等价无穷小的定义:四小时工作周的谎言

四小时工作周的谎言

撰文：Jonathan      翻译： Shayne Yeats

The promise of a four hour workweek magically righting all wrongs in your life, is a lie. Not only is it highly implausible, but if you ever do achieve a four hour work week, you’ll probably want to get rid of it.

你认为一周工作四小时会奇迹般地改善提升你的人生吗？这只是个谎言。因为，这不仅仅是那样的令人难以置信，而且假如你真的曾有一周工作四小时的经历的话，我想你大概会去摆脱这样的生活。

Why is the Four Hour Workweek (4HWW for short) a lie? Well, there’s two reasons. Number one, it’s come to the attention of quite a few people that Tim Ferriss really defines “work” as something you don’t want to do. Mandatory, unpleasant, tedious, repetitive tasks that you’d rather defer or delegate to someone else. This is quite a narrow definition of work. I would be more inclined to say Tim’s definition of work is more synonymous with a chore. 

为什么四小时工作周是个谎言？有两个原因。第一，提姆·菲利斯给“工作”下的定义就是“你不喜欢去做的事”，而许多人对此深信不疑。面对这些强制性的、不愉快的、乏味的、重复性的任务，你更情愿去拖延或委托给他人。这是一个非常片面的定义。我更倾向于说提姆给工作下的这个定义是苦差事的代名词。

So that’s the first reason. The second reason is this… The definition most people have of work is totally disempowering. It’s more in line with slavery, toiling and punishment. Work is seen as something you have to do to pay your dues. How many times did you hear your mom or dad say as a kid “I worked hard to buy/make/microwave this food and you better eat it!” We’re brought up with our parents making us think that work is some kind of grueling sacrifice they’ve done to “give us a better life.” (The intended message may have been to instill respect for hard work, but usually the outcome is feeling guilty for being born.)

这就是第一个原因。第二个原因就是，大部分人对“工作”这个词的理解完全的消极的。他们把工作和奴役、劳苦和吃苦头画上了等号。工作被视为一种你不得不要去做的事，这样你才能担负起你的一切费用。你有多少次曾听到你的母亲或父亲像个孩子那样说“我努力工作给你买了/做了/加热了这些食物，你最好给我吃掉！”在父母的潜移默化的影响下，我们就会认为工作是为了“让自己过上更美好的生活”而做出的某种残酷的牺牲。（长辈们的本意是想给我们灌输对努力工作的尊重之情，而其结果往往是让我们感觉到内疚。）

Since work is seen as such a must — something we must do to pay the bills and to survive — we don’t realize that it’s not required that we see work as something other than a chore. Just because we’re born with a bad definition of something doesn’t mean we have to keep it. Work is more than just a chore, at least to me.

自从工作被视为一种必需-----我们借此才能付清账单和生存-----但是，我们没有意识到其实工作并不仅仅是苦差事的代名词。并不是说我们生来就被灌输了一种负面的思想，我们就得终生信仰它。对我来说，工作可不是件烦人的事。

Work is sacred.

工作是神圣的。

Work is giving yourself. It’s creative self-expression. It’s opening your heart and providing value to others. It’s exchanging a part of yourself with someone else. It’s a possibility for you to make a difference in the world.

工作是赐给你自己的一份礼物。这是一种富有创造力的表现自我的方式。这是一个敞开你的心胸并给他人带来价值的过程。这是你与他人交流学习的机会。这是一个让你给这个世界变得更好的机遇。

Seeing work as just something to do to get by is like slapping yourself in the face.

把工作视为勉强维持生计就好像在打你自己的脸。

Here’s why I just can’t slap myself anymore:

下面就列举了我不该再打我自己的脸的原因：

I don’t want to spend one third of my life living out of a sense of drudgery. 

【】我不想让自己生命的三分之一时光在乏味中度过。

I don’t want to rent out my body and mind for five of seven days of the week. 

【】我不想把我的身体和头脑出租给每个工作日。

I don’t want to spend every day counting down the minutes to lunch, then counting again to five o’clock. 

【】我不想我的生活变成每日倒数着午餐时刻的到来，然后又盼着五点快到来。

But much, much, much more than that, I don’t want to confine myself to choosing work that isn’t meaningful and doesn’t matter to me. 

【】但最为重要的是，我不想选择一份对我来说是毫无意义和一点都不重要的工作。

And that’s really the biggest problem with seeing work as menial labor. By defining work as such, you incarcerate yourself in a narrow field of possibilities of what work could be. Yes, work can be tedious. Doing your taxes, filing receipts, stapling, responding to email, and doing repetitive tasks can be pretty damn boring. There’s no way to trick yourself into believing otherwise. (Non-resistance to the tedium, however, can make it a lot less painful.) But despite the tedium, work can be much more than that. The work you do can be the gift of what you leave behind on this earth when you’re gone. It can be the difference you make in other peoples lives.

把工作视为一种下等劳动是一个很严重的问题。假如你给工作下了这样的定义的话，你就无法领略到工作的意义到底是什么，而且你也把自己关押在了一个狭小的空间里。没错，工作有时会是乏味的。交税，提交收据、装订东西，回复电子邮件，做重复性的任务会很无聊。你也无法骗自己去相信这些不是乏味的工作。（不去抵制单调乏味，可以减轻你的痛苦。）但是，除了乏味无聊之外，工作还有其深刻的意义。当你离开人世的时候，你所做的工作可以是一份你送给后人的礼物。你会给别人的生活带来不同的改变。

Something different.

不同之处。

When you expand your definition of what work is to a mutually beneficial exchange of value, it becomes more of a blessing and an opportunity.

