BarrySchwartz_选择的困惑【中英文对照】

1.I’m going to talk to you about some stuff that’s in this book of mine that I hope will resonate with other things you’ve already heard,
我想在这里谈谈我这本书里的部分内容 希望它和你们已经听到过的一些事物引起共鸣
2.and I’ll try to make some connections myself, in case you miss them.
如果有哪些你们不清楚的我在这里会试着帮你把它们联系起来。
3.I want to start with what I call the “official dogma.”
我想从一个公认的信条讲起。
4.The official dogma of what?
什么样的公认的信条呢？
5.The official dogma of all western industrial societies.
就是整个西方工业社会所笃信不疑的一个信条。
6.And the official dogma runs like this: if we are interested in maximizing the welfare of our citizens, the way to do that is to maximize individual freedom.
这个信条是这么说的： 如果我们要想使民众获得最大限度的福利， 其方法就是使个人自由达到最大化。
7.The reason for this is both that freedom is in and of itself good, valuable, worthwhile, essential to being human.
原因就是自由这东西在与本身就是美好的， 具有价值，为人们所必需。
8.And because if people have freedom, then each of us can act on our own to do the things that will maximize our welfare, and no one has to decide on our behalf.
另外，一旦人们有了自由， 我们每个人都可以自己做主 用各种办法最大限度地获得福利， 用不着别人来替我们做主。
9.The way to maximize freedom is to maximize choice.
使自由达到极大化的途径就是最大限度的增加选择性。
10.The more choice people have, the more freedom they have, and the more freedom they have, the more welfare they have.
人们的选择越多，自由也就越多， 自由越多， 得到的福利也就越多。
11.This, I think, is so deeply embedded in the water supply that it wouldn’t occur to anyone to question it.
我觉得，这个观念就像掺进了我们的自来水里那样根深蒂固 以至于没人想起来会对它提出疑问。
12.And it’s also deeply embedded in our lives.
同样这个观念也深嵌于我们的日常生活之中。
13.I’ll give you some examples of what modern progress has made possible for us.
我来给你们举些例子看看当代社会的进步发展让我们变得有可能做些什么事。
14.This is my supermarket. Not such a big one.
这是我家附近的一个超市。不算很大。
15.I want to say just a word about salad dressing.
我只想说说这里的色拉调料。
16.175 salad dressings in my supermarket, if you don’t count the 10 different extra-virgin olive oils and 12 balsamic vinegars you could buy
我这家超市有175种各式色拉调料， 还没算上10种不同牌子的特级初榨橄榄油 和12种 Balsamic 葡萄醋任你选购，
17.to make a very large number of your own salad dressings, in the off chance that none of the 175 the store has on offer suit you.
如果碰巧那175种色拉酱都不和你的口味， 你就可以用它们调出另一大批你自己的色拉酱。
18.So this is what the supermarket is like.
你看，这就是超级市场的样子。
19.And then you go to the consumer electronics store to set up a stereo system — speakers, CD player, tape player, tuner, amplifier.
然后你转身出来到一家家用电器店去配置一套立体音响系统 – 音箱啦，CD机啦，磁带机，收音机，放大器。
20.And in this one single consumer electronics store, there are that many stereo systems.
就这么一家家用电器店里 立体音响系统就多得数不清。
21.We can construct six and a half million different stereo systems out of the components that are on offer in one store.
用这家店的组件你可以配出近650万种 各种组合的立体音响系统来。
22.You’ve got to admit that’s a lot of choice.
你没法不承认这可是不小的一堆选择吧。
23.In other domains — the world of communications.
换个行业，说说通讯。
24.There was a time, when I was a boy, when you could get any kind of telephone service you wanted, as long as it came from Ma Bell.
我还是孩子那会儿， 你要想接通电话服务， 那就得去玛贝尔公司，只此一家。
25.You rented your phone. You didn’t buy it.
你不用买，只需去租一架电话机回来。
26.One consequence of that, by the way, is that the phone never broke.
通常情况是，那电话用到死都不会坏。
27.And those days are gone.
那种日子早已一去不返了。
28.We now have an almost unlimited variety of phones, especially in the world of cell phones.
如今我们几乎有无穷无尽的电话品种， 尤其是手机。(显示漫画）
29.These are cell phones of the future.
这些都是未来的手机。
30.My favorite is the middle one — the MP3 player, nose hair trimmer, and creme brulee torch.
其中我最津津乐道的是中间那款 – 带着MP3播放机，鼻毛剪和法式焦糖布丁的喷火枪。
31.And if by some chance you haven’t seen that in your store yet, you can rest assured that one day soon you will.
