It’s not that easy to categorize jobs but here’s a categorization scheme that’s kind of general but that’s actually accurate.

给工作分类不太容易 但有一种分类体制 虽然比较笼统 但其实也相当准确

Okay, so the first dimension is complexity.

好 它的第一维度是复杂性

Jobs range from simple to complex.

工作有简单复杂之分

A simple job is one that you can learn and then repeat.

简单的工作是那种你可以学习 然后一直重复的工作

You don’t need high levels of cognitive function for a simple job.

简单工作不需要高水平的认知能力

If you have high levels of cognitive function you’ll learn the job faster, but once you learn it you won’t necessarily do it better.

如果你的认知能力比较好 你可能会学的很快 但你学会后 却不一定能做得更好

Now, a complex job is one where the requirements change on an ongoing basis.

复杂的工作是指工作要求会持续改变

So most managerial jobs are like that, and all executive jobs are like that.

多数管理工作都属于复杂工作 所有的执行工作也属于这一类

And that requires a high level of general cognitive ability.

这些工作要求有很高的一般认知能力

That’s the best predictor of success in complex jobs.

它是成功完成复杂工作的最佳预测者

Okay, so that’s axis number one.

好 以上是第一个轴线

Axis number two is creative/entrepreneurial versus managerial/administrative.

第二个轴线是创新/创业与管理/行政

Okay, so for creative/entrepreneurial jobs you need people who are high in the personality trait “openness to experience,”

好 创新/创业类的工作需要具备“乐于体验”性格特点的人

Big Five personality trait that’s associated with lateral and divergent thinking.

它是五大性格特点之一 与横向思维和发散思维密切相关

Those are creative types.

这些是创新类的

And for managerial and administrative jobs, and those are jobs that are more algorithmic—So imagine the guardrails.

至于管理和行政类工作 就更需要算法了——想象一下护栏的构造

You’re a train on a track and you want to go down the track fast.

你是一辆火车 你希望能在轨道上跑很快

You don’t have to be creative to go down a track that’s (already laid down) fast.

在（已经铺设好的）轨道上跑很快并不需要你多么有创造力

You have to be conscientious.

你必须得认真尽责

And so the best personality predictor for managerial and administrative jobs is trait “conscientiousness”.

所以管理和行政类工作最好的性格预测者就是“尽责”这个特点

Okay, so there’s a tension in organizations between lateral and divergent thinking and efficient movement forward.

好 在公司里 横向思维和发散思维与高效前进之间有一定的摩擦

Now if you know what you’re doing, what you want is conscientious people.

如果你知道自己在干什么 那你需要的就是很认真的人

Because if you know what you’re doing you should just do it as efficiently as you can.

因为如果你知道自己在干什么 那你就尽管撸起袖子加油干

But the problem is is the world changes around you unexpectedly.

但问题是周围的世界总是瞬息万变

And so if you don’t have people who can think divergently when the marketplace shifts on you—

如果你手下没有具备发散思维的人 当市场变化的时候——

which it most certainly will—then you don’t have anybody who can figure out where to lay new tracks.

多数情况都会变化——就没有人能想出下一步该怎么办

Now it’s really, really difficult for people, for corporations to get the balance between the entrepreneurial/creative types and the managerial/administrative types correct.

对每个人和公司而言 在创新/创业和管理/行政类人才之间保持正确的平衡非常非常困难

And what I think happens—and I don’t know this for sure and the research on this isn’t clear yet—

我觉得现在是——这个我不确定 这方面的研究也还不明朗——

What seems to happen is that when a company originates the creative/entrepreneurial types predominate,

现在是这样 当一个公司刚诞生时 都是些创新/创业类人才占统治地位

and they have to be flexible and move laterally to get the company established to begin with and take risks and break rules

他们必须要灵活多变 多方面入手 才能让公司慢慢起步 他们要承担风险 打破规则

and do all sorts of things that conscientious people are much less likely to be able to tolerate (let alone think up).

