Taste for Makers
February 2002 "...Copernicus' aesthetic objections to [equants] provided one essential motive for his rejection of the Ptolemaic system...." - Thomas Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution "All of us had been trained by Kelly Johnson and believed fanatically in his insistence that an airplane that looked beautiful would fly the same way." - Ben Rich, Skunk Works "Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in this
2002 年 2 月 “……哥白尼对[等式]的美学反对为他拒绝托勒密体系提供了一个重要动机……”——托马斯·库恩，《哥白尼革命》“我们所有人都接受过凯利·约翰逊的训练，并狂热地相信他坚持认为一架看起来漂亮的飞机也会以同样的方式飞行。” ——Ben Rich，Skunk Works “美是第一个考验：在这方面没有永久的地位
world for ugly mathematics." - G.
丑陋数学的世界。” - G。
H.
H.
Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology I was talking recently to a friend who teaches at MIT.
数学家哈代的道歉 最近我和一位在麻省理工学院任教的朋友聊天。
His field is hot now and every year he is inundated by applications from would-be graduate students.
他的领域现在很热门，每年他都会收到大量潜在研究生的申请。
"A lot of them seem smart," he said.
“他们中的很多人看起来都很聪明，”他说。
"What I can't tell is whether they have any kind of taste." Taste.
“我无法判断它们是否有某种品味。”品尝。
You don't hear that word much now.
现在你很少听到这个词了。
And yet we still need the underlying
但我们仍然需要底层
concept, whatever we call it.
概念，无论我们如何称呼它。
What my friend meant was that he wanted students who were not just good technicians, but who could use their technical knowledge to design beautiful things.
我朋友的意思是，他想要的学生不仅是优秀的技术人员，而且能够利用他们的技术知识来设计美丽的东西。
Mathematicians call good work "beautiful," and so, either now or in the past, have scientists, engineers, musicians, architects, designers, writers, and painters.
数学家称好的作品是“美丽的”，因此，无论现在还是过去，科学家、工程师、音乐家、建筑师、设计师、作家和画家都是如此。
Is it just a coincidence that they used the same word, or is
他们使用同一个词只是巧合还是
there some overlap in what they meant?
它们的含义有重叠吗？
If there is an overlap, can we use one field's discoveries about beauty to help us in another?
如果存在重叠，我们可以利用一个领域关于美的发现来帮助我们在另一个领域吗？
For those of us who design things, these are not just theoretical questions.
对于我们这些设计者来说，这些不仅仅是理论问题。
If there is such a thing as beauty, we need to be able to recognize it.
如果存在美这样的东西，我们就需要能够识别它。
We need good taste to make good things.
我们需要好的品味才能做出好的东西。
Instead of treating beauty as an airy abstraction, to be either blathered about or avoided depending on how one feels about airy
不要将美视为一种空灵的抽象概念，而应该根据人们对空灵的感觉而对其进行喋喋不休或回避
abstractions, let's try considering it as a practical question: how do you make good stuff?
抛开抽象概念，让我们尝试将其视为一个实际问题：如何制作好东西？
If you mention taste nowadays, a lot of people will tell you that "taste is subjective." They believe this because it really feels that way to them.
现在如果你提到品味，很多人都会告诉你“品味是主观的”。他们相信这一点，因为他们确实有这种感觉。
When they like something, they have no idea why.
当他们喜欢某样东西时，他们不知道为什么。
It could be because it's beautiful, or because their mother had one, or because they saw a movie star with one
可能是因为它很漂亮，或者因为他们的母亲有一个，或者因为他们看到一位电影明星有一个
in a magazine, or because they know it's expensive.
在杂志上，或者因为他们知道它很贵。
Their thoughts are a tangle of unexamined impulses.
他们的思想是一团未经审视的冲动。
Most of us are encouraged, as children, to leave this tangle unexamined.
我们大多数人在孩提时代就被鼓励不要去审视这个纠缠不清的问题。
If you make fun of your little brother for coloring people green in his coloring book, your mother is likely to tell you something like "you like to do it your way and he likes to do it his way." Your mother at this point is not trying to teach you
如果你取笑你的弟弟在他的涂色本上把人涂成绿色，你的妈妈很可能会告诉你“你喜欢按照你的方式做，而他喜欢按照他的方式做”。你妈妈此时并不想教你
important truths about aesthetics.
关于美学的重要真理。
She's trying to get the two of you to stop bickering.
她试图让你们两个停止争吵。
Like many of the half-truths adults tell us, this one contradicts other things they tell us.
就像许多成年人告诉我们的半真半假的事情一样，这一点与他们告诉我们的其他事情相矛盾。
After dinning into you that taste is merely a matter of personal preference, they take you to the museum and tell you that you should pay attention because Leonardo is a great artist.
在告诉你品味只是个人喜好的问题后，他们带你去了博物馆，并告诉你应该注意，因为达芬奇是一位伟大的艺术家。
What goes through the kid's head at this point?
此时孩子的脑子里在想什么？
What does
什么是
he think "great artist" means?
他认为“伟大的艺术家”意味着什么？
After having been told for years that everyone just likes to do things their own way, he is unlikely to head straight for the conclusion that a great artist is someone whose work is better than the others'.
