Sam Altman 的 36 条人生建议

本文分享 ChatGPT 创始人 Sam Altman 在 30 岁之前学到的 36 条人生教训，原文发表于 2015 年，不过现在阅读仍然对许多年轻人有帮助。

1985 年出生的 Sam Altman 在写这 36 条人生教训时，刚满三十岁，此时的他是 Y Combinator 这家著名创投公司的 CEO。朋友问他这十年来所经历的一切，有没有一些人生建议可以分享...... 于是他洋洋洒洒写了这个清单，一共 36 条，涉及家庭、友谊、职业、金钱、生活态度等多个方面。

原文的标题是 The days are long but the decades are short，翻译成中文就是 “一天很长，十年很短”。这个标题很有趣，富含哲理。

1. 永远不要把家人、朋友或重要的另一半的优先级降低。与其结交百位泛泛之交，不如珍视一两位挚友。保持与老朋友的联系，偶尔彻夜长谈，多举办一些聚会。

   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.

2. 生活没有彩排，人生只有一次。珍视每一刻。时间飞快而有限，做自己喜欢，快乐和满意的事。反正几百年后的我们，记住的人寥寥无几。不要做那些你不快乐的事（通常这种情况发生在别人希望你做某事的时候）。不要花时间在你不喜欢的人身上，摒除负能量的人，想做的事情就去做，别老是找借口。

   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.

3. 如何成功：选对事情（这点很关键，却经常被忽视），保持专注，相信自己（特别是别人说你做不到的时候），和能帮助你的人建立良好的关系，学会识别有才华的人，努力工作。找到正确的事情很难，因为独立思考本身就很难。

   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 talented people, and work hard. It’s hard to identify what to work on because original thought is hard.

4. 关于工作：如果你对工作不感兴趣，就难以做到最好。如果你讨厌你的工作，那你的生活就很难完全快乐。努力工作 —— 虽然这可能会冒犯到一些人 —— 但别让生活被工作埋没。争取在你的领域达到顶尖。即使没有成功，结果也不会太差。找到你最高效的工作方式 —— 不要浪费时间做无组织、时间利用不合理的事情。在职业生涯中，别怕冒险，特别是在早期。大多数人的职业选择都相当随意，所以你应该深思熟虑你喜欢什么，你在哪些领域可能成功，并尝试与那些领域的人交谈。

   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 very hard—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.

5. 关于金钱：无论金钱能否带来幸福，它至少能带来自由，这很重要。而且缺钱真的会压力山大。有足够的钱至少不用为房租发愁，这比有足够的钱买飞机对幸福感的提升要大得多。赚钱通常比花钱更有趣，虽然我个人从没后悔花钱在朋友、新体验、省时间、旅行和我信仰的事业上。

   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.

6. 多和人交流。多看长文，少关注推文这类碎片的内容。少看电视。减少上网时间。

   Talk to people more. Read more long content and less tweets. Watch less TV. Spend less time on the Internet.

7. 别浪费时间。大多数人大部分时间都浪费了，特别是在商业领域。

   Don’t waste time. Most people waste most of their time, especially in business.

8. 别被人操控。正如保罗・格雷厄姆曾经对我说过的，“人们可以变得坚韧，但很难预测谁会变得如此。”（自信和傲慢是有很大区别的，显然，我们应该追求前者。）

   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.)

9. 每天、每年、每十年都要给自己设定清晰的目标。

   Have clear goals for yourself every day, every year, and every decade.*

10. 然而，虽然计划很重要，但如果遇到好机会，就应该抓住。不要害怕做一些稍微冒险的事情。努力工作的好处之一就是会有好机会出现，但是否抓住机会还取决于你。

    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.

11. 刻意接触那些聪明、有趣、有野心的人。与他们共事，雇佣他们（实际上，与真正优秀的人建立深厚关系是工作中最令人满足的部分之一）。尽量花时间和那些在他们所做的事情上要么是世界最优秀的人，要么是极具潜力但完全未知的人在一起。你会变成你经常接触的人的平均水平，这是真的。

    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.

