Today I'm going to talk about work. And the question I want to ask and answer is this: "Why do we work?" Why do we drag ourselves out of bed every morning instead of living our lives just filled with bouncing from one TED-like adventure to another?
Danas ću pričati o poslu. I pitanje koje želim postaviti i na njega odgovoriti je: "Zašto radimo?" Zašto se svakoga jutra izvlačimo iz kreveta, umjesto da živimo svoje živote ispunjene samo izmijenjivanjem avantura o kakvima se čuje na TED-u?
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
You may be asking yourselves that very question. Now, I know of course, we have to make a living, but nobody in this room thinks that that's the answer to the question, "Why do we work?" For folks in this room, the work we do is challenging, it's engaging, it's stimulating, it's meaningful. And if we're lucky, it might even be important.
Možda se pitate baš to pitanje. Znam da moramo zarađivati za život, ali nitko u ovoj prostoriji ne misli da postoji odgovor na pitanje "Zašto radimo?" Za sve u ovoj prostoriji,posao koji radimo je izazovan, privlačan,stimulirajuć,značajan. I ako smo te sreće,čak i važan.
So, we wouldn't work if we didn't get paid, but that's not why we do what we do. And in general, I think we think that material rewards are a pretty bad reason for doing the work that we do. When we say of somebody that he's "in it for the money," we are not just being descriptive.
Dakle,ne bismo radili da nam ne plaćaju, ali to nije razlog zašto radimo to što radimo. I općenito, smatram da mislimo da su materijalne nagrade dosta loš razlog da radimo to što radimo. Kad kažemo da netko nešto radi zbog novca, ne opisujemo samo.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Now, I think this is totally obvious, but the very obviousness of it raises what is for me an incredibly profound question. Why, if this is so obvious, why is it that for the overwhelming majority of people on the planet, the work they do has none of the characteristics that get us up and out of bed and off to the office every morning? How is it that we allow the majority of people on the planet to do work that is monotonous, meaningless and soul-deadening? Why is it that as capitalism developed, it created a mode of production, of goods and services, in which all the nonmaterial satisfactions that might come from work were eliminated? Workers who do this kind of work, whether they do it in factories, in call centers, or in fulfillment warehouses, do it for pay. There is certainly no other earthly reason to do what they do except for pay.
Mislim da je to potpuno očito, ali upravo očitost toga u meni postavlja to iznimno duboko pitanje. Zašto,ako je tako očito, za večinu ljudi na ovom svijetu posao koji rade nema niti jednu karakteristiku koja bi nas svako jutro probudila, digla iz kreveta i odvela u ured? Zašto dopuštamo većini ljudi na svijetu da rade monoton,beznačajan posao, posao koji ubija dušu? Zašto je s ravojem kapitalizma nastao način proizvodnje dobara i usluga u kojem su sva nematerijalna zadovoljstva koja mogu proizaći iz posla isključena? Radnici koji rade te poslove, bilo da rade u tvornicama, pozivnim centrima ili skladištima, rade ih za plaću. Zasigurno ne postoji niti jedan drugi zemaljski razlog zašto,osim zbog plaće.
So the question is, "Why?" And here's the answer: the answer is technology. Now, I know, I know -- yeah, yeah, yeah, technology, automation screws people, blah blah -- that's not what I mean. I'm not talking about the kind of technology that has enveloped our lives, and that people come to TED to hear about. I'm not talking about the technology of things, profound though that is. I'm talking about another technology. I'm talking about the technology of ideas. I call it, "idea technology" -- how clever of me.
Dakle,pitanje je "Zašto?" I evo odgovora: odgovor je tehnologija. OK,znam,znam- da,da,da,tehnologija, automatizacija uništava ljude,bla bla- to nije ono na što mislim. Ne mislim na tu vrstu tehnologije koja je obuzela naše živote i o kojoj ljudi dolaze pričati na TED. Ne pričam o tehnologiji stvari, iako je to duboka tema. Govorim o drugoj tehnologiji. Govorim o tehnologiji ideja. Zovem ju "idejna tehnologija"- kako pametno.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
In addition to creating things, science creates ideas. Science creates ways of understanding. And in the social sciences, the ways of understanding that get created are ways of understanding ourselves. And they have an enormous influence on how we think, what we aspire to, and how we act.
Uz stvaranje stvari, znanost stvara i ideje. Znanost stvara načine razmišljanja. I u društvenim znanostima, načini razumijevanja koji su stvoreni, su načini razumijevanja nas samih. I oni imaju ogroman utjecaj na naše načine razmišljanja,naše aspiracije, naše postupke.
If you think your poverty is God's will, you pray. If you think your poverty is the result of your own inadequacy, you shrink into despair. And if you think your poverty is the result of oppression and domination, then you rise up in revolt. Whether your response to poverty is resignation or revolution, depends on how you understand the sources of your poverty. This is the role that ideas play in shaping us as human beings, and this is why idea technology may be the most profoundly important technology that science gives us.
Ako smatrate da je vaše siromaštvo Božja volja,molite. Ako smatrate da je vaše siromaštvo rezultat vaše neučinkovitosti, utonete u očaj. A ako mislite da je vaše siromaštvo rezultat opresije i dominacije, pobunite se. Hoće li vaš odgovor na siromaštvo biti rezignacija ili revolucija, ovisi o načinu razumijevanja izvora vašeg siromaštva. To je uloga koju imaju ideje u oblikovanju ljudskih bića i to je ralog zašto je idejna tehnologija možda najvažnija tehnologija koju nam daje znanost.
And there's something special about idea technology, that makes it different from the technology of things. With things, if the technology sucks, it just vanishes, right? Bad technology disappears. With ideas -- false ideas about human beings will not go away if people believe that they're true. Because if people believe that they're true, they create ways of living and institutions that are consistent with these very false ideas.
