關(guān)于大學(xué),你應(yīng)該知道的

For success， attitude is equally as important as ability. 要想獲得成功，態(tài)度和能力同樣重要。

When you can do what you love they pay you to do it， that’s one of the best parts of life. 能夠做自己喜歡的事，并為此而得到回報，這是生活中最美好的地方之一。

When I said I was speaking at a high school， my friends were curious. What will you say to high school students? So I asked them， what do you wish someone had told you in high school? Their answers were remarkably similar. So I’m going to tell you what we all wish someone had told us.

當(dāng)我說要在一所中學(xué)做演講的時候，我的朋友們都很好奇，問我打算給高中生說些什么。我就問他們，如果能回到高中，你最希望別人那會兒告訴你什么。他們的回答竟都高度相似，所以我打算告訴你們那些我們希望別人老早就告訴過我們的事情。

I’ll start by telling you something you don’t have to know in high school: what you want to do with your life. People are always asking you this， so you think you’re supposed to have an answer. But adults ask this mainly as a conversation starter. They want to know what sort of person you are， and this question is just to get you talking. They ask it the way you might poke a hermit crab in a tide pool， to see what it does.

首先，我會先告訴你在高中時尚不需要知道的事情——你想要什么樣的人生。人們經(jīng)常會問這個問題，所以你覺得你應(yīng)該有個答案。但是，大人們問這個問題，主要是想以此作為談話的開端，他們想知道你是哪種性格的人，問這個問題就是想讓你打開話匣子。這就像你去戳一戳退潮后水洼里的寄居蟹，只是想看看它有什么反應(yīng)。

If I were back in high school and someone asked about my plans， I’d say that my first priority was to learn what the options were. You don’t need to be in a rush to choose your life’s work. What you need to do is discover what you like. You have to work on stuff you like if you want to be good at what you do.

假如我回到高中時代，如果有人問這個問題，我會告訴他，我想我會先搞清楚我都有哪些選擇。所以你不需要急著選擇你一生的事業(yè)是什么。你需要做的是發(fā)現(xiàn)你的熱愛。從事熱愛的工作你才有可能做得出色。

It might seem that nothing would be easier than deciding what you like， but it turns out to be hard， partly because it’s hard to get an accurate picture of most jobs. Being a doctor is not the way it’s portrayed on TV. Fortunately you can also watch real doctors， by volunteering in hospitals.

你可能會覺得，決定自己最喜歡的是什么還不容易么。其實，明確自己的熱愛是有難度的，這很大程度上是因為，對于大多數(shù)的工作而言，我們很難清楚地對它們有一個全面的了解。從事醫(yī)生的工作并不是像電視里演繹的那樣，幸運的是，如果在醫(yī)院做志愿者，你就有機會觀察到真正的醫(yī)生是怎樣工作的。

But there are other jobs you can’t learn about， because no one is doing them yet. Most of the work I’ve done in the last ten years didn’t exist when I was in high school. The world changes fast， and the rate at which it changes is itself speeding up. In such a world it’s not a good idea to have fixed plans.

但是，有很多其他工作我們是無法去觀察了解的，因為目前還沒有任何人正在從事它們。過去這十年間，我從事的大多數(shù)工作在我高中時是根本不存在的。世界變化迅速，而且變化的速度也正在加快。在這樣一個瞬息萬變的世界里，恪守一成不變的計劃可不是什么好事情。

Upwind |保持“上升”趨勢

I think the solution is to work in the other direction. Instead of working back from a goal， work forward from promising situations. This is what most successful people actually do anyway.

解決這個問題的方法就是從反方向入手，與其從未來目標入手，倒不如從當(dāng)下的選擇出發(fā)。事實上，這是大多數(shù)成功人士的真正做法。

In the graduationspeech approach， you decide where you want to be in twenty years， and then ask: what should I do now to get there? I propose instead that you don’t commit to anything in the future， but just look at the options available now， and choose those that will give you the most promising range of options afterward.

