一个计算机大师的人生教训[原译](附原文)

一个计算机大师的人生教训[原译](附原文)

Richard Gabriel， LISP语言的创造者，是UNIX时代的人物。 他写的 Patterns of Software 听上去好象讲的是Patterns, 却有一大部份是讲他自己如何从一个穷乡僻壤一步一步艰难的走进斯坦福的历程。下面我特地译出一段，各位看看是否有启发：

我这一生见识过不少生来富贵的人。你也知道他们的模样：在好的社区长大，上顶尖的公立或私立学校，进一流的大学(如哈佛，加州理工) ，毕业后就去了最棒的研 究生院。他们是注定会功成名就的，这在他们眼里也是轻而易举的事。这就是那些最终来教导你我在计算机行当里如何行事的人(很多，当然不是全部) 。

他们搞出了计算理论和语言；他们规定了你我必须遵从的编程方式方法。能得到他们的见解当然是件好事。不过也毕竟只是见解而已，不一定来自第一手的实践或看着别人与奇怪的机算机概念痛苦搏斗而得出的体会。

更糟糕的一点是，比照他们的事业会使我等灰心丧气，因为我们成事不易，往往成败相消甚或输多赢少。而灰心丧气正是失败的开始。

未经挫折的人往往自命不凡，为人苛刻。这是我反击的缘由。他们的人生充满了令人艳羡的得天独厚和事业成功；而我的却是沮丧和败绩。按理我应该感到羞愧，把自己的经历隐藏起来才是。然而我已从中吸取了教训，或许读者也能得到点什么启发。

从我坎坷的人生经历中，我得到一条很好的教训：好朋友加勤奋(依此顺序)能助你成功！而且成功并非是天生的，至少在很多小范围内的成功都如此。

 

Throughout my life I have known people who were bom with silver spoons in
their mouths. You know the ones: grew up in a strong community, went to good
public or private schools, were able to attend a top undergraduate school like
Harvard or Caltech, and then were admitted to the best graduate schools. Their
success was assured, and it seemed to come easy for them. These are the people—
in many, but certainly not all cases—who end up telling the rest of us how to go
about our business in computing. They figure out the theories of computation
and the semantics of our languages; they define the software methodologies we
must use. It's good to have their perspective, but it's only a perspective, one not
necessarily gained by working in the trenches or watching the struggles of people
grappling with strange concepts.

Worse, watching their careers can discourage the rest of us, because things
don't come easy for us, and we lose as often or more often than we win. And dis-
couragement is the beginning of failure.

Sometimes people who have not had to struggle are smug and infuriating. This
is my attempt to fight back. Theirs is a proud story of privilege and success. Mine
is a story of disappointment and failure; I ought to be ashamed of it, and I should
try to hide it. But I learned from it, and maybe you can, too.

Along my odd path I learned a valuable lesson: Good friends and hard work-
in that order—pay off And you don't need to be bom a winner to become one at
least in small ways.