Why Nerds are Unpopular
February 2003 When we were in junior high school, my friend Rich and I made a map of the school lunch tables according to popularity.
2003 年 2 月 当我们上初中时，我和我的朋友 Rich 根据受欢迎程度制作了一张学校午餐桌的地图。
This was easy to do, because kids only ate lunch with others of about the same popularity.
这很容易做到，因为孩子们只和同样受欢迎的其他人一起吃午餐。
We graded them from A to E.
我们对它们进行了从 A 到 E 的评分。
A tables were full of football players and cheerleaders and so on.
一张桌子上摆满了足球运动员和拉拉队队员等。
E tables contained the kids with mild cases of Down's Syndrome, what in the language of
E 表中包含患有轻度唐氏综合症的孩子，用
the time we called "retards." We sat at a D table, as low as you could get without looking physically different.
我们称之为“迟钝者”的时间。我们坐在 D 桌，在不显得身体不同的情况下尽可能低。
We were not being especially candid to grade ourselves as D.
我们并没有特别坦诚地将自己评为 D。
It would have taken a deliberate lie to say otherwise.
如果不是这样的话，那就是故意撒谎了。
Everyone in the school knew exactly how popular everyone else was, including us.
学校里的每个人都清楚地知道其他人有多么受欢迎，包括我们。
My stock gradually rose during high school.
我的股票在高中期间逐渐上涨。
Puberty finally arrived; I became a decent soccer player; I started a scandalous underground
青春期终于到来了；我成为了一名不错的足球运动员；我开始了一个可耻的地下活动
newspaper.
报纸。
So I've seen a good part of the popularity landscape.
所以我已经看到了流行情况的很大一部分。
I know a lot of people who were nerds in school, and they all tell the same story: there is a strong correlation between being smart and being a nerd, and an even stronger inverse correlation between being a nerd and being popular.
我认识很多在学校里是书呆子的人，他们都讲着同样的故事：聪明和书呆子之间有很强的相关性，而书呆子和受欢迎之间有更强的负相关性。
Being smart seems to make you unpopular.
聪明似乎会让你不受欢迎。
Why?
为什么？
To someone in school now, that may seem an odd question to
对于现在在学校的人来说，这似乎是一个奇怪的问题
ask.
问。
The mere fact is so overwhelming that it may seem strange to imagine that it could be any other way.
这个事实是如此压倒性，以至于想象它可能是任何其他方式似乎很奇怪。
But it could.
但它可以。
Being smart doesn't make you an outcast in elementary school.
聪明并不会让你在小学就被排斥。
Nor does it harm you in the real world.
它在现实世界中也不会伤害你。
Nor, as far as I can tell, is the problem so bad in most other countries.
据我所知，大多数其他国家的问题也没有那么严重。
But in a typical American secondary school, being smart is likely to make your life difficult.
但在典型的美国中学，聪明可能会让你的生活变得困难。
Why?
为什么？
The key to this mystery is to rephrase the question slightly.
这个谜团的关键是稍微改一下这个问题。
Why
为什么
don't smart kids make themselves popular?
聪明的孩子不会让自己受欢迎吗？
If they're so smart, why don't they figure out how popularity works and beat the system, just as they do for standardized tests?
如果他们如此聪明，为什么他们不弄清楚受欢迎程度如何运作并击败系统，就像他们在标准化考试中所做的那样？
One argument says that this would be impossible, that the smart kids are unpopular because the other kids envy them for being smart, and nothing they could do could make them popular.
一种观点认为这是不可能的，聪明的孩子不受欢迎是因为其他孩子羡慕他们聪明，而他们无能为力让他们受欢迎。
I wish.
我希望。
If the other kids in junior high school envied me, they did a great job
如果初中的其他孩子羡慕我的话，他们已经做得很好了
of concealing it.
隐藏它。
And in any case, if being smart were really an enviable quality, the girls would have broken ranks.
无论如何，如果聪明真的是一种令人羡慕的品质，那么女孩们就会打破常规。
The guys that guys envy, girls like.
男生羡慕的男生，女生喜欢的男生。
In the schools I went to, being smart just didn't matter much.
在我就读的学校里，聪明并不重要。
Kids didn't admire it or despise it.
孩子们并不欣赏它，也不鄙视它。
All other things being equal, they would have preferred to be on the smart side of average rather than the dumb side, but intelligence counted far less than, say, physical
在所有其他条件相同的情况下，他们更愿意处于平均水平的聪明一方而不是愚蠢一方，但智力的重要性远远低于体力等因素。
appearance, charisma, or athletic ability.
外表、魅力或运动能力。
So if intelligence in itself is not a factor in popularity, why are smart kids so consistently unpopular?
那么，如果智力本身并不是受欢迎的一个因素，为什么聪明的孩子总是不受欢迎呢？
The answer, I think, is that they don't really want to be popular.
我认为答案是他们并不是真的想受欢迎。
If someone had told me that at the time, I would have laughed at him.
如果当时有人告诉我这些，我一定会嘲笑他。
Being unpopular in school makes kids miserable, some of them so miserable that they commit suicide.
在学校不受欢迎会让孩子们感到痛苦，有些人痛苦到自杀。
Telling me that I didn't
告诉我我没有
want to be popular would have seemed like telling someone dying of thirst in a desert that he didn't want a glass of water.
想要受欢迎就好像告诉一个在沙漠中渴得快要死的人他不想要一杯水一样。
Of course I wanted to be popular.
我当然想受欢迎。
But in fact I didn't, not enough.
但事实上我没有，还不够。
There was something else I wanted more: to be smart.
我还想要更多的东西：变得聪明。
Not simply to do well in school, though that counted for something, but to design beautiful rockets, or to write well, or to understand how to program computers.
不仅仅是在学校取得好成绩（尽管这很重要），而是要设计漂亮的火箭，或者写得好，或者了解如何对计算机进行编程。
In general, to
一般来说，要
make great things.
做出伟大的事情。
At the time I never tried to separate my wants and weigh them against one another.
那时我从未试图将我的需求分开并相互权衡。
If I had, I would have seen that being smart was more important.
如果我有的话，我就会发现聪明更重要。
If someone had offered me the chance to be the most popular kid in school, but only at the price of being of average intelligence (humor me here), I wouldn't have taken it.
如果有人给我机会成为学校里最受欢迎的孩子，但代价是智力水平一般（在这里幽默一下），我不会接受。
Much as they suffer from their unpopularity, I don't think many
尽管他们不受欢迎，但我认为没有多少人
nerds would.
书呆子会的。
To them the thought of average intelligence is unbearable.
对他们来说，平均智力的想法是难以忍受的。
But most kids would take that deal.
但大多数孩子都会接受这笔交易。
For half of them, it would be a step up.
