追忆乔布斯:斯坦福大学毕业典礼演讲(5/13)

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, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that 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. 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. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path, and that will make all the difference.

在当时看来，这些东西在我未来人生中似乎不会有什么作用。但是十年之后,当我们在设计第一台Macintosh电脑的时候,它们派上用场了。我把当时我学的那些东西全都设计进了Mac。那是第一台使用漂亮的印刷字体的电脑。如果我当时没有退学, 就不会有机会去参加这个我感兴趣的美术字课程, Mac也就不会有这么多丰富的字体，以及赏心悦目的字体间距。因为Windows只是抄袭了Mac，所以现在个人电脑就不会有现在这么美妙的字型了。当然我在大学的时候，还不可能把从前的点点滴滴串连起来,但是当我十年后回顾这一切的时候,真的豁然开朗了。再次说明的是,你在向前展望的时候不可能将这些片断串连起来；你只能在回顾的时候将点点滴滴串连起来。所以你必须相信这些点会在你未来的某一天串连起来。你必须要相信某些东西：勇气、命运、生命、因缘，等等等等。因为如果相信这些点必定会在未来相连起来，你就会有勇气跟着自己的内心想法步步向前，即使有时候它会带你走向一条满是荆棘道路，但这是改变一切的关键。