五一節，一位朋友微信了一份YC掌門人 Sam Altman 寫在30歲生日的36條人生經驗, 讀后頗有受益，Y Combinator 是一個支持創投公司的天使基金，跟李開復在北京辦的企業孵化器類似。這讓山姆年紀輕輕就成了百萬富翁。這篇文章以口語化英文書寫，我嘗試著把它意譯成中文與大家分享。希望我的翻譯與作者的原意不要相去太遠。

The days are long but the decades are short

題目：一萬年太久，只爭朝夕

作者：山姆·奧特曼 ?譯者: 方志明

I turned 30 last week and a friend asked me if I'd figured out any life advice in the past decade worth passing on. I'm somewhat hesitant to publish this because I think these lists usually seem hollow, but here is a cleaned up version of my answer:

上星期，我剛過而立之年的生日，一位朋友問我過去十年里是否有值得分享的生活感悟與體會， 我有點猶豫不決是否要發表出來，因為此類的話題常常聽起來會很容易覺得空洞乏味，但下面是我整理之后的點滴：

1) Never put your family, friends, or significant other low on your priority list. Prefer a handful of truly close friends to a hundred acquaintances. Don’t lose touch with old friends. Occasionally stay up until the sun rises talking to people. Have parties.

1）把家人，朋友，和對你重要的人放在你心里的首要位置。與其有一百個熟人，不如有十來個真正親密的朋友。常與朋友保持聯絡，偶爾與你朋友徹夜長談。多開派對。

2) Life is not a dress rehearsal—this is probably it. Make it count. Time is extremely limited and goes by fast. Do what makes you happy and fulfilled—few people get remembered hundreds of years after they die anyway. Don’t do stuff that doesn’t make you happy (this happens most often when other people want you to do something). Don’t spend time trying to maintain relationships with people you don’t like, and cut negative people out of your life. Negativity is really bad. Don’t let yourself make excuses for not doing the things you want to do.

2）生活不是彩排，但也許就是，珍惜當下。光陰短暫，猶過隙之駒。做讓你感到快樂而有成就感的事情 - 百年之后能流芳百世的人寥寥無幾。不要浪費時間去做你不樂意的事，盡管有人會經常使喚你去做這做那。不要浪費時間去試圖與你不喜歡的人維持關系，遠離消極的人，消極是極壞的習慣。不要為自己想做而未去做的事找借口。

3) How to succeed: pick the right thing to do (this is critical and usually ignored), focus, believe in yourself (especially when others tell you it’s not going to work), develop personal connections with people that will help you, learn to identify talentedpeople, and work hard. It’s hard to identify what to work on because original thought is hard.

3）如何成功：挑正確的事去做（這點至關重要卻常常被忽視），專注，相信自已（尤其是在別人告訴你這行不通時），和能夠幫助你的人建立良好的私人關系，學會辯識有才干的人，并勤奮地工作。取得初創的靈感是最困難的事，所以事業初期往往容易陷入不知從何入手的處境。

4) On work: it’s difficult to do a great job on work you don’t care about. And it’s hard to be totally happy/fulfilled in life if you don’t like what you do for your work. Work veryhard—a surprising number of people will be offended that you choose to work hard—but not so hard that the rest of your life passes you by. Aim to be the best in the world at whatever you do professionally. Even if you miss, you’ll probably end up in a pretty good place. Figure out your own productivity system—don’t waste time being unorganized, working at suboptimal times, etc. Don’t be afraid to take some career risks, especially early on. Most people pick their career fairly randomly—really think hard about what you like, what fields are going to be successful, and try to talk to people in those fields.

4) 工作：如果你對所做的工作毫無興趣，那么你一定不會取得成功，如果你對你所做的工作沒有熱情，你的生活就一定不會快樂與充實。拼命地工作 - 由于你選擇刻苦地工作，也許會招致周圍許多人的不快，但是如果你不勤奮努力，你余生的時光就會輕易地從你身邊溜走。無論你從事何種職業，都要立志成為世界上同行中的最出色的一個，既使你沒有成為世界第一，你也也會成為行業里的佼佼者。設計出適合自已的高效率工作方法 - 比如不要因為貧于計劃而浪費時間，在非最佳時間段里工作，等等。在事業初期，不要害怕承受適當的職業風險。大部分人十分偶然地挑選了自己的職業生涯 - 捫心自問你真正喜愛什么？你可能在什么樣的行業內會取得成功？制造機會與業內的專家交流。

5) On money: Whether or not money can buy happiness, it can buy freedom, and that’s a big deal. Also, lack of money is very stressful. In almost all ways, having enough money so that you don’t stress about paying rent does more to change your wellbeing than having enough money to buy your own jet. Making money is often more fun than spending it, though I personally have never regretted money I’ve spent on friends, new experiences, saving time, travel, and causes I believe in.

