耶魯大學(xué)校長2023開學(xué)日演講：放慢腳步，彌合裂縫�。ㄖ杏㈦p語）

開學(xué)季，海內(nèi)外大學(xué)紛紛舉行開學(xué)典禮。今天，和新姐一起走進耶魯大學(xué)的開學(xué)典禮。

美東時間8月21日上午，美國耶魯大學(xué)在Cross Campus舉行了一年一度的開學(xué)典禮，這標(biāo)志著所有新生在耶魯學(xué)習(xí)生活的正式啟航。按照傳統(tǒng)，儀式包括耶魯大學(xué)學(xué)術(shù)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)們身著全套學(xué)士服列隊行進、耶魯大學(xué)臨時牧師Maytal Saltiel的祝禱，以及耶魯大學(xué)合唱團的音樂表演。

耶魯大學(xué)校長蘇必德（Peter Salovey）和耶魯本科學(xué)院院長Pericles Lewis發(fā)表了開學(xué)演講，但由于校長在典禮前新冠病毒檢測呈陽性，因此按照校園的健康規(guī)定居家隔離，所以采用視頻致辭的方式向各位新生表示歡迎。

耶魯大學(xué)校長2023-2024學(xué)年開學(xué)典禮演講的主題為“放慢腳步，彌合裂縫”（Slow Down and Fix Things）。在演講中，校長寄語耶魯新生，希望他們“能培養(yǎng)謹(jǐn)慎地、有條理地行動習(xí)慣——放慢腳步，不僅為了放慢白駒過隙般的時間，也為反思聽到的各種觀點，準(zhǔn)備好進入世界，彌合裂縫”。

演講全文

Slow Down and Fix Things

放慢腳步，彌合裂縫

Opening Assembly Address, Yale College Class of 2027

耶魯大學(xué)2027屆學(xué)生開學(xué)典禮致辭

Peter Salovey, President of Yale University

耶魯大學(xué)校長蘇必德

August 21, 2023

2023年8月21日

Good morning!

早上好！

I’m sorry that I cannot be there with you in person today. Although I feel fine, I tested positive for Covid yesterday, and in accordance with the University’s health guidelines, I’m staying home. However, I’m delighted to join you through video. 

很抱歉，今天我不能親臨典禮現(xiàn)場。雖然我感覺還好，但昨天我的新冠病毒檢測呈陽性，按照學(xué)校的健康規(guī)定，我要居家隔離。不過，我很高興能通過視頻與大家見面。

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you, our entering students, and your family members to campus, and to mark officially the start of your undergraduate education.

我要熱烈歡迎新生和你們的家人來到學(xué)校，并宣布你們的本科生涯正式啟航。

This is a big moment—for you and for Yale!

 這是一個重要時刻——對你們是，對耶魯也是！

I’m glad this day has arrived and I’m so glad you are here.

我很高興這一天終于到來了，你們來到這里，讓我非常欣喜。

It is evident why you belong at Yale. Your academic distinction, leadership savvy, and outstanding motivation solidify your standing among students who have sat for centuries where you are sitting today. What is more, the richness of your diversity—across every dimension—reflects Yale’s commitment to creating an inclusive educational environment.

你們能成為耶魯一員的原因顯而易見。你們的學(xué)術(shù)造詣、領(lǐng)導(dǎo)才能和出色的驅(qū)動力讓你們脫穎而出，坐在了這片幾百年來優(yōu) 秀學(xué)子都坐過的草地上。從各個維度考慮，你們的多元化也反映出耶魯致力于營造包容的教育環(huán)境。

Now, as you prepare to enter Yale—and leave your unique imprint on it—allow me to alert you to a perennial observation among our alumni. Many of your predecessors, I must caution, have marveled at the breakneck clip at which today’s festivities give way to your graduation.

現(xiàn)在，當(dāng)你們準(zhǔn)備踏入耶魯校園并留下自己的獨特足跡時，我必須告訴你們一個我對校友們多年來的觀察。你們的很多前輩都感嘆，在愉快的開學(xué)典禮之后，時間會過得飛快，一轉(zhuǎn)眼就要進行畢業(yè)典禮了。

It’s a hard truth codified in one of Yale’s most celebrated traditions, the singing of our unofficial alma mater, “Bright College Years.” Your time here is described as the “shortest, gladdest years of life,” and as “gliding by,” “swiftly,” in fact.