如果用通常畢業(yè)演講里說的方法，你會先決定二十年后自己想做什么，然后再自問，我現(xiàn)在該怎么做才能達到那個目標。但我建議，相反地，你不必現(xiàn)在給未來做任何設(shè)定，只要著眼當(dāng)下的種種選擇，選擇那些會給你的未來帶來廣泛選擇的事情。

It’s not so important what you work on， so long as you’re not wasting your time. Work on things that interest you and increase your options， and worry later about which you’ll take.

只要你不是在浪費時間，現(xiàn)在做什么并不重要。最重要的是做自己感興趣的、能為自己未來增加選擇的事情，今后要具體從事什么工作，晚點考慮也不遲。

Suppose you’re a college freshman deciding whether to major in math or economics. Well， math will give you more options: you can go into almost any field from math. If you major in math it will be easy to get into grad school in economics， but if you major in economics it will be hard to get into grad school in math.

假設(shè)你是大一新生，正在考慮決定該選修什么專業(yè)，是數(shù)學(xué)還是經(jīng)濟？是這樣的，數(shù)學(xué)專業(yè)會給你的未來帶來更多選擇：修數(shù)學(xué)專業(yè)，今后可以進入數(shù)學(xué)衍生的任何領(lǐng)域中，也很容易進入經(jīng)濟學(xué)院的研究生院；反之就很難。

How do you do that， though? Even if math is upwind of economics， how are you supposed to know that as a high school student?

但是，如何做到這一點？即便是數(shù)學(xué)相比經(jīng)濟學(xué)更具“上升趨勢”，作為一個高中生，要知道這一點是不容易的。

Well， you don’t， and that’s what you need to find out. Look for smart people and hard problems. Smart people tend to clump together， and if you can find such a clump， it’s probably worthwhile to join it. But it’s not straightforward to find these， because there is a lot of faking going on.

是的，這一點你尚不知道，而這就是你需要去弄明白的事情。方法有兩種，尋找聰明的人群和解決難題。聰明的人常會扎堆在一起，如果你能找到這樣的人群，加入他們很有必要。但是，找到這樣的人群也不是簡單的事情，因為有太多的像是這樣圈子的圈子存在。

The best protection is always to be working on hard problems. Writing novels is hard. Reading novels isn’t. Hard means worry: if you’re not worrying that something you’re making will come out badly， or that you won’t be able to understand something you’re studying， then it isn’t hard enough. There has to be suspense.

最好的防守就是知難而上。閱讀小說不是難題，只有寫小說才是。因為難，所以這意味著你會擔(dān)心事情的結(jié)果，如果你不會因為擔(dān)心出現(xiàn)糟糕的結(jié)果或者為了真正去理解某樣?xùn)|西而努力的話，那么它都不算是難題。懸而未決未必不是好事情。

Ambition |抱負

If I had to go through high school again， I’d treat it like a day job. I don’t mean that I’d slack in school. Working at something as a day job doesn’t mean doing it badly. It means not being defined by it. I mean I wouldn’t think of myself as a high school student， just as a musician with a day job as a waiter doesn’t think of himself as a waiter. And when I wasn’t working at my day job I’d start trying to do real work.

A friend who doesn’t celebrate your success is not a friend. 不為你的成功而高興的朋友，并非真朋友。

Learn from yesterday， live for today， hope for tomorrow. 學(xué)習(xí)昨天，活在今天，期待明天。

如果我要再上一次高中，我會把做學(xué)生當(dāng)成一份日常工作。這樣說并不是意味著我會在學(xué)校應(yīng)付了事。把一件事當(dāng)作日常工作來做并不意味著不會把這件事做好，而是說不必用“高中生”這個字眼來定義自己。我的意思是說，我不把自己當(dāng)作高中生看待，就像一個暫時委身服務(wù)員身份的樂者不會覺得自己是一個服務(wù)員。而當(dāng)我可以抽身于“高中生”這份日常工作之外時，我會嘗試著做一些真正意義上的工作。

When I ask people what they regret most about high school， they nearly all say the same thing: that they wasted so much time. If you’re wondering what you’re doing now that you’ll regret most later， that’s probably it.

