The Power of Timeoff 度假的影响力.doc

I run a design studio in New York.Every seven years, I close it for one yearto pursuesome little experiments, things thatare always difficult to accomplishduring the regular working year.In that year, we are not availablefor any of our clients.We are totally closed.And as you can imagine,it is a lovely and very energetic time.我在纽约经营一家设计工作室。每七年，我会停业一年去做一些小的试验，即一些在正常运营年里通常难以完成的事情。在这一年里，我们完全停业，不为我们的顾客提供服务。你能想象，那是一段非常美好，非常活力无限的时光。I originally had opened the studio in New Yorkto combine my two loves, music and design.And we created videos and packagingfor many musicians that you know,and for even more that youve never heard of.As I realized, just like with many many things in my lifethat I actually love,I adapt to it.And I get, over time, bored by them.And for sure, in our case,our work started to look the same.You see here a glass eye in a die cut of a book.Quite the similar idea, then, a perfume packagedin a book, in a die cut.So I decided to close it down for one year.在纽约经营设计室，我原本是为了整合我的两大最爱，音乐和设计。如您所知道的，我们曾为很多音乐家，甚至很多你们都没有听说过的，制作视频及包装。正如生活中的许许多多事情一样，当我意识到的时候，我已适应了这种生活，而且，随着时间的推移，我开始变得厌倦他们。能确定的是，于我们这样的工作，开始都是一样的。这儿你可以看到一只玻璃眼睛，冲压裁剪书本制作的，然后，一瓶用书本包装的香水，非常相似的方法，置于一个冲压模子内。因此，我决定停业一年，这是其一。Also is the knowledge thatright now we spend aboutin the first 25 years of our lives learning,then there is another 40 yearsthats really reserved for working.And then tacked on at the end of itare about 15 years for retirement.And I thought it might be helpfulto basically cut off five of those retirement yearsand intersperse them in between those working years.(Applause)Thats clearly enjoyable for myself.But probably even more important isthat the work that comes out of these yearsflows back into the companyand into society at large,rather than just benefiting a grandchild or two.其二，做这样的决定也是源于我对人活着的一种认知。首先，我们花费大概25年的时间学习，而接下来的另外40年差不多都预留给了工作，最后，退休，像是笨拙地挣扎在职业生命的尾巴上，这大概是15年。于是我想，何不从这15年的退休期里拿出五年将他们穿插入工作年，这或许对我的人生会有益处。而这样做确实让我身心愉悦，或许，更为重要的是，源自于这些美好时期的作品最终回流到企业，回流到全社会，而不仅仅是使一个孙子或是两个收益。There is a fellow TEDster who spoke two years ago,Jonathan Haidt,who defined his work into three different levels.And they rang very true for me.I can see my work as a job. I do it for money.I likely already look forward to the weekend on Thursdays.And I probably will need a hobby as a leveling mechanism.In a career Im definitely more engaged.But at the same time, there will be periods when I thinkis all that really hard work really worth my while?While in the third one, in the calling,very much likely I would do it alsoif I wouldnt be financially compensated for it.一位在两年前曾在TED做客的伙伴，乔纳森 海迪， 他将自己的工作界定为三个不同的层次。于我,那是非常贴切的划分。我可以把我的作品当做是一份工作，我为了钱而做。我可能在周四就已经开始盼望周末。因此，我或许非常需要一个爱好作为一种平衡机制。毋庸置疑我在自己的事业上是全身心投入的，但是，与此同时，这样的困惑时刻会多次出现，那就是，我这样努力的工作真的值得吗? 这第三个原因，或是一种冲动，就像即使经济上没有补偿，我也会做。I am not a religious person myself,but I did look for nature.I had spent my first sabbatical in New York City.Looked for something different for the second one.Europe and the U.S. didnt really feel enticingbecause I knew them too well. So Asia it was.The most beautiful landscapes I had seen in Asiawere Sri Lanka and Bali.Sri Lanka still had the civil war going on, so Bali it was.Its a wonderful, very craft-oriented society.我个人不是一个宗教信仰者，但我追求自然。我的第一次度假是在纽约市。第二次我想找个不同的地方，欧洲，美国，没有什么吸引力，因为我太熟悉她们了。那么，亚洲就是了。在亚洲，我看到过的最美丽的风景是在斯里兰卡和巴厘。那时，斯里兰卡和巴厘都还内战，那是一个非常奇妙，能工巧匠神往的社会。I arrived there in September 2008,and pretty much started to work right away.There is wonderful inspiration coming from the area itself.However the first thing that I needed wasmosquito repellent typographybecause they were definitely around heavily.And then I needed some sort of wayto be able to get back to all the wild dogsthat surround my house,and attacked me during my morning walks.So we created this series of 99 portraits on tee shirts.Every single dog on one tee shirt.As a little retaliationwith a just ever so slightly menacing message(Laughter)on the back of the shirt.