“俄罗斯方块”人生
    Your Life Is Tetris1. Stop Playing It like Chess
  人生如戏，如果把这个“戏”解读为“游戏”，你首先会想到哪种游戏？跳马困住对方的象，杀卒削弱对手的右翼，把对手逼进死角……这是象棋，黑子与白子对弈，非赢即输；重复下落的方块，毫无赢的可能，唯一变化的是方块出现和下落的速度……这是俄罗斯方块。这两种游戏到底哪种更像你的人生？
  1. Tetris： 俄罗斯方块。
  2. perseverance： 耐性；critical thinking： 批判性思考；crucial： 关键性的；tackle： 处理。
  3. wire： v. 把……联入。
  4. knight： （国际象棋中的）马；bishop： （国际象棋中的）象。
  5. pawn： （国际象棋中的）兵，卒。
  6. checkmate： 将死。
  7. introduce： 引进。
  8. versus： 与……相对。
  9. 每一局比赛都是零和博弈――总分只有一分，要么打平，要么独吞。zero sum： 零和的，指一方得益与另一方受损相当。
  10. 利益无法扩大。
  11. utility： 效用。
  12. flip phone： 翻盖手机。
  13. snapchat： “阅后即焚”，由斯坦福大学两位学生开发的一款照片分享应用，用户将照片发送给好友后，这些照片会根据用户所预先设定的时间按时自动销毁。
  14. boredom： 无聊。
  15. addicted： 上瘾的。
  16. incarnate： 化身的。
  17. representation： 代表。
  18. opponent： 对手。
  19. mindset： 思维模式。
  20. hold back： 阻止。
  21. 这个游戏的思维模式是内在的意念集中――你在挑战自己，把一连串随机输入正确转变为有序的结构组成。internally： 内在地；manipulate： 操纵，控制；random： 随机的；configuration： 结构，布局。
  22. assign： 分配，把……归咎于。
  23. infinity： 无穷大。
  24. stake： 赌注。
  25. public rating： 公众评级。
  26. run out of： 用完。
  27. fatigue： 疲惫。
  28. algorithm： 算法；optimal： 最佳的。
  29. simultaneously： 同时地。
  30. compromised： 妥协的。
  31. prescription： 对策，解决方法。
  32. constraint： 限制；dumb luck： 不费多少心思和力气得来的好运。
  33. identical： 完全相同的。
  34. fool into： 骗（某人）做……。
  35. predetermined： 预先确定的。
  36. hard-wired：（生理和心理特征）固有的，根深蒂固的；causality： 因果关系。
  37. one in a billion： 极稀有的人或事。
  38. predictable： 可预见的。
  39. 我们的生命是个开放的系统，很多难以察觉的事物会改变我们的观点和看法。any number of： 许多；unobservable： 难以察觉的；outlook： 人生观； perspective： 观点。
  40. calculable： 可计算的。
  41. tip over：（使）倒翻； resignation： 投降，其动词原形为resign，意为“（象棋中的）投降”。
  42. tournament： 锦标赛。
  43. millennium： 一千年，复数为millennia。
  44. void： 空白。
  45. metric： 衡量标准。
  46. uncompromising： 不妥协的。
get over you
  47. set out to： 打算做。
  48. persevere at： 锲而不舍（做某事）。
  From the age of seven， I played chess constantly and competitively. I played in school， online， at national competitions. Chess taught me patience， perseverance， critical thinking―crucial skills for tackling life’s hard problems and difficult situations.2
  Chess wired3 me to think causally at a young age. Move your knight here； you’ll trap his bishop.4 Capture that pawn5； you’ll weaken his right side. Every correct move led me closer to a checkmate6； every false step brought me closer to defeat.Chess also introduced7 the idea of the “other”. Black versus8 white. Our school versus theirs. And ever
y game was zero sum―there was only ever one point to score， either to be shared or taken in its entirety.9 No way to grow the pie.10    　I played chess seriously until the age of 15， around the time I got my first cell phone. The cell phone was a significant mark of freedom for a teenager， even though it lacked real utility11. I remember it well―a small flip phone12 with a color screen. I carried it everywhere with me as a symbol of my independence. My phone couldn’t access the internet or send a Snapchat13， but I found it could kill boredom14 with its one included game： Tetris. And I became addicted15.
  Tetris， to some， is frustration incarnate16. It’s repetitive！ It’s impossible to win！ It’s driven by luck！ But to me， it became the truest representation17 of life there is. In comparison， chess is just a silly war game. I don’t play chess competitively anymore. But to this day， Tetris is the only game on my phone. It sits on the front page of my apps， a constant reminder that life is Tetris， not chess. I’ll make this distinction clear in four simple points. Maybe you’ve been playing the game wrong too.
  1. In life， your only opponent18 is yourself.
  I grew up looking for opponents―people to fight， people to blame， people to prove wrong. I imagined enemies when there were none because fighting was easy. I treated everything like it was zero-sum when there was so much else to gain. That’s the chess mindset19. And it holds you back20.
  In Tetris， you’re only playing against time and the never-ending flow of pieces from top to bottom. The mindset is internally focused―you are challenging yourself to correctly manipulate a random stream of inputs into an orderly configuration.21 There’s no final boss. No blame to assign22.
  The real game of life is completely internal. There really are no big， bad enemies who exist to make you suffer. There is no absolute right or wrong move that a certain opponent can punish. And your score can increase to infinity23， if you just push yourself harder. Your life score can increase slowly or quickly， depending on how hard you push yourself.
  2. In life， things don’t get harder―they just get faster.
  Some games get harder the longer you play， including chess. Positions get more complicated， opponents become more challenging， the stakes24 increase. You have a public rating25， and thus more to lose when you play the same opponents.