1991-08-27 Steve Jobs.Staying Hungry
“Character is built not in good times, but in bad times.”
"性格不是在顺境中形成的，而是在逆境中形成的"。
When Steve welcomed the incoming class of freshmen at his alma mater, Reed College, on August 27, 1991, NeXT computers were not selling well and Pixar had just had a round of layoffs.
1991 年 8 月 27 日，当史蒂夫在母校里德学院迎接新生时，NeXT 电脑的销售情况并不理想，皮克斯也刚刚进行了一轮裁员。
Thank you very much for this. It means a lot to me. I’m a peculiar Reed alumnus, as many of you know. I never graduated from Reed—although that doesn’t make me that unusual, I suppose.
非常感谢。这对我意义重大。你们很多人都知道，我是一个奇特的里德校友。我从未从里德大学毕业--不过我想，这并不说明我有多特别。
But maybe more unusual: I ran out of money after one semester here at Reed, so I dropped out. But then I dropped in for another year and a half. So, I was actually here by choice, which is somewhat more unusual. And I had some experiences here—that I’m sure many of you will have as freshmen and throughout your years here—that have stayed with me my whole life. I was thinking of some of them to recount to you.
但也许更不寻常的是：我在里德大学读了一个学期就没钱了，所以我退学了。但后来我又读了一年半。所以，我其实是自愿来这里的，这有点不寻常。我在这里有一些经历--我相信你们中的很多人在大一和在校期间都会有--这些经历伴随了我的一生。我在想，要不要向你们讲述其中的一些经历。
Remember that I’m much older than you now. I’ve always thought that people’s spark of self-consciousness turns on at about fifteen or sixteen. So if we normalize age to fifteen or sixteen, then most of you are two or three or four years old here, as freshmen. I’m about twenty. So that maybe puts in perspective what it’s like to return to Reed after so many years. But a few things stick in my mind that I wanted to pass on that maybe could be of some value. The first was that, as you will be shortly, I was forced to go to humanities lectures—it seemed like every day. I studied Shakespeare with Professor Svitavsky. And at the time, I thought these were meaningless and even somewhat cruel endeavors to be put through. I can assure you that as the patina of time takes its toll, I thank God that I had these experiences here. It has helped me in everything I’ve ever done, although I wouldn’t have ever guessed it at the time.
记住，我现在比你大得多。我一直认为，人的自我意识在十五六岁时就会萌发。所以，如果我们把年龄正常化为十五六岁，那么你们中的大多数人都是两三岁或三四岁的新生。我大约二十岁。所以，这也许能让你们明白时隔多年重返里德的感受。但有几件事让我记忆犹新，我想告诉大家，也许会有一些价值。第一件事是，你们很快就会知道，我被迫去听人文讲座--似乎每天都是如此。我跟着斯维塔夫斯基教授学习莎士比亚。当时，我觉得这些毫无意义，甚至有些残酷。我可以向你们保证，随着时间的流逝，我感谢上帝让我在这里有了这些经历。它对我所做的一切都有帮助，尽管当时我根本想不到这一点。
The second experience that I remember from Reed is being hungry. All the time. The cafeteria here taught me quickly to be a vegetarian. I didn’t have so much money, so I would gather up Coke bottles and take them up to the store to find out how to eat. I discovered the cheapest way to eat was Roman Meal. Have you ever heard of this? It’s cereal. It was invented by a Harvard professor who was a history professor who one day wondered what the Roman legion took with them to eat as they conquered and pillaged these villages, and he found out through his research that it’s Roman Meal. And you can buy it at the local store, and it’s the cheapest way to live. So I lived for many months on Roman Meal.
里德给我留下的第二个记忆是饥饿。一直都饿。这里的食堂让我很快学会了吃素。我没有那么多钱，所以我会把可乐瓶子收集起来，拿到商店里去找怎么吃。我发现最便宜的吃法是罗马餐。你听说过吗？就是麦片它是由哈佛大学的一位历史教授发明的，他有一天想知道罗马军团在征服和掠夺这些村庄时，都带些什么吃的，他通过研究发现这就是罗马餐，你可以在当地商店买到，这是最便宜的生活方式。所以我靠罗马餐生活了好几个月。
But also, several of us, after not eating for a few days, would hitchhike across town to the Hare Krishna temple on Sundays, where they would feed all comers. Through practice, we discovered just the right moment to arrive—after their particular religious practices and right before the food. And not having eaten for days, we would eat a lot, and on several occasions stay over, because we were not able to move.
