在数字生活中做减法

数字化浪潮袭来,没有人能够独善其身。我们不再是单纯地使用「电子产品」,而是逐渐成为了「产品」本身。互联网巨头们竞相争夺我们的注意力,在这过程中暴露出诸多人性的软肋:我们对程序里「间歇式奖励」欲罢不能,如同面对赌场中的老虎机,不厌其烦地点击和滑动屏幕;我们不假思索地行动,很少掂量背后所付出的「时间成本」;但凡长时间离线就会担心错过重要讯息。

开始远程办公的新常态后,我愈加能感受到长期面对屏幕的危害。久而久之,圆肩驼背、注意力涣散、烦躁焦虑等症状会接踵而至。当我尝试减少使用电子产品后,「深度工作」的效率反而提升了,亲子和社交质量也得到了改善。合上了屏幕回到物理世界,我重拾了吉他,爱上了航拍,回归了纸质书阅读,还养成了「放空」的习惯。激发我做出一系列改变的是一本名为「Digital Minimalism」的书。在践行数字极简主义半年后,我归纳出三条贴士,希望帮助更多人收复「注意力失地」。

要事第一

那些扑面而来的推送消息是否让你不堪其扰?闲下来时 ,你是否也会盲目地刷微博、抖音和朋友圈?我们需要化被动为主动,提前规划好时间,找到生活中的「锚点」。一个简单又行之有效的方法就是清早起来先为「今日要事」创建日程和清单。在每个日程时段,我们要力求心无旁骛,制心于一处。iOS/macOS/watchOS 中的「专注模式」值得常开,它可以帮助我们过滤通知,显著减少移动互联网的侵扰。

刻意留白

不论年纪,我们都需要在所处场域中找到一个容器,凿出一段属于自己的时间,与无孔不入的信息流做短暂的切割。留白的时光能让心静下来,帮助我们「向内走」。半年前,我开始尝试把散步时耳机里的播客换成古典音乐,再到后来索性轻装上路,将耳机和手机都留在家里。刚开始这么做时容易进入难以忍受的无聊状态,但稍加时日会有所缓解。坚持了数月后,我开始享受这每天 1 小时 7 公里的「无数字化独处」,身心都获得了更好的放松。

取舍有道

人最宝贵的资源是时间,它在「纷扰」中折叠,在「心流」中延展。要想从「低头族」和「屏幕控」中真正解脱出来,我们还要从源头抓起。建议大家尝试删除或折叠微信群,定期清理联系人,同类别的 App 只留下一个,用纸质书来替代电子书……「更少但更好」会让人变得专注和高效,而舍弃的东西其实并不会让我们真正错过什么。要相信重要的信息总会想办法找到我们,而更好的渠道恰恰是面对面的沟通。

数字极简主义的核心是以人为本,它不是「去数字化」而是「为数字生活做优化」。通过减少「数字噪音」和限制「屏幕时长」,目的是让科技真正助力我们创造价值和享受生活。这篇短文只想抛砖引玉,欢迎大家留言交流自己在数字生活中所做的减法。

Simplifying to Amplify

Words by Carl Phillips

I believe deeply in the power of simplicity. It’s become a passionate subject for me. One I have written many articles and books about. Broader than this, it’s become a framework for how I try to live. Something I am always seeking to bring into my life.  

One part of this simplicity journey is about discarding. Finding ways to remove things from our lives. Whether they be possessions, commitments, toxic relationships, or something else we realise is dragging us down. Reduction is an important step.  

But it’s just a step.  

I find some people stay here. They obsess over how to remove things. Sometimes they remove too much. That’s not the point of minimalism, at least not for me.

Simplicity is a tool, a tool that should improve our lives. A paradox is that as we remove that which does not matter to us, we receive something else back. That something else is making space for the things that matter most to us. Things that bring us joy and give us energy.

We may even develop an abundance mindset through this experience.  

What does this look like?  

We learn to see the opportunity, where others only see a change for the worse.

We make space for small, simple pleasures in our every day. So that we can come back to them, over and over.  

We establish self-care practices—to replenish our reserves when we need them most.  

We slow down to speed up.

We give thanks for the small but meaningful moments. Establishing a gratitude practice.  

For me, this is where to real treasure is. Not in the bare shelves or stripped-down wardrobes. Simplifying our lives is not so much about what we give up. It’s about what we get back.

We simplify our life to amplify our experience of it.

开学需要一些仪式感

Hello, everybody! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. All right, everybody go ahead and have a seat. How is everybody doing today? (Applause.) How about Tim Spicer?(Applause.) I am here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington,Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, from kindergarten through 12th grade. And I am just so glad that all could join us today. And I want to thank Wakefield for being such an outstanding host. Give yourselves a big round of applause. (Applause.)

嗨,大家好!你们今天过得怎么样?我现在和弗吉尼亚州阿林顿郡韦克菲尔德高中的学生们在一起,全国各地也有从幼儿园到高三的众多学生们通过电视关注这里,我很高兴你们能共同分享这一时刻。

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now — (applause) — with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little bit longer this morning.

我知道,对你们中的许多人来说,今天是开学的第一天,你们中的有一些刚刚进入幼儿园或升上初高中,对你们来说,这是在新学校的第一天,因此,假如你们感到有些紧张,那也是很正常的。我想也会有许多毕业班的学生们正自信满满地准备最后一年的冲刺。不过,我想无论你有多大、在读哪个年级,许多人都打心底里希望现在还在放暑假,以及今天不用那么早起床。

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived overseas. I lived in Indonesia for a few years. And my mother, she didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school, but she thought it was important for me to keep up with an American education. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday. But because she had to go to work, the only time she could do it was at 4:30 in the morning.

我可以理解这份心情。小时候,我们家在印度尼西亚住过几年,而我妈妈没钱送我去其他美国孩子们上学的地方去读书,因此她决定自己给我上课——时间是每周一到周五的凌晨 4 点半。

Now, as you might imagine, I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. And a lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and she’d say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.” (Laughter.)

显然,我不怎么喜欢那么早就爬起来,很多时候,我就这么在厨房的桌子前睡着了。每当我埋怨的时候,我妈总会用同一副表情看着我说:“小鬼,你以为教你我就很轻松?”

So I know that some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

所以,我可以理解你们中的许多人对于开学还需要时间来调整和适应,但今天我站在这里,是为了和你们谈一些重要的事情。我要和你们谈一谈你们每个人的教育,以及在新的学年里,你们应当做些什么。

Now, I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked about responsibility a lot.

我做过许多关于教育的讲话,也常常用到“责任”这个词。

I’ve talked about teachers’ responsibility for inspiring students and pushing you to learn.

我谈到过教师们有责任激励和启迪你们,督促你们学习。

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and you get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with the Xbox.

我谈到过家长们有责任看管你们认真学习、完成作业,不要成天只会看电视或打游戏机。

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, and supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working, where students aren’t getting the opportunities that they deserve.

我也很多次谈到过政府有责任设定高标准严要求、协助老师和校长们的工作,改变在有些学校里学生得不到应有的学习机会的现状。

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, the best schools in the world — and none of it will make a difference, none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities, unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. That’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education.