這個殘酷的事實在耶魯?shù)姆枪俜叫８琛睹篮眯�園年華》（Bright College Years）中也有體現(xiàn)。歌詞把你們在校的時光形容為“最短暫最歡快的光陰”“快速地從指間流走”。畢業(yè)時唱這首歌是耶魯最重要的傳統(tǒng)之一。

So I encourage you to savor the qualities that drew you to this remarkable place.

所以，請你們好好享受這個非凡之地，珍惜那些吸引你選擇耶魯?shù)奶刭|(zhì)。

Between the ceremonies that will bookend your “bright college years,” I encourage you to remain ever aware that time here moves at warp speed.

在開學(xué)典禮和畢業(yè)典禮之間的“美好校園年華”中，我希望你們一直記住，在這里，逝者如斯，不舍晝夜。

As you set off on the grand adventure of a liberal education, though, I want also to impart a bit of wisdom. Today, I want to urge you to cultivate the habit of moving deliberately, systematically—slowly—not necessarily to blunt the wistfulness you may feel in four years’ time, but to reflect on the ideas to which you will be exposed, and to be in a position to repair what is broken in the world you will then enter.

不過，在你們踏上博雅教育的盛大旅程之際，我還想傳授一點兒智慧。今天，我希望你們能培養(yǎng)謹(jǐn)慎、有條理行動的習(xí)慣——放慢腳步，不僅為了放慢白駒過隙般的時間，也為反思聽到的各種觀點，準(zhǔn)備好進入世界，彌合裂縫。

As perhaps never before, this year’s cohort of new undergraduate students has come of age in a culture of haste. Yours is a generation that has never known life without the instant spread of information. Social networking was born before nearly all of you. And similarly novel technologies that were unthinkable in my generation are native to yours.

這屆新生是前所未有地在急速世界中長大的一屆。社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)誕生在你們大多數(shù)人出生之前，你們這代人從未體驗過沒有即時信息的生活。同樣，在我的年代完全無法想象的技術(shù)，對你們來說是與生俱來的。

Many of the innovations on which society has come to rely are the fruit of a mantra first articulated by Mark Zuckerberg. “Move fast and break things,” he instructed his staff at Facebook around the time of its 2004 launch. “Unless you are breaking stuff,” he continued, “you are not moving fast enough.”

如今世界賴以生存的很多新發(fā)明都來源于馬克·扎克伯格提出的一句口號。2004年推出臉書時，他告訴員工：“快速行動，破除陳規(guī)。”他還說：“如果你不在破除什么，那就是行動得不夠快。”

To be sure, this mantra was eventually phased out as Facebook’s motto, but it remains very much a prevailing ethos that animates today’s tech ecosystem. “Blitzscaling,” as LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman characterized it, “drives ‘lightning’ growth by prioritizing speed over efficiency, even in an environment of uncertainty.”

后來臉書逐漸淘汰了這句口號，但它仍然作為一種普遍理念激勵著現(xiàn)在的技術(shù)產(chǎn)業(yè)。正如領(lǐng)英的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人雷德·霍夫曼提出的“閃電式擴張”一樣，“即便在不確定的環(huán)境中，也要將速度置于功效之上，達到閃電一般的增速。”

Of course, this ethos also has seeped into the DNA of newer online platforms that prioritize, rather detrimentally, speed over depth—platforms that can stoke our emotional impulses all while suppressing our capacity to think broadly and engage with ideas that challenge us. The emerging frontier of artificial intelligence has given us a glimpse into its potential to compound these tendencies.

這種風(fēng)氣自然也滲透到了新型網(wǎng)絡(luò)平臺中——它們?yōu)樗俣葼奚�了深度。我們會為這些內(nèi)容興奮不已，卻無法廣泛思考，真正從所讀所看中獲得些什么。最近出現(xiàn)的人工智能應(yīng)用也是一個例子，它可能讓我們越來越怠于思考。

So, rather than “move fast and break things,” I say, here today, “slow down and fix things.”

