Tim Harford: How frustration can make us more creative
蒂姆·哈福德: 如何以挫折激发创造力
Tim Harford's writings reveal the economic ideas behind everyday experiences. Full bio
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called Vera Brandes
of the Cologne Opera House.
科隆歌剧院的舞台。
of the emergency exit sign.
的昏暗的光微微照亮。
exciting day of Vera's life.
最最激动的一天。
concert promoter in Germany,
最年轻的演奏会经纪人,
the Cologne Opera House
to the piano in question,
钢琴出了些问题,
a little warily,
came over to Vera and said ...
Keith can't play."
基思今天就弹不成了。”
the wrong instrument.
tinny upper register,
又尖又刺耳,
such as the Cologne Opera House.
这么大空间里的观众都听到。
to try to find a replacement piano.
rain-drenched German teenager,
德国年轻人,
onto the stage of the opera house,
that something magical was happening.
神奇的事情发生了。
those upper registers,
tones of the keyboard,
a soothing, ambient quality.
还有环绕音的效果了。
repetitive riffs in the bass.
有轰隆隆声的即兴重复片段。
pounding down on the keys,
用力敲击琴键,
to reach the people in the back row.
好让后排的观众们都能听见。
solo jazz album in history.
爵士独奏专辑。
并想出了解决的创意。
about Jarrett's initial instinct.
杰瑞特的直觉。
in any remotely similar situation,
当遇到类似的情况时,
we'd have the same instinct.
我们可能会有同样的直觉。
to do good work with bad tools.
干出好活。
unnecessary hurdles.
克服不必要的麻烦。
a bit more appreciation
因为必须解决一些小麻烦
of having to cope with a little mess.
而心怀感激。
to some of their classes.
所用讲义的格式。
in something straightforward,
都是很直截了当的,
handouts that were formatted
重新规定格式的讲义,
这种棱角分明的字体,
like Haettenschweiler,
like Comic Sans italicized.
这种看起来有跳跃性的漫画字体。
to read the more difficult fonts,
复杂字体的学生们,
就会多一些思考,
about what they were reading,
has been testing Harvard undergraduates
给哈佛大学的毕业生做测试
of their attentional filters.
imagine you're in a restaurant,
想象你在一个餐厅中,
going on in the restaurant,
各种各样的交谈正在进行着,
on what's important to you.
对你有用的信息。
good, strong attentional filters.
很好、很强的注意力过滤能力。
subjects struggled with that.
也或多或少地缺乏这种能力。
they had porous filters --
容易把很多关键信息漏掉——
constantly being interrupted
of the world around them.
while they were doing their essays,
旁边有一台开着的电视,
that that was a disadvantage ...
这是个缺点······
these students had achieved,
creative milestone in their lives,
建立真正的创造性的里程碑,
grists to their creative mill.
激发了他们的创意机能。
because their box was full of holes.
因为他们的思维模式中全是“小孔”。
of complicated problems --
复杂的问题——
确实复杂的问题的呢?
a really complicated problem?
一台喷气式发动机。
of different variables,
很多不同的可变因素,
of problem all in one go,
全部这些问题,
is try to solve it step-by-step.
试着一步一步地解决。
you test it, you improve it.
做一下测试之后再改进。
做一下测试之后再改进。
will eventually get you a good jet engine.
做出一个很好的喷气式发动机。
implemented in the world.
都广泛应用。
in high performance cycling,
比如在高性能循环领域,
to optimize their web pages,
试图优化他们的网站,
for these step-by-step gains.
这些逐步收益。
to solve a complicated problem.
复杂困难问题的好方法。
make it a better way?
是什么吗?
the problem-solving work better.
gradually down a dead end.
that becomes less likely,
那结果就会不太一样了,
becomes more robust.
with some colleagues,
和几个同事
problems to some students,
交给了一些学生解决,
were collected in groups of four
with information about a crime --
含有一个案件信息的卷宗——
witness statements and three suspects.
证人证言和三个嫌疑犯。
were asked to figure out who did it,
被要求要找出真凶,
in this experiment.
solved the problem more effectively,
解决问题更加高效,
quite a lot more effectively.
非常高。
of getting the answer right.
50-50's not good.
只有一半几率答对了可不怎么样。
没有得到任何额外信息,
didn't have any extra information,
to accommodate that awkwardness,
来缓解尴尬。
of finding the right answer.
找出真凶。
一个陌生人的组做得更好,
and the stranger did a better job,
interviewed the groups of four friends,
采访四个好朋友的组时,
friends and the stranger,
和一个陌生人的组时,
it's rather awkward ...
互相之间还很尴尬······
even though they had.
然而他们还是觉得不太好。
dealing with here.
getting in the way ...
is really important.
特别重要的原因。
of the world of rock 'n' roll.
he's actually a TED-ster.
他是个实实在在的TED迷。
rather brilliant.
非常优秀。
rock 'n' roll albums of the last 40 years.
and "The Joshua Tree,"
《The Joshua Tree》。
he's worked with everybody.
他和很多人都合作过。
these great rock bands better?
变得更好做了些什么呢?
the unplayable piano.
那台坏了的钢琴。
in which he creates this disruption
deck of cards --
thank you, Brian.
布莱恩,谢谢你。
卡片上的指示去做。
follow the instructions on the card.
Drummer on the piano --
比如鼓手去弹钢琴——
embarrassing details. Amplify them."
然后把它们放大。”
unpredictable action. Incorporate."
且无法预料的行动。”
in album after album.
通过一张张的唱片证明了它的价值。
on an early Brian Eno album.
布莱恩-伊诺的一张唱片里打过鼓。
throwing beer cans across the studio.
从工作室的一头扔到了另一头。
on David Bowie's "Lodger" album,
大卫·鲍伊专辑《Lodger》的制作。
he turns to Brian and says,
it was a pretty good album,
now uses The Oblique Strategies.
也就是现在正在使用“倾斜策略”。
to use The Oblique Strategies
使用“倾斜策略”,
doesn't mean it isn't helping you.
并不代表它对你没用。
weren't a deck of cards originally,
原本并不是那一叠卡片,
you might try if you got stuck.
你可以尝试做的事。
was the least disruptive,
最不混乱的,
the stupid experiments,
with the awkward strangers,
if we're going to accept this.
来让我们接受这样做。
from a German teenager,
内疚的经历,
the unplayable piano.
试着弹弹那台弹不了的钢琴。
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Tim Harford - Economist, journalist, broadcasterTim Harford's writings reveal the economic ideas behind everyday experiences.
Why you should listen
In the Undercover Economist column he writes for the Financial Times, Tim Harford looks at familiar situations in unfamiliar ways and explains the fundamental principles of the modern economy. He illuminates them with clear writing and a variety of examples borrowed from daily life.
His book, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure, argues that the world has become far too unpredictable and complex for today's challenges to be tackled with ready-made solutions and expert opinions. Instead, Harford suggests, we need to learn to embrace failure and to constantly adapt, to improvise rather than plan, to work from the bottom up rather than the top down. His next book, Messy: Thriving in a Tidy-Minded World will be published in September 2016.
Harford also presents the BBC radio series More or Less, a rare broadcast program devoted, as he says, to "the powerful, sometimes beautiful, often abused but ever ubiquitous world of numbers."
He says: "I’d like to see many more complex problems approached with a willingness to experiment."
Tim Harford | Speaker | TED.com