Drop out 退学

Jobs quickly became bored with college. He liked being at Reed, just not taking the required classes. 乔布斯很快厌倦了大学生活。他喜欢待在里德学院，只是不想去上那些必修课。

In fact he was surprised when he found out that, for all of its hippie aura, there were strict course requirements. 实际上，他惊讶地发现，尽管里德学院有着嬉皮士的氛围，但也有非常严格的课程要求，

When Wozniak came to visit, Jobs waved his schedule at him and complained, 沃兹来访的时候，乔布斯挥舞着自己的课程表抱怨说：

"They are making me take all these courses." Woz replied, "Yes, that's what they do in college." “学校强迫我上这么多课程。”沃兹回答：“是的，大学就是这样的，他们会给你指定一些课程。”

Jobs refused to go to the classes he was assigned and instead went to the ones he wanted, 乔布斯拒绝去上那些必修课，而是去上自己感兴趣的课，

such as a dance class where he could enjoy both the creativity and the chance to meet girls. 比如舞蹈课，在那里他既可以享受艺术，还有机会见到女孩子。

"I would never have refused to take the courses you were supposed to, that's a difference in our personality," Wozniak marveled. “我绝不会不去上必修课，这就是我们性格上的差异。”沃兹尼亚克感到十分诧异。

Jobs also began to feel guilty, he later said, about spending so much of his parents' money on an education that did not seem worthwhile. 乔布斯后来说，把父母的钱花在了根本不值那么多钱的教育上，他也开始有负罪感。

"All of my working-class parents' savings¹ were being spent on my college tuition," he recounted in a famous commencement address at Stanford. “我那工薪阶层的父母省下来的钱全花在学费上了，”他在那场著名的斯坦福大学毕业典礼演讲中提到，

"I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. “我不知道自己想要千什么，也不知道大学能如何帮我搞清楚自己的人生目标。

And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. 但我却在花着父母的毕生积蓄。

So I decided² to drop out and trust that it would all work out okay." 所以我决定退学，我也相信，一切都会顺利。”

He didn't actually want to leave Reed; he just wanted to quit paying tuition and taking classes that didn't interest him. 他并不是真的想离开里德学院，他只是不想再付学费，也不想再去上那些提不起他兴趣的课程了。

Remarkably³, Reed tolerated that. "He had a very inquiring mind that was enormously attractive," said the dean of students, Jack⁴ Dudman. 惊人的是，校方竟然容忍了这一切。“他有一颗渴求知识的心，这很让人感兴趣，”教导主任杰克·达德曼（Jack Dixdman)说，

"He refused to accept automatically received truths, and he wanted to examine everything himself." “他拒绝不动脑筋地接受事实，任何事情他都要亲自检验。”

Dudman allowed Jobs to audit⁵ classes and stay with friends in the dorms even after he stopped paying tuition. 即使在乔布斯停止交学费之后，达德曼还是允许他旁听课程，并且可以继续待在宿舍和朋友们在一起。

"The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting," he said. “我一退学，就不用去上那些我不感兴趣的必修课了，我可以去上那些看起来有意思的课。”他说。

Among them was a calligraphy⁶ class that appealed to him after he saw posters on campus that were beautifully drawn⁷. 这其中有一门书法课非常吸引他，因为他注意到校园里的大多数海报都画得很漂亮。

"I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. “我学到了衬线字体和无衬线字体，怎样在不同的字母组合间调整其间距，以及怎样作出完美的版面设计。

It was beautiful, historical, artistically⁸ subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating." 这其中所蕴涵的美、历史意味和艺术精妙之处是科学无法捕捉的，这让我陶醉。”

It was yet another example of Jobs consciously positioning himself at the intersection⁹ of the arts and technology. 这也再一次证明，乔布斯总是有意识地将自己置身于艺术与科技的交汇处。