Isaac Lidsky: What reality are you creating for yourself? | TED

翻译人员: Xiangyi Chen 校对人员: Diana Li

When Dorothy was a little girl,

当多萝西还是一个小女孩的时候，

she was fascinated by her goldfish.

她被她的金鱼迷住了。

她的父亲向她解释， 鱼是通过快速摇尾

Her father explained to her that fish swim by quickly wagging their tails

to propel themselves through the water.

推动自己在水中前进。

毫无犹豫地，小多萝西回答道，

Without hesitation, little Dorothy responded,

"Yes, Daddy, and fish swim backwards by wagging their heads."

“是的，爸爸，而且鱼会通过摇头来后退。”

(Laughter)

（笑声）

在她的心里，这是一个确切的事实。

In her mind, it was a fact as true as any other.

Fish swim backwards by wagging their heads.

鱼通过摇头来后退。

She believed it.

她坚信如此。

Our lives are full of fish swimming backwards.

我们的生活中充满着倒游的鱼。

We make assumptions and faulty leaps of logic.

我们制造假设和错误跳跃的逻辑。

We harbor bias.

我们心怀偏见。

我们知道我们是对的，而他们是错的。

We know that we are right, and they are wrong.

We fear the worst.

我们害怕最糟糕的。

我们力求无法获得的完美。

We strive for unattainable perfection.

We tell ourselves what we can and cannot do.

我们告诉自己什么是我们能做的和不能做的。

In our minds, fish swim by in reverse frantically wagging their heads

在我们心里，鱼是通过 往相反方向疯狂摇头来游泳的，

而我们甚至不曾察觉过它们。

and we don't even notice them.

我想告诉你们五件关于我的事实。

I'm going to tell you five facts about myself.

One fact is not true.

其中有一件不是真的。

One: I graduated from Harvard at 19 with an honors degree in mathematics.

第一：我19岁的时候以数学 荣誉学士学位毕业于哈佛大学。

Two: I currently run a construction company in Orlando.

第二：我现在在奥兰多 经营着一家建筑公司。

Three: I starred on a television sitcom.

第三：我主演过一部电视情景剧。

Four: I lost my sight to a rare genetic eye disease.

第四：我因为患上一种罕有的 遗传性眼疾而失去了视力。

Five: I served as a law clerk to two US Supreme Court justices.

第五：我曾经给两位美国 最高法院的法官当过法律助手。

Which fact is not true?

哪一个不是真的呢？

Actually, they're all true.

事实上，它们都是真的。

Yeah. They're all true.

是的，它们都是真的。

(Applause)

（掌声）

At this point, most people really only care about the television show.

这时候，大部分人其实都只关心那部电视剧。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

I know this from experience.

这是经验告诉我的。

OK, so the show was NBC's "Saved by the Bell: The New Class."

好吧，那部电视剧是NBC的 “Saved by the Bell: The New Class."

And I played Weasel Wyzell,

而我饰演了Weasel Wyzell，

who was the sort of dorky, nerdy character on the show,

一个在剧中带点笨拙书呆子性格的角色，

which made it a very major acting challenge

对于13岁的我来说，

这是一个很重大的演出挑战。

for me as a 13-year-old boy.

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Now, did you struggle with number four, my blindness?

现在，你是否纠结于第四个事实，我的失明？

为什么会这样呢？

Why is that?

We make assumptions about so-called disabilities.

我们对所谓的残疾做出一些假设。

As a blind man, I confront others' incorrect assumptions

作为盲人，我每天都面对

about my abilities every day.

别人对我能力的错误假设。

My point today is not about my blindness, however.

然而，我今天的重点不在于我的失明。

It's about my vision.

而是在于我的视野。

Going blind taught me to live my life eyes wide open.

失明教会我用开阔的眼界去生活。

It taught me to spot those backwards-swimming fish

它教会我去发现那些倒游的鱼，

that our minds create.

我们内心创造出来的鱼。

失明使它们变成了焦点。

Going blind cast them into focus.

What does it feel like to see?

看得见是怎么样的一种感觉？

It's immediate and passive.

是即时并且被动的。

You open your eyes and there's the world.

你睁开双眼，世界就在你眼前。

Seeing is believing. Sight is truth.

看见什么相信什么。眼见为实。

对吧？

Right?