但哪怕这一切都达到最好,哪怕我们有最尽职的教师、最好的家长、和最优秀的学校,假如你们不去履行自己的责任的话,那么这一切努力都会白费。除非你每天准时去上学、除非你认真地听老师讲课、除非你把父母、长辈和其他大人们说的话放在心上、除非你肯付出成功所必需的努力,否则这一切都会失去意义。

I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. Every single one of you has something that you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

而这就是我今天讲话的主题:对于自己的教育,你们中每一个人的责任。首先,我想谈谈你们对于自己有什么责任。你们中的每一个人都会有自己擅长的东西,每一个人都是有用之材,而发现自己的才能是什么,就是你们要对自己担起的责任。教育给你们提供了发现自己才能的机会。

Maybe you could be a great writer — maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper — but you might not know it until you write that English paper — that English class paper that’s assigned to you. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor — maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or the new medicine or vaccine — but you might not know it until you do your project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator or a Supreme Court justice — but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

或许你能写出优美的文字——甚至有一天能让那些文字出现在书籍和报刊上——但假如不在英语课上经常练习写作,你不会发现自己有这样的天赋;或许你能成为一个发明家、创造家——甚至设计出像今天的 iPhone 一样流行的产品,或研制出新的药物与疫苗——但假如不在自然科学课程上做上几次实验,你不会知道自己有这样的天赋;或许你能成为一名议员或最高法院法官,但假如你不去加入什么学生会或参加几次辩论赛,你也不会发现自己的才能。

And no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You cannot drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to train for it and work for it and learn for it.

而且,我可以向你保证,不管你将来想要做什么,你都需要相应的教育。——你想当名医生、当名教师或当名警官?你想成为护士、成为建筑设计师、律师或军人?无论你选择哪一种职业,良好的教育都必不可少,这世上不存在不把书念完就能拿到好工作的美梦,任何工作,都需要你的汗水、训练与学习。

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. The future of America depends on you. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

不仅仅对于你们个人的未来有重要意义,你们的教育如何也会对这个国家、乃至世界的未来产生重要影响。今天你们在学校中学习的内容,将会决定我们整个国家在未来迎接重大挑战时的表现。

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical-thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

你们需要在数理科学课程上学习的知识和技能,去治疗癌症、艾滋那样的疾病,和解决我们面临的能源问题与环境问题;你们需要在历史社科课程上培养出的观察力与判断力,来减轻和消除无家可归与贫困、犯罪问题和各种歧视,让这个国家变得更加公平和自由;你们需要在各类课程中逐渐累积和发展出来的创新意识和思维,去创业和建立新的公司与企业,来制造就业机会和推动经济的增长。

We need every single one of you to develop your talents and your skills and your intellect so you can help us old folks solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that — if you quit on school — you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

我们需要你们中的每一个人都培养和发展自己的天赋、技能和才智,来解决我们所面对的最困难的问题。假如你不这么做——假如你放弃学习——那么你不仅是放弃了自己,也是放弃了你的国家。

Now, I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

当然,我明白,读好书并不总是件容易的事。我知道你们中的许多人在生活中面临着各种各样的问题,很难把精力集中在专心读书之上。

I get it. I know what it’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mom who had to work and who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us the things that other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and I felt like I didn’t fit in.

我知道你们的感受。我父亲在我两岁时就离开了家庭,是母亲一人将我们拉扯大,有时她付不起帐单,有时我们得不到其他孩子们都有的东西,有时我会想,假如父亲在该多好,有时我会感到孤独无助,与周围的环境格格不入。

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been on school, and I did some things I’m not proud of, and I got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

因此我并不总是能专心学习,我做过许多自己觉得丢脸的事情,也惹出过许多不该惹的麻烦,我的生活岌岌可危,随时可能急转直下。

But I was — I was lucky. I got a lot of second chances, and I had the opportunity to go to college and law school and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, she has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have a lot of money. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

但我很幸运。我在许多事上都得到了重来的机会,我得到了去大学读法学院、实现自己梦想的机会。我的妻子——现在得叫她第一夫人米歇尔奥巴马了——也有着相似的人生故事,她的父母都没读过大学,也没有什么财产,但他们和她都辛勤工作,好让她有机会去这个国家最优秀的学校读书。

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

你们中有些人可能没有这些有利条件,或许你的生活中没有能为你提供帮助和支持的长辈,或许你的某个家长没有工作、经济拮据,或许你住的社区不那么安全,或许你认识一些会对你产生不良影响的朋友,等等。

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life — what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home — none of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude in school. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. There is no excuse for not trying.

但归根结底,你的生活状况——你的长相、出身、经济条件、家庭氛围——都不是疏忽学业和态度恶劣的借口,这些不是你去跟老师顶嘴、逃课、或是辍学的借口,这些不是你不好好读书的借口。

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you, because here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

你的未来,并不取决于你现在的生活有多好或多坏。没有人为你编排好你的命运,在美国,你的命运由你自己书写,你的未来由你自己掌握。

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

而在这片土地上的每个地方,千千万万和你一样的年轻人正是这样在书写着自己的命运。

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Neither of her parents had gone to college. But she worked hard, earned good grades, and got a scholarship to Brown University — is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to becoming Dr. Jazmin Perez.

例如德克萨斯州罗马市的贾斯敏佩雷兹(Jazmin Perez)。刚进学校时,她根本不会说英语,她住的地方几乎没人上过大学,她的父母也没有受过高等教育,但她努力学习,取得了优异的成绩,靠奖学金进入了布朗大学,如今正在攻读公共卫生专业的博士学位。

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s had to endure all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer — hundreds of extra hours — to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind. He’s headed to college this fall.

我还想起了加利福尼亚州洛斯拉图斯市的安多尼舒尔兹(Andoni Schultz),他从三岁起就开始与脑癌病魔做斗争,他熬过了一次次治疗与手术——其中一次影响了他的记忆,因此他得花出比常人多几百个小时的时间来完成学业,但他从不曾落下自己的功课。这个秋天,他要开始在大学读书了。

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods in the city, she managed to get a job at a local health care center, start a program to keep young people out of gangs, and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college. And Jazmin, Andoni,and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They face challenges in their lives just like you do. In some cases they’ve got it a lot worse off than many of you. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their lives, for their education, and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

又比如在我的家乡,伊利诺斯州芝加哥市,身为孤儿的香特尔史蒂夫(Shantell Steve)换过多次收养家庭,从小在治安很差的地区长大,但她努力争取到了在当地保健站工作的机会、发起了一个让青少年远离犯罪团伙的项目,很快,她也将以优异的成绩从中学毕业,去大学深造。贾斯敏、安多尼和香特尔与你们并没有什么不同。和你们一样,他们也在生活中遭遇各种各样的困难与问题,但他们拒绝放弃,他们选择为自己的教育担起责任、给自己定下奋斗的目标。我希望你们中的每一个人,都能做得到这些。

That’s why today I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education — and do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending some time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all young people deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, by the way, I hope all of you are washing your hands a lot, and that you stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

因此,在今天,我号召你们每一个人都为自己的教育定下一个目标——并在之后,尽自己的一切努力去实现它。你的目标可以很简单,像是完成作业、认真听讲或每天阅读——或许你打算参加一些课外活动,或在社区做些志愿工作;或许你决定为那些因为长相或出身等等原因而受嘲弄或欺负的孩子做主、维护他们的权益,因为你和我一样,认为每个孩子都应该能有一个安全的学习环境;或许你认为该学着更好的照顾自己,来为将来的学习做准备……当然,除此之外,我希望你们都多多洗手、感到身体不舒服的时候要多在家休息,免得大家在秋冬感冒高发季节都得流感。

But whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it. I know that sometimes you get that sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star. Chances are you’re not going to be any of those things.

不管你决定做什么,我都希望你能坚持到底,希望你能真的下定决心。我知道有些时候,电视上播放的节目会让你产生这样那样的错觉,似乎你不需要付出多大的努力就能腰缠万贯、功成名就——你会认为只要会唱 rap、会打篮球或参加个什么真人秀节目就能坐享其成,但现实是,你几乎没有可能走上其中任何一条道路。

The truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject that you study. You won’t click with every teacher that you have. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right at this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

因为,成功是件难事。你不可能对要读的每门课程都兴趣盎然,你不可能和每名带课教师都相处顺利,你也不可能每次都遇上看起来和现实生活有关的作业。而且,并不是每件事,你都能在头一次尝试时获得成功。

That’s okay. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. J.K. Rowling’s — who wrote Harry Potter — her first Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. He lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said,”I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that’s why I succeed.

