How to Write Less but Say More | Jim VandeHei | TED

翻译人员: Violet Yu 校对人员: Yanyan Hong

So I've got some tough medicine for you.

我今天要给大家来一剂猛药。

The truth is that everybody in this room

事实上，在座的每个人

needs to radically rethink how you communicate,

都该彻底重新思考一下自己的沟通方式，

especially how you write,

特别是写作方式，

if you want anything to stick in this distracted digital world.

要想让自己的作品在这个 信息纷杂的时代留下痕迹的话。

I don't care if you're a student, if you're an academic,

不管你是学生、学者、

if you're a scientist, you're a CEO, a manager.

科研人员、CEO，还是经理。

I'll tell you what the data told me that your friends won't tell you,

我来告诉你一些数据告诉我的事情， 这些事你的朋友可不会告诉你，

which is almost nobody listens to or reads most of what you write.

那就是你写的东西基本上没人会留意。

Most of the stuff that you agonize thinking about,

大部分你苦苦思索的事情，

they pay no attention to.

他们根本不会仔细留心。

And how do I know this?

那我又是怎么知道的呢？

Well, I learned it the hard way.

这是我好不容易才明白的。

I've dedicated my entire life to mass producing words.

我一生致力于大量写作。

I was a journalist by training.

我是科班出身的记者。

Started at the "Oshkosh Northwestern."

我从《奥什科什西北》起步， （今日美国旗下的报纸）

Worked my way up to covering the presidency

一路向上，到在《华盛顿邮报》

for "The Washington Post" and the "Wall Street Journal."

和《华尔街日报》报道总统选举。

And I started two media companies, all about mass producing words.

我还创办了两家大量输出文字的媒体公司，

Politico and now Axios.

分别是叫 Politico 网站和 如今的 Axios 新闻网。

And at my current company,

而我现在的公司，

the entire premise of the company

整个大宗旨就是

is to teach journalists and then CEOs, academics and others

去指导记者、CEO、学者等人

how to use far fewer words.

怎样大大减少文字篇幅。

So why?

那么为什么要这样呢？

Why, if I spent my entire life writing lots of words,

为什么，我一辈子都在大量写作，

do I want people to use fewer of them?

但想让人们少写文字？

Because the data -- and you -- made me.

因为数据——还有你们 ——让我不得不这么做。

If you actually look at what you're doing --

如果你们仔细看看自己在做什么——

One of the most interesting things about technology,

科技最有趣的一点，

one of the creepiest things about technology is

科技最恐怖的一点就是

businesses know so much about you.

企业会非常了解你。

What you do, where you go, what you buy.

你做了什么事，去了什么地方， 买了什么东西。

And in the case of a media company, how you consume information.

如果是媒体公司， 那他们就知道你如何获取信息。

And the data about how you consume information is eye-popping.

这些数据真让人大跌眼镜，

And to be honest, for me, really humbling.

说实话，让我感到非常羞耻。

And led to this journey about,

我也就踏上了这段旅程，

wow, if I'm looking at this data

我看着这数据，

and the data basically says: you read almost nothing.

数据基本上显示： 你们基本上什么都没读。

You skim. You might look at a headline.

你们或许扫读，看一看头条，

You might look at a subject line.

或许看一眼标题，

But you're basically not reading the stories,

但你们基本上不会读正文内容，

in my case, that we were producing.

不会去读我们发布的内容。

And the most humbling moment, the eye-opening, the aha moment for me:

最让我愧疚， 最让我大吃一惊的是时候：

I was a journalist, I was at Politico writing columns about President Obama.

当时我是一名记者， 我在为奥巴马总统写专栏。

And we wrote this column, and I looked at the traffic numbers

我们发表专栏文章， 然后我会查阅流量数据，

and the White House had to respond to it.

白宫还必须做出回复。

And boy, was I feeling cool and smart ...

天啊，当时我感觉自己很酷，很聪明……

until I looked at the data.

直到我查看了数据。

So back then you had to paginate pages online.

那时候，线上文章需要分页。

And so, you know, you had to click from one page to the next to keep reading.

所以你完一页 必须点击下一页才能继续读，

And I looked at the data.

我查看了数据。

This was a 1600-word column

那是一篇 1600 字的专栏文章，

that everyone in Washington was talking about,

当时华盛顿的人都在讨论这篇文章，

that had me feeling so confident.

所以我对自己很有信心，

And I realized almost nobody went past the first page.

然后我意识到基本没有人 看完了第一页。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

It gets worse.

还有更糟糕的，

On one page, there's only 450 words.

第一页只有 450 词，

And I hid a lot of the good stuff at the end.

