| Bill Gates’ High School Speech..good one Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a high school about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept sets them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice president with a car phone until you earn both. Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity. Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault; so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you “FIND YOURSELF”. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television and video games are NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs. Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one. | 
所謂的「比爾蓋茲給高中生的11個建議」
事情是這樣的。
大概一兩年前，我在商業週刊看到了一個短專欄，說是比爾蓋茲在某次的高中生畢業演講中，給高中生的11個建議。我看了很有感覺，所以把專欄剪下來，放在我的辦公室內，定期拿起來看，直到有一天我把他紙回收。
其中幾條，深深的進到我的腦袋裡，在許多不同的場合以及人生的困境中，我時常拿出來勉勵自己，包括最近在朋友部落格的討論。由於那時我其實記不起來原文，所以我上了Google搜尋「bill gates boring parents」（因為父母的無趣是其中一個探討的主題），然後在瀏覽中，我發現了驚人的事實，其實這個所謂的「比爾蓋茲給高中生的11個建議」，並不是比爾蓋茲說的，而是另有其人，而其原來的版本也不是11個建議，而是50個。
雖然這些無損這十一個建議對我的影響，也無損這些建議中所傳達的人生價值，但作科學的人，能找到原始的citation，還是該作個記錄。
以下是所謂的「比爾蓋茲給高中生的11個建議」的原文：
Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a high school about 11 things they
did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good,
politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no
concept of reality and how this concept sets them up for failure in the
real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will
expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You
won’t be a vice president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents
had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault; so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they
are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your
clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were.
So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s
generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but
life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and
they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer.
This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off
and very few employers are interested in helping you “FIND YOURSELF”.
Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television and video games are NOT real life. In real life
people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.
而對於這個網路流言的解釋以及相關引用，則在這個網頁有說明：
Microsoft’s Bill Gates. Many parents and older people are likely to
agree with the ideas expressed in this set of “rules”, dubbed “11
Things Kids Will Not Learn in School”.
However, the rules were neither written nor spoken by Bill Gates, they
did not originate as a high school speech, and they are not at all
recent. In fact, the current incarnation of these rules is a somewhat
abridged version of an original piece that was penned by author Charles J. Sykes.
The full version was printed in the San Diego Union Tribune on
September 19, 1996 and in a number of other publications since then.
Sykes is the author of “Dumbing Down Our Kids”, “50 Rules Kids Won’t
Learn in School”, and several other books.
The piece has been falsely attributed to others as well as Bill Gates, including the late science fiction writer, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
References:
Some rules kids won’t learn in school
Charles J. Sykes
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr: Some Rules Kids Won’t Learn in School
其中一段我翻譯成中文：
然而，這些建議並非由比爾蓋茲所說或寫成的，也不是從對高中生的演講中摘錄的，更不是最近的事情。事實上，這是Charles J. Sykes的原作被刪減的版本，其原來的版本是在1996年9月出版。Sykes是個名作者，其最有名的作品有：”Dumbing Down Our Kids”及”50 Rules Kids Won’t Learn in School”。
這個故事是個很有趣而美麗的錯誤，我相信這個流言其實對許多人產生了正向的影響，雖然，Sykes並沒有直接享受到credit，很多卻被蓋茲坐享其成（雖然他也是無辜的）。世界還是會變好的，但是不一定以你能夠預期的方式、能夠追蹤的形式。
有關這個觀念，也請參考小弟拙作：「身教，開枝散葉」
http://www.wretch.cc/blog/sillyduck/27144841
總之，這十一個建議還是很好，但這個版本不是原作，也跟比爾蓋茲沒有關係。但仍然是個充滿人生智慧的建議。