我的感恩之旅：向每一位成就我晨间咖啡的人致谢 | A.J. 雅各布斯（重制版）

选择瑞银，您将拥有一位真正全球化的合作伙伴，我们融合新技术、创新方法与意外机遇。

With UBS, you have a truly global partner incorporating new technologies, innovative approaches, and unexpected opportunities.

引领您洞见关键问题的答案，以热忱、关怀与无与伦比的专业精神呈现。

Leading you to insights that help answer the questions that matter, delivered with passion, care, and unmatched expertise.

因为我们坚信每日与朝阳同起，深知未来还能做得更好。

Because it's about rising with the dawn each day, knowing that we can do even better.

这就是我们理解的银行业。

That's what banking is to us.

不仅是工作，更是一门技艺。

Not just work, but a craft.

瑞银。

UBS.

银行业是我们的匠心所在。

Banking is our craft.

您正在收听《TED每日演讲》，我们每天为您带来激发好奇的新思想。

You're listening to TED Talks daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.

我是主持人Elise Hu。

I'm your host, Elise Hu.

踏上旅程亲自感谢每一位为你清晨咖啡付出的人，这个想法简单而美好。

It's a simple yet beautiful idea to go on a journey to personally thank every person who helped to make your morning cup of coffee.

但对作家AJ Jacobs而言，这不仅是个温馨的思想实验。

But for author AJ Jacobs, this isn't just a sweet thought experiment.

他真的付诸实践了。

He actually did it.

在这场2018年的存档演讲中，AJ回顾了他环球致谢千人的旅程，以及沿途获得的改变人生的智慧。

In this twenty eighteen archive talk, AJ reflects on his globetrotting journey of 1,000 thank yous and the life altering wisdom he picked up along the way.

虽然不想自夸，但我确实特别擅长发现让人恼火的事情。

So I don't like to boast, but I am very good at finding things to be annoyed about.

这确实是我的专长。

It is a real specialty of mine.

我能听到100句赞美和一句侮辱，但我记得什么？

I can hear a 100 compliments and a single insult, and what do I remember?

那句侮辱。

The insult.

研究表明，不止我一个人这样。

And according to the research, I'm not alone.

不幸的是，人类大脑天生就会关注负面信息。

Unfortunately, the human brain is wired to focus on the negative.

这种机制在我们穴居避害时或许有用，但在现代生活中却极为糟糕。

Now, this might have been helpful when we were cave people trying to avoid predators, but now it's a terrible way to go through life.

这是焦虑和抑郁的主要成因之一。

It is a real major component of anxiety and depression.

那么我们该如何对抗大脑的负面偏好呢？

So how can we fight the brain's negative bias?

大量研究表明，感恩是最有力的武器之一。

According to a lot of research, one of the best weapons is gratitude.

意识到这点后，我在几年前开始在家里推行新传统。

So knowing this, I started a new tradition in our house a couple of years ago.

每次与妻儿用餐前，我都会念一段感恩祷词。

Before a meal with my wife and kids, I would say a prayer of thanksgiving.

用'祷词'这个词不太准确。

Prayer is not quite the right word.

我是不可知论者。

I'm agnostic.

所以我不感谢上帝，而是感谢那些让食物成为现实的人们。

So instead of thanking God, I would thank some of the people who helped make my food a reality.

我想说，我要感谢种植这些番茄的农民，运送番茄到商店的卡车司机，以及收银台结账的收银员。

I'd say, I'd like to thank the farmer who grew these tomatoes and the trucker who drove these tomatoes to the store and the cashier who rang these tomatoes up.

我本以为这个传统会进行得很顺利。

And I thought it was going pretty well, this tradition.

直到有一天，我10岁的儿子说：'爸爸，那些人不在我们公寓里。'

Then one day, my 10 year old son said, You know, dad, those people aren't in our apartment.

他们听不见你的感谢。

They can't hear you.

