1、懂你英语原文 Level7Unit1So in college, I was a government major, which means I had to write a lot of papers. Now, when a normal student writes a paper, they might spread the work out a little like this. So, you know -you get started maybe a little slowly, but you get enough done in the first week that, wi
2、th some heavier days later on, everything gets done, things stay civil.And I would want to do that like that. That would be the plan. I would have it all ready to go, but then, actually, the paper would come along, and then I would kind of do this.在大学，我读的是政府专业。也就是说，我需要写很多的论文。一般的学生写论文时，他们可能会这样安排：(看图)
3、你可能开头会慢一点，但第一周有这些已经足够。后期再一点点的增加，最后任务完成，非常的有条理。我也想这么做，所以一开始也是这么计划的。我做了完美的安排(看图)，但后来，实际上论文任务一直出现，我就只能这样了 (看图)。And that would happen every single paper. But then came my 90-page senior thesis, a paper youre supposed to spend a year on. And I knew for a paper like that, my normal work flow was not an op
4、tion. It was way too big a project. So I planned things out, and I decided I kind of had to go something like this. This is how the year would go. So Id start off light, and Id bump it up in the middle months, and then at the end, I would kick it up into high gear just like a little staircase. How h
5、ard could it be to walk up the stairs? No big deal, right?我的每一篇论文都是这种情况，直到我长达 90 页的毕业论文任务，这篇论文理应花一年的时间来做，我也知道这样的工作，我先前的工作方式是行不通的，这个项目太大，所以我制定了计划。决定按照这样的方式工作，这样来安排我这一年。(看图) 开头我会轻松一点，中期任务逐渐增加，到最后，我再全力冲刺一下。整体是这种阶梯式安排，一层一层走楼梯有多难?所以没什么大不了的，是吧?But then, the funniest thing happened. Those first few months?
6、 They came and went, and I couldnt quite do stuff. So we had an awesome new revised plan.And then -But then those middle months actually went by, and I didnt really write words, and so we were here.And then two months turned into one month, which turned into two weeks.但后来，好笑的事情出现了，头几个月时光匆匆而逝，我还没有来得及
7、动工，所以我们明智的调整了计划。然后，中间的几个月也过去了，我还是一个字也没有动，眨眼就到了这里，然后两个月变成了一个月，再变成了 2 周。And one day I woke up with three days until the deadline, still not having written a word, and so I did the only thing I could: I wrote 90 pages over 72 hours, pulling not one but two all-nighters - humans are not supposed to pull
8、 two all-nighters - sprinted across campus, dove in slow motion, and got it in just at the deadline.一天我醒来，发现离交稿日期只剩 3 天了，但我还一个字都没写。我别无选择，只能在接下来的 72 小时里，连续通宵两个晚上赶论文一般人不应连续通宵两个晚上。90 页赶出来后，我飞速冲过校园，像电影中的特写慢镜头一样，恰好在截止日期前的最后一刻交上。I thought that was the end of everything. But a week later I get a call, and
9、its the school. And they say, “Is this Tim Urban?“ And I say, “Yeah.“ And they say, “We need to talk about your thesis.“ And I say, “OK.“ And they say, “Its the best one weve ever seen.“ That did not Happen S.r.l. Official Web Site NEW was a very, very bad thesis. I just wanted to enjoy that one mom
10、ent when all of you thought, “This guy is amazing!“ No, no, it was very, very bad.我以为事情就这么完了，但一周后，我接到一个电话，是学校打来的。他们说：“你是 Tim Urban 吗 ?”我说： “是。”他们说：“我们要说一说你的毕业论文。 ”我说：“好啊。”他们说：“这是我见过最棒的论文。”当然不可能。论文非常非常的差劲。我只想享受下你们对我的崇拜，想听你们说：“这老兄太厉害了。”没有，其实写的非常差劲。Anyway, today Im a writer-blogger guy. I write the blo
11、g Wait But Why.And a couple of years ago, I decided to write about procrastination. My behavior has always perplexed the non-procrastinators around me, and I wanted to explain to the non-procrastinators of the world what goes on in the heads of procrastinators, and why we are the way we are.不管怎样，我现在
12、成为了一个博客写手，经营着“wait but why”这个博客。几年前，我决定写写拖延这件事。我的行为方式总让身边非拖延者感到不能理解。我很想对世界上非拖延者的人解释一下，我们拖延症患者的脑子是什么样的，为什么我们会拖延。Now, I had a hypothesis that the brains of procrastinators were actually different than the brains of other people. And to test this, I found an MRI lab that actually let me scan both my br