好吧，我当初是这么想的。

Well, that's what I thought.

Then, from age 12 to 25, my retinas progressively deteriorated.

接着，从12岁到15岁， 我的视网膜逐渐衰弱。

My sight became an increasingly bizarre

我的视像变成了愈加奇异的

carnival funhouse hall of mirrors and illusions.

嘉年华游乐场里的哈哈镜。

The salesperson I was relieved to spot in a store

我在商店里好不容易发现的销售员

实际上是一个人体模型。

was really a mannequin.

Reaching down to wash my hands,

俯下身去洗手，

I suddenly saw it was a urinal I was touching, not a sink,

当我的手指感受到它的真实形状，

when my fingers felt its true shape.

我意识到我去触摸的是小便池， 而不是洗手池。

一位朋友向我描述我手中的照片，

A friend described the photograph in my hand,

and only then I could see the image depicted.

只有在那时候我才能明白图像描画了些什么。

Objects appeared, morphed and disappeared in my reality.

物体在我的现实中出现、变形和消失。

看见成为了一件困难的使我筋疲力尽的事情。

It was difficult and exhausting to see.

I pieced together fragmented, transitory images,

我把支离破碎的、片刻的图像拼接起来，

consciously analyzed the clues,

凭感觉分析线索，

searched for some logic in my crumbling kaleidoscope,

在我破碎的万花筒中寻找符合逻辑的对应，

until I saw nothing at all.

直到我什么都看不见。

I learned that what we see

我认识到我们所看到的

is not universal truth.

并不即是普遍真理。

It is not objective reality.

并不是客观现实。

我们所看到的是独一无二的虚拟现实，

What we see is a unique, personal, virtual reality

that is masterfully constructed by our brain.

它是由我们的大脑巧妙地构造出来的。

Let me explain with a bit of amateur neuroscience.

请让我以外行的身份解释一遍神经系统学。

Your visual cortex takes up about 30 percent of your brain.

你的视觉皮层占据了你脑部的大概30%。

That's compared to approximately eight percent for touch

相比于触觉的8%

以及听觉的2-3%。

and two to three percent for hearing.

Every second, your eyes can send your visual cortex

每一秒钟，你的双眼能够 向你的视觉皮层传达

as many as two billion pieces of information.

多达二十亿的信息片段。

The rest of your body can send your brain only an additional billion.

其余的身体部分加起来也仅能够传达另外的十亿。

So sight is one third of your brain by volume

所以视觉占据了你脑部容量的三分之一

and can claim about two thirds of your brain's processing resources.

并且占用了你脑部中三分之二的信息处理资源。

因此意想得到的是

It's no surprise then

that the illusion of sight is so compelling.

视觉幻象是多么的令人信服。

But make no mistake about it: sight is an illusion.

但是别误会了： 我们所看到的只是一种幻象。

Here's where it gets interesting.

这是事情变得有趣的地方。

To create the experience of sight,

为了制造视觉经验，

your brain references your conceptual understanding of the world,

你的大脑参考了你对这个世界的概念性理解，

other knowledge, your memories, opinions, emotions, mental attention.

其它知识、你的记忆、 看法、情绪和心理关注。

All of these things and far more are linked in your brain to your sight.

所有的这些东西和以及其它的 都连结于你的大脑和视觉景象之间。

这些连结是双向作用的， 并且常常在潜意识中发生。

These linkages work both ways, and usually occur subconsciously.

So for example,

举例子来说，

what you see impacts how you feel,

你所看到的会影响到你的感觉，

and the way you feel can literally change what you see.

而你的感觉又能够直接改变你所看到的。

许多的研究证明了这一点。

Numerous studies demonstrate this.

If you are asked to estimate

如果你被要求去估计

the walking speed of a man in a video, for example,

视频中人物的行走速度，举例来说，

your answer will be different if you're told to think about cheetahs or turtles.

在被告知去想着猎豹或者乌龟的情况下， 你的答案将会不一样。

如果你刚刚运动完，你会感觉山变陡峭了，

A hill appears steeper if you've just exercised,

and a landmark appears farther away

如果你背着一个很重的背包，

if you're wearing a heavy backpack.

眼前的目的地看起来距离更远。

We have arrived at a fundamental contradiction.

