异类之不一样的成功启示录 第55期:砖块与毛毯的测试

What the test giver is looking for is the number and the uniqueness of your responses.

测试者希望知道的是你回答的数量和答案的个人特点，

And what the test is measuring isn't analytical intelligence but something profoundly different something much closer to creativity

该项测试并不是测试分析能力而是截然不同的另一方面——它与创造力息息相关。

Divergence tests are every bit as challenging as convergence tests,

发散测试和收敛测试一样，都要面临巨大的挑战，

and if you don't believe that I encourage you to pause and try the brickandblanket test right now.

如果你不信，就暂时停下手里的一切，现在就开始试试砖块与毛毯的测试吧。

Here, for example, are answers to the "uses of object" tests collected by Liam Hudson from a student named Poole at a top British high school:

这是利亚姆.哈德森从一位名为普尔的学生那里收集到的，这名学生是英国一所顶级中学的学生：

(Brick) To use in smashandgrab raids.

(砖块）可用来砸窗越货；

To help hold a house together.

砌房子；

To use in the game of Russian roulette if you want to keep fit at the same time

用在俄式轮盘赌里面，如果你想赌得舒服过瘾;

(bricks at ten paces, turn and throw no evasive action allowed).

（第十步在轮盘上放一块砖，转动几下然后甩出去——没有谁能逃脱）

To hold the eiderdown on a bed tie a brick at each corner.

鸭绒被的每个角都系上一块砖头，使得被子铺开在床上；

As a breaker of empty CocoCola bottles.

砸断空的可口可乐瓶。

(Blanket). To use on a bed.

(毛毯）可当床用；

As a cover for illicit sex in the woods

在密林里面铺开偷情；

As a tent. To make smoke signals with.

做帐逢用；点燃的烟火可传递信号；

As a sail for a boat, cart a sled.

小船、手推车或者是雪橇的篷；

As a substitute for a towel.

毛巾替代品；

As a target for shooting practise for shortsighted people.

近视的人作为射击练习的靶子用；

As a thing to catch people jumping out of burning skyscrapers.

可以用它接住从着火的大楼里面跳出来的人。

It's not hard to read Poole's answers and get some sense of how his mind works.

从上面很难找到普尔的答案，也不大清楚他的具体思路。

He's funny. He's a little subversive and libidinous.

他像是在恶作剧，有点反叛，

He has the flair for the dramatic.

他的答案也带点色情。

His mind leaps from violent imagery to sex to people jumping out of burning skyscrapers to very practical issues,

他的思路从暴力跳跃到性再到从巷火的大楼跳下的人们，再到-些非常实际的问题，

like how to get a duvet to stay on a bed.

例如怎样把羽绒被铺在床上。

He gives the sense that if you gave him another ten minutes, he'd come up with another twenty uses.

他给人一种感觉，似乎再给他10分钟，他能够找出另外的20种用途出来。

Now, for the sake of comparison, consider the answers of another student from Hudson's sample.

现在，为了便于对比，让我们来看看哈德森研究案例中的另外一个学生，

His name is Florence.

他的名字叫佛罗伦斯。

Hudson tells us that Florence is a prodigy, with one of the highest IQs in the school.

哈德森告诉我们说佛罗伦斯是他们学校的一个天才，拥有很高的智商。