Chapter 7 Variations on a Theme II The Story of a Man Who Never Failed Because He Was Too Lazy

He was a classmate of mine at Naval Academy.Don't think of this as a space fleet; I'm talking about something that happened before humans landed on Earth's only satellite.I'm talking here of navies on water, where ships are always trying to sink each other, and victory always seems outweighed.I was too young to realize that if my ship went down, I would probably go down with it — but it wasn't my story, it was the story of a man named David Ram. In order to introduce David to you, I have to start with his teenage years.He was a man from the mountains, and even judging by the standards that were not strict at the time, he came from an area with underdeveloped social civilization.David's hometown is deep in the mountains, where eagles can often be seen catching chickens.

He was educated in a one-room rural elementary school, dropping out after the age of thirteen.He loves to read, and he works hard every hour at school.When not in school, he has to help the family with farm work.He didn't like doing it, and it was what he called "real work"—dirty, tiring, inefficient, and paid very little.What disgusted him even more was that he had to get up early for this job. The day he left school was a gray one for him; it meant he had to do "real work" all day instead of the six or seven hours he used to spend at school. easy time.On a hot summer day he plowed for fifteen hours behind a mule.He looked at the mule's butt, breathed in the dust kicked up by the mule, wiped the "real" sweat from the corners of his eyes, and felt that he hated everything more and more.

That night, he quietly left home without telling anyone.He walked the fifteen miles to the town and slept outside the post office until the lady postmaster opened it the next morning.He then joined the Navy.That night, he grew from fifteen to seventeen, meeting the minimum age requirement to join the army. Generally speaking, after a child runs away from home, his age will grow faster.Nobody found anything wrong; at that time, in that place, the birth certificate hadn't appeared yet.David was then six feet tall, broad-shouldered, muscular, and good-looking, with a grown-up appearance save for a hint of restlessness in his eyes.

Navy life suited David well.They sent him shoes and new clothes and put him on a boat to some wacky and fun places.No more mules and field dust to trouble him.Of course, the army also wants him to work, but he doesn't need to work as hard as farming in the mountains.After figuring out the ship's rules, he learned how to be lazy and satisfy his god, the sergeant. But this life was still not entirely satisfactory to him, for he still had to get up early, and often stood on guard at night, and sometimes had to scrub decks, or do some other work that did not suit his sensitive mood. Then he heard about this school that produced officers' candidates—what we called "officer candidates."David didn't care about the names; the point was that the Navy would pay for their tuition and let them sit and read.In his mind, this is a life like heaven.No need to wash the deck, and no need to be pissed off by the sergeant.King, have I bored you?No?

Very good - David was not prepared for this school, he lacked the four to five years of education required for admission.He had to study mathematics, history, languages, literature, and other subjects called sciences. It's much harder to pretend to have had four years of schooling that didn't exist than to add two years to a boy whose body was premature.Fortunately, the Navy encourages enlisted officers to become officers, so a tutoring school was created to help applicants bridge small academic gaps. David identified his situation as a "little gap"; he told the crew chief that he had simply missed his high school graduation.In a sense, that's true; he's just missing half the county, which is the distance from his home to the nearest high school.

I don't know how David got his midshipman to recommend him; David never talked about that.Anyway, David was left at Hampton Roads when his ship sailed for the Mediterranean, six weeks before tutoring school started.During this period he became a non-staff member.The personnel officer (actually the clerk under the personnel officer) arranged for him a berth and a canteen for eating, and asked him to hide in an empty classroom during the day and wait to join his classmates there six weeks later.David did as he was told; there were books in the classroom to help the students with the lessons they needed to catch up on—David needed every one of them.Avoiding the eyes of everyone, he sat down and buried himself in his studies.

That's it. After the remedial classes were concentrated, David assisted the teacher in tutoring Euclidean geometry, which is a required course and probably the most difficult one.Three months later, he swore his oath at West Point on the beautiful Hudson River and began life as a midshipman. David doesn't realize he's jumped from a frying pan into the flames; the sergeant's brutality is mildly casual compared to the veteran cadet's calculated terror against the new cadet - the "rookie" Behavior.The scariest thing is the senior students, they are the Satan in that well-organized hell.

Fortunately, David had three months to analyze the problem and come up with a solution.During these three months, the senior students participated in military exercises at sea.He thought that as long as he could persevere through the difficult nine months, the whole world would be his.So he said to himself, a cow or a woman can get through nine months, and so can I. In his mind, he divided all kinds of misfortunes that may be encountered into three types: those that must be endured, those that can be avoided, and those that should be actively sought.He had devised coping principles for each typical situation before rulers returned to school to continue bullying new students.He's prepared to stick to those principles, making minor adjustments only as circumstances change, rather than scrambling to make them ad hoc.

Ella - no, I should call you the king - sticking to your principles may sound like nothing, but it's vital if you're struggling to survive in a difficult situation.For example, his grandfather—I mean David's grandfather—had told him never to sit with his back to a door. "Son," he said to David, "you might be all right nine hundred and ninety-nine times, no enemy came in through that door. But the thousandth time—one is enough." If my own grandfather had always Had he followed this principle, he might be alive today, alive and well.He actually understood this principle better than we do, but he got it wrong only once.He was too eager to sit at the game table that time, so he sat in an empty chair with his back to the door.So he got shot.

He can still get up from his chair.Before collapsing, each of his two guns fired three times, hitting his attacker.People like us don't die so easily.But it was only a spiritual victory, and he died in the end.Before he got up from his chair, a bullet had struck him in the heart.And all because he sat down with his back to an open door. Ella, I never forgot my grandfather's words - and neither do you. I just mentioned that David studied the situation he faced and prepared corresponding countermeasures.One of the things that must be endured is dealing with endless inquiries.He knew that new students must never answer senior seniors with "I don't know", especially those in the graduating class.This kind of answer won't pass.Questions are usually of the following types: history of the school, history of the Navy, famous words in the Navy, names of team leaders, star athletes in various sports, what's the recipe for dinner, etc.None of this troubled him; the answers to these questions could be memorized.But there is one problem exception: how many seconds until graduation.For this problem, he came up with a shortcut.The habit of always looking for shortcuts served him well in later years.

