《失控》的作者 KK (Kevin Kelly)，就是那位启发了《黑客帝国》的未来预言家，刚过68岁生日，于是写下了68条人生建议。

• Learn how to learn from those you disagree with, or even offend you. See if you can find the truth in what they believe.

有些人的观点也许你并不同意，甚至感觉受到了冒犯，但是请学会向这些人学习，看看自己能否从他们的观点中汲取真理。

• Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points.

人有激情，相当于智商提高25个点。

• Always demand a deadline. A deadline weeds out the extraneous and the ordinary. It prevents you from trying to make it perfect, so you have to make it different. Different is better.

永远设定最后期限。最后期限会排除一切无关紧要的因素。它也阻止了你追求事物的完美，而只能让它变得不同。不同是更好的。

• Don’t be afraid to ask a question that may sound stupid because 99% of the time everyone else is thinking of the same question and is too embarrassed to ask it.

别害怕问“傻”问题，因为99%的可能是其他人也想问这个问题，但是觉得尴尬而不敢问。

• Being able to listen well is a superpower. While listening to someone you love keep asking them “Is there more?”, until there is no more.

倾听是一种超能力。听所爱之人的倾诉时，你得一直问“还有呢？还有吗？”，直到他们彻底说完。

• A worthy goal for a year is to learn enough about a subject so that you can’t believe how ignorant you were a year earlier.

每年设定一个有价值的目标，那就是学懂某样东西。一年之后，你会发现一年前的自己是多么无知。

• Gratitude will unlock all other virtues and is something you can get better at.

感恩是美德之源，也是你可以做得更好的地方。

• Treating a person to a meal never fails, and is so easy to do. It’s powerful with old friends and a great way to make new friends.

请人吃饭总是有用的，而且也不难做到。请客有助于旧朋友的联络和新友谊的建立。

• Don’t trust all-purpose glue.

世上没有万灵丹。

• Reading to your children regularly will bond you together and kickstart their imaginations.

经常读书给孩子听，你将和他们更亲密，并且激发他们的想象力。

• Never use a credit card for credit. The only kind of credit, or debt, that is acceptable is debt to acquire something whose exchange value is extremely likely to increase, like in a home. The exchange value of most things diminishes or vanishes the moment you purchase them. Don’t be in debt to losers.

别透支信用卡。唯一可接受的信贷或者债务是为了购买大概率会增值的东西，比如房子。大部分东西买回来后都会贬值。别欠那些失败者的钱。

• Pros are just amateurs who know how to gracefully recover from their mistakes.

所谓专业人士，就是那些懂得如何从错误中学习的业余爱好者。

• Extraordinary claims should require extraordinary evidence to be believed.

不同寻常的话需要不同寻常的证据才能采信。

• Don’t be the smartest person in the room. Hangout with, and learn from, people smarter than yourself. Even better, find smart people who will disagree with you.

别在小众中当那个“智者”。要跟比你聪明的人在一起并向他们学习。如果能够找到那些跟你意见相左的聪明人，就更好了。

• Rule of 3 in conversation. To get to the real reason, ask a person to go deeper than what they just said. Then again, and once more. The third time’s answer is close to the truth.

交谈的“三次”原则。想要问出真实的原因，你不能让说话者停留在表面，得问得深入一些。重复一遍这个过程。再来一遍。第三次的答案更接近真相。

• Don’t be the best. Be the only.

别成为最好的。成为唯一的。

• Everyone is shy. Other people are waiting for you to introduce yourself to them, they are waiting for you to send them an email, they are waiting for you to ask them on a date. Go ahead.

所有人都是害羞的。别人在等你介绍自己、等你发邮件、等你发出约会邀请。行动吧！

• Don’t take it personally when someone turns you down. Assume they are like you: busy, occupied, distracted. Try again later. It’s amazing how often a second try works.

别人拒绝你时，不要以为别人针对你。也许他们像你一样：忙、忙、忙。晚点再试试。再试一次往往就会成功。

• The purpose of a habit is to remove that action from self-negotiation. You no longer expend energy deciding whether to do it. You just do it. Good habits can range from telling the truth, to flossing.

