Tim Harford: How frustration can make us more creative
提姆.哈福特: 煩亂如何激發創意
Tim Harford's writings reveal the economic ideas behind everyday experiences. Full bio
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called Vera Brandes
17歲德國女孩
of the Cologne Opera House.
of the emergency exit sign.
緊急出口的綠色標誌亮著。
exciting day of Vera's life.
concert promoter in Germany,
the Cologne Opera House
凱斯·傑瑞特的
to the piano in question,
出了些問題,
a little warily,
came over to Vera and said ...
Keith can't play."
凱斯會取消演奏。”
the wrong instrument.
tinny upper register,
劣質而且刺耳,
such as the Cologne Opera House.
寬敞空間的聲音。
to try to find a replacement piano.
一台能夠替代的鋼琴。
rain-drenched German teenager,
德國年輕人,
onto the stage of the opera house,
歌劇院的舞台,
無法達到演奏標準的鋼琴面前
that something magical was happening.
奇蹟正在發生。
those upper registers,
tones of the keyboard,
a soothing, ambient quality.
音效環繞的品質。
repetitive riffs in the bass.
重複出現的隆隆聲。
pounding down on the keys,
to reach the people in the back row.
讓後排的觀眾也能聽到。
solo jazz album in history.
讓麻煩變成了崛起的創意。
about Jarrett's initial instinct.
傑瑞特最初的反應。
in any remotely similar situation,
在任何相似的情況下,
we'd have the same instinct.
我們會有同樣的反應。
to do good work with bad tools.
用糟糕的工具做好工作。
unnecessary hurdles.
a bit more appreciation
of having to cope with a little mess.
出人意料的優勢。
to some of their classes.
in something straightforward,
很直接的方式,
或是新羅馬體。
handouts that were formatted
標準的講義
like Haettenschweiler,
像是Haettenschweiler,
like Comic Sans italicized.
像是斜體的Comic Sans。
to read the more difficult fonts,
更加難懂的字體的學生,
about what they were reading,
has been testing Harvard undergraduates
給哈佛大學的大學生做測試
of their attentional filters.
imagine you're in a restaurant,
想像你在一間餐廳裡,
going on in the restaurant,
正在進行中的對話,
on what's important to you.
good, strong attentional filters.
很好地很強的注意力過濾能力。
為這樣的能力奮鬥著。
subjects struggled with that.
就為這樣的能力掙扎。
they had porous filters --
他們的過濾機制有漏洞﹣﹣
constantly being interrupted
他們時常被干擾
of the world around them.
while they were doing their essays,
旁邊有一台正在播放的電視機,
that that was a disadvantage ...
這是個劣勢 ...
these students had achieved,
creative milestone in their lives,
創作出真正的里程碑,
grists to their creative mill.
引發了他們的創意工廠。
because their box was full of holes.
因為他們的盒子上全是小洞。
of complicated problems --
a really complicated problem?
of different variables,
of problem all in one go,
is try to solve it step-by-step.
是試圖一步步解決它。
you test it, you improve it.
實驗,然後提高它的質量。
will eventually get you a good jet engine.
讓你完成一個性能優良的飛機引擎,
implemented in the world.
in high performance cycling,
運動練習中見到這樣的過程,
to optimize their web pages,
試圖優化他們的網站,
for these step-by-step gains.
這樣一步步的收穫。
to solve a complicated problem.
make it a better way?
能夠讓它更好嗎?
the problem-solving work better.
gradually down a dead end.
that becomes less likely,
那就不大會這樣,
becomes more robust.
with some colleagues,
和她的同事們,
problems to some students,
提出了怪誕的的謀殺問題,
were collected in groups of four
with information about a crime --
witness statements and three suspects.
證人的證詞和三個疑犯。
were asked to figure out who did it,
in this experiment.
我這麼做的意義。
solved the problem more effectively,
更高效地解決了問題,
quite a lot more effectively.
非常高。
of getting the answer right.
來得出正確答案。
50-50's not good.
50﹣50的幾率不那麼好。
didn't have any extra information,
to accommodate that awkwardness,
of finding the right answer.
and the stranger did a better job,
完成得更好,
interviewed the groups of four friends,
四個友人組合的感受時,
friends and the stranger,
三個友人一個陌生人組合時
it's rather awkward ...
有些尷尬 ...
even though they had.
即使他們確實完成得很好。
dealing with here.
幫助我們解決問題,
getting in the way ...
路上的障礙 ...
is really important.
非常重要。
of the world of rock 'n' roll.
he's actually a TED-ster.
他是一個 TED 迷。
rather brilliant.
非常傑出。
rock 'n' roll albums of the last 40 years.
很多搖滾巨作的產生。
and "The Joshua Tree,"
和《The Joshua Tree》,
he's worked with everybody.
和很多人合作。
these great rock bands better?
the unplayable piano.
無法演奏的鋼琴。
in which he creates this disruption
deck of cards --
thank you, Brian.
謝謝你,布萊恩。
follow the instructions on the card.
Drummer on the piano --
鼓手來彈鋼琴﹣﹣
embarrassing details. Amplify them."
然後放大它們。」
unpredictable action. Incorporate."
無法預測的反應。合併它們。」
in album after album.
證實了自己的價值所在。
on an early Brian Eno album.
菲爾.柯林斯是鼓手。
throwing beer cans across the studio.
於是開始在工作室裡扔啤酒罐。
偉大的搖滾吉他手,
on David Bowie's "Lodger" album,
製作大衛.鮑伊的唱片《Lodger》,
he turns to Brian and says,
他轉向布萊恩說到,
it was a pretty good album,
now uses The Oblique Strategies.
現在使用傾斜戰術。
to use The Oblique Strategies
來使用傾斜戰術,
doesn't mean it isn't helping you.
它不能幫助你。
weren't a deck of cards originally,
原本並不是一疊紙牌,
you might try if you got stuck.
你能嘗試的事。
was the least disruptive,
the stupid experiments,
愚蠢的實驗,
with the awkward strangers,
if we're going to accept this.
來接受這樣的事情。
from a German teenager,
內疚的旅程,
總有這樣的時刻,
the unplayable piano.
無法彈奏的鋼琴。
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