原文：https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-figure-out-what-I-really-want-to-do-with-my-life-after-college
第二次尝试翻译，虽然稍微改变了一下风格，但还是很死板，还请多指教。
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How can I figure out what I really want to do with my life after college?
我怎样弄明白大学之后我真正想要的是什么？
So I graduated from college a few month ago and landed a job in software development... it's not bad, it coincided with my computer engineering degree, and so that was good to get a job right out of college....
几个月前我从大学毕业，在一家软件开发公司找到了工作……工作并不赖，和我的计算机工程学位切合，同样，一毕业就找到工作是件很好的事情……
But Idk, it just seems like it's not something I want to do for the rest of my life..... I mean it's not like slavery or anything, but I just don't find it thrilling anymore.... I mean I used to code for fun and do pure mathematics for fun by myself.... I guess coding 8 hours straight a day really sucks it out of you.
但我不知道，这看起来就像是一些我不想用余生去做的事情……我的意思是这不是奴隶制或是别的什么东西，但我发现它不再是激动人心的事情了……我从前编程和做纯数学都是为了有趣……我觉得每天直挺挺地编程八个小时实在会让人恶心到吐。
Recently I've been looking at other fields, like psychology, sociology, leadership, education, or politics (more notably the life-path of Barack Obama as inspiration), not really in the commercial aspects of things for material gain or "ooo look at me I make 100k/year".
最近我开始看向别的领域，像是心理学，社会学，领导力，教育，或者政治（尤其是把奥巴马的生命历程作为激励），而不是在这样的商业领域上为了物质积累或者是“哦哦哦，看我每年都能赚50万美元！”
Ik I'm in my early twenties and all.... but I'm just feeling like after I graduated, I feel like I'm doing something that I might not wanna do anymore, but I really don't know what to do anymore with my life. It's definitely not the long-commute 9-5 in a cubicle, but it seems like college prepped me for a life track thats hard to get off after getting a degree, and I don't know where to start to reconcile this.
我现在二十出头……但是我感觉才毕业我就已经在做一些我也许不想再做的事情了，但我真的不知道今后到底要做些什么，但绝对不是在朝九晚五的小隔间中。大学似乎为我准备了毕业之后就难以改变的人生轨迹，而我不知道从何开始去调解这个。
Any answers/advice (for me or for others wanting similar answers to similar problems) is greatly appreciated.
非常感谢任何回答或者建议（给我，或是给拥有相似问题的人们）
Answer by Oliver Emberton（https://www.quora.com/Oliver-Emberton）
Time to grow up and give yourself a better childhood. Let me explain, via Bill Gates the Potato Farmer.
是时候长大并且给你自己一个更好的童年了。让我解释一下，假设比尔盖茨是个种土豆的农民。
You know how anyone can be anything they want, right? Well, they can’t.
你知道任何人都可以成为他们想成为的人，对吗？好吧，其实他们不可以。
Had Bill Gates been born in a different time – or just a different town – he might have spent his days as an illiterate peasant scooping up potatoes with his hands.
假如比尔盖茨出生在一个完全不同的时间——或者仅仅是不同的城镇——他也许就是个成天徒手挖土豆的大字不识的农民一个。
Your circumstances matter. Bill’s real childhood had what mattered most: the opportunity to stumble upon what he was born to do, and to go completely bananas doing it.
你周围的环境十分关键。比尔盖茨真正的童年有着至关重要的因素：一个机缘让他偶然发现了他天生注定要做的事情，并且充满激情地做这件事。
Few are so lucky, but there’s still hope for the rest of us.
很少人这么幸运，但对于我们来说还有希望。
Kids are geniuses
孩子是天才
We rarely prize people for acting like a child. The world is forever telling us to “grow up” and “take responsibility”, as if anything else is a bug in the system. On the contrary – childish behaviour can be quite brilliant.
我们很少称赞人们因为他们表现的像个孩子。这个世界永远在告诉我们“成长”和“负责”，就好像其他东西都是这个系统里的缺陷一样。恰恰相反，孩子气的行为可以是非常智慧的。
• Kids try many things. Stupid things, like eating soil or rollerskating on ice. But they’re fearless and relentless.
• 孩子尝试许多事情。愚蠢的事情，就像是吃土或者是在冰上滑旱冰。但是他们无畏并且不放弃。
• Kids don’t know what they don’t know. So they question everything.
• 孩子不知道他们不知道什么。所以他们对一切都充满疑问。
• Kids are easily bored. They live in fantasy worlds because present reality is limiting.
• 孩子很容易感到厌烦。他们生活在幻想的世界中，因为现实是限制性的。
Such behaviour is spectacularly good at figuring out the world and your part in it. Acting like a kid is a brilliant way to explore your boundaries and deduce your strengths. Ideally, your childhood is when you stumble upon your passions, leaving your adult years to focus on them.
