。你在派對(duì)中不用一分鐘就能體會(huì)到，當(dāng)你被問(wèn)到這個(gè)21世紀(jì)初，最有代表性的問(wèn)題：你是做什么的?
According to how you answer that question, people are either incredibly delighted to see you, or look at their watch and make their excuses.
你的答案將會(huì)決定對(duì)方接下來(lái)的反應(yīng)，對(duì)方可能對(duì)你在場(chǎng)感到榮幸，或是開(kāi)始看表，然后想個(gè)借口離開(kāi)。
Now, the opposite of a snob is your mother.Not necessarily your mother, or indeed mine, but, as it were, the ideal mother, somebody who doesn't care about your achievements.
勢(shì)利鬼的另一個(gè)極端，是你的母親。不一定是你我的母親，而是一個(gè)理想母親的想象，一個(gè)永遠(yuǎn)義無(wú)反顧的愛(ài)你，不在乎你是否功成名就的人。
Unfortunately, most people are not our mothers. Most people make a strict correlation between how much time, and if you like, love -- not romantic love, though that may be something -- but love in general, respect --they are willing to accord us, that will be strictly defined by our position in the social hierarchy.
不幸地，大部分世人都不懷有這種母愛(ài)，大部分世人決定要花費(fèi)多少時(shí)間，給于多少愛(ài)，不一定是浪漫的那種愛(ài)，雖然那也包括在內(nèi)，世人所愿意給我們的關(guān)愛(ài)、尊重，取決于我們的社會(huì)地位。
And that's a lot of the reason why we care so much about our careers and indeed start caring so much about material goods. You know, we're often told that we live in very materialistic times, that we're all greedy people. I don't think we are particularly materialistic.
這就是為什么我們?nèi)绱嗽诤跏聵I(yè)和成就，以及看重金錢(qián)和物質(zhì)的原因。我們時(shí)常被告知我們處在一個(gè)物質(zhì)掛帥的時(shí)代，我們都是貪婪的人。
I think we live in a society which has simply pegged certain emotional rewards to the acquisition of material goods. It's not the material goods we want;
我并不認(rèn)為我們特別看重物質(zhì)，而是活在一個(gè)物質(zhì)能帶來(lái)大量情感反饋的時(shí)代。
It's the rewards we want. It's a new way of looking at luxury goods. The next time you see somebody driving a Ferrari, don't think, "This is somebody who's greedy."
我們想要的不是物質(zhì)，而是背后的情感反饋，這賦予奢侈品一個(gè)嶄新的意義。下次你看到那些開(kāi)著法拉利跑車(chē)的人，你不要想“這個(gè)人很貪婪”，
Think, "This is somebody who is incredibly vulnerable and in need of love." Feel sympathy, rather than contempt.
而是“這是一個(gè)無(wú)比脆弱、急需愛(ài)的人”，也就是說(shuō)，同情他們，不要鄙視他們。
There are other reasons --There are other reasons why it's perhaps harder now to feel calm than ever before. One of these, and it's paradoxical, because it's linked to something that's rather nice, is the hope we all have for our careers.
還有一些其他的理由，使得我們更難獲得平靜。這有些矛盾，因?yàn)閾碛凶约旱氖聵I(yè)，是一件不錯(cuò)的事，
Never before have expectations been so high about what human beings can achieve with their life span.We're told, from many sources, that any onecan achieve anything.
但同時(shí)，人們也從未對(duì)自己的短暫一生有過(guò)這么高的期待。這個(gè)世界用許多方法告訴我們，我們無(wú)所不能。
We've done away with the caste system, we are now in a system where anyone can rise to any position they please. And it's a beautiful idea. Along with that is a kind of spirit of equality;
我們不再受限于階級(jí)，而是只要靠著努力就能攀上我們想到的高度。這是個(gè)美麗的理想，出于一種生而平等的精神，
we're all basically equal. There are no strictly defined hierarchies. There is one really big problem with this, and that problem is envy.
我們基本上是平等的，沒(méi)有任何明顯的階級(jí)存在。這造成了一個(gè)嚴(yán)重的問(wèn)題，這個(gè)問(wèn)題是嫉妒。
Envy, it's a real taboo to mention envy, but if there's one dominant emotion in modern society, that is envy. And it's linked to the spirit of equality.
