Of course, we are often satisfied with the same things – relationships, careers, etc.—but when that is the case, it is typically because we are getting new enjoyments from the new dimensions of these things.

当然我们经常会因为同样的事情而感到满足：人际关系，事业等等。但一般那也是因为我们从这些东西中获得新角度，得到了新的愉悦体验。

It is natural that it should be this way—i.e., that our lives are not satisfied by obtaining our goals rather than by striving for them—because of the law of diminishing returns.For example, suppose making a lot of money is your goal and suppose you make enough so that making more has no marginal utility. Then it would be foolish to continue to have making money be your goal. People who acquire things beyond their usefulness not only will derive little or no marginal gains from these acquisitions, but they also will experience negative consequences, as with any form of gluttony. So, because of the law of diminishing returns, it is only natural that seeking something new, or seeking new depths of something old, is required to bring us satisfaction.

自然规律就是如此，我们不会满足于实现一个个梦想，而是享受这个追梦的过程，这是基于收益递减原理的。举个例子，假设你的梦想是赚钱，而当你赚够了，再赚更多早就没有边际效益了，若此时的梦想要还是赚钱就很傻。超过使用边际后还不断获取，是难有回报，甚至没有回报的，还会产生譬如贪婪这种负面的结果。根据收益递减原理，我们很自然地会想要寻求新鲜事物或探索已存在事物的新层次，这样我们才能获得满足。

The marginal benefits of moving from a shortage to an abundance of anything decline.

从缺少到富足，边际效益逐渐递减。

In other words, the sequence of 1) seeking new things (goals); 2) working and learning in the process of pursuing these goals; 3) obtaining these goals; and 4) then doing this over and over again is thepersonal evolutionary processthat fulfills most of us and moves society forward.

也就是说，1）寻求新目标；2）在追寻目标的过程中工作与学习；3）实现目标；4）反复这个过程。这是个人进化过程，是我们甚至社会前进的方式。

I believe that pursuing self-interest in harmony with the laws of the universe and contributing toevolution is universally rewarded, and what I call “good.” Look at all species in action: they areconstantly pursuing their own interests and helping evolution in a symbiotic way, with most of them not even knowing that their self-serving behaviors are contributing to evolution. Like the hyenas attacking the wildebeest, successful people might not even know if or how their pursuit of self-interest helps evolution, but it typically does.

我认为，在遵循宇宙规律，在有利于进化的基础上追寻个人目标，就会获得奖赏，我就会认为这是好的事情。看看所有现存的物种吧：它们不断维护自身利益，同其它生物共生进化，却不知道它们这种自利行为也推动了进化。像我提到的土狼袭击羚羊，成功人士可能不知道自己追逐自身利益的同时帮助了进化，可事实就是如此。

When pursuing self-interest is in conflict with evolution, it is typically punished.

追求个人私利是同进化相冲突的，一般会受到惩罚。

Self-interest and society’s interests are generally symbiotic: more than anything else, it is pursuit of self-interest that motivates people to push themselves to do the difficult things that benefit them and that contribute to society. In return, society rewards those who give it what it wants. That is why how much money people have earned is a rough measure of how much they gave society what it wanted—NOT how much they desired to make money. Look at what caused people to make a lot of money and you will see that usually it is in proportion to their production of what the society wanted and largely unrelated to their desire to make money. There are many people who have made a lot of money who never made making a lot of money their primary goal. Instead, they simply engaged in the work that they were doing, produced what society wanted, and got rich doing it. And there are many people who really wanted to make a lot of money but never produced what the society wanted and they didn’t make a lot of money. In other words, there is an excellent correlation between giving society what it wants and making money, and almost no correlation between the desire to make money and how much money one makes. I know that this is true for me—i.e., I never worked to make a lot of money, and if I had I would have stopped ages ago because of the law of diminishing returns. I know that the same is true for all the successful, healthy (i.e., non-obsessed) people I know.

自身利益和社会利益是相互共生的。追逐自身利益，会激励人们接受挑战，获得益处，推动社会有效发展。反过来，社会也会回馈那些推动其有效发展的个体。所以评判对社会有效贡献的粗略标准是赚了多少钱，而不是有多想要赚钱。看看是什么促使人们赚钱，你就会发现，这同他们对社会的有效生产值成正相关，同他们想赚钱的欲望程度无关。不少盆满钵赢的人都没把赚钱当做首要目标，他们只是认真工作，生产社会需要的东西，就逐渐变得富有了。也有不少人天天想赚一大笔钱，但从没按社会需求进行生产，就没怎么赚钱。也就是说，提供社会所需同赚钱之间的关系甚是紧密，而赚钱的欲望强烈程度则与之没什么关系。至少对我确实如此，我工作从不为赚大钱，要是如此的话，按收益递减原理，我早就没工作了，因为钱早赚够了。我认识的成功且健康（未对金钱痴迷）的人都是如此。

Of course, there are many people who give society what it wants but are paid poorly. This is explained by the law of supply and demand.

当然也有不少人生产了社会所需但没有获得丰厚回报，供应与需求规则可以解释这种现象。

I do know some successful people who are obsessed with making money despite making money having little or no marginal benefit for them.

我就认识有些成功人士痴迷于赚钱，尽管再赚钱对他们也几乎没什么边际效益了。

This process of productive adaptation—i.e., the process of seeking, obtaining, and pursuing new goals— does not just pertain to how individuals and society move forward. It is equally relevant when dealing with setbacks, which are inevitable. That is why many people who have had setbacks that seemed devastating at the time ended up as happy as (or even happier than) they were before, once they successfully adapted to them. The faster that one appropriately adapts, the better. As Darwin described, adaptation—i.e., adjusting appropriately to changes in one’s circumstances—is a big part of the evolutionary process, and it is rewarded. That is why some of the most successful people are typically those who see the changing landscape and identify how to best adapt to it.

这个过程叫有效适应，也就是寻求、获得、追寻新目标的过程。它不仅和个体与社会进步相关，也同样与挫败相关，挫败是难以避免的。所以有人面对看似灾难性的挫折后，一旦成功适应了，就和以前一样开心，甚至更开心。适应越快，效果越好。达尔文说，适应就是对个体环境的变化进行适当调整。这是进化过程中很重要的一部分，适应过程能带来回馈。所以大多数成功人士能很快觉察到大环境的变化，并迅速以最佳方式适应。

Darwin is reported to have said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

达尔文自传曾说过：在大自然的历史长河中，能够存活下来的物种，既不是那些最强壮的，也不是那些智力最高的，而是那些最能适应环境变化的。

Your ability to see the changing landscape and adapt is more a function of your perceptive and reasoning abilities than your ability to learn and process quickly.

能感受到大环境的变化并进行适应是一种能力，主要是洞察力和推理能力，这比快速学习与处理的能力更能发挥作用。

So,it seems to me that desires to evolve are universal and so are symbiotic relationships that lead to the evolution of the whole to occur via the pursuit of individuals’ self-interests. However, what differentiates man from other species is man’s greater ability to learn. Because we can learn, we can evolve more and faster than other species.

想进化是很正常的，追逐个人利益时，与社会的共生关系会推动整个社会进化，这也是很普遍的。人类与别的物种的不同之处在于人类善于学习。我们会学习，所以我们比别的物种进化得快。