习惯的意义在于让行动免于自我谈判。你不再需要花费精力去决定是否要做某件事。你只需习惯性地去做。好习惯有很多，从讲实话到用牙线。

• Promptness is a sign of respect.

及时是尊重的体现。

• When you are young spend at least 6 months to one year living as poor as you can, owning as little as you possibly can, eating beans and rice in a tiny room or tent, to experience what your “worst” lifestyle might be. That way any time you have to risk something in the future you won’t be afraid of the worst case scenario.

年轻时，至少花半年到一年过最穷的日子，东西越少越好，在小小的房间或者帐篷里吃最便宜的饭菜，体验“最糟糕”的生活方式到底能成什么样。这样日后当你需要冒险时，你不会害怕最差的结果。

• Trust me: There is no “them”.

相信我：世上没有“他们”。

• The more you are interested in others, the more interesting they find you. To be interesting, be interested.

你对别人越感兴趣，别人对你越感兴趣。想让别人对你感兴趣，先对别人感兴趣。

• Optimize your generosity. No one on their deathbed has ever regretted giving too much away.

尽量慷慨。没有人会在临死前后悔自己给予太多。

• To make something good, just do it. To make something great, just re-do it, re-do it, re-do it. The secret to making fine things is in remaking them.

要做出好东西，去做就行。要做出更好的东西，需要重复、重复、重复。要做出最好的东西，秘诀就在于熟能生巧。

• The Golden Rule will never fail you. It is the foundation of all other virtues.

“已所不欲、勿施于人”的黄金法则永不失效。它是所有美德的基础。

• If you are looking for something in your house, and you finally find it, when you’re done with it, don’t put it back where you found it. Put it back where you first looked for it.

当你找遍房子，终于找到某样东西时，别把它放回你找到它的地方，而要把它放到你一开始去找它的地方。

• Saving money and investing money are both good habits. Small amounts of money invested regularly for many decades without deliberation is one path to wealth.

省钱和投资都是好习惯。小额定投，不需要费脑筋，在几十年之后，会成为大财富。

• To make mistakes is human. To own your mistakes is divine. Nothing elevates a person higher than quickly admitting and taking personal responsibility for the mistakes you make and then fixing them fairly. If you mess up, fess up. It’s astounding how powerful this ownership is.

犯错误是人之常情。承认错误并承担责任则更为高尚。一个人的形象提升，最快的方式莫过于及时承认错误并承担责任，之后好好地改正。犯了错误，就承认，这将迸发强大的力量。

• Never get involved in a land war in Asia.

不要卷入亚洲的领土争端。

• You can obsess about serving your customers/audience/clients, or you can obsess about beating the competition. Both work, but of the two, obsessing about your customers will take you further.

你可以花心思在消费者/观众/客户身上，也可以花心思在打败对手身上。两者都可行，但是花心思在消费者身上会让你走得更远。

• Show up. Keep showing up. Somebody successful said: 99% of success is just showing up.

出现，并一直在场。有位成功人士曾经说过：99%的成功都来自于在场。

• Separate the processes of creation from improving. You can’t write and edit, or sculpt and polish, or make and analyze at the same time. If you do, the editor stops the creator. While you invent, don’t select. While you sketch, don’t inspect. While you write the first draft, don’t reflect. At the start, the creator mind must be unleashed from judgement.

创造与改进要分开。你无法一边写作一边编辑、一边雕刻一遍打磨、一边制作一边分析。如果你这么做了的话，那么编辑将打断创作。当你创作时，不用挑挑拣拣。当你画草图时，不用反复检查。当你打草稿时，不用思前想后。最开始时，你使用的是创造者的头脑，一定要让它从拣选判断中得到释放。

• If you are not falling down occasionally, you are just coasting.

如果你从未失败，那么你从未离开舒适区。

• Perhaps the most counter-intuitive truth of the universe is that the more you give to others, the more you’ll get. Understanding this is the beginning of wisdom.

