比尔盖茨夫妇在2014年斯坦福大学毕业典礼励志演讲稿

第一篇：比尔盖茨夫妇在2014年斯坦福大学毕业典礼励志演讲稿

2014届毕业生，祝贺你们!能站在这里，梅琳达和我都很兴奋。每一个收到邀请，能够在斯坦福大学毕业典礼上讲话的人都会又紧张又兴奋——但我们尤其高兴。

长久以来，斯坦福都是最受微软和我们的基金会青睐的大学之一，而现在它正迅速得到我们家族的喜爱。我们的原则是让最聪明、最有创造力的人来解决最重要的问题。事实证明，有相当一部分这样的人都出自斯坦福。

现在，有30多个我们基金会投资的研究项目都在斯坦福开展。当我们想更好地了解免疫系统从而帮助治愈绝症时，我们与斯坦福开展了合作;当我们想了解美国高等教育状况的变化以便使更多来自低收入家庭的学生读得起大学时，我们又一次与斯坦福展开了合作。

这里天才汇聚，思想灵活——人们对变化持开放态度，对新鲜事物充满了渴望。人们在这里可以饶有兴味地一窥未来。

梅琳达：

有些人叫你们“呆子”——而你们则自豪地接受了这一绰号。

比尔·盖茨：

我们也是如此。

在这所斯坦福的校园里发生着许多非凡的事情。但如果非要梅琳达和我用一个词来说明我们对这里的热爱，那么这个词是“乐观”。在这里有一种极富感染力的氛围，即创新几乎可以解决一切问题。

正是在这种信念的激励下，我于1975年离开了这所位于波士顿郊区的学校，并从此一去不回头。我相信，计算机和软件的魔力能够使世界上所有的人都变得更强大，并使世界变得越来越美好。

自那时起已经过了将近40年，而梅琳达和我也已经结婚20年。如今我们比以往更加乐观。但在我们共同的旅程中，乐观精神是逐渐延续的。今天，我们希望将自己学到的传授给你们——并且告诉你们，我们大家的乐观精神将会如何为更多人做更多事。

在保罗·艾伦和我初创微软时，我们想让人们获得计算机和软件的力量——这是我们使用的一种比喻性说法。在这个领域中的一本开创性书籍的封面上有一只举起的拳头，书名叫做《计算机的解放》。在那时，只有大公司才能买得起计算机。我们想使普通人也也能买得起——并且使电脑操作普遍化。

到20世纪90年代，我们见证了个人计算机使人们获得的深远力量。但这种成功又带来了新的困境：如果富人家的孩子拥有了计算机，而穷人家的孩子无法拥有，那么技术反而会使不公平的状况加剧。这种状况违背了我们的核心信念——技术应当使所有人受益。因此我们致力于缩小这种“数字鸿沟”。我将它作为微软发展的重中之重，梅琳达和我将它作为基金会早期发展的重点——向公共图书馆捐献个人电脑并保证所有人都能使用。

在我1997年第一次造访非洲时，“数字鸿沟”是我关注的一个重点问题。我是因公务去的那里，因此大部分时间我都在约翰内斯堡的市中心开会。期间，我居住在南非最富的一户人家里。那时距纳尔逊·曼德拉被选举为南非总统从而标志着种族隔离的结束仅仅过去了三年时间。当我坐下来，与那户人家的主人们一起用餐时，他们就摇铃，将管家唤过来为他们服务。用餐结束后，男女宾客会分开，男士们聚在一起抽雪茄。那时我想，“还好我读过简·奥斯汀的书，否则根本弄不明白这是怎么回事”。

第二天我去了索维托，这是一个位于约翰内斯堡西南方向的贫穷小镇，这里曾经是一个反种族隔离运动的中心。

从市区到这个小镇只有很短一段距离，但进入小镇的那一刻我非常震惊，一切都是那么不和谐。我进入了一个与我的国家截然不同的世界。

索维托之行早早地就为我上了一课，让我明白了自己有多么天真。

微软向那里的一个社区中心捐赠了计算机和软件——这些事是我们在美国就曾做过的。但我很快明白过来，这里并不是美国。

我曾阅读过有关贫困的数据，但我从未真正见过贫穷。那里的人们住在皱巴巴的铁皮棚子里，里面不通电、不通水，也没有厕所。大多数人都不穿鞋，赤着脚走在街上——只不过那里也没有街——只有在泥土上轧出的一条条车辙。

社区中心没有接入稳定的电源，因此人们装配了一条长达200英尺的延长电缆，从外面的一个柴油发动机接入到社区中心。看着这堆装备，我知道，现场的记者们和我一离开，发电机就会被挪走，去解决其他更紧迫的问题，社区中心的使用者们也会回去，继续为生活的挑战而忧心忡忡，因为个人计算机并不能为他们解决这些挑战。

当我对媒体发表已经准备好的评论时，我说：“我们在索维托所做的是一个里程碑。以后我们就会知道，先进技术是否会将发展中国家抛在后面。我们所做的将会缩小发达国家与发展中国家的差距”。

读出这些句子时，我明白它们都是些不相干的话。我没有说出的是：“顺便提一下，我们并没有关注这样一个事实——这片大陆上每年有50万人死于疟疾。但是我们非常确定，将会为你们带去计算机”。

去索维托之前，我以为自己理解这世上的问题，但我却对那些最重要的问题视而不见。我所见到的让我大为吃惊，因此我必须问自己，“我还相信创新能够解决这世界上最棘手的那些问题吗”?

我对自己承诺，在返回非洲之前，我要找到更多导致人们贫穷的原因。

多年以来，梅琳达和我的确越来越多地了解了贫穷的人们最迫切的需求。后来有一次去南非时，我探访了一家治疗耐多药肺结核(MDR-TB)的医院，这种病的治愈率不足50%。

我记得那家医院，那里充斥着绝望。那里有着巨大而开阔的病房，许多病人穿着睡衣，戴着口罩，脚步沉重地走来走去。

医院里有一层是儿童病区，其中有一些仍在襁褓中的婴儿。这里有一个小小的学校，身体状况足够好的孩子可以在这里学习，但是许多孩子的病情都不见好转，院方似乎也不知道是否值得开着学校。

我与这里一位30出头的女病人聊了聊。在一家肺结核医院工作的时候，她开始咳嗽。然后她去看了医生，医生告诉她，她感染了抗药性肺结核。后来，她又被诊断出患有艾滋病。她的生命没有多少时间了，但还是有许多MDR患者等着在她腾出床位之后占据她的床。

那是一个地狱，那里的人们都在死亡名单上等候着。

但是面对地狱，我的乐观精神并没有减退，反而使我变得更加乐观。我上了车，对与我们共事的医生说：“是的，我知道MDR-TB很难治愈。但我们应该能为这些人做一些事”。我们在今年进入了一项新的肺结核药物疗法的第三阶段。根据参与疗法的病人的反馈，以前18个月的治疗费用为2000美元，治愈率只有 50%，而如今六个月的治疗费用在100美元以下，治愈率能达到80%到90%。失败率能降到百分之一就更好了。

人们经常会把乐观当作虚假的希望加以摒弃，但同样存在着虚假的绝望。

正是这种态度宣称，我们无法打败贫穷和疾病。

但我们一定可以。

梅琳达：比尔在参观完那个肺结核医院之后就给我打了电话。通常我们在旅行期间通话时，只是回顾一下一天中的行程：“这些是我今天做的事;这些是我今天去的地方;这些是我今天见的人”。但那天的电话很不一样。他说：“梅琳达，我去了一个以前从没去过的地方”，然后他哽咽得说不出话来。最后他只说了句：“回家后我会告诉你一切”。

我知道他都经历了些什么。看到生活在绝望中的人们，你也会心碎的。但要尽可能多地帮助他们的话，你就必须看到最坏的情况。那就是比尔在那天所做的，我同样经历过那样的日子。

十年前，我曾与朋友们一同到印度旅行。在离开印度的前一天，我抽出了一些时间见了几个性工作者。我本来希望跟她们谈一谈，她们可能会染上艾滋病，但她们却想说从事这一行业的耻辱。大多数女性都是因为被丈夫抛弃才开始做妓女的。她们要努力挣到足够的钱，才能养活孩子。在社会上的其他人看来，她们的地位非常卑微，因此任何人——包括警察——都可以抢劫、殴打甚至凌辱她们，而没有任何人关心她们。

与她们一起谈论生活对我的触动很大。但我印象最深的是，她们非常渴望与我接触，似乎肢体接触能够在某种程度上证明她们的价值。在我要走的时候，我们所有人胳膊挽在一起，照了一张像。

后来我又花了些时间拜访一个绝症患者之家。走进一个大厅，我看到了成排的简易床。每张床前都有人照料着，除了远离角落的一张床无人走近，因此我走了过去。这张床上躺着一个看上去三十多岁的女性。我到现在还记得她那悲伤的棕色大眼睛。她骨瘦如柴，快要死去了。她的肠胃里无法储存任何食物，因此人们只能让她躺到一张简易床上，在床的底部挖出一个洞，她可以通过这个洞将一切排泄到床下放着的一个便盆里。

从她的样子，以及她被单独放置在角落这一事实，我都能看出来，她得了艾滋病。染上艾滋病的耻辱是非常可怕的——特别是对于一个女性来说——她因此受到的惩罚就是被抛弃。

站在她的病床前，我忽然感到非常无助。我什么东西都不能给她。我知道自己救不了她，但也不想让她孤单。因此我在她旁边跪下来，伸出手去抚摸她，而她一感觉到我的手就抓住了它，再不放开。我们手拉着手坐在那儿，尽管知道她听不懂，但我还是说，“不要紧，不要紧，这不是你的错”。

我们在一起待了一会儿，然后她用手指向上指了指。过了一会儿我才明白过来，她想趁天还亮着的时候到屋顶上去，在外面坐着。我问一位工作人员这是否可以，但需要她照顾的病人正让她忙得团团转。她说，“她马上就要不行了，而我现在必须为病人们分药”。然后我又问了另一位工作人员，得到了同样的答案。天色渐渐变晚，太阳开始下山了，而我那天必须要离开，似乎没有人愿意带她到房顶上。

