中英文：Steal Like An Artist

1.Steal
Like An Artist

第一章：像艺术家那样“偷”灵感

 

“Art is theft.” —Pablo Picasso

“艺术就是偷。”—巴勃罗·毕加索

 

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal;
bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better,
or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of
feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn.” —T. S. Eliot

稚嫩的诗人模仿，成熟的诗人偷。

蹩脚的诗人把他偷来的改得面目全非，

出色的诗人把他拿来的加以完善升华，

或者至少让人刮目相看。

别出心裁的诗人将他搜罗的“战利品”

拼凑出独一无二的效果，令人全然察觉不出

他所写的是灵感的碎片。

——T.S.艾略特(T.S.Eliot)，英国诗人

 

Every artist gets asked the question, “Where do you get your ideas?” The honest artist answers, “I steal them.”

每个艺术家都会被问到这样的问题:“你的灵感从何而来?”实在的艺术家会坦言:“我偷来的。”

 

How does an artist look at the world?
First, you figure out what’s worth stealing, then you move on to the next thing.

艺术家是如何看待这个世界的?首先，你要知道什么东西值得“偷”，然后再继续下一步。

 

Everything is up for grabs. If you don’t find something worth stealing today,
you might find it worth stealing tomorrow or a month or a year from now.

一切都是信手拈来的事。也许你现在没有发现那些值得去“偷”的点子，可能明天、下个月或者一年以后，你又会发现它有“偷”的价值。

 

 

“The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.” —David Bowie

“唯一值得我去研究的艺术。就是我可以从中偷些点子的那些艺术。”

 

 “There is nothing new under the sun.” (Bible,Ecclesiastes 1:9)

“太阳底下没有新鲜事。”（圣经）

 

 

Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix
of one or more previous ideas.

所有冒出的新点子，啊？肯定要。不过是之前的一个或多个创意的混搭。

 

The artist is a collector. Not a hoarder,
mind you, there’s a difference: Hoarders collect indiscriminately, artists collect
selectively. They only collect things that they really love.

艺术家都是收藏家，你要认为他们是囤积狂就大错特错了，二者有着本质的区别：囤积狂无差别的将一切收入囊中，而艺术家则是选择性的收集，他们只挑选自己真心喜欢的东西来收藏。No

 

School is one thing. Education is another.
The two don’t always overlap. Whether you’re in school or not, it’s always your job to get yourself an education.

学校是一回事，而受教育是另一回事，二者绝不能一概而论，无论你是不是在校生都要保持学习的状态。

- You have to be curious about the world in which you live. Look
things up. Chase down every reference. Go deeper than anybody else—that’s how you’ll get ahead.

你要对周遭世界保持好奇心，多动手查查资料，追查每一条参考文献。你要比别人花更多功夫，这样你才有可能出人头地。

- Google everything. I mean everything. Google your dreams, Google your
problems. Don’t ask a question before you Google it. You’ll either find the answer or you’ll come up with a better question.

放手去“搜索”吧。搜你想搜的一切。在网上搜索你的梦想，搜索你的疑问。在你上网搜索之前，不要对问题轻易提出质疑。要么你能找到问题的答案，要么你能想出一个更高明的问题。

- Always be reading. Go to the library. There’s magic in being surrounded by books. Get
lost in the stacks. Read bibliographies. It’s not the book you start with, it’s the book that book leads you to.

保持阅读习惯，经常光顾图书馆。当你坐拥书城时，能感受到一种魔力。当你沉迷于书海，阅读参考文献，刚开始读什么并不重要，重要的是一本书会引导你去读下一本。

- Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. “Nothing is more important than an unread library.”

即使你没把阅读提上日程，可以先把书买回来收藏。没有光顾过的图书馆，堪比宝库;没开封的书，价值无穷。

 

Don’t worry about doing research. Just search.

做研究就别有太多顾虑。放手去做吧!

