Burkeman is not above making suggestions. In his Epilogue he offers, \can treat these ideas [presented in the previous chapters] as a toolkit.\
与那些更典型的自助大师一样，夏皮罗的方式旨在让人们的生活更幸福，更充实。这也是夏皮罗之所以堪称本书一个完美隐喻的原因所在。《解毒剂》一书声称，追寻幸福将使人筋疲力尽，失望连连。然而，正如夏皮罗可以在渴望成功的商界氛围中，游刃有余地使用PowerPoint幻灯片向公司高管们展示其理论一样，《解毒剂》一书完全可以毫不唐突地摆放在巴诺连锁书店（Barnes and Noble）的自助类书架上。毕竟，伯克曼也并非不屑于为读者提出他的建议。正如他在本书后记中所言，“读者可以把（之前章节中提出的）这些建议视为一个可身体力行的工具包。”
Unlike many self-help authors, however, Burkeman doesn't offer neat, 12-step prescriptions for health, wealth, or happiness. After painstakingly establishing the various negative paths to happiness -- Buddhist meditation, rejection of goals, acceptance of death's inevitability -- he winds up discouraged by his inability to wrap things up neatly. His language becomes clunky: \negative path to happiness … [is] a path to a different kind of destination. Or maybe it makes more sense to say that the path is the destination? These things are excruciatingly hard to put into words, and the spirit of … [negative thinking] surely dictates that we do not struggle too hard to do so.\
然而，与许多撰写自助类书籍的作者不同的是，伯克曼并没有就如何获得健康、财富和幸福提供一套简明扼要，可分为12步完成的处方。煞费苦心地铺设了各类通往幸福的替代路径（犹如佛教徒般的冥思，拒绝设定目标，接受死亡的必然性 ）之后，他最终为自己
无力整理出一套简单明了的操作指南而沮丧。他的语言开始变得有些笨拙：“通往幸福的消极路径，是一条通往一个不一样的目的地的路径。说这条路径就是目的地，或许更有道理吧？这些事情是非常难以用言语来表达的，（消极思维）的精神势必决定了我们不要太过努力地做这些事情。”
If it were up to me, the parting message of this exploration of negativity would be more positive. Specifically, \struggling.\After all, in an earlier chapter, Burkeman convinced me that all failures are invigorating. Failure, he writes, \happening only because you are pushing at the limits of your capabilities.\thrilling statement, because it suggests that in failing, you are being productive.
要是换做我，这趟探寻消极性之旅的临别赠言或许会更积极一些。我尤其会忠告读者，“继续努力吧。”毕竟，在早前一个章节中，伯克曼让我相信，所有的失败都令人鼓舞。失败，他写道，“只会发生在你冲击自身能力边界的时候。”这是一个令人激动的声明，因为这句话表明，在遭遇失败时，你的能力边界正在不断向外拓展。
And that's what makes The Antidote so refreshing. Rather than offering pat answers up front, Burkeman conducts a serious investigation into the various negative paths to happiness. In admitting that these paths don't lead to one logical, conclusive method, Burkeman invites us to choose our own.
这正是《解毒剂》一书给人耳目一新之感的原因所在。伯克曼并没有直截了当地提供了一套现成的解决方案，而是对各种通往幸福的替代路径进行了一番严肃的调研。当伯克曼承认这些路径无法引导出一个合乎逻辑的终极方法时，他其实是在邀请我们选择一条属于我
们自己的幸福之路。
[美联英语]双语阅读：如何在失败中找到快乐