當(dāng)我問朋友們，對于高中生活，他們最遺憾的是什么，回答幾乎一樣：浪費了太多的時間。如果你在思考將來可能會對現(xiàn)在的哪些所作所為最感后悔，答案很可能也就是這個。

I’m not saying you shouldn’t hang out with your friends—that you should all become humorless little robots who do nothing but work. Hanging out with friends is like chocolate cake. You enjoy it more if you eat it occasionally than if you eat nothing but chocolate cake for every meal. No matter how much you like chocolate cake， you’ll be pretty queasy after the third meal of it. And that’s what the malaise one feels in high school is: mental queasiness.

我并不是說你不應(yīng)該和朋友們外出消磨時間——如果只學(xué)習(xí)你們都會變成沒有幽默感的小機器人。外出消磨時間這件事就像是吃巧克力蛋糕，偶爾吃一次你會很享受它的味道，但是如果餐餐都吃就不那么回事了。不管你有多喜歡巧克力蛋糕，連續(xù)三餐下來，你一定反胃。而這也是在高中生中間存在的一種情緒：精神層面上的反胃。

You may be thinking， we have to do more than get good grades. We have to have extracurricular activities. But you know perfectly well how bogus most of these are. Collecting donations for a charity is an admirable thing to do， but it’s not hard. It’s not getting something done. What I mean by getting something done is learning how to write well， or how to program computers， or what life was really like in preindustrial societies， or how to draw the human face from life. This sort of thing rarely translates into a line item on a college application.

你可能會想，我們做的不只是取得好成績，也不得不參加一些課外活動。但是你已經(jīng)很清楚這些事情有多么虛偽了。為慈善機構(gòu)募捐是值得敬佩的事情，但這不是困難的事情。我所說的“搞定一些事情”是指如何寫出更好的文章，如何編寫程序，如何讓自己像是在未工業(yè)化的社會中生活一樣（暗指學(xué)?！肮I(yè)化”培養(yǎng)人才的方式），或者如何勾畫出生活中人物的面容。但是諸如此類的事情卻很少轉(zhuǎn)化成申請大學(xué)過程中考查的一項指標。

Corruption |現(xiàn)實

Right now most of you feel your job in life is to be a promising college applicant. But that means you’re designing your life to satisfy a process so mindless that there’s a whole industry devoted to subverting it. No wonder you become cynical. The malaise you feel is the same that a producer of reality TV shows or a tobacco industry executive feels. And you don’t even get paid a lot.

目前，你們中的大多數(shù)人都會認為自己的全部工作就是成為一個合格的大學(xué)申請者。但是這就意味著你正在迎合一個過程，這個過程毫無生氣，以至于有一個行業(yè)在致力于顛覆它。難怪你會變得憤世嫉俗。你的這種反胃的感覺就像是電視劇的制片人或是煙草行業(yè)的執(zhí)行官的感覺——從中的收獲并不多。

So what do you do? What you should not do is rebel. That’s what I did， and it was a mistake.

你應(yīng)該怎么做？你最不應(yīng)該做的事情就是反抗。這是我曾經(jīng)做的事情，我現(xiàn)在認識到它是錯誤的。

In retrospect this was stupid. It was like someone getting fouled in a soccer game and saying， hey， you fouled me， that’s against the rules， and walking off the field in indignation. Fouls happen. The thing to do when you get fouled is not to lose your cool. Just keep playing.