 

“Whether I went to school or not, I would always study.” —RZA

“不管我是否身在校园，我都会一直学习。”—罗伯特·菲茨杰拉德·迪格斯(RZA)，美国饶舌歌手、音乐制作人

 

Carry a notebook and a pen with you
wherever you go. Get used to pulling it out and jotting down your thoughts and
observations. Copy your favorite passages out of books. Record overheard
conversations. Doodle when you’re on the phone. Go to whatever lengths necessary to make sure you
always have paper on you.

无论你去哪里，都记得随身带上本子和笔。养成随时随地记录的习惯，写下你的想法以及你所观察到的事情。抄写书里你觉得最精彩的段落，就算无意中听到的“八卦”也有料，甚至打电话闲聊时也可以涂鸦。不管去哪，尽可能保证纸、笔不离身。

 

Keep a swipe file. It’s just what it sounds like—a file to keep track of the stuff you’ve swiped from others. It can be digital
or analog—it doesn’t matter what form it takes, as long as it works. You can keep a
scrapbook and cut and paste things into it, or you can just take pictures of
things with your camera phone.

创建一个“宝贝文件夹”( swipe file )。正如它的名字给人的感觉——这个文件夹记录了你从别人那里搜罗来的“宝贝”。这个文件夹可以是电子的或类似的智能产品不管何种形式，只要能用就行。你需要一个剪贴簿，将剪切下的素材粘贴在上面，或者你可以直接用手机拍下来。

 

See something worth stealing? Put it in the
swipe file. Need a little inspiration? Open up the swipe file.

看看哪些创意值得去“偷”，将这些保存在“宝贝文件夹”里。当你需要灵感时，就打开它来寻寻宝。

 

“It is better to take what does not belong to you than to let it lie
around neglected.” —Mark Twain

“那些不属于你的东西，与其任其荒废，不如据为己有。”——马克·吐温(MarkTwain)，美国小说家

 

2.Don’t Wait until Your Know Who You Are to Get
Started

第二章：在行动中认识自己

 

The clinical definition is a “psychological phenomenon in which people
are unable to internalize their accomplishments.” It means that you feel like a phony, like you’re just winging it, that you really don’t have any idea what you’re doing.

这种症候群在临床上被定义为“人们无法将自己的成就内化的心理现象”。也就是说，你觉得自己像个骗子，只是在即兴发挥，但事实上你并不知道自己在做什么。

 

Ask anybody doing truly creative work, and
they’ll tell you the truth: They don’t know where the good stuff comes from. They just show up to do
their thing. Every day.

你可以去问问那些真正从事创意工作的人，他们会如实告诉你:他们自己也不知道那些好点子从何而来，他们只做自己分内的事，日复一日地工作罢了。

 

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their
exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.Fake it ’til you make it.

世界是个舞台，

男男女女都不过是演员:

他们登场、退场，

一人一生扮演多个角色。

——莎士比亚《皆大欢喜》

I love this phrase. There are two ways to read it: ①. Pretend to be something you’re not until you are—fake it until you’re successful, until everybody sees you
the way you want them to; or ②. Pretend to be making something until you actually make something.
They pretended to be artists.

这个说法，我真的爱了，对于装腔有两种解读:

1.在真正成功之前，你要一直假装成功，直到每个人都以你期待的方式看待你;

2.假装在某个领域深耕，直到你确实有所收获。

 

The point is: All the world’s a stage. Creative work is a kind of
theater. The stage is your studio, your desk, or your workstation. The costume
is your outfit—your painting pants, your business suit, or that funny hat that
helps you think. The props are your materials, your tools, and your medium. The
script is just plain old time. An hour here, or an hour there—just time measured out for things to
happen. Fake it ’til you make it.

划重点:整个世界就是一个舞台，创意工作就是戏剧的一种，你的工作室、书桌、工位就是舞台。演出行头呢，就是你的全套装备，你画画穿的裤子、你的职业装，或是那顶赋予你灵感的搞笑礼帽。道具即是你所用的素材、工具以及创作媒介。剧本则是平平无奇的旧时光:时而在这里，时而在那里。不过是随着光阴的推移，记录下的往昔。成功，从伪装开始。

 

“Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the
copy you will find your self.” —Yohji Yamamoto

“大胆去模仿你所喜欢的一切吧，不断模仿、模仿、再模仿。最后你会在模仿中找到属于你的风格。”——山本耀司(Yohji Yamamoto)，日本设计师

 

Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We
don’t come out of the
womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our
heroes. We learn by copying.