多年来，他一直被告知每个人都喜欢按照自己的方式做事，但他不太可能直接得出这样的结论：伟大的艺术家就是作品比其他人更好的人。
A far more likely theory, in his Ptolemaic model of the universe, is that a great artist is something that's good for you, like broccoli, because someone said so in a book.
在他的托勒密宇宙模型中，一个更有可能的理论是，伟大的艺术家是对你有好处的东西，就像西兰花一样，因为有人在书中这么说。
Saying that taste is just personal preference is a good way to prevent disputes.
说口味只是个人喜好，是防止争议的好方法。
The trouble is, it's not true.
问题是，这不是真的。
You feel this when you start to design things.
当你开始设计东西时你就会感觉到这一点。
Whatever job people do, they naturally want to do better.
无论人们从事什么工作，他们自然都希望做得更好。
Football players like to win games.
足球运动员喜欢赢得比赛。
CEOs like to increase earnings.
CEO们喜欢增加收入。
It's a matter of pride, and a real pleasure, to get better at your job.
在工作中做得更好是一种自豪感，也是一种真正的快乐。
But if your job is to design things, and there is no such thing
但如果你的工作是设计东西，那么就没有这样的东西
as beauty, then there is no way to get better at your job.
作为美女，那么你的工作就没有办法做得更好。
If taste is just personal preference, then everyone's is already perfect: you like whatever you like, and that's it.
如果口味只是个人喜好，那么每个人的口味都已经是完美的了：你喜欢什么就吃什么，仅此而已。
As in any job, as you continue to design things, you'll get better at it.
与任何工作一样，当你不断设计东西时，你就会做得更好。
Your tastes will change.
你的品味会改变。
And, like anyone who gets better at their job, you'll know you're getting better.
而且，就像任何在工作中取得更好成绩的人一样，您会知道自己正在变得更好。
If so, your old tastes were not merely different, but worse.
如果是这样，你以前的品味不仅不同，而且更糟。
Poof goes the axiom that
普夫的公理是
taste can't be wrong.
味道不会错。
Relativism is fashionable at the moment, and that may hamper you from thinking about taste, even as yours grows.
相对主义目前很流行，这可能会妨碍你思考品味，即使你的品味在增长。
But if you come out of the closet and admit, at least to yourself, that there is such a thing as good and bad design, then you can start to study good design in detail.
但如果你坦白承认，至少对自己来说，设计有好坏之分，那么你就可以开始详细研究好的设计。
How has your taste changed?
你的口味有什么变化吗？
When you made mistakes, what caused you to make them?
当你犯错误时，是什么原因导致你犯这些错误的？
What have other people learned about
其他人学到了什么
design?
设计？
Once you start to examine the question, it's surprising how much different fields' ideas of beauty have in common.
一旦你开始审视这个问题，你就会惊讶地发现不同领域的美观念有如此多的共同点。
The same principles of good design crop up again and again.
良好设计的相同原则一次又一次地出现。
Good design is simple.
好的设计很简单。
You hear this from math to painting.
从数学到绘画，你都会听到这一点。
In math it means that a shorter proof tends to be a better one.
在数学中，这意味着证明越短越好。
Where axioms are concerned, especially, less is more.
尤其是在涉及公理时，少即是多。
It means much the same thing in programming.
这在编程中意味着同样的事情。
For architects and designers it means that beauty should depend on a few carefully chosen structural elements rather than a profusion of superficial ornament.
对于建筑师和设计师来说，这意味着美应该取决于一些精心选择的结构元素，而不是大量的表面装饰。
(Ornament is not in itself bad, only when it's camouflage on insipid form.) Similarly, in painting, a still life of a few carefully observed and solidly modelled objects will tend to be more interesting than a stretch of flashy but mindlessly repetitive painting of, say, a lace collar.
（装饰本身并不是坏事，只是当它伪装成平淡的形式时。）同样，在绘画中，一些仔细观察和造型牢固的物体的静物往往比一系列浮华但盲目重复的绘画（例如蕾丝领子）更有趣。
In writing it means: say what you mean and say it briefly.
书面表达的意思是：说出你的意思并简短地说出。
It seems strange to have to emphasize simplicity.
必须强调简单性似乎很奇怪。
You'd think simple would be the default.
您可能会认为简单是默认的。
Ornate is more work.
华丽是更多的工作。
But something seems to come over people when they try to be creative.
但当人们试图发挥创造力时，似乎就会有一些事情发生。
Beginning writers adopt a pompous tone that doesn't sound anything like the way they speak.
新手作家会采用一种浮夸的语气，听起来与他们说话的方式完全不同。
Designers trying to be artistic resort to swooshes and curlicues.
设计师们试图通过旋风和花饰来实现艺术化。
Painters discover that they're expressionists.
画家发现他们是表现主义者。
It's all evasion.
都是逃避。
Underneath the long words or the "expressive" brush strokes, there is not much going on, and that's frightening.
在长长的文字或“富有表现力”的笔触之下，并没有发生太多事情，这很可怕。
When you're forced to be simple, you're forced to face the real problem.
当你被迫变得简单时，你就被迫面对真正的问题。
When you can't deliver ornament, you have to deliver substance.
当你无法提供装饰时，你必须提供实质内容。
Good design is timeless.
好的设计是永恒的。
In math, every proof is timeless unless it contains a mistake.
在数学中，每个证明都是永恒的，除非它包含错误。
So what does Hardy mean when he says there is no permanent
那么，当哈代说没有永恒的事物时，他的意思是什么？
place for ugly mathematics?