像这样的行为是非常有利于发掘这个世界和你在世界中的位置。像孩子一样行动是个智慧的方法去探索你的极限并且推断出你的长处。理想的情况下，在童年时期你偶然发现了自己的热情，并将成年时期专注于它们。
Unfortunately many of us – like Bill the Potato Farmer – aren’t so lucky. The good news is, modern life gives you more chances than ever to fix that.
很不幸的是，大多数人——就像那个称为土豆农夫的比尔——没有那么幸运。好消息是，比起过去，现代生活给了你更多的机会去修正。
Grown-up children
长大的孩子
Childlike behaviour is generally frowned upon as an adult.
成年人孩子气的行为通常不被认可。
The great advantage of being an adult is you can direct yourself. Children don’t have the freedom or the awareness to steer their own development. Maybe your childhood wasn’t what it could have been – but you can fix it now:
作为成年人最大的优势在于你可以指挥你自己。孩子不会拥有自由或者意识去引导自己的发展。也许你的童年不是它本应该的模样——但你现在可以修正它：
• Play. The first time baby John Lennon picked up a guitar, I doubt he seriously ran a cost benefit analysis. If you’re trying something out, don’t be in too much of a hurry to take it seriously. Aim to simply enjoy. The effort will come if the passion is there.
• 玩。还是婴儿的John Lennon第一次拿起吉他，我怀疑他是否认真严肃地进行了成本收益分析。如果你正在尝试一些事情，不要过于着急将它看作很重大的事情。目的仅仅是享受。如果热情还在那，你自然会投入努力。
• Get reckless. If you really don’t know what you want to do, you’re going to have to try things you haven’t done yet. And you’re going to fail – a lot – trying many different things, most of which won’t work. Kids find this a lot easier because they don’t worry about consequences. I encourage you to do the same. If it helps, make it a proud part of your identity: you’re making a point out of fearlessly trying as many things as possible, you sexy roguish daredevil you.
• 无所顾忌。如果你真的不知道自己想要做什么，那就去尝试你还没有做过的事情吧。你肯定会失败——很多次——在尝试许多不同的事情上，你做不来大多数事情。孩子看待失败更简单，因为他们不用担心结果。我鼓励你也像孩子一样。如果成功了，让它成为你骄傲的一部分吧：你决心无所畏惧地尝试尽可能多的事情，这个性感的、顽皮的而又胆大的你。
• Question everything. You know how everyone knew the world was flat until it wasn’t? You have similarly limiting beliefs in your head right now – probably things like “artists can’t earn a living” or “I’m not smart enough to do this”. Maybe, but have you checked? Have you tried – really tried, like a gun is pointed at your kneecaps – to find an alternative? Most really successful people didn’t just find a way, they created one.
• 质疑所有。你知道在知道它不是之前，每个人都以为世界是平的吗？现在你的脑子里正拥有着相似的受限的想法——也许是像“艺术家不能养活自己”或者“我不够聪明去做这件事情”。也许真是这样，但是你确认过了吗？你尝试过——真的尝试过，像一把指着你膝盖的枪——让你另谋出路那样？大多数真正成功的人并不仅仅是找到出路，他们创造一条路。
• Ignore reality. You know how kids always dream of becoming astronauts, pop stars and giant transforming robots? Barriers don’t apply when you’re five years old. And whilst that seems like a stupid habit that you'd be wise to grow out of, if you’re not sure what you want to do, don’t be in such a hurry to shut your dreams down. Explore the impossible. Often it doesn’t lead to exactly what you’re after (say walking on the moon) but it finds something else instead (like a love of science that starts a whole career). You can’t know this in advance. Just dare to follow where your heart takes you.
• 忽略现实。你知道孩子怎么总是梦想着成为宇航员、流行明星和变形金刚吗？当你只有五岁的时候，阻碍并不存在。虽然做梦看起来是个愚蠢的习惯，你似乎应该成长起来摆脱它。但如果你不确定你要做些什么，请不要急急忙忙地否定你的梦想。探索不可能吧。通常它不会准确地引导你到达你想去的那条道路（像是在月球上行走），但是它会找到其他的一些道路（像是对科学的爱开启了整个事业）。你事先无法知道。那就勇敢地追随你的心吧。
Chances are, even if you don’t know what you want, that your childhood at least left you some hints. Are there things you think of fondly, but never find the time for? Start there.
很有可能的是，即使你不知道你想要什么，至少你的童年留给你一些提示。有什么你觉得有兴趣的，但却从来没有找到时间去做的事情吗？那就从那里开始吧。
The great solace you have is that – by virtue of reading this – you automatically have better options than potato farmer Bill. Access to the entirety of human knowledge (The Google) for one. Better economics for another. And more freedom than most of your grandparents could ever conceive of.
你所拥有的最大的安慰就是——通过阅读这个——你自然拥有比土豆农夫比尔更好的选择。比如连接整个人类的智慧（谷歌）。更好的经济条件。还有你祖父母难以想象的更多的自由。
Now get outside and play.
所以现在出门玩耍吧。
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找到一篇更成熟的翻译：http://www.shanbay.com/footprints/article/2158/
