《经济学人》双语：内向者如何社交？

原文标题：
Bartleby
Networking for introverts: a how-to guide
Making the business of meeting strangers marginally less awful
巴托比专栏
内向者的人际交往指南

与陌生人见面的事情稍微变得不那么可怕

[Paragraph 1]

CORPORATE LIFE throws up some stressful moments. Bringing bad news to your boss; facing an interview panel; making a big presentation.

职场生活中常常会出现令人倍感压力的时刻。例如向老板传递坏消息、面对面试小组、做重要的演讲等等。

But few things are worse than networking if you are an introvert.
但如果你是一个内向者，社交可能是最紧张的时刻之一。

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You arrive at an event to find that everyone there apparently knows each other already.

当你参加一个活动时，发现似乎每个人都已经彼此认识了。

And then you look more closely and spot the fellow-sufferers.They are the people who are actually reading the conference blurb.

然后你仔细看了看，发现了跟你一样的受苦者（内向者），他们是认真阅读会议简介的人。

They look at email on their phones with greater intensity than ever happens at the office.

他们在手机上查看电子邮件的专注度比在办公室时更强。

They endlessly circulate the room, like bits of plastic in the ocean waiting to be snagged on something.

他们在会场里来来回回转个不停，就像大海里的塑料碎片，等待着被东西固定。

They take a seat in the main hall while the sound engineers are still testing the microphones.
当音响工程师还在测试麦克风时，他们就已经在主会场找到位置坐好了。

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Fortunately, there is advice out there on how to break the ice with strangers.Unfortunately, it’s abysmal.

幸运的是，关于如何与陌生人破冰的建议已经出现。不幸的是，这些建议糟透了。

One sage counsels making contact in queues, because it is easier to talk to the person in front of you and behind you.

一位智者建议在排队时与人交流，因为与前后的人交谈更容易。

You are meant to ambush people on the escalator, in the toilets and in the queue to get your name tag.

你应该在电梯、洗手间和排队领取名牌时伺机而动。

In the line for coffee, open the door to jobs and sales by saying six incomprehensible words: “Juicing up for the big keynote?”
在排队取咖啡时，说出一句话便可打开工作和销售之门：“你的演讲准备好了吗？”

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On it goes. Don’t be afraid to laugh, because nothing drains the tension from a room like someone who cannot stop chuckling.

继续说建议。不要害怕大笑，因为开怀大笑是缓解房间紧张氛围的最佳办法。

Bring personal information into the conversation, lest people think you are at a conference on treasury-management software only for commercial gain.

在对话中透露一些个人信息，以免人们认为你只是为了商业目的而参加财务管理软件的会议。

Use the other person’s name twice, to appear truly engaged. And take notes on conversations afterwards so you can follow up with them.
多次提及对方的名字，以显得认真投入。谈话后要记下对话内容，以便后续跟进。

[Paragraph 5]

Add these ingredients together, and you have the recipe for success:
“Juicing up for the big keynote?”
“What?”

“Juicing up for the big keynote?”
“I don’t know what that means.”
[Scan name badge] “Keith, is it?”
“Er, yes.”
[Laughing] “I’m having a baby, Keith.”
“Keith?”

[Take out notepad]

If this is how to network, no wonder people go to the main hall early.
把这些要素加在一起，你就有了成功的秘诀：

“你的演讲准备好了吗？”

“什么？”

“你的演讲准备好了吗？”

“我不知道那是什么意思。”
[看一下对方姓名牌]“你是基思，对吗？”
“呃，是的。”
[笑]“我要生孩子了，基思。”
“基思？”
[拿出记事本记下]
若是按照这种方式社交，人家早就去主会场了。

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Making contacts on a site like LinkedIn is a lot less stressful.

在 LinkedIn 等网站上社交要轻松得多。

There is no eye contact, after all, and the rules of the road are agreed. And all those connection requests do appear to help with careers.

毕竟，没有眼神交流，而且路规是共识的。所有这些好友请求似乎有助于职业发展。

A paper published last year by Karthik Rajkumar of LinkedIn and co-authors from academia found empirical evidence for the insight that underpins all kinds of networking—that, because they bring you new information, more infrequent and distant relationships (or “weak ties”) are more useful than close contacts.
LinkedIn 的卡尔蒂克·拉吉库马尔与学术界的合著者去年发表的一篇论文发现，经验证据证实了各种人际社交的观点--因为他们能给你带来新信息，所以互动不频繁、更疏远的关系（或称 "弱关系"）比强关系更有用。

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The researchers randomly changed the “People You May Know” recommendations algorithm that LinkedIn shows its users, so that the prevalence of weaker and stronger connections varied among people on the site.