“但那没有关系。因为在这个世界上,最最成功的人们往往也经历过最多的失败。J.K.罗琳的第一本《哈利·波特》被出版商拒绝了十二次才最终出版;迈克尔·乔丹上高中时被学校的篮球队刷了下来,在他的职业生涯里,他输了几百场比赛、投失过几千次射篮,知道他是怎么说的吗?“我一生不停地失败、失败再失败,这就是我现在成功的原因。”

These people succeeded because they understood that you can’t let your failures define you — you have to let your failures teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently the next time. So if you get into trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to act right. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

他们的成功,源于他们明白人不能让失败左右自己——而是要从中吸取经验。从失败中,你可以明白下一次自己可以做出怎样的改变;假如你惹了什么麻烦,那并不说明你就是个捣蛋贵,而是在提醒你,在将来要对自己有更严格的要求;假如你考了个低分,那并不说明你就比别人笨,而是在告诉你,自己得在学习上花更多的时间。

No one’s born being good at all things. You become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. The same principle applies to your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right. You might have to read something a few times before you understand it. You definitely have to do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

没有哪一个人一生出来就擅长做什么事情的,只有努力才能培养出技能。任何人都不是在第一次接触一项体育运动时就成为校队的代表,任何人都不是在第一次唱一首歌时就找准每一个音,一切都需要熟能生巧。对于学业也是一样,你或许要反复运算才能解出一道数学题的正确答案,你或许需要读一段文字好几遍才能理解它的意思,你或许得把论文改上好几次才能符合提交的标准。这都是很正常的。

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength because it shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and that then allows you to learn something new. So find an adult that you trust — a parent, a grandparent or teacher, a coach or a counselor — and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

不要害怕提问。不要不敢向他人求助。——我每天都在这么做。求助并不是软弱的表现,恰恰相反,它说明你有勇气承认自己的不足、并愿意去学习新的知识。所以,有不懂时,就向大人们求助吧——找个你信得过的对象,例如父母、长辈、老师、教练或辅导员——让他们帮助你向目标前进。

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you, don’t ever give up on yourself, because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

你要记住,哪怕你表现不好、哪怕你失去信心、哪怕你觉得身边的人都已经放弃了你——永远不要自己放弃自己。因为当你放弃自己的时候,你也放弃了自己的国家。

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

美国不是一个人们遭遇困难就轻易放弃的国度,在这个国家,人们坚持到底、人们加倍努力,为了他们所热爱的国度,每一个人都尽着自己最大的努力,不会给自己留任何余地。

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and they founded this nation. Young people. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google and Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

250年前,有一群和你们一样的学生,他们之后奋起努力、用一场革命最终造就了这个国家;75年前,有一群和你们一样的学生,他们之后战胜了大萧条、赢得了二战;就在20年前,和你们一样的学生们,他们后来创立了Google、Twitter和Facebook,改变了我们人与人之间沟通的方式。

So today, I want to ask all of you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a President who comes here in 20 or 50 or 100 years say about what all of you did for this country?

因此,今天我想要问你们,你们会做出什么样的贡献?你们将解决什么样的难题?你们能发现什么样的事物?二十、五十或百年之后,假如那时的美国总统也来做一次开学演讲的话,他会怎样描述你们对这个国家所做的一切?

Now, your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books and the equipment and the computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part, too. So I expect all of you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down. Don’t let your family down or your country down. Most of all, don’t let yourself down. Make us all proud.

你们的家长、你们的老师和我,每一个人都在尽最大的努力,确保你们都能得到应有的教育来回答这些问题。例如我正在努力为你们提供更安全的教室、更多的书籍、更先进的设施与计算机。但你们也要担起自己的责任。因此我要求你们在今年能够认真起来,我要求你们尽心地去做自己着手的每一件事,我要求你们每一个人都有所成就。请不要让我们失望——不要让你的家人、你的国家和你自己失望。你们要成为我们骄傲,我知道,你们一定可以做到。

Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. God bless America. Thankyou.

谢谢大家,上帝保佑你们,上帝保佑美国。

如果明天就是下一生

如果明天就是下一生,你将如何度过今天?

乔布斯在斯坦福的演讲中曾分享过,他十七岁时读到了一句话:“如果你把每一天都当作生命中最后一天去过活,那么有一天你会发现你是正确的。” 从那时开始,他在余生的每一天早晨都会对着镜子问:“如果今天是我生命中的最后一天,我会不会完成今天想做的事情呢?”当答案连续很多次被给予“不是”的时候就知道需要改变某些事情了。

诸行无常,记住我们终将死去是一生中最重要的箴言。在死亡面前,几乎所有的事情,包括荣誉、骄傲、对难堪和失败的恐惧都会消失,留下那些我们真正珍视的东西。下面的这首这首《如果明天就是下一生》是由张惠美作词,石青如作曲,彩虹合唱团献唱。它的歌词优美,旋律动人,更让人动容的是字里行间表露出的对人生无常的思考,对宝贵生命的珍视

岁月在你我呼吸间流浪
当终点抵达
那些想望休息了吗
身心在日出日落间耗转
当无常宣判
你的心回家了吗
周遭一幕幕演出
不存在的陌生
寻寻觅觅哟
断线珍珠怎么接
失落的音符怎么唱
如果明天就是下一生
你将如何度过今天
如果明天就是下一生
你将如何度过今天
我用温暖
守护生命
让浪花留了痕
我用觉照
守护健康
让转轮点了光

改变,从我开始!

斯敏斯特教堂又名西敏寺(Westminster Abbey),它坐落在伦敦泰晤士河北岸,毗邻议会大厦,它是英国国教的礼拜堂,自1066年起它成为历代国王加冕与安息之地。除了王室成员外,很多名人也都安葬于此,包括牛顿、丘吉尔、达尔文等。威斯敏斯特修道院中上帝与科学家比邻而居,国王与文人相携长眠。生与死的边界在这里模糊、世俗与宗教在这里交融、王权与教权在这里碰撞、科学与神学在这里共存、人性与神性在这里同放光辉。

在教堂地下室的墓碑林中,有一块不起眼的花岗石墓碑,上面没有姓名,没有生卒年月,甚至连墓主的介绍文字也没有。在这块碑上,刻着这样的一段话:

原文:
 
When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world.
 
As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country. But it, too, seemed immovable.
 
As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it.
 
And now, as I lie on my death bed, I suddenly realize:
 
If I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family. From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country, and who knows, I may have even changed the world.
 
译文:
 
当我年轻的时候,我的想象力从没有受到过限制,我梦想改变这个世界。
 
当我成熟以后,我发现我不能改变这个世界,我将目光缩短了些,决定只改变我的国家。
 
当我进入暮年后,我发现我不能改变我的国家,我的最后愿望仅仅是改变一下我的家庭。但是,这也不可能。
 
当我躺在床上,行将就木时,我突然意识到:
 
如果一开始我仅仅去改变我自己,然后作为一个榜样,我可能改变我的家庭;在家人的帮助和鼓励下,我可能为国家做一些事情。然后谁知道呢?我甚至可能改变这个世界。
有人说这是一篇人生的教义,有人说这是灵魂的一种自省。10多年前我初入职场,读到这篇时一笑而过,踌躇满志着要像乔布斯一样改变世界;今天再读来似乎更能产生共鸣,从好高骛远到脚踏实地,开始逐渐懂得不积硅步无以至千里的道理。当我们自身的心智模式变了,世界也会随之改变。
 
改变,从改变自己开始。回归当下,坐言立行。与诸位共勉!

