比尔·盖茨哈佛演讲

Bill Gate’s speech at Harvard
Thank you.
谢谢!
President Bach,former resident Rudenstine,incoming President Faust,members of the Harvard corporaton and the board of overseers,members of the faculty parents and especially the graduates.
尊敬的Bok校长、Rudenstine前校长,即将上任的Faust校长,哈佛集团的各位成员,监管理事会的各位理事;各位老师、各位家长、各位同学。
I've been waiting more than 30 years to say this.
有一句话我等了30年,现在终于可以说了——
Dad,I always told you I'd come back and get my degree.
老爸,我总是跟你说,我会回来拿到我的学位了。
I wanna thank Harvard for this honour.
我要感谢哈佛大学给我这个荣誉。
I'll be changing my job next year and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume.
明年,我就要换工作了。我终于可以在简历上写我有一个本科学位,这真是不错啊!
I applaud the graduates for taking a much more direct route to your degrees.
我为今天在座的各位同学感到高兴,你们拿到学位可比我简单多了。
From my part I'm just happy that the Crimson called me Harvard's most successful drop out.
哈佛的校报称我是“哈佛历史上最成功的辍学生”。
I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class.
我想这大概使我有资格代表我这一类学生发言。
I did the best of everyone who failed.
在所有的失败者中,我做的最好。
But I also want to be recognised as the guy who got Steve Balmer to drop out of business school.
但是我还是想要提醒大家的是,我使得Steve Balmer也从哈佛商学院退学了。
I'm a bad influence.
我是个有着恶劣影响力的人。
That's why I was invited to speak at your graduation.
这就是为什么我被邀请来,在你们的毕业典礼上演讲。
If I'd spoken at your orientataion fewer of you might be here today.
如果我在你们的入学欢迎仪式上演讲,那么能够坚持到今天在这里毕业的人也许会少得多吧。
Harvard was a phenomenal experience for me.
对我来说,哈佛的求学经历是一段非凡的经历。
Academic life was fascinating.
校园生活很有趣。
I used to sit in on lots of classes that I hadn't even signed up for.
我常去旁听我没选修的课。
And dorm life was terrific.
哈佛的可爱生活也很棒。
I lived up at Radcliffe,in Courier House.
我在Radcliffe过着逍遥自在的日子
There were always a lot of people in my dorm room late at night discussing things,because everyone knew that I didn't worry about getting up in the morning.
每天我的寝室里总有很多人,一直待到半夜,讨论着各种事情。因为每个人都知道,我从不考虑第二天早起。
That's how I came to be the leader of the antisocial group.
这使得我变成了校园里那些不安分学生的头头。
We clung each other as a way of validating our rejection of all those social people.
我们互相粘在一起,做出一种拒绝所有正常学生的姿态。
Radcliffe was a great place to live.
Radcliffe是个过日子的好地方。
There were more women up there and most of the guys were math-science types.
那里的女生比男生多,而且大多数男生都是理工科的。
The combination offered me the best odds,if you know what I mean.
这种状况为我创造了最好的机会,如果你们明白我的意思。
That's where I learned the sad lesson that improving your odds doesn't guarantee success.
可惜的是,我正是在这里学到了人生中悲伤的一课——机会大,并不等于你就会成功!
One of my biggest memories of Harvard came in January 1975.
我在哈佛最难忘的回忆之一发生在1975年1月。
When I made a call from Courier House to a company in Albuquerque,New Mexico,that had begun making the world's first personal computer.
那时我从宿舍楼里给位于Albuquerque的一家公司打了一个电话。那家公司已经在着手制造世界上第一台个人电脑。
I offered to sell them software.
我提出想向他们出售软件。
I worried they would realize I was just a student in a dorm and hung up on me.
我担心他们会发觉我是一个住在宿舍的学生,从而挂断电话。
Instead they said,we're not quite ready,come see us in a month,which was a good thing because we hadn't written the software yet.
