全文精译
粉色高亮：翻译思路中讲解的例句
黄色高亮：精读板块中讲解的单词和词组
绿色高亮：句式语法中讲解的例句
Illustration: Paul Blow
Mar 6th 2025
Surveys of office behaviour are not scientific. In a global poll conducted last year by Kickresume, a firm that helps create cvs, 85% of people said they had experienced an annoying co-worker. That means the remaining 15% are either sole traders or liars. But surveys can still reveal truths about what gets people riled up. The Kickresume survey put credit-stealing top of the list of irritating colleague behaviour, as did a survey of British workers in 2022 by Perspectus Global, a research firm. Another recent poll, this time of American workers and conducted by BambooHR, crowned taking credit for employees’ ideas as the worst managerial trait of all.
对职场行为的调查研究很难算得上科学研究。去年，“蹬简历”公司（Kickresume，主营业务是制作简历）做了一项全球调研，发现85%的人反映自己的同事讨人厌。说明剩下的15%要么是个体户，要么是骗人鬼。这类调查就算不科学，也能揭露一些真相，那就是大家都厌恶什么行为。“蹬简历”调查发现，抢功劳是职场最天怒人怨的行为，这与“观全球“（Perspectus Global）研究公司在2022年的调查结果吻合。最近，”竹资人“（BambooHR）在美国职场的调研也发现，偷下属的点子拿去邀功是最不受待见的管理层行为。
You get the picture. Grabbing kudos for someone else’s idea makes lots of people angry. In fact, it is seen as unacceptable from a very early age: research has shown that children as young as five disapprove of plagiarism. Done intentionally and repeatedly, credit-grabbing is not just annoying but bad for the organisation: ideas are hoarded, trust erodes and motivation suffers. A recent paper by Siyuan Chen of Beijing Jiaotong University and his co-authors found that credit-claiming by executives at a large Chinese manufacturing firm was associated with worse job performance by employees.
明白了吧。抢别人的功劳一定会引起众怒。我们其实从小就不接受这种行为：研究表明，连五岁的孩子都讨厌别人抄自己的点子。如果抢功劳的情况反反复复屡禁不绝，不仅会令人恼火，还会给所在单位埋下祸根：有了好创意也捂着不敢分享，同事之间的信任逐渐瓦解，工作积极性也受到挫败。北京交通大学的陈思远老师的团队最近发表的一篇论文发现，一家中国大型制造企业中，高管抢功的行为往往伴随着员工的工作表现滑坡。
When something happens a lot and is extremely irritating, a coping mechanism is needed. So the next time you hear your brilliant idea coming out of the mouth of a colleague, breathe deeply and remember three things.
一件事，如果这么令人恼火，还这么随处可见，那就得有应对机制。下次你再听到自己的奇思妙想从同事口中说出时，深呼吸，记住以下三点。
First, credit-stealing may be less malevolent than imagined. Psychologists have long documented a phenomenon called “cryptomnesia” in which people inadvertently plagiarise the ideas of others. Experiments into cryptomnesia vary but the basic set-up is for participants in a group to be asked to generate ideas to solve a particular problem. They are then told to recall only their own ideas, and to come up with new ideas that do not replicate ones that have already been raised. Despite these instructions, people tend to claim a decent chunk of old ideas as their own, and to copy previous suggestions when raising ostensibly new ideas. People may steal credit without even realising it.
首先，抢功的人未必有那么大的恶意。心理学家早就发现了“潜隐记忆”（cryptomnesia）现象，就是人会无意识地盗用他人的主意而不自知。关于潜隐记忆的实验形式多样，但基本设置是让一组被试集思广益解决特定问题。随后要求他们只能说自己想到的方案，不能重复之前已经提出的思路。尽管有这样的要求，被试还是会把很多旧思路说成是自己的，并在提出所谓新方案时抄袭已经提出的思路。所以，很多人抢功的时候根本意识不到自己在抢功。
Second, innovation very rarely takes the form of an entirely new idea; instead, it recombines existing ones. And people often reach the same conclusions independently. That is the message of “Like”, an entertaining new book by Martin Reeves and Bob Goodson on the origins of the “like” button. The thumbs-up icon was made ubiquitous when Facebook adopted it in 2009, but well before then firms like Vimeo, Yelp, Digg.com and FriendFeed had been experimenting with ways for users to register an emotional reaction to content. So even if you think of an idea as your own stroke of genius, the reality is likely to be messier.