因此，最后我一下子抱起她——她骨瘦如柴，几乎就是一堆骨头——带她沿着楼梯走了上去。在屋顶上有几把塑料椅子，椅子很轻，一阵强风就能吹走。我把她放在其中一把椅子上，用另一把椅子支撑住她的腿，然后在她的腿上搭了一个毯子。

她面朝西坐在那儿，看着落日。我确保工作人员知道她在屋顶上，这样太阳落山之后他们就会来上来接她。然后我不得不离开了她。

但她从来没有离开过我。

面对这位女病人的死，我感到自己做得还差得很远。

但有时正是你无法帮助的人才真正激励着你。

我明白，那些早晨还跟我挽着胳膊的性工作者晚上可能就会成为我带到房顶上的那位女性——除非她们能找到一种方法，可以公然反抗生活中无处不在的耻辱。

在过去的10年时间里，我们的基金会已经帮助性工作者建立起了互助团体，这样她们就可以从彼此身上获得力量，大声呼吁安全的性行为，并要求顾客使用安全套。

她们勇敢的行为是HIV病毒没有在性工作者之间大规模传播的原因之一，许多研究也表明，这是艾滋病没有在印度爆发的一个主要原因。

当这些性工作者团结在一起阻止艾滋病传播时，一件出乎我们意料的大事发生了。他们建立的团体成为了一个包罗万象的平台。她们建立起了快速拨号网络以应对暴力袭击，凌辱并抢劫她们的警察及其他人再也无法逃脱制裁;她们还建立了鼓励储蓄的制度，他们使用金融服务，这帮助她们中的一些人开始创业并不再从事性服务。所有这些都是在社会眼中处于最底层的人做的。

对我来说，乐观主义并不是消极地期盼事情变好，而是一种相信我们能使事情变好的信念——无论见证了什么苦难，不论情况有多糟，只要不失去希望，只要不消极对待，我们都能帮助这些人们。

比尔·盖茨：

梅琳达和我描述了一些令人震惊的场景。但是为了说明乐观主义的力量，我们要举出最强大的一个例子。即使是在绝境中，乐观主义也能激发创新，从而带来消灭苦难的新工具。但如果从来没有真正见过处于苦难中的人们，那么你的乐观就无法帮助他们，你将永远无法改变他们的世界。

而这一点与我看到的却是相互矛盾的。

科技的世界推动着非凡的创新——而斯坦福就站在创新的中心，它创立起新公司、培养出摘得奖项的教授、制造出绝妙的软件和神奇的药物，教导出令人惊叹的学生们。对于人类能够为彼此做的，我们即将创造出令人兴奋的突破。这里的人们对于未来确实激动万分。

与此同时，如果你问美国人“未来是否会比过去更好”?大多数人会说：“不，我的孩子过的会比我差”。他们认为创新并不能使他们自己的或者孩子的世界变得更好。

那么谁是对的呢?

是声称创新将会带来新的可能并使世界变得更加美好的人呢，还是认为社会不公将加剧，机会将越来越少，而创新无力改变这一切的人?

在我看来悲观主义者是错的，但他们并不是疯子。如果技术创新完全由市场推动，如果我们没有将创新集中于解决主要的社会不公，那么那些令人惊叹的发明可能会使世界的两极分化更加严重。

在我看来悲观主义者是错的，但他们并不是疯子。如果技术创新完全由市场推动，如果我们没有将创新集中于解决主要的社会不公，那么那些令人惊叹的发明可能会使世界的两极分化更加严重。

我们将无法对公立学校改造升级，无法治愈疟疾，无法终结贫困，无法推动创新，从而使贫苦农民在气候巨变中也能种植食物。

如果乐观主义无法解决这些影响众多人类同胞的问题，那么在这种乐观中我们就需要更多地感同身受。如果二者相通，那么我们就能看到贫困、疾病与穷困的学校，就能用创新解决这些问题，然后使悲观主义者大吃一惊。

在索维托，我开始明白，如果要使所有人都重视乐观主义并且为全世界所有人都赋予力量，我们就必须关注那些最需要帮助的人的生活。如果只拥有乐观主义，而不能对他们的苦难感同身受，那么无论我们掌握了多少科学的奥秘，都无法真正地解决问题;我们只是在迷宫中做无用功而已。

我相信在座的大多数同学都比你们这个年纪时的我有着更广阔的世界观。在这方面你们会比我做得更好。如果全身心地投入到这一事业中，你们会令悲观主义者大吃一惊。我们迫不及待地想要看到这一情形。

梅琳达：

心碎之后，你对待乐观主义的态度就会改变。

在一次南亚之行中，我遇到了一个一贫如洗的母亲，她将自己的两个幼子带到我面前，请求我：“请您带他们走吧”。当我请求她的原谅，表示我不能这样做时，她说：“那就请带走一个孩子”。

在另一次去洛杉矶南部的旅行中，我与一队来自某个贫困社区的高中生攀谈了起来，一位年轻的女性问我：“您是否有时会觉得我们只是其他人的孩子，我们的父母逃避责任，因此我们是被遗弃的?”这些女性曾令我——现在仍然令我——心碎。如果我对自己承认：“我也可能是她们中的一个”，那么我就会加倍地同情她们。

在与旅行中遇到的母亲们交谈的过程中，我发现我们想为孩子做的是完全相同的，唯一的不同就是我们做到这些事的能力。

那么是什么造成了这种不同呢?

比尔与我曾在饭桌上跟我们的孩子讨论过这个问题。比尔工作时的努力程度超乎想象，为了成功他也有过冒险和牺牲。但是要取得成功还有一个必不可少的因素，那就是好运气——绝对的好运气。

你什么时候出生?你的父母是谁?你在哪里长大?这些东西任何人都无法争取到，我们只能接受它们。

如果去掉好运和特权，然后思考一下没有这些的话我们将何去何从，想象一个贫穷而体弱多病的人说“我也可能使是她们中的一个”可能会更容易一些。这就叫做感同身受，它能够打破隔阂，使乐观精神得到更广泛的传播。

