Speech 01

Don't Squander Your Ignorance
不要浪费你的无知

Profile 名人

硅谷风险投资家、贝宝（PayPal）联合创始人彼得·蒂尔（Peter Thiel）

彼得·蒂尔，美国著名企业家、风险资本家及对冲基金管理者。他于1996年创办了蒂尔资产管理公司（Thiel Capital Management），并在2002年将其更名为克莱瑞姆资本管理公司（Clarium Capital Management），目前该公司管理着总值超过50亿美元的资产。1998年，他与马克斯·拉夫琴（Max Levchin）和伊隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）联合创立了国际贸易支付工具贝宝（PayPal），并在2002年以15亿美元出售给易趣网（eBay）。2004年，他成立软件公司帕兰提尔技术公司（Palantir），服务于国防安全与全球金融领域的数据分析。他成立了蒂尔奖学金（Thiel Fellowship），鼓励年轻人在校园之外学习和创业。他还成立了蒂尔基金（Thiel Foundation），以推动科技进步和促进人们对未来的长远思考。同时，他还是畅销书《从无到有》（Zero to One）的作者。

2016年5月，彼得·蒂尔在汉密尔顿学院的毕业典礼上发表了演讲。在演讲中，彼得·蒂尔讲述了自己辞掉人人艳羡的律师工作、开启创业之旅的经历，以此鼓励毕业生们“不要浪费自己的无知”，走出校园，去做那些老师和父母认为无法实现或未曾想过的事情。他说：“如果我们不去追寻新事物，就不算忠于我们的传统。”

除此之外，他对两个老生常谈的说法提出质疑，从而告诫毕业生们：第一，不要做真正的自己，要调教自我，培育它、关爱它，而非盲目地顺从它。你应该质疑别人的建议，即使那些建议来自你的长辈。第二，把每天都过得像永远一样，并且善待周围的人，就像他们很长时间都会陪伴在你周围一样。你今天所做的选择非常重要，因为这些选择的后果会在未来日益凸显。

最后，彼得·蒂尔告诉毕业生们要珍惜今日的友谊，并继续发展同学之谊，日后定有回报。他说：“今天的毕业典礼开启的并不是另一件终将完结的事情。它所开启的是一段永无止境的旅程。”

Speech 演讲

Thank you. Thank you so much for the kind introduction. It's a tremendous honor to be here.

Like most graduation speakers, my main qualification would seem to be that I am one of the few people who are even more clueless about what is going on in your lives than your parents and your professors.

Most of you are about 21 or 22 years old. You're about to begin working. I haven't worked for anybody for 21 years. But if I try to make, give a reason for why it makes sense for me to speak here today, I would say it's because thinking about the future is what I do for a living. And this is a commencement. It's a new beginning. As a technology investor, I invest in new beginnings. I believe in what hasn't yet been seen or been done.

This is not what I set out to do when I began my career. When I was sitting where you are, back in 1989, I would've told you that I wanted to be a lawyer. I didn't really know what lawyers do all day, but I knew they had to first go to law school, and school was familiar to me.

I had been competitively tracked from middle school to high school to college, and by going straight to law school, I knew I would be competing at the same kinds of tests I'd been taking ever since I was a kid, but I could tell everyone that I was now doing it for the sake of becoming a professional adult.

I did well enough in law school to be hired by a big New York law firm, but it turned out to be a very strange place: From the outside, everybody wanted to get in; and from the inside, everybody wanted to get out.

When I left the firm, after seven months and three days, my co-workers were surprised. One of them told me that he hadn't known it was possible to escape from Alcatraz . Now that might sound odd, because all you had to do to escape was walk through the front door, and not come back. But people really did find it very hard to leave, because so much of their identity was wrapped up in having won the competitions to get there in the first place.

Just as I was leaving the law firm, I got an interview for a Supreme Court clerkship . And This is sort of the top prize you can get as a lawyer. It was the absolute last stage of competition, but I lost. And at the time, I was totally devastated . It seemed just like the end of the world.

About a decade later, I ran into an old friend—someone who had helped me prepare for the Supreme Court interview, but whom I hadn't seen in years. His first words to me were not, you know, “Hi Peter” or “How are you doing?” but rather, “So, aren't you glad you didn't get that clerkship?” Because if I hadn't lost that last competition, we both knew that I never would have left the track laid down since middle school, I wouldn't have moved to California and co-founded a startup , I wouldn't have done anything new.

Looking back at my ambition to become a lawyer, it looks less like a plan for the future and more like an alibi for the present. It was a way to explain to anyone who would ask—to my parents, to my peers, and most of all, to myself—that there was no need to worry, I was perfectly on track. But it turned out, in retrospect , that my biggest problem was taking the track without thinking really hard about where it was going.