没有谁出生就自带某种风格或者腔调。呱呱坠地时，我们一无所知。初来乍到，我们将自己伪装成心目中的偶像，在模仿别人的过程中了解世界。

 

We learn to write by copying down the
alphabet. Musicians learn to play by practicing scales. Painters learn to paint
by reproducing masterpieces.

我们通过临摹字帖学会书写，乐者通过练习音阶学会演奏，画家通过描摹名家作品练习技法。

 

First, you have to figure out who to copy.
Second, you have to figure out what to copy.

首先，你必须清楚你要模仿谁。其次，你要明确自己模仿些什么。

 

If you copy from one author, it’s plagiarism, but if you copy from many,
it’s research.

如果你模仿一个作家，就是剽窃，但如果你效仿很多作家的创作，那就叫研究。

 

Don’t just steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style. You don’t want to look like your heroes, you want
to see like your heroes.

不仅要“偷”肉眼可见的风格，更重要的是要学到这种风格背后的创作思路。就像你“伪装”成自己的偶像，不要让人看起来徒有其表，还要有点睛之笔、传神之处。

 

We want you to take from us. We want you, at
first, to steal from us, because you can’t steal. You will take what we give you and you will put it in your
own voice and that’s how you will find your voice. And that’s how you begin. And then one day someone
will steal from you.” —Francis Ford Coppola

“我们希望你从我们这里有所收获。起初，你想从我们这里‘偷师’学些什么,因为你不得要领，所以根本学不到精髓。你只能得到我们正面传授给你的，然后将其融入创作之中，塑造出自己的风格。这才刚刚开始，直到有一天，你会发现，自己身后也有了追随者。”

——弗朗西斯·福特·科波拉(Francis Ford Coppola)，电影《教父》导演

 

At some point, you’ll have to move from imitating your
heroes to emulating them. Imitation is about copying. Emulation is when
imitation goes one step further, breaking through into your own thing.

某些时候，你需要从模仿偶像，逐渐过渡到与偶像对标。模仿相当于复制，而对标与其相比，则更近了一步。这是一个不断将自我打破再重塑的过程。

 

There isn’t a move that’s a new move.” The basketball star Kobe Bryant has admitted that all of his moves
on the court were stolen from watching tapes of his heroes.

篮球巨星科比·布莱恩特(Kobe Bryant)坦言:“球场上没有新动作。”他在场上的所有动作，都是他观看偶像比赛录像偷师学来的。

 

Copy your heroes. Examine where you fall
short. What’s in there that makes you different? That’s what you should amplify and transform
into your own work.

去模仿你的偶像吧。审视一下自己的短板所在。究竟是什么才能让你在人群里与众不同?这才是你应该放大的优势，并且将个性转化到自己的作品中。

 

Their work into something of your own is
how you flatter them. Adding something to the world that only you can add.

将他们的经典创意融入自己的作品，才是对他们的致敬。以你独一无二的方式，为这个世界献出一部找不到“平替”的作品吧!

 

I have stolen all of these moves from all
these great players. I just try to do them proud, the guys who came before,
because I learned so much from them. It’s all in the name of the game. It’s a lot bigger than me.”—Kobe Bryant

“我从那些伟大的球员身上偷师学到的那些动作，我只想让这些前辈以我为傲，毕竟他们让我受益匪浅。所有一切都以篮球比赛之名，这些比我个人的意义重要得多。”——科比·布莱恩特(Kobe Bryant),NBA球星

 

3.Write
the Book You Want to Read

第三章：写一本自己想读的书

 

Fictional stories based on characters that
already exist.

“同人小说”也就是基于现有角色创作的虚构故事。

 

The best advice is not to write what you
know, it’s to write what you like. Write the kind of story you like best—write the story you want to read. The
same principle applies to your life and your career: Whenever you’re at a loss for what move to make next,
just ask yourself, “What would make a better story?”

