不要在不断优秀中变得平庸

1、作者简介:william deresiewicz is a contributing writer for the nation and a contributing editor at the new republic his next book, a jane austen bjucation, will be published next year by penguin press威廉徳莱塞维茨(william deresiewicz)是国家杂志撰稿人和新共和杂志编辑。 他的新书简奥斯汀教育明年将由企鹅出版社出版。”木文是威廉徳莱寒维茨(william deresiewicz)在斯坦福人

2、学的演讲，标题也叫：勇气挣 脱身上的网。正文：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 won dering whybothering to raise it here, at stanford, this renowned cita

3、del of science and technology. what doubt can there be that the world will offer you many opportunities to use your degree?(学习文学、艺术或粋学能有什么用呢？所以你肯定纳闷，我为什么在在以科技堡垒而 闻名的斯坦福提出这个问题呢？在大学学位给人帯来众多机会的问题上还有什么可怀疑的 吗？)but that's not the questionasking. by ”do" i don't mean ajob, and by "that” i

4、 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,h i mean, what kind of life are you going to lead?

5、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 yoitre in school.(但那不是我捉出的问题。这里的“做”并不是指工作，“那”并不是指你的专业。我们 不仅仅是耍个工作，教育不仅仅是学一门专业。教育也不仅仅是上大学，其至也不仅是从幼 儿园到研究生院的正

6、规学校教育。我说的“你要做什么”的意思是你要过什么样的牛活？我 所说的“那'指的是你得到的正规或非止规的任何训练，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。)we should start by talking about how you did, in fact, get here you got here by getting very good at a certain set of skills your parents pushed you to excel from the time you were very young. they sent you

7、 to good schools, where the encouragement of your teachers and the example of your peers helped push you even harder. your natural aptitudes were nurtured so that, in addition to excelling in all your subjects, you developed a number of specific interests that you cultivated with particular vigor. y

8、ou did extracurricular activities, went to afterschool programs, took private lessons you spent summers doing advanced courses at a local college or attending skill-specific camps and workshops you worked hard, you paid attention, and you tried your very best and so you got very good at math, or pia

9、no, or lacrosse, or, indeed, several things at once.（我们不妨先来讨论你是如何考入斯坦福的吧。你能进入这所人学说明你在某些技能上 非常出色。你的父母在你很小的时候就鼓励你追求卓越。他们送你到好学校，老师的鼓励和 同伴的榜样激励你更努力地学习。除了在所有课程上都出类拔萃之外，你还注重修养的提高, 充满热情地培养了一些特殊兴趣。你用几个暑假在本地大学里预习大学课程，或参加专门 技能的夏令营或训练营。你学习刻苦、精力集中、全力以赴。所以，你在数学、钢琴、曲棍 球等众多方面都很出色。）now there's nothing wrong wit

10、h mastering skills, with wan ting to do your best and to be the best. whafs wrong is what the system leaves out: which is to say, everything else. i don't mean that by choosing to excel in math, say, you are failing to develop your verbal abilities to their fullest extent, or that in addition to

11、 focusing on geology, you should also focus on political scienee, or that while you're learning the piano, you should also be working on the flute. it is the nature of specialization, after all, to be specialized. no, the problem with specialization is that it narrows your attention to the point

12、 where all you know about and all you want to know about, and, indeed, all you can know about, is your specialt y.（掌握这些技能当然没冇错，全力以赴成为最优秀的人也没冇错。错误之处在于这个体 系遗漏的地方：即任何别的东西。我并不是说因为选择钻研数学，你在充分发展话语表达能 力的潜力方而就失败了；也不是说除了集中粹力学习地质学之外，你还应该研究政治学；也 不是说你在学习钢琴时还应该学吹笛子。毕竟，专业化的木质就是要专业性。可是，专业 化的问题在于它把你的注意力限制在一个点上，即你已经

13、知道和想知道的东西。其实，你能 知道的一切就是你的专业。）the problem with specialization is that it makes you into a specialist. it cuts you off, not only from everything else in the world, but also from everything else in yourself. and of course, as college freshmen, your specialization is only just beginning. in the journey

14、toward the success that you all hope to achieve, you have completed, by getting into stanford, only the first of many legs. three more years of college, three or four or five years of law school or medical school or a ph.d. program, then residencies or postdocs or years as a junior associate. in sho

