《经济学人》双语：完美主义的3大负面影响？
原文标题：
Bartleby
The perils of perfectionism
A backlash against the tyranny of high expectations
巴托比专栏
完美主义的危险性
反制高期望所带来的严苛[Paragraph 1]
It is the worlds most tired interview question: what is your greatest weakness?
世界上最令人感到厌烦的面试问题就是：你最大的缺点是什么?
And Rishi Sunak, one of the two remaining candidates in the race to become Britains prime minister, gave the worlds most tired answer——perfectionism——when he was asked it at an online hustingsearlier this month.
本月早时，里希·苏纳克在线上协商会议中给出了世界上最令人厌倦的答案——完美主义。他是英国首相竞选的两位最终候选人之一。
[Paragraph 2]
No interviewee would answer this question with an unambiguous negative (“stupidity”, say, or “body odour).
没有一个受访者会用明显负面的答案来回答这个问题（比如“愚蠢”或“体味”）。
Like all those who have reached for it before, Mr Sunak will have intended his reply to signal that his flaws are virtues, especially compared with the shambolic style of Boris Johnsons outgoing government.
跟那些同样用“完美主义”来回答这个问题的人一样，苏纳克希望他的回答能把缺点说成优点，特别是与卸任的鲍里斯·约翰逊政府的混乱风格相比更为明显。
[Paragraph 3]
But this classic response is riskier than it once was.
然而，这个经典回答比以往风险更大。In Mr Sunaks case that is because the job of prime minister is largely to triage problems and make decisions at a relentless pace; even his supporters worry that his deliberative
style would be a problem.
因为对苏纳克来说，首相的工作很大程度上是要持续不断地定位问题并给出决策，因此连他的支持者也担心他审慎的风格是否会成为一个问题。
More generally, perfectionism is increasingly out of stepwith the ways that products are developed, employees are treated and workforces are organised.
更广义上来讲，完美主义与产品开发、员工待遇和劳动力组织的方式越来越脱节。
[Paragraph 4]
Start with product development.
先从产品开发说起。
Lots of digital types embrace the concept of the minimum viable product(MVP), in which companies ship prototypes that can be refined, or indeed scrapped, on the basis of feedback from early adopters.
许多数字产品都采用了最小可行产品（MVP）的概念，即公司交付的原型可以根据早期采用者的反馈进行改进，甚至废弃。
The essence of the MVP approach is anti-perfectionism: don’t procrastinate, dont spend time sweating the tiniest details, get your product into users hands and see how it does.
MVP这种方式的本质是反完美主义：别拖延，别把时间花在最微小的细节上，把你的产品送到用户手中，看看到底效果如何。
Fussing about font sizes and nice-to-have features is a waste of time; the market will honethings for you, dispensing its judgments cumulatively and dispassionately.
纠结于字体大小和锦上添花的功能是在浪费时间；市场会不断冷静地做出他们的判断，市场会帮你打磨出精品。[Paragraph 5]
A growing emphasis on employees’ well-being is another reason why perfectionism is out of favour.对员工福祉的日益重视是完美主义没落的另一个原因。
The trait is on the rise: a study published in 2017 found that it had been steadily increasing among American, British and Canadian college students between 1989 and 2016 (before you blame Instagram, one big reason is rising parental expectations.)
完美主义越来越明显：2017年发表的一项研究发现，从1989年到2016年，这种特征在美国、英国和加拿大大学生中稳步上升（先别急着怪Instagram，首要原因其实是父母的期望不断上升）。
The tyranny of excessively high expectations is not good for you: a big literature review in2016 concluded that perfectionism is associated with a string of mental-health disorders, from depression and burnout to stress and self-harm.
期望过高所带来的严加管制对人没有好处：2016年的一篇大型文献综述得出的结论是，完美主义与一系列心理健康障碍有关，从抑郁、精神崩溃，到压力和自残。
[Paragraph 6]
It matters what kind of perfectionist someone is.
重要的是一个人是哪种类型的完美主义者。
Psychologists distinguish between a “self-oriented” version, in which people put pressure on themselves to perform flawlessly; an “other-oriented” type, in which people hold their colleagues to the highest of standards; and a “socially prescribed” version, in which employees think that they will only get on if they meet the impossible expectations of those around them.
心理学家将其分为几种类型：一种是“自我导向型”，即严于律己，给自己施加压力，要求自己表现得完美无瑕；一种是“以他人为导向”的类型，这种类型的人严于律他，要求同事必须达到最高标准才行；还有一种是“社会导向型”，即员工认为只有达到了周围人所设立的遥不可及的期望，他们才能得到晋升。
People in the last camp seem to be especially prone to stress.
最后一种类型的人会格外容易压力大。
A recent Italian study found that whereas having extremely high standards for your own performance was not a predictor of burnout, being afraid of making mistakes was.
