 September 2024 2024 年 9 月 There's some debate about whether it's a good idea to "follow your passion." In fact the question is impossible to answer with a simple yes or no. Sometimes you should and sometimes you shouldn't, but the border between should and shouldn't is very complicated. The only way to give a general answer is to trace it. 关于“追随你的激情”是否是个好主意存在一些争论。事实上，这个问题不可能用简单的“是”或“否”来回答。有时你应该这样做，有时你不应该这样做，但应该与不应该之间的界限非常复杂。给出一个普遍答案的唯一方法是追踪它。 When people talk about this question, there's always an implicit "instead of." All other things being equal, why wouldn't you work on what interests you the most? 当人们谈论这个问题时，总是有一个隐含的“而不是”。在其他条件相同的情况下，为什么不做你最感兴趣的事情呢？所以即使提出这个问题也意味着所有其他条件并不相同，你必须在做你最感兴趣的事情和其他事情之间做出选择，比如收入最高的工作。 当人们谈论这个问题时，总是有一个隐含的“而不是”。在其他条件相同的情况下，为什么不做你最感兴趣的事情呢？所以即使提出这个问题也意味着所有其他条件并不相同，你必须在做你最感兴趣的事情和其他事情之间做出选择，比如收入最高的工作。 And indeed if your main goal is to make money, you can't usually afford to work on what interests you the most. People pay you for doing what they want, not what you want. But there's an obvious exception: when you both want the same thing. For example, if you love football, and you're good enough at it, you can get paid a lot to play it. 事实上，如果你的主要目标是赚钱，你通常不能做你最感兴趣的事情。人们付钱给你是为了让你做他们想要的事情，而不是你想要的事情。但有一个明显的例外：当你们都想要同样的东西时。例如，如果你喜欢足球，并且你足够擅长，你可以通过踢球赚很多钱。 Of course the odds are against you in a case like football, because so many other people like playing it too. This is not to say you shouldn't try though. It depends how much ability you have and how hard you're willing to work. 当然，在像足球这样的情况下，机会对你不利，因为有太多其他人也喜欢踢球。这并不是说你不应该尝试。这取决于你的能力有多强以及你愿意付出多大的努力。 当你有奇怪的兴趣时，成功的几率会更高：当你喜欢一些报酬丰厚且很少有人喜欢的事情时。例如，很明显比尔·盖茨真的热爱经营软件公司。他不仅仅热爱编程，很多人都喜欢编程。他热爱为客户编写软件。这确实是一种非常奇怪的兴趣，但如果你有这种兴趣，你可以通过满足它赚很多钱。 当你有奇怪的兴趣时，机会会更好：当你喜欢一些报酬丰厚且很少有人喜欢的事情时。例如，很明显比尔·盖茨真的很喜欢经营软件公司。他不仅仅喜欢编程，很多人都喜欢编程。他喜欢为客户编写软件。这确实是一种非常奇怪的兴趣，但如果你有这种兴趣，你可以通过满足它赚很多钱。 甚至有些人对赚钱有真正的智力兴趣。这与单纯的贪婪不同。他们只是无法忽视某些东西被错误定价的情况，并且无法不采取行动。对他们来说，这就像一个谜题。[1] In fact there's an edge case here so spectacular that it turns all the preceding advice on its head. 事实上，这里有一个极端的例子，它如此壮观，以至于颠覆了之前所有的建议。如果你想赚取非常巨额的钱——数亿甚至数十亿美元——那么从事你最感兴趣的事情会非常有用。原因不是你从中获得的额外动力，而是赚取巨额财富的方法是创办一家初创公司，而从事你感兴趣的事情是发现初创公司想法的绝佳方式。 事实上，这里有一个极端的例子，它如此壮观，以至于颠覆了之前所有的建议。如果你想赚取非常巨额的钱——数亿甚至数十亿美元——那么从事你最感兴趣的事情会非常有用。原因不是你从中获得的额外动力，而是赚取巨额财富的方法是创办一家初创公司，而从事你感兴趣的事情是发现初创公司想法的绝佳方式。 Many if not most of the biggest startups began as projects the founders were doing for fun. Apple, Google, and Facebook all began that way. 许多甚至大多数最大的初创公司都是作为创始人为了好玩而做的项目开始的。苹果、谷歌和脸书都是这样开始的。为什么这种模式如此普遍？因为最好的想法往往是如此的异类，以至于如果你有意识地寻找赚钱的方法，你会忽略它们。而如果你年轻且擅长技术，你对什么有趣的工作有无意识的直觉，这与需要构建的东西非常一致。 许多甚至大多数最大的初创公司都是作为创始人为了好玩而做的项目开始的。苹果、谷歌和脸书都是这样开始的。为什么这种模式如此普遍？因为最好的想法往往是如此的异类，以至于如果你有意识地寻找赚钱的方法，你会忽略它们。而如果你年轻且擅长技术，你对什么有趣的无意识本能与需要构建的东西非常一致。 So there's something like a midwit peak for making money. If you don't need to make much, you can work on whatever you're most interested in; if you want to become moderately rich, you can't usually afford to; but if you want to become super rich, and you're young and good at technology, working on what you're most interested in becomes a good idea again. 所以在赚钱方面有点像一个中智峰。如果你不需要赚很多钱，你可以做你最感兴趣的事情；如果你想变得中等富有，通常你不能这样做；但如果你想变得超级富有，并且你年轻且擅长技术，那么从事你最感兴趣的事情又变成了一个好主意。 