如果你还没在你家旁边的商店里见过的话， 不必担心，用不了多久你就会看到的。
32.And what this does is it leads people to walk into their stores asking this question.
这事的结果是， 人们跑到商店里问：（你们有没有一款不带这么多功能的？）
33.And do you know what the answer to this question now is?
你想，回答会是什么？
34.The answer is “No.”
回答是“没有”。
35.It is not possible to buy a cell phone that doesn’t do too much.
如今你已经不可能买到一款不干那么多事的手机。
36.So, in other aspects of life that are much more significant than buying things, The same explosion of choice is true.
同样，在生活里的其它一些比购物更对我们产生影响事情上， 这种选择的爆炸同样存在。
37.Health care — it is no longer the case in the United States that you go to the doctor, and the doctor tells you what to do.
医疗保健 – 在美国，现在早已不是那种 你去看医生，医生直截了当告诉你该如何做的时代了。
38.Instead, you go to the doctor, and the doctor tells you, well, we could do A, or we could do B.
相反，你到了医生那里， 医生会对你说：我们可以用治疗方案甲，也可以用方案乙
39.A has these benefits, and these risks.
方案甲有如此这般疗效和风险。
40.B has these benefits, and these risks. What do you want to do?
方案乙有如此这般疗效和风险。你想怎么治？
41.And you say, “Doc, what should I do?”
然后你说：“大夫，我该如何做？”
42.And the doc says, A has these benefits and risks, and B has these benefits and risks.
医生又说一遍，甲有这些疗效和风险，乙有那些疗效和风险。
43.What do you want to do?
你想怎么治？
44.And you say, “If you were me, Doc, what would you do?”
你再问医生：“大夫，你要是我，你选那种？”
45.And the doc says, “But I’m not you.”
医生说：“但是我不是你。”
46.And the result is — we call it “patient autonomy,”
其结果就是我们所说的“病人自治。”
47.which makes it sound like a good thing.
听起来好像挺不错的。
48.But what it really is is a shifting of the burden and the responsibility for decision-making from somebody who knows something — namely the doctor —
其实是把做决定的担子和责任 从一个知道该怎么做的人 我指的是医生，
49.to somebody who knows nothing and is almost certainly sick and thus not in the best shape to be making decisions — namely the patient.
转嫁到一个对治疗方案一无所知，而且正在为病痛所困扰， 根本不在能做决定的状态的人身上， 那人就是病人。
50.There’s enormous marketing of prescription drugs to people like you and me, which, if you think about it, makes no sense at all, since we can’t buy them.
现在那些处方药品的广告铺天盖地，都是针对着 你我这些普通人的。 你如果仔细想想，一点也说不通。 既然我们不能直接去柜台买，
51.Why do they market to us if we can’t buy them?
他们为什么还要向我们做市场宣传？
52.The answer is that they expect us to call our doctors the next morning and ask prescriptions to be changed.
回答是，他们希望我们看了广告后第二天早上会去给自己的医生打电话， 让医生把处方上的药换成他们的。
53.Something as dramatic as our identity has now become a matter of choice, as this slide is meant to indicate.
如今像我们的性别身份这类的事 都成了选择的话题了。 就像这张幻灯片试图说明的那样。
54.We don’t inherit an identity, we get to invent it.
现在我们的性别不是从父母那里继承下来，而是由自己来发明。
55.And we get to re-invent ourselves as often as we like.
这样我们就可以随心所欲地的重新塑造自己的性别身份。
56.And that means that every day when you wake up in the morning, you have to decide what kind of person you want to be.
这也意味每天早上你醒来 你先得对今天你想做个什么样的人（男的还是女的）做出决定。
57.With respect to marriage and family, there was a time when the default assumption that almost everyone had is that you got married as soon as you could,
在婚姻家庭方面， 在过去每个人到了年龄就结婚 这几乎是理所当然的事，
58.and then you started having kids as soon as you could.
然后就是尽快生儿育女。
59.The only real choice was who, not when, and not what you did after.
唯一你需要选择的就是和谁结婚， 而不是什么时候结，也不是结婚以后做什么。
60.Nowadays, everything is very much up for grabs.
而如今呢，所有的事都可以拿来挑挑拣拣。
61.I teach wonderfully intelligent students, and I assign 20 percent less work than I used to.
我教的是一群优秀又聪明的学生， 可是现在我给他们布置的作业比从前少了五分之一。
62.And it’s not because they’re less smart, and it’s not because they’re less diligent.
