Undergraduation
<img src="http://www.virtumundo.com/images/spacer.gif" height=15 width=1> Want to start a startup?
<img src="http://www.virtumundo.com/images/spacer.gif" height=15 width=1> 想要创业吗？
Get funded by Y Combinator .
获得 Y Combinator 的资助。
</td > <img src="http://www.virtumundo.com/images/spacer.gif" height=15 width=1> Want a summer job?
</td > <img src="http://www.virtumundo.com/images/spacer.gif" height=15 width=1> 想要一份暑期工作吗？
Why not be a Summer Founder ?
为什么不成为夏季创始人呢？
</td > --> March 2005 (Parts of this essay began as replies to students who wrote to me with questions.) Recently I've had several emails from computer science
</td> --> 2005 年 3 月（本文的部分内容是对写信给我提出问题的学生的回复。）最近我收到了几封来自计算机科学的电子邮件
undergrads asking what to do in college.
本科生问在大学要做什么。
I might not be the best source of advice, because I was a philosophy major in college.
我可能不是最好的建议来源，因为我是大学哲学专业的。
But I took so many CS classes that most CS majors thought I was one.
但我参加了太多的 CS 课程，以至于大多数 CS 专业的学生都认为我是其中一员。
I was certainly a hacker, at least.
至少我肯定是一名黑客。
Hacking What should you do in college to become a good hacker ?
黑客 在大学里你应该做什么才能成为一名优秀的黑客？
There are two main things you can do: become very good at programming, and learn a lot about specific, cool problems.
您可以做两件主要的事情：变得非常擅长编程，并学习很多关于具体的、很酷的问题。
These turn out to be equivalent,
这些结果是等价的，
because each drives you to do the other.
因为每一个都驱使你去做另一个。
The way to be good at programming is to work (a) a lot (b) on hard problems.
擅长编程的方法是 (a) 大量地 (b) 解决难题。
And the way to make yourself work on hard problems is to work on some very engaging project.
让自己解决难题的方法就是从事一些非常有吸引力的项目。
<!-- The first derivative of "imagination is more important than knowledge" is "curiosity is more important than discipline." [1] Nothing will make you smarter faster than an engaging project.
<!-- “想象力比知识更重要”的第一个导数是“好奇心比纪律更重要”。 [1] 没有什么比一个引人入胜的项目更能让你更快变得聪明了。
--> Odds are this project won't be a class assignment.
--> 这个项目很可能不会成为课堂作业。
My friend Robert learned a lot by writing network software when he was an undergrad.
我的朋友罗伯特在读本科时通过编写网络软件学到了很多东西。
One of his projects was to connect Harvard to the Arpanet; it had been one of the original nodes, but by 1984 the connection had died.
他的项目之一是将哈佛大学与阿帕网连接起来。它曾是最初的节点之一，但到 1984 年，连接已经中断。
[1] Not only was this work not for a class, but because he spent all his time on it and neglected his studies, he was kicked out of
[1] 这项工作不仅不适合班级，而且因为他把所有的时间都花在了上面而荒废了学业，所以他被学校开除了。
school for a year.
学校学了一年。
[2] It all evened out in the end, and now he's a professor at MIT.
[2] 最终一切都平息了，现在他是麻省理工学院的教授。
But you'll probably be happier if you don't go to that extreme; it caused him a lot of worry at the time.
但如果你不走那么极端，你可能会更快乐。当时给他带来了很大的担忧。
Another way to be good at programming is to find other people who are good at it, and learn what they know.
擅长编程的另一种方法是找到其他擅长编程的人，并学习他们所知道的知识。
Programmers tend to sort themselves into tribes according to the type of work they do and the tools they use, and some tribes are
程序员倾向于根据他们所做的工作类型和使用的工具将自己分为部落，有些部落是
smarter than others.
比其他人更聪明。
Look around you and see what the smart people seem to be working on; there's usually a reason.
看看你的周围，看看聪明人似乎在做什么；通常是有原因的。
Some of the smartest people around you are professors.
你周围一些最聪明的人是教授。
So one way to find interesting work is to volunteer as a research assistant.
因此，找到有趣工作的一种方法是志愿担任研究助理。
Professors are especially interested in people who can solve tedious system-administration type problems for them, so that is a way to get a foot in the door.
教授们对那些能够为他们解决繁琐的系统管理类型问题的人特别感兴趣，因此这是踏入大门的一种方式。
What they fear are
他们害怕的是
flakes and resume padders.
薄片和恢复轧车。
It's all too common for an assistant to result in a net increase in work.
助理带来工作净增加的情况太常见了。
So you have to make it clear you'll mean a net decrease.