丑陋数学的地方？
He means the same thing Kelly Johnson did: if something is ugly, it can't be the best solution.
他的意思和凯利·约翰逊的意思是一样的：如果某件事是丑陋的，它就不可能是最好的解决方案。
There must be a better one, and eventually someone will discover it.
一定有更好的，最终有人会发现它。
Aiming at timelessness is a way to make yourself find the best answer: if you can imagine someone surpassing you, you should do it yourself.
追求永恒是让自己找到最佳答案的一种方式：如果你能想象有人超越你，你就应该自己去做。
Some of the greatest masters did this so well that they left little room for those who came after.
一些最伟大的大师在这方面做得非常好，以至于他们为后继者留下了很少的空间。
Every engraver since Durer has had to live in his shadow.
自丢勒以来的每一位雕刻家都不得不生活在他的阴影下。
Aiming at timelessness is also a way to evade the grip of fashion.
追求永恒也是逃避时尚束缚的一种方式。
Fashions almost by definition change with time, so if you can make something that will still look good far into the future, then its appeal must derive more from merit and less from fashion.
时尚几乎从定义上来说会随着时间而变化，所以如果你能做出一些在遥远的未来仍然好看的东西，那么它的吸引力一定更多地来自于优点，而不是来自时尚。
Strangely enough, if you want to make something that will appeal to future generations, one way to do it is to
奇怪的是，如果你想做一些能够吸引子孙后代的东西，一种方法就是
try to appeal to past generations.
尝试吸引过去几代人。
It's hard to guess what the future will be like, but we can be sure it will be like the past in caring nothing for present fashions.
很难猜测未来会是什么样子，但我们可以肯定，它会像过去一样，不关心现在的时尚。
So if you can make something that appeals to people today and would also have appealed to people in 1500, there is a good chance it will appeal to people in 2500.
因此，如果你能制作出既能吸引今天的人们，又能吸引 1500 年的人们的东西，那么它很有可能会吸引 2500 年的人们。
Good design solves the right problem.
好的设计可以解决正确的问题。
The typical stove has four burners arranged in a square, and a dial
典型的炉子有四个呈正方形排列的燃烧器，还有一个表盘
to control each.
来控制每一个。
How do you arrange the dials?
你如何排列表盘？
The simplest answer is to put them in a row.
最简单的答案是将它们排成一行。
But this is a simple answer to the wrong question.
但这是对错误问题的简单回答。
The dials are for humans to use, and if you put them in a row, the unlucky human will have to stop and think each time about which dial matches which burner.
这些转盘是供人类使用的，如果将它们排成一排，那么不幸的人类每次都必须停下来思考哪个转盘与哪个燃烧器相匹配。
Better to arrange the dials in a square like the burners.
最好将刻度盘像燃烧器一样排列成正方形。
A lot of bad design is industrious, but misguided.
很多糟糕的设计都是勤奋的，但却被误导了。
In the mid twentieth century there was a vogue for setting text in sans-serif fonts.
二十世纪中叶，流行用无衬线字体设置文本。
These fonts are closer to the pure, underlying letterforms.
这些字体更接近纯粹的底层字母形式。
But in text that's not the problem you're trying to solve.
但在文本中，这不是您要解决的问题。
For legibility it's more important that letters be easy to tell apart.
为了易读，更重要的是字母要易于区分。
It may look Victorian, but a Times Roman lowercase g is easy to tell from a lowercase y.
它可能看起来是维多利亚时代的，但很容易区分 Times Roman 小写 g 和小写 y。
Problems can be improved as well as solutions.
问题可以改进，解决方案也可以改进。
In software, an intractable problem can usually be replaced by an equivalent one that's easy to solve.
在软件中，一个棘手的问题通常可以被一个易于解决的等效问题所取代。
Physics progressed faster as the problem became predicting observable behavior, instead of reconciling it with scripture.
随着问题变成预测可观察的行为，而不是使其与圣经相一致，物理学进步得更快。
Good design is suggestive.
好的设计是有启发性的。
Jane Austen's novels contain almost no description; instead of telling you how everything looks, she tells her story so well that you envision the scene for yourself.
简·奥斯汀的小说几乎没有任何描写；她不会告诉你一切看起来如何，而是把她的故事讲得很好，让你自己想象场景。
Likewise, a painting that suggests is usually more engaging than one that tells.
同样，一幅暗示性的绘画通常比一幅讲述性的绘画更有吸引力。
Everyone makes up their own story about the Mona Lisa.
每个人都编造了自己关于蒙娜丽莎的故事。
In architecture and design, this principle means that a building or object should let you use it how you want: a good building, for example, will serve as a backdrop for whatever life people want to lead in it, instead of making them live as if they were executing a program
在建筑和设计中，这一原则意味着建筑物或物体应该让你按照你想要的方式使用它：例如，一栋好的建筑将作为人们想要在其中过的任何生活的背景，而不是让他们像在执行程序一样生活
written by the architect.
建筑师写的。
In software, it means you should give users a few basic elements that they can combine as they wish, like Lego.
在软件中，这意味着你应该为用户提供一些他们可以随意组合的基本元素，就像乐高一样。
In math it means a proof that becomes the basis for a lot of new work is preferable to a proof that was difficult, but doesn't lead to future discoveries; in the sciences generally, citation is considered a rough indicator of merit.