"What shortcut, Lazarus?" Ok?Actually nothing.Every morning when the wake-up call sounds, first calculate how many seconds are left before graduation, use it as a base number, and subtract one number every hour after that.For example: five hours after getting up at six o'clock, subtract 18,000 seconds from the base number, and then subtract 720 seconds from that number after another 12 minutes.For another example, at noon one day, it was exactly one hundred days before graduation, let’s say on time, the time was one minute and thirteen seconds past twelve noon.Assuming graduation started at ten o'clock as usual, David would reply, "Eight million, six hundred and thirty-two thousand, seven hundred and twenty-seven seconds, sir!" The vast majority of computational work has been done ahead of time. Every day, he often looks at his watch, pretending to wait for a certain moment, but actually doing subtraction in his mind. Then he innovated again; he invented a decimal clock—not the kind you use at Secundus, but an improvement on the time-keeping method then common on Earth.At that time, the calculation method was very clumsy: twenty-four hours in a day, sixty minutes in an hour, and sixty seconds in a minute.He divided the time between the wake up signal and the lights out signal into 10,000-second segments, and then subdivided each segment into 1,000 and 100-second segments, and memorized a conversion table. You can see the advantage of this approach.For anyone—except Andy Libby, may God rest his innocent soul—subtracting ten or a thousand from a long million-level number is easy, fast It is not easy to make mistakes.But if you want to subtract 7,273 from this million-level figure, it will be much more difficult.David's new algorithm does not require borrowing when calculating the final score. For example, the 10,000th second after the wake up call is 8:46:40 AM.David made his conversion chart and memorized it—it took him less than a day; rote learning was a breeze for him.After mastering the conversion table, he can calculate when the next hundred seconds will end in the blink of an eye.But this is just an approximation, and its last two digits are always zero (you can do the math yourself if you don't believe me).Based on this approximation, two numbers are added (not subtracted) to the last two zeros to represent the time in seconds—this is the exact answer.In this way, David can count as fast as it takes to read a million-level number, and it will be correct every time. He did not explain his technique to everyone, so he was regarded by everyone as a lightning-fast calculator, a low-energy wizard, like the later slide rule Libby.In fact, he is not, he is just a child from the countryside, who has been thinking about a simple problem.But his squad leader was very dissatisfied, and decided that he was playing "smart"-meaning, the squad leader himself did not have this ability.So he ordered David to recite the logarithmic table.David didn't complain; he didn't mind doing anything but that kind of "real work."He began to memorize logarithmic tables, and he memorized twenty of them every day.This amount was set for him by the students in the graduating class, and he thought it was enough to make this "little clever" suffer a lot. After David had memorized the first six hundred logarithms, the seniors were getting tired of the game.But David memorized it for another three weeks, memorizing the first thousand values ​​on the logarithmic table, which enabled him to use interpolation to obtain 10,000 logarithmic values.Since then, he has never needed a logarithmic table.In the era when computers were not widely used, this ability was very useful. The barrage of tricky questions in itself didn't bother David very much, what did bother him was that answering questions would leave him no time to eat and possibly starve to death.So he learned to sit upright with his back straight and dignified, while quickly stuffing food into his mouth and answering the questions thrown at him at the same time.There are some questions that seem simple, but actually have hidden murderous intentions, such as, "Sir, are you a virgin? Have you ever had a hole?" If a rookie answers this question directly, he will be in trouble no matter whether he is or not.In that era, people put a lot of emphasis on being a virgin or not; I don't know why. What you have to do is give a decipherable answer; an acceptable answer to this question is: "Report sir, I am! - ears not pierced." Saying the belly button would do as well. The worst trick is to lure a rookie into giving a humble answer—and humility is a sin.For example, a graduating class might ask, "Sir, do you think I'm handsome?" An acceptable response would be, "Maybe your mother would say that, sir, but I don't." Such an answer is equally dangerous, as it might hit a senior where