I postoji nešto posebno o idejnoj tehnologiji, nešto što ju razlikuje od tehnologije stvari. Kada govorimo o stvarima, ako tehnologija ne valja, samo nestane,je li tako? Loša tehnologija nestaje. Kada govorimo o idejama- Lažne ideje o ljudskim bićima neće nestati, ako ljudi vjeruju u njih. Jer,ako ljudi vjeruju da su istinite, stvaraju načine života i institucije koje se usklađene s tim veoma lažnim idejama.
And that's how the industrial revolution created a factory system in which there was really nothing you could possibly get out of your day's work, except for the pay at the end of the day. Because the father -- one of the fathers of the Industrial Revolution, Adam Smith -- was convinced that human beings were by their very natures lazy, and wouldn't do anything unless you made it worth their while, and the way you made it worth their while was by incentivizing, by giving them rewards. That was the only reason anyone ever did anything. So we created a factory system consistent with that false view of human nature. But once that system of production was in place, there was really no other way for people to operate, except in a way that was consistent with Adam Smith's vision. So the work example is merely an example of how false ideas can create a circumstance that ends up making them true.
I tako je industrijska revolucija stvorila sustav tvornica u kojem niste mogli izvući ništa iz svog radnog dana, osim plaće na kraju dana. Zato što je otac-jedan od otaca. industrijske revolucije,Adam Smith-- bio uvjeren da su ljudska bića po svojoj prirodi lijena i da neće ništa raditi, osim ako ih ne potaknete nečim, a to nešto je bilo nagrađivanje. To je bio jedini razlog zašto je bilo tko išta radio. Stvorili smo sustav tvornica usklađen s lažnom idejom ljudske prirode. Ali jednom kad se taj sustav proizvodnje ustalio, nije bilo drugog načina da ljudi funkcioniraju, osim na način usklačen s viđenjem Adama Smitha. Dakle,posao je jednostavno primjer kao pogrešne ideje mogu stvoriti priliku u kojoj završe ispravne.
It is not true that you "just can't get good help anymore." It is true that you "can't get good help anymore" when you give people work to do that is demeaning and soulless. And interestingly enough, Adam Smith -- the same guy who gave us this incredible invention of mass production, and division of labor -- understood this. He said, of people who worked in assembly lines, of men who worked in assembly lines, he says: "He generally becomes as stupid as it is possible for a human being to become." Now, notice the word here is "become." "He generally becomes as stupid as it is possible for a human being to become." Whether he intended it or not, what Adam Smith was telling us there, is that the very shape of the institution within which people work creates people who are fitted to the demands of that institution and deprives people of the opportunity to derive the kinds of satisfactions from their work that we take for granted.
Nije istina da više ne možete dobiti "dobru pomoć". Istina je da više ne možete dobiti "dobru pomoć" kada ljudima dajete posao koji je nedostojan i bezdušan. I zanimljivo je da je Adam Smith- isti čovjek koji nam je priskrbio taj nevjerojatan izum masovne proizvodnje i podjelu rada -- to razumio. Rekao je,o ljudima koji su radili na pokretnim trakama, o muškarcima koji su ondje radili,on kaže: "Postaju onoliko glupi koliko je moguće da čovjek postane." Primijetite da je ovdje riječ "postati". "Postaju onoliko glupi koliko je moguće da čovjek postane". Neovisno o tome da li je to želio, ono što nam je Adam Smith ovjde rekao, jest da sam oblik institucije u kojoj ljudi rade stvara ljude koji su prilagođeni zahtjevima institucije i oduzima ljudima priliku da dobiju to zadovoljstvo iz posla koje uzimamo zdravo za gotovo.
The thing about science -- natural science -- is that we can spin fantastic theories about the cosmos, and have complete confidence that the cosmos is completely indifferent to our theories. It's going to work the same damn way no matter what theories we have about the cosmos. But we do have to worry about the theories we have of human nature, because human nature will be changed by the theories we have that are designed to explain and help us understand human beings.
Problem u znanosti--prirodnim znanostima-- je da možemo stvoriti fantastične teorije o svemiru i imati potpune dokaze da je svemir u potpunosti indiferentan prema našim teorijama. Funkcionirat će na isti prokleti način, bez obzira koje mi teorije imamo o njemu. Ali moramo brinuti o teorijama koje imamo o ljudskoj prirodi, jer ljudsku priorodu mijenjamo svojim teorijama koje stvaramo da bismo objasnili i razumjeli ljudska bića.
The distinguished anthropologist, Clifford Geertz, said, years ago, that human beings are the "unfinished animals." And what he meant by that was that it is only human nature to have a human nature that is very much the product of the society in which people live. That human nature, that is to say our human nature, is much more created than it is discovered. We design human nature by designing the institutions within which people live and work.
Poznati antropolog,Clifford Geertz, je rekao,prije mnogo godina, da su ljudska bića "nedovršene životinje". I ono što je time mislio je da je samo ljudski imati ljudsku prirodu koja je proizvod društva u kojem ljudi žive. Ta ljudska priroda, točnije ta naša ljudska priroda, je više stvarana,nego otkrivana. Mi stvaramo ljudsku prirodu stvarajući institucije u kojima ljudi žive i rade.
And so you people -- pretty much the closest I ever get to being with masters of the universe -- you people should be asking yourself a question, as you go back home to run your organizations. Just what kind of human nature do you want to help design?
Dakle,vi ljudi -- najbliže što ću ikad biti s gospodarima svemira -- vi, ljudi, bi se trebali pitati, dok se vraćate kući voditi svoje organizacije, "U stvaranju kakve ljudske prirode želite pomoči?"
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
Thanks.
Hvala.