对于其中一半人来说，这将是一个进步。
Even for someone in the eightieth percentile (assuming, as everyone seemed to then, that intelligence is a scalar), who wouldn't drop thirty points in exchange for being loved and admired by everyone?
即使对于处于第 80 个百分点的人（假设，当时每个人似乎都认为智力是一个标量），谁不会降低 30 分来换取所有人的爱戴和钦佩呢？
And that, I think, is the root of the problem.
我认为这就是问题的根源。
Nerds serve two
书呆子服务两个
masters.
大师们。
They want to be popular, certainly, but they want even more to be smart.
他们当然希望受人欢迎，但他们更希望变得聪明。
And popularity is not something you can do in your spare time, not in the fiercely competitive environment of an American secondary school.
而走红不是你在业余时间就能做到的，不是在美国中学竞争激烈的环境下就能做到的。
Alberti, arguably the archetype of the Renaissance Man, writes that "no art, however minor, demands less than total dedication if you want to excel in it." I wonder if anyone in the world works harder
阿尔贝蒂，可以说是文艺复兴时期的人的原型，他写道：“如果你想在某一门艺术中脱颖而出，无论多么微小，都需要全身心的奉献。”我想知道世界上有没有人更努力
at anything than American school kids work at popularity.
无论如何，美国学校的孩子们都在努力受欢迎。
Navy SEALs and neurosurgery residents seem slackers by comparison.
相比之下，海豹突击队和神经外科住院医生就显得比较懒惰。
They occasionally take vacations; some even have hobbies.
他们偶尔会休假；有些人甚至有自己的爱好。
An American teenager may work at being popular every waking hour, 365 days a year.
一个美国青少年可能一年 365 天、醒着的每一个小时都在努力让自己受欢迎。
I don't mean to suggest they do this consciously.
我并不是建议他们有意识地这样做。
Some of them truly are little Machiavellis, but what I really mean here is that teenagers
他们中的一些人确实是小马基雅维利，但我真正的意思是青少年
are always on duty as conformists.
总是作为墨守成规的人值班。
For example, teenage kids pay a great deal of attention to clothes.
例如，十几岁的孩子非常注重衣服。
They don't consciously dress to be popular.
他们不自觉地穿着打扮来受欢迎。
They dress to look good.
他们穿得好看。
But to who?
但对谁呢？
To the other kids.
给其他孩子。
Other kids' opinions become their definition of right, not just for clothes, but for almost everything they do, right down to the way they walk.
其他孩子的观点成为他们对权利的定义，不仅是在衣服上，而且是在他们所做的几乎所有事情上，甚至包括他们走路的方式。
And so every effort they make to do things "right" is also, consciously or not, an effort
因此，他们为“正确”做事所做的每一次努力，无论有意识还是无意识，也是一种努力
to be more popular.
变得更受欢迎。
Nerds don't realize this.
书呆子没有意识到这一点。
They don't realize that it takes work to be popular.
他们没有意识到需要工作才能受欢迎。
In general, people outside some very demanding field don't realize the extent to which success depends on constant (though often unconscious) effort.
一般来说，一些要求很高的领域之外的人并没有意识到成功在多大程度上取决于持续的（尽管常常是无意识的）努力。
For example, most people seem to consider the ability to draw as some kind of innate quality, like being tall.
例如，大多数人似乎认为绘画能力是某种与生俱来的品质，就像个子高一样。
In fact, most people who "can draw" like drawing, and have spent
事实上，大多数“会画画”的人都喜欢画画，并且都花了
many hours doing it; that's why they're good at it.
花很多时间做这件事；这就是他们擅长的原因。
Likewise, popular isn't just something you are or you aren't, but something you make yourself.
同样，流行并不只是你是或不是什么，而是你自己创造的东西。
The main reason nerds are unpopular is that they have other things to think about.
书呆子不受欢迎的主要原因是他们有其他事情需要考虑。
Their attention is drawn to books or the natural world, not fashions and parties.
他们的注意力被书籍或自然世界所吸引，而不是时尚和派对。
They're like someone trying to play soccer while balancing a glass of water on his head.
他们就像一个人试图在头上顶着一杯水来踢足球。
Other
其他
players who can focus their whole attention on the game beat them effortlessly, and wonder why they seem so incapable.
那些能够将全部注意力集中在游戏上的玩家可以毫不费力地击败他们，并想知道为什么他们看起来如此无能。
Even if nerds cared as much as other kids about popularity, being popular would be more work for them.
即使书呆子和其他孩子一样关心受欢迎程度，但受欢迎对他们来说会是更多的工作。
The popular kids learned to be popular, and to want to be popular, the same way the nerds learned to be smart, and to want to be smart: from their parents.
受欢迎的孩子学会了受欢迎，并且想要变得受欢迎，就像书呆子学会了聪明，并且想要变得聪明一样：从他们的父母那里。
While the nerds were being trained to get the right answers, the popular kids
当书呆子们接受训练以获得正确答案时，受欢迎的孩子们
were being trained to please.
我们被训练去取悦。
So far I've been finessing the relationship between smart and nerd, using them as if they were interchangeable.
到目前为止，我一直在巧妙地处理聪明人和书呆子之间的关系，将它们视为可以互换的。
In fact it's only the context that makes them so.
事实上，只是环境使他们如此。
A nerd is someone who isn't socially adept enough.
书呆子是指不善于社交的人。
But "enough" depends on where you are.
但“足够”取决于你在哪里。
In a typical American school, standards for coolness are so high (or at least, so specific) that you don't have to be especially awkward to look
在一所典型的美国学校中，对酷的标准是如此之高（或者至少如此具体），以至于你不必看起来特别尴尬
awkward by comparison.
相比之下就尴尬了。
Few smart kids can spare the attention that popularity requires.
很少有聪明的孩子能够不顾名气所需要的关注。
Unless they also happen to be good-looking, natural athletes, or siblings of popular kids, they'll tend to become nerds.
除非他们恰好长得好看、天生的运动员，或者是受欢迎的孩子的兄弟姐妹，否则他们往往会成为书呆子。
And that's why smart people's lives are worst between, say, the ages of eleven and seventeen.
这就是为什么聪明人的生活在十一岁到十七岁之间最糟糕。
Life at that age revolves far more around popularity than before or after.
那个年龄段的生活比之前或之后更多地围绕着受欢迎程度。
Before that, kids' lives are dominated by their parents, not by
在此之前，孩子的生活是由父母主导的，而不是由父母主导的。
other kids.
其他孩子。
Kids do care what their peers think in elementary school, but this isn't their whole life, as it later becomes.
孩子们在小学时确实关心同龄人的想法，但这并不是他们生活的全部，正如后来的情况一样。
Around the age of eleven, though, kids seem to start treating their family as a day job.
然而，十一岁左右，孩子们似乎开始把家庭当作日常工作。
They create a new world among themselves, and standing in this world is what matters, not standing in their family.