我在文章末尾藏了不少有趣的内容。

And so it turns out that people were responding, sharing,

原来人们交流、分享、

talking about a story that almost nobody read.

讨论的是一篇几乎没人读过的文章。

And so it put me on sort of this journey, this discovery.

就这样我踏上这段旅程，我开始研究。

I'm like, really, like, nobody reads anything?

我想，真的吗，没有人读？

Is this true everywhere, is it just me, is there something about my writing?

其他地方也是这样吗，

只有我遇到这种情况吗，是我写得不好吗？

So I called my friends at the "New York Times."

所以我联系了我在《纽约时报》的朋友，

I called our friends at Facebook.

联系了我在脸书的朋友。

I started to talk to academics

我开始与学者们谈话，

and try to figure out, well, what's going on here.

我想弄清楚究竟为什么会这样。

Because I had a choice at this point.

因为我当时有一个选择。

I could give up on all of you. I could give up on humanity.

我可以放弃读者们，放弃人性化的追求，

I could give up on my career.

我可以放弃整个职业生涯。

Or I could do what basically Jeff Bezos would do

或者我可以做杰夫·贝索斯 （Jeff Bezos亚马逊总裁）

if he's trying to sell you a shoe or get you to buy a book.

卖鞋或者是卖书时做的事情。

Which is, what is the data telling us?

数据告诉我们了什么？

What do you want? What are you doing?

你们想要什么？你在做什么？

And that data was showing that one,

数据显示，第一，

everybody was getting hit with more information than ever before

所有人都在被空前的信息量裹挟，

and is perpetually distracted,

这些信息非常分散人的注意力，

all because of the internet.

都是因为互联网。

You skim. You don't really read.

人们一目十行，并不会认真阅读。

And you share stuff without even bothering to see what it actually means

转发之前甚至不愿意 认真看看内容是什么意思，

or what the story might say.

或者这个文章具体是说什么的。

And if you think about it,

要是仔细思考一下，

the deeper I dug, the more it actually made sense.

我挖得越深，它越能说明问题。

For people who are my age or older,

对我的同龄人或者更年长的人来说，

like once upon a time, the iPhone didn't exist.

从前还没有苹果手机的时候，

The Android didn't exist.

还没有安卓的时候，

There was no Facebook. There was no Google.

那时候没有脸书也没有谷歌。

If you wanted to learn about something new,

要是想学一些新东西，

you had to go to an encyclopedia.

还得去读百科全书。

You wanted to look up a word, you went to a dictionary.

要是想查一个词，还得去看字典。

If you were waiting for news,

要是想看看新闻，

you had to wait for the evening news or the morning newspaper.

那得等晚间新闻或者早报。

And then suddenly 2007, that period comes along,

然后突然之间， 在 2007 年，

and now all of us had the opportunity to have a smartphone

所有人能买个功能强大的

with astonishing capabilities

智能手机，

to give us access to more information than at any point of humanity.

获取人类历史前所未有的大量信息。

Any idea we had, anything we didn't know,

我们的任何想法，不知道的任何事情，

we could Google it.

都可以去谷歌查一下。

Any idea we had, no matter how stupid it was,

我们的任何想法，不过是多蠢的想法，

we could share it.

都可以分享出去。

And not only could we share it,

不仅能分享，

we could find other people who would applaud,

还能找到赞同自己观点的人，

who would follow us, who'd fan us.

会关注、成为粉丝的人。

And suddenly, oh my gosh,

然后一瞬间，天哪，

like, we've got all this access to mass information at scale.

我们就有了获取大规模信息的渠道。

And you could do this for free.

甚至不用花钱。

You could do this for free.

既然不用花钱，

So suddenly we're getting hit with all this information,

我们一瞬间进入巨大的信息洪流，

and I don't think our species was built to keep up with it.

我觉得人类不是天生 就能跟得上这么多信息。

I talked to a guy at the University of Maryland

我与来自马里兰大学的一个人谈话，

who's studied students for the last decade,

他过去十年都在做有关学生的研究，

and he basically found that even when you choose to read something,

基本上，他发现即使你想要读些什么，

even when you make the choice that this is important,

即使你告诉自己这很重要，

you spend on average 26 seconds looking at it.

你只会花平均 26 秒阅读。

Review.org and others

测评网站（Review.org）等机构

have looked at how many times do you look at your screen in a day.

调查了人们每天查看手机屏幕的次数，

They found it's at least 250 times you're checking your phone.

发现人们至少查看手机 250 次。

And for those that don't think that's true,

大家要是不信的话，

think about how many times you've either checked it

想一想我站在这里唠唠叨叨的时候，

or thought about checking it since I started babbling.

