There seems to be a general assumption that brilliant people cannot stand routine; that they need a varied, exciting life in order to do their best. It is also assumed that dull people are particularly suited for dull work. We are told that the reason the present-day young protest so loudly against the dullness of factory jobs is that they are better educated and brighter than the young of the past.

Actually, there is no evidence that people who achieve much crave for, let alone live, eventful lives. The opposite is nearer the truth. One thinks of Amos the sheepherder, Socrates the stonemason, Omar the tentmaker. Jesus probably had his first revelations while doing humdrum carpentry work. Einstein worked out his theory of relativity while serving as a clerk in a Swiss patent office. Machiavelli wrote The Prince and the Discourses while immersed in the dull life of a small country town where the only excitement he knew was playing cards with muleteers at the inn. Immanuel Kant’s daily life was and unalterable routine. The housewives of Konigsberg set their clocks when they saw him pass on his way to the university. He took the same walk each morning, rain or shine. The greatest distance Kant ever traveled was sixty miles from Konigsberg.

The outstanding characteristic of man’s creativeness is the ability to transmute trivial impulses into momentous consequences. The greatness of man is in what he can do with petty grievances and joys, and with common physiological pressures and hungers. “When I have a little vexation,” wrote Keats, “it grows in five minutes into a theme for Sophocles.” To a creative individual all experience is seminal – all events are equidistant from new ideas and insights – and his inordinate humanness shows itself in the ability to make the trivial and common reach an enormous way.

An eventful life exhausts rather than stimulates. Milton, who in 1640 was a poet of great promise, spent twenty sterile years in the eventful atmosphere of the Puritan revolution. He fulfilled his great promise when the revolution was dead, and he in solitary disgrace. Cellini’s exciting life kept him from becoming the great artist he could have been. It is legitimate to doubt whether Machiavelli would have written his great books had he been allowed to continue in the diplomatic service of Florence and had he gone on interesting missions. It is usually the mediocre poets, writers, etc., who go in search of stimulating events to release their creative flow.

It may be true that work on the assembly line dulls the faculties and empties the mind, the cure only being fewer hours of work at higher pay. But during fifty years as a workingman, I have found dull routine compatible with an active mind. I can still savor the joy I used to derive from the fact that while doing dull, repetitive work on the waterfront, I could talk with my partners and compose sentences in the back of my mind, all at the same time. Life seemed glorious. Chances are that had my work been of absorbing interest I could not have done any thinking and composing on the company’s time or even on my own time after returning from work.

People who find dull jobs unendurable are often dull people who do not know what to do with themselves when at leisure. Children and mature people thrive on dull routine, while the adolescent, who has lost the child’s capacity for concentration and is without the inner resources of the mature, needs excitement and novelty to stave off boredom.

乏味的工作

人们似乎普遍认为杰出的人不能忍受例行公事的生活方式；为了做到最好，他们需要丰富多彩、激动人心的生活。人们还认为乏味的人特别适合做乏味的工作。我们听说当今青年这样大声抗议工厂工作枯燥乏味，是因为他们比过去的年轻人接受了更好的教育、更聪明。

事实上，没有证据表明有成就的人渴望多姿多彩的生活，更不用说过这种生活。事实似乎恰恰相反，想想牧羊人阿摩司、石匠苏格拉底、帐篷制作者欧玛尔。耶稣或许是在做大鸟的学徒工时，首次得到了上帝的启示。爱因斯坦在瑞士一家专利局做小职员时完成了他的相对论。马基雅弗利写出《君主论》和《李维史论》两本著作时，沉浸在小乡镇的 枯燥生活中，在那儿他唯一的乐趣是和客栈里的骡夫玩纸牌，伊曼纽尔·康德的日常生活一成不变。看到他在去大学的路上路过自家门口，哥尼斯堡镇的家庭主妇们调自家的钟。无论晴雨，他每天早晨都走同一条路。康德从哥尼斯堡镇走的最远的距离是60英里。

人类创造性的突出特点是能将琐细的动力转化为重要的成果。人类的伟大在于他如何面对细微的委屈与高兴，以及平常的生理压力和欲望。济慈写道：“当我遇到苦恼的小事，它会在五分钟里发展成为索福克勒斯的主题。”对于富有创造性的个人来说，所有体验都有着重大影响力——所有事件都能产生新观点和洞察力——他的过人之处在于能够使平常琐碎产生巨大的反响。

多姿多彩的生活带来消耗，而不是刺激。弥尔顿在1640年前是个前途无量的诗人，但在清教革命动荡的气氛中度过了20年毫无成果的岁月。当革命偃旗息鼓，弥尔顿失宠孤独时，他卓越的才华终于派上用场了。切利尼激动人心的生活使他未能成为他本应成为的伟大艺术家。假如马基雅弗利被允许继续在佛罗伦萨从事外交工作，继续出使有趣的任务，（我）怀疑他是否写得出他的伟大著作，这也是合情合理的。往往诸如平庸的诗人、作家，才一味追求刺激的事件来激发他们的创作泉涌。

流水作业使人的才能变得迟钝，使人变得缺乏思想，这可能是事实。惟一的对策是报酬高一点，工作的时间短一点。但是在我当工人的50年时间里，我发现乏味的固定工作与活跃的思想是可以兼容的。我在码头做着枯燥重复的工作时，可以一边和伙伴们谈天，一边在脑海里构思句子。我过去常常从中获得快乐，现在依然回味无穷。生活似乎灿烂辉煌，如果我的工作非常有趣，我很有可能上班的时间，甚至下班后自己的时间里不会做任何的思考或创作。

不能忍受乏味工作的人常常是那些不知道在闲暇时做什么的人。儿童和成人在枯燥的固定事务中茁壮成长。而青少年既没有儿童聚精会神做事的能力，也没有成年人的内在自控力，所以需要兴奋和新奇的事物来消除无聊。

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