赫芬頓 成功的尺度不只是金錢和權力

selects the most compelling short essays, anecdotes, and author interviews from "250 Words," a site developed by Simon & Schuster to explore the best new business books—wherever they may be published.

財富網()定期從網站“250字”(250 Words)挑選最引人入勝的短文、趣聞軼事和作者訪談。美國西蒙與舒斯國際出版公司(Simon & Schuster)開發該網站，旨在探討世界各地最新出版的商業佳作。

2013 was the year when meditation finally stopped being seen as vaguely flaky, vaguely new age-y, and fully entered the mainstream. It was also the year of CEOs coming out. Not as being gay, but as being meditators. Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, told the world that he has been meditating for 25 years. Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater, the biggest hedge fund in the world told us that he has been meditating for over 40 years. Mark Bertolini, the CEO of Aetna, talked about how a skiing accident that left him with a broken neck led him to the rejuvenating practices of yoga and meditation. And these are just three of many.

2013年，冥思終於不再被視爲隱約有些古怪，同時還帶有一絲新紀元味道的行爲，開始全面進入主流。同樣在這一年，許多CEO紛紛“出櫃”，不是作爲同性戀，而是以沉思者的身份。軟件巨頭Salesforce公司CEO馬克o貝尼奧夫告訴世人，他已經冥思了25年之久。全球最大的對衝基金橋水公司(Bridgewater）創始人雷o戴利奧告訴我們，40多年來，他一直在冥思。安泰保險公司(Aetna)CEO馬克o貝托裏尼透露說，在一起滑雪事故中摔斷脖子之後，爲了恢復活力，他開始修行瑜伽和冥思。除以上三位外，這樣的例子還有很多。

My best thinking occurs when I am walking. I was happy to read that one of your favorite phrases is solvitur ambulando— "It is solved by walking." Could you talk about the connection between walking, creativity and clear thinking? How could someone who works in a busy office harness the benefits of walking?

我最好的想法往往出現在我走路的時候。我很高興讀到您最喜愛的警句之一是“致知在躬行”(solvitur ambulando)。您能談談行走、創造力和清晰思維之間的聯繫嗎？整日在辦公室忙碌工作的人如何利用步行的好處？

There are many problems for which walking is the solution. In our culture of overwork, burnout, and exhaustion, how do we tap into our creativity, our wisdom, our capacity for wonder? Solvitur ambulando.

步行是許多問題的解決方案。在這樣一個以勞累過度，倦怠和疲憊爲特徵的職場文化中，我們如何才能挖掘到我們的創造力、智慧，以及我們創造奇蹟的能力呢？邁開雙腿，開始行走吧。

A study led by University of Illinois researchers shows that walking three times a week for forty minutes at one's natural pace helps combat the effects of aging and increases brain connectivity and cognitive performance. So it's not just ruminative, creative thinking that's enhanced by walking -- our focused, get-things-done type of thinking is improved as well. And though he didn't have the science to back up his beliefs about the benefits of walking, Henry David Thoreau was onto this truth long ago. "Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow."

伊利諾伊大學( University of Illinois )研究人員主持的一項研究顯示，每週堅持散步3次，每次40分鐘，不僅有助於對抗衰老的負面影響，還可以增強大腦的連通性和認知能力。所以說，受益於行走的不僅僅是沉思和創造性思維，我們專心致志完成任務的思維能力也可以獲得改善。儘管亨利o大衛o梭羅那個時代還沒有能夠佐證其行走好處多多這一信念的科學，但這位哲人早已深諳這個道理。“據我看，當我的雙腿開始移動，我的思想火花也開始迸發。”

For those of us in busy offices, I highly recommend walking meetings. Silicon Valley executive Nilofer Merchant calls this the "walk the talk" method. If you've got to talk to someone in person, why not do it while walking? "What I love is that you're literally facing your problem or situation together when you walk side by side with someone," she said. "I love that people can't be checking e- mail or Twitter during walking meetings. You're awake to what's happening around you, your senses are heightened and you walk away with something office meetings rarely give you -- a sense of joy." How many times have you experienced a sense of joy in a stale conference room while half listening to an endless PowerPoint presentation? Between our minds and our legs, one of them is going to wander. Sit still and our minds want to ramble. Get up and start walking, and our minds can slow down and be more focused.

至於整日在寫字樓裏忙碌的職場衆生，我強烈建議他們實行“散步開會”。硅谷高管尼洛弗o莫晨特把這種方法稱爲“邊走邊談”(walk the talk)。如果你必須跟某人面談，爲什麼不一邊走一邊談呢？“當你和某人肩並肩走路的時候，你們其實是在一起面對你們的問題或狀況，我非常喜歡這樣做，”她說。“散步開會時，人們就不會不停地查閱電子郵件或微博，這樣多好。你非常清楚周圍正在發生的事情，你的感官也會得以增強，你最終將收穫一件寫字樓會議幾乎無法給予你的東西——喜悅感。”待在一間陳舊的會議室裏，三心二意地聆聽一段沒完沒了的PPT陳述，這個時候你有多少次曾經感受過喜悅感？我們的思想和我們的雙腿，兩者之中有一個註定是要遊蕩的。安靜地坐在那裏，我們的思想會漫遊。起身行走，我們的頭腦就會放慢速度，變得更加專注。