如果你真的在乎，就该亲自去当面感谢他们。

If you really cared, you would go and thank them in person.

我觉得这个想法很有意思。

And I thought, that's an interesting idea.

我是个作家，为了写书，我喜欢去冒险、去探索。

Now, I'm a writer, and for my books, I like to go on adventures, go on quests.

于是我决定接受儿子的挑战。

So I decided I'm going to take my son up on his challenge.

看起来很简单，为了更简单些，我决定只专注于一样离不开的东西：我的晨间咖啡。

It seemed simple enough, and to make it even simpler, I decided to focus on just one item, an item I can't live without: my morning cup of coffee.

结果发现这事一点都不简单。

Well, it turned out to be not so simple at all.

这个探索花了我好几个月时间。

This quest took me months.

它带我环游世界，因为我发现没有数百位被我视为理所当然的人，我的咖啡就不可能存在。

It took me around the world, because I discovered that my coffee would not be possible without hundreds of people I take for granted.

我会感谢把咖啡豆运到咖啡店的卡车司机，但若没有道路他也无法完成工作。

So I would thank the trucker who drove the coffee beans to the coffee shop, but he couldn't have done his job without the road.

所以我要感谢铺路的人们。

So I would thank the people who paved the road.

然后我要感谢那些为路面铺设沥青的人们。

And then I would thank the people who made the asphalt for the pavement.

我逐渐意识到，我的咖啡就像世界上许多其他事物一样，需要各行各业令人震惊的众多人员共同努力——建筑师、生物学家、设计师、矿工、牧羊人，应有尽有。

And I came to realize that my coffee, like so much else in the world, requires the combined work of a shocking number of people from all walks of life architects, biologists, designers, miners, goat herds, you name it.

我决定将这个项目命名为《感谢千人》，因为我最终感谢了超过一千人。

I decided to call my project Thanks a Thousand, because I ended up thanking over a thousand people.

这过程令人应接不暇，但也美妙非凡，因为它让我专注于每天顺利进行的数百件事，而不是那三四件出问题的事。

And it was overwhelming, but it was also wonderful, because it allowed me to focus on the hundreds of things that go right every day, as opposed to the three or four that go wrong.

这提醒了我世界令人惊叹的互联性。

And it reminded me of the astounding interconnectedness of our world.

在这个项目中我学到了数十个道理，但今天我只重点讲五个。

I learned dozens of lessons during this project, but let me just focus on five today.

第一是：抬头看。

The first is look up.

我的感恩之旅从感谢本地咖啡店——纽约乔咖啡的咖啡师开始。

I started my trail of gratitude by thanking the barista at my local coffee shop, Joe Coffee in New York.

她叫钟，是你见过最乐观的人之一。

Her name is Chung, and Chung is one of the most upbeat people you will ever meet.

笑容灿烂，拥抱热情。

Big smiler, enthusiastic hugger.

但即使对钟来说，当咖啡师也很辛苦，因为你面对的是处于非常危险状态的人们。

But even for Chung, being a barista is hard, and that's because you are encountering people in a very dangerous state.

你知道是什么：咖啡因摄入前状态。

You know what it is: pre caffeination.

曾有顾客把钟骂到哭，包括一个九岁女孩，她不喜欢钟在她热巧克力上做的奶油造型。

So Chung has had people yell at her until she cried, including a nine year old girl who didn't like the whipped cream design that Chung did on her hot chocolate.

我向钟表达了感谢，而她感谢了我的感谢。

So I thanked Chung, and she thanked me for thanking her.

我在那里打断了。

I cut it off there.

我不想陷入无休止的道谢循环。

I didn't want to go into an infinite thanking loop.

但Chung说过，最艰难的是人们甚至不把她当人看。

But Chung said that the hardest part is when people don't even treat her like a human being.

他们把她当作自动售货机。

They treat her like a vending machine.

所以他们递信用卡时甚至眼睛都不离开手机。

So they'll hand her their credit card without even looking up from their phone.

