人不能领略自己不理解的事物
People often say, “I don’t know what people see in this,” thinking they are naive. But what if the answer is right there, in the first clause, “I don’t know”?
大家常常纳闷：“我真是不知道其他人怎么想的”，觉得其他人单纯得很。但说不定，答案就在问句其间：我不知道。
When you see a sports car or motorcycle and say it is entirely impractical, uncomfortable, expensive, dangerous, and loud. It’s a sign you don’t understand it. You don’t understand the challenges engineers faced when building such a powerful vehicle. You can’t appreciate the ingenuity of designers who achieved such a superb design. You can not empathise with the feelings it evokes in the driver. The driving experience is as hard to explain as describing sex to a virgin.
当你面对一辆跑车或摩托车时，判定其车型不实用，内设不舒服，价格与风险齐飞，噪音共旅途一路，往往意味着你认知有限。你既不知道工程师打造高性能机车时得克服多少棘手之处，也不能领会打造出绝顶设计的工程师有多么天才，还不能共情车手的神往之处。赛车之妙难以言喻，正如性交之快难以言表。
When you read a book that is widely agreed as a masterpiece, and you say it’s crap, then with high probability, you don’t understand it. You do not understand the spirit of the culture and the historical period in which the author lived. You have missed the author’s feelings, hopes, and ideas. There are straightforward books and complex books, this may be the complex one. It may require a lot of knowledge and openness to appreciate it metaphorically. But it is not crap.
有时，你看的一本书广受好评，你却认为它就是一坨，则很有可能是你没读懂。你既不熟悉作者生活的历史时期，也不了解特定文化的精神气质，只能错过字里行间蕴藏的情感，愿景与思想。世上有浅显直白的书，也有晦涩难懂的书，你可能恰巧读的是难懂的那本。读它往往需要更为广博的知识面，更为开放的心态去领会其间隐喻。但他确实不是一坨。
至少普世意义上不是。你可能话锋一转，说：“我明白这本书在特定人群中有对某些文化现象有特别情感，但这并不妨碍我认为他对我而言就是一坨。”你对自己感受的纯粹描述当然值得尊重，但回过头来看，沟通中往往充满太多牛头不对马嘴，太多事后归因。
当大家从一般性出发讨论一个对象时，你指出一个特殊情况。你可能只是出于好意提醒。但他人未必没有考虑到，他人只是单独就一般情况讨论问题而已。而你，我的朋友，也可能没能力看出他人的意图，你迫不及待地指出特例，显得你聪明又特殊。当然，你智力正常，有自己独有的生活经验与哲学感悟，你不需要这种浅显道理的说教， 你可能只需要作为一个普通人，被提醒。
When you travel to Egypt, stand at the bottom of pyramids, and say, “I don’t know why people are so amazed by this bunch of stones,” then you don’t understand the context in which these stones were assembled. Building one pyramid involved: two million stone blocks, one hundred thousand workers, and twenty years of work. Five thousand years ago. It is marvelous where did they get these stones from; there is no stone pit in Cario. How did they transport them, organized the constructions, raised eighty tonnes of stone blocks at a high of 140m, and managed such a massive number of people without phones and walkie-talkies? Then, why did they use that workforce to build a tomb, not towns, ships, and conquer lands? Stupid or maybe farsighted?
当你旅行到埃及，站在金字塔底下，说：”真是不知道为什么会有人为一堆石头惊艳住。”这很可能因为你不知道这些石块是在何等境况下堆砌起来的。建造一个金字塔涉及诸多：二百万块石材，十万名工人，二十年艰苦劳作。
If you are a beginner programmer and join some big project, you may think, “What a mess; why have they complicated everything so much?”. It is likely that it’s not a mess but enterprise-grade software, which you need to reason upon from a very abstract point of view. You need to see design patterns like you see the simple for-each loop. Only then you can understand it thoroughly and appreciate the beauty of the machinery as a whole. It’s not a mess; the pieces you look at are the implementation of thoughtful design.
Next time you say, “I don’t know what people see in this,” think about it again, this time with a different attitude, look at it as something extraordinary, try to understand, try to appreciate. With this new attitude, you will be learning something new whatever you do, whomever you meet, wherever you go. It will save you a lot of frustration, misunderstanding, and conflicts with people of different lifestyles.
By appreciating more, you can experience the world with higher intensity. Everything and everyone becomes interesting, fascinating, and stimulating. It will become your new healthy stimulant.
The best way to appreciate something is by learning about it. Learn about people to empathize with them. Learn cultures to be above them. Learn about places to appreciate them. Practice until you find a challenge in doing it well. Try painting, playing music, writing, programming, fishing, dancing, working out, meditating, winter swimming, public speaking, etc. Practice until you understand “what people see in this”.
Areas in which I recognize the inability to appreciate are poems, classical music, paintings, cultures, architecture, athletic sports, cooking, and dancing.
What can you appreciate? What can’t you appreciate?