所以你必须明确表示你的意思是净减少。
Don't be put off if they say no. Rejection is almost always less personal than the rejectee imagines.
如果他们拒绝，请不要犹豫。拒绝几乎总是没有被拒绝者想象的那么个人化。
Just move on to the next.
继续下一步。
(This applies to dating too.) Beware, because although most professors are smart, not all of them work on interesting stuff.
（这也适用于约会。）要小心，因为尽管大多数教授都很聪明，但并非所有人都致力于有趣的事情。
Professors have to publish novel results
教授必须发表新颖的结果
to advance their careers, but there is more competition in more interesting areas of research.
来推进他们的职业生涯，但在更有趣的研究领域存在更多竞争。
So what less ambitious professors do is turn out a series of papers whose conclusions are novel because no one else cares about them.
因此，那些不太雄心勃勃的教授所做的就是发表一系列结论新颖的论文，因为没有人关心它们。
You're better off avoiding these.
你最好避免这些。
I never worked as a research assistant, so I feel a bit dishonest recommending that route.
我从未担任过研究助理，所以我觉得推荐这条路线有点不诚实。
I learned to program by writing stuff of my own, particularly by trying to reverse-engineer Winograd's
我通过编写自己的东西来学习编程，特别是通过尝试对 Winograd 进行逆向工程
SHRDLU.
施罗德鲁。
I was as obsessed with that program as a mother with a new baby.
我对这个项目的痴迷就像一个刚出生的婴儿的母亲一样。
Whatever the disadvantages of working by yourself, the advantage is that the project is all your own.
不管自己工作有什么缺点，优点是项目完全是你自己的。
You never have to compromise or ask anyone's permission, and if you have a new idea you can just sit down and start implementing it.
您永远不必妥协或征求任何人的许可，如果您有新想法，您可以坐下来开始实施。
In your own projects you don't have to worry about novelty (as professors do) or profitability (as businesses do).
在您自己的项目中，您不必担心新颖性（像教授那样）或盈利能力（像企业那样）。
All that matters
一切都重要
is how hard the project is technically, and that has no correlation to the nature of the application.
是项目在技术上的难度，这与应用程序的性质无关。
"Serious" applications like databases are often trivial and dull technically (if you ever suffer from insomnia, try reading the technical literature about databases) while "frivolous" applications like games are often very sophisticated.
像数据库这样的“严肃”应用程序在技术上通常是琐碎和枯燥的（如果您曾经失眠，请尝试阅读有关数据库的技术文献），而像游戏这样的“无聊”应用程序通常非常复杂。
I'm sure there are game companies out there working on products
我确信有游戏公司正在开发产品
with more intellectual content than the research at the bottom nine tenths of university CS departments.
比大学计算机科学系的十分之九的研究具有更多的智力内容。
If I were in college now I'd probably work on graphics: a network game, for example, or a tool for 3D animation.
如果我现在在大学，我可能会从事图形工作：例如，网络游戏，或 3D 动画工具。
When I was an undergrad there weren't enough cycles around to make graphics interesting, but it's hard to imagine anything more fun to work on now.
当我还是一名本科生时，没有足够的循环来使图形变得有趣，但现在很难想象还有什么比这更有趣的事情了。
Math When I was in college, a lot of the professors believed (or at least
数学 当我上大学时，很多教授相信（或者至少
wished) that computer science was a branch of math.
希望）计算机科学是数学的一个分支。
This idea was strongest at Harvard, where there wasn't even a CS major till the 1980s; till then one had to major in applied math.
这个想法在哈佛最为强烈，那里直到 20 世纪 80 年代才设立计算机科学专业。在那之前，人们必须主修应用数学。
But it was nearly as bad at Cornell.
但康奈尔大学的情况几乎同样糟糕。
When I told the fearsome Professor Conway that I was interested in AI (a hot topic then), he told me I should major in math.
当我告诉可怕的康威教授我对人工智能（当时的热门话题）感兴趣时，他告诉我我应该主修数学。
I'm still not sure whether he thought AI required math, or whether he thought AI was nonsense and that majoring in
我仍然不确定他是否认为人工智能需要数学，或者他是否认为人工智能是胡说八道，而那个专业
something rigorous would cure me of such stupid ambitions.
一些严格的东西可以治愈我这种愚蠢的野心。
In fact, the amount of math you need as a hacker is a lot less than most university departments like to admit.
事实上，作为一名黑客，你需要的数学知识比大多数大学部门愿意承认的要少得多。
I don't think you need much more than high school math plus a few concepts from the theory of computation.
我认为你不需要比高中数学加上一些计算理论中的概念更多的东西。
(You have to know what an n^2 algorithm is if you want to avoid writing them.) Unless you're planning to write math applications, of course.