听她说这些时，我意识到自己也干过这种事。

And while she's saying this, I'm realizing I've done that.

我也曾是个混蛋。

I've been that a hole.

那一刻我发誓，与人打交道时要花两秒钟看着对方，进行眼神交流——这会提醒你，你面对的是有家人、有梦想、也有尴尬高中回忆的活生生的人。

And at that moment, I pledged, when dealing with people, I'm going to take those two seconds and look at them, make eye contact, because it reminds you, you're dealing with a human being who has family and aspirations and embarrassing high school memories.

这种微小的联结时刻对双方的人性与幸福感都至关重要。

And that little moment of connection is so important to both people's humanity and happiness.

好了。

Alright.

第二课是：既要闻玫瑰花香，也要嗅泥土与肥料的气息。

Second lesson was, smell the roses and the dirt and the fertilizer.

在Cheung之后，我向这位男士道了谢。

After Cheung, I thanked this man.

这是Ed Kaufman。

This is Ed Kaufman.

Ed负责为我常去的咖啡店挑选咖啡豆。

And Ed is the one who chooses which coffee they serve at my local coffee shop.

他走遍世界各地，从南美到非洲，寻找最优质的咖啡豆。

He goes around the world to South America, to Africa, finding the best coffee beans.

于是我向埃德道谢，作为回报，他教我如何像专业人士一样品鉴咖啡。

So I thanked Ed, and in return, Ed showed me how to taste coffee like a pro.

这简直像一种仪式。

And it is quite a ritual.

你拿起勺子浸入咖啡，然后大声啜饮，声音夸张得几乎像卡通片一样。

You take your spoon and you dip it in the coffee, and then you take a big, loud slurp, almost cartoonishly loud.

因为你需要让咖啡液洒满整个口腔。

This is because you want to spray the coffee all over your mouth.

你的脸颊内侧和上颚都有味蕾。

You have taste buds in the side of your cheeks, in the roof of your mouth.

必须让所有味蕾都接触到咖啡。

You've got to get them all.

埃德会这样做——他的脸突然亮起来，然后说：这咖啡有蜜脆苹果的甜香，带着泥土的芬芳和枫糖浆的余韵。

Ed would do this, and he would his face would light up, and he would say, This coffee tastes of honeycrisp apple and notes of soil and maple syrup.

而我啜饮一口后会说：我尝到了咖啡味。

And I would take a sip, and I'd say, I'm picking up coffee.

对我来说这就是咖啡的味道。

This it tastes to me like coffee.

但受埃德启发，我决定让咖啡在舌头上停留五秒（虽然大家都忙，但五秒还是抽得出来），认真感受它的质地、酸度和甜味。

And but inspired by Ed, I decided to really let the coffee sit on my tongue for five seconds we're all busy, but I could spare five seconds and really think about the texture and the acidity and the sweetness.

我开始把这个方法应用到其他食物上。

And I started to do it with other foods.

这种品味的方式对感恩之心至关重要。

And this idea of savoring is so important to gratitude.

心理学家常说，感恩就是要抓住某个瞬间尽可能延长它，让时间慢下来，这样生活才不会像往常那样转瞬即逝。

Psychologists talk about how gratitude is about taking a moment and holding onto it as long as possible and slowing down time so that life doesn't go by in one big blur, as it often does.

第三条是发现你身边隐藏的杰作。

Number three is find the hidden masterpieces all around you.

今年我最喜欢的对话之一是和发明我咖啡杯盖的人进行的。

Now, one of my favorite conversations during this year was with the guy who invented my coffee cup lid.

在此之前，我对咖啡杯盖几乎没怎么思考过。

And until this point, I had given approximately zero thought to coffee cup lids.

但我很喜欢和这位发明家道格·弗莱明交谈，因为他充满热情，为这个我从未在意的杯盖倾注了无数心血。

But I loved talking to this inventor, Doug Fleming, because he was so passionate, and the blood and sweat and tears he put into this lid that I had never even considered.