"Going viral has gone viral." That sentence resonated. We've become enamored with spreading ideas fast and effortlessly to the point where we equate the quality of an idea with its "viral potential." You suggest that treating virality as a good in and of itself undermines the pursuit of creating quality content. As the founder of The Huffington Post, how do you balance the need for clicks and traffic with meaningful content that might not trend on Twitter or receive millions of view on YouTube?、

“病毒式傳播已經成爲一種帶毒的理念。”這句話產生了共鳴。我們對迅速而輕鬆地傳播想法的迷戀，已經到了把一個想法的品質及其“病毒式傳播潛力”等量齊觀的程度。你認爲，把病毒式傳播本身視爲好事一樁有損於我們對創造高質量內容的追求。我們知道，有意義的內容或許趕不上Twitter上的趨勢，無法在YouTube獲得數以百萬計的瀏覽量。作爲《赫芬頓郵報》的創辦人，您如何把握網站對點擊量的需要和高質量內容之間的平衡？

Fetishizing "social" has become a major distraction. And we love to be distracted. I believe our job in the media is to use the social tools at our disposal to tell the stories that matter -- as well as the stories that entertain -- and to keep reminding ourselves that the tools are not the story. When we become too obsessed with our closed, circular Twitter or Facebook ecosystem, we can easily forget that poverty is on the rise, downward mobility is trending upward, millions of people in the United States and even more in Europe and around the world have fallen into chronic unemployment, and 400 million children around the world are living in extreme poverty. On the other side of the spectrum, too often we ignore the great instances of compassion, ingenuity, and innovation shown by people who are changing lives and communities by trying to address these problems.

盲目迷戀“社交影響”已經成爲一件最分散精力的事情，而且我們似乎喜歡受到這種紛擾。我相信，作爲媒體人，我們應該使用手頭上的社交工具來講述真正有意義的故事（以及那些娛樂性故事），同時不斷提醒自己，工具本身不是故事。如果我們過分癡迷於Twitter或Facebook封閉的環形生態系統，我們就會很容易忘記一些真正重要的事情，比如貧困率正在上升；社會階層固化，而且呈下行流動；數百萬美國人正陷入長期失業之中，歐洲和世界其他地方的失業者甚至更多；全球有4億人正在忍受極端貧困生活的折磨。另一方面，許多人正嘗試着解決這些問題，以改變我們的生活和社區。但我們往往忽視了這些充滿憐憫之心，設計新穎，極富創造力的偉大實例。

Of course, our team at HuffPost is as aggressive as any media outlet in using social media. But maybe because we've been doing "social" well for a while, I hope we are also able and willing to see it for what it is -- a tool, not a magical feat.

當然，就如同任何一家媒體一樣，《赫芬頓郵報》團隊也在非常積極地利用社交媒體。但或許是因爲我們的“社交”工作一直做得不錯，我希望我們也能夠、並且願意看清它的本質——社交媒體只是一個工具，並不是神奇的壯舉。

The feeling of wonder is a key component to human flourishing and creativity. Does technology deepen or diminish the feeling of wonder?

驚奇感是人類生生不息和創造力的一大關鍵組成部分。技術是加強還是削弱了這種驚奇感？

Unfortunately the ever-increasing creep of technology -- into our lives, our families, our bedrooms, our brains -- makes it much harder to renew ourselves and connect with our sense of wonder. The average smartphone user checks his or her device every six and a half minutes. That works out to around 150 times a day. Our brains are naturally wired to connect, so it's not easy to turn away from these kinds of stimuli. But the connection that comes from technology is often an unfulfilling, ersatz version of connection. Its siren call (or beep, or blinking light) can crowd out the time and energy we have for real human connection.

不幸的是，技術正在以前所未有的力度潛入我們的生活、家庭、臥室和大腦。這使得我們越來越難以更新自己，越來越難以產生驚奇感。平均而言，人們現在每6分半鐘就會查閱一下自己的設備。也就是說，每天要查閱大約150次。我們的大腦天生就渴望連接，所以脫離這類刺激物並不是一件容易的事。但源自技術的連接往往不能給人帶來滿足，因爲它是一種僞連接。它的警笛呼叫（或嘟嘟聲，閃爍燈）往往會擠佔我們本可以用來進行人際交往的時間和精力。

Paradoxically, one of the biggest growth sectors for tools to help us deal with technology is . . . technology. The first stages of the Internet were about data and more data. But now we have plenty of data -- indeed, we're drowning in it -- and all the distraction we could ever hope for. Technology has been very good at giving us what we want, but not always what we need. So now, many in the tech world have realized there's a growth opportunity for applications and tools that help us focus and filter all that data and distraction. I have collected some of my favorites in an appendix at the end of Thrive. The less distracted we are, the more likely we are to tap into our sense of wonder and observe the world around us.