（如果您想避免编写 n^2 算法，则必须知道什么是 n^2 算法。）当然，除非您打算编写数学应用程序。
Robotics, for example, is all math.
例如，机器人技术就是数学。
But while you don't literally need math for most kinds of hacking, in the sense of knowing 1001 tricks for differentiating formulas, math is very much worth studying for its own sake.
但是，虽然大多数类型的黑客攻击实际上并不需要数学，但从了解微分公式的 1001 个技巧的意义上来说，数学本身就非常值得学习。
It's a valuable source of metaphors for almost any kind of work.[3] I wish I'd studied more math in college for that reason.
对于几乎所有类型的工作来说，它都是一个宝贵的隐喻来源。[3]因此，我希望我在大学时能学更多的数学。
Like a lot of people, I was mathematically abused as a child.
和很多人一样，我小时候在数学上受到了虐待。
I learned to think of math as a collection of formulas that were
我学会了将数学视为公式的集合
neither beautiful nor had any relation to my life (despite attempts to translate them into "word problems"), but had to be memorized in order to do well on tests.
既不美丽，也与我的生活没有任何关系（尽管试图将它们转化为“应用题”），但必须记住才能在考试中取得好成绩。
One of the most valuable things you could do in college would be to learn what math is really about.
在大学里你能做的最有价值的事情之一就是了解数学的真正含义。
This may not be easy, because a lot of good mathematicians are bad teachers.
这可能并不容易，因为很多优秀的数学家都是糟糕的老师。
And while there are many popular books on math, few seem good.
虽然有很多流行的数学书籍，但看起来好的书却很少。
The best I can think
我能想到的最好的
of are W.
其中 W.
W.
W.
Sawyer's.
索耶的。
And of course Euclid.
当然还有欧几里得。
[4] Everything Thomas Huxley said "Try to learn something about everything and everything about something." Most universities aim at this ideal.
[4] 一切 托马斯·赫胥黎说过“尝试了解一切，了解某事的一切。”大多数大学都以这一理想为目标。
But what's everything?
但一切又是什么？
To me it means, all that people learn in the course of working honestly on hard problems.
对我来说，这意味着人们在诚实地解决难题的过程中学到的一切。
All such work tends to be related, in that ideas and techniques from one field can often be transplanted successfully to others.
所有这些工作往往都是相关的，因为一个领域的想法和技术通常可以成功地移植到其他领域。
Even others
甚至其他人
that seem quite distant.
那似乎很遥远。
For example, I write essays the same way I write software: I sit down and blow out a lame version 1 as fast as I can type, then spend several weeks rewriting it.
例如，我写论文的方式与编写软件的方式相同：我坐下来，以最快的速度敲出蹩脚的版本 1，然后花几周时间重写它。
Working on hard problems is not, by itself, enough.
解决难题本身还不够。
Medieval alchemists were working on a hard problem, but their approach was so bogus that there was little to learn from studying it, except possibly about people's ability
中世纪的炼金术士正在研究一个难题，但他们的方法是如此虚假，以至于除了可能了解人们的能力之外，从研究中几乎没有什么可以学到的东西
to delude themselves.
来欺骗自己。
Unfortunately the sort of AI I was trying to learn in college had the same flaw: a very hard problem, blithely approached with hopelessly inadequate techniques.
不幸的是，我在大学里试图学习的那种人工智能也有同样的缺陷：一个非常困难的问题，用极其不充分的技术轻松地解决了这个问题。
Bold?
大胆的？
Closer to fraudulent.
离诈骗更近了。
<!-- There is a good deal of such bogusness around.
<!-- 周围有很多这样的虚假内容。
For example, the field of literary theory is almost entirely bogus.
例如，文学理论领域几乎完全是假的。
They seem to be writing about hard questions, at least some of the time, but
他们似乎在写一些难题，至少在某些时候是这样，但是
standards in the field are so low that one need not say anything interesting, so long as one says it in a sufficiently complicated way.
这个领域的标准很低，不需要说任何有趣的东西，只要用足够复杂的方式说出来。
[6] I'm not saying that literature is bogus, by the way, just that the way to study it is the way its practitioners do.
[6] 顺便说一句，我并不是说文学是假的，只是说研究文学的方式就是文学从业者的做法。
Novelists work honestly on hard problems.
小说家诚实地解决难题。
Indeed, it's precisely because this work is so hard that literary theory happens.
确实，正是因为这项工作太难，才产生了文学理论。
Most literary theorists would be writers if they could, just as most art critics
如果可以的话，大多数文学理论家都会成为作家，就像大多数艺术评论家一样
would be artists.