最好的忠告不是写你熟知的故事，而是写你喜欢的故事那些你最喜欢的故事–写你自己想要去读的故事。这条建议也同样适用于你的个人生活和职业生涯:当你对下一步该怎么走感到然而不知所措时，就问问自己:“怎样才能写出一个更精彩的故事?

 

Think about your favorite work and your
creative heroes. What did they miss? What didn’t they make? What could’ve been made better? If they were still alive, what would they be
making today? If all your favorite makers got together and collaborated, what
would they make with you leading the crew? Go make that stuff.

想想那些你喜欢的作品和你崇拜的创意大咖。他们错过了什么?还没有做到什么?如何还能做得更好?如果他们依然健在，如今还能创作出什么样的作品?如果你喜欢的艺术家珠联壁合、“梦幻联动”，他们会带领你和整个团队创作出什么?放手去做吧。

 

The manifesto is this: Draw the art
you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to
hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use—do the work you want to see done.

道理就是如此:画出你想画的画作，经营你自己的事业，创作你喜欢听的音乐，写你想看的书，设计出你想用的产品，一言以蔽之，脚踏实地去做，梦想才能照亮现实。

4.Use
Your Hands

第四章：自己多动手

 

“We don’t know where we get our ideas from. What we do know is that we do
not get them from our laptops.” —John Cleese

“我们不知道自己的灵感从何而来。但可以肯定的是，它绝不来自我的笔记本电脑。”

-——约翰·克里斯(John Cleese)，英国喜剧大师

 

We need to move, to feel like we’re making something with our bodies, not
just our heads.

Work that only comes from the head isn’t any good. Watch a great musician play a
show. Watch a great leader give a speech.

我们需要动起来事实上我们不只是在动脑，而是举全身之力去促成创作。仅仅依靠脑力劳动并不可取。听一场杰出音乐家的演奏，身临其境感受一下伟大领袖的现场演说，你就会明白我的意思了

 

You need to find a way to bring your body
into your work. Our nerves aren’t a one-way street—our bodies can tell our brains as much as our brains tell our
bodies. You know that phrase, “going through the motions”? That’s what’s so great about creative work: If we just start going through the
motions, if we strum a guitar, or shuffle sticky notes around a conference
table, or start kneading clay, the motion kickstarts our brain into thinking.

你需要找到一种调动全身参与创作的方法。我们的神经系统不是一条单行道–我们的身体和大脑之间是声气相通的。“走过场敷衍了事”，你听说过这个说法吧?这就是创作的精妙之处：漫不经心地弹吉他，在会议桌旁来回摆弄便利贴，或者随手揉捏黏土这些不经意的小动作都可能激发大脑思考，从而推动创作。

 

“I have stared long enough at the glowing flat rectangles of computer
screens. Let us give more time for doing things in the real world . . . plant a
plant, walk the dogs, read a real book, go to the opera.” —Edward Tufte

“我已经在那四四方方、闪闪发光的电脑屏幕前耗得太久了。让我们多花点时间活在真实世界里吧…种种花草、遛遛小狗，读一本实体书，再去剧院看看戏。”——爱德华·塔夫特(Edward Tufte)，美国信息设计先驱

 

The cartoonist Tom Gauld says he stays away
from the computer until he’s done most of the thinking for his strips

漫画家汤姆·高尔德(Tom Gauld)说过，他只有在完成连环画的构思雏形之后，才会使用电脑

 

Unlike a hard drive, paper doesn’t crash.) The digital desk has my laptop,
my monitor, my scanner, and my drawing tablet. This is where I edit and publish
my work.

(不像硬盘，纸张不会崩溃宕机 )。数字办公区摆放着我的笔记本电脑、显示屏、扫描仪，以及手绘平板，我就是在这里录入并发布作品的。

 

Try it: If you have the space, set up two
workstations, one analog and one digital.

试试看，如果你有足够的空间，放两张工作桌–一张专门用来做手工，一张放电脑。

 

 

 

5.Side
Projects and Hobbies Are Important

第五章：发展副业和兴趣爱好至关重要

 

Take time to be bored. One time I heard a
coworker say, “When I get busy, I get stupid.”

