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It may be the defining London sight: people walking up escalators at Tube (地下铁道) stations. In this city only tourists stand goggling (瞪大眼睛看) blankly into space. That’s because London—like Manhattan, Hong Kong and other great cities—has fallen into the hands of strivers. They are driving everyone else out of town.

这也许是伦敦的标志性景象：地铁站里的人们沿着自动扶梯向上走。在这个城市，只有游客才会站在扶梯上茫然发呆。这是因为伦敦和曼哈顿、香港以及其他大城市一样，已经成为拼搏者的天下。他们正把所有其他人赶出城市。



Philosophers and pop psychologists spent centuries trying to explain humankind, but only in 1996 did the South African novelist Jo-Anne Richards (南非记者、作家，代表作为《无辜的烤鸡》) and I finally identify the three basic human types: strivers, slackers (逃避工作的人) and fantasists.

哲学家和大众心理学家花费了数百年的时间试图来解释人类，但直到1996年，南非小说家约-安妮·理查兹和我才最终确定人类的三种基本类型：拼搏者、偷懒者和幻想者。

Strivers are restless overachievers who walk up escalators. Their habitats include the City of London and Davos. Almost all political leaders are strivers, except ones who inherited their position, such as George W. Bush. As Richards explains in a now-dead book proposal: “Strivers start companies, build skyscrapers and finish marathons. But not all strivers rule the world. They also make the trains run on time and organize charities.” A working-class female striver might become a head nurse. If the job market sidelines (把……排除在外) women altogether, she will strive vicariously (间接感受到地), through her children. “Strivers,” writes Richards, “have the energy     and discipline to make other people’s dreams come true.” Strivers make every minute count, and devote their leisure-time to self-improvement. Their drugs of choice are accelerators: coffee and cocaine.

拼搏者就是那些沿着自动扶梯向上走的人，他们永不停歇，成绩超凡。他们的聚集地包括伦敦金融城(英国英格兰大伦敦地区正中央的城市，是整个伦敦的商业与金融中心，在全球金融业中具有相当重要的领导地位)和达沃斯。几乎所有的政治领袖都是拼搏者，除了那些通过继承得到职位的人，比如乔治·W·布什。正如理查兹在一份已被否决的图书策划中所写的：“拼搏者创立公司，建造摩天大楼，跑完马拉松。但并不是所有的拼搏者都在统治世界。他们也保证列车准点运行，组织慈善活动。”一名劳工阶层出身的女性拼搏者可能会成为护士长。但如果就业市场将女性一股脑地排除在外，这位女性拼搏者会通过她的孩子们间接地拼搏。“拼搏者，”理查兹写道，“拥有让其他人梦想成真的能量和自制力。”拼搏者使每一分钟都过得有价值，把他们的闲暇时间用来完善自己。他们选择的药物是加速剂：咖啡和可卡因。

By contrast, slackers do nothing. “They prefer to avoid effort rather than pursue pleasure,” writes Richards. “This in itself can be exhausting.” It’s hard to name any well-known slackers, because by definition slackers rarely become famous, except by accident. Sometimes a slacker will get an idea for a novel or for creating world peace, but then she sinks back into the sofa and the moment passes. Whereas business newspapers celebrate strivers, slacker newspapers celebrate lottery winners. Andrew Lamprecht, in his seminal (影响深远的) article on slackers, writes that although they have “no idea what they want from life” they often compensate with “a catholic knowledge of television.”

与拼搏者相反，偷懒者什么也不做。“他们更愿意逃避劳动，而不是追求乐趣，”理查兹写道，“这本身就可能令人精疲力竭。”人们很难说出任意一个众所周知的偷懒者的名字，因为以偷懒者的本性来说，除非是意外情况，否则他们很少出名。有时，偷懒者也会萌生出写本小说或创造世界和平的想法，但随即她又会重新窝进沙发，这一刻就这样过去了。商业报纸对拼搏者赞颂有加，而休闲报纸却为中彩票者呐喊庆祝。安德鲁·兰普雷克特在他那篇影响深远的关于偷懒者的文章中写道，尽管他们“不知道自己想从生活中得到什么”，但他们经常以“从电视中获得的广博知识”作为弥补。



If slackers devote their leisure time to anything, it’s extended adolescent hobbies such as surfing or collecting comics. Their drugs of choice are anaesthetics (麻醉剂): vodka or cigarettes.