会是艺术家。
--> The social sciences are also fairly bogus, because they're so much influenced by intellectual fashions .
--> 社会科学也相当虚假，因为它们深受知识时尚的影响。
If a physicist met a colleague from 100 years ago, he could teach him some new things; if a psychologist met a colleague from 100 years ago, they'd just get into an ideological argument.
如果一个物理学家遇到了100年前的同事，他可以教他一些新东西；如果一位心理学家遇到了 100 年前的同事，他们只会陷入意识形态争论。
Yes, of course, you'll learn something by taking a psychology class.
是的，当然，您会通过参加心理学课程学到一些东西。
The point is, you'll learn more by taking
重点是，通过学习你会学到更多
a class in another department.
另一个部门的一个班级。
The worthwhile departments, in my opinion, are math, the hard sciences, engineering, history (especially economic and social history, and the history of science), architecture, and the classics.
在我看来，有价值的院系是数学、硬科学、工程、历史（特别是经济和社会历史以及科学史）、建筑和古典学。
A survey course in art history may be worthwhile.
艺术史调查课程可能是值得的。
Modern literature is important, but the way to learn about it is just to read.
现代文学很重要，但了解它的方法就是阅读。
I don't know enough about music to say.
我对音乐的了解还不够多。
You can skip the social sciences, philosophy, and the various
你可以跳过社会科学、哲学和各种
departments created recently in response to political pressures.
最近为应对政治压力而成立的部门。
Many of these fields talk about important problems, certainly.
当然，其中许多领域都讨论了重要问题。
But the way they talk about them is useless.
但他们谈论这些的方式是没有用的。
For example, philosophy talks, among other things, about our obligations to one another; but you can learn more about this from a wise grandmother or E.
例如，哲学尤其谈论我们对彼此的义务；但你可以从一位明智的祖母或E那里了解更多这方面的知识。
B.
B.
White than from an academic philosopher.
白比来自一位学术哲学家。
I speak here from experience.
我在这里讲的是经验。
I should probably have been offended
我可能应该被冒犯
when people laughed at Clinton for saying "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." I took about five classes in college on what the meaning of "is" is.
当人们嘲笑克林顿说“这取决于‘是’这个词的含义是什么”时。我在大学里上了大约五节关于“是”含义的课程。
Another way to figure out which fields are worth studying is to create the dropout graph.
确定哪些领域值得研究的另一种方法是创建 dropout 图。
For example, I know many people who switched from math to computer science because they found math too hard, and no one who did the opposite.
例如，我认识很多人从数学转向计算机科学，因为他们发现数学太难了，但没有人采取相反的做法。
People don't do hard
人们不努力
things gratuitously; no one will work on a harder problem unless it is proportionately (or at least log(n)) more rewarding.
无偿的事情；没有人会去解决更难的问题，除非它能按比例（或至少log(n)）获得更多回报。
So probably math is more worth studying than computer science.
因此，数学可能比计算机科学更值得学习。
By similar comparisons you can make a graph of all the departments in a university.
通过类似的比较，您可以制作大学所有院系的图表。
At the bottom you'll find the subjects with least intellectual content.
在底部，您会发现智力内容最少的主题。
If you use this method, you'll get roughly the same answer I just
如果你使用这种方法，你会得到与我刚刚相同的答案
gave.
给了。
Language courses are an anomaly.
语言课程是一种异常现象。
I think they're better considered as extracurricular activities, like pottery classes.
我认为它们最好被视为课外活动，比如陶艺课。
They'd be far more useful when combined with some time living in a country where the language is spoken.
如果再加上在使用该语言的国家生活一段时间，它们会更有用。
On a whim I studied Arabic as a freshman.
大一时我一时兴起学习了阿拉伯语。
It was a lot of work, and the only lasting benefits were a weird ability to identify semitic roots and some insights into how people
这是一项繁重的工作，唯一持久的好处是识别闪族根源的奇怪能力以及对人们如何
recognize words.
认识单词。
Studio art and creative writing courses are wildcards.
工作室艺术和创意写作课程是通配符。
Usually you don't get taught much: you just work (or don't work) on whatever you want, and then sit around offering "crits" of one another's creations under the vague supervision of the teacher.
通常你不会学到太多东西：你只是做（或不做）你想做的任何事情，然后在老师模糊的监督下坐下来对彼此的创作进行“批评”。
But writing and art are both very hard problems that (some) people work honestly at, so they're worth doing, especially if you can find a good
但是写作和艺术都是非常困难的问题，（有些）人需要诚实地解决，所以它们是值得做的，特别是如果你能找到一个好的
teacher.