Creative people need time to just sit
around and do nothing.

花点时间做些无用之事，也没什么不好。有次我听一位同事说:“一忙飞了，我就会变傻。”可不是这样嘛。做创意的人需要时间坐在那里发呆，哪怕只是坐在那里放空自己。

 

If you’re out of ideas, wash the dishes. Take a really long walk. Stare at
a spot on the wall for as long as you can.

如果你觉得自己挖空心思也想不出好的创意，那你不如去洗洗碗，或者干脆出门遛个弯儿，实在不行盯着墙上某个点发会呆，能盯多久就盯多久。

 

Take time to mess around. Get lost.
Wander. You never know where it’s going to lead you.

花点时间放空思绪，放飞自我，东游西逛。你永远不会知道自己会被稀奇古怪的想法带向哪里。

 

If you have two or three real passions, don’t feel like you have to pick and choose
between them. Don’t discard. Keep all your passions in your life.

如果你同时热衷于两三件事情，千万别强迫自己在它们之间做出取舍，不要随便抛下任何一件你自己喜欢的事情，用你一生的热爱点燃不灭的激情。

 

If you love different things, you just keep
spending time with them.

如果你兴趣广泛，理当多花点时间沉浸其中。

 

 

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them
looking backwards.” —Steve Jobs

“虽然你现在可能看不见未来，但在未来的某个时刻，当你蓦然回首，这个‘未来’便是你曾经的点点滴滴，你的成就作为。”——史蒂夫·乔布斯(SteveJobs)，原苹果公司总裁

 

It’s so important to have a hobby. A hobby is something creative that’s just for you.

You don’t try to make money or get famous off it, you just do it because it
makes you happy. A hobby is something that gives but doesn’t take.

有一个属于自己的兴趣爱好是人生之所幸。爱好是专属自己的创意活动。你不是借助爱好赚钱或出名，而只是为了享受其中的乐趣。爱好从来都只会给予，而不会索取。

 

6.The
Secret:Do Good Work and Share It with People

第六章：工作中深耕细作，并且学会与他人分享

 

There’s no pressure when you’re unknown. You can do what you want. Experiment. Do things just for
the fun of it. When you’re unknown, there’s nothing to distract you from getting better. No public image to
manage. No huge paycheck on the line. No stockholders. No e-mails from your
agent. No hangers-on.

默默无闻的时候，就不会有太多压力，你可以做任何你想做的事放手一试吧,就算是图一乐儿也值得。当你还是个无名小卒的时候没有什么让你分心的事情，你会变得更好。当然，那时的你没有偶像包袱，也不用刻意经营公众形象。没有流量，自然拿不到高额片酬，坐不到股东的位置，收不到经纪人的邮件，也不会被前来膜拜的人们团团包围。

 

You’ll never get that freedom back again once people start paying you
attention, and especially not once they start paying you money. Enjoy your
obscurity while it lasts. Use it.

一旦人们开始关注到你，尤其是他们想要掏腰包去买你的作品的时候，你就再也做不回以前的那个自由人了。所以，尽情享受，好好利用这段默默无闻的时光吧

 

Do good work and share it with people.It’s a two-step process. Step one, “do good work,” is incredibly hard. There are no
shortcuts. Make stuff every day. Step two, “share it with people,” was really hard up until about ten years ago or so. Now, it’s very simple: “Put your stuff on the Internet.”

在工作中深耕细作，并且学会与他人分享。这条路可以分两步走。第一步，“在工作中深耕细作”，毋庸置疑的是，这一步会走得异常艰辛，而且没有捷径可循，唯有每天持之以恒地去努力。你可能会遭遇瓶颈，跌落低谷，甚至一蹶不振看不到人生翻盘的可能，然后置之死地而后生。第二步，“学会与他人分享”，这话如果放十年前，操作起来还真是一头雾水，现在来看再容易不过了：“把你的作品发到网上就大功告成了。”

 

The Secret of internet. Step 1: Wonder at
something. Step 2: Invite others to wonder with you. You should wonder at the
things nobody else is wondering about. If everybody’s wondering about apples, go wonder about
oranges. The more open you are about sharing your passions, the closer people
will feel to your work.