高瓴资本张磊的哲学思维

  1.从投资者的角度来说,风险投资很多是需要退出的,但人才,永远是不需要退出的投资。通过这些年的实践,我深刻意识到,教育是对人生最重要、最明智的投资。我希望用创新的方式倡导普惠教育,以此在社会转型的过程中承担责任、创造价值。

  2.高瓴的投资哲学在很多方面同样适用于教育和人生选择。第一是“守正用奇”,即是要在坚守“正道”的基础上激发创新;第二是“弱水三千,但取一瓢”,就是要一个人在有限的天赋里做好自己最擅长的那一部分;第三则是“桃李不言,下自成蹊”,是指只要好好做自己的事,成功自会找上门来。

  3.在投资方面,我喜欢“想干大事”的企业家;在教育方面,我喜欢与具有伟大格局观的企业家共同发现人才,培养人才。我最大的乐趣就是帮助杰出的人实现更大梦想。

  4. “价值投资”可分为两个阶段,第一阶段是发现价值,第二阶段是创造价值。同样,教育也是,发现自身的天赋和价值,构建并利用自己的独特去创造新的价值,在“价值投资”的过程中造就自身的成功。

  5.好的教育平台可以塑造一个人的气质与格局;与杰出商界领袖直接对话,则可以提升一个人的境界与视野。我们应当考虑的是:如何与高质量的人花够时间,做一些高质量的事情。挣钱只属于自然而然的结果的一部分。

  6.财富的意义远不止于物质和金钱,而是代表着沉甸甸的道义和责任。既然我们的财富来自于社会,我们就要善用这些财富服务和回馈社会。从小处讲,这是知识与财富之间的良性循环;从大处看,这是为了让个人价值与造福人类的终极目标相一致。赠人玫瑰,手有余香。

  7.我定位自己不仅仅是一位财富捐助者,更是创新教育模式的践行者。对于企业家而言,捐款是相对容易的事情。更重要的是要花费精力和时间,结合中国国情和发展趋势,脚踏实地引进国际一流教育思想和资源。

  8.跨行业、跨界、跨专业的自由思考是非常必要的。新的产业时代最根本的还是需要依靠科学技术来驱动,需要真正的科学上的创新,尤其是基础科学、硬科学。因此,在这样的环境下,人才也需要多方面的知识储备,仅有商业管理或是金融经济方面的知识是不够的。

  9.中国的教育制度有很多可取之处,比如通过长期的训练和多重考核,培养学生极高的韧性,这些品质对将来的个人发展,无论是创业还是做投资都是非常重要的。但是在社会经济环境快速变化的过程中,需要培养既有商业头脑又有科学技能的跨界型人才。这是市场所提出的需求,也是社会所提出的需求。

  10.我们不能只建一座桥,要有很多座不一样的桥,甚至要有摆渡船,来帮助大家以各种方式到达教育和自我认知、自我丰富的彼岸。这其实就是对教育多样性的要求,精英教育、普惠教育、职业教育等等多种多样的形式都应存在发展的空间。我希望对教育进行供给侧改革。

  11.我一直认为,未来的构建需要无尽的想象力和踏实的执行,这两种力量汇聚在一起就是创新,而创新的核心正是人才。

  12.教育也是一个很讲究情感关怀激励的领域,越是处于一个机器“横行”的人工智能时代,就越是呼唤着人性独特的同理心和情感互动等这些真正有温度的东西。科技的创新终将引领教育的创新,人工智能给教育带来了挑战,但这些挑战也给了人类一个更大的重新创造历史的机会。

  13.金融与科技的深度融合,为人才培养打开了更具想象的创新空间。投身Fintech和互联网金融创新,不一定都是‘技术背景’的同学才有机会,艺术、人文等社会学科的人才同样大有作为。

  14.未来的入口是科学和教育。我们既需要有商业头脑和人文精神的科学家,也需要具有科学知识、尊重科学的企业家,能够和科学家一起去工作。

  15.人本主义和精英理应结合起来,精英不应该孤芳自赏、“躲进小楼成一统”,而应与社会发展同步,在与社会互动中实现自身价值。

  16.我们不仅要掌握科学思辨的能力,还要心中长存人文精神的火种。用舍我其谁的魄力去勇敢拥抱变化;用第一性原理去不断探究世界的价值原点;用人文精神去点亮心中的灯塔,Think big,Think long!

  17.不要问学校给你什么价值,而要问你自己能多创造出来什么价值。这里的创造价值其实就是一个不断动态打造自己的过程。

  18.人生很重要的一件事是,找一帮你喜欢的、真正靠谱的人,一起做有意思的事。珍惜你身边的人,因为你不知道什么时候会说再见。在人生的道路上,选择与谁同行,比要去的远方更重要。

  19.始终保持好奇心(intellectual curiosity)对青年人来说非常重要。世界永恒不变的只有变化本身,变化催生创新,所以我们应着眼于变化。只有始终保持着好奇心,不断地迎接、拥抱创新,才能形成一种善意的价值创造,形成让蛋糕更大、开放共赢的局面。

  20.真正的诚实(intellectual honesty), 是从来不要去骗别人,也不要骗自己。虽然有时候,也许有人不靠诚实也能成功,但这种成功第一是不持久,第二是最后会搬起砖头砸到自己的脚。

  21.我们的教育一直都重讲堂甚于思辨,然而知识和智力的独立(intellectual independence)是非常重要的。能不能有独立的思辨能力实际上是你能够坚持走多远的一个基石。

  22.同情心(empathy)很重要。经历得更多之后,我变化最大的是能更加理解这个世界与社会的复杂与多样性,更加宽容了。这意味着我能更容易地站在别人的角度谅解别人,欣赏别人,考虑别人的问题。

  23.一个人同时拥有好奇心、思考的独立性、诚实与同理心,并且有长期奋斗的心态,剩下的只是运气和大数法则的问题。一遍一遍做你有激情的事,并且喜欢一遍一遍的做,成功只是时间问题。

  24.强大的学习能力和对事物敏锐的洞察力,是一个人能力的“护城河”。要学会坚定自己的理想,珍惜自己短期内没有被看懂的窗口机会,把“护城河”做好。

  25.我们应该多发扬运动员精神。运动带来的好处不仅是身体方面的,还有团队合作、竞争、以及如何面对失败等诸多方面。只要玩竞技类运动就会有失败,不可能一直赢。

  26.把事情做到极致,就是现在大家所讲的匠人精神。青年企业家、青年创业家要立刻做到惊天地泣鬼神是不可能的,更多的是抓住机会锻炼自己。我个人建议,再小的事情也要做到极致、做到最好。大环境改变不了,争取营造小环境;小环境改变多了,就会改变大环境。

  27.我希望大家选择做时间的朋友。做时间的朋友,需要极强的自我约束力和发自内心的责任感。在多数人都醉心于“即时满足”(instant gratification) 的世界里,懂得“滞后满足”(delayed gratification)道理的人,早已先胜一筹。我把这称为选择延期享受成功。有句话叫“风物长宜放眼量”,就是让我们从远处、大处着眼,要看未来,看全局。我常常给创业者建议,要学朱元璋“广积粮,高筑墙,缓称王”。这个战略在创业中有效,也同样适用于你我的生活。坚持自己内心的选择,不骄不躁,好故事都是来自于有挑战的生活;持之以恒,时间终将会成为你的朋友。

段永平的“本分”和“平常心”

来源 | 格上私募圈 (ID: simuquan )

段永平在2018年9月30日在斯坦福与华人学生进行的交流和分享:我们所有的成功,都来自于“本分+平常心”。平常心,就是rational(理性),就是回到事物的本原,就是做对的事情,和把事情做对。Stop Doing List(不为清单),说的是做对的事情,但做对的事情,要落实在不做不对的事情上。
很多人经常做一些明知是错的事情,是因为抵挡不了短期利益的诱惑。举例,OPPO/vivo的Stop Doing List:没有销售部(因为不需要谈生意);不单独和客户谈价钱(所有客户一个价,省了双方非常多的时间和精力,10年20年加起来很恐怖啊);不代工(代工的产品没有大的差异化,很难有利润);没有有息贷款(永远不会倒在资金链断裂上。芒格说知道自己会在哪里死去就不去哪里,多数企业垮掉都是因为借了太多钱了。)


对话段永平


1. 对你来说什么东西是最重要的?为什么?
段永平:不同年龄答案是不同的。现在是家人、亲情、友情。这还需要说为什么吗?


