1、TED英语演讲接受生活中的小意外最新范文TED英语演讲：接受生活中的小意外Tim Harford 先生通过”那架不能弹奏的钢琴”的故事,抛砖引玉地向大家讲述: 在我们的工作和生活中出现的一些意外状况,小混乱,”陌生人”等,我们或许会很讨厌这些, 但其实他们是在帮助我们,因为我们往往能从中激发创造力,从而能让事情朝意想不到的,更好的方向发展。下面是小编为大家收集关于TED英语演讲：接受生活中的小意外,欢迎借鉴参考。演说题目：Know your worth, and then ask for it演说者：Tim HarfordLate in January 1975, a 17-year-old
2、German girl called Vera Brandes walked out onto the stage of the Cologne Opera House. The auditorium was empty. It was lit only by the dim, green glow of the emergency exit sign. This was the most exciting day of Veras life.1975年的一月下旬,一个叫维拉布兰德斯的17岁的德国女孩从幕后走上了科隆歌剧院的舞台。 观众席上空无一人。全场仅仅被一个绿色安全出口标志的昏暗的光微微
3、照亮。这一天是维拉生命中最最激动的一天。She was the youngest concert promoter in Germany, and she had persuaded the Cologne Opera House to host a late-night concert of jazz from the American musician, Keith Jarrett. 1,400 people were coming. And in just a few hours,Jarrett would walk out on the same stage, hed sit down
4、 at the piano and without rehearsal or sheet music, he would begin to play.她在当时是德国 最年轻的演奏会经纪人, 她说服了科隆歌剧院举办美国音乐家基思杰瑞特的一个爵士深夜场音乐会。1400位观众即将到场。再过几个小时,杰瑞特就会走上那个舞台,坐在钢琴旁,不经过排练,没有乐谱,就开始他的演奏。But right now, Vera was introducing Keith to the piano in question, and it wasnt going well. Jarrett looked to the i
5、nstrument a little warily, played a few notes, walked around it, played a few more notes,muttered something to his producer. Then the producer came over to Vera and said . “If you dont get a new piano, Keith cant play.”但那时候, 维拉向基思展示的钢琴出了些问题,而且情况不是太好。杰瑞特仔细地看了看那个钢琴,弹了几个音,绕着钢琴走了一圈之后,又弹了几个音,跟他的制作人嘟囔了几句。
6、然后制作人过去跟维拉说 “如果你们弄不来一台新的钢琴,基思今天就弹不成了。”Thered been a mistake. The opera house had provided the wrong instrument. This one had this harsh, tinny upper register, because all the felt had worn away. The black notes were sticking, the white notes were out of tune, the pedals didnt work and the piano itse
7、lf was just too small. It wouldnt create the volume that would fill a large space such as the Cologne Opera House.其实当时是出错了。歌剧院没准备好乐器。那台钢琴的高音部听起来又尖又刺耳,因为其中的所有毛毡都磨损坏了。黑键听起来感觉拖拖拉拉,白键走调了,脚踏板也坏了,而且那台钢琴也特别小。那钢琴根本弹不出足够大的声音来让像科隆歌剧院这么大空间里的观众都听到。So Keith Jarrett left. He went and sat outside in his car, leavi
8、ng Vera Brandes to get on the phone to try to find a replacement piano. Now she got a piano tuner, but she couldnt get a new piano. And so she went outside and she stood there in the rain, talking to Keith Jarrett, begging him not to cancel the concert. And he looked out of his car at this bedraggle
9、d, rain-drenched German teenager, took pity on her, and said, “Never forget . only for you.”所以基思杰瑞特就走了。他走出去坐在他的车里,留下了维拉布兰德斯在那里打电话试着弄来一台能用的钢琴。她找到了个钢琴调音师,但她弄不到新钢琴。然后她也出去了,站在雨中,开始跟基思杰瑞特交谈,求他不要取消那场音乐会。他看向车外那个全身被雨浇透的德国年轻人,心中升起了同情,说道, “别忘了啊我只为你这样做。”And so a few hours later, Jarrett did indeed step out ont
10、o the stage of the opera house, he sat down at the unplayable piano and began.然后几个小时之后,杰瑞特真的走到了歌剧院的舞台上,他坐到那个弹不了的钢琴旁边开始了演奏。Within moments it became clear that something magical was happening. Jarrett was avoiding those upper registers, he was sticking to the middle tones of the keyboard, which gave t
11、he piece a soothing, ambient quality. But also, because the piano was so quiet, he had to set up these rumbling, repetitive riffs in the bass. And he stood up twisting, pounding down on the keys, desperately trying to create enough volume to reach the people in the back row.当音乐逐渐响起的时候,神奇的事情发生了。杰瑞特避开