it hurts—but it's still safer than a humble answer.However, no matter how careful the freshman was, the seniors still punished him about once a week—without reason and without excuse.The punishment can be mild, like exercising until exhausted (David’s least favorite, it reminds him of “real work”); or brutal, like spanking.The latter may not sound like much, Ella, but I'm not talking about kids being spanked with a board.The beating tool is either the back of a sword or a polished broom head, tied to a long and heavy stick.The wielders of this murderous weapon are strong and able-bodied adults.It only takes three strokes and you'll have purple bruises and blood blisters all over your ass, excruciatingly painful. David worked very hard to avoid this kind of systematic torture from happening to him.But some seniors are abusing purely out of pathology, so no one can completely avoid such incidents unless they drop out of school.When he had to accept this punishment, David always gritted his teeth and endured the pain.If he flouted the supremacy of the senior class, he would be kicked out of school—and he was right to think so.He always reminded himself not to forget the mule's butt in his hometown, and then he endured it all. In addition, there is a bigger hidden danger that threatens his personal safety and his dream of not having "real work" in the future.One of the mysteries of the military is the requirement that future officers be good at sports.Don't ask me why; there's really no reason for it, it's just a habit. Freshmen in particular are required to participate in "sports" - there is no choice!The school has two hours of free time each day, but David can't nap or sleep in the quiet library.During these two hours, all he could do was exercise, sweaty exercise. To make matters worse, some sports were not just overly strenuous, they posed a threat to the very life David held dearest.For example, "boxing", this kind of sport has long been forgotten by the world, it is useless, it is just fighting according to certain rules.For the allotted time, the two men attack each other or until one of them loses consciousness. And "hockey," a game imitating warfare handed down from the natives of that continent.In this sport, crazy crowds wield big sticks against each other, and the goal is a small hard ball, which can be scored by hitting the ball into the goal.Its danger, that at any moment you might be disembowelled, or your bones smashed with a club, aroused the extreme disgust of our hero. There is also a sport called "water polo," in which two teams of swimmers against each other attempt to drown each other.Swimming was a compulsory subject at that school, and David swam only slightly better than necessary to avoid taking part in the sport.In fact, he is very good at swimming.At the age of seven, two of his cousins ​​threw him into a creek, and he has since learned to swim—but he deftly conceals his prowess at it. The most influential sport in the school is "rugby".The graduating class selects suitable victims from each freshman class—either they seem to be a master or they hope to be trained to be a master—and organize a team to participate in this organized violence.David had never seen such movement before--and now that he had, it filled his peaceful mind with terror. He has every reason to be afraid.The game goes like this: Two teams of eleven each stand facing each other on the playing field, each trying to send an oval ball into the opponent's goal.There are rules to the game, and profound techniques, but that's only in theory. At first glance, the sport sounds harmless and silly.Stupidity is true, no harm is false, because the rules of the game allow players to attack an opposing player who is trying to get the ball into the center of their side in various ways, the mildest of which is grabbing him and leaving him like a pile of bricks The same crashed to the ground.It was not uncommon for three or four people to attack him at the same time.Injuries that are not allowed by the rules often occur in melee, but because people are piled together, these behaviors are difficult to detect. The sport is not meant to be lethal, but it does happen sometimes.Other forms of injury are more commonplace. Unfortunately, David's physique—height, weight, eyesight, movement and reaction speed, etc.