BezosBezos 在普林斯顿的毕业典礼演讲稿抵在普林斯顿的毕业典礼演讲稿抵 抗天赋的诱惑抗天赋的诱惑――Jeff――Jeff 杰夫·贝索斯(Jeff Bezos)在普林斯顿 XX 毕业典礼 的演讲——抵抗天赋的诱惑 XX Baccalaureate remarks, Princeton University 我知道你们高兴，激动月初，来到我们的校 园，同学们在欢呼激动之后，又深情地畅想华中大的未来; 华中科技大学的校友、你们的娜姐刚刚在法网夺冠，那是 我们共同的喜悦高兴雀跃之余，你们可没忘记想到学校 红土网球场的未来 “We are What We Choose“ Remarks by Jeff Bezos, as delivered to the Class of XX Baccalaureate May 30, XX 在我还是一个孩子的时候，我的夏天总是在德州祖父 母的农场中度过我帮忙修理风车，为牛接种疫苗，也做 其它家务每天下午，我们都会看肥皂剧，尤其是《我们 的岁月》 我的祖父母参加了一个房车俱乐部，那是一群驾 驶 Airstream 拖挂型房车的人们，他们结伴遍游美国和加 拿大。
每隔几个夏天，我也会加入他们我们把房车挂在 祖父的小汽车后面，然后加入 300 余名 Airstream 探险者 们组成的浩荡队伍 As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents on their ranch in Texas. I helped fix windmills, vaccinate cattle, and do other chores. We also watched soap operas every afternoon, especially “Days of our Lives.“ My grandparents belonged to a Caravan Club, a group of Airstream trailer owners who travel together around the and Canada. And every few summers, we'd join the caravan. We'd hitch up the Airstream trailer to my grandfather's car, and off we'd go, in a line with 300 other Airstream adventurers. 我爱我的祖父母，我崇敬他们，也真心期盼这些旅程。
那是一次我大概十岁时的旅行，我照例坐在后座的长椅上， 祖父开着车，祖母坐在他旁边，吸着烟我讨厌烟味 I loved and worshipped my grandparents and I really looked forward to these trips. On one particular trip, I was about 10 years old. I was rolling around in the big bench seat in the back of the car. My grandfather was driving. And my grandmother had the passenger seat. She smoked throughout these trips, and I hated the smell. 在那样的年纪，我会找任何借口做些估测或者小算术 我会计算油耗还有杂货花销等鸡毛蒜皮的小事我听过一 个有关吸烟的广告我记不得细节了，但是广告大意是说， 每吸一口香烟会减少几分钟的寿命，大概是两分钟无论 如何，我决定为祖母做个算术我估测了祖母每天要吸几 支香烟，每支香烟要吸几口等等，然后心满意足地得出了 一个合理的数字。
接着，我捅了捅坐在前面的祖母的头， 又拍了拍她的肩膀，然后骄傲地宣称， “每天吸两分钟的烟， 你就少活九年!” 在你们毕业之际，你们将作为战士踏上征程我想起 在漫长的征途中最伟大的战士奥德赛，在这场远征中，奥 德赛最大的挑战就是如何应对海洋散着的美妙歌声我相 信，从今天开始，甚至就在我们上学期间，每天都要面对 公共舆论上发出的各种各样美妙的声音这个美妙的声音， 让大家沉溺在旧世界之中，而丧失作为一个伟大战士的勇 气和本能那么，究竟谁能堵上你们的耳朵，让你们远离 这些美妙的、魔鬼的诱惑呢我相信，不是我们法学院的 老师，而是培育我们的祖国和人民，还有为我们生存提供 意义的历史传统和文化价值 At that age, I'd take any excuse to make estimates and do minor arithmetic. I'd calculate our gas mileage -- figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending. I'd been hearing an ad campaign about smoking. I can't remember the details, but basically the ad said, every puff of a cigarette takes some number of minutes off of your life: I think it might have been two minutes per puff. At any rate, I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated the number of cigarettes per days, estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on. When I was satisfied that I'd come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head into the front of the car, tapped my grandmother on the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed, “At two minutes per puff, you've taken nine years off your life!“ 我清晰地记得接下来发生了什么，而那是我意料之外 的。
我本期待着小聪明和算术技巧能赢得掌声，但那并没 有发生相反，我的祖母哭泣起来我的祖父之前一直在 默默开车，把车停在了路边，走下车来，打开了我的车门， 等着我跟他下车我惹麻烦了吗? I have a vivid memory of what happened, and it was not what I expected. I expected to be applauded for my cleverness and arithmetic skills. “Jeff, you're so smart. You had to have made some tricky estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year and do some division.“ That's not what happened. Instead, my grandmother burst into tears. I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do. While my grandmother sat crying, my grandfather, who had been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow. Was I in trouble? 我的祖父是一个智慧而安静的人。
他从来没有对我说 过严厉的话，难道这会是第一次?还是他会让我回到车上跟 祖母道歉?我以前从未遇到过这种状况，因而也无从知晓会 有什么后果发生我们在房车旁停下来祖父注视着我， 沉默片刻，然后轻轻地、平静地说：“杰夫，有一天你会 明白，善良比聪明更难 ” My grandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man. He had never said a harsh word to me, and maybe this was to be the first time? Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and apologize to my grandmother. I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and no way to gauge what the consequences might be. We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfather looked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said, “Jeff, one day you'll understand that it's harder to be kind than clever.“ 今天我想对你们说的是，天赋和选择不同。
聪明是一 种天赋，而善良是一种选择天赋得来很容易——毕竟它 们与生俱来而选择则颇为不易如果一不小心，你可能 被天赋所诱惑，这可能会损害到你做出的选择 What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy -- they're given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you're not careful, and if you do, it'll probably be to the detriment of your choices. 在座各位都拥有许多天赋我确信你们的天赋之一就 是拥有精明能干的头脑之所以如此确信，是因为入学竞 争十分激烈，如果你们不能表现出聪明智慧，便没有资格 进入这所学校 This is a group with many gifts. I'm sure one of your gifts is the gift of a smart and capable brain. I'm confident that's the case because admission is competitive and if there weren't some signs that you're clever, the dean of admission wouldn't have let you in. 你们的聪明才智必定会派上用场，因为你们将在一片 充满奇迹的土地上行进。
我们人类，尽管跬步前行，却终 将令自己大吃一惊我们能够想方设法制造清洁能源，也。