when i was nine years old i went off to summer camp for the first time. and my mother packed me a suitcase full of books, which to me seemed like a perfectly natural thing to do. because in my family, reading was the primary group activity. and this might sound antisocial to you, but for us it was really just a different way of being social. you have the animal warmth of your family sitting right next to you, but you are also free to go roaming around the adventureland inside your own mind. and i had this idea that camp was going to be just like this, but better. (laughter) i had a vision of 10 girls sitting in a cabin cozily reading books in their matching nightgowns.
當我九歲的時候 我第一次去參加夏令營 我媽媽幫我整理好了我的行李箱 裡面塞滿了書 這對於我來說是一件極為自然的事情 因為在我的家庭里 閱讀是主要的家庭活動 聽上去你們可能覺得我們是不愛交際的 但是對於我的家庭來說這真的只是接觸社會的另一種途徑 你們有自己家庭接觸時的溫暖親情 家人靜坐在你身邊 但是你也可以自由地漫遊 在你思維深處的冒險樂園裡我有一個想法 野營會變得像這樣子，當然要更好些 (笑聲) 我想像到十個女孩坐在一個小屋裡 都穿著合身的女式睡衣愜意地享受著讀書的過程。
(laughter)
(笑聲)
camp was more like a keg party without any alcohol. and on the very first day our counselor gathered us all together and she taught us a cheer that she said we would be doing every day for the rest of the summer to instill camp spirit. and it went like this: "r-o-w-d-i-e, that's the way we spell rowdie. rowdie, rowdie, let's get rowdie." yeah. so i couldn't figure out for the life of me why we were supposed to be so rowdy, or why we had to spell this word incorrectly. (laughter) but i recited a cheer. i recited a cheer along with everybody else. i did my best. and i just waited for the time that i could go off and read my books.
野營這時更像是一個不提供酒水的派對聚會 在第一天的時候呢 我們的顧問把我們都集合在一起 並且她教會了我們一種今後要用到的慶祝方式 在餘下夏令營的每一天中 讓“露營精神”浸潤我們 之後它就像這樣繼續著 r-o-w-d-i-e 這是我們拼寫“吵鬧"的口號 我們唱著“噪音，喧鬧，我們要變得吵一點” 對，就是這樣 可我就是弄不明白我的生活會是什麼樣的 為什麼我們變得這么吵鬧粗暴 或者為什麼我們非要把這個單詞錯誤地拼寫 (笑聲) 但是我可沒有忘記慶祝。我與每個人都互相歡呼慶祝了 我盡了我最大的努力 我只是想等待那一刻 我可以離開吵鬧的聚會去捧起我摯愛的書。
but the first time that i took my book out of my suitcase, the coolest girl in the bunk came up to me and she asked me, "why are you being so mellow?" -- mellow, of course, being the exact opposite of r-o-w-d-i-e. and then the second time i tried it, the counselor came up to me with a concerned expression on her face and she repeated the point about camp spirit and said we should all work very hard to be outgoing.
但是當我第一次把書從行李箱中拿出來的時候 床鋪中最酷的那個女孩向我走了過來 並且她問我：“為什麼你要這么安靜?” 安靜，當然，是r-o-w-d-i-e的反義詞 “喧鬧”的反義詞 而當我第二次拿書的時候 我們的顧問滿臉憂慮的向我走了過來 接著她重複了關於“露營精神”的要點並且說我們都應當努力 去變得外向些
and so i put my books away, back in their suitcase, and i put them under my bed, and there they stayed for the rest of the summer. and i felt kind of guilty about this. i felt as if the books needed me somehow, and they were calling out to me and i was forsaking them.but i did forsake them and i didn't open that suitcase again until i was back home with my family at the end of the summer.
