英语演讲稿 TED英语演讲你该如何面对艰难选择Word格式.docx

1、这也许是在两份职业中做出一个选择，艺术家还是会计师;也许是选择居住的地方，城市还是乡村;也许是在两个人中选择和谁结婚，Betty 或者是Lolita;抑或思考是否要孩子;是否让年老体衰的父母跟你一起住;是否让你的孩子信奉你配偶信仰的宗教，即便你会因自身不信奉而被冷落;又或者说，是否将毕生积储捐赠给慈善机构。 Chances are, the hard choice you thought of was something big, something momentous, something that matters to you. Hard choices seem to be occasi

2、ons for agonizing, hand-wringing, the gnashing of teeth. But I think weve misunderstood hard choices and the role they play in our lives. Understanding hard choicesuncovers a hidden power each of us possesses. 有可能，你所思考的这些艰难抉择都十分庞大，十分重要你也十分重视。每当困难的选择出现，他都会让你感到痛苦、绝望，让你咬牙切齿。但我认为我们误解了艰难抉择的定义，更误解了其在我们生活中

3、扮演的角色。倘若能理解这些艰难决定，我们每个人便会发掘出 一种隐藏的潜力。 What makes a choice hard is the way the alternatives relate. In any easy choice, one alternative is better than the other. In a hard choice, one alternative is better in some ways, the other alternative is better in other ways, and neither is better than the oth

4、er overall. You agonize over whether to stay in your current job in the city or uproot your life for more challenging work in the country, because staying is better in some ways,moving is better in others, and neither is better than the other overall. 一个抉择之所以难是由于选项之间相互关联。任何简单的抉择中，总有一种选择比另一种要好。可在艰难抉择

5、中，一种选择在某些方面较好，另一种选择在其他方面较好，二者各有千秋让人无法定夺。你痛苦地纠结于应该继续呆在这座城市里干这份工作，还是改变一下你的生活方式到乡村去接受更具挑战性的工作，因为留下有留下的好处，离开也有好处，两种选择各有千秋难以定夺。 We shouldnt think that all hard choices are big. Lets say youre deciding what to have for breakfast. You could have high fiber bran cereal or a chocolate donut. Suppose what mat

6、ters in the choice is tastiness and healthfulness. The cereal is better for you, the donut tastes way better, but neither is better than the other overall, a hard choice. 我们不应该认为所有的艰难抉择都很庞大。打个比方，你正决定吃什么早餐。你可以吃高纤维全谷干麦片，或者吃巧克力甜甜圈。假设在此抉择中的决定性因素是美味程度和健康程度。麦片对你身体好，甜甜圈却好吃很多，但两者都有自身优势，这就是一个艰难抉择。 Realizing

7、that small choices can also be hard, may make big hard choices seem less intractable. After all, we manage to figure out what to have for breakfast, so maybe we can figure out whether to stay in the city or uproot for the new job in the country. 如果意识到小的选择也可能会变得困难，那面对大的艰难抉择时我们可能就不会觉得那么棘手了。毕竟，我们总能决定早餐

8、吃什么，所以我们也许能够想明白，究竟要留在市区，还是到乡下接手新的工作。 We also shouldnt think that hard choices are hard because we are stupid. When I graduated from college, I couldnt decide between two careers, philosophy and law. I really loved philosophy. There are amazing things you can learn as a philosopher, and all from the

9、comfort of an armchair. But I came from a modest immigrant family where my idea of luxury was having a pork tongue and jelly sandwich in my school lunchbox, so the thought of spending my whole life sitting around in armchairs just thinking . Well, that struck me as the height of extravagance and fri

10、volity. 同时，我们也不应该觉得，选择之所以难是因为自己很愚蠢。在我刚大学毕业的时候，我无法从两种职业中抉择，哲学还是法律。我真心喜欢哲学，若能成为哲学家，便能学到很多惊奇的东西，而且舒舒服服地坐在椅子上就好。可我出生自一个朴实简素的移民家庭，我对奢侈的概念，就是能在上学的午餐盒里找到一块猪舌和一份果冻三明治。所以这种一辈子仅坐在椅子上思考的想法，其实，对我来说只是一种奢侈和轻浮的假象罢了。 So I got out my yellow pad, I drew a line down the middle, and I tried my best to think of the reas