嫉妒在今日是一種禁忌話題，但這個(gè)社會(huì)上最普遍的感受，便是嫉妒。嫉妒來(lái)自生而平等的精神。
Let me explain. I think it would be very unusual for anyone here, or anyone watching, to be envious of the Queen of England. Even though she is much richer than any of you are, and she's got a very large house, the reason why we don't envy her is because she's too weird.
這么說(shuō)吧，我想在場(chǎng)的各位，或是觀看這個(gè)影片的眾位，很少有人會(huì)嫉妒英國(guó)女皇。雖然她比我們都更加富有，住在一個(gè)巨大的房子里，我們不會(huì)嫉妒她的原因是她太怪異了。
She's simply too strange. We can't relate to her, she speaks in a funny way, she comes from an odd place. So we can't relate to her, and when you can't relate to somebody, you don't envy them.
她太怪了，我們無(wú)法想象自己與她扯上關(guān)系，她的語(yǔ)調(diào)令人發(fā)噱，來(lái)自一個(gè)奇怪的地方，我們與她毫無(wú)關(guān)聯(lián)。當(dāng)你認(rèn)為你與這個(gè)人毫無(wú)關(guān)聯(lián)時(shí)，你便不會(huì)嫉妒。
The closer two people are -- in age, in background, in the process of identification -- the more there's a danger of envy, which is incidentally why none of you should ever go to a school reunion, because there is no stronger reference point than people one was at school with.
越是兩個(gè)年齡、背景相近的人，越容易陷入嫉妒的苦海，所以千萬(wàn)避免去參加同學(xué)會(huì)。因?yàn)闆](méi)有比同學(xué)，更強(qiáng)烈的參照點(diǎn)了。
The problem of modern society is it turns the whole world into a school. Everybody's wearing jeans, everybody's the same. And yet, they're not. So there's a spirit of equality combined with deep inequality, which can make for a very stressful situation.
今日社會(huì)的問(wèn)題是，它把全世界變成了一個(gè)學(xué)校，每個(gè)人都穿著牛仔褲，每個(gè)人都一樣。但并非如此，當(dāng)生而平等的概念遇上現(xiàn)實(shí)中懸殊的不平等，巨大的壓力就出現(xiàn)了。
It's probably as unlikely that you would nowadays become as rich and famous as Bill Gates, as it was unlikely in the17th century that you would accede to the ranks of the French aristocracy.
今日你變得像比爾-蓋茨一樣，有錢(qián)又出名的機(jī)會(huì)，大概就跟你在十七世紀(jì)，成為法國(guó)貴族一樣困難。
But the point is, it doesn't feel that way. It's made to feel, by magazines and other media outlets, that if you've got energy, a few bright ideas about technology, a garage -- you, too, could start a major thing.
但重點(diǎn)是，感覺(jué)卻差別很大。今日的雜志和其它媒體讓我們感覺(jué)，只要你有沖勁、對(duì)科技有一些新穎的想法，再加上一個(gè)車(chē)庫(kù)，你就可以踏上比爾的道路。
The consequences of this problem make themselves felt in bookshops. When you go to a large bookshop and look at the self-help sections, as I sometimes do -- if you analyze self-help book sproduced in the world today, there are basically two kinds.
我們可以從書(shū)店中感受到這些問(wèn)題所造成的后果，當(dāng)你像我一樣到大型書(shū)店里的，自我?guī)椭鷷?shū)籍類(lèi)。如果你分析現(xiàn)在出版的這些自我?guī)椭?lèi)書(shū)籍，它們基本上分成兩種，
The first kind tells you, "You can do it! You can make it! Anything's possible!" The other kind tells you how to cope with what we politely call "low self-esteem," or impolitely call, "feeling very bad about yourself."
第一種告訴你“你做得到!你能成功!沒(méi)有不可能!”另外一種則教導(dǎo)你如何處理，我們婉轉(zhuǎn)地稱(chēng)呼為“缺乏自信”，或是直接了當(dāng)?shù)胤Q(chēng)為“自我感覺(jué)極差”。
There's a real correlation between a society that tells people that they can do anything, and the existence of low self-esteem. So that's another way in which something quite positive can have a nasty kickback.
這兩者中間有著絕對(duì)的關(guān)聯(lián)，一個(gè)告訴人們他們無(wú)所不能的社會(huì)，和缺乏自信有著絕對(duì)的關(guān)聯(lián)。另一件好事也會(huì)帶來(lái)壞影響的例子，
There is another reason why we might be feeling more anxious --about our careers, about our status in the world today, than ever before. And it's, again, linked to something nice. And that nice thing is called meritocracy.