15、rt, an ever-narrowing funnel of specialization. you go from being a political-science major to being a lawyer to being a corporate attorney focusing on taxation issues in the consumer-products industry. you go from being a biochemistry major to being a doctor to being a cardiologist to being a cardi

16、ac surgeon who performs heart-valve replacements.（专业化的问题是它让你成为专家，切断你与世界上其他任何东两的联系，不仅如此， 还切断你与自身其他潜能的联系。当然，作为大一新生，你的专业才刚刚开始。在你走向 所渴望的成功之路的过程中，进入斯坦福是你踏上的众多阶梯屮的一个。再读三年大学，三 五年法学院或医学院或博士，然后再干若干年住院实习生或博士后或助理教授。总而言之， 进入越来越狭窄的专业化轨道。你可能从政治学专业的学生变成了律师或者公司代理人，再 变成专门研究消费品领域的税收问题的公司代理人。你从生物化学专业的学生变成了博士, 再变成心脏病学家

17、，再变成专门做心脏瓣膜移植的心脏病医牛。）again, there's nothing wrong with being those thin gs. it'sjust that, as you get deeper and deeper into the funnel, into the tunnel, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember who you once were. you start to wonder what happened to that person who played piano and lac

18、rosse and sat around with her friends having intense conversations about life and politics and all the things she was learning in her classes the 19-year-old who could do so many things, and was interested in so many things, has become a 40-year-old who thinks about only one thing. that's why ol

19、der people are so boring"hey, my dad's a smart guy, but all he talks about is money and livers.11（再次，做这些事没有任何错。只不过，在你越來越深入地进入这个轨道后，再记得 你最初的样子就变得越來越困难了。你开始怀念那个曾经谈钢琴和打illi棍球的人，思考那个 曾经和刖友热烈讨论人半和政治以及在课堂内容的人在做什么。那个活泼能于的19岁年 轻人已经变成了只想一件事的40岁中年人。难怪年长的人这么乏味无趣。“哎，我爸爸曾经 是非常聪明的人，但他现在除了谈论钱和肝脏外再无其他。”）an

20、d there's another problem. maybe you never really wanted to be a cardiac surgeon in the first place. it just kind of happened. it's easy, the way the system works, to simply go with the flow. i don't mean the work is easy, but the choices are easy. or rather, the choices sort of make the

21、mselves you go to a place like stanford because thafs what smart kids do. you go to medical school because it*s prestigious you specialize in cardiology because it*s lucrative you do the things that reap the rewards, that make your parents proud, and your teachers pleased, and your friends impressed

22、. from the time you started high school and maybe even junior high, your whole goal was to get into the best college you could, and so now you naturally think about your life in terms of "getting into'1 whatever's next. hgetting intoh is validation; “getting into11 isvictory. stanford,

23、then johns hopkins medical school, then a reside ncy at the university of san fran cisco, and so forth or michigan law school, or goldman sachs, or me kinsey, or whatever. you take it one step at a time, and the next step always seems to be inevitable.（还冇另外一个问题。或许你从來没冇想过当心脏病医生，只是碰巧发生了而已。随 大流最容易，这就是体

24、制的力量。我不是说这个工作容易，而是说做岀这种选择很 容易。 或者，这些根本就不是自己做出的选择。你来到斯坦福这样的名牌人学是因为聪明的孩子都 这样。你考入医学院是因为它的地位高，人人都羡慕。你选择心脏病学是因为当心脏病保 生的待遇很好。你做那些事能给你带来好处，让你的父母感到骄傲，令你的老师感到高兴， 也让朋友们羨慕。从你上高中开始，甚至初中开始，你的唯一目标就是进入最好的大学， 所以现在你会很口然地从“进入下个阶段”的角度看待人生。“进入”就是能力的证明，“进入” 就是胜利。先进入斯坦福，然后是约翰霍普金斯医学院，再进入i口金山人学做实习医生等。 或者进入密歇根法学院，或高盛集团（gold

25、man sachs）或麦肯锡公司（mckinsey）或别的 什么地方。你边出了这一步，下一步似乎就必然在等着你。）or maybe you did always want to be a cardiac surgeon. you dreamed about it from the time you were 10 years old, even though you had no idea what it really meant, and you stayed on course for the entire time you were in school. you refused to b