但是他们却说:“我们还没准备好,一个月后你再来找我们吧。”这是个好消息,因为那时软件还根本没有写出来呢。
From that moment I worked day and night on the extra credit project that marked the end of my college education and the beginning of a remarkable journey with Microsoft.
就是从那个时候起,我日以继夜地在这个小小的课外项目上工作,这导致了我学生生活的结束以及通往微软公司的不平凡的旅程的开始。
What I remember above all about Harvard,was being in the midst of so much energy and intelligence.
不管怎样,我对哈佛的回忆,主要都与充沛的精力和智力活动有关。
It could be exhilarating,intimidating,sometimes even discouraging but always challenging.
哈佛的生活令人愉快,也令人感到有压力,有时甚至会感到泄气,但永远充满了挑战性。
It was an amazing privilege and though I left early,I was transformed by my years at Harvard,the friendships I made and the ideas I worked on.
生活在哈佛是一种吸引人的特殊待遇,虽然我离开的比较早,但是我在这里的经历,在这里结识的朋友,在这里发展起来的一些想法,永远地改变了我。
But taking a serious look back,I do have one big regret.
但是,如果现在严肃地回忆起来,我确实有一个真正的遗憾。
I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world,the appalling disparities of health and wealth,and opportunity,that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.
我离开哈佛的时候,根本没有意识到这个世界是多么的不平等。人类在健康、财富和机遇上的不平等大得可怕。它使得无数的人们被迫生活在绝望之中。
I learned a lot here at Harvard about new idea and economics and politics.
我在哈佛学到了很多经济学和政治学的新思想。
I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences.
我也了解了很多科学上的新进展。
But humanities greatest advances are not in its discoveries,but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity.
但是,人类最大的进步,并不来自于这些发现,而是来自于那些有助于减少人类不平等的发现。
Whether through democracy,strong public education,quality health care or broad economic opportunity,reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.
不管通过何种手段,民主制度、健全的公共教育体系,高质量的医疗保健还是广泛的经济机会,减少不平等始终是人类最大的成就。
I left campus knowing little about the millions of young people cheated out of educational opportunities here in this country.
我离开校园的时候,根本不知道,在这个国家里,有几百万的年轻人无法获得接受教育的机会。
And I knew nothing about the millions of people living in unspeakable poverty and disease in developing countries.
我也不知道,发展中国家里有无数的人们生活在无法形容的贫穷和疾病中。
It took me decades to find out.
我花了几十年才明白这些事情。
You graduates came to Harvard at a different time.
在座的各位同学,你们是在与我不同的时代来到哈佛的。
You know more about the world's inequities than the classes that came before.
你们比以前的学生更多地了解世界是怎样的不平等。
In your years here,I've hope you've had a chance to think about how in this age of accelerating technology we can finally take on these inequities and we can solve them.
在你们的哈佛求学过程中,我希望你们已经思考过一个问题,那就是在这个新技术加速发展的时代,我们怎样最终应对这种不平等,以及我们怎样来解决这个问题。
Imagine just for the sake of discussion that you have a few hours a week and a few dollars a month to donate to a cause.
为了讨论的方便,请想象——假如你每个星期可以捐献一些时间,每个月可以捐献一些钱。
And you wanted to spend that time and money where it would have the greatest impace in saving and improving lives.
你希望这些时间和金钱,可以用到对拯救生命和改善人类生活有最大作用的地方。
Where would you spend it?
你会选择什么地方?
For Melinda and I,the challenge is the same.
对Melinda和我来说,这也是我们面临的问题。
How can we do the most good for the greatest number with the resources we have?
我们如何能将我们拥有的资源发挥出最大的作用?
During our discussions on this question,Melinda and I read an article about the millions of children who are dying every year in poor countries from diseases that we have long ago made harmless in this country.
在讨论过程中,Melinda和我读到了一篇文章,里面说在那些贫穷的国家,每年有数百万的儿童死于那些在美国早已不成问题的疾病——
Measles,malaria,pneumonia,hepatitis-b,yellow fever,one disease that I had never heard of,rotavirus,was killing half a million children each year.
