So, basically we have public leaders, public officials who are out of control; they are writing bills that are unintelligible, and out of these bills are going to come maybe 40,000 pages of regulations, total complexity, which has a dramatically negative impact on our life. If you're a veteran coming back from Iraq or Vietnam you face a blizzard of paperwork to get your benefits; if you're trying to get a small business loan, you face a blizzard of paperwork.
所以,总的来说我们有领导人、 办事出格的政府官员。 他们写的是无法解读的议案, 并从这些议案将会产生出 约 40,000 页的条文, 非常复杂, 其对我们的生活 将产生极为不利的影响。 如果你是从伊拉克或是 越南战场回来的老兵 然后想得到你的救济金的话,你得做一大堆棘手的文书工作。 如果你想获得一 小笔商业贷款的话, 你也会面临一大堆 棘手的文书工作。
What are we going to do about it? I define simplicity as a means to achieving clarity, transparency and empathy, building humanity into communications. I've been simplifying things for 30 years. I come out of the advertising and design business. My focus is understanding you people, and how you interact with the government to get your benefits, how you interact with corporations to decide whom you're going to do business with, and how you view brands.
我们该怎么办呢? 我将简单化定义为 一种能达到清晰、 透明和共鸣, 使交流人性化的一种方法。 30 年来我一直致力 于事物的简化。 我是做广告和设计的。 我的关注点是了解大众, 了解你们如何与政府打交道 才能得到你们应得的利益, 了解你们如何与公司打交 道来决定你们要与谁去做生意, 以及了解你们如何看待品牌。
So, very quickly, when President Obama said, "I don't see why we can't have a one-page, plain English consumer credit agreement." So, I locked myself in a room, figured out the content, organized the document, and wrote it in plain English. I've had this checked by the two top consumer credit lawyers in the country. This is a real thing. Now, I went one step further and said, "Why do we have to stick with the stodgy lawyers and just have a paper document? Let's go online."
所以,当奥巴马 (Obama)总统说, “我不明白为什么我们不能有 一份一页的简单英语 消费信贷协议” 时, 我把自己关在一个房间里, 然后很快想出了这样一个内容, 制定了这样一个文件, 并且是用简单英语写的。 我让国内两个顶级 消费信贷律师 对其进行了审核。 这是件真事。 现在我又进了一步, “为什么我们只能有一份纸质文件, 并且非要依附于那些墨守成规的律师呢? 让我们上网去解决吧。”
And many people might need help in computation. Working with the Harvard Business School, you'll see this example when you talk about minimum payment: If you spent 62 dollars for a meal, the longer you take to pay out that loan, you see, over a period of time using the minimum payment it's 99 dollars and 17 cents. How about that? Do you think your bank is going to show that to people? But it's going to work. It's more effective than just computational aids. And what about terms like "over the limit"? Perhaps a stealth thing. Define it in context. Tell people what it means.
许多人 可能在计算上需要帮助。 与哈佛商学院合作时, 我们有一个关于最低还款额的案例。 你一顿饭花了 62 美元, 如果你采用最低 还款额延期还款的作法的话, 过了一段时间, 则需还款 99 美元 17 美分。 你觉得怎么样呢? 你认为银行会告知人们吗? 但它就是这样运作的。 它比仅仅计算 货款时间更有效。 你如何理解像是 “超过限度” 这样的词汇呢? 也许这是一件隐匿的事情。 通过上下文来定义它。 告诉人们它是什么意思。
When you put it in plain English, you almost force the institution to give the people a way, a default out of that, and not put themselves at risk. Plain English is about changing the content. And one of the things I'm most proud of is this agreement for IBM. It's a grid, it's a calendar. At such and such a date, IBM has responsibilities, you have responsibilities. Received very favorably by business.
在你使用简单英语表述时, 你实际上就在迫使这家机构 让人们了解如何去规避风险, 而不是把自己置于风险之中。 简单英语也就是 改变内容。 我很骄傲的一件事 是我为 IBM 制作的这份协议。 它是简单的网格形式, 是一个日历。 在这个日期, IBM 承担责任, 你承担责任。 这个方法在商务 领域被欣然接受了。
And there is some good news to report today. Each year, one in 10 taxpayers receives a notice from the IRS. There are 200 million letters that go out. Running through this typical letter that they had, I ran it through my simplicity lab, it's pretty unintelligible. All the parts of the document in red are not intelligible. We looked at doing over 1,000 letters that cover 70 percent of their transactions in plain English. They have been tested in the laboratory. When I run it through my lab, this heat-mapping shows everything is intelligible. And the IRS has introduced the program.
今天我有好消息要讲。 每年每 10 个纳税人中有一个人 会收到美国国税局通知。 每年会发出 2 亿封信。 我处理了一部分的典型信件, 我是在我的简单化 实验室进行的, 结果是它们很让人费解。 文件中所有标红的部分都让人费解。 我们又看了 1000 多封 以简单英语写的信, 70% 的业务都是以简单英语写的。 我在我的实验室进行了 这些信件的测试。 当我在我的实验室测试时, 热点图显示每一件事 都是简单易懂的。 国税局已经引进了这个程序。
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There are a couple of things going on right now that I want to bring to your attention. There is a lot of discussion now about a consumer financial protection agency, how to mandate simplicity. We see all this complexity. It's incumbent upon us, and this organization, I believe, to make clarity, transparency and empathy a national priority. There is no way that we should allow government to communicate the way they communicate. There is no way we should do business with companies that have agreements with stealth provisions and that are unintelligible.
我想让你们注意到 现在正在发生的一些事情。 现在有许多讨论 是关于消费金融保护署的, 关于如何使其工作程序简单化。 我们都看到它的复杂性。 我相信我们 和他们都有义不容辞的责任 来使国家重点项目清晰、透明 和与大众有共鸣感。 我们无法再允许政府 按照他们的表达方式进行表达, 我们无法再与协议中 带有隐匿、晦涩难懂条款的公司 做生意。
So, how are we going to change the world? Make clarity, transparency and simplicity a national priority. I thank you.
那么,我们该如何去改变世界呢? 我们应该把清晰、透明, 简单化作为国家优先事项。 谢谢大家。
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