11、ons for and against each alternative. I remember thinking to myself, if only I knew what my life in each career would be like. If only God or Netflix would send me a DVD of my two possible future careers, Id be set. Id compare them side by side, Id see that one was better, and the choice would be ea

12、sy. 所以我拿出自己黄色笔记本，在中间划了一条线，然后竭尽所能地写出每种选择的利与弊。当时我就想：如果能知道选择某种职业后我的人生会变成怎样就好了。如果上帝或者网飞公司能送我一张DVD来向我描述这两种充满可能性的职业生涯，那我就能做出选择了。我就能一一对比，看看哪种更好，这样一来抉择就简单多了。 But I got no DVD, and because I couldnt figure out which was better, I did what many of us do in hard choices: I took the safest option. Fear of being

13、 an unemployed philosopher led me to become a lawyer, and as I discovered, lawyering didnt quite fit. It wasnt who I was. 但我没有收到这种DVD，而且由于我实在想不出哪一种更优，我就和大多数人一样：选择了最安全的一项。成为失业哲学家的恐惧，驱使我成了一名律师。可后来我发现，当律师不大适合我，这不是真正的我。 So now Im a philosopher, and I study hard choices, and I can tell you, that fear of

14、the unknown, while a common motivational default in dealing with hard choices, rests on a misconception of them. 所以我现在是名哲学家，我钻研艰难抉择，我可以告诉大家，对未知产生恐惧是在进行困难抉择时的自然反应，而这种恐惧来源于对艰难抉择的误解。 Its a mistake to think that in hard choices, one alternative really is better than the other, but were too stupid to kno

15、w which, and since we dont know which, we might as well take the least risky option. Even taking two alternatives side by side with full information, a choice can still be hard. Hard choices are hard not because of us or our ignorance; theyre hard because there is no best option. 我们不应该认为，在艰难抉择中某种选择总

16、会会比另一种好，可我们自身太愚蠢，所以无法辨别，那既然我们无法定夺，倒不如选风险最小的那项。就算你完全了解了两种选项并将其一一对照，你仍然很难决定。选择之所以难，不是因为我们无知;难的原因在于没有最优选项。 Now, if theres no best option, if the scales dont tip in favor of one alternative over another, then surely the alternatives must be equally good. So maybe the right thing to say in hard choices i

17、s that theyre between equally good options. But that cant be right. If alternatives are equally good, you should just flip a coin between them, and it seems a mistake to think, heres how you should decide between careers, places to live, people to marry: Flip a coin. 那么，如果没有最佳项，如果衡量的天秤不会倾向于 任何一方，那么任

18、何选项都一定是好的。所以面对艰难抉择，可能正确的思维方式，就是认为选项双方一样好。这种想法肯定不对。如果选项都一样好，那还不如直接抛硬币算了，这样就会产生思想误区，让你认为自己选择事业、住处、婚嫁时都抛硬币选择就好了。 Theres another reason for thinking that hard choices arent choices between equally good options. Suppose you have a choice between two jobs: you could be an investment banker or a graphic ar

19、tist. There are a variety of things that matter in such a choice, like the excitement of the work, achieving financial security,having time to raise a family, and so on. 还有另外一个原因，使艰难选择并非是在同等好的选项中抉择。 假设你要在两份工作中挑选： 你可以做投资银行家，或做平面设计师。在这个选择当中有颇多决定性因素，譬如工作带来的兴奋程度、能获得的经济保障、顾家时间等等。 Maybe the artists career

20、 puts you on the cutting edge of new forms of pictorial expression. Maybe the banking career puts you on the cutting edge of new forms of financial manipulation. 也许艺术家这个职业能让你接触最前沿的图像表达技术。或许当银行家你就能接触最前端的金融操纵手段。你可以想象任何两种你喜欢的职业，但两者都不会比另一方好的。 Imagine the two jobs however you like, so that neither is bet

