讀《FT·金融時報》學(xué)英語：懶癌福音：我的桌子亂得很科學(xué)

下次再有人對你擺滿文件的桌面指指點點時，你可以理直氣壯地說：“這是我的自動文件整理系統(tǒng)！”

We are tidy-minded people at heart.
我們都是內(nèi)心追求整潔的人。

Some of us have minimalist desks straight out of a gaudy magazine.Most of us find that the business of actually doing some work tends to mess up our desks a bit.
有些人的桌子堪稱極簡主義，和那些漂亮雜志里展示的一模一樣。我們大多數(shù)人會發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)你真正工作的時候，總是難免把桌子搞得比較亂。

Still, everyone seems to feel proud of a tidy desk and guilty about a messy one.
不過，每個人還是會偏愛整潔的桌面，因為把桌子弄亂而略有愧疚。

I think that's a mistake.
這種想法是錯誤的。

What we don't realize is that desks have a tendency to organize themselves based on the way we use them.
我們沒注意到的是，桌面會隨著主人的使用和工作而進行“自我整理”。

Computer scientists have known this for decades.A critical problem in computer science is what data should you keep in your computer's fastest memory cache.
計算機科學(xué)家?guī)资昵熬桶l(fā)現(xiàn)了這一點。計算機科學(xué)里面有個重要問題是，你電腦里最快的緩存空間到底應(yīng)該存放哪些數(shù)據(jù)。

That is a bit like asking, what documents you should keep on top of the pile right in front of you.
這個問題有點像：面對一堆文件的時候，你應(yīng)該把哪些放到最上面。

And this is a tricky problem.You never really know what data or what document you need to access next.But computer scientists have found a good guess.Just keep hold of what you've used recently.You probably need it again.
這是一個狡猾的問題。其實你永遠也不知道哪些數(shù)據(jù)或者文件是你下一步會需要的。不過計算機科學(xué)家找到了一個不錯的“猜想”方案：只存儲你最近使用過的文件就對了。你很可能會再用到它們。

Hang on a moment.Isn't that basically what this pile of papers is doing anyway? I thumb through, pull out a couple of documents.I work on them, then put them back on top of the pile of paper.
稍等一下，這疊文件不就是照這個方法處理的嗎？我翻了一遍，抽出其中幾份文件，然后使用它們，之后會把它們放到最上面。

The stuff I'm not using sinks to the bottom.That's the orange documents.The stuff I need all the time keeps re-appearing on the top.First I was working a lot on the green documents, and now I'm working on the yellow ones, in the end of course, you need to have a clear-out.And that's no problem.
我用不到的東西就會沉到底部，這里就是那些橘色的文件。我需要的東西就會持續(xù)在最上層出現(xiàn)。我先是使用了綠色的文件，然后使用了黃色的，最后呢，你當(dāng)然需要清理一遍。但是一點也不費勁。

I'm pretty sure, the bottom third of this pile can go straight in the bin after a leaf through.
我很確定，最底下的這三分之一，可以粗略地翻一下，然后直接丟進垃圾桶。

I haven't wasted my time trying to file stuff that on reflection belong to recycling.I haven't spent hours trudging to and from the filing cabinet.Instead, just by using the documents, I've allowed them to organize themselves.
我沒浪費時間思考哪些是該扔的，再把所有東西都分類；我也沒有忙活幾個小時，在檔案柜之間往返穿梭。相反，我的做法是，直接在使用這些文件的過程中讓他們“自我整理”。

So, next time you feel bad about your clutter desk, give yourself a break.You've got a highly efficient self-organizing rapid access filing system.So what if it looks so messy?
所以，當(dāng)下一次你看到自己的桌面亂七八糟，而感到心煩意亂的話，你就可以省省心了。因為你有一個高效自理、且存取快速的文件整理系統(tǒng)?？粗鴣y一點，又有什么關(guān)系呢？