你該如何面對艱難選擇演講稿

　　Think of a hard choice you'll face in the near future. It might be between two careers--artist and accountant--or places to live--the city or the country--or even between two people to marry--you could marry Betty or you could marry Lolita. Or it might be a choice about whether to have children, to have an ailing parent move in with you, to raise your child in a religion that your partner lives by but leaves you cold. Or whether to donate your life savings to charity.

　　設想在不久的未來，你將面對一個艱難的決定。這也許是在兩份職業中做出一個選擇，藝術家還是會計師;也許是選擇居住的地方，城市還是鄉村;也許是在兩個人中選擇和誰結婚，Betty 或者是Lolita;抑或思考是否要孩子;是否讓年老體衰的父母跟你一起住;是否讓你的孩子信奉你配偶信仰的宗教，即便你會因自身不信奉而被冷落;又或者說，是否將畢生積儲捐贈給慈善機構。

　　Chances are, the hard choice you thought of was something big, something momentous, something that matters to you. Hard choices seem to be occasions for agonizing, hand-wringing, the gnashing of teeth. But I think we've misunderstood hard choices and the role they play in our lives. Understanding hard choicesuncovers a hidden power each of us possesses.

　　有可能，你所思考的這些艱難抉擇都十分龐大，十分重要你也十分重視。每當困難的選擇出現，他都會讓你感到痛苦、絕望，讓你咬牙切齒。但我認為我們誤解了艱難抉擇的定義，更誤解了其在我們生活中扮演的角色。倘若能理解這些艱難決定，我們每個人便會發掘出 一種隱藏的潛力。

　　What makes a choice hard is the way the alternatives relate. In any easy choice, one alternative is better than the other. In a hard choice, one alternative is better in some ways, the other alternative is better in other ways, and neither is better than the other overall. You agonize over whether to stay in your current job in the city or uproot your life for more challenging work in the country, because staying is better in some ways,moving is better in others, and neither is better than the other overall.

　　一個抉擇之所以難是由于選項之間相互關聯。任何簡單的抉擇中，總有一種選擇比另一種要好。可在艱難抉擇中，一種選擇在某些方面較好，另一種選擇在其他方面較好，二者各有千秋讓人無法定奪。你痛苦地糾結于應該繼續呆在這座城市里干這份工作，還是改變一下你的生活方式到鄉村去接受更具挑戰性的工作，因為留下有留下的好處，離開也有好處，兩種選擇各有千秋難以定奪。

　　We shouldn't think that all hard choices are big. Let's say you're deciding what to have for breakfast. You could have high fiber bran cereal or a chocolate donut. Suppose what matters in the choice is tastiness and healthfulness. The cereal is better for you, the donut tastes way better, but neither is better than the other overall, a hard choice.

　　我們不應該認為所有的艱難抉擇都很龐大。打個比方，你正決定吃什么早餐。你可以吃高纖維全谷干麥片，或者吃巧克力甜甜圈。假設在此抉擇中的決定性因素是美味程度和健康程度。麥片對你身體好，甜甜圈卻好吃很多，但兩者都有自身優勢，這就是一個艱難抉擇。

　　Realizing that small choices can also be hard, may make big hard choices seem less intractable. After all, we manage to figure out what to have for breakfast, so maybe we can figure out whether to stay in the city or uproot for the new job in the country.

　　如果意識到小的選擇也可能會變得困難，那面對大的艱難抉擇時我們可能就不會覺得那么棘手了。畢竟，我們總能決定早餐吃什么，所以我們也許能夠想明白，究竟要留在市區，還是到鄉下接手新的工作。

　　We also shouldn't think that hard choices are hard because we are stupid. When I graduated from college, I couldn't decide between two careers, philosophy and law. I really loved philosophy. There are amazing things you can learn as a philosopher, and all from the comfort of an armchair. But I came from a modest immigrant family where my idea of luxury was having a pork tongue and jelly sandwich in my school lunchbox, so the thought of spending my whole life sitting around in armchairs just thinking ... Well, that struck me as the height of extravagance and frivolity.

　　同時，我們也不應該覺得，選擇之所以難是因為自己很愚蠢。在我剛大學畢業的時候，我無法從兩種職業中抉擇，哲學還是法律。我真心喜歡哲學，若能成為哲學家，便能學到很多驚奇的東西，而且舒舒服服地坐在椅子上就好。可我出生自一個樸實簡素的移民家庭，我對奢侈的概念，就是能在上學的午餐盒里找到一塊豬舌和一份果凍三明治。所以這種一輩子僅坐在椅子上思考的想法，其實，對我來說只是一種奢侈和輕浮的假象罷了。

　　So I got out my yellow pad, I drew a line down the middle, and I tried my best to think of the reasons for and against each alternative. I remember thinking to myself, if only I knew what my life in each career would be like. If only God or Netflix would send me a DVD of my two possible future careers, I'd be set. I'd compare them side by side, I'd see that one was better, and the choice would be easy.

　　所以我拿出自己黃色筆記本，在中間劃了一條線，然后竭盡所能地寫出每種選擇的利與弊。當時我就想：如果能知道選擇某種職業后我的人生會變成怎樣就好了。如果上帝或者網飛公司能送我一張DVD來向我描述這兩種充滿可能性的職業生涯，那我就能做出選擇了。我就能一一對比，看看哪種更好，這樣一來抉擇就簡單多了。

　　But I got no DVD, and because I couldn't figure out which was better, I did what many of us do in hard choices: I took the safest option. Fear of being an unemployed philosopher led me to become a lawyer, and as I discovered, lawyering didn't quite fit. It wasn't who I was.

　　但我沒有收到這種DVD，而且由于我實在想不出哪一種更優，我就和大多數人一樣：選擇了最安全的一項。成為失業哲學家的恐懼，驅使我成了一名律師。可后來我發現，當律師不大適合我，這不是真正的我。

　　So now I'm a philosopher, and I study hard choices, and I can tell you, that fear of the unknown, while a common motivational default in dealing with hard choices, rests on a misconception of them.

　　所以我現在是名哲學家，我鉆研艱難抉擇，我可以告訴大家，對未知產生恐懼是在進行困難抉擇時的自然反應，而這種恐懼來源于對艱難抉擇的誤解。