-
謝謝,十分感謝主持人客氣的介紹,很榮幸來到這裡。如同大多數畢業演講嘉賓,我的主要資格似乎是:我是少數比你們父母和教授對你們未來人生更毫無頭緒的人。你們多半是21、22歲,即將邁入職場;我21年來不曾替任何人工作。但如果非要我想出一個為何我有資格來這裡演講的理由,我會說是因為我靠「思考未來」維生。這是「commencement」(畢業典禮、開始),代表新的開始;身為科技投資者,我投資的就是「新的開始」,我相信尚未出現或完成的事。我的職業生涯起點並非技術投資,當我在1989年坐在如今你們所坐的位置,我會告訴你們我想當律師。我不是很瞭解律師整天做些什麼,但我知道他們得先唸法學院,而我對學校相當熟悉。從國中、高中到大學,我經歷一連串競爭,進入法學院後,我知道我將繼續在從小到大經歷過的同樣考試中競爭。但我可以告訴大家,我這麼做是為了成為一名專業人士。
展開英文
收合英文
-
Thank you for the kind introduction. I’m honored to be here. Like most graduation speakers, my main qualification would seem to be that I am one of the few people who are even more clueless about what is going on in your lives than your professors and your parents. Most of you are about 21 years old, and you are about to begin working; I haven’t worked for anybody for 21 years.But if I try to think of a reason why it makes sense for me to speak here today, I would say it’s because thinking about the future is what I do for a living, and this is a “commencement.” It’s a new beginning. As a technology investor, I invest in new beginnings; I believe in what hasn’t yet been done.That is not what I set out to do when I began my career. When I was sitting where you are, back in 1989, I would have told you I wanted to be a lawyer. I didn’t really know what lawyers do all day, but I knew they had to go to law school – and school was familiar to me. I had been competitively tracked from middle school to high school to college. By going straight to law school, I knew I could keep on competing at the same kinds of tests I’d been taking ever since I was a kid – but I could tell everyone that I was doing it for the sake of becoming a professional adult.
-
我在法學院的表現足以讓我獲得一家紐約大型律師事務所的聘用,但結果發現那是個奇怪的地方:外面的人都想進來,裡面的人都想離開。當我在7個月零3天後離開那間事務所,我的同事十分驚訝,其中一位告訴我,他不知道逃離惡魔島是可能的。聽起來或許有點奇怪,因為想要逃離,你只需要走出前門,再也不回頭。但人們確實發現很難離開,因為他們花了太多精力贏得競爭、獲得這份工作。離開那間事務所後,我參加最高法院書記員面試,這對年輕律師來說是最高的獎勵,相當於最後階段的競爭。但我輸了,當時我傷心欲絕,彷彿世界末日來臨。大約10年後,我遇見一位老友,他曾幫助我準備那場面試,但我們已多年不見。他對我說的第一句話並非「嗨,Peter!」或「最近好嗎?」而是「當年沒當上書記員,現在看起來很值得開心啊!」如果我不曾輸掉最後一場競爭,我們都知道我永遠不會脫離自中學以來一直進行的軌道,我永遠不會搬到加州或與他人共同創業,我永遠不會有任何創新。
展開英文
收合英文
-
I did well enough to be hired by a big New York law firm. But it turned out to be a strange place: from the outside everybody wanted to get in; and from the inside everybody wanted to get out. When I left the firm – after 7 months and 3 days – my co-workers were surprised. One of them told me that he hadn’t known it was possible to escape from Alcatraz. That might sound odd, because all you had to do to escape was walk through the front door, and not come back. But people really did find it very hard to leave, because so much of their identity was wrapped up in having won the competitions to get there.Just as I was leaving the law firm, I interviewed for a Supreme Court clerkship. This was the top prize for a young lawyer; it was the last stage of competition. But I lost. At the time, I was devastated. About a decade later I ran into an old friend, someone who had helped me to prepare for the interview but whom I hadn’t seen in years. His first words to me were not, “Hi Peter” or “How are you doing?” but rather “Aren’t you glad you didn’t get that clerkship?” If I hadn’t lost that last competition, I never would have left the track laid down since middle school. I wouldn’t have moved to California or co-founded a startup. I wouldn’t have done anything new.