“那么互联网又有什么我们不知道的套路呢?”

第一步:对某些事情产生好奇心。第二步:邀请其他朋友与你一起探索未知领域。你应该思考那些别人看来习以为常的事情，如果所有人都在研究苹果，那你去琢磨一下橘子，别扎堆儿就是了。你越是敞开心扉和朋友们分享你对作品投入的热情，越能拉近观众与你作品之间的距离。

 

When you open up your process and invite
people in, you learn.

当你敞开心扉向别人分享自己的创作过程，同时邀请大家一起参与的时候，你也会有所收获。

 

Learn to code. Figure out how to make a
website. Figure out blogging. Figure out Twitter and social media and all that
other stuff. Find people on the Internet who love the same things as you and
connect with them. Share things with them.

学点编程，搞明白如何创建一个网站;琢磨一下怎么写博客，顺便再规划一下如何运营社交媒体以及类似的平台。在网络上找到与你志趣相投的朋友，并与他们建立起联系，和他们多多分享和交流。

 

You don’t have to share everything—in fact, sometimes it’s much better if you don’t. Show just a little bit of what you’re working on. Share a sketch or a doodle or a snippet.. Share a
little glimpse of your process. Think about what you have to share that could
be of some value to people. Share a handy tip you’ve discovered while working. Or a link to an interesting article.
Mention a good book you’re reading.

你不需要和别人分享所有–事实上，有时不分享或许会更好你只需要把你正在着手做的给他们“露一手”就可以了，分享一幅速写草图、涂鸦或工作的片段，让别人领略一下你在创作过程中的花絮”即可。想一想你能分享的且对别人来说有价值的东西，和大家说说你在工作时发现的小诀窍或者其他值得一提的事情，也可以提一下你最近正在读的一本好书。

 

“Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any
good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.” —Howard Aiken

“不要过多地担心别人会偷你的创意。如果你的创意确实有可取之处，那就任由别人欣然接受吧。”——霍华德·艾肯(Howard Aiken)，第一台计算机的制造者

 

 

7.Geography
Is No Longer Our Master

第七章：距离不再是问题

 

“It isn’t necessary that you leave home. Sit at your desk and listen. Don’t even listen, just wait. Don’t wait, be still and alone. The whole
world will offer itself to you.”

卡夫卡曾这样写道:“你没必要离开家，只需坐在书桌前聆听或者不必聆听，只需等待;其实也无须等待，只要独自静坐在那里整个世界便尽在眼前了。”

 

All you need is a little space and a little
time—a place to work, and some time to do it; a little self-imposed
solitude and temporary captivity.

你只需要一个小小的空间和一点时间——说白了，也就是那个地方可以给你展开工作的空间，专时专用，享受孤独和短暂的约束。

 

I always carry a book, a pen, and a
notepad, and I always enjoy my solitude and temporary captivity.

我总会随身带一本书、一支笔，还有一个笔记本，因为我游留恋一个人独处的时光，享受短暂的束缚感。

 

“Distance and difference are the secret tonic of creativity. When we
get home, home is still the same. But something in our mind has been changed,
and that changes everything.” —Jonah Lehrer

“距离和变化是创意的秘方。当我们回到家的时候，家还是老样子，但我们的想法却发生了变化，这种变化也会改变一切。——乔纳·莱勒(Jonah Lehrer ),美国畅销书作家

 

Travel makes the world look new, and when
the world looks new, our brains work harder.

旅行能让你对世界的认知焕然一新，当你发现了崭新的世界，工作也会更加有动力。

 

8.Be
Nice

第八章：与人为善

 

The best way to vanquish your enemies on
the Internet? Ignore them. The best way to make friends on the Internet? Say
nice things about them.