26、e enticed from your path by that great experience you had in ap history, or that trip you took to costa rica the summer after your junior year in college, or that terrific feeling you got taking care of kids when you did your rotation in pediatrics during your fourth year in medical school.（也许你确实想当心

27、脏病学家。十岁时就梦想成为医生，即使你根木不知道医生意味 着什么。你在上学期间全身心都在朝着这个id标前进。你拒绝了上人学预修历史课时的美妙 体验的诱惑，也无视你在医学院笫四年的儿科学轮流值班时照看孩子的可怕感受。）but either way, either because you went with the flow or because you set your course very early, you wake up one day, maybe 20 years later, and you wonder what happened: how you got there, wha

28、t it all means not what it means in the ”big picture；1 whatever that is, but what it means to you. why you're doing it, what it's all for. it sounds like a cliche, this hwaking up one day,h but itfs called having a midlife crisis, and it happens to people all the time.（但不管是什么，要么因为你随大流耍么因为你早就

29、选定了道路，20年后某天醒来， 你或许会纳闷到底发生了什么：你怎么变成现在这个样子，这一切意味曹什么。不是它是 什么，不在于它是否“大画面”而是它对你意味着什么。你为什么做它，到底为了什么。这听 起来像老生常谈，但这个被称为屮年危机的“有一天醒来”一肓就发生在每个人身上。）there is an alternative, however, and it may be one that has n't occurred to you. let me try to explain it by telli ng you a story about one of your peers, and

30、 the alter native that hadrtt occurred to her. a couple of years ago, i participated in a panel discussion at harvard that dealt with some of these same matters, and afterward i was contacted by one of the students who had come to the event, a young woman who was writing her senior thesis about harv

31、ard itself, how it instills in its students what she called self-efficacy, the sense that you can do anything you want. self-efficacy, or, in more familiar terms, self-esteem. there are some kids, she said, who get an a on a test and say, f,l got it because it was easy.” and there are other kids, th

32、e kind with self-efficacy or self-esteem, who get an a on a test and say, 111 got it because pm smart.n（不过，还有另外一种情况，或许中年危机并不会发生在你身上。让我通过告诉你们一 个同伴的故事来解释我的意思吧，即她没有遭遇的情况。几年前，我在哈佛参加了一次小 组讨论会，谈到这些问题。示来参加这次讨论的一个学生给我联系，这个哈佛学生正在写 冇关哈佛的毕业论文，讨论哈佛是如何给学生灌输她所说的“自我效能”（selfefficacy）, 一 种相信口己能做一切的意识。口我效能或更熟悉的说法'

33、;口我尊重'。她说在考试中得了优秀 的有些学生会说“我得优秀是因为试题很简单。”）again, there's nothing wrong with thinking that you got an a because you're smart. but what that harvard student didn't realize nd it was really quite a shock to her when i suggested itis that there is a third alternative true self-esteem, i p

34、roposed, means not caring whether you get an a in the first place true self-esteem means recognizing, despite everything that your upbringing has trained you to believe about yourself, that the grades you getand the awards, and the test scores, and the trophies, and the accept a nee lettersare not w

35、hat defines who you are.（但另外一些学生，那种具冇自我效能感或自我尊重的学生在考 试中得了优秀后会说 “我得优秀是因为我聪明。”再次，认为得了优秀是因为自己聪明的想法并没有任何错，不 过，哈佛学牛没有认识到的是他们没有第三种选择。当我指出这一点时，她十分震惊。我指 ill,真匸的自尊意味着蝕初根木就不在乎成绩是杏优秀。真止的自尊意味着承认你取得的成 绩，虽然你在成氏过程中的一切都在训练你相信自己，但奖励、成绩、奖品、录取通 知帖 等所有这一切都不能来定义你是谁。）she also claimed, this young woman, that harvard stude

36、nts take their sense of self-efficacy out into the world and become, as she put it, innovative/' but when i asked her what she meant by innovative, the only example she could come up with was nbeing ceo of a fortune 5oo.h thafs not innovative, i told her, that's just successful, and successf

37、ul according to a very narrow definition of success true innovation means using your imagination, exercising the capacity to envision new possibilities（她还说，这个年轻的女孩子说哈佛学生把他们的白我效能带到了世界上，如她所说的 “创新” （innovative） o但当我问她“创新”意味着什么吋，她能够想到的唯一例子不过是“i比 界大公司五百强的首席执行官。”我告诉她这不是创新，这只是成功，而口是根据非常狭隘 的成功定义而认定的成功而已。真正的

