OpenAI CEO 三十岁时写下的36条人生感悟

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:

上周我刚满30岁，一个朋友问我，过去十年里有没有悟出什么值得传给别人的人生建议。我其实有点犹豫要不要把这些东西发出来，因为我总觉得这种清单通常看起来很空洞。不过，下面是我整理过后的回答：

1) 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.

1） 永远不要把家人、朋友或者伴侣放在你的优先级末尾。与其认识一百个泛泛之交，不如拥有几个真正亲密的朋友。不要和老朋友断了联系。偶尔和人聊到太阳升起。办点聚会。

2) 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.

2） 人生不是彩排——大概就只有这一次。所以要让它值得。时间极其有限，而且过得非常快。去做那些让你快乐、让你有满足感的事——反正绝大多数人死后几百年都不会被记住。不要去做那些让你不开心的事，尤其是仅仅因为别人希望你去做。不要浪费时间维持和你不喜欢的人的关系，把那些充满负能量的人从生活里清出去。消极情绪真的很糟糕。不要允许自己为“不去做真正想做的事情”找借口。

3) 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.

3） 怎样取得成功：选对要做的事情——这一点极其关键，却经常被忽略；保持专注；相信自己，尤其是在别人告诉你“这事不可能成”的时候；和能够帮助你的人建立真正的私人关系；学会识别有才华的人；然后努力工作。真正困难的，往往是判断自己究竟应该做什么，因为独立思考本身就很难。

4) 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.

4） 关于工作：如果你根本不在乎自己做的事情，就很难真正把它做到出色。而如果你不喜欢自己的工作，也很难在人生里获得真正的幸福和满足。要非常努力地工作——令人惊讶的是，有不少人甚至会因为你选择努力工作而觉得冒犯——但也别努力到让人生中其他的一切从你身边溜走。无论你从事什么职业，都应该以“成为这个领域世界上最好的人”为目标。即使最终没做到，你大概率也会落在一个相当不错的位置。建立一套属于你自己的效率系统——不要把时间浪费在混乱无序、在状态不佳的时间段工作之类的事情上。不要害怕在职业上冒一点险，尤其是在年轻的时候。大多数人选择职业其实相当随机，所以你应该认真想想自己真正喜欢什么、哪些领域未来会成功，并尽量去和这些领域里的人聊一聊。

5) 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.

5） 关于金钱：不管钱到底能不能买来幸福，它至少可以买来自由，而自由非常重要。缺钱也确实会给人带来巨大的压力。几乎从所有方面来说，拥有足够的钱，让你不必为房租发愁，对幸福感的提升，都远远大于从“已经不愁房租”变成“有钱买私人飞机”。赚钱往往比花钱更有意思，不过就我个人而言，我从来没有后悔过把钱花在朋友、新体验、节省时间、旅行，以及我真正相信的事业上。

6) Talk to people more. Read more long content and less tweets. Watch less TV. Spend less time on the Internet.

6） 多和人面对面交流。多读长篇内容，少刷推文。少看电视。少在互联网上消耗时间。

7) Don’t waste time. Most people waste most of their time, especially in business.

7） 不要浪费时间。大多数人其实浪费掉了自己绝大多数的时间，在商业活动里尤其如此。

8) 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.)

8） 不要任由别人摆布你。Paul Graham 曾经对我说：“人是可以变得非常强大的，只不过很难预测谁最终会变成那样。”（自信和傲慢之间有非常大的区别。很显然，你应该追求前者。）

9) Have clear goals for yourself every day, every year, and every decade.

9） 每一天、每一年、每一个十年，都要给自己设定清晰的目标。

10) 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.

10） 不过，计划再重要，如果一个绝佳的机会真的出现在你面前，也应该抓住它。不要害怕做一点稍微冒险、甚至有点莽撞的事情。努力工作的一个好处，就是好的机会会不断出现；但机会出现的时候，到底敢不敢扑上去，最终还是取决于你自己。

11) 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.

11） 主动想办法让自己待在聪明、有趣、有野心的人身边。为这样的人工作，也雇用这样的人。（事实上，工作中最令人满足的事情之一，就是和真正优秀的人建立深厚的关系。）尽量多和两类人相处：一种是在自己领域已经做到世界顶尖的人，另一种是虽然还默默无闻，却极具潜力的人。你最终真的会越来越像那些和你相处时间最多的人的平均值。

12) 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.

12） 尽量减少那些无关紧要的琐事给你造成的认知负担。这件事有多重要，怎么强调都不过分，而大多数人在这方面都做得非常糟糕。把生活里的干扰清理掉。尤其是在工作中，要建立一套非常有效的机制，别让那些你讨厌却迟迟没处理的破事不断堆积，占用你的脑力。

13) Keep your personal burn rate low. This alone will give you a lot of opportunities in life.

13） 把自己的个人开支控制在较低水平。光是这一点，就会给你的人生带来大量机会。

14) Summers are the best.

14） 夏天最好。

15) 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.

15） 别那么担心。人生里的事情，真正的风险很少像看上去那么大。大多数人都过于厌恶风险，所以绝大多数人生建议，也都过度偏向保守路线。

16) Ask for what you want.

