有所不为

这次回中国还去了一趟浙大，正好赶上毕业典礼。校友会的老师让我也上去讲2-3分钟。为这2-3分钟的讲话，我还真是费劲想了好多天，最后把我自己毕业近30年的体会总结了自认为最重要的3点。不过会场实在是有点乱，很难有情绪讲，有点郁闷。把这3点简化如下：

Source: http://nteswjq.blog.163.com/blog/static/126998120116250518188/

Things one does not do

> By Duan Yongping · his NetEase blog (nteswjq.blog.163.com, now closed; read from web archives) · 2011-07-25 · [Original link](http://nteswjq.blog.163.com/blog/static/126998120116250518188/) ([archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20110910060751/http://nteswjq.blog.163.com/blog/static/126998120116250518188/))

On this trip back to China I also went to Zhejiang University, just in time for the graduation ceremony. The teacher from the alumni association asked me to go up and speak for 2–3 minutes too. For those 2–3 minutes I really racked my brains for many days, and in the end I summed up what I consider the three most important points from nearly 30 years since my own graduation.

But the venue was really a bit chaotic, and it was hard to get in the mood to speak, which was a bit frustrating.

Here are the three points, simplified:

1. Have no grand ambitions: roughly, a steady, down-to-earth attitude. Our culture has a lot of the love of grandiose achievements and eagerness for quick success, and the "grand" in "no grand ambitions" is the "grand" in "grandiose achievements."

2. There are things one does not do: roughly another way of saying "do the right thing and do things right." Doing the right thing means not doing the wrong things, which is what "there are things one does not do" means.

3. Be an upright person. This is the simplest point but perhaps also the hardest. I don't know what being upright will bring you in return, but an upright person can go through life with a clear conscience.