五一节，一位朋友微信了一份YC掌门人 Sam Altman 写在30岁生日的36条人生经验, 读后颇有受益，Y Combinator 是一个支持创投公司的天使基金，跟李开复在北京办的企业孵化器类似。这让山姆年纪轻轻就成了百万富翁。这篇文章以口语化英文书写，我尝试着把它意译成中文与大家分享。希望我的翻译与作者的原意不要相去太远。
The days are long but the decades are short
题目：一万年太久，只争朝夕
作者：山姆·奥特曼 译者: 方志明
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:
上星期，我刚过而立之年的生日，一位朋友问我过去十年里是否有值得分享的生活感悟与体会， 我有点犹豫不决是否要发表出来，因为此类的话题常常听起来会很容易觉得空洞乏味，但下面是我整理之后的点滴：
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）把家人，朋友，和对你重要的人放在你心里的首要位置。与其有一百个熟人，不如有十来个真正親密的朋友。常与朋友保持联络，偶尔与你朋友彻夜长谈。多开派对。
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）生活不是彩排，但也许就是，珍惜当下。光阴短暂，犹过隙之驹。做让你感到快乐而有成就感的事情 - 百年之后能流芳百世的人寥寥无几。不要浪费时间去做你不乐意的事，尽管有人会经常使唤你去做这做那。不要浪费时间去试图与你不喜欢的人维持关系，远离消极的人，消极是极坏的习惯。不要为自己想做而未去做的事找借口。
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 talentedpeople, and work hard. It’s hard to identify what to work on because original thought is hard.
3）如何成功：挑正确的事去做（这点至关重要却常常被忽视），专注，相信自已（尤其是在别人告诉你这行不通时），和能够帮助你的人建立良好的私人关系，学会辩识有才干的人，并勤奋地工作。取得初创的灵感是最困难的事，所以事业初期往往容易陷入不知从何入手的处境。
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 veryhard—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) 工作：如果你对所做的工作毫无兴趣，那么你一定不会取得成功，如果你对你所做的工作没有热情，你的生活就一定不会快乐与充实。拼命地工作 - 由于你选择刻苦地工作，也许会招致周围许多人的不快，但是如果你不勤奋努力，你余生的时光就会轻易地从你身边溜走。无论你从事何种职业，都要立志成为世界上同行中的最出色的一个，既使你沒有成为世界第一，你也也会成为行业里的佼佼者。设计出适合自已的高效率工作方法 - 比如不要因为贫于计划而浪费时间，在非最佳时间段里工作，等等。在事业初期，不要害怕承受适当的职业风险。大部分人十分偶然地挑选了自己的职业生涯 - 扪心自问你真正喜爱什么？你可能在什么样的行业内会取得成功？制造机会与业内的专家交流。
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）金钱：暂且不论金钱是否可以买到幸福，但它能买到自由，这点很关健。在金钱上捉肘见�会给你带来沉重的精神负担。总而言之，对于你的身心健康来说，有足够的钱来轻松地支付房租比你拿充足的钱去购买私人喷射飞机更实惠。挣钱常常比花钱更有乐趣，然而我个人从未后悔把钱花在朋友身上，体验新的 经历，节省时间，旅行，和支助我相信的事业。
6) Talk to people more. Read more long content and less tweets. Watch less TV. Spend less time on the Internet.
6) 多与人交流，阅读更长的文章，减少推特。少看电视，少浪费时间在互联网上。
7) Don’t waste time. Most people waste most of their time, especially in business.
7）不要浪费时间，多数人在工作中浪费了他们自己大部分的时间。
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）不要让自己任人摆布。保罗格雷厄姆曾经告诉我“有些人会令人生畏，但你很难预测何时何地会遇见谁？”（自信与自负有很大的区别，显然应做前者）。
9) Have clear goals for yourself every day, every year, and every decade.