他说一个糟糕的杯盖会毁掉你的咖啡体验，因为它会阻挡香气——这对咖啡体验至关重要。

He says a bad lid can ruin your coffee, that it can block the aroma, which is so important to the experience.

所以他非常有创新精神。

So he's very innovative.

他就像是咖啡杯盖界的埃隆·马斯克。

He's like the Elon Musk of coffee lids.

他设计的这个杯盖有个倒置的六边形，这样你的鼻子可以直接贴近，获得最浓郁的香气。

So he designed this lid that's got an upside down hexagon, so you can get your nose right in there and get maximum aroma.

和他交谈让我感到非常愉快。

And so I was delighted talking to him.

这让我意识到我们身边有数百件被完全忽视的杰作。

And it made me realize there are hundreds of masterpieces all around us that we totally take for granted.

比如我台灯上的开关有个完美贴合拇指的凹陷设计。

Like, onoff switch on my desk lamp has a little indentation for my thumb that perfectly fits my thumb.

当某件事做得好时，背后的过程往往是隐形的。

And when something is done well, the process behind it is largely invisible.

但关注这些细节能唤起惊奇感，丰富我们的生活。

But paying attention to it can tap into that sense of wonder and enrich our lives.

第四条是假装直到真正感受到。

Number four is fake it till you feel it.

项目临近结束时，我简直陷入了感谢狂热。

By the end of the project, I was just in a thanking frenzy.

所以我每天都会花上几个小时。

So I would get up and spend a couple hours.

我写邮件、发短信、打电话、登门拜访，感谢他们在我咖啡事业中的贡献。

I'd write emails, send notes, make phone calls, visit people to thank them for their role in my coffee.

说实话，有些人对此并不太感冒。

And some of them, quite honestly, not that into it.

他们会问，这是什么情况？

They would be like, what is this?

这是传销吗？

Is this a pyramid scheme?

你到底想要什么？

What do you want?

你在推销什么？

What are you selling?

但大多数人出乎意料地深受感动。

But most people were surprisingly moved.

记得我给仓库做虫害防治的女士打过电话——抱歉，是存放我咖啡豆的仓库。

I remember I called the woman who does the pest control for the warehouse where my coffee is served I'm sorry, where my coffee is stored.

我说，这听起来可能有点怪，但我想感谢你让虫子远离我的咖啡。

And I said, this may sound strange, but I want to thank you for keeping the bugs out of my coffee.

她说，确实挺奇怪的，不过你让我今天过得很开心。

And she said, well, that does sound strange, but you just made my day.

这就像是一通反恶作剧电话。

And it was like an anti crank phone call.

这不仅影响了她，也影响了我。因为我每天早上醒来时情绪都很差，但我强迫自己写感谢信，一封接一封。

And it didn't just affect her, it affected me, because I would wake up every morning in my default mood, which is grumpiness, But I would force myself to write a thank you note and then another and then another.

我发现，如果你表现得心怀感激，最终你会真心实意地感到感恩。

And what I found was that if you act as if you're grateful, you eventually become grateful for real.

行动改变思维的力量令人惊叹。

The power of our actions to change our mind are astounding.

我们常常认为思想改变行为，但行为同样经常改变我们的思想。

So often, we think that thought changes behavior, but behavior very often changes our thoughts.

最后，我想告诉你们的第六课是：实践六度感恩法则。

And finally, the last lesson I want to tell you about is practice six degrees of gratitude.

在这条感恩之路的每一站，都会让我发现另外一百个值得感谢的人。

And every place, every stop on this gratitude trail would give birth to a 100 other people that I could thank.

于是我前往哥伦比亚感谢种植咖啡豆的农民，那是个山区小镇，我们沿着蜿蜒的悬崖公路行驶，每次急转弯时司机都会画十字祈祷。

So I went down to Colombia to thank the farmers who grow my coffee beans, and it was in a small mountain town, and I was driven there along these curvy cliffside roads, and every time we went around a hairpin turn, the driver would do the sign of the cross.

