2015-04-28 Sam Altman.The days are long but the decades are short

2015-04-28 Sam Altman.The days are long but the decades are short

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:

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)永远不要将家人、朋友或重要的另一半排在你的优先级列表低处。与一百个泛泛之交相比,更倾向于拥有一小撮真正亲密的朋友。不要失去联系已久的老朋友。偶尔熬夜与人谈天说地直到日出。举办聚会。

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)人生不是一次彩排,这或许就是人生本身。要珍惜时间,因为时间极为有限,而且流逝得很快。做让你感到快乐和满足的事情,毕竟只有少数人能够在死后几百年被人们记住。不要做让你不开心的事情(这种情况通常发生在别人想让你做某件事情的时候)。不要浪费时间与你不喜欢的人维持关系,把消极的人从你的生活中剔除。消极情绪是非常不好的。不要找借口来解释你没有做你想做的事情。

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 talented people, and work hard.  It’s hard to identify what to work on because original thought is hard.

3)如何成功:选择正确的事情做(这非常关键,但通常被忽视),专注,相信自己(尤其是当别人告诉你这行不通时),与那些能帮助你的人建立个人联系,学会识别有才华的人,并努力工作。很难确定要做什么,因为原创思维是很困难的。

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 very hard—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)关于工作:如果你对工作没有兴趣,很难做好。如果你不喜欢自己的工作,很难在生活中感到完全的幸福和满足。要非常努力工作——令人惊讶的是,很多人会对你选择努力工作感到冒犯——但不要让自己的余生白白流逝。在你职业领域中,目标是成为世界上最优秀的人。即使你没有做到,你可能也会在一个相当不错的位置。找出适合自己的工作效率体系,不要浪费时间,不要在不合适的时间工作等。不要害怕在职业生涯早期冒一些险。大多数人选择职业的时候都很随意——真正认真思考自己喜欢什么,哪些领域将会成功,并尝试与那些领域的人交流。

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)关于金钱:无论金钱是否能买到幸福,它能够买到自由,这是一件大事。此外,缺乏金钱会带来非常大的压力。几乎在所有方面,有足够的金钱以至于你不必为支付房租而感到压力,对于改变你的幸福感而言,比有足够的钱购买自己的私人飞机更重要。赚钱通常比花钱更有趣,但是我个人从来没有后悔过在朋友、新体验、节省时间、旅行和我所信仰的事业上花费的钱。

6) Talk to people more.  Read more long content and less tweets.  Watch less TV.  Spend less time on the Internet.
6)多与人交流。多阅读长篇内容,少看推特。少看电视。少在互联网上花费时间。

7) Don’t waste time.  Most people waste most of their time, especially in business.
7)不要浪费时间。大多数人浪费了他们的大部分时间,特别是在商业领域。

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)不要让自己被人推来推去。正如保罗·格雷厄姆(Paul Graham)曾对我说的:“人们可能变得强大,但很难预测是谁。”(自信和傲慢之间存在很大的区别。显然应该追求前者。)

9) Have clear goals for yourself every day, every year, and every decade. 
9)每天、每年和每十年都要为自己设立明确的目标。

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,尽管规划非常有价值,但如果有一个很好的机会出现,你应该抓住它。不要害怕做些稍微有些冒险的事情。努力工作的好处之一是会出现好的机会,但当机会出现时,抓住它仍然取决于你。

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)努力接触聪明、有趣和有雄心壮志的人。为他们工作并雇用他们(事实上,工作中最令人满意的部分之一就是与真正优秀的人建立深厚的关系)。尽量花时间与那些在他们所做的事情中处于世界顶尖或极具潜力但完全未知的人交往。确实是真的,你成为最多时间交往的人的平均值。

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)尽量减少分散注意力的事情,避免不重要的事情占用你的认知负荷。这个问题的重要性难以言表,而且大多数人在这方面都做得很糟糕。消除生活中的干扰因素。制定非常强大的方法,避免让你不喜欢的事情堆积起来占用你的精力,特别是在工作中。

13) Keep your personal burn rate low.  This alone will give you a lot of opportunities in life.
13)保持个人消费率低。这一点单独就会给你很多人生机会。

14) Summers are the best.
14)夏天是最棒的。

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)不要太过担心。生活中的事情很少像看起来那么冒险。大多数人都过于回避风险,因此大多数建议在过于偏向保守的道路上。

16) Ask for what you want.  
16)要主动索要自己想要的东西。

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)如果你认为不做某件事会后悔,你很可能应该去做。后悔是最糟糕的,大多数人后悔的事情是他们没有做过的事情。如果有疑虑,就亲吻那个男孩/女孩。

18) Exercise.  Eat well.  Sleep.  Get out into nature with some regularity.
18)锻炼身体,饮食健康,保证充足睡眠,定期去自然界走走。

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)努力帮助他人。生活中很少有事情比这更令人满意。善待陌生人。即使在无关紧要的情况下,也要表现得友好。

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)青春是非常珍贵的。不要浪费它。实际上,在你的二十多岁时,我认为采取“给我财务纪律,但现在不行”的态度是可以的。世界上所有的金钱都无法找回你错过的时间。

21) Tell your parents you love them more often.  Go home and visit as often as you can.
21)多告诉你的父母你爱他们。尽可能经常回家拜访他们。

22) This too shall pass.

22)这也会过去。

23) Learn voraciously. 
23)饥渴地学习。

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)经常尝试新事物。这似乎非常重要。尝试新事物不仅可以减缓时间的感知,增加幸福感,让生活保持有趣,而且似乎可以防止人们在思维方式上变得僵化。在个人和职业生活中,每年都要尝试一些重大、新颖和冒险的事情。

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)还记得你在青少年时期深深地爱着你的男友/女友吗?现在也要像那样深深地爱他/她。还记得小时候你对一些事情感到兴奋和快乐吗?现在也要保持那种兴奋和快乐。

26) Don’t screw people and don’t burn bridges.  Pick your battles carefully.
26)不要欺骗别人,不要断掉人际关系。仔细选择你要争取的事情。

27) Forgive people. 
27)宽恕他人。

28) Don’t chase status.  Status without substance doesn’t work for long and is unfulfilling.
28)不要追求地位。没有实质内容的地位不会持续很久,并且无法令人满足。

29) Most things are ok in moderation.  Almost nothing is ok in extreme amounts.
29)适度地做大多数事情都是可以的。几乎没有什么事情在极端情况下是可以接受的。

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)存在主义的焦虑是生命的一部分。它特别在重大生活事件或重大职业里程碑之后显著。它似乎特别影响聪明、有雄心壮志的人。我认为有些人努力工作的原因之一就是不想花太多时间去思考这个问题。感到这样并没有错,你并不孤单。

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)心存感激,正确看待问题。不要抱怨太多。不要嫉妒他人的成功(但要记住,有些人会嫉妒你的成功,你必须学会忽略它)。

32) Be a doer, not a talker.
32)做实际行动者,而非空谈者。

33) Given enough time, it is possible to adjust to almost anything, good or bad.  Humans are remarkable at this.
33)给予足够的时间,人们可以适应几乎任何事情,无论是好的还是坏的。人类在这方面非常了不起。

34) Think for a few seconds before you act.  Think for a few minutes if you’re angry.
34)行动前多花几秒钟思考。如果你生气了,就多想几分钟。

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)不要过快地评判他人。你从未知道他们的整个故事,以及他们为什么这样做或不这样做。要具备同理心。

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

36)日子很长,但几十年很快就过去了。

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