作者存档：梦爷儿

碎语二：落定

（一）
今天去星巴克坐了一会儿，喝着咖啡，看着闲书。转眼之间，三个月已甩在脑后。回忆里是冬夜，眼下是春暮。那在希望中奋斗的日子已经离我远去，取而代之的，是茫茫间落定时的缄默。

（二）
历史人物无不因时代变迁而命运各异，唯有后人一一点说。然而观如今留学大军，却也代表着另一个时代，是成是败谁能知？只是发现连自己的命运竟也被这个时代套上枷锁，身在其中，当局者迷。

Share: What Are You Going to Do With That?

The essay below is adapted from a talk delivered to a freshman class at Stanford University in May.

The 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 you must be wondering why I’m 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?

But that’s not the question I’m asking. By “do” I don’t mean a job, and by “that” I don’t 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 kindergarten 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 you’re going to be doing for the rest of the time that you’re in school.

转：不要在不断的优秀里走向平庸

William Deresiewicz 2010年在斯坦福大学的演讲：

我的题目提出的问题，当然，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）？你肯定纳闷，我为什么在以科技堡垒而闻名的斯坦福提出这个问题呢？大学学位给人带来众多机会，这还有什么需要质疑的吗？

但那不是我提出的问题。这里的“做（do）”并不是指工作（job），“那(that)”并不是指你的专业（major）。]我们不仅仅是我们的工作，教育的全部也不仅仅是一门主修专业。（We are more than our jobs, and education is more than a major.）教育也不仅仅是上大学，甚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（what kind of life are you going to lead?）？我所说的“那”指的是你得到的正规或非正规的任何训练，那些把你送到这里来的东西，你在学校的剩余时间里将要做的任何事。