12. 减少无关紧要事物给你带来的认知负担。不管如何强调这点都不为过，而大多数人在这方面做得很差。清除生活中的干扰。培养一种强大的方法，避免那些你不喜欢做的事情堆积起来，占据你的精力，尤其是在工作中。

    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.

13. 控制自己的消费水平。这本身会为你带来很多机会。

    Keep your personal burn rate low. This alone will give you a lot of opportunities in life.

14. 夏天是最好的季节。

    Summers are the best.

15. 不要过于担心。生活中的事情往往没有看起来那么危险。大多数人过于厌恶风险，因此大部分建议都过于保守。

    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.

16. 勇敢地提出你想要的。

    Ask for what you want.

17. 如果你觉得你可能会后悔没做某事，那就去做。后悔是最糟糕的，大多数人后悔的是他们没做的事情，而不是他们做过的事情。如果有疑虑，就去亲吻那个男孩 / 女孩吧。

    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.

18. 运动。健康饮食。充足的睡眠。定期与大自然接触。

    Exercise. Eat well. Sleep. Get out into nature with some regularity.

19. 刻意去帮助他人。很少有事情像这样让人感到满足。对陌生人友善。即使在无所谓的情况下也要友善。

    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.

20. 青春是美好的时光。不要浪费它。实际上，我认为在 20 岁时可以有这样的态度：“我要在财务上自律，但不现在。” 世界上所有的钱都无法让你找回青春。

    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.

21. 多告诉你的父母你爱他们。尽可能多地回家看望他们。

    Tell your parents you love them more often. Go home and visit as often as you can.

22. 一切都会过去的。

    This too shall pass.

23. 求知若饥。

    Learn voraciously.

24. 多尝试新事物。这看起来很重要。不仅可以减缓时间的感知，增加幸福感，让生活变得有趣，而且还可以防止思维方式僵化。在个人和职业生活中，每年都尝试一些大胆、新颖、有风险的事情。

    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.

25. 记住你年少时对你的男朋友 / 女朋友是如何热烈爱着的吗？现在也要同样热烈地爱他 / 她。记住你小时候对事物多么兴奋和快乐吗？现在也要让自己保持兴奋和快乐。

    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.

26. 不要欺骗他人，不要过河拆桥。选择好你要和谁竞争。

    Don’t screw people and don’t burn bridges. Pick your battles carefully.

27. 原谅他人。

    Forgive people.

28. 不要追求虚无的地位。没有实质的地位无法持久，也无法满足你。

    Don’t chase status. Status without substance doesn’t work for long and is unfulfilling.

29. 适度即可。几乎没有什么事情在极端情况下是可取的。

    Most things are ok in moderation. Almost nothing is ok in extreme amounts.

30. 焦虑是生活的一部分。在重大生活事件或刚完成重要职业里程碑之后，焦虑感尤为明显。它似乎特别影响聪明、有雄心的人。我认为有些人努力工作是为了不必花太多时间思考这个问题。如果你有这种感觉，没关系，你并不孤单。

    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.

31. 感恩，用不同的视角看问题。不要抱怨太多。不要嫉妒别人的成功（但请记住，有些人可能会嫉妒你的成功，你必须学会忽略它）。

    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).

32. 成为实干家，而不是空谈家。

    Be a doer, not a talker.

33. 只要有足够的时间，人们几乎可以适应任何好的或坏的事情。人类在这方面的能力真是令人惊奇。

    Given enough time, it is possible to adjust to almost anything, good or bad. Humans are remarkable at this.

34. 在行动之前多思考几秒钟。如果你生气了，给自己几分钟思考。

    Think for a few seconds before you act. Think for a few minutes if you’re angry.

35. 不要过快地评判其他人。你永远不会完全了解他们的故事，以及他们为什么做或不做某件事。要有同理心。

    Don’t judge other people too quickly. You never know their whole story and why they did or didn’t do something. Be empathetic.

36. 一天很长，但十年很短。时日漫长，但年华如梭。

    The days are long but the decades are short.