15条永不过时的生活智慧

 　　The great benefit of living with, working for, or being related to people who have experienced more of life than you have is picking their brain for advice.

　　和比你有生活经验的人一起生活、或为之工作、或和他们有联系的最大的益处莫过于可以从他们那里得到建议。

　　The most effective people learn from their own mistakes, and make a significant effort to learn from other people's errors as well.

　　效率高的人会从自己的错误中学习，并努力从别人的错误中学习。

　　A recent Quora thread asked users for the best advice they've ever gotten. Here are a few of the greatest excerpts¹, lightly edited for clarity:

　　最近Quora上有一个帖子，问用户得到的最好的建议是什么。其中最好的几条摘录如下，为了清楚起见稍微做了些编辑：

　　1. Never say "but."

　　不要说“但是” 。

　　"A very smart woman I worked with once told me that if I eliminated the word 'but' from my professional vocabulary, I'd find greater acceptance for my ideas, and greater cooperation from my team members... The word 'but' negates² everything that precedes it, and you cast a negative spin on anything you say when you use it... 'But' is exclusive and isolating³; 'and' is inclusive and welcoming." —Quora user Marsha Browne“和我一起工作的一位非常聪明的女士曾经告诉我，如果我把’但是’这个词从我的工作用语中去掉，那我的想法被别人接受的概率会更高，我的团队成员间的合作程度也会更好……‘但是’这个词把它之前的内容都否定了，当你用它的时候，你说的话都蒙上了消极的色彩……“但是”是排外的和孤立的；“并且”是包容的、受欢迎的。”——Quora用户布朗2. You never get anything unless you ask.

　　除非你去争取，否则你什么也得不到。

　　"It was a professor in my university, but I believe its origin is from somebody famous: If you don't ask, the answer is always 'no'." —Quora user Joe Yasman“这句话是从我大学的一个教授那儿听到的，但我觉得这句话是源自一句名言：如果你不去问，那么答案永远是 ‘不’。”—Quora的用户乔伊3. Think before you complain.

　　抱怨之前先思考。

　　"Don't complain. I think it was phrased as something like, 'Do you ever listen to someone complaining and think, This is a great conversation!?' Being negative doesn't help others, and it doesn't help you." —Quora user Steve Carnagua“不要抱怨。换句话说，“你有没有听别人抱怨，然后想，恩，这次的谈话可真棒！？’消极并不会帮助他人，也不会对你有帮助。”——Quora的用户史蒂夫4. Time is the one thing you never get back.

　　时间这个东西，你永远不会重新得到。

　　"A mentor⁴ I had some years ago told me that time is the one thing that you can never get back. If you look at it as an asset, you can donate it, spend it, or waste it. Whatever you do with it, it is gone once it passes." —Quora user Karen Meyer“几年之前我的导师告诉我，时间这个东西，你永远也不会重新得到。如果你把它看成是资产，你可以捐出它、花掉它或浪费掉。无论你怎么处理它，只要它过去了，它就再也不见了。”——Quara的用户迈耶5. Attitude is more important than talent.

　　态度比天赋要更加重要。

　　"I have been time and again repeatedly told that a strong positive attitude takes a man farther than his talent. There are many greats in sports, entertainment, politics, science, and art who had great talent but lost on huge counts only because of a faulty and shaky attitude.

　　“我被反复告诫，和天赋相比，积极的态度能让人走得更远。体育、娱乐、政治、科学和艺术等方面有很多人都富有天赋，但最终却输的很惨，原因就在于他们的态度不够端正。

　　Attitude helps you solve problems talent cannot. Attitude helps you navigate⁵ through problem talent hides." —Quora user Vamsi Uppala态度能帮你解决很多天赋解决不了的问题。态度能帮你在天赋所隐藏的问题中探索。”——Quora的用户乌帕拉6. Quality is always greater than quantity.

　　质量永远比数量要重要。

　　"If you're going to do something, do it well enough to avoid doing it the second time. Going back to do something the second time is a time-waster if you knew it can be done right the first time. Even writing this post, I'm putting in my best effort into editing it, explaining it, and making it easy and enjoyable to read — to avoid going back and fixing any grammatical errors." —Quora user Dennis Do“如果你要做什么事情，一定一次做好，不要再做第二遍。如果你知道第一次就能做好，那做两遍纯粹是浪费时间。即便是这个帖子，我也是尽力去编辑、去解释，让它易读，且读起来让人心情愉悦——避免再弄一次，去修改其中的语法错误。”——Quora用户丹尼斯7. Be reliable.

　　做个可信之人。

　　"Do what you say you're going to do." —Quora user Blake Alexander“言而有信，说到就要做到。”——Quora用户布雷克8. Do the right thing.

　　做正确的事情。

　　"Advice from Charlie Munger (not proffered⁶ personally): The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want." —Quora user Josh Tarasoff“从查理-芒格那里得到的建议（不是亲自得到的）：想得到东西的最安全的方式就是努力去让自己理应得到想要的东西。”——Quora用户乔希9. Slow down.

　　慢下来

　　"When I was in my 20s I worked as a waiter at a very popular restaurant. I found it very difficult to keep up with the orders and, consequently, my tips were very low.

　　“当我20多岁时，我在一家非常受欢迎的餐厅当服务员。我发现很难跟得上那些订单，因此，我的小费非常少。”

　　One of the very experienced servers took me aside and she said, 'Slow down and take longer steps. You'll feel more relaxed and your customers will see that and trust you.'