12、了那些高音部分,他一直用键盘上的中音区部分演奏,这使得音乐非常舒缓,还有环绕音的效果了。而且,因为那台钢琴的声音太小了,他要在低音区制造一些有轰隆隆声的即兴重复片段。他还站起来转身用力敲击琴键,极力地想要弹出大一些的音量好让后排的观众们都能听见。Its an electrifying performance. It somehow has this peaceful quality, and at the same time its full of energy, its dynamic. And the audience loved it. Audiences continue to lov
13、e it because the recording of the K?ln Concert is the best-selling piano album in history and the best-selling solo jazz album in history.那次表演很令人兴奋。既有安静的质感,同时又充满力量,非常有活力。观众们很喜欢这次演出。而观众们在演出之后继续保持了对它的热爱,因为那场科隆音乐会的录音是有史以来最畅销的钢琴曲专辑和有史以来最畅销的爵士独奏专辑。Keith Jarrett had been handed a mess. He had embraced tha
14、t mess, and it soared. But lets think for a moment about Jarretts initial instinct. He didnt want to play. Of course, I think any of us, in any remotely similar situation, would feel the same way, wed have the same instinct. We dont want to be asked to do good work with bad tools. We dont want to ha
15、ve to overcome unnecessary hurdles.基思杰瑞特遇到了个麻烦。他容忍了那个麻烦,并想出了解决的创意。但让我们想一想杰瑞特的直觉。他其实一开始并不想演奏。当然,我想我们每一个人,当遇到类似的情况时,可能都会有同样的感觉,我们可能会有同样的直觉。我们不想被要求用糟糕的工具干出好活。我们也不愿意克服不必要的麻烦。But Jarretts instinct was wrong, and thank goodness he changed his mind. And I think our instinct is also wrong. I think we need t
16、o gain a bit more appreciation for the unexpected advantages of having to cope with a little mess. So let me give you some examples from cognitive psychology, from complexity science, from social psychology, and of course, rock n roll.但是杰瑞特的直觉是错的,不过感谢老天他改了主意。我觉得我们的直觉也是错的。我觉得我们需要对那些因为必须解决一些小麻烦而获得的出人意
17、料的优势而心怀感激。我来给大家举一些例子,从认知心理学,复杂性科学,社会心理学,当然还有摇滚乐的角度来看一看。So cognitive psychology first. Weve actually known for a while that certain kinds of difficulty, certain kinds of obstacle, can actually improve our performance. For example, the psychologist Daniel Oppenheimer, a few years ago, teamed up with h
18、igh school teachers. And he asked them to reformat the handouts that they were giving to some of their classes. So the regular handout would be formatted in something straightforward, such as Helvetica or Times New Roman.那么首先是认知心理学。我们都已经很明白了一些特定的困难和一些特定的障碍的存在实际上可以提升我们的表现。举例来说,心理学家丹尼尔奥本海默几年前和一些高中老师进行
19、了一次合作。他要求老师们重新规定他们的一些课堂教课所用讲义的格式。普通讲义的格式都是很直截了当的,比如Helvetica或Times New Roam字体。But half these classes were getting handouts that were formatted in something sort of intense, like Haettenschweiler, or something with a zesty bounce, like Comic Sans italicized. Now, these are really ugly fonts, and they
20、re difficult fonts to read. But at the end of the semester, students were given exams, and the students whod been asked to read the more difficult fonts, had actually done better on their exams, in a variety of subjects.但其中一半的课堂将会得到重新规定格式的讲义,比如用Haettenschweiler这种棱角分明的字体,或者是斜体Comic Sans这种看起来有跳跃性的漫画字体
21、。这些字体是很丑的,并且不易读。但在那个学期的期末,学生们考试的时候,那些被要求读了一个学期复杂字体的学生们,最后很多学科的成绩反而更好。And the reason is, the difficult font had slowed them down,forced them to work a bit harder, to think a bit more about what they were reading, to interpret it . and so they learned more.原因就是,读更复杂的字体让他们塌下心来,逼着他们付出更多的努力,对他们正在读的东西就会多一
22、些思考,可以更好地理解 所以他们学到的就更多。Another example. The psychologist Shelley Carson has been testing Harvard undergraduates for the quality of their attentional filters. What do I mean by that? What I mean is, imagine youre in a restaurant, youre having a conversation, there are all kinds of other conversations
