TED | 现实生活总是这么苦吗？

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Introduction

每个人所认知的世界都不一样。Isaac Lidsky 博士失明后原以为自己这一生可能就此毁掉了。但事实上他因祸得福，生活更加美好了。他是怎样做到的？希望你也能像他一样看清自己的现实生活。

双语

When Dorothy was a little girl, she was fascinated by her goldfish. Her father explained to her that fish swim by quickly wagging their tails to propel themselves through the water. Without hesitation, little Dorothy responded, "Yes, Daddy, and fish swim backwards by wagging their heads."当多萝西还是一个小女孩的时候，她被她的金鱼迷住了。她的父亲向她解释，鱼是通过快速摇尾推动自己在水中前进。毫无犹豫地，小多萝西回答道，“是的，爸爸，而且鱼会通过摇头来后退。”In her mind, it was a fact as true as any other. Fish swim backwards by wagging their heads. She believed it.在她的心里，这是一个确切的事实。鱼通过摇头来后退。她坚信如此。Our lives are full of fish swimming backwards. We make assumptions and faulty leaps of logic. We harbor bias. We know that we are right, and they are wrong. We fear the worst.我们的生活中充满着倒游的鱼。我们制造假设和错误跳跃的逻辑。我们心怀偏见。我们知道我们是对的，而他们是错的。我们害怕最糟糕的。We strive for unattainable perfection. We tell ourselves what we can and cannot do. In our minds, fish swim by in reverse frantically wagging their heads and we don't even notice them.我们力求无法获得的完美。我们告诉自己什么是我们能做的和不能做的。在我们心里，鱼是通过往相反方向疯狂摇头来游泳的，而我们甚至不曾察觉过它们。I'm going to tell you five facts about myself. One fact is not true. One: I graduated from Harvard at 19 with an honors degree in mathematics. Two: I currently run a construction company in Orlando.我想告诉你们五件关于我的事实。其中有一件不是真的。第一：我19岁的时候以数学荣誉学士学位毕业于哈佛大学。第二：我现在在奥兰多经营着一家建筑公司。Three: I starred on a television sitcom. Four: I lost my sight to a rare genetic eye disease. Five: I served as a law clerk to two US Supreme Court justices. Which fact is not true? Actually, they're all true. Yeah. They're all true.第三：我主演过一部电视情景剧。第四：我因为患上一种罕有的遗传性眼疾而失去了视力。第五：我曾经给两位美国最高法院的法官当过法律助手。哪一个不是真的呢？事实上，它们都是真的。是的，它们都是真的。At this point, most people really only care about the television show,I know this from experience. OK, so the show was NBC's "Saved by the Bell: The New Class." 这时候，大部分人其实都只关心那部电视剧。这是经验告诉我的。好吧，那部电视剧是NBC的“Saved by the Bell: The New Class."And I played Weasel Wyzell, who was the sort of dorky, nerdy character on the show, which made it a very major acting challenge for me as a 13-year-old boy.而我饰演了Weasel Wyzell，一个在剧中带点笨拙书呆子性格的角色，对于13岁的我来说，这是一个很重大的演出挑战。Now, did you struggle with number four, my blindness? Why is that? We make assumptions about so-called disabilities。As a blind man，I confront others' incorrect assumptions about my abilities every day。现在，你是否纠结于第四个事实，我的失明？为什么会这样呢？我们对所谓的残疾做出一些假设。作为盲人，我每天都面对别人对我能力的错误假设。My point today is not about my blindness,，however。It's about my vision. Going blind taught me to live my life eyes wide open。It taught me to spot those backwards-swimming fish that our minds create.Going blind cast them into focus。然而，我今天的重点不在于我的失明。而是在于我的视野。失明教会我用开阔的眼界去生活。它教会我去发现那些倒游的鱼，我们内心创造出来的鱼。失明使它们变成了焦点。What does it feel like to see? It's immediate and passive. You open your eyes and there's the world. Seeing is believing. Sight is truth. Right? Well, that's what I thought.看得见是怎么样的一种感觉？是即时并且被动的。你睁开双眼，世界就在你眼前。看见什么相信什么。眼见为实。对吧？好吧，我当初是这么想的。