老师。
Jobs Of course college students have to think about more than just learning.
工作 当然，大学生要考虑的不仅仅是学习。
There are also two practical problems to consider: jobs, and graduate school.
还有两个实际问题需要考虑：就业和研究生院。
In theory a liberal education is not supposed to supply job training.
理论上，通识教育不应该提供职业培训。
But everyone knows this is a bit of a fib.
但每个人都知道这有点撒谎。
Hackers at every college learn practical skills, and not by accident.
每所大学的黑客都会学习实用技能，这并非偶然。
What you should learn to get a job depends on the kind you want.
为了找到工作你应该学习什么取决于你想要的类型。
If you want to work in a big company, learn how to hack Blub on Windows.
如果您想在大公司工作，请学习如何在 Windows 上破解 Blub。
If you want to work at a cool little company or research lab, you'll do better to learn Ruby on Linux.
如果您想在一家很酷的小公司或研究实验室工作，那么学习 Linux 上的 Ruby 会更好。
And if you want to start your own company, which I think will be more and more common, master the most powerful tools you can find, because you're going to be in a race against your competitors, and they'll be your horse.
如果你想创办自己的公司（我认为这将越来越普遍），请掌握你能找到的最强大的工具，因为你将与竞争对手竞争，而他们将成为你的马。
There is not a direct correlation between the skills you should
您应该具备的技能之间没有直接关联
learn in college and those you'll use in a job.
在大学里学到的东西以及你将在工作中使用的东西。
You should aim slightly high in college.
你在大学的目标应该稍微高一点。
In workouts a football player may bench press 300 pounds, even though he may never have to exert anything like that much force in the course of a game.
在训练中，一名足球运动员可能会卧推 300 磅，尽管他在比赛过程中可能永远不需要施加如此大的力量。
Likewise, if your professors try to make you learn stuff that's more advanced than you'll need in a job, it may not just be because they're academics, detached from the real world.
同样，如果你的教授试图让你学习比你工作中需要的更先进的东西，这可能不仅仅是因为他们是学者，脱离了现实世界。
They may be trying to make you lift weights with your brain.
他们可能试图让你用大脑举重。
The programs you write in classes differ in three critical ways from the ones you'll write in the real world: they're small; you get to start from scratch; and the problem is usually artificial and predetermined.
您在课堂上编写的程序与您在现实世界中编写的程序在三个关键方面有所不同：它们很小；你要从头开始；而且问题通常是人为的、预先确定的。
In the real world, programs are bigger, tend to involve existing code, and often require you to figure out what the problem is before you can solve it.
在现实世界中，程序更大，往往涉及现有代码，并且通常要求您在解决问题之前弄清楚问题是什么。
You don't have to wait to leave (or even enter) college to learn these skills.
您不必等到离开（甚至进入）大学才能学习这些技能。
If you want to learn how to deal with existing code, for example, you can contribute to open-source projects.
例如，如果您想学习如何处理现有代码，您可以为开源项目做出贡献。
The sort of employer you want to work for will be as impressed by that as good grades on class assignments.
你想为哪一类雇主工作，就会对这一点印象深刻，就像你在课堂作业中取得好成绩一样。
In existing open-source projects you don't get much practice at the third skill, deciding what problems to solve.
在现有的开源项目中，您在第三项技能（决定要解决什么问题）上没有得到太多练习。
But there's
但有
nothing to stop you starting new projects of your own.
没有什么可以阻止你开始自己的新项目。
And good employers will be even more impressed with that.
优秀的雇主会对此印象更加深刻。
What sort of problem should you try to solve?
您应该尝试解决什么样的问题？
One way to answer that is to ask what you need as a user.
回答这个问题的一种方法是询问作为用户您需要什么。
For example, I stumbled on a good algorithm for spam filtering because I wanted to stop getting spam.
例如，我偶然发现了一个很好的垃圾邮件过滤算法，因为我想停止收到垃圾邮件。
Now what I wish I had was a mail reader that somehow prevented my inbox from filling up.
现在我希望拥有一个邮件阅读器，能够以某种方式阻止我的收件箱被填满。
I tend to use my inbox as a
我倾向于将收件箱用作
todo list.
待办事项清单。
But that's like using a screwdriver to open bottles; what one really wants is a bottle opener.
但这就像用螺丝刀打开瓶子一样；人们真正想要的是一把开瓶器。
Grad School What about grad school?
研究生院 研究生院怎么样？
Should you go?
你应该走吗？
And how do you get into a good one?
那么如何才能成为一名优秀的人呢？
In principle, grad school is professional training in research, and you shouldn't go unless you want to do research as a career.