所以，與其“快速行動，破除陳規(guī)”，我今天主張大家“放慢腳步，彌合裂縫”。

Now, I am not a Luddite. I treasure the benefits of technological advance to our lives and our relationships. Here on campus, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the extraordinary usefulness of digital tools in sustaining our educational mission—and in allowing us to cope and connect with one another—amid social isolation and hardship. And sometimes, tech is just plain fun. I can spend hours on YouTube checking out Appalachian music from past decades.

我不是反對科技進步。科技進步給我們的生活和人際關(guān)系帶來諸多好處，這一點我非常珍惜。就拿我們學(xué)校來說，新冠疫情期間，因為有了線上工具，我們才得以繼續(xù)授課，維持學(xué)校的教育使命，并在困難的隔離期間聯(lián)絡(luò)彼此、互相支持。有些時候，科技還很有趣。我會在YouTube上花幾小時欣賞過去幾十年的阿巴拉契亞音樂。

But the propensity we have developed for the immediate deprives us of the time and space necessary for careful reflection. Social media feeds can bait us with the hollow lure of “likes”—and then bombard us with viewpoints that reinforce, indeed intensify, our most strongly held assumptions. We consume what we already believe to be true—and are largely shielded, therefore, from what is.

但是近年來，我們越來越傾向于瞬間滿足，仔細思考的時間越來越少。當(dāng)我們在社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)看到一條推文，我們先受空洞的“點贊數(shù)”吸引，然后讀到的全都是與我們想法一致的評論。網(wǎng)絡(luò)推送給我們的是我們認為正確的東西——而不是真正正確的東西。

So, I encourage you: Slow down and fix things.

所以，我建議你們：放慢腳步，彌合裂縫。

To place this advice in context, I’d like to draw upon my field of study, the discipline of psychology.

為了進一步論證這條建議，我想聊聊我的專業(yè)：心理學(xué)。

Last year, I had the special privilege of engaging in a public dialogue about generative AI with Professor Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize-winning psychologist known best for his field-changing research on decision-making heuristics and biases. Years ago, my lab relied on his work to conduct research on how to make health messages more persuasive. And Yale was proud to bestow on him an honorary degree in 2014.

去年，我有幸與諾貝爾獎得主、心理學(xué)家丹尼爾·卡尼曼就生成式人工智能進行公開對話�？�尼曼因其關(guān)于決策啟發(fā)法和偏見的顛覆性研究而聞名。多年前，我的實驗室便以他的科研成果為基礎(chǔ)，研究如何讓健康相關(guān)的訊息更有說服力。耶魯大學(xué)非常榮幸能在2014年授予他榮譽學(xué)位。

In his book, “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, Professor Kahneman details how our minds are governed by two systems. System 1 is the fast one. It’s based on emotion, reflex, and stereotype. And it makes us “gullible,” therefore, “and biased to believe.” System 2 is the slow one, in charge of “doubting and unbelieving” through analytical, deliberate, and rational thought.

在他的著作《思考，快與慢》中，卡尼曼教授詳細闡述了我們的思想是如何受兩個系統(tǒng)控制的。系統(tǒng)一是快速的，它基于情緒、條件反射和固有印象，因而使我們“容易上當(dāng)”“容易相信”。系統(tǒng)二則是慢的，它負責(zé)通過分析事實、謹(jǐn)慎商榷和理性思考來“質(zhì)疑和不信”。

“The confirmatory bias of System 1,” he says, in short, “favors uncritical acceptance of suggestions and exaggerations of the likelihood of extreme and improbable events.” Well, we can see here the hazards of nurturing it as a default way of thinking, particularly in a time of upheaval and unrest.

