TED演講:二十歲是不可以揮霍的光陰

That made Alex's 20s a developmental sweet spot, and we were sitting there blowing it. That was when I realized that this sort of benign neglect was a real problem, and it had real consequences, not just for Alex and her love life but for the careers and the families and the futures of twentysomethings everywhere.

更晚安定下來,應該使Alex的20多歲成為發展的黃金時段,而我們卻坐在那裡忽視這個發展的時機。從那時起我意識到這種善意的忽視確實是個問題,它不僅給Alex本身和她的感情生活帶來不良後果,而且影響到處20多歲的人的事業、家庭和未來。

There are 50 million twentysomethings in the United States right now. We're talking about 15 percent of the population, or 100 percent if you consider that no one's getting through adulthood without going through their 20s first.

現在在美國,20多歲的人有五千萬,也就是15%的人口,或者可以說所有人口,因為所有成年人都要經歷他們的20多歲。

Raise your hand if you're in your 20s. I really want to see some twentysomethings here. Oh, yay! Y'all's awesome. If you work with twentysomethings, you love a twentysomething, you're losing sleep over twentysomethings, I want to see — Okay. Awesome, twentysomethings really matter.

如果你現在20多歲,請舉手。我很想看到有20多歲的人在這裡。喔,很好。如果你和20多歲的人一起工作,你喜歡20多歲的人,你因為20多歲的人輾轉難眠,我想看到你們。很棒,看來20多歲的人確實很受重視。

So I specialize in twentysomethings because I believe that every single one of those 50 million twentysomethings deserves to know what psychologists, sociologists, neurologists and fertility specialists already know: that claiming your 20s is one of the simplest, yet most transformative, things you can do for work, for love, for your happiness, maybe even for the world.

因此我專門研究20多歲的人,因為我堅信這五千萬的20多歲的人,每一個人都應該去了解那些心理學家、社會學家、神經學家和生育專家已經知道的事實:你的20多歲是極簡單卻極具變化的時期之一。你20多歲的時光決定了你的事業、愛情、幸福甚至整個世界。

This is not my opinion. These are the facts. We know that 80 percent of life's most defining moments take place by age 35. That means that eight out of 10 of the decisions and experiences and "Aha!" moments that make your life what it is will have happened by your mid-30s.

這不是我的看法。這些是事實。我們知道80%決定你生活的時刻發生在35歲之前。這就意味著你生活的重要決定、經歷和突然的領悟,有八成是在你30多歲之前發生的。

People who are over 40, don't panic. This crowd is going to be fine, I think. We know that the first 10 years of a career has an exponential impact on how much money you're going to earn. We know that more than half of Americans are married or are living with or dating their future partner by 30.

那些超過40歲的朋友不要驚慌,我想這群人會沒事的。我們知道職業生涯的前20xx年對你將來的收入有重大影響。我們知道到了30歲的時候,超過半數的美國人會結婚或者和未來的另一半同居或者約會。