赫芬顿：成功的尺度不只是金钱和权力
|
2013年，冥思终于不再被视为隐约有些古怪，同时还带有一丝新纪元味道的行为，开始全面进入主流。同样在这一年，许多CEO纷纷“出柜”，不是作为同性恋，而是以沉思者的身份。软件巨头Salesforce公司CEO马克•贝尼奥夫告诉世人，他已经冥思了25年之久。全球最大的对冲基金桥水公司(Bridgewater）创始人雷•戴利奥告诉我们，40多年来，他一直在冥思。安泰保险公司(Aetna)CEO马克•贝托里尼透露说，在一起滑雪事故中摔断脖子之后，为了恢复活力，他开始修行瑜伽和冥思。除以上三位外，这样的例子还有很多。 我最好的想法往往出现在我走路的时候。我很高兴读到您最喜爱的警句之一是“致知在躬行”(solvitur ambulando)。您能谈谈行走、创造力和清晰思维之间的联系吗？整日在办公室忙碌工作的人如何利用步行的好处？ 步行是许多问题的解决方案。在这样一个以劳累过度，倦怠和疲惫为特征的职场文化中，我们如何才能挖掘到我们的创造力、智慧，以及我们创造奇迹的能力呢？迈开双腿，开始行走吧。 伊利诺伊大学( University of Illinois )研究人员主持的一项研究显示，每周坚持散步3次，每次40分钟，不仅有助于对抗衰老的负面影响，还可以增强大脑的连通性和认知能力。所以说，受益于行走的不仅仅是沉思和创造性思维，我们专心致志完成任务的思维能力也可以获得改善。尽管亨利•大卫•梭罗那个时代还没有能够佐证其行走好处多多这一信念的科学，但这位哲人早已深谙这个道理。“据我看，当我的双腿开始移动，我的思想火花也开始迸发。” 至于整日在写字楼里忙碌的职场众生，我强烈建议他们实行“散步开会”。硅谷高管尼洛弗•莫晨特把这种方法称为“边走边谈”(walk the talk)。如果你必须跟某人面谈，为什么不一边走一边谈呢？“当你和某人肩并肩走路的时候，你们其实是在一起面对你们的问题或状况，我非常喜欢这样做，”她说。“散步开会时，人们就不会不停地查阅电子邮件或微博，这样多好。你非常清楚周围正在发生的事情，你的感官也会得以增强，你最终将收获一件写字楼会议几乎无法给予你的东西——喜悦感。”待在一间陈旧的会议室里，三心二意地聆听一段没完没了的PPT陈述，这个时候你有多少次曾经感受过喜悦感？我们的思想和我们的双腿，两者之中有一个注定是要游荡的。安静地坐在那里，我们的思想会漫游。起身行走，我们的头脑就会放慢速度，变得更加专注。 “病毒式传播已经成为一种带毒的理念。”这句话产生了共鸣。我们对迅速而轻松地传播想法的迷恋，已经到了把一个想法的品质及其“病毒式传播潜力”等量齐观的程度。你认为，把病毒式传播本身视为好事一桩有损于我们对创造高质量内容的追求。我们知道，有意义的内容或许赶不上Twitter上的趋势，无法在YouTube获得数以百万计的浏览量。作为《赫芬顿邮报》的创办人，您如何把握网站对点击量的需要和高质量内容之间的平衡？ 盲目迷恋“社交影响”已经成为一件最分散精力的事情，而且我们似乎喜欢受到这种纷扰。我相信，作为媒体人，我们应该使用手头上的社交工具来讲述真正有意义的故事（以及那些娱乐性故事），同时不断提醒自己，工具本身不是故事。如果我们过分痴迷于Twitter或Facebook封闭的环形生态系统，我们就会很容易忘记一些真正重要的事情，比如贫困率正在上升；社会阶层固化，而且呈下行流动；数百万美国人正陷入长期失业之中，欧洲和世界其他地方的失业者甚至更多；全球有4亿人正在忍受极端贫困生活的折磨。另一方面，许多人正尝试着解决这些问题，以改变我们的生活和社区。但我们往往忽视了这些充满怜悯之心，设计新颖，极富创造力的伟大实例。 当然，就如同任何一家媒体一样，《赫芬顿邮报》团队也在非常积极地利用社交媒体。但或许是因为我们的“社交”工作一直做得不错，我希望我们也能够、并且愿意看清它的本质——社交媒体只是一个工具，并不是神奇的壮举。 惊奇感是人类生生不息和创造力的一大关键组成部分。技术是加强还是削弱了这种惊奇感？ |
2013 was the year when meditation finally stopped being seen as vaguely flaky, vaguely new age-y, and fully entered the mainstream. It was also the year of CEOs coming out. Not as being gay, but as being meditators. Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, told the world that he has been meditating for 25 years. Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater, the biggest hedge fund in the world told us that he has been meditating for over 40 years. Mark Bertolini, the CEO of Aetna, talked about how a skiing accident that left him with a broken neck led him to the rejuvenating practices of yoga and meditation. And these are just three of many. My best thinking occurs when I am walking. I was happy to read that one of your favorite phrases is solvitur ambulando— "It is solved by walking." Could you talk about the connection between walking, creativity and clear thinking? How could someone who works in a busy office harness the benefits of walking? There are many problems for which walking is the solution. In our culture of overwork, burnout, and exhaustion, how do we tap into our creativity, our wisdom, our capacity for wonder? Solvitur ambulando. A study led by University of Illinois researchers shows that walking three times a week for forty minutes at one's natural pace helps combat the effects of aging and increases brain