正文翻譯

At what age did you know what you wanted to do with your life?

你在多大的年紀(jì)就知道你想做什么？

評(píng)論翻譯

Tom Crosley
When I was around 9 or 10 and in fourth grade, my parents started giving me Knight Kits as Christmas and birthday presents. (My dad had built radios as a kid and had been a communications officer in WW2.) Over the next several years I built short wave radios, stereo equipment, intercoms, CB radios and test equipment — everything but the portable CB radios still used vacuum tubes.
About the time I started junior high, I got hold of a working pinball machine that had been confiscated in a gambling raid. Rather than just endlessly playing it like any normal kid, I dismantled it for its parts. I was fascinated by the relays and other electromechanical components.
I built what I called a digital computer using the parts from the pinball machine parts, but it was actually just a glorified electromechanical calculator that could add, subtract, and multiply — it wasn’t really programmable. But still a decent science fair project for a 13-year-old student in 1960. I can’t remember if I won, but I did get some sort of Westinghouse Science award.

當(dāng)我9歲或10歲左右，四年級(jí)時(shí)，我的父母開(kāi)始給我騎士套裝作為圣誕節(jié)和生日禮物。（我父親小時(shí)候就制造過(guò)收音機(jī)，在二戰(zhàn)中擔(dān)任過(guò)通信官員。）在接下來(lái)的幾年里，我制造了短波收音機(jī)、立體聲設(shè)備、對(duì)講機(jī)、 民用波段電臺(tái)收音機(jī)和測(cè)試設(shè)備——除了便攜式民用波段電臺(tái)收音機(jī)外，其他所有設(shè)備都使用真空管。
大約在我上初中的時(shí)候，我找到了一臺(tái)正在工作的彈球機(jī)，它在一次賭博襲擊中被沒(méi)收了。我不再像普通孩子一樣沒(méi)完沒(méi)了地玩它，而是把它拆了下來(lái)。我被繼電器和其他機(jī)電元件迷住了。
我用彈球機(jī)的零件制造了一臺(tái)我稱之為數(shù)字計(jì)算機(jī)的計(jì)算機(jī)，但它實(shí)際上只是一臺(tái)美化了的機(jī)電計(jì)算器，可以進(jìn)行加法、減法和乘法運(yùn)算——它不是真正可編程的。但在1960年，對(duì)于一個(gè)13歲的學(xué)生來(lái)說(shuō)，這仍然是一個(gè)像樣的科學(xué)博覽會(huì)項(xiàng)目。我不記得我是否贏了，但我確實(shí)獲得了某種西屋科學(xué)天才獎(jiǎng)。

So it was probably around this point that I knew I wanted to work on designing and building stuff like this as a career.
I became friends with the manager of our local Bell telephone office. It was a crossbar office, but there were still several smaller towns around us that were converting from older step-by-step systems. When that happened, they would literally destroy the old equipment with axes so competitors could not salvage it.
This manager knew about my interest in relays, and would let me know when an office was being converted, so I could have first dibs on any equipment before it was destroyed. I got dozens and dozens of working telephone relays this way to use in various projects. This ignited my love affair with all things to do with telephones.
When I was a sophomore in high school, I was sexted to compete in a multi-state science fair in a neighboring state. A nearby university (Iowa State, where I would later get my BSEE at) flew me and other participants to the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign where the fair was to take place in one of their private planes.
While on campus, I wandered into the campus bookstore and browsed the EE section. There I found a book called The Design of Switching Circuits, written by members of the technical staff at Bell Labs in 1951, which was all about relay switching circuits and Boolean algebra. I stayed up most of the night and drew up all of the Boolean equations for my project. The next day, I wrote them out during an oral presentation to the judges.

所以大概是在這一點(diǎn)上，我知道我想把設(shè)計(jì)和建造這樣的東西作為一種職業(yè)。
我和當(dāng)?shù)刎悹栯娫捑值慕?jīng)理成了朋友。這是一個(gè)交叉的辦公室，但我們周圍還有幾個(gè)較小的城鎮(zhèn)正在從舊的分步系統(tǒng)改造。當(dāng)這種情況發(fā)生時(shí)，他們真的會(huì)用斧頭摧毀舊設(shè)備，這樣競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手就無(wú)法搶救了。
這位經(jīng)理知道我對(duì)繼電器很感興趣，并會(huì)在辦公室改建時(shí)告訴我，這樣我就能在任何設(shè)備被摧毀前搶先使用。我用這種方式得到了幾十個(gè)工作電話繼電器，可以在各種項(xiàng)目中使用。這點(diǎn)燃了我對(duì)所有與電話有關(guān)的事情的熱愛(ài)。
當(dāng)我上高中二年級(jí)時(shí)，我被選中參加鄰近州的一個(gè)多州科學(xué)博覽會(huì)。附近的一所大學(xué)（愛(ài)荷華州立大學(xué)，我后來(lái)在那里獲得學(xué)士學(xué)位）將我和其他參與者空運(yùn)到伊利諾伊大學(xué)香檳分校（university of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign），展會(huì)將在那里的一架私人飛機(jī)上舉行。
在校園里，我走進(jìn)校園書店，瀏覽了電子工程師部分的書籍。在那里，我找到了一本書，名叫《開(kāi)關(guān)電路的設(shè)計(jì)》，這本書是貝爾實(shí)驗(yàn)室的技術(shù)人員于1951年寫的，內(nèi)容都是關(guān)于繼電器開(kāi)關(guān)電路和布爾代數(shù)的。我熬夜了大半個(gè)晚上，為我的項(xiàng)目起草了所有的布爾方程。第二天，我在給評(píng)委的口頭陳述中把它們寫了出來(lái)。