—was ideal for the sport.When the graduating students returned from the maritime military exercise, they would definitely catch him with a glance and let him "voluntarily" become one of the victims. It's time to think of a way out. The only possible way out of "rugby" is to play other sports and be accepted.He found one. Ella, do you know what "fencing" is?That's fine, so I can say whatever I want.On Earth at that time, people no longer used swords as weapons-before that, swords had been used as weapons for four thousand years.But the sword still retains its former shape, and fencing still bears the vestiges of its ancient glory.A gentleman should know how to wield a sword and... "Lazarus, what is a 'gentleman'?" What?Don't interrupt me, boy; you're confusing me. "Gentleman" is, uh- well, let's put it this way, the common definition is- oh my god, you're giving me a hard time.Some say it's a genetically inherited good quality, others say it's an accident at birth—again, genetically determined, but in contempt.But these claims do not explain what is the quality of a gentleman.A gentleman should rather be a dead lion than a living jackal.And me, I always wanted to be a living lion, so this kind of judgment is not for me.Hmm... In a serious way, it can be said that the so-called gentleman quality refers to the gradually developed moral culture of human altruism.In my opinion, this development process is really very slow; it is unreliable in emergency situations. In any case, officers in the army were of course gentlemen and carried long swords.Even pilots wear swords, and only Allah can guess why. Military cadets are not only regarded as gentlemen by everyone, but also stipulated in national laws that they are gentlemen.So they received a literacy education in how to use a sword, just enough to avoid cutting off their own fingers or stabbing the people next to them, not far from the level of wielding a sword in battle.The purpose of this education is to keep them from looking too foolish when a sword is called for. But fencing is a recognized sport, known as "fencing".It's not as highly regarded as rugby, boxing, or even water polo, but it's on the athletic schedule and freshmen can take it. David finds this an avenue of escape.By the simple laws of physics, if he's on the fencing ring, he can't be on the football field at the same time, having tyrannical, spiked-booted men trampling on him.Long before the seniors return to school, rookie Ram has made his choice to become a fencer.He never missed a day of training in the team, and he practiced very hard, making himself a player who is highly valued by the fencing team and has "good development prospects". In that era, there were three types of fencing taught in schools: saber, epee and foil.The first two sports swords are exactly the same size as real swords.The sword was a real sword, only with a blunted edge and point; such a sword could still injure, even mortally, although this was rare.The sword used in foil fencing is relatively light, unlike real swords, the blade is soft and can be bent with a little force.The swordplay and routines used in foil fencing are as non-hazardous as child's play.David chose such a "weapon". This is simply a tailor-made sport for him.The artificial rules in foil fencing require athletes to have fast reaction speed and flexible mind, which is what David is best at.The sport requires some physical strength, just not as demanding as rugby, hockey and tennis.Best of all, foil fencing doesn't have the physicality that often accompanies those nasty, savage sports that David loathes so much.David put his heart and soul into the sport to improve his technique so that his dream of a life in paradise could be guaranteed. David trained incredibly hard to protect his sanctuary.Before the first year of freshman life was over, he had already become the champion of the National Foil Rookie Competition.This made his squad leader smile at him for the first time, albeit unnaturally, as if his face had been bruised.The commander of his cadet company also noticed him for the first time and congratulated him. Success in foil even allowed him to escape some "punitive" beatings.One Friday night, just as he was about to be beaten for an out-of-the-box dereliction of duty, David said: "Sir, if you agree, I'd rather take twice as much punishment on Sunday. Tomorrow we play the Princeton freshman team. Sword, if you punish me today—I know, you can do it today—that punishment may slow me down tomorrow." The graduating student was moved.According to the principle of sacrosanctness, at any time, at any event, for any purpose, above all is to earn honor for the Navy.The so-called "everything" naturally includes the pleasure of punishing a smart new student and getting justice from it.The graduating student said: "Let's do this, boy. Report to my room after dinner on Sunday. If you lose tomorrow, you will get double the punishment. If you win, it will be written off." The next day, David won all three fights. Fencing helped him through his dangerous first year as a freshman, leaving his precious skin unscathed save for a few scars on his buttocks.Now he is safe.Although there are still three years of life in the school, only freshmen will be physically punished, and only freshmen will be forced to participate in those organized violent sports. (some