[41]
Pursuing that goal starts the four-step cycle again. This is the
pattern. The crucial thing is to never stop thinking and working –
and never do what we did with malaria and tuberculosis in the 20th
century – which is to surrender to complexity and
quit.
[41]
要实现这个新的目标,又可以采用新的四步循环。这是一种模式。关键的东西是永远不要停止思考和行动。我们千万不能再犯上个世纪在疟疾和肺结核上犯过的错误,那时我们因为它们太复杂,而放弃了采取行动。
[42] The final step –
after seeing the problem and finding an approach – is to measure
the impact of your work and share your successes and failures so
that others learn from your efforts.
[42]
在发现问题和找到解决方法之后,就是最后一步——评估工作结果,将你的成功经验或者失败经验传播出去,这样其他人就可以从你的努力中有所收获。
[43] You have to have
the statistics, of course. You have to be able to show that a
program is vaccinating millions more children. You have to be able
to show a decline in the number of children dying from these
diseases. This is essential not just to improve the program, but
also to help draw more investment from business and
government.
[43]
当然,你必须有一些统计数字。你必须让他人知道,你的项目为几百万儿童新接种了疫苗。你也必须让他人知道,儿童死亡人数下降了多少。这些都是很关键的,不仅有利于改善项目效果,也有利于从商界和政府得到更多的帮助。
[44] But if you want to
inspire people to participate, you have to show more than numbers;
you have to convey the human impact of the work – so people can
feel what saving a life means to the families
affected.
[44]
但是,这些还不够,如果你想激励其他人参加你的项目,你就必须拿出更多的统计数字;你必须展示你的项目的人性因素,这样其他人就会感到拯救一个生命,对那些处在困境中的家庭到底意味着什么。
[45] I remember going
to Davos some years back and sitting on a global health panel that
was discussing ways to save millions of lives. Millions! Think of
the thrill of saving just one person's life – then multiply that by
millions. … Yet this was the most boring panel I've ever been on –
ever. So boring even I couldn't bear it.
[45]
几年前,我去瑞士达沃斯旁听一个全球健康问题论坛,会议的内容有关于如何拯救几百万条生命。天哪,是几百万!想一想吧,拯救一个人的生命已经让人何等激动,现在你要把这种激动再乘上几百万倍……但是,不幸的是,这是我参加过的最最乏味的论坛,乏味到我无法强迫自己听下去。
[46] What made that
experience especially striking was that I had just come from an
event where we were introducing version 13 of some piece of
software, and we had people jumping and shouting with excitement. I
love getting people excited about software – but why can't we
generate even more excitement for saving lives?
[46]
那次经历之所以让我难忘,是因为之前我们刚刚发布了一个软件的第13个版本,我们让观众激动得跳了起来,喊出了声。我喜欢人们因为软件而感到激动,那么我们为什么不能够让人们因为能够拯救生命而感到更加激动呢?
[47] You can't get
people excited unless you can help them see and feel the impact.
And how you do that – is a complex question.
[47]
除非你能够让人们看到或者感受到行动的影响力,否则你无法让人们激动。如何做到这一点,并不是一件简单的事。
[48] Still, I'm
optimistic. Yes, inequity has been with us forever, but the new
tools we have to cut through complexity have not been with us
forever. They are new – they can help us make the most of our
caring – and that's why the future can be different from the
past.
[48]
同前面一样,在这个问题上,我依然是乐观的。不错,人类的不平等有史以来一直存在,但是那些能够化繁为简的新工具,却是最近才出现的。这些新工具可以帮助我们,将人类的同情心发挥最大的作用,这就是为什么将来同过去是不一样的。
[49] The defining and
ongoing innovations of this age – biotechnology, the computer, the
Internet – give us a chance we've never had before to end extreme
poverty and end death from preventable disease.
[49]
这个时代无时无刻不在涌现出新的革新——生物技术,计算机,互联网——它们给了我们一个从未有过的机会,去终结那些极端的贫穷和非恶性疾病的死亡。
[50] Sixty years ago,
George Marshall came to this commencement and announced a plan to
assist the nations of post-war Europe. He said: "I think one
difficulty is that the problem is one of such enormous complexity
that the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and
radio make it exceedingly difficult for the man in the street to
reach a clear appraisement of the situation. It is virtually
impossible at this distance to grasp at all the real significance
of the situation."
