少消費，多創造，更有趣_風聞

Consume Less. Create More. It’s More Fun.

少消費，多創造，更有趣

Pavel Durov 帕維爾 · 杜羅夫

原文地址

按：未必同意他所説的全部，但內容觀點確有啓發。

Big corporations use marketing to trick us into thinking that the solution to all our problems lies in buying more of their stuff.

大公司利用市場營銷欺騙我們，讓我們認為解決所有問題的方法在於購買更多他們的產品。

The real solution is often the exact opposite: it consists in consuming less, not more. In most cases, our problems are caused by overconsumption in the first place.  

真正的解決方案往往恰恰相反: 消費更少，而不是更多。在大多數情況下，我們的問題首先是由過度消費引起的。

For example, if you are overweight, you will be bombarded with ads for gym subscriptions or food supplements. But the key to losing weight is eating less – not new shoes and protein powder.  

例如，如果你超重，你會被健身房廣告或食品補充劑的廣告轟炸。但是減肥的關鍵是少吃——而不是新鞋和蛋白粉。

Or, if you struggle with headaches and stress, they will try to sell you headache pills and antidepressants. But to really decrease stress, you should start sleeping and walking more instead of consuming entertainment products and browsing social media late at night. Pills are never designed to be a permanent solution: they lose power over time and cause side effects that will in turn require more pills. Once you embark on the endless journey of consumption, you get stuck in a trap designed to make you miserable and corporations happy.

或者，如果你正在與頭痛和壓力做鬥爭，他們會試圖向你推銷頭痛藥和抗抑鬱藥。但是為了真正減輕壓力，你應該開始多睡覺和走路，而不是在深夜消費娛樂產品和瀏覽社交媒體。藥丸從來都不是一種永久的解決方案: 它們會隨着時間的推移而失去作用，併產生副作用，這反過來又需要更多的藥丸。一旦你踏上了無止境的消費之旅，你就會陷入一個陷阱，陷入這個陷阱的目的是讓你痛苦，讓公司高興。

Through evolution, Mother Nature has equipped us to efficiently cope with deficits of resources, but it never prepared us for life in the relative abundance we have now. Today, more people die from obesity than from hunger, and more people suffer from anxiety caused by information overload than from lack of news. 

通過進化，大自然母親使我們能夠有效地應對資源的短缺，但是它從來沒有讓我們為我們現在擁有的相對豐富的生活做好準備。今天，更多的人死於肥胖而不是飢餓，更多的人遭受由信息超載引起的焦慮而不是缺乏新聞。

Human DNA, our hardware, is obsolete. It stopped evolving about 10,000-20,000 years ago when we still lived in small hunter-gatherer communities. Back then, every sweet bite and every piece of information was extremely valuable. We now live in megacities, surrounded by tons of cheap sugar, but our DNA doesn’t know that. Our bodies still accumulate excess fat to prepare for harsh hungry winters that never come. Our minds cling to every disturbing piece of news telling us about threats that never materialize.

人類的 DNA，我們的硬件，已經過時了。當我們還生活在小型的狩獵-採集社區時，它就停止了進化。那時候，每一口甜食和每一條信息都是極其寶貴的。我們現在生活在大城市裏，周圍環繞着成噸的廉價糖，但我們的 DNA 並不知道這一點。我們的身體仍然在積累多餘的脂肪，為永遠不會到來的嚴酷飢餓的冬天做準備。我們的頭腦緊緊抓住每一條令人不安的消息，這些消息告訴我們威脅從未實現。

This biological paradox is made worse by our economic system which emphasises GDP growth and maximized corporate profits. People are encouraged to increase consumption by both governments and corporations. It’s not a coincidence that the US, a country that excelled in economic growth in the 20th century, is also the most obese developed country in the world. Their market-driven society became too efficient for its own good.