於是我放好我的書 放回了屬於它們的行李箱中 並且我把它們放到了床底下 在那裡它們度過了暑假餘下的每一天 我對這樣做感到很愧疚 不知為什麼我感覺這些書是需要我的 它們在呼喚我，但是我卻放棄了它們 我確實放下了它們，並且我再也沒有打開那個箱子，直到我和我的家人在夏末的時候一起回到家中。
now, i tell you this story about summer camp. i could have told you 50 others just like it --all the times that i got the message that somehow my quiet and introverted style of beingwas not necessarily the right way to go, that i should be trying to pass as more of an extrovert. and i always sensed deep down that this was wrong and that introverts were pretty excellent just as they were. but for years i denied this intuition, and so i became a wall street lawyer, of all things, instead of the writer that i had always longed to be -- partly because i needed to prove to myself that i could be bold and assertive too. and i was always going off to crowded bars when i really would have preferred to just have a nice dinner with friends. and i made these self-negating choices so reflexively, that i wasn't even aware that i was making them.
現在，我向你們講述這個夏令營的故事 我完全可以給你們講出其他50種版本就像這個一樣的故事-- 每當我感覺到這樣的時候 它告訴我出於某種原因，我的寧靜和內向的風格 並不是正確道路上的必需品 我應該更多地嘗試一個外向者的角色 而在我內心深處感覺得到，這是錯誤的內向的人們都是非常優秀的，確實是這樣 但是許多年來我都否認了這種直覺 於是我首先成為了華爾街的一名律師 而不是我長久以來想要成為的一名作家 一部分原因是因為我想要證明自己 也可以變得勇敢而堅定 並且我總是去那些擁擠的酒吧 當我只是想要和朋友們吃一頓愉快的晚餐時 我做出了這些自我否認的抉擇 如條件反射一般 甚至我都不清楚我做出了這些決定。
now this is what many introverts do, and it's our loss for sure, but it is also our colleagues' loss and our communities' loss. and at the risk of sounding grandiose, it is the world's loss. because when it comes to creativity and to leadership, we need introverts doing what they do best. a third to a half of the population are introverts -- a third to a half. so that's one out of every two or three people you know. so even if you're an extrovert yourself, i'm talking about your coworkers and your spouses and your childrenand the person sitting next to you right now -- all of them subject to this bias that is pretty deep and real in our society. we all internalize it from a very early age without even having a language for what we're doing.
這就是很多內向的人正在做的事情 這當然是我們的損失 但這同樣也是同事們的損失 我們所在團隊集體的損失 當然，冒著被指為誇大其詞的風險我想說，更是世界的損失 因為當涉及創造和領導的時候 我們需要內向的人做到最好 三分之一到二分之一的人都是內向的-- 三分之一到二分之一 你要知道這可意味著每兩到三個人中就有一個內向的 所以即使你自己是一個外向的人 我正在說你的同事 和你的配偶和你的孩子 還有現在正坐在你旁邊的那個傢伙-- 他們都要屈從於這樣的偏見 一種在我們的社會中已經紮根的現實偏見 我們從很小的時候就把它藏在內心最深處 甚至都不說幾句話，關於我們正在做的事情。
now to see the bias clearly you need to understand what introversion is. it's different from being shy. shyness is about fear of social judgment. introversion is more about, how do you respond to stimulation, including social stimulation. so extroverts really crave large amounts of stimulation, whereas introverts feel at their most alive and their most switched-on and their most capable when they're in quieter, more low-key environments.not all the time -- these things aren't absolute -- but a lot of the time. so the key then to maximizing our talents is for us all to put ourselves in the zone of stimulation that is right for us.
現在讓我們來清楚地看待這種偏見 我們需要真正了解“內向”到底指什麼 它和害羞是不同的 害羞是對於社會評論的恐懼 內向更多的是 你怎樣對於刺激作出回應 包括來自社會的刺激 其實內向的人是很渴求大量的鼓舞和激勵的 反之內向者最感覺到他們的存在 這是他們精力最充足的時候，最具有能力的時候 當他們存在於更安靜的，更低調的環境中 並不是所有時候--這些事情都不是絕對的-- 但是存在於很多時候 所以說，關鍵在於 把我們的天賦發揮到最大化 這對於我們來說就足夠把我們自己 放到對於我們正確又合適的激勵的區域中去。
but now here's where the bias comes in. our most important institutions, our schools and our workplaces, they are designed mostly for extroverts and for extroverts' need for lots of stimulation. and also we have this belief system right now that i call the new groupthink,which holds that all creativity and all productivity comes from a very oddly gregarious place.