在数学中，这意味着成为许多新工作基础的证明比困难但不会带来未来发现的证明更可取。一般来说，在科学领域，引用被认为是衡量优点的粗略指标。
Good design is often slightly funny.
好的设计往往是有点有趣的。
This one
这个
may not always be true.
可能并不总是正确的。
But Durer's engravings and Saarinen's womb chair and the Pantheon and the original Porsche 911 all seem to me slightly funny.
但杜勒的版画、沙里宁的子宫椅、万神殿和最初的保时捷 911 在我看来都有点滑稽。
Godel's incompleteness theorem seems like a practical joke.
哥德尔不完备定理看起来就像是一个恶作剧。
I think it's because humor is related to strength.
我认为这是因为幽默与力量有关。
To have a sense of humor is to be strong: to keep one's sense of humor is to shrug off misfortunes, and to lose one's sense of humor is to be wounded by them.
有幽默感就是坚强：保持幽默感就是对不幸不屑一顾，失去幽默感就是被不幸所伤害。
And so the mark-- or at least the prerogative-- of strength is not to take oneself too seriously.
因此，力量的标志——或者至少是特权——就是不要太认真地对待自己。
The confident will often, like swallows, seem to be making fun of the whole process slightly, as Hitchcock does in his films or Bruegel in his paintings-- or Shakespeare, for that matter.
自信的人往往会像燕子一样，似乎对整个过程稍稍取笑，就像希区柯克在他的电影中所做的那样，或者勃鲁盖尔在他的画作中所做的那样，或者莎士比亚那样。
Good design may not have to be funny, but it's hard to imagine something that could be called humorless also being
好的设计可能不一定是有趣的，但很难想象一些可以被称为无幽默感的东西也会是有趣的。
good design.
好的设计。
Good design is hard.
好的设计是很难的。
If you look at the people who've done great work, one thing they all seem to have in common is that they worked very hard.
如果你看看那些做出了伟大工作的人，他们似乎都有一个共同点，那就是他们工作非常努力。
If you're not working hard, you're probably wasting your time.
如果你不努力工作，你可能就是在浪费时间。
Hard problems call for great efforts.
难题需要付出很大的努力。
In math, difficult proofs require ingenious solutions, and those tend to be interesting.
在数学中，困难的证明需要巧妙的解决方案，而这些解决方案往往很有趣。
Ditto in engineering.
工程领域也是如此。
When you have to climb a mountain you toss everything unnecessary
当你必须爬山时，你会扔掉所有不必要的东西
out of your pack.
从你的包里拿出来。
And so an architect who has to build on a difficult site, or a small budget, will find that he is forced to produce an elegant design.
因此，一位必须在困难的地点或预算很少的地方建造的建筑师会发现他被迫做出优雅的设计。
Fashions and flourishes get knocked aside by the difficult business of solving the problem at all.
时尚和繁荣都被解决问题的艰巨任务所抛弃。
Not every kind of hard is good.
并不是每一种困难都是好的。
There is good pain and bad pain.
有好的疼痛和坏的疼痛。
You want the kind of pain you get from going running, not the kind you get from stepping on a nail.
你想要的是跑步时的疼痛，而不是踩到钉子时的疼痛。
A difficult problem could be good for a designer, but a fickle client or unreliable materials would not be.
一个难题对设计师来说可能是件好事，但善变的客户或不可靠的材料则不然。
In art, the highest place has traditionally been given to paintings of people.
在艺术中，传统上人物画占据着最高的地位。
There is something to this tradition, and not just because pictures of faces get to press buttons in our brains that other pictures don't.
这个传统有一定的道理，不仅仅是因为面孔的图片可以按下我们大脑中的按钮，而其他图片则不能。
We are so good at looking at faces that we force anyone who draws them to work hard to satisfy us.
我们太擅长观察面孔，以至于我们强迫任何画面孔的人努力工作来满足我们。
If you
如果你
draw a tree and you change the angle of a branch five degrees, no one will know.
画一棵树，然后将树枝的角度改变五度，没有人会知道。
When you change the angle of someone's eye five degrees, people notice.
当你将某人的眼睛角度改变五度时，人们会注意到。
When Bauhaus designers adopted Sullivan's "form follows function," what they meant was, form should follow function.
当包豪斯设计师采纳沙利文的“形式服从功能”时，他们的意思是，形式应该服从功能。
And if function is hard enough, form is forced to follow it, because there is no effort to spare for error.
如果功能足够困难，形式就被迫跟随它，因为不遗余力地犯错误。
Wild animals are beautiful because they have hard lives.
野生动物之所以美丽，是因为它们的生活很艰苦。
Good design looks easy.
好的设计看起来很简单。
Like great athletes, great designers make it look easy.
就像伟大的运动员一样，伟大的设计师让它看起来很容易。
Mostly this is an illusion.
大多数情况下，这是一种幻觉。
The easy, conversational tone of good writing comes only on the eighth rewrite.
优秀写作的轻松、对话式的语气只有在第八次重写时才会出现。
In science and engineering, some of the greatest discoveries seem so simple that you say to yourself, I could have thought of that.
在科学和工程领域，一些最伟大的发现看起来是如此简单，以至于你对自己说，我本可以想到这一点。
The discoverer is entitled to reply, why didn't you?
