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恭喜2014年畢業生,梅琳達和我很高興來到這裡,能受邀在史丹佛畢業典禮演講對任何人來說都是令人激動的事,對我們來說更是如此。史丹佛正迅速成為我們家人最喜愛的一所大學,長久以來它一直是微軟和我們基金會偏愛的一所大學,我們的宗旨是招募最聰明、最有創意的人解決最重要的問題,事實上這些成員多半來自史丹佛。目前基金會與史丹佛合作的研究計畫超過30個,當我們想深入瞭解免疫系統、幫助治療最棘手的疾病時,我們與史丹佛合作;當我們想瞭解美國高等教育變化趨勢、幫助更多低收入學生獲得大學學位時,我們與史丹佛合作。史丹佛是天才誕生地,擁有靈活、開放與渴望創新的思維,這是激勵人們探索未來並樂在其中的地方。有些人稱你們為書呆子,你們聲稱這是令你們自豪的稱謂,我們也一樣,我平常用的眼鏡跟這個差不多。在這個校園中發生許多令人驚嘆的事,但如果要梅琳達和我用一個詞彙總結我們熱愛史丹佛的原因,那就是「樂觀」。這裡存在充滿感染力的氛圍,使我們相信創新能解決所有問題,正是這種信念使我在1975年離開位於波士頓郊區的大學,從此一去不返。我相信電腦與軟體的奇蹟能使世界各地的人獲得力量,使世界變得更美好。從那時起已歷經將近40年歲月,我和梅琳達結婚也有20年了,我們現在比以往任何時候更樂觀,但這份樂觀隨著人生旅程演進,今天我們將與各位分享我們的經驗,以及你我的樂觀如何為更多人帶來更多貢獻。
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Bill Gates: Congratulations, Class of 2014! Melinda and I are excited to be here. It would be a thrill for anyone to be invited to speak at a Stanford Commencement – but it's especially gratifying for us.Stanford is rapidly becoming the favorite university for members of our family. And it's long been a favorite university for Microsoft and our foundation. Our formula has been to get the smartest, most creative people working on the most important problems. It turns out that a disproportionate number of those people are at Stanford.Right now, we have more than 30 foundation research projects underway with Stanford. When we want to learn more about the immune system to help cure the worst diseases, we work with Stanford. When we want to understand the changing landscape of higher education in the United States so that more low-income students get college degrees, we work with Stanford.This is where genius lives.There is a flexibility of mind here – an openness to change, an eagerness for what's new. This is where people come to discover the future and have fun doing it.
Melinda Gates: Some people call you nerds – and you claim the label with pride.
Bill: Well, so do we.There are so many remarkable things going on here at this campus. But if Melinda and I had to put into one word what we love most about Stanford, it's the optimism. There's an infectious feeling here that innovation can solve almost every problem.That's the belief that drove me, in 1975, to leave a college in the suburbs of Boston and go on an endless leave of absence. I believed that the magic of computers and software would empower people everywhere and make the world much, much better.It's been almost 40 years since then, and 20 years since Melinda and I were married. We are both more optimistic now than ever. But on our journey together, our optimism evolved. We'd like to tell you what we learned – and talk to you today about how your optimism and ours can do more – for more people.