麻疹、疟疾、肺炎、乙型肝炎、黄热病...还有一种以前我从未听说过的轮状病毒。这些疾病每年导致50万的儿童死亡。
None of them(is)in the United States.
但是在美国一例死亡病例都没有。
We were shocked.
我们被震惊了。
We had assumed that if millions of children were dying and they could be saved,the world would make it a priority to discover and deliver the medicines to save them,but it did not.
我们想如果几百万的儿童正在死亡线上挣扎,而他们是可以被挽救的。那么世界理应将用药物拯救他们作为头等大事。但是事实并非如此。
For under a dollar there were interventions that could save lives that just weren't being delivered.
那些价格还不到一美元的救命的药剂,并没有送到他们的手中。
If you believe that every life has equal value,it's revolting to learn that some lives are seen as worth saving and others are not.
如果你相信每个生命都是平等的,那么当你发现某些生命被挽救了,而另一些生命被放弃了,你会感到无法接受。
We said to ourselves this can't be true,buf if it is true it deserves to be the pridoity of our giving.
我们对自己说,事情不可能如此。如果这是真的,那么它理应是我们努力的头等大事。
So we begun our work in the same way anyone here would begin it.
所以我们用任何人都会想到的方式开始工作。
We asked,how could the world let these children die?
我们问:“这个世界怎么可以眼睁睁地看着这些孩子死去。”
The answer is simple and harsh.
答案很简单,也很令人难堪。
The market did not reward saving the lives of these children and governments did not subsidise it.
在市场经济中,拯救儿童是一项没有利润的工作,政府也不会提供补助。
So the children die because their mothers and fathers had no power in the market and no voice in the system.
这些儿童之所以会死亡,是因为他们的父母在经济上没有实力,在政治上没有能力发出声音。
But you and I have both.
但是,你们和我两者都具备。
We can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative capitalism.
我们可以让市场更好地为穷人服务,如果我们能够设计出一种更有创新性的资本主义制度。
If we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit or at least earn a living,serving people who are suffering from the great inequities.
如果我们可以改变市场,让更多的人可以获得利润,这就可以帮到那些正在极端不平等的状况下受苦的人们。
We can also press governments around the world to spend tax payer money in ways that better reflect,the values of the people who pay the taxes.
我们还可以向全世界的政府施压,要求他们将纳税人的钱花到更符合纳税人价值观的地方
If we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits for business and votes for politicians,we will have found a sustainable way to reduce inequity in the world.
如果我们能够找到一种方法,既可以帮到穷人,优客一味商人带来利润,为政治家带来选票,我们就找到了一种减少世界性不平等的可持续的发展道路。
Now this task is open ended.
这个任务是无限的。
It can never be finished,but a conscious effort to answer this challenge can change the world.
他不可能被完全完成,但是任何自觉地解决这个问题的尝试,都将会改变这个世界。
I'm optimistic that we can do it.
在这个问题上,我是乐观的。
But I talk to skeptics who claim there is no hope.
但是我也遇到过那些感到绝望的怀疑主义者。
They say inequity has been with us since the beginning and will be with us until the end because people just don't care.
他们说:“不平等从人类诞生的第一天就存在,到人类灭亡的最后一天也将存在,因为人类对这个问题根本不在乎!”
I completely disagree.
我完全不能同意这种观点。
I believe we have more caring than we know what to do with.
我相信,问题不是我们不在乎,而是我们不知道怎么做。
All of us here in this yard,at one time or another,have seen human tragedies that broke our heart.
此刻在这个院子里的所有人,生命中总有这样或那样的时刻,目睹人类的悲剧,感到万分伤心。
And yet we did nothing.
但是我们什么也没做。
Not because we don't care,but because we didn't know what to do.
并非我们无动于衷,而是因为我们不知道做什么和怎么做。
If we had known how to help,we would have acted.
如果我们知道如何做是有效的,那么我们就会采取行动。
The barrier to change is not too little caring.
改变世界的阻碍,并非人类的冷漠。
It is too much complexity.