他们在自己中间创造了一个新的世界，重要的是在这个世界上的地位，而不是在他们的家庭中的地位。
Indeed, being in trouble in their family can win them points in the world they care about.
事实上，在家庭中遇到麻烦可以为他们在他们关心的世界中赢得分数。
The problem is, the world these kids create for themselves is at first a very crude one.
问题是，这些孩子为自己创造的世界一开始是一个非常粗糙的世界。
If you leave a bunch of eleven-year-olds to their own devices, what you get is Lord of the Flies.
如果你让一群十一岁的孩子自行其是，你得到的就是《蝇王》。
Like a lot of American kids, I read this book in school.
像许多美国孩子一样，我在学校读过这本书。
Presumably it was not a coincidence.
想必这并非巧合。
Presumably someone wanted to point out to us that we were savages, and that we had made ourselves a cruel and stupid world.
想必有人想向我们指出，我们是野蛮人，我们给自己创造了一个残酷而愚蠢的世界。
This was too subtle for me.
这对我来说太微妙了。
While the book seemed
虽然这本书看起来
entirely believable, I didn't get the additional message.
完全可信，我没有收到额外的消息。
I wish they had just told us outright that we were savages and our world was stupid.
我希望他们直接告诉我们，我们是野蛮人，我们的世界是愚蠢的。
Nerds would find their unpopularity more bearable if it merely caused them to be ignored.
书呆子们会发现，如果他们的不受欢迎仅仅导致他们被忽视的话，他们会更容易忍受。
Unfortunately, to be unpopular in school is to be actively persecuted.
不幸的是，在学校不受欢迎就意味着受到积极的迫害。
Why?
为什么？
Once again, anyone currently in school might think this a strange question to ask.
再一次，目前在学校的任何人都可能认为这是一个奇怪的问题。
How could things be any other way?
事情怎么可能是别的样子呢？
But
但是
they could be.
他们可能是。
Adults don't normally persecute nerds.
成年人通常不会迫害书呆子。
Why do teenage kids do it?
为什么十几岁的孩子会这样做？
Partly because teenagers are still half children, and many children are just intrinsically cruel.
部分原因是青少年仍然是半个孩子，许多孩子本质上是残忍的。
Some torture nerds for the same reason they pull the legs off spiders.
一些书呆子出于同样的原因折磨书呆子，他们把蜘蛛的腿拔下来。
Before you develop a conscience, torture is amusing.
在你还没有形成良心之前，酷刑是很有趣的。
Another reason kids persecute nerds is to make themselves feel better.
孩子们迫害书呆子的另一个原因是为了让自己感觉更好。
When you tread water, you lift yourself up by pushing water
当你踩水时，你通过推水来提升自己
down.
下来。
Likewise, in any social hierarchy, people unsure of their own position will try to emphasize it by maltreating those they think rank below.
同样，在任何社会等级制度中，不确定自己地位的人都会试图通过虐待那些他们认为排名较低的人来强调自己的地位。
I've read that this is why poor whites in the United States are the group most hostile to blacks.
我读到这就是为什么美国贫穷的白人是对黑人最敌视的群体。
But I think the main reason other kids persecute nerds is that it's part of the mechanism of popularity.
但我认为其他孩子迫害书呆子的主要原因是这是流行机制的一部分。
Popularity is only partially about individual attractiveness.
受欢迎程度仅部分取决于个人吸引力。
It's much more about alliances.
这更多的是关于联盟。
To become more popular, you need to be constantly doing things that bring you close to other popular people, and nothing brings people closer than a common enemy.
为了变得更受欢迎，你需要不断地做一些让你和其他受欢迎的人走得更近的事情，而没有什么比共同的敌人更能拉近人们的距离了。
Like a politician who wants to distract voters from bad times at home, you can create an enemy if there isn't a real one.
就像一位政治家想要分散选民对国内困难时期的注意力一样，如果没有真正的敌人，你就可以创造一个敌人。
By singling out and persecuting a nerd, a group of kids from higher in the hierarchy create bonds between themselves.
通过挑出并迫害一个书呆子，一群来自高层的孩子在他们之间建立了联系。
Attacking an outsider
攻击外人
makes them all insiders.
让他们都是圈内人。
This is why the worst cases of bullying happen with groups.
这就是为什么最严重的欺凌事件发生在群体中。
Ask any nerd: you get much worse treatment from a group of kids than from any individual bully, however sadistic.
问问任何一个书呆子：你从一群孩子那里得到的待遇比从任何一个单独的欺凌者那里得到的待遇都要糟糕得多，无论多么残酷。
If it's any consolation to the nerds, it's nothing personal.
如果这对书呆子来说有什么安慰的话，那也不是针对个人的。
The group of kids who band together to pick on you are doing the same thing, and for the same reason, as a bunch of guys who get together to go hunting.
一群孩子联合起来欺负你，他们所做的事和一群人聚在一起打猎的原因是一样的。
They don't actually hate you.
他们其实并不恨你。
They just need something
他们只是需要一些东西
to chase.
去追逐。
Because they're at the bottom of the scale, nerds are a safe target for the entire school.
因为书呆子处于等级的底部，所以他们是整个学校的安全目标。
If I remember correctly, the most popular kids don't persecute nerds; they don't need to stoop to such things.
如果我没记错的话，最受欢迎的孩子不会迫害书呆子；他们会迫害书呆子。他们不需要屈服于这些事情。
Most of the persecution comes from kids lower down, the nervous middle classes.
大多数迫害来自底层的孩子，即紧张的中产阶级。
The trouble is, there are a lot of them.
问题是，它们有很多。
The distribution of popularity is not a pyramid, but tapers at the bottom like a pear.
受欢迎程度的分布不是金字塔，而是像梨一样从底部逐渐变细。
The least popular group is quite small.
最不受欢迎的群体规模很小。
(I believe we were the only D table in our cafeteria map.) So there are more people who want to pick on nerds than there are nerds.
（我相信我们是自助餐厅地图上唯一的 D 桌。） 因此，想要挑衅书呆子的人比书呆子本身还要多。
As well as gaining points by distancing oneself from unpopular kids, one loses points by being close to them.
与不受欢迎的孩子保持距离不仅可以获得分数，而且与他们亲近也会失去分数。
A woman I know says that in high school she liked nerds, but was afraid to be seen talking to them because the other girls would make fun of her.
我认识的一位女士说，在高中时她喜欢书呆子，但害怕被人看到和他们说话，因为其他女孩会取笑她。
Unpopularity
不受欢迎
is a communicable disease; kids too nice to pick on nerds will still ostracize them in self-defense.
是一种传染病；那些太善良而不愿欺负书呆子的孩子仍然会出于自卫而排斥他们。
It's no wonder, then, that smart kids tend to be unhappy in middle school and high school.