原则上，研究生院是研究方面的专业培训，除非你想以研究为职业，否则你不应该去读研究生。
And yet half the people who get PhDs in CS don't go into research.
然而，获得计算机科学博士学位的人中有一半并没有从事研究。
I didn't go to grad school to become a professor.
我读研究生不是为了成为一名教授。
I went because
我去是因为
I wanted to learn more.
我想了解更多。
So if you're mainly interested in hacking and you go to grad school, you'll find a lot of other people who are similarly out of their element.
因此，如果你主要对黑客感兴趣并且你去读研究生，你会发现很多其他人同样不适合他们。
And if half the people around you are out of their element in the same way you are, are you really out of your element?
如果你周围有一半的人都和你一样不适应，那么你真的不适应吗？
There's a fundamental problem in "computer science," and it surfaces in situations like this.
“计算机科学”中有一个基本问题，在这样的情况下就会出现。
No one is sure what "research" is supposed to be.
没有人确定“研究”应该是什么。
A lot of research is hacking that had to be crammed into the form of an academic paper to yield one more quantum of publication.
许多研究都是黑客行为，必须以学术论文的形式进行，才能产生更多的出版物。
So it's kind of misleading to ask whether you'll be at home in grad school, because very few people are quite at home in computer science.
因此，问你在研究生院是否能如鱼得水是一种误导，因为很少有人能在计算机科学领域如鱼得水。
The whole field is uncomfortable in its own skin.
整个领域都对自己的皮肤感到不舒服。
So the fact that you're mainly interested in hacking shouldn't deter you from going to grad school.
因此，您主要对黑客感兴趣这一事实不应阻止您去读研究生。
Just be warned you'll have to do a lot of stuff
请注意，您将不得不做很多事情
you don't like.
你不喜欢。
Number one will be your dissertation.
第一个将是你的论文。
Almost everyone hates their dissertation by the time they're done with it.
几乎每个人在完成论文后都会讨厌他们的论文。
The process inherently tends to produce an unpleasant result, like a cake made out of whole wheat flour and baked for twelve hours.
这个过程本质上往往会产生令人不快的结果，就像用全麦面粉制成的蛋糕烘烤十二个小时一样。
Few dissertations are read with pleasure, especially by their authors.
很少有论文能令人愉快地阅读，尤其是作者的论文。
But thousands before you have suffered through writing a dissertation.
但在你之前，成千上万的人都曾因写论文而受苦。
And aside from that, grad school is close to paradise.
除此之外，研究生院接近天堂。
Many people remember it as the happiest time of their lives.
许多人都记得这是他们一生中最快乐的时光。
And nearly all the rest, including me, remember it as a period that would have been, if they hadn't had to write a dissertation.
几乎所有其他人，包括我，都记得那段时期，如果他们不必写论文的话。
[5] The danger with grad school is that you don't see the scary part upfront.
[5] 研究生院的危险在于你无法预先看到可怕的部分。
PhD programs start out as college part 2, with several years of classes.
博士课程从大学第二部分开始，有几年的课程。
So by the time you face the horror of writing a
所以当你面对写一篇文章的恐惧时
dissertation, you're already several years in.
论文，你已经好几年了。
If you quit now, you'll be a grad-school dropout, and you probably won't like that idea.
如果你现在退出，你就会从研究生院退学，而且你可能不会喜欢这个主意。
When Robert got kicked out of grad school for writing the Internet worm of 1988, I envied him enormously for finding a way out without the stigma of failure.
当罗伯特因编写 1988 年的网络蠕虫病毒而被研究生院开除时，我非常羡慕他找到了一条没有失败耻辱的出路。
<!-- And he was unhappy that Cornell expelled him, the ingrate.--> On the whole, grad school is probably better than most alternatives.
<!-- 而且他对康奈尔大学开除他感到不满，这个忘恩负义的人。--> 总的来说，研究生院可能比大多数其他选择都要好。
You meet a
你遇到一个
lot of smart people, and your glum procrastination will at least be a powerful common bond.
很多聪明人，而你的忧郁拖延症至少会成为一种强大的共同纽带。
And of course you have a PhD at the end.
当然，你最终会获得博士学位。
I forgot about that.
我忘了那件事了。
I suppose that's worth something.
我想这是值得的。
The greatest advantage of a PhD (besides being the union card of academia, of course) may be that it gives you some baseline confidence.
博士学位的最大优势（当然，除了作为学术界的联合证之外）可能是它给你一些基本的信心。
For example, the Honeywell thermostats in my house have the most atrocious UI.
例如，我家的霍尼韦尔恒温器有最糟糕的用户界面。
My mother, who has the same model, diligently spent
我妈同款，辛苦了
a day reading the user's manual to learn how to operate hers.