你们有几次看了或者想看手机，

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Our data shows that more often than not,

我们的数据显示，

if you share a story on social media, you never read it.

通常人们在社交媒体转发文章， 他们压根不会去读。

Think about that: like there’s something about a headline or a photo

想一想：你看到了一个头条或者图片，

that got you so jacked up that you're going to share it

特别兴奋，迫不及待地要去转发,

like you're a little lemming.

像盲目的旅鼠一般.

And we all do it because our brains are being, like,

我们都会这样，因为我们的大脑

flooded with information.

被大量信息灌满。

And what I thought when I did the discovery,

我研究这些事时以为，

I thought, for sure the brain must be getting rewired.

我以为，大脑一定会重新布线。

And you hear that often.

大家也经常听到这种说法，

There's very little scientific proof that that's true.

但是很少有科学研究结果证实。

What happened and what we think is happening

现实情况，或我们认为的情况是

is, as a species, we've always been prone to distraction.

人类经常容易分散注意力。

We think we're good multitaskers. Almost nobody is.

我们自以为能同时完成多项任务， 但其实没人是这样。

We're good at doing one thing if you're focused on it.

人类擅长集中注意力做一件事情。

The University of California, Irvine, studied this.

加州大学欧文分校做了相关研究。

They studied our distractibility

他们研究了人类注意力分散，

and found that if you get distracted on something,

发现如果人的注意力被分散，

it takes you 20 minutes to truly refocus.

那要花 20 分钟 才能真正重新集中注意。

Now think about your day.

现在想一想自己的一天，

It's just awash in distraction.

简直是泛滥的干扰。

Awash in words: tweeted words, texted words, Slacked words, email words.

泛滥的文字：推特、信息、 通讯软件、邮件。

Words, words, words.

文字、文字、文字。

And then you peck at your little computer looking for more.

然后你们又会在小电脑上继续看文字。

So no wonder nobody's paying attention to almost anything you're saying or doing.

所以怪不得基本上你说的、 做的所有事都没人留意。

No wonder it's so hard to get people to pay attention to anything.

怪不得想让人集中注意有那么难。

So at Axios, as we thought about this,

所以在值得，我们思考这一点，

we said, listen, if the consumer’s saying they want more information quicker

我们想，如果读者想快速获取信息，

and they're not going to spend that much time

不会在这上面花太多时间，

and you want to stay in journalism,

而我又想留在新闻界，

what would you do? What would you do?

你会怎么做？你会怎么做？

And our solution was what we call Smart Brevity,

我们的解决办法是 智慧简洁（Smart Brevity）。

that people want smart content, essential content.

人们想要智慧的内容，重要的内容，

But they want it delivered efficiently, as fast as humanly possible.

还想要高效获取，越快越人性化越好。

And we saw it in how people were getting our information,

我们观察人们从我们这里 获取信息的模式、

how they were getting it elsewhere.

从别处获取信息的模式。

And so we built a whole company around it to teach journalists how to do it.

所以我们围绕这个概念 成立了一家公司，教记者怎么去做。

And journalists kind of adapted right away.

记者们很快采用了学到的技能。

And suddenly we had awesome readership almost overnight,

我们几乎一夜之间就有了大量读者，

people in the White House, CEOs, tech leaders.

有白宫工作人员、 CEO 、 科技行业领导者。

And then two interesting things happened after that.

之后发生了两件有趣的事情。

I started to get not ten or 20,

我收到了不是十几二十个，

literally hundreds of notes from readers saying,

而是上百条读者留言说，

"Thank you, you're trying to save me time. I can tell."

“谢谢，我看得出来 你努力为我节省时间。”

I never asked for a thank you, especially when you cover politics,

我从未设想别人会感谢我， 尤其是我报道政治新闻，

you're lucky not to get hit by a shoe,

没被鞋砸就算幸运了，

much less actually have someone thank you for it.

有人感谢你就更不太可能了。

But I was like, "Oh, that is interesting."

但我想，“这很有趣。”

And then about a year and a half in, we started to get calls from companies,

一年半之后，我们开始接到公司的电话，

from the NBA, from startups,

有 NBA 还有初创公司，

and almost all were saying the same thing:

他们的诉求基本上是一样的：

"Hey, our executives, our people, they're reading Smart Brevity,

“嘿，我们公司的高管和员工 都在读智慧简洁，

but they won't read anything that we do internally.

但是他们却不愿意读我们内部的资料，”

This led me on another journey to figure out why people can't get people

就这样我踏上了另一段旅程，探究为什么

to read about things that are happening at their company

让人们愿意读自己公司、

or happening at their school or happening at their startup.