我们在这里遇到了一种基本的矛盾。

你肉眼所看到的东西 是你自己创造的一种复杂的心智建造，

What you see is a complex mental construction of your own making,

but you experience it passively

但是你被动地经历着它

as a direct representation of the world around you.

让它作为你周遭世界的一种直接呈现。

You create your own reality, and you believe it.

你创造了属于你自己的现实并且深信着它。

I believed mine until it broke apart.

我深信于我的现实直到它瓦解了。

The deterioration of my eyes shattered the illusion.

我双眼的衰退粉碎了这种幻象。

You see, sight is just one way

你看，视觉只是我们

认识世界的一种途径。

we shape our reality.

We create our own realities in many other ways.

我们可以通过许多其它的方式 去创造属于我们自己的现实。

让我们来举恐惧作为一个例子。

Let's take fear as just one example.

Your fears distort your reality.

你的恐惧扭曲了你的现实。

Under the warped logic of fear, anything is better than the uncertain.

在扭曲的恐惧逻辑影响下， 任何事情都比未知要好。

恐惧不惜一切代价填补空白，

Fear fills the void at all costs,

passing off what you dread for what you know,

把你所惧怕的冒充成你所知道的，

offering up the worst in place of the ambiguous,

让最糟糕取代了不明确，

substituting assumption for reason.

使假设代替了原因。

心理学家对此有一个 很好的术语：往坏处想。

Psychologists have a great term for it: awfulizing.

(Laughter)

（笑声）

对吧？

Right?

Fear replaces the unknown with the awful.

恐惧把未知的替换成了可怕的。

现在，恐惧在自我实现着。

Now, fear is self-realizing.

当你非常迫切的需要

When you face the greatest need

to look outside yourself and think critically,

去客观看待自己并进行批判性思考的时候，

fear beats a retreat deep inside your mind,

恐惧在你的内心深处打起了退堂鼓，

shrinking and distorting your view,

收缩并扭曲你的观点，

以洪水般涌现的破坏性情绪

drowning your capacity for critical thought

淹没你批判思考的能力。

with a flood of disruptive emotions.

When you face a compelling opportunity to take action,

当你面对一个极具吸引力的机会去采取行动时，

fear lulls you into inaction,

恐惧误导你去无所作为，

enticing you to passively watch its prophecies fulfill themselves.

诱使你被动地看着它的预言一个个实现成真。

When I was diagnosed with my blinding disease,

当我被诊出患有致盲眼疾时，

我料到失明将会毁了我的生活。

I knew blindness would ruin my life.

Blindness was a death sentence for my independence.

失明对我的独立能力判了死刑。

It was the end of achievement for me.

它是我一生成就的终点。

Blindness meant I would live an unremarkable life,

失明意味着我将度过平凡的一生，

small and sad,

渺小且凄惨，

and likely alone.

极有可能孤独终老。

I knew it.

我就知道会这样。

This was a fiction born of my fears, but I believed it.

这是我因为恐惧带来的胡编乱造，但我相信了。

It was a lie, but it was my reality,

它是一个谎言，但它曾是我的现实。

just like those backwards-swimming fish in little Dorothy's mind.

就像小多萝西内心那些倒游的鱼一样。

If I had not confronted the reality of my fear,

如若我不曾面对过我内心恐惧创造出来的现实，

I would have lived it.

我会就那样活着。

I am certain of that.

我很确定。

So how do you live your life eyes wide open?

所以你们如何去以开阔的眼界生活呢？

It is a learned discipline.

这是一个需要学习的学科。

It can be taught. It can be practiced.

它能被传授。它能被练习。

I will summarize very briefly.

我简单地总结一下。

Hold yourself accountable

让自己学会负责，

for every moment, every thought,

对每一时刻，每个想法，

每个细节。

every detail.

超越你内心的恐惧。

See beyond your fears.

Recognize your assumptions.

识别出你所作的假设。

Harness your internal strength.

展现你内在的能力。

Silence your internal critic.

消除你内心的批判。

Correct your misconceptions about luck and about success.

修正你对于运气和成功的错误概念。

Accept your strengths and your weaknesses, and understand the difference.

接受自己的长处和短处， 并清楚认识它们之间的区别。

Open your hearts

打开你的心扉

to your bountiful blessings.