content omitted) There is a sport that requires physical contact that David likes. This sport has been popular since ancient times, and David learned it in the mountain village he fled.But it's a sport played with girls and it's not tolerated at this school.The school has strict school rules prohibiting this sport, and students who are found to be in violation will be kicked out of the school without mercy. Like all geniuses, David respected the rules made by others on a pragmatic basis—breaking them when they should, and never getting caught.In order to show off, other students secretly brought girls into the barracks, or went out over the wall at night to find girls.David just quietly went about his business.Only those who know him deeply will know how hard he pursued this contact sport.The problem is that no one knows him very well. What?Female student?Didn't I explain the problem, Ella?Not only were there no female cadets there, there were no girls in the entire Navy—except for a few nurses.The most notable feature of that school was the absence of women; sentries were posted day and night to prevent women from approaching students. Don't ask me why.It's the Navy's rule, so there's no reason for it.Truth be told, all positions in the entire Navy can be filled by men or women, even castrated people - but the Navy has always been traditionally male only. Speaking of tradition, after a few years, people began to question that tradition—at first very few, and by the end of the century, just before the rout, there were women at every rank in the Navy.I'm not saying this change is what caused the crash to happen.There are obvious reasons for a rout, but I don't want to get into that right now.The change of having women in the navy has nothing to do with the rout, and may even slightly delay that inevitable event. In either case, it's not a part of this lazy man's story.During David's time at school, students could only see girls on rare occasions.In that case, there are usually very fixed occasions, strict behavioral constraints, and accompanying personnel who never leave.David didn't try to fight the school's rules, he just looked for loopholes and exploited them - he was never caught. Every rule has loopholes; every general prohibition creates an "underground worker."The Navy as a whole makes rules that cannot be enforced; individual Navy officers violate those rules, especially the odd ones about sex.The life presented to the public at work is a monk-like life, but after get off work, they live a half-hidden and extremely licentious life.At sea, you can't indulge even a little bit sexually, even if you don't hurt anyone.Once discovered, such behavior will be punished most severely.However, everyone knows that such moral violations always happen, and the penalties imposed are less lenient than they were a century ago.When it comes to sex, the Navy is really only a little more hypocritical than the society it is rooted in, in that its precepts are harsher and more difficult to enforce than society’s.The code of sexual conduct followed by the public in that era was unbelievable, Ella.But unkind demands only increase the number of transgressors, for a clear reason: every action necessarily entails an equal counteraction. That's not what I'm trying to say, I'm just saying that David found a way to make peace with the school's rules around sex without doing the crazy acts that a lot of his classmates did.I would like to add one more thing - but what I say below is only rumor: a young girl is pregnant, and the child is presumed to be David's.Although unheard of by people today, such unfortunate events were indeed prone to occur in those days.At that time - trust me! — This is a major disaster. Why?You just had to believe it was a disaster; it would take a long time to explain society back then, and besides, no civilized person would believe it.Cadets at the military academy were forbidden to marry, and according to the custom of the time, the young girl had to be married.At that time, it was almost impossible and too dangerous for her to correct this error through human intervention. In handling this matter, David showed his principle of handling things: the lesser of two evils, without hesitation.He married her. I don't know how he did it without being caught.I can imagine several ways, some are simple and therefore safe, others are complex and thus easy to detect.I guess David must have chosen the easiest way. As a result, the whole incident changed from out of control to controllable.The girl's father could have become David's enemy, and he would have denounced what David had done to the school principal, forcing David to drop out with only a few months left to graduate.But he became David's ally and accomplice.He helps David cover up the secret of his marriage so that his son-in-law can graduate