-
回顧我想成為律師的雄心,看起來不像對未來的規劃,而像對現狀的託辭。這是向任何詢問者提出解釋的方式,對父母、對同儕,最重要的是對自己解釋:沒必要擔心,我不曾脫離既定軌道。但事實證明,我最大的問題在於不曾認真思考既定軌道的方向。當我與他人共同成立科技創投公司時,我們採取相反的做法:我們有意識地著手改變世界的方向,非常明確而遠大的計畫。我們的目標是創造新的數位貨幣來取代美元,我們是個年輕的團隊,創業時我是唯一超過23歲的人。當我們推出第一項產品時,第一批使用者只有在我們公司工作的24個人。外面有數百萬人在全球金融業工作,當我們將計劃告訴其中一些人時,注意到一個明顯的模式:在銀行業越資深的人,越確定我們的冒險永遠不會成功。他們錯了,現在全世界的人仰賴PayPal轉帳的金額每年超過2000億美元。我們確實沒達成更大的目標,美元仍是主流;我們沒能掌控世界,但在這個過程中我們確實創立了一家成功的企業。更重要的是,我們體會到創新相當困難,卻絕非不可能。
展開英文
收合英文
-
Looking back at my ambition to become a lawyer, it looks less like a plan for the future and more like an alibi for the present. It was a way to explain to anyone who would ask – to my parents, to my peers, and most of all to myself – that there was no need to worry, I was perfectly on track. But it turned out that my biggest problem was taking a track without thinking hard about where it was going.When I co-founded a technology startup, we took the opposite approach. We consciously set out to change the direction of the world. Our goal was to replace the US dollar by creating a new digital currency. When we started, I was the only person on the team over 23 years old. When we released our product, its first users were the 24 people who worked at our company. Meanwhile there were millions of people working in the global financial industry. And when we told some of them about our plan, we noticed a clear pattern: the more experience someone had in banking, the more certain they were that our company could never work. They were wrong; people around the world now rely on PayPal to move more than $200 billion every year. We failed at our greater goal; the dollar is still dominant. But we created a successful company. We learned that doing new things is difficult, but it is possible.
-
在人生這個時刻,你知道的限制、禁忌和恐懼比未來所知的少,因此別浪費你的無知,邁開腳步,做老師和父母認為做不成的事,做他們不曾想過的事。這不是說我們應認為教育和傳統沒有價值,我們可以漢彌頓學院傑出校友-1905年畢業的Ezra Pound為例。Pound是一位詩人,也可說是一位先知,他用幾個字宣告了他的使命:「推陳出新」。當Pound說「推陳出新」,他是指舊的事物,他想復興傳統的精華,賦予其新的面貌。在漢彌頓、美國及所謂的西方世界,我們都是一項不尋常傳統的一部分,我們繼承的這項傳統本質就是創新。例如培根的新科學,牛頓所發現的、不曾出現在書上的真理。這整片大陸是一個新世界,這個國家的開創者著手建立所謂的「時代新秩序」。美國是個前瞻性國家,除非尋找新事物,否則就是不忠於傳統。我們做得如何?如今有多少創新?說我們正處於瞬息萬變的時代已是老生常談,但停滯不前的事實已成為公開的秘密。電腦越來越快,智慧手機不斷更新;但另一方面,飛機變慢、火車故障、屋價昂貴、收入不漲。
展開英文
收合英文
-
At this moment in your life, you know fewer limits, fewer taboos, and fewer fears than you ever will in the future. So, do not squander your ignorance! Go out and do what your teachers and parents thought could not be done, and what they never thought of doing.
This is not to say that we should assume there is no value in teaching and tradition. Here we can take inspiration from a graduate of Hamilton College, the illustrious (and notorious) Ezra Pound, class of 1905. Pound was a poet; he was also a prophet, and he announced his mission in three words: “Make it new.” When Pound said “make it new,” he was talking about the old; he wanted to recover what was best in tradition and to render it fresh.Here at Hamilton, in America, and in that part of the world called the West, we are all part of an unusual kind of tradition. The tradition we’ve inherited is itself about doing new things. The New Science of Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton discovered truths that had never been written down in books. Our whole continent is a New World. The Founders of this country set out to create what they called a New Order for the Ages. America is the frontier country. We are not true to our own tradition unless we seek what is new.So how are we doing? How much is new today? It is a cliché to say we are living through a time of rapid change. But it is an open secret that the truth is closer to stagnation. Computers are getting faster, and smartphones are somewhat new. But jets are slower; trains are breaking down; houses are expensive; and incomes are flat.
-
如今「科技」這個詞彙意味著「資訊科技」,所謂「科技」產業開發的是電腦和軟體。但1960年代「科技」的涵義較為廣泛,不僅是指電腦,也包括飛機、藥品、肥料、材料、太空旅行等各式各樣的事物。科技在每個領域都取得進步,帶領我們進入一個有水下城市、月球假期及能源便宜到無法計量的世界。我們都聽說過美國被描述成一個「已開發」國家,使它與「發展中」國家有所區別。這種說法貌似中立,但我發現其實相當偏頗,因為這暗示我們創新的傳統已式微。當我們說我們「已開發」時,相當於說「到此為止」,對我們來說歷史已經結束,意味著一切該做的事已經做完,現在剩下的唯一一件事就是等著世上其他人趕上我們。依這種觀點,1960年代對美好未來的願景只是個錯誤。我認為我們應強烈拒絕這種認為我們的歷史已經終結的誘惑。當然,如果我們選擇相信我們無力從事任何不熟悉的事物,那麼我們就是對的。但這只不過是自我實現的預言,我們不應歸咎於自然,這只是我們本身的過錯。
展開英文
收合英文
-
Today, the word “technology” means “information technology.” The so-called “tech” industry builds computers and software. But in the 1960s, “technology” meant airplanes; medicines; fertilizers; materials; rockets – technology was advancing on every front and leading to a world of underwater cities, vacations on the moon, and energy too cheap to meter.We have all heard America described as a “developed” country, setting it apart from countries that are still “developing.” This description pretends to be neutral, but it suggests that our tradition of making new things is over. We are developed, and that’s it. For us, history is over. Everything there is to do has already been done, and now the only thing left is for others to catch up. In this view, the 1960s vision of a better future was just a mistake. We should refuse the temptation to assume that our history is over. If we choose to believe that we are powerless to do anything that is not familiar, we will certainly be right. But we will not be able to blame nature. It will be our fault.
