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作者：王垠

我很喜欢 Richard Feynman 写的 《What Do You Care What Other People Think》。在最开头 Feynman 讲到他小时后的故事。他的父亲经常带他到外面散步，给他讲很多有趣的故事。他受到启发，后来成为了一名科学家。有一次，他们走到一个地方看见一只鸟。父亲说……

“See that bird? It's a Spencer's warbler. (I knew he didn't know the real name.) "Well, in Italian, it's a Chutto Lapittida. In Portuguese, it's a Bom da Peida. In Chinese it's a Chung-Iong-tah, and in Japanese it's a Katano Takeda. You can know the name of the bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird. You'll only know about humans in different places, and what they call the bird. So let's look at the birds and see what it's doing - that's what counts!”

“看见那只鸟了吗？那是一只 Spencer's warbler。（他其实不知道那只鸟的名字）嗯，在意大利语里它叫 Chutto Lapittida。在葡萄牙语里它叫 Bom da Peida。在中文里它叫 Chung-long-tah。在日语里它叫 Katano Takeda。你可以知道这种鸟在全世界所有语言里的名字，但是到了最后，你却对它一无所知。你只知道不同地方的人，以及他们如何称呼这种鸟。所以我们来看看它会做哪些事情。那才是重要的！”

所以，何必在乎一个东西叫什么名字。我们需要的，不过是观察所有这些东西，看它们会做哪些事情，然后思考它们为什么是那样，从而得知事物的本质。