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當保羅.艾倫和我創辦微軟時,我們希望將電腦和軟體的力量賦予全人類,這正是我們使用的口號:資訊領域一本開創性書籍的封面是舉起的拳頭,書名為《電腦解放運動》。當時只有大公司買得起電腦,我們希望使一般人也擁有同樣的力量,使電腦普及化。1990年代,我們見證了個人電腦賦予人類的巨大力量,但這份成功也造成新的困境:如果有錢孩子擁有電腦,窮孩子沒有科技,將造成更大的不平等。這與我們的核心理念背道而馳,科技應該使每個人受益,因此我們致力於縮小這個數位差距,我將這一點列為微軟的優先事項,梅琳達和我將這一點列為蓋茨基金會早期發展重點,捐贈公共圖書館個人電腦,確保每個人都有機會使用。1997年,數位差距是我關注的焦點之一,當時我第一次拜訪南非,我去南非出公差,因此大多時間都在約翰尼斯堡市區開會。我住在南非最富有的家庭裡,當時距納爾遜.曼德拉當選、終結種族隔離僅三年時間。當我與屋主一起用餐時,他們搖鈴傳喚侍者,晚餐後男性與女性分開,男性聚在一起抽雪茄,我心想:「幸好我讀過簡.奧斯丁的作品,否則根本不知道這是什麼情形。」隔天我前往索維托,約翰尼斯堡西南方一個貧窮的城鎮,曾經是反種族隔離運動中心。這座城鎮離市區不遠,但進入後的景象令我備受衝擊。我進入一個與之前完全不同的世界,拜訪索維托的經歷使我初次意識到自己多麼天真。
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When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft, we wanted to bring the power of computers and software to the people – and that was the kind of rhetoric we used. One of the pioneering books in the field had a raised fist on the cover, and it was called Computer Lib. At that time, only big businesses could buy computers. We wanted to offer the same power to regular people – and democratize computing.By the 1990s, we saw how profoundly personal computers could empower people. But that success created a new dilemma: If rich kids got computers and poor kids didn't, then technology would make inequality worse. That ran counter to our core belief: Technology should benefit everybody. So we worked to close the digital divide. I made it a priority at Microsoft, and Melinda and I made it an early priority at our foundation – donating personal computers to public libraries to make sure everyone had access.The digital divide was a focus of mine in 1997 when I took my first trip to South Africa. I went there on business, so I spent most of my time in meetings in downtown Johannesburg. I stayed in the home of one of the richest families in South Africa. It had only been three years since the election of Nelson Mandela marked the end of apartheid. When I sat down for dinner with my hosts, they used a bell to call the butler. After dinner, the men and women separated, and the men smoked cigars. I thought, "Good thing I read Jane Austen, or I wouldn't have known what was going on."The next day I went to Soweto – the poor township southwest of Johannesburg that had been a center of the anti-apartheid movement.It was a short distance from the city into the township, but the entry was sudden, jarring, and harsh. I passed into a world completely unlike the one I came from. My visit to Soweto became an early lesson in how naïve I was.
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微軟捐贈電腦和軟體給當地社區中心,如我們在美國所做的事,但我很快就意識到這裡不是美國。我見過與貧困有關的統計數字,但不曾親眼見過貧困的情形。當地人住在簡陋的鐵皮屋裡,沒電、沒水、沒廁所,大多數人都不穿鞋,赤腳在街道上行走,只是那裡根本沒有街道,只有泥土路上的車轍。社區中心沒有穩定電源,因此人們拉了一條約200英呎長的延長線,連接社區中心外的柴油發電機。看見這種情形,我知道一旦我和記者離開,發電機就會被用於更緊急的任務,社區中心使用者也得重新面臨個人電腦無法解決的挑戰。按照事先準備的講稿,我對媒體說:「索維托是一個里程碑,關於科技是否會造成開發中國家落後,我們得做出重大決定,這個決定就是縮小科技差距。」當我閱讀這些詞句時,我知道這不完全符合實際情形,我沒說出的是:「順帶一提,我們並未關注非洲大陸每年有50萬人死於瘧疾的事實,但我們十分確定能為你們帶來電腦。」前往索維托之前,我以為我瞭解世界的問題,但我對最重要的一些問題一無所知,所見的情形令我震驚不已,我自問:「我仍相信創新能解決世上最棘手的問題嗎?」我對自己許下承諾,在下次回到非洲之前,我會更瞭解導致貧窮的原因。
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Microsoft was donating computers and software to a community center there – the kind of thing we did in the United States. But it became clear to me very quickly that this was not the United States.I had seen statistics on poverty, but I had never really seen poverty. The people there lived in corrugated tin shacks with no electricity, no water, no toilets. Most people didn't wear shoes; they walked barefoot along the streets. Except there were no streets – just ruts in the muThe community center had no consistent source of power, so they had rigged up an extension cord that ran about 200 feet from the center to a diesel generator outside. Looking at the setup, I knew the minute the reporters and I left, the generator would get moved to a more urgent task, and the people who used the community center would go back to worrying about challenges that couldn't be solved by a PC.When I gave my prepared remarks to the press, I said: "Soweto is a milestone. There are major decisions ahead about whether technology will leave the developing world behind. This is to close the gap."As I was reading those words, I knew they were irrelevant. What I didn't say was: "By the way, we're not focused on the fact that half a million people on this continent are dying every year from malaria. But we're sure as hell going to bring you computers."Before I went to Soweto, I thought I understood the world's problems, but I was blind to the most important ones. I was so taken aback by what I saw that I had to ask myself, "Do I still believe that innovation can solve the world's toughest problems?"I promised myself that before I came back to Africa, I would find out more about what keeps people poor.
