In an experiment conducted by Manuel Sosa of insead business school and Sunkee Lee of Carnegie Mellon University, participants were given a sheet of paper with 40 circles on it and asked to draw real-world objects that contained that shape.
在欧洲工商管理学院的曼努埃尔·索萨和卡内基梅隆大学的桑基·李进行的一项实验中,参与者拿到一张有40个圆圈的纸,并要求他们画出这个形状的现实世界中的物体。
People who had been put in an unconventional workspace performed worse than those in a bog-standard office because they became fixated on the circular objects in their vicinity (they did better than cubicle-dwellers on tests that could not be influenced by their surroundings in this way).
那些被安排在非常规工作空间的人比在标准办公室里的人表现得更差,因为他们只专注于附近的圆形物体(他们在一些测试中表现得比格子间里的人更好,这些测试不会像这样受到周围环境的影响)。
Group activities undoubtedly have their place: it’s called hell.
集体活动无疑有其一席之地:这个地方被称为地狱。
But desperate efforts to induce creativity can be self-defeating, in the same way that telling yourself that you must get to sleep is bound to keep you awake.
但是,不顾一切地激发创造力的努力可能会弄巧成拙,就像告诉自己必须睡觉一定会让你保持清醒一样。
Plenty of evidence suggests that doing absolutely nothing is a better option.
大量证据表明,什么都不做是更好的选择。
Allowing the mind to wander is a good way to unlock bright ideas.
让大脑走神是解锁好点子的好方法。
Aaron Sorkin, a celebrated screenplay writer, showered multiple times a day as a way of getting around writer’s block.
著名编剧亚伦·索尔金每天洗澡好几次,以此来对付文思枯竭的情况。
Tedium itself can be a useful spur to inspiration.
单调乏味本身就是一种有用的灵感刺激。
In a study presented in 2013 researchers found that people who had copied telephone numbers out—or, even better, just read them—before taking a creative test outperformed those who had not.
在2013年公布的一项研究中,研究人员发现,在参加创造性测试之前,抄写过电话号码的人——或者更绝的,只是朗读电话号码的人——比没有做过这些事的人表现更好。
Boredom, reckoned Friedrich Nietzsche, is that disagreeable “windless calm” of the soul that precedes a happy voyage and cheerful breeze.
弗里德里希·尼采认为,无聊是快乐航行和愉悦微风到来之前,一种令人不快的灵魂上的“风平浪静”。
There is nothing like boredom to make you write, agreed a young Agatha Christie.
没有什么比无聊更能让你动笔写作了,年轻的阿加莎·克里斯蒂对此表示同意。
Maybe she could have achieved much more if she had a beanbag, some Lego and a zoot.
如果她有豆子袋、乐高积木和佐特套装,也许她会取得更大的成就。
Or maybe creativity is just a bit less formulaic than that.
或者,创造力只是没有那么程式化而已。
在欧洲工商管理学院的曼努埃尔·索萨和卡内基梅隆大学的桑基·李进行的一项实验中,参与者拿到一张有40个圆圈的纸,并要求他们画出这个形状的现实世界中的物体。
People who had been put in an unconventional workspace performed worse than those in a bog-standard office because they became fixated on the circular objects in their vicinity (they did better than cubicle-dwellers on tests that could not be influenced by their surroundings in this way).
那些被安排在非常规工作空间的人比在标准办公室里的人表现得更差,因为他们只专注于附近的圆形物体(他们在一些测试中表现得比格子间里的人更好,这些测试不会像这样受到周围环境的影响)。
Group activities undoubtedly have their place: it’s called hell.
集体活动无疑有其一席之地:这个地方被称为地狱。
But desperate efforts to induce creativity can be self-defeating, in the same way that telling yourself that you must get to sleep is bound to keep you awake.
但是,不顾一切地激发创造力的努力可能会弄巧成拙,就像告诉自己必须睡觉一定会让你保持清醒一样。
Plenty of evidence suggests that doing absolutely nothing is a better option.
大量证据表明,什么都不做是更好的选择。
Allowing the mind to wander is a good way to unlock bright ideas.
让大脑走神是解锁好点子的好方法。
Aaron Sorkin, a celebrated screenplay writer, showered multiple times a day as a way of getting around writer’s block.
著名编剧亚伦·索尔金每天洗澡好几次,以此来对付文思枯竭的情况。
Tedium itself can be a useful spur to inspiration.
单调乏味本身就是一种有用的灵感刺激。
In a study presented in 2013 researchers found that people who had copied telephone numbers out—or, even better, just read them—before taking a creative test outperformed those who had not.
在2013年公布的一项研究中,研究人员发现,在参加创造性测试之前,抄写过电话号码的人——或者更绝的,只是朗读电话号码的人——比没有做过这些事的人表现更好。
Boredom, reckoned Friedrich Nietzsche, is that disagreeable “windless calm” of the soul that precedes a happy voyage and cheerful breeze.
弗里德里希·尼采认为,无聊是快乐航行和愉悦微风到来之前,一种令人不快的灵魂上的“风平浪静”。
There is nothing like boredom to make you write, agreed a young Agatha Christie.
没有什么比无聊更能让你动笔写作了,年轻的阿加莎·克里斯蒂对此表示同意。
Maybe she could have achieved much more if she had a beanbag, some Lego and a zoot.
如果她有豆子袋、乐高积木和佐特套装,也许她会取得更大的成就。
Or maybe creativity is just a bit less formulaic than that.
或者,创造力只是没有那么程式化而已。