每天阅读用户手册来学习如何操作她的。
She assumed the problem was with her.
她认为问题出在她身上。
But I can think to myself "If someone with a PhD in computer science can't understand this thermostat, it must be badly designed." If you still want to go to grad school after this equivocal recommendation, I can give you solid advice about how to get in.
但我心里想“如果拥有计算机科学博士学位的人都无法理解这个恒温器，那么它的设计一定很糟糕。”如果你在接受了这个模棱两可的推荐后仍然想继续读研究生，我可以为你提供关于如何进入研究生院的可靠建议。
A lot of my friends are CS professors now, so I have the inside
我的很多朋友现在都是CS教授，所以我有内幕
story about admissions.
关于招生的故事。
It's quite different from college.
这和大学有很大不同。
At most colleges, admissions officers decide who gets in.
在大多数大学，招生人员决定谁能被录取。
For PhD programs, the professors do.
对于博士课程，教授们这样做。
And they try to do it well, because the people they admit are going to be working for them.
他们努力把事情做好，因为他们承认的人将会为他们工作。
Apparently only recommendations really matter at the best schools.
显然，在最好的学校，只有推荐才真正重要。
Standardized tests count for nothing, and grades for little.
标准化考试毫无意义，成绩也毫无意义。
The essay is mostly an opportunity to disqualify yourself by saying
这篇文章主要是一个通过说来取消自己资格的机会
something stupid.
一些愚蠢的事情。
The only thing professors trust is recommendations, preferably from people they know.
教授唯一信任的是推荐，最好是来自他们认识的人的推荐。
[6] So if you want to get into a PhD program, the key is to impress your professors.
[6] 因此，如果你想进入博士学位课程，关键是给你的教授留下深刻的印象。
And from my friends who are professors I know what impresses them: not merely trying to impress them.
从我的教授朋友那里，我知道是什么给他们留下了深刻的印象：而不仅仅是试图给他们留下深刻的印象。
They're not impressed by students who get good grades or want to be their research assistants so they can get into grad school.
他们对那些取得好成绩或想成为他们的研究助理以便进入研究生院的学生不会留下深刻的印象。
They're
他们是
impressed by students who get good grades and want to be their research assistants because they're genuinely interested in the topic.
那些取得好成绩并希望成为他们的研究助理的学生给他们留下了深刻的印象，因为他们对这个话题真正感兴趣。
So the best thing you can do in college, whether you want to get into grad school or just be good at hacking, is figure out what you truly like.
因此，无论你是想进入研究生院还是只是擅长黑客，你在大学里能做的最好的事情就是弄清楚你真正喜欢什么。
It's hard to trick professors into letting you into grad school, and impossible to trick problems into letting you solve them.
很难欺骗教授让你进入研究生院，也不可能欺骗问题让你解决它们。
College is where faking stops working.
大学是假装不再起作用的地方。
From this point,
从这一点来说，
unless you want to go work for a big company, which is like reverting to high school, the only way forward is through doing what you love .
除非你想去大公司工作，就像回到高中一样，否则唯一的出路就是做你喜欢的事情。
Notes <!-- [1] When I was in college a lot of people had posters of Einstein with "imagination is more important than knowledge" printed on them.
笔记 <!-- [1] 当我上大学时，很多人都贴着爱因斯坦的海报，上面印着“想象力比知识更重要”。
I think for many it was wishful thinking; it seemed to mean one didn't have to study.
我认为对许多人来说这是一厢情愿的想法；这似乎意味着一个人不必学习。
In fact what Einstein probably meant was:
事实上爱因斯坦的意思可能是：
knowledge is enormously important, but of two people who both have great knowledge, the one with more imagination will do better.
知识固然重要，但两个知识渊博的人中，想象力丰富的人会做得更好。
That doesn't make as good a quote, though.
不过，这并不是一个很好的报价。
--> [1] No one seems to have minded, which shows how unimportant the Arpanet (which became the Internet) was as late as 1984.
--> [1] 似乎没有人介意，这表明阿帕网（后来成为互联网）直到 1984 年才显得多么不重要。
[2] This is why, when I became an employer, I didn't care about GPAs.
[2] 这就是为什么当我成为雇主时，我并不关心 GPA。
In fact, we actively sought out people
事实上，我们积极地寻找人
who'd failed out of school.
谁因学业失败而辍学。
We once put up posters around Harvard saying "Did you just get kicked out for doing badly in your classes because you spent all your time working on some project of your own?
我们曾经在哈佛周围张贴海报，上面写着“你是否因为在课堂上表现不佳而被开除，因为你把所有的时间都花在了自己的某个项目上？
Come work for us!" We managed to find a kid who had been, and he was a great hacker.