我們強調 GDP 增長和企業利潤最大化的經濟體系使這種生物學悖論變得更加嚴重。政府和企業都鼓勵人們增加消費。美國，一個在20世紀經濟增長卓越的國家，同時也是世界上最肥胖的發達國家，這並非巧合。他們以市場為導向的社會為了自身的利益變得過於高效。

Not only is this system harmful to humans, it is also unsustainable in the long-term. Unlike corporate appetites, our planet’s resources are finite. We became very efficient in making and selling ourselves stuff we don’t need, but it is the planet which pays the bill. Our bodies still expect us to be living in the pristine environment we had 10,000-20,000 years ago, full of green forests and clean lakes. As we keep destroying our own habitat in the eternal quest for economic growth, the number of diseases caused by pollution continues to rise. 

這個系統不僅對人類有害，而且從長遠來看也是不可持續的。與企業的胃口不同，我們這個星球的資源是有限的。我們在製造和銷售我們自己不需要的東西上變得非常有效率，但是付賬單的卻是這個星球。我們的身體仍然期望我們生活在10,000-20,000年前的原始環境中，充滿了綠色的森林和乾淨的湖泊。隨着我們為了經濟增長而不斷破壞自己的棲息地，由污染引起的疾病數量繼續上升。

I was lucky to become wealthy early in my life. By the time I was 22, I had a million dollars in my bank account, by 25 – tens of millions, by 28 – hundreds of millions. However, this has never been what made me happy. 

我很幸運，在我生命的早期就變得富有。到我22歲的時候，我的銀行賬户裏已經有了一百萬美元，大概有2500萬美元，2800萬美元。然而，這從來都不是我快樂的原因。

My real luck was in realizing pretty early that the most rewarding kind of occupation is creating things, not consuming them. So instead of buying yachts, airplanes and expensive real estate, I focused on what I enjoyed most – creating social platforms that (hopefully) bring good to humanity. I spent most of my personal funds on Telegram for people to enjoy a free service that strives for perfection. 

我真正的運氣是很早就意識到，最有價值的職業是創造東西，而不是消費它們。因此，我沒有購買遊艇、飛機和昂貴的房地產，而是專注於自己最喜歡的東西——創造社交平台，希望這些平台能給人類帶來好處。我把我的大部分個人資金都花在了 Telegram 上，讓人們享受一項追求完美的免費服務。

I consider the ability to create things for others the most valuable – and rewarding – asset of mine. I suspect one of the reasons I happened to get wealthy in the process of doing what I love is because money has never been an important goal for me. 

我認為為他人創造東西的能力是我最有價值和回報的資產。我懷疑我在做自己喜歡的事情的過程中變得富有的原因之一是因為金錢從來不是我的重要目標。

When I was a student, I liked building games and websites. Back then, it was considered an occupation for nerds. Promising students were expected to practice law or solve business cases. But I never really cared about how other people defined success. For me, success was in the ability to spend time creating things that I liked.

當我還是個學生的時候，我喜歡做遊戲和網站。那時候，它被認為是書呆子的職業。希望有前途的學生從事法律工作或解決商業案件。但我從未真正關心過別人如何定義成功。對我來説，成功在於能夠花時間創造我喜歡的東西。

I never regret not buying expensive stuff wealthy people like to surround themselves with. The only regret I have is not having more time to build things. 

我從不後悔沒有買有錢人喜歡的昂貴的東西。我唯一的遺憾就是沒有更多的時間去建造東西。

We live in an era when the possibilities for human creativity are endless. One can invent robots, edit genes, design virtual worlds… There are so many exciting unknown areas to explore. I hope that more people will discover the enjoyment of building things for others. I hope that one day we, as a species, will turn away from the self-destructive path of never-ending consumption to a fulfilling journey of creating a better world for ourselves and those around us.

我們生活在一個人類創造無限可能的時代。一個人可以發明機器人，編輯基因，設計虛擬世界… … 有這麼多令人興奮的未知領域可以探索。我希望更多的人能夠發現為他人建造物品的樂趣。我希望有一天，我們作為一個物種，將從永無止境的消費自我毀滅的道路，轉向為我們自己和我們周圍的人創造一個更美好世界的充實之旅。