5）金錢：暫且不論金錢是否可以買到幸福，但它能買到自由，這點很關健。在金錢上捉肘見?會給你帶來沉重的精神負擔。總而言之，對于你的身心健康來說，有足夠的錢來輕松地支付房租比你拿充足的錢去購買私人噴射飛機更實惠。掙錢常常比花錢更有樂趣，然而我個人從未后悔把錢花在朋友身上，體驗新的 經歷，節省時間，旅行，和支助我相信的事業。

6) Talk to people more. Read more long content and less tweets. Watch less TV. Spend less time on the Internet.

6) 多與人交流，閱讀更長的文章，減少推特。少看電視，少浪費時間在互聯網上。

7) Don’t waste time. Most people waste most of their time, especially in business.

7）不要浪費時間，多數人在工作中浪費了他們自己大部分的時間。

8) Don’t let yourself get pushed around. As Paul Graham once said to me, “People can become formidable, but it’s hard to predict who”. (There is a big difference between confident and arrogant. Aim for the former, obviously.)

8）不要讓自己任人擺布。保羅格雷厄姆曾經告訴我“有些人會令人生畏，但你很難預測何時何地會遇見誰？”（自信與自負有很大的區別，顯然應做前者）。

9) Have clear goals for yourself every day, every year, and every decade.

9）每天，每年，每十年都給自己訂立明確的的目標。

10) However, as valuable as planning is, if a great opportunity comes along you should take it. Don’t be afraid to do something slightly reckless. One of the benefits of working hard is that good opportunities will come along, but it’s still up to you to jump on them when they do.

10）然而，計劃雖然要遵循，如果難得的機遇降臨了，你應該抓住。不要害怕偶爾做一些不計后果斬斷后路的事。刻苦工作的一個好處是良機也會隨之而來，當機會最終出現時，還是要取決你去毫不猶豫地把握它。

11) Go out of your way to be around smart, interesting, ambitious people. Work for them and hire them (in fact, one of the most satisfying parts of work is forging deep relationships with really good people). Try to spend time with people who are either among the best in the world at what they do or extremely promising but totally unknown. It really is true that you become an average of the people you spend the most time with.

11）多出去走走，讓自己簇擁在聰明，有趣，又有理想抱負的人中間。為他們工作或雇傭他們。（事實上，工作里最令人滿意的是在工作過程中與優秀的人建立深厚的友誼）。與世界最優秀的專家，或與不見經傳但極具潛力的人交往。所謂近朱者赤，近墨者黑。

12) Minimize your own cognitive load from distracting things that don’t really matter. It’s hard to overstate how important this is, and how bad most people are at it. Get rid of distractions in your life. Develop very strong ways to avoid letting crap you don’t like doing pile up and take your mental cycles, especially in your work life.

12）避免被無關緊要的事分心而增加你的認知負荷。 對于這點的重要性，與多數人在這方面都做的十分糟糕事實再夸大也不為過。把你生活里分心的事通通拋開。在工作中，重要是去尋找一個有效的的方法來避免讓你討厭和堆積的瑣碎之事來消耗你大腦的精力。

13) Keep your personal burn rate low. This alone will give you a lot of opportunities in life.

13）降低個人的消耗速度，單單這點就會給你人生漫長道路中帶來許多的機遇，留得青山，在不怕沒柴燒。

14) Summers are the best.

14）夏天是最怡人的季節。

15) Don’t worry so much. Things in life are rarely as risky as they seem. Most people are too risk-averse, and so most advice is biased too much towards conservative paths.

15）不用杞人憂天，生活中的事鮮有從表面上看起來那么充滿風險。多數人不愿承擔風險，許多的建議都是過多地傾向于讓人走保守的人生道路。

16) Ask for what you want.

16） 捫心自問自己想成為怎樣的人。

17) If you think you’re going to regret not doing something, you should probably do it. Regret is the worst, and most people regret far more things they didn’t do than things they did do. When in doubt, kiss the boy/girl.

17）如果你擔心將來你會因為一件該做而未付諸行動的事而感到余憾，那么你就應該去做。世上沒有后悔藥，多數人感到終生遺憾的往往不是自己做過的事，而是想做而沒去做的事。如果你不確定，那么親親你的男朋友或女朋友。

18) Exercise. Eat well. Sleep. Get out into nature with some regularity.

