Researchers at Cornell University once estimated that people make over 200 decisions a day about food alone.

康奈尔大学的研究人员曾经估算出，人们每天光是思考吃什么就会做出200多个决定。

The workplace is nothing but a succession of choices, a few big and many small: what to prioritise, when to intervene, whom to avoid in the lifts and, now, where to work each day.

构成职场的只不过是一连串选择，几个重大的加上许多个微小的：优先考虑什么，何时干预，在电梯里避开谁，以及现如今对于工作地点的选择。

To take one example, when your inbox brims with new emails at the start of a new day, there is absolutely no way to read them all carefully.

举个例子，如果你的收件箱在新的一天开始时塞满了新邮件，你绝不可能全部认真看完。

Intuition is what helps you decide which ones to answer and which to delete or leave unopened.

直觉会帮助你决定回复哪些、删除哪些或对哪些置之不理。

Emails that are part of existing threads: open.

属于现有线程的电子邮件：打开。

Messages from people directly above and below you: open.

直属上下级的消息：打开。

Reminders from the chief information officer that cyber-security really, really matters: delete.

首席信息官说网络安全真的、真的很重要的提醒消息：删除。

Instinct is also at work on those occasions when people have completely zoned out.

当人们完全思想游离的时候，本能也在起作用。

They might be working on something else during a Zoom call, or playing chess on their phones, or simply admiring the ceiling pattern.

他们可能在打Zoom电话时正在做其他事情，或是正在手机上下棋，或者只是在欣赏天花板的图案。

Suddenly they are aware of a silence, and realise that they have been asked something or are expected to make a contribution.

突然，他们感觉到了一阵沉默，并意识到有人向自己问了些什么，或者有人期待自己做点贡献。

This is the office equivalent of coming face to face with a lion.

这种职场上的情形就相当于与一头狮子面对面。

Those who are fit to survive will say something plausible like “I’d like to understand how we are measuring success,” prompting murmurs of agreement from everyone else who hasn’t been paying attention but senses this might be a good answer.

那些能够挺过去的人会说一些貌似有理的话，比如“我想知道我们衡量成功的标准”，引起其他所有人低声附和，这些人其实也一直在走神，只是感觉这个回答可能还不错罢了。