因此，我们呼吁：离开斯坦福之后，请用你们的天赋、乐观和同情心使成千上万的其他人同样变得乐观，从而改变这个世界。

不必心急，因为你们还要创业，要支付账单，要恋爱，要结婚。现在这样就足够了。

但在你们的人生旅途中，倘若对自己没有规划的话，苦难会使你们心力交瘁。

如果这种状况真的发生了——它会发生的——那么别逃避，面对它便是。

改变就会在这一时刻发生。

祝贺你们毕业，祝你们好运。

第二篇：比尔盖茨夫妇2014斯坦福大学演讲稿

比尔盖茨夫妇斯坦福大学2014毕业会演讲 Stanford University.BILL GATES: Congratulations, class of 2014!(Cheers).Melinda and I are excited to be here.It would be a thrill for anyone to be invited to speak at a Stanford commencement, but it's especially gratifying for us.Stanford is rapidly becoming the favorite university for members of our family, and it's long been a favorite university for Microsoft and our foundation.Our formula has been to get the smartest, most creative people working on the most important problems.It turns out that a disproportionate number of those people are at Stanford.(Cheers).Right now, we have more than 30 foundation research projects underway here.When we want to learn more about the immune system to help cure the worst diseases, we work with Stanford.When we want to understand the changing landscape of higher education in the United States, so that more low-income students get college degrees, we work with Stanford.This is where genius lives.There's a flexibility of mind here, an openness to change, an eagerness for what's new.This is where people come to discover the future, and have fun doing it.MELINDA GATES: Now, some people call you all nerds and we hear that you claim that label with pride.(Cheers and Applause).BILL GATES: Well, so do we.(Cheers and Applause).BILL GATES: My normal glasses really aren't all that different.(Laughter).There are so many remarkable things going on here at this campus, but if Melinda and I had to put into one word what we love most about Stanford, it's the optimism.There's an infectious feeling here that innovation can solve almost every problem.That's the belief that drove me in 1975 to leave a college in the suburbs of Boston and go on an endless leave of absence.(Laughter).I believed that the magic of computers and software would empower people everywhere and make the world much, much better.It's been 40 years since then, and 20 years since Melinda and I were married.We are both more optimistic now than ever.But on our journey, our optimism evolved.We would like to tell you what we learned and talk to you today about how your optimism and ours can do more for more people.When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft, we wanted to bring the power of computers and software to the people, and that was the kind of rhetoric we used.One of the pioneering books in the field had a raised fist on the cover, and it was called “Computer Lib.” At that time, only big businesses could buy computers.We wanted to offer the same power to regular people and democratize computing.By the 1990s, we saw how profoundly personal computers could empower people, but that success created a new dilemma.If rich kids got computers and poor kids didn't, then technology would make inequality worse.That ran counter to our core belief.Technology should benefit everyone.So we worked to close the digital divide.I made it a priority at Microsoft, and Melinda and I made it an early priority at our Foundation.Donating personal computers to public libraries to make sure that everyone had access.The digital divide was a focus of mine in 1997, when I took my first trip to South Africa.I went there on business so I spent most of my time in meetings in downtown Johannesburg.I stayed in the home of one of the richest families in South Africa.It had only been three years since the election of Nelson Mandela marked the end of apartheid.When I sat down for dinner with my hosts, they used a bell to call the butler.After dinner, the women and men separated and the men smoked cigars.I thought, good thing I read Jane Austen, or I wouldn't have known what was going on.(Laughter).But the next day I went to Soweto, the poor township southwest of Johannesburg, that had been the center of the anti-apartheid movement.It was a short distance from the city into the township, but the entry was sudden, jarring and harsh.I passed into a world completely unlike the one I came from.My visit to Soweto became an early lesson in how naive I was.Microsoft was donating computers and software to a community center there.The kind of thing we did in the United States.But it became clear to me, very quickly, that this was not the United States.I had seen statistics on poverty, but I had never really seen poverty.The people there lived in corrugated tin shacks with no electricity, no water, no toilets.Most people didn't wear shoes.They walked barefoot along the streets, except there were no streets, just ruts in the mud.The community center had no consistent source of power.So they rigged up an extension cord that ran 200 feet from the center to the diesel generator outside.Looking at this setup, I knew the minute the reporters left, the generator would get moved to a more urgent task.And the people who used the community center would go back to worrying about challenges that couldn't be solved by a personal computer.When I gave my prepared remarks to the press, I said Soweto is a milestone.There are major decisions ahead about whether technology will leave the developing world behind.This is to close the gap.But as I read those words, I knew they weren't super relevant.What I didn't say was, by the way, we're not focused on the fact that half a million people on this continent are dying every year from malaria.But we are sure as hell going to bring you computers.Before I went to Soweto, I thought I understood the world's problems but I was blind to many of the most important ones.I was so taken aback by what I saw that I had to ask myself, did I still believe that innovation could solve the world's toughest problems? I promised myself that before I came back to Africa, I would find out more about what keeps people poor.Over the years, Melinda and I did learn more about the pressing needs of the poor.On a later trip to South Africa, I paid a visit to a hospital for patients with MDR-TB, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, a disease with a cure rate of under 50%.I remember that hospital as a place of despair.It was a giant open ward, with a sea of patients shuffling around in pajamas, wearing masks.There was one floor just for children, including some babies lying in bed.They had a little school for kids who were well enough to learn, but many of the children couldn't make it, and the hospital didn't seem to know whether it was worth it to keep the school open.I talked to a patient there in her early 30s.She had been a worker at a TB hospital when she came down with a cough.She went to a doctor and he told her said she had drug-resistant TB.She was later diagnosed with AIDS.She wasn't going to live much longer, but there were plenty of MDR patients waiting to take her bed when she vacated it.This was hell with a waiting list.But seeing this hell didn't reduce my optimism.It channeled it.I got into the car as I left and I told the doctor we were working with I know MDR-TB is hard to cure, but we must do something for these people.And, in fact, this year, we are entering phase three with the new TB drug regime for patients who respond, instead of a 50% cure rate after 18 months for $2,000, we get an 80% cure rate after six months for under $100.(Applause).Optimism is often dismissed as false hope.But there is also false hopelessness.That's the attitude that says we can't defeat poverty and disease.We absolutely can.MELINDA GATES: Bill called me that day after he visited the TB hospital and normally if one of us is on an international trip, we will go through our agenda for the day and who we met and where we have been.But this call was different.Bill said to me, Melinda, I have been somewhere that I have never been before.And then he choked up and he couldn't go on.And he finally just said, I will tell you more when I get home.And I knew what he was going through because when you see people with so little hope, it breaks your heart.But if you want to do the most, you have to go see the worst, and I've had days like that too.About ten years ago, I traveled with a group of friends to India.And on last day I was there, I had a meeting with a group of prostitutes and I expected to talk to them about the risk of AIDS that they were facing, but what they wanted to talk to me about was stigma.Many of these women had been abandoned by their husbands.That's why they even went into prostitution.They wanted to be able to feed their children.They were so low in the eyes of society that they could be raped and robbed and beaten by anyone, even the police, and nobody cared.Talking to them about their lives was so moving to me, but what I remember most was how much they wanted to be touched.They wanted to touch me and to be touched by them.It was if physical contact somehow proved their worth.And so before I left, we linked arms hand in hand and did a photo together.Later that same day, I spent some time in India in a home for the dying.I walked into a large hall and I saw rows and rows of cot and every cot was attended to except for one, that was far off in the corner.And so I decided to go over there.The patient who was in this room was a woman in her 30s.And I remember her eyes.She had these huge, brown, sorrowful eyes.She was emaciated and on the verge of death.Her intestines were not holding anything and so the workers had they put a pan under her bed, and cut a hole in the bottom of the bed and everything in her was just pouring out into that pan.And I could tell that she had AIDS.Both in the way she looked and the fact that she was off in this corner alone.The stigma of AIDS is vicious, especially for women.And the punishment is abandonment.When I arrived at her cot, I suddenly felt completely and totally helpless.I had absolutely nothing I could offer this woman.I knew I couldn't save her.But I didn't want her to be alone.So I knelt down with her and I put my hand out and she reached for my hand and grabbed it and she wouldn't let it go.I didn't speak her language and I couldn't think of what I should say to her.And finally I just said to her, it's going to be okay.It's going to be okay.It's not your fault.And after I had been with her for sometime, she started pointing to the roof top.She clearly wanted to go up and I realized the sun was going down and what she wanted to do was go up on the roof top and see the sunset.So the workers in this home for the dying were very busy and I said to them, you know, can we take her up on the roof top? No.No.We have to pass out medicines.So I waited that for that to happen and I asked another worker and they said, No no no, we are too busy.We can't get her up there.And so finally I just scooped this woman up in my arms.She was nothing more than skin over bones and I took her up on the roof top, and I found one of those plastic chairs that blows over in a light breeze.I put her there, sat her down, put a blanket over her legs and she sat there facing to the west, watching the sunset.The workers knew--I made sure they knew that she was up there so that they would bring her down later that evening after the sun went down and then I had to leave.But she never left me.I felt completely and totally inadequate in the face of this woman's death.But sometimes, it's the people that you can't help that inspire you the most.I knew that those sex workers I had met in the morning could be the woman that I carried upstairs later that evening.Unless Also we found a way to defy the stigma that hung over their lives.Over the past ten years, our Foundation has helped sex workers build support groups so they could empower one another to speak up and demand safe sex and that their clients use condoms.Their brave efforts have helped to keep HIV prevalence low among sex workers and a lot of studies show that's the big reason why the AIDS epidemic has not exploded in India.When these sex workers gathered together to help stop AIDS transmission, something unexpected and wonderful happened.The community they formed became a platform for everything.Police and others who raped and robbed them couldn't get away with it anymore.The women set up systems to encourage savings for one another and with those savings, they were able to leave sex work.This was all done by people that society considered the lowest of the low.Optimism, for me, is not a passive expectation that things are going to get better.For me, it's a conviction and a belief that we can make things better.So no matter how much suffering we see, no matter how bad it is, we can help people if we don't lose hope help and if we don't look away.(Applause).BILL GATES: Melinda and I have described some devastating scenes, but we want to make the strongest case we can for the power of optimism.Even in dire situations, optimism fuels innovation and leads to new approaches that eliminate suffering.But if you never really see the people that are suffering, your optimism can't help them.You will never change their world.And that brings me to what I see is a paradox.The modern world is an incredible source of innovation and Stanford stands at the center of that, creating new companies, new schools of thought, prize-winning professors, inspired art and literature, miracle drugs, and amazing graduates.Whether you are a scientist with a new discovery, or working in the trenches to understand the needs of the most marginalized, you are advancing amazing breakthroughs in what human beings can do for each other.At the same time, if you ask people across the United States is the future going to be better than the past, most say no.My kids will be worse off than I am.They think innovation won't make the world better for them or their children.So who is right? The people who say innovation will create new possibilities and make the world better? Or the people who see a trend toward inequality and a decline in opportunity and don't think innovation will change that? The pessimists are wrong, in my view.But they are not crazy.If innovation is purely market driven, and we don't focus on the big inequities, then we could have amazing advances and in inventions that leave the world even more divided.We won't improve cure public schools, we won't cure malaria, we won't end poverty.We won't develop the innovations poor farmers need to grow food in a changing climate.If our optimism doesn't address the problems that affect so many of our fellow human beings, then our optimism needs more empathy.If empathy channels our optimism, we will see the poverty and the disease and the poor schools.We will answer with our innovations and we will surprise the pessimists.Over the next generation, you, Stanford graduates, will lead a new wave of innovation.Which problems will you decide to solve? If your world is wide, you can create the future we all want.If your world is narrow, you may create the future the pessimists fear.I started learning in Soweto, that if we are going to make our optimism matter to everyone, and empower people everyone, we have to see the lives of those most in need.If we have optimism, without empathy, then it doesn't matter how much we master the secrets of science.We are not really solving problems.We are just working on puzzles.I think most of you have a broader world view than I had at your age.You can do better at this than I did.If you put your hearts and minds to it, you can surprise the pessimists.We are eager to see it.(Applause).MELINDA GATES: So let your heart break.It will change what you do with your optimism.On a trip to south Asia, I met a desperately poor Indian woman.She had two children and she begged me to take them home with me.And when I begged her for her forgiveness she said, well then, please, just take one of them.On another trip to south Los Angeles, I met with a group of the students from a tough neighborhood.A young girl said to me, do you ever feel like we are the kids' whose parents shirked their responsibilities and we are just the leftovers? These women broke my heart.And they still do.And the empathy intensifies if I admit to myself, that could be me.When I talk with the mothers I meet during my travels, there's no difference between what we want for our children.The only difference is our ability to provide it to our children.So what accounts for that difference? Bill and I talk about this with our own kids around the dinner table.Bill worked incredibly hard and he took risks and he made sacrifices for success.But there's another essential ingredient of success, and that is luck.Absolute and total luck.When were you born? Who are your parents? Where did you grow up? None of us earn these things.These things were given to us.So when we strip away all of our luck and our privilege and we consider where we would be without them, it becomes someone much easier to see someone who is poor and say, that could be me.And that's empathy.Empathy tears down barriers and it opens up whole new frontiers for optimism.So here is our appeal to you all.As you leave Stanford, take all your genius and your optimism and your empathy, and go change the world in ways that will make millions of people optimistic.You don't have to rush.You have careers to launch and debts to pay and spouses to meet and marry.That's plenty enough for right now.But in the course of your lives, perhaps without any plan on your part, you will see suffering that's going to break your heart.And when it happens, don't turn away from it.That's the moment that change is born.Congratulations and good luck to the class of 2014!