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這些年來,梅琳達和我確實更瞭解窮人最迫切的需求。在之後一次前往南非的旅途中,我拜訪一家治療MDR-TB(多重抗藥性結核病)的醫院,這種疾病的治癒率不到50%。我記得那所醫院是個充滿絕望的地方,一間巨大的開放式病房中滿是身著睡衣、戴著口罩、拖著沉重腳步四處走動的病人,有一層樓專門容納兒童病人,包括繈褓中的嬰兒。這裡有一所小型學校,讓身體狀況足以負擔的孩子就學,但很多孩子病情無法好轉,醫院不知道是否值得繼續開辦這所學校。我和一位三十出頭的患者聊了一下,她曾經在一所治療肺結核的醫院工作,然後開始出現咳嗽症狀。她去看醫生,醫生說她感染了抗藥性肺結核,之後她被診斷出罹患愛滋病,她活不了多久,但還有許多MDR患者等著她空出的病床。這是地獄,但還有很多人排隊等著進來。但目睹這個地獄並未減少我的樂觀,而是為我指引了方向。搭車離開時,我對與我們共事的醫生說:「是的,我知道MDR-TB很難治癒,但我們必須為這些人做點什麼。」今年我們的研究進入新肺結核藥物療法第三階段,根據患者的反應,之前是以2000美元的費用治療18個月,治癒率50%;現在是以不到100美元的費用治療6個月,治癒率80%。
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Over the years, Melinda and I did learn more about the most pressing needs of the poor. On a later trip to South Africa, I paid a visit to a hospital for patients with MDR-TB, or multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, a disease with a cure rate of under 50 percent.I remember that hospital as a place of despair. It was a giant open ward with a sea of patients shuffling around in pajamas, wearing masks.There was one floor just for children, including some babies lying in bed. They had a little school for the kids who were well enough to learn, but many of the children couldn't make it, and the hospital didn't seem to know whether it was worth it to keep the school open.I talked to a patient there in her early thirties. She had been a worker at a TB hospital when she came down with a cough. She went to a doctor, and he told her she had drug-resistant TB. She was later diagnosed with AIDS. She wasn't going to live much longer, but there were plenty of MDR patients waiting to take her bed when she vacated it.This was hell with a waiting list.But seeing hell didn't reduce my optimism; it channeled it. I got in the car and told the doctor who was working with us: "Yeah, I know. MDR-TB is hard to cure. But we should be able to do something for these people." This year, we're entering phase three with a new TB drug regime. For patients who respond, instead of a 50 percent cure rate after 18 months for $2,000, we could get an 80-90 percent cure rate after six months for under $100. That's better by a factor of a hundred.
