Finding solutions is essential if we want to make the most of our caring. If we have clear and proven answers anytime an organization or individual asks "How can I help?," then we can get action – and we can make sure that none of the caring in the world is wasted. But complexity makes it hard to mark a path of action for everyone who cares — and that makes it hard for their caring to matter.
如果我們要讓關(guān)心落到實(shí)處，我們就必須找到解決辦法。如果我們有一個(gè)清晰的和可靠的答案，那么當(dāng)任何組織和個(gè)人發(fā)出疑問“如何我能提供幫助”的時(shí) 候，我們就能采取行動(dòng)。我們就能夠保證不浪費(fèi)一丁點(diǎn)全世界人類對(duì)他人的關(guān)心。但是，世界的復(fù)雜性使得很難找到對(duì)全世界每一個(gè)有愛心的人都有效的行動(dòng)方法， 因此人類對(duì)他人的關(guān)心往往很難產(chǎn)生實(shí)際效果。
Cutting through complexity to find a solution runs through four predictable stages: determine a goal, find the highest-leverage approach, discover the ideal technology for that approach, and in the meantime, make the smartest application of the technology that you already have — whether it's something sophisticated, like a drug, or something simpler, like a bednet.
從這個(gè)復(fù)雜的世界中找到解決辦法，可以分為四個(gè)步驟：確定目標(biāo)，找到效的方法，發(fā)現(xiàn)適用于這個(gè)方法的新技術(shù)，同時(shí)最聰明地利用現(xiàn)有的技術(shù)，不管它是復(fù)雜的藥物，還是最簡(jiǎn)單的蚊帳。
The AIDS epidemic offers an example. The broad goal, of course, is to end the disease. The highest-leverage approach is prevention. The ideal technology would be a vaccine that gives lifetime immunity with a single dose. So governments, drug companies, and foundations fund vaccine research. But their work is likely to take more than a decade, so in the meantime, we have to work with what we have in hand – and the best prevention approach we have now is getting people to avoid risky behavior.
艾滋病就是一個(gè)例子?？偟哪繕?biāo)，毫無疑問是消滅這種疾病。效的方法是預(yù)防。最理想的技術(shù)是發(fā)明一種疫苗，只要注射一次，就可以終生免疫。所以， 政府、制藥公司、基金會(huì)應(yīng)該資助疫苗研究。但是，這樣研究工作很可能十年之內(nèi)都無法完成。因此，與此同時(shí)，我們必須使用現(xiàn)有的技術(shù)，目前的預(yù)防方法 就是設(shè)法讓人們避免那些危險(xiǎn)的行為。
Pursuing that goal starts the four-step cycle again. This is the pattern. The crucial thing is to never stop thinking and working – and never do what we did with malaria and tuberculosis in the 20th century – which is to surrender to complexity and quit.
要實(shí)現(xiàn)這個(gè)新的目標(biāo)，又可以采用新的四步循環(huán)。這是一種模式。關(guān)鍵的東西是永遠(yuǎn)不要停止思考和行動(dòng)。我們千萬不能再犯上個(gè)世紀(jì)在瘧疾和肺結(jié)核上犯過的錯(cuò)誤，那時(shí)我們因?yàn)樗鼈兲珡?fù)雜，而放棄了采取行動(dòng)。
The final step – after seeing the problem and finding an approach – is to measure the impact of your work and share your successes and failures so that others learn from your efforts.
在發(fā)現(xiàn)問題和找到解決方法之后，就是最后一步——評(píng)估工作結(jié)果，將你的成功經(jīng)驗(yàn)或者失敗經(jīng)驗(yàn)傳播出去，這樣其他人就可以從你的努力中有所收獲。
You have to have the statistics, of course. You have to be able to show that a program is vaccinating millions more children. You have to be able to show a decline in the number of children dying from these diseases. This is essential not just to improve the program, but also to help draw more investment from business and government.
當(dāng)然，你必須有一些統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)字。你必須讓他人知道，你的項(xiàng)目為幾百萬兒童新接種了疫苗。你也必須讓他人知道，兒童死亡人數(shù)下降了多少。這些都是很關(guān)鍵的，不僅有利于改善項(xiàng)目效果，也有利于從商界和政府得到更多的幫助。
But if you want to inspire people to participate, you have to show more than numbers; you have to convey the human impact of the work – so people can feel what saving a life means to the families affected.
但是，這些還不夠，如果你想激勵(lì)其他人參加你的項(xiàng)目，你就必須拿出更多的統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)字；你必須展示你的項(xiàng)目的人性因素，這樣其他人就會(huì)感到拯救一個(gè)生命，對(duì)那些處在困境中的家庭到底意味著什么。
I remember going to Davos some years back and sitting on a global health panel that was discussing ways to save millions of lives. Millions! Think of the thrill of saving just one person's life – then multiply that by millions. … Yet this was the most boring panel I've ever been on – ever. So boring even I couldn't bear it.