When I co-founded a technology startup, we took the opposite approach. We consciously set out to change the direction of the world with very definite, very big plans. Our goal was nothing less than to replace the U.S. dollar by creating a new digital currency.

We had a young team. When we started, I was the only person over 23 years old. When we released our first product, the first users were simply the 24 people who worked at our company. Outside, there were millions of people working in the global financial industry, and when we told some of them about our plans, we noticed a clear pattern: The more experience someone had in banking, the more certain they were that our venture could never succeed.

They were wrong. People around the world now rely on PayPal to move more than $200 billion every year. We did fail at our greater goal—the dollar's still dominant . We didn't succeed in taking over the whole world, but we did create a successful company in the process. And more importantly, we learned that while doing new things is difficult, it is far from impossible.

At this moment in your life, you know fewer limits, fewer taboos, and fewer fears than you will ever in the future. So, do not squander your ignorance. Go out and do what your teachers and parents thought could not be done, and what they never thought of doing.

Now this is not to say that we should assume there is no value in teaching and tradition. And here we can take inspiration from a graduate of Hamilton College, the illustrious Ezra Pound, Class of 1905. Pound was a poet, and he was also a prophet of sorts, and he announced his mission in three words: “Make it new.” When Pound said “make it new”, he was talking about the old; he wanted to recover what was best in tradition, and to render it fresh.

Here at Hamilton, in America, and in that part of the world called the West, we are all part of an unusual kind of tradition. The tradition we've inherited is itself about doing new things. The new science of Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton discovered truths that had never been written down in books. Our whole continent is a new world. The founders of this country set out to create what they called “a new order for the ages”. America is the frontier country. We are not true to our own tradition unless we seek what is new.

So how are we doing? How much is new today? It is a cliché to say that we are living through a time of rapid change, but it is an open secret that the truth is closer to stagnation . Computers are getting faster and smartphones are somewhat new. But on the other hand, jets are slower, trains are breaking down, houses are expensive, and incomes are flat.

Today, the word “technology” means information technology. The so-called “tech” industry builds computers and software. But in the 1960s, “technology” had a more expansive meaning and meant not just computers, but also airplanes, medicines, fertilizers , materials, space travel—all sorts of things. Technology was advancing on every front and leading to a world of underwater cities, vacations on the moon, and energy too cheap to meter.

We've all heard America described as a developed country, setting it apart from countries that are still developing. This description pretends to be neutral. But I find it far from neutral. Because it suggests that our tradition of making new things is over. When we say that we are developed, we're saying, “That's it.” That for us, history is over. We are saying that everything there is to do has already been done, and now the only thing left is for others in the world to catch up. And in this view, the 1960s’ vision of a fantastic and far better future was just a mistake.

I think we should strongly refuse this temptation to assume that our history is over. Of course, if we choose to believe that we're powerless to do anything that is not familiar, we will be right, but only in a sort of self-fulfilling way. We should not, however, blame nature. It will only be our own fault.

Familiar tracks and traditions are like clichés—they are everywhere; they may sometimes be correct, but often they are justified by nothing except constant repetition. Let me end today by questioning two clichés in particular.

The first comes from Shakespeare who wrote this well-known piece of advice: “To thine own self be true.” Now Shakespeare wrote that, but he didn't say it. He put it in the mouth of a character named Polonius, who Hamlet accurately describes as a “ tedious old fool”, even though Polonius was senior counselor to the King of Denmark.

And so, in reality, Shakespeare is telling us two things. First, do not be true to yourself. How do you know you even have such a thing as a self? Your self might be motivated by competition with others, like I was. You need to discipline yourself, to cultivate it and care for it, not to follow it blindly. Second, Shakespeare's saying that you should be skeptical of advice, even from your elders. Polonius is a father speaking to his daughter, but his advice is terrible. Here Shakespeare's a faithful example of our western tradition, which does not honor what is merely inherited.

The other cliché goes like this: “Live each day as if it were your last.” The best way to take this as advice is to do exactly the opposite. Live each day as if you will live forever. And that means, first and foremost, that you should treat the people around you as if they too will be around for a very long time to come. The choices that you make today matter, because their consequences will grow greater and greater.

That is what Einstein was getting at when he supposedly said that “compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.” This isn't just about finance or money, but it's about the idea that you'll get the best returns in life from investing your time in building durable friendships and long-lasting relationships.

In one sense, all of you are here today because you were approved by the admissions office of Hamilton to pursue a course of study, which is now over. In another sense, you are here because you found a group of friends to sustain you along the way, and those friendships will continue. If you take care of them, they will compound in the years ahead.

