Work

论工作

Bertrand Russell

伯特兰·罗素

使工作有趣的因素主要有两个：第一是技能的运用，第二是建设性。

Whether work should be placed among the causes of happiness or among the causes of unhappiness may perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question. There is certainly much work which is exceedingly troublesome, and an excess of work is always very painful. I think, however, that, provided work is not excessive in amount, even the dullest work is to most people less painful than idleness. There are in work all grades, from mere relief of tediousness up to the profoundest delights, according to the nature of the work and the abilities of the worker. Most of the work that most people have to do is not in itself interesting, but even such work has certain great advantages.

工作应当列为快乐的原因抑或不快乐的原因，也许尚属疑问。的确，有许多工作是极烦人的，而过度的工作又是很痛苦的。然而我认为，只要不过度，即使是最单调的工作，对大多数人来说，也比无所事事容易忍受。工作有各种等级，从单纯解闷直到最深切的快慰，要视工作的性质和工作者的能力而定。多数人所做的多数工作，其本身是乏味的，但即使是这类工作也有相当大的益处。

To begin with, it fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people, when they are left free to fill their own time according to their own choice, are at a loss to think of anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing. And whatever they decide on, they are troubled by the feeling that something else would have been pleasanter. To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.

首先，它们可以消磨一天中的许多时间，而无须你决定做什么。多数人一旦能按照自己的选择去消磨他们的闲暇时，总是难以想出什么愉快的事情值得一做。无论他们决定做的是什么，他们总觉得还有一些更愉快的事情不曾去做，这个想法使他们十分懊恼。能够明智地安排闲暇是文明的最后产物，目前还很少有人达到这种水平。

More over the exercise of choice is in itself tiresome. Except to people with unusual initiative it is positively agreeable to be told what to do at each hour of the day, provided the orders are not too unpleasant. Most of the idle rich suffer unspeakable boredom as the price of their freedom from drudgery. At times, they may find relief by hunting big game in Africa, or by flying round the world, but the number of such sensations is limited, especially after youth is past. Accordingly the more intelligent rich men work nearly as hard as if they were poor, while rich women for the most part keep themselves busy with innumerable trifles of whose earth-shaking importance they are firmly persuaded.

另外，选择本身便是令人厌烦的。除了主动性特强的人以外，人们总是乐于由别人告诉每小时应做之事，只要所要求的事情不是太不愉快就行。多数闲散的富人都在忍受着难以言喻的苦闷，仿佛在为免于苦役而付出代价。有时他们去非洲狩猎或周游世界，聊以排遣，但这类轰轰烈烈的事情是有限的，尤其在青春逝去之后。因此比较明智的富人都尽量工作，好像他们是穷人一样，而有钱的女人大多忙着无数的琐碎之事，自信那些事情有着震撼世界的重要性。

Work therefore is desirable, first and foremost, as a preventive of boredom, for the boredom that a man feels when he is doing necessary though uninteresting work is as nothing in comparison with the boredom that he feels when he has nothing to do with his days. With this advantage of work another is associated, namely that it makes holidays much more delicious when they come. Provided a man does not have to work so hard as to weaken his vigor, he is likely to find far more zest in his free time than an idle man could possibly find.

人们所以渴望工作，主要是因为它可免除烦闷，一个人做着虽然乏味但是必要的工作时也会感到烦闷，但决不能和那种百无聊赖的烦闷相比。与工作的这种好处相关的，还有另一种好处，就是使得假日格外美妙。一个人只要没有过分辛苦的工作来消耗他的精力，定会对于自由的时间较之一个闲散的人有更加浓厚的兴致。

The second advantage of most paid work and of some unpaid work is that it gives chances of success and opportunities for ambition. In most work success is measured by income, and while our capitalistic society continues, this is inevitable. It is only where the best work is concerned that this measure ceases to be the natural one to apply. The desire that men feel to increase their income is quite as much a desire for success as for the extra comforts that a higher income can obtain.

在多数有报酬的工作和某些无报酬的工作中，第二种好处是它给人以成功和发展雄心的机会。在多数工作中，成功是以收入来衡量的，只要资本主义社会继续存在，这是无法避免的。唯有遇到极卓越的工作，这个尺度才失去效用。人们渴望增加收入，这既是渴望成功，也是渴望更高的收入能带来更多的舒适。

However dull work may be, it becomes bearable if it is a means of building up reputation, whether in the world at large or only in one's own circle. Continuity of purpose is one of the most essential ingredients of happiness in the long run, and for most men this comes chiefly through their work. In this respect those women whose lives are occupied with housework are much less fortunate than men, or than women who work outside the home.