那么，聪明的孩子在初中和高中往往不快乐也就不足为奇了。
Their other interests leave them little attention to spare for popularity, and since popularity resembles a zero-sum game, this in turn makes them targets for the whole school.
他们的其他兴趣使他们很少关注人气，而由于人气类似于零和游戏，这反过来又使他们成为整个学校的目标。
And the strange thing is, this nightmare scenario happens
奇怪的是，这种噩梦般的场景发生了
without any conscious malice, merely because of the shape of the situation.
没有任何有意识的恶意，只是因为情况的形状。
For me the worst stretch was junior high, when kid culture was new and harsh, and the specialization that would later gradually separate the smarter kids had barely begun.
对我来说，最糟糕的时期是初中，当时的儿童文化是新的、严酷的，而后来逐渐将聪明的孩子分开的专业化才刚刚开始。
Nearly everyone I've talked to agrees: the nadir is somewhere between eleven and fourteen.
几乎所有与我交谈过的人都同意：最低点在十一到十四之间。
In our school it was eighth grade, which was ages twelve and thirteen
我们学校是八年级，十二岁和十三岁
for me.
对我来说。
There was a brief sensation that year when one of our teachers overheard a group of girls waiting for the school bus, and was so shocked that the next day she devoted the whole class to an eloquent plea not to be so cruel to one another.
那一年，我们的一位老师无意中听到一群女孩在等校车，她感到非常震惊，以至于第二天她在全班同学中雄辩地恳求不要对彼此如此残忍。
It didn't have any noticeable effect.
它没有任何明显的效果。
What struck me at the time was that she was surprised.
当时让我印象深刻的是她很惊讶。
You mean she doesn't know the kind of things they say to one another?
你的意思是她不知道他们互相说些什么？
You mean this isn't normal?
你的意思是这不正常？
It's important to realize that, no, the adults don't know what the kids are doing to one another.
重要的是要认识到，不，成年人不知道孩子们对彼此做了什么。
They know, in the abstract, that kids are monstrously cruel to one another, just as we know in the abstract that people get tortured in poorer countries.
他们抽象地知道，孩子们彼此之间是极其残忍的，就像我们抽象地知道，人们在较贫穷的国家遭受酷刑一样。
But, like us, they don't like to dwell on this depressing fact, and they don't see evidence of specific abuses unless they go looking for it.
但是，像我们一样，他们不喜欢纠缠于这个令人沮丧的事实，除非他们去寻找，否则他们不会看到具体滥用行为的证据。
Public school teachers are in much the same position as prison
公立学校老师的处境与监狱大致相同
wardens.
典狱长。
Wardens' main concern is to keep the prisoners on the premises.
监狱长主要关心的是如何将囚犯留在监狱内。
They also need to keep them fed, and as far as possible prevent them from killing one another.
他们还需要让它们吃饱，并尽可能防止它们互相残杀。
Beyond that, they want to have as little to do with the prisoners as possible, so they leave them to create whatever social organization they want.
除此之外，他们希望尽可能少地与囚犯有任何关系，因此他们让囚犯自行创建他们想要的任何社会组织。
From what I've read, the society that the prisoners create is warped, savage, and pervasive, and it is no fun to be at the bottom of it.
据我所知，囚犯所创造的社会是扭曲的、野蛮的、普遍的，处于其中并不有趣。
In outline, it was the same at the schools I went to.
总的来说，我就读的学校都是一样的。
The most important thing was to stay on the premises.
最重要的是留在现场。
While there, the authorities fed you, prevented overt violence, and made some effort to teach you something.
在那里，当局为你提供食物，防止公开的暴力，并努力教你一些东西。
But beyond that they didn't want to have too much to do with the kids.
但除此之外，他们不想与孩子们有太多关系。
Like prison wardens, the teachers mostly left us to ourselves.
就像监狱看守一样，老师们大多让我们独自一人。
And, like prisoners, the culture we created was barbaric.
而且，就像囚犯一样，我们创造的文化是野蛮的。
Why is the real world more hospitable to nerds?
为什么现实世界对书呆子更友善？
It might seem that the answer is simply that it's populated by adults, who are too mature to pick on one another.
答案似乎很简单：这里居住着成年人，他们太成熟了，不会互相挑剔。
But I don't think this is true.
但我认为这不是真的。
Adults in prison certainly pick on one another.
监狱里的成年人肯定会互相挑剔。
And so, apparently, do society wives; in some parts of Manhattan, life for women sounds like a continuation of high school, with all the same petty intrigues.
显然，上流社会的妻子也是如此。在曼哈顿的某些地方，女性的生活听起来就像高中的延续，充满了同样的小阴谋。
I think the important thing about the real world is not that it's populated by adults, but that it's very large, and the things you do have real effects.
我认为现实世界的重要之处不在于它充满了成年人，而在于它非常大，而且你所做的事情会产生真正的影响。
That's what school, prison, and ladies-who-lunch all lack.
这正是学校、监狱和女士午餐所缺乏的。
The inhabitants of all those worlds are trapped in little bubbles where nothing they do can have more than a local effect.
所有这些世界的居民都被困在小气泡中，他们所做的任何事情都只能产生局部影响。
Naturally these societies degenerate into savagery.
这些社会自然会退化为野蛮社会。
They have no
他们没有
function for their form to follow.
其形式遵循功能。
When the things you do have real effects, it's no longer enough just to be pleasing.
当你所做的事情产生实际效果时，仅仅取悦就不再足够了。
It starts to be important to get the right answers, and that's where nerds show to advantage.
获得正确的答案开始变得很重要，而这正是书呆子的优势所在。
Bill Gates will of course come to mind.
人们当然会想到比尔·盖茨。
Though notoriously lacking in social skills, he gets the right answers, at least as measured in revenue.
尽管他缺乏社交技能是出了名的，但他还是得到了正确的答案，至少以收入来衡量。
The other thing that's different about the real world is that it's
现实世界的另一个不同之处在于
much larger.
大得多。
In a large enough pool, even the smallest minorities can achieve a critical mass if they clump together.
在一个足够大的群体中，即使是最小的少数群体如果聚集在一起也能达到临界质量。
Out in the real world, nerds collect in certain places and form their own societies where intelligence is the most important thing.
在现实世界中，书呆子聚集在某些地方并形成他们自己的社会，其中智力是最重要的。
Sometimes the current even starts to flow in the other direction: sometimes, particularly in university math and science departments, nerds deliberately
有时，潮流甚至开始朝另一个方向流动：有时，特别是在大学数学和科学系，书呆子们故意
exaggerate their awkwardness in order to seem smarter.
夸大他们的尴尬，以便显得更聪明。
John Nash so admired Norbert Wiener that he adopted his habit of touching the wall as he walked down a corridor.
约翰·纳什（John Nash）非常崇拜诺伯特·维纳（Norbert Wiener），以至于他养成了在走廊上行走时触摸墙壁的习惯。
As a thirteen-year-old kid, I didn't have much more experience of the world than what I saw immediately around me.
