英語學習筆記（4）

Want to be more creative？ Go for a walk

如何變得更有創意？去散個步

The creative process —— you know this —— from the first idea to the final product， is a long process。 It‘s super-iterative， lots of refinement， blood， sweat， tears and years。 And we’re not saying you‘re going to go out for a walk and come back with the Sistine Chapel in your left hand。 So what frame of the creative process did we focus on？ Just this first part。 Just brainstorming， coming up with a new idea。 We actually ran four studies with a variety of people。 You were either walking indoors or outdoors。 And all of these studies found the same conclusion。 I’m only going to tell you about one of them today。

iterative［‘tretv］：adj。 迭代的；重複的

眾所周知，創意過程從第一個想法冒出來到最終產品是一個很長的過程。需要超級多的反覆迭代，無數的改進，血汗，淚水和時間。我們討論的並不是，你出去散個步，左手就可以帶著 西斯廷教堂（的設計）回來。那麼我們關注的是創意過程的哪個環節？ 就是這第一部分。去做頭腦風暴，產生新點子。我們針對一些不同的人做過四項研究，包括了進行戶外和室內散步的群體。所有的這些研究都得出了相同的結論。我今天只打算告訴你們其中一個例子。

One of the tests we used for creativity was alternate uses。 In this test， you have four minutes。 Your job is to come up with as many other ways to use common everyday objects as you can think of。 So， for example， what else would you do with a key， other than to use it for opening up a lock？ Clearly， you could use it as a third eyeball for a giraffe， right？ Maybe。 That’s sort of interesting， kind of new。 But is it creative？ So people came up with as many ideas as they could， and we had to decide： Is this creative or not？

alternate［‘ltrnt］：v。 交替；輪流；adj。 間隔的；輪流的；交替的；n。 代替者；供替代的選擇

我們做創意研究的其中一個測試是替代使用。在這個測試中，你有4分鐘的時間要想出儘可能多的方法去使用生活中你所能想到的日常事物。比如，除了開門外，你還能用鑰匙做什麼？ 顯然，你還可以它來當作長頸鹿的第三隻眼睛，沒錯吧？或許如此。但諸如此類好玩的新使用方法，算是創意嗎？雖然人們想出了各種各樣的主意，而我們需要判斷，這是不是創意？

The definition of creativity that a lot of people go with is “appropriate novelty。” For something to be appropriate， it has to be realistic， so unfortunately， you can’t use a key as an eyeball。 Boo！ But “novel，” the second thing， is that nobody had to have said it。 So for us， it had to be appropriate first， and then for novelty， nobody else in the entire population that we surveyed could have said it。 So you might think you could use a key to scratch somebody‘s car， but if somebody else said that， you didn’t get credit for it。 Neither of you did。 However， only one person said this：“ If you were dying and it were a murder mystery， and you had to carve the name of the murderer into the ground with your dying words。” One person said this。

novelty［‘nɑvlti］：n。 【C】新奇；小裝飾；n。 【U】新奇的事物；新奇的經驗

很多人對創意的定義是 “適用的新奇”。要讓事情變得適用，就需要實用。但不幸的是，你無法將鑰匙當眼球使用。這不算數。而第二點，新奇，是指之前沒有人提到過。所以對我們而言，這首先得適用，然後是新奇，已知的地球人都沒有想到這個。所以如果你說可以用鑰匙來刮花別人的車，但如果已經有人說過了，就不夠新奇了。你們都不算。然而，只有其中一個人這樣說： “假如你快要死去，而且是被謀殺的，你就可以（用鑰匙）把遺囑和兇手的名字一起 刻在地上。”有個人就是這樣說。

And it’s a creative idea， because it‘s appropriate and it’s novel。

所以這是一個創造性的想法，因為適用，而且新奇。

You either did this test and came up with ideas while you were seated or while you were walking on a treadmill。

treadmill［‘tredml］：n。 踏車；繁重的工作；跑步機

你參與這個測試的時候是可以是坐著的，也可以是在跑步機上走步。

They did the test twice， with different objects。 Three groups： the first group sat first and then sat again for the second test。 The second group sat first and then did the second test while walking on a treadmill。 The third group——and this is interesting——they walked on the treadmill first， and then they sat。 OK， so the two groups that sat together for the first test， they looked pretty similar to each other， and they averaged about 20 creative ideas per person。 The group that was walking on the treadmill did almost twice as well。 And they were just walking on the treadmill in a windowless room。 Remember， they took the test twice。The people who sat twice for that second test didn’t get any better； practice didn‘t help。 But these same people who were sitting and then went on the treadmill got the a boost from walking。 Here’s the interesting thing。 The people who were walking on the treadmill still had a residue effect of the walking， and they were still creative afterwards。 So the implication for this is that you should go for a walk before your next big meeting and just start brainstorming right away。