发现者有权回复，你为什么不回复？
Some Leonardo heads are just a few lines.
有些莱昂纳多的头像只有几行字。
You look
你看
at them and you think, all you have to do is get eight or ten lines in the right place and you've made this beautiful portrait.
看着它们，你会想，你所要做的就是在正确的位置画出八到十条线，你就画出了这幅美丽的肖像。
Well, yes, but you have to get them in exactly the right place.
嗯，是的，但是你必须把它们放在正确的位置。
The slightest error will make the whole thing collapse.
稍有差错就会让整个事情崩溃。
Line drawings are in fact the most difficult visual medium, because they demand near perfection.
线条画实际上是最困难的视觉媒介，因为它们要求近乎完美。
In math terms, they are a closed-form solution; lesser artists literally solve the same problems by successive
用数学术语来说，它们是一个封闭式的解决方案；较小的艺术家实际上通过连续的解决相同的问题
approximation.
近似值。
One of the reasons kids give up drawing at ten or so is that they decide to start drawing like grownups, and one of the first things they try is a line drawing of a face.
孩子们在十岁左右放弃画画的原因之一是他们决定开始像成年人一样画画，而他们尝试的第一件事就是画一张脸。
Smack!
咂！
In most fields the appearance of ease seems to come with practice.
在大多数领域，看似轻松似乎都是通过练习来实现的。
Perhaps what practice does is train your unconscious mind to handle tasks that used to require conscious thought.
也许练习的作用是训练你的无意识思维来处理过去需要有意识思考的任务。
In some cases you literally train your body.
在某些情况下，你实际上是在训练你的身体。
An expert pianist can
专业的钢琴家可以
play notes faster than the brain can send signals to his hand.
弹奏音符的速度比大脑向手发送信号的速度要快。
Likewise an artist, after a while, can make visual perception flow in through his eye and out through his hand as automatically as someone tapping his foot to a beat.
同样，艺术家在一段时间后可以让视觉感知通过他的眼睛流入并通过他的手流出，就像有人随着节拍打拍子一样自动。
When people talk about being in "the zone," I think what they mean is that the spinal cord has the situation under control.
当人们谈论处于“区域”时，我认为他们的意思是脊髓控制了情况。
Your spinal cord is less hesitant, and it frees conscious thought for the hard problems.
你的脊髓不再那么犹豫，它可以让你有意识地思考困难的问题。
Good design uses symmetry.
好的设计利用对称性。
I think symmetry may just be one way to achieve simplicity, but it's important enough to be mentioned on its own.
我认为对称可能只是实现简单性的一种方式，但它的重要性足以单独提及。
Nature uses it a lot, which is a good sign.
大自然经常使用它，这是一个好兆头。
There are two kinds of symmetry, repetition and recursion.
对称有两种，重复和递归。
Recursion means repetition in subelements, like the pattern of veins in a leaf.
递归意味着子元素的重复，就像叶子中的静脉图案一样。
Symmetry is unfashionable in some fields now, in reaction to excesses in the past.
由于过去的过度行为，对称性现在在某些领域已经不流行了。
Architects started consciously
建筑师有意识地开始
making buildings asymmetric in Victorian times and by the 1920s asymmetry was an explicit premise of modernist architecture.
在维多利亚时代和 20 年代，使建筑物不对称是现代主义建筑的明确前提。
Even these buildings only tended to be asymmetric about major axes, though; there were hundreds of minor symmetries.
然而，即使是这些建筑物也只是关于主轴线不对称。有数百个小对称性。
In writing you find symmetry at every level, from the phrases in a sentence to the plot of a novel.
在写作中，从句子中的短语到小说的情节，你会发现各个层面上的对称性。
You find the same in music and art.
你在音乐和艺术中也会发现同样的情况。
Mosaics (and some Cezannes) get extra visual punch by making
马赛克（和一些塞尚）通过制作获得额外的视觉冲击力
the whole picture out of the same atoms.
整个画面都是由同一个原子组成的。
Compositional symmetry yields some of the most memorable paintings, especially when two halves react to one another, as in the Creation of Adam or American Gothic .
构图对称产生了一些最令人难忘的画作，尤其是当两个半体相互反应时，例如《创造亚当》或《美国哥特式》。
In math and engineering, recursion, especially, is a big win.
在数学和工程领域，递归尤其是一个巨大的胜利。
Inductive proofs are wonderfully short.
归纳证明非常简短。
In software, a problem that can be solved by recursion is nearly always best solved that way.
在软件中，可以通过递归解决的问题几乎总是以这种方式得到最好的解决。
The Eiffel Tower looks striking partly
埃菲尔铁塔部分看起来很引人注目
because it is a recursive solution, a tower on a tower.
因为它是一个递归解决方案，是塔上的塔。
The danger of symmetry, and repetition especially, is that it can be used as a substitute for thought.
对称性，尤其是重复性的危险在于，它可以被用作思想的替代品。
Good design resembles nature.
好的设计就像自然。
It's not so much that resembling nature is intrinsically good as that nature has had a long time to work on the problem.
与其说模仿自然本质上是好的，不如说自然已经花了很长时间来解决这个问题。
It's a good sign when your answer resembles nature's.
当你的答案与自然的答案相似时，这是一个好兆头。
It's not cheating to copy.
