求知若渴，大智若愚

求知若渴，大智若愚 Stay Hungry Stay Foolish 求知若渴，大智若愚 By Steve Jobs 韩江 译 Transcript of Commencement Speech at Stanford Given by Steve Jobs Steve Jobs 作为IT行业的领军人物，苹果公司的舵手，虽然几经沉浮，可一直没有放 弃对梦想的追求。他这篇在美国斯坦福大学的毕业致辞就对美国大学生影响至深，文章非常 长，可故事内容又非常好，编辑在权衡之后还是决定原封不动地刊载。同时，还有 Steve Jobs 演讲的声音文件，读者朋友们可以在这个网站下载:www.sparkenglish.com Thank you. I’m honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college and 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. 1)The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months but then stayed around as a drop-in for another eighteen months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I 2)was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed 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’ve got an unexpected baby boy. Do you want him?” They said, “Of course.” My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She 3)refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college. This was the start in my life. 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 of how college was going to help me figure it out, and here I was, spending all 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 far more 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 five-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven 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. 4)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 5) decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned aboutserif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what 6)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 ten years later when 7)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 that calligraphy class and personals 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 backwards ten years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will 8)somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever—because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference. 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 ten years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We’d just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I’d 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 9)year or so, things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually 10)11)we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him, and 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 12)13)generation of entrepreneurs down, that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. 