Summer Reading 2020 with Bill Gates
跟著比爾蓋茲一起讀書－－2020 年夏日閱讀書單
During the shutdown, I had extra time to read. Here are five books that I highly recommend.
封城期間，我有更多時間可以閱讀。以下是五本我非常推薦的書。
The Choice by Dr. Edith Eger. It's a hell of a story. The woman was a 16-year-old girl in Auschwitz. She eventually does survive, and gets out, and moves to Texas, and becomes this inspirational therapist. And half the book is her story; half of it's how she helps other people. When somebody traumatizes you, the way you think about yourself, and your happiness, and how you relate to the world... You can't control being a victim, but you can control your victimhood. It's kinda a hopeful story, but it's a very tough story.
Edith Eger 的《抉擇》。這是個很了不得的故事。作者是一名奧斯威辛集中營的 16 歲少女。她最終活下來並逃了出去，搬到德克薩斯，成為一位鼓舞人心的治療師。書中一半內容是作者在敘述她的生平故事；另一半則是在講述她如何幫助他人。當你因為別人而心靈受創，你日後看待自己的方式、你快樂起來的方式、以及你如何理解這個世界...你無法控制自己成為受害者，但你可以控制自己「自視為受害者」（victimhood）的心理狀態。這是個充滿希望的故事，但也同時是個很坎坷的故事。
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. It's such an unusual book, and it's clever. You go through six different epochs in history where you have people making moral choices, where you see how self-centered and bad people can be and how supportive and good people can be. You really do feel he captures these different worlds. It's a grand story about human nature, enduring human values.
David Mitchell 的《雲圖》。這是本非常獨特的書，構思非常巧妙。能讓你跟著故事發展穿越六個不同時期，看見人們如何做出道德抉擇，你會看見人性最自私卑劣的一面，但同時也能看見人性最溫柔善良的一面。你會感受到作者真的非常善於描繪這種極端的差異。這是本刻劃人性的巨作，同時也描述人類長久以來的價值觀。
The Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger. It's hard to overstate how demoralized and messed up Disney was. Things weren't in great shape when they got rid of Eisner. And I do consider it brilliant of Iger that in an age where networks are not important and you're gonna have to go direct-to-consumer, that you've gotta have a critical mass of the greatest content. He did a really good job of explaining what the job of the CEO is.
Bob Iger 的《一生的旅程（暫譯）》。你可能無法想像迪士尼過去曾多麼一蹶不振、多麼混亂。Eisner 卸任執行長一職時，迪士尼其實狀況一團糟。我認為 Iger 表現得非常出色，當年還是個不看重網際網路的時代，必須直接面對消費者，所以你必須有足夠的優秀產品內容。他清楚地闡述了執行長該擔負起什麼責任。
The Great Influenza by John Barry. He explains how infections work and how the immune system works. The 1918 Spanish flu is the first world epidemic, where it basically hits the entire world at the same time. The world was faced with this challenge. They tried to come up with drugs or therapeutics. None of those efforts were successful. Distancing and masks and seeing who's coughing—that was all they had. If you read this, you will understand a lot.
John Barry 的《大流感》。他解釋了感染是怎麼一回事、免疫系統如何運作。1918 年的西班牙流感是史上頭一遭的世界性傳染病，全世界所有國家幾乎同時被這個疾病侵襲。當時的世界面臨這樣的挑戰。大家試著要找出解藥或治療方法。但都沒有成功。維持社交距離、戴口罩、確認咳嗽的來源－－當時他們只能這麼做。如果你讀了這本書，就會對此瞭解更多。
Good Economics for Hard Times by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. This is the most important book of the group because it really is about what do we know in the field of economics that can take the current divisions and try and do better. It's global but it's mostly about the U.S. But it's addressing the big issues of the day about people in depressed areas. How can we be so rich and so many people feel a lack of purpose? Why aren't we better with economic knowledge of creating more opportunities? If you wanna solve these problems, there's a lot still to learn.
Abhijit Banerjee 和 Esther Duflo 的《困難時期的好經濟學（暫譯）》。這是五本書中最重要的一本，因為這就是在談論人類如何利用經濟學知識面對現有分歧，並改善處境。這本書適用於全球經濟狀況，不過大部分是在談論美國。作者也指出了現今經濟蕭條區人民經濟上的大問題。為什麼我們這麼富裕，卻也有許多人感到毫無目標？為什麼我們擁有經濟學知識，卻無法創造更多工作機會？如果你也想要解決這些問題，需要學的還很多。
I found all these books really interesting, and I hope you do also.
我覺得這五本書都很有趣，希望你們也這麼覺得。