抄袭并不是作弊。
Few would deny that a story should be like life.
很少有人会否认故事应该像生活一样。
Working from life is a valuable tool in painting too, though its role has often been misunderstood.
写生也是绘画的一个宝贵工具，尽管它的作用经常被误解。
The aim is not simply to make a record.
目的不仅仅是创造一个记录。
The point of painting from life is that it gives your mind something to chew on: when your eyes are looking at something, your hand will do more interesting work.
写生的意义就在于它给你的大脑一些可以咀嚼的东西：当你的眼睛在看某样东西时，你的手会做更有趣的工作。
Imitating nature also works in engineering.
模仿自然也适用于工程。
Boats have long had spines and ribs like an animal's ribcage.
长期以来，船都有脊椎和肋骨，就像动物的胸腔一样。
In some cases we may have to wait for better technology: early aircraft designers were mistaken to design aircraft that looked like birds, because they didn't have materials or power sources light enough (the Wrights' engine weighed 152 lbs.
在某些情况下，我们可能不得不等待更好的技术：早期的飞机设计师错误地设计了看起来像鸟的飞机，因为它们没有足够轻的材料或动力源（莱特兄弟的发动机重 152 磅）。
and generated only 12 hp.) or control systems sophisticated enough for machines that flew like birds, but I could imagine little unmanned reconnaissance planes flying
并且仅产生 12 马力。）或控制系统对于像鸟一样飞行的机器来说足够复杂，但我可以想象小型无人驾驶侦察机飞行
like birds in fifty years.
像五十年后的鸟儿一样。
Now that we have enough computer power, we can imitate nature's method as well as its results.
现在我们有了足够的计算机能力，我们可以模仿大自然的方法及其结果。
Genetic algorithms may let us create things too complex to design in the ordinary sense.
遗传算法可能会让我们创造出过于复杂而无法进行普通意义上的设计的事物。
Good design is redesign.
好的设计是重新设计。
It's rare to get things right the first time.
第一次就能把事情做好的情况很少见。
Experts expect to throw away some early work.
专家们预计会放弃一些早期的工作。
They plan for plans to change.
他们计划改变计划。
It takes confidence to throw work away.
扔掉工作需要信心。
You have to be able
你必须能够
to think, there's more where that came from.
想一想，还有更多的来源。
When people first start drawing, for example, they're often reluctant to redo parts that aren't right; they feel they've been lucky to get that far, and if they try to redo something, it will turn out worse.
例如，当人们第一次开始画画时，他们通常不愿意重做不正确的部分；他们觉得自己能走到这一步已经很幸运了，如果他们试图重做某件事，结果会更糟。
Instead they convince themselves that the drawing is not that bad, really-- in fact, maybe they meant it to look that way.
相反，他们说服自己，这幅画并没有那么糟糕，真的——事实上，也许他们的意思是让它看起来像那样。
Dangerous territory, that; if anything you should
危险的地区；如果有什么事你应该
cultivate dissatisfaction.
培养不满情绪。
In Leonardo's drawings there are often five or six attempts to get a line right.
在列奥纳多的画作中，经常要进行五六次尝试才能画出正确的线条。
The distinctive back of the Porsche 911 only appeared in the redesign of an awkward prototype .
保时捷 911 独特的背面仅出现在对笨拙原型的重新设计中。
In Wright's early plans for the Guggenheim , the right half was a ziggurat; he inverted it to get the present shape.
在赖特早期的古根海姆计划中，右半部分是一座金字形神塔；右半部分是一座金字形神塔。他把它颠倒过来，得到了现在的形状。
Mistakes are natural.
错误是自然的。
Instead of treating them as disasters, make them easy to acknowledge and easy to fix.
不要将它们视为灾难，而应让它们易于承认且易于修复。
Leonardo more or less invented the sketch, as a way to make drawing bear a greater weight of exploration.
列奥纳多或多或少发明了素描，作为一种让绘画承担更大探索负担的方式。
Open-source software has fewer bugs because it admits the possibility of bugs.
开源软件的错误较少，因为它承认存在错误的可能性。
It helps to have a medium that makes change easy.
拥有一种使改变变得容易的媒介是有帮助的。
When oil paint replaced tempera in the fifteenth century, it helped painters to deal with difficult subjects like the human figure because, unlike tempera, oil can be blended and overpainted.
当油画在十五世纪取代蛋彩画时，它帮助画家处理像人物这样的困难主题，因为与蛋彩画不同，油画可以混合和覆盖。
Good design can copy.
好的设计是可以复制的。
Attitudes to copying often make a round trip.
对抄袭的态度常常会来来回回。
A novice imitates without knowing it; next he tries consciously to be original; finally, he decides it's more important to be right than original.
新手不知不觉地模仿；接下来，他有意识地尝试保持原创性。最后，他认为正确比原创更重要。
Unknowing imitation is almost a recipe for bad design.
无意识的模仿几乎是糟糕设计的根源。
If you don't know where your ideas are coming from, you're probably imitating an imitator.
如果你不知道自己的想法从何而来，那么你很可能在模仿模仿者。
Raphael so pervaded mid-nineteenth century taste that almost
拉斐尔的品味如此渗透到十九世纪中叶，几乎
anyone who tried to draw was imitating him, often at several removes.
任何试图画画的人都在模仿他，而且常常是模仿他。
It was this, more than Raphael's own work, that bothered the Pre-Raphaelites.