这不是因为他们（比以前的学生）笨， 也不是因为他们不那么勤奋。
63.It’s because they are preoccupied, asking themselves, “Should I get married or not? Should I get married now?
原因是他们现在脑子都装满了各种事情，总是在问自己： 我到底该结婚还是不该结婚？是该现在结？
64.Should I get married later? Should I have kids first, or a career first?”
还是以后再说？我是该先要孩子，还是先顾事业？
65.All of these are consuming questions.
这些都是费脑筋的问题。
66.And they’re going to answer these questions, whether or not it means not doing all the work I assign and not getting a good grade in my courses.
这些问题他们都必须回答， 不论他们是做还是不做我布置的功课， 也不论他们在我的课上拿个什么成绩。
67.And indeed they should. These are important questions to answer.
他们的确应该去想这些问题，因为这都是些重要问题。
68.Work — we are blessed, as Carl was pointing out, with the technology that enables us to work every minute of every day from any place on the planet —
如今做工作，像卡尔先前说的，我们真的是有福气， 技术的进步使得我们可以 在一天的任何时间，在地球的任一角落工作 –
69.except the Randolph Hotel.
当然这个篮道夫旅店除外。
70.(Laughter) There is one corner, by the way, that I’m not going to tell anybody about, where the WiFi works.
（笑声） 但是，这个饭店里的确有一个地方 可以无线上网，可我不会告诉你们在哪，
71.I’m not telling you about it because I want to use it.
不告诉你的理由是我也想用。
72.So what this means, this incredible freedom of choice we have with respect to work, is that we have to make a decision, again and again and again,
话说回来，我们工作中的这些难以置信的选择自由 给我们带来的就是我们必须在选择中做出决定， 一次，一次，又一次地，
73.about whether we should or shouldn’t be working.
为自己现在该工作还是该休息左右摇摆。
74.We can go to watch our kid play soccer, and we have our cell phone on one hip, and our Blackberry on our other hip, and our laptop, presumably, on our laps.
我们去看孩子踢足球的时候 一个裤兜里装着手机， 另一个裤兜里装着黑莓（Blackberry）， 膝上还架着笔记本电脑。
75.And even if they’re all shut off, every minute that we’re watching our kid mutilate a soccer game, we are also asking ourselves, “Should I answer this cell phone call?
即使它们都关着， 我们还是在看着孩子在场上争抢的同时 不断地问自己， 接还是不接这个电话？
76.Should I respond to this email? Should I draft this letter?”
回还是不回这个Email？我该不该写这封信稿？
77.And even if the answer to the question is “no,”
即使你给自己的回答是不，
78.it’s certainly going to make the experience of your kid’s soccer game very different than it would’ve been.
你对孩子的这场球赛的体验还是 还是大打折扣。
79.So everywhere we look, big things and small things, material things and lifestyle things, life is a matter of choice.
环顾四周， 不论大事还是小事，物质的还是生活方式方面， 生活就是选择。
80.And the world we used to live in looked like this.
我们过去生活的世界是这样的。
81.That is to say, there were some choices, but not everything was a matter of choice.
就是说，选择还是有的， 但不是事事都需要选择。
82.And the world we now live in looks like this.
而今天我们生活的世界则是这样的。
83.And the question is, is this good news, or bad news?
问题是，这到底是好事还是坏事？
84.And the answer is yes.
答案是肯定的。
85.(Laughter) We all know what’s good about it, so I’m going to talk about what’s bad about it.
（笑声） 我们都知道它的好处。 那么就让我来说说它的不好之处吧。
86.All of this choice has two effects, two negative effects on people.
所有这些选择对人们有两个影响， 而且是两个负面的影响。
87.One effect, paradoxically, is that it produces paralysis, rather than liberation.
其一，说起来有些自相矛盾， 就是，（选择）给我们带来的不是解放，而是束缚，是麻痹。
88.With so many options to choose from, people find it very difficult to choose at all.
面对这么许多的选择 人们发现要做出决定非常困难。
89.I’ll give you one very dramatic example of this, a study that was done of investments in voluntary retirement plans.
让我给你举个非常生动的例子来说明这点， 这是一个关于对等退休金计划投资方面做的调查。
90.A colleague of mine got access to investment records from Vanguard, the gigantic mutual fund company of about a million employees and about 2,000 different workplaces.
我的一个同事有幸接触到Vanguard的投资记录。 Vanguard是一家巨大的互助基金公司， 拥有约百万员工和2,000多个办公地点。
91.And what she found is that for every 10 mutual funds the employer offered, rate of participation went down two percent.