and fly away with his wayward daughter. This has the added benefit that David no longer has to orchestrate the pursuit of his favorite sport.He can enjoy family life peacefully, with highly responsible people standing guard for him. As for learning in school, you might guess that someone who can complete four years of formal schooling in six weeks with unsupervised self-study would also be at the top of his class.Such accomplishments are rewarded in income and rank, and a young officer's prospects for advancement are determined by his rank at graduation. But the competition for first place is fierce, and—worse still—the top cadet is highly visible.David recognized this as a new student. "Sir, are you the savior?" Means: "Excellent grades"—that's another question with a tinge of murder; whether the freshman answers yes or no, he's in for nothing. But being number two, or tenth, is actually as useful as being number one.David also discovered something else: In school, the fourth year is three times as important as the first year, the third year is twice as important as the first year, and so on.In other words, a freshman's grades do not affect the final ranking to a large extent - only one-tenth of the weight. David decided to keep a "low profile".This is always the wisest option when a person may be targeted. At the end of the first half of the first grade, he was at the top of his class.This ranking is very safe, not only good, but also inconspicuous.By the end of his first year, he was in the top twenty-five percent of his class—a time when seniors were too focused on graduating to torture freshmen.In the second year, his grades jumped to the top ten percent of the class; in the third year, he improved his ranking by several percentage points.In the last year, the most important year, he gave it his all.In the end, he was sixth overall in four years—but actually second, because two of those ahead of him decided to leave the chain of command for technical work; lost, did not receive a commission; and one resigned after graduation. But David's elaborate planning for his place in the class hasn't really shown his aptitude for the lazy life.After all, sitting and reading is his second favorite activity.In addition, no matter what, if only the practitioners are required to have excellent memory and excellent logical reasoning ability, David can do it well without any effort. During a naval exercise at the start of fourth year, a group of David's classmates discussed what provisional rank each would receive.By then, it was pretty clear who would be selected as interim officers.Jack is sure to be captain of the cadets—unless he falls overboard.Who will be the battalion commander?Steve, or Stinky? It was said that David was on the list of candidates for battalion commander. David has been listening but not talking, that's "low profile" - it's almost a third way of lying, Ella, and easier than the other two: participating in a discussion without talking.In addition, people who don't talk much often give others the impression that they are very intelligent.I never do it myself, because talking is the second of my three favorite things to do in life, and the only thing that sets us apart from the gorillas—what a small difference between us and the gorillas. At this moment, David broke—or seemed to break—his habit of restraint. "I don't want to be a battalion commander," he said, "I don't want to! I want to be the commander's adjutant and stand in front of the crowd so the girls can see me." The people present may not take his words seriously, after all, the rank of a regimental adjutant is lower than that of a battalion commander.But his words will definitely be reported, and David has long expected this.The incoming head of the cadet regiment was likely to report the incident to the officer in charge of selecting the cadet officers. It doesn't matter who the reporter is.Finally, David was appointed regimental aide-de-camp. According to the regulations in the army at that time, the regimental adjutant stood alone in front of everyone, and it was difficult for the female visitors not to notice him.But as you probably guessed, that's not what David was aiming for. The regimental adjutant does not need to stand in line unless the whole team is in line.He walks alone in and out of class, walking in the queue or directing the queue.Other graduating students are responsible for managing the cadets of a unit, which may be a squad, platoon, company, battalion, or regiment; the regimental adjutant has no such responsibility, only a small management task: he is responsible for drafting a plan for senior cadet officers. sentry list. But he himself was not on the sentry list.Only when someone is unable to stand guard due to illness, he will become a temporary replacement. This is the reward for the lazy man.The health of the cadet officers is very good, and the possibility of them being too sick to stand guard is very small, more than negligible, zero. For the past three years, our protagonist has stood guard roughly every ten days.Standing guard is not difficult, but you need to go to bed half an hour late or get up half an hour early, and your feet will be numb.