—— 选自Medium 网站（吉玛译）
“Books are the training weights of the mind” –Seneca
“书籍是心灵的训练砝码”——塞内卡。
The most useful definition of technology I’ve heard is, “the ability to do more with less.”
我所听到的最有用的技术定义是，“以小集多的能力”。
Books are a powerful technology.
书籍是一项强大的技术。
We only live one life, but through reading books, we can gain the wisdom from thousands. When an author writes, re-writes, and edits, they are turning their words into a more perfect version of themselves. When you read, you get to spend time in a meditative state with a wise person’s more perfect self.
生命只有一次，但通过读书，我们可以从成千上万的人那里获得智慧。一个作者撰写写、重写和编辑，他们将自己的语言转化成一个更完美的版本。当你阅读的时，你会花时间处于智者更完美的自我的冥想状态中。
Books are the most undervalued and under-appreciated technology in the world.
书籍是世界上最估值偏低和未受到充分赏识的的技术。
How do we know they’re so valuable? We need only to examine how the best and the worst people throughout history have viewed books.
我们如何知道它们有价值呢?我们只需要研究历史上最好和最坏的人是如何看待书籍的。
The worst seek to downplay, ban, or burn them. The fact that books have haters who are willing to destroy them confirms their power.
最坏的打算是贬低、禁止或烧掉它们。书中有仇恨者，甘愿毁灭它们来证明他们的力量。
The best adore books… and aren’t afraid to celebrate them.
最喜欢的书…并不忌讳称赞他们。
Like every other technology, if we use books without intentions or guides, they don’t lead anywhere.
和其他技术一样，如果我们使用没有意图或向导的书籍，它们没有任何优势。
But when we learn how to appropriately value, select, and acquire them with stakes and incentives (buy them, read them, then discuss with friends or a book club)… reading books helps us build priceless habits.
但当我们学习如何适当评价,选择,并冒险和积极的获取知识(购买、阅读,然后与朋友或读书俱乐部讨论知识)…阅读书籍帮助我们形成无价的习惯。
1. Reading books helps you build the habit of taking the right kind of nootropic
读书帮助你养成“吸食正确益智药”的习惯。
I apologize to all the modafinil lovers out there, but books have most nootropics beat. Eventually, nootropics wear off. Meanwhile, reading permanently upgrades your mind, leaving you with a lifetime of benefits. The side effects of books have been tested by time, whereas the latest nootropics? Not so much. When you get into the habit of taking a nootropic such as reading through books, the benefits compound.
我向所有的莫达非尼爱好者道歉，但是书是最有效的益智药。最终，益智药会逐渐消失，同时，阅读会永久地提升你的思维，让你终生受益。书籍的副作用通过了时间的考验，而最新的益智药呢? 并非如此。当你养成阅读书籍的习惯，你会受益多多。
“Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.” — Warren Buffett
像这样每天读500页的书。这就是知识的力量。慢慢的形成知识，利滚利。所有人都能做到，但我保证你们中有很多人不会这样做。——沃伦·巴菲特
2. Reading books helps you build the habit of upgrade your mental operating system
读书可以帮助你养成升级心理操作系统的习惯。
There are many people who never update their mental operating systems through reading. Upgrading your mental OS is an ongoing habit you have to develop, and books help you do it. So how does this mental OS update occur?
许多人从不通过阅读来升级他们的心理操作系统。升级你的心理操作系统是你必须养成的一个习惯，而书可以帮助你做到这一点。那么，这种心理操作系统是如何升级的呢?
The best books are written when the author is in a flow state. The author transmits their wisdom, muse, or insights with minimal ego. When a reader seeking wisdom moves through these words and enters their own flow state… magic happens.
最好的书是在作者处于流动状态时写的。作者用最小的自我来传达他们的智慧、灵感和洞察力。当读者通过这些词语寻求智慧并进入自己的流动状态…奇迹就发生了。
I don’t know how it works, but after enough time of reading, my mind always feels upgraded. Programming our minds by moving consciously into the flow state of another wise person is powerful.
我不知道它是怎么运作的，但经过足够的阅读时间后，我的大脑会焕然一新。通过有意识地进入另一个智者的流动状态来规划我们的思想是强有力的。
When we upgrade our mental OS, our main apps (speaking, writing, and communicating) all begin to run faster and more smoothly.
当我们升级心理操作系统时，我们的主要应用程序(说、写、交流)都开始运行得更快、更流畅
3. Reading books helps you build the habit of sitting quietly in a room alone
读书可以帮助你养成独处的习惯。
Eric Hoffer was onto something when he said that, “A man by himself is in bad company.” This might be true initially, but we can grow ourselves out of this place. It takes hard work to become good company to ourselves. But if we read books, pause for reflection, and continually improve ourselves… we can develop the habit of sitting quietly in a room alone. By reading books, we build an inessential habit, which can help fight some of the greatest human challenges of our time:
提到这个的时候，艾力·贺佛尔认为，“一个人独自是糟糕的陪伴”“最初可能是这样，但我们可以让自己走出这个地方。要付出艰苦的努力才能成为一个好的陪伴。但是如果我们读书,暂下来反思,不断提高自己…我们可以形成独自静静地坐在一个房间的习惯。通过读书，我们养成了一种不重要的习惯，它可以帮助我们战胜这个时代人类最伟大的时间挑战:
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone” — Blaise Pascal
“人类所有的问题都源于人类无法安静地坐在一个房间里”——布莱斯·帕斯卡。
4. Reading books helps you build the habit of getting direct experience
读书可以帮助你养成获得直接经验的习惯。
There are tradeoffs for everything in life, but reading a lot (of the best books) isn’t dangerous. The hunger for wisdom seems to be the only desire that we can satiate. There isn’t a risk of overindulgence. After enough reading, we become charged with good ideas and courage to go out and explore the world. Once we get fueled up on enough wisdom, we become inspired to embark on our next hero and heroine’s journey. This means we’re guaranteed to get direct experience in the real world without some technological filter.