作为一个十三岁的孩子，我对这个世界的体验并不比我在周围看到的更多。
The warped little world we lived in was, I thought, the world.
我想，我们生活的那个扭曲的小世界就是这个世界。
The world seemed cruel and boring, and I'm not sure which was worse.
这个世界似乎残酷而无聊，我不知道哪个更糟糕。
Because I didn't fit into this world, I thought that something must be wrong with me.
因为我与这个世界格格不入，我想我一定是出了什么问题。
I didn't realize that the reason we nerds didn't fit in was that in some ways we were a step ahead.
我没有意识到我们这些书呆子不适应的原因是我们在某些方面领先了一步。
We were already thinking about the kind of things that matter in the real world, instead of spending all our time playing an exacting but mostly pointless game like the others.
我们已经在思考现实世界中哪些事情是重要的，而不是像其他游戏一样把所有时间都花在玩一个严格但几乎毫无意义的游戏上。
We were a bit like an adult would be if he were thrust back into
我们有点像一个成年人，如果他被推回
middle school.
中学。
He wouldn't know the right clothes to wear, the right music to like, the right slang to use.
他不知道该穿什么衣服，该喜欢什么音乐，该使用什么俚语。
He'd seem to the kids a complete alien.
在孩子们看来，他完全是个外星人。
The thing is, he'd know enough not to care what they thought.
问题是，他知道得足够多，不在乎他们怎么想。
We had no such confidence.
我们没有这样的信心。
A lot of people seem to think it's good for smart kids to be thrown together with "normal" kids at this stage of their lives.
很多人似乎认为聪明的孩子在人生的这个阶段与“正常”的孩子放在一起是有好处的。
Perhaps.
也许。
But in at least some cases the reason the nerds don't fit in really
但至少在某些情况下，书呆子不适合的原因是
is that everyone else is crazy.
是其他人都疯了。
I remember sitting in the audience at a "pep rally" at my high school, watching as the cheerleaders threw an effigy of an opposing player into the audience to be torn to pieces.
我记得在我高中的一次“动员大会”上，我坐在观众席上，看着啦啦队员们把对方球员的肖像扔进观众席，然后被撕成碎片。
I felt like an explorer witnessing some bizarre tribal ritual.
我感觉自己像一个探险家，目睹了一些奇怪的部落仪式。
If I could go back and give my thirteen year old self some advice, the main thing I'd tell him would be to stick his head up and look
如果我能回去给十三岁的自己一些建议，我最想告诉他的就是抬起头来看看
around.
周围。
I didn't really grasp it at the time, but the whole world we lived in was as fake as a Twinkie.
当时我并没有真正理解，但我们生活的整个世界就像蛋糕一样虚假。
Not just school, but the entire town.
不只是学校，而是整个小镇。
Why do people move to suburbia?
人们为什么搬到郊区？
To have kids!
为了生孩子！
So no wonder it seemed boring and sterile.
因此，难怪它显得无聊而乏味。
The whole place was a giant nursery, an artificial town created explicitly for the purpose of breeding children.
整个地方就是一个巨大的托儿所，一个专门为了繁育孩子而建造的人造城镇。
Where I grew up, it felt as if there was nowhere to go, and nothing
在我长大的地方，感觉好像无处可去，什么也没有
to do.
去做。
This was no accident.
这并非偶然。
Suburbs are deliberately designed to exclude the outside world, because it contains things that could endanger children.
郊区的设计有意将外界排除在外，因为其中存在可能危及儿童的事物。
And as for the schools, they were just holding pens within this fake world.
至于学校，他们只是在这个虚假的世界里执笔而已。
Officially the purpose of schools is to teach kids.
学校的正式目的是教育孩子。
In fact their primary purpose is to keep kids locked up in one place for a big chunk of the day so adults can get things done.
事实上，它们的主要目的是让孩子们在一天中的大部分时间里被锁在一个地方，以便成年人可以完成事情。
And
并且
I have no problem with this: in a specialized industrial society, it would be a disaster to have kids running around loose.
我对此没有意见：在一个专业化的工业社会，孩子们到处乱跑将是一场灾难。
What bothers me is not that the kids are kept in prisons, but that (a) they aren't told about it, and (b) the prisons are run mostly by the inmates.
让我烦恼的不是孩子们被关在监狱里，而是（a）他们没有被告知这件事，（b）监狱主要由囚犯管理。
Kids are sent off to spend six years memorizing meaningless facts in a world ruled by a caste of giants who run after an oblong brown ball, as if this were the most natural thing
孩子们被送去花六年时间在一个由追逐长方形棕色球的巨人统治的世界里记忆毫无意义的事实，仿佛这是最自然的事情
in the world.
在世界上。
And if they balk at this surreal cocktail, they're called misfits.
如果他们对这种超现实的鸡尾酒犹豫不决，他们就会被称为“格格不入”。
Life in this twisted world is stressful for the kids.
这个扭曲的世界里的生活对孩子们来说压力很大。
And not just for the nerds.
不仅仅是为了书呆子。
Like any war, it's damaging even to the winners.
就像任何战争一样，它甚至对胜利者也会造成损害。
Adults can't avoid seeing that teenage kids are tormented.
成年人无法避免看到十几岁的孩子受到折磨。
So why don't they do something about it?
那么他们为什么不做点什么呢？
Because they blame it on puberty.
因为他们将其归咎于青春期。
The reason kids are so unhappy, adults tell themselves, is that
成年人告诉自己，孩子们如此不快乐的原因是
monstrous new chemicals, hormones , are now coursing through their bloodstream and messing up everything.
可怕的新化学物质，荷尔蒙，现在正在他们的血液中流动，弄乱了一切。
There's nothing wrong with the system; it's just inevitable that kids will be miserable at that age.
系统没有任何问题；孩子在那个年龄段不可避免地会感到痛苦。
This idea is so pervasive that even the kids believe it, which probably doesn't help.
这种想法是如此普遍，以至于连孩子们都相信它，但这可能没有帮助。
Someone who thinks his feet naturally hurt is not going to stop to consider the possibility that he is wearing
那些认为自己的脚自然受伤的人不会停下来考虑他穿着的可能性
the wrong size shoes.
鞋子尺码错误。
I'm suspicious of this theory that thirteen-year-old kids are intrinsically messed up.
我对“十三岁的孩子本质上一团糟”这一理论表示怀疑。
If it's physiological, it should be universal.
如果是生理性的，应该是普遍的。
Are Mongol nomads all nihilists at thirteen?
蒙古游牧民族十三岁都是虚无主义者吗？
I've read a lot of history, and I have not seen a single reference to this supposedly universal fact before the twentieth century.