2. 没有销售部,那你的价格决策机制是什么?
段永平:做市场调研,在上市的时候就尽可能定准价,错了及时调整。(电子产品)竞争的本质在于产品差异化,要做别人提供不了的东西。没有差异化,就成了日用基础商品,只能靠价格来竞争,很难挣钱。


3. 你有没有试图改变过性格和思维方式?
段永平:我觉得没有,性格很难改。中欧有个统计,世界500强的CEO中什么样的性格都有,而他们只有一个共性,就是integrity(诚实)。


4. 中国民营企业应该怎么应对贸易战的挑战?
段永平:最主要的是取决于企业本身,做的好,有没有贸易战都无所谓。很多做的不好的企业,会拿贸易战当遮羞布。好的企业,危机来的时候,反而是机会。我们不贷款, 有充裕的现金流,所以每一次危机来的时候都是机会。


5. 投资早期企业的逻辑是什么?
段永平:我不投早期,只投上市企业。投黄峥是因为个人原因,他是我朋友,我了解他、相信他。黄峥是我知道的少见的很有悟性的人,他关注事物本质。


6. 谈一谈营销方法论?
段永平:(外界)有个误解,以为我们很看重营销。其实对于我们来说,营销一点儿都不重要,最重要的还是产品。没有哪家公司的失败,是因为营销失败。公司失败,本质都是因为产品的失败。当然我不是说不要营销,事实上我们营销做得很好。营销,就是用最简单的语言,把你想传播的信息传播出去(给你的用户)。我这里是要强调,营销不是本质,本质是产品。营销最重要的,就是不能瞎说。企业文化最重要。广告最多只能影响20%的人,剩下80%是靠这20%影响的。营销不好,顶多就是卖的慢一点,但是只要产品好,不论营销好坏,20年后结果都一样。


7. 中国品牌在新兴市场国家有哪些机遇?
段永平:这个我不太懂,但我不觉得会有太大差别,都是要关注用户的需求。平常心,就是回到事物的本原。


8. 巴菲特饭局上发生了什么?
段永平:我做公益,老巴(巴菲特)也做公益。我直接捐出去,和通过老巴捐出去是一样的,所以就拍下了巴菲特午餐,只当做公益了,还能向老巴学习。不一定要吃饭,看老巴在网上的视频、讲话、股东信,就可以了。老巴(说)的东西,逻辑上很顺,听起来像音乐一样享受。


9. 现在手机(企业)有两种模式,一是小米这种先圈用户,再通过其他方式变现;二是苹果这样,靠产品本身赚钱。哪种好?
段永平:首先,圈客户的角度,苹果比小米厉害;其次,长远来看,没有什么企业是靠便宜赚钱的。性价比,都是给自己找借口。一定要把重心聚焦在用户上,也不是我们非要做高端还是低端,只是把自己能做的事情做好了,满足了一部分人群的需求。即使苹果,也没有满足所有人。
我们早年经常提性价比,直到我有一次跟一个中国通的日本人谈合作说到我们的产品性价比高时,对方很困惑地问道,什么是性价比,是“sex-price” ratio吗?我当时就愣了一下,觉得日本人的词典里似乎是没有性价比这个东西的,之后又花了很久才悟到,“性价比”实际上就是性能不够好的借口啊。我希望我们公司不会再在任何地方使用这个词了。


10. 未来的投资/创业趋势?
段永平:这个问题对我来说有点儿难。我个人不太关心前沿的东西,我一般比较滞后,看懂了好的公司再投。前沿的东西,是苹果这类公司关注的,我做的是找到苹果这样的公司。


11. 这么多手机公司,为什么苹果最成功?
段永平:苹果很难得,focus(聚焦)在自己做的事情上。苹果有利润之上的追求,就是做最好的产品。苹果文化的强度很强,有严格的“Stop Doing List”,一定要满足用户,一定做最好的产品。我们不和苹果比,因为1000个功能里面,有一些比苹果强,说明不了什么。就像CBA篮球打不过NBA,说我们会功夫,不是扯嘛。


12. 社交方面的“Stop Doing List”,与投资的关系?
段永平:我是anti-social的,社交很累,很费时间。泛泛的社交里朋友太少,看起来认识很多人,其实很难深入了解。有时间我更喜欢去打打球。我投资只是爱好,average(平均)能beat (打败)S&P。


13. 为什么说“敢为天下后,后中争先”?
段永平:所有的高手都是敢为天下后的,只是做的比别人更好。我们公司成功不是偶然的, 坚持自己的“Stop Doing List”,筛合伙人,筛供货商,慢慢地就会攒下好圈子,长期来看很有价值。敢为天下后,指的是产品类别,是因为你猜市场的需求往往很难,但是别人已经把需求明确了,你去满足这个需求,就更确定。(敢为天下后指的是产品类别,后中争先指的是做好产品的能力。或者说,敢为天下后指的是“做对的事情”,后中争先指的是“把事情做对”的能力。)


14. 有没有过一些投资错误?
段永平:投资没犯过错误,投机犯过。(投资其实也犯过,但错误很小,当时可能没想起来。)投机百度的时候被short squeeze(夹空)了,亏了1亿~2亿美金。我学老巴:想不通的我不碰,肯定会错失很多好机会,但是保证抓住的都是对的。投资遵循老巴的逻辑:先看商业模式,理解企业怎么挣钱。95%的人投资都是focus在市场上的,这就是不懂投资。一定要focus在生意上。公司是要挣钱的。


15. 什么时候卖苹果,为什么?
段永平:好公司是不需要卖的!


16. 你来美国后,能力圈有什么提升?
段永平:能力圈不是拿金箍棒在地上画个圈,说待在里面不要出去,外面有妖怪。能力圈是:诚实对自己,知之为知之,不知为不知。有这样的态度,然后如果能看懂一个东西,那它就是在我能力圈内,否则就不是。苹果1万亿市值?我从来不关心这个,我只关心它赚钱的能力。买公司,是不打算卖的,除非它盈利能力改变,或者有更好的标的,自己很懂,价格又很低。


17. 怎么看待创业的“坚持了才有希望”和“Stop Doing List”?
段永平:“Stop Doing List”说的是做对的事,如果知道错了,马上要改。创业依然适用。(就是对的事情一定要坚持,错的事情一定要尽快改!)至于怎么做对,那是方法层面的,可以通过学习来解决。要是不知对错,就是没有是非观,那这辈子很难有成就。是非观是要自己培养、坚持的,没有shortcut。比如抽烟,很多人不戒烟不是因为不知道它不好,而是抵抗不了短期诱惑。


18. 为什么不见媒体?
段永平:不希望给公众留下我掌控公司的印象,抢了CEO的成就感。不抢他们的功劳,这很重要,因为事实上我本人已经10多年没有在一线了,如果我还是CEO的话,公司很可能做不了这么好。