還有一些其它原因造成我們對(duì)事業(yè)，對(duì)我們?cè)谑郎系牡匚桓械角八从械慕箲]，再一次地，它也和好的概念有關(guān)，這個(gè)好概念叫做“功績(jī)主義”。
Everybody, all politicians on Left and Right, agree that meritocracy is a great thing, and we should all be trying to make our societies really, really meritocratic. In other words -- what is a meritocratic society?
現(xiàn)在，無(wú)論是左傾還是右傾的政治人物，都同意“功績(jī)主義”是個(gè)好事。我們應(yīng)該盡力讓我們的社會(huì)崇尚“功績(jī)主義”，換句話說(shuō)，一個(gè)崇尚“功績(jī)主義”的社會(huì)是什么樣的呢?
A meritocratic society is one in which, if you've got talent and energy and skill, you will get to the top, nothing should hold you back. It's a beautiful idea.
一個(gè)崇尚功績(jī)主義的社會(huì)相信，如果你有才能、精力和技術(shù)，你就會(huì)飛黃騰達(dá)，沒(méi)有什么能阻止你，這是個(gè)美好的想法。
The problem is, if you really believe in a society where those who merit to get to the top, get to the top, you'll also, by implication, and in a far more nasty way, believe in a society where those who deserve to get to the bottom also get to the bottom and stay there.
問(wèn)題是，如果你打從心里相信，那些在社會(huì)頂層的人都是精英，同時(shí)你也暗示著，以一種殘忍的方法，相信那些在社會(huì)底層的人，天生就該在社會(huì)底層，
I nother words, your position in life comes to seem not accidental, but merited and deserved. And that makes failure seem much more crushing.
換句話說(shuō)，你在社會(huì)的地位不是偶然，而都是你配得的，這種想法讓失敗變得更殘忍。
You know, in the Middle Ages, in England, when you met a very poor person, that person would be described as an "unfortunate" -- literally, somebody who had not been blessed by fortune, an unfortunate.
你知道，在中世紀(jì)的英國(guó)，但你遇見(jiàn)一個(gè)非常窮苦的人，你會(huì)認(rèn)為他“不走運(yùn)”，直接地說(shuō)，那些不被幸運(yùn)之神眷顧的人。
Nowadays, particularly in the United States, if you meet someone at the bottom of society, they may unkindly be described as a "loser." There's a real difference between an unfortunate and a loser,
不幸的人，尤其在美國(guó)，如果人們遇見(jiàn)一些社會(huì)底層的人，他們被刻薄地形容成“失敗者”，“不走運(yùn)”和“失敗者”中間有很大的差別，
and that shows 400 years of evolution in society and our belief in who is responsible for our lives. It's no longer the gods, it's us. We're in the driving seat.
這表現(xiàn)了四百年的社會(huì)演變，我們對(duì)誰(shuí)該為人生負(fù)責(zé)看法的改變，神不再掌握我們的命運(yùn)，我們掌握自己的人生。
That's exhilarating if you're doing well, and very crushing if you're not. It leads, in the worst cases -- in the analysis of a sociologist like Emil Durkheim -- it leads to increased rates of suicide.
如果你做的很好，這是件令人愉快的事。相反的情況，就很令人沮喪。社會(huì)學(xué)家Emil，Durkheim分析發(fā)現(xiàn)，這提高了自殺率，
There are more suicides in developed, individualistic countries than in any other part of the world. And some of the reason for that is that people take what happens to them extremely personally -- they own their success, but they also own their failure.
追求個(gè)人主義的發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家的自殺率，高過(guò)于世界上其它地方，原因是人們把發(fā)生在自己身上的事情，全當(dāng)作自己的責(zé)任，人們擁有成功，也擁有失敗。
Is there any relief from some of thesepressures that I've been outlining? I think there is. I just want to turn to afew of them. Let's take meritocracy. This idea that everybody deserves to getwhere they get to, I think it's a crazy idea, completely crazy.
有什么方法可以解決剛才提到的這些焦慮呢?是有的。我想提出幾項(xiàng)，先說(shuō)“功績(jī)主義”，也就是相信每個(gè)人的地位忠實(shí)呈現(xiàn)他的能力，我認(rèn)為這種想法太瘋狂了，
I will support any politician of Left and Right, with any halfway-decent meritocratic idea; I am a meritocrat in that sense. But I think it's insane to believe that we will ever make a society that is genuinely meritocratic; it's an impossible dream.