但是現在偏見出現了 我們最重要的那些體系 我們的學校和工作單位 它們都是為性格外向者設計的 並且有適合他們需要的刺激和鼓勵 當然我們現在也有這樣一種信用機制 我稱它為新型的“團隊思考” 這是一種包含所有創造力和生產力的思考方式 從一個社交非常零散的地方產生的。
so if you picture the typical classroom nowadays: when i was going to school, we sat in rows. we sat in rows of desks like this, and we did most of our work pretty autonomously.but nowadays, your typical classroom has pods of desks -- four or five or six or seven kids all facing each other. and kids are working in countless group assignments. even in subjects like math and creative writing, which you think would depend on solo flights of thought, kids are now expected to act as committee members. and for the kids who preferto go off by themselves or just to work alone, those kids are seen as outliers often or, worse, as problem cases. and the vast majority of teachers reports believing that the ideal student is an extrovert as opposed to an introvert, even though introverts actually get better grades and are more knowledgeable, according to research. (laughter)
當你描繪今天典型教室的圖案時 當我還上學的時候 我們一排排地坐著 我們靠著桌子一排排坐著就像這樣 並且我們大多數工作都是自覺完成的 但是在現代社會，所謂典型的教室 是些圈起來並排的桌子-- 四個或是五個或是六、七個孩子坐在一起，面對面 孩子們要完成無數個小組任務 甚至像數學和創意寫作這些課程 這些你們認為需要依靠個人閃光想法的課程 孩子們現在卻被期待成為小組會的成員 對於那些喜歡 獨處，或者自己一個人工作的孩子來說 這些孩子常常被視為局外人 或者更糟，被視為問題孩子 並且很大一部分老師的報告中都相信 最理想的學生應該是外向的 相對於內向的學生而言 甚至說外向的學生能夠取得更好的成績 更加博學多識據研究報導 (笑聲)
okay, same thing is true in our workplaces. now, most of us work in open plan offices,without walls, where we are subject to the constant noise and gaze of our coworkers. and when it comes to leadership, introverts are routinely passed over for leadership positions,even though introverts tend to be very careful, much less likely to take outsize risks --which is something we might all favor nowadays. and interesting research by adam grant at the wharton school has found that introverted leaders often deliver better outcomes than extroverts do, because when they are managing proactive employees, they're much more likely to let those employees run with their ideas, whereas an extrovert can, quite unwittingly, get so excited about things that they're putting their own stamp on things, and other people's ideas might not as easily then bubble up to the surface.
好了。同樣的事情也發生在我們工作的地方 現在呢，我們中的絕大多數都工作在寬闊沒有隔間的辦公室里 甚至沒有牆 在這裡，我們暴露 在不斷的噪音和我們同事的凝視目光下工作 而當談及領袖氣質的時候 內向的人總是按照慣例從領導的位置被忽視了 儘管內向的人是非常小心仔細的 很少去冒特大的風險-- 這些風險是今天我們可能都喜歡的 賓夕法尼亞大學沃頓商學院的亞當·格蘭特教授做了一項很有意思的研究 這項研究表明內向的領導們 相對於外向領導而言總是會生產更大的效益 因為當他們管理主動積極的雇員的時候 他們更傾向於讓有主見的雇員去自由發揮 反之外向的領導就可能，當然是不經意的 對於事情變得十分激動 他們在事務上有了自己想法的印跡 這使其他人的想法可能就不會很容易地 在舞台上發光了。
now in fact, some of our transformative leaders in history have been introverts. i'll give you some examples. eleanor roosevelt, rosa parks, gandhi -- all these peopled described themselves as quiet and soft-spoken and even shy. and they all took the spotlight, even though every bone in their bodies was telling them not to. and this turns out to have a special power all its own, because people could feel that these leaders were at the helm,not because they enjoyed directing others and not out of the pleasure of being looked at;they were there because they had no choice, because they were driven to do what they thought was right.
