斯坦福大学英文演讲别在不断优秀中沦落平庸上.docx

1、斯坦福大学英文演讲别在不断优秀中沦落平庸上斯坦福大学英文演讲：别在不断优秀中沦落平庸（上）what are you going to do with that?教育为何?by william deresiewiczthe question my title poses, of course, is the one that is classically aimed at humanities majors. what practical value could there possibly be in studying literature or art or philosophy? so y

2、ou must be wondering why im bothering to raise it here, at stanford, this renowned citadel of science and technology. what doubt can there be that the world will offer you many opportunities to use your degree?我的题目提出的问题，固然，是一个传统地面向人文科学的专业所提出的问题：学习文学、艺术或哲学能有什么实效价值(practical value)?你确信疑惑，我什么缘故在以科技堡垒而闻

3、名的斯坦福提出那个问题呢?大学学位给人带来众多机遇，这还有什么需要质疑的吗?but thats not the question im asking. by do i dont mean a job, and by that i dont mean your major. we are more than our jobs, and education is more than a major. education is more than college, more even than the totality of your formal schooling, from kindergar

4、ten through graduate school. by what are you going to do, i mean, what kind of life are you going to lead? and by that, i mean everything in your training, formal and informal, that has brought you to be sitting here today, and everything youre going to be doing for the rest of the time that youre i

5、n school.但那不是我提出的问题。那个地址的“做(do)”并非是指工作，“那(that)”并非是指你的专业。咱们不单单是咱们的工作，教育的全数也不单单是一门主修专业。教育也不单单是上大学，乃至也不仅是从幼儿园到研究生院的正规学校教育。我说的“你要做什么”的意思是你要过什么样的生活。我所说的“那”指的是你取得的正规或非正规的任何训练，那些把你送到那个地址来的东西，你在学校的剩余时刻里将要做的任何事。we should start by talking about how you did, in fact, get here.咱们不妨先来讨论你是如何考入斯坦福的吧。you got here

6、by getting very good at a certain set of skills. your parents pushed you to excel from the time you were very young. they sent you to good schools, where the encouragement of your teachers and the example of your peers helped push you even harder. your natural aptitudes were nurtured so that, in add

7、ition to excelling in all your subjects, you developed a number of specific interests that you cultivated with particular vigor. you did extracurricular activities, went to afterschool programs, took private lessons. you spent summers doing advanced courses at a local college or attending skill-spec

8、ific camps and workshops. you worked hard, you paid attention, and you tried your very best. and so you got very good at math, or piano, or lacrosse, or, indeed, several things at once.你能进入这所大学说明你在某些技术上超级超卓。你的父母在你很小的时候就鼓舞你追求卓越。他们送你到勤学校，教师的鼓舞和同伴的表率鼓励你更尽力地学习。除在所有课程上都出类拔萃之外，你还注重修养的提高，充满热情地培育了一些特殊爱好。你用几

9、个暑假在本地大学里预习大学课程，或参加专门技术的夏令营或训练营。你学习刻苦、精力集中、全力以赴。因此，你在数学、钢琴、曲棍球等众多方面都很超卓。now theres nothing wrong with mastering skills, with wanting to do your best and to be the best. whats wrong is what the system leaves out: which is to say, everything else. i dont mean that by choosing to excel in math, say, yo

10、u are failing to develop your verbal abilities to their fullest extent, or that in addition to focusing on geology, you should also focus on political science, or that while youre learning the piano, you should also be working on the flute. it is the nature of specialization, after all, to be specia

11、lized. no, the problem with specialization is that it narrows your attention to the point where all you know about and all you want to know about, and, indeed, all you can know about, is your specialty.把握这些技术固然没有错，全力以赴成为最优秀的人也没有错。错误的地方在于那个体系遗漏的地址：即任何别的东西。我并非是说因为选择钻研数学，因此你的语文能力没取得充分进展;也不是说除集中精力学习地质学之

12、外，你还应该研究政治学;也不是说你在学习钢琴时还应该学吹笛子。毕竟，专业化的本质确实是要专业性。可是，专业化的问题在于它把你的注意力限制在一个点上，你所已知的和你想探知的东西都限界于此。真的，你能明白的一切就只是你的专业了。the problem with specialization is that it makes you into a specialist. it cuts you off, not only from everything else in the world, but also from everything else in yourself. and of cours

13、e, as college freshmen, your specialization is only just beginning. in the journey toward the success that you all hope to achieve, you have completed, by getting into stanford, only the first of many legs. three more years of college, three or four or five years of law school or medical school or a

14、program, then residencies or postdocs or years as a junior associate. in short, an ever-narrowing funnel of specialization. you go from being a political-science major to being a lawyer to being a corporate attorney to being a corporate attorney focusing on taxation issues in the consumer-products i