13、ain and the brain of a proven non-procrastinator,so I could compare them. I actually brought them here to show you today. I want you to take a look carefully to see if you can notice a difference. I know that if youre not a trained brain expert, its not that obvious, but just take a look, OK? So her
14、es the brain of a non-procrastinator. Now . heres my brain.首先我假设，拖延症患者的大脑实际上和其他人的大脑不一样。为了验证这一点，我找了家核磁共振实验室，给我和另一个确定是非拖延症的人，进行了脑部扫描，我好将二者进行对比，今天我带到现场，给大家展示一下。我希望大家仔细观察，看能不能注意到差异。我知道大家并非专业的大脑专家，较难看出他们的差异，但大家不妨先看一眼，如何? 这张是非拖延者的大脑，这张是我的大脑。There is a difference. Both brains have a Rational Decision-Maker
15、 in them, but the procrastinators brain also has an Instant Gratification Monkey. Now, what does this mean for the procrastinator? Well, it means everythings fine until this happens. This is a perfect time to get some work done. Nope! So the Rational Decision-Maker will make the rational decision to
16、 do something productive, but the Monkey doesnt like that plan, so he actually takes the wheel, and he says, “Actually, lets read the entire Wikipedia page of the Nancy Kerrigan/ Tonya Harding scandal, because I just remembered that that happened.两张是有一点不同，两个大脑都有一个理性决策人，但在拖延症患者的大脑里，还有一个及时行乐的猴子。那这对拖延症
17、患者来说意味着什么呢? 这意味着平时没什么异样，但一旦发生了以下的情况，理性的决策人做出理性的决策，要去做一些实际的工作，但猴子不喜欢这个计划，所以他抢过方向盘，说道：“说实话，我们还是去维基百科上查一查 NKTH的丑闻吧。”因为我刚想起来还发生过这件事。Then -Then were going to go over to the fridge, to see if theres anything new in there since 10 minutes ago. After that, were going to go on a YouTube spiral that starts wi
18、th videos of Richard Feynman talking about magnets and ends much, much later with us watching interviews with Justin Biebers mom. All of thats going to take a while, so were not going to really have room on the schedule for any work today. Sorry!然后我们会去翻冰箱，看看和十分钟前相比有没有什么新的东西。然后我们去 youtobe 看一连串的视频，从 R
19、ichard Feynman 谈论磁铁开始，一直到很久很久之后看到一个 Justin Bieber 妈妈的访谈才结束。以上这些事情都得花时间，所以我们今天没有时间再来工作了。3Now, what is going on here? The Instant Gratification Monkey does not seem like a guy you want behind the wheel. He lives entirely in the present moment. He has no memory of the past, no knowledge of the future,
20、and he only cares about two things: easy and fun. Now, in the animal world, that works fine. If youre a dog and you spend your whole life doing nothing other than easy and fun things, youre a huge success!所以，到底发生了什么?这个及时行乐的猴子并非你希望控制方向的人，他完全生活在当下，没有过去的记忆，也没有未来的概念。他只关注两件事情：简单和开心。在动物界，这两点没有问题。如果你是一条狗，一
21、辈子只追求一些简单和快乐的事，那就是巨大的成功了And to the Monkey, humans are just another animal species. You have to keep well-slept, well-fed and propagating into the next generation, which in tribal times might have worked OK. But, if you havent noticed, now were not in tribal times. Were in an advanced civilization, a
22、nd the Monkey does not know what that is. Which is why we have another guy in our brain, the Rational Decision-Maker, who gives us the ability to do things no other animal can do. We can visualize the future. We can see the big picture.We can make long-term plans. And he wants to take all of that in
23、to account. And he wants to just have us do whatever makes sense to be doing right now.但对猴子来说，人类是另外一个物种，你得正常睡眠、规律饮食、繁衍后代。在原始部落时代，这也没太大问题。但你注意到没有，现在并非原始部落时代，我们生活在一个现代文明社会中，而猴子完全不能理解这是什么意思，这也是为什么我们大脑中会有另外一个，理性的决策者，他使人类有能力做到其他动物无法做到的事情。我们能设想未来，可以从大局出发，制定长期计划，他可以把所有这些事考虑在内。希望让我们做出最合理的事情.Now, sometimes i
24、t makes sense to be doing things that are easy and fun, like when youre having dinner or going to bed or enjoying well-earned leisure time. Thats why theres an overlap. Sometimes they agree. But other times, it makes much more sense to be doing things that are harder and less pleasant, for the sake
25、of the big picture. And thats when we have a conflict. And for the procrastinator, that conflict tends to end a certain way every time, leaving him spending a lot of time in this orange zone, an easy and fun place thats entirely out of the Makes Sense circle. I call it the Dark Playground.有时，做一些简单开心
