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What are the darkest secrets of elite universities such as Yale,Princeton or Strandford?世界顶级名校里(耶鲁，普林斯顿，斯坦福等)最黑暗的秘密是什么？

原Po如下:

每日美版知乎一问！Your daily Quora feed

答案&草翻

December 2011,

Stanford University.

2011年12月

斯坦福大学

It was 3:30am and I was walking back home from my lab. In my head I was trying to figure out how I was going to plan the rest of my day after a couple of hours of sleep because I had an assignment due that night and still had a part of the problem set remaining.

那是凌晨三点半，我从实验室回家。我脑子里想的都是要怎么在仅仅几小时的睡眠后安排我剩下的一天，因为我有一个晚上DDL的任务和一个问题的部分未解决。

As I was walking by the Oval, I saw a bike lying on the side of the road. I was quite surprised because nobody leaves bikes like that on campus due to thefts. I went to see what was going on and there was a guy sitting a few feet away on the lawn sobbing and a girl trying to console him.

正当我在椭圆坛边上走的时候，我看见一辆单车躺在路的边上。我非常惊讶。因为由于担心被盗，一般没人会把车那样留在那里。 我过去看看发生了什么事，发现有个男的坐在离草坪几步远的地方抽泣，边上还有个女孩在努力安慰他。我停了下来问他们怎么了，有没有我能帮上忙的。

Without even batting an eye, she looks at me and says “It’s fine. Duck Syndrome.” I nodded and went on my way.

女孩甚至没多眨一下眼睛，看着我说:没事，水鸭综合症罢了。我点了点头接着走自己的路了。

In retrospect, this is the DARKEST and SCARIEST part of studying at Stanford.

回想起来，这恐怕就是在斯坦福学习最黑暗和最令人害怕的部分了。

The Stanford Duck Syndrome is named so because like ducks, at the surface we appear to be gliding peacefully along the lake, happy, without a care in the world; but below the surface, our little duck feet and thrashing and paddling violently with everything we’ve got to keep us afloat and take us where we want to go.

水鸭综合症之所以叫水鸭综合症，是因为像水鸭一样，表面上，我们这群人在湖上安详地凫水，怡然自得，好像世上没啥值得我们操心的。但在水面下，我们的小鸭掌正费劲全力扑棱扑棱地凫水，抓住一切能让我们漂浮起和带我们去我们想去的地方的东西。

Being excessively workaholic is the norm. Being busy to the point where your physical and mental well being takes a hit is glorified. I am personally guilty of this. I routinely and consistently slept for 3–4 hours a night during grad school and was very proud of it. It meant that I was keeping myself busy and making the most of my opportunity. Most students who attend these universities have already achieved some form of excellence in their lives. They have all been the big fish in smaller ponds. Now they are all in this gigantic pond and each one wants to prove to themselves and to everyone around them that they are still the top dog.

在这里做一个疯狂的工作狂是常态。忙碌到你的身体和心理健康都快承受不住的程度反而是光荣的。我个人对此很有罪恶感。在研究生期间，我经常性的每天晚上只睡3-4个小时，并且为此感到非常自豪。这意味着我在努力让自己忙起来，充分利用所有机会。大多数在这些大学就读的学生已经在他们的生活中取得了某种形式的卓越。他们都是小池塘里的大鱼。现在，他们都在这个巨大的池塘里，每个人都想向自己和周围的人证明，他们仍然是最厉害的高手。

At the surface, there is an overwhelming sense of positivity, happiness and zeal among every student on campus. All you hear are words of encouragement and a sense of mission and drive. NOBODY will admit to the deep and dark horrors that are a part of journey because doing so makes you seem weak. It makes you vulnerable. This is without doubt Stanford’s darkest and most well known secret that will never be accepted or acknowledged.

从表面上看，校园里的每个学生都有一种势不可挡的积极性、幸福感和热情。你听到的都是鼓励的话语，以及感受到的都是一种使命感和动力。没有人会承认那些属于旅途一部分的——藏身幽暗深处的恐惧，因为这样做会让你显得软弱。它让你脆弱。这无疑是斯坦福最黑暗、最广为人知，却从来不被接受和承认的秘密。

This spills over into our personal and professional lives very frequently. It is considered “normal” for a Stanford Grad to be that way; in fact, it’s odd if he/she isn’t. Personally, I’ve slowly started realizing that there’s more to life than that and in the last one year, I’ve started taking steps to achieve more of a balance. I’m not there yet, but I’m trying. I want to redefine my “normal” and hopefully I’ll get there some day. After all, there’s more to life than winning. There’s also, living.

这经常影响到我们的个人和职业生活。一个斯坦福大学的毕业生理所当然地被认为就是这样，这样才正常。事实上，如果他/她不是，那还反而奇怪。就我个人而言，我慢慢地意识到生活中还有比这更重要的东西，在过去的一年里，我开始采取措施来达到更多的平衡。我还没做到，但我正在努力。我想重新定义我的“正常”，希望有一天我能做到。毕竟，人生不仅仅是胜利。还有,生活。

What I think:

作为一个普通本科的大学生，虽说无法体验到和那些霸霸们一样程度的焦虑，但焦虑的本质，估计也是一样的。

熬夜通宵工作，意味着忙，忙给我安全感，让我觉得自己是一个有用的人，或者，自己至少是在做正事，是在学习，在进步。无数个假想敌也在努力，你怎么能允许自己比他们差？

不过看来大家都是水鸭综合症患者。

看起来都毫不费力，好像左右逢源，十八般武艺样样精通，实际上底下凫水凫得要死要活。看看当代大学生的防脱产品购买量就知道了。

可是生活除了这该死的胜负欲，不该还有点其他东西吗？偶尔做一条院里晒晒太阳的狗，也有自在之处吧。

别总把生活活成一条跑道。