02.为汉弗莱·波特点赞／IN PRAISE OF HUMPHREY POTTER

［02］为汉弗莱·波特点赞／IN PRAISE OF HUMPHREY POTTER

据说，汉弗莱·波特，来自伯明翰的一个小男孩，用头顶上的绳子把进气阀与出气阀绑在一起，栓在蒸汽机横梁上。这个工作本来应该是他被雇来手动去完成的。为了避免无聊的工作而能去玩耍，波特创造出了某种反馈回路，同时遏制了自己继续遭到的奴役。

It has been said that Humphrey Potter, a boy from Birmingham, used the string of his top to tie together, on the arm of a steam engine, the inlet and exhaust valves that he had been hired to activate by hand.Trying to avoid a boring job so he could play, Potter invented, while suppressing his slavery, a kind of feedback loop.

不管真实与否，这个故事是为了赞美一个天才的超前意识。

True or not, this tale is meant to praise the precociousness of a genius.

在我看来，这更是展现了工人频繁的能力，机巧、因地制宜，即使是岁数还没成年的小工人也有这种能力。而决策者，恰恰是远远地发号施令，根本不向行动者征询意见，他们觉得行动者都是无能的人。汉弗莱·波特是拇指姑娘的代名词。 To my eyes, it shows, rather, the frequent competence, subtle and adapted, of workers, even minor ones, in places where the deciders, distant, have issued commands to act without consulting their actors, who are assumed to be incompetent.Humphrey Potter is one of thenoms de guerreof Thumbelina.

“雇员”这个词表达了对无能（重复劳动，没有创造性工作）的认定。 The wordemployeeexpresses this presumption of incompetence.

“plier”（雇员）这个法语词从语源学上说就是“折叠，屈服”的意思，意即把事情折入到一个人的空闲时间里，以大加剥削之。 Etymologically (employer, from the Frenchplier, to fold), it is a matter of folding something at one’s leisure in order to exploit it.

一种疾病被缩减为一个待修理的器官；一名学生被缩减为一只待填充的耳朵或一张被强迫喂食的沉默嘴巴；工人被缩减为需要被管理的机器，作为机器，也只比他们自己操纵的那些机器稍微复杂一点点。

A disease is reduced to an organ to repair; a student, to an ear to fill or a silent mouth to force-feed.Workers are reduced to machines to be managed, only slightly more complicated than the machines they work on.

以上，常常是只说不听； 在下，只听不说。 Above, there used to be deaf mouths; below, mute ears.

让我们歌颂互相打分。 Let us sing the praises of reciprocal control.

通过恢复两个层级，最好的公司把员工置于实际决策的中心。 By restoring complete faces on both levels, the best companies put their workers at the center of practical decision making.

不像金子塔的组织架构，它包含流动的逻辑性和复杂性的规章制度（实际上通过添加规章制度来增加复杂性），他们让拇指姑娘实时控制自己的活动。 Far from organizing, like a pyramid, a logistics of flows and a regulation of complexity (which in fact multiplies complexity by adding layers of regulation), they let Thumbelina control her own activity in real time.

这种情况下，问题更容易被发现和修复，技术解决方案也可以很快被发现，生产率因此得到提高。但我们也要检查她的代表，她的老板，与此同时，还有医生和政治家。 Breakdowns are more easily identified and repaired, technical solutions are found more quickly, productivity is improved. But we must also examine her representatives—here, her bosses; and in a moment, doctors and politicians.

黄龑：汉弗莱·波特作为拇指姑娘的代表，他的工业上的改变粗看是极好的，带着工业生产的巨大提升以及劳动力的减少，工人的负担不像以前这么重。然而这种转变只是一时的，机器取代人类，人们失业，然后使用大批量生产的产品并沉迷于它，人们的关系都发生了巨大的变化，而这恰恰是我们现在的状态。因为大批量的手机生产，很多人都成为了“拇指姑娘”，人们不再单一地服从上级的意识，即他们所说的那些于公司无益的规章制度，他们试图寻求新的发展方式，而这样的建议和想法都是来自于“拇指姑娘”的契机，源于越来越多的信息流，给了人们全新的认知。