我当时心想，谢谢您这么做。

And I was I was like, thank you for that.

但您能不能把手放在方向盘上再祈祷？

But but can you do that while keeping your hands on the wheel?

因为我快吓死了。

Because I am terrified.

但我们安全抵达了，我见到了瓜尔尼索兄弟这些农民。

But we made it, and I met the farmers, the Guarnizo brothers.

那是个小农场。

It's a small farm.

他们种的咖啡很棒。

They make great coffee.

他们获得的报酬甚至高于公平贸易价格。

They're paid above fair trade prices for it.

他们还向我展示了咖啡的种植过程。

And they showed me how the coffee is grown.

咖啡豆其实藏在这种叫做咖啡樱桃的果实里。

The bean is actually inside this fruit called the coffee cherry.

我向他们道谢时，他们说没有其他上百号人的协助，他们也无法完成工作。

And I thanked them, and they said, well, we couldn't do our job without a 100 other people.

给果实去皮的机器产自巴西，他们在农场里开的皮卡则由来自世界各地的零件组装而成。

The machine that depulps the fruit is made in Brazil, and the pickup truck they drive around the farm in, that is made from parts from all over the world.

事实上，美国向哥伦比亚出口钢材。

In fact, The US exports steel to Colombia.

于是我去印第安纳州感谢了炼钢工人。

So I went to Indiana, and I thanked the steelmakers.

这让我深刻意识到，一杯咖啡的诞生远非一个村庄之力能完成。

And it just drove home that it doesn't take a village to make a cup of coffee.

一杯咖啡凝聚着全世界的力量。

It takes the world to make a cup of coffee.

这种全球经济，这种全球化确实存在弊端，但我相信长期利好远大于此，进步是真实存在的。

And this global economy, this globalization, it does have downsides, but I believe the long term upsides are far greater, that progress is real.

过去五十年我们取得了进步，全球贫困率下降，我们应当抵制退回孤立主义的诱惑，抵制孤立主义和沙文主义的抬头。

We have made improvements in the last fifty years, that poverty worldwide has gone down, and that we should resist the temptation to retreat into our silos, and we should resist this upsurge in isolationism and jingoism.

这就引出了我最后的观点：我希望我们用感恩作为行动的火种。

Which brings me to my final point, which is my hope that we use gratitude as a spark to action.

有人担心感恩会带来消极影响，怕我们会因过度感恩而自满。

Some people worry that gratitude has a downside, that we'll be so grateful that we'll be complacent.

我们会整天感叹'啊，一切都太美好，我太感恩了'。

We'll be so, Oh, everything's wonderful, I'm so grateful.

但事实证明恰恰相反。

Well, it turns out the opposite is true.

研究显示，越是心怀感恩的人，越倾向于帮助他人。

The more the research shows that the more grateful you are, the more likely you are to help others.

当你状态不佳时，往往会更关注自身需求。

When you're in a bad state, you're often more focused on your own needs.

但感恩之心会让你想要传递这份善意。

But gratitude makes you want to pay it forward.

我个人就深有体会。

And I experienced this personally.

我不是特蕾莎修女，大部分时候仍是个自私的混蛋，但这个项目让我变得比以前更好。

I mean, I'm not Mother Teresa, I'm still a selfish bastard, a huge amount of the time, but I'm better than I was before this project.

因为它让我意识到供应链上的剥削问题。

And that's because it made me aware of the exploitation on the supply chain.

它提醒我，那些我认为理所当然的事物——比如水——却是全球数百万人无法享用的奢侈品。

It reminded me that what I take for granted is not available to millions of people around the world, like water.

咖啡98.8%的成分是水。

Coffee is 98.8% water.