[50] 六十年前,乔治·马歇尔也是在这个地方的毕业典礼上,宣布了一个计划,帮助那些欧洲国家的战后建设。他说:“我认为,困难的一点是这个问题太复杂,报纸和电台向公众源源不断地提供各种事实,使得大街上的普通人极端难于清晰地判断形势。事实上,经过层层传播,想要真正地把握形势,是根本不可能的。”
[51] Thirty years after
Marshall made his address, as my class graduated without me,
technology was emerging that would make the world smaller, more
open, more visible, less distant.
[51]
马歇尔发表这个演讲之后的三十年,我那一届学生毕业,当然我不在其中。那时,新技术刚刚开始萌芽,它们将使得这个世界变得更小、更开放、更容易看到、距离更近。
[52] The emergence of
low-cost personal computers gave rise to a powerful network that
has transformed opportunities for learning and
communicating.
[52]
低成本的个人电脑的出现,使得一个强大的互联网有机会诞生,它为学习和交流提供了巨大的机会。
[53] The magical thing
about this network is not just that it collapses distance and makes
everyone your neighbor. It also dramatically increases the number
of brilliant minds we can have working together on the same problem
– and that scales up the rate of innovation to a staggering
degree.
[53]
网络的神奇之处,不仅仅是它缩短了物理距离,使得天涯若比邻。它还极大地增加了怀有共同想法的人们聚集在一起的机会,我们可以为了解决同一个问题,一起共同工作。这就大大加快了革新的进程,发展速度简直快得让人震惊。
[54] At the same time,
for every person in the world who has access to this technology,
five people don't. That means many creative minds are left out of
this discussion -- smart people with practical intelligence and
relevant experience who don't have the technology to hone their
talents or contribute their ideas to the world.
[54]
与此同时,世界上有条件上网的人,只是全部人口的六分之一。这意味着,还有许多具有创造性的人们,没有加入到我们的讨论中来。那些有着实际的操作经验和相关经历的聪明人,却没有技术来帮助他们,将他们的天赋或者想法与全世界分享。
[55] We need as many
people as possible to have access to this technology, because these
advances are triggering a revolution in what human beings can do
for one another. They are making it possible not just for national
governments, but for universities, corporations, smaller
organizations, and even individuals to see problems, see
approaches, and measure the impact of their efforts to address the
hunger, poverty, and desperation George Marshall spoke of 60 years
ago.
[55]
我们需要尽可能地让更多的人有机会使用新技术,因为这些新技术正在引发一场革命,人类将因此可以互相帮助。新技术正在创造一种可能,不仅是政府,还包括大学、公司、小机构、甚至个人,能够发现问题所在、能够找到解决办法、能够评估他们努力的效果,去改变那些马歇尔六十年前就说到过的问题——饥饿、贫穷和绝望。
[56] Members of the
Harvard Family: Here in the Yard is one of the great collections of
intellectual talent in the world.
[56]
哈佛是一个大家庭。这个院子里在场的人们,是全世界最有智力的人类群体之一。
[57] What
for?
[57] 我们可以做些什么?
[58] There is no
question that the faculty, the alumni, the students, and the
benefactors of Harvard have used their power to improve the lives
of people here and around the world. But can we do more? Can
Harvard dedicate its intellect to improving the lives of people who
will never even hear its name?
[58]
毫无疑问,哈佛的老师、校友、学生和资助者,已经用他们的能力改善了全世界各地人们的生活。但是,我们还能够再做什么呢?有没有可能,哈佛的人们可以将他们的智慧,用来帮助那些甚至从来没有听到过“哈佛”这个名字的人?
[59] Let
me make a request of the deans and the professors – the
intellectual leaders here at Harvard: As you hire new faculty,
award tenure, review curriculum, and determine degree requirements,
please ask yourselves:
[59] 请允许我向各位院长和教授,提出一个请求——你们是哈佛的智力领袖,当你们雇用新的老师、授予终身教职、评估课程、决定学位颁发标准的时候,请问你们自己如下的问题:
[60]
Should our best minds be dedicated to solving our biggest
problems?
[60]我们最优秀的人才是否在致力于解决我们最大的问题?
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