(Laughter)我是2008年9月到的那里，基本是立马开始工作的。这个地方本身就散发着美妙的灵感。但是，我需要做的第一件事是驱蚊，很显然，蚊子极度“充盈”。然后是，我需要一种可以与包围我房屋并且在我散步时袭击我的野狗对峙的方法。所以，我创作了一系列这样的T恤，共99种图案。每一个T恤上一只狗，作为报复，每件T恤上都印有一条稍微稍微带有恐吓意味的信息。Just before I left New YorkI decided I could actually renovate my studio.And then just leave it all to them.And I dont have to do anything.So I looked for furniture.And it turned out thatall the furniture that I really liked,I couldnt afford.And all the stuff I could afford, I didnt like.So one of the things that we pursued in Baliwas pieces of furniture.This one, of course, still works with the wild dogs.Its not quite finished yet.And I think by the time this lamp came about,(Laughter)I had finally made peace with those dogs.(Laughter)就在我离开纽约前，我决定，我大可以翻新一下我的工作室。然后，把工作交给他们，而我什么都不用做。这样，我四处搜寻家具，结果是，我喜欢的家具我都买不起，而我买的起的家具，我都不喜欢。所以，在巴厘我们做的一件事就是找家具。这件，当然，还是跟野狗有关，制作还未竣工。我想，当这盏灯被最终拖出来的时候，我便可以与那些狗狗们重修旧好了。Then there is a coffee table. I also did a coffee table.Its called Be Here Now.It includes 330 compasses.And we had custom espresso cups madethat hide a magnet inside,and make those compasses go crazy,always centering on them.Then this is a fairly talkative, verbose kind of chair.I also started meditating for the first time in my life in Bali.And at the same time, Im extremely awarehow boring it is to hear about other peoples happinesses.So I will not really go too far into it.然后，还有一个咖啡桌，我也做了一个咖啡桌，它的名字叫做“快来这儿”，包含有330个指南针。这是我们定制的里面藏有吸铁石的咖啡杯，这些杯子可以让这些指南针发疯，总对着他们。这儿，一把非常健谈，可谓啰里啰嗦的椅子。在巴厘，我也人生第一次的打坐冥想了。同时，我也非常清楚地意识到，听别人讲幸福是一件多么无聊的事情。这个我就不多说了。Many of you will know this TEDster,Danny Gilbert, whose book, actually,I got it through the TED book club.I think it took me four yearsto finally read it, while on sabbatical.And I was pleased to seethat he actually wrote the book while he was on sabbatical.And Ill show you a couple of peoplethat did well by pursuing sabbaticals.你们很多人知道这位TED讲师，Danny Gilbert，事实上，我是从TED图书俱乐部那里得到他的著作的。我想，我大概花了4年的时间最终读完它，也有在度假的时候读。我很开心得获悉原来他是在度假的时候写的这本著作。我会向你们介绍其他几位在度假大有收获的朋友。This is Ferran Adria. Many people thinkhe is right now the best chef in the worldwith his restaurant north of Barcelona, El Bulli.His restaurant is open seven months every year.He closes it down for five monthsto experiment with a full kitchen staff.His latest numbers are fairly impressive.He can seat, throughout the year,he can seat 8,000 people.And he has 2.2 million requests for reservations.这是Ferran Adria。很多人认为他现在是世界上最好的厨师，他的餐厅在巴塞罗那北部，El Bulli。他的餐厅每年开放7个月，然后停业5个月以便 与所有厨师们做实验。他的最新订单数相当惊人，足以全年满座，8,000多人，而他还有220万个预定申请。If I look at my cycle, seven years, one year sabbatical,its 12.5 percent of my time.And if I look at companies that are actually more successful than mine,3M since the 1930sis giving all their engineers15 percent to pursue whatever they want.There is some good successes.Scotch tape came out of this program,as well as Art Fry developedsticky notes from during his personal time for 3M.Google, of course, very famouslygives 20 percent for their software engineersto pursue their own personal projects.回头看看我的周期，每七年度假一年，那是我一生时光的12.5%。而看看那些比我们成功的企业，3M，自从1930代开始，给予自己的工程师们15%的时间去做他们想做的。有些非常成功。创可贴既是这个项目的结晶，还有Art Fry，在给3M打工时自己的私人时间里研发了可粘便签。谷歌，当然，非常著名，给予每个工程师20%的时间去自创项目。Anybody in here has actually ever conducted a sabbatical?Thats about five percent of everybody.So Im not sure if you saw your neighbor putting their hand up.Talk to them about if it was successful or not.Ive found thatfinding out about what Im going to like in the future,my very best way is to talk to peoplewho have actually done itmuch better than myself envisioning it.在座的各位有谁去度过假？嗯，有5%。我不确定，你是否注意到你的邻座举手了，跟他们讨论一下，这个度假是否成功。