事實上，歷史上一些有改革能力的領袖都是內向的人 我會舉一些例子給你們 埃莉諾·羅斯福，羅沙·帕克斯，甘地 -- 所有這些人都把自己描述成 內向，說話溫柔甚至是害羞的人 他們仍然站在了聚光燈下 即使他們渾身上下 都感知他們說不要 這證明是一種屬於它自身的特殊的力量因為人們都會感覺這些領導者同時是掌舵者 並不是因為他們喜歡指揮別人 抑或是享客群人目光的聚焦 他們處在那個位置因為他們沒有選擇， 因為他們行駛在他們認為正確的道路上。
now i think at this point it's important for me to say that i actually love extroverts. i always like to say some of my best friends are extroverts, including my beloved husband. and we all fall at different points, of course, along the introvert/extrovert spectrum. even carl jung, the psychologist who first popularized these terms, said that there's no such thing as a pure introvert or a pure extrovert. he said that such a man would be in a lunatic asylum, if he existed at all. and some people fall smack in the middle of the introvert/extrovert spectrum, and we call these people ambiverts. and i often think that they have the best of all worlds. but many of us do recognize ourselves as one type or the other.
現在我覺得對於這點我有必要說 那就是我真的喜愛外向的人 我總是喜歡說我最好的幾個朋友都是外向的人 包括我親愛的丈夫 當然了我們都會在不同點時偏向 內向者/外向者的範圍 甚至是卡爾·榮格，這個讓這些名詞為大眾所熟知的心理學家，說道 世上絕沒有一個純粹的內向的人 或者一個純粹的外向的人 他說這樣的人會在精神病院裡 如果他存在的話 還有一些人處在中間的跡象 在內向與外向之間 我們稱這些人為“中向性格者” 並且我總是認為他們擁有世界最美好的一切 但是我們中的大多數總是認為自己屬於內向或者外向，其中一類。
and what i'm saying is that culturally we need a much better balance. we need more of a yin and yang between these two types. this is especially important when it comes to creativity and to productivity, because when psychologists look at the lives of the most creative people, what they find are people who are very good at exchanging ideas and advancing ideas, but who also have a serious streak of introversion in them.
同時我想說從文化意義上講我們需要一種更好的平衡 我們需要更多的陰陽的平衡 在這兩種類型的人之間 這點是極為重要的 當涉及創造力和生產力的時候 因為當心理學家們看待 最有創造力的人的生命的時候 他們尋找到的 是那些擅長變換思維的人 提出想法的人 但是他們同時也有著極為顯著的偏內向的痕跡。
and this is because solitude is a crucial ingredient often to creativity. so darwin, he took long walks alone in the woods and emphatically turned down dinner party invitations.theodor geisel, better known as dr. seuss, he dreamed up many of his amazing creations in a lonely bell tower office that he had in the back of his house in la jolla, california. and he was actually afraid to meet the young children who read his books for fear that they were expecting him this kind of jolly santa claus-like figure and would be disappointed with his more reserved persona. steve wozniak invented the first apple computer sitting alone in his cubical in hewlett-packard where he was working at the time. and he says that he never would have become such an expert in the first place had he not been too introverted to leave the house when he was growing up.
