生活竞技场中的必修课

来源A Course Load for the Game of Life
译者maomaoniu

A Course Load for the Game of Life

生活竞技场中的必修课

AS a Harvard professor who teaches introductory economics, I have the delightful assignment of greeting about 700 first-year students every fall. And this year, I am sending the first of my own children off to college. Which raises these questions: What should they be learning? And what kind of foundation is needed to understand and be prepared for the modern economy?

做为一名在哈佛大学教授经济学入门的教授，我非常高兴的担任每年秋天迎接大约700新生入校的工作。而今年秋天，我要送我的第一个孩子上大学。 这就使我想到了如下问题：他们应该学什么？为了理解和应对现代经济，哪些基础课程是必须的呢？

Here is my advice for students of all ages:

下面是我对大学各年级学生的建议。

LEARN SOME ECONOMICS You knew this was coming. Perhaps I am just trying to protect my profession’s market share, but I hope it is more than that.

学一点经济学。你知道这正变成一种趋势。这么说也许是由于我的职业偏好，能使有更多的人学习经济学，但我希望远不止这些。

The great economist Alfred Marshall called economics “the study of mankind in the ordinary business of life.” When students leave school, “the ordinary business of life” will be their most pressing concern. If the current moribund economy turns into a lost decade, as some economists fear it might, it will be crucial to be prepared for it.

There may be no better place than a course in introductory economics. It helps students understand the whirlwind of forces swirling around them. It develops rigorous analytic skills that are useful in a wide range of jobs. And it makes students better citizens, ready to evaluate the claims of competing politicians. For those who have left college behind, it is not too late to learn. Pick up an economics textbook (mine would be a fine choice), and you might find yourself learning more than you imagined.

伟大的经济学家Afred Marshall将经济学称为“在生活中的日常事务里对人类进行的研究”。当学生们毕业离开学校，“生活中的日常事物”就会成为他们最迫切需要关心的。那么做好应对的准备，就非常重要。经济学入门课程也许就是再好不过的途径了。他可以帮助同学们了解涡旋在周围的各种力量的强劲性，养成在很多工作中都很有用处的严格的分析技巧。同时通过学习此课程，可以使学生成为一个更好的公民做好准备，能够判断和评估相互之间竞争的政客的言论。对于那些已经毕业的同学来说，现在学习经济学也为时不晚。找一本经济学的教材（我编著的那一本就是一个不错的选择），然后你会发现学到的远远超乎你的想象。

Not convinced? Even if you are a skeptic of my field, as many are, there is another, more cynical reason to study it. As the economist Joan Robinson once noted, one purpose of studying economics is to avoid being fooled by economists.

仍然没有说服你么？即使像其他许多人一样，你对我所研究的领域持怀疑态度，那么还有另外一个理由让你学习经济学，经济学家Joan Robinson 曾经说过，学习经济学的一个目的就是不会被经济学家所愚弄。

LEARN SOME STATISTICS High school mathematics curriculums spend too much time on traditional topics like Euclidean geometry and trigonometry. For a typical person, these are useful intellectual exercises but have little applicability to daily life. Students would be better served by learning more about probability and statistics.

学一点统计学 高中数学课的大部分时间都是花在了欧几里得几何和三角法一些传统的课题上。对一个人来说，这些是有益于锻炼智力的练习，但是却很少能在日常生活中应用。而多学一些概率和统计学会对学生更用好处。

One thing the modern computer age has given everyone is data. Lots and lots of data. There is a large leap, however, between having data and learning from it. Students need to know the potential of number-crunching, as well as its limitations. All college students are well advised to take one or more courses in statistics, at least until high schools update what they teach.

现代计算机时代摆在每个人面前的一件事情是接触海量的数据。然而获取数据和从中学习直接有很大的跨越。学生需要了解倒弄数据的潜力，以及他的局限性。所有的大学学生都被建议学习一门或者更多门关于统计学的课程。

LEARN SOME FINANCE With the rise of 401(k) plans and the looming problems with Social Security, Americans are increasingly in charge of their own financial future. But are they up to the task?