第三篇：比尔盖茨夫妇斯坦福大学2014年毕业典礼演讲

Stanford Stanford University 斯坦福大学

Bill and Melinda Gates 比尔盖茨夫妇 Bill：Congratulations, class of 2014!祝贺2014届毕业生！

Melinda and I are excited to be here.我和梅琳达很高兴能来到这里。

It would be a thrill for anyone to be invited to speak at a Stanford commencement, but it’s especially gratifying for us.能受邀到斯坦福做毕业演讲对于任何人来说都是一件令人激动的事情, 我们尤是如此。Stanford is rapidly becoming the favorite university for members of our family, and it’s long been a favorite university for Microsoft and our foundation.斯坦福正迅速成为我们家人最喜欢的一所大学，它也一直是微软以及我们基金会最偏爱的一所大学。

Our formula has been to get the smartest, most creative people working on the most important problems.我们喜欢招募最聪明最有创造性的人去解决最重要的问题。

It turns out that a disproportionate number of thost people are at Stanford.事实证明，我们这里很大一部分人都来自于斯坦福。

Right now, we have more than 30 foundation research projects underway here.现在这里有30多个基金会研究项目正在进行。

When we want to learn more about the immune system to help cure the worst diseases we work with Stanford.当我们想更深入理解免疫系统帮助治疗最严重的疾病时，我们找到斯坦福一同合作。

When we want to understand the changing landscape of higher education in the United States, so that more low-income students get college degrees, we work with Stanford.当我们想了解美国高等教育现状的改变趋势,帮助更多低收入家庭的学生获得大学学位时，我们找到斯坦福一同合作。This is where genius lives.斯坦福是一个盛产天才的地方。

There’s a flexibility of mind here, and openness to change, an eagerness for what’s new.这里的思想充满了灵活性，开放性和创新性。

This is where people come to discover the future, and have fun doing it.斯坦福是促进人类探索未来并乐在其中的地方。

Melinda: Now, some people call you all nerds and we hear that you claim that label with pride.有些人把你们称作“书呆子”，听说你们很喜欢这个称谓。

Bill: Well, so do we.我们也喜欢。

夫妇同时戴眼镜

My normal glasses really aren’t all that different.Laughing。台下大笑。我平时用的眼睛其实也没有多大不同。

There are so many remarkable things going on here at this campus, but if Melinda and I had go put into one word what we love most about Stanford, it’s the optimism.这所学校里发生了很多了不起的事情。如果要我和梅琳达用一个词来总结对斯坦福的热爱，我们会说是“乐观”。

There’s an infectious feeling here that innovation can solve almost every problem.这里有着浓郁的氛围，让人觉得创新能够解决所有问题。

That’s the belief that drove me in 1975 to leave a college in the suburbs of Boston and go on endless leave of absence.也正是这种信念让我在1975年离开波士顿郊外的那所大学，从此一去不复返。

I believed that magic of computers and software would empower people everywhere and make the world much, much better.我相信，神奇的计算机和软件能够让全世界所有人获得力量，让世界变得比现在好很多很多。It’s been 40 years since then, and 20 years since Melinda and I were married.从那时到现在已经过40年，我和梅琳达结婚也已经20年了。We are both more optimistic now and ever.我们仍然坚持着这份乐观，甚至更甚于当年。But on our journey, our optimism evolved.随着人生旅途的展开，这份乐观也随之深化。

We would like to tell you what we learned and talk to you today about how your optimism and ours can do more for more people..今天，我们愿与大家分享自己的经历，告诉大家你们的乐观也可以和我们一样为更多的人做到更多。

When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft, we wanted to bring the power of the computers and software to the people, and that was the kind of rhetoric we used.我和保罗`艾伦开创微软时，希望让计算机和软件的力量造福全人类，这也正是我们所想传达的理念。

One of the pioneering book in the field had raised fist on the cover, and it was called “Computer Lib.”

领域内的一本先驱性的书籍封面上举起拳头，将这称作是“计算机解放运动”。At that time, only big businesses could buy computers.当时，只有大公司才买得起计算机。

We wanted to offer the same power to regular people, and democratize computing.我们希望让普通人也能使用这份力量，让计算机能够民众化 普及化。

By the 1990s, we saw how profoundly personal computers could empower people, but that success created a new dilemma.到1990年代，我们都见证了个人计算机为人类做出的巨大贡献，但这份成功同时又引来了新的困境。

If rich kids got computers and poor kids didn’t, then technology would make inequality worse.如果富有孩子有电脑用，而穷孩子没有，那么技术的天平将变得更加不平等。That ran counter to our core belief.这将同我们的核心新年背道而驰。Technology should benefit everyone.技术应当让每个人收益。

So we worked to close the digital divide.于是我们开始行动，试图缩小这一数字鸿沟。

I made a priority at Microsoft, and Melinda and I made it an early priority at our Foundation.我原来在微软以及我和梅琳达在盖茨基金会早期都确立了。

Donating personal computers to public libraries to make sure that everyone had access.向公共图书馆捐赠个人计算机这一优先事务以帮助每个人获得计算机使用权。The digital divide was a focus of mine in 1997, when I took my first trip to South Africa.1997年这意数字鸿沟是我的主要关注焦点，当时我是第一次去南非。I went there on business.我是出公差。

So I spent most of my time in meetings in downtown Johannesburg.大多数时间都在于汉内斯堡中心城区开会。

I stayed in the home of one of the richest families of South Africa.住在南非国内非常有线的一位富豪家里。

It had only been three years since the election of Nelson Mandela marked the end of apartheid.当时离纳尔逊·曼德拉当选只有三年时间，种族隔离刚刚终结。

When I sat down for dinner with my hosts, they used a bell to call the butler.我同屋子的主任坐在一起用餐，主人眼红铃来呼唤仆人。

After dinner, the women and men separated and the men smoked cigars.餐后女人们会和男人们分开，男人们会抽雪茄。

I thought, good thing I read Jane Austen, or I wouldn’t have known what was going on.我心想，幸好我读过简·奥斯汀的作品，否则我估计根本无法理解这里发生了什么。

But the next day I went to Soweto, the poor town just southwest of Johannesburg, that had been the center of the antiapartheid movement.第二天我去了索韦托，于汉内斯堡西南面一个很贫穷的城镇，曾经反种族运动的中心。It was a short distance from the city into the township, but the entry was sudden, jarring and harsh.这座城镇离约翰内斯堡主城区并不远，但进入索韦托后，我立刻感受到了强烈的视觉冲击。I passed into a world completely unlike the one I came from.它和我之前看到的完全是两个世界。

My visit to Soweto became an early lesson in how naïve I was.到索韦托后我才刚开始意识到原来自己有多么天真。

Microsoft was donating computers and software to a community center there.微软当时将计算机和软件捐给当地的社区中心。The kind of thing we did in the United States.这同我们在美国所做的一样。

But it became clear to me, very quickly, that this was not the United States.但我很快意识到南非并不是美国。

I had seen statistics on poverty, but I had never really seen poverty.我之前看过关于贫困的统计数字，但却从来没真正看过什么叫贫穷。

The people there lived in corrugated tin shacks, with on electricity, no water, no toilets.当地人住在简陋的金属棚里，没有电没有水 没有厕所。Most people didn’t wear shoes.大多数人连鞋都没有穿的。

They walked barefoot along the streets, except there were no streets, just ruts in the mud.他们赤脚在街上走，其实那里根本就没有街，不过只有一些泥巴路。The community center had no consistent source of power.社区中心连持续的电力供应都没有。

So they rigged up an extension cord that ran 200 feet from the center to the diesel generator

outside.人们只能临时拉了一根200英尺长的延长线，让社区中心能够街上外面的柴油机发电机。Looking at this setup, I knew the minute the reporters left, the generator would get to a more urgent task.看到这种情形，我知道一旦记者离开发电机就会被用到更紧急的任务。

And the people at the community center would go back to worry about challenges that couldn’t be solved by a personal computer.而社区中心的人们也需要重新去面对那些不是个人计算机就能解决的问题。When I gave my prepared remarks to the press, I said Soweto is a milestone.我按照事先准备的讲稿，对媒体说索韦托是一个里程碑。

There’s major decisions ahead about whether technology will leave the developing world behind.在未来，为了不让发展中国家在技术上落后显然还有很多重大决定要做。This is to close the gap.我们将像这样，努力缩小技术上的鸿沟。

But as I read those words, I knew they weren’t super relevant.但在我阅读这份讲稿时，我深知情况远远没有这么简单。

What I didn’t say was, by the way, we’re not focused on the fact that half a million people on this continent are dying every year from malaria.讲稿上有一段我没有读，也就是我们还没开始关注这块大陆上，每年有大约五十万人死于疟疾这一事实。

But we are sure as hell going to bring you computers.但我们至少能够给大家带来计算机。

Before I went to Soweto, I thought I understood the world’s problems but I was blind to many of the most important ones.在我去索韦托之前，我以为我了解世界的问题，事实上我对很多问题都一无所知。

I was so taken aback by what I saw that I had to ask myself, did I still believe that innovation could solve the world’s toughest problems? 亲眼所见的情形让我非常惊讶，我不得不问自己我还相信创新能够解决世界上最困难的问题吗？

I promised myself that before I came back to Africa, I would find out more about what keeps people poor.我许下承若要在下次回到非洲之前，更了解到底是什么导致了人们的持续贫穷。Over the years, Melinda and I did learn more about the pressing needs of the poor.这些年来，我和梅琳达确实更了解穷人的急切需求。

On a later trip to South Africa, I paid a visit to a hospital for patients with MDR-TB, multidrug resistant tuberculosis, a disease with a cure rate of under 59%.在之后一次去南非的过程中，我造访了一家治疗MDR-TB病人的医院，MDR-TB也就是多耐药肺结核，这种疾病的治愈率低于50%。I remember that hospital as a place of despair.我还记得那所医院是一个充满绝望的地方。