正是这一点，而不是拉斐尔自己的作品，让拉斐尔前派感到困扰。
The ambitious are not content to imitate.
雄心勃勃的人不满足于模仿。
The second phase in the growth of taste is a conscious attempt at originality.
品味成长的第二阶段是有意识地尝试原创性。
I think the greatest masters go on to achieve a kind of selflessness.
我认为最伟大的大师会继续实现一种无私。
They just want to get the right answer, and if part of the right answer has already been discovered by someone else,
他们只是想得到正确的答案，如果正确答案的一部分已经被其他人发现了，
that's no reason not to use it.
这没有理由不使用它。
They're confident enough to take from anyone without feeling that their own vision will be lost in the process.
他们有足够的信心从任何人那里获取知识，而不会觉得自己的愿景会在这个过程中丧失。
Good design is often strange.
好的设计往往是奇怪的。
Some of the very best work has an uncanny quality: Euler's Formula , Bruegel's Hunters in the Snow , the SR-71 , Lisp .
一些最好的作品具有不可思议的品质：欧拉公式、勃鲁盖尔的《雪中猎人》、SR-71、Lisp。
They're not just beautiful, but strangely beautiful.
她们不仅美丽，而且美丽得奇异。
I'm not sure why.
我不知道为什么。
It may just be my own stupidity.
这可能只是我自己的愚蠢。
A can-opener must seem miraculous to a dog.
对于狗来说，开罐器一定很神奇。
Maybe if I were smart
也许如果我聪明的话
enough it would seem the most natural thing in the world that e i*pi = -1.
e i*pi = -1 似乎是世界上最自然的事情。
It is after all necessarily true.
毕竟这必然是真的。
Most of the qualities I've mentioned are things that can be cultivated, but I don't think it works to cultivate strangeness.
我所提到的大多数品质都是可以培养的，但我认为培养陌生感是没有作用的。
The best you can do is not squash it if it starts to appear.
如果它开始出现，你能做的最好的事情就是不要压扁它。
Einstein didn't try to make relativity strange.
爱因斯坦并没有试图让相对论变得奇怪。
He tried to make it true, and the truth turned out to be strange.
他试图让它成真，但事实却很奇怪。
At an art school where I once studied, the students wanted most of all to develop a personal style.
在我曾经就读的一所艺术学校，学生们最希望的是形成个人风格。
But if you just try to make good things, you'll inevitably do it in a distinctive way, just as each person walks in a distinctive way.
但如果你只是想做好事，你就不可避免地会以独特的方式去做，就像每个人走路的方式都不同一样。
Michelangelo was not trying to paint like Michelangelo.
米开朗基罗并不想像米开朗基罗那样画画。
He was just trying to paint well; he couldn't help painting like Michelangelo.
他只是想画得好；他情不自禁地像米开朗基罗一样画画。
The only style worth having is the one you can't help.
唯一值得拥有的风格就是你无法控制的风格。
And this is especially true for strangeness.
对于陌生事物尤其如此。
There is no shortcut to it.
没有捷径可走。
The Northwest Passage that the Mannerists, the Romantics, and two generations of American high school students have searched for does not seem to exist.
矫饰主义者、浪漫主义者和两代美国高中生所追寻的西北航道似乎并不存在。
The only way to get there is to go through good and come out the other side.
到达那里的唯一方法就是经历好的一面，然后从另一面出来。
Good design happens in chunks.
好的设计是分块进行的。
The inhabitants of fifteenth century Florence included Brunelleschi, Ghiberti,
十五世纪佛罗伦萨的居民包括布鲁内莱斯基、吉贝尔蒂、
Donatello, Masaccio, Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Verrocchio, Botticelli, Leonardo, and Michelangelo.
多纳泰罗、马萨乔、菲利波·里皮、弗拉·安吉利科、韦罗基奥、波提切利、莱昂纳多和米开朗基罗。
Milan at the time was as big as Florence.
当时的米兰和佛罗伦萨一样大。
How many fifteenth century Milanese artists can you name?
您能说出多少位十五世纪米兰艺术家的名字？
Something was happening in Florence in the fifteenth century.
十五世纪的佛罗伦萨发生了一些事情。
And it can't have been heredity, because it isn't happening now.
这不可能是遗传，因为现在还没有发生。
You have to assume that whatever inborn ability Leonardo and Michelangelo had, there were
你必须假设，无论列奥纳多和米开朗基罗有什么天生的能力，他们都有
people born in Milan with just as much.
出生在米兰的人也有同样的经历。
What happened to the Milanese Leonardo?
米兰人莱昂纳多怎么了？
There are roughly a thousand times as many people alive in the US right now as lived in Florence during the fifteenth century.
目前美国的人口数量大约是 15 世纪佛罗伦萨人口的一千倍。
A thousand Leonardos and a thousand Michelangelos walk among us.
一千个列奥纳多和一千个米开朗基罗行走在我们中间。
If DNA ruled, we should be greeted daily by artistic marvels.
如果 DNA 占主导地位，我们每天都会看到艺术奇迹。
We aren't, and the reason is that to make Leonardo you need more than his innate ability.
我们不是，原因是要塑造莱昂纳多，你需要的不仅仅是他与生俱来的能力。
You also need Florence
你还需要佛罗伦萨
in 1450.
