The Top of My Todo List
In this 2012 essay, Paul Graham reflects on the five biggest regrets of the dying, as compiled by a palliative care nurse. He recognizes the pattern of errors of omission—mistakes made by default. To avoid them, he inverts the regrets into five commands: don't ignore your dreams; don't work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy. He places these at the top of his todo list as a daily reminder. The piece is brief and personal, emphasizing the importance of deliberate living.
April 2012
A palliative care nurse called Bronnie Ware made a list of the biggest regrets of the dying. Her list seems plausible. I could see myself — can see myself — making at least 4 of these 5 mistakes.
2012年4月
一位名叫布朗妮·韦尔的姑息治疗护士整理了一份临终者最大的遗憾清单。这份清单看起来很有道理。我能看到自己——或者说已经看到自己——至少会犯这5个错误中的4个。
If you had to compress them into a single piece of advice, it might be: don't be a cog. The 5 regrets paint a portrait of post-industrial man, who shrinks himself into a shape that fits his circumstances, then turns dutifully till he stops.
如果要把这些遗憾压缩成一条建议，那可能就是：不要当齿轮。这五大遗憾描绘了后工业社会的人的画像：他们把自己压缩成适应环境的形状，然后尽职尽责地转动，直到停止。
The alarming thing is, the mistakes that produce these regrets are all errors of omission. You forget your dreams, ignore your family, suppress your feelings, neglect your friends, and forget to be happy. Errors of omission are a particularly dangerous type of mistake, because you make them by default.
令人警醒的是，造成这些遗憾的错误都是过失性错误。你忘记了自己的梦想，忽视了家人，压抑了感受，冷落了朋友，忘记了快乐。过失性错误是一种特别危险的行为，因为你会在不知不觉中犯下它们。
I would like to avoid making these mistakes. But how do you avoid mistakes you make by default? Ideally you transform your life so it has other defaults. But it may not be possible to do that completely. As long as these mistakes happen by default, you probably have to be reminded not to make them. So I inverted the 5 regrets, yielding a list of 5 commands:
Don't ignore your dreams; don't work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy.
which I then put at the top of the file I use as a todo list.
我想避免犯这些错误。但如何避免那些不知不觉就会犯下的错误呢？理想的情况是彻底改变你的生活，让它有其他默认模式。但完全做到这一点可能并不现实。只要这些错误还在潜移默化地发生，你可能就需要被提醒不要犯它们。所以我将这五大遗憾反过来，得出了五条指令：
不要忽视自己的梦想；不要过度工作；说出你的想法；培养友谊；开心一点。
然后我把它放在了我用作待办事项列表的文件的最顶端。