It was a giant open ward, with a sea of patients shuffling around in pajamas, wearing masks.一个开放式的巨大病房中，到处都是身着病服和口罩，驮着沉重步伐走动的病人。There was one floor just for children, including some babies lying in bed.有一层楼专门容纳儿童病人，包括刚出生不久的婴儿。

They had a little school for kids who were well enough to learn, but many of the children couldn’t make it, and the hospital didn’t seem to know whether it was worth it to keep the school open.这里还有一所小型学校，为身体条件足够好的孩子们准备，但很多孩子都没好转到能够上学，医院不知道开这么一所学校是否值得。I talked to a patient there in her early 30s.我同以为三十岁出头的年轻女患者谈了谈。

She had been a worker at a TB hospital when she came down with a cough.她之前在一家结合并医院当护工，结果自己也开始咳嗽。She went to a doctor and said she had drug-resistant TB.她去看医生，医生说她得了耐药性结核病。She was later diagnosed with AIDS.之后她又被确诊患有艾滋病。

She wasn’t going to live much longer.But there were plenty of MDR patients, waiting to take her bed when she vacated it.她估计活不了多久，但还有很多肺结核患者等待这她死后腾出的病床。This was hell with a waiting list.这是一个排队等待死亡的地狱。

But seeing this hell didn’t reduce my optimism.It channeled it.看到这个地狱并没有挫败我的乐观态度。而是为我指引了方向。

I got into the car as I left and I told the doctor we were working with, I know MDR-TB is hard to cure, but we must do something for these people.离开的时候，我钻进车里告诉与我们共事的医生，我知道MDR-TB很难治愈，但我们必须为这些人们做点什么。

And, in fact, this year, we are entering phase three with the new TB drug regime for patients who respond, instead of a 50% cure rate after 18 months for $2000, we get an 80% cure rate after six months under $100.实际上，就在今年，我们进入了一种新结核药的第三阶段，对于响应的患者，情况不再是2000美元价格，治疗18个月治愈率50%，而是不到100美元的价格，治疗6个月治愈率80%。

Optimism is often dismissed as false hope.But there is also false hopelessness.乐观经常会由于错误的希望而消散。但错误的绝望同样存在。

That’s the attitude that says we can’t defeat poverty and disease.We absolutely can.这种态度总在告诉我们，我们无法打败贫穷和疾病。实际上我们肯定能打败。

Melinda: Bill called me that day after he visited the TB hospital and normally if one of us is on an international trip, we will go through our agenda for the day and who we met and where we have been.那天造访结合医院后，比尔打电话给我，如果我们俩有人要到国外出差，一般情况下，我们都会对去哪以及见谁有一个计划。

But this call was different.Bill said to me, Melinda, I have been somewhere that I have never been before.但这通电话很特别。比尔跟我说，梅琳达我去了一个从没去过的地方。And then he coked up and he couldn’t go on.然后他有些哽咽有些话说不出来。

And he finally just said, I will tell you more when I get home.最后他说等我回来以后再跟你仔细讲。

And I knew what he was going through because when you see people with so little hope, it breaks your heart.我能了解他正经受着什么，当你看到有人如此缺乏希望时，你会感到心碎。

But if you want to do the most, you have to go see the worst, and I’ve had days like that too.但要想做得最多，你必须看到最糟的真相。我也有过这样的经历。

About ten years ago, I traveled with a group of friends to India.On last day I was there, I had a meeting with a group of prostitutes, and I expected to talk to them about the risk of AIDS that they were facing, but what they wanted to talk to me about was stigma.大约十年前我和一帮朋友去了印度。待在那里的最后一天我见了一群妓女，跟她们讨论她们所面临的艾滋病威胁，但她们想跟我讲的确实污名。Many of these women had been abandoned by their husbands.她们很多人都被丈夫抛弃了。

That’s why they even went into prostitution.不得已靠卖身为生。

They wanted to be able to feed their children.她们必须想办法养活自己的孩子。

They were so low in the eyes of society that they could be raped and robbed and beaten by anyone, even the police, and nobody cared.她们在社会的眼中如此卑贱以至于任何人甚至警察都可以随意强奸抢劫和殴打她们，但却没人关心。

Talking to them about their lives was so moving to me, but what I remember most was how much they wanted to be touched.同她们的对话让我动容，我印象最深刻的是她们很希望同人接触。They wanted to touch me and to be touched by them.她们希望接触我也希望我接触她们。

It was if physical contact somehow proved their worth.似乎只有通过这种身体接触，她们才能体会到自己的存在价值。

And so before I left, we linked arms hand in hand and did a photo together.于是我在离开之前，同她们手拉手照了合影。

Later that same day, I spent some time in India in a home for the dying.还是那一天，我后来又去了一所垂死之家。

I walked into a large hall and I saw rows and rows of cots, and every cot was attended to except for one, that was far off in the corner.And so I decided to go over there.我走过大厅看到一排排病床，每张病床都有人照料，除了角落里的那张略显孤独。于是我决定过去看看。

The patient who was in this room was a woman in her 30s.And I remember her eyes.床上是以为三十多岁的女性。我深深记得她的眼睛。

She had these huge, brown, sorrowful eyes.She was emaciated and on the verge of death and her intestines were not holding anything and so the workers had put a pan under her bed, cut a hole in bottom of the bed, and everything in her was just pouring out into that pan.她有一对充满悲伤的棕色大眼睛。她很消瘦离死亡已不遥远，她的肚子里已经无法容纳任何东西，义工们不得不将床板切一个洞，并将盆子放到床下，她体内的一切就这样倾泻到盆子里。

I could tell that she had AIDS.Both in the way she looked and the fact that she was off in this corner alone.我可以看出她患有艾滋病。她有一些症状而且被安排在这个孤独的角落更说明了这一点。The stigma of AIDS is vicious, especially for women.And the punishment is abandonment.艾滋病的污名是恶劣的，特别是对于女性。而惩罚便是被抛弃。When I arrived at her cot, I suddenly felt completely and totally helpless.我到了她的病床前，我感到的是完全的无助。

I had absolutely nothing I could offer this woman.I knew I couldn’t save her.But I didn’t want her to be alone.我没有什么能给这位女性的。我没办法挽救她的生命。但我不认看到她那么孤独。

So I knelt down with her and put my hand out..She reached for my hand and grasped it and she wouldn’t let it go.于是跪在她身旁，把手伸给他。她抓住我的手久久不愿放开。

I didn’t speak her language.And I couldn’t think of what I should say to her.我不会讲她的语言，我也不知道该对她说什么。And finally I just said to her, it’s going to be okay.最后我只能说 没事的。

It’s going to be okay.It’s not your fault.没事的，这不是你的错。

And after I had been with her for sometime, she started pointing to the roof top.She clearly wanted to go up and I realized the sun was going down and what she wanted to do was so up on the roof and see the sunset.我同他相处了一段时间，她指向屋顶。她显然是想上去，我意识到太阳就快下山。她肯定是想到屋顶看日落。

The workers in this home for the dying were very busy.I said to them can we take her up on the roof top? And they said, “No.No.We have to pass out medicines.”

垂死之家的义工都非常忙碌。我们她们能否帮忙把她抬上屋顶？她们说：“不行，我们还需要非法药物。”

I waited that for that to happen and I asked another worker and they said “No no no, we are too busy.We can’t get her up there.”

我等着她们做完我又问了另一个义工“不行不行，我们太忙了，没时间把她抬上去。” And so finally, I just scooped this woman up in my arms.最后我只能自己将这位女性用手搂起。

She was nothing more than skin over bones and I took her up on the roof top and I found one of those plastic chairs that blows over in the light breeze.I put her there and sat her down, and put a blanket over her legs and she sat there facing to the west, watching the sunset.她几乎痩的只剩皮包骨头了，我将她搀扶到屋顶，找了一张被人遗忘的在微风中的塑料椅子，让她坐在椅子上，用毛毯盖上她的双腿，她坐在那里，面朝西方，静静的看着日落。

The workers knew—I made sure they knew that she was up there so that they would bring her down after later that evening after the sun went down and then I had to leave.我告诉义工们她在上面，让她们晚上日落后把她搬下来，然后我不得不离开。But she never left me.但对她的记忆却在心中挥之不去。

I felt completely and totally inadequate in the face of this woman’s death.听到这位女性死去的消息我觉得自己完全没有做好心理准备。

But sometimes, it’s the people that you can’t help that inspire you the most.有时正是那些你帮不了的人对你心灵的震撼最大。

I knew that those sex worker I had met in the morning could be the woman that I carried upstairs later that evening, unless we found a way to defy the stigma that hung over their lives.我知道白天我碰到的那些性工作者，以后很有可能就会变成那天晚上我扶上楼的那位女性，除非我们能够找到办法，为她们洗脱身上无法摆脱的污名。

Over the past ten years, our Foundation has helped sex workers build support groups so they could empower one another to speak up and demand safe sex and that their clients use condoms.过去十年来 我们基金会帮助性工作者建立起很多支持小组 让他们有能力互相鼓励发出声音 要求安全的性交易 要求客人使用安全套。

Their brave efforts have helped to keep HIV prevalence low among sex workers and a lot of studies show that’s the big reason why the AIDS epidemic has not exploded in India.她们的努力让性工作者的艾滋病发病率保持较低水平，很多研究显示这也正是艾滋病没有在印度大范围暴发的重要原因。

When these sex workers gather together to help stop AIDS transmission, something unexpected and wonderful happened.性工作者们聚在一起帮助阻止艾滋病传播的同时，又发生了一件令人意想不到的奇妙事情。The community they formed became a platform for everything.她们组成的群体为自身权益的伸张筑起了平台。

Police and others who raped and robbed them couldn’t get away with it anymore.强奸 抢劫她们的警察和其他人不能再逍遥法外。

The women set up systems to encourage savings for one another and with those savings, they were able to leave sex work.这些女性组织起了一个鼓励大家存钱的体系，通过这些存款 不少人得以脱离性工作。This was all done by people that society considered the lowest of the low.这些都是被社会认为最下等的人们所做的。