我已经发现，想知道未来我喜欢什么，最好的办法就是跟那些比我做的好的人们讲一讲，而不是我自己来想象它。When I had the idea of doing one,the process was I made the decision and I put it into my daily planner book.And then I told as many, many people as I possibly could about itso that there was no way that I could chicken out later on.(Laughter)当我有这样想法的时候，我的过程是这样的，决定做了，我把它记入我的日记簿里，然后，我尽可能地告诉所有我认识的人，这样，稍后我就没办法半路放弃了。In the beginning, on the first sabbatical,it was rather disastrous.I had thought that I should do this without any plan,that this vacuum of time somehow wouldbe wonderful and enticingfor idea generation. It was not.I just, without a plan, I just reactedto little requests, not work requests,those I all said no to, but other little requests.Sending mail to Japanese design magazines and things like that.So I became my own intern.(Laughter)刚开始度第一个假期时简直是灾难。我自认为这样的空闲时间很诱人是产生灵感的绝好时机，因此，我可以不用计划也能做。事实上不是。我只是，没有计划，我只是回复小请求，不回复工作请求，所有我都说不，但是，不包括其它小请求，如给日本设计杂志发个邮件这样的事儿。所以，我变成了我自己的“实习生”。And I very quicklymade a list of the things I was interested in,put them in a hierarchy, divided them into chunks of timeand then made a plan, very much like in grade school.What does it say here? Monday, 8 to 9: story writing;9 to 10: future thinking.Was not very successful. And so on and so forth.And that actually, specifically as a starting pointof the first sabbatical, worked really well for me.What came out of it?I really got close to design again.I had fun.Financially, seen over the long term, it was actually successful.Because of the improved quality, we could ask for higher prices.很快，我将我感兴趣的事儿列了出来，层级分列，划分为时间段，做了个计划，像在上学时一样。这上面写的什么？周一 8点至9点：写故事 9点到10点：设想未来。不是很成功，如此如此。事实上，作为我度假的始发点，对我来说已很不错。那么，从中得到了什么呢？我再一次跟设计非常贴近了。我得到了乐趣。长远来看，经济上也相当成功。由于质量提升了，我们可以标更高的价格了。And probably most importantly,basically everything weve donein the seven years following the first sabbaticalcame out of thinking of that one single year.And Ill show you a couple of projectsthat came out of the seven years following that sabbatical.One of the strands of thinking I was involved in wasthat sameness is so incredibly overrated.This whole idea that everything needs to be exactly the sameworks for a very very few strand of companies,and not for everybody else.或许更重要的是，在第一次度假后的7年间，我们所做的一切都是源于那一年的灵感。让我来介绍一下那次度假后的7年间所出的几个项目。我的各种想法之一是：雷同比率令人难以置信地高。所有一切对于几个企业来说需要是完全雷同的作品，而不是其他所有人，就是这个想法。We were asked to design an identity for Casa da Musica,the Rem Koolhaas-built music centerin Porto, in Portugal.And even though I desired to do an identitythat doesnt use the architecture,I failed at that.And mostly also because I realizedout of a Rem Koolhaas presentation to the city of Porto, wherehe talked about a conglomeration of various layers of meaning.Which I understood after Itranslated it from architecture speechin to regular English,basically as logo making.And I understood that the building itself was a logo.有人要求我们给Casa Da Musica，Rem Koolhaas在波尔图所建的音乐中心，设计一个识别符。尽管我们渴望不用建筑来做一个识别符，但我失败了。基本也是因为我从Rem Koolhaas对波尔图市的说明会中讲到的含义的不同层面的聚集中意识到了。我将自己从建筑致辞中悟到的东西用普通英语翻译出来，也就是制作徽标。我也明白了，建筑本身就是一个徽标。So then it became quite easy.We put a mask on it,looked at it deep down in the ground,checked it out from all sides,west, north, south, east,top and bottom.Colored them in a very particular wayby having a friend of mine write a piece of software,the Casa da Musica Logo Generator.Thats connected to a scanner.You put any image in there, like that Beethoven image.And the software, in a second,will give you the Casa da Musica Beethoven logo.Which, when you actually have to design a Beethoven poster,comes in handy, because the visual information of the logoand the actual poster is exactly the same.然后，事情就变得很简单。我们将它盖住，从上向下观察它，从各个面观察，东西南北，顶部，底部。以一种奇特的方式加颜色，请我的一位朋友撰写了一款软件，Casa Da Musia徽标制作器，并与扫描仪连接。你将一个图像放进去，如贝多芬的画像。