摘錄

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:

17 年后吉捶，我真的進了大學(xué)围苫。當(dāng)時我很天真矢洲，選了一所學(xué)費幾乎和斯坦福大學(xué)一樣昂貴的學(xué)校，當(dāng)工人的養(yǎng)父母傾其所有的積蓄為我支付了大學(xué)學(xué)費窝趣。讀了六個月后，我卻看不出上學(xué)有什么意義。我既不知道自己這一生想干什么觅赊，也不知道大學(xué)是否能夠幫我弄明白自己想干什么。這時琼稻，我就要花光父母一輩子節(jié)省下來的錢了吮螺。所以，我決定退學(xué)帕翻，并且堅信日后會證明我這樣做是對的鸠补。當(dāng)年做出這個決定時心里直打鼓，但現(xiàn)在回想起來嘀掸，這還真是我有生以來做出的最好的決定之一紫岩。從退學(xué)那一刻起，我就可以不再選那些我毫無興趣的必修課睬塌，開始旁聽一些看上去有意思的課泉蝌。那些日子一點兒都不浪漫。我沒有宿舍揩晴，只能睡在朋友房間的地板上勋陪。我去退還可樂瓶，用那五分錢的押金來買吃的文狱。每個星期天晚上我都要走七英里粥鞋，到城那頭的黑爾-科里施納禮拜堂去，吃每周才能享用一次的美餐瞄崇。我喜歡這樣呻粹。我憑著好奇心和直覺所干的這些事情，有許多后來都證明是無價之寶苏研。我給大家舉個例子:

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.

當(dāng)時等浊，里德學(xué)院的書法課大概是全國最好的。校園里所有的公告欄和每個抽屜標簽上的字都寫得非常漂亮摹蘑。當(dāng)時我已經(jīng)退學(xué)筹燕，不用正常上課，所以我決定選一門書法課，學(xué)學(xué)怎么寫好字撒踪。我學(xué)習(xí)寫帶短截線和不帶短截線的印刷字體过咬，根據(jù)不同字母組合調(diào)整其間距，以及怎樣把版式調(diào)整得好上加好制妄。這門課太棒了掸绞，既有歷史價值，又有藝術(shù)造詣耕捞，這一點科學(xué)就做不到衔掸，而我覺得它妙不可言。

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. 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.

當(dāng)時我并不指望書法在以后的生活中能有什么實用價值俺抽。但是敞映，十年之后，我們在設(shè)計第一臺 Macintosh 計算機時磷斧，它一下子浮現(xiàn)在我眼前振愿。于是，我們把這些東西全都設(shè)計進了計算機中瞳抓。這是第一臺有這么漂亮的文字版式的計算機埃疫。要不是我當(dāng)初在大學(xué)里偶然選了這么一門課，Macintosh 計算機絕不會有那么多種印刷字體或間距安排合理的字號孩哑。要不是 Windows 照搬了 Macintosh，個人電腦可能不會有這些字體和字號翠桦。要不是退了學(xué)横蜒，我決不會碰巧選了這門書法課，個人電腦也可能不會有現(xiàn)在這些漂亮的版式了销凑。當(dāng)然丛晌，我在大學(xué)里不可能從這一點上看到它與將來的關(guān)系。十年之后再回頭看斗幼，兩者之間的關(guān)系就非常澎蛛、非常清楚了。

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. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

你們同樣不可能從現(xiàn)在這個點上看到將來;只有回頭看時蜕窿，才會發(fā)現(xiàn)它們之間的關(guān)系谋逻。所以，要相信這些點遲早會連接到一起桐经。你們必須信賴某些東西─直覺毁兆、歸宿、生命阴挣，還有業(yè)力气堕，等等。這樣做從來沒有讓我的希望落空過，而且還徹底改變了我的生活茎芭。