我可以支持所有相信這個(gè)想法的，無(wú)論是左傾還是右傾的政治家，我同樣相信功績(jī)主義，但我認(rèn)為一個(gè)完全徹底以能力取決地位的社會(huì)，是個(gè)不可能的夢(mèng)想。
The idea that we will make a society where literally everybody is graded, the good at the top, bad at the bottom, exactly done as it should be, is impossible. There are simply too many random factors:
這種我們能創(chuàng)造一個(gè)每個(gè)人的能力都忠實(shí)地被分級(jí)，好的就到頂端，壞的就到底部，而且保證過(guò)程毫無(wú)差錯(cuò)，這是不可能的。這世上有太多偶然的契機(jī)，
accidents, accidents of birth, accidents of things dropping on people's heads, illnesses, etc. We will never get to grade them, never get to grade people as they should.
不同的機(jī)運(yùn)，出身，疾病，從天而降的意外等等，我們卻無(wú)法將這些因素分級(jí)，無(wú)法完全忠實(shí)的將人分級(jí)。
I'm drawn to a lovely quote by St. Augustine in "The City of God," where he says, "It's a sin to judge any man by his post." In modern English that would mean it's a sinto come to any view of who you should talk to, dependent on their business card. It's not the post that should count.
我很喜歡圣奧古斯丁在“上帝之城”里的一句話，他說(shuō)“以社會(huì)地位評(píng)價(jià)人是一種罪”。用現(xiàn)在的口吻說(shuō)，看一個(gè)人的名片來(lái)決定你是否要和他交談是罪。
According to St. Augustine, only God can really put everybody in their place; he's going to do that on the Day of Judgment, with angels and trumpets, and the skies will open. Insane idea, if you're a secularist person, like me.
對(duì)圣奧古斯丁來(lái)說(shuō)，人的價(jià)值不在他的社會(huì)地位，只有神可以決定一個(gè)人的價(jià)值，他將在天使圍繞、小號(hào)奏鳴，天空破開(kāi)的世界末日給于最后審判，如果你是像我一樣的世俗論者，這想法太瘋狂了，
But something very valuable in that idea, nevertheless.In other words, hold your horses when you're coming to judge people. You don't necessarily know what someone's truevalue is.
但這想法有它的價(jià)值。換句話說(shuō)，最好在你開(kāi)口評(píng)論他人之前懸崖勒馬，你很有可能不知道他人的真正價(jià)值，這是不可測(cè)的。
That is an unknown part of them, and we shouldn't behave as though it is known. There is another source of solace and comfort for all this. When we think about failing in life, when we think about failure, one of the reasons why we fear failing is not just a loss of income, a loss of status.
于是，我們不該為人下定論，還有另一種慰藉，當(dāng)我們想象人生中的失敗，我們恐懼的原因并不只是失去收入，失去地位，
What we fear is the judgment and ridicule of others. And it exists.The number one organ of ridicule, nowadays, is the newspaper. If you open the newspaper any day of the week,
我們害怕的是他人的評(píng)論和嘲笑，它的確存在。今日世界上最會(huì)嘲笑人的便是報(bào)紙。每天我們打開(kāi)報(bào)紙，
it's full of people who've messed up their lives. They've slept with the wrong person, taken the wrong substance, passed the wrong piece of legislation -- whatever it is, and then are fit for ridicule. In other words, they have failed.
都能看到那些把生活搞砸的人，他們與錯(cuò)誤對(duì)象共枕，使用錯(cuò)誤藥物，通過(guò)錯(cuò)誤法案種種，讓人在茶余飯后拿來(lái)挖苦的新聞，這些人失敗了，
And they are described as "losers." Now, is there any alternative to this? I think the Western tradition shows us one glorious alternative, which is tragedy.
我們稱(chēng)他們?yōu)?ldquo;失敗者”，還有其它做法嗎?西方傳統(tǒng)給了我們一個(gè)光榮的選擇，就是“悲劇”。
Tragic art, as it developed in the theaters of ancient Greece, in the fifth century B.C., was essentially an art form devoted to tracing how people fail, and also according them a level of sympathy, which ordinary life would not necessarily accord them.