我读过很多历史，但在二十世纪之前我没有看到任何关于这个所谓普遍事实的提及。
Teenage apprentices in the Renaissance seem to have been cheerful and eager.
文艺复兴时期的青少年学徒似乎都是开朗而渴望的。
They got in fights and played tricks on one another of
他们打架并互相捉弄
course (Michelangelo had his nose broken by a bully), but they weren't crazy.
当然（米开朗基罗的鼻子被恶霸打断了），但他们并不疯狂。
As far as I can tell, the concept of the hormone-crazed teenager is coeval with suburbia.
据我所知，荷尔蒙疯狂青少年的概念与郊区是同时代的。
I don't think this is a coincidence.
我不认为这是巧合。
I think teenagers are driven crazy by the life they're made to lead.
我认为青少年被他们注定要过的生活逼疯了。
Teenage apprentices in the Renaissance were working dogs.
文艺复兴时期的青少年学徒是工作犬。
Teenagers now are neurotic lapdogs.
现在的青少年都是神经质的哈巴狗。
Their craziness is the craziness of the
他们的疯狂就是其他人的疯狂
idle everywhere.
到处闲着。
When I was in school, suicide was a constant topic among the smarter kids.
当我在学校时，自杀是聪明孩子们经常谈论的话题。
No one I knew did it, but several planned to, and some may have tried.
我认识的人没有人这样做过，但有几个人计划这样做，有些人可能已经尝试过。
Mostly this was just a pose.
大多数情况下，这只是一个姿势。
Like other teenagers, we loved the dramatic, and suicide seemed very dramatic.
和其他青少年一样，我们喜欢戏剧性的事情，自杀看起来非常戏剧性。
But partly it was because our lives were at times genuinely miserable.
但部分原因是我们的生活有时确实很悲惨。
Bullying was only part of the problem.
欺凌只是问题的一部分。
Another problem, and possibly
另一个问题，也可能是
an even worse one, was that we never had anything real to work on.
更糟糕的是，我们从来没有任何真正可以做的事情。
Humans like to work; in most of the world, your work is your identity.
人类喜欢工作；在世界上大多数地方，你的工作就是你的身份。
And all the work we did was pointless , or seemed so at the time.
我们所做的所有工作都是毫无意义的，或者说在当时看来是毫无意义的。
At best it was practice for real work we might do far in the future, so far that we didn't even know at the time what we were practicing for.
充其量只是为了我们将来可能会做的实际工作的练习，到目前为止我们甚至不知道我们练习的目的是什么。
More often it was just an arbitrary series of hoops to jump
更常见的是，它只是任意一系列的跳圈
through, words without content designed mainly for testability.
through，没有内容的单词，主要是为了可测试性而设计的。
(The three main causes of the Civil War were....
（内战的三个主要原因是......
Test: List the three main causes of the Civil War.) And there was no way to opt out.
测试：列出内战的三个主要原因。）而且没有办法选择退出。
The adults had agreed among themselves that this was to be the route to college.
大人们一致认为这是通往大学的途径。
The only way to escape this empty life was to submit to it.
摆脱这种空虚生活的唯一方法就是屈服于它。
Teenage kids used to have a more active role in society.
十几岁的孩子过去在社会中扮演着更积极的角色。
In pre-industrial times, they were all apprentices of one sort or
在前工业时代，他们都是某种或某种类型的学徒。
another, whether in shops or on farms or even on warships.
另一个，无论是在商店、农场，甚至是军舰上。
They weren't left to create their own societies.
他们没有被留下来创建自己的社会。
They were junior members of adult societies.
他们是成人社会的初级成员。
Teenagers seem to have respected adults more then, because the adults were the visible experts in the skills they were trying to learn.
那时，青少年似乎更尊重成年人，因为成年人是他们想要学习的技能的明显专家。
Now most kids have little idea what their parents do in their distant offices, and see no connection (indeed, there is
现在，大多数孩子几乎不知道他们的父母在遥远的办公室做什么，并且看不到任何联系（事实上，有
precious little) between schoolwork and the work they'll do as adults.
学校作业和他们成年后要做的工作之间几乎没有什么区别。
And if teenagers respected adults more, adults also had more use for teenagers.
如果青少年更加尊重成年人，那么成年人对青少年也更有用处。
After a couple years' training, an apprentice could be a real help.
经过几年的培训，学徒可能会提供真正的帮助。
Even the newest apprentice could be made to carry messages or sweep the workshop.
即使是最新的学徒也可以被要求传递信息或打扫车间。
Now adults have no immediate use for teenagers.
现在成年人对青少年来说并没有立即用处。
They would be in the way in an office.
他们会妨碍办公室。
So they drop them off at school on their way
所以他们在路上把他们送到学校
to work, much as they might drop the dog off at a kennel if they were going away for the weekend.
去工作，就像他们周末外出时可能会把狗送到狗窝一样。
What happened?
发生了什么？
We're up against a hard one here.
我们在这里遇到了困难。
The cause of this problem is the same as the cause of so many present ills: specialization.
这个问题的原因与目前许多弊病的原因是一样的：专业化。
As jobs become more specialized, we have to train longer for them.
随着工作变得更加专业化，我们必须为他们提供更长时间的培训。
Kids in pre-industrial times started working at about 14 at the latest; kids on farms, where most people lived, began far
前工业时代的孩子最迟大约14岁就开始工作；大多数人居住的农场里的孩子们从很早开始
earlier.
早些时候。
Now kids who go to college don't start working full-time till 21 or 22.
现在，上大学的孩子要到 21 岁或 22 岁才开始全职工作。
With some degrees, like MDs and PhDs, you may not finish your training till 30.
对于某些学位，例如医学博士和博士学位，您可能要到 30 岁才能完成培训。
Teenagers now are useless, except as cheap labor in industries like fast food, which evolved to exploit precisely this fact.
现在的青少年除了在快餐等行业充当廉价劳动力之外毫无用处，而快餐行业的发展正是为了利用这一事实。
In almost any other kind of work, they'd be a net loss.
在几乎任何其他类型的工作中，它们都将是净损失。
But they're also too young to be left unsupervised.
但他们还太小，不能无人监管。
Someone has to watch over them, and
必须有人看管他们，而且
the most efficient way to do this is to collect them together in one place.
最有效的方法是将它们收集到一个地方。
Then a few adults can watch all of them.
然后几个成年人就可以观看所有这些。
If you stop there, what you're describing is literally a prison, albeit a part-time one.
如果你就此打住，你所描述的实际上就是一座监狱，尽管是一座兼职监狱。
The problem is, many schools practically do stop there.
问题是，许多学校实际上就止步于此了。
The stated purpose of schools is to educate the kids.
学校的既定目的是教育孩子。
But there is no external pressure to do this well.
但没有外部压力要求我们做好这件事。
And so most schools do such a bad job of teaching that the kids don't really
所以大多数学校的教学工作很糟糕，孩子们并没有真正意识到
take it seriously-- not even the smart kids.