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人們經常將樂觀視為虛假的希望,但同樣存在虛假的絕望,正是這種態度告訴我們,我們無法打敗貧窮和疾病。我們當然做得到。拜訪肺結核醫院後,比爾打電話給我,通常如果我們其中一個人要出國,我們會提一下當天行程:跟誰見面、到什麼地方,但這通電話不同,比爾跟我說:「梅琳達,我去了一個不曾去過的地方。」然後他開始哽咽,無法繼續,最後他說:「我回來後再詳細告訴你。」我知道他經歷了什麼,因為當你看見人們如此絕望,你會感到心碎,但如果你想做到最好,就得看見最糟的一面,我也有過這樣的經歷。大約十年前,我和一群朋友前往印度,在那裡的最後一天,我和一群妓女見面,我想談談她們所面臨的愛滋病風險,但她們想跟我談污名化。這些女性很多都被丈夫拋棄,這就是她們當妓女的原因。她們得想辦法養活孩子,她們在社會大眾眼中如此卑賤,任何人、甚至警察都可以任意強姦、搶劫、毆打她們,沒人在乎。關於她們生活的談話令我動容,但令我印象最深的是她們多麼渴望他人的碰觸。她們希望觸摸我,也希望我觸摸她們,似乎藉由這種肢體接觸,她們才能證明自己存在的價值。因此我離開前,我們手拉手拍了一張合照。
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Optimism is often dismissed as false hope. But there is also false hopelessness.That's the attitude that says we can't defeat poverty and disease.We absolutely can.
Melinda: Bill called me after he visited the TB hospital. Ordinarily, if we're calling from a trip, we just go through the agenda of the day: "Here's what I did; here's where I went; here's who I met." But this call was different. He said: "Melinda, I've gone somewhere I've never been before" and then he choked up and couldn't talk. Finally he just said: "I'll tell you when I get home."I knew what he was going through. When you see people with so little hope, it breaks your heart. But if you want to do the most, you have to see the worst. That's what Bill was doing that day. I've had days like that, too.Ten years ago, I traveled to India with friends. On the last day there, I spent some time meeting with prostitutes. I expected to talk to them about the risk of AIDS, but they wanted to talk about stigma. Most of these women had been abandoned by their husbands, and that's why they'd gone into prostitution. They were trying to make enough money to feed their kids. They were so low in the eyes of society that they could be raped and robbed and beaten by anybody – even by police – and nobody cared. Talking to them about their lives was so moving to me. But what I remember most is how much they wanted to touch me and be touched. It was as if physical contact somehow proved their worth. As I was leaving, we took a photo of all of us with our arms linked together.
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當天稍晚時候,我在印度垂死之家待了一陣子。我走進一個大廳,看見一排排病床,每張病床都有人照料,除了遠處角落那張病床,因此我決定過去看看。病床上是一位三十多歲的女性,我記得她的眼睛,她有一雙盈滿悲傷的棕色大眼,她消瘦憔悴,瀕臨死亡邊緣,她的腸道無法容納任何東西,因此工作人員在床板上挖個洞,將盆子放在床下,她體內的一切都傾瀉到盆子裡。我看得出她罹患愛滋病,她的外觀及獨自被安排在遠離眾人的角落都說明這一點。愛滋病污名化的情形相當嚴重,尤其是針對女性,懲罰就是被遺棄。當我來到她的病床前,突然間我感到完全地無助,我無法給予這位女性任何幫助,我知道我無法拯救她的生命,但我不希望她感到孤獨,因此我跪在她身旁,把手伸向她,她伸出手來,抓住我的手,不願放開。我不會說她的語言,我想不出該對她說什麼,最後我對她說:「沒事,沒事,這不是你的錯。」我在她身旁待了一陣子後,她指向屋頂,顯然她想上去,我意識到太陽即將下山,她想做的是到屋頂上看日落。垂死之家的工作人員非常忙碌,我問他們是否能把她帶上屋頂,他們說:「不行,我們還得發藥。」我等他們發藥,然後詢問另一位工作人員,他們說:「不行,我們太忙了,無法帶她上去。」最後我只好親自抱起這位女性,她瘦得只剩皮包骨,我把她抱上屋頂,找了一張被微風吹倒的塑膠椅。我讓她坐在椅子上,用毛毯蓋住她的腿,她坐在那裡,面向西方,看著日落。工作人員知道這件事,我告知他們她在屋頂上,他們會在日落後把她帶下來,然後我不得不離開,但她一直縈繞在我心中。聽見這位女性的死訊實在令我難以釋懷,但有時正是那些你幫不了的人帶給你最多的啟發。我知道白天遇見的那些性工作者可能變成那天傍晚我帶上樓的女性,除非我們找到方法洗刷伴隨她們一生的污名。
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Later that day, I spent some time in a home for the dying. I walked into a large hall and saw rows and rows of cots. Every cot was attended except for one far off in the corner that no one was going near, so I walked over there. The patient was a woman who seemed to be in her thirties. I remember her eyes. She had these huge, brown, sorrowful eyes. She was emaciated, on the verge of death. Her intestines weren't holding anything – so they had put her on a cot with a hole cut out in the bottom, and everything just poured through into a pan below.I could tell she had AIDS, both from the way she looked, and the fact that she was off