現(xiàn)在想來，反抗是愚蠢的，這就好像在一場足球賽中有人對你犯規(guī)，你跟對方說“嘿，伙計，你犯規(guī)了，這明顯是違規(guī)行為”，然后說完就憤憤離場一樣。犯規(guī)的事經(jīng)常發(fā)生，你被人犯規(guī)的時候需要做的就是保持冷靜，一切繼續(xù)。

Rebellion is almost as stupid as obedience. In either case you let yourself be defined by what they tell you to do. The best plan， I think， is to step onto an orthogonal vector. Don’t just do what they tell you， and don’t just refuse to. Instead treat school as a day job. As day jobs go， it’s pretty sweet. You’re done at 3 o’clock， and you can even work on your own stuff while you’re there.

和反抗一樣愚蠢的是順從，順從就相當(dāng)于你的身份被他人的言論所定義。我認為，最好的做法是置身于一個正交向量中：既不要完全按照他們要求的事情去做，也不要拒絕。相反地，把在學(xué)校生活當(dāng)成是一份日常工作，這樣，你將會過得非常愉快，你可以早早地完成學(xué)校的日常任務(wù)，甚至可以同時去發(fā)展你的愛好。

Curiosity |好奇心

And what’s your real job supposed to be? Unless you’re Mozart， your first task is to figure that out. What are the great things to work on? Where are the imaginative people? And most importantly， what are you interested in? The word “aptitude” is misleading， because it implies something innate. The most powerful sort of aptitude is a consuming interest in some question， and such interests are often acquired tastes.

那么你真正要做的事情是什么？除非你是莫扎特（從小就知道），否則你的首要任務(wù)就是找出這個問題的答案。從事什么工作最有成就感？想象力豐富的人都在哪里？最重要的，你自己對什么最感興趣？天賦是一個容易誤導(dǎo)你的東西，因為它暗示與生俱來。對于我們來說，真正強大的天賦就是“把興趣用于解決一些問題，并從中獲得樂趣?！?/p>

Curiosity turns work into play. For Einstein， relativity wasn’t a book full of hard stuff he had to learn for an exam. It was a mystery he was trying to solve. So it probably felt like less work to him to invent it than it would seem to someone now to learn it in a class.

好奇心會讓你覺得工作很有趣。對愛因斯坦而言，相對論并不是為準備考試而學(xué)習(xí)的一本滿是難題的書。對他來說相對論是他想要解開的一個謎題，所以他研究相對論和我們在教室學(xué)習(xí)相對論，這個恐怕是兩碼事。

You probably need about the amount you need to go running. I’m often reluctant to go running， but once I do， I enjoy it. And if I don’t run for several days， I feel ill. It’s the same with people who do great things. They know they’ll feel bad if they don’t work， and they have enough discipline to get themselves to their desks to start working. But once they get started， interest takes over， and discipline is no longer necessary.

你可能需要一些自制力來幫助你行動起來。我剛開始跑步的時候極不情愿，但是一旦我開始跑步，便很享受，只有要幾天沒跑，身體就感覺不舒服。同樣的，一些人之所以能夠做成了不起的事情是因為他們意識到如果不去做的話他們會感覺很糟糕，所以他們有足夠的自制力能夠確保他們?nèi)プ?，一旦開始后，興趣就逐漸濃厚，也就不再需要自制力的支持了。

Do you think Shakespeare was gritting his teeth and diligently trying to write Great Literature? Of course not. He was having fun. That’s why he’s so good.

你難道認為莎士比亞那些偉大的文學(xué)作品是絞盡腦汁、嘔心瀝血寫出來的？當(dāng)然不是，他找到了寫作的樂趣。所以他能如此成功。

If you want to do good work， what you need is a great curiosity about a promising question. The critical moment for Einstein was when he looked at Maxwell’s equations and said， what the hell is going on here?

所以如果你想從事偉大事業(yè)，就需要很強的好奇心和一個充滿無限可能的問題。愛因斯坦的關(guān)鍵時刻就是當(dāng)他看著麥克斯韋爾的方程式，然后問自己，這究竟怎么回事？

Life always brings us wounds all over the body. But the wounds will certainly become the greatest strength finally. 生活總是讓我們遍體鱗傷，但到后來，那些受傷的地方一定會變成我們最強壯的地方。

Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you. 別人認為重要的， 并不就是你的追求。只有自己才知道什么最適合自己。

The great mathematician G. H. Hardy said he didn’t like math in high school either. He only took it up because he was better at it than the other students. Only later did he realize math was interesting—only later did he start to ask questions instead of merely answering them correctly.