有些自相矛盾的是，就能夠幫助我們應對技術的工具而言，最大的增長領域之一恰恰是技術。互聯網的第一個階段側重於收集數據，更多的數據。但現在，我們擁有足夠的數據（實際上，我們正在被數據淹沒）和我們能夠期盼的所有消遣方式。技術一直非常善於給予我們我們想要的東西，但並不總是給予我們我們所需要的東西。所以，許多科技界人士現在已經意識到，可用來幫助我們保持專注，過濾掉所有數據和紛擾的應用和工具擁有絕佳的增長機會。我在《茁壯成長》一書的附錄中列舉了一些我個人最喜歡的應用。我們受到的紛擾越少，就越有可能挖掘我們的驚奇感，同時觀察我們周圍的世界。

Tell us about the fourth element of the Third Metric: giving. What are the various benefits of being "a giver?"

現在請介紹一下“第三尺度”的第四個元素：給予。做一名“給予者”有哪些好處？

So often we think of giving as donating time or money to relief efforts for catastrophes in faraway places, helping people who have nothing. That's obviously critical to do when disaster strikes. But we forget that every day we are surrounded by opportunities to act on that same instinct for giving. These chances are always "under foot." As the nineteenth-century naturalist John Burroughs put it, "The great opportunity is where you are. Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the stars, every place is the center of the world."

很多時候，我們認爲所謂給予就是爲某個遙遠地方的減災努力貢獻時間或金錢，就是幫助那些一無所有的人。在災難降臨的生死關頭，這些善行顯然是應急之需。但我們忘了，我們每天都被踐行同一種給予本能的機會包圍。這些機會總是“在腳下”。正如19世紀的博物學家約翰o巴勒斯所言：“偉大的機會就在你所處的地方。不要輕視你自己的地方和事件。每一個地方都位於羣星之下，每一個地方都是世界的中心。”

And every place is full of openings to make a real difference in the life of another human being. There are millions of small missed opportunities at home, in our offices, on the subway, on the street where we live, in the grocery store -- what David Foster Wallace called "being able truly to care about other people . . . over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways, every day." When we flex our giving muscles every day, the process begins to transform our own lives. Because however successful we are, when we go out in the world to "get things," when we strive to achieve a goal, we are operating from a perceived deficit, focused on what we don't have and are trying to obtain -- until the goal is achieved. And then we go after the next goal. But when we give however little or much we have we are tapping into our sense of abundance and overflow.

每一個地方都充滿了各種能夠對另一個人的生活產生真正影響的機遇。我們在家中，辦公室，地鐵上，在我們居住的街道和購買物品的雜貨店錯失了無數看似微小的機遇。正如大衛o福斯特o華萊士所言，我們“每一天都可以採用無數看似微不足道、不那麼性感的方式給予其他人以真正的關愛。”每一天，當我們給予他人以幫助時，我們自己的生活也會隨之改變。這是因爲，無論我們多麼成功，當我們跨進這個世界，希望“獲取某種東西”，當我們竭力去實現一個目標時，這些行爲都是源自我們感知到的某種“缺乏”。我們專注於自己還缺乏的東西，一心想獲得它，直至達成心願，接着我們又奔着下一個目標去了。但當我們給予他人幫助的時候，無論我們自身是貧窮還是富裕，我們總能獲得一種充盈的豐裕感。

I noticed that Thrive is filled with references to from a number of eminent intellectuals—Aurelius, Augustine, Goethe. What are some of your favorite books and who are some of your favorite intellectuals?

我注意到，《茁壯成長》引用了許多大學問家的觀點，比如奧裏利烏斯、奧古斯丁和歌德。你最喜歡讀哪些書？最青睞哪些知識分子？

While writing Thrive I immersed myself in the writings of the Stoic philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome. Stoicism teaches that unhappiness, negative emotions, and what we would today call "stress" are the result of the judgments we make about external circumstances. To the Stoics, the most secure kind of happiness could be found in the only thing that we are in control of -- our inner world. Everything outside us can be taken away, so how can we entrust our future happiness and well-being to it? These insights are hugely relevant to our time.

撰寫《茁壯成長》期間，我一直沉浸在古希臘和羅馬的斯多葛派哲學家的著作之中。斯多葛學派教導我們，不快樂，消極情緒，以及我們今天所稱的“壓力”，都是我們對外部環境所做判斷的結果。斯多葛學派認爲，唯有在我們能夠掌控自己的內心世界時，我們獲得的幸福才最安穩。一切身外之物都可能轉瞬即逝，所以我們怎麼能夠把我們未來的幸福和福祉託付於它們呢？這些見解在我們今天所處的時代仍然非常有意義。

Some of my other favorite books, by some of my favorite thinkers, are Catching the Big Fish, by David Lynch; Memories, Dreams, Reflections, by Carl Jung; and Mindfulness: An-Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World, by Mark Williams and Danny Penman.

我最喜歡的一些書皆是出自我最青睞的思想家之手，比如大衛o林奇的《捕獲大魚》(Catching the Big Fish)、卡爾o榮格的《回憶，夢想與思考》(Memories, Dreams, Reflections)，以及馬克o威廉姆斯和丹尼o潘曼的《正念：實施一個8周計劃在這個瘋狂的世界尋找平靜》(Mindfulness: An-Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World)。