去迎接对你满满的祝福。

Your fears, your critics,

你的恐惧，你的批判，

your heroes, your villains --

你的英雄，你的敌人——

they are your excuses,

他们都是你的借口、

rationalizations, shortcuts,

合理化作用、捷径、

辩护、屈服。

justifications, your surrender.

They are fictions you perceive as reality.

它们是你错认为现实的小说。

尝试选择看穿它们。

Choose to see through them.

Choose to let them go.

尝试让它们远离自己。

你是自我现实的创造者。

You are the creator of your reality.

With that empowerment comes complete responsibility.

伴随这种权利而来的是你需要负起全部的责任。

I chose to step out of fear's tunnel into terrain uncharted and undefined.

我选择走出恐惧的隧道， 步入了未知的领域。

I chose to build there a blessed life.

我选择在那里构建幸福的人生。

远离孤单，

Far from alone,

I share my beautiful life with Dorothy,

我分享我的美好生活，与多萝西，

my beautiful wife,

我美丽的妻子，

with our triplets, whom we call the Tripskys,

与我们的三胞胎， 我们称之为“Tripskys”，

and with the latest addition to the family,

还有新添的家庭成员，

sweet baby Clementine.

可爱的宝贝克莱蒙蒂。

What do you fear?

你在害怕什么？

What lies do you tell yourself?

你在欺骗自己什么？

How do you embellish your truth and write your own fictions?

你是如何修饰自己的真相， 编写自己的小说？

What reality are you creating for yourself?

你在为自己创造着怎么样的现实？

In your career and personal life, in your relationships,

在你的职业生涯和个人生活中， 在你的人际关系中，

and in your heart and soul,

在你的内心和灵魂中，

倒游的鱼给你带来巨大的伤害。

your backwards-swimming fish do you great harm.

They exact a toll in missed opportunities and unrealized potential,

它们使你为错失的机会以及尚未实现的潜能付出代价。

and they engender insecurity and distrust

它们在你寻求满足与联系时

where you seek fulfillment and connection.

引起你的不安以及不信任。

I urge you to search them out.

我呼吁大家把它们找出来。

Helen Keller said that the only thing worse than being blind

海伦·凯勒曾说过， 唯一比失明更糟糕的是

is having sight but no vision.

拥有视力，却没有远见。

For me, going blind was a profound blessing,

失明对我来说是一种深深的祝福，

because blindness gave me vision.

因为失明给予了我远见。

I hope you can see what I see.

我衷心希望你们也能看见我所看见的。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）

Bruno Giussani: Isaac, before you leave the stage, just a question.

布鲁诺·朱萨尼：艾萨克， 在你离开之前，我想问一个问题。

This is an audience of entrepreneurs, of doers, of innovators.

在座的各位都是 创业者、实干家、创新者。

You are a CEO of a company down in Florida,

你是佛罗里达一家公司的执行总裁，

and many are probably wondering,

很多人大概都会好奇，

how is it to be a blind CEO?

身为一名失明的执行总裁究竟是怎么样的呢？

What kind of specific challenges do you have, and how do you overcome them?

这使你面临哪些具体的挑战， 而你又是怎么克服它们的呢？

Isaac Lidsky: Well, the biggest challenge became a blessing.

艾萨克·利德斯基：好吧， 最大的挑战成了一种祝福。

I don't get visual feedback from people.

我看不到别人的反应。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

布：有什么声音在哪里吗？

BG: What's that noise there? IL: Yeah.

So, for example, in my leadership team meetings,

艾：是的。比如说在我的领导团队的会议中，

I don't see facial expressions or gestures.

我无法看到别人的表情或者手势。

I've learned to solicit a lot more verbal feedback.

我学会去征求更多的言语反馈。

I basically force people to tell me what they think.

我基本都要求人们把他们的想法告诉我。

正因如此，

And in this respect,

it's become, like I said, a real blessing for me personally and for my company,

它成为了，如我所说，对我个人 还有我公司的一种真正的祝福。

因为我们获得了更深层次的沟通。

because we communicate at a far deeper level,

we avoid ambiguities,

我们避免了歧义，

还有更重要的，我的团队清楚 知道他们的想法是真的要紧的。

and most important, my team knows that what they think truly matters.

BG: Isaac, thank you for coming to TED. IL: Thank you, Bruno.

布：艾萨克，感谢你来到了TED。 艾：谢谢你，布鲁诺。

(Applause)

（掌声）