All the laws of reality were given to us by nature. Man didn’t create these laws, but by understanding them we can use them to foster our own evolution and achieve our goals. For example, our ability to fly or to send cell phone signals around the world came from understanding and applying the existing rules of reality—the physical laws or principles that govern the natural world.
所有现实法则都是大自然赋予我们的。人类并没有创造这些法则，但通过理解它们，我们可以利用它们来促进我们自身的进化并实现我们的目标。例如，我们在世界各地飞行或发送手机信号的能力来自于理解和应用现有的现实规则——支配自然世界的物理定律或原则。
I’ve found it both interesting and valuable to observe which laws we humans have in common with the rest of nature and which differentiate us. Doing that has had a big impact on my approach to life.
我发现观察我们人类与自然其他物种有哪些共同点以及哪些使我们与众不同，既有趣又有价值。这样做对我的生活方式产生了很大的影响。
When trying to understand anything—economies, markets, the weather, whatever—one can approach the subject with two perspectives:
当试图理解任何事物时——经济、市场、天气等等——人们可以从两个角度来看待这个主题：
- Top down: By trying to find the one code/law that drives them all. For example, in the case of markets, one could study universal laws like supply and demand that affect all economies and markets. In the case of species, one could focus on learning how the genetic code (DNA) works for all species.
自上而下：试图找到驱动所有这些的唯一准则/法律。例如，就市场而言，人们可以研究影响所有经济体和市场的普遍规律，例如供给和需求。就物种而言，人们可以专注于了解遗传密码（DNA）如何适用于所有物种。 - Bottom up: By studying each specific case and the codes/laws that are true for them, for example, the codes or laws particular to the market for wheat or the DNA sequences that make ducks different from other species.
自下而上：通过研究每个具体案例以及适用于它们的法规/法律，例如，小麦市场特有的法规或法律或使鸭子不同于其他物种的 DNA 序列。
Seeing things from the top down is the best way to understand ourselves and the laws of reality within the context of overarching universal laws. That’s not to say it’s not worth having a bottom-up perspective. In fact, to understand the world accurately you need both. By taking a bottom-up perspective that looks at each individual case, we can see how it lines up with our theories about the laws that we expect to govern it. When they line up, we’re good.
自上而下地看待事物是在总体普遍法则的背景下理解我们自己和现实法则的最佳方式。这并不是说不值得采用自下而上的视角。事实上，要准确地理解世界，两者都需要。通过采用自下而上的视角来看待每个个案，我们可以看到它如何与我们期望管理它的法律理论相一致。当他们一致时，我们就很好。
By looking at nature from the top down, we can see that much of what we call human nature is really animal nature. That’s because the human brain is programmed with millions of years of genetic learning that we share with other species. These laws that we have in common are the most overarching ones. They wouldn’t be apparent to us if we just looked at ourselves.
通过自上而下地观察自然，我们可以看到我们所谓的人性实际上是动物性。这是因为人类大脑经过了数百万年的基因学习编程，我们与其他物种共享这些基因学习。我们共有的这些法律是最重要的。如果我们只看自己的话，它们对我们来说是不明显的。
If you just looked at one species—ducks, for example—to try to understand the universal laws, you’d fail. Similarly, if you just looked at mankind to understand the universal laws, you’d fail. Man is just one of ten million species and just one of the billions of manifestations of the forces that bring together and take apart atoms through time. Yet most people are like ants focused only on themselves and their own anthill; they believe the universe revolves around people and don’t pay attention to the universal laws that are true for all species.
如果你只观察一个物种（例如鸭子）来试图理解普遍法则，你就会失败。同样，如果你只是通过观察人类来了解普遍规律，你也会失败。人类只是一千万个物种中的一员，也只是随着时间的推移将原子聚集和分离的力量的数十亿种表现形式之一。然而，大多数人就像蚂蚁一样，只关注自己和自己的蚁丘；他们相信宇宙是围绕着人旋转的，而不关注适用于所有物种的普遍法则。
To try to figure out the universal laws of reality and principles for dealing with it, I’ve found it helpful to try to look at things from nature’s perspective. While mankind is very intelligent in relation to other species, we have the intelligence of moss growing on a rock compared to nature as a whole. We are incapable of designing and building a mosquito, let alone all the species and most of the other things in the universe. So I start from the premise that nature is smarter than I am and try to let nature teach me how reality works.
为了试图找出现实的普遍规律和处理现实的原则，我发现尝试从自然的角度看待事物是有帮助的。虽然人类相对于其他物种来说非常聪明，但与整个自然相比，我们的智慧就像岩石上生长的苔藓一样。我们无法设计和制造一只蚊子，更不用说宇宙中的所有物种和大多数其他事物了。所以我从大自然比我聪明的前提出发，尝试让大自然教我现实是如何运作的。
source:https://www.principles.com/principles/4a2c0fbe-26f4-488a-8cf2-cd211669fe78/
Yuxiao 