in the corner alone. The stigma of AIDS is vicious – especially for women – and the punishment is abandonment.When I arrived at her cot, I suddenly felt totally helpless. I had absolutely nothing I could offer her. I knew I couldn't save her, but I didn't want her to be alone. So I knelt down next to her and reached out to touch her – and as soon as she felt my hand, she grabbed it and wouldn't let go. We sat there holding hands, and even though I knew she couldn't understand me, I just started saying: "It's okay. It's okay. It's not your fault. It's not your fault."We had been there together for a while when she pointed upward with her finger. It took me some time to figure out that she wanted to go up to the roof and sit outside while it was still light out. I asked one of the workers if that would be okay, but she was overwhelmed by all the patients she had to care for. She said: "She's in the last stages of dying, and I have to pass out medicine." Then I asked another, and got the same answer. It was getting late and the sun was going down, and I had to leave, and no one seemed willing to take her upstairs.So finally I just scooped her up – she was just skin over a skeleton, just a sack of bones – and I carried her up the stairs. On the roof, there were a few of those plastic chairs that will blow over in a strong breeze, and I set her down on one of those, and I helped prop her feet up on another, and I placed a blanket over her legs.And she sat there with her face to the west, watching the sunset. I made sure the workers knew that she was up there so they would come get her after the sun went down. Then I had to leave her. But she never left me.I felt completely and totally inadequate in the face of this woman's death.But sometimes it's the people you can't help who inspire you the most.I knew that the sex workers I linked arms with in the morning could become the woman I carried upstairs in the evening – unless they found a way to defy the stigma that hung over their lives.
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過去十年,我們基金會幫助性工作者建立支持小組,使她們能互相鼓勵,說出自己的訴求:要求安全性交易,要求客人使用保險套。她們勇敢的努力降低了性工作者的愛滋病發病率,許多研究顯示這正是愛滋病沒有在印度大肆蔓延的主要原因。當這些性工作者同心協力阻止愛滋病蔓延時,一些意想不到的美妙事件發生了。她們組成的社群成了處理所有困境的平臺,強姦、搶劫她們的警察和其他人無法再逍遙法外。這些女性建立鼓勵為彼此存錢的體系,藉由這些存款,她們得以脫離性工作,這些都是被社會視為最卑微的人所做的事。對我來說樂觀並非期待未來會更好的被動想法,對我來說樂觀是一種信念,相信我們能使未來更美好。因此無論我們目睹多少苦難,無論情況多糟,只要不喪失希望,不視而不見,我們就能幫助他人。
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Over the past 10 years, our foundation has helped sex workers build support groups so they could empower each other to speak out for safe sex and demand that their clients use condoms. Their brave efforts helped keep HIV prevalence low among sex workers, and a lot of studies show that is a big reason why the AIDS epidemic in India hasn't exploded.When these sex workers gathered together to help stop AIDS transmission, something unexpected and wonderful happened. The community they formed became a platform for everything. They were able to set up speed-dial networks to respond to violent attacks. Police and others who raped and robbed them couldn't get away with it anymore. The women set up systems to encourage savings. They used financial services that helped some of them start businesses and get out of sex work. This was all done by people society considered the lowliest of the low. Optimism for me isn't a passive expectation that things will get better; it's a conviction that we can make things better – that whatever suffering we see, no matter how bad it is, we can help people if we don't lose hope and we don't look away.