14)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’d 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 in 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 and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current 15)renaissance, and Lorene 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’s going to hit 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 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, and 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. 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 thing 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. 16)About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning and it 17)18)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 doctors’ code for “prepare to die.” It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next ten years to tell them, in just a few months. It means to make sure that everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes. 19) I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy where they stuck an 20)21)endoscope down my throat, through my stomach into my intestines, put a needle into my 22)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 doctor 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, thankfully, I am 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’s 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’s quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it 23)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 Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stuart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late Sixties, 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, overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stuart and his team put out several issues of the The Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970’s 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. 1) connecting the dots 连连看游戏，一种小孩益智游戏 2) biological [,,,,,,,,,,,,,] adj. 生物学的 3) relent [，,,,,,,] v. 变温和，收敛 4) calligraphy [,,,,,,，,,,] n. 书法 5) serif [,,,，,,] n. 衬线 6) typography [,,,,,,,，,,,] n. 印刷排版和表面式样 7) Macintosh 麦金托什机，苹果公司于1984年推出的一种系列微机 8) karma [,,,,,,] n. 因缘，因果报应 9) diverge [,,,,,,,,,] v. 分歧，相异 10) fall out 争吵，吵架 11) side [,,,,] v. 站在同一边，支持 12) entrepreneur [,,,，,,，,,,,,] n. 企业家 13) baton [,,,,,,] n. 接力棒 14) screw up 把事情做砸 15) renaissance [，,,,,,,,,,] n. 复兴 谢谢大家，斯坦福大学是世界上最棒的大学之一，今天很荣幸能来参加你们的毕业典礼。 说实话，我从来没从大学毕业过，现在就算是我离大学毕业最近的时刻了。 今天我就想讲三个故事，只是发生在我生活中的三个小故事。第一个故事是关于不经意 的经历逐渐塑造出生活的轨迹。 