Everything that you have done so far has had some kind of formal ending, some kind of graduation. You should, and I hope that you will, take time today to celebrate all that you've achieved so far. But remember that today's commencement is not the beginning of one more thing that will end. It is the beginning of forever. And I won't delay you any further in getting on with it. Thank you.

谢谢！非常感谢您的热情介绍！能够站在这里我感到十分荣幸。

和大多数毕业典礼的演讲者一样，我之所以有资格站在这里，似乎主要是因为我是为数不多的比你们的父母和教授还不了解你们生活的人之一。

你们中的大多数人都是21岁或22岁左右，即将开始工作。而我已经21年没有为任何人工作过了。但如果让我试着给出一个理由，为什么我今天在这里演讲是有道理的，我会说这是因为我是靠思考未来谋生的。这是一场毕业典礼。这是一个全新的开始。作为一位科技投资人，我投资的就是新的开始。我信奉（人们）不曾见过和做到的事。

初入职场时，这并不是我打算做事。回首1989年，当我坐在你们现在的位置时，我会告诉你们我想成为一名律师。我当时并不真的清楚律师整天都做些什么，但是我知道他们首先要去读法学院，而我对学校再熟悉不过了。

一路从中学到高中再到大学，我都是很有竞争力的学生。而直接进入法学院的话，我知道我会继续竞争，参加我从儿时就开始参加的各种考试。但这样我就可以告诉每一个人，我现在做这些是为了成为一名专业人士。

我在法学院表现很好，所以被纽约一家大型律师事务所聘用了，可到头来却发现那里是一座非常奇怪的“围城”：外面的人都想挤进来，里面的人却都想逃出去。

工作了7个月零3天后，我离开了那家事务所，我的同事们都震惊了。其中一位同事告诉我，他从来不知道竟然有人能够逃离“恶魔岛”。这话听上去可能有些奇怪，因为想要逃离，你只需要走出大门，别再回头。但是人们真的觉得离开很难，因为他们的身份在很大程度上都融入了当初赢得竞争进入顶级律师事务所的过程之中。

正当我要离开律师事务所的时候，我得到了最高法院法官助理的面试机会。这算得上是作为律师所能得到的绝佳机遇。这绝对是一场终极竞争，但是我失败了。那时的我非常悲伤，感觉就像是世界末日。

大概十年之后，我偶遇一位老友——他当年帮我准备最高法院的面试，但是我已经很多年没有见过他了。他见到我说的第一句话并不是，你知道的，“嗨，彼得”，也不是“最近还好吗”，而是“你是不是很庆幸当年没有得到法官助理的工作？”因为如果不是在那场终极竞争中失败，我们都清楚我永远不会脱离那条从中学时代就早已设定好的轨迹，我也不会搬到加利福尼亚州，与人一起创办公司，也不会去开创新的事业。

回头看我想要成为一名律师的雄心壮志，那看起来不太像是对未来的一个规划，反而更像是对当下的一种托辞。我可以用它向所有可能问起的人解释——向我的父母和同伴，最主要的是向我自己解释——不用担心，我在正轨上走得好好的。但事后看来，事实证明我最大的问题就是走在既定的轨道上，却没有认真思考过它将通向何方。

当我与人一起创办科技公司时，我们采取了一种截然相反的方式。我们带着非常明确和十分宏大的计划，有意识地去着手改变世界的发展方向。我们的目标就是创造一种新型电子货币来取代美元的地位。

我们拥有一支非常年轻的团队。刚起步的时候，我是团队中唯一一个超过23岁的人。第一款产品发布的时候，首批用户就是我们公司的24名员工。在我们公司以外，全球金融行业有数百万名从业者。当我们把计划告诉他们中的一些人的时候，我们注意到一个显著的规律：在银行业资历越深的人，越确信我们的创业是永远不可能成功的。

他们错了。如今，全球用户每年通过贝宝流动的资金总额超过两千亿美元。我们的确没有实现更加宏大的目标——美元仍占据主导地位。我们没有成功接管整个世界，但在这个过程中我们的确创建了一个成功的公司。更重要的是，我们明白了尽管创新充满困难，但并非绝无可能。

在你们人生的现阶段，你们所知道的限制、禁忌和恐惧比未来任何阶段都要少。所以，不要浪费你的无知。走出去，去做你的老师和家长认为做不到的事情，去做他们从未想过的事情。

这并不是说我们应该否认教育与传统的价值。这一点我们能够从汉密尔顿学院1905届的一位杰出校友埃兹拉·庞德身上得到启发。庞德是一位诗人，也算得上是一位先知。他用三个字宣告了自己的使命：“日日新。”当庞德说“日日新”的时候，他所针对的其实是旧传统。他希望恢复旧传统中的精华，并且使之焕然一新。

