TED
简化生活，提升幸福感
题目： Less stuff, more happiness 作者： Graham Hill
猜猜看这个箱子里有什么？至少是些要紧的东西吧我不管我去哪里，搬到哪儿都带着这个箱子呢
What's in the box? Whatever it is must be pretty important, because I've traveled with it, moved it, from apartment to apartment to apartment.
Sound familiar? Did you know that we Americans have about three times the amount of space we did 50 years ago? Three times. So you'd think, with all this extra space, we'd have plenty of room for all our stuff. Nope. There's a new industry in town, a 22 billion-dollar, 2.2 billion sq. ft. industry: that of personal storage. So we've got triple the space, but we've become such good shoppers that we need even more space. So where does this lead? Lots of credit card debt, huge environmental footprints, and perhaps not coincidentally, our happiness levels flat-lined over the same 50 years.
你们也过过差不多的日子吧？说起来你们知不知道 跟50年前的美国人相比我们有了3倍多的空间？整整三倍啊！那你可能会说既然空间更多了那肯定够我们放各种东西了 非也非也。要知道现在有个新兴产业 价值220亿美元、累计占地22亿平方英尺 而作用就是为客户提供存储空间 虽然我们有了三倍多的空间 但我们也消费的增长得更快 因此我们实际上需要更多的空间 那这一切的发展导致呢？比如大量的信用卡负债 环境破坏 巨大的量的碳足迹 还有这50年里停滞不前的幸福水平 而这一最后一点恰恰并非巧合
Well I'm here to suggest there's a better way, that less might actually equal more. I bet most of us have experienced at some point the joys of less: college -- in your dorm, traveling -- in a hotel room, camping -- rig up basically nothing, maybe a boat. Whatever it was for you, I bet that, among other things, this gave you a little more freedom, a little more time. So I'm going to suggest that less stuff and less space are going to equal a smaller footprint. It's actually a great way to save you some money. And it's going to give you a little more ease in your life.
所以我想说，其实有一种更好的生活方式：在这里少一些，在别处就多一些。我相信我们大部分人都或多或少地体验过少少的乐趣 校园里 我们只需要一间宿舍 旅途 中——我们只需要一间客房 野营时——基本不用带什么东西 可能要一条船。我相信，和其它事物相比 这些会给你带来多一点点自由 和多一点点时间 所以我想说 少用点东西、少占点空间 就意味着对环境少些影响 也能为你节省一些花销 而且，你的生活也会变得更加轻松
So I started a project called Life Edited at lifeedited.org to further this conversation and to find some great solutions in this area. First up: crowd-sourcing my 420 sq. ft. apartment in Manhattan with partners Mutopo and Jovoto.com. I wanted it all -- home office, sit down dinner for 10, room for guests, and all my kite surfing gear. With over 300 entries from around the world, I got it, my own little jewel box. By buying a space that was 420 sq. ft. instead of 600, immediately I'm saving 200 grand. Smaller space is going to make for smaller utilities -- save some more money there, but also a smaller footprint. And because it's really designed around an edited set of possessions -- my favorite stuff -- and really designed for me, I'm really excited to be there.
因此我开始做这个名为Life Edited精简生活的项目 在网站 lifeedited.org 上一方面推广我的理念 另一方面寻找一些解决方案 首先，我和Mutopo及Jovoto.com合作众包我在曼哈顿的420平方英尺的公寓 我希望它能拥有以下所有的功能：家庭办公室、10人餐桌、留宿客人的空间 还有我全部的风筝冲浪设备 从世界各地发来的300多建议中 我找到了这个最优方案。 我买了420平方英尺 而不是600平方英尺的房子 仅此一项我就省了二十万美元 更小的空间意味着更小的费用 在这方面我们不仅能够省点钱 也能给环境带来些影响 正因为这些用具都是围绕着我最想要的功能 订为我设计的 我自然很可能能够住到那里
So how can you live little? Three main approaches. First of all, you have to edit ruthlessly. We've got to clear the arteries of our lives. And that shirt that I hadn't worn in years? It's time for me to let it go. We've got to cut the extraneous out of our lives, and we've got to learn to stem the inflow. We need to think before we buy. Ask ourselves, "Is that really going to make me happier? Truly?" By all means, we should buy and own some great stuff. But we want stuff that we're going to love for years, not just stuff.