So it was pretty much a given that I would major in electrical engineering. Iowa State University was close (40 miles away), and had an excellent EE department. I was mostly interested in digital logic design because of my past involvement with telephone switching logic.
After graduation, I went to work at my dream job, at an R&D lab which was part of GTE (General Telephone and Electronics) designing digital logic for one of the first electronic telephone switches sold to the independent (non-Bell) telephone industry. I got the first four of my 28 patents on that project.
As I was working on that project, I realized that a lot of my hard-wired logic could be done with computers in the future (I was assuming a minicomputer like the PDP-8, since this was just before the first microprocessor, Intel 4004 was invented), so I went back and got an MS in Computer Science while working there.
Since then, I have had a successfully career sometimes designing hardware, sometimes software, or both like I am currently doing. I’m still working full-time at the age of 74 with no plans to retire.

所以我的專業(yè)是電氣工程，這幾乎是理所當(dāng)然的。愛(ài)荷華州立大學(xué)離這里很近（40英里遠(yuǎn)），有一個(gè)優(yōu)秀的電子工程系。我最感興趣的是數(shù)字邏輯設(shè)計(jì)，因?yàn)槲疫^(guò)去參與過(guò)電話交換邏輯。
畢業(yè)后，我得到了理想的工作，在一個(gè)研發(fā)實(shí)驗(yàn)室工作，該實(shí)驗(yàn)室是GTE（通用電話和電子）的一部分，為出售給獨(dú)立（非貝爾）電話行業(yè)的第一個(gè)電子電話交換機(jī)之一設(shè)計(jì)數(shù)字邏輯。我獲得了該項(xiàng)目28項(xiàng)專利中的前四項(xiàng)。
在我從事這個(gè)項(xiàng)目的時(shí)候，我意識(shí)到我的很多硬接線邏輯將來(lái)都可以用計(jì)算機(jī)來(lái)完成（我假設(shè)是像PDP-8這樣的小型計(jì)算機(jī)，因?yàn)檫@是在第一臺(tái)微處理器Intel 4004發(fā)明之前），所以我回去工作時(shí)獲得了計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)碩士學(xué)位。
從那以后，我有了一個(gè)成功的事業(yè)，有時(shí)設(shè)計(jì)硬件，有時(shí)設(shè)計(jì)軟件，或兩者兼而有之，就像我現(xiàn)在做的一樣。我74歲時(shí)仍在全職工作，沒(méi)有退休計(jì)劃。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處

Arun Srinivas
I’ve been thinking about this from the first day my people started advising me about my life and future. When I thought people were asking me what to become, they wanted to know where I will study, how much marks I wanted to get, how much I wanted to earn and own. Nothing else.
I followed the herd unintentionally. I scored average marks in 10th board exams. I took computer science because I was not good at drawing which the biology stream required, also I didn’t want to ba an accountant for no reason. Hence commerce stream also was rejected.
I sucked big time in computer science. I didn’t like programming at all. I struggled a lot with other subjects too. Hence with almost same average score in 12th board exams, I opted for Electronics to get away from Computer Science.
Somebody said I would be qualified to both join core industry and IT industry with a degree in Electronics.
I wasn’t interested in studying the core electronics subjects at all. I tried and motivated myself in different ways. I couldn’t help. Also I was in a one-sided love with a very beautiful girl. For a long time during my college days. That is how I wasted my college days.