-
熟悉的軌道和傳統如同老生常談:隨處可見,有時也許是對的,但通常只是三人成虎。讓我舉兩個老生常談的例子作為今天的結束。第一個來自莎士比亞,他寫下這個廣為人知的忠告:「忠於自我」。莎士比亞寫了這句話,但並非出自他口中,他藉由劇中角色Polonius之口說出這句話。哈姆雷特對Polonius的描述是:「一個令人生厭的老糊塗」,儘管Polonius是丹麥國王的御前大臣。因此事實上莎士比亞告訴我們兩件事:一、別忠於自我。你怎知「自我」是否存在?你的自我或許由與他人的競爭所激發,如同以前的我。你需要磨練自我,培養它、照顧它,而非盲從它。二、莎士比亞是指,你應該質疑忠告,即使是來自長輩的忠告。Polonius以父親的身分給女兒忠告,但他的忠告爛透了。這裡的莎士比亞是忠於我們西方傳統的榜樣,意味著不會盲目崇敬前人的傳承。
展開英文
收合英文
-
Familiar tracks and traditions are like clichés: they are everywhere; they may sometimes be correct; but they are often justified by nothing except constant repetition. I will end by questioning two clichés in particular.The first comes from Shakespeare, who wrote this well-known piece of advice: “To thine own self be true.” Shakespeare wrote that, but he didn’t say it. He put it in the mouth of a character named Polonius, whom Hamlet accurately describes as a “tedious old fool” – even though Polonius was senior counselor to the king of Denmark.Shakespeare is telling us two things. First, do not be true to yourself. How do you know you even have such a thing? Your self might be motivated by competition with others, like I was. You need to discipline your self, to cultivate it and care for it, not to follow it blindly. Second, Shakespeare is saying that you should be skeptical of advice, even from your elders. Polonius is a father speaking to his daughter, but his advice is terrible. Here Shakespeare is a faithful example of our Western tradition, which does not honor what is merely inherited.
-
另一則老生常談是:「把每一天都當作生命最後一天來過」。執行這則忠告的最佳方式就是反過來做:「把每一天都當作你會長生不死來過」,這意味著首先你應該把周遭的人當作他們也會陪你很久來對待。你今天所做的選擇很重要,因為它的影響會越來越大,這就是愛因斯坦的意思,當他打趣說:「複利是宇宙最強大的力量」。這不僅跟金融或金錢有關,也意味著將時間投資在建立堅實友誼和長遠關係將得到最佳回報。以某種意義來說,你們今天在這裡是因為得到漢彌頓學院招生辦公室的許可展開學習之旅,現在這段旅程已結束;以另一種意義來說,你們在這裡是因為找到一群在旅途中支持你的朋友,這些友誼將繼續延續,如果用心照料,將來它會以複利成長。你們到目前為止所做的一切都會有某種正式的結局,某種畢業儀式,你們應該、我也希望你們今天花點時間慶祝所有至今取得的成就,但記住今天的畢業典禮並非另一件終會結束之事的開始,而是永遠的開始。我不想再耽誤你們的時間,謝謝。
展開英文
收合英文
-
The other cliché goes like this: “Live each day as if it were your last.” The best way to take this advice is to do exactly the opposite: live each day as if you will live forever. That means you should treat the people around you as if they too will be around for a long time.The choices you make today matter because their consequences will grow greater and greater. That is what Einstein was getting at when he supposedly said that “compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.” This isn’t just about money; you will get the best returns in life from investing your time to build durable relationships.In one sense all of you are here because you were approved by the admissions office to pursue a course of study, which is now over. In another sense you are here because you found your own group of friends to sustain you along the way, and those friendships will continue. If you take care of them, they will compound in the years ahead.Everything that you have done so far has had some kind of formal ending, some kind of graduation. You should, and I hope you will, take time today to celebrate all that you have achieved so far. But remember that today’s commencement is not the beginning of one more thing that will end. It is the beginning of forever.And I won’t delay you any further in getting on with it. Thank you.