我在里德学院只待了六个月就休学了，之后又进去学了18个月左右才正式退学。那么， 我为什么要退学呢,这得从我出生前讲起。我的生母是大学毕业生，当时是个年轻的未婚妈 妈，因而决定把我送人。她认定我应该被受过大学教育的人收养，办好手续等我一出生就由 一对律师夫妇带走。然而当我降临后，这对夫妇却在最后关头决定他们想收养一个女儿。当 时我的养父母在备选收养人名单上，那天深夜他们接到这个电话，“有个小男孩意外地出生 了，你们想要认养他吗,”他们回答道:“当然想要。”后来我的生母却发现我的养母没上过 大学，我的养父则根本没上过高中。生母因此拒绝在最终的收养上签字，直到几个月以后，我的养父母保证将来一定会让我上大学，她才勉强答应。 我的人生就是这样开始的。十七年后，我真的上了大学。但当时我天真地选了一所学费几乎跟斯坦福一样贵的学校，花光了我那工薪阶层父母所有的存款。六个月以后，我看不到这样上学的价值。我不知道自己究竟想干什么，也不明白大学何如能帮我解决这个难题，可是为了上大学，我却用光了我父母的毕生积蓄，因此我决定先休学，相信事情自有解决之道。这样做当时看来叫人心惊胆战，可是现在回首，那是我这辈子做过最好的决定之一。 休学后我再也不用为那些毫无兴趣的必修课受煎熬，还可以选修一些有趣得多的课程。不过当时也并非事事如意。我没有宿舍，只能在朋友家打地铺。平时靠回收可乐空罐的五分钱押金买吃的，到每个星期天晚上我都穿街过巷走上七英里路，去纽约市的克利须那神庙吃顿好的，那里的饭菜棒极了。就这样，在好奇与直觉的引领下我磕磕碰碰经历了好些事情，这些经历对我后来的发展可谓弥足珍贵。我可以举例说明。 当时里德大学的书法课在全国独树一帜。校园内的每一张海报上，每个抽屉标签上的手写字都非常漂亮。休学后我得以不按正常程序选课，于是决定去上书法课，钻研如何能把字写得那么好。我学会了衬线与无衬线字体，学会在不同字母组合间变更字间距，学会了鉴赏好的版式好在哪里。书法的美好、历史感与艺术感是科学所无法比拟的，这让我陶醉不已。 我从没奢望书法学习能在我生活中有什么实际作用，但十年后当我们在第一台麦金托什机时，我忽然想到了当年所学，于是在电脑中增加了这种设计，使它成为第一台具有非常突出的格式编辑功能的计算机。 如果当年我没有选择那样一门课程，麦金托什机就不可能有多种字体或间距恰当的各类字型了。若不是因为微软视窗模仿了麦金托什机的设计，大概所有的个人电脑都不会有现在的格式编辑功能了。如果我当时没有退学，我也绝对不会去选学那门书法课，那么今天的个人电脑也可能不会具有这么棒的排版功能。 当然，当我还在读大学时是不可能预料这些经历将会如何影响以后的生活，但十年后回顾，你就会恍然大悟。是的，你无法看透现在的经历会怎样塑造你的人生，募然回首才会发现当年的经历对于生活的意义。所以你应该相信，眼前你经历的种种，总会在将来的生活里印证它的价值。你应当相信一些东西，勇气也好，命运也好，生命也好，或者因缘——因为相信自己的经历总会在生活中找出价值，就能让你有信心追随心的呼唤，就算前路澹泊平凡，人生也会因此与众不同。 我的第二个故事是有关爱与失去。我很幸运——在很年轻时就发现自己爱做什么。二十岁那年我和史蒂夫?沃耐克在我爸妈的车库里开始了设计苹果机的事业。我们辛苦打拼，十年后苹果公司从两个在车库捣腾的穷小子发展成了一家员工超过四千人、价值二十亿美金的大公司。第9年公司推出了我们最杰出的作品——麦金托什计算机，那时我刚跨入而立之年，然后我却被解雇了。 我怎么会被自己创办的公司给炒了鱿鱼,事情是这样，当公司发展以后，我们聘请了一位才能出众的人与我一起管理公司，头几年倒是相安无事，但后来我们对公司将来的发展产生了分歧，最后只能分道扬镳，董事会站在他那边，于是在我30岁的时候，我被解雇了，公开出局。多年来生活的整个重心忽然倒塌，这件事对我打击巨大，我在彷徨茫然中度过了几个月。我觉得我令企业界的前辈失望，没能接好他们传递给我的接力棒。我拜访了惠普公司的创办人戴维?帕卡德和英特尔公司的创办人鲍勃?诺伊斯，为自己的失败向他们道歉。当时我成了众所周知的失败典型，我甚至想过要离开硅谷。但我渐渐明白我还是喜爱我开创的事业，被苹果公司解雇并没有改变这一点。虽然我出局了，可我还是爱做这份事业，所以我决定从头再来。 虽然当年预料不到，但现在看来被苹果公司解雇对我而言是再好不过的事。成功的沉重被重新开始的轻松所取代，每件事情都变得不那么确定，这让我得以从压力中释放，进入生命中最有创意的时期。 接下来五年，我先后创立了NeXT公司和Pixar公司，还与一位后 来成为我妻子的魅力非凡的女士共坠爱河。Pixar公司制作了世界上第一部电脑动画电影——《玩具总动员》，现在成为了世界上最成功的动画制作公司。这次事业发展的一个关键转折点在于苹果公司买下了NeXT公司，我又重新回到了苹果，我们在NeXT发展的技术成了苹果公司目前复兴的核心部份。而我和罗伦也建立了幸福的家庭。 如果当年我没被苹果公司解雇，后面的这一切都不可能发生。良药苦口，可它就是最对症的那剂药。有时候，生活的板砖会无情地拍向你。请不要丧失信念。我确信对工作的热爱是支持我不断奋斗的动力。你必须得找到自己热爱的东西，工作如此，人生伴侣亦然。 工作将占据人生的一大部分，真正获得满足的唯一方法就是从事你认为很有意义的工作，而工作出色的唯一办法就是热爱你的工作。如果你还没找到自己的所爱，继续寻找，不要停顿。只要全心全意，你就能找到自己热爱的东西。而且，如同任何真正深厚的关系一样，这种热爱只会随着时间流逝愈加强烈。因此，继续寻觅，不要放弃。 我的第三个故事，是关于死亡。十七岁那年我读到一则格言，大意是“把每一天都当成生命中的最后一天，有一天这一天真的会到来。”这句话让我印象深刻，过去33年里，每天早上我都会对镜自问:“如果今天是生命最后一日，我愿意去做今天我将要去做的事情吗,”每当我连续多日都得到否定的答案时，我就知道我应该有所改变了。当我面临人生中的重大决择时，提醒自己不久于人世大大帮助了我做出决定。