Optimism, for me, is not a passive expectation that things are going to get better.乐观在我看来，并不是一种认为未来会变美好的被动期望。For me, it’s a conviction and a belief that we can make things better.而是一种信念 相信我们能用自己的双手让未来变的更好。

So no matter how much suffering we see, no matter how bad it is, we can help people if we don’t lose hope and if we don’t look away.无论我们遭受了多少苦难 无论境况有多糟糕，只要不丧失希望 不假装没看见我们就能帮助这些人。

Bill: Melinda and I have described some devastating scenes, but we want to make the strongest case we can for the power of optimism.我和梅琳达都讲述了灾难性的情景，但我们愿意以最好的期许 相信乐观的力量。

Even in dire situations, optimism fuels innovation and leads to new approaches that eliminate suffering.越是在极端恶劣的情形下，乐观越能激发出创新 为消除苦难找出新的方法。But if you never really see the people who are suffering, your optimism can’t help them.但如果你没亲眼见过遭受苦难的人们，你的乐观将帮不到她们。You will never change their world.你也永远无法改变他们的世界。

And that brings me to what I see is a paradox.这在我看来是一个巨大的悖论。

The modern world is an incredible source of innovation and Stanford stands at the center of that, creating new companies, new schools of thought, prize-winning professors, inspired art and literature, miracle drugs, and amazing graduates.现代世界是一个无可比拟的创新之源，斯坦福则位于这一切的中心，创立起新公司和新的思想学派，充满获奖教授，启迪指示和智慧，研发出神奇药物，培养出了不起的毕业生。Whether you are a scientist with a new discovery, or working in the trenches to understand the needs of the most marginalized, you are advancing amazing breakthroughs in what human beings can do for each other.无论你是得到新发现的科学家，还是奋战于满足边缘人群需求最前线的人，你都是在推动人类相互帮助上的伟大突破。

At the same time, if you ask people across the United States is the future going to be better than the past, most say no.My kids will be worse off than I am.同时在美国范围内如果你问人们未来会比过去号码，大多数人说不会。我的子孙会比我过的糟糕。

They think innovation won’t make the world better for them or their children.他们认为创新不会让她们及子孙的世界变得更好。So who is right? 到底谁对呢？

The people who say innovation will create new possibilities and make the world better? Or the people who see a trend toward inequality and a decline in opportunity and don’t think innovation will change that? 是那些声称创新能够创造新机遇并让世界变得更好的人，还是那些认为不平等会加重，机会会减少，不认为创新能够改变这些趋势的人？

The pessimists are wrong, in my view.But they are not crazy.在我看来，悲观主义者是错误的。但她们的想法并不疯狂。

If innovation is purely market driven, and we don’t focus on the big inequalities, then we could have amazing advances in inventions that leave the world even more divided.如果创新纯粹是市场驱使的，没人关心不平等的加剧，那么世界就算有再多美妙发明也是白搭，只能让世界分化越发严重。

We won’t improve public schools.We won’t end malaria.We won’t end poverty.We won’t develop the innovations poor farmers need to grow food in a changing climate.我们将无法改善公立学校条件，我们将无法根除疟疾，我们将无法根除贫穷。我们将无法开发出贫苦农民所需的创新，让她们能在变化的气候条件下种出作物。

If our optimism doesn’t address the problems that affect so many of our fellow human beings, then our optimism needs more empathy.If empathy channels our optimism, we will see the poverty and the disease and the poor schools.如果我们的乐观不能解决这些问题，不能帮助很多需要帮助的同胞，那么这种乐观就需要更多同情心。如果同情心能够引导我们的乐观，我们就肯定能看到贫困，疾病和糟糕的教育条件。

We will answer with our innovations and we will surprise the pessimists.我们就肯定能通过创新给我答案，我们就肯定能让悲观主义者大吃一惊。

Over the next generation, you, Stanford graduates, will lead a new weave of innovation.在下一代，你们这些斯坦福毕业生将会引领新一波创新。Which problems will you decide to solve? 你们决定处理哪些问题？

If your world is wide, you can create the future we all want.如果你们的世界观足够宽广你们将恩那个创建出我们所有人都想要的未来。If your world is narrow, you may create the future the pessimists fear.如果你们的世界观太过狭窄，你们就有可能创建出悲观主义者们所害怕的未来。

I started learning in Soweto, that if we are going to make our optimism matter to everyone, and empower people everywhere, we have to see the lives of those most in need.从索韦托开始我开始了解到，如果我们要将这份乐观传递给每个人，让所有地方的人都获得力量，我们需要首先去感受那些需求最迫切者的生活。

If we have optimism, without empathy, then it doesn’t matter how much we master the secrets of science.如果我们指示乐观而没有同情心，那么对科学秘密掌握得再好也将毫无用处。

We are not really solving problems.We are just working on puzzles.I think most of you have a broader view than I had at your age.You can do better at this than I did.因为我们并不是在解决问题，而是仅仅在做一些智力题。我想你们大多数人，世界观都比我在你们这么大时更加宽广。你们肯定能够比我做到更好。

If you put your hearts and minds to it, you can surprise the pessimists.We are eager to see it.只要全心全意的投入进来，我们就必然能让悲观主义者震惊。我们很像看到你们创造的未来。Melinda: So let your heart break.It will change what you do with your optimism.让自己沉浸于心碎。这会改变你们对乐观的理解。

On a trip to South Asia, I met a desperately poor Indian woman who had two children and she begged me to take them home with me.有一次去南亚，我碰到了以为赤贫的印度女性，她有两个孩子，她请求我把这两个孩子带回去领养。

And when I begged her for her forgiveness she said, well, then please, just take one of them.在我请她原谅我的无能为力时她说，那请你领养其中一个孩子行吗。

On another trip to south Los Angeles, I met with a group of the students from a tough neighborhood.A young girl said to me, do you ever feel like we are the kids whose parents shirked their responsibilities and we are just the leftovers? 还有一次我去南洛杉矶，见了一群来自艰苦社区的学生。一个小女孩跟我说，你有没有觉得我们这些孩子都被父母放置不理，我们只不过是多余的东西。These women broke my heart.And they still do.这些女性让我感到心碎。现在仍然如此。

And the empathy intensifies if I admit to myself, that could be me.如果想想“这也可能是我”同情心便会越发强烈。

When I talk with the mothers I meet during my travels, there’s no difference between what we want for our children.The only difference is our ability to provide it to our children.我在其他地方碰到过很多母亲。我们想为子女提供的东西其实并没有太大差别。唯一差别在于我们为子女提供这些东西的能力。So what accounts for that difference? 这中差异是如何造成的？

Bill and I talk about this with our own kids around the dinner table.我和比尔在餐桌上同我们自己的孩子讨论这个问题。

Bill worked incredibly hard and he took risks and he made sacrifices for success.比尔工作无比努力，他冒过很多风险，做过很多牺牲采取的了今天的成功。

But there’s another essential ingredient of success, and that is luck.Absolute and total luck.但成功还有另外一个很重要的成分那就是运气。完全纯粹的运气。When were you born? Who are your parents? Where did you grow up? 你出生在什么年代，你的父母是谁？你在那里长大？ None of us earn these things.These things were given to us.我们谁都不能挣得这些，这些都是被给予的。

So when we strip away all of our privilege and we consider where we would be without them, it becomes someone much easier to see someone who is poor and say, that could be me.And that’s empathy.当我们去除掉所有的优势，考虑我们没有这些优势。这就是同情心。

Empathy tears down barriers, and it opens up whole new frontiers for optimism.So here is our appeal to you all.As you leave Stanford, take all your genius and your optimism and your empathy, and go change the world in ways that will make millions of people optimistic.同情推到一切障碍，并且打开乐观的新视野。这里有很大的吸引力。

You don’t have to rush.You have careers to launch and debts to pay and spouses to meet and marry.That’s plenty enough for right now.But in the course of your lives, perhaps without any plan on your part, you will see suffering that’s going to break your heart.And when it happens, don’t turn away from it.That’s the moment that change is born.Congratulations and good luck to the class of 2014!

