The days are long but the decades are short

《日子漫长，岁月匆匆》

作者：Sam Altman（山姆·奥特曼），2015年，30岁生日写下这36条人生感悟，是他博客传世名篇

开篇

英文原文
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.

中文翻译
上周我满30岁，一位朋友问我，过去十年有没有总结出值得分享的人生忠告。我本来不太愿意发布这类文字，因为这类清单常常显得空洞，但下面是我整理好的回答。

1

英文原文
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.

中文翻译
永远不要把家人、朋友、爱人放在优先级清单的末尾。与其拥有上百名泛泛之交，不如守住少数真心挚友。不要和老朋友断联。偶尔和人彻夜长谈直到日出，多组织聚会。

2

英文原文
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.

中文翻译
人生不是彩排，这就是唯一的一次人生，活出价值。时间极其有限，转瞬即逝。去做那些让你快乐、有成就感的事，毕竟很少有人在死后数百年还会被世人记住。不要去做让自己不快乐的事，很多时候是别人希望你这么做。不必耗费精力维系和自己不喜欢的人的关系，远离满身负能量的人。负能量危害极大。想要做的事情，不要给自己找借口拖延。

3

英文原文
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.

中文翻译
成功之道：选对要做的事（这点至关重要，却常常被忽略）、专注、相信自己，尤其是所有人都说你做不成的时候；主动结识能够帮助你的人，学会识别人才，并且努力奋斗。找到值得投入的事业并不容易，因为独立思考本身就很难。

4

英文原文
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.

中文翻译
关于工作：如果你对一份工作毫无热情，很难把它做到极致。如果你讨厌自己的工作，人生很难获得完整的幸福感与满足感。努力拼搏，会有不少人因为你的勤奋而心生不快；但不要拼命到忽略了生活的其余部分。无论你从事哪个行业，都立志做到世界顶尖。就算没能达成目标，最终的结果往往也不会差。找到属于你自己的高效工作方式，不要因为杂乱无章、选错工作时段白白浪费时间。不要惧怕职业冒险，尤其在人生早期。大部分人选职业十分随意；认真思考自己热爱什么、哪些领域未来会崛起，多和行业内的从业者交流。

5

英文原文
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.

中文翻译
关于金钱：不论金钱能不能买到幸福，它至少可以换来自由，这非常重要。缺钱会带来巨大压力。绝大多数情况下，赚到足以不用为房租发愁的钱，对你生活幸福感的提升，远胜过赚到可以买私人飞机的巨款。赚钱的乐趣往往大于花钱。不过，只要是为朋友、全新体验、节省时间、旅行，或是我认同的事业花钱，我从不后悔。

6

英文原文
Talk to people more. Read more long content and less tweets. Watch less TV. Spend less time on the Internet.

中文翻译
多与人面对面交流。多读长篇深度内容，少刷短推文。少看电视，减少上网时间。

7

英文原文
Don’t waste time. Most people waste most of their time, especially in business.

中文翻译
不要浪费时间。大多数人都浪费了大量光阴，商界之中尤为常见。

8

英文原文
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.)

中文翻译
不要任人摆布。保罗·格雷厄姆曾经对我说：“有的人会爆发出惊人的力量，但你很难提前预判是谁。”自信和傲慢有着天壤之别，显然，我们要追求的是前者。

9

英文原文
Have clear goals for yourself every day, every year, and every decade.

中文翻译
为自己设立清晰目标：每日目标、年度目标、十年目标。

10

英文原文
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.

中文翻译
规划固然重要，但绝佳机会出现时，一定要抓住。不必畏惧适度的冒险。努力奋斗带来的好处之一，就是好机会会向你靠近；机会来临时，能不能一把抓住，决定权依然在你手上。

11

英文原文
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.

中文翻译
主动去结交聪明、有趣、有远大抱负的人。为他们工作，也招募这样的人才。事实上，工作中最让人满足的一件事，就是和优秀的人建立深厚情谊。多和两类人相处：一类是行业顶尖高手，另一类是潜力巨大但暂时默默无闻的新星。你最终会变成和你相处最久的那群人的平均水平，这句话所言非虚。

12

英文原文
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.

中文翻译
尽量减少无关琐事带来的精神负担。这件事的重要性再怎么强调都不为过，可惜绝大多数人都做得很差。清除生活里的干扰项。建立一套行之有效的办法，不要让一堆你不想做的杂事堆积起来、消耗你的脑力，职场中尤其如此。

13

英文原文
Keep your personal burn rate low. This alone will give you a lot of opportunities in life.

中文翻译
压低个人日常开销。仅仅做到这一点，就可以为你换来人生中大量的机会。

14

英文原文
Summers are the best.

中文翻译
夏日时光，最为美好。

15

英文原文
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.

中文翻译
不必过度焦虑。生活里的事情，风险很少像看上去那么可怕。大部分人都极度厌恶风险，因此大多数人生建议都偏向保守。

16

英文原文
Ask for what you want.

中文翻译
大胆说出你想要的东西。

17

英文原文
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.

中文翻译
如果一件事不做将来一定会后悔，那就放手去做。悔恨是最痛苦的情绪。大多数人最后后悔的，往往是那些没有去做的事，而不是做过的事。犹豫不决的时候，那就去吻你心仪的人。

18

英文原文
Exercise. Eat well. Sleep. Get out into nature with some regularity.

中文翻译
坚持锻炼，好好吃饭，保证睡眠，多走进大自然。

19

英文原文
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.

中文翻译
主动去帮助别人。人生很少有事情能比助人更带来满足感。善待陌生人，就算没有人会看见，也要保持善意。