这不符合大卫心里对于舒适生活的高要求。 但在最后一年里，大卫只站了三次岗，而且是作为“岗哨中级官员”坐着“站”的岗。 最后那一天终于到来了。大卫毕业了，被授予了军衔。然后他来到小教堂，与他的妻子又结了一次婚。即使在那个时代，新娘挺个大肚子结婚也不是什么新鲜事。如果这对年轻人最后能结婚，人们总会对此视而不见，原谅他们的过错。虽然人们很少提及，但大家都知道，一个性急的新娘子可以用七个月的时间完成母牛或是伯爵夫人需要九个月才能完成的事情。 大卫安全渡过了所有礁石和浅滩；他永远不用再担心会回到与那头骡子一起干“实实在在的工作”的日子了。 但是，军舰上的下级军官的生活其实不怎么样。这种生活有好的一面：仆人服侍、舒适的床、工作简单，而且很少会让大卫亲自去干。还有，收入是以前的两倍。但他需要更多的钱来养活妻子，他所在的舰船在海上航行的时间也太长，让他无法享受令人身心愉悦的婚姻生活。更糟的是，他是为数不多的几个需要认认真真站岗的人之一；这意味着每隔一天他就需要站四个小时的岗——站着站岗。大多数时间里他都昏昏欲睡，感到脚上如针扎般的疼痛。 所以大卫申请参加了飞行员培训。那时的海军刚刚意识到“空中力量”的概念，并试图攫取尽可能多的空中力量，把它从错误的部门中解救出来——这个部门指的是陆军。陆军先于海军发展空中打击力量，海军落后了。于是，当时的海军欢迎大家自愿报名参加飞行员培训。 大卫很快就被指派上岸，以测试他是否具备成为飞行员的素质。 他确实具备这种素质！大卫不仅在心智和体能上能达到飞行员的高标准，他还有强大的动力：无论是在教室里还是在空中，他的新工作都是坐着完成的，还不用站夜岗，而且他因为坐着工作和在家里美美地睡觉所得到的收入是以前的一倍半。飞行被归为“危险的工作类别”，所以飞行员会因此获得额外的补偿。 我最好向你解释一下那时的飞机，它们和你平常见到的飞行器完全不同。在某些方面，它们的确很危险。不过话又说回来，连呼吸这个简单的动作也有危险。飞机并不比当时地面上的汽车更危险，跟路边的行人相比的话，它们更是安全得多。飞行事故、空难或是其他什么事，通常都是由飞行员的失误造成的。大卫从不让那样的事故发生在自己身上。他不想成为空中最酷的飞行员；他只想成为资格最老的那个。 飞机的形状十分奇怪，和今天空中的任何东西都不一样，除了可能像孩子的风筝——当时的人也的确时常管它们叫“风筝”。飞机有两对机翼，一对上一对下，飞行员的位置位于两对机翼之中。一块风挡替飞行员遮挡迎面吹来的风。别那么吃惊；这个轻薄的装置飞得很慢，由动力螺旋桨推动。 机翼是由上过漆的布制成的，中间由撑杆加以强化。仅从这一点你就可以看出，这样的飞机速度永远不可能接近音速，除了在某些悲惨的情况下：过于热切的飞行员会先俯冲，然后突然拉升飞机试图恢复正常飞行姿态，这种时候，由于动作过于剧烈，常会导致机翼脱落。 这样的事大卫从来不干。有些人天生就是当飞行员的料。第一次认真看一架飞机的时候，大卫就深刻理解了飞机的特点，就像他熟悉以前那个挤牛奶时坐的凳子一样。 他学飞行就像学游泳一样快。 他的教官说：“大卫，你天生是学飞行的料。我要推荐你去参加战斗机飞行员的培训。” 战斗机飞行员是飞行员中的佼佼者；他们驾机升空，与敌机展开一对一的战斗。一个战斗机飞行员如果能在五次与敌机的较量中获胜——就是说击毙敌机飞行员，而不是被对方击毙——就会成为“王牌飞行员”。这是一个极高的荣誉。你要知道，做到这点的平均概率是二分之一的五次方，或者说三十二分之一。剩下的就是被击毙的可能性了，那几乎是百分之百。 大卫对他的教官表示感谢。他的表情是谦恭的，但同时脑子却转得飞快，考虑着如何避免获得这样的荣誉，同时又不用放弃一倍半的薪水和这份只需要坐着的舒适工作。 除了可能会被陌生人打烂屁股外，战斗机飞行员还面临其他一些不利条件。战斗机飞行员独自飞行，自己为自己导航。他没有计算机、导航系统，或者其他现在的人——甚至那个世纪末期的人——看来是必不可少的装置。当时使用的方法被称作“死亡猜想”，因为如果你没有猜对，你就会死。海军的飞机从一个小小的、漂浮在海上的飞机场起飞，在海上飞行。一架战斗机携带的燃料只够除去正常消耗外多支持几分钟的时间。此外，战斗中的飞行员还势必面临两难选择：要么导航，要么全神贯注地投入战斗，尽量在被对方的陌生人击毙之前击毙对方。如果他想成为“王牌”——或者仅仅是为了吃到当天的晚餐——他就必须把首要的事情放在第一位，打完仗以后再考虑导航的事。 战斗机飞行员可能在海上迷失方向，也可能卡在由于缺少燃料而掉进大海的飞机里淹死——我有没有说这些飞机是怎样获取动力的？飞机的螺旋桨由一个依靠化学热反应获得能量的发动机驱动，这种化学反应是被称为“汽油”的一种碳氢化合物液体的氧化过程。虽然被称为“汽油”，但它并不是气体。你认为这种获取动力的方式不可思议吗？你想得没错，它的确很不可靠。这种方法的效率非常低。一个飞行员不仅有可能耗尽燃料，然后发现周围除了海什么都没有，那种捉摸不定的发动机还经常会出毛病，然后停机。出了这种事会让人很没面子，有时候还会让人送命。 成为战斗机飞行员的坏处不仅仅是人身危险；还有一个次要原因：它完全不是大卫计划里的一部分。战斗机飞行员会被派往海上机场或是航空母舰。在和平时期，也就是在一般情况下，飞行员不需要工作得太辛苦或是站很多岗，还会有很多时间待在岸上的飞机场里。只有他的名字列在航空母舰的官兵花名册中，这样他才能承担海上职责，这是获得晋升和工资的前提。 但隶属航空母舰的飞行员每年仍会有几个星期真的出海，进行战争演习。这时就需要在拂晓前一个小时起床，预热那些爱耍小脾气的发动机，然后随时待命，一旦出现真的或是模拟的危险情况就立刻驾机升空。 大卫讨厌早起——如果最后审判是在中午以前进行的话，他是不会参加的。 另外一个问题是在这些浮动的飞机场上降落。如果是在陆地，大卫可以把飞机降落在一枚一角硬币上，还能给硬币留下些富裕，有个找头什么的。但这是依赖他自己的技术。他的技术很好，毕竟他自己的性命就靠这个。可在航空母舰着陆，他必须依赖其他领航员的技术——大卫绝不愿意把自己的性命寄托在对其他人的技术、意愿和警觉性的信任上。 艾拉，那种事你是无法想象的，它跟你这辈子见过的任何事都不一样。看看你在新罗马使用的机场：降落的时候，飞船是由地面控制的，是这样吧？这个部分和在航空母舰上降落一样——不同的是，那时在航空母舰上降落是不使用辅助仪器的。没有任何仪器。我不是开玩笑。 地面控制部分完全依赖人类的肉眼，和小孩子努力抓住空中飞来的球一模一样——但充当那个球的是大卫，成功抓住他不是依赖大卫自己的技术，而是站在航空母舰上的领航员的技术。大卫不得不收起自己的技术和意见，把全部希望都寄托在航空母舰的领航员身上——稍有差池就会大难临头。 大卫一向按照自己的想法行事——如果有必要，他会和所有人的做法背道而驰。对另外一个人寄予如此大的希望彻底违背他深埋在心底的信念。在航空母舰上着陆，这就像在还不能肯定一个外科医生有没有切火腿的本事时，就朝他亮出自己的肚子，说：“来吧，切吧。”所有有关飞行的问题中，这是最有可能使大卫放弃这份工资一倍半的轻松工作的因素。必须接受领航员的判断让他大为苦恼——这个人甚至不会和他一起分担风险。 第一次，大卫用了极大的意志力才使自己完成了在航空母舰上降落的任务，这不是件轻松活儿。但人家给他上了一堂他永远没打算要上的课——他知道了一点：在某些情况下，其他人的想法不仅比他的更强，而且强得多。 你知道——不，你多半不知道；我还没有解释这个情况。飞机在航空母舰上的降落相当于受控的“坠机”。飞机尾翼上的一个钩子必须钩住飞行甲板上横着的一条金属绳。如果飞行员根据自己的陆上经验得出的判断来降落，他一定会撞在船尾；如果他知道这个情况，并试图避免，那么他就会飞得太高，错过那根绳子。航空母舰飞行员没有大块平坦场地可以让他犯些小错误，他只有一个小小的“窗口”，必须准确命中，不能偏左也不能偏右，不能偏上也不能偏下，不能太快也不能太慢。问题是他看不到自己做得怎样，所以无法调整飞机的姿态。 （后来，这个过程变成半自动的，然后是全自动。但等到这个过程彻底优化时，航空母舰也过时了——这是绝大多数人类“进步”的缩影：等你学会怎样做事的时候，已经太迟了。 但通常情况下，你学到的东西可以应用于一些新问题。否则我们现在仍然会在树上荡来荡去。 ) 所以飞行员必须信任站在甲板上的领航员，因为他能看到飞机的位置。他被称为“着陆信号官”，他摆动小旗子向飞行员下达飞行命令。 第一次尝试这种看似不可能的飞行杂技时，大卫先在空中盘旋了三次，极力以不同的方式降落。最后，他控制住了恐慌情绪，放弃了推翻着陆信号官的判断的想法，终于获准降落。 落地以后，他才发现自己是多么害怕——他吓得尿裤子了。 那天晚上，他获得了一个特别奖状：皇家湿尿布奖，由着陆信号官签字，由他的中队长颁发，班里其他同伴见证这一时刻。这是他一生中的低潮期，比他第一年在学校里的情况更糟。稍微能给他些许安慰的是，这个奖项时常发放，奖状都是预先准备好的，单等新的湿了裤子的飞行员加入。 从那时起，他开始不折不扣地执行陆信号官的指令，就像一个机器人。他的感情和判断被一种自我催眠状态取代了。开始测试夜间着陆时——这更让人紧张，因为除了着陆信号官手里晃动的替代小旗子的荧光棒以外，空中的飞行员什么都看不到——大卫第一次就完美地完成了着陆任务。 大卫暗自下定决心，绝不追求成为飞行员中的佼佼者，战斗机飞行员。对这个决定，他一直守口如瓶，直到完成了所有必修科目，让自己的飞行员身份稳固下来。这以后，他申请参加高级训练——驾驶多引擎飞机。这件事让人很为难，因为以前那个非常看好他的教官现在成了他的中队长，大卫必须向他提交申请。递交申请后，他被叫到老板的房间。 “大卫，你是什么意思？” “就像申请信上说的，长官。我想飞大家伙。” “你脑子进水了吗？你是个战斗机飞行员。三个月的入门训练——一个季度啊，足够让我给你一个很好的评价。没错，你是要离开这里，去接受更高级的训练，但那仍旧是战斗机飞行员的训练。” 大卫没有回答。 中队长继续坚持着。“大卫，是不是因为那个'尿布奖状'的事儿？飞行员里一半的人都得过那个奖。该死的，你知道吗，我也得过。这并没有让你在其他人面前丢脸；它让你在取得辉煌成绩的时候看起来更像普通人。” 大卫仍然没有说话。 “该死的，别只站在那儿！把这封信拿走、撕掉，然后提交一份战斗机飞行员培训申请书。我马上签字放你走，不会让你继续耽搁三个月。” 大卫仍旧沉默着站在那里。他的老板看着他，气得满脸通红，然后慢慢地说：“也许我错了。也许你并不具备一个优秀战斗机飞行员的素质——胆小鬼。好吧，你走吧。” “大家伙”就是多引擎飞机，在它们那儿，大卫终于找到了自己的家。那些飞机太大了，不可能从海上的舰船上起飞；但这些飞机的飞行员仍然算作在海上服役，尽管大卫几乎总是在家里睡觉——在他自己的床上，和自己的妻子在一起。