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梅琳達和我都講述了災難性的情況,但我們希望能樹立實際的典範,證明我們能帶來樂觀的力量。即使在極端惡劣的情況下,樂觀也能激發創新,找出消除苦難的新方法。但如果你不曾親眼目睹遭受苦難的人,你的樂觀將無法幫助他們,你永遠無法改變他們的世界,這讓我想起曾經見過的一個矛盾。現代世界是不可思議的創新根源,史丹佛位於這一切的中心,創立新公司和新思想學派、獲獎教授啟迪藝術與文學、研發神奇藥物以及傑出的畢業生,無論你是獲得新發現的科學家還是致力於研究最冷門需求的人,你們都在為人類的貢獻上獲得令人驚訝的突破。同時,如果你詢問美國各地的人,未來會比過去更好嗎?大多數人會說:不,我孩子的生活會比我更糟,他們認為創新無法為他們和子孫創造更美好的世界。那麼誰才是正確的?那些聲稱創新能創造新的可能性,使世界變得更好的人?還是那些認為創新將導致不平等和機會減少,認為創新無法改變這些趨勢的人?在我看來悲觀主義者是錯誤的,但他們並不瘋狂。如果創新純粹是市場趨勢,我們不在意不平等的鴻溝,那麼我們或許能擁有美妙的創新發明,卻加劇世界的分歧。我們將無法改善公立學校,我們將無法終結瘧疾,我們將無法終結貧困,我們將無法開發出貧困農民所需的創新,在氣候陰晴不定的情況下種植作物。
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Bill: Melinda and I have described some devastating scenes. But we want to make the strongest case we can for the power of optimism. Even in dire situations, optimism can fuel innovation and lead to new tools to eliminate suffering. But if you never really see the people who are suffering, your optimism can't help them. You will never change their world.And that brings me to what I see as a paradox.The world of science and technology is driving phenomenal innovations – and Stanford stands at the center of that, creating new companies, prize-winning professors, ingenious software, miracle drugs, and amazing graduates. We're on the verge of mind-blowing breakthroughs in what human beings can do for each other. And people here are really excited about the future.At the same time, if you ask people across the United States, "Is the future going to be better than the past?" most people will say: "No. My kids will be worse off than I am." They think innovation won't make the world better for them or for their children.So who's right?The people who say innovation will create new possibilities and make the world better?…or…The people who see a trend toward inequality and a decline in opportunity and don't think innovation will change that? The pessimists are wrong in my view, but they're not crazy. If technology is purely market-driven and we don't focus innovation on the big inequities, then we could have amazing inventions that leave the world even more divided.We won't improve public schools. We won't cure malaria. We won't end poverty. We won't develop the innovations poor farmers need to grow food in a changing climate.
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如果我們的樂觀無法解決影響眾多人類的問題,那麼我們的樂觀需要更多同理心。如果同理心能引導我們的樂觀,我們將看見貧困、疾病與資源不足的學校,我們將藉由創新給出答案,我們將使悲觀主義者大吃一驚。下一個世代,史丹佛畢業生將引領新一波創新浪潮,你們決定處理哪些問題?如果你的世界足夠寬廣,你將創造所有人都想要的未來;如果你的世界太過狹隘,你或許會創造出悲觀主義者憂心的未來。從索維托開始,我開始瞭解,如果我們希望將這份樂觀傳遞給每個人,讓世界各地的人都獲得力量,我們需要瞭解人類最迫切需要的生活。如果我們擁有樂觀,卻沒有同理心,無論我們多擅長掌控科學的奧秘都沒用。我們並非解決問題,只是解謎而已。我認為在座大多數人擁有的世界觀比我在你們這個年紀時更寬廣,你們在這方面能做得比我好。如果你投入全副心力,就能讓悲觀主義者大吃一驚。我們渴望看見你們的表現,因此讓自己心碎,這將改變你們對樂觀的理解。
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If our optimism doesn't address the problems that affect so many of our fellow human beings, then our optimism needs more empathy. If empathy channeled our optimism, we would see the poverty and the disease and the poor schools, we would answer with our innovations, and we would surprise the pessimists.Over the next generation, you Stanford graduates will lead a new wave of innovation and apply it to your world. Which problems will you decide to solve? If your world is wide, you can create the future we all want. If your world is narrow, you may create the future the pessimists fear.I started learning in Soweto that if we're going to make our optimism matter to everyone and empower people everywhere, we have to see the lives of those most in need. If we have optimism, but we don't have empathy – then it doesn't matter how much we master the secrets of science, we're not really solving problems; we're just working on puzzles.I think most of you have a broader worldview than I had at your age. You can do better at this than I did. If you put your hearts and minds to it, you can surprise the pessimists. We can't wait to see it.