学校、初创团队的内部资料那么难。

And it turned out that basically

原来，基本上人们

people were vomiting so many words in all these places

每天在各种场合输出大量

that nobody was paying attention to it.

没人会认真看的文字。

And that's where we thought,

然后我们想，

oh, Smart Brevity could work in almost any setting.

哦，智慧简洁可以作用于任何场景中。

So we get a call from the CIA, the head of the CIA.

这样， CIA 领导联系了我们。

They call us, and they say,

他们说，

"Listen, can you guys come in and talk to our team

“你们可以来教我们的团队

about how spies can essentially give a much more crisper explanation

如何让间谍本质上更清楚地描述

of what they're seeing on the ground?

现场看见的情况吗？

Like, what are the threats?

比方说有哪些威胁？

They're not great communicators. These messages are meandering."

他们不太善于交流，给出的信息太迂回。”

So my partner goes in, talks to the CIA,

我的搭档就去与 CIA 聊了聊，

explains the tricks and tips I’m going to give you in a second.

给他们解释了我一会要 教给你们的诀窍、建议。

And in the audience is a guy who writes the Presidential Daily Brief,

听众中有一个人负责写总统每日简报，

and this was under Donald Trump,

当时为特朗普工作，

and he would write it, go in, and they would brief him.

他写简报，然后进去向总统汇报。

And he was so enamored with this idea of communicating more effectively

高效沟通的概念深深吸引了他，

that he quit and now works for us,

所以他辞职加入了我们，

teaching other people how to communicate more effectively.

教其他人高效沟通。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

I'm not blaming Trump. It's because of us, because of Axios.

我没有说特朗普不好的意思。 是因为我们，因为值得。

Around the same time, Jamie Dimon,

同一时间，摩根大通 CEO 杰米·戴蒙（Jamie Dimon）,

one of the most famous CEOs of our generation,

我们这一代最杰出的银行家之一，

he writes his annual letter.

他写公司的年度信。

It's 32,000 words long,

这封年度信有 32,000 词，

about his observations on banking and on the world.

内容是他对银行业及世界的观察。

32,000 words is basically a book.

32000 词就基本上是一本书了。

So he's probably lucky if even his family members read it.

所以如果他的家人 愿意读一读就很不错了。

So his staff calls us, and they say,

他的员工联系到我们说，

"Hey, listen. It seems like you guys are good

“看起来你们很擅长

at getting people to pay attention to information.

让人们留意信息。

Could you do a Smart Brevity version of it?"

你们可以做一个 智慧简洁版本的年度信吗”？

So we took his most important points, turned 32,000 words into a couple hundred,

我们提取年度信的关键点， 将 32,000 词缩减成了几百词，

and voila, they got much more engagement,

就这样，人们更加投入，

much more traction in people seeing what's important,

更能吸引人们关注重要的部分，

remembering what's important.

记住重要的部分。

So what I want to leave you with are what are some of the basic tips.

这样，我想与大家分享一些基本的技巧。

Because you probably know, you're frazzled, you're distracted,

因为也许你自己也注意到了， 你备受干扰、疲惫不堪，

you can see it.

你能看得到。

When you're trying to send a message,

我们发信息时，

what are the things that you could do differently, starting today,

从今天开始，我们可以做出什么改变，

to become a vastly more effective communicator?

来大大提高沟通效率？

Number one, stop being selfish.

第一，不要自私。

Stop being selfish.

不要自私。

What do I mean by that?

这是什么意思？

So much of writing is self-indulgent.

许多文字都太自我放纵了。

We write about what we care about,

我们只写自己关注的事情，

and we write at the length that we want to write about.

自己想写多长就写多长。

We don't think about the whole purpose of it,

我们不会思考写作的整体目的，

which is what is the person that I'm writing this for, or talking to,

也就是我们写作或谈话的目标受众，

what do they actually need to know?

他们想知道什么？

What do they actually care about?

他们真正在乎的是什么？

Reverse the way you think about communicating.

逆转你的沟通思维模式。

At our company, the first two words of our manifesto are: "Audience first."

我们公司价值观的前两个词就是： “读者优先”。

How do you serve the people that you're trying to reach?

如何效忠于你的读者？

The Holy Father himself has blessed this concept indirectly.

教皇本人还间接地认同了这一概念。

So Pope Francis just gave a speech recently

弗朗西斯教皇（Pope Francis） 最近在斯洛伐克的

in Slovakia, where he was talking to priests

演讲中对牧师们

about the homilies that they're giving.

谈到了布道。

And he said, “You have to stop giving 30 and 40 minute homilies,

他说，“你们不要再布道三四十分钟了，

and they should be 10 minutes.