偉大的數(shù)學(xué)家哈迪說自己高中時也不喜歡數(shù)學(xué)，那時學(xué)數(shù)學(xué)僅僅是因為他比別的小孩學(xué)得好。之后他才發(fā)現(xiàn)數(shù)學(xué)很有趣——這是當(dāng)他開始提出問題而不再僅僅是正確地回答問題的時候。

And not only in intellectual matters. Henry Ford’s great question was， why do cars have to be a luxury item? What would happen if you treated them as a commodity? Franz Beckenbauer’s was， in effect， why does everyone have to stay in his position? Why can’t defenders score goals too?

而且，智力并是決定一切的因素。福特的問題是，為什么汽車必須是奢侈品，把它作為一件普通商品看待會發(fā)生什么事情？貝肯鮑爾的問題是，為什么每個球員都必須待在自己的位置上？為什么后衛(wèi)不能射門得分？

Now |從現(xiàn)在開始

The way to get a big idea to appear in your head is not to hunt for big ideas， but to put in a lot of time on work that interests you， and in the process keep your mind open enough that a big idea can take roost. Einstein， Ford， and Beckenbauer all used this recipe. They all knew their work like a piano player knows the keys. So when something seemed amiss to them， they had the confidence to notice it.

要想讓偉大的問題出現(xiàn)在你的腦海里，并不是去尋找，而是要花費大量的時間研究你感興趣的內(nèi)容，在研究的過程中保持開放的心，好讓偉大的問題生根發(fā)芽。愛因斯坦、福特和貝肯鮑爾都是這樣做的。他們對自己從事的事情了如指掌，就像鋼琴演奏家熟悉琴鍵那樣熟練。所以當(dāng)有些事情對他們來說似乎不尋常的時候，他們有能力發(fā)現(xiàn)。

Put in time how and on what? Just pick a project that seems interesting: to master some chunk of material， or to make something， or to answer some question. Choose a project that will take less than a month， and make it something you have the means to finish. Do something hard enough to stretch you， but only just， especially at first. If you’re deciding between two projects， choose whichever seems most fun. If one blows up in your face， start another. Repeat till， like an internal combustion engine， the process becomes selfsustaining， and each project generates the next one. (This could take years.)

把時間用在發(fā)現(xiàn)和解決問題上。選一個看上去有趣的項目，例如精通某樣?xùn)|西、做出某樣?xùn)|西，或者去回答一些問題。你可以選一個小項目，設(shè)法在1個月內(nèi)完成；也可以選擇一個挑戰(zhàn)性十足的項目，足以讓你將將好涅磐的那種，尤其是在最初選擇的時候。如果你在兩個項目之間選擇，選那個看起來最有趣的，假如搞砸了其中的一個，那就換另一個做。重復(fù)做，就像內(nèi)燃機引擎工作一樣，每一步都是一種自發(fā)狀態(tài)，而且每個項目完成后都將會引出另外一個。

It may be just as well not to do a project “for school，” if that will restrict you or make it seem like work. Involve your friends if you want， but not too many， and only if they’re not flakes. Friends offer moral support (few startups are started by one person)， but secrecy also has its advantages. There’s something pleasing about a secret project. And you can take more risks， because no one will know if you fail.

選擇項目時不局限于從“為了學(xué)業(yè)”其實挺不錯，受此局限的話你本身會束縛自己，或者這會讓項目看起來是一份任務(wù)。如果愿意讓你的朋友們加入進來，但是人數(shù)不要太多，而且只要他們不會隨時離開團隊。朋友之間可以提供精神上的支持（很少有創(chuàng)業(yè)公司是一個人單打獨斗做起來的），但獨干也有本身的好處，悄無聲息地進行一個項目也會帶來愉悅感，而且你可以大膽嘗試各種風(fēng)險，嘗試失敗了也沒人會知道。

Don’t worry if a project doesn’t seem to be on the path to some goal you’re supposed to have. Paths can bend a lot more than you think. So let the path grow out the project. The most important thing is to be excited about it， because it’s by doing that you learn.

