A Project of One's Own

June 2021 A few days ago, on the way home from school, my nine year old son told me he couldn't wait to get home to write more of the story he was working on.

2021 年 6 月 几天前，在放学回家的路上，我九岁的儿子告诉我，他迫不及待地想回家写更多他正在写的故事。

This made me as happy as anything I've heard him say — not just because he was excited about his story, but because he'd discovered this way of working.

这让我和我听到他说的任何事情一样高兴——不仅因为他对自己的故事感到兴奋，还因为他发现了这种工作方式。

Working on a project of your own is as different from ordinary work as skating is from walking.

从事自己的项目与普通工作的不同之处就像滑冰与步行不同一样。

It's more fun, but also much more productive.

这更有趣，但也更有成效。

What proportion of great work has been done by people who were skating in this sense?

从这个意义上讲，从事滑冰的人完成了多少伟大的工作？

If not all of it, certainly a lot.

即使不是全部，也肯定是很多。

There is something special about working on a project of your own.

从事自己的项目有一些特别的地方。

I wouldn't say exactly that you're happier.

我不会确切地说你更快乐。

A better word would be excited, or engaged.

更好的词应该是“兴奋”或“投入”。

You're happy when things are going well, but often they aren't.

当事情进展顺利时你会很高兴，但通常情况并非如此。

When I'm writing an essay, most of the time I'm

当我写论文时，大多数时候我

worried and puzzled: worried that the essay will turn out badly, and puzzled because I'm groping for some idea that I can't see clearly enough.

担心和困惑：担心论文会写得不好，困惑是因为我正在摸索一些我看不够清楚的想法。

Will I be able to pin it down with words?

我能用言语来确定吗？

In the end I usually can, if I take long enough, but I'm never sure; the first few attempts often fail.

最后，如果我花足够长的时间，我通常可以做到，但我从来不确定；最初的几次尝试常常会失败。

You have moments of happiness when things work out, but they don't last long, because then you're on to the next problem.

当事情顺利时，你会有幸福的时刻，但它们不会持续很长时间，因为然后你就会遇到下一个问题。

So why do

那么为什么要这样做

it at all?

到底有什么？

Because to the kind of people who like working this way, nothing else feels as right.

因为对于喜欢这种工作方式的人来说，没有什么比这更好的了。

You feel as if you're an animal in its natural habitat, doing what you were meant to do — not always happy, maybe, but awake and alive.

你感觉自己就像一只生活在自然栖息地的动物，做着你应该做的事情——也许并不总是快乐，但清醒而充满活力。

Many kids experience the excitement of working on projects of their own.

许多孩子都会体验到从事自己的项目的兴奋感。

The hard part is making this converge with the work you do as an adult.

困难的部分是让这与你作为成年人所做的工作相一致。

And our customs make it harder.

而我们的习俗则让事情变得更加困难。

We treat "playing" and

我们对待“玩”和

"hobbies" as qualitatively different from "work".

“爱好”与“工作”有质的不同。

It's not clear to a kid building a treehouse that there's a direct (though long) route from that to architecture or engineering.

对于一个建造树屋的孩子来说，并不清楚从树屋到建筑或工程有一条直接（尽管很长）的路线。

And instead of pointing out the route, we conceal it, by implicitly treating the stuff kids do as different from real work.

我们没有指出路线，而是通过含蓄地将孩子们所做的事情视为与实际工作不同来隐藏它。

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