Financial Management: Character Development 财务管理：性格发展
Some say: “Character determines destiny.” How is personality formed? What factors determine it? Is it genetic or acquired? Anyway, personality should not be determined by blood type, zodiac sign, or fortune-telling. These are all superstitions, although it is said that superstitions also have their benefits.
有人说：“性格决定命运。人格是如何形成的？哪些因素决定了它？是遗传的还是后天的？无论如何，性格不应该由血型、星座或算命来决定。这些都是迷信，虽然据说迷信也有其好处。
In my opinion, a person’s character is determined by their values. The so-called values are actually a person’s thought system for distinguishing right from wrong.
在我看来，一个人的性格是由他们的价值观决定的。所谓价值观，其实是一个人辨别是非的思维体系。
Aesthetic ability allows us to distinguish beauty from ugliness, while values let us distinguish good from bad. Therefore, just as aesthetic ability can affect the quality of life, values determine a person’s character.
审美能力使我们能够区分美与丑，而价值观使我们能够区分好与坏。因此，正如审美能力会影响生活质量一样，价值观也决定了一个人的性格。
Everyone has their own values, so everyone has their own system to distinguish right from wrong, and this affects every choice. Therefore, values influence choices, choices influence actions, and actions shape destiny. So, I can’t disagree with the phrase, “A person’s destiny is determined by their character.”
每个人都有自己的价值观，所以每个人都有自己的系统来区分是非，这影响着每一个选择。因此，价值观影响选择，选择影响行动，行动塑造命运。所以，我不能不同意这句话，“一个人的命运是由他们的性格决定的。
Personality may seem to be genetic, but more often, it is because the parents’ personality is an important part of a child’s upbringing. Therefore, personality should be cultivated, not inherited. Although the environment has a great influence on the formation of personality, in reality, a person’s character can detach from environmental influence, or at least partially.
性格似乎是遗传的，但更多时候，这是因为父母的性格是孩子成长的重要组成部分。因此，人格应该是培养的，而不是遗传的。虽然环境对人格的形成有很大的影响，但实际上，一个人的性格可以脱离环境的影响，或者至少部分脱离。
I myself was born into a family where both parents were hot-tempered, but in the end, my temperament is not aggressive. I bought a car very late, probably around 2010. I often drove friends around, and after a while, they would exclaim, “I never expected you to have such a good temper when driving!” I often found it amusing and confounding- wasn’t my temper normally good? They usually explained, “Come to think of it, we really haven’t seen you lose your temper over the years… But based on how you work, you should be a hot-tempered person, so that’s why we’re surprised.”
我自己出生在一个父母都脾气暴躁的家庭，但说到底，我的气质并不咄咄逼人。我买车很晚，大概在2010年左右。我经常开车带朋友到处走走，过了一会儿，他们就会惊呼：“没想到你开车的时候脾气这么好！我经常觉得这很有趣，也很困惑——我的脾气平时不是很好吗？他们通常会解释说，“想想看，这些年来我们真的没有看到你发脾气……但根据你的工作方式，你应该是一个脾气暴躁的人，所以这就是我们感到惊讶的原因。
I don’t have road rage. Overtaking me, cutting me off, none of it makes me upset. Occasionally, if a car behind me is continuously honking, my reaction is to brake, pull over, light a cigarette, let the person behind who keeps grumbling pass, and then continue driving. Once, I was waiting at a traffic light, and suddenly a motorcycle bumped into me. My friend sitting in the passenger seat and I were both startled. The young man on the motorcycle was very nervous, repeatedly saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” I rolled down the window and asked him, “Are you okay?” The young man replied, “I’m fine, but your car…” I said, “If you’re fine, why are you still here? I have insurance, do you?” The young man thought for a moment, turned his head, and drove away. My friend was surprised again, saying, “How can you be so calm?” I said jokingly, “Is being upset of any use?”
我没有路怒症。超越我，切断我，这一切都没有让我难过。偶尔，如果我身后的车不停地按喇叭，我的反应是刹车，靠边停车，点一支烟，让后面不断抱怨的人通过，然后继续开车。有一次，我在红绿灯前等车，突然一辆摩托车撞到了我。坐在副驾驶座上的朋友和我都吓了一跳。摩托车上的年轻人很紧张，连连说：“对不起，对不起……”我摇下车窗问他：“你还好吗？年轻人回答说：“我很好，但是你的车……”我说：“如果你没事，你为什么还在这里？我有保险，你呢？年轻人想了一会儿，转过头，开车走了。我的朋友又吃了一惊，说：“你怎么能这么冷静？我开玩笑地说：“生气有什么用吗？
Doing useless things also comes from a value judgment – because doing something useless is a waste and is not good. Being agitated is useless; being calm has many benefits – at the very least, it doesn’t affect one’s mood or that of the people around, right?
做无用的事情也来自于价值判断——因为做无用的事情是一种浪费，不好。激动是没有用的;保持冷静有很多好处——至少，它不会影响一个人或周围人的情绪，对吧？
However, if I had been driving the same car and encountered the same situation in my early 20s, the reaction might have been completely different, because my character was not like it is now.