38、创新意味着使川你的想象力，发挥你的潜力，创造 新的可能性。）but pm not here to talk about technological innovation, i'm here to talk about a different kind. it's not about inventing a new machine or a new drug. ifs about inventing your own life. not following a path, but making your own path. the kind of imagination i

39、9;m talking about is moral imagination. hmoraln meaning not right or wrong, but having to do with making choices. moral imagination means the capacity to envision new ways to live your life（但这里我并不是在谈论技术创新，不是发明新机器或者制造一种新药，我谈论的是 另外一种创新，是创造你口己的纶活。不是走现成的道路而是创造一条属于口己的道路。我 谈论的想象力是道德想象力。“道德”在这里不是对与错，而是与选择冇

40、关。道德想象力意 味着创造自己新生的能力。）it mea ns no t just going with the flow .it means not just "getting into” whatever school or program comes next. it means figuring out what you want for yourself, not what your parents want, or your peers want, or your school wants, or your society wants. originating your

41、own values thinking your way toward your own definition of success not simply accepting the life that yoitve been handed not simply accepting the choices you've been handed. when you walk into starbucks, you're offered a choice among a latte and a macchiato and an espresso and a few other th

42、ings? but you can also make another choice. you can turn around and walk out. when you walk into college, you are offered a choice among law and medicine and in vest me nt banking and con suiting and a few other thin gs, but again, you can also do something else, something that no one has thought of

43、 before.（它意味着不随波逐流，不是下一步要“进入”什么名牌人学或研究生院。而是要弄清楚 白己到底想要什么，而不是父母、同伴、学校、或社会想要什么。即确认你白己的价值观， 思考迈向口己所定义的成功的道路，而不仅仅是接受別人给你的生活，不仅仅是接受別人 给你的选择。当今走进星巴克咖啡馆，服务员可能让你在牛奶咖啡（latte）、加糖咖啡 （macchiato） 特制咖啡（espresso）等儿样东 西之间做出选择。但你川以做出另外的选 择，你可以转身走出去。当你进入大学，人家给你众多选择，或法律或医学或投资银行和咨 询以及其他，但你同样也可以做其他事，做从前根本没冇人想过的事。）let me

44、 give you another counterexample. i wrote an essay a couple of years ago that touched on some of these same points i said, among other things, that kids at places like yale or stanford tend to play it safe and go for the conventional rewards and one of the most common criticisms i got went like this

45、: what about teach for america? lots of kids from elite colleges go and do tfa after they graduate, so therefore i was wrong. tfa, tfai heard that over and over again. and teach for america is undoubtedly a very good thing. but to cite tfa in response to my argument is precisely to miss the point, a

46、nd to miss it in a way that actually confirms what rm saying. the problem with tfaor rather, the problem with the way that tfa has become incorporated into the systemis that it*s just become another thing to get into.（让我再举一个反面的例子。几年前我写过一篇涉及同类问题的文章。我说，那些在耶 鲁和斯坦福这类名校的孩子往往比较谨慎，去追求一些稳妥的奖励。我得到的最常见的批 评是：教

47、育项冃“为美国何教”（teach for america）如何？从名校出来的很多学生毕业后很 多参与这个教冇项目，因此我的观点是错误的。我一再听到tfa这个术语。“为美国而教” 当然是好东西，但引用这个项目來反驳我的观点恰恰是不得要领，实际上正好证明了我想 说的东西。“为美国而教”的问题或者“为美国而教”已经成为体系一部分的问题是它已经成 为另外一个需要“进入”的门槛。）in terms of its con tent, teach for america is completely different from goldma n sachs or mckinsey or harvard me

48、dical school or berkeley law, but in terms of its place within the structure of elite expectations, of elite choices, it is exactly the same .it's prestigious, itfs hard to get in to, ifs somethi ng that you and your pare nts can brag about, it looks good on your resume, and most important, it r

49、epresents a clearly marked path. you don't have to make it up yourself, you don't have to do anything but apply and do the work just like college or law school or mckinsey or whatever. ifs the stanford or harvard of social en gagement. it's ano ther hurdle, ano ther badge .it requires ap