只有偶尔几个晚上，他会作为值班军官在基地睡觉。驾驶飞机夜间飞行的次数就更少了。即使是在好天气的大白天，他们也不经常飞行；驾驶这些飞机的成本很高，冒险的代价也很大，而当时整个国家正在经历经济危机。执行飞行任务时，全体成员都会参加，双引擎飞机有四五个机组成员，四引擎飞机上人更多。通常飞机上还会搭些乘客，让这些人得到足够的飞行时数，从而获取额外的报酬。所有这些都很符合大卫的要求。他再也不用在导航的同时做其他数都数不清的事了，不用把希望寄托于着陆信号官的判断，不用再依赖那个唯一的、老犯毛病的引擎，不用再担心会用光燃油。只要有选择，他总是亲自驾机着陆，但如果改由一个老资格飞行员操纵，他会把自己的担忧隐藏得很好，而且很快会打消隐忧，因为所有大飞机飞行员都非常小心，都想活很长时间。 （省略部分内容） 几年时间过去了，大卫的日子过得很舒适，还升了两级。 然后，战争爆发了。那个世纪随时都有战争，但到处同时开打的情况却比较少见。这次爆发的战争几乎波及地球上的每一个国家。大卫并不看好战争；他认为海军的作用只是显示自己的强大，从而无需战斗就可以结束战争。但是没有人征求过他的意见，他知道的时间也太晚，连退伍都不可能了，再说也没有什么地方可以躲避战乱。所以他决定不为自己无能为力的事而忧虑，这是很明智的做法。这场战争持续的时间很长，也很艰苦，死者动辄百万。 “拉撒路祖父，您在这场战争中做了些什么？” I?我推销自由公债，并做了四分钟的演讲，随后在运兵船和补给船上都出过力。我还做了其他贡献——直到总统把我叫到华盛顿，后来我做的事都属于高度机密，即使我说了你也不会相信。你别插嘴，孩子，我要说的是大卫都干了些什么？ 大卫是官方认可的英雄，他是人们心目中的勇士，还获得了勋章。 大卫本打算——或者说希望——能在退休时混到少校，飞行员队伍里没有几个人的职位能高于这个。但战争使他在几个星期里就跃升为少校，一年以后升到中校，最后升为上校，金光闪闪的四条杠。他无需面对选拔委员会，参加晋升考试，或是指挥一艘军舰。战争使部队减员严重，任何活着的人只要能保持正派的行为，就可以获得提升。 大卫的行为就很正派。战争期间，他的一部分任务是沿着国家海岸线巡逻，侦察敌军的潜水艇。从性质上讲，这是一种“战时任务”，但实际上并不比和平时期的工作更危险。他还到各地训练公司职员和销售人员，使他们成为飞行员。他曾到过一个战区执行任务，在那里获得了奖章。我不清楚详细情况，但其实“英雄品质”通常只需要在紧急情况下保持头脑冷静，并根据当时的情况做出最大的努力，而不是惊慌失措，被敌人击毙。能做到这一点的人会比刻意想当英雄的人赢得更多的机会；追逐荣耀的人通常会丢掉自己的性命，同时搭上他的同伴。 但要成为官方的英雄是需要运气的。仅仅在困难情况下出色完成任务还不够；还需要有人——级别越高越好——看到你的所作所为，并把你的事迹汇报上去。大卫就有这样的运气，并获得了勋章。 战争快结束时，他在位于国家首都的海军航空局工作，负责发展巡逻机。也许他在那里的工作比在战斗中还出色，因为他了解这些多引擎飞机，以及那些还活着的飞行员。这个职位使他能够去掉飞机上一些无用的功能，作一些改进。事情就是这样，在战争临近尾声时，他的生活就是坐在办公室里翻阅文件，然后舒服地在家里睡觉。 The war is over. 大卫看了看周围的情况，然后估计了一下未来的形势。当时的海军上校有好几百人，都跟他一样，三年前还只是少校。而政治家们强调说，和平将“永远”持续下去。这样就很少有人能够获得提升了。大卫认识到自己不会再有晋升的机会了；他没有老资格，没有在受重视的领域的服役经历，也没有可用的政治和社会关系。 他有的只是将近二十年的役龄，这是退休后能拿到正常工资一半所要求的最低服务年限。或者他也可以继续挺下去，直到竞争海军上将失败而被迫退休。 他不用立刻作出抉择；二十年的服役期限还有一两年才到。 但他却几乎立即就退休了——理由是健康状况欠佳。诊断的结果是“精神问题”，就是说，这份工作让他发疯了。 艾拉，我不知道应该如何看待这个问题。大卫留给我最深刻的印象就是，他是我所见过的心智最为健全的人之一。但他退休的时候，我不在那儿，而且“精神问题”是当时海军军官退休的第二大原因。但是——有没有“精神问题”，这种事到底是怎么鉴定出来的？对海军军官来说，精神问题造成的影响并不大，不比作家、教师、传教士或者其他一些受人尊敬的职业更受这个问题的困扰。只要大卫按时上班，签署职员已经准备好的文件，不要和自己的上司顶嘴，他的所谓病情永远不会被看出来。我记得有个海军军官收藏了很多女人用的吊袜带，经常把自己锁在舱室里欣赏这些收藏品；另一个军官也有类似嗜好，他收藏的是邮票。那么，谁有病？或者两个人都有病？或者都没有？ 大卫退休一事还有另一个方面，只有熟悉当时的法律，你才能理解这个方面。服役年限满二十年可以得到正常工资的一半作为退休工资——但是会被征收高额所得税。因为健康原因退休则可以获得退休工资的四分之三，而且是免税的。 我不知道，真的不知道。但整件事情符合大卫“用最少的努力获得最大收益”的行事原则。就让我们假设他是疯了吧——但他是不是疯得像只狡猾的狐狸？ 还有一件事，也跟他的退休有关。他正确地认识到，他没有机会晋升海军上将。但退休的时候，战时因勇敢而获得的嘉奖给他带来了一个荣誉晋升机会：他成了班级里第一个名誉上将，而他从未指挥过一艘军舰、更不用说舰队了。以他的真实年龄算，他是历史上最年轻的上将。我想，那个憎恶跟着一头骡子耕地的农村小子准会觉得这种事可笑极了。 这是因为，就他的内心深处而言，他仍旧是个农村孩子。参加过那场战争的退伍军人可以享受一项优惠政策：因为战争爆发而中断学业的参战者会得到一笔补偿——战时服役一个月，给一个月的教育资助。 这项政策是针对入伍不久的年轻士兵制定的，但职业规划官员仍旧可以利用这个政策，做些手脚。大卫发现自己也可以申请这个资助，他这么做了。最后，他得到了退休工资的四分之三，不用缴税，同时享受着供已婚退伍军人上学用的教育资助——同样是免税的。这样一来，大卫的收入和他没退休时差不多。事实上是更多，因为他不用再花钱购买漂亮制服，参加花费不菲的社交活动。他可以悠闲地生活、读书，穿自己想穿的衣服，不用担心自己的形象。有时他会熬夜到很晚，只是为了证明乐观主义者更喜欢玩扑克牌，而不是去当个数学家。然后他会一觉睡到很晚。他从来不早起。 他再也不曾登上飞机。大卫从来不信任飞行器；飞机出问题的时候总是离地面很高。对大卫来说，飞机只是为了逃避其他更糟糕的事情而作出的选择，除此之外，它什么都不是；一旦飞机完成它的使命，大卫就会坚决地把它们扔到一边，就像扔掉他的花剑一样——两种情况下他都毫无遗憾。 很快，他获得了另外一个学位，农业理学士。他成了一个“科学”农民。 有了这个学位，加上对于退伍老兵的优惠政策，大卫完全可以进入政府部门，成为公务员，指导其他人怎样耕田种地。但大卫没有选择这条路。他从银行里取出他在学校混文凭期间攒下来的一部分钱财，回到了他在四分之一个世纪前离开的山村。在那里，他买下了一个农场。他付了首付款，余款靠的是政府贷款——当然是带有资助性质的，利息非常低。 他在农场上干活吗？我们还是别傻了；大卫从来不把他的手从口袋里掏出来。他雇用劳动力种了一季的庄稼，然后做了一单交易。 一个事件让大卫那个了不起的人生规划最终圆满了，但这却是一个让人无法想象的事件。让一个理性的人理解这个事件实在太难了，我只能强烈要求你相信我。 在那段战争之间的和平时期，地球上的人口达到了二十亿，其中至少有一半因为饥饿挣扎在死亡线上。然而——下面说的就是我要求你相信的，我当时在场，而且我不会对你说谎——尽管那个时代缺少食物，而且在随后的时间里，这种情况除了在某些地区得到暂时缓解之外，一直没有、也无法得到解决。至于原因，我们这里就不要深究了。但是，尽管出现了灾难性的食物短缺，大卫所在的国家政府却付钱给农民，让他们不要种植粮食。 别摇头，孩子；上帝、政府和女人的行为总是令人无法捉摸，凡人是无法理解的。对了，你本人就是一个政府；今晚回家后，你好好想想这个问题，问问你自己是不是理解自己的所作所为，明天回来时告诉我。 于是，种了一季庄稼后，大卫再也没种过庄稼了。接下来的一年里，他的地成了“储备田”。因为没有种地，他从政府那里获得了一大笔补偿款，大卫对此很满意。大卫热爱这里的山山水水，他一直非常想念家乡，离开家乡只是为了逃避艰苦的劳动。现在，他因为不用在地里劳作而获得补偿——这很符合他的愿望。他从来不认为耕地、让地里尘土飞扬会使家乡变得更有魅力。 “储备田”的赔偿款用来偿还贷款，而他的退休金又累积了一大笔钱，所以他雇了一个人负责农场里除了种庄稼以外的杂活：喂鸡、给一两头奶牛挤奶、打理菜园子和果园、修理篱笆。那个人的妻子帮助大卫的妻子做家务。而大卫给自己买了一张吊床。 大卫不是个苛刻的雇主。他怀疑奶牛也和他一样，不愿意在早晨五点就被叫醒，所以他决定自己找出答案。 他发现，如果可以选择的话，奶牛很乐意把它们每天的生物钟改变得更为合理一些。它们需要每天挤两次奶，但是在早晨九点还是在五点挤第一次奶对它们来说完全无所谓，只要定时定量就行。 但是这种情况并没有延续下去；大卫雇的那个人有着紧张的工作习惯。对他来说，那么晚才给奶牛挤奶是无法忍受的，所以大卫让他继续用自己的方式工作，让他和奶牛重新回到老的生物钟上去了。 而大卫呢，他把吊床吊在两棵有树荫的大树之间，在旁边放了一张桌子，桌子上放着冰凉的饮料。他每天早晨都睡到自然醒，不管是早晨九点还是中午。接着他吃早饭，然后慢悠悠地走到吊床边休息，直到吃午饭。他所做的最艰苦的事就是在存款支票上签名，然后每个月给妻子的支票簿补一次款。他甚至不再穿鞋子了。 他不看报纸也不听广播；他想，如果再次爆发战争的话，海军会通知他的。他终于恢复看报听广播的老习惯时，战争再次爆发了。好在海军不需要退伍上将。大卫并不关注那场惨烈的战争。他阅读了国家图书馆里关于古希腊的所有藏书，还自己掏钱买了一些书。古希腊是一个让人愉悦的主题，也是他一直想深入了解的领域。 每年的海军日，他都会按照上将的装束把自己整整齐齐打扮起来，戴上所有的奖章，从优秀士兵奖章到使他晋升为海军上将的战争勇敢勋章。他雇的那个人开车把他送到县政府所在地，他在商会的午餐会上就爱国主义主题发表演讲。艾拉，我不知道他为什么要这么做。也许这是社会名流的责任，又或者是他奇怪的幽默感在作怪。他们每年都会邀请他，他也每年接受邀请。他的邻居以他自豪，认为他是乡村男孩获得成功的范例——最后衣锦还乡，与乡亲们过着一样的生活。他的成功给他们大家带来了荣誉。他还是“邻家小伙子”，他们因此喜欢他。当然，他们也注意到了，他连一点点活都不肯干，但他们都对此视而不见。 艾拉，我简单地回顾了大卫的职业生涯，但我没提到他曾经设想过自动驾驶仪。几年后，他终于有机会完成了自动驾驶仪的开发。我也没提及他彻底改变了机组人员的工作职责，让机组得以用较少的力气完成更多的工作，机长除了保持警惕以外几乎不用再干别的——在不需要他保持警惕的时候，他可以靠在机组内其他飞行员的肩膀上睡大觉，打呼噜。大卫最后负责海军巡逻飞机的研制工作的时候，他还对飞行仪器和控制仪器作了改进。 这么说吧，我不认为大卫把自己看作一个“效率专家”，但他从事任何工作的时候都会尽可能简化工作。他的继任者必须干的工作总是比前任少得多。 然后，他的继任者通常会再次重新规划自己的工作，使工作量变成以前的三倍——所需要的下属人数也是以前的三倍。说这些不是讲大卫有多古怪，只是想拿大卫和一般人做个比较。有些人天生就是勤劳的蚂蚁；他们必须工作，哪怕所做的事情毫无用处。没有多少人具有开创性的懒惰天赋。 一个由于太懒惰而从未失败的人的故事就讲到这里。就让他待在那个树荫下的吊床上吧。据我所知，他现在仍然在那里。