无论怎样乏味的工作，只要能借以博得名声，无论是广大社会里的名声抑或自己小圈子里的名声，那工作就忍受得了。目的持续终究是快乐的最重要的因素之一，对大多数人来说，这主要是靠工作来实现的。在这方面，那些以家务消磨生活的女人，较之男人或户外工作的女人，要不幸得多。

The domesticated wife does not receive wages, has no means of bettering herself, is taken for granted by her husband (who sees practically nothing of what she does), and is valued by him not for her housework but for quite other qualities. Of course this does not apply to those women who are sufficiently well-to-do to make beautiful houses and beautiful gardens and become the envy of their neighbors; but such women are comparatively few, and for the great majority housework cannot bring as much satisfaction as work of other kinds brings to men and to professional women.

管家的妻子没有工资，无法改善她的状况，丈夫认为她的操劳是理所当然的（实际上认为她什么也没做），他重视她并非由于她的家务劳动，而是由于她的别的优点。当然，那些相当富有，能把屋舍庭园布置得很美，让邻居羡慕的女人，是不在此列的；但这类女人比较少见，而且绝大多数家务所带来的满足都远不及他种工作给男人或职业女人所带来的满足。

The satisfaction of killing time and of affording some outlet, however modest, for ambition, belongs to most work, and is sufficient to make even a man whose work is dull happier on the average than a man who has no work at all. But when work is interesting, it is capable of giving satisfaction of a far higher order than mere relief from tediousness.

多数工作都会使人得到两种满足，一是消磨时光，二是给抱负以一定的出路，而这就足以使一个即使工作乏味的人，也比一个无工作的人快乐得多。但是当工作有趣时，它给人的满足将远远优于单纯的消遣。凡属有趣的工作可依次进行排列。我将从趣味较为平淡的工作开始，一直讲到值得耗费一个伟人全部精力的工作。

The chief element which makes work interesting is the exercise of skill.

使工作有趣的因素主要有两个：第一是技能的运用，第二是建设性。

Every man who has acquired some unusual skill enjoys exercising it until it has become a matter of course, or until he can no longer improve himself. This motive to activity begins in early childhood: a boy who can stand on his head becomes reluctant to stand on his feet. A great deal of work gives the same pleasure that is to be derived from games of skill. The work of a lawyer or a politician must contain in a more delightful form a great deal of the same pleasure that is to be derived from playing bridge. Here of course there is not only the exercise of skill but the conquering of a skilled opponent.

凡拥有某种特殊技能的人，总乐于施展出来，直到那技能不足为奇或不能再完善时为止。这种行为的动机始于童年：一个能倒立的男孩子总是不满足于正常的站立姿势。许多工作所带来的欢乐都与那种源于游戏技能的欢乐完全相同。律师和政治家的工作含有大量美妙的乐趣，这与打桥牌时的乐趣毫无二致。当然，这里不仅有运用技巧的乐趣，也有与高明的对手勾心斗角的乐趣。

Even where this competitive element is absent, however, the performance of rare skills is agreeable. A man who can do stunts in an aeroplane finds the pleasure so great that for the sake of it he is willing to risk his life. I imagine that an able surgeon, in spite of the painful circumstances in which his work is done, derives satisfaction from the wonderful precision of his operations.

但是，即使在没有这种竞争因素的场合，一件需要高超技巧的工作也能带来欢乐。一个能做特技飞行的人感到其乐无穷，以致为之甘冒生命危险。我想一个能干的外科医生虽然要在痛苦的环境中工作，但他依然能从准确实施手术中得到满足。

The same kind of pleasure, though in a less intense form, is to be derived from a great deal of work of a humbler kind. All skilled work can be pleasurable, provided the skill required is either variable or capable of indefinite improvement. If these conditions are absent, it will cease to be interesting when a man has acquired his maximum skill. A man who runs three-mile races will cease to find pleasure in this occupation when he passes the age at which he can beat his own previous record. Fortunately there is a very considerable amount of work in which new circumstances call for new skill and a man can go on improving, at any rate until he has reached middle age.

同样的乐趣也可在大量较为粗陋的工作中获得，只是强烈度差些而已。一切需要技巧的工作都能给人带来欢乐，只要那技巧要求变化，或能精益求精。如果缺少这些条件，那么一个人的本领达到最高点时，它所引起的兴趣也就消失了。一个长跑运动员一旦过了能打破自己所创纪录的年龄，就不再感到长跑之乐。幸而在无数的工作中，新的情况需要新的技巧，使一个人能不断地进步，至少直到中年为止。

In some kinds of skilled work, such as politics, for example, it seems that men are at their best between sixty and seventy, the reason being that in such occupations a wide experience of other men is essential. For this reason successful politicians are apt to be happier at the age of seventy than any other men of equal age. Their only competitors in this respect are the men who are the heads of big businesses.

在某些需要技巧的工作中，例如政治，人们要在六十至七十岁之间才能最大限度地施展才干，因为在这类事业中，广博的阅历是必不可少的。因此，成功的政治家在七十岁时要比他的同龄人更快乐。在这方面，只有大企业的巨头才能与之相比。