而是世界实在太复杂。
To turn caring into action,we need to see a problem,see a solution and see the impact.
为了将关心转变为行动,我们需要找到问题,发现解决问题的方法,评估后果。
But complexity blocks all three steps.
但是世界的复杂性,使得所有这些步骤都难于做到。
Even with the advent of the internet and 24-hour news,it is still a complex enterprise to get people to truly see the problems.
即使有了互联网和24小时直播的新闻台,让人们真正发现问题所在依然十分困难。
When an airplane crashes,officials immediately call a press conference.
当一家飞机坠毁了,官员们会立刻召开新闻发布会
They promise to investigate,determine the cause and prevent similar crashes in the futures.
他们承诺进行调查、找到原因,防止将来再次发生类似事故。
But if the officials were brutally honest,they would say"Of all the people in the world who died today from preventable causes,1 half of 1 percent were on this plane.We're determined to do everything possible to solve the problem that took the lives of the 1 half of 1 percent.".
但是如果那些官员敢说真话,他们就会说:“在今天这一天,全世界所有可以避免的死亡之中,只有0.5%的死者来自于这次空难。我们决心尽一切努力调查这个0.5%的死亡原因。”
The problem is not just the plane crash but the millions of preventable deaths.
显然,更重要的问题不是这次空难,而是其他几百万可以预防的死亡事件。
We don't read much about these deaths,the media covers what's new and millions of people dying is nothing new.
我们并没有很多机会了解那些死亡事件,媒体总是报告新闻,而几百万人将要死去并非新闻。
So it stays in the background where it's easy to ignore.
如果没有人报道,那么这些事件就很容易被忽视。
But even when we do see it or read about it,it's difficult to keep our eyes on the problem.
另一方面,即使我们确实目睹了事件本身或者看到了相关报道,我们也很难持续关注这些事件。
It's difficult to look at suffering if the situation is so complex that we don't know how to help and so we look away.
看到他人受苦是令人痛苦的,何况问题又如此复杂。我们根本不知道如何去帮助他人,所以我们将会顾左右而言他。
If we can really see a problem,which is the first step,we come to the second step.
就算我们真正发现了问题所在,也不过是迈出了第一步,接着还有第二步。
Cutting through the complexity to find a solution.
那就是从复杂的事件中找到解决方法。
Finding solutions is essential if we want to make the most of our caring.
如果我们要让关心落到实处,我们就必须找到解决方法。
If we have clear and proven answers any time an organisation or an individual asks,"How can I help?",then we can get action.
如果我们有一个清晰和可靠的答案,那么当任何组织和个人发出疑问“我如何能提供帮助”的时候,我们就能采取行动。
And we can make sure that none of the caring in the world is wasted.
我们就能够保证不浪费一丁点全世界人类对他人的关心。
The complexity makes it hard to mark a path of action for everyone who cares and makes it hard for that caring to matter.
但是,世界的复杂性使得很难找到对全世界每一个有爱心的人都有效的行动方法。因此人类对他人的关心,往往很难产生实际效果。
Cutting through complexity to find solutions runs through 4 predictable stages:
从这个复杂的世界中找到解决方法可以分为四个步骤:
Determine a goal.
Find the highest impact approach.
Deliver the technology ideal for that approach and in the mean time use the best application of technology you already have.
1、确定目标
2、找到最高效的方法
3、发现适用于这个方法的新技术
4、同时最聪明地利用现有的技术。
Whether it's something sophisticated like a new drug or something simple like a bed net.
不管它是复杂的药物还是最简单的蚊帐。
The aids epidemic offers an example,the broad goal of course is to end the disease.
艾滋病就是一个例子,总的目标,毫无疑问是消灭这种疾病。
The highest leverage approach is prevention,the ideal technology would be a vaccine that gives life long immunity with a single dose.
最高效的方法是预防,最理想的技术是发明一种疫苗,只要注射一次,就可以终生免疫。
So governments,drug companies and foundations are funding vaccine research.
所以,政府、制药公司、基金会应该资助疫苗研究。
But their work is likely to take more than a decade.