悲劇的藝術(shù)來(lái)自古希臘。西元前五世紀(jì)，這是一個(gè)專(zhuān)屬于描繪人類(lèi)失敗過(guò)程的藝術(shù)，同時(shí)也加入某種程度的同情。在現(xiàn)代生活并不常給于同情時(shí)。
A few years ago, I was thinking about this, and I went to "The Sunday Sport," a tabloid newspaper I don't recommend you start reading if you're not familiar with it already.
幾年前我思考著這件事，我去見(jiàn)“周日運(yùn)動(dòng)期刊”，如果你還不認(rèn)識(shí)這個(gè)小報(bào)，我建議你也別去讀。
And I went to talk to them about certain of the great tragedies of Western art. I wanted to see how they would seize the bare bones of certain stories, if they came in as a news item at the news desk on a Saturday afternoon.
我去找他們聊聊，西方藝術(shù)中最偉大的幾個(gè)悲劇故事，我想知道他們會(huì)如何露骨地以新聞的方式，在周日下午的新聞臺(tái)上，呈現(xiàn)這些經(jīng)典悲劇故事。
I mentioned Othello; they'd not heard of it but were fascinated.I asked them to write a headline for the story. They came up with "Love-Crazed Immigrant Kills Senator's Daughter." Splashed across the headline.
我談到他們從未耳聞的《奧賽羅》，他們嘖嘖稱(chēng)奇。我要求他們以?shī)W賽羅的故事寫(xiě)一句頭條，他們寫(xiě)道“移民因愛(ài)生恨，刺殺參議員之女”大頭條。
I gave them the plotline of Madame Bovary. Again, a book they were enchanted to discover. And they wrote "Shopaholic Adulteress Swallows Arsenic After Credit Fraud."
我告訴他們《包法利夫人》的故事，他們?cè)僖淮胃械襟@異萬(wàn)分，寫(xiě)道“不倫購(gòu)物狂信用欺詐，出墻婦女吞砒霜”。
And then my favorite -- they really do have a kind of genius of their own, these guys -- my favorite is Sophocles' Oedipus the King: "Sex With Mum Was Blinding."
我最喜歡的是，這些記者真的很有才，我最喜歡的是索福克勒斯的《俄狄浦斯王》，“與母親的盲目性愛(ài)”。(掌聲)
In a way, if you like, at one end of the spectrum of sympathy, you've got the tabloid newspaper. At the other end of the spectrum, you've got tragedy and tragic art.
如果同情心的一個(gè)極端，是這些八卦小報(bào)。另一個(gè)極端便是悲劇和悲劇藝術(shù)，
And I suppose I'm arguing that we should learn a little bit about what's happening in tragic art. It would be insane to call Hamlet a loser. He is not a loser, though he has lost.
我想說(shuō)的是或許我們?cè)搹谋瘎∷囆g(shù)中學(xué)習(xí)，你不會(huì)說(shuō)漢姆雷特是個(gè)失敗者，雖然他失敗了，他卻不是一個(gè)失敗者。
And I think that is the message of tragedy to us, and why it's so very, very important, I think.
我想這就是悲劇所要告訴我們的，也是我認(rèn)為非常重要的一點(diǎn)。
The other thing about modern society and why it causes this anxiety, is that we have nothing at its center that is non-human. We are the first society to be living in a world where we don't worship anything other than ourselves.
現(xiàn)代社會(huì)讓我們焦慮的另一個(gè)緣故是，我們除了人類(lèi)以外沒(méi)有其它重心。我們是從古至今的第一個(gè)無(wú)神社會(huì)，除了我們自己以外，
We think very highly of ourselves, and so we should; we've put people on the Moon, done all sorts of extraordinary things. And so we tend to worship ourselves.
我們不膜拜任何事物，我們對(duì)自己評(píng)價(jià)極高，為什么不呢，我們把人送上月球，達(dá)成了許多不可思議的事，我們習(xí)慣崇拜自己。
Our heroes are human heroes. That's a very new situation. Most other societies have had, right at their center, the worship of something transcendent: a god, a spirit, a natural force, the universe, whatever it is --
我們的英雄是人類(lèi)，這是一個(gè)嶄新的情況。歷史中大部分的社會(huì)重心都是敬拜一位人類(lèi)以外的靈體，神，自然力、宇宙，總之是人類(lèi)以外的什么。
something else that is being worshiped. We've slightly lost the habit of doing that, which is, I think, why we're particularly drawn to nature.
