Why did this sentence touch the 20-year-old Jobs? When we understand how this sentence came out from the back cover of the Whole Earth Catalogue, we may have our own judgment.
This can be traced back to Stewart Brand, the founder and editor-in-chief of this magazine.
1966, it was Stuart Brand who launched the "Whole Earth" campaign, which prompted NASA to publish photos of the Earth taken in space, and let mankind know for the first time what the planet we live in really looks like.
Brand described his original intention of making the back cover in poetic language:
Later, we got space photos of the earth. These photos were taken on a satellite. We can see the whole day of the earth, from sunrise to sunset. I put the photos in that order, and I want to express a connection. On the one hand, the shadow of the sun moves on the surface of the earth, on the other hand, people experience it on the earth at the same time, and they see the sunrise.
"The picture in my mind is that a rover stands on the unknown road at sunrise, the sun rises and the train whizzes past. The young man's mood is so free, he is a little hungry, and he knows very well that he knows nothing about the road ahead.
After reading such words, I don't know if you will suddenly think of a poet in the Tang Dynasty like me. This poem written by him is very suitable for Stuart Brand's words. This poem says;
No one can see the ancient wisdom of the ancient king, only those wise men who can't see the afterlife can see it.
Only the boundless universe, boundless, can't stop the tears full of sadness.
Undoubtedly, vagrants and poets are exploring and expecting something. They are all talking to themselves in the clearing.
The difference is that the wanderer has the hope of fascination and self-confidence, while the poet can only cry and make a sound that has never been fair.
Why do you say that? We know that the name of the poet who wrote this poem is Chen Ziang, and the popularity of this poem can be listed in the top ten of Tang poetry. But its spread benefited from the poet's good friend Lu Zangyong.
After Chen Ziang's death, Lu Zangyong helped him organize his poems and wrote a biography for Chen Ziang. The background of this poem is described in Biography of Chen Ziang. It turned out that when I was an official in the imperial court, I just caught up with the Qidan uprising, and the king of Jian' an County was in command and accompanied me.
Jibei, the news of the rout ahead keeps coming. Chen Ziang volunteered for three transgressions and four times, willing to take 10,000 men as strikers against the Khitan. Wu Youyi disagreed and continued to do paperwork.
Chen Ziang boarded Jibei Building, recalling the past when Yan Zhaowang built Huang Jintai here during the Warring States Period to recruit talents and talents. He wrote several poems, and then cried and sang, including "Where are those lost years in front of me?" .
With this writing background, we have reason to believe that the "new person" and "ancient person" mentioned in the poem have different meanings, not just people who are earlier and later than me in simple time sequence.
The "ancients" here refers neither to all the ancients nor to ancient heroes, but to ancient saints and monarchs. Chen Ziang's real sorrow is that he didn't meet a wise leader. Although the world is big, no one knows himself, and there is no place to display his talents and ambitions.
So, "where are the future generations behind me?" Not the person born after me, but the monarch who is equally wise now after the ancient monarch. The whole poem actually means why can't I meet such a wise and hungry monarch in history?
In this way, "I miss heaven and earth, there is no limit, there is no end, I am alone, and my tears fall" is a very natural way to express my true feelings. The more talented, the more lonely.
Although Chen Ziang is actually complaining that heroes are useless, once a poem is written, it will go beyond an instant and it will have its own life. Different readers can use their own interpretation to pour a heart block. That's totally fine. We don't need to say that anyone's interpretation is unreasonable, so they are happy.
Just like Steve Jobs's Stay Hungry and Stay Stupid, everyone can have their own interpretation of this sentence. Whether you are talking about not forgetting your active thinking or your empty cup mentality, this is a good interpretation. It is important that we gain strength from our own deduction, and sinking is boring.
The rising path of ancient intellectuals in China was very narrow, and they were bound by morality, so they often had no choice but to panic. Facing the vast world, most of them show a sense of powerlessness. Nowadays, the road to roaming youth is quite broad. He pursues curiosity, even if he doesn't know what lies ahead, but I don't understand it, so he asks, preparing to approach the future he wants step by step.