寫(xiě)在前面

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12,2005.
這是蘋(píng)果公司和Pixar動(dòng)畫(huà)工作室的CEO Steve Jobs于2005年6月12號(hào)在斯坦福大學(xué)的畢業(yè)典禮上面的演講稿抠艾。

I am honored to be with you today at 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.
我今天很榮幸能和你們一起參加畢業(yè)典禮谷饿，而且是在這樣一所頂尖的大學(xué)钾唬。事實(shí)上，我大學(xué)還沒(méi)有畢業(yè)赃春。所以這該是我和大學(xué)最接近的一次了静秆。今天我只想和大家分享我人生中的三個(gè)故事。不講大道理严衬，只講三個(gè)小故事澄者。

The first story is about connecting the dots.
第一個(gè)故事是關(guān)于因果相聯(lián)。

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?
我在Reed大學(xué)讀了六個(gè)月就退學(xué)了,不過(guò)我在學(xué)校旁聽(tīng)課请琳，又留了一年半粱挡，然后徹底離開(kāi)。我為什么要退學(xué)呢俄精？

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 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 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 go to college.
This was a start in my life.
故事就要從我的出生說(shuō)起了询筏。我的生母讀研期間未婚先育有了我，隨后她決定讓別人收養(yǎng)我竖慧。她堅(jiān)持我未來(lái)的養(yǎng)父母是要讀過(guò)大學(xué)的嫌套，于是按照她的規(guī)劃，我將被一對(duì)律師夫婦收養(yǎng)圾旨。不過(guò)當(dāng)我出生的時(shí)候那對(duì)律師夫婦最后改變了主意想要個(gè)女孩踱讨。因此原本在候補(bǔ)名單上的我的養(yǎng)父母在半夜接到一個(gè)電話，電話說(shuō)我們這兒意外有了個(gè)男孩碳胳，你們要嗎勇蝙？他們說(shuō)當(dāng)然要。但我的親身父母后來(lái)發(fā)現(xiàn)我的養(yǎng)父母沒(méi)有大學(xué)文憑，我的養(yǎng)父甚至連高中都沒(méi)畢業(yè)味混。起初她拒絕簽訂收養(yǎng)協(xié)議产雹，幾個(gè)月后才退讓，因?yàn)槲业母改赋兄Z一定會(huì)讓我上大學(xué)的翁锡。我就這樣開(kāi)始了我的人生蔓挖。

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 far more interesting.
十七歲那年，我真的上了大學(xué)馆衔。但是我很天真地選擇了一個(gè)幾乎和斯坦福一樣昂貴的大學(xué)瘟判，我那屬于工薪階層的父母剩下的積蓄全都用來(lái)支付我的大學(xué)學(xué)費(fèi)了。六個(gè)月來(lái)我始終發(fā)現(xiàn)不了讀大學(xué)的價(jià)值角溃。我對(duì)自己這輩子到底想要做什么一無(wú)所知拷获，也不覺(jué)得大學(xué)能幫我發(fā)現(xiàn)這個(gè)問(wèn)題的答案。而為了讓我讀大學(xué)减细，我的父母幾乎是傾家蕩產(chǎn)匆瓜。所以我決定退學(xué)并相信船到橋頭自然直。其實(shí)當(dāng)時(shí)還是挺嚇人的未蝌，可回頭想想那的確是我做過(guò)的最明智的選擇之一驮吱。自我退學(xué)開(kāi)始。我就可以不在去上那些無(wú)趣的選修課萧吠，而去旁聽(tīng)那些更有意思的課程了左冬。

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 cent 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:
當(dāng)然也真是那么浪漫。當(dāng)時(shí)我連宿舍都沒(méi)纸型，所以只能在朋友寢室打地鋪拇砰，我靠收集可樂(lè)瓶子每個(gè)5美分來(lái)養(yǎng)活自己，每周日晚上我都步行七公里到神廟去蹭一頓像樣的飯狰腌。我樂(lè)此不疲毕匀。我那些聽(tīng)從自己直覺(jué)和好奇心而遇到的事，后來(lái)令我所獲頗豐癌别。舉個(gè)栗子吧：

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 san 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.
那個(gè)時(shí)候里德學(xué)院開(kāi)設(shè)了或許全美最好的書(shū)法課。大學(xué)里的每張海報(bào)上蹋笼，每個(gè)抽屜的標(biāo)簽上全都是美術(shù)字展姐。因?yàn)槲彝藢W(xué)了不必去上正規(guī)的課程，所以我決定去練練書(shū)法剖毯。我學(xué)到了有襯線體和無(wú)襯線體圾笨，懂得了如何把握詞間距以及如何做出漂亮的版式。優(yōu)雅逊谋、滄桑和科學(xué)無(wú)法描述的那種氣息擂达，真是妙不可言。

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in mylife. But ten 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, its 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 backwards ten years later.
這些東西無(wú)論怎么看都算不上對(duì)未來(lái)有實(shí)際用處胶滋。但是十年之后板鬓，當(dāng)我們?cè)O(shè)計(jì)第一臺(tái)蘋(píng)果電腦的時(shí)候卻全都用上了悲敷。全都融入了蘋(píng)果電腦的設(shè)計(jì)當(dāng)中去了。那是第一臺(tái)使用藝術(shù)字的電腦俭令。如果我當(dāng)時(shí)在大學(xué)沒(méi)有學(xué)習(xí)這門(mén)課后德，蘋(píng)果電腦就不會(huì)有這么豐富的字體和比例勻稱的字體。因?yàn)槲④浿恢郎秸O(píng)果抄腔，那很可能世上所有電腦都不會(huì)有那些漂亮的字體了瓢湃。要是我沒(méi)有退學(xué)，我就不會(huì)選修書(shū)法赫蛇，那么各種pc就不會(huì)有如今的精美字體了绵患，當(dāng)然我當(dāng)時(shí)不可能預(yù)知這一件件事之間的“因”和“果”。只有回過(guò)頭來(lái)看悟耘，才一目了然落蝙。

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 somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something -your gut, destiny, life,karma,whatever. Because believing that these dots would connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart .even when it lead you off the well-worn path and that will make all the difference .
再次強(qiáng)調(diào)，沒(méi)人可以未卜先知作煌，事事間的因和果往往只有在回首時(shí)顯現(xiàn)掘殴。你得相信因和果會(huì)在未來(lái)的生活中聯(lián)系起來(lái)，人總要有些信仰才行--直覺(jué)也好粟誓，命運(yùn)也罷奏寨，因果輪回不管什么。去相信因和果的聯(lián)系會(huì)給你信心去相信去跟從自己的意愿鹰服。哪怕離經(jīng)叛道病瞳，也絕不止步，只有那樣悲酷，才能有所成套菜。