2013年

I can pick a date from the past 53 years and know instantly where I was, what happened in the news and even the day of the week, I’ve been able to do this, since I was four.

I never feel overwhelmed with the amount of information my brain absorbs. My mind seems to be able to cope and the information is stored away neatly. When I think of a sad memory, I do what everybody does-try to put it to one side. I don’t think it’s harder for me just because my memory is clearer. Powerful memory doesn’t make my emotions any more acute or vivid. I can recall the day my grandfather died and the sadness I felt when we went to the hospital the day of the week the day of the week day before. I also remember that the musical play Hair opened on Broadway on the same day-they both just pop into my mind in the same way.

參考譯文：

從過去的53年里隨便找出哪一天，我都能夠立刻想起那一天我在哪里，那一天發(fā)生了什么新聞，甚至那一天是星期幾。從4歲起，我就能這么做了。

我從來沒有為自己所記住的大量的信息而感到不知所措。我的大腦似乎能夠應(yīng)對這種狀況，能夠有條理地將這些信息記在腦子里。當(dāng)我想起悲傷的事情時，我會像每個人一樣，盡力把它放在一邊，不去想它。我并不認(rèn)因為我的記憶非常強(qiáng)而導(dǎo)致很難把不高興的事情放在一邊。強(qiáng)大的記憶力并不能使我的情感更加敏銳和生動。我能夠記得我祖父去世的那一天，以及前一天我們?nèi)メt(yī)院的路上所感到的悲傷。同樣，我也能記得同一天在百老匯上演的音樂劇《Hair》——這些事情都以同樣的方式在我腦海里突然浮現(xiàn)。

2014年

Most people would define optimism as being endlessly happy, with a glass that’s perpetually half full. But that’s exactly the kind of false cheerfulness that positive psychologists would not recommend. “Healthy optimism means being in touch with reality,” says Taal Ben-Shah-ar, a Harvard professor. According to Ben-Shah-ar, realistic optimists are those who make the best of things that happen, but not those who believe everything happens for the best.

Ben-Shah-ar uses three optimistic exercises. When he feels down—say, after giving a bad lecture—he grants himself permission to be human. He reminds himself that not every lecture can be a Nobel winner, some will be less effective than others. Next is reconstruction. He analyzes the weak lecture, learning lessons for the future about what works and what does not. Finally, there is perspective, which involves acknowledging that in the grand scheme of life, one lecture really does not matter.

參考譯文：

在大部分人眼中，樂觀主義就意味著永遠(yuǎn)滿懷希望、無憂無慮，遇事只往好的方面想。然而積極心理學(xué)專家認(rèn)為這種樂觀只是假象，不建議人們這么做。哈佛大學(xué)教授塔爾·本沙哈爾指出：“健康的樂觀主義應(yīng)該是切合實際的。”他認(rèn)為，現(xiàn)實的樂觀主義者會盡力讓事事順利，而不是迷信萬事大吉。

本沙哈爾提出了“三步樂觀法”。第一步：在碰到例如演講表現(xiàn)糟糕這種讓人沮喪的情況時，他首先會安慰自己人非圣賢，不是所有的演講都能拿到諾貝爾獎，總會有些演講的效果不如他人。第二步：重現(xiàn)場景。他會對這次失敗的演講進(jìn)行分析，總結(jié)優(yōu)缺點，為以后的演講吸取經(jīng)驗教訓(xùn)。第三步：形成這樣一個觀念，要明白在生命的宏大藍(lán)圖中，一次演講著實微不足道。

2015年

Think about driving a route that's very familiar. It could be your commute to work, a trip into town or the way home. Whichever it is, you know every twist and turn like the back of your hand. On these sorts of trips it's easy tolose concentration on the driving and pay little attention to the passing scenery. The consequence is that you perceive that the trip has taken less time than it actually has.

This is the well-travelled road effect: people tend to underestimate the time it takes to travel a familiar route.

The effect is caused by the way we allocate our attention. When we travel down a well-known route, because we don't have to concentrate much, time seems to flow more quickly. And afterwards, when we come to think back on it, we can't remember the journey well because we didn't pay much attention to it. So we assume it wasshorter.

參考譯文：

設(shè)想一下，你正開車行駛在一條非常熟悉的路線上。可能是你每天上下班、去城里、或是回家的路。不管是哪一條路，你對每一個拐每一個彎都了如指掌，非常熟悉。在這樣的路途中，我們?nèi)菀自陂_車的時候心不在焉，對途中的景色也幾乎是全然不顧。如此一來，你會覺得路上所花的時間比實際要少。

這就是"熟悉路線效應(yīng)"：人們往往會低估行駛在熟悉的路上所花費的時間。

這一效應(yīng)由我們分配精力的方式引起。當(dāng)行駛在熟悉的路上時，由于我們不用太過集中精力，時間似乎飛逝而過。隨后，我們回想行車過程時，由于我們沒有過多關(guān)注，所以對行車的印象也很模糊。因此我們會認(rèn)為花費的時間會更短些。

2016年

The supermarket is designed to lure customers into spending as much time as possible within its doors. The reason for this is simple: The longer you stay in the store, the more stuff you’ll see, and the more stuff you see, the more you’ll buy. And supermarkets contain a lot of stuff. The average supermarket, according to the Food Market Institute, carries some 44,000 different items, and many carry tens of thousands more. The sheer volume of available choice is enough to send shoppers into a state of information overload. According to brain-scan experiments, the demands of so much decision-making quickly become too much for us. After about 40 minutes of shopping, most people stop struggling to be rationally selective, and instead begin shopping emotionally — which is the point at which we accumulate the 50 percent of stuff in our cart that we never intended buying.

參考譯文：

超市旨在吸引顧客在店里停留盡可能長的時間。原因非常簡單：顧客在店里停留的時 間越長，看到的商品越多；看到的商品越多，買的也就越多。超市陳列了大量的商品。根 據(jù)食品市場科的調(diào)查，一般超市里有約 44000 種不同的商品，許多超市都有上萬種。如此 眾多的選擇足以使顧客陷入信息量超載的狀態(tài)。根據(jù)腦部掃描實驗，需要迅速地做出這么 多決定就會使我們太累。大約購物 40 分鐘以后，大多數(shù)人就放棄了去做理性的選擇，取而 代之的是沖動購物——正是此時，我們在購物車?yán)镆呀?jīng)裝了一半根本沒想買的東西。