认真对待它——即使是聪明的孩子。
Much of the time we were all, students and teachers both, just going through the motions.
很多时候，我们所有人，无论是学生还是老师，都只是走走过场。
In my high school French class we were supposed to read Hugo's Les Miserables.
在我高中的法语课上，我们应该读雨果的《悲惨世界》。
I don't think any of us knew French well enough to make our way through this enormous book.
我认为我们中没有人对法语足够了解，无法读完这本巨著。
Like the rest of the class, I just skimmed the Cliff's Notes.
和班上其他人一样，我只是浏览了一下悬崖笔记。
When we were given a test on the
当我们接受测试时
book, I noticed that the questions sounded odd.
书上，我注意到这些问题听起来很奇怪。
They were full of long words that our teacher wouldn't have used.
它们充满了我们老师不会使用的长词。
Where had these questions come from?
这些问题从何而来？
From the Cliff's Notes, it turned out.
从悬崖笔记来看，事实证明。
The teacher was using them too.
老师也在用它们。
We were all just pretending.
我们都只是假装而已。
There are certainly great public school teachers.
当然有很棒的公立学校老师。
The energy and imagination of my fourth grade teacher, Mr. Mihalko, made that year something his students still talk about, thirty years later.
我的四年级老师米哈尔科先生的精力和想象力使那一年成为他的学生在三十年后仍然谈论的话题。
But teachers like him were individuals swimming upstream.
但像他这样的老师都是逆流而上的人。
They couldn't fix the system.
他们无法修复系统。
In almost any group of people you'll find hierarchy.
几乎在任何群体中你都会发现等级制度。
When groups of adults form in the real world, it's generally for some common purpose, and the leaders end up being those who are best at it.
当成年人在现实世界中形成群体时，通常是为了某些共同的目的，而领导者最终会成为那些最擅长这一目标的人。
The problem with most schools is, they have no purpose.
大多数学校的问题是，它们没有目的。
But hierarchy there must be.
但一定有等级制度。
And so the kids make one out of nothing.
于是孩子们就从无到有地创造了一个。
We have a phrase to describe what happens when rankings have to be created without any meaningful criteria.
我们有一个短语来描述当排名必须在没有任何有意义的标准的情况下创建时会发生什么。
We say that the situation degenerates into a popularity contest.
我们说，这种情况已经退化为一场人气竞赛。
And that's exactly what happens in most American schools.
这正是大多数美国学校所发生的情况。
Instead of depending on some real test, one's rank depends mostly on one's ability to increase one's rank.
一个人的排名主要取决于一个人提升排名的能力，而不是依赖于一些真正的测试。
It's like the court of Louis XIV.
这就像路易十四的宫廷。
There is no external opponent, so the
没有外部对手，所以
kids become one another's opponents.
孩子们成为彼此的对手。
When there is some real external test of skill, it isn't painful to be at the bottom of the hierarchy.
当有一些真正的外部技能测试时，处于层次结构的底部并不痛苦。
A rookie on a football team doesn't resent the skill of the veteran; he hopes to be like him one day and is happy to have the chance to learn from him.
足球队的新秀不会怨恨老将的技术；他希望有一天能像他一样，并很高兴有机会向他学习。
The veteran may in turn feel a sense of noblesse oblige .
老兵可能会反过来感受到一种高贵的义务感。
And most importantly, their status depends on how well they
最重要的是，他们的地位取决于他们的表现如何
do against opponents, not on whether they can push the other down.
对付对手，不在于能否压倒对方。
Court hierarchies are another thing entirely.
法院等级制度完全是另一回事。
This type of society debases anyone who enters it.
这种类型的社会会贬低任何进入其中的人。
There is neither admiration at the bottom, nor noblesse oblige at the top.
下层没有钦佩，上层也没有贵族义务。
It's kill or be killed.
要么杀，要么被杀。
This is the sort of society that gets created in American secondary schools.
这就是美国中学创建的那种社会。
And it happens because these schools have no real purpose beyond keeping the kids all in one place for a certain
之所以会发生这种情况，是因为这些学校除了让孩子们在一个地方呆上一段时间之外没有任何真正的目的
number of hours each day.
每天的小时数。
What I didn't realize at the time, and in fact didn't realize till very recently, is that the twin horrors of school life, the cruelty and the boredom, both have the same cause.
我当时并没有意识到，事实上直到最近才意识到，学校生活中的双重恐怖——残酷和无聊——都有相同的原因。
The mediocrity of American public schools has worse consequences than just making kids unhappy for six years.
美国公立学校的平庸所带来的后果比仅仅让孩子们六年不快乐更糟糕。
It breeds a rebelliousness that actively drives kids away from the things they're supposed to
它滋生了一种叛逆性，积极驱使孩子远离他们应该做的事情
be learning.
学习。
Like many nerds, probably, it was years after high school before I could bring myself to read anything we'd been assigned then.
可能像许多书呆子一样，高中毕业多年后，我才能够阅读当时分配给我们的任何东西。
And I lost more than books.
我失去的不仅仅是书本。
I mistrusted words like "character" and "integrity" because they had been so debased by adults.
我不相信“品格”和“正直”这样的词，因为它们已经被成年人贬低了。
As they were used then, these words all seemed to mean the same thing: obedience.
在当时使用时，这些词似乎都意味着同一件事：服从。
The kids who got praised for these qualities tended to
因这些品质而受到表扬的孩子往往
be at best dull-witted prize bulls, and at worst facile schmoozers.
往好里说，他们是愚蠢的公牛，往坏里说，他们是轻率的闲聊者。
If that was what character and integrity were, I wanted no part of them.
如果这就是品格和正直，我就不想成为它们的一部分。
The word I most misunderstood was "tact." As used by adults, it seemed to mean keeping your mouth shut.
我最容易误解的词是“机智”。用成年人的话说，这似乎意味着闭嘴。
I assumed it was derived from the same root as "tacit" and "taciturn," and that it literally meant being quiet.
我认为它与“tacit”和“taciturn”源自相同的词根，并且它的字面意思是安静。
I vowed that I would never be tactful; they were never going to shut
我发誓决不耍花招；他们永远不会关闭
me up.
我起来。
In fact, it's derived from the same root as "tactile," and what it means is to have a deft touch.
事实上，它与“触觉”同根，意思是灵巧的触摸。
Tactful is the opposite of clumsy.
机智与笨拙相反。
I don't think I learned this until college.
我想我直到大学才学到这一点。
Nerds aren't the only losers in the popularity rat race.
在人气激烈的竞争中，书呆子并不是唯一的输家。
Nerds are unpopular because they're distracted.
书呆子不受欢迎，因为他们注意力不集中。
There are other kids who deliberately opt out because they're so disgusted with the whole process.