簡單來說，“系統(tǒng)一會產(chǎn)生證實偏差，讓我們不加思考，接受所有極 端的、不太可能的事件”。不難發(fā)現(xiàn)，如果它成為我們默認的思考路徑，尤其在目前動蕩不安的世界中，是非常危險的。

Of course, as members of the Class of 2027, your most formative years coincided with moments of monumental consequence. In high school, you witnessed a once-in-a-generation pandemic and the virulent spread of conspiracy theories about it. You saw violent insurrectionists disrupt the most basic functioning of our democracy, and Vladimir Putin launch the largest ground war in Europe since the Second World War. You have seen, and some of you have participated in, transformative social and cultural movements. And as recently as this summer, you experienced the hottest recorded week in history even as some deny the severity—in fact, the existence—of the climate emergency.

作為2027屆的學(xué)生，你們形成價值觀的年歲正好有很多大事發(fā)生。高中時，你們經(jīng)歷了百年不遇的疫情全球大流行，也聽聞了大量與之相關(guān)的陰謀論。你們看到暴力叛亂分子完全破壞了我們的民主制度，也目睹了普京發(fā)起自第二次世界大戰(zhàn)以來歐洲最 大規(guī)模的地面戰(zhàn)爭。你們見證甚至參與了變革性的社會和文化運動。而就在今年夏天，你們經(jīng)歷了有氣象記錄以來最熱的一周——即使現(xiàn)在還有些人不相信氣候危機的急迫性。

So, I sense you may rightfully feel, among a mix of other emotions, a burning desire to pursue speedy action. But our commitment to lux et veritas—to light and truth—compels us to slow down, to listen to each other, to deal with complex and sometimes conflicting ideas, to engage in deep thoughtfulness, and then to look for ways to fix things.

所以我想，你們也許心情復(fù)雜，但都急切地希望盡快行動。但我們的校訓(xùn)“光明與真理”讓我們必須放慢腳步，傾聽彼此，處理復(fù)雜甚至相互沖突的觀點，深思熟慮，然后再著手彌合裂縫。

Now, let me be clear: this is not to suggest that the pace of progress ought to be glacial.

我要明確一點：這不是說進步的步伐應(yīng)該極為緩慢。

No, the challenges confronting society demand our restlessness to improve the world for this and future generations. Patience, as university president Kingman Brewster Jr. told incoming members of a Yale College class, “is not come by easily in a world for which survival is a serious question.” And that was to the Class of 1974! So “where then,” he asked, “is the purpose which makes patient learning supportable?”

不是。社會上問題不斷，讓我們必須不斷進取，改變這個世界，造福我們自己和未來的世代。但正如耶魯大學(xué)前校長金曼·布魯斯特在開學(xué)演講時所說的，“在一個生存都是嚴(yán)峻問題的世界里，耐心并不容易獲得”。那是1974屆學(xué)生的開學(xué)典禮！當(dāng)時他問道：“是什么讓我們支持有耐心的學(xué)習(xí)？”

As President Brewster would go on to insinuate, enduring, institutional progress takes not only knowledge but understanding. Solutions born of even the most well-founded scientific or historical expertise still require the public will to implement them. Changing other people’s minds requires us to expand our own; breakthroughs are brought about in a chorus, not an echo chamber. We must take time to think deliberatively if we want to fix things.

布魯斯特校長接著表示，持久的、系統(tǒng)性的進步需要的不僅是知識，還有理解。就算是科學(xué)家或史學(xué)家提出的最有理有據(jù)的結(jié)論，也只有公眾愿意執(zhí)行才有意義。改變他人的想法要求我們首先要開闊自己的視野；突破產(chǎn)生于眾說紛紜，而不是孤芳自賞。想要解決問題，必須先深思熟慮。

Let me provide an example from two Yale College alumni, David Broockman and Joshua Kalla, political scientists, the latter of whom is at Yale. Professors Broockman and Kalla focus on political persuasion, public opinion, and prejudice reduction. And their signal work on transgender rights and immigration informs and guides meaningful action in these and other realms of public discourse.

