我得到过的最佳建议

3.彼得•萨洛维和朱迪斯•罗丹

1981年，彼得•萨洛维进入耶鲁大学（Yale）就读心理学研究生。他立即被朱迪斯•罗丹的工作所吸引。他说：“她是利用基础实验室工作来解答现实世界问题的人之一，在当时也许是唯一的一个。”罗丹和萨洛维作为师生开始合作，从此以后成为要好的朋友。今天，55岁的萨洛维是耶鲁大学校长和心理学教授。69岁的罗丹是洛克菲勒基金会（the Rockefeller Foundation）的总裁，以前还担任过宾夕法尼亚大学（the University of Pennsylvania）的校长。不久前，他俩聊到了他们最早的一些合作，以及他们一直相互学习的经历。——Ryan Bradley

萨洛维：我记得早年的一次会议，我要在会上宣传我的想法。朱迪在帮我鉴别哪些是好想法，哪些是坏的。结果，我把咖啡洒到了她的桌子上。

罗丹：是洒在我身上了！不光是我的桌子……

萨洛维：有个很早的研究表明，出点错会让人更招人喜欢。但事实是，只有人们认为你是个强人时才能产生这种效应。

罗丹：好吧，彼得一开始就完全是对的。我想培养我的学生去思考什么东西重要——人们非常容易在象牙塔里迷失方向。最终，我们受到的培养是思考人的认知和行为方式以及为什么它对于人类的行为与进步很重要，对心理学家的培养尤其是如此。

萨络维：朱迪的兴趣从不仅限于做下一项试验——仅仅阅读几篇研究论文，然后顺着思路做下一项实验。相反，她的下一步是选出几个对现实世界有重大影响的问题，在学术上逆潮流而动。

罗丹：这是我一直在做的事情，无论是在学术上还是商业上——有意思的好想法有很多，但极其重要的只有少数几个。不能满意于仅仅拥有好的想法。

萨络维：我记得有一次，我们请来一位演讲嘉宾。事后，我们去吃晚餐。他介绍了一个实验，还有他注意到的某些现象。我记得朱迪问他：“这里面有什么重要思想吗？”显然，那个人很聪明，但从来没人问过他这个问题。

罗丹：人必须愿意冒险。当一个优秀的领导人同样如此。“别把事搞砸了”是个糟糕的建议。它是什么意思？劝人不要勇敢吗？     

3.Peter Salovey & Judith Rodin

In 1981, Peter Salovey entered Yale as a grad student in psychology. He immediately gravitated toward Judith Rodin's work. "She was one of the people -- maybe the only person at the time -- who took basic lab work and used it to answer real-world questions," he says. Rodin and Salovey began working together, teacher and student, and have since become good friends. Today Salovey, 55, is Yale's president and a professor of psychology. Rodin, 69, is president of the Rockefeller Foundation and was previously president of the University of Pennsylvania. The pair recently spoke about some of their earliest collaborations and their ongoing learning from each other. --Ryan Bradley

Salovey: I remember an early meeting, where I was pitching ideas. Judy was helping me figure out which were good or bad. I spilled coffee all over her desk.

Rodin: On me! Not just my desk ...

Salovey: There's an old study that shows if you blunder, your likability goes up. But the thing is, you only get that effect if the person already thinks you're a competent person

Rodin: Well, Peter was amazing right from the beginning. I try to train my students to consider what matters -- it's so easy to get lost in the ivory tower. In the end, particularly as psychologists, we really are trained to think about what people know and how they act and why that's important in terms of human action and progress.

Salovey: Judy never was interested in just doing the next experiment -- simply reading a few studies and doing the next logical one. Rather, it was to pick problems that are going to have some significant impact on the real world and be a little bit of a scholarly contrarian.

Rodin: This is something I continue to do, whether it's academic or business -- there are a lot of really good, interesting ideas, but only a few really spectacularly important ones. Don't be satisfied with the merely good.

Salovey: I remember once, we had a guest speaker, and afterward we all went out to dinner. He was explaining an experiment and noticing some phenomenon, and I remember Judy saying, "What's the big idea here?" It was clear this person was very smart but had never been asked that question.

Rodin: You need to be willing to take risks. The same holds true to be a great leader. "Don't screw it up" is terrible advice. Well, what does it mean? Don't be brave?