她的调查发现是 当这些客户（向他们的雇员）提供的互助基金种类每增加10个 参加的人数就减少2个百分点。
92.You offer 50 funds — 10 percent fewer employees participate than if you only offer five. Why?
你提供50种基金，雇员参加的人数比你提供5种基金时 下降百分之十。为什么呢？
93.Because with 50 funds to choose from, it’s so damn hard to decide which fund to choose that you’ll just put it off until tomorrow.
因为面对50种基金来选择 想要决定选那种那简直是难上加难 所以你干脆放到明天再说。
94.And then tomorrow, and then tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and of course tomorrow never comes.
明日复明日， 明日何其多， 当然，明天永远也不会到来。
95.Understand that not only does this mean that people are going to have to eat dog food when they retire because they don’t have enough money to put away,
我们知道这其实意味着 当人们退休时，可能只有用狗粮充饥， 因为他们没有划出足够的钱给将来，
96.it also means that making the decision is so hard that they pass up significant matching money from the employer.
同时，由于做决定是一件如此之难的事， 以至于连雇主给他们的那笔相当可观的对等补助金都白白放弃了。
97.By not participating, they are passing up as much as 5,000 dollars a year from the employer, who would happily match their contribution.
不参加这种对等计划，他们每年让多达5千元的雇主对等补贴从手边溜掉。 雇主本来是很乐于提供这种补贴的。
98.So paralysis is a consequence of having too many choices.
所以，选择可能性过多的结果是麻痹僵化。
99.And I think it makes the world look like this.
它使得我们的世界变成这样样子（幻灯片显示漫画）
100.(Laughter) You really want to get the decision right if it’s for all eternity, right?
（笑声） 当你进入极乐世界时，你一定很希望你做出的决定是正确的，是不是？
101.You don’t want to pick the wrong mutual fund, or even the wrong salad dressing.
在那里你一定不想再选错互助基金，或者是沙拉调料。
102.So that’s one effect. The second effect is that even if we manage to overcome the paralysis and make a choice, we end up less satisfied with the result of the choice
刚才那是第一个（负面）影响。再来说说第二个。 即使我们通过努力克服了僵化和麻痹而终于做出了一个正确的决定， 我们对自己的做出的决定
103.than we would be if we had fewer options to choose from.
反而不如可选性少时做出的决定更加满意。
104.And there are several reasons for this.
这里有几个原因。
105.One of them is that with a lot of different salad dressings to choose from, if you buy one, and it’s not perfect — and, you know, what salad dressing is?
其中之一是，面对如此多的沙拉调料品种， 如果你买了一种，觉得不尽如人意，
106.It’s easy to imagine that you could have made a different choice that would have been better. And what happens is this imagined alternative induces you to regret the decision you made,
你很容易去想象如果你挑另外一种就好了。 结果怎么样？ 这种想象中的另外选择引得你对你已经做出的决定感到后悔，
107.and this regret subtracts from the satisfaction you get out of the decision you made, even if it was a good decision.
这种后悔心情让你对你原先做出的选择的满意度打了折扣， 即便那其实是个很不错的选择。
108.The more options there are, the easier it is to regret anything at all that is disappointing about the option that you chose.
选择越多，就越容易莫名其妙地对一些事感到后悔。 这就是其一，总是不满意自己做出的选择决定。
109.Second, what economists call opportunity costs.
其二，是经济学家称之为“机会成本”的东西。
110.Dan Gilbert made a big point this morning of talking about how much the way in which we value things depends on what we compare them to.
今天早些时候丹。吉尔伯特讲了个大道理 就是，我们看一个东西的价值 取决于那些我们用来作比较的那些其他的东西。
111.Well, when there are lots of alternatives to consider, it is easy to imagine the attractive features of alternatives that you reject,
嗯，当人们有很多选择可以考虑时， 就很容易去想象那些你放弃了的选择的 吸引人的方面。
112.that make you less satisfied with the alternative that you’ve chosen.
这就使得你总是对你选中了的那个觉得美中不足。
113.Here’s an example. For those of you who aren’t New Yorkers, I apologize.
举个例子吧（显示漫画），不过你如果不是纽约人的话，我先道个歉
114.(Laughter) But here’s what you’re supposed to be thinking.
（笑声） 但这是你此时此刻应该想的事。
115.Here’s this couple on the Hamptons.
看看汉普顿的这两口子，
116.Very expensive real estate.
昂贵的富人区，
117.Gorgeous beach. Beautiful day. They have it all to themselves.
华丽的海滩，阳光明媚，他们拥有这一切。