1.他是一個好奇心極其強烈的人。

以下是他的原話：

When I was a kid, I thought a lot about what made me different from the other kids. I don't think I was smarter than them and I certainly wasn't more talented. And I definitely can't claim I was a harder worker — I've never worked particularly hard, I've always just tried doing things I find fun.

當(dāng)我還是個小孩的時候,，我就在思考為什么我與其他孩子不一樣。我不認(rèn)為我比他們更聰明,，當(dāng)然也不是更有才能,。而且我也不敢說我更勤奮——我從來沒有非常努力地工作過，我只是總?cè)プ瞿切┪矣X得很有意思的事情,。

Instead, what I concluded was that I was more curious— but not because I had been born that way. If you watch little kids, they areintensely curious, always exploring and trying to figure out how things work. 

我最終得到的結(jié)論是我比其他孩子有更多的好奇心——但這可不是因為我天生如此,。如果你去看那些小孩子，他們都極其好奇,，總是在探索,，試圖弄明白事情的原理。

The problem is that school drives all that curiosity out. Instead of letting youexplore things for yourself, it tells you that you have to read these particular books and answer these particular questions. And if you try to dosomething else instead, you'll get in trouble. Very few people's curiosity can survive that. 

可問題在于學(xué)校扼殺了這所有的好奇心,。因為它不僅不讓你自己去探索事情,，還告訴你必須要讀那些特定的教科書，回答那些特定的問題,。而你如果嘗試做其他的事情,，你就會陷入麻煩,。在這個過程中很少有人的好奇心能存活下來。

But, due to some accident, mine did. I kept being curious andjust followed my curiosity. First I got interested in computers, which led meto get interested in the Internet, which led me to get interested in building online news sites, which led me to get interested in standards (like RSS), which led me to get interested in copyright reform (since Creative Commons wanted to use similar standards). And on and on. 

但意外的是我成功了,。我依然保持好奇而且跟隨著我的好奇心,。最初我是對電腦感興趣，這讓我對互聯(lián)網(wǎng)產(chǎn)生了興趣,，進(jìn)而我開始喜歡建網(wǎng)站,，這又讓我對一些諸如RSS的規(guī)范產(chǎn)生興趣，然后我又對版權(quán)改革感興趣了（因為Creative Commons 想采用類似的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)）,。就這樣不斷持續(xù)下去,。

Curiosity builds on itself —each new thing you learn about has all sorts of different parts and connections, which you then want to learn more about. Pretty soon you're interested in more and more and more, until almost everything seems interesting. And when that's the case, learning becomes really easy — you want to learn about almost everything, since it all seems really interesting.

好奇心本身就是正反饋。你學(xué)到的每件新事情都有各種各樣的聯(lián)系,，這讓你想要學(xué)習(xí)更多,。很快你就對越來越多的事情感興趣，直到幾乎所有事情都看起來很有趣,。這時學(xué)習(xí)就變得很簡單——你幾乎想學(xué)習(xí)一切,，因為它們真的很有趣。

I'm convinced that the people we call smart are just people who somehow got a head start on this process. I fell like the only thing I've really done is followed my curiosity wherever it led, even if that meant crazy things like leaving school or not taking a "real" job. This isn't easy — my parents are still upset with me that I dropped out of school — but it's always worked for me.

我堅信所謂的聰明人只是不知怎么在這條路上走的更早,。我覺得我唯一的成功就是跟隨我的好奇心，即使那意味著一些瘋狂的事情比如退學(xué)或者沒有真正意義上的工作,。做到這些并不容易——我父母現(xiàn)在還對我輟學(xué)的事情感到失望——但這個法則對我一直有效,。

2.他是一個內(nèi)向的，但非常善于向其他人學(xué)習(xí)的人,。

以下是他朋友的回憶

Aaron was quiet and introspective. He was an active listener.

Aaron不太愛說話,，習(xí)慣審視自己。他是一個善于傾聽的人,。

He was very smart but never made me feel bad for not being as smart as him. He was patient in explaining things to me. He was creative -- in talking with him, I'd usually get a great idea I had not considered.

他非常聰明,，但是從不會讓我因為沒他那么聰明而感覺不爽。 他給我解釋東西的時候很耐心,。他很有創(chuàng)造力——和他談話我經(jīng)常想到之前沒考慮過的主意,。

He was kind and thoughtful. He thought about the consequences of whatever we were talking about. He had a subversive side, but it had a purpose.

他很友善，考慮周到,。無論我們討論什么,，他都會考慮結(jié)果。他有顛覆性的一面,，不過是有目的的,。

Despite being outspoken, he was introverted -- most of our interactions were because I wrote to him. He had great follow through. Always wrote back.

他雖然健談，但也很內(nèi)向,。我們大部分的交流都是因為我給他發(fā)信息,。他總是很好地回復(fù)我,。

I did favors for him whenever I could. Not because he ever asked me for help, but because talking with him inspired me and made me want to help any way I could.

我總是盡可能地幫他，但這不是因為他請求我?guī)兔?，而是因為和他談話能夠鼓舞我,，使我想盡力提供幫助。

He was very, very sharp and I think this was because he really used to listen very thoughtfully to what other people said.

他的思維非常非常敏捷,，我想這是因為他真的十分認(rèn)真地聽其他人說話,。

I met him twice at the same conference a few years back. He was a bit away from the crowd and not too social although most people did know him at the event.

我?guī)啄昵霸谝粋€大會上見過他兩次。他有點遠(yuǎn)離人群,，不太喜歡社交,。盡管在場的大多數(shù)人都認(rèn)識他。

3. 他因為編程而年少成名,，然而二十歲之后志向已不在編程,。