但是,这样的研究工作很可能十年之内都无法完成。
So in the mean time we have to work with what we have in hand and the best prevention approach we have now is getting people to avoid risky behavior.
因此,与此同时,我们必须运用现有的技术。目前最有效的预防方法就是设法让人们避免那些危险的行为。
Pursuing that goal starts the 4 step cycle again.
要实现这个新目标,有可以用新的四步循环。
This is the pattern.
这是一种模式。
The crucial thing is to never stop thinking and working.
关键的东西是永远不要停止思考和行动。
And never do what we did with malaria and tuberculosis in the 20th century.
我们千万不能再犯上个世纪在疟疾和肺结核上犯过的错误。
Which is to surrender to complexity and quit.
那时我们因为它们太复杂而放弃了采取行动。
The final step after seeing the problem and finding an approach,is to measure the impact of the work and to share that,success or failure,so that others can learn from the efforts.
在发现问题和找到解决方法之后,就是最后一步,评估工作结果。将你的成功或者失败经验传播出去,这样其他人就可以从你的努力中有所收获。
You have to have the statistics,of course.
当然,你必须有一些统计数字。
You have to be able to show for example that a program is vaccinating millions more children.
你必须让他人知道你的项目,为几百万儿童新接种了疫苗。
You have to be able to show for example a decline in the number of children dying from the diseases.
你也必须让他人知道,儿童因病死亡人数下降了多少。
This is essential not just to improve the program but also to help draw more investment from business and government.
这些都是很关键的,不仅有利于改善项目效果,也有利于从商界和政府得到更多的帮助。
But if you want to inspire people to participate,you have to show more than numbers.
但是,如果你想鼓励其他人参加你的项目,你就必须拿出更多的统计数字。
You have to convey the human impact of the work.
你必须展示你的项目的人性因素。
So people can feel what saving a life means to the families affected.
这样其他人才会感受到,拯救一个生命,对那些处在困境中的家庭到底意味着什么。
I remember going to the World Economic Forum some years back and sitting on a lobal health panel that was discussing ways to save millions of lives.
几年前,我去瑞士达沃斯旁听一个全球健康问题论坛,会议的内容有关于如何拯救几百万条生命
Millions!
是几百万!
Think of the thrill if you could save just one person's life,then multiply that by millions.
想一想吧,拯救一个人的生命已经让人何等激动。
Yet,this was the most boring panel I had ever been on.Ever!
但是,不幸的是,这是我参加过的最最乏味的论坛。从未(这么乏味过)!
So boring that even I couldn't stand it.
乏味到我无法强迫自己听下去。
What made that experience especially striking was that I had just come from an event where we were introducing version 13 of some piece of software,and we had people jumping and shouting with excitement.
那次经历之所以让我难忘,是因为之前我们刚刚发布了一个软件的第13个版本,我们让观众激动地跳了起来,喊出了声。
I love getting people excited about software.
我喜欢人们因为软件而感到激动。
But why can't we generate even more excitement for saving lives.
那么我们为什么不能够让人们因为能能够拯救生命而感到更加激动呢?
You can't get people excited unless you can help them see and feel the impact.
除非你能够让人们看到或者感受到行动的影响力,否则你无法让人们激动。
The way to do that is another complex question.
如何做到这一点并不是一件简单的事。
Still,I'm optimistic.
同前面一样,在这个问题上我依然是乐观的。
Yet inequity has been with us forever,but the new tools we have to cut through complexity have not been with us forever.
不错,人类的不平等有史以来一直存在,但是那些能够化繁为简的新工具却是最近才出现的。
They are new.
他们是新工具。
They can help us make the most of our caring.
这些新工具可以帮助我们将人类的同情心发挥最大的作用。
And that's why the future can be different from the past.
这就是为什么将来同过去是不一样的。
The defining and ongoing innovations of this age,biotechnology,the personal computer and the internet give us a chance we've never had before.
这个时代无时无刻不在涌现出新的革新,生物技术,计算机,互联网给了我们一个从未有过的机会。