What if you're not sure what you want? What if you're attracted to the idea of making money and more attracted to some kinds of work than others, but neither attraction predominates? How do you break ties? 如果你不确定你想要什么怎么办？如果你被赚钱的想法吸引，并且对某些工作类型比其他类型更感兴趣，但没有一种吸引力占主导地位怎么办？你如何打破僵局？ The key here is to understand that such ties are only apparent. When you have trouble choosing between following your interests and making money, it's never because you have complete knowledge of yourself and of the types of work you're choosing between, and the options are perfectly balanced. 这里的关键是要明白这种联系只是表面上的。当你在兴趣和赚钱之间难以抉择时，并不是因为你对自己和你选择的工作类型有完全的了解，并且这些选项是完全平衡的。当你无法决定走哪条路时，几乎总是由于无知。事实上，你通常同时遭受三种无知的困扰：你不知道什么让你快乐，不知道各种工作的真实情况，或者不知道你能做得多好。[2] In a way this ignorance is excusable. It's often hard to predict these things, and no one even tells you that you need to. If you're ambitious you're told you should go to college, and this is good advice so far as it goes, but that's where it usually ends. No one tells you how to figure out what to work on, or how hard this can be. 在某种程度上，这种无知是可以原谅的。预测这些事情通常很难，甚至没有人告诉你需要这样做。如果你有抱负，人们会告诉你应该上大学，这在一定程度上是个好建议，但通常到此为止。没有人告诉你如何弄清楚要做什么工作，或者这有多难。 What do you do in the face of uncertainty? Get more certainty. And probably the best way to do that is to try working on things you're interested in. That will get you more information about how interested you are in them, how good you are at them, and how much scope they offer for ambition. 面对不确定性时你该怎么办？获得更多的确定性。可能最好的方法是尝试做你感兴趣的事情。这会让你获得更多关于你对它们的兴趣程度、你在它们方面的能力以及它们为抱负提供的空间的信息。 Don't wait. Don't wait till the end of college to figure out what to work on. Don't even wait for internships during college. You don't necessarily need a job doing x in order to work on x; often you can just start doing it in some form yourself. And since figuring out what to work on is a problem that could take years to solve, the sooner you start, the better. 不要等待。不要等到大学结束才弄清楚要做什么工作。甚至不要等到大学期间的实习。你不一定需要一份做 x 的工作才能从事 x；通常你可以自己以某种形式开始做它。由于弄清楚要做什么工作可能需要数年时间，所以越早开始越好。 One useful trick for judging different kinds of work is to look at who your colleagues will be. You'll become like whoever you work with. Do you want to become like these people? 判断不同工作的一种有用技巧是看看你的同事会是谁。你会变得像你一起工作的人。你想变得像这些人吗？ Indeed, the difference in character between different kinds of work is magnified by the fact that everyone else is facing the same decisions as you. If you choose a kind of work mainly for how well it pays, you'll be surrounded by other people who chose it for the same reason, and that will make it even more soul-sucking than it seems from the outside. Whereas if you choose work you're genuinely interested in, you'll be surrounded mostly by other people who are genuinely interested in it, and that will make it extra inspiring. [3] 确实，不同类型工作的性格差异因每个人都面临与你相同的决定而被放大。如果你选择一种工作主要是因为它的报酬好，你会被其他同样因为这个原因选择它的人包围，这会使它比从外面看起来更令人厌倦。而如果你选择你真正感兴趣的工作，你会被大多数真正对它感兴趣的人包围，这会使它更加鼓舞人心。[3] The other thing you do in the face of uncertainty is to make choices that are uncertainty-proof. The less sure you are about what to do, the more important it is to choose options that give you more options in the future. I call this "staying upwind." If you're unsure whether to major in math or economics, for example, choose math; math is upwind of economics in the sense that it will be easier to switch later from math to economics than from economics to math. 