Then, from age 12 to 25, my retinas progressively deteriorated. My sight became an increasingly bizarrecarnival funhouse hall of mirrors and illusions. The salesperson I was relieved to spot in a store was really a mannequin.接着，从12岁到15岁，我的视网膜逐渐衰弱。我的视像变成了愈加奇异的嘉年华游乐场里的哈哈镜。我在商店里好不容易发现的销售员，实际上是一个人体模型。Reaching down to wash my hands, I suddenly saw it was a urinal I was touching, not a sink,when my fingers felt its true shape.俯下身去洗手，当我的手指感受到它的真实形状，我意识到我去触摸的是小便池，而不是洗手池。A friend described the photograph in my hand, and only then I could see the image depicted. Objects appeared, morphed and disappeared in my reality. It was difficult and exhausting to see.一位朋友向我描述我手中的照片，只有在那时候我才能明白图像描画了些什么。物体在我的现实中出现、变形和消失。看见成为了一件困难的使我筋疲力尽的事情。I pieced together fragmented, transitory images, consciously analyzed the clues,searched for some logic in my crumbling kaleidoscope, until I saw nothing at all.我把支离破碎的、片刻的图像拼接起来，凭感觉分析线索，在我破碎的万花筒中寻找符合逻辑的对应，直到我什么都看不见。I learned that what we see is not universal truth. It is not objective reality. What we see is a unique, personal, virtual reality that is masterfully constructed by our brain.我认识到我们所看到的并不即是普遍真理。并不是客观现实。我们所看到的是独一无二的虚拟现实，它是由我们的大脑巧妙地构造出来的。Let me explain with a bit of amateur neuroscience. Your visual cortex takes up about 30 percent of your brain. That's compared to approximately eight percent for touch and two to three percent for hearing.请让我以外行的身份解释一遍神经系统学。你的视觉皮层占据了你脑部的大概30%。相比于触觉的8%以及听觉的2-3%。Every second, your eyes can send your visual cortex as many as two billion pieces of information. The rest of your body can send your brain only an additional billion.每一秒钟，你的双眼能够向你的视觉皮层传达多达二十亿的信息片段。其余的身体部分加起来也仅能够传达另外的十亿。So sight is one third of your brain by volume and can claim about two thirds of your brain's processing resources. It's no surprise then that the illusion of sight is so compelling. But make no mistake about it: sight is an illusion.所以视觉占据了你脑部容量的三分之一，并且占用了你脑部中三分之二的信息处理资源。因此意想得到的是视觉幻象是多么的令人信服。但是别误会了：我们所看到的只是一种幻象。Here's where it gets interesting. To create the experience of sight, your brain references your conceptual understanding of the world, other knowledge, your memories, opinions, emotions, mental attention.这是事情变得有趣的地方。为了制造视觉经验，你的大脑参考了你对这个世界的概念性理解，其它知识、你的记忆、看法、情绪和心理关注。All of these things and far more are linked in your brain to your sight. These linkages work both ways, and usually occur subconsciously.所有的这些东西以及其它的都连结于你的大脑和视觉景象之间。这些连结是双向作用的，并且常常在潜意识中发生。So for example, what you see impacts how you feel, and the way you feel can literally change what you see. Numerous studies demonstrate this. If you are asked to estimate the walking speed of a man in a video,举例子来说，你所看到的会影响到你的感觉，而你的感觉又能够直接改变你所看到的。许多的研究证明了这一点。如果你被要求去估计视频中人物的行走速度，for example, your answer will be different if you're told to think about cheetahs or turtles. A hill appears steeper if you've just exercised, and a landmark appears farther away if you're wearing a heavy backpack.举例来说，在被告知去想着猎豹或者乌龟的情况下，你的答案将会不一样。如果你刚刚运动完，你会感觉山变陡峭了，如果你背着一个很重的背包，眼前的目的地看起来距离更远。