19. 怎么看待中美市场环境对创业的差异?
段永平:美国环境更好一点。在中国做企业更辛苦,做完自己的事,还得做警察的事、消防的事、保安的事,麻烦……


20. 你主张不贷款,不用margin,错过了机会怎么办?
段永平:贷款和用margin,赚的时候快,赔的时候更快。常在河边走,哪能不湿鞋,湿一回鞋就湿一辈子,为什么要冒这个险呢?(有些机会总是要错过的,只要保证抓住的是对的,就足够了。)我们过去的大部分竞争对手都消失了,我们还健在,道理也许就在此。


21. 你怎么看待智能手机壳行业?
段永平:我不懂。但是我知道,好东西不需要推广,你看智能手机一出来,很快就普及开了。如果你的东西推出去没有很快抓住用户,肯定是不够好,一定要回来好好思考,想自己的问题。

22. 对职场新人职业发展的建议?
段永平:做好本职工作,不要跳来跳去。硅谷很多人喜欢跳槽,但是在苹果干30年,比跳去大多数创业公司结果都要好。

23. 如何看待创业?
段永平:如果自己都不懂自己在做什么,要让投资人相信你是不可能的。黄峥有一点特别好,会不停地问这个是什么意思,这个是什么意思,关注问题本质。


24. (什么是)企业文化?
段永平:企业文化就是Mission、Vision和Core Values。“Mission”是为什么成立;“Vision”是我们要去哪里;“Core Values”是哪些事情是对的,哪些事情是不对的。招人分合格的人和合适的人。合适是指文化匹配, 合格是指能力。价值观不match(匹配)的人,坚决不要。给公司制造麻烦的,往往是合格但不合适的人。一群合适的普通人在一起,同心合力也能干大事。


25. 怎么看待中国企业爱弯道超车?
段永平:Alaska有句话,shortcut is the fastest way to get lost(捷径是迷路的最快的办法。)不存在什么弯道超车的事情,关注本质最重要!不然即使超过去,也会被超回来。

26. 怎么判断股价便不便宜?
段永平:这是关注短期关注市场的人才会问的问题。我不考虑这个问题。我关注长期,看不懂的不碰。任何想市场,想时机的做法,可能都是错误的,我不看市场,我看生意。你说某只股票贵,how do you know?站在现在看10年前,估计什么都是贵的。你站在10年后看现在,能看懂而且便宜的公司,买就行了。


27. 怎么理解“Stop Doing List”?
段永平:主要讲的是做对的事情。它不是一个skill(技巧)或者formula(公式),而是思维方式:如果发现错了,就立刻停止,因为这个时候成本是最小的。我不能告诉你对错,怎么判断对错,要自己积累。
不该骗用户,不该骗投资人,每句话都是一个promise(承诺),这你应该是知道的。你去找投资,说没生意,没skill,什么都没有,那你去找你爸。你总得有点儿什么,才能见投资人吧。如果你自己都搞不清楚要做的事,让投资人怎么相信你?至于怎么把事情做对,要花时间去培养skill sets(就是有学习曲线的意思,要允许犯错误)。坚持“Stop Doing List”,厉害是攒出来的。OPPO跟苹果比,我们在做对的事情上是一样的,但是在把事情做对上可能有些差距。但我们有积累。我们比大多数公司厉害。
“Stop Doing List”没有shortcut(捷径),要靠自己去积累,去攒,去体悟。stop doing就是发现错,就要停,时间长了就效果很明显。很多人放不下眼前的诱惑,30年后还在那儿。错了一定要停,要抵抗住短期的诱惑。

28. 在硅谷怎么更好地带娃?
段永平:最主要的,要给孩子安全感。怎么给?就是给quality time,就是高质量的陪伴,跟他们交朋友。高质量的陪伴,就是待在一起,把手机藏起来。
要无条件的爱。中国人容易有条件的爱,“你得了第一,爸爸很爱你啊”,这两句话绝对不能放一起说。中国人也爱到处夸孩子得了第一,这容易给孩子压力。孩子会想:我得第二你是不是就不爱我了?我带孩子,坚持尽量不对孩子说“NO”,除了大是大非,涉及边界的事,其他的都让孩子大胆地探索。

29. 怎么看待老巴?
段永平:老巴是一个很好的人。他是发自内心的的对人好对人诚恳。他很睿智,任何复杂的问题,他一两句话就说到本质了。他这么睿智这么成功又对人这么好,中国企业家里我基本没见过这样的,美国企业家里也极少。

30. 为什么卖网易?
段永平:因为丁磊就是个大孩子,那么多钱放他手里不放心,虽然股价证明我可能卖错了。

31. 怎么看待特斯拉?
段永平:芒格说,马斯克是个被证明了的天才,他的IQ可能是190,但他自己认为他是250。但是run a company,you must be rational(经营一家公司,你必须要理性!)。在我眼里,特斯拉是一家价值为零为zero的公司,迟早要完。他的culture(企业文化)很糟糕。

32. 如何建立长期友谊?
段永平:就是和人真诚打交道。我跟老巴学到的, 人一辈子最重要的是友谊。所以要对朋友宽容,要友善,要诚实。但他也没说要有很多朋友,能有一打好朋友就足够了。

33. 怎么把culture(文化)传承下去?
段永平:没有特别的秘诀,主要在于选择,找到同道中人。因为你是没有办法说服不相信你的人的。不相信你的人,你跟他说话的时候,他的眼神是飘的,你能看出来。然后就是年年讲,月月讲,天天讲,靠年头淘汰掉不合适的。

34. 怎么样选人,包括合伙人,员工?
段永平:一次就找对那是运气。主要是要有标准,该淘汰淘汰,该散伙散伙。知道错了,要有停止的勇气。越早停止,代价越小。

35. 你的“Stop Doing List”举个例子。
段永平:我想的都不是眼前的。我是学无线电的,但我没有干这个,因为这不是我爱干的事。当年研究生毕业时找的工作说你多少年能当处长,两年能分房子,鸡鸭鱼肉有得分。但是我没有兴趣。所以我离开了。后来去的佛山无线电八厂,当年这个只有几百人的公司招了100本科生,50个研究生。大家都不满意,很多人都想走。结果我离开两年后小霸王都做出来了,回去一看,那帮人都还在(只走了一个人)。很多人说“我没有找到更好的机会”,其实是他们没有停止做不对的事情的勇气。所以stop doing的意思,就是发现错了就要马上停,不然两年后,可能还是待在那个不好的地方。我一直想的是长远的事情。很多人都是在眼前的利益上打转,他30年后还会在那儿打转。

36. 美国对中国的误解?
段永平:美国人对中国的理解整体不错。我支持political right(政治正确),因为如果你连政治都不正确,你怎么会正确?目前美国人选的总统是让我非常困惑的,但我相信最终都会好起来的。

37. (价值)投资最重要的是什么?
段永平:right business,right people,right price。(对的生意,对的人,对的价钱。这是老巴说的。)对的生意说的就是生意模式,对的人指的就是企业文化。price没有那么重要,business和people最重要。culture跟founder(创始人)有很大关系。business model,就是赚钱的方式,这个是你必须自己去悟的,我没法儿告诉你。就像如果你不打高尔夫,我是无法告诉你它的乐趣的。

38. 创业该怎么坚持?
段永平:我的理解很简单,如果你坚持不下来了,就坚持不下来了。你坚持下来的东西,肯定是你放不下的,到时候你自己会知道。

39. 怎么看比特币/区块链?
段永平:我对不产生现金流的东西,不感兴趣。区块链我不懂,不懂不看,不懂没法下重注。但是我看不懂,不代表你看不懂,你要投自己能看懂的。

40. 怎么发现并保持平常心?
段永平:保持不难,因为它就在那儿(是内心已经有的东西)。不过,马云还说过一句话“平常人是很难有平常心的,所以平常心也是不平常心!”发现嘛,靠吃亏。因为没有平常心,一不rational就会栽跟头。

41. 怎么找到喜欢做的事?
段永平:你如果总是待在自己不喜欢的地方,你可能永远都不会知道自己真正喜欢什么。所以发现错的事情,就要停。多去尝试,去寻找。做自己喜欢的事,就没有加班的概念了,因为你会想尽办法工作。

42. 我觉得失败是必然的,成功是偶然的,对吗?
段永平:成功肯定是有原因的。

43. 如果有机会再活一遍,什么事会做得不一样?
段永平:不知道,没这么想过这个问题。可能少喝点红酒?

