Cities and Ambition
May 2008 "In Boston they ask, How much does he know?
2008 年 5 月 “在波士顿，他们问，他知道多少？
In New York, How much is he worth?
在纽约，他值多少钱？
In Philadelphia, Who were his parents?" - Mark Twain --> Great cities attract ambitious people.
在费城，他的父母是谁？” ——马克·吐温 --> 伟大的城市吸引雄心勃勃的人。
You can sense it when you walk around one.
当你绕着它走一圈时，你就能感觉到它。
In a hundred subtle ways, the city sends you a message: you could do more; you should try harder.
这座城市以一百种微妙的方式向您传达一条信息：您可以做得更多；你应该更加努力。
The surprising thing is how different these messages can be.
令人惊讶的是这些信息有多么不同。
New York tells you, above all: you should make more money.
纽约告诉你，最重要的是：你应该赚更多的钱。
There are
有
other messages too, of course.
当然还有其他消息。
You should be hipper.
你应该更时髦。
You should be better looking.
你应该看起来更好看。
But the clearest message is that you should be richer.
但最明确的信息是你应该变得更富有。
What I like about Boston (or rather Cambridge) is that the message there is: you should be smarter.
我喜欢波士顿（或者更确切地说剑桥）的原因是它传达的信息是：你应该更聪明。
You really should get around to reading all those books you've been meaning to.
你真的应该抽出时间去读所有你一直想读的书。
When you ask what message a city sends, you sometimes get surprising answers.
当你问一座城市传递了什么信息时，你有时会得到令人惊讶的答案。
As much as they respect brains in Silicon Valley, the
尽管硅谷人非常尊重大脑，
message the Valley sends is: you should be more powerful.
硅谷传达的信息是：你应该变得更强大。
That's not quite the same message New York sends.
这与纽约发出的信息并不完全相同。
Power matters in New York too of course, but New York is pretty impressed by a billion dollars even if you merely inherited it.
当然，权力在纽约也很重要，但纽约对十亿美元印象深刻，即使你只是继承了它。
In Silicon Valley no one would care except a few real estate agents.
在硅谷，除了少数房地产经纪人之外，没有人会关心。
What matters in Silicon Valley is how much effect you have on the world.
在硅谷，重要的是你对世界有多大影响。
The reason people there care about Larry and Sergey is not their wealth
那里的人们关心拉里和谢尔盖的原因不是他们的财富
but the fact that they control Google, which affects practically everyone.
但事实上他们控制着谷歌，这几乎影响到了所有人。
_____ How much does it matter what message a city sends?
_____ 一座城市发出的信息有多重要？
Empirically, the answer seems to be: a lot.
根据经验，答案似乎是：很多。
You might think that if you had enough strength of mind to do great things, you'd be able to transcend your environment.
你可能会认为，如果你有足够的意志力去做伟大的事情，你就能够超越你的环境。
Where you live should make at most a couple percent difference.
您居住的地方最多应该有几个百分点的差异。
But if you look at the historical evidence,
但如果你看看历史证据，
it seems to matter more than that.
似乎比这更重要。
Most people who did great things were clumped together in a few places where that sort of thing was done at the time.
大多数做出伟大事情的人都聚集在当时做过此类事情的几个地方。
You can see how powerful cities are from something I wrote about earlier : the case of the Milanese Leonardo.
你可以从我之前写的一篇文章中看到城市的力量有多么强大：米兰达芬奇的例子。
Practically every fifteenth century Italian painter you've heard of was from Florence, even though Milan was just as big.
实际上，您听说过的所有 15 世纪意大利画家都来自佛罗伦萨，尽管米兰同样大。
People in Florence weren't
佛罗伦萨人不
genetically different, so you have to assume there was someone born in Milan with as much natural ability as Leonardo.
基因不同，所以你必须假设有一个出生在米兰的人具有与莱昂纳多一样多的天赋。
What happened to him?
他怎么了？
If even someone with the same natural ability as Leonardo couldn't beat the force of environment, do you suppose you can?
如果连像列奥纳多那样具有同样天赋的人都无法战胜环境的力量，你认为你可以吗？
I don't.
我不知道。
I'm fairly stubborn, but I wouldn't try to fight this force.
我相当固执，但我不会尝试对抗这种力量。
I'd rather use it.
我宁愿用它。
So I've thought a lot about where to live.
所以我想了很多关于住在哪里的问题。
I'd always imagined Berkeley would be the ideal place — that
我一直以为伯克利会是一个理想的地方——
it would basically be Cambridge with good weather.
基本上是天气好的剑桥。
But when I finally tried living there a couple years ago, it turned out not to be.
但几年前，当我最终尝试住在那里时，结果却并非如此。
The message Berkeley sends is: you should live better.
伯克利传达的信息是：你应该生活得更好。
Life in Berkeley is very civilized.
伯克利的生活非常文明。
It's probably the place in America where someone from Northern Europe would feel most at home.
这可能是来自北欧的人在美国最有宾至如归的感觉的地方。
But it's not humming with ambition.
但它并不充满野心。
In retrospect it shouldn't have been surprising that a place so
回想起来，一个地方如此如此，这并不奇怪
pleasant would attract people interested above all in quality of life.
愉快的会吸引那些首先对生活质量感兴趣的人。
Cambridge with good weather, it turns out, is not Cambridge.
事实证明，天气好的剑桥不是剑桥。
The people you find in Cambridge are not there by accident.
你在剑桥遇到的人并非偶然。
You have to make sacrifices to live there.
你必须做出牺牲才能住在那里。
It's expensive and somewhat grubby, and the weather's often bad.
它价格昂贵，而且有些肮脏，而且天气常常很糟糕。
So the kind of people you find in Cambridge are the kind of people who want to live where the smartest people are, even if that means living in an expensive,
因此，你在剑桥找到的人就是那些想要生活在最聪明的人所在的地方的人，即使这意味着生活在昂贵的、
grubby place with bad weather.
肮脏的地方，天气不好。
As of this writing, Cambridge seems to be the intellectual capital of the world.
截至撰写本文时，剑桥似乎是世界的智力之都。
I realize that seems a preposterous claim.
我意识到这似乎是一个荒谬的说法。
What makes it true is that it's more preposterous to claim about anywhere else.
事实证明，在其他地方提出这样的说法是更加荒谬的。
American universities currently seem to be the best, judging from the flow of ambitious students.
从雄心勃勃的学生流动来看，美国大学目前似乎是最好的。
And what US city has a stronger claim?
那么美国哪个城市的主张更有力呢？
New York?
纽约？
A fair number of smart people, but diluted by a
相当多的聪明人，但被稀释了
much larger number of neanderthals in suits.
穿着西装的尼安德特人数量要多得多。
The Bay Area has a lot of smart people too, but again, diluted; there are two great universities, but they're far apart.
湾区也有很多聪明人，但又被稀释了；有两所很棒的大学，但是相距很远。
Harvard and MIT are practically adjacent by West Coast standards, and they're surrounded by about 20 other colleges and universities.
按照西海岸标准，哈佛大学和麻省理工学院几乎相邻，周围还有大约 20 所其他学院和大学。
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