硅谷“效率狂人”和圣誕節(jié)

Christmas means different things to different people. For some, it constitutes a bona fide religious experience. For others, it represents consumer indulgence. For others still, it evokes nostalgia and ritualised tradition. But whatever your views on Christmas, one thing runs true across the board. This is the time of year inefficiency is celebrated for its own sake.

圣誕節(jié)對不同的人有不同的涵義。在一些人看來，圣誕是一種至真的宗教體驗。對另一些人而言，圣誕代表著放縱消費。還有一些人覺得，圣誕可以喚起懷舊之情和儀式化的傳統(tǒng)。但無論你怎樣看待圣誕節(jié)，有一點始終不變——這是一年中效率低下受到慶祝的時候。

In an era when algorithmic hyper-efficiency is being prioritised, this is an experience worth making time for — not least because of the economic paradox it brings about.

在一個注重算法超高效率的時代，這是一個值得花時間研究的現(xiàn)象——尤其是鑒于它帶來的經(jīng)濟上的悖論。

Consider just some of the inefficiencies deemed acceptable at this time of year that might otherwise be targeted by technologists and entrepreneurs for elimination, automation or acceleration. Arts and crafts; handmade decorations; organically-sourced produce from Christmas markets and stalls; Christmas lights; the wrapping of almost everything in decorative paper; indoor trees; festivities and merrymaking on employer-time; Christmas shows; and, most crucially of all, unnecessary gift-giving all around.

只需想一想每年只在這個時候被視為可以接受的一些效率低下的事物(在其他時候，它們可能成為技術專家和企業(yè)家淘汰、自動化或加快的目標)。藝術和手工藝品;手工制作的裝飾;從圣誕市場和貨攤買來的有機食品;圣誕燈飾;包裝幾乎所有禮品的裝飾紙;室內(nèi)圣誕樹;上班時間的歡慶和娛樂;圣誕表演;以及(這一點最關鍵)不必要地到處贈送禮物。

Then, on the behavioural front, there’s the over-consumption of almost everything, as well as the days-long preparation of just one meal. If we operated on this basis every day, it is fair to assume our finely tuned “fast-paced” economy could probably not keep up without cost.

然后，在行為方面，幾乎一切都被過度消費，還有用好幾天時間只為一餐飯做準備。如果我們每天都照此運轉(zhuǎn)，那么可以公平地假設，我們精心調(diào)整的“快節(jié)奏”經(jīng)濟不太可能在不付出代價的情況下維持下去。

And yet, despite all the wastage and inefficiency, the season is still considered an essential consumer blowout, with the capacity to make or break a small independent company or even the more established large corporation. So while the Christmas phenomenon may be deemed inefficient to a technologist’s mind, the livelihoods (and positive experiences) it supports more widely suggest it is not all for nothing. Does this imply that it does not always pay to do things more efficiently or without the human touch, or that the quest for hyper efficiency is not necessarily grounded in human interest? Perhaps.

然而，盡管浪費和低效率現(xiàn)象嚴重，但圣誕季仍被視為不可或缺的消費井噴時期，有能力成就或擊垮一家小型的獨立公司，甚至是更老牌的大公司。因此，雖然這一圣誕現(xiàn)象可能在技術專家看來效率低下，但它在更大范圍支撐起的生計(和積極體驗)似乎表明，它并非一無是處。這是否意味著，以更高效率的方式做事，或者是在沒有人類參與的情況下做事，并不總是能獲得回報，或者說對超高效率的追求并不一定以人為本?也許吧。

In a forthcoming book, The Efficiency Paradox, Edward Tenner, of the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, explores the inconsistencies further. His work reveals that the paradox extends beyond the holiday period: at all times, efficiency is not necessarily what it seems. Indeed, according to Mr Tenner, the single-minded drive for a “friction-free” world can even have the side-effect of reducing efficiency in some cases. Think, for example, of the unintended consequences of excessive hygiene in terms of inflated resistance side-effects.