不要擔(dān)心你選擇的項目與你的人生道路沒什么關(guān)聯(lián)，人生的道路遠遠比你想象的要多，所以讓你的人生道路因為你的項目而一步步擴展吧。最重要的是，你為從這個項目學(xué)到的東西而感到興奮。

Don’t disregard unseemly motivations. One of the most powerful is the desire to be better than other people at something. Hardy said that’s what got him started， and I think the only unusual thing about him is that he admitted it. Another powerful motivator is the desire to do， or know， things you’re not supposed to. Closely related is the desire to do something audacious. Sixteen year olds aren’t supposed to write novels. So if you try， anything you achieve is on the plus side of the ledger; if you fail utterly， you’re doing no worse than expectations.

一些你也許不齒的動機可不容小覷。其中想要比別人做得更好的愿望最能給你提供力量。數(shù)學(xué)家哈迪說過他就是這樣走上研究數(shù)學(xué)這條路的，我能理解這種說法，但是我沒想到他會承認這一點。另外一個動力是強烈的愿望想去做、去了解你本不該知道的事情。這一點和想要冒險的愿望很像。人們覺得16歲的人不會寫小說，所以，如果你嘗試這樣做了，得到的任何收獲都是提分的砝碼；就算你失敗了，在那些覺得16歲的人寫不出小說的人眼里，一切仍都很正常。

The important thing is to get out there and do stuff. Instead of waiting to be taught， go out and learn.

重要的是要主動走出去并且去搞定一些事情，而不是等著被教育，主動學(xué)習(xí)吧！

Your life doesn’t have to be shaped by admissions officers. It could be shaped by your own curiosity. It is for all ambitious adults. And you don’t have to wait to start. In fact， you don’t have to wait to be an adult. There’s no switch inside you that magically flips when you turn a certain age or graduate from some institution. You start being an adult when you decide to take responsibility for your life. You can do that at any age.

你的生活不是由學(xué)校所塑造，而是由你的好奇心所塑造的。這對所有的成年人都適用，而且不要等著事情發(fā)生，不要等著成為成年人以后才行動。你的身體里面沒有神奇的成年開關(guān)，當(dāng)你到達一定的年齡或是從學(xué)校畢業(yè)就會觸動。成年是在你開始真正對自己的人生負責(zé)的時候開始的，你可以在任何年齡“成年”。

This may sound like bullshit. I’m just a minor， you may think， I have no money， I have to live at home， I have to do what adults tell me all day long. Well， most adults labor under restrictions just as cumbersome， and they manage to get things done. If you think it’s restrictive being a kid， imagine having kids.

這聽上去好像是一堆廢話，你可能會認為，我沒錢，我不得不住在家里，不得不做大人們讓我做的事情。你要知道，大多數(shù)的成年人同樣會受限制，但是他們?nèi)匀粫O(shè)法去自己搞定一些事情。如果你覺得做小孩受到各種限制，想象自己有小孩。

The only real difference between adults and high school kids is that adults realize they need to get things done， and high school kids don’t. That realization hits most people around 23. But I’m letting you in on the secret early. So get to work. Maybe you can be the first generation whose greatest regret from high school isn’t how much time you wasted.

成年人和高中生的唯一的差別在于成年人意識到他們需要去搞定一些事情，而高中生則沒有這種意識。大多數(shù)人只有在23歲左右才會有一個較大的轉(zhuǎn)變，但是我現(xiàn)在讓你早早地知道這個秘密。所以盡情去“工作”吧，也許你們會成為在畢業(yè)后不覺得最后悔的事情是浪費了時間的那第一代人。

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