研究人员随机更改了 LinkedIn 向用户显示的“你可能认识的人”推荐算法，从而使站内不同人之间关系强弱程度有所不同。

The experiment showed that weaker ties (where a pair of users had only one mutual friend, say) were more likely to lead to job applications and job moves than those where people had 25 mutual friends or more.
实验结果表明，与拥有 25 个或更多共同朋友的关系相比，弱关系（例如，2个用户只有1个共同朋友）更有可能促成工作申请和工作调动。

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This sounds like nirvana for introverts: start spamming everyone with connection requests, close the office door and wait for job offers. But it is not that easy.

这听起来像是内向者的福音：开始向每个人发送连接请求，关上办公室的大门，安心等待工作机会就好了。但事情并非如此简单。

Even weak ties need tending. Even online, interacting with people is easier if you find it energising;

即使是弱连接，也需要维护。即使是在线上，如果你觉得与人交流让自己充满活力，那么社交也会更容易；

a survey-based study of LinkedIn, by Joanna Davis of Augustana College and her co-authors, found that extroversion was a predictor of networking ability.
奥古斯塔纳学院的乔安娜·戴维斯及其合著者对 LinkedIn 进行的一项调查研究发现，外向与否是社交能力的预测因素。

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There isn’t a genuinely painless way for introverts to network.

对于内向者来说，并没有一种真正无痛的社交方式。

Still, methods to do it exist that are wiser than standing in a queue and hoping the guy who doesn’t know how to get coffee out of the machine is your ticket to career success.
尽管如此，比起希望排队中那个不知道如何倒咖啡的人是你的职场贵人，其实还有一些更明智的方法存在。

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The real secret is to save your energy for the people who are most likely to be interesting to you.

真正的秘诀是把精力留给那些你感兴趣的人。

In the online realm, for instance, Dr Rajkumar’s study does not find that the weaker the tie, the better.

例如在线上，拉吉库马尔博士的研究并没有发现关系越弱越好。

The sweet spot in networking on LinkedIn is someone with moderately weak ties to you: connecting with a person with ten mutual friends markedly increases the probability of changing jobs compared with someone with just one shared friend.
在LinkedIn上，人脉拓展的最佳选择是与你有适度弱关系的人社交：与只有一个共同朋友的人相比，与有十个共同朋友的人建立联系会明显增加更换工作的概率。

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In other words, networking pays off if you can identify people who can bring you new information but are close enough to your world that this information is useful.

换句话说，如果你能找到能给你带来新的有用消息的人，而这些人又与你足够熟，那么人脉关系将会产生回报。

In the offline world, a tool like ChatGPT should make it easier to find useful prospects in a list of event attendees.

在线下，ChatGPT等工具能够更方便地在与会者名单中寻找有用的潜在人选。

But you still need to overcome all your instincts and approach them.
但你仍然需要克服内心的一切迟疑，并主动接触他们。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量753左右）
原文出自：2023年9月9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: Irene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）
强关系是指亲近的、紧密的关系，通常是由亲属、家人、密友、长期合作伙伴等形成的，这些关系通常基于共同的利益、信任和紧密的互动。强关系的特点是关系持久稳定，信息交流频繁且深入，对彼此有高度的信任和依赖。这种关系可以带来资源共享、合作机会、支持和帮助等。

弱关系则是指不那么亲密的、较为疏远的关系，通常是由同事、朋友的朋友、社交媒体上的关注者等形成的。弱关系的特点是关系较为脆弱和短暂，信息交流较少，互动程度较低。尽管弱关系在数量上可能更多，但其影响力较弱，往往不能提供像强关系那样的资源和支持。

【重点句子】（3个）
Even weak ties need tending. Even online, interacting with people is easier if you find it energising;
即使是弱连接，也需要维护。即使是在线上，如果你觉得与人交流让自己充满活力，那么社交也会更容易.

There isn’t a genuinely painless way for introverts to network.
对于内向者来说，并没有一种真正无痛的社交方式。

The real secret is to save your energy for the people who are most likely to be interesting to you.
真正的秘诀是把精力留给那些你感兴趣的人。