第二，完全新颖的创意其实凤毛麟角，大多数创新都是旧创意的新组合。而且，英雄所见真的常常略同。这也是马丁·里维斯（Martin Reeves）和鲍勃·古德森（Bob Goodson）的新书《点赞：改变世界的按钮》的主旨内容。这本书趣味横生，讲了“点赞”按钮的来源。脸书2009年采用“点赞”按钮，随后便迅速普及。但在那之前，Vimeo、Yelp、Digg.com和FriendFeed等网站尝试过很多方式，让用户对内容的发表喜恶。所以，就算你以为这个想法是你独具匠心的灵光一闪，可能真实情况要复杂得多。
Third, credit-stealing can backfire. Decent bosses know that success stems from teams of people, not individuals (bad bosses will just appropriate the idea as their own anyway). Work by Eric VanEpps of Vanderbilt University and his co-authors has found that the best way to project both competence and warmth is to mix a bit of bragging and a bit of praise for others. And though expressing pride in achievements, even if they are not your own, can be a good way to communicate an aura of success, it pays not to be too specific.
第三，抢功很可能适得其反。好领导知道，成功来自团队协作，而不是拔尖的几个人（坏领导索性自己就把功劳占为己有了）。范德堡大学的埃里克·范爱普斯（Eric VanEpps）团队研究发现，要展现自己的能力与亲和力，最好是适度自夸的同时也适当表扬别人。虽然，表达成就感（可能还不是自己的成就）能让你散发出成功人士的光环，但最好还是不要说得太具体，一带而过就好。
A paper by Rebecca Schaumberg of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania looks at what happens when people show pride in a performance whose details are known to others. Imagine, for example, two programmers who post identical high scores in a programming competition; one goes on a frenzy of fist-pumping and the other says she is not that proud of how she did. Observers reckon that the buoyant programmer is at the ceiling of her potential, and judge the downbeat one to be more skilled. Overt credit-stealers may appear less, not more, competent.
宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院的丽贝卡·绍姆伯格（Rebecca Schaumberg）研究了别人知根知底的时候，为自己的成绩表现出得意的话会发生什么。比如说，两个程序员在编程比赛中获得了相同的高分：一个开心地手舞足蹈庆祝，另一个则表示一般一般不算什么。旁观者会认为，那个兴高采烈的程序员可能已经达到了能力的上限，反而低调的那位更有实力。公然抢功的人可能不会显得能力更强，反而会显得能力一般。
Ideally, you would not need to reconcile yourself to a bit of credit-stealing. Recognition would simply be doled out accurately. But even when credit has been allocated appropriately, there is another problem. Work by Heather Sarsons of the University of British Columbia and others has shown that male academic economists get tenure regardless of whether they solo-author or co-author papers; women are less likely to get tenure the more they co-author. That suggests biases can still end up distorting recognition when it is not possible to know who contributed most on a team. That really is infuriating.
理想的情况当然是不用去适应抢功的现象。谁的功劳就应该给谁。但即便真的论功行赏了，还有另一个问题。不列颠哥伦比亚大学的希瑟·萨森斯（Heather Sarsons）等人的研究表明，男性经济学家无论是独立发表还是合作发表论文都能获得终身教职；而女性经济学家越是与人合作发表论文，获得终身教职的概率就越低。这说明，无法确定团队中谁贡献最大时，判断仍然受到偏见的影响。这着实令人愤怒。
翻译思路
You get the picture.
明白了吧。
"You get the picture" 是一个常用的英语口语表达，用来确认对方是否理解了之前说的内容。picture在这里的意思是”(an idea of) a situation”，而不是平时常见的“图片、照片”的意思。这种表达方式非常口语化，带有一种亲切随意的语气，相当于“你明白我的意思了吗？“或“你知道我在说什么了吧？“
我翻译成“明白了吧“，保留了原文的口语特色和交际功能，同时也传达出了说话人希望确认对方理解的语气。这个译法简洁自然，符合中文的表达习惯，同时也保持了原文轻松随意的语气特点。
And though expressing pride in achievements, even if they are not your own, can be a good way to communicate an aura of success, it pays not to be too specific.