因为几乎每件事——外界的期望、骄傲、对尴尬或失败的恐惧——在死亡面前都微不足道，只有真正重要的才能凸现出来。避免陷入计较得失的陷阱的最好方法就是提醒自己大限将至。生命都快结束了，还有什么理由不率心而为呢, 一年前，我被诊断出患有癌症。我在早上七点半作了扫描，胰脏部位清楚地查到了肿瘤，那时候我连胰脏到底是什么都不知道。医生告诉我这种肿瘤难以治愈，我大概还能活三到六个月。医生建议我回家，把事情安排好，言下之意即为准备临终事宜。这意味着你得试着在几个月内把你将来十年对孩子的叮嘱都讲完，意味着你得替家人着想，尽量把每件事情都安排妥当，也意味着你跟生活道别。 这个诊断伴随我度过了一整天，那天晚上我做了一次组织活检，医生从我的喉咙伸进内诊镜，穿过胃进到肠子，将探针伸进胰脏，取了一些肿瘤细胞出来。当时我被注射了镇静剂，但我太太后来告诉我，当医生们用显微镜看过那些细胞后，不由喜极而泣，因为那是一种非常少见的可用手术治愈的胰脏肿瘤，于是我接受了手术，现在完全康复。 迄今为止那是我最接近死亡的时刻，我希望那也会继续是未来几十年里最接近的一次。经历此事以后，死亡对我来说已经不仅仅是一种有用但纯粹的观念了，我可以更肯定地告诉你们:没有人想死，即使那些想上天堂的人也不愿意。 但是死亡是我们共同的归宿，没人能够逃脱。死亡是注定的，因为它很可能就是生命最棒的发明，它是生命交替的媒介，送走老人，给新生代让出道路。现在你们就是新生代，但在不久的将来，你们也会逐渐变老，向生命谢幕。抱歉讲得这么戏剧化，但是道理是真的。你们时间有限，所以不要浪费生命，活在别人的世界里。别被教条所蒙蔽——盲从教条就是活在别人想法里。不要让别人的意见淹没了你的心声和直觉，其实你自己的心声与直觉已经知道你真正想要成为什么样的人，任何其它事物都可退居次要。 我年轻时，有本很棒的杂志叫做《全球编录》，当年是我们那一代的经典读物。那是住在离这不远的蒙露公园的斯图尔特?布兰特创办的，他用充满诗意的格调把杂志办得有声有色。那是60年代末期，个人电脑和电脑出版都还没出现，所有内容都是用打字机、剪刀和宝丽来相机做出来的。有点像Google出现35年前的纸版Google，杂志很理想主义，充满了巧妙的工具和独到的理念。斯图尔特和他的团队出版了好几期的《全球编录》，最后出了停刊号。当时是70年代中期，我正是你们现在这个年龄。停刊号的封底是一张清晨乡间小路的照片，如果你喜欢探险，你可能搭便车旅行时会经过那种乡间小路。 照片下有一行字: 求知若渴，大智若愚。 那是他们停刊的告别寄语，我总是以此自励。在你们即将毕业开始 新生活的今天，我愿意以此与你们共勉:求知若渴，大智若愚。 非常感谢大家。 小资料: 为什么苹果被咬了一口, Steve Jobs认为苹果公司原有的牛顿徽标过于复杂，不易复制传播。于是他指定Regis McKenna公关公司的艺术总监Rob Janov重新设计一个更好的徽标。 Janov 开始制作了一个苹果的黑白剪影，但是总感觉缺了些什么，“我想简化苹果的形 状，并且在一侧被咬了一口(taking a bite)——a byte(一个字节)，对吧，以防苹果看起来 像一个西红柿，” Janov解释道。 每一个见到苹果徽标的人都会禁不住问:为什么苹果被咬了一口,这或许正是当初设计 苹果徽标的人恰恰所希望达到的效果。1)鲜艳的色彩，给人以活力和朝气;2)咬掉的缺口 唤起人们的好奇、疑问;想知道苹果的滋味就要亲口尝一尝，对吗,3)英文的咬字(bite) 与计算机的基本运算单位字节(byte)同音。 据说设计这个徽标花了苹果一大笔钱，苹果的前总裁Michael M. Scott称为 the most expensive bloody logo ever designed. 具体数目不得而知。 Steve Jobs 与John Sculley 的恩怨 1983年，Steve Jobs开始聘请前百事可乐公司的主管JohnSculley任苹果的CEO，相信 他会让这棵未老先衰的苹果“枯木逢春”。 他对Sculley的激将语被传为佳话:“如果你留在 百事可乐，五年后你只不过多卖了一些糖水给小孩，但到苹果，你可以改变整个世界。” 1985年Jobs和Sculley的分歧越来越大。Macintosh 的销量不断下滑，给公司造成巨大 打击，公司的财政赤字到了无法忍受的地步。John Sculley劝说董事会解除Jobs的权力。 Sculley 总结说:“如果没有Jobs, 我们可以做得更好。” Jobs不得不离开了苹果。他将这次 分手作了浪漫的比喻:“我的心会一直留在那儿，和苹果公司的关系就像是初恋，我会永远 眷恋苹果，就如同任何男士怀念他的初恋情人一样:缘尽情未了。” 1993年6月苹果公司免除了Scully的职务。 Steve Jobs’ Quote: “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” “The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.” “You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.” “Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” “I feel like somebody just punched me in the stomach and knocked all my wind out. I’m only 30 years old and I want to have a chance to continue creating things. I know I’ve got at least one more great computer in me. And Apple is not going to give me a chance to do that.”