15、ndustry. you go from being a biochemistry major to being a doctor to being a cardiologist to being a cardiac surgeon who performs heart-valve replacements.专业化的问题是它让你成为专家，切断你与世界上其他任何东西的联系，不仅如此，还切断你与自身其他潜能的联系。固然，作为大一新生，你的专业才方才开始。在你走向所期望的成功之路的进程中，进入斯坦福是你踏上的众多阶梯中的一个。再读三年大学，三五年法学院或医学院或博士，然后再干假设干年住院实习生或博士

16、后或助理教授。总而言之，进入愈来愈狭小的专业化轨道。你可能从政治学专业的学生变成了律师或公司代理人，再变成专门研究消费品领域的税收问题的公司代理人。你从生物化学专业的学生变成了博士，再变故意脏病学家，再变成专门做心脏瓣膜移植的心脏病医生。again, theres nothing wrong with being those things. its just that, as you get deeper and deeper into the funnel, into the tunnel, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember who

17、you once were. you start to wonder what happened to that person who played piano and lacrosse and sat around with her friends having intense conversations about life and politics and all the things she was learning in her classes. the 19-year-old who could do so many things, and was interested in so

18、 many things, has become a 40-year-old who thinks about only one thing. thats why older people are so boring. hey, my dads a smart guy, but all he talks about is money and livers.再次，做这些事没有任何错。只只是，在你愈来愈深切地进入那个轨道后，再记得你最初的样子就益发困难了。你开始怀念那个曾经谈钢琴和打曲棍球的人，试探那个曾经和朋友烈火讨论人一辈子和政治和在课堂内容的人在做什么。那个活泼能干的19岁年轻人已经变成了只

19、想一件事的40岁中年人。难怪年长的人这么乏味无趣。“哎，我爸爸曾经是超级伶俐的人，但他此刻除谈论钱和肝脏外再无其他。”and theres another problem. maybe you never really wanted to be a cardiac surgeon in the first place. it just kind of happened. its easy, the way the system works, to simply go with the flow. i dont mean the work is easy, but the choices are

20、 easy. or rather, the choices sort of make themselves. you go to a place like stanford because thats what smart kids do. you go to medical school because its prestigious. you specialize in cardiology because its lucrative. you do the things that reap the rewards, that make your parents proud, and yo

21、ur teachers pleased, and your friends impressed. from the time you started high school and maybe even junior high, your whole goal was to get into the best college you could, and so now you naturally think about your life in terms of getting into whatevers next. getting into is validation; getting i

22、nto is victory. stanford, then johns hopkins medical school, then a residency at the university of san francisco, and so forth. or michigan law school, or goldman sachs, or mckinsey, or whatever. you take it one step at a time, and the next step always seems to be inevitable.还有另外一个问题。或许你从来没有想过当心脏病医生

23、，只是可巧发生了罢了。随大流最容易，这确实是体制的力量。我不是说那个工作容易，而是说做出这种选择很容易。或，这些全然就不是自己做出的选择。你来到斯坦福如此的名牌大学是因为伶俐的小孩都如此。你考入医学院是因为它的地位高，人人都羡慕。你选择心脏病学是因为当心脏病医生的待遇专门好。你做那些事能给你带来益处，让你的父母感到自豪，令你的教师感到快乐，也让朋友们羡慕。从你上高中开始，乃至初中开始，你的唯一目标确实是进入最好的大学，因此此刻你会很自然地从“进入下个时期”的角度看待人一辈子。“进入”确实是能力的证明，“进入”确实是成功。先进入斯坦福，然后是约翰霍普金斯医学院，再进入旧金山大学做实习医生等。或进

24、入密歇根法学院，或高盛集团或麦肯锡公司或别的什么地址。你迈出了这一步，下一步似乎就必然在等着你。or maybe you did always want to be a cardiac surgeon. you dreamed about it from the time you were 10 years old, even though you had no idea what it really meant, and you stayed on course for the entire time you were in school. you refused to be enticed

25、 from your path by that great experience you had in ap history, or that trip you took to costa rica the summer after your junior year in college, or that terrific feeling you got taking care of kids when you did your rotation in pediatrics during your fourth year in medical school.或许你确实想当心脏病学家。十岁时就妄

26、图成为医生，即便你全然不明白医生意味着什么。你在上学期间全身心都在朝着那个目标前进。你拒绝了上大学预修历史课时的美好体验的诱惑，也无视你在医学院第四年的儿科学连番值班时照看小孩的恐怖感受。but either way, either because you went with the flow or because you set your course very early, you wake up one day, maybe 20 years later, and you wonder what happened: how you got there, what it all means

27、. not what it means in the big picture, whatever that is, but what it means to you. why youre doing it, what its all for. it sounds like a clich, this waking up one day, but its called having a midlife crisis, and it happens to people all the time.不管是什么，要么因为你随大流，要么因为你早就选定了道路，20年后某天醒来，你或许会疑惑到底发生了什么：你怎么变成此刻那个样子，这一切意味着什么。不是它是什么，不在于它是不是是“大蓝图”而是它对你意味着什么。你什么缘故做它?到底为了什么?这听起来像老生常谈，但那个被称为中年危机的“有一天醒来”一直就发生在每一个人身上。