connectivity and cognitive performance. So it's not just ruminative, creative thinking that's enhanced by walking -- our focused, get-things-done type of thinking is improved as well. And though he didn't have the science to back up his beliefs about the benefits of walking, Henry David Thoreau was onto this truth long ago. "Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow." For those of us in busy offices, I highly recommend walking meetings. Silicon Valley executive Nilofer Merchant calls this the "walk the talk" method. If you've got to talk to someone in person, why not do it while walking? "What I love is that you're literally facing your problem or situation together when you walk side by side with someone," she said. "I love that people can't be checking e- mail or Twitter during walking meetings. You're awake to what's happening around you, your senses are heightened and you walk away with something office meetings rarely give you -- a sense of joy." How many times have you experienced a sense of joy in a stale conference room while half listening to an endless PowerPoint presentation? Between our minds and our legs, one of them is going to wander. Sit still and our minds want to ramble. Get up and start walking, and our minds can slow down and be more focused. "Going viral has gone viral." That sentence resonated. We've become enamored with spreading ideas fast and effortlessly to the point where we equate the quality of an idea with its "viral potential." You suggest that treating virality as a good in and of itself undermines the pursuit of creating quality content. As the founder of The Huffington Post, how do you balance the need for clicks and traffic with meaningful content that might not trend on Twitter or receive millions of view on YouTube?、 Fetishizing "social" has become a major distraction. And we love to be distracted. I believe our job in the media is to use the social tools at our disposal to tell the stories that matter -- as well as the stories that entertain -- and to keep reminding ourselves that the tools are not the story. When we become too obsessed with our closed, circular Twitter or Facebook ecosystem, we can easily forget that poverty is on the rise, downward mobility is trending upward, millions of people in the United States and even more in Europe and around the world have fallen into chronic unemployment, and 400 million children around the world are living in extreme poverty. On the other side of the spectrum, too often we ignore the great instances of compassion, ingenuity, and innovation shown by people who are changing lives and communities by trying to address these problems. Of course, our team at HuffPost is as aggressive as any media outlet in using social media. But maybe because we've been doing "social" well for a while, I hope we are also able and willing to see it for what it is -- a tool, not a magical feat. The feeling of wonder is a key component to human flourishing and creativity. Does technology deepen or diminish the feeling of wonder? |