还有其他孩子故意选择退出，因为他们对整个过程感到非常厌恶。
Teenage kids, even rebels, don't like to be alone, so when kids opt
十几岁的孩子，甚至叛逆者，都不喜欢独处，所以当孩子们选择
out of the system, they tend to do it as a group.
在系统之外，他们倾向于作为一个团队来做这件事。
At the schools I went to, the focus of rebellion was drug use, specifically marijuana.
在我就读的学校，叛逆的焦点是吸毒，特别是大麻。
The kids in this tribe wore black concert t-shirts and were called "freaks." Freaks and nerds were allies, and there was a good deal of overlap between them.
这个部落的孩子们穿着黑色的音乐会T恤，被称为“怪胎”。怪胎和书呆子是盟友，他们之间有很多重叠之处。
Freaks were on the whole smarter than other kids, though never studying (or at least never appearing to) was an
总的来说，怪胎比其他孩子更聪明，尽管从不学习（或者至少看起来从来不学习）是一种痛苦。
important tribal value.
重要的部落价值。
I was more in the nerd camp, but I was friends with a lot of freaks.
我更属于书呆子阵营，但我和很多怪人都是朋友。
They used drugs, at least at first, for the social bonds they created.
他们使用毒品，至少一开始是为了建立社会纽带。
It was something to do together, and because the drugs were illegal, it was a shared badge of rebellion.
这是一起做的事情，而且因为毒品是非法的，所以这是一个共同的叛逆徽章。
I'm not claiming that bad schools are the whole reason kids get into trouble with drugs.
我并不是说糟糕的学校是孩子们陷入毒品麻烦的全部原因。
After a while, drugs have their own momentum.
过了一段时间，毒品就有了自己的势头。
No doubt some of the freaks ultimately used drugs to escape from other problems-- trouble at home, for example.
毫无疑问，一些怪人最终使用毒品来逃避其他问题——例如家庭麻烦。
But, in my school at least, the reason most kids started using drugs was rebellion.
但是，至少在我的学校，大多数孩子开始吸毒的原因是叛逆。
Fourteen-year-olds didn't start smoking pot because they'd heard it would help them forget their problems.
十四岁的孩子没有开始吸大麻，因为他们听说这可以帮助他们忘记问题。
They started because they wanted to join a different tribe.
他们开始是因为他们想加入一个不同的部落。
Misrule breeds rebellion; this is not a new idea.
暴政滋生叛乱；这不是一个新想法。
And yet the
然而
authorities still for the most part act as if drugs were themselves the cause of the problem.
当局在很大程度上仍然表现得好像毒品本身就是问题的根源。
The real problem is the emptiness of school life.
真正的问题是学校生活的空虚。
We won't see solutions till adults realize that.
在成年人意识到这一点之前，我们不会找到解决方案。
The adults who may realize it first are the ones who were themselves nerds in school.
最先意识到这一点的成年人可能是那些自己在学校里就是书呆子的人。
Do you want your kids to be as unhappy in eighth grade as you were?
您希望您的孩子在八年级时像您一样不快乐吗？
I wouldn't.
我不会。
Well, then, is there anything we can do to
那么，我们能做些什么吗？
fix things?
修理东西？
Almost certainly.
几乎可以肯定。
There is nothing inevitable about the current system.
现行制度没有什么是不可避免的。
It has come about mostly by default.
它主要是默认发生的。
Adults, though, are busy.
然而，成年人很忙。
Showing up for school plays is one thing.
参加学校演出是一回事。
Taking on the educational bureaucracy is another.
对抗教育官僚机构是另一回事。
Perhaps a few will have the energy to try to change things.
也许少数人会有精力尝试改变事情。
I suspect the hardest part is realizing that you can.
我怀疑最困难的部分是意识到你可以。
Nerds still in school should not hold their breath.
还在上学的书呆子不应该屏住呼吸。
Maybe one day
也许有一天
a heavily armed force of adults will show up in helicopters to rescue you, but they probably won't be coming this month.
一支全副武装的成年人会乘坐直升机出现来营救你，但他们可能不会在这个月来。
Any immediate improvement in nerds' lives is probably going to have to come from the nerds themselves.
书呆子生活的任何直接改善可能都必须来自书呆子自己。
Merely understanding the situation they're in should make it less painful.
只要了解他们所处的情况就可以减轻痛苦。
Nerds aren't losers.
书呆子不是失败者。
They're just playing a different game, and a game much closer to the one played in the real world.
他们只是在玩一款不同的游戏，而且是一款更接近现实世界的游戏。
Adults
成人
know this.
知道这一点。
It's hard to find successful adults now who don't claim to have been nerds in high school.
现在很难找到成功的成年人不声称自己在高中时是书呆子的人。
It's important for nerds to realize, too, that school is not life.
对于书呆子来说，认识到学校不是生活也很重要。
School is a strange, artificial thing, half sterile and half feral.
学校是一个奇怪的、人造的东西，一半是枯燥的，一半是野性的。
It's all-encompassing, like life, but it isn't the real thing.
它包罗万象，就像生活一样，但它不是真实的东西。
It's only temporary, and if you look, you can see beyond it even while you're still in it.
这只是暂时的，如果你看，即使你还在其中，你也能看到超越它的东西。
If life seems awful to kids, it's neither because hormones are
如果孩子们觉得生活很糟糕，那也不是因为荷尔蒙
turning you all into monsters (as your parents believe), nor because life actually is awful (as you believe).
把你们都变成怪物（正如你们父母所相信的那样），也不是因为生活实际上很糟糕（正如你们所相信的那样）。
It's because the adults, who no longer have any economic use for you, have abandoned you to spend years cooped up together with nothing real to do.
这是因为成年人对你不再有任何经济用途，他们抛弃了你，让你在家里度过数年，无所事事。
Any society of that type is awful to live in.
任何那种类型的社会都难以生存。
You don't have to look any further to explain why teenage kids are unhappy.
你不必再进一步解释为什么十几岁的孩子不快乐。
I've said some harsh things in this essay, but really the thesis
我在这篇文章中说了一些严厉的话，但实际上这篇论文
is an optimistic one-- that several problems we take for granted are in fact not insoluble after all.
乐观的是，我们认为理所当然的一些问题实际上并非无法解决。
Teenage kids are not inherently unhappy monsters.
十几岁的孩子并不是天生不快乐的怪物。
That should be encouraging news to kids and adults both.
这对于儿童和成人来说都是令人鼓舞的消息。
Thanks to Sarah Harlin, Trevor Blackwell, Robert Morris, Eric Raymond, and Jackie Weicker for reading drafts of this essay, and Maria Daniels for scanning photos.
感谢 Sarah Harlin、Trevor Blackwell、Robert Morris、Eric Raymond 和 Jackie Weicker 阅读本文的草稿，感谢 Maria Daniels 扫描照片。