Two thousand, five hundred and forty six. Those are hours, by the way. Two thousand, five hundred and forty six hours that I spent on making videos with plastic bricks.
兩千五百四十六。 我說的是小時,順帶一提。 兩千五百四十六小時, 是我花在製作塑膠積木影片的時間。
Now picture this: it's a beautiful Saturday, the weather just couldn't be better, and all your friends want to hang out with you. Instead, you spent the whole day sitting inside, in a dark room, and you're essentially playing with little plastic toy bricks. It starts out as just one Saturday, but then you keep going, and there goes another day, another week, another month, and before you know it, you've spent most of your free time with one particular thing. After all, this year we have a very special anniversary, right? A ten-year anniversary. I mean, ten years ago, I started making brickfilms.
想像一下, 這是個美麗的星期六, 天氣好得不能再好, 而你所有朋友都想和你出去玩。 但是,你反而全天都待在家, 坐在一個漆黑的房間裏, 基本上,你就只是在玩 小小的塑膠玩具積木。 一開始只是某個星期六這樣, 但是你繼續玩, 又玩了一天、一個星期、一個月。 在你察覺前, 你已經把你大部分自由時間 都花在同一件事情上。 畢竟,今年是一個 特別的周年紀念,對吧? 是十周年紀念。 我是說,我從十年前 就開始製作積木電影!
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
[Brickfilms]
【積木電影】
They're little animated movies created by using the stop-motion technique and plastic bricks, hence the name. It works like this: you have an object, you take a photo of it; you move it just a tiny bit, take another photo; move again, take photo, and so on. And then you end up with thousands of photos, and when they're played at the fast rate, the illusion of movement is created.
這是一種短篇動畫電影, 是用定格動畫技巧 和塑膠積木做出來的, 所以有了這個名字。 它是這樣運作的: 你有一件物件, 然後你幫它拍一張照片; 你把物件移動一點點, 然後拍下另一張照片; 再移動,再拍照,以此類推。 然後你會有上千張照片, 而當它們被快速播放時, 就能創造出移動的錯覺。
This is, of course, a very time-consuming process. Therefore, it's not a strange thing to spend a whole sunny Saturday with this. Together with my younger brother Thomas and some friends, we've been doing this for a while now, but we aren't always staying indoors in the darkroom. We've also been attending film festivals, even organized some, and we got to win awards with our little movies. Now I'm also teaching children how to make these films. I'm organizing workshops for them, some basically telling them, "Instead of going out on a sunny day, stay inside and play with plastic bricks."
當然,這是個非常費時的過程。 所以,為此浪費掉星期六 一整天的晴天也並不奇怪。 我和我弟弟湯瑪士,和其他朋友一起, 已經這麼做有一段時間了, 但我們不總是待在室內的陰暗房間裏。 我們也曾出席電影節, 甚至舉辦過一些電影節, 也曾靠我們的小小電影 贏過一些獎項。 我現在還會教小孩如何製作這些電影, 我爲他們舉辦工作坊, 我基本上是在告訴他們: 「不管外面天氣有多好, 讓我們宅起來玩塑膠積木吧。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So most of my free time in these 10 years has been dedicated to make plastic bricks move. And this is all time that I'll never get back. So I started to ask myself, "Is all of this wasted time?" I mean, all the hours that I invested in this could have been used for so many other things, right?
於是,十年來,我大多數的自由時間 都用來讓塑膠積木能動起來。 而這些,都是我永遠拿不回的時間。 於是我開始問自己, 「我把這些時間全都浪費掉了嗎?」 我是說,這些我花費的時間 可以被用來做更多其他事情,對吧?
[wasted time?]
【浪費掉的時間?】
Well, I believe that it's not a bad thing if you waste time. Therefore, it is OK if you waste time, and you should probably waste more.