如果偷懒者利用闲暇时光来做些什么的话，那还是对他们青少年时期爱好的延续，比如网上冲浪或者收集漫画等。他们选择的药物是麻醉剂：伏特加或香烟。

The third human type, the fantasist, lives inside his imagination. Fantasists have little desire to impose themselves on the world. A fantasist might spend years writing a short story, then discard it. Fantasists are never efficient and always miss deadlines. They are suckers for (对……着迷) new age fads such as crystals. They do create a lot of art, which strivers buy. Fantasists’ drugs of choice stimulate fantasy: marijuana (大麻) or ecstasy. When people are presented with the three human archetypes, most claim to be fantasists.

第三类人是幻想者，他们活在自己的想象里。幻想者几乎没有什么改变世界的欲望。他们可能会花费数年时间写一部短篇小说，然后将它丢置一边。幻想者做事向来效率很低，总是错过最后期限。他们容易对新时代的潮流事物着迷，比如冰毒(结晶甲安)。他们确实创造了不少艺术品，而买家都是拼搏者。幻想者选择的是能刺激幻想的药物：大麻或者迷幻药。面对这三类典型，大部分人都自称是幻想者。



In truth, real people are usually a mix of the three archetypes. For instance, successful artists such as Steven Spielberg or Damien Hirst are generally striver-fantasists. However, most people tend towards one particular type: for instance, someone might be slacker-dominant, with fantasist streaks (特征).

实际上，真实的人通常是这三种类型的结合体。比如，像史蒂文·斯皮尔伯格或达米恩·赫斯特这样的成功艺术家通常都是拼搏型幻想家。不过，大多数人都偏向某一种特定的类型：例如一个人可能主要属于偷懒者类型，同时带有一些幻想者的特征。

Naturally the three types irritate each other. A fantasist friend once told me an idea he had for a book. Being a striver, I began to strategize about finding a publisher. The more I talked, the less enthusiastic my friend became. Eventually, he changed the subject. He never intended to write the book. He just liked imagining it.

自然，这三类人会使彼此感到不快。一位幻想者朋友曾告诉我他想写一本书。作为拼搏者，我开始筹划找一家出版商。但我谈得越多，我这位朋友就变得越没有热情。最后他干脆转变了话题。他压根就没打算写这本书。他只是喜欢对它展开幻想而已。

No wonder the three archetypes have tended to segregate themselves. In big cities, strivers gravitate to financial districts, whereas fantasists establish enclaves such as Greenwich Village (格林威治村) in 1950s New York or Belleville (美丽城) in today’s Paris. When strivers discover these enclaves and drive up prices, fantasists create more distant enclaves. Slackers generally avoid big cities, often preferring the parental home, writes Richards.

难怪这三类人往往会互相隔离对方。在大城市，拼搏者被吸引到金融区，而幻想者则建立起自己的领地，比如20世纪50年代纽约的格林威治村或是当今巴黎的美丽城。当拼搏者发现这些领地并抬高它们的价格后，幻想者就会在更偏远的地方创建新领地。偷懒者则一般会避开大城市生活，他们更青睐于父母所在的家乡，理查兹这样写道。



In the US, with its great geographic mobility, the separation of the three types was always marked. Strivers headed for Manhattan and Washington, whereas slackers preferred places such as Miami. You sense each city’s

dominant mode the minute you arrive: at JFK airport in New York, the lady running the cab rank (出租汽车停车处) bellows (吼叫), “Move it along, people! You, sir, take this cab.” She’s on her way up. At Miami airport, you can’t even find cabs.

在美国，由于地理上的巨大流动性，这三类人的分隔一直很明显。拼搏者向曼哈顿和华盛顿聚集，偷懒者则偏爱像迈阿密这样的地方。刚抵达一座城市，你就会感受到它的主导类型。在纽约的肯尼迪机场，管理计程车站的女士大声喝道：“大家往前走！你，先生，上这辆车。”她正在成为拼搏者的路上。而在迈阿密机场，你甚至都找不到计程车。

However, segregation of the three human types is now proceeding faster than ever before. Rising house prices and growing inequality are driving non-strivers out of big cities, and even out of previously fantasist coastal towns such as Cape Town and San Francisco. Slackers and fantasists must be upset, but unless you read blogs their voices go unheard, and they certainly won’t do anything about it.

然而，现在这三类人的分离速度比以往任何时候都快。日益上涨的房价和日益滋生的不平等现象正在把非拼搏者赶出大城市，甚至把他们赶出像开普敦和旧金山这样曾经属于幻想者的海滨城市。偷懒者和幻想者对此一定很郁闷，但除非你阅读他们的博客，否则你不会听到他们的声音。当然了，他们也不会对此采取任何行动。