但是，如果我在20岁出头的时候开着同一辆车，遇到同样的情况，反应可能会完全不同，因为我的性格不像现在这样。
What has happened these years? Anyway, my blood type definitely has not changed, nor has my zodiac sign, nor my fortune-telling. The reasonable explanation can only be: over these years, my learning and thinking have gradually condensed into different values from the past.
这些年发生了什么？不管怎么说，我的血型肯定没有变，我的星座也没有变，算命也没有变。合理的解释只能是：这些年来，我的学习和思考已经逐渐凝结成与过去不同的价值观。
I often self-reflect. Looking back now, the period that has had the greatest impact on my character, from my personal experience, was the two years I spent writing “Treating Time as a Friend” starting in 2007. Through this long writing process – during which a manuscript was lost, and I had to start over from memory – I meticulously sorted out my own values. Although many values had been set before that, that process resulted in more details being determined – and the direct result was, I was absolutely certain and without hesitation about the choices I could make for myself.
我经常自我反省。现在回想起来，从我个人的经历来看，对我的性格影响最大的时期是我从2007年开始写《把时间当作朋友》的两年时间。在漫长的写作过程中——在此期间，我丢失了一份手稿，我不得不从记忆中重新开始——我一丝不苟地整理了自己的价值观。尽管在此之前已经设定了许多值，但这个过程导致了更多细节的确定——直接的结果是，我绝对确定，毫不犹豫地为自己做出选择。
As I am not easily angered, I often contemplate why others become angry. Behind every outburst of anger, there is manipulation of values, confusion of right and wrong, good and bad, truth and falsehood – in the end, it’s all about such trivial matters. And this observation and reflection further prevents me from getting angry haphazardly – what is there to be angry about? It’s all just because of not being able to let go. What people usually refer to as “not being able to let go” is simply “confusion of values.”
Precisely because of this perspective (or “insight,” as I call it), around 20 years ago, I gave up reading all the psychology books studying personalities. I found their research to be chaotic, and the theories they came up with were ultimately useless, because their approach was wrong. I dislike ambiguous words or descriptions. For instance, I find the statement “a person’s character depends on nurturing” meaningless, as this description is unclear and not worth considering.
正是因为这种观点（或我称之为“洞察力”），大约20年前，我放弃了阅读所有研究人格的心理学书籍。我发现他们的研究是混乱的，他们提出的理论最终是无用的，因为他们的方法是错误的。我不喜欢模棱两可的词语或描述。例如，我发现“一个人的性格取决于培养”这句话毫无意义，因为这种描述不清楚，不值得考虑。
It amuses me to see many parents earnestly reprimand their children for making too much noise while eating without providing any explanation. A nation that often consumes noodles – why should they need to adopt the so-called “nurturing” of a nation that eats steak, without understanding the reasons for it? Similarly, does occasionally using foul language truly indicate a lack of character due to poor nurturing? Absolutely not, as people with confused values can be found everywhere. What influences values? I believe it is the same as what influences aesthetic judgment: knowledge.
看到许多家长认真地训斥他们的孩子在吃饭时发出太大的声音，而没有提供任何解释，这让我感到很有趣。一个经常吃面条的国家——他们为什么要采用一个吃牛排的国家的所谓“养育”，而不了解其中的原因？同样，偶尔使用粗言秽语是否真的表明由于教养不善而缺乏品格？绝对不是，因为价值观混乱的人随处可见。是什么影响了价值观？我相信这与影响审美判断的因素是一样的：知识。
The advantage of this era is that knowledge is relatively easy to obtain, and it’s becoming increasingly accessible. Reading is becoming cheaper – it’s no longer a privilege of the nobility as in the past. Although formal education systems certainly have many issues, compulsory education has indeed become widespread. People are discussing issues more openly, and those with a healthy curiosity can investigate matters more readily – if they can understand English and have access to Google, the possibilities are boundless.
这个时代的优势是知识相对容易获得，而且越来越容易获得。阅读变得越来越便宜——它不再像过去那样是贵族的特权。尽管正规教育制度确实存在许多问题，但义务教育确实已经普及。人们正在更公开地讨论问题，而那些具有健康好奇心的人可以更容易地调查问题——如果他们能听懂英语并能访问谷歌，那么可能性是无限的。
Understanding what a “double-blind study” is (this is knowledge) prevents one from becoming a fan of traditional Chinese medicine (this is the result), and also avoids getting involved in various arguments about traditional Chinese medicine (this is a value, knowing that the choice is yours, not someone else’s), even if being criticized, one knows why, and therefore cannot become angry (this is character), and is thus more inclined to not waste time, and rather engage in other meaningful activities (this is a further result).
了解什么是“双盲研究”（这是知识）可以防止一个人成为中医的粉丝（这是结果），也可以避免卷入关于中医的各种争论（这是一种价值观，知道选择权在你自己，而不是别人的），即使被批评，也知道为什么，因此不会生气（这就是性格）， 因此更倾向于不浪费时间，而是从事其他有意义的活动（这是进一步的结果）。
Subsequently, I believe this is crucial: ultimately, a person’s character is the result of long-term self-accumulated choices. Understanding this, one can be completely reassured in one aspect again.
因此，我认为这是至关重要的：归根结底，一个人的性格是长期自我积累选择的结果。了解了这一点，人们可以在某个方面再次完全放心。
Originally posted 2024-04-06 11:12:33.