從第一天起，我就開(kāi)始給我的生活和未來(lái)出謀獻(xiàn)策，我就一直在思考這個(gè)問(wèn)題。當(dāng)我想到人們問(wèn)我要成為什么樣的人時(shí)，他們卻想知道我將在哪里學(xué)習(xí)，我想考多少分，我想掙多少錢，擁有多少財(cái)產(chǎn)，其余什么問(wèn)題都沒(méi)有。
我非故意狀態(tài)下隨大流。我在第十年級(jí)的大學(xué)入學(xué)考試上取得了平均分。我選擇了計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)，因?yàn)槲也簧瞄L(zhǎng)繪制生物學(xué)所需的圖形，而且我也不想無(wú)緣無(wú)故地成為一名會(huì)計(jì)。因此，商業(yè)專業(yè)也被拒絕。
我在計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)方面學(xué)得很好。我一點(diǎn)都不喜歡編程。我在其他科目上也有很多困難。因此，在第十二屆委員會(huì)考試中，我的平均成績(jī)幾乎相同，我選擇了電子學(xué)來(lái)擺脫計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)。
有人說(shuō)我有資格加入核心產(chǎn)業(yè)和IT產(chǎn)業(yè)，并獲得電子學(xué)位。
我對(duì)學(xué)習(xí)電子學(xué)的核心課程一點(diǎn)也不感興趣。我以不同的方式嘗試和激勵(lì)自己，但就是沒(méi)辦法。我還和一個(gè)非常漂亮的女孩一見(jiàn)鐘情。在我上大學(xué)的時(shí)候有很長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間，我就是這樣浪費(fèi)我的大學(xué)時(shí)光的。

No guesses. I joined a not-so-known software company after my graduation. Yes, as a programmer. For more than 3.5 years now.
I’ve no idea what to do with my life. I google a lot, I read a lot for inspiration, all great stories of successful people, motivational movies, apps, what not, for the magical spark to strike me like in movies?
I even tried travelling to few places within my budget constraints.?
My mom expects me to join a well-known firm so that she can proudly say that her son works in a reputed firm.
All my relatives expect me to get married, have kids, and of course attend all their functions and events without fail. 100% attendance is mandatory there.
I just learnt that the more I wait for something to guide me magically to let me know what I wanted to do with my life, the more stagnant I become.
I’m just following a simple thing - try all the things I want to do. Every day.
I’m an introvert. Hence apart from my friends at school, college, neighborhood and office, I really didn’t make friends. Now I attend meetups, random events via meetup.com. Not that I did great but I tried.
I wanted to have a pet dog. I got a puppy. But I couldn’t continue having it for more than a week. I gave it to my friend.?

沒(méi)有猜測(cè)。畢業(yè)后我加入了一家不太知名的軟件公司。是的，作為一名程序員。已經(jīng)超過(guò)3.5年了。
我不知道我的生活該怎么辦。我在谷歌上搜索了很多，我讀了很多關(guān)于靈感的書，所有關(guān)于成功人士的偉大故事，勵(lì)志電影，應(yīng)用程序，等等，希冀就像電影里那樣，神奇的火花擊中我。
我甚至嘗試在預(yù)算有限的情況下去幾個(gè)地方旅游。
我媽媽希望我加入一家知名公司，這樣她就可以自豪地說(shuō)，她的兒子在一家知名公司工作。
我所有的親戚都希望我結(jié)婚生子，當(dāng)然也一定會(huì)參加他們所有的活動(dòng)。那是必須百分之百的出席。
我剛剛了解到，我越是等待有什么東西神奇地引導(dǎo)我，讓我知道我想做什么，我的生活就越停滯不前。
我只是在做一件簡(jiǎn)單的事情——嘗試我想做的所有事情—每一天都如此。
我是個(gè)內(nèi)向的人。因此，除了我在學(xué)校、大學(xué)、社區(qū)和辦公室的朋友外，我真的沒(méi)有交朋友。現(xiàn)在我參加聚會(huì)和隨機(jī)活動(dòng)。不是說(shuō)我做得很好，而是我努力了。
我想要一只寵物狗。我有一只小狗。但我堅(jiān)持不了一個(gè)星期以上。我把它給了我的朋友。

I tried my hand at painting as a hobby. Now I can draw few things. That’s it.
I tried exercising and gym work-outs. Now it has become my habit.
I tried to talk to few people at Quora.
I tried to learn new things technically. I was a PHP developer. Learnt few front end frxworks, Python, github, MEAN stack.
I try to write at least one answer a week on Quora. That’s a big achievement for me.
These are the things that I did. There’re few million things like this I want to do in my life.
I feel life is all about trying different things and feeling good about it.?

我試著把畫畫作為業(yè)余愛(ài)好?，F(xiàn)在我能畫的東西很少了，就是這樣。
我試著鍛煉和健身。現(xiàn)在這已經(jīng)成為我的習(xí)慣。
我試著和Quora上的幾個(gè)人交談。
我試著從技術(shù)上學(xué)習(xí)新東西。我是一名 個(gè)人網(wǎng)頁(yè)開(kāi)發(fā)人員。學(xué)習(xí)了一些前端框架，爬蟲，社交編程及代碼托管網(wǎng)站，最終棧。
我試著每周至少在Quora上寫一個(gè)答案。這對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)是一個(gè)巨大的成就。
這些就是我做的事情。我一生中想做的事情很少。
我覺(jué)得生活就是嘗試不同的事情，并且感覺(jué)良好。