做各种各样认真尽责的人基本无法忍受的事 更别说思考了

But as the company establishes itself the managerial/administrative types pour in and take over.

但随着公司的发展 管理/行政类人才会大量涌入 并掌握主导权

But if they take over too much then the company gets so rigid it can’t— it has no flexibility.

但如果他们控制的太多 公司就会变得很死板——缺乏灵活性

Okay, so the first thing you need to do to manage a large enterprise is to understand that these are actually different people.

所以要管理一家大公司 你首先要做的就是要明白人与人是不一样的

So first of all everyone is NOT creative. That’s a lie.

首先 所有人都没有创造力 这是个谎言

So we established this measurement instrument called the creative achievement questionnaire which is very widely used in creativity research now.

所以我们建立了这种测量方式 叫做创造力成就问卷 在现在的创造力研究中广泛使用

And what you see – so what it does is it breaks down creativity into 13 dimensions –

你所看到的——它的作用就是把创造力分成13个维度——

entrepreneurial, architectural, literary, dramatic, inventions, et cetera, business, you can imagine—Painting, et cetera.

创业 建筑 文学 戏剧 发明等等 商业 随你想象——画画等等

You imagine the 13 potential dimensions of creativity.

随便想象创造力潜在的13个维度

And then it ranks order levels of creativity from “Zero, I have no training or talent in this area,” to “Ten, I have an international reputation in this area.”

它把创造力水平从“0 我在这一领域没有训练或天赋”到“10 我在这一领域享有国际声誉”进行排序

And then we plotted the scores. This is the distribution.

然后画出分数分布图 这就是分布规律

It’s not a normal distribution.

它不是一般的分布

Sixty percent of the people who take the creative achievement questionnaire score zero.

有6%参加创造力成就问卷的人得分为0

A tiny minority have high scores, and that’s a pareto distribution.

只有一小部分人分数较高 那就是柏拉图分布

It’s a classic distribution of human productivity.

它是人类生产力的典型分布

So you always get a pareto distribution, not a normal distribution when you’re talking about productivity.

所以说到生产力的时候 通常得到的都是柏拉图分布 而不是一般的分布

Creative people are a distinct minority. They’re a different kind of person, and they’re a pain.

有创造力的人只占绝对的一小部分 他们是另类人员 他们也是个痛点

They’re a pain because you can’t evaluate them.

因为你无法评估他们

It’s like, how the hell do you evaluate a creative person?

你要怎么评估有创造力的人？

Because they keep changing the rules of evaluation!

因为他们一直在改变评估规则

So they’re a handful to manage, and they’re always trying to play a new game.

他们是需要管理的一小群人 他们也总是想要打破规则

Well that’s a real pain if you want to get somewhere fast.

如果你想快速实现某一目的 他们就是个痛点

So there’s this terrible tension in organizations, and I think what generally happens is all the creative people are there at the beginning.

公司里有一种很糟糕的张力 总的来说就是 公司刚成立的时候全是创新型人才

They get chased out until you have nothing but managers and administrators.

等公司全是管理者和行政者的时候 就没有创新型人才的容身之处了

Then the environment shifts, then the company dies.

然后公司的环境就会发生改变 直到最后垮台

And so the way that capitalism solves the problem of the tension between the creative types and the managerial types is it just lets companies die.

资本主义解决创新型人才和管理型人才之间的张力的方法就是任由公司倒闭

Now you might think, “Well I don’t want my company to die.”

现在你可能会想“我不想让我的公司倒闭”

It’s like okay then, you need to understand the difference between these two kinds of people—

没问题呀 但你需要了解这两种人之间的区别——

which you probably won’t and you probably won’t admit to even if you knew.

你可能做不到这一点 即便做到了 也不愿意承认

And then you have to figure out how to get the balance right.

然后你还得考虑如何确保这两者之间的平衡

And so that’s extraordinarily complicated.

所以它真的非常复杂