第四篇：比尔盖茨夫妇在斯坦福大学的演讲-2014

Text of the 2014 Commencement Address by Bill and Melinda Gates

Following is the text of the address by Bill and Melinda Gates, philanthropists and cochairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as prepared for delivery at Stanford University's 123rd Commencement on June 15, 2014.Bill Gates: Congratulations, Class of 2014!Melinda and I are excited to be here.It would be a thrill for anyone to be invited to speak at a Stanford Commencement – but it's especially gratifying for us.Stanford is rapidly becoming the favorite university for members of our family.And it's long been a favorite university for Microsoft and our foundation.Our formula has been to get the smartest, most creative people working on the most important problems.It turns out that a disproportionate number of those people are at Stanford.Right now, we have more than 30 foundation research projects underway with Stanford.When we want to learn more about the immune system to help cure the worst diseases, we work with Stanford.When we want to understand the changing landscape of higher education in the United States so that more low-income students get college degrees, we work with Stanford.This is where genius lives.There is a flexibility of mind here – an openness to change, an eagerness for what's new.This is where people come to discover the future and have fun doing it.Melinda Gates: Some people call you nerds – and you claim the label with pride.Bill: Well, so do we.There are so many remarkable things going on here at this campus.But if Melinda and I had to put into one word what we love most about Stanford, it's the optimism.There's an infectious feeling here that innovation can solve almost every problem.That's the belief that drove me, in 1975, to leave a college in the suburbs of Boston and go on an endless leave of absence.I believed that the magic of computers and software would empower people everywhere and make the world much, much better.It's been almost 40 years since then, and 20 years since Melinda and I were married.We are both more optimistic now than ever.But on our journey together, our optimism evolved.We'd like to tell you what we learned – and talk to you today about how your optimism and ours can do more – for more people.When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft, we wanted to bring the power of computers and software to the people – and that was the kind of rhetoric we used.One of the pioneering books in the field had a raised fist on the cover, and it was called Computer Lib.At that time, only big businesses could buy computers.We wanted to offer the same power to regular people – and democratize computing.By the 1990s, we saw how profoundly personal computers could empower people.But that success created a new dilemma: If rich kids got computers and poor kids didn't, then technology would make inequality worse.That ran counter to our core belief: Technology should benefit everybody.So we worked to close the digital divide.I made it a priority at Microsoft, and Melinda and I made it an early priority at our foundation – donating personal computers to public libraries to make sure everyone had access.The digital divide was a focus of mine in 1997 when I took my first trip to South Africa.I went there on business, so I spent most of my time in meetings in downtown Johannesburg.I stayed in the home of one of the richest families in South Africa.It had only been three years since the election of Nelson Mandela marked the end of apartheid.When I sat down for dinner with my hosts, they used a bell to call the butler.After dinner, the men and women separated, and the men smoked cigars.I thought, “Good thing I read Jane Austen, or I wouldn't have known what was going on.” The next day I went to Soweto – the poor township southwest of Johannesburg that had been a center of the anti-apartheid movement.It was a short distance from the city into the township, but the entry was sudden, jarring, and harsh.I passed into a world completely unlike the one I came from.My visit to Soweto became an early lesson in how naïve I was.Microsoft was donating computers and software to a community center there – the kind of thing we did in the United States.But it became clear to me very quickly that this was not the United States.I had seen statistics on poverty, but I had never really seen poverty.The people there lived in corrugated tin shacks with no electricity, no water, no toilets.Most people didn't wear shoes;they walked barefoot along the streets.Except there were no streets – just ruts in the mud.The community center had no consistent source of power, so they had rigged up an extension cord that ran about 200 feet from the center to a diesel generator outside.Looking at the setup, I knew the minute the reporters and I left, the generator would get moved to a more urgent task, and the people who used the community center would go back to worrying about challenges that couldn't be solved by a PC.When I gave my prepared remarks to the press, I said: “Soweto is a milestone.There are major decisions ahead about whether technology will leave the developing world behind.This is to close the gap.” As I was reading those words, I knew they were irrelevant.What I didn't say was: “By the way, we're not focused on the fact that half a million people on this continent are dying every year from malaria.But we're sure as hell going to bring you computers.” Before I went to Soweto, I thought I understood the world's problems, but I was blind to the most important ones.I was so taken aback by what I saw that I had to ask myself, “Do I still believe that innovation can solve the world's toughest problems?” I promised myself that before I came back to Africa, I would find out more about what keeps people poor.Over the years, Melinda and I did learn more about the most pressing needs of the poor.On a later trip to South Africa, I paid a visit to a hospital for patients with MDR-TB, or multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, a disease with a cure rate of under 50 percent.I remember that hospital as a place of despair.It was a giant open ward with a sea of patients shuffling around in pajamas, wearing masks.There was one floor just for children, including some babies lying in bed.They had a little school for the kids who were well enough to learn, but many of the children couldn't make it, and the hospital didn't seem to know whether it was worth it to keep the school open.I talked to a patient there in her early thirties.She had been a worker at a TB hospital when she came down with a cough.She went to a doctor, and he told her she had drug-resistant TB.She was later diagnosed with AIDS.She wasn't going to live much longer, but there were plenty of MDR patients waiting to take her bed when she vacated it.This was hell with a waiting list.But seeing hell didn't reduce my optimism;it channelled it.I got in the car and told the doctor who was working with us: “Yeah, I know.MDR-TB is hard to cure.But we should be able to do something for these people.” This year, we're entering phase three with a new TB drug regime.For patients who respond, instead of a 50 percent cure rate after 18 months for $2,000, we could get an 80-90 percent cure rate after six months for under $100.That's better by a factor of a hundred.Optimism is often dismissed as false hope.But there is also false hopelessness.That's the attitude that says we can't defeat poverty and disease.We absolutely can.Melinda: Bill called me after he visited the TB hospital.Ordinarily, if we're calling from a trip, we just go through the agenda of the day: “Here's what I did;here's where I went;here's who I met.” But this call was different.He said: “Melinda, I've gone somewhere I've never been before” and then he choked up and couldn't talk.Finally he just said: “I'll tell you when I get home.” I knew what he was going through.When you see people with so little hope, it breaks your heart.But if you want to do the most, you have to see the worst.That's what Bill was doing that day.I've had days like that, too.Ten years ago, I travelled to India with friends.On the last day there, I spent some time meeting with prostitutes.I expected to talk to them about the risk of AIDS, but they wanted to talk about stigma.Most of these women had been abandoned by their husbands, and that's why they'd gone into prostitution.They were trying to make enough money to feed their kids.They were so low in the eyes of society that they could be raped and robbed and beaten by anybody – even by police – and nobody cared.Talking to them about their lives was so moving to me.But what I remember most is how much they wanted to touch me and be touched.It was as if physical contact somehow proved their worth.As I was leaving, we took a photo of all of us with our arms linked together.Later that day, I spent some time in a home for the dying.I walked into a large hall and saw rows and rows of cots.Every cot was attended except for one far off in the corner that no one was going near, so I walked over there.The patient was a woman who seemed to be in her thirties.I remember her eyes.She had these huge, brown, sorrowful eyes.She was emaciated, on the verge of death.Her intestines weren't holding anything – so they had put her on a cot with a hole cut out in the bottom, and everything just poured through into a pan below.I could tell she had AIDS, both from the way she looked, and the fact that she was off in the corner alone.The stigma of AIDS is vicious – especially for women – and the punishment is abandonment.When I arrived at her cot, I suddenly felt totally helpless.I had absolutely nothing I could offer her.I knew I couldn't save her, but I didn't want her to be alone.So I knelt down next to her and reached out to touch her – and as soon as she felt my hand, she grabbed it and wouldn't let go.We sat there holding hands, and even though I knew she couldn't understand me, I just started saying: “It's okay.It's okay.It's not your fault.It's not your fault.” We had been there together for a while when she pointed upward with her finger.It took me some time to figure out that she wanted to go up to the roof and sit outside while it was still light out.I asked one of the workers if that would be okay, but she was overwhelmed by all the patients she had to care for.She said: “She's in the last stages of dying, and I have to pass out medicine.” Then I asked another, and got the same answer.It was getting late and the sun was going down, and I had to leave, and no one seemed willing to take her upstairs.So finally I just scooped her up – she was just skin over a skeleton, just a sack of bones – and I carried her up the stairs.On the roof, there were a few of those plastic chairs that will blow over in a strong breeze, and I set her down on one of those, and I helped prop her feet up on another, and I placed a blanket over her legs.And she sat there with her face to the west, watching the sunset.I made sure the workers knew that she was up there so they would come get her after the sun went down.Then I had to leave her.But she never left me.I felt completely and totally inadequate in the face of this woman's death.But sometimes it's the people you can't help who inspire you the most.I knew that the sex workers I linked arms with in the morning could become the woman I carried upstairs in the evening – unless they found a way to defy the stigma that hung over their lives.Over the past 10 years, our foundation has helped sex workers build support groups so they could empower each other to speak out for safe sex and demand that their clients use condoms.Their brave efforts helped keep HIV prevalence low among sex workers, and a lot of studies show that is a big reason why the AIDS epidemic in India hasn't exploded.When these sex workers gathered together to help stop AIDS transmission, something unexpected and wonderful happened.The community they formed became a platform for everything.They were able to set up speed-dial networks to respond to violent attacks.Police and others who raped and robbed them couldn't get away with it anymore.The women set up systems to encourage savings.They used financial services that helped some of them start businesses and get out of sex work.This was all done by people society considered the lowliest of the low.Optimism for me isn't a passive expectation that things will get better;it's a conviction that we can make things better – that whatever suffering we see, no matter how bad it is, we can help people if we don't lose hope and we don't look away.Bill: Melinda and I have described some devastating scenes.But we want to make the strongest case we can for the power of optimism.Even in dire situations, optimism can fuel innovation and lead to new tools to eliminate suffering.But if you never really see the people who are suffering, your optimism can't help them.You will never change their world.And that brings me to what I see as a paradox.The world of science and technology is driving phenomenal innovations – and Stanford stands at the center of that, creating new companies, prize-winning professors, ingenious software, miracle drugs, and amazing graduates.We're on the verge of mind-blowing breakthroughs in what human beings can do for each other.And people here are really excited about the future.At the same time, if you ask people across the United States, “Is the future going to be better than the past?” most people will say: “No.My kids will be worse off than I am.” They think innovation won't make the world better for them or for their children.So who's right? The people who say innovation will create new possibilities and make the world better? …or… The people who see a trend toward inequality and a decline in opportunity and don't think innovation will change that? The pessimists are wrong in my view, but they're not crazy.If technology is purely market-driven and we don't focus innovation on the big inequities, then we could have amazing inventions that leave the world even more divided.We won't improve public schools.We won't cure malaria.We won't end poverty.We won't develop the innovations poor farmers need to grow food in a changing climate.If our optimism doesn't address the problems that affect so many of our fellow human beings, then our optimism needs more empathy.If empathy channelled our optimism, we would see the poverty and the disease and the poor schools, we would answer with our innovations, and we would surprise the pessimists.Over the next generation, you Stanford graduates will lead a new wave of innovation and apply it to your world.Which problems will you decide to solve? If your world is wide, you can create the future we all want.If your world is narrow, you may create the future the pessimists fear.I started learning in Soweto that if we're going to make our optimism matter to everyone and empower people everywhere, we have to see the lives of those most in need.If we have optimism, but we don't have empathy – then it doesn't matter how much we master the secrets of science, we're not really solving problems;we're just working on puzzles.I think most of you have a broader worldview than I had at your age.You can do better at this than I did.If you put your hearts and minds to it, you can surprise the pessimists.We can't wait to see it.Melinda: Let your heart break.It will change what you do with your optimism.On a trip to South Asia, I met a desperately poor mother who brought me her two small children and implored me: “Please take them home with you.” When I begged her forgiveness and said I could not, she said: “Then please take one.” On another trip, to South Los Angeles, I was talking to a group of high school students from a tough neighbourhood when one young woman said to me: “Do you ever feel like we are just somebody else's kids whose parents shirked their responsibilities, that we're all just leftovers?” These women made my heart break – and still do.And the empathy intensifies if I admit to myself: “That could be me.” When I talk with the mothers I meet during my travels, I see that there is no difference at all in what we want for our children.The only difference is our ability to give it to them.What accounts for that difference? Bill and I talk about this with our kids at the dinner table.Bill worked incredibly hard and took risks and made sacrifices for success.But there is another essential ingredient of success, and that ingredient is luck – absolute and total luck.When were you born? Who were your parents? Where did you grow up? None of us earned these things.They were given to us.When we strip away our luck and privilege and consider where we'd be without them, it becomes easier to see someone who's poor and sick and say “that could be me.” This is empathy;it tears down barriers and opens up new frontiers for optimism.So here is our appeal to you: As you leave Stanford, take your genius and your optimism and your empathy and go change the world in ways that will make millions of others optimistic as well.You don't have to rush.You have careers to launch, debts to pay, spouses to meet and marry.That's enough for now.But in the course of your lives, without any plan on your part, you'll come to see suffering that will break your heart.When it happens, and it will, don't turn away from it;turn toward it.That is the moment when change is born.Congratulations and good luck.