　　“一位非常有经验的服务员把我拉到一边，告诉我，‘慢下来，多走几步。你会更加放松，你的顾客也能够感受到并因而信任你。’”

　　If you slow down, you have time to think and plan better. Taking longer steps means more than just how you move through a space. It's about looking ahead and covering more ground, encompassing⁷ more than just the task at hand." —Quora user Gordon Bennet如果你慢下来，你就有时间思考，并能更好地计划。多走几步不仅仅是走路。它还包括往前看，多注意一些详细的情况，而不仅仅是手头的任务。”——Quora用户贝内特10. Everyone ends up in the same place.

　　每个人都会在同一地方结束。

　　"'At the end of the game, the king and the pawn⁸ go back in the same box.' —Italian Proverb“在游戏的最后，国王和小兵都会回到同一个盒子里。” ——意大利谚语When you really think about this, in the end we all end up the same. You can't take your money and fame with you after you die." —Quora user Felix Wong“你仔细想想，到最后其实我们都是一样的。金钱和名誉都是生不带来死不带去的。”——Quora的用户费力克斯11. Time is not money. It's better.

　　时间不是金钱。它比金钱更重要。

　　"Always choose time over money. Contrary to what people say, time is not money. Time is much much more than money. At the end of your life, it's guaranteed you will be out of time and more than likely out of money as well, if you didn't value time." —Quora user Navin Uttam“在时间和金钱前，要选择金钱。和人们说的不同，时间不是金钱。时间比金钱要重要的多。在你生命的尽头，你肯定会没时间，如果你不珍惜时间的话， 很有可能也没钱。”——Quora用户乌塔姆12. Don't worry what other people think.

　　不要担心别人怎么想。

　　"Stop being so self-conscious because absolutely nobody is paying any attention to you anyway — they are only paying attention to themselves." —Quora user Michael Wolfe“不要那么不自然，因为绝对没人注意你。——他们只会注意自己。”——Quora的用户沃尔夫13. You can't truly control anything but how well you do things.

　　你无法真正地去控制任何事情，但你能控制自己如何去做事情。

　　"To find happiness in life's tasks, invest in the process (which you can control), not in the outcome (which is largely out of your control)." —Quora user Mark Hurley“在生活的过程中去寻找幸福，在过程中投资（这样你可以控制），不要在结果上投资（大部分都是无法控制的。）”—Quora的用户赫尔利14. Listen.

　　倾听

　　"God gave you two ears and one mouth; use them proportionally." —Quora user Derrick Mayfield“上天给了你两只耳朵和一张嘴；按比例使用它们。”——Quora用户梅菲尔德15. Take risks when you can.

　　能冒险时就冒险。

　　"On deciding whether to step off my career track in my mid-20s to live abroad for a year: 'You have the rest of your life to work. You'll be working for 40 years. I don't know why we were in such a hurry when we were young.' I took the year off." —Quora user Deborah Diamond“在我20多岁的时候，我要做一个决定，是否放弃职业生涯去国外生活一年：‘你的余生都要工作。你要工作40年。我不知道为什么年轻时我们要这么着急。‘我选择了出去一年。”——Quora用户德博拉

1 excerpts   

n.摘录，摘要( excerpt的名词复数 )；节选（音乐，电影）片段

参考例句：

• Some excerpts from a Renaissance mass are spatchcocked into Gluck's pallid Don Juan music. 一些文艺复光时期的弥撒的选节被不适当地加入到了格鲁克平淡无味的唐璜音乐中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He is editing together excerpts of some of his films. 他正在将自己制作的一些电影的片断进行剪辑合成。 来自辞典例句

2 negates   

v.取消( negate的第三人称单数 )；使无效；否定；否认

参考例句：

• Alcohol negates the effects of the drug. 酒精能使药物失效。
• The lack of deep hardening in these alloys negates their use. 这些合金缺乏深层硬化能力使它们无法利用。 来自辞典例句

3 isolating   

adj.孤立的，绝缘的v.使隔离( isolate的现在分词 )；将…剔出（以便看清和单独处理）；使（某物质、细胞等）分离；使离析

参考例句：

• Colour filters are not very effective in isolating narrow spectral bands. 一些滤色片不能很有效地分离狭窄的光谱带。 来自辞典例句
• This became known as the streak method for isolating bacteria. 这个方法以后就称为分离细菌的划线法。 来自辞典例句

4 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

5 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

6 proffered   

v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She proffered her cheek to kiss. 她伸过自己的面颊让人亲吻。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He rose and proffered a silver box full of cigarettes. 他站起身，伸手递过一个装满香烟的银盒子。 来自辞典例句

7 encompassing   

v.围绕( encompass的现在分词 )；包围；包含；包括

参考例句：

• Being too large and all-encompassing is a common defect among state-owned enterprises. 过分追求大而全，是国企的一大通病。 来自互联网
• Our services are: all-encompassing, love justice and high quality. 我们的服务目标是：全方位、真情义、高质量。 来自互联网

8 pawn   

n.典当，抵押，小人物，走卒；v.典当，抵押

参考例句：

• He is contemplating pawning his watch.他正在考虑抵押他的手表。
• It looks as though he is being used as a political pawn by the President.看起来他似乎被总统当作了政治卒子。