個體的人既是一切又什麼都不是，這是一個巨大的悖論。在我們自己看來，我們就是一切，例如，我們的生命終止了，對我們而言，全世界也就消失了。因此對大多數人（以及其他物種）而言，失去生命 是最糟糕的事情，因此儘量擁有最好的生活就是無比重要的。但是， 如果從自然的視角俯視自身，我們顯然又是毫無分量的。現實是，今天的每個人都只是約70 億人類中的一員，而人類又只是地球上約1000 萬物種中的一個。地球只是銀河系約1 000 億顆行星中的一顆， 而全宇宙有約2 萬億個星系。人的壽命只是人類歷史的約1/40 000， 而人類歷史又只是地球歷史的約1/50 000。換言之，我們渺小、短命 得不可思議，無論取得什麼樣的成就，其影響都是微不足道的。同 時，我們又本能地希望有意義，希望進化，而我們只能產生一丁點兒意義。所有這些一點點的意義加起來，才是宇宙進化的推動力。
問題是我們有多重要，以及如何進化。我們對其他人重要嗎？ （他們和我們一樣，從宏大的視角來看也不重要。）我們是否在某種更大的、我們永遠無法真正理解的意義上重要？還是說，我們重不重要這個問題根本不重要，所以我們應該忘掉它，及時行樂？
It is a great paradox that individually we are simultaneously everything and nothing. Through our own eyes, we are everything—e.g., when we die, the whole world disappears. So to most people (and to other species) dying is the worst thing possible, and it is of paramount importance that we have the best life possible. However, when we look down on ourselves through the eyes of nature we are of absolutely no significance. It is a reality that each one of us is only one of about seven billion of our species alive today and that our species is only one of about ten million species on our planet. Earth is just one of about 100 billion planets in our galaxy, which is just one of about two trillion galaxies in the universe. And our lifetimes are only about 1/3,000 of humanity’s existence, which itself is only 1/20,000 of the Earth’s existence. In other words, we are unbelievably tiny and short-lived and no matter what we accomplish, our impact will be insignificant. At the same time, we instinctually want to matter and to evolve, and we can matter a tiny bit—and it’s all those tiny bits that add up to drive the evolution of the universe.
The question is how we matter and evolve. Do we matter to others (who also don’t matter in the grand scope of things) or in some greater sense that we will never actually achieve? Or does it not matter if we matter so we should forget about the question and just enjoy our lives while they last?
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《每日原則》為瑞·達利歐(Ray Dalio) 原創，
《原則》團隊翻譯，歡迎分享，轉載請註明出處。