Transcript of Jobs' commencement speech
There was an iconic super bowl commercial, tacky humor. And iconic super bowl commercial telling us that the Macintosh was on the horizon and assuring us that we would see why 1984 wouldn’t be like 1984. and in the late 1990s, we saw banners and billboards, feature in Pablo Picasso, Albert Einstein, Martha Graham and Mohandas Gandhi，all urging us to think different. Steve Jobs understands the creativity and innovation start by thinking differently. He has a deep-rooted belief in the power of education to transform loves, coupled with desire to make the world a better place. From the earlier days of Apple, he worked to develop partnerships with educators and get computers into schools. For almost 3 decades, he and his companies had provided invaluable technology and supports to schools and communities, increasing accessibility to information for learners of all ages.
More than one hundred years ago, in describing his vision for a new university, Leland Stanford wrote, “the imagination needs to be cultivated and developed to ensure success in life.” Stanford clearly understood that technical knowledge was only the starting point for creation and discovery. Steve Jobs understands that the computer was a very powerful tool in a technical sense. But that is true power lies in the ability to unleash the imagination and creativity of the user. As explained to the New York Times at a 1997 interview, the Macintosh turned out so well because the people working on it were musicians, artists, poets and historians who also happened to be excellent computer scientists. And last fall a business week reporter asked how he manages for innovation, his answer was deceptively simple, we hire people who want to make the best things in the world. Steve jobs personifies the spirit and creativity that characterized this university since its founding, 114 years ago and we are pleased to have him here today. Please join me in warmly welcoming this year’s commencement speaker Steve jobs.
For a Silicon Valley icon, there he was, Apple CEO, Pixar CEO, Steve Jobs
has to say
第二篇：乔布斯的斯坦福演讲
苹果电脑的CEO 斯蒂夫·乔布斯曾经在斯坦福大学毕业典礼上的演讲，谈到了他生活中的三次体验，读后令人不禁动容，其文并无华丽之色，也无英文演讲范例中惯用的排比，但是现在看来，真让人感慨万分。
This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, I never graduated from college. This is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
斯坦福是世界上最好的大学之一，今天能参加各位的毕业典礼，我备感荣幸。（尖叫声）我从来没有从大学毕业，说句实话，此时算是我离大学毕业最近的一刻。（笑声）今天，我想告诉你们我生命中的三个故事，并非什么了不得的大事件，只是三个小故事而已。
The first story is about connecting the dots.
第一个故事 关于串起生命中的点点滴滴
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
退学是我这一生所做出的最正确的决定之一。我在里德大学待了6个月就退学了，但之后仍作为旁听生混了18个月后才最终离开。我为什么要退学呢？
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from
high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
故事要从我出生之前开始说起。我的生母是一名年轻的未婚妈妈，当时她还是一所大学的在读研究生，于是决定把我送给其他人收养。她坚持我应该被一对念过大学的夫妇收养，所以在我出生的时候，她已经为我被一个律师和他的太太收养做好了所有的准备。但在最后一刻，这对夫妇改了主意，决定收养一个女孩。候选名单上的另外一对夫妇，也就是我的养父母，在一天午夜接到了一通电话：“ 有一个不请自来的男婴，你们想收养吗？” 他们回答：“ 当然想。” 事后，我的生母才发现我的养母根本就没有从大学毕业，而我的养父甚至连高中都没有毕业，所以她拒绝签署最后的收养文件，直到几个月后，我的养父母保证会把我送到大学，她的态度才有所转变。
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
17 年之后，我真上了大学。但因为年幼无知，我选择了一所和斯坦福一样昂贵的大学，（笑声）我的父母都是工人阶级，他们倾其所有资助我的学业。在6个月之后，我发现自己完全不知道这样念下去究竟有什么用。当时，我的人生漫无目标，也不知道大学对我能起到什么帮助，为了念书，还花光了父母毕生的积蓄，所以我决定退学。我相信车到山前必有路。当时作这个决定的时候非常害怕，但现在回头去看，这是我这一生所做出的最正确的决定之
一。（笑声）从我退学那一刻起，我就再也不用去上那些我毫无兴趣的必修课了，我开始旁听那些看来比较有意思的科目。
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 5 cent; deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 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 calligraphed. 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.
这件事情做起来一点都不浪漫。因为没有自己的宿舍，我只能睡在朋友房间的地板上；可乐瓶的押金是5 分钱，我把瓶子还回去好用押金买吃的；在每个周日的晚上，我都会步行7英里穿越市区，到HareKrishna教堂吃一顿大餐，我喜欢那儿的食物。我跟随好奇心和直觉所做的事情，事后证明大多数都是极其珍贵的经验。我举一个例子：那个时候，里德大学提供了全美国最好的书法教育。整个校园的每一张海报，每一个抽屉上的标签，都是漂亮的手写体。由于已经退学，不用再去上那些常规的课程，于是我选择了一个书法班，想学学怎么写出一手漂亮字。在这个班上，我学习了各种字体，如何改变不同字体组合之间的字间距，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、历史感和艺术感的微妙，我发现这太有意思了。
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, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this 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 ten years later.
当时，我压根儿没想到这些知识会在我的生命中有什么实际运用价值；但是10 年之后，当我们设计第一款Macintosh 电脑的时候，这些东西全派上了用场。我把它们全部设计进了Mac ，这是第一台可以排出好看版式的电脑。如果当时我大学里没有旁听这门课程的话，Mac 就不会提供各种字体和等间距字体。自从Windows系统抄袭了Mac 以后，（鼓掌大笑）所有的个人电脑都有了这些东西。如果我没有退学，我就不会去书法班旁听，而今天的个人电脑大概也就不会有出色的版式功能。当然我在念大学的那会儿，不可能有先见之明，把那些生命中的点点滴滴都串起来；但10 年之后再回头看，生命的轨迹变得非常清楚。
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. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
再强调一次，你不可能充满预见地将生命的点滴串联起来；只有在你回头看的时候，你才会发现这些点点滴滴之间的联系。所以，你要坚信，你现在所经历的将在你未来的生命中串联起来。你不得不相信某些东西，你的直觉、命运、生活、因缘际会?? 正是这种信仰让我不会失去希望，它让我的人生变得与众不同。