16） 想要什么，就开口去要。

17) 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.

17） 如果你觉得自己将来可能会因为“没有去做某件事”而后悔，那你大概就应该去做。后悔是最糟糕的感觉，而大多数人后悔的，往往不是自己做过的事情，而是那些当初没有去做的事情。犹豫不决的时候，就去亲那个男孩或者女孩吧。

18) Exercise. Eat well. Sleep. Get out into nature with some regularity.

18） 运动。好好吃饭。好好睡觉。定期去大自然里待一待。

19) 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.

19） 主动想办法帮助别人。人生中很少有什么事情能带来同样程度的满足感。善待陌生人。哪怕这样做不会给你带来任何好处，也依然善待别人。

20) Youth is a really great thing. Don’t waste it. In fact, in your 20s, I think it’s ok to take a “Give me financial discipline, but not just yet” attitude. All the money in the world will never get back time that passed you by.

20） 年轻真的是一件非常美好的事情。不要浪费它。事实上，我觉得二十多岁的时候，你完全可以抱着一种“请赐予我财务自律——但先别急着现在就赐”的态度。世界上所有的钱加起来，也买不回已经从你身边流逝的时间。

21) Tell your parents you love them more often. Go home and visit as often as you can.

21） 多告诉父母你爱他们。有空就尽量多回家看看。

22) This too shall pass.

22） 一切都会过去。

23) Learn voraciously.

23） 如饥似渴地学习。

24) Do new things often. This seems to be really important. Not only does doing new things seem to slow down the perception of time, increase happiness, and keep life interesting, but it seems to prevent people from calcifying in the ways that they think. Aim to do something big, new, and risky every year in your personal and professional life.

24） 经常去做新的事情。这似乎真的非常重要。做新事不仅似乎能让你感觉时间过得更慢、提高幸福感、让生活始终保持趣味，也能够防止一个人的思维方式逐渐僵化。无论在个人生活还是职业生涯里，每年都应该争取去做一件重大、新鲜，而且带点风险的事情。

25) Remember how intensely you loved your boyfriend/girlfriend when you were a teenager? Love him/her that intensely now. Remember how excited and happy you got about stuff as a kid? Get that excited and happy now.

25） 还记得十几岁的时候，你曾经怎样热烈地爱着自己的男朋友或女朋友吗？现在也像那时候一样热烈地去爱。还记得小时候，一件事情能让你多么兴奋、多么开心吗？现在也让自己重新拥有那种兴奋和快乐。

26) Don’t screw people and don’t burn bridges. Pick your battles carefully.

26） 不要坑别人，也不要轻易和人彻底撕破脸。谨慎选择那些真正值得你去打的仗。

27) Forgive people.

27） 原谅别人。

28) Don’t chase status. Status without substance doesn’t work for long and is unfulfilling.

28） 不要追逐地位。没有真实实力和内容支撑的地位维持不了多久，而且也不会让人真正满足。

29) Most things are ok in moderation. Almost nothing is ok in extreme amounts.

29） 大多数事情，适度一点都没问题。几乎没有什么事情，走到极端之后还能是好事。

30) Existential angst is part of life. It is particularly noticeable around major life events or just after major career milestones. It seems to particularly affect smart, ambitious people. I think one of the reasons some people work so hard is so they don’t have to spend too much time thinking about this. Nothing is wrong with you for feeling this way; you are not alone.

30） 存在主义式的焦虑，本来就是人生的一部分。它尤其容易出现在重大人生事件前后，或者刚刚达到一个重要的事业里程碑之后。这种焦虑似乎特别容易困扰聪明而有野心的人。我觉得，有些人之所以拼命工作，其中一个原因，就是这样他们便不必花太多时间去想这些问题。如果你有这种感觉，并不意味着你出了什么问题；有这种感受的人远不止你一个。

31) Be grateful and keep problems in perspective. Don’t complain too much. Don’t hate other people’s success (but remember that some people will hate your success, and you have to learn to ignore it).

31） 心怀感激，也要学会把问题放到合适的尺度上去看。不要抱怨太多。不要因为别人的成功而心生怨恨。（但也要记住，有些人会因为你的成功而讨厌你，你得学会无视他们。）

32) Be a doer, not a talker.

32） 做一个行动的人，而不是只会说的人。

33) Given enough time, it is possible to adjust to almost anything, good or bad. Humans are remarkable at this.

33） 只要给人足够的时间，几乎任何事情，无论好坏，人最终都能够适应。人类在这方面拥有惊人的能力。

34) Think for a few seconds before you act. Think for a few minutes if you’re angry.

34） 行动之前先想几秒钟。如果你正在生气，那就先想几分钟。

35) Don’t judge other people too quickly. You never know their whole story and why they did or didn’t do something. Be empathetic.

35） 不要太快评判别人。你永远不知道他们完整的故事，也不知道他们为什么做了某件事，或者为什么没有做某件事。多一点共情。

36) The days are long but the decades are short.

36） 日子很长，但十年很短。