接下來的例子來自耶魯本科校友、政治學(xué)家大衛(wèi)·布魯克曼和約書亞·卡拉，卡拉目前在耶魯任教。布魯克曼教授和卡拉教授研究政治說服、公眾輿論和偏見減少。他們在跨性別權(quán)利和移民領(lǐng)域的卓越工作對公眾話語提供了信息和指導(dǎo)。

They found that the inclination to correct others who do not see the world as we do “may provide emotional relief, but it’s not likely to persuade”, in their words. “In fact, [expressing such frustration] can make people harden their existing views.” “Deep canvassing,”—that is “non-judgmentally exchanging narratives in interpersonal conversations”—can “facilitate durable reductions in exclusionary attitudes.”

他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)我們試著糾正與自己看法相左的人時，這種行為“可能會讓自己更好受，但不太可能說服對方，甚至可能加固他們原來的觀點”。反而是“深度游說”——“在對話中不加評斷地交換故事”——能“持久地減少排斥態(tài)度”。

OK. So they dispatched dozens of door-to-door canvassers in the wake of a new law to protect transgender people from discrimination. One group of canvassers “said nothing to residents about transphobia,” while the other “[asked] sensitive questions, [listened] to the answers with sincere interest, and then [asked] more questions.”

于是，在新的保護跨性別者權(quán)益的法律通過之際，他們派出數(shù)十名游說人士挨家挨戶拜訪居民。其中一組完全不提“跨性別恐懼”，而另一組則問出敏感問題，真誠地聆聽他們的回答，然后再提出更多問題。

The result? Well, here is what they said, “Not everyone was swayed… but on average, [the group engaged in the deeper, thoughtful interactions] experienced a drop in transphobia [even] greater than the fall in homophobia among Americans from 1998 to 2012.” The canvassers, by listening sincerely—patiently—“had produced the equivalent of fourteen years of social change.” So, we must undertake the rigorous, painstaking, and yes, sometimes plodding, task of listening carefully to the broad range of perspectives that surround us instead of blazing forth complacently.

結(jié)果如何？他們是這樣說的：“不是每個人都被說服了……但平均而言，（進行更深入、有思考互動的這一組）‘恐跨情緒’的下降幅度甚至超過了1998至2012年間所有美國人‘恐跨情緒’的降幅。”通過真誠、耐心的聆聽，這些游說人士“帶來了相當(dāng)于14年社會變革的變化”。所以，就算有時候很辛苦，我們也要一絲不茍地傾聽身邊的各種看法，而不是自鳴得意、盲目前進。

We must elevate the virtues, indeed the value, of patience and a willingness to listen to ideas we don’t like, and reject a counterproductive culture of calling out, denunciation, and ostracism. In an obvious paradox, slowing down can achieve faster, more effective results.

我們必須更有耐心，更愿意聆聽我們不喜歡的主張，弘揚這種美德，而抵制當(dāng)眾批評、譴責(zé)、排斥的文化，因為它們只會適得其反。放慢腳步，可以實現(xiàn)更快、更有效的結(jié)果——這個悖論道理很簡單。

In thinking of this imperative, I am reminded of the Reverend Tish Harrison Warren’s recent exploration of patience as a virtue with the Yale Divinity School’s Center for Faith and Culture. “Internet advocacy—our very connected world—does make us [a] less patient people. I mean that in both ways,” she says, “less patient for change but also less patient with one another. It takes real work to slow down and listen to another person’s perspective, especially if you disagree.”

在考慮這句建議的時候，我想到了蒂什·哈里森·沃倫牧師最近和耶魯神學(xué)院信仰與文化中心共同探索“耐心”這個美德時所說的：“互聯(lián)網(wǎng)將人與人連接在一起，但它讓我們失去了耐心——我們沒有耐心等待變化發(fā)生，也沒有耐心去理解彼此。讓自己慢下來，去傾聽他人的見解是需要努力的，尤其當(dāng)對方想法與你相左的時候。”

I think, too, of the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, another honorary Yale degree recipient I reference today, who expressed powerfully that “arguments are won only by giving your opponent a hearing.”

我還想到了已故的猶太教拉比勛爵喬納森·薩克斯（耶魯也給他頒發(fā)過榮譽學(xué)位），他說過：“只有認真聆聽對手，你才可能贏得爭吵。”

Here at Yale, and at colleges and universities like it, we advance this worthy endeavor by educating students to seek out competing ideas, to evaluate evidence, to mobilize the tools of reason and critical inquiry. Yes, this takes time and patience. But the effortful System 2 mode of thinking a liberal education promotes cultivates collaboration—and thereby propels sweeping contributions to our world.

