????不幸的是，技術(shù)正在以前所未有的力度潛入我們的生活、家庭、臥室和大腦。這使得我們越來越難以更新自己，越來越難以產(chǎn)生驚奇感。平均而言，人們現(xiàn)在每6分半鐘就會查閱一下自己的設備。也就是說，每天要查閱大約150次。我們的大腦天生就渴望連接，所以脫離這類刺激物并不是一件容易的事。但源自技術(shù)的連接往往不能給人帶來滿足，因為它是一種偽連接。它的警笛呼叫（或嘟嘟聲，閃爍燈）往往會擠占我們本可以用來進行人際交往的時間和精力。

????有些自相矛盾的是，就能夠幫助我們應對技術(shù)的工具而言，最大的增長領域之一恰恰是技術(shù)。互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的第一個階段側(cè)重于收集數(shù)據(jù)，更多的數(shù)據(jù)。但現(xiàn)在，我們擁有足夠的數(shù)據(jù)（實際上，我們正在被數(shù)據(jù)淹沒）和我們能夠期盼的所有消遣方式。技術(shù)一直非常善于給予我們我們想要的東西，但并不總是給予我們我們所需要的東西。所以，許多科技界人士現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)意識到，可用來幫助我們保持專注，過濾掉所有數(shù)據(jù)和紛擾的應用和工具擁有絕佳的增長機會。我在《茁壯成長》一書的附錄中列舉了一些我個人最喜歡的應用。我們受到的紛擾越少，就越有可能挖掘我們的驚奇感，同時觀察我們周圍的世界。

????現(xiàn)在請介紹一下“第三尺度”的第四個元素：給予。做一名“給予者”有哪些好處？

????很多時候，我們認為所謂給予就是為某個遙遠地方的減災努力貢獻時間或金錢，就是幫助那些一無所有的人。在災難降臨的生死關頭，這些善行顯然是應急之需。但我們忘了，我們每天都被踐行同一種給予本能的機會包圍。這些機會總是“在腳下”。正如19世紀的博物學家約翰?巴勒斯所言：“偉大的機會就在你所處的地方。不要輕視你自己的地方和事件。每一個地方都位于群星之下，每一個地方都是世界的中心。”

????每一個地方都充滿了各種能夠?qū)α硪粋€人的生活產(chǎn)生真正影響的機遇。我們在家中，辦公室，地鐵上，在我們居住的街道和購買物品的雜貨店錯失了無數(shù)看似微小的機遇。正如大衛(wèi)?福斯特?華萊士所言，我們“每一天都可以采用無數(shù)看似微不足道、不那么性感的方式給予其他人以真正的關愛。”每一天，當我們給予他人以幫助時，我們自己的生活也會隨之改變。這是因為，無論我們多么成功，當我們跨進這個世界，希望“獲取某種東西”，當我們竭力去實現(xiàn)一個目標時，這些行為都是源自我們感知到的某種“缺乏”。我們專注于自己還缺乏的東西，一心想獲得它，直至達成心愿，接著我們又奔著下一個目標去了。但當我們給予他人幫助的時候，無論我們自身是貧窮還是富裕，我們總能獲得一種充盈的豐裕感。

????我注意到，《茁壯成長》引用了許多大學問家的觀點，比如奧里利烏斯、奧古斯丁和歌德。你最喜歡讀哪些書？最青睞哪些知識分子？

????撰寫《茁壯成長》期間，我一直沉浸在古希臘和羅馬的斯多葛派哲學家的著作之中。斯多葛學派教導我們，不快樂，消極情緒，以及我們今天所稱的“壓力”，都是我們對外部環(huán)境所做判斷的結(jié)果。斯多葛學派認為，唯有在我們能夠掌控自己的內(nèi)心世界時，我們獲得的幸福才最安穩(wěn)。一切身外之物都可能轉(zhuǎn)瞬即逝，所以我們怎么能夠把我們未來的幸福和福祉托付于它們呢？這些見解在我們今天所處的時代仍然非常有意義。

????我最喜歡的一些書皆是出自我最青睞的思想家之手，比如大衛(wèi)?林奇的《捕獲大魚》(Catching the Big Fish)、卡爾?榮格的《回憶，夢想與思考》(Memories, Dreams, Reflections)，以及馬克?威廉姆斯和丹尼?潘曼的《正念：實施一個8周計劃在這個瘋狂的世界尋找平靜》(Mindfulness: An-Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World)。（財富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：葉寒

????Unfortunately the ever-increasing creep of technology -- into our lives, our families, our bedrooms, our brains -- makes it much harder to renew ourselves and connect with our sense of wonder. The average smartphone user checks his or her device every six and a half minutes. That works out to around 150 times a day. Our brains are naturally wired to connect, so it's not easy to turn away from these kinds of stimuli. But the connection that comes from technology is often an unfulfilling, ersatz version of connection. Its siren call (or beep, or blinking light) can crowd out the time and energy we have for real human connection.

????Paradoxically, one of the biggest growth sectors for tools to help us deal with technology is . . . technology. The first stages of the Internet were about data and more data. But now we have plenty of data -- indeed, we're drowning in it -- and all the distraction we could ever hope for. Technology has been very good at giving us what we want, but not always what we need. So now, many in the tech world have realized there's a growth opportunity for applications and tools that help us focus and filter all that data and distraction. I have collected some of my favorites in an appendix at the end of Thrive. The less distracted we are, the more likely we are to tap into our sense of wonder and observe the world around us.

????Tell us about the fourth element of the Third Metric: giving. What are the various benefits of being "a giver?"

????So often we think of giving as donating time or money to relief efforts for catastrophes in faraway places, helping people who have nothing. That's obviously critical to do when disaster strikes. But we forget that every day we are surrounded by opportunities to act on that same instinct for giving. These chances are always "under foot." As the nineteenth-century naturalist John Burroughs put it, "The great opportunity is where you are. Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the stars, every place is the center of the world."

????And every place is full of openings to make a real difference in the life of another human being. There are millions of small missed opportunities at home, in our offices, on the subway, on the street where we live, in the grocery store -- what David Foster Wallace called "being able truly to care about other people . . . over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways, every day." When we flex our giving muscles every day, the process begins to transform our own lives. Because however successful we are, when we go out in the world to "get things," when we strive to achieve a goal, we are operating from a perceived deficit, focused on what we don't have and are trying to obtain -- until the goal is achieved. And then we go after the next goal. But when we give however little or much we have we are tapping into our sense of abundance and overflow.

????I noticed that Thrive is filled with references to from a number of eminent intellectuals—Aurelius, Augustine, Goethe. What are some of your favorite books and who are some of your favorite intellectuals?

????While writing Thrive I immersed myself in the writings of the Stoic philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome. Stoicism teaches that unhappiness, negative emotions, and what we would today call "stress" are the result of the judgments we make about external circumstances. To the Stoics, the most secure kind of happiness could be found in the only thing that we are in control of -- our inner world. Everything outside us can be taken away, so how can we entrust our future happiness and well-being to it? These insights are hugely relevant to our time.

????Some of my other favorite books, by some of my favorite thinkers, are Catching the Big Fish, by David Lynch; Memories, Dreams, Reflections, by Carl Jung; and Mindfulness: An-Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World, by Mark Williams and Danny Penman.