Well I often espouse a general philosophy in my life of pursuing a discipline of one sort or another.

我很支持生活中要追求某种纪律的人生观

But it’s not to ever approach any level of perfection.

但它绝不会是达到完美

You start, you go in knowing that as human beings we never can achieve perfection,

作为人类 我们知道永远不可能实现完美

and so I feel like mastery of any skill or art form really more involves becoming much better at covering your mistakes.

所以我觉得掌握任何技能或某种艺术形式其实就是变得更擅长掩盖错误

But no matter how much of a virtuoso a person becomes

但无论某人变成多么优秀的艺术大师

I feel like if they’re still in the mentality of a student or pursuing their discipline

如果他们依然抱着学生心态或追求纪律的心态

then they’ll never finish ripping out a Beethoven symphony or playing a game of basketball and say, “There, I’ve done it.

那他们永远都不会满意自己弹出的贝多芬交响曲 也不会在打完篮球后说“嗯 我做到了

That was the perfect rendition.”

那真是完美的表现”

Instead what keeps us living and what keeps me vitally engaged is a constant pursuit of betterment.

相反 让我们活着的 让我活在当下的是对改进的不断追求

So I gave up on perfect a long time ago, and now I’m just chasing halfway decent.

所以很早以前我就放弃了追求完美 现在我只期盼更好

Part of this philosophy I’m talking about came to me naturally.

我很自然地形成了我所说的这种人生观

I grew up in a family out in the country in Illinois.

我的家乡在伊利诺斯州

Both my mom and dad grew up on farms.

我爸妈都在农场里长大

I grew up working on my mom’s family’s farms.

我从小就在农场里帮妈妈干活

And so we were very frugal.

我们都非常节俭

It was very Little House on the Prairie in the 70s and 80s which means we had a television

我们住的是七八十年代大草原上的一座小木屋 虽然有一台电视

but we were still raising as much garden as we could and everything – we got this free farmhouse in exchange –

但依然要尽量多种菜园子——我们住的房子是免费的 作为交换

my dad had to build some cabinets for this farmer and we hired a guy to roll this house six miles

我爸爸必须要为农场主做一些柜子之类的东西 我们请了个人把房子移到了六英里外的地方

and then we spent our lives there improving it.

我们就生活在那里 努力让一切更好

We painted it every couple of years; we built a little barn.

每隔几年 我们就会把房子粉刷一遍 还盖了个牲口棚

And so I don’t know, just by naturally learning to enrich in my own life through my parent’s activities—I complained about it a lot.

所以 在父母行为的影响下 我自然而然地就学会了充实自己的生活——那时候我经常抱怨

I wasn’t a 12 year old saying, “Hey dad, is there something I can dig up for you this weekend?”

我并不是个乖乖男孩 说“嘿 老爸 这周末需要我帮你干什么吗？”

I was griping like any kid!

我跟其他孩子一样满腹牢骚

I wanted to stay in and watch cartoons, and so we would work out a deal.

我也想待在屋里看动画片 所以我们通常会达成一种协议

And the thing that I see as a major difference between my childhood and a lot of society today is that

我觉得我的童年与当今社会很多人的童年之间的重要区别是

we’ve become so good at comforting ourselves.

现在的人都太擅长自我安慰了

Consumer luxury has become sort of a given.

奢侈消费行为似乎变成了一种礼品

In most walks of life in this country you can choose to live a life of ease where you never have to really try very hard.

这个国家各行业的人士都可以选择轻松的生活 根本不需要拼死奋斗

You can cruise through school as long as you get passing grades.

学生可以每天混日子 只要考试能及格就行

You can get some job with which you can cover your living expenses and that allows you to just watch TV, play video games,

你可以找一个能满足你日常开支的工作 业余时间可以看看电视 玩玩游戏

to amuse yourself, to engage in leisure all of the time you’re not earning your living.

自娱自乐 过着轻松惬意的生活

And to a certain frame of mind that might sound attractive.

在某种程度上 这听起来非常诱人

But I’ve kind of tried it at times.

我偶尔也会尝试这种生活方式

A lot of marijuana was also involved in my particular formula, and I quickly learned that it’s depressing.

有时候我还会抽很多大麻 但我很快就意识到这太消沉了

I don’t know, for me I quickly thought, “What are you doing with your life?

很快我就会想“你在干什么？

Are you just going to watch cool movies… and then die?”

你就打算看一些很酷炫的电影...然后等死吗？”

Again to a certain part of the id I think that sounds like a great idea.

还是那样 从某个角度来说 这听起来真的很不错

“Let’s just hang out and watch The Big Lebowski over and over.”

“让我们尽情享乐 一遍遍地看《谋杀绿脚趾》吧”

But for me thankfully because of my chemistry I came to understand that even if I wasn’t succeeding,

幸运的是 我的思想让我很快就意识到 即便我没有功成名就

even if I was making woodworking projects in an alley in Los Angeles 25 years ago, I was improving.