十分钟就行了。

Because no one’s listening to you.

因为没人会听的。

You’re losing them. People don’t pay attention that long.”

人们会失去兴趣。 他们不会认真听那么长时间的。”

And he joked when he made the announcement

他还开玩笑说，他这么说的时候

that the loudest applause came from the nuns

尼姑们的掌声最激烈，

because, in his words, they're the ones

因为，他的原话说，她们

who have to suffer through your long-windedness.

必须忍受你们的长篇大论。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

So point two is: grab me.

那么第二点是：抓住我。

Whenever you're communicating --

你在沟通时——

again, I don't care if it's in an email, if it's a tweet, if it's a note,

再说一遍，不管是邮件、推文、便条，

if it's a memo to a friend, grab me.

还是给朋友的备忘录，抓住我。

What is the most important thing, the reason you're writing?

最重要的一点是什么， 你写作的目的是什么？

What is that one thing, if you only had that 26 seconds I mentioned,

如果你只有我提到的 26 秒， 你会写哪一点，

what is the one thing you want me to remember about it?

你最想让我记住哪一点？

Which is related to tip three, which is: just keep it simple.

这样也就来到了第三点， 也就是一切从简。

Keep it simple.

一切从简。

Like think of that one sentence,

考虑只用一个句子，

one sentence is better than two sentences.

一句比两句好。

One paragraph is better than two paragraphs.

一段比两端好。

Use simple, strong words.

使用简洁有力的词语。

There's a reason you're taught a simple sentence structure

大家小时候学的都是 简单的句子结构，

when you're a little kid.

这是有道理的。

It still works effectively today.

这些简单的句子现在用也很高效。

It still works effectively. Keep it simple.

现在仍然很高效。一切从简。

If you're going to write about a banana,

如果要描写一个香蕉，

you're not going to call it an elongated yellow piece of fruit.

不要写加长黄色水果。

You're going to call it a banana.

就写香蕉就可以了。

If you're going to talk about someone lying,

如果要说有人说谎了，

you're not going to say prevaricate, you're going to say lie.

不要用推诿，用说谎就好了。

Keep it simple.

一切从简。

Which relates as well to point four,

这样就来到了第四点，

which is: be human.

也就是：做个凡人。

Write like a human.

像凡人一样写作。

I see this in journalism all the time.

我总是见到记者们这样。

I don't understand what happened to our species

我不知道人类这个物种是怎么了，

that when you put a pen in our hand or a keyboard in front of us,

一旦手里有支笔，或者面前有键盘，

we suddenly stiffen up,

就非常僵硬紧绷，

think we're a Harvard professor or we're Walt Whitman,

自以为是哈佛教授，或美国诗人 沃尔特·惠特曼（Walt Whitman），

and we try to show off in our writing.

想显示一下自己的文笔。

Like, if I was talking to you in the bar,

如果我要跟你在酒吧聊天，

I'm not going to use SAT words, I'm not going to talk in acronyms.

我不会用美国高考词汇的， 也不会用缩略词，

I'm not going to use wordy clauses.

不会用那些累赘的从句。

I'm going to talk like I'm talking to you now.

我不会像现在那样说话。

I'm going to talk like a human.

我会想普通人一样说话。

So stop, stop using those big terms.

所以停下吧，不要用那些大词。

You think that people think you're smart when you use them? They don't.

你以为你用那些词别人 会以为你很聪明？不会的。

They just want to throw a shoe at you.

他们只想拿鞋砸你。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Which leads me to point five, which is just stop.

这就说到了第五点，停下吧。

Just stop.

停下吧。

The greatest gift that you can give yourself and others

在这个纷杂的世界，

in this cluttered world

你能给自己和别人的最好礼物

is their time back and is your time back.

就是把时间还给别人，还给自己。

Use as few words, as few sentences as humanly possible

用越少的词，越少的句子， 越人性化越好，

so that that person gets the message you want

这样读者就能获取你传达的信息，

and you both get the time back that you deserve.

你们都能拿回自己的时间。

And I can tell you this, I've seen it in my own life.

我敢保证，我亲眼见证过，

If you just start to think about the efficiency of communication,

如果你开始思考沟通效率，

if you put into practice a couple of the tips that I just talked about,

如果你试一试我刚才提到的技巧，

you will see in your own mind that you start to think more clearly,

你就会发现自己思路更清晰，

talk more clearly, write more clearly.

谈吐更流畅，写作更有条理。

And you'll see ultimately that it's selfishly good for you

你最终会发现， 这是对你自己有好处的，

because you'll be heard again.

因为你的声音能被听到了。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）