這是因為獨處是非常關鍵的因素 對於創造力來說 所以達爾文 自己一個人漫步在小樹林裡 並且斷然拒絕了晚餐派對的邀約 西奧多·蓋索，更多時候以蘇索博士的名號知名 他夢想過很多的驚人的創作 在他在加利福尼亞州拉霍亞市房子的後面的 一座孤獨的束層的塔形辦公室中 而且其實他很害怕見面 見那些讀過他的書的年輕的孩子們 害怕他們會期待他 這樣一位令人愉快的，聖誕老人形象的人物 同時又會因發現他含蓄緘默的性格而失望 史蒂夫·沃茲尼亞克發明了第一台蘋果電腦 一個人獨自坐在他的機櫃旁 在他當時工作的惠普公司 並且他說他永遠不會在那方面成為一號專家 但他還沒因太內向到要離開那裡 那個他成長起來的地方。
now of course, this does not mean that we should all stop collaborating -- and case in point, is steve wozniak famously coming together with steve jobs to start apple computer -- but it does mean that solitude matters and that for some people it is the air that they breathe. and in fact, we have known for centuries about the transcendent power of solitude. it's only recently that we've strangely begun to forget it. if you look at most of the world's major religions, you will find seekers -- moses, jesus, buddha, muhammad --seekers who are going off by themselves alone to the wilderness where they then have profound epiphanies and revelations that they then bring back to the rest of the community. so no wilderness, no revelations.
當然了 這並不意味著我們都應該停止合作-- 恰當的例子呢，是史蒂夫·沃茲尼亞克和史蒂夫·賈伯斯的著名聯手 創建蘋果電腦公司-- 但是這並不意味著和獨處有重大關係 並且對於一些人來說 這是他們賴以呼吸生存的空氣 事實上，幾個世紀以來我們已經非常明白 獨處的卓越力量只是到了最近，非常奇怪，我們開始遺忘它了 如果你看看世界上主要的宗教 你會發現探尋者-- 摩西，耶穌，佛祖，穆罕默德 -- 那些獨身去探尋的人們 在大自然的曠野中獨處，思索 在那裡，他們有了深刻的頓悟和對於奧義的揭示 之後他們把這些思想帶回到社會的其他地方去沒有曠原，沒有啟示。
this is no surprise though if you look at the insights of contemporary psychology. it turns out that we can't even be in a group of people without instinctively mirroring, mimicking their opinions. even about seemingly personal and visceral things like who you're attracted to, you will start aping the beliefs of the people around you without even realizing that that's what you're doing.
儘管這並不令人驚訝 如果你注意到現代心理學的思想理論 它反映出來我們甚至不能和一組人待在一起 而不去本能地模仿他們的意見與想法 甚至是看上去私人的，發自內心的事情 像是你被誰所吸引 你會開始模仿你周圍的人的信仰 甚至都覺察不到你自己在做什麼。
and groups famously follow the opinions of the most dominant or charismatic person in the room, even though there's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas -- i mean zero. so ... (laughter) you might be following the person with the best ideas, but you might not. and do you really want to leave it up to chance? much better for everybody to go off by themselves, generate their own ideas freed from the distortions of group dynamics, and then come together as a team to talk them through in a well-managed environment and take it from there.
還曾跟隨群體的意見 跟隨著房間裡最具有統治力的，最有領袖氣質的人的思路 雖然這真的沒什麼關係 在成為一個卓越的演講家還是擁有最好的主意之間-- 我的意思是“零相關” 那么...(笑聲) 你們或許會跟隨有最好頭腦的人 但是你們也許不會 可你們真的想把這機會扔掉嗎?如果每個人都自己行動或許好得多 發掘他們自己的想法 沒有群體動力學的曲解 接著來到一起組成一個團隊 在一個良好管理的環境中互相交流 並且在那裡學習別的思想。
now if all this is true, then why are we getting it so wrong? why are we setting up our schools this way and our workplaces? and why are we making these introverts feel so guilty about wanting to just go off by themselves some of the time? one answer lies deep in our cultural history. western societies, and in particular the u.s., have always favored the man of action over the man of contemplation and "man" of contemplation. but in america's early days, we lived in what historians call a culture of character, where we still, at that point, valued people for their inner selves and their moral rectitude. and if you look at the self-help books from this era, they all had titles with things like "character, the grandest thing in the world." and they featured role models like abraham lincoln who was praised for being modest and unassuming. ralph waldo emerson called him "a man who does not offend by superiority."