即便25年前我还在洛杉矶的某个小巷里做着木工工作 但我还是在改进着

And they were crappy, and I would make mistakes.

那些过往很糟糕 我犯过很多错

But I pretty soon came to learn that those mistakes were some of the most valuable time I ever spent.

但我很快意识到 那些错误代表着我曾花费过最有价值的时间

Because if you want to become great at something whether you want to make a living at it or—

因为 如果你想精于某件事 不管你想不想靠它来生存 或者——

there are other ways to make a happy living than earning money.

除了挣钱以外 还有其他办法能让生活幸福起来

There are a lot of people who don’t like their jobs but who go home and knit or they go home and take care of kids,

有很多人不喜欢自己的工作 但他们回家后可以织东西 或照顾孩子

or they cook or they do any number of things with their hands.

或者做饭 或者做各种各样的事

They engage this magic tool set called the human body, and there’s so much that it can achieve that is satisfying

他们充分调动人体这个神奇的工具 做到了很多让人满足的事

that may never pay you a dollar, but it makes your life incredibly happy.

即便你做这些事没有一分钱回报 但它们会让你的生活幸福无比

And that’s the lesson I would try to pass along.

这就是我想要传递的经验

Neil Gaiman says something really profound about mistakes that—it’s a New Year’s benediction that he gave, and to paraphrase,

关于错误 尼尔·盖曼说了些非常意味深长的话——是在他的新年祝福中 转述一下就是

he says, “I hope that in the coming year you have blessings and health and all that, but I really hope that you make mistakes.

他说“我希望在新的一年中 你们能得到庇佑 身体健康 但我也真的希望你们去犯错误

Because if you make mistakes it means you’re out there trying.

因为你只有犯错 才说明你在尝试各种东西

It means you’re taking a swing at achieving something.

说明你想要努力实现某个目标

And if you’re not making mistakes it means you’ve given up,

如果你不犯错 说明你已经放弃了自己

and you’re becoming one of those fat baby people floating around on the chairs in the movie WALL-E,

变成了《机器人总动员》里那些浮在椅子上的胖墩巨婴

eating everything as some kind of weird milkshake.”

嘴里吃着奶昔一样的怪异东西”

I don’t know. For me I love making things out of wood.

我个人喜欢用木头做东西

I’m making nine ukuleles right now in my shop in Los Angeles and they’re going to be just fine.

现在我正在洛杉矶的店里做九把尤克里里琴 成品会相当不错

They’re going to sound like ukuleles, but I don’t know if I’ll ever make one that a great musician would pick up and say

它们会发出尤克里里琴的声音 但我不知道自己能不能做出一把让伟大的音乐家拿起来惊叹道

“Wow, how did you make it sound so amazing!”

“哇哦 你是怎么让它的音色如此之好的？”琴

I know that and that’s okay, because there’s a lot of other people who can pick up my ukuleles

我很清楚这一点 不过没关系 还有很多人可以用我做的尤克里里琴

and I’ll just keep them out of Clapton’s hands.

我不让克莱普顿（音乐人）用就行了

If he comes around I’ll be like “Yeah, I don’t know. I think we got these at a garage sale.”

如果他来了 我会说“嗯 我也不知道 这些琴应该是在车库拍卖的时候买的吧”

But they’re beautiful and they’re full of mistakes.

不过它们很漂亮 同时也有很多缺陷

I could show you ten mistakes in every instrument and I’m not even done yet.

我做的每把琴至少都有十个错误 况且现在还没完工呢

But it doesn’t matter.

不过没关系

When it all goes together and people look at it, they see your creation.

等它们都做完后 人们看到会知晓你的创意

They’re not going to say well, you’ve got three things wrong.

他们不会说 嗯 你错了三个地方

They’re going to say, “Holy cow. This sounds like a ukulele.

他们只会说“我的天哪 这听起来真是尤克里里的声音

I can play several Mills Brothers songs on this thing!”

我可以用它弹奏好多首米尔斯兄弟的歌”

And so, I don’t know, at the end of all that, for me as a human animal I’ve stayed out of the pub,

所以 说到底 作为人类 我没有整日酗酒

I haven’t hurt anybody, I haven’t purchased anything that a corporation made—

没有伤害任何人 没有买公司生产的任何东西——

and perhaps that corporation is not being as mindful of our natural resources as we would prefer.

或许那家公司没有像我们期待的那样关注自然资源

So I’ve not added to any landfills by purchasing a crappy version of the thing I made that will break and get thrown away.

我没有购买不耐用 很快就会被扔掉的廉价货 给地球制造更多垃圾 相反 我都是自己去做那些东西

And so it’s a general pursuit of trying to add things to the world and trying to help rather than hurt.

所以总体来说 就是要给这个世界增加东西 要帮助而不是伤害它