18）多運動。健康飲食。充裕睡眠。定期到戶外接觸大自然。

19) Go out of your way to help people. Few things in life are as satisfying. Be nice to strangers. Be nice even when it doesn’t matter.

19）伸出手去幫助他人，生命中很少有比助人更讓人愉悅的事。友好地對待陌生人，既便他們與你毫無關系，也應友善待之。

20) Youth is a really great thing. Don’t waste it. In fact, in your 20s, I think it’s ok to take a “Give me financial discipline, but not just yet” attitude. All the money in the world will never get back time that passed you by.

20）年青就是財富，不要浪費青春。事實上，在你二十多歲時，你可能會有“ 教我遵守理財理念，但我心里還沒有完全準備好去執行”的態度。千金撒盡還復來，但金錢買不回來流逝的光陰。

21) Tell your parents you love them more often. Go home and visit as often as you can.

21）經常告訴你父母你愛他們。常常回家看看。

22) This too shall pass.

22）一切都會過去的。

23) Learn voraciously.

23） ?如饑似渴地學習新知識。

24) Do new things often. This seems to be really important. Not only does doing new things seem to slow down the perception of time, increase happiness, and keep life interesting, but it seems to prevent people from calcifying in the ways that they think. Aim to do something big, new, and risky every year in your personal and professional life.

24）經常嘗試新事物，這十分重要。嘗試新事物不會僅會放慢時間感，增添快樂，讓生活充滿情趣，對防止思維僵化也很有幫助。在你人生和職業生涯各自領域里，爭取每年都去嘗試做一些目標高遠，新鮮，富有風險與挑戰的事情。

25) Remember how intensely you loved your boyfriend/girlfriend when you were a teenager? Love him/her that intensely now. Remember how excited and happy you got about stuff as a kid? Get that excited and happy now.

25）還記得你在少年時對你男朋友/女朋友熾熱的愛情嗎？而今繼續不悔初衷地去愛他/她吧。還記得兒時得到的感情是那地令人激動而快樂嗎？今天請繼續保持你的童心未泯的激情與快樂吧。

26) Don’t screw people and don’t burn bridges. Pick your battles carefully.

26）不要欺騙他人，過河拆橋。三思而后行，勿隨意與人結怨。

27) Forgive people.

27） 寬恕他人。

28) Don’t chase status. Status without substance doesn’t work for long and is unfulfilling.

28）不要追逐地位，沒有真才實學的地位不可能持久與充實。

29) Most things are ok in moderation. Almost nothing is ok in extreme amounts.

29）做事要適當，物極必反。

30) Existential angst is part of life. It is particularly noticeable around major life events or just after major career milestones. It seems to particularly affect smart, ambitious people. I think one of the reasons some people work so hard is so they don’t have to spend too much time thinking about this. Nothing is wrong with you for feeling this way; you are not alone.

30）生存焦慮是生命的一部分。在經歷人生旅程中的重大事件時，和在職業的轉折之時尤其容易被焦慮所困擾，這個癥狀相對那些聰明，有雄心的人，影響更加明顯。我認為一些人一心撲在工作上是以工作為借口，而避免為這些事去勞心費神。你有這樣感覺是完全正常的，毫不例外。

31) Be grateful and keep problems in perspective. Don’t complain too much. Don’t hate other people’s success (but remember that some people will hate your success, and you have to learn to ignore it).

31）多感恩,客觀地看待問題。不要老是抱怨。不要妒忌別人的成功（但是要記住有些人會嫉妒你的成就，學會不去理睬它就是）。

32) Be a doer, not a talker.

32）做一個實干家，而非空談者。

33) Given enough time, it is possible to adjust to almost anything, good or bad. Humans are remarkable at this.

33）只要有足夠的時間，無論是好還是壞，一切都會適應。人類有極強的適應能力。

34) Think for a few seconds before you act. ?Think for a few minutes if you’re angry.

34）三思而后行。在你發火時，冷靜地多想幾分鐘。

35) Don’t judge other people too quickly. You never know their whole story and why they did or didn’t do something. Be empathetic.

35）不要輕易地評判他人。你也許永遠不會知道他們的全部故事，不會了解他們為什么那樣做的理由。 多善解人意。

36) The days are long but the decades are short.

36）日子看似漫長,但幾十年光陰眨眼即逝。