在即將出版的《效率悖論》(The Efficiency Paradox)一書中，史密森尼(Smithsonian)的萊梅爾遜發(fā)明和創(chuàng)新研究中心(Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation)的愛德華•特納(Edward Tenner)進一步研究了這些不一致性。他的研究顯示，這種悖論不僅僅出現(xiàn)在節(jié)假日期間：效率未必總是像表面上顯示的那樣。實際上，特納認為，一根筋地致力于打造一個“無摩擦”世界，在某些情況下甚至會產(chǎn)生降低效率的副作用。例如，想想過分清潔在有害微生物耐藥性提升方面帶來的意想不到的后果。

And while much celebrated platform-efficiency can bring remarkable benefits, the unintended consequences include price inflation of still crucial, but not yet automated, services, monopolisation, loss of privacy and human redundancy. Wherever you look, there is an equal and commensurate trade-off.

雖然廣受贊譽的平臺效率可以帶來可觀的好處，但出人意料的后果包括仍至關重要但尚未自動化的服務的價格上漲、壟斷、隱私泄露以及人類變得多余。無論你把目光投向哪里，都能看到同等和相稱的得失相抵。

Of course, the greatest irony comes in how newly-minted technology billionaires like to spend their own money once they have made it. Take the products and services made available at the annual Web Summit gathering in Lisbon in November, a celebration of platform technology. In the VIP-only area the titans of the internet indulged in artisanal coffees and grazed hand-cured meats and traditionally-baked patisseries even as they evangelised about the merits of dehumanised mass-market solutions. Nor does their efficiency obsession square with the accompanying belief that failure should always be celebrated. Failure is a sunk cost and anything but efficient.

當然，最大的諷刺來自新晉的科技億萬富豪們在發(fā)家之后如何花錢。看看11月里斯本舉行的為平臺技術喝彩的年度網(wǎng)絡峰會(Web Summit)上提供的產(chǎn)品和服務。在VIP專區(qū)，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨頭們享受著手工咖啡、手工制作的腌肉和傳統(tǒng)方法烘焙的糕點，但這不妨礙他們宣揚非人化的大眾市場解決方案的優(yōu)點。他們對效率的癡迷與其伴隨的信念——失敗值得慶祝——也存在矛盾。失敗是一項沉沒的成本，絕對談不上高效率。

But in their private investments the absurdities really come to light. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Michael Baum, who made his fortune selling big data software, spent a fair wedge of that sum acquiring the Burgundy winery Château de Pommard, which prides itself on its traditional winemaking techniques.

但真正暴露這類荒唐的是他們的個人投資?？抠u大數(shù)據(jù)軟件發(fā)家的硅谷企業(yè)家邁克爾•鮑姆(Michael Baum)，花了很大一部分財富買下了以傳統(tǒng)釀酒技藝為驕傲的勃艮第(Burgundy)?，斁魄f(Château de Pommard)。

The first love of Elon Musk, the electric car enthusiast and futurist, was always the bespoke high-performance sports vehicle. His vision centres on bringing highly individualised “green” transport solutions to the masses at an affordable rate. But even his automated, energy-efficient approach to car manufacturing is struggling to compensate for the unexpected inefficiencies in hand.

超級電動汽車迷和未來主義者埃隆•馬斯克(Elon Musk，見文首照片)的最愛一直是定制的高性能跑車。而他的愿景是以合理的價格給大眾帶來高度個性化的“綠色”出行解決方案。但即使是他的自動化的、節(jié)能的汽車制造理念，也與他的個人愛好中的效率低下不協(xié)調(diào)。

None of which is to say humans should not strive to be more efficient where they can, especially on energy consumption. But if the joy, pleasure and job security afforded by Christmas inefficiency tells us anything, it is that efficiency should not be regarded as an end in itself. Since inefficiency has a way of popping up no matter what we do, it is human experience that should be prioritised before all else.

這一切都不意味著人類不應該努力提高效率，尤其是在能源消耗上。但如果圣誕期間的低效率帶來的喜悅、樂趣及職業(yè)安全感向我們傳達了什么信息的話，那就是效率本身不應該被視為目的。因為無論我們怎么做，效率低下都會冒出來，所以應當優(yōu)先考慮的是人類的體驗。

[email protected] 譯者/何黎