44. 最想给儿子说什么?
段永平:说什么都没有用,做什么才重要(最重要是做什么)。(这是老巴说的)

45. 怎么发现对/不对的事情?
段永平:要有时间想。可能会想很久,有一天突然灵光一现,想明白是错的/对的。我们当年想小霸王的广告词,想了半年才想顺词。很多人一天到晚忙,根本没时间想,可能永远都不会明白。

46. 中国有没有大危机?
段永平:也有人微信上问我会不会有动荡啊之类的。我说我以为我们一直在动荡中呢。我觉得我们一直都有危机啊,有人危,有人机,做好自己就好了。

47. 怎么看待贸易战?
段永平:你用10年看,这件事一定会过去。股市要真出了问题,苹果那么多现金,一定更厉害啊,所以这个时候更应该买好公司。

48. 你是怎么找到你们公司的产品的mission(使命)的?
段永平:产品角度,是慢慢摸索出来的,发现不对,赶紧停。比如苹果的充电器,说了一年了,今年没推出来。没推出来,肯定是有问题没解决。没解决就不推。

49. 男怕入错行。将来会火的、自己擅长的,自己喜欢的,选哪个?
段永平:如果你知道:会火的+擅长的+喜欢的,那肯定做那一行。问题是这很难知道,所以优先做自己喜欢的。钱多不是好事,因为挣钱是一个很大的乐趣,钱多你就失去了一个很重要的乐趣。钱差不多就可以了,做自己喜欢的事更重要。

50. 苹果手表心电图FDA认证有价值吗?
段永平:当然有啊,首先吸引眼球,让人知道啊;其次,有了认证,医生才会承认啊。

51. 人机交互的下一个突破口?
段永平:我不知道。但是机器肯定越来越强,人已经在围棋上输了,做投机你也打不过机器。但是在投资上,机器永远打不过人,因为机器看不懂公司。

52. 怎么对待差异化定价(给不同的客户不同的价格)?
段永平:价格不一致,一是他们迟早会发现;二是客户发现能议价,会想尽办法跟你讨价还价,浪费你很多时间,这都是麻烦事。价格一致,会省很多麻烦。做产品主要是要抓住客户的需求,而不是价格。可以看看空客的John Leahy。(一个人打败了波音啊!当然背后靠的还是产品!)

53. 黄峥的什么(优势)让你投他?
段永平:我和黄峥10多年的朋友了,我了解他,我信任他!

「惟课」推荐延伸阅读:

段永平 – 百度百科

段永平往事 – 界面新闻

TED – Joseph Gordon-Levitt: How craving attention makes you less creative

囧瑟夫在 TED 2019 上分享了「不要总想着吸引注意力,而应该努力去关注」,主题鲜明,诙谐幽默!

延伸阅读:

好奇心日报:囧瑟夫对科技公司 CEO 的角色认真起来 | TED 2019 现场报道

知乎:约瑟夫·高登-莱维特(Joseph Gordon-Levitt)为什么受欢迎?

Apple Podcast: Creative Processing with Joseph Gordon-Levitt

「向死而生」的乔布斯

前天夜里为辞世的奶奶守夜,追念她留下的珍贵回忆之余,翻阅了「西藏生死书」,心中不禁感叹「死亡」是门人生必修课。我们应该如何面对死亡?「向死而生」的乔布斯能带给我们些许启示吧。

乔布斯在 2015 年斯坦福毕业典礼上的演讲,传递出他对待「死亡」的态度。他认为死亡是生命最好的一项发明。它推动生命的更替,也催人思考,在有限的时间里为什么而活、怎么活这些重要的问题。乔布斯每日清晨的习惯是叩问自己,“如果今天是我生命里的最后一天,我是否依然会去做我计划今天要做的事情?”当心里连续出现几次“不”的时候,他就知道自己应该要改变些什么了。

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down — that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: It was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Credit: http://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/

很荣幸和大家一道参加这所世界上最好的一座大学的毕业典礼。我大学没毕业,说实话,这是我第一次离大学毕业典礼这么近。今天我想给大家讲三个我自己的故事,不讲别的,也不讲大道理,就讲三个故事。

第一个故事讲的是点与点之间的关系。我在里德学院(Reed College)只读了六个月就退学了,此后便在学校里旁听,又过了大约一年半,我彻底离开。那么,我为什么退学呢?这得从我出生前讲起。我的生母是一名年轻的未婚在校研究生,她决定将我送给别人收养。她非常希望收养我的是有大学学历的人,所以把一切都安排好了,我一出生就交给一对律师夫妇收养。没想到我落地的霎那间,那对夫妇却决定收养一名女孩。就这样,我的养父母─当时他们还在登记册上排队等著呢─半夜三更接到一个电话: “我们这儿有一个没人要的男婴,你们要么?”“当然要”他们回答。但是,我的生母后来发现我的养母不是大学毕业生,我的养父甚至连中学都没有毕业,所以她拒绝在最后的收养文件上签字。不过,没过几个月她就心软了,因为我的养父母许诺日后一定送我上大学。

17 年后,我真的进了大学。当时我很天真,选了一所学费几乎和斯坦福大学一样昂贵的学校,当工人的养父母倾其所有的积蓄为我支付了大学学费。读了六个月后,我却看不出上学有什么意义。我既不知道自己这一生想干什么,也不知道大学是否能够帮我弄明白自己想干什么。这时,我就要花光父母一辈子节省下来的钱了。所以,我决定退学,并且坚信日后会证明我这样做是对的。当年做出这个决定时心里直打鼓,但现在回想起来,这还真是我有生以来做出的最好的决定之一。从退学那一刻起,我就可以不再选那些我毫无兴趣的必修课,开始旁听一些看上去有意思的课。 那些日子一点儿都不浪漫。我没有宿舍,只能睡在朋友房间的地板上。我去退还可乐瓶,用那五分钱的押金来买吃的。每个星期天晚上我都要走七英里,到城那头的黑尔-科里施纳礼拜堂去,吃每周才能享用一次的美餐。我喜欢这样。我凭著好奇心和直觉所干的这些事情,有许多后来都证明是无价之宝。

我给大家举个例子:当时,里德学院的书法课大概是全国最好的。校园里所有的公告栏和每个抽屉标签上的字都写得非常漂亮。当时我已经退学,不用正常上课,所以我决定选一门书法课,学学怎么写好字。我学习写带短截线和不带短截线的印刷字体,根据不同字母组合调整其间距,以及怎样把版式调整得好上加好。这门课太棒了,既有历史价值,又有艺术造诣,这一点科学就做不到,而我觉得它妙不可言。

当时我并不指望书法在以后的生活中能有什么实用价值。但是,十年之后,我们在设计第一台 Macintosh 计算机时,它一下子浮现在我眼前。于是,我们把这些东西全都设计进了计算机中。这是第一台有这么漂亮的文字版式的计算机。要不是我当初在大学里偶然选了这么一门课,Macintosh 计算机绝不会有那么多种印刷字体或间距安排合理的字号。要不是 Windows 照搬了 Macintosh,个人电脑可能不会有这些字体和字号。要不是退了学,我决不会碰巧选了这门书法课,个人电脑也可能不会有现在这些漂亮的版式了。当然,我在大学里不可能从这一点上看到它与将来的关系。十年之后再回头看,两者之间的关系就非常、非常清楚了。