Melinda: Let your heart break. It will change what you do with your optimism.
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在一次前往南亞的旅途中,我遇見一位相當貧困的印度女性。她有兩個孩子,她懇求我領養她的孩子,當我跟她說抱歉時,她說:「拜託,至少領養一個好嗎?」另一次前往洛杉磯南部的旅途中,我遇見一群來自貧困社區的學生,一位年輕女孩對我說:「你是否認為我們是父母置之不理的孩子,我們只是他們的累贅?」這些女性令我心碎,現在仍然如此。「這也可能是我」的想法增強了同理心,當我與旅途中遇見的母親談話,我們希望為子女做的事沒有太大差別,唯一差別在於我們為子女提供這些事物的能力,因此這些差異源於何處?比爾和我在晚餐時與孩子們討論這個問題,比爾十分努力工作,他勇於冒險,做了很多犧牲才取得成功,但成功還有另一項要素,那就是運氣,純粹的運氣。你出生在什麼時代?你父母是誰?你在什麼地方成長?這些都不是我們憑自己的力量所得,而是天生擁有。因此當我們摒除所有運氣和天生優勢,思考沒有這一切我們會如何,很容易就能體會窮人的痛苦,心想:「這也可能是我」。這就是同理心,同理心能消除障礙,為樂觀開啟全新的領域,因此這是我們對所有人的呼籲:當你離開史丹佛時,帶著你所有的天分、樂觀和同理心,以能讓所有人都感到樂觀的方式改變世界。你不需要心急,你得展開職業生涯、償還就學貸款、尋找伴侶和結婚,目前這些已經夠你忙的。但在你生命歷程中,或許在不經意間,你會看見令你心碎的苦難。當遇到這種情形,不要轉身離開,這就是改變的時刻。恭喜2014年畢業生,祝好運。
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On a trip to South Asia, I met a desperately poor mother who brought me her two small children and implored me: "Please take them home with you." When I begged her forgiveness and said I could not, she said: "Then please take one."On another trip, to South Los Angeles, I was talking to a group of high school students from a tough neighborhood when one young woman said to me: "Do you ever feel like we are just somebody else's kids whose parents shirked their responsibilities, that we're all just leftovers?" These women made my heart break – and still do. And the empathy intensifies if I admit to myself: "That could be me."When I talk with the mothers I meet during my travels, I see that there is no difference at all in what we want for our children. The only difference is our ability to give it to them.What accounts for that difference?Bill and I talk about this with our kids at the dinner table. Bill worked incredibly hard and took risks and made sacrifices for success. But there is another essential ingredient of success, and that ingredient is luck – absolute and total luck.When were you born? Who were your parents? Where did you grow up? None of us earned these things. They were given to us.When we strip away our luck and privilege and consider where we'd be without them, it becomes easier to see someone who's poor and sick and say "that could be me." This is empathy; it tears down barriers and opens up new frontiers for optimism.So here is our appeal to you: As you leave Stanford, take your genius and your optimism and your empathy and go change the world in ways that will make millions of others optimistic as well.You don't have to rush. You have careers to launch, debts to pay, spouses to meet and marry. That's enough for now.But in the course of your lives, without any plan on your part, you'll come to see suffering that will break your heart.When it happens, and it will, don't turn away from it; turn toward it.That is the moment when change is born.Congratulations and good luck.