別做美國夢了 追隨潮流去冒險吧
You’ve heard of the American dream, right? The American dream was this machine we built to get rid of uncertainty and create security. It’s the white picket fence, the job and the minivan. You watch Dan Rather and a sitcom. You go to bed, go to sleep and repeat.
你肯定聽說過美國夢吧？美國夢就是那個我們造出來對抗不確定性和創造安全感的機器。它是雪白的尖樁籬笆，是工作，是廂式旅行車；看完丹·拉瑟(Dan Rather)的新聞節目和情景喜劇，上牀睡覺，如此一天天周而復始。
It may not be that exciting, but hey, at least it’s stable. For years — for as long as we can remember — that’s been the end goal: stability and security. And millions of us work really hard to get there each year.
聽上去可能不怎麼刺激，但是，嘿，至少它穩定啊。多年來——從我們能記事起——穩定和安全就是終極目標。每一年，我們成百上千萬的人都在爲此拼命努力。
There’s nothing wrong with that if it’s what you’re into. But there’s a whole group of people — and this group is growing, by the way — who have said, “Forget that. I want to focus on experiences instead.”
如果那就是你想要的，當然也沒什麼不好。但也有這麼一羣人會說：“忘了那回事吧，我想更關注自己的體驗。”——順便說一句，這個羣體的人數還在增加。
You probably know the refrains by now: Experiences trump stuff. Experiences tend to bring us happiness. More stuff tends to breed discontent. There’s a wealth of research to back up these ideas up.
如今，你可能已經知道那句被人一再重複的話了：體驗勝於物質；體驗能帶來幸福；更多物質只會令人慾壑難填。有大量研究都支持這些理念。
So people go out and spend a bunch of money to participate in adventure races like the Tough Mudder, just to have an experience. Instead of buying a new television, people buy skis and lift tickets. People pay to go to the rock climbing gym instead of paying to go to the movies. More and more, the economy is moving in this direction.
於是爲了獲得體驗，人們就走出門去，花費大把金錢參加“最強泥人”(Tough Mudder)國際障礙大賽之類的冒險競賽。人們有了錢不是買一臺新電視，而是購買滑雪和纜車的票。人們花錢去攀巖館，而不是買電影票。整個經濟愈來愈向着這個方向發展。
But the idea that you can leave a stable job, a 401(k), sell your house, retrofit your van and spend a couple of years living out of it by yourself, or with your spouse, or even with your kids, is something completely different. Not only is it different, it’s mind-blowing.
但是如果你辭掉穩定的工作、放棄401(k)養老金、賣掉房子、改裝你的麪包車，今後一兩年以車爲家，甚至帶上伴侶和孩子，那又是完全不同的另一回事了。不僅是完全不同，根本就是徹底顛覆。
This mind-blowing concept is not the choice of experience over stuff. It’s not even experience over stability. It’s experience over security. And that is a very fascinating development in our culture.
這種徹底顛覆的觀念不是要把體驗擺在物質之上，也不是把體驗擺在穩定之上，它根本就是把體驗擺在安全之上。這是我們的文化中發展起來的一種非常有趣的現象。
Consider the professional baseball player Daniel Norris, who was making $2 million but living in a Volkswagen van. Who told him he could do that? At its extreme, choosing experiences over stuff isn’t just about making these kinds of value-based decisions about recreation on your weekends. It’s also choosing experience over security and making the same decisions on a life-size scale.
想想職業棒球手丹尼爾·諾里斯(Daniel Norris)吧，他能賺200萬美元，但還住在一輛大衆麪包車裏。是誰告訴他可以這麼幹的？推演到極致，把體驗擺在物質之上，不僅意味着爲週末如何消遣所做的這類基於價值的決定。這同樣是選擇把體驗置於安全之上，並且要在人生的尺度上做出同樣的決定。
Once I began framing it this way, I kept learning about more and more people doing this. There is Jeremy Collins deciding to pursue a life of art and climbing after getting laid off from a comfortable office job, or the writer Brendan Leonard, leaving a copywriting job at IBM (arguably the definition of security) to follow his dreams of being a freelance writer and starting a blog.
自從我開始這樣看待這件事，我不斷了解到，有越來越多的人在這麼做。比如傑里米·柯林斯(Jeremy Collins)，他離開一份舒適的辦公室工作，決定在藝術與登山中度過人生。還有作家布蘭登·萊昂納德(Brendan Leonard)，他離開了IBM公司的文案工作（可以說是典型的鐵飯碗），追隨自己的夢想，成了自由撰稿人，並且開始寫博客。
The more I learn about people completely bucking convention and living these incredibly interesting alternative existences, the more I find myself wondering, “If they can do it, can I?”
越是瞭解到有人這樣徹底打破傳統，過着有趣的另類生活，我就越發開始捫心自問：“他們能做到，我能嗎？”
Do I dare open that bulletproof, fireproof combination safe where I’ve locked up my dreams and say, “Oh, I’ll do that later, when life is more stable, when I’m more secure”? What if I try to make this really creative vision, one that I’ve always dreamed of, come true and I fail? Do I even dare to ask, “What if?”
我的夢想鎖在一個防火防彈的密碼鎖保險箱裏。我總是會說：“噢，以後再去做吧，等生活再穩定一些，等我更有安全保障的時候。”但是，我敢不敢打開那個夢想的保險箱？如果我真的嘗試實現這個充滿創意的場景，這個我一直以來的夢想，但是結果卻失敗了，那會怎麼樣？我到底敢不敢問自己一句：“如果做了，會怎麼樣？”
As for you, O.K., so you don’t want to live in a van. Maybe you don’t have a dream locked up inside your own little Pandora’s box. That’s fine.
至於你，好吧，你可能不想住在廂型車裏。也許你自己的那個小潘多拉盒子裏也沒有鎖着一個夢想。這也很好。
But if you do — and my gut tells me that for most people reading this, what I’m writing rings true — I am telling you to at least consider that one, simple question, “What if?”
但如果你有——直覺告訴我，大多數讀到這篇文章的人會和我寫的東西產生共鳴——我想告訴你，至少問問自己這個簡單的問題，“如果做了，會怎麼樣？”
In considering the possibilities, consider also that according to this new set of values, the uncertainty and the insecurity that you feel trying something adventurous and new is all part of the very reason for doing it. That’s part of the tangible benefit. That’s the hard part of the adventure race, the mud in your face and the suffer-fest.
在考慮各種可能性的時候，也要考慮到，根據這種新的價值體系，你在嘗試冒險事物與新事物時所感受到的那些不確定性與不安全感，正是你要做這件事的一部分理由。那是有形收益的一部分，是冒險競賽的實質內容：臉上的泥巴與痛苦的狂歡。
As the Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard famously said, “It’s not an adventure until something goes wrong.” Maybe you’ll lose some money in selling the house. Maybe you’ll make less income if you quit your job. But that’s part of the adventure.
戶外運動品牌Patagonia的創始人伊馮·喬伊納德(Yvon Chouinard)說過這樣一句名言：“沒有意外，不算冒險。”賣掉房子你可能會損失一些錢。辭去工作你的收入可能會減少。但那就是冒險的一部分。
If you would make the same experience-over-stuff choice weekend after weekend, maybe it’s time to start thinking about making the experience-over-security choice for your life. At the very least, you might want to ask yourself, “What if?”
如果你每個週末都打算做這種把體驗放在物質之上的選擇，或許你可以開始考慮選擇一種把體驗置於安全之上的人生了。至少，你可以問一問自己：“如果做了，會怎麼樣？”