但还有，我们中的一些人，在几天没吃东西后，会搭便车穿过城镇，到星期天的哈雷克里希纳寺庙，他们会喂养所有人。通过实践，我们发现正好到达的时刻——在他们特别的宗教活动之后和食物之前。由于几天没吃东西，我们会吃很多，有几次留宿，因为我们动不了。
The following morning, they would wake us up at four o’clock in the morning because it was their time to go gather flowers for their temple to honor Krishna. So they would take us with them, predawn, out into the neighborhood—where they would proceed to steal flowers from the neighbors. And the neighbors that lived close to the Hare Krishna temple soon were wise to their pillage and would get up early in the morning and guard their flower beds. And so they would have to go in an ever-wider circumference around their temple. In spending a little time with these people, I noticed some of their other behaviors. They used to sell incense to the local department stores and then go steal it back, so that the department stores would buy more, and they would have a thriving business. And their ethics told them that this was fine, that anything in the service of Krishna was fine. In interacting with them, I think I learned more about situational ethics than I ever did on campus.
第二天早上，他们会在凌晨四点钟叫醒我们，因为那是他们去为克里希纳神庙采花的时间。所以他们会带我们，在黎明前，走出社区——在那里他们会继续从邻居那里偷花。住在哈雷克里希纳寺庙附近的邻居很快就知道他们的掠夺行为，会早早起床守护他们的花坛。所以他们必须在他们的寺庙周围越来越大的圆周内去。在与这些人共度一段时间后，我注意到他们的其他一些行为。他们过去常常向当地百货商店卖香，然后回去偷回来，这样百货商店就会买更多，他们就会有生意兴隆。他们的道德告诉他们这很好，任何为克里希纳服务的事情都是好的。在与他们互动中，我想我比在校园里学到的更多关于情境伦理的东西。
The last experience I wanted to recount for you: there is a man—I think he’s here today—named Jack Dudman, who used to be the dean of the school. He was one of the heroes of my life while I was here, because Jack Dudman looked the other way when I was staying on campus without paying. He looked the other way when I was taking classes without being a formal student and paying the tuition. And oftentimes, when I was at the end of my rope, Jack would go for a walk with me, and I would discover a twenty-dollar bill in my tattered coat pocket after that walk, with no mention of it from Jack before, during, or after.
我想向你们讲述的最后一个经历是：有一个人--我想他今天也在这里--名叫杰克-杜德曼，他曾经是这所学校的院长。他是我在校期间的人生英雄之一，因为当我不付钱就住在校园里时，杰克-杜德曼睁一只眼闭一只眼。当我在没有成为正式学生并支付学费的情况下上课时，他也会睁一只眼闭一只眼。很多时候，当我走投无路的时候，杰克会陪我出去散步，散步结束后，我会在破旧的大衣口袋里发现一张 20 美元的钞票，无论在散步前、散步中还是散步后，杰克都只字未提。
I learned more about generosity from Jack Dudman and the people here at this school than I learned anywhere else in my life. So I wanted to thank this community, because the things I learned here stayed with me. Character is built not in good times, but in bad times; not in a time of plenty, but in a time of adversity—and this school seems to manage to nurture that spirit of adversity, and I think does build some character. So I thank you for teaching me how to be hungry and how to keep that with me my whole life.
我从杰克-杜德曼和这所学校的人身上学到的关于慷慨的知识，比我一生中在其他任何地方学到的都要多。因此，我要感谢这个社区，因为我在这里学到的东西一直伴随着我。不是在顺境中，而是在逆境中；不是在富足的时候，而是在逆境中塑造品格--这所学校似乎能够培养这种逆境精神，我认为它确实塑造了一些品格。因此，我感谢你们教会我如何忍饥挨饿，如何将这种精神伴随我的一生。
Thank you very much.
非常感谢。
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