23、 going on in the restaurant, you want to filter them out, you want to focus on whats important to you.再看另一个例子。心理学家谢利卡尔森给哈佛大学的毕业生做测试来研究他们注意力的过滤能力。知道我说的是什么意思吗?我的意思就是,想象你在一个餐厅中,正在和人交谈,而餐厅中有很多各种各样的交谈正在进行着,你想要从中过滤出信息,你想要专注于对你有用的信息。Can you do that?If you can, you have good, strong attentional filters. But
24、 some people really struggle with that. Some of Carsons undergraduate subjects struggled with that. They had weak filters, they had porous filters - let a lot of external information in. And so what that meant is they were constantly being interruptedby the sights and the sounds of the world around
25、them. If there was a television on while they were doing their essays, they couldnt screen it out.你能做到吗?如果你可以的话,你就有很好、很强的注意力过滤能力。但是有些人确实不容易做到。一些卡尔森实验的毕业生也或多或少地缺乏这种能力。他们的过滤能力不强,容易把很多关键信息漏掉但却会引入很多外部信息。意思就是说他们会不断地被他们周围世界中的声色所干扰。如果当他们写作的时候旁边有一台开着的电视, 他们排除不了电视的干扰。Now, you would think that that was a disa
26、dvantage . but no. When Carson looked at what these students had achieved, the ones with the weak filters were vastly more likely to have some real creative milestone in their lives, to have published their first novel, to have released their first album.These distractions were actually grists to th
27、eir creative mill. They were able to think outside the box because their box was full of holes.现在,你可能会觉得这是个缺点 但并不是。当卡尔森观察这些学生的表现时,那些过滤能力较弱的学生极有可能在他们的一生中建立真正的创造性的里程碑,更可能出版他们的第一部小说,或者发行第一张唱片。这些外部的干扰实际上激发了他们的创意机能。他们可以跳出固有的思维模式,因为他们的思维模式中全是“小孔”。Lets talk about complexity science. So how do you solve a r
28、eally complex - the worlds full of complicated problems - how do you solve a really complicated problem?让我们聊一聊复杂性科学。那么你们是怎么解决一个真正复杂的这个世界充满了复杂的问题你们是怎么解决一个 确实复杂的问题的呢?For example, you try to make a jet engine. There are lots and lots of different variables, the operating temperature, the materials, all
29、 the different dimensions, the shape. You cant solve that kind of problem all in one go, its too hard. So what do you do? Well, one thing you can do is try to solve it step-by-step. So you have some kind of prototype and you tweak it, you test it, you improve it. You tweak it, you test it, you impro
30、ve it.比如,你试着去制造一台喷气式发动机。这工作存在着很多不同的可变因素,工作温度、材料、所有不同的维度、形状。你不能一次性解决全部这些问题,那太难了。那你会怎么做呢?你所能做的就是试着一步一步地解决。你做出了几种原型出来,然后你会做出一些改变,做一下测试之后再改进。再做出一些改变,做一下测试之后再改进。Now, this idea of marginal gains will eventually get you a good jet engine. And its been quite widely implemented in the world. So youll hear ab
31、out it, for example, in high performance cycling, web designers will talk about trying to optimize their web pages, theyre looking for these step-by-step gains.这种边际增益的理念最终可以让你做出一个很好的喷气式发动机。这种方法在全世界 都广泛应用。你可能会听说,比如在高性能循环领域,网页设计师会讨论试图优化他们的网站,他们会寻找这些逐步收益。Thats a good way to solve a complicated problem.
32、 But you know what would make it a better way? A dash of mess. You add randomness, early on in the process, you make crazy moves, you try stupid things that shouldnt work, and that will tend to make the problem-solving work better. And the reason for that is the trouble with the step-by-step process, the marginal gains, is they can walk you gradually down a dead end. And if you start with the randomness, that becomes less likely, and your problem-