在汉密尔顿学院，在美国，乃至在西方世界，我们都是一种不同寻常的传统的一部分。我们所继承的传统本身就是关于创新。弗朗西斯·培根和艾萨克·牛顿的新科学发现了书本上从来没有记载过的真理。我们的整个大陆都是一个新世界。这个国家的开国元勋创建了他们所谓的“旧时代的新秩序”。美国是一个前沿国家。如果我们不探求新事物，就违背了我们自己的传统。

那么我们做得怎么样呢？现如今又有多少新鲜事物呢？“我们生活在一个迅速变革的时代”，这种说法已经是老生常谈，事实上近乎停滞才是公开的秘密。电脑运转速度越来越快，智能手机也算是比较新鲜的事物。但是另一方面，飞机变慢了，火车故障频发，房价居高不下，收入停滞不前。

如今，“技术”一词就意味着信息技术。所谓的“技术”产业制造的就是电脑和软件。但是在20世纪60年代，“技术”有着更为广泛的含义，它不仅仅指电脑，还可以指飞机、医药、肥料、材料、太空旅行以及各种各样的事物。那时，各个领域的技术都在进步，将我们带到一个有水下城市、能去月球度假、能源便宜到忽略不计的世界。

我们都听说过，美国被称为发达国家，与那些还在发展中的国家有所区别。这种说法似乎比较中性，但是我发现它远非如此。因为它意味着我们创新的传统已经结束了。当我们说自己是发达国家，我们就是在说“就是这样了”。对我们而言，历史结束了。我们在说我们要做的所有事情都已经做完了，现在唯一剩下的事就是等着世界上的其他国家来追赶我们。这样看来，20世纪60年代对于不可思议的更美好未来的憧憬只是个错误而已。

我认为我们应该强烈反对这种倾向，即认为我们的历史已经结束了。当然，如果我们选择相信我们没有能力去做任何不熟悉的事情，仅从自我应验的角度来看也是对的。然而我们不应怨天尤人，这只是我们自己的错误。

熟悉的轨迹和传统犹如老生常谈一般——它们无处不在；它们有时可能是正确的，但更多时候，除了被不断重复之外，没有什么可证明其正确性。在结束今天的演讲前，我要特别质疑两个老生常谈。

首先是出自莎士比亚笔下的这条众所周知的建议：“要忠于自我”。这句话是莎士比亚写的，却不是他亲口说的。他借一个名为波洛尼厄斯的角色之口说出了这句话，哈姆雷特曾准确地描述他为“讨厌的老糊涂”，尽管波洛尼厄斯是丹麦国王的高级顾问。

所以事实上，莎士比亚告诉了我们两件事。首先，不要忠于自我。你怎么知道自己还有“自我”这种东西呢？你的“自我”可能是通过与别人的竞争而被激发出来的，就像我一样。你需要约束自我，培养自我，关心自我，而不要盲目地追随自我。第二，莎士比亚其实在说，你要对别人的建议保持怀疑的态度，即便是长辈给你的建议。波洛尼厄斯是一位教导女儿的父亲，但是他的建议糟透了。在这里，莎士比亚很好地诠释了我们西方的传统，那就是不要一味地崇尚传统。

另一个老生常谈是这样说的：“把每天都当作最后一天去活。”听取这个建议最好的方法就是反其道而行之，把每天都当作你将永生一样去活。那就意味着，首要的是你应该善待周围的人，就好像他们将在未来很长一段时间里都会陪伴在你身边一样。今天你所做出的决定十分重要，因为它们所产生的影响会在未来日益凸显。

据称爱因斯坦说过：“复利是宇宙中最强大的力量。”他表达的就是这层意思。这不光指的是金融或者金钱，更是在说如果你能花时间去建立持久的友谊和长久的人际关系，你就能在生活中获得最佳收益。

在某种意义上，你们所有人今天之所以在这里，是因为你们被汉密尔顿学院招生办录取来攻读某些课程，而现在（这段学习时光）结束了。在另一个层面上，你们在这里是因为你们找到了一群可以一路支持你们的朋友，而这些友谊会延续下去。如果你们悉心呵护它们，它们会在未来的日子里产生“复利”。

到目前为止，你所做的每一件事情都有某种正式的完结，某种毕业的仪式。你们应该利用今天的时间去庆祝你们到目前为止所取得的成就，我也希望你们这样做。但是请你们记住，今天的毕业典礼开启的并不是另一件终将完结的事情。它所开启的是一段永无止境的旅程。那么我就不再耽误你们踏上这段旅程了。谢谢你们！

（译/蔡芸菲）

Quotes 语录