来源：《时代周刊》2023年1月30日刊
They’re that pest at the office who destroys every Monday by recounting each unremarkable thing they did over the weekend. They’re the neighbor who drops in uninvited and spends an hour telling you stories you’ve already heard, the arrogant know-it-all who interrupts colleagues in meetings, the CEO whose reckless tweet gets him charged with securities fraud. To be honest, they’re most of us, too.
他们是办公室里的讨厌鬼，总是把周末做的每件小事都念叨个不停，把周一的日子都毁了。他们是不请自来、花一个小时给你讲你已经听过的故事的邻居，是打断同事开会的傲慢无所不知的人，是在推特上鲁莽行事、被指控证券欺诈的首席执行官。说实话，我们大多数人也是这样。
It’s not entirely our fault. We live in a world that doesn’t just encourage overtalking but practically demands it, where success is measured by how much attention we can attract: get a million Twitter followers, become an Instagram influencer, make a viral video, give a TED talk. We are inundated with YouTube, social media, chat apps, streaming services. Did you know there are more than 2 million podcasts, which have produced 48 million episodes? Or that more than 3,000 TEDx events take place every year, with up to 20 wannabe Malcolm Gladwells participating in each one? Or that Americans sit through more than a billion meetings a year, but think that half are a complete waste of time? We’re tweeting for the sake of tweeting, talking for the sake of talking.
这不全是我们的错。我们生活在一个不仅鼓励多说话，而且实际上要求多说话的世界，在这个世界里，衡量成功的标准是我们能吸引多少关注：获得一百万Twitter粉丝，成为Instagram网红，制作病毒式视频，发表TED演讲。我们被YouTube、社交媒体、聊天应用程序和流媒体服务淹没。你知道有超过200万个播客，制作了4800万集吗？或者每年有3000多场TEDx活动，每一场都有20个想成为马尔科姆·格拉德威尔的人参加？或者美国人一年要参加超过10亿次会议，却认为其中一半是完全浪费时间？我们为了发推特而发推特，为了说话而说话。
Yet many of the most powerful and successful people do the exact opposite. Instead of seeking attention, they hold back. When they do speak, they’re careful about what they say. Apple CEO Tim Cook lets awkward pauses hang during conversations. In 2020, Joe Biden found the campaign-trail discipline to keep his voice low and his answers short, to pause before speaking and give boring answers; now he’s President. Albert Einstein was an introvert who cherished solitude. The late Ruth Bader Ginsburg chose her words so carefully and took such painfully long pauses that her clerks developed a habit they called “the Two-Mississippi Rule”: finish what you’re saying and then count “one Mississippi . . . two Mississippi” before you speak again. The Justice was not ignoring you; she was thinking . . . very . . . deeply . . . about how to respond.
然而，许多最有权势和最成功的人却恰恰相反。他们不寻求关注，而是有所保留。当他们开口说话时，他们会小心翼翼地说话。苹果公司首席执行官蒂姆·库克在谈话中经常出现尴尬的停顿。2020年，乔·拜登发现竞选活动的原则是压低声音，简短回答，在发言前停顿一下，给出无聊的答案；现在他是总统。爱因斯坦性格内向，喜欢独处。已故的露丝·巴德·金斯伯格措辞谨慎，停顿时间长得令人痛苦，以至于她的助手们养成了一种被他们称为“两个密西西比规则”的习惯：把你说的话说完，然后数“一个密西西比……”两个密西西比”然后再开口。大法官没有忽视你；她在想……非常……深深地想……关于如何回应。
Most of us will not get appointed to the Supreme Court or become tech billionaires, but we can prevail in our own day-to-day battles. Buying a new car or house? Hoping to move up the ladder at work? Trying to win friends and influence people? Learn how to shut the F up.
我们中的大多数人不会被任命为最高法院大法官或成为科技界的亿万富翁，但我们可以在自己的日常斗争中获胜。买新车或新房？希望在工作中步步高升？想要赢得朋友和影响他人？那么学会如何让自己闭嘴。