At the same time， for every person in the world who has access to this technology， five people don，t. That means many creative minds are left out of this discussion-smart people with practical intelligence and relevant experience who don，t have the technology to hone their talents or contribute their ideas to the world.
We need as many people as possible to have access to this technology， because these advances are triggering a revolution in what human beings can do for one another. They are making it possible not just for national governments， but for universities， corporations， smaller organizations， and even individuals to see problems， see approaches， and measure the impact of their efforts to address the hunger， poverty， and desperation George Marshall spoke of 60 years ago.
Members of the Harvard Family： Here in the Yard is one of the great collections of intellectual talent in the world.
In line with the promise of this age， I want to exhort each of the graduates here to take on an issue-a complex problem， a deep inequity， and become a specialist on it. If you make it the focus of your career， that would be phenomenal. But you don，t have to do that to make an impact. For a few hours every week， you can use the growing power of the Internet to get informed， find others with the same interests， see the barriers， and find ways to cut through them.
Don，t let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on the big inequities. It will be one of the great experiences of your lives.
And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now and reflect on what you have done with your talent and your energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone， but also on how well you have addressed the world，s deepest inequities … on how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.
Good luck.
我要感谢哈佛大学在这个时候给我这个荣誉。明年，我就要换工作了（注：指从微软公司退休）……我终于可以在简历上写我有一个本科学位，这真是不错呀。
我在哈佛最难忘的回忆之一，发生在1975年1月。那时，我从宿舍楼里给位于阿尔伯克基的一家公司打了一个电话，那家公司已经在着手制造世界上第一台个人电脑。我提出想向他们出售软件。
我很担心，他们会发觉我是一个住在宿舍的学生，从而挂断电话。但是他们却说：“我们还没准备好，一个月后你再来找我们吧。”这是个好消息，因为那时软件还根本没有写出来呢。就是从那个时候起，我日以继夜地在这个小小的课外项目上工作，这标志着我学生生活的结束，以及通往微软公司的不平凡旅程的开始。
不管怎样，我对哈佛的回忆主要都与充沛的精力和智力活动有关。哈佛的生活令人愉快，也备感压力，有时甚至会感到泄气，但永远充满了挑战性。生活在哈佛是一种吸引人的特殊待遇……虽然我离开得比较早，但是我在这里的经历、在这里结识的朋友、在这里形成的一些想法，永远地改变了我。
网络的神奇之处，不仅仅是它缩短了物理距离，使得天涯若比邻。它还极大地增加了怀有共同想法的人们聚集在一起的机会，我们可以为了解决同一个问题，一起共同工作。这就大大加快了革新的进程，发展速度简直快得让人震惊。
与此同时，世界上有条件上网的人，只是全部人口的六分之一。这意味着，还有许多具有创造性的人们，没有加入到我们的讨论中来。那些有着实际操作经验和相关经历的聪明人，却没有技术来帮助他们，将他们的天赋或者想法与全世界分享。
我们需要尽可能地让更多的人有机会使用新技术，因为这些新技术正在引发一场革命，人类将因此可以互相帮助。新技术正在创造一种可能，不仅是政府，还包括大学、公司、小机构，甚至个人，能够发现问题所在、能够找到解决办法、能够评估他们努力的效果，去改变那些马歇尔60年前就说到过的问题——饥饿、贫穷和绝望。
哈佛是一个大家庭。这个院子里在场的人们，是全世界最有智慧的人类群体之一。
同这个时代的期望一样，我也要向今天各位毕业的同学提出一个忠告：你们要选择一个问题，一个复杂的问题，一个有关于人类深刻的不平等的问题，然后你们要变成这个问题的专家。如果这个问题能成为你们职业的核心，那么你们就会非常杰出。但是，你们不必一定要去做那些大事。每个星期只用几个小时，你就可以通过互联网得到信息，找到志同道合的朋友，发现困难所在，找到解决它们的途径。
不要让这个世界的复杂性阻碍你前进。要成为一个行动主义者。将解决人类的不平等视为己任。它将成为你生命中最重要的经历之一。
我希望，30年后你们还会再回到哈佛，回想起你们用自己的天赋和能力所做出的一切。我希望，在那个时候，你们用来评价自己的标准，不仅仅是你们的专业成就，还包括你们为改变这个世界严重的不平等所做出的努力，以及你们如何善待那些远隔千山万水、与你们毫不牵涉的人们，你们与他们唯一的共同点就是同为人类。
最后，祝各位同学好运。
延伸阅读
比尔·盖茨， 1955年出生于美国华盛顿州西雅图，13岁开始计算机编程设计，18岁考入哈佛大学，一年后从哈佛退学，1975年与好友创办了微软公司，担任微软公司董事长、CEO和首席软件设计师。1995-2007年连续十三年成为《福布斯》全球富翁榜首富，连续二十年成为《福布斯》美国富翁榜首富。2000年，比尔·盖茨成立“比尔和梅琳达·盖茨基金会”。这是比尔·盖茨2008年在哈佛毕业典礼上的演讲。
exhilarate vt.使高兴，使兴奋； adj.使人高兴的，令人兴奋的
discourage vt.使气馁； 使沮丧； 阻碍； 劝阻
relevant adj.有关的，中肯的； 相关联的； 确切的
phenomenal adj.现象的； 显着的； 异常的； 能知觉的
No Shortcut to Success
成功无捷径
No one ever does anything alone. Great friendships make life fun and meaningful.
没有人是孤身一人打天下的，坚固的友谊让生活充满乐趣和意义。
We，re designing stuff， we look not necessarily just about what any given users going to experience but what，s going to be better for the whole community and the whole product. And I mean， it，s gonna be a lot of trade-off going all over the place in a product. Probably the most that you see every day is that you can，t see the profiles of people at other schools. That，s a really a major trade-off in the application.
For those of you who aren，t familiar with this， we spilt up the user base by what school they go to and we make it so that people at a given school can only see the profiles and contact information of people at their school. And the reason for this was mostly to， because we realized that the people around you， at your school， are the people who you want to look at mostly anyway. And if we made the space too broad and let anyone see your information. then that probably fine. I mean， look up some people， but you also probably won，t put up your cellphone.
More than a third of people on Facebook have their cellphone up there， and that，s something useful for the application. So in designing it， this was a trade-off that we made. I kind of thought of what was wrong. I said， well， what would be more useful？ Would it be better for people to be able to see everyone and maybe not feel like this is a secure environment in which they can share their interests and what they thought and what they care about？ Or would be better that more information and more expression was available， but to a smaller audience which is probably the relevant audience for any person？ So， there are a lot of decisions like that， that are getting made and a lot of them are gut level.
So I mean， we tried to be as academic about this possible in trying to think rigorously through the different results that we，ll get if we go to different directions. But a lot of it is just like you define your objectives， what you，re going for. In this case， to optimize for the best of the whole community and the whole user base and over the long term， and that，s important too， long term but short term. And then， you just kind of operate and do what you think will be best along that line.
当我们设计应用程序的时候，我们并不注重单一用户的使用体验，而更关注其是否有益于整个社区和产品。这就需要对再开发产品的各个环节进行取舍。可能你注意到你不能浏览其他学校的人的信息。这就是一种取舍后的结果。
你们有些人对此不太了解，我们将用户按照学校分类，所以只有来自相同学校的人才能互相看到对方的信息和联系方式。之所以这样做，是因为我们发现人们更乐于关注身边人的信息。如果我们把空间扩展到所有人都可以浏览你的信息，那可能也不错，谁你都找得到，但是可能你就不愿意把你的手机号放上去了。