在耶魯和其他相似的學(xué)府，我們讓學(xué)生探索不同的觀點，評估證據(jù)，動用邏輯推理和批判性思維，來推行“傾聽”這個有意義的習(xí)慣。不能否認，做到這個需要時間和耐心。但博雅教育所培養(yǎng)的系統(tǒng)二的思考形式能推進合作，從而推動世界共贏。

That is, I think, what makes education “the strongest force available.”

我想，正是因此，我們可以說教育是“最強的力量”。

It is what makes “patient learning” supportable, in fact, essential.

也正是這個原因讓“耐心聆聽”能站得住腳——甚至成為必要技能。

I take as my final words today a part of what Rabbi Sacks wrote on the merits of engaging with diverse perspectives. Jewish scholarship in the first century BCE, he noted, “was riven by a series of controversies between the schools of two great rabbis, Hillel and Shammai. Eventually, the views of Rabbi Hillel prevailed on most issues. The Talmud explains why: ‘the disciples of Hillel were pleasant and did not take offense, and they taught the views of their opponents as well as their own; indeed, they taught the views of their opponents before their own.’” He might have said, seek lux et veritas, light and truth, through audi alteram partem, listening to the other side—that is, if Rabbi Hillel spoke Latin.

最 后，我想引用薩克斯拉比的一些話結(jié)尾，他撰寫的這些文字是關(guān)于不同觀點交流的好處的。他指出，公元前一世紀(jì)的猶太學(xué)界“被兩位偉大的拉比希勒爾和煞買所創(chuàng)立的兩個學(xué)派之間的一系列爭議所撕扯。最終，希勒爾學(xué)派的觀點在大多數(shù)問題上占了上風(fēng)。猶太法典中是這么解釋的：‘希勒爾的門徒更友善，聽到什么都不會生氣。他們不僅傳授己方的看法，也討論對方的立場，準(zhǔn)確來說，是在提出自己學(xué)派的想法之前先探討對方的意見’”。要是希勒爾會說拉丁語，他也許會說：“通過傾聽他人來尋求光明與真理吧。”

Here in the arena of higher education, I am sure, you will do so. Here you will find an oasis—if not an island—of the pensive, interdependent thought process through which positive change advances. And then, in due course, you will be well-positioned to put this hallmark of your Yale education to work in the world.

在這個高等教育的舞臺上，我相信你們都會去傾聽別人。在這里，你們會找到一片為沉思者準(zhǔn)備的綠洲，積極的改變從這里出發(fā)。然后，在適當(dāng)?shù)臅r候，你們便可以把這個耶魯教育的特點帶到工作中，帶到世界的各個角落。

You will know that taking the time to see the whole of a problem, to create something lasting and beneficial, and to build consensus—even, and most especially, with those whose worldview does not align with your own—is not an impediment but a prerequisite to progress.

你們會發(fā)現(xiàn)，花時間去看到問題的全部，去創(chuàng)造一個耐久的、有益的東西，去建立共識——甚至尤其是與那些世界觀與你不同的人——并不是進步的障礙。相反，它是進步的條件。

Even as you slow down and contemplate new perspectives, you will still hold fast to your ideals and move thoughtfully – faithfully – to fulfill them.

在你們放慢腳步、考慮新想法的同時，你們將繼續(xù)堅守理想，并謹(jǐn)慎、忠誠地朝著理想的方向前進。

I’m pleased to welcome you to Yale today.

很高興今天歡迎你們來到耶魯。

I’m pleased to advise you: slow down, fix things.

很高興給你們提出建議：放慢腳步，彌合裂縫。

來源：Yale官網(wǎng)、耶魯大學(xué)微博及耶魯北京中心

 你的留學(xué)路，新通陪你走！

更多留學(xué)/語言/軟實力提升等問題，

可以咨詢新通顧問，

也可以微信掃碼添加新通，

為你帶去幫助！