boost［bust］：v。 提高；增加；鼓勵；舉起；為。。。做宣傳；n。 增加；推進；鼓勵

residue［‘rezdu］：n。 殘渣；剩餘物；［律］剩餘財產

他們做了這個測試兩次，每次都針對不同的人群。三個組，第一組第一次坐著回答，第二次測試也是坐著回答。第二組，第一次先坐著，第二次則在跑步機上走著。第三組，就比較有意思了，他們第一次先在跑步機上走，然後再坐下回答問題。那麼兩個先坐著測試的小組，他們的想法彼此差異不大，每個人平均有20個創意。那個在跑步機上行走的小組幾乎想出了兩倍的創意。而他們做的無非是在沒有窗戶的室內，在跑步機上散步了一會兒。記住，他們每組人測試了兩次。兩次都坐著的受試者，第二次的成績並沒有變好，練習並無幫助。但先坐著，然後在跑步機上行走的人，成績出現了飆升。這就是有趣的地方。在跑步機上行走的人表現出了散步的殘餘效應，後期仍然富有創意。這個研究的啟發就是，在你的一個重要會議開始前，你應該出去散個步，然後立馬開始頭腦風暴。

We have five tips for you that will help make this the best effect possible。 First， you want to pick a problem or a topic to brainstorm。 So， this is not shower effect， when you’re in the shower and all of a sudden， a new idea pops out of the shampoo bottle。 This is something you‘re thinking about ahead of time。 They’re intentionally thinking about brainstorming a different perspective on the walk。

perspective［pr‘spektv］：n。 遠景；看法；透視；adj。 透視的

我們有5點提示，將會幫你取得最好的效果。首先，你需要帶著要進行頭腦風暴的問題或話題。這並不是沖涼效應，你洗著澡，突然之間，新的主意就從滿頭的泡沫中冒出來了。 而是你提前就在思考的東西。在行走的時候下意識的用不同的視角進行頭腦風暴。

Secondly——I get asked this a lot： Is this OK while running？ Well， the answer for me is that if I were running， the only new idea i would have would be to stop running， so。。。

第二——-我常常被人問，跑步的時候也行嗎？好吧，對我來講，我跑步的時候唯一想到的新主意就是停下來······

But if running for you is a comfortable pace， good。 It turns out， whatever physical activity is not taking a lot of attention。 So just walking at a comfortable pace is a good choice。

但假如跑步對你是一種非常舒適的運動，那沒問題。不論是哪種體力活動，只要不分擔太多注意力就行。所以在舒適的地方散步是蠻好的選擇。

Also， you want to come up with as many ideas as you can。 One key of creativity is to not lock on that first idea。 Keep going， Keep coming up with new ones， until you pick one or two to pursue。

另外，去想出儘可能多的主意。創意的一個關鍵是不要糾結在第一個主意上。繼續前進。繼續想新的主意，直至你選擇出1-2個來深入思考。

You might worry that you don’t want to write them down， because what if you forget them？ So the idea here is to speak them。 Everybody was speaking their new ideas。 So you can put your headphones on and record through your phone and then just pretend you‘re having a creative conversation， right？ Because the act of writing your idea down is already a filter。 You’re going to be like， “Is this good enough to write down？” And then you write it down。 So just speak as many as you can， record them and think about them later。

你可能會擔心如果不把它寫下來回頭忘記了怎麼辦？ 最好的方法是把它說出來。每個人都說出他們的新主意。你可以帶上耳機，用手機錄下來，就假想自己在進行一場有創意的對話，沒錯吧？因為把主意寫下來的動作就是一種過濾。你不由得會想：“這真的值得寫下來嗎？” 然後才會動筆。所以儘可能多的去說出來，錄下來，事後再花時間認真思考。

And finally： don‘t do this forever， Right？ If you’re on the walk and that idea‘s not coming to you， come back to it later at another time。

最後，不要一直這麼做。如果散步並不能給你帶來好主意，稍後再來一次。

I think we’re coming up on a break right now， so I have an idea： Why don‘t you grab a leash and take your thoughts for a walk？

grab［ɡrb］：v。 抓住；攫取；n。 抓取物；抓

leash［li］：n。 （系狗的）皮帶；控制；約束；n。 （打獵用語）三隻；三個一組；v。 用皮帶控制；束縛

我想現在我們就需要稍作休息了，我有個主意：何不帶上你的寵物，帶著你的想法出去溜達一圈？