当你扩展了对工作的定义，你就会认识到工作是一种互利的价值交换，你就会视其为一种恩赐和一个机会。

This is the way I’ve started to think about work; I ask myself, “With the work you do today, how can you create the biggest positive impact in other people’s lives, while fulfilling your own dreams at the same time?”

这就是我开始思考工作的方式。我问我自己，“你怎样才能让自己在充实自己的梦想的同时也给他人带来最大化的积极影响呢？”

And if I have work to do that is truly boring (like figuring out how much taxes I owe) I ask myself, “I know this work isn’t what I’d absolutely love to do, but since it must be done, by not resisting it, can I make it less painful?”

假如我所做的是一件极其无聊的工作的话（比如计算出我还有缴多少税），我会问我自己，“我知道我不喜欢这份工作，但我又必须得完成这份任务，既然这样的话，我可以采取哪些行动来减轻我的痛苦呢？”

I also have to be careful to distinguish between work that must be done (like taxes) and things that seem required, but really aren’t. For example, it might be a good idea for me to spend some time every day networking, but if it doesn’t feel authentic, it would be a waste of time. If I really felt like creating, rather than connecting, I should honor that feeling. When I express myself authentically, I naturally have a greater impact then when I force myself to do something because I think it would be a good idea.

同时我也非常小心地去分辨哪些工作是必需的（如缴税），哪些是貌似必须却不必去做的。例如，每天花些时间在网上工作也许是个好主意，但是假如它看上去很虚幻的话，那就是浪费时间了。假如我真的感觉我是在创造的话，那我应该为此感到自豪。比起强迫自己去做我认为还不错的事，当我真实地表现了自我时，我自然就会带来更深刻的影响力。

When you start to see work as play, as giving yourself to the world, as being an agent of change, you completely shatter the perception of work as a burden.

当你开始把工作视为一种游戏，或将自己展现给时间的机会，还是做出改变的契机，你就不会再将工作视为一种负担。

Because that’s where all this seeking to escape from work comes from (which is really what the 4HWW is about). Whether it be counting down the days to your yearly two week vacation, setting up a four hour workweek or creating passive income; whether it be the desire to retire early, win the lottery or strike it rich, it’s all in the effort to escape from the obligation of spending your life in a state of endless resistance to doing chores. It’s like we’re six years old again, fighting with mom about cleaning up all the stuff we’ve crammed under our bed. Not much has changed, huh?

因为这些都是想要摆脱工作的渴望的起因（而这就是四小时工作周的本质）。不论是扳着手指头倒数每年两周的假期的到来，还是设定每周工作四小时计划或创建被动收入；不论是渴望早点退休，还是中头彩或大发横财，这一切都与努力渴望摆脱无穷无尽的无聊琐事有关。这就好像我们又回到了六岁，母亲逼迫着我们去收拾散落在床底下的玩具，而我们却不肯就范。是不是一切都没有什么改变？

But when work becomes something reverent to you, you no longer to seek escape from it. Besides, imagine if you really did find that elusive escape. Would it really solve all your problems? Sure, you’d have a lot of free time, but is that really what you’re looking for? Just free time?

但当工作成为了你生活的一部分时，你就不会去回避它。再说，想象下你找到了一种逃脱之路。但，这真的能解决你的所有问题吗？没错，这样你会有许多自由的时间，但那真的是你所要的结果吗？仅仅是自由支配的时间？

I think it’s something more than that. I think it’s the lack of purpose, the lack of depth in our work that leads us to chase ideas like a four hour workweek and autopilot income.

我认为问题还不止于此。我觉得这和缺少目的有关，对我们的工作缺乏深入的了解就会导致我们去追求一周工作四小时和自动收入的美好想法。

Guess what?

你猜怎么着？

No amount of freedom of time will quench your desire to make a difference, to live with purpose.

再多自由支配的时间也不会满足你活出别样人生的欲望。

As Rolf Potts represents in his awesome book, Vagabonding, you can only live so long sipping martinis on a beach. Sooner or later, you’ll be bored. You’ll want to actually do something that matters.

正如劳夫·波兹在他的杰作《瓦加邦丁》中所描绘的那样，你只有每天在海滩上喝着马提尼才能活得那么长久。迟早，你会厌倦。那时你就会想去做一些真正有意义的事。

Despite all the head-drilling society does to make you think work equates slavery, there are many possibilities for work to be a joy.

出了这个头疼的社会令你觉得工作等同于奴役，那儿还有许多种能让工作变得充满乐趣的选择。

One of those options is The Zero Hour Workweek — a guide to getting paid to be who you are.

其中的一个选择就是《零时工作周》-----一个成为真正的自己的指南。

(Note: I did learn a lot from The Four Hour Workweek. I think Tim has some great ideas, like mini retirements, following a low information diet, etc. I also think he did an awesome job pointing out the stupidity of “work for work’s sake.” However, I do think the central idea of the achievement of a four hour workweek solving all of your problems is misleading. Tim defines work as something you really despise, and I just think that’s confusing things more, rather than bringing clarity to the situation. I guess it’s all about semantics, though, right? As Clinton said during the Monica Lewinski case, “Please define sexual relations.”)

（笔记：我从《零时工作周》中学到了许多。我觉得提姆有许多非常棒的想法，比如迷你退休、极简的日常生活等等。同时我也认为他非常出色地指出了“为了工作而工作”的愚蠢性。然而，我还是觉得通过一周工作四小时的核心想法来解决你生活中的问题是一种误导。提姆将工作定义为你所反感的事物，而我觉得这样的想法不仅无法让人清晰地看到目前的处境，反而会让人更加困惑。我猜这和语意有点关系，对不对？正如克林顿在莫妮卡·莱温斯基丑闻期间所说的，“请你给性关系这个词下一个定义。”）