那我们怎样才能活得精简呢？ 有三条大道。第一，你必须直面无情地去开始精简工作 就像去疏通我们身上的动脉瘀一样要干脆地让那件我好几年都没穿过的衬衫…… 是时候让它去了 我们得把生活中无关紧要的细枝末节修剪掉 并且学会逆流而动 我们应该三思而后消费 买东西之前问问自己：“买了我真的能更加开心吗？” 诚然我们应该购买并拥有一些很棒的东西 但我们需要那些让我们对其喜爱经久不衰的东西 而不仅仅是任何物品
Secondly, our new mantra: small is sexy. We want space efficiency. We want things that are designed for how they're used the vast majority of the time, not that rare event.
第二，也是我们的新口号：小也有魅力 我们想要空间利用率。 我们想要的用具 应该是根据多数情形下它们的使用方式设计的 而不是专为少数情形而设计的 我们绝大一般你在生活中头疼的那些
Why have a six burner stove when you rarely use three? So we want things that nest, we want things that stack, and we want it digitized. You can take paperwork, books, movies, and you can make it disappear -- it's magic.
Finally, we want multifunctional spaces and housewares -- a sink combined with a toilet, a dining table becomes a bed -- same space, a little side table stretches out to seat 10. In the winning Life Edited scheme in a render here, we combine a moving wall with transformer furniture to get a lot out of the space. Look at the coffee table -- it grows in height and width to seat 10. My office folds away, easily hidden. My bed just pops out of the wall with two fingers. Guests? Move the moving wall, have some fold-down guest beds. And of course, my own movie theater.
So I'm not saying that we all need to live in 420 sq. ft. But consider the benefits of an edited life. Go from 3,000 to 2,000, from 1,500 to 1,000. Most of us, maybe all of us, are here pretty happily for a bunch of days with a couple of bags, maybe a small space, a hotel room. So when you go home and you walk through your front door, take a second and ask yourselves, "Could I do with a little life editing? Would that give me a little more freedom? Maybe a little more time?"
What's in the box? It doesn't really matter. I know I don't need it. What's in yours? Maybe, just maybe, less might equal more. So let's make room for the good stuff.
为什么要去买六头的燃气灶？我们需要的器具应该能够大套小的，或者能够层叠放置的，如果一样东西能数字化那就更好那样你可以把所有文件书籍电影等都化为无形一就像变戏法一样。
最后，我们需要多功能的空间和多功能的家具有一个体的水斗和坐便器餐桌与床的两用同样的空间里这个小小的桌子可以伸展为能坐10个人的大桌子“精简生活”的一个优胜设计把一堵墙和“变形家具”式的家具有机结合拥有高效地利用了有限的空间看看这个咖啡桌：它可以拉长、拾高使得能够容纳10个人而不妨碍我的个人工作台能够方便地折叠藏起来用两个手指就能把床从墙里拉出来家里来客人了？动一下这堵墙里面有折叠式的客床当然，它也能变成我的家庭影院
我不是说每个人都应该住在420平方英尺(约40平方米)的空间里但精简生活的确能带来诸多好处。比如从3000平方英尺到2000平方英尺或者从1500到1000平方英尺我们中的大多数，也可能是所有人住这么大都过得很愉快虽然我们只随身带了几个包并且住在一个小小的旅店房间里所以你应该回家，踏入房门之后不妨问问自己“怎么样把我的生活也精简一番呢？”“那样是不是会带来更多自由一”“更多时间呢？”
我这个箱子里装了什么？这其实并不重要因为我不需要它们。你的包袱里装了什么？还是有那么一些可能性“越得”少也能“越得”多。所以让我们把有限的空间都留给重要的东西吧。