虽然，表达成就感（可能还不是自己的成就）能让你散发出成功人士的光环，但最好还是不要说得太具体，一带而过就好。
在这句话中，”it pays not to be too specific” 是一个很有意思的表达。这里的 pay 不是表示支付金钱的字面意思，而是”to give a profit or advantage to someone or something”的意思，表示“值得……“或“……有好处，有收益“的含义。这是 pay 的一种惯用法，常用句式为 “it pays to do something” 或 “it pays not to do something”。
在翻译时，我们需要理解这个表达的实际含义：做某事（或不做某事）会带来好的结果或回报，所以这件事是该做的（不该做的）。原文中说”it pays not to be too specific”，意思是”不说得太具体会更好”。把握了这层意思，就可以处理成“最好还是不要说得太具体”。“一带而过就好“其实是把意思重复了一遍，加深印象。
精读
单词短语
rile up - make someone angry
Example: Elon Musk’s chainsaw wielding antics at CPAC may have riled up the bureaucracy-hating audience, but flashbacks to 1990s era Chainsaw Al Dunlap’s track record should make markets shudder.
credit - n. praise, approval, or honor.
Example: I do the work, and you get the credit — how is that fair?
grab - vt. to take hold of something or someone suddenly and roughly
Example: A mugger grabbed her handbag as she was walking across the park.
hoard - vt. to collect and often hide away a supply of; to keep (something, such as one’s thoughts) to oneself
Example: a. There would be enough food on a daily basis if people were not hoarding. b. She hoarded her intention.
suffer - vi. to experience or show the effects of something bad
Example: When you’re working such long hours, it’s inevitable that your marriage will start to suffer.
tend to - to be likely to behave in a particular way or have a particular characteristic
Example: We tend to get cold winters and warm, dry summers in this part of the country.
ubiquitous - adj. seeming to be everywhere
Example: The mobile phone, that most ubiquitous of consumer-electronic appliances, is about to enter a new age.
stroke of genius - an outstanding brilliant and original idea.
Example: Deciding to relocate the company was a stroke of genius.
backfire - vi. to have the reverse of the desired or expected effect
Example: Their plans backfired.
frenzy - n. uncontrolled and excited behavior or emotion
Example: There was a frenzy of activity in the financial markets yesterday.
reckon - vt. to think or believe
Example: I reckon it’s going to rain.
buoyant - adj. happy and confident
Example: After reading the letter he was in a buoyant mood.
competent - adj. able to do something well
Example: He is competent at his job.
reconcile - vt. to find a way in which two situations or beliefs that are opposed to each other can agree and exist together; to cause to submit to or accept something unpleasant; to check (a financial account) against another for accuracy
Example: It is difficult to reconcile such different points of view. He has reconciled to the loss of the election and is moving on. They're now trying to reconcile the various figures.
reconcile yourself to (+something) - to accept a situation or fact although you do not like it
Example: She must reconcile herself to the fact that she must do some work if she wants to pass her exams.
句式语法
Grabbing kudos for someone else’s idea makes lots of people angry.
一般现在时
我们知道一般现在时核心功能是：描述反复发生的动作、长期存在的状态、客观事实或普遍真理。
这句话就是”客观事实或普遍真理“的用法，这种用法强调句子内容的不受时间限制性——无论过去、现在还是未来，这类陈述都被视为真实存在或广泛认可的现象；陈述被广泛接受的现象、科学原理、自然规律或社会共识，其真实性不因说话的时间或场合而改变。
例如：
- 自然规律：Water boils at 100°C.（水在100摄氏度沸腾。）
- 科学事实：The Earth revolves around the Sun.（地球围绕太阳转。）
- 社会共识：Lying damages trust.（撒谎会损害信任。）
你可以试一下，在这些中文译文里，加上“会”“总是”“从来”“永远”等词汇强调普遍性、普适性，意思也成立。英语通过一般现在时就可以直接体现，未必需要加“always”“usually”等词。
所以在翻译“Grabbing kudos for someone else’s idea makes lots of people angry”的时候，加上”一定“这个词，就把规律的普适性强调出来了。
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