Google工程師Matt Cutts TED演講稿

Try something new for 30 days
小計畫幫你實現大目標

——Google工程師Matt Cutts在TED的勵志演講稿

A few years ago, I felt like I was stuck in a rut, so I decided to follow in the footsteps of the great American philosopher, Morgan Spurlock, and try something new for 30 days. The idea is actually pretty simple. Think about something you’ve always wanted to add to your life and try it for the next 30 days. It turns out, 30 days is just about the right amount of time to add a new habit or subtract a habit — like watching the news — from your life.

幾年前， 我感覺對老一套感到枯燥乏味， 所以我決定追隨偉大的美國哲學家摩根·斯普爾洛克的腳步，嘗試做新事情30天。這個想法的確是非常簡單。考慮下，你常想在你生命中做的一些事情 接下來30天嘗試做這些。 這就是，30天剛好是這麼一段合適的時間 去養成一個新的習慣或者改掉一個習慣——例如看新聞——在你生活中。

There’s a few things I learned while doing these 30-day challenges. The first was, instead of the months flying by, forgotten, the time was much more memorable. This was part of a challenge I did to take a picture everyday for a month. And I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing that day. I also noticed that as I started to do more and harder 30-day challenges, my self-confidence grew. I went from desk-dwelling computer nerd to the kind of guy who bikes to work — for fun. Even last year, I ended up hiking up Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. I would never have been that adventurous before I started my 30-day challenges.

當我在30天做這些挑戰性事情時，我學到以下一些事。第一件事是，

取代了飛逝而過易被遺忘的歲月的是 這段時間非常的更加令人難忘。挑戰的一部分是要一個月內每天我要去拍攝一張照片。我清楚地記得那一天我所處的位置我都在幹什麼。我也注意到隨著我開始做更多的，更難的30天裡具有挑戰性的事時，我自信心也增強了。我從一個臺式電腦宅男極客變成了一個愛騎自行車去工作的人——為了玩樂。甚至去年，我完成了在非洲最高山峰乞力馬札羅山的遠足。在我開始這30天做挑戰性的事之前我從來沒有這樣熱愛冒險過。

I also figured out that if you really want something badly enough, you can do anything for 30 days. Have you ever wanted to write a novel? Every November, tens of thousands of people try to write their own 50,000 word novel from scratch in 30 days. It turns out, all you have to do is write 1,667 words a day for a month. So I did. By the way, the secret is not to go to sleep until you’ve written your words for the day. You might be sleep-deprived, but you’ll finish your novel. Now is my book the next great American novel? No. I wrote it in a month. It’s awful. But for the rest of my life, if I meet John Hodgman at a TED party, I don’t have to say, “I’m a computer scientist.” No, no, if I want to I can say, “I’m a novelist.”

我也認識到如果你真想一些槽糕透頂的事，你可以在30天裡做這些事。你曾想寫小說嗎？每年11月，數以萬計的人們在30天裡，從零起點嘗試寫他們自己的5萬字小說。這結果就是，你所要去做的事就是每天寫1667個字要寫一個月。所以我做到了。順便說一下，秘密在於除非在一天裡你已經寫完了1667個字，

要不你就甭想睡覺。你可能被剝奪睡眠，但你將會完成你的小說。那麼我寫的書會是下一部偉大的美國小說嗎？不是的。我在一個月內寫完它。它看上去太可怕了。但在我的餘生，如果我在一個TED聚會上遇見約翰·霍奇曼，我不必開口說，“我是一個電腦科學家。”不，不會的，如果我願意我可以說，“我是一個小說家。”

So here’s one last thing I’d like to mention. I learned that when I made small, sustainable changes, things I could keep doing, they were more likely to stick. There’s nothing wrong with big, crazy challenges. In fact, they’re a ton of fun. But they’re less likely to stick. When I gave up sugar for 30 days, day 31 looked like this.

我這兒想提的最後一件事。當我做些小的、持續性的變化，

我可以不斷嘗試做的事時，我學到我可以把它們更容易地堅持做下來。這和又大又瘋狂的具有挑戰性的事情無關。事實上，它們的樂趣無窮。但是，它們就不太可能堅持做下來。當我在30天裡拒絕吃糖果，31天后看上去就像這樣。

So here’s my question to you: What are you waiting for? I guarantee you the next 30 days are going to pass whether you like it or not, so why not think about something you have always wanted to try and give it a shot for the next 30 days.

所以我給大家提的問題是：大家還在等什麼呀？我保准大家在未來的30天定會經歷你喜歡或者不喜歡的事，那麼為什麼不考慮一些你常想做的嘗試並在未來30天裡試試給自己一個機會。

Thanks.

謝謝。
Matt Cutts簡介：
Matt Cutts是Google所有工程師中最廣為人知的一個，因為他幾乎每天都在自己的blog上面和讀者們分享與Google相關的一切資訊，包括技術與非技術類。 Matt寫的文章深入淺出，簡明易懂，實用價值很高，因此他在互聯網上具有相當高的名氣。簡言之，Matt Cutts是Google的Anti-spam之王。