意大利最近的一项研究发现，对自己的表现有极高的标准并不是精神崩溃的前兆，害怕犯错才是。
[Paragraph 7]
Perfectionists may also hurt team cohesiveness.
完美主义可能也有损团队的凝聚力。
In a study conducted in 2020, Emily Kleszewski and Kathleen Otto of Philipps-University of Marburg asked people to rate potential co-workers based on descriptions of their levels and categories of perfectionism.
在2020年进行的一项研究中，马尔堡菲利普斯大学的艾米丽·克莱舍夫斯基和凯瑟琳·奥托让人们根据完美主义水平和类别的描述对未来的同事进行打分。Perfectionists were regarded as being less socially skilled and less likeable than non-perfectionists.
与非完美主义者相比，人们认为完美主义者更缺乏社交技能，也更不讨人喜欢。
You dont have to like your colleagues for them to be effective: in that same study, perfectionists were rated as more competent than non-perfectionists.
你的喜爱程度与同事的工作能力无关：这项研究指出，完美主义者被认为比非完美主义者更有能力。
But when more and more work is organised around small groups working together, it can help not to loatheeach other.
但当小团队有越来越多的工作要共同处理时，非完美主义可以让人们之间不那么互相厌烦。
[Paragraph 8]
By now your inner curmudgeon may well be frothing at the mouth.
这会儿，你心里的火可能要压不住了。
Nit-picking micro-managers are deeply annoying but they are nowhere near as bad as people who dont have any standards.
吹毛求疵，事无巨细的管理者确实非常令人讨厌，但他们远没有那些没有任何标准的管理者糟糕。
Demanding bosses can be the difference between good products and superb ones: “thatll do” was not the mantra that made Steve Jobs successful.
苛刻的老板可能是优秀产品和卓越产品的分水岭：史蒂夫·乔布斯的成功可不是靠把什么都“行”当成准则。
Some jobs actively require perfectionism——copy editors, say, or medicines regulators.
有些工作非常需要完美主义——比如文案编辑或药品监管人员。
And since when did being exactingbecome a health risk?
从什么时候开始，要求严格竟会带来健康危机？
[Paragraph 9]
Fortunately, discouraging perfectionism does not mean sacrificing high standards.
幸运的是，抨击完美主义并不意味着牺牲高标准。
In a paper published last year, three academics at the University of Ottawa found that people who strove for excellence did better on tests of creative thinking than people who sought perfection.
在去年发表的一篇论文中，渥太华大学的三位学者发现，在创造性思维测试中，追求卓越的人比追求完美的人表现更好。
Managers can explicitly define what counts as high-quality work.
管理者可以明确定义什么才算高质量的工作。
Deadlines can prevent endless procrastination.
截止日期可以防止无休止的拖延。
Mr Sunaks call not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good came as he sat in front of a poster that misspelled the word “campaign”.
当苏纳克坐在一张拼错了“竞选”一词的海报前时，他呼吁不要让完美变成好的对立面。
That took things too far.
这有点过头了。
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量约708左右）
原文出自：2022年7月30日《The Economist》Business版块。精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路
本文翻译整理: Fei Min
本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。
【补充资料】（来自于网络）
里希·苏纳克（Rishi Sunak）
，男，印度裔，1980年出生于英国南安普顿，保守党议员，曾任英国财政大臣。当地时间2022年7月8日，英国前财政大臣苏纳克宣布将竞选英国下任首相。
最小化可行产品MVP，是现在硅谷产品开发最推崇的理念，其思想来源于“精益创业”( LeanStartup ) , 由埃里克.莱斯( Eric Ries )在《精益创业：新创企业的成长思维》中提出。精益创业代表了一种不断形成创新的新方法，它源于“精益生产”的理念，提倡企业进行“验证性学习”， 先向市场推出极简的原型产品，然后在不断地试验和学习中，以最小的成本和有效的方式验证产品是否符合用户需求，灵活调整方向。如果产品不符合市场需求，最好能“快速地失败、廉价地失败”，而不要“ 昂贵地失败”；如果产品被用户认可也应该不断学习，挖掘用户需求，迭代优化产品。【重点句子】
（4个）
More generally, perfectionism is increasingly out of step with the ways that products are developed, employees are treated and workforces are organised.
更广义上来讲，完美主义与产品开发、员工待遇和劳动力组织的方式越来越脱节。
The essence of the MVP approach is anti-perfectionism: don’t procrastinate, dont spend time sweating the tiniest details, get your product into users hands and see how it does.
MVP这种方式的本质是反完美主义：别拖延，别把时间花在最微小的细节上，把你的产品送到用户手中，看看到底效果如何。
Perfectionism is associated with a string of mental-health disorders, from depression and burnout to stress and self-harm.
完美主义与一系列心理健康障碍有关，从抑郁、精神崩溃，到压力和自残。
Perfectionists may also hurt team cohesiveness.
完美主义可能也有损团队的凝聚力。
自由英语之路