幾年前，我去瑞士達(dá)沃斯旁聽一個(gè)全球健康問題論壇，會(huì)議的內(nèi)容有關(guān)于如何拯救幾百萬條生命。天哪，是幾百萬！想一想吧，拯救一個(gè)人的生命已經(jīng)讓人何等激動(dòng)，現(xiàn)在你要把這種激動(dòng)再乘上幾百萬倍……但是，不幸的是，這是我參加過的最最乏味的論壇，乏味到我無法強(qiáng)迫自己聽下去。
What made that experience especially striking was that I had just come from an event where we were introducing version 13 of some piece of software, and we had people jumping and shouting with excitement. I love getting people excited about software – but why can't we generate even more excitement for saving lives?
那次經(jīng)歷之所以讓我難忘，是因?yàn)橹拔覀儎倓偘l(fā)布了一個(gè)軟件的第13個(gè)版本，我們讓觀眾激動(dòng)得跳了起來，喊出了聲。我喜歡人們因?yàn)檐浖械郊?dòng)，那么我們?yōu)槭裁床荒軌蜃屓藗円驗(yàn)槟軌蛘壬械礁蛹?dòng)呢？
You can't get people excited unless you can help them see and feel the impact. And how you do that – is a complex question.
除非你能夠讓人們看到或者感受到行動(dòng)的影響力，否則你無法讓人們激動(dòng)。如何做到這一點(diǎn)，并不是一件簡(jiǎn)單的事。 Still, I'm optimistic. Yes, inequity has been with us forever, but the new tools we have to cut through complexity have not been with us forever. They are new – they can help us make the most of our caring – and that's why the future can be different from the past.
同前面一樣，在這個(gè)問題上，我依然是樂觀的。不錯(cuò)，人類的不平等有史以來一直存在，但是那些能夠化繁為簡(jiǎn)的新工具，卻是最近才出現(xiàn)的。這些新工具可以幫助我們，將人類的同情心發(fā)揮的作用，這就是為什么將來同過去是不一樣的。
The defining and ongoing innovations of this age – biotechnology, the computer, the Internet – give us a chance we've never had before to end extreme poverty and end death from preventable disease.
這個(gè)時(shí)代無時(shí)無刻不在涌現(xiàn)出新的革新——生物技術(shù)，計(jì)算機(jī)，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)——它們給了我們一個(gè)從未有過的機(jī)會(huì)，去終結(jié)那些極端的貧窮和非惡性疾病的死亡。
Sixty years ago, George Marshall came to this commencement and announced a plan to assist the nations of post-war Europe. He said: "I think one difficulty is that the problem is one of such enormous complexity that the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and radio make it exceedingly difficult for the man in the street to reach a clear appraisement of the situation. It is virtually impossible at this distance to grasp at all the real significance of the situation."
六十年前，喬治·馬歇爾也是在這個(gè)地方的畢業(yè)典禮上，宣布了一個(gè)計(jì)劃，幫助那些歐洲國(guó)家的戰(zhàn)后建設(shè)。他說：“我認(rèn)為，困難的一點(diǎn)是這個(gè)問題太復(fù)雜， 報(bào)紙和電臺(tái)向公眾源源不斷地提供各種事實(shí)，使得大街上的普通人極端難于清晰地判斷形勢(shì)。事實(shí)上，經(jīng)過層層傳播，想要真正地把握形勢(shì)，是根本不可能的?！?BR> Thirty years after Marshall made his address, as my class graduated without me, technology was emerging that would make the world smaller, more open, more visible, less distant.
馬歇爾發(fā)表這個(gè)演講之后的三十年，我那一屆學(xué)生畢業(yè)，當(dāng)然我不在其中。那時(shí)，新技術(shù)剛剛開始萌芽，它們將使得這個(gè)世界變得更小、更開放、更容易看到、距離更近。
The emergence of low-cost personal computers gave rise to a powerful network that has transformed opportunities for learning and communicating.
低成本的個(gè)人電腦的出現(xiàn)，使得一個(gè)強(qiáng)大的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)有機(jī)會(huì)誕生，它為學(xué)習(xí)和交流提供了巨大的機(jī)會(huì)。
The magical thing about this network is not just that it collapses distance and makes everyone your neighbor. It also dramatically increases the number of brilliant minds we can have working together on the same problem – and that scales up the rate of innovation to a staggering degree.
網(wǎng)絡(luò)的神奇之處，不僅僅是它縮短了物理距離，使得天涯若比鄰。它還極大地增加了懷有共同想法的人們聚集在一起的機(jī)會(huì)，我們可以為了解決同一個(gè)問題，一起共同工作。這就大大加快了革新的進(jìn)程，發(fā)展速度簡(jiǎn)直快得讓人震驚。