We have arrived at a fundamental contradiction. What you see is a complex mental construction of your own making, but you experience it passively as a direct representation of the world around you.我们在这里遇到了一种基本的矛盾。你肉眼所看到的东西是你自己创造的一种复杂的心智建造，但是你被动地经历着它让它作为你周遭世界的一种直接呈现。You create your own reality, and you believe it. I believed mine until it broke apart. The deterioration of my eyes shattered the illusion.你创造了属于你自己的现实并且深信着它。我深信于我的现实直到它瓦解了。我双眼的衰退粉碎了这种幻象。You see, sight is just one way we shape our reality. We create our own realities in many other ways. Let's take fear as just one example. Your fears distort your reality. Under the warped logic of fear, anything is better than the uncertain.你看，视觉只是我们认识世界的一种途径。我们可以通过许多其它的方式去创造属于我们自己的现实。让我们来举恐惧作为一个例子。你的恐惧扭曲了你的现实。在扭曲的恐惧逻辑影响下，任何事情都比未知要好。Fear fills the void at all costs, passing off what you dread for what you know, offering up the worst in place of the ambiguous, substituting assumption for reason. Psychologists have a great term for it: awfulizing.恐惧不惜一切代价填补空白，把你所惧怕的冒充成你所知道的，让最糟糕取代了不明确，使假设代替了原因。心理学家对此有一个很好的术语：往坏处想。Right? Fear replaces the unknown with the awful. Now, fear is self-realizing.对吧？恐惧把未知的替换成了可怕的。现在，恐惧在自我实现着。When you face the greatest need to look outside yourself and think critically, fear beats a retreat deep inside your mind, shrinking and distorting your view, drowning your capacity for critical thought with a flood of disruptive emotions.当你非常迫切的需要去客观看待自己并进行批判性思考的时候，恐惧在你的内心深处打起了退堂鼓，收缩并扭曲你的观点，以洪水般涌现的破坏性情绪淹没你批判思考的能力。When you face a compelling opportunity to take action, fear lulls you into inaction, enticing you to passively watch its prophecies fulfill themselves.当你面对一个极具吸引力的机会去采取行动时，恐惧误导你去无所作为，诱使你被动地看着它的预言一个个实现成真。When I was diagnosed with my blinding disease, I knew blindness would ruin my life. Blindness was a death sentence for my independence. It was the end of achievement for me.当我被诊出患有致盲眼疾时，我料到失明将会毁了我的生活。失明对我的独立能力判了死刑。它是我一生成就的终点。Blindness meant I would live an unremarkable life, small and sad, and likely alone. I knew it. This was a fiction born of my fears, but I believed it. It was a lie, but it was my reality, just like those backwards-swimming fish in little Dorothy's mind.失明意味着我将度过平凡的一生，渺小且凄惨，极有可能孤独终老。我就知道会这样。这是我因为恐惧带来的胡编乱造，但我相信了。它是一个谎言，但它曾是我的现实。就像小多萝西内心那些倒游的鱼一样。If I had not confronted the reality of my fear, I would have lived it. I am certain of that.如若我不曾面对过我内心恐惧创造出来的现实，我会就那样活着。我很确定。So how do you live your life eyes wide open? It is a learned discipline. It can be taught. It can be practiced. I will summarize very briefly.所以你们如何去以开阔的眼界生活呢？这是一个需要学习的学科。它能被传授。它能被练习。我简单地总结一下。Hold yourself accountable for every moment, every thought, every detail. See beyond your fears. Recognize your assumptions. Harness your internal strength. Silence your internal critic.让自己学会负责，对每一时刻，每个想法，每个细节。超越你内心的恐惧。识别出你所作的假设。展现你内在的能力。消除你内心的批判。Correct your misconceptions about luck and about success. Accept your strengths and your weaknesses, and understand the difference.Open your hearts to your bountiful blessings.修正你对于运气和成功的错误概念。接受自己的长处和短处，并清楚认识它们之间的区别。打开你的心扉去迎接对你满满的祝福。