在网上征服敌人的最好办法是什么?必然是无视他们。什么才是网络交友的法宝?多多美言几句，总没坏处。

 

“There’s only one rule I know of: You’ve got to be kind.” —Kurt Vonnegut

“我只知道一条原则:与人为善。”一库尔特·冯内古特(Kurt Vonnegut )，美国作家

 

Remember “garbage in, garbage out”? You’re only going to be as good as the people you surround yourself
with. In the digital space, that means following the best people online—the people who are way smarter and better
than you, the people who are doing the really interesting work. Pay attention
to what they’re talking about, what they’re doing, what they’re linking to.

还记得之前说的那句“输入决定输出”吗?你需要和你周围那些优秀的人们对标。在数字化时代，“对标”就意味着关注网上脱颖而出的人——那些人比你聪明、比你更胜一筹，而且这些人从事的工作确实很有趣。你应该关注他们在谈论什么、他们在做什么他们还与哪些人有交集。

 

Find the most talented person in the room,
and if it’s not you, go stand next to him. Hang out with him. Try to be
helpful.

你要找出自己所在圈子里最有才的人，如果这个人不是你，那就去接近那个人。与他一起出去见见世面，会对你个人的发展有帮助。

 

If you ever find that you’re the most talented person in the room,
you need to find another room.

如果你发现圈子里最有才的人就是你自己，那你就需要换个圈子再看看。

 

“Modern art = I could do that + Yeah, but you didn’t.”—Craig Damrauer

“当代艺术 =我能做到+你做不到。克雷格·丹木瑞尔(CraigDamrauer)，艺术作家

9.Be
Boring

第九章：循规蹈矩 (完成工作的唯一方式)

 

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and
original in your work.” —Gustave Flaubert

“生活中循规蹈矩、按部就班，创作中才能蓄积爆发力，施展原创才华。”——居斯塔夫·福楼拜(Gustave Flaubert)，法国作家

 

Do yourself a favor: Learn about money
as soon as you can.Make yourself a budget. Live within your means. Pack your
lunch. Pinch pennies. Save as much as you can. Get the education you need for
as cheap as you can get it. The art of holding on to money is all about saying
no to consumer culture.

尽快学会理财知识。为你自己做一份预算。学着在生活里量入为出,自带午饭,精打细算,尽可能地多存点钱,在教育上能省就省少交点“智商税”。省钱的艺术，就是要对消费文化说“不”。

 

A day job puts you in the path of other
human beings. Learn from them, steal from them.

一份日常的工作让你沿着别人走过的路，学习他们身上的闪光点，并向他们“偷师”。

 

Establishing and keeping a routine can be
even more important than having a lot of time.

养成并保持一种规律生活，甚至比拥有大把时间更重要。

 

The solution is really simple: Figure out
what time you can carve out, what time you can steal, and stick to your
routine. Do the work every day, no matter what. No holidays, no sick days. Don’t stop. What you’ll probably find is that the corollary to
Parkinson’s Law is usually true: Work gets done in the time available.

解决起来一点也不麻烦:你要搞清楚哪个时段适合用来创作哪个时段用来向别人取经，并将这些日程通通代入到你的日常生活中。不管做什么，每天都要持之以恒，没有假期，克服病假，打不动，风雨无阻。最后你会发现，帕金森定律(Parkinson’sLaw)的推论是正确的:工作总会在给定的时间内完成。

 

A calendar helps you plan work, gives you
concrete goals, and keeps you on track.

日历能帮助你规划自己的工作，为你设定具体目标，并且引导你按部就班，走上正轨。

 

Just as you need a chart of future events,
you also need a chart of past events. A logbook isn’t necessarily a diary or a journal, it’s just a little book in which you list
the things you do every day.

 

 

What project you worked on, where you went
to lunch, what movie you saw. It’s much easier than keeping a detailed diary, and you’d be amazed at how helpful having a daily
record like this can be, especially over several years. The small details will
help you remember the big details.