1450年。
Nothing is more powerful than a community of talented people working on related problems.
没有什么比致力于解决相关问题的人才社区更强大的了。
Genes count for little by comparison: being a genetic Leonardo was not enough to compensate for having been born near Milan instead of Florence.
相比之下，基因就显得微不足道了：列奥纳多的基因并不足以弥补他出生在米兰附近而不是佛罗伦萨的影响。
Today we move around more, but great work still comes disproportionately from a few hotspots: the Bauhaus, the Manhattan Project, the New Yorker, Lockheed's Skunk Works, Xerox Parc.
如今，我们的出行越来越频繁，但伟大的作品仍然不成比例地来自几个热点：包豪斯、曼哈顿计划、纽约客、洛克希德臭鼬工厂、施乐帕克研究中心。
At any given time there are a few hot topics and a few groups doing great work on them, and it's nearly impossible to do good work yourself if you're too far removed from one of these centers.
在任何特定时间，都会有一些热门话题和一些小组在这些话题上做着出色的工作，如果你离这些中心之一太远，你自己几乎不可能做好工作。
You can push or pull these trends to some extent, but you can't break away from them.
你可以在某种程度上推动或拉动这些趋势，但你无法摆脱它们。
(Maybe you can, but the Milanese Leonardo couldn't.) Good design is often daring.
（也许你可以，但米兰达·芬奇不能。）好的设计往往是大胆的。
At every period of history, people have believed things that were just
在每个历史时期，人们都相信正义的事物
ridiculous, and believed them so strongly that you risked ostracism or even violence by saying otherwise.
荒谬，并且如此坚定地相信他们，以至于你如果不说的话就会冒着被排斥甚至暴力的风险。
If our own time were any different, that would be remarkable.
如果我们所处的时代有所不同，那就太了不起了。
As far as I can tell it isn't .
据我所知，事实并非如此。
This problem afflicts not just every era, but in some degree every field.
这个问题不仅困扰着每个时代，而且在某种程度上困扰着每个领域。
Much Renaissance art was in its time considered shockingly secular: according to Vasari, Botticelli repented and gave up painting, and
许多文艺复兴时期的艺术在当时被认为是极其世俗的：根据瓦萨里的说法，波提切利悔悟并放弃了绘画，并且
Fra Bartolommeo and Lorenzo di Credi actually burned some of their work.
弗拉·巴托洛梅奥（Fra Bartolommeo）和洛伦佐·迪·克雷迪（Lorenzo di Credi）实际上烧毁了他们的一些作品。
Einstein's theory of relativity offended many contemporary physicists, and was not fully accepted for decades-- in France, not until the 1950s.
爱因斯坦的相对论冒犯了许多当代物理学家，几十年来一直没有被完全接受——在法国，直到 20 世纪 50 年代才被完全接受。
Today's experimental error is tomorrow's new theory.
今天的实验错误就是明天的新理论。
If you want to discover great new things, then instead of turning a blind eye to the places where conventional wisdom and truth don't quite meet, you should pay particular attention
如果你想发现伟大的新事物，那么你应该特别注意，而不是对传统智慧和真理不完全符合的地方视而不见。
to them.
给他们。
As a practical matter, I think it's easier to see ugliness than to imagine beauty.
实际上，我认为看到丑比想象美更容易。
Most of the people who've made beautiful things seem to have done it by fixing something that they thought ugly.
大多数创造美丽事物的人似乎都是通过修复他们认为丑陋的东西来做到的。
Great work usually seems to happen because someone sees something and thinks, I could do better than that.
伟大的工作通常似乎会发生，因为有人看到一些东西并认为我可以做得更好。
Giotto saw traditional Byzantine madonnas painted according to a formula that had satisfied everyone for centuries, and to him
乔托看到传统的拜占庭圣母按照几个世纪以来让每个人都满意的公式绘制，对他来说
they looked wooden and unnatural.
它们看上去很木讷，很不自然。
Copernicus was so troubled by a hack that all his contemporaries could tolerate that he felt there must be a better solution.
哥白尼对黑客攻击感到如此困扰，以至于他的所有同时代人都可以容忍，他认为必须有更好的解决方案。
Intolerance for ugliness is not in itself enough.
对丑陋的不容忍本身还不够。
You have to understand a field well before you develop a good nose for what needs fixing.
在你对需要解决的问题培养出良好的嗅觉之前，你必须充分了解一个领域。
You have to do your homework.
你必须做功课。
But as you become expert in a field, you'll start to hear little voices saying, What a hack!
但当你成为某个领域的专家时，你会开始听到一些小声音说，真是个黑客！
There must be a better way.
一定有更好的方法。
Don't ignore those voices.
不要忽视这些声音。
Cultivate them.
培养他们。
The recipe for great work is: very exacting taste, plus the ability to gratify it.
伟大工作的秘诀是：非常严格的品味，加上满足它的能力。
Notes Sullivan actually said "form ever follows function," but I think the usual misquotation is closer to what modernist architects meant.
沙利文实际上说过“形式永远追随功能”，但我认为通常的错误引用更接近现代主义建筑师的意思。
Stephen G.
斯蒂芬·G.
Brush, "Why was Relativity Accepted?" Phys.
刷子，“为什么相对论被接受？”物理。
Perspect.
透视。
1 (1999) 184-214.
1（1999）184-214。