06 Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish (B)求知若饥，虚心若愚 (B)

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned coke bottles for the five cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphy. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the“Mac” would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever—because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.

这一点也不浪漫。我没有宿舍，所以我睡在朋友家的地板上；那时可乐瓶的押金是五分钱，我把瓶子还回去好用押金买吃的。每个星期天晚上，我都会步行七英里穿越市区，到Hare Krishna神庙吃一顿大餐。我喜欢那儿的食物。我跟随好奇心与直觉做的事，后来证明大多数都是极其珍贵的经验。举个例子吧：

当时里德学院提供全国最好的书法教育。校园里的每一张海报，每个抽屉的标签上，都是美丽的手写字。由于已经退学，我不用再去上那些常规课程，所以我决定去参加这个课程，去学学如何写出一手漂亮的字体。我学习了serif和san serif字体，学到在不同字母组合间变更字间距，以及如何做出漂亮的版式。那是一种科学永远无法捕捉的充满美感、历史感与艺术感的微妙，我觉得迷人极了。

我从没觉得学的这些东西能在我生活中起些什么实际作用，不过十年后，当我在设计第一款Macintosh电脑时，这些东西全都派上了用场，我把它们全都设计进了电脑里，这是第一台能排出好看版式的计算机。如果我当时没学这样一门课，Macintosh可能就不会有多种字体跟变间距字体了。自从Windows抄袭了Macintosh之后，所有的个人电脑都有了这些东西。如果我没有退学，就不会去书法班旁听，而今天的电脑大概就不会有出色的版式功能。当然，当我还在大学里时，不可能把这些点点滴滴预先联系在一起，但是这在十年后回顾，生命的轨迹就显得非常清楚。

再强调一次，你无法将生命中的点滴串联起来；唯有未来回顾时，你才会明白那些点点滴滴是如何联系在一起的。所以你得相信，你现在所体会的东西，将来多少会联系在一起。你得信任某个东西，直觉也好，命运也好，生命也好，或者因果报应。这种做法让我不会失去希望，也让我的人生变得与众不同。

单词解析 Word Analysis

romantic[rəʊ'mæntɪk] adj．浪漫的；不切实际的 n．浪漫的人

例 I was told that Spain is a romantic nation.

有人告诉我说，西班牙是个浪漫的国家。

deposit [dɪ'pɒzɪt] v． 放置；（使）沉淀；存储；付（订金等）；寄存 n． 存款；订金；堆积物；矿床

例 She deposited a pile of books on my desk.

她把一摞书放在我的书桌上。

stumble ['stʌmbl] v． 绊倒；蹒跚；犯错误；无意中发现 n． 绊倒；错误

例 I stumbled over a tree root.

我被一个树根绊了一跤。

calligraphy [kə'lɪgrəfi] n．书法

例 You can find books about calligraphy on that stack.

您可以在那个书架上找到有关书法的书。

vary ['veəri] v． 改变；变化；使多样化

例 Although this is the general approach, you can vary it to some degree.

尽管这是常规方法，但可以在一定程度上改变它。

typography [taɪ'pɒgrəfi] n.（活版）印刷术；排印，印刷样式

例 Typography is the most important in this step.

印刷术在这一步最重要。

subtle['sʌtl] adj．微妙的；敏锐的；不明显的；精细的；狡猾的

例 There were subtle hints in his letter.

他的信中有些微妙的暗示。

gut [gʌt] n． 内脏；肠子；羊肠线；胆量；勇气

例 He is a man with plenty of guts.

他是个很有魄力的人。

karma ['kɑːmə] n.（佛教或印度教中）业；因果报应；缘分；命运

例 Karma's given me a whole new outlook on life.

因果报应让我对生活有了全新的看法。

语法知识点 Grammar Points

① And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.

这个句子中有一个结构“turn out to”，表示“结果是，原来是，证实是”。

例 Master of Kungfu turned out to be a cheat.

所谓的功夫大师结果是个骗子。

② If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the“Mac”would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.

这个句子中有一个结构“would have done”，为用在虚拟语气中的过去将来完成时，表示与过去的事实相反。

例 If I had seen him this afternoon, I would have told him about it.今天下午我要是见到他，我会告诉他那件事的。

③ ...because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.

这个句子中有一个结构“make the difference”，表示“有影响，很重要；产生差别”，等同于be influential in。

例 A few discussions, a few exchanges of ideas and a little tweaking here and there can make the difference between a satisfied client and one who is not.

做一些讨论、构思和一些小调整会在满意的客户和不满意的客户之间产生差别。

经典名句 Famous Classics

1. No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen.

再多的焦虑也不能改变即将要发生的事。

2. Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.

力量与成长只会来自持续的努力与奋斗。

3. I don't do anything unless I can give it 100%.

除非我能百分之百投入，否则我不做任何事。

4. Gratitude can transform common days into Thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.

感恩可把普通的日子转化为感恩节，把例行工作转化为喜悦，把一般的机会化为祝福。

5. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.

缩小自己好让他人不会感到不安，一点都不明智，我们都应该像小孩般闪闪发亮。

读书笔记

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