21、ter than the other.Now suppose we improve one of them, a bit. Suppose the bank, wooing you, adds 500 dollars a month to your salary. Does the extra money now make the banking job better than the artist one? Not necessarily. A higher salary makes the banking job better than it was before, but it migh

22、t not be enough to make being a banker better than being an artist. 现在，假设我们能稍微改进其中的一方。假设一间银行尝试讨好你，在你的月薪里增加500美元。这一笔额外的金钱会不会让这份银行家的工作优于当艺术家呢?说不准。更高的薪酬让银行家的工作优于以前，但额外薪水不一定足够让成为银行家变得比成为艺术家好。 But if an improvement in one of the jobs doesnt make it better than the other, then the two original jobs could

23、not have been equally good. If you start with two things that are equally good, and you improve one of them, it now must be better than the other. Thats not the case with options in hard choices. 可如果对其中一种职业进行改进后结果并没有让一方优于另一方，那么两种选择本身就不可能是一样好。如果两件事一开始都同等的好 ，当你改进了其中一件，那它就一定会优于另一个。在艰难抉择中并非如此。 So now we

24、ve got a puzzle. Weve got two jobs. Neither is better than the other, nor are they equally good.So how are we supposed to choose? Something seems to have gone wrong here. Maybe the choice itself is problematic, and comparison is impossible. But that cant be right. Its not like were trying to choose

25、between two things that cant be compared. Were weighing the merits of two jobs, after all, not the merits of the number nine and a plate of fried eggs. A comparison of the overall merits of two jobs is something we can make, and one we often do make. 那么现在我们就有一个疑惑了。这两份工作，没有一方能完胜另一方，但又不是同等的好。究竟该怎么选择呢?

26、 貌似有些事情出错了。可能选项的本身就存在问题，导致我们无法比较。但这也不对啊。我们并不是要在两种不能被对比的事物间选择。我们说到底是在衡量两份工作的利弊，不是对比数字9和 一盘煎鸡蛋的好处。对比两份工作的总体优势是我们能做到的，也是我们经常做的事。 I think the puzzle arises because of an unreflective assumption we make about value. We unwittingly assume that values like justice, beauty, kindness, are akin to scientific

27、quantities, like length, mass and weight. Take any comparative question not involving value, such as which of two suitcases is heavier. There are only three possibilities. 我认为疑惑产生的原因源于一种我们对价值的草率设想。我们不知不觉地认为，诸如正义、美丽、善良的价值观都与一些科学度量类似，都能被量度，譬如长度、质量、重量。试想一个与价值观毫不相关的比较，例如两个行李箱中哪个更重。仅有三种可能性。 The weight of

28、 one is greater, lesser or equal to the weight of the other. Properties like weight can be represented by real numbers - one, two, three and so on - and there are only three possible comparisons between any two real numbers. One number is greater, lesser, or equal to the other.Not so with values. 其中

29、一个的重量大于、小于 或等于另一个。像重量这样的性质能够用真实的数字来表达1,2,3 而且在两个数字间的比较中只有三种可能。一个数字大于、小于或等于另一个数字价值观却不是如此。 As post-Enlightenment creatures, we tend to assume that scientific thinking holds the key to everything of importance in our world, but the world of value is different from the world of science. The stuff of the

30、 one world can be quantified by real numbers. The stuff of the other world cant. We shouldnt assume that the world of is, of lengths and weights, has the same structure as the world of ought, of what we should do. 作为后启蒙时期的生物，我们总是设想科学思维可以解决世界上一切重要的问题，但价值观的世界不同于科学的世界。科学界中， 一切事物可被数字度量。可价值观的世界中却不能。我们不能认为充斥着是否、长度和重量的数字世界与该不该该做什么的价值世界有着同样的架构。 So if what matters to us - a childs delight, the love you have for your