50、titude and dilige nce，but it does not require a single ounce of moral imagination.（从其内容來看，“为美国而教”完全不同于高盛或者麦肯锡公司或哈佛医学院或者伯克 利法学院，但从它在精英期待的体系中的地位来说，完全是一样的。它厚冇盛名，很难进 入，是值得你和父母夸燿的东西，如果写在简历上会很光彩，最重要的是，它代表了清晰 标记的道路。你根本不用自己创造，什么都不用做，只需申请然后按要求做就行了，就像上 大学或法学院或麦肯锡公司或别的什么。它是社会参与方而的斯坦福或哈佛，是另一个栅 栏，另一枚奖章。该项目需要能力和勤

51、奋，但不需要一丁点儿的道徳想象力。）moral imagination is hard, and ifs hard in a completely different way than the hard things you*re used to doing. and not only that, ifs not eno ugh .if youye going to in vent your own life, if yoifre going to be truly autonomous, you also need courage: moral courage the courage to

52、act on your values in the face of what every one's going to say and do to try to make you change your mind. because they're not going to like it. morally courageous individuals tend to make the people around them very uncomfortable they don't fit in with everybody else's ideas about

53、the way the world is supposed to work, and still worse, they make them feel in secure about the choices that they themselves have madeor failed to make. people don't mind being in prison as long as no one else is free. but stage a jailbreak, and everybody else freaks out.(道德想象力是困难的，这种困难与你已经习惯的困难

54、完全不同。不仅如此，光冇道 徳想象力还不够。如果你要创造白己的生活，如果你想成为真正的独立思想者，你还需要勇 气：道德勇气。不管别人说什么，有按自己的价值观行动的勇气，不会因为别人不喜欢而 试图改变口己的想法。具有道德勇气的个人往往让周围的人感到不舒服。他们和其他人对世 界的看法格格不入，更糟糕的是，让别人对自己已经做出的选择感到不安全或无法做出选 样。只要别人也不亨受白由，人们就不在乎h己被关进监狱。可一口有人越狱，其他人都会 跟着跑出去。)in a portrait of the artist as a young man, james joyce has stephen dedalus

55、famously say, about growing up in ireland in the late 19th century, hwhen the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. you talk to me of nationality, language，religion. i shall try to fly by those nets.*(在青年艺术家的肖像屮，詹姆斯乔伊斯(jamesjoyce)让主人公斯蒂芬迪达 勒斯(s

56、tephen dedalus)就19纪末期的爱尔兰的成长环境说出了如下名言“当一个人的 灵魂诞生在这个国家时，冇一张大网把它罩住，防止它飞翔。你会给我谈论民族 性、语言 和宗教。我想冲出这些牢笼。”)today there are other nets. one of those nets is a term that i've heard again and again as i'v e talked with students about these things that term is ”selfindulgent” isn't it self-indulgen

57、t to try to live the life of the mind when there are so many other things i could be doing with my degree?' "wouldn't it be self-i ndulgent to pursue pain ting after i graduate in stead of getting a real job?*（今天，我们而临的是其他的网。其中之一是我在就这些问题与学牛交流时经常听到的 一个术语“自我放任”。“在攻读学位过程中冇这么多事要做的时候，试图按照自己的感

58、觉生 活难道不是白我放任吗？ ”“毕业后不去找个真正的工作而去呦画难道不是白我放任吗？ ”）these are the kinds of questions that young people find themselves being asked today if they even think about doing something a little bit different. even worse, the kinds of questions they are made to feel compelled to ask themselves many students have

59、spoken to me, as they navigated their senior years, about the pressure they felt from their peersfrom their peersto justify a creative or intellectual life. you're made to feel like yoitre crazy: crazy to forsake the sure thing, crazy to think it could work, crazy to imagine that you even have a

60、 right to try.（这些是年轻人只耍思考一下稍稍出格的事就不由口主地质问口己的问题。更糟糕的是, 他们觉得提出这些问题是理所应当的。许多学牛在毕业而夕的未來探索中跟我说，他们感 受到来口同伴那里的压力，需耍为创造性的生活或思想生活辩护。好像口己己经走火入魔了 似的：抛弃确定无疑的东西是疯了，认为思想生活可行是疯了，想象你有权尝试是疯了。）think of what we've come to. it is one of the great testaments to the intellectuala nd moral, and spiritualpoverty of american society that it makes its most intelligent young people feel like they're bein