嗯,但我卻認爲 浪費時間不是一件壞事。 所以,浪費時間是沒問題的, 而你應該可以浪費更多時間。
Some of you seem very relieved with this info: "Waste more time, no problem. I can do that." It might be a bit confusing because, after all, we're always being told to maximize our potential to live life to the fullest, and oftentimes that seems to include not wasting our time. I mean, we like scrolling through social media, we like watching countless hours of television shows, but sometimes we might blame ourselves for that afterwards. We might feel guilty if we just binge-watch several episodes of our favorite show. This comes from the fact that we don't consider these activities to be part of our greater goals in life, like pursuing a career, forming a family. They're really just ways to pass the time.
一聽到這句話,有些人就放心了: 「浪費更多時間,沒問題。 我可以做到。」 這可能會讓人有點疑惑, 畢竟,我們常常被告知 要用盡我們的潛能, 去過一個最充實的人生, 在很多時候,這好像也包括 不要浪費時間。 我是說,我們喜歡滑社交媒體, 我們喜歡花很長時間看電視, 但在那之後,有時, 我們會因此責怪自己。 甚至會有罪惡感, 只因爲一口氣追了最愛節目的好幾集。 這些罪惡感來自於: 我們並不把這些活動 當成人生中一個更遠大目標的一部分, 例如:追逐一個職涯、組成一個家庭。 這只是我們用來打發時間的活動。
So when I started to ask myself if I was wasting time, first I looked it up in a dictionary. It is defined as "to allow time to elapse in an unproductive manner." OK. This can mean a few things. The first being you're unproductive, of course, when you're doing absolutely nothing: maybe lying in bed, not watching anything, not even sleeping. Just doing nothing.
於是,當我問自己是否在浪費時間時, 首先,我查了一下字典。 它被定義為「讓時間以 非生產性的方法消逝」。 好的。 這可以有幾種解釋。 第一,要說你不具生產性, 當然,如果你是完全沒有做事情: 可能是躺在床上, 沒有在看任何東西,也沒有在睡覺, 只是什麼也不做。
Second way to view the term: you're unproductive when you're not achieving anything or creating anything, like you're just going through that social media.
第二種解釋: 你不具生產性是指 你沒有達成任何事情, 或沒有創造任何東西, 就像你只是瀏覽社交媒體。
And the third way would be that you're committing to low-priority activities instead of the things that you feel like you should be doing. You're basically procrastinating.
而第三種解釋是, 你把時間花在不太重要的事情上, 而不是你認爲你當下該做的事情。 基本上,你就只是在拖延。
For example, I wouldn't consider cleaning my room a waste of time, but it can be viewed that way if I should be working on an important paper for university instead. I mean, of course, this is very subjective. Maybe you do consider cleaning your room more important than a stupid paper, but for me, this paper is part of my greater goal in life. I finish the paper, it helps me finish university, I get a job, and so on. So why would I want to waste time with something that is not part of that goal?
舉個例子, 我不認爲打掃我的房間 是在浪費時間, 但如果,我本該把時間 花在重要的大學論文上, 這就是在浪費時間。 我是說,當然,這是很主觀的。 可能你真的認爲打掃房間 比那愚蠢的論文更重要, 但對我來說,那篇論文是我 人生中更遠大目標的一部分。 我把論文完成, 它能幫助我完成大學學業, 而我能因此獲得工作,以此類推。 那爲什麼我會想把時間 浪費在不是我人生目標的事情上呢?
So there are many ways to waste time and also some benefits to gain, but still the question stands: "Can time go to waste?"
我們有很多浪費時間的方法, 而這也會帶來一些好處, 但那個問題仍然存在: 「時間可以被浪費掉嗎?」
[Can time go to waste?]
【時間可以被浪費掉嗎?】
Objectively speaking, "No, it can't." Time can't go anywhere, except forwards. So, no matter what you decide to do with your day, time itself will just go on. So, as time itself cannot be wasted, why would you want to view your time as wasted anyways? I mean, many studies have shown that you are more productive and more creative if you occasionally allow yourself to focus on something different or nothing at all.