生活中每件事都是折衷，但读很多(最好的书)并不危险。对智慧的渴望似乎是我们唯一能满足的欲望。没有过度放纵的风险。读了足够多的书，我们就会有探索这个世界的好主意和勇气。一旦我们获得足够的智慧，我们就会受到鼓舞，开始下一个我们成为英雄和女英雄的旅程。这意味着，在没有技术过滤的情况下，保证我们能够直接体验现实世界。
Binge reading books leads to a hunger for experience in the real world.
在现实世界中，大量阅读书籍会导致对经验的渴望。
5. Reading books helps you build the habit of meditation
读书可以帮助你养成冥想的习惯。
The more we read and spend time with books, the more we’re forced to practice mindfulness and meditation. Reading builds the habits of patience, calmness, and builds our ability to focus deeply on a single thing for an extended period of time.
我们读的书越多，花在书本上的时间就越多，促进我们练习正念和冥想。阅读培养了耐心、冷静的习惯，并增强了我们在一段时间内专注于一件事的能力。
6. Reading books helps you build the habit of strategic isolation
读书可以帮助你养成战略隔离的习惯。
“Sanity in this culture, requires a certain amount of alienation.” –Terence McKenna
“在这文化中，智慧需要一定的疏离感。”——特伦斯麦肯纳
Books and reading are one of the last societally acceptable reasons for being alone. If you need respite from society, there is no better strategic isolation than books. Books help keep us safe from crowds.
书籍和阅读是最后一个广泛的可接受孤独的理由之一。如果你需要从社会中得到喘息的机会，没有比读书更好的战略隔离。书籍有助于我们远离人群。
7. Reading books helps you build the habit of telling the truth
读书可以帮助你养成实话实说的习惯。
“我当然有信心，无论在什么情况下，作为作家，我都能完成我的任务——从我的坟墓，甚至是比我的一生更成功，更无可置疑。没有人能阻挡真理的道路，为了前进，我甚至准备接受死亡。但是，也许反复的教训最终会教会我们，有生之年不要停止写作。这丝毫没有影响我们的历史。”——亚历山大索尔仁尼琴
Throughout history, books have given artists and philosophers an antifragile vehicle to place truth. So what do I mean by this? There are many people who hate to think. When they hear something wise, they’ll react viscerally, or even attack the person that brought them truth. Many in society hate the idea of pursuing truth (becoming less wrong) or developing heuristics and insights about how the world works. As Leo Strauss proposed, the best secrets are often hidden inside stories and books.
纵观历史，书籍给艺术家和哲学家们提供了保护真理的工具。这是什么意思呢?有许多人讨厌思考。当他们听到一些明智的事情时，他们会发自内心地做出反应，甚至会攻击提供真相的人。许多社会人士都不喜欢追求真理的想法(越来越少的错误)，或者对世界的运作方式有所启发和见解。正如里奥·施特劳斯所提出的，最好的秘密往往隐藏在故事和书中。
Most creatives know this to be true, and know that the only way to deliver truth in a palatable way that can survive attack is a book or parable. Because the book is sold, it helps these ideas survive attack, and gives the author a chance to capture a small amount of value from his or her ideas. This is a big leap forward for humans. Throughout our history, those who make others think are usually the first to be scapegoated, ostracized, or demonized. Books give the would-be scapegoat a vehicle to place their ideas so that they can survive attack, and sometimes even spread because of the attack.
大多数的创始者都知道这是真的，并且知道唯一一种令人愉快的传递真理的方式就是一本书或寓言。因为这本书被出售了，它帮助这些思想在攻击中幸存下来，并给作者一个机会，从他或她的想法中捕捉到少量的价值。这是人类的一大进步。纵观历史，那些让别人思考的人通常是第一个被当作替罪羊、被排斥或被妖魔化的人。书籍给想要成为替罪羊的人提供了一种工具，让他们能够在攻击中幸存下来，有时甚至会因为攻击而传播开来。
The developed world has evolved in how we persecute those who bring forth truth. We went from horrible past methods of scapegoating (stoning, crucifixion) into small time scapegoating (attempting to cut off an individual’s livelihood by suing, slander, online comments, etc).
在我们迫害那些提出真理的人的过程中，世界已经得以进化了。我们从过去可怕的替罪羊(石刑，钉十字架)变成了时间的替罪羊(试图通过起诉、诽谤、在线评论等手段来切断一个人的生计)。
Technology can’t change our lives, only we can. When we take a perfect technology like books and wield them for good (by reading and applying what we learn) we’ll build habits that will change our lives, lift up those around us, or even gain the secrets necessary to create new types of perfect technology.
科技不能改变我们的生活，只有我们能改变。当我们采用像书籍这样的完美技术，并把它们运用到好的方面(通过阅读和应用我们所学到的东西)，我们就会养成一些习惯，这些习惯会改变我们的生活，提升我们周围的人，甚至获得创造新型完美技术所必需的秘密。
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