我們逐漸失去了這種習(xí)慣，我想這也是我們?cè)絹?lái)越被大自然吸引的原因。
Not for the sake of our health, though it's often presented that way, but because it's an escape from the human anthill. It's an escape from our own competition, and our own dramas.
雖然我們時(shí)常顯示是為了健康，但我不這么認(rèn)為，我認(rèn)為是為了逃避人群的蟻丘，逃避人們的瘋狂競(jìng)爭(zhēng)，我們的戲劇化，
And that's why ween joy looking at glaciers and oceans, and contemplating the Earth from outside its perimeters, etc. We like to feel in contact with something that is non-human, and that is so deeply important to us.
這便是為什么我們?nèi)绱讼矚g看海、觀賞冰山，從外太空觀賞地球等等，我們希望重新和那些“非人類(lèi)”的事物有所連接，那對(duì)我們來(lái)說(shuō)很重要。
What I think I've been talking about really is success and failure. And one of the interesting things about success is that we think we know what it means. If I said that there's somebody behind the screen who's very successful, certain ideas would immediately come to mind.
我一直在談?wù)摮晒褪?。成功的有趣之處是，我們時(shí)常以為我們知道成功是什么，如果我現(xiàn)在說(shuō)，這個(gè)屏幕后面站著一個(gè)非常成功的人，你心里馬上就會(huì)產(chǎn)生一些想法。
You'd think that person might have made a lot of money, achieved renown in some field. My own theory of success -- I'm somebody who's very interested in success, I really want to be successful, always thinking, how can I be more successful?
你會(huì)想，這個(gè)人可能很有錢(qián)，在某些領(lǐng)域赫赫有名，我對(duì)成功的理解是。首先，我是一個(gè)對(duì)成功非常有興趣的人，我想要成功，我總是想著“要怎樣我才能更成功?”，
But as I get older, I'm also very nuanced about what that word "success" might mean.Here's an insight that I've had about success: You can't be successful at everything.
但當(dāng)我漸漸長(zhǎng)大，我越來(lái)越疑惑，究竟什么是“成功”的真正意義。我對(duì)成功有一些觀察，你不可能在所有事情上成功。
We hear a lot of talk about work-life balance. Nonsense. You can't have it all. You can't. So any vision of success has to admit what it's losing out on, where the element of loss is.
我們常聽(tīng)到有關(guān)工作和休閑的平衡，鬼話。你不可能全部擁有。你就是不能。所有對(duì)成功的想象，必須承認(rèn)他們同時(shí)也失去了一些東西，放棄了一些東西。
And I think any wise life will accept, as I say, that there is going to be an element where we're not succeeding.
我想一個(gè)智者能接受，如我所說(shuō)，總是有什么是我們得不到的。
And the thing about a successful life is that a lot of the time, our ideas of what it would mean to live successfully are not our own. They're sucked in from other people; chiefly, if you're a man, your father,
常常，我們對(duì)一個(gè)成功人生的想象，不是來(lái)自我們自己，而是來(lái)自他人。如果你是個(gè)男人，你會(huì)以父親做榜樣，
and if you're a woman, your mother. Psychoanalysis has been drumming home this message for about 80 years. No one's quite listening hard enough, but I very much believe it's true.
如果你是個(gè)女人，你會(huì)以母親做榜樣，精神分析已經(jīng)重復(fù)說(shuō)了80年，但很少有人真正聽(tīng)進(jìn)去。但我的確相信這件事。
And we also suck in messages from everything from the television, to advertising, to marketing, etc. These are hugely powerful forces that define what we want and how we view ourselves.
我們也會(huì)從電視、廣告，各樣的市場(chǎng)宣傳中得到我們對(duì)成功的想象。這些東西影響了我們，對(duì)我們自己的看法、我們想要什么。
When we're told that banking is a very respectable profession, a lot of us want to go into banking. When banking is no longer so respectable, we lose interest in banking. We are highly open to suggestion.
當(dāng)我們聽(tīng)說(shuō)銀行業(yè)是個(gè)受人尊敬的行業(yè)，許多人便加入銀行業(yè)，當(dāng)銀行業(yè)不再受人尊敬，我們便對(duì)銀行業(yè)失去興趣，我們很能接受建議。
So what I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas, and make sure that we own them; that we are truly the authors of our own ambitions.