9）每天，每年，每十年都给自己订立明确的的目标。
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）然而，计划虽然要遵循，如果难得的机遇降临了，你应该抓住。不要害怕偶尔做一些不计后果斩断后路的事。刻苦工作的一个好处是良机也会随之而来，当机会最终出现时，还是要取决你去毫不犹豫地把握它。
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）多出去走走，让自己簇拥在聪明，有趣，又有理想抱负的人中间。为他们工作或雇佣他们。（事实上，工作里最令人满意的是在工作过程中与优秀的人建立深厚的友谊）。与世界最优秀的专家，或与不见经传但极具潜力的人交往。所谓近朱者赤，近墨者黑。
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）避免被无关紧要的事分心而增加你的认知负荷。 对于这点的重要性，与多数人在这方面都做的十分糟糕事实再夸大也不为过。把你生活里分心的事通通抛开。在工作中，重要是去寻找一个有效的的方法来避免让你讨厌和堆积的琐碎之事来消耗你大脑的精力。
13) Keep your personal burn rate low. This alone will give you a lot of opportunities in life.
13）降低个人的消耗速度，单单这点就会给你人生漫长道路中带来许多的机遇，留得青山，在不怕没柴烧。
14) Summers are the best.
14）夏天是最怡人的季节。
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）不用杞人忧天，生活中的事鲜有从表面上看起来那么充满风险。多数人不愿承担风险，许多的建议都是过多地倾向于让人走保守的人生道路。
16) Ask for what you want.
16） 扪心自问自己想成为怎样的人。
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）如果你担心将来你会因为一件该做而未付诸行动的事而感到余憾，那么你就应该去做。世上没有后悔药，多数人感到终生遗憾的往往不是自己做过的事，而是想做而没去做的事。如果你不确定，那么亲亲你的男朋友或女朋友。
18) Exercise. Eat well. Sleep. Get out into nature with some regularity.
18）多运动。健康饮食。充裕睡眠。定期到户外接触大自然。
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）伸出手去帮助他人，生命中很少有比助人更让人愉悦的事。友好地对待陌生人，既便他们与你毫无关系，也应友善待之。
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）年青就是财富，不要浪费青春。事实上，在你二十多岁时，你可能会有“ 教我遵守理财理念，但我心里还没有完全准备好去执行”的态度。千金撒尽还复来，但金钱买不回来流逝的光阴。
21) Tell your parents you love them more often. Go home and visit as often as you can.
21）经常告诉你父母你爱他们。常常回家看看。
22) This too shall pass.
22）一切都会过去的。
23) Learn voraciously.
23） 如饥似渴地学习新知识。
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）经常尝试新事物，这十分重要。尝试新事物不会仅会放慢时间感，增添快乐，让生活充满情趣，对防止思维僵化也很有帮助。在你人生和职业生涯各自领域里，争取每年都去尝试做一些目标高远，新鲜，富有风险与挑战的事情。
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）还记得你在少年时对你男朋友/女朋友炽热的爱情吗？而今继续不悔初衷地去爱他/她吧。还记得儿时得到的感情是那地令人激动而快乐吗？今天请继续保持你的童心未泯的激情与快乐吧。
26) Don’t screw people and don’t burn bridges. Pick your battles carefully.
26）不要欺骗他人，过河拆桥。三思而后行，勿随意与人结怨。
27) Forgive people.
27） 宽恕他人。
28) Don’t chase status. Status without substance doesn’t work for long and is unfulfilling.
28）不要追逐地位，没有真才实学的地位不可能持久与充实。
29) Most things are ok in moderation. Almost nothing is ok in extreme amounts.
29）做事要适当，物极必反。
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）生存焦虑是生命的一部分。在经历人生旅程中的重大事件时，和在职业的转折之时尤其容易被焦虑所困扰，这个症状相对那些聪明，有雄心的人，影响更加明显。我认为一些人一心扑在工作上是以工作为借口，而避免为这些事去劳心费神。你有这样感觉是完全正常的，毫不例外。
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）多感恩,客观地看待问题。不要老是抱怨。不要妒忌别人的成功（但是要记住有些人会嫉妒你的成就，学会不去理睬它就是）。
32) Be a doer, not a talker.
32）做一个实干家，而非空谈者。
33) Given enough time, it is possible to adjust to almost anything, good or bad. Humans are remarkable at this.
33）只要有足够的时间，无论是好还是坏，一切都会适应。人类有极强的适应能力。
34) Think for a few seconds before you act. Think for a few minutes if you’re angry.
34）三思而后行。在你发火时，冷静地多想几分钟。
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）不要轻易地评判他人。你也许永远不会知道他们的全部故事，不会了解他们为什么那样做的理由。 多善解人意。
36) The days are long but the decades are short.
36）日子看似漫长,但几十年光阴眨眼即逝。