26、的事情是很合理的，比如吃饭睡觉、享受赢得的休闲时光，所以二者也有重叠的部分。有时二者是一致的，但有些时候，从长远的角度来看，一些更困难不开心的事情，才是合理的事情，所以就出现了冲突。对拖延症患者来说，每次这种冲突到最后的结果都一样，都让他在这片橙色区域里耗费大量时间，这里很简单很开心，但完全不在合理圈的范围内，我将这个区域称为黑暗操场。Now, the Dark Playground is a place that all of you procrastinators out there know very well. Its where leisure activities happen a
27、t times when leisure activities are not supposed to be happening. The fun you have in the Dark Playground isnt actually fun, because its completely unearned, and the air is filled with guilt, dread, anxiety, self-hatred - all of those good procrastinator feelings. And the question is, in this situat
28、ion, with the Monkey behind the wheel, how does the procrastinator ever get himself over here to this blue zone, a less pleasant place, but where really important things happen?这个黑暗操场，所有的拖延者患者都应该很熟悉，在这里发生了许多，本不应该在此时进行的休闲活动。你在黑暗操场获得的乐趣，实际并不有趣，因为这并非你应得的。这里的空气充满了内疚、恐惧、焦虑和自我憎恨这些都是拖延症患者常有的情绪。所以问题是，在猴子掌握方
29、向盘的情况下，拖延症患者如何进入这边的蓝色区域呢?这里虽然没有这么舒适，但进行的事情都非常重要。Well, turns out the procrastinator has a guardian angel, someone whos always looking down on him and watching over him in his darkest moments - someone called the Panic Monster. Now, the Panic Monster is dormant most of the time, but he suddenly wakes
30、up anytime a deadline gets too close or theres danger of public embarrassment, a career disaster or some other scary consequence. And importantly, hes the only thing the Monkey is terrified of.好吧, 原来拖拉者有一个守护天使, 一个总是低头看着他 , 在他最黑暗的时刻看着他的人-有人叫这个惊慌的怪物。现在, 恐慌怪兽大部分时间都处于休眠状态, 但他突然在最后期限太近时醒来, 或者有公众困窘、职业灾难或其
31、他可怕后果的危险。重要的是, 他是猴子唯一害怕的东西。Now, he became very relevant in my life pretty recently, because the people of TED reached out to me about six months ago and invited me to do a TED Talk. Now, of course, I said yes. Its always been a dream of mine to have done a TED Talk in the past. But in the middle of
32、all this excitement, the Rational Decision-Maker seemed to have something else on his mind.最近, 惊慌在我的生活中变得非常重要, 因为 ted 的人在六月前联系了我，邀请我做 ted 演讲。当然, 我答应了。做次 TED 谈话过去一直是我的梦想。但在所有这些兴奋的中间, 理性的决策者似乎还有别的心事。He was saying, “Are we clear on what we just accepted? Do we get whats going to be now happening one da
33、y in the future? We need to sit down and work on this right now.“ And the Monkey said, “Totally agree, but lets just open Google Earth and zoom in to the bottom of India, like 200 feet above the ground, and scroll up for two and a half hours til we get to the top of the country, so we can get a bett
34、er feel for India.“ So thats what we did that day.他说: “我们是否清楚我们刚刚接受了什么？我们是否会在将来的某一天发生什么？我们需要坐下来, 现在就做这项工作。猴子说, “完全同意, 但让我们打开谷歌地球和放大到印度的底部, 像 200 英尺以上的地面, 并滚动了两个半小时, 直到我们到达国家的顶端, 所以我们可以得到一个更好的感觉为印度。这就是我们那天所做的。As six months turned into four and then two and then one, the people of TED decided to relea
35、se the speakers. And I opened up the website, and there was my face staring right back at me. And guess who woke up? So the Panic Monster starts losing his mind, and a few seconds later, the whole systems in mayhem. And the Monkey - remember, hes terrified of the Panic Monster - boom, hes up the tre
36、e! And finally, finally, the Rational Decision-Maker can take the wheel and I can start working on the talk.当六个月变成四个, 然后两个 , 然后一个, TED 的人决定公布演讲人。我打开了网站, 我的脸正盯着我。你猜谁醒了？于是恐慌怪兽开始失去理智, 几秒钟后, 整个系统陷入混乱。还有那只猴子-记住, 他害怕惊恐的怪物 -砰, 他在树上, 最后 , 理性的决策者可以掌舵, 我可以开始工作了。4Now, the Panic Monster explains all kinds of pr
37、etty insane procrastinator behavior, like how someone like me could spend two weeks unable to start the opening sentence of a paper, and then miraculously find the unbelievable work ethic to stay up all night and write eight pages. And this entire situation, with the three characters - this is the p