Few high school students graduate with the tools needed to make smart choices. Indeed, many enter college without knowing, for instance, what stocks and bonds are, what risks and returns these assets offer, and how best to manage those risks.

学习一点金融。随着401k计划的提出和隐现的社会安全问题，美国人逐渐掌控他们自己的财政前景。但是他们完全能胜任这项工作了么？

有很少的高中生，毕业时能够拥有足够知识使他们可以做出明确的选择。的确，有很多人在升入大学时，还不知道什么是股票和证券，这些资产能带来哪些风险和回报，以及如何来控制这些风险。

The evidence of financial naïveté shows up every time some company goes belly up. Whether it is Enron or Lehman Brothers, many company employees are often caught with a large fraction of their wealth in a single stock. They fail to heed the most basic lesson of finance — that diversification provides a free lunch. It reduces risk without lowering expected return.

每每当公司陷入困境时，这种对金融知识匮乏的弊端就会显露。无论是在安然公司还是雷曼兄弟，许多公司员工经常将自己的大部分资金都投资在一支股票上。他们都忽略了一个最基本的金融常识：多元化的投资可以带来免费的午餐，因为这减少了投资的风险但是并没降低预期的回报。

College is an investment with a great return. The gap between the wages of college graduates and those with only high school diplomas is now large by historical standards. If those college grads are going to manage their earnings intelligently, they need to study the fundamentals of financial decision making.

大学是一项有很大回报的投资。大学毕业生与只有高中文凭的人之间的工资差别目前主要是由他们不同的教育经历产生的。如果大学毕业们想通过他们所学的知识来改变他们的收入，他们就需要学习一些关于金融决策方面的基础知识。

LEARN SOME PSYCHOLOGY Economists like me often pretend that people are rational. That is, with mathematical precision, people are assumed to do the best they can to achieve their goals.

学一点心理学 像我这样的经济学家经常假设人们都是理智的。也就是说，根据精确的数学推算，人们被假定可以以他们最好的方式来实现他们的目标。

For many purposes, this approach is useful. But it is only one way to view human behavior. A bit of psychology is a useful antidote to an excess of classical economics. It reveals flaws in human rationality, including your own.

这个方法对于许多目的是有效地。但是这是观察人类行为的唯一方式。心理学是对古典经济学的矫正剂。心理学揭露了人类理性上的缺点，当然也包括你自己。

This is one lesson I failed to heed when I was in college. I never took a single psychology course as an undergrad. But after the birth of behavioral economics, which infuses psychology into economics, I remedied that mistake. Several years ago, as a Harvard faculty member, I audited an introductory psychology course taught by Steven Pinker. I don’t know if it made me a better economist. But it has surely made me a more humble one, and, I suspect, a better human being as well.

我在大学时，忽略了心理学这一课程。知道大学毕业，我从未参加过一门心理学方面的课程。但是自从产生了心理经济学，他把心理学融合到了经济学当中，我修正了这个错误：几年前，做为一名哈佛大学的教职工，我旁听了Steven Pinker 的心理学入门课程。我不知道我是否因此变成了一名更好的经济学家，但是可以肯定的是，这使我更加谦逊，更好的做人。

IGNORE ADVICE AS YOU SEE FIT Adults of all stripes have advice for the college-bound. Those leaving home and starting their freshman year should listen to it, consider it, reflect on it but ultimately follow their own instincts and passions.

The one certain thing about the future is that it is far from certain. I don’t know what emerging industries will be attracting college graduates four years from now, and neither does anyone else. The next generation will shape its own economy, as the young Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg shaped ours. Those now packing up their clothes, buying textbooks and meeting roommates hold the future in their hands. Every year, when I look out over my 700 eager freshmen on that first day of class, the view gives me optimism about the path ahead.

当你下定决心后，就不要受外界干扰。对于大学，大人们都各自有自己的建议。对于那些正离开家开始他们大学生的新生们，应该听取，考虑并且思考这些建议，但是最终要跟随自己的本能和热情。

对于未来唯一能确定下来的事情就是它的不确定性。从现在开始未来的四年，我不知道大学生会被那些新型的行业所吸引。下一代人会塑造他们自己的经济，正如