Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Chapter 2
...The piece of paper, covered with scribbled words and arrows, was the result of a twnty minute spontaneous brainstorm about what I currently wanted to be doing with my life. As I looked at the paper I was mostly struck by what wasn't on it -- law school was not on the list. This got my attention because I was halfway through my first year at law school in England.
I had applied to study law because of repeated advice to "keep your options open." Once I got out, I could practice law. I could write about law. ...The world would be my oyster, or so the argument went. Yet from almost the first moment I started studying law, instead of choosing between these pursuits I had simply tried to fit them all in. ...It was a classic "straddled strategy" of attempting to invest in everything at once. The result was that while I was not entirely failing in any pursuit I was not succeeding at any either. I soon began to wonder what was so great about all these open options.
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"If you could do only one thing with your life right now, what would you do?"
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Yet for all the impact this specific choice has had on the trajectory of my life, I value the way it changed my view about choices even more. We often think of choice as a thing. But a choice is not a thing. Our options may be things, but a choice -- a choice is an action. It is not just something we have but something we do...
拖延症这个词在用滥了以后已经不指代任何可怕的东西了。但是它作为一种行为的常态是尤其可怕的。当我们有很多选择的时候便会延缓去做决定，然而其实只有决定才是真正有效地推进人生和事件的那个东西而选择并不是。选择只是耗费。只有一个选择最后能够成为决定。从小被控制太多的人会对选择的自由有病态的迷恋，然而迷失在选择的海洋之中永远不去做决定。选择之所以如此诱人，极具迷惑性的另一面，是因为它们确实是“行为”，这种“行为”让人错觉自己似乎“有所为”，而实际上选择本身“一无所为”。