Don’t aspire to glory; aspire to work.

莫求虚名，但求实干。

The measure of success in my life is: “How many useful things can I get done?”我衡量人生的成功标准是：'我能完成多少有用的事？'

我衡量人生成功的标准是：“我能完成多少有用的事？”

The measure of success in my life is: “How many useful things can I get done?”

每天早上醒来，我都会问自己：“今天我能做些什么有用的事？”

On a day-to-day basis, I wake up in the morning and ask, “How can I be useful today?”

我想最大化我的效用。大规模地发挥作用并非易事。

I want to maximize my utility. It’s difficult to be useful at scale.

我不可能总是做对，但我渴望让我们的未来更美好。有时我会犯错。但我会努力采取最有可能提高未来美好概率的行动。

I can’t always get it right, but I aspire to make our future good. Sometimes I make mistakes. But, I try to take the set of actions most likely to improve the probability that the future will be good.

努力让自己有用。为你的同胞和世界做有益的事。有用并不容易，贡献要大于消耗。

Try to be useful. Do useful things for your fellow human beings and the world. It’s hard to be useful, to contribute more than you consume. 

你能为社会做出积极的净贡献吗？朝着这个目标努力。

Can you  have a positive net contribution to society? Aim for that.  

我非常尊重那些诚实工作、努力做有益事的人。我钦佩所有为人类做出积极贡献的人。无论是在农业、科技、娱乐还是其他任何领域。对于所有对人类有益的人：我由衷地敬佩你们。

I have a lot of respect for someone who puts in an honest day’s work to do useful things. I admire anyone making a positive contribution to humanity. Whether that is in farming, technology, entertainment, or whatever else. To anyone useful to the rest of humanity: I admire you greatly.

问：如何判断你是否在帮助他人？

Q: How do you know if you’re helping?

我会从数学的角度来思考这个问题。你帮助了多少人，乘以你平均为每个人提供的帮助量。你帮助了多少人，以及你提供了多少帮助——这就是总效用（有用性）。这几乎就像物理学中“真正做功”的定义。如果你致力于做真正有意义的工作，那么你成功的概率会高得多。

I think about it mathematically. How many people you helped, multiplied by how much help you provided each person, on average. How many people you helped, and how much—that’s the total utility (usefulness). It’s almost like the physics definition of true work. If you aspire to do true work, your probability of success is much higher.

对于任何你想要创造的产品，问问自己：与现有技术相比，它的效用提升有多大？乘以它能影响多少人？

For any product you’re trying to create, ask yourself the utility improve ment compared to the current state of the art, multiplied by how many people it would affect.

创造一款能为少数人带来巨大改变的产品，与创造一款能为众多人带来微小改变的产品一样重要。从数学角度来看，这两件事的总积极影响大致相同。关键在于努力创造价值。

Building something that makes a big difference to a small number of people is just as great as something that makes a small difference for a vast number of people. Mathematically, the total positive impact would be roughly similar for those two things. It’s about trying to be useful.

这是基于数学第一原理的视角——效用和数量。

This is the mathematical first principles perspective—utility and numbers.

一款简单的应用程序真的能改善人们的生活吗？如果它能对很多人产生积极的影响，哪怕只是微小的影响，那也是好事。

Is some simple app really making people’s lives better? If it’s affecting a lot of people positively, even in a small way, then yes, that is good.

并非每个产品都需要改变世界。许多人都在做着许多有益的事情。不妨问问自己：我正在做的事情是否足够有用？一个组织的目标应该是造福社会。并非每个产品都能改变世界，但如果它能改善人们的生活，那就很棒了。

Not every product needs to change the world. Many people do lots of useful things. Just ask yourself, is what I’m doing as useful as it could be? The goal of an organization should be usefulness to society. Not every product will change the world, but if it’s making people’s lives better, that’s great.

这也是我给孩子们的建议：“追随你的内心，去做你觉得有趣或有意义的事情。”

This is the same advice I give to my own children: “Follow your heart in terms of what you find interesting or fulfilling to do.”

我希望他们能努力奋斗，成为对社会有贡献的人。我也希望他们能从事工程、写作等工作，或者以某种方式为世界做出贡献，而不是索取。

hope they will work extremely hard and become productive contributors to society. I’m also hopeful they will do things like engineering, writing books, or just in some way, adding more than they take from the world.

有意义的人生才值得过。

A useful life is worth having lived.