Your fears, your critics, your heroes, your villains -- they are your excuses, rationalizations, shortcuts, justifications, your surrender.They are fictions you perceive as reality. Choose to see through them.你的恐惧，你的批判，你的英雄，你的敌人——他们都是你的借口、合理化作用、捷径、辩护、屈服。它们是你错认为现实的小说。尝试选择看穿它们。Choose to let them go. You are the creator of your reality. With that empowerment comes complete responsibility.尝试让它们远离自己。你是自我现实的创造者。伴随这种权利而来的是你需要负起全部的责任。I chose to step out of fear's tunnel into terrain uncharted and undefined. I chose to build there a blessed life.Far from alone, I share my beautiful life with Dorothy,我选择走出恐惧的隧道，步入了未知的领域。我选择在那里构建幸福的人生。远离孤单，我分享我的美好生活，与多萝西，my beautiful wife, with our triplets, whom we call the Tripskys, and with the latest addition to the family, sweet baby Clementine.我美丽的妻子，与我们的三胞胎，我们称之为“Tripskys”，还有新添的家庭成员，可爱的宝贝克莱蒙蒂。What do you fear? What lies do you tell yourself? How do you embellish your truth and write your own fictions? What reality are you creating for yourself?你在害怕什么？你在欺骗自己什么？你是如何修饰自己的真相，编写自己的小说？你在为自己创造着怎么样的现实？In your career and personal life, in your relationships, and in your heart and soul, your backwards-swimming fish do you great harm. They exact a toll in missed opportunities and unrealized potential,在你的职业生涯和个人生活中，在你的人际关系中，在你的内心和灵魂中，倒游的鱼给你带来巨大的伤害。它们使你为错失的机会以及尚未实现的潜能付出代价。and they engender insecurity and distrust where you seek fulfillment and connection. I urge you to search them out.它们在你寻求满足与联系时引起你的不安以及不信任。我呼吁大家把它们找出来。Helen Keller said that the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. For me, going blind was a profound blessing, because blindness gave me vision. I hope you can see what I see.海伦·凯勒曾说过，唯一比失明更糟糕的是拥有视力，却没有远见。失明对我来说是一种深深的祝福，因为失明给予了我远见。我衷心希望你们也能看见我所看见的。Thank you.谢谢。Bruno Giussani: Isaac, before you leave the stage, just a question. This is an audience of entrepreneurs, of doers, of innovators. You are a CEO of a company down in Florida,布鲁诺·朱萨尼：艾萨克，在你离开之前，我想问一个问题。在座的各位都是创业者、实干家、创新者。你是佛罗里达一家公司的执行总裁，and many are probably wondering, how is it to be a blind CEO? What kind of specific challenges do you have, and how do you overcome them?很多人大概都会好奇，身为一名失明的执行总裁究竟是怎么样的呢？这使你面临哪些具体的挑战，而你又是怎么克服它们的呢？Isaac Lidsky: Well, the biggest challenge became a blessing. I don't get visual feedback from people.艾萨克·利德斯基：好吧，最大的挑战成了一种祝福。我看不到别人的反应。BG: What's that noise there? IL: Yeah. So, for example, in my leadership team meetings, I don't see facial expressions or gestures. I've learned to solicit a lot more verbal feedback. I basically force people to tell me what they think.布：有什么声音在哪里吗？艾：是的。比如说在我的领导团队的会议中，我无法看到别人的表情或者手势。我学会去征求更多的言语反馈。我基本都要求人们把他们的想法告诉我。And in this respect, it's become, like I said, a real blessing for me personally and for my company, because we communicate at a far deeper level, we avoid ambiguities, and most important, my team knows that what they think truly matters.正因如此，它成为了，如我所说，对我个人还有我公司的一种真正的祝福。因为我们获得了更深层次的沟通。我们避免了歧义，还有更重要的，我的团队清楚知道他们的想法是真的要紧的。BG: Isaac, thank you for coming to TED. IL: Thank you, Bruno.布：艾萨克，感谢你来到了TED。艾：谢谢你，布鲁诺。

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