第五篇：2018斯坦福大学盖茨夫妇毕业典礼致辞

2018斯坦福大学盖茨夫妇毕业典礼致辞

XX届毕业生，祝贺你们!能站在这里，梅琳达和我都很兴奋。每一个收到邀请，能够在斯坦福大学毕业典礼上讲话的人都会又紧张又兴奋——但我们尤其高兴。

长久以来，斯坦福都是最受微软和我们的基金会青睐的大学之一，而现在它正迅速得到我们家族的喜爱。我们的原则是让最聪明、最有创造力的人来解决最重要的问题。事实证明，有相当一部分这样的人都出自斯坦福。

现在，有30多个我们基金会投资的研究项目都在斯坦福开展。当我们想更好地了解免疫系统从而帮助治愈绝症时，我们与斯坦福开展了合作;当我们想了解美国高等教育状况的变化以便使更多来自低收入家庭的学生读得起大学时，我们又一次与斯坦福展开了合作。

这里天才汇聚，思想灵活——人们对变化持开放态度，对新鲜事物充满了渴望。人们在这里可以饶有兴味地一窥未来。

梅琳达·盖茨：有些人叫你们“呆子”——而你们则自豪地接受了这一绰号。

比尔：我们也是如此。

在这所斯坦福的校园里发生着许多非凡的事情。但如果非要梅琳达和我用一个词来说明我们对这里的热爱，那么这个词是“乐观”。在这里有一种极富感染力的氛围，即创新几乎可以解决一切问题。

正是在这种信念的激励下，我于1975年离开了这所位于波士顿郊区的学校，并从此一去不回头。我相信，计算机和软件的魔力能够使世界上所有的人都变得更强大，并使世界变得越来越美好。

自那时起已经过了将近40年，而梅琳达和我也已经结婚20年。如今我们比以往更加乐观。但在我们共同的旅程中，乐观精神是逐渐延续的。今天，我们希望将自己学到的传授给你们——并且告诉你们，我们大家的乐观精神将会如何为更多人做更多事。

那是一个地狱，那里的人们都在死亡名单上等候着。

但是面对地狱，我的乐观精神并没有减退，反而使我变得更加乐观。我上了车，对与我们共事的医生说：“是的，我知道mdr-tb很难治愈。但我们应该能为这些人做一些事”。我们在今年进入了一项新的肺结核药物疗法的 张床前都有人照料着，除了远离角落的一张床无人走近，因此我走了过去。这张床上躺着一个看上去三十多岁的女性。我到现在还记得她那悲伤的棕色大眼睛。她骨瘦如柴，快要死去了。她的肠胃里无法储存任何食物，因此人们只能让她躺到一张简易床上，在床的底部挖出一个洞，她可以通过这个洞将一切排泄到床下放着的一个便盆里。

从她的样子，以及她被单独放置在角落这一事实，我都能看出来，她得了艾滋病。染上艾滋病的耻辱是非常可怕的——特别是对于一个女性来说——她因此受到的惩罚就是被抛弃。

站在她的病床前，我忽然感到非常无助。我什么东西都不能给她。我知道自己救不了她，但也不想让她孤单。因此我在她旁边跪下来，伸出手去抚摸她，而她一感觉到我的手就抓住了它，再不放开。我们手拉着手坐在那儿，尽管知道她听不懂，但我还是说，“不要紧，不要紧，这不是你的错”。

我们在一起待了一会儿，然后她用手指向上指了指。过了一会儿我才明白过来，她想趁天还亮着的时候到屋顶上去，在外面坐着。我问一位工作人员这是否可以，但需要她照顾的病人正让她忙得团团转。她说，“她马上就要不行了，而我现在必须为病人们分药”。然后我又问了另一位工作人员，得到了同样的答案。天色渐渐变晚，太阳开始下山了，而我那天必须要离开，似乎没有人愿意带她到房顶上。

因此，最后我一下子抱起她——她骨瘦如柴，几乎就是一堆骨头——带她沿着楼梯走了上去。在屋顶上有几把塑料椅子，椅子很轻，一阵强风就能吹走。我把她放在其中一把椅子上，用另一把椅子支撑住她的腿，然后在她的腿上搭了一个毯子。

她面朝西坐在那儿，看着落日。我确保工作人员知道她在屋顶上，这样太阳落山之后他们就会来上来接她。然后我不得不离开了她。

但她从来没有离开过我。

面对这位女病人的死，我感到自己做得还差得很远。

但有时正是你无法帮助的人才真正激励着你。

我明白，那些早晨还跟我挽着胳膊的性工作者晚上可能就会成为我带到房顶上的那位女性 ——除非她们能找到一种方法，可以公然反抗生活中无处不在的耻辱。

在过去的XX年时间里，我们的基金会已经帮助性工作者建立起了互助团体，这样她们就可以从彼此身上获得力量，大声呼吁安全的性行为，并要求顾客使用安全套。

她们勇敢的行为是hiv病毒没有在性工作者之间大规模传播的原因之一，许多研究也表明，这是艾滋病没有在印度爆发的一个主要原因。

当这些性工作者团结在一起阻止艾滋病传播时，一件出乎我们意料的大事发生了。他们建立的团体成为了一个包罗万象的平台。她们建立起了快速拨号网络以应对暴力袭击，凌辱并抢劫她们的警察及其他人再也无法逃脱制裁;她们还建立了鼓励储蓄的制度，他们使用金融服务，这帮助她们中的一些人开始创业并不再从事性服务。所有这些都是在社会眼中处于最底层的人做的。

对我来说，乐观主义并不是消极地期盼事情变好，而是一种相信我们能使事情变好的信念——无论见证了什么苦难，不论情况有多糟，只要不失去希望，只要不消极对待，我们都能帮助这些人们。

比尔：梅琳达和我描述了一些令人震惊的场景。但是为了说明乐观主义的力量，我们要举出最强大的一个例子。即使是在绝境中，乐观主义也能激发创新，从而带来消灭苦难的新工具。但如果从来没有真正见过处于苦难中的人们，那么你的乐观就无法帮助他们，你将永远无法改变他们的世界。

而这一点与我看到的却是相互矛盾的。

科技的世界推动着非凡的创新——而斯坦福就站在创新的中心，它创立起新公司、培养出摘得奖项的教授、制造出绝妙的软件和神奇的药物，教导出令人惊叹的学生们。对于人类能够为彼此做的，我们即将创造出令人兴奋的突破。这里的人们对于未来确实激动万分。

与此同时，如果你问美国人“未来是否会比过去更好”?大多数人会说：“不，我的孩子过的会比我差”。他们认为创新并不能使他们自己的或者孩子的世界变得更好。

那么谁是对的呢?

是声称创新将会带来新的可能并使世界变得更加美好的人呢，还是认为社会不公将加剧，机会将越来越少，而创新无力改变这一切的人?

在我看来悲观主义者是错的，但他们并不是疯子。如果技术创新完全由市场推动，如果我们没有将创新集中于解决主要的社会不公，那么那些令人惊叹的发明可能会使世界的两极分化更加严重。

在我看来悲观主义者是错的，但他们并不是疯子。如果技术创新完全由市场推动，如果我们没有将创新集中于解决主要的社会不公，那么那些令人惊叹的发明可能会使世界的两极分化更加严重。

我们将无法对公立学校改造升级，无法治愈疟疾，无法终结贫困，无法推动创新，从而使贫苦农民在气候巨变中也能种植食物。

如果乐观主义无法解决这些影响众多人类同胞的问题，那么在这种乐观中我们就需要更多地感同身受。如果二者相通，那么我们就能看到贫困、疾病与穷困的学校，就能用创新解决这些问题，然后使悲观主义者大吃一惊。

在索维托，我开始明白，如果要使所有人都重视乐观主义并且为全世界所有人都赋予力量，我们就必须关注那些最需要帮助的人的生活。如果只拥有乐观主义，而不能对他们的苦难感同身受，那么无论我们掌握了多少科学的奥秘，都无法真正地解决问题;我们只是在迷宫中做无用功而已。

我相信在座的大多数同学都比你们这个年纪时的我有着更广阔的世界观。在这方面你们会比我做得更好。如果全身心地投入到这一事业中，你们会令悲观主义者大吃一惊。我们迫不及待地想要看到这一情形。

梅琳达：心碎之后，你对待乐观主义的态度就会改变。

在一次南亚之行中，我遇到了一个一贫如洗的母亲，她将自己的两个幼子带到我面前，请求我：“请您带他们走吧”。当我请求她的原谅，表示我不能这样做时，她说：“那就请带走一个孩子”。