想明白人生为什么不公平？
Why Is Life Unfair?
国庆期间，我和家人去了一个农家院度假。包括我们在内的几家客人，每到饭点，饭桌上总是摆满了丰盛的饭菜。后来我听说，负责做饭和洗碗的大姐，每天早上四点就到厨房开始忙活，一直干到晚上才回家。而且，她是从二十公里外骑车来的。
During the National Day holiday, my family and I stayed at a rural guesthouse. At every meal, our table was filled with generous dishes. I later learned that the woman who cooked and washed up began work at four each morning, worked until evening, and cycled twenty kilometers to get there.
国庆期间，我和家人去了一个农家院度假。包括我们在内的几家客人，每到饭点，饭桌上总是摆满了丰盛的饭菜。后来我听说，负责做饭和洗碗的大姐，每天早上四点就到厨房开始忙活，一直干到晚上才回家。而且，她是从二十公里外骑车来的。
During the National Day holiday, my family and I stayed at a rural guesthouse. At every meal, the tables for us and the other guests were filled with generous dishes. I later learned that the woman responsible for cooking and washing up arrived in the kitchen at four each morning, worked until evening, and then returned home. She had cycled twenty kilometers to get there.
这样的勤劳程度，我相信很多人是做不到的，但如此兢兢业业、勤劳俭朴的人，收入和生活质量却不高。
I believe few people could sustain such a level of hard work. Yet despite being conscientious, diligent, and frugal, her income and quality of life remained modest.
人和人之间的不平等是如何形成的？更多是因为家庭条件、努力、机遇还是运气？
How does inequality between people arise? Does it come mainly from family circumstances, effort, opportunity, or luck?
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有人说，人生就像是跑马拉松，坚持到最后的是赢家。不过，我最近看到古典老师的一个观点， 他说人生更像操场跑圈，没有终点，也没有起点 。你看到有人超过了你，也许他刚刚上场，精力充沛；也许他基因好，祖上几辈子都是运动员，还训练了十年。
Some people say that life is like a marathon and that whoever perseveres to the end wins. Recently, however, I came across an idea from Gu Dian: life is more like running laps around a track, with neither a finish line nor a starting line. Someone may pass you because they have only just entered the track and are full of energy. Or perhaps they have favorable genes, come from several generations of athletes, and have trained for ten years.
每个人的先天基因、家庭条件、成长环境、后天教育和发展机遇都不一样。 人与人是没法站在同一起跑线的 。
Everyone begins with different genes, family circumstances, upbringing, education, and opportunities for development. People simply cannot stand on the same starting line.
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人类社会有没有可能变得完全公平？有学者认为是不可能的，他是这样分析的。人类社会的总体演化方向是分工协作，而 分工带来的一定是不平等 。
Could human society ever become completely fair? Some scholars believe it cannot, and their reasoning is this: the overall direction of human social evolution is toward specialization and cooperation, while specialization inevitably creates inequality.
就拿生物来说，最平等的是原始单细胞生物，它们没有任何分工。而一旦单细胞生物结成了多细胞，细胞间就有了分工，平等立即消失。
Consider living organisms. The most equal are primitive single-celled organisms, which have no division of labor at all. Once single cells form a multicellular organism, however, the cells take on different roles and equality immediately disappears.
比如，我们大脑的重量只占身体重量的2%，但却消耗20%的能量。所以， 只要分工还能带来好处，人类的不平等就是趋势 。
Our brains, for example, account for only two percent of our body weight but consume twenty percent of our energy. Therefore, as long as specialization continues to bring benefits, inequality among human beings will remain the prevailing trend.
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在上大学之前，人和人的差异不是那么明显，高考是人生的第一个重大转折点，有人去了一线大城市，有人去了二三线城市；有人进了名牌大学，有人上了普通院校；有人选择了热门专业，有人则选了冷门专业。
Before university, differences between people are not always so obvious. The national college entrance examination is the first major turning point in life. Some people move to first-tier cities, while others go to smaller ones. Some enter prestigious universities, while others attend ordinary institutions. Some choose popular majors; others choose less sought-after fields.
我相信绝大部分人在当时并不能深刻意识到，即使大家成绩分数相差不多，仅仅是学校和专业的不同选择， 就 会 对自己的未来产生巨大影响 。自那之后，大家的人生轨迹就完全不一样了。
I believe that most people at that age cannot fully appreciate that even when their examination scores are similar, differences in the school and major they choose can have an enormous impact on their future. From that point onward, their paths through life may become completely different.
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雷军曾说，站在风口上，猪都能飞起来。像马云、马化腾、张朝阳、李彦宏等这一代互联网创业者，都是站在了时代的风口上，他们的成功有赖于时代给予的机遇。
Lei Jun once said that when you stand in the path of a strong wind, even a pig can fly. Entrepreneurs such as Jack Ma, Pony Ma, Charles Zhang, and Robin Li belonged to a generation that caught the great wave of the internet. Their success depended in part on the opportunities their era provided.
机遇对命运的影响是巨大的，但机遇是相对公平的 。在相同机遇下，那些勤奋、好学、有能力、思维开放、敢于尝试的人更容易抓住。
Opportunities can have an enormous impact on our fate, but they are relatively fair. Faced with the same opportunity, people who are diligent, eager to learn, capable, open-minded, and willing to try are more likely to seize it.
机遇就像是外界机会的偶然敞开，而运气则更像是完全不可控的随机事件。
An opportunity is like a door in the outside world opening by chance, while luck is more like a completely uncontrollable random event.
我有一个同学无意间在微博上给某位大佬留了个言，结果得到了大佬的接见，从此跟着大佬共事，事业飞速发展。我这同学确实很有能力，但运气也帮了他一把，让他遇到了生命中的贵人。
A former classmate once happened to leave a comment for an influential figure on Weibo. He was invited to meet that person and went on to work with him, after which his career advanced rapidly. My classmate was certainly capable, but luck also gave him a hand by bringing an important mentor into his life.
还有些人靠买房、炒股、炒数字货币暴富，也有很多人在其中巨亏，这里面有能力的差异，运气成分也很大。
Some people have become wealthy through property, stocks, or cryptocurrency, while many others have suffered heavy losses in the same markets. Differences in ability matter, but luck also plays a substantial role.
运气是不可控的，是相对不公平的 。
Luck is uncontrollable and relatively unfair.
所以，坏消息是，社会分工的存在，注定了人与人之间的不平等。好消息是， **人可以通过努力来调整自己的分工，从而减少不平等** 。
The bad news is that as long as society has a division of labor, inequality between people is inevitable. The good news is that people can reduce inequality through effort by changing their own place within that division of labor.
坏消息是，人与人的起跑线不同，机遇和运气也不同，因此人与人之间是没法比的。好消息是，人可以跟自己比， 如果只和自己比，人生就是公平的 **。
The bad news is that people begin from different starting lines and encounter different opportunities and luck, so comparing one person with another is impossible. The good news is that we can compare ourselves with who we used to be. If we compare ourselves only with ourselves, life is fair.
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未来，人与人之间是会更平等，还是更加不平等呢？你怎么看？
In the future, will people become more equal or less equal? What do you think?