Melinda Gates，co-founder and co-chair of the Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation
Duke University，2013
Deep human connection is very different.It‘s not a tool.It’s not a means to an end.It is the end—the purpose and the result of a meaningful life—and it will inspire the most amazing acts of love，generosity and humanity.
人类之间深层次的交流是很复杂的，这不是工具，这也不是达到目的的手段，这就是目的，是有意义的生活的目的和结果，而且这将