你们同样不可能从现在这个点上看到将来;只有回头看时,才会发现它们之间的关系。所以,要相信这些点迟早会连接到一起。你们必须信赖某些东西─直觉、归宿、生命,还有业力,等等。这样做从来没有让我的希望落空过,而且还彻底改变了我的生活。

我的第二个故事是关于好恶与得失。幸运的是,我在很小的时候就发现自己喜欢做什么。我在 20 岁时和沃兹(Woz,苹果公司创始人之一 Wozon 的昵称─译注)在我父母的车库里办起了苹果公司。我们干得很卖力,十年后,苹果公司就从车库里我们两个人发展成为一个拥有 20 亿元资产、4,000 名员工的大企业。那时,我们刚刚推出了我们最好的产品─ Macintosh 电脑─那是在第 9 年,我刚满 30 岁。可后来,我被解雇了。你怎么会被自己办的公司解雇呢?是这样,随著苹果公司越做越大,我们聘了一位我认为非常有才华的人与我一道管理公司。在开始的一年多里,一切都很顺利。可是,随后我俩对公司前景的看法开始出现分歧,最后我俩反目了。这时,董事会站在了他那一边,所以在 30 岁那年,我离开了公司,而且这件事闹得满城风雨。我成年后的整个生活重心都没有了,这使我心力交瘁。一连几个月,我真的不知道应该怎么办。我感到自己给老一代的创业者丢了脸─因为我扔掉了交到自己手里的接力棒。我去见了戴维•帕卡德(David Packard,惠普公司创始人之一─译注)和鲍勃•诺伊斯(Bob Noyce,英特尔公司创建者之一─译注),想为把事情搞得这么糟糕说声道歉。这次失败弄得沸沸扬扬的,我甚至想过逃离硅谷。但是,渐渐地,我开始有了一个想法─我仍然热爱我过去做的一切。在苹果公司发生的这些风波丝毫没有改变这一点。我虽然被拒之门外,但我仍然深爱我的事业。于是,我决定从头开始。

虽然当时我并没有意识到,但事实证明,被苹果公司炒鱿鱼是我一生中碰到的最好的事情。尽管前景未卜,但从头开始的轻松感取代了保持成功的沉重感。这使我进入了一生中最富有创造力的时期之一。 在此后的五年里,我开了一家名叫 NeXT 的公司和一家叫皮克斯的公司,我还爱上一位了不起的女人,后来娶了她。皮克斯公司推出了世界上第一部用电脑制作的动画片《玩具总动员》(Toy Story),它现在是全球最成功的动画制作室。世道轮回,苹果公司买下 NeXT 后,我又回到了苹果公司,我们在 NeXT 公司开发的技术成了苹果公司这次重新崛起的核心。我和劳伦娜(Laurene)也建立了美满的家庭。

我确信,如果不是被苹果公司解雇,这一切决不可能发生。这是一剂苦药,可我认为苦药利于病。有时生活会当头给你一棒,但不要灰心。我坚信让我一往无前的唯一力量就是我热爱我所做的一切。所以,一定得知道自己喜欢什么,选择爱人时如此,选择工作时同样如此。工作将是生活中的一大部分,让自己真正满意的唯一办法,是做自己认为是有意义的工作;做有意义的工作的唯一办法,是热爱自己的工作。你们如果还没有发现自己喜欢什么,那就不断地去寻找,不要急于做出决定。就像一切要凭著感觉去做的事情一样,一旦找到了自己喜欢的事,感觉就会告诉你。就像任何一种美妙的东西,历久弥新。所以说,要不断地寻找,直到找到自己喜欢的东西。不要半途而废。

我的第三个故事与死亡有关。17 岁那年,我读到过这样一段话,大意是:“如果把每一天都当作生命的最后一天,总有一天你会如愿以偿。”我记住了这句话,从那时起,33 年过去了,我每天早晨都对著镜子自问: “假如今天是生命的最后一天,我还会去做今天要做的事吗?”如果一连许多天我的回答都是“不”,我知道自己应该有所改变了。

让我能够做出人生重大抉择的最主要办法是,记住生命随时都有可能结束。因为几乎所有的东西─所有对自身之外的希求、所有的尊严、所有对困窘和失败的恐惧─在死亡来临时都将不复存在,只剩下真正重要的东西。记住自己随时都会死去,这是我所知道的防止患得患失的最好方法。你已经一无所有了,还有什么理由不跟著自己的感觉走呢。

大约一年前,我被诊断患了癌症。那天早上七点半,我做了一次扫描检查,结果清楚地表明我的胰腺上长了一个瘤子,可那时我连胰腺是什么还不知道呢!医生告诉我说,几乎可以确诊这是一种无法治愈的恶性肿瘤,我最多还能活 3 到 6 个月。医生建议我回去把一切都安排好,其实这是在暗示“准备后事”。也就是说,把今后十年要跟孩子们说的事情在这几个月内嘱咐完;也就是说,把一切都安排妥当,尽可能不给家人留麻烦;也就是说,去跟大家诀别。那一整天里,我的脑子一直没离开这个诊断。到了晚上,我做了一次组织切片检查,他们把一个内窥镜通过喉咙穿过我的胃进入肠子,用针头在胰腺的瘤子上取了一些细胞组织。当时我用了麻醉剂,陪在一旁的妻子后来告诉我,医生在显微镜里看了细胞之后叫了起来,原来这是一种少见的可以通过外科手术治愈的恶性肿瘤。我做了手术,现在好了。这是我和死神离得最近的一次,我希望也是今后几十年里最近的一次。有了这次经历之后,现在我可以更加实在地和你们谈论死亡,而不是纯粹纸上谈兵,那就是: 谁都不愿意死。就是那些想进天堂的人也不愿意死后再进。然而,死亡是我们共同的归宿,没人能摆脱。我们注定会死,因为死亡很可能是生命最好的一项发明。它推进生命的变迁,旧的不去,新的不来。现在,你们就是新的,但在不久的将来,你们也会逐渐成为旧的,也会被淘汰。对不起,话说得太过分了,不过这是千真万确的。

你们的时间都有限,所以不要按照别人的意愿去活,这是浪费时间。不要囿于成见,那是在按照别人设想的结果而活。不要让别人观点的聒噪声淹没自己的心声。最主要的是,要有跟著自己感觉和直觉走的勇气。无论如何,感觉和直觉早就知道你到底想成为什么样的人,其他都是次要的。

我年轻时有一本非常好的刊物,叫《全球概览》(The Whole Earth Catalog),这是我那代人的宝书之一,创办人名叫斯图尔特•布兰德(Stewart Brand),就住在离这儿不远的门洛帕克市。他用诗一般的语言把刊物办得生动活泼。那是 20 世纪 60 年代末,还没有个人电脑和桌面印刷系统,全靠打字机、剪刀和宝丽莱照相机(Polaroid)。它就像一种纸质的 Google,却比 Google 早问世了 35 年。这份刊物太完美了,查阅手段齐备、构思不凡。

斯图尔特和他的同事们出了好几期《全球概览》,到最后办不下去时,他们出了最后一期。那是 20 世纪 70 年代中期,我也就是你们现在的年纪。最后一期的封底上是一张清晨乡间小路的照片,就是那种爱冒险的人等在那儿搭便车的那种小路。照片下面写道: 好学若饥、谦卑若愚。那是他们停刊前的告别辞。

求知若渴,大智若愚。这也是我一直想做到的。眼下正值诸位大学毕业、开始新生活之际,我同样愿大家: 好学若饥、谦卑若愚。