正如你需要记下即将完成的待办事项，对于过去的事情也要做到心中有数。这里所说的日志，不一定是那种彻头彻尾的流水账或者手账，一个能记录下来每天你做了些什么事情的小本本即可:你正在跟进的项目、你在哪家餐厅吃的午餐、你又去看了什么电影，诸如此类。这比每天写细碎的日记要简单得多，而且你会惊讶地发现，这样一个每天记录日常的小本本简直对你太有用了，特别是时过境迁，当年不值得一提的小细节也能帮你回忆起大事件。

 

“If you ask yourself ‘What’s the best thing that happened today?’ it actually forces a certain kind of cheerful retrospection that
pulls up from the recent past things to write about that you wouldn’t otherwise think about. If you ask
yourself ‘What happened today?’ it’s very likely that you’re going to remember the worst thing, because you’ve had to deal with it—you’ve had to rush somewhere or somebody said something mean to you—that’s what you’re going to remember. But if you ask what the best thing is, it’s going to be some particular slant of
light, or some wonderful expression somebody had, or some particularly
delicious salad.” —Nicholson Baker

“如果你问自己，‘今天发生的最好的事情是什么?’，你也许会复盘一下最近发生的开心的事，你写下来的可能是你平时想不到的事情。如果你问自己，‘今天发生过什么事情?’，你很可能会想起那些糟心事儿，因为毕竟你花了很多精力去处理–有些事情让你处理起来颇费周折，或是别人对你出言不逊–这些事都让你印象深刻。但是如果要问最好的事情是什么，你可能会想到一道奇异的光线，或者听到的妙语抑或是一盘特别美味的沙拉。”

——尼克尔森·贝克(Nicholson Baker)，美国小说家

 

Who you marry is the most important
decision you’ll ever make. And “marry well” doesn’t just mean your life partner—it also means who you do business with, who you befriend, who you
choose to be around

和谁结婚是你一生中做出的最重要的决定。“美好的婚姻”不仅意味着找到人生伴侣，也是你在选择事业伙伴、朋友，还有生活圈子。

 

10.  Creativity is Subtraction

第十章： 创意就是做减法

 

The way to get over creative block is to
simply place some constraints on yourself. It seems contradictory, but when it
comes to creative work, limitations mean freedom. Write a song on your lunch
break. Paint a painting with only one color. Start a business without any
start-up capital. Shoot a movie with your iPhone and a few of your friends.
Build a machine out of spare parts. Don’t make excuses for not working—make things with the time, space, and materials you have, right now.

帮你跨越创意障碍的方法实施起来并不难，给自己设置一些限制即可。这看似矛盾，但是从事创意工作的时候，你就会明白，限制意味着自由。你可以趁着午休写首歌，用一种颜色画幅画，在没有启动资金的情况下创业，用手机和几个朋友拍一个短片，用零部件组装一台机器。不要为无所事事找任何借口——现在就利用起手头的时间、空间和材料做些什么吧，马上行动起来。

 

“Telling yourself you have all the time in the world, all the money
in the world, all the colors in the palette, anything you want—that just kills creativity.” —Jack White

“告诉你自己，你拥有世上所有的时间、所有的金钱、调色板中的所有色彩，所有你想要的一切而正是这些扼杀了你的创意。”——杰克·怀特(Jack White )，美国音乐家

 

You must embrace your limitations and keep
moving. In the end, creativity isn’t just the things we choose to put in, it’s the things we choose to leave out.

你要学着接纳自己的局限性，然后继续坚定前行。最后，我想说的是，创意并不仅仅是我们选择的东西，更是我们舍弃的东西。

 

What Now?
- Talk a walk
- Start your swipe file
- Go to the library
- Buy a notebook and use it
- Get yourself a calendar
- Start your logbook
- Give a copy of this book away
- Start a blog Take a nap

 

接下来该做什么呢？

-出去散散步

-建立一个“宝贝文件夹“

-去图书馆

-买一个笔记本，然后好好记录

-准备一张日历

-开始写日志

-与别人分享本书

-开始写博客

-小睡片刻

 

 

Recommended Reading（推荐阅读）
- Linda Barry, What It Is
- Hugh MacLeod, Ignore Everybody
- Jason Fried + David Heinemeier Hansson, Rework
- Lewis Hyde, The Gift
- Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence
- David Shields, Reality Hunger
- Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics
- Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow
- Ed Emberley, Make a World