我想說(shuō)的是，我們不該放棄，我們對(duì)成功的想象，但必須確定那些都是我們自己想要的，我們應(yīng)該專(zhuān)注于我們自己的目標(biāo)，確定這目標(biāo)是我們真正想要的，確定這個(gè)夢(mèng)想藍(lán)圖出自自己筆下。
Because it's bad enough not getting what you want, but it's even worse to have an idea of what it is you want, and find out, at the end of the journey, that it isn't, in fact, what you wanted all along.
因?yàn)榈貌坏阶约合胍囊呀?jīng)夠糟糕了，更糟糕的是，在人生旅程的終點(diǎn)，發(fā)覺(jué)你所追求的從來(lái)就不是你真正想要的。
So, I'm going to end it there. But what I really want to stress is: by all means, success, yes. But let's accept the strangeness of some of our ideas.
我必須在這里做個(gè)總結(jié)，但我真正想說(shuō)的是，成功是必要的，但請(qǐng)接受自己怪異的想法，
Let's probe away at our notions of success. Let's make sure our ideas of success are truly our own.Thank you very much.
朝著自己對(duì)成功的定義出發(fā)，確定我們對(duì)成功的定義都是出于自己的真心。非常感謝各位。
Chris Anderson: That was fascinating. But how do you reconcile this idea of it being bad to think of someone as a "loser," with the idea that a lot of people like, of seizing control of your life, and that a society that encourages that, perhaps has to have some winners and losers?
主持人：說(shuō)的真好。你要如何與自己和解，把一個(gè)人稱(chēng)為失敗者是糟糕的，但許多人都想掌握自己的生活，一個(gè)追求這些的社會(huì)難免要有贏家和輸家。
Alain De Botton: Yes, I think it's merely the randomness of the winning and losing process that I want to stress, because the emphasis nowadays is so much on the justice of everything, and politicians always talk about justice. Now I'm a firm believer in justice, I just think that it's impossible.
阿蘭?德波頓：是的，我只是想提出，在輸贏的過(guò)程中有太多偶然，今日我們太講求所有事情的正義和公平，政治人物總是在談?wù)撜x，我非常支持正義，我只是覺(jué)得那不可能，
So we should do everything we can to pursue it, but we should always remember that whoever is facing us, whatever has happened in their lives, there will be a strong element of the haphazard.
我們應(yīng)該盡力，盡力去追求正義，但我們也應(yīng)該記得，我們所面對(duì)的，無(wú)論在他們?nèi)松邪l(fā)生過(guò)什么，偶然總是一個(gè)強(qiáng)烈的因素，
That's what I'm trying to leave room for; otherwise, it can get quite claustrophobic.
我希望大家留一點(diǎn)空間這么想，不然真令人有一種幽閉恐怖癥的感覺(jué)。
CA: I mean, do you believe that you can combine your kind of kinder, gentler philosophy of work with a successful economy?
主持人：我是說(shuō)，你是否相信，在這種溫和的哲學(xué)下，可以產(chǎn)生一個(gè)發(fā)達(dá)的經(jīng)濟(jì)?
Or do you think that you can't, but it doesn't matter that much that we're putting too much emphasis on that?
還是你認(rèn)為那不可行?還是我們這樣反復(fù)提醒人們也不甚重要?
AB: The nightmare thought is that frightening people is the best way to get work out of them, and that somehow the crueler the environment, the more people will rise to the challenge.
阿蘭?德波頓：夢(mèng)魘是相信恐嚇人們是刺激他們發(fā)奮的最好辦法，或是環(huán)境越殘酷，就會(huì)有越多人接受挑戰(zhàn)。
You want to think, who would you like as your ideal dad? And your ideal dad is somebody who is tough but gentle. And it's a very hard line to make. We need fathers, as it were, the exemplary father figures in society, avoiding the two extremes, which is the authoritarian disciplinarian on the one hand, and on the other, the lax, no-rules option.
你必須想，你的理想父親是怎樣的?你的理想父親往往是嚴(yán)厲又溫和的，雖然這界限很難畫(huà)定，我們社會(huì)需要的模范性人物是像一個(gè)理想父親，不要走極端，不要完全集權(quán)、純粹紀(jì)律，也不要模糊馬虎，亂無(wú)規(guī)章。
CA: Alain De Botton.
AB: Thank you very much.
非常感謝.
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