在面对不确定性时，你要做的另一件事是做出不确定性-proof 的选择。你越不确定该做什么，选择未来给你更多选择的选项就越重要。我称之为“保持上风”。例如，如果你不确定是主修数学还是经济学，选择数学；数学在经济学的上风方向，这意味着从数学转到经济学比从经济学转到数学更容易。 There's one case, though, where it's easy to say whether you should work on what interests you the most: if you want to do great work. This is not a sufficient condition for doing great work, but it is a necessary one. 不过，有一种情况很容易判断你是否应该做你最感兴趣的工作：如果你想做出伟大的工作。这不是做出伟大工作的充分条件，但它是必要条件。 There's a lot of selection bias in advice about whether to "follow your passion," and this is the reason. Most such advice comes from people who are famously successful, and if you ask someone who's famously successful how to do what they did, most will tell you that you have to work on what you're most interested in. And this is in fact true. 关于是否“追随你的激情”的建议中有很多选择偏差，这就是原因。大多数这样的建议来自那些著名的成功人士，如果你问一个著名的成功人士如何做他们所做的，大多数人会告诉你，你必须做你最感兴趣的事情。这实际上是对的。 That doesn't mean it's the right advice for everyone. Not everyone can do great work, or wants to. But if you do want to, the complicated question of whether or not to work on what interests you the most becomes simple. The answer is yes. The root of great work is a sort of ambitious curiosity, and you can't manufacture that. 这并不意味着这是对每个人都正确的建议。不是每个人都能做出伟大的工作，或者想要做出伟大的工作。但如果你确实想要，关于是否做你最感兴趣的事情的复杂问题就变得简单了。答案是肯定的。伟大工作的根源是一种雄心勃勃的好奇心，而你无法制造这种好奇心。 Notes 注释 [1] These examples show why it's a mistake to assume that economic inequality must be evidence of some kind of brokenness or unfairness. It's obvious that different people have different interests, and that some interests yield far more money than others, so how can it not be obvious that some people will end up much richer than others? In a world where some people like to write enterprise software and others like to make studio pottery, economic inequality is the natural outcome. [1] 这些例子表明，假设经济不平等必然是某种破损或不公平的证据是错误的。显然，不同的人有不同的兴趣，而某些兴趣比其他兴趣带来更多的钱，所以怎么能不明显有些人会比其他人更富有呢？在一个有些人喜欢编写企业软件而有些人喜欢制作工作室陶器的世界里，经济不平等是自然的结果。 [2] Difficulty choosing between interests is a different matter. That's not always due to ignorance. It's often intrinsically difficult. I still have trouble doing it. [2] 在兴趣之间选择困难是另一回事。这并不总是由于无知。它通常本质上是困难的。我仍然很难做到这一点。 [3] You can't always take people at their word on this. Since it's more prestigious to work on things you're interested in than to be driven by money, people who are driven mainly by money will often claim to be more interested in their work than they actually are. One way to test such claims is by doing the following thought experiment: if their work didn't pay well, would they take day jobs doing something else in order to do it in their spare time? Lots of mathematicians and scientists and engineers would. Historically lots have. But I don't think as many investment bankers would. [3] 你不能总是相信人们在这方面的话。由于从事你感兴趣的事情比被金钱驱动更有声望，主要被金钱驱动的人往往会声称对他们的工作比实际更感兴趣。测试这种说法的一种方法是进行以下思维实验：如果他们的工作报酬不高，他们会不会在业余时间做其他工作来做这件事？许多数学家、科学家和工程师会这样做。历史上有很多人这样做。但我认为不会有那么多投资银行家这样做。 This thought experiment is also useful for distinguishing between university departments. 这个思维实验对于区分大学部门也很有用。 Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Paul Buchheit, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris, Harj Taggar, and Garry Tan for reading drafts of this. 感谢 Trevor Blackwell、Paul Buchheit、Jessica Livingston、Robert Morris、Harj Taggar 和 Garry Tan 阅读草稿。 |