乔布斯斯坦福演讲 2

Part 2 Connecting the Dots

Steve Jobs 把点串起来

翻译

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friend's rooms.

但那些日子一点也不浪漫。我没有了宿舍,只能睡在朋友房间的地板上。

I returned coke bottles for the $0.05 deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.

我用5美分卖掉的可乐瓶子买吃的,每周星期天的晚上我需要步行七英里的路程,到Hare Krishna庙,只为吃上一周唯一一顿好一点到饭。

I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.

我喜欢这样。我凭着好奇心和直觉所做的到事情,后来都被证明是无价的。

Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered parhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed.

我给你们举一个例子吧:那个时候里德大学的书法课大概是全国最好的。学校里每张海报和每个抽屉标签的字都漂亮/

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.

因为我退学了,不用正常上课,我决定去参加书法课程,好好学学写字。

I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great.

我学会了带衬线和不带衬线的字体,根据不同的字母组合调整间距以及怎样把版式调的漂亮。

It was beautiful, historical, artiscally subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

这门课太棒了,是一种科学永远不能捕捉到的既美丽又富有历史价值的精妙艺术。

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.

当时我并不指望书法能有什么实际应用价值,但十年时候,当我们在设计第一台Macintosh电脑时,所学的一切都浮现在我眼前。我把这些东西都设计进了Mac,那是第一台拥有这么漂亮文字版式的电脑。

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, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.

如果当时我没有参加这门课的话,Mac就不会又这么多丰富的字体以及合理的字体间距。要不是Windows照搬了Mac,现在的个人电脑就不会有这么美妙的字体了。

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.

如果我不退学,就不会选择这门书法课,个人电脑就不会有这么完美的字体版式。

Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later.

当我在上学的时候我还不能把这些连起来,但十年之后回顾这一切但时候,一切都豁然开朗了。

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards.

再说一次,你在向前走的途中不能将这些片段连接起来,只能在你回顾的时候才能将这些串联起来。

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.

所以你要相信这些片段会在你将来的某一天串联起来。你必须相信自己的直觉,命运,生活,因缘。

Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path and that will make all the difference.

因为相信这些片段会连成前行的道路,给你跟随内心的自信,带领你走出平凡,变得与众不同。

生词统计

单词音标翻译
depositdɪ'pɑzɪtn. 存款、押金、定金、沉淀物; v. 使沉淀、存放
stumble'stʌmbln. 绊倒、蹒跚而行; v. 踌躇、失足、犯错、使...困惑、使...绊倒
intuitionɪntu'ɪʃənn. 直觉、直觉力
calligraphykə'lɪɡrəfin. 书法、笔迹
instructɪn'strʌktv. 指导、通知、命令、教授
posterpostɚn. 海报、广告、招贴
serifsɛrɪfn. 衬线
combinationkɑmbɪ'neʃənn. 结合、组合、联合
typographytaɪ'pɑgrəfin. 排版、印刷格式
subtlesʌtladj. 微妙的、精细的、敏感的
practical'præktɪkladj. 实际的、实用性的
proportionallyprəu'pɔ:ʃənəliadv. 成比例的、相称的、适当的
gutɡʌtn. 内脏、剧情、胆量、勇气、直觉; v. 取出内脏; adj. 简单的、本质的、根本的
karma'kɑrmən. 因果报应、因缘

原文阅读

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friend's rooms.

I returned coke bottles for the $0.05 deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven 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: 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 calsses, 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, artiscally subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

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, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that 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 10 years later.

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 the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path and that will make all the difference.