1秒钟内，该软件就会给你Casa Da Musica贝多芬信息的徽标，而所有的海报都是无一例外的一模一样。So it will always fit together, conceptually, of course.If Zappas music is performed, it gets its own logo.Or Philip Glass or Lou Reed or the Chemical Brothers,who all performed there, get their ownCasa da Musica logo.It works the same internally with the president or the musical director,whose Casa da Musica portraits wind up on their business cards.There is a full-blown orchestraliving inside the building.It has a more transparent identity.The truck they go on tour with.Or theres a smaller contemporary orchestra,12 people that remixes its own title.所以，当然，理念上来说，它会一直相互搭配。如果展示Zappa的音乐，它会有它自己的徽标，无论Philip Glass 或是LoU Reed或是化学品兄弟，他们都一样会有自己的Casa Da Musica徽标。内部来说，也同样行得通，无论是主席或是音乐总监，他们各自的Casa Da Musica肖像最终都出现在自己的名片上。一个已发展成熟的管弦乐队生活在这个建筑里，它有更透明的识别符，他们巡演用的卡车，或是一个小些的现代管弦乐队，可互相混用职称的12个人。And one of the handy things that came aboutwas that you could take the logo typeand create advertising out of it.Like this Donna Toney poster,or Chopin, or Mozart,or La Monte Young.You can take the shape and make typography out of it.You can grow it underneath the skin.You can have a poster for a family event in front of the house,or a rave underneath the houseor a weekly program,as well as educational services.随之而来的一个伸手可做的事儿就是，你可以拿一个徽标形式来创造一则广告，如Donna Toney 海报，或Chopin，或莫扎特或La Monte Young。你可以拿一个形状，做一个影印。你可以在皮肤上种植，你可以在家庭聚会中，在门前放一个海报，或是房屋下面的狂欢或每周项目活动，或是教育服务等。Second insight. So far, until that point I hadbeen mostly involvedor used the language of designfor promotional purposes,which was fine with me.On one hand I have nothing against selling.My parents are both salespeople.But I did feel thatI spent so much time learning this language,why do I only promote with it?There must be something else.And the whole series of work came out of it.Some of you might have seen it.I showed some of itat earlier TEDs before,under the title Things Ive Learned in My Life So Far.Ill just show two now.第二个感悟。目前为止，我基本全程参与或利用设计语言达到促销目的（这个于我都没问题），直到事情发展到那一刻。一方面，我不反对销售。我的父母都是销售员。但是，我确实觉得我花了这个多时间学习这门语言，为什么不能用它促销呢？一定还有别的什么。至此，一系列作品出炉。有些你或许已看到过，我之前在TED也展示过，题目是“目前为止我学到的事儿”。我现在只展示两组。This is a whole wall of bananasat different ripenesseson the opening day in this gallery in New York.It says, Self-confidence produces fine results.This is after a week.After two weeks,three weeks, four weeks, five weeks.And you see the self confidence almost comes back,but not quite.These are some pictures visitors sent to me.(Laughter)这个是在纽约，这个走廊开放日上的一面香蕉墙，成熟度各不相同，传递的信息是“自信创造好结果”。这是一周后的样子，两周后，三周，四周，五周后。你还能看到自信基本回来了，但不是那么彻底。这是游客发给我的照片。And then the city of Amsterdamgave us a plaza and asked us to do something.We used the stone plates as a gridfor our little piece.We got 250,000 coins from the central bank,at different darknesses.So we got brand new ones, shiny ones,medium ones, and very old, dark ones.And with the help of 100 volunteers, over a week,created this fairly floral typographythat spelled, Obsessions make my life worseand my work better.然后，在阿姆斯特丹市，他们给了我们一个广场，要求我们做点什么。我们把石板当轴线来创作。我们从中央银行得到25万个硬币，黑度不同，有崭新的，发亮的，中间点的，也有很古旧的，黑色的。通过100为志愿者的帮助，花费一周，我们创造了一个相当花哨的作品，写到“痴迷让我的生活更糟却让我的工作更好”。And the idea of course was tomake the type so preciousthat as an audienceyou would be in between,Should I really take as much money as I can?Or should I leave the piece intact as it is right now?While we built all this upduring that week, with the 100 volunteers,a good number of the neighbors surrounding the plazagot very close to it and quite loved it.So when it was finally done,and in the first nighta guy came with big plastic bagsand scooped up as many coins as he could possibly carry,one of the neighbors called the police.当然，这个想法就是想让观众在这个作品面前进退两难。“我应该多拿些前？还是原封不动呢？”在我们与100位志愿者做这项工程的过程中，广场周围的不少邻居凑上来，非常喜欢他。所以，但最终完成后，第一个夜晚，来了一个拿着塑料袋的人，他将可能地将更多硬币揽到自己的袋子里带走，一个邻居叫了警察。And the