38、rocrastinators system. Its not pretty, but in the end, it works. This is what I decided to write about on the blog a couple of years ago.现在, 恐慌怪兽解释了各种非常疯狂的拖拉行为, 像我这样的人怎么可能花两周的时间无法开始一篇论文开头的句子, 然后奇迹般地找到令人难以置信的职业道德 , 熬夜写八页。 这整个情况, 与三字符 -这是拖拉系统。它不漂亮, 但最终, 它的工作。这是我几年前决定在博客上写的。And they were all writing, s
39、aying the same thing: “I have this problem too.“ But what struck me was the contrast between the light tone of the post and the heaviness of these emails. These people were writing with intense frustration about what procrastination had done to their lives, about what this Monkey had done to them. A
40、nd I thought about this, and I said, well, if the procrastinators system works, then whats going on? Why are all of these people in such a dark place?他们都在写, 说着同样的话: “我也有这个问题。但令我吃惊的是, 邮报的光色调和这些邮件的沉重对比。 这些人对拖延对他们的生活所做的事情感到强烈的沮丧, 这只猴子对他们做了什么。我想过这一点, 我说, 如果拖拉的系统起作用了, 那到底是怎么回事？为什么这些人都在这么黑的地方？When I did,
41、I was amazed by the response. Literally thousands of emails came in, from all different kinds of people from all over the world, doing all different kinds of things. These are people who were nurses, bankers, painters, engineers and lots and lots of PhD students. And they were all writing, saying th
42、e same thing: “I have this problem too.“ But what struck me was the contrast between the light tone of the post and the heaviness of these emails. These people were writing with intense frustration about what procrastination had done to their lives, about what this Monkey had done to them. And I tho
43、ught about this, and I said, well, if the procrastinators system works, then whats going on? Why are all of these people in such a dark place?从字面上成千上万的电子邮件来自世界各地的不同类型的人, 做各种不同的事情。 这些人是护士, 银行家, 画家, 工程师和许多博士学生。他们都在写同一句话：“我也有这个问题。”但真正让我感到触动的，是我博客的轻描淡写，和邮件的沉重文风之间的强烈对比。这些读者以非常沮丧的语言，告诉我拖延对他们的生活造成了哪些影响，告诉我
44、猴子对他们都做了些什么。我思考了一下，问道，既然拖延症患者的系统是有效果的，那到底哪不对呢?为什么这些人都置身黑暗之中呢?Well, it turns out that theres two kinds of procrastination. Everything Ive talked about today, the examples Ive given, they all have deadlines. And when theres deadlines, the effects of procrastination are contained to the short term beca
45、use the Panic Monster gets involved. But theres a second kind of procrastination that happens in situations when there is no deadline. So if you wanted a career where youre a self-starter - something in the arts, something entrepreneurial - theres no deadlines on those things at first, because nothi
46、ngs happening, not until youve gone out and done the hard work to get momentum, get things going.原来，拖延分为两种，我今天所说的拖延和所举的例子，都是有截止日期的。一旦有了截止日期，拖延的影响会被限制在一定时期内，因为后期惊慌怪兽会出现，但还有第二种拖延，这种拖延是没有截止日期的，所以如果你想在一些领域内自学成才比如学个艺术或者创个业这些事情开始都是没有截止日期的，因为开始不会有什么变化，直到你拼尽全力，辛勤投入，才会有一点起色，你才能看到进展。Theres also all kinds of i
47、mportant things outside of your career that dont involve any deadlines, like seeing your family or exercising and taking care of your health, working on your relationship or getting out of a relationship that isnt working. Now if the procrastinators only mechanism of doing these hard things is the P
48、anic Monster, thats a problem, because in all of these non-deadline situations, the Panic Monster doesnt show up. He has nothing to wake up for, so the effects of procrastination, theyre not contained; they just extend outward forever.除了工作之外，还有很多其他重要的事情，也是没有截止日期的，比如看望家人、锻炼身体、保持健康、维系感情，或者从一段不合适的感情中抽身
49、。如果说拖延症患者处理这些困难的唯一机制，是惊慌怪兽的话，那就有问题了，因为在这些没有截止日期的情况下，惊慌怪兽是不会现身的，没有唤醒他的条件，所以这一类拖延的后果是没有限制的，他们会不断地肆意延伸。And its this long-term kind of procrastination thats much less visible and much less talked about than the funnier, short-term deadline-based kind. Its usually suffered quietly and privately. And it can be the source of a huge amount of long-term unhappiness, and regrets.和有截止日期的好笑的短期拖延相比，这种长时期的拖延，更不易被人察觉，也更少被谈论到，他常常在无声无息中折磨着人们，可以说是大部分长期抑郁和悔恨的根源。And I thought, thats why those people are emailin
