context——写这篇 blog 的起因

前段时间,看到美团王兴的访谈,在访谈里,有人让他给年轻人建议,他提了一句:

基本上最牛逼的建议乔布斯已经说了——Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

乔布斯的这句话我很早就知道,也见过很多次。看王兴访谈的时候,我突然仔细一想:“这句话是啥意思?”,发现我其实压根不知道这句话是啥意思,只是这句话出现太多次以至于我以为自己知道这句话了,所以每次出现我都熟视无睹。

所以,在我意识到我其实对这句话没有任何理解之后,在接下来的几天,我不断思考:乔布斯说的 Stay hungry. Stay foolish. 是啥意思?最后经过比想象中复杂得多的探索,我得到了到目前为止满意的答案,用这篇 blog 记录一下我的探索过程和我对这句话的理解。

探索过程

Stay hungry. Stay foolish. 的来源

首先,Stay hungry. Stay foolish. 这句话来自于乔布斯在 2005 年 Stanford 毕业典礼的著名演讲(YouTube link),是这个演讲的最后一段内容。

乔布斯大概是这么讲的:他年轻的时候,有一本杂志,The Whole Earth Catalog,是他们那代人的圣经。在 1974 年,这本杂志要停刊的时候,最后一期的封底上,是这么一句话——Stay hungry. Stay foolish.,这句话影响了他,让他一直希望自己如此。当初他看到这句话的时候,和在座的毕业生是一样的年纪,现在他把这句话送给各位 Stanford 的毕业生。讲完之后演讲就结束了,乔布斯对这句话没有做任何解读。

《三体》里,章北海在父亲的病榻前,父亲告诉他:“北海,要多想”。究竟怎么理解”要多想“,其实完全取决于字面意思和章北海自己的解读。这里的情景也是类似的——乔布斯说:”毕业生们。Stay hungry. Stay foolish.“。究竟作何理解,也是看我们自己的解读。

幸运的是,相比于”北海,要多想“这单单一句苍白的话,Stay hungry. Stay foolish. 这句话有演讲里提供的上下文信息帮助我们去理解,于是我把他的演讲内容听了一遍又一遍,最后还是觉得没法理解,就摘抄下来,并且在我在意的地方加粗,如下:

When I was young, there was a amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation.

It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch.

This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computer and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriter, scissors, and polaroid cameras.

It was sort like Google in paperback form 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools, and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.

It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age.

On the back cover of their final issue, was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you ware so adventurous.

Beneath it were the words: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish”

It was their farewell message as they signed off: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish”. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin a new, I wish that for you. “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

Thank you all very much.

根据演讲内容,我觉得:要对这句话产生理解,需要猜测乔布斯当年看到这句话的心情。在做猜测之前,我觉得演讲里提到的两个部分需要探索:

  1. The Whole Earth Catalog 杂志
  2. The early morning country road 图片

The Whole Earth Catalog 杂志

Stay hungry. Stay foolish 这句话最早来自于 The Whole Earth Catalog 杂志,乔布斯非常喜欢这本杂志,因此才会被这本杂志留下的这句话深深影响,并且在多年之后讲这句话送给 Stanford 的毕业生们。

那么,这是一本怎样的杂志?

利用搜索引擎,我看了看这本杂志的 Wikipedia 简介,还幸运地下载到一期杂志的 pdf(本来没想直接找杂志看的,因为想直接去杂志里看下面要讲的图片,所以找了一找,很幸运找到了一期,虽然很可惜不是乔布斯说的那期,没有下面的图片,但发现这可以帮助我们去了解这个杂志):

去看这本杂志,可以发现:这本杂志内容非常杂,像是各种内容的剪藏:

乔布斯在演讲里说:

It was sort like Google in paperback form 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools, and great notions.

乔布斯将这本杂志和 Google 作类比,再考虑他当时的情况,我可以推断:乔布斯当年的时代,相较于 Google 出现之后的有问题就可以通过 Google 检索答案的时代,是一个信息获取难度大的时代,The Whole World Catalog 给乔布斯这代年轻人提供了一个非常优质的信息源,让他们能够满足青春年少时对世界满溢的好奇心。因此乔布斯说这本杂志是他们那一代人的圣经。

When I was young, there was a amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation.

我能够想象到他们买到新出的杂志的情景:急不可耐地往家里走,回到房间把书包一扔,把书摊开在床上,一页一页翻阅,津津有味地看,看着看着时间不知不觉就过去了,然而一点不觉得疲倦,直到被父母催早点睡,才依依不舍地去睡觉,等第二天再继续看。然而看这些东西有什么意义呢?他们并不在意,他们只是享受其中,纯粹的求知、纯粹的享受。

写到这里,我突然在想:为何我能把这样的情景描绘地煞有介事呢?我突然回忆起一些东西,发现:我正和他们一样啊!

The early morning country road 图片

我的结论

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

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