我在论坛上看到过一句话，这个世界并不会在意你的自尊，而是要求你在自我感觉良好之前先有所成就。说得很好。于是有心去用Google搜了一把，发现原来出自于Bill Gates，是他在一个毕业典礼上的演讲，给青年学生的11条忠告。诸如：“生活是不公平的，你要去适应”等等。仔细看了看，发现内容很不错。说得也都是金玉良言。
问题在于
1。金玉良言谁都会说，让我给我也能给出很多，虽然我自己过得也不怎么样；
2。我的直觉告诉我这应该不是Bill Gates说的。别问我为什么，我也不知道为什么，但是我真的感觉不像是Bill Gates说的。
Google中文的搜寻结果全部告诉我说，是，这是Bill Gates的话，而且还说是墨西哥一家报纸首先披露的，这个让我感觉更有问题。于是乎我决定用英文来搜搜看。我输入Bill Gates, Life is not fair然后出来了一系列结果，基本上都是说Bill Gates在一个什么什么high school give speech的内容，也是这11点，不过是英文版的而已。
然而，呵呵，终于让我发现了这个网站，证明了我的观点：这并不是Bill Gates的话，而是别人以讹传讹，最后形成了现在这个版本。这个网站的介绍里面说，成立的宗旨就是为了能够控制传播那种chain mail，我不知道怎么翻这个词，“链式垃圾邮件”？就是我转给你，你再转给他这种，或者说八卦邮件吧。
在这个页面上的评论也很犀利。“我们总是觉得，似乎名人给的建议总是更有价值。据说，全美最讨厌的、当然也是最富有的家伙，在一个高中的典礼上给了这份没sense的建议。”这份资料其实是一个叫做Charles J. Sykes的作家。我用Google再次查了关于这位Mr. Sykes和Life is not fair的话。原来，这位老先生写了一本批评美国教育的书，叫做Dumbing down our kids : Why America’s children feel good about themselves but can’t read, write, or add。应该是类似于我们这边倡导素质教育的书吧，这11条内容是从这本书里摘出来的。关于这个内容，可以看看这几个网页。
http://hobbes.ncsa.uiuc.edu/lifesnotfair.html
http://www.conservativeforum.org/authquot.asp?ID=1289
在搜索Charles J. Sykes的时候，又发现了这个网页，一样地、甚至更加详细地分析了这件事情。
网络让我们获得信息更加容易，不过，还是要相信直觉，以及，充分地利用Google：）
附上这11条忠告，还是值得一读的。
Love him or hate him-he hit the nail on the head.
Bill Gates recently dished out this advice at a high school speech about 11 things not taught in school. This was in the context of our politically correct feel-good culture and how it is failing to prepare young people for the real world.
Rule 1. Life is not fair-get used to it!
Rule 2. The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3. You will not make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone-until you earn both.
Rule 4. If you think your teacher is tough-wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.
Rule 5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a word for burger flipping-they called it opportunity.
Rule 6. If you mess up-it’s not your parent’s fault-so don’t whine about your mistakes-learn from them.
Rule 7. Before your were born-your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills-cleaning your clothes-and listening about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents’ generation-try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8. Your school may have done away with winners and losers-but life has not. In some schools they have done away with failing grades and they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.
Rule 9. Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers and Christmas break off-and few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10. Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11. Be nice to nerds-chances are you’ll end up working for one.