客觀來說:「不,不可以。」 時間哪都不會去,只會向前。 所以,無論你決定拿時間來做什麼, 時間本身就只會繼續前進。 所以,時間本身並無法被浪費, 那爲什麼你要把你的時間 視作被浪費呢? 我是指,很多研究證實, 你會更有生產力和創造力, 如果你能偶爾讓自己專注於 其他事情,或者不做任何事情。
A study by Dijksterhuis in 2004 focused on something similar. He looked into the conscious and unconscious thoughts when making decisions. In the form of experiments, he presented participants with a decision-making problem and a few answers to choose from. He divided the participants in three groups: the first ones had to give their answers immediately; the second group could consciously, actively think about the problem, and then they had to decide; and the third group was distracted for a bit with a completely different task, and then they had to answer. The study concluded that the unconscious thinkers, meaning the ones who were distracted for a bit, made better and reasonable decisions.
社會心理學家 Dijksterhuis 在 2004 年的研究 聚焦在類似的事情上。 他研究了在做決策時的 有意識和無意識思想。 用實驗的方式, 他向參加者展示一個 需要做出決策的問題, 以及幾個供選擇的答案。 他把參加者分成三組: 第一組要馬上給出答案; 第二組可以有意識地、 主動地思考那個問題, 然後再選擇答案; 而第三組則會被一個 完全不同的任務分散注意力, 然後他們再回答問題。 研究的結論是, 那些沒有把意識放在思考問題的人, 即是被分心了一會兒的人, 會做出更好、更合理的決定。
There are, of course, many ways to waste time, and apparently some benefits to gain. My preferred activity would be making brickfilms. Together with my brother Thomas and friends, we've concluded that's our time with this is far from wasted. I mean, even if we spend all these hours, we still don't regret any sunny Saturday that we spent with this. And at this point, it has even become a part of my identity, a part of who I am. People have even called me Mr. Brick before.
當然,我們有很多浪費時間的方法, 而且,我們顯然還能得到一些好處, 我偏好的活動就是製作積木電影。 我和我弟弟湯瑪士,以及朋友們, 我們一致認為,我們的時間 絕對稱不上是被浪費掉了。 我是說,就算我們花費了這麼多時間, 我們仍不會後悔把任何一個 晴朗的星期六,花在這上面。 如今,這甚至變成我身份的一部分, 「我」的一部分。 甚至有人稱呼我是「積木先生」。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So, of course, even if you don't have something to show off, like a movie, a product of your wasted time, if you don't have that, it doesn't matter. I mean, maybe you like scrolling through social media, maybe you like going for a walk or meditate for an hour. These activities all offer positive side effects, like you're learning about your friends online, you're maybe getting mentally and physically fit. And at the very least, these activities will allow yourself to rest and focus on something different.
當然,就算你沒有 一些成果能展示出來, 例如一部電影, 或浪費時間後的成果, 就算你沒有這些也不要緊。 可能你就是喜歡瀏覽社交媒體, 可能你就是喜歡去散步, 或者冥想一小時。 這些活動都能給我們正向的副作用, 例如,你能在網路上更了解朋友, 你可能因此讓身心靈更健康。 至少, 這些活動讓你能獲得休息, 並專注在其他事情上。
In the beginning of my talk, I brought up the idea that it's a good thing to waste time. Of course, if you waste 15 hours every day, it might not be more beneficial than only one hour, but there's no golden rule when or how much time you should waste to benefit. Maybe think of setting yourself a certain timeframe to actively waste your time, and then move on with your duties. Because, after all, wasting time remains a subjective term, and therefore, it's up to you how you want to view this term.
在這個演講的一開始, 我提出了浪費時間是好事的想法。 當然, 如果你每天浪費掉十五小時, 這可能不會比只浪費一小時更好, 但對於你應該在何時 或浪費多少時間才是好的, 並無絕對的準則。 或許可以幫自己 設定特定的一段時間, 用來主動地浪費你的時間, 然後再繼續投入你的職責。 畢竟,浪費時間終究 只是一種主觀的說法, 因此,要如何看待這個事情, 全然取決於你自己。
Don't let it be negative or be guilty about it. Instead, be happy about wasted time. Look at all the joy and benefits that these activities can bring to your lives. Because that is never a waste of time.
不要認爲它是負面的 或是因此有罪惡感。 反之,你要爲浪費時間而開心。 專注在生命中,由這些活動 帶來的快樂和好處。 因爲這些 從來就不是在浪費時間。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)