全世界最反直觉的真理也许是，你给予别人的越多，你得到的也越多。明白了这一点，你便开始拥有智慧。

• Friends are better than money. Almost anything money can do, friends can do better. In so many ways a friend with a boat is better than owning a boat.

朋友胜过金钱。钱能做的事情，朋友能做得更好。朋友有条船，比你自己有条船，要好得多。

• This is true: It’s hard to cheat an honest man.

要骗诚实的人，真的很难。

• When an object is lost, 95% of the time it is hiding within arm’s reach of where it was last seen. Search in all possible locations in that radius and you’ll find it.

找不到某样东西时，它有95%的可能离你上次见到它的地方仅一臂之遥。在这个范围内找，你一定能找到它。

• You are what you do. Not what you say, not what you believe, not how you vote, but what you spend your time on.

你做了什么事，就是什么样的人。你是怎么样的人，并不在于你所说的，你所信的或者你投票的对象，而在于你把时间花在什么事情上。

• If you lose or forget to bring a cable, adapter or charger, check with your hotel. Most hotels now have a drawer full of cables, adapters and chargers others have left behind, and probably have the one you are missing. You can often claim it after borrowing it.

如果你丢了或者忘了带数据线充电器或者转接头，问问你的酒店。大多数酒店有一抽屉别人落下的数据线、转接头和充电器，说不定你丢的那个也在。借了之后如果据为己有，通常也没问题。

• Hatred is a curse that does not affect the hated. It only poisons the hater. Release a grudge as if it was a poison.

仇恨像诅咒。它并不影响被恨的一方，而是苦毒恨的那一方。把怨恨像毒药一样丢掉吧。

• There is no limit on better. Talent is distributed unfairly, but there is no limit on how much we can improve what we start with.

进步是无上限的。个人的天分有异，但是我们如何使用天分提升自我，是没有止境的。

• Be prepared: When you are 90% done any large project (a house, a film, an event, an app) the rest of the myriad details will take a second 90% to complete.

做好准备：你的大项目（房子、电影、活动或者 app) 完成进度已过90%，剩下的大量的细节可能还需要另一个90%才能完成。

• When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation.

你死的时候，带不走任何东西，除了名声。

• Before you are old, attend as many funerals as you can bear, and listen. Nobody talks about the departed’s achievements. The only thing people will remember is what kind of person you were while you were achieving.

在步入老年之前，多参加几个葬礼，并听听人们在说什么。没有人在谈论死者的成就。人们唯一谈论的，就是死者生前是个怎么样的人。

• For every dollar you spend purchasing something substantial, expect to pay a dollar in repairs, maintenance, or disposal by the end of its life.

你在实体物品上花的每一分钱，都得准备好另一分钱花在之后的维修、保养和报废上。

•Anything real begins with the fiction of what could be. Imagination is therefore the most potent force in the universe, and a skill you can get better at. It’s the one skill in life that benefits from ignoring what everyone else knows.

任何现实都始于想象。想象是世界上最强大的力量，而且是你能磨练的技能。它是人生中唯一一项能够从挑战常识中获益的技能。

• When crisis and disaster strike, don’t waste them. No problems, no progress.

危机和灾难发生时，抓住机会。没有问题，没有进步。

• On vacation go to the most remote place on your itinerary first, bypassing the cities. You’ll maximize the shock of otherness in the remote, and then later you’ll welcome the familiar comforts of a city on the way back.

度假时，先跳过城市，去你行程的最远端。你将充分领略异域风情，之后在返程中再迎来熟悉的都市节奏。

• When you get an invitation to do something in the future, ask yourself: would you accept this if it was scheduled for tomorrow? Not too many promises will pass that immediacy filter.

当你受邀参与未来的某项事情时，问问自己：如果这事儿排在明天，我会接受邀请吗？很多承诺都经不住这一拷问。

• Don’t say anything about someone in email you would not be comfortable saying to them directly, because eventually they will read it.

