英文每周一文，想分手又難以決定？專家建議丟銅板決定感情去留。

這是一篇華盛頓郵報The Washington Post網站所刊登的文章，本周與各位分享。

英文每周一文當初是我的一片美意。我向來鼓勵大家每周精讀一篇文章，當成是寫作的資糧，為了讓同學願意練習寫作，我可是想破了頭，從推薦作家、上傳好文、到各種英文寫作工具無一不用，目的就是希望能啟發各位的靈感，讓大家願意敲鍵盤寫作。我的部落格有三十幾篇好文，若能篇篇精讀，下筆就算不「如有神」，至少也不會腦袋一片空白啊。

暑假也是我個人寫作旺季，很多中英文文案都是在這段期間內發生，所以我目前只要醒著，如果不是在上班上課，就是在敲鍵盤。因為可支配的閒暇時間不多，所以我幾乎都是利用坐捷運的時間看我喜歡的文章或是小說。我統計過，搭捷運閱讀，我一天也能閱讀一小時半。之前我閱讀Iron Lake這本小說，就是這樣一點一滴累積慢慢看完的，四百多頁的小說差不多兩個多月也看完了。所以時間跟擠牙膏一樣，再怎樣都能擠出一點來。另外，我已經戒掉睡前閱讀的習慣了，因為這樣會看書看到天亮，所以不敢再嘗試。倒是這幾年出現了老人病，就是一看電視節目就能馬上躺平。現在的我，睡前會躺在床上看十分鐘的「世間情」重播版，真的很有效，每次看差不多十分鐘，我就會進入愉快的睡眠狀態，連安眠藥都省了啦。

Thinking about breaking up with someone? Flip a coin

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In their latest book, ‘Think Like a Freak,” Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner urge readers to think about the world differently by training readers’ brains to approach problems in unique ways. In the final chapter, the Upside of Quitting,放棄的好處 Levitt and Dubner suggest that, contrary to與…相反 what many people have told you in life, you should quit. That is, when things get tough, you shouldn’t always tough them out戰勝/克服 and stick with it堅持到底. Instead, you should quit and do so sooner rather than later越快越好.

Because many of us believe in the adage格言 “winners never quit,” giving up is a difficult thing to do. The authors describe an experiment where readers submitted a tough decision they wanted the site to decide for them. You might assume that since economists were behind this experiment背後有經濟學家在計算結果, they would implement a fancy algorithm演算法 or formula公式to help readers make the most data-based decision以計算系統資料為基礎所出現的答案. Instead they used a simple computerized coin flip 電腦丟硬幣方式to spit out吐出 an answer. Despite putting a button that said “flip a coin” before the decision was given, readers submitted some rather serious questions, such as, should I quit my job?

What caught my eye was引起我注意的是 that more than 200 people asked the question: Should I break up with my partner?我應該跟我的伴侶分手嗎 Given that the coin flip said “Yes” half the time, it must have led to 100 break ups. Of course, not everyone who asked the question would follow through on貫徹實行 their decision. But the book’s authors suggest that most people did follow through.

Think about how bizarre怪異 that is. Roughly 100 people who were in a relationship broke up based on a random decision隨機的決定 made by a computer. A survey later on revealed that they were generally happy about their decision.大多數的人都對決定感到滿意

Surprisingly, this result agrees with 與…一致research findings. We know that people in relationships predict that they will be sadder about the break-up than they are when it actually happens. My research found that when you ask undergraduates who recently broke up, “Overall, how would you describe the break-up’s impact影響 on you?” a majority (41.3 percent) rated their break-up as將…評分為 positive, while 25.7 percent said it was neutral中立/無特別感受. Only 33 percent reported that the break-up was negative.

Relationships with less commitment are more likely to break up比較少經營感情(的男女)本來就比較容易分手, which may also explain why users were happy when the coin suggested ending the relationship. These users may have sensed that或許早就對…有感覺 a break-up was imminent逼近/不遠了 and conveniently had a coin-flip to blame無論結果如何，還可以把責任推給丟銅板. Of course, that coin may be doing both partners a favor 幫…一個大忙since having doubts about your relationship prior to在…之前 marriage relates to less marriage satisfaction比較不滿意的婚姻(少量的婚姻滿足感) and a higher likelihood for更可能出現的 divorce, especially for women.

Ultimately, as far as your relationship is concerned, whether a coin flip can effectively make relationship decisions isn’t that important. What may be most revealing最具啟發性的is whether you would be willing to allow a coin flip to determine the fate of your relationship.讓丟銅板的結果去決定你的感情去留