快来为我们工作吧！”我们设法找到了一个曾经是这样的孩子，他是一位伟大的黑客。
When Harvard kicks undergrads out for a year, they have to get jobs.
当哈佛将本科生开除一年时，他们必须找到工作。
The idea is to show them how awful the real world is, so they'll
这个想法是向他们展示现实世界是多么可怕，这样他们就会
understand how lucky they are to be in college.
了解他们能上大学是多么幸运。
This plan backfired with the guy who came to work for us, because he had more fun than he'd had in school, and made more that year from stock options than any of his professors did in salary.
这个计划对来我们工作的那个人产生了适得其反的效果，因为他比在学校里玩得更开心，而且那一年从股票期权中赚到的钱比他任何一位教授的薪水都多。
So instead of crawling back repentant at the end of the year, he took another year off and went to Europe.
因此，他并没有在年底后悔不已，而是又休了一年假，去了欧洲。
He did eventually graduate at about 26.
他最终在26岁左右毕业了。
[3] Eric Raymond says the best metaphors for hackers are
[3] 埃里克·雷蒙德 (Eric Raymond) 表示，黑客的最佳比喻是
in set theory, combinatorics, and graph theory.
在集合论、组合学和图论中。
Trevor Blackwell reminds you to take math classes intended for math majors.
特雷弗·布莱克威尔（Trevor Blackwell）提醒您参加数学专业的数学课程。
"'Math for engineers' classes sucked mightily.
“‘工程师数学’课程非常糟糕。
In fact any 'x for engineers' sucks, where x includes math, law, writing and visual design." [4] Other highly recommended books: What is Mathematics?
事实上，任何“工程师的 x”都很糟糕，其中 x 包括数学、法律、写作和视觉设计。” [4] 其他强烈推荐书籍：什么是数学？
, by Courant and Robbins; Geometry and the Imagination by Hilbert and Cohn-Vossen.
，库朗和罗宾斯；希尔伯特和科恩-沃森的《几何与想象力》。
And for those interested in graphic design, Byrne's Euclid .
对于那些对平面设计感兴趣的人来说，伯恩的欧几里德 。
<!-- [6] You can't get any lower than publishing placebos, as happened in the Sokal Affair.
<!-- [6] 没有比发布安慰剂更低的了，就像索卡尔事件中发生的那样。
--> [5] If you wanted to have the perfect life, the thing to do would be to go to grad school, secretly write your dissertation in the first year or two, and then just enjoy yourself for the next three years, dribbling out a chapter at a time.
--> [5] 如果你想拥有完美的生活，你要做的就是去读研究生，在头一两年里偷偷地写你的论文，然后在接下来的三年里尽情享受，一次写一章。
This prospect will make
这一前景将使
grad students' mouths water, but I know of no one who's had the discipline to pull it off.
研究生们垂涎欲滴，但据我所知，没有人有足够的纪律来完成这一任务。
[6] One professor friend says that 15-20% of the grad students they admit each year are "long shots." But what he means by long shots are people whose applications are perfect in every way, except that no one on the admissions committee knows the professors who wrote the recommendations.
[6] 一位教授朋友说，他们每年录取的研究生中有 15-20% 是“机会渺茫”的。但他所说的远景指的是那些申请在各方面都很完美的人，只是招生委员会中没有人认识撰写推荐信的教授。
So if you want to get into
所以如果你想进入
grad school in the sciences, you need to go to college somewhere with real research professors.
科学研究生院，你需要去某个地方有真正的研究教授的大学。
Otherwise you'll seem a risky bet to admissions committees, no matter how good you are.
否则，无论你有多优秀，招生委员会都会认为你是一个冒险的选择。
Which implies a surprising but apparently inevitable consequence: little liberal arts colleges are doomed.
这意味着一个令人惊讶但显然不可避免的结果：小型文理学院注定要失败。
<!--, except those few that make a conscious effort to excel in the sciences.--> Most smart high school kids at least consider going into the sciences, even
<!--，除了那些有意识地努力在科学领域取得优异成绩的少数人。--> 大多数聪明的高中生至少会考虑进入科学领域，甚至
if they ultimately choose not to.
如果他们最终选择不这样做。
Why go to a college that limits their options?
为什么要去一所限制他们选择的大学？
Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Alex Lewin, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris, Eric Raymond, and several anonymous CS professors for reading drafts of this, and to the students whose questions began it.
感谢 Trevor Blackwell、Alex Lewin、Jessica Livingston、Robert Morris、Eric Raymond 和几位匿名的计算机科学教授阅读了本文的草稿，并感谢提出问题的学生。