如果有些话你无法对某人当面说，那么也不要在邮件中提及，因为最终对方都会看到。

• If you desperately need a job, you are just another problem for a boss; if you can solve many of the problems the boss has right now, you are hired. To be hired, think like your boss.

如果你感觉自己非常需要工作，那么你只是你老板的另一个麻烦；如果你能解决老板眼下的很多问题，那么你就是真正被雇佣的。像你老板一样思考。

• Art is in what you leave out.

艺术在于留白。

• Acquiring things will rarely bring you deep satisfaction. But acquiring experiences will.

东西很少能够给你带来深层的满足感。但是体验可以。

• Rule of 7 in research. You can find out anything if you are willing to go seven levels. If the first source you ask doesn’t know, ask them who you should ask next, and so on down the line. If you are willing to go to the 7th source, you’ll almost always get your answer.

研究的“七层次”原则。如果你愿意走七层，那么你能搞懂任何事情。如果你找到的第一个人不知道，问问他们你应该向谁请教，以此类推。如果你愿意走到第七层，你几乎总能得到答案。

• How to apologize: Quickly, specifically, sincerely.

如何道歉：快速、具体、真诚。

• Don’t ever respond to a solicitation or a proposal on the phone. The urgency is a disguise.

别在电话上对邀约和提议进行回应。那种紧急感是假的。

• When someone is nasty, rude, hateful, or mean with you, pretend they have a disease. That makes it easier to have empathy toward them which can soften the conflict.

如果有个人对你很坏、很粗鲁、充满敌意或者恶毒，那么你就假设对方有病。这有助于你产生对他们的同理心，并缓解冲突。

• Eliminating clutter makes room for your true treasures.

丢掉杂物，对你真正有用的东西就有地方放了。

• You really don’t want to be famous. Read the biography of any famous person.

成名的代价太大。读读任何一位名人的传记。

• Experience is overrated. When hiring, hire for aptitude, train for skills. Most really amazing or great things are done by people doing them for the first time.

工作经验不是最重要的。雇人重在才华、培训重在技能。很多做得很好的人都是新手。

• A vacation + a disaster = an adventure.

假期+灾难=冒险。

• Buying tools: Start by buying the absolute cheapest tools you can find. Upgrade the ones you use a lot. If you wind up using some tool for a job, buy the very best you can afford.

关于买工具：一开始，只买最便宜的那些工具。之后有些工具用得多的话，买些品质更好的。最后如果有几样工具你一直都在用，那就尽所能买最好的。

• Learn how to take a 20-minute power nap without embarrassment.

学会坦然地小睡20分钟充电。

• Following your bliss is a recipe for paralysis if you don’t know what you are passionate about. A better motto for most youth is “master something, anything”. Through mastery of one thing, you can drift towards extensions of that mastery that bring you more joy, and eventually discover where your bliss is.

如果你不清楚自己真正的热情所在，那么得过且过只会导致最终的麻木。大部分年轻人更应该“精通某样事物，任何事物”。精通了某样事物，它会带你不断拓宽你的疆界，这会带来喜悦，最终发现自己真正的幸福所在。

• I’m positive that in 100 years much of what I take to be true today will be proved to be wrong, maybe even embarrassingly wrong, and I try really hard to identify what it is that I am wrong about today.

我100%肯定，很多我现在认为对的事情，在将来都会被证明是错的，甚至错得离谱。我现在就努力在识别哪些是错的。

• Over the long term, the future is decided by optimists. To be an optimist you don’t have to ignore all the many problems we create; you just have to imagine improving our capacity to solve problems.

从长远来看，是乐观者决定了未来。想要成为一个乐观的人，您并不需要无视所有的问题，你需要做的是想办法提高自己解决问题的能力。

• The universe is conspiring behind your back to make you a success. This will be much easier to do if you embrace this pronoia.

整个宇宙在你背后合谋，助力你的成功。如果你拥抱了这一想法，成功就没那么难了。