所以我决定去感谢纽约水库的数百名工作人员，他们让我只需扳动阀门就能获得安全用水——这种全球数百万人无法享受，需要步行数小时才能取得的生存奇迹。

So I figured I should go and thank the people at the New York Reservoir, hundreds of them, who provide me water, and this miracle that I can turn a lever and get safe water, and that millions of people around the world don't have this luxury and have to walk hours to get safe water.

这激励我去探索如何帮助更多人获得水资源。

It inspired me to see what I could do to help people get more access.

经过调研，我发现了一个优秀组织'安全用水分发器'并参与其中。

And I did research and found a wonderful group called Dispensers for Safe Water, and I got involved.

虽然没指望诺贝尔奖委员会来敲门，但这至少是迈出了一小步。

And I'm not expecting the Nobel Prize Committee to knock down my door, but it's a baby step.

虽是微小改变，却皆因感恩而生。

It's a little something, and it's all because of gratitude.

因此我鼓励亲友们追寻属于自己的感恩轨迹，这将是改变人生的体验。

And it's why I encourage people, friends, family, to follow gratitude trails of their own, because it's a life transforming experience.

而且不一定非要通过咖啡。

And it doesn't have to be coffee.

可能是任何东西。

It could be anything.

可能是一双袜子，也可能是一个灯泡。

It could be a pair of socks, it could be a light bulb.

你不需要环游世界，只需一个小小的举动，比如与你喜爱的标志设计师进行眼神交流或发送一张便条。

You don't have to go around the world, you can just do a little gesture, like make eye contact or send a note to the designer of a logo you love.

这更多是一种心态，意识到我们每件小事背后都有成千上万人的参与，记住此刻你坐着的椅子布料是由工厂里的某个人制作的，有人下矿井开采出铜矿制成这个麦克风，才能让我说出最后的感谢——谢谢你们，万分感谢你们聆听我的故事。

It's more about a mindset, being aware of the thousands of people involved in every little thing we do, remembering that there's someone in a factory who made the fabric for the chairs you're sitting in right now, that someone went into a mine and got the copper for this microphone so that I could say my final thank you, which is to thank you, thank you a thousand, for listening to my story.

这是AJ·雅各布斯在2018年TED沙龙上的演讲。

That was AJ Jacobs at a TED salon in 2018.

该演讲最初发布于2018年11月。

This talk was originally published in November 2018.

若您对TED的内容筛选机制感兴趣，请访问ted.com/curationguidelines了解更多。

If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at ted.com/curationguidelines.

以上就是今天的全部内容。

And that's it for today.

《TED每日演讲》隶属于TED音频合集。

TED Talks Daily is part of the TED audio collective.

本期节目由我们的团队制作编辑，成员包括玛莎·埃斯特瓦诺斯、奥利弗·弗里德曼、布莱恩·格林、露西·利特尔和坦齐卡·桑格玛·尼冯。

This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estevanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Greene, Lucy Little, and Tanzika Sungmar Nivong.

本期音频混音由克里斯托弗·法伊兹·博根完成。

This episode was mixed by Christopher Faizy Bogan.

额外支持来自艾玛·陶伯纳和丹妮拉·巴拉雷索。

Additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniella Balarezo.

我是艾莉丝·胡。

I'm Elise Hu.

明天我将带着新鲜观点再次与您相遇。

I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed.

感谢收听。

Thanks for listening.

只要一部手机和网络连接，任何人都能尝试将创意热情转化为收入。

With a phone and an Internet connection, anyone can try to turn a creative passion into income.

创意工作的价值远超人们的想象。

Creative work is more valuable than people realize.

它将成为经济中一个极其重要的领域。

It is going to be a hugely significant area of of the economy.

但将这些创意变现意味着什么？

But what does it mean to monetize all this creativity?

创作者经济。

The creator economy.

下期NPR的TED Radio Hour播客节目将为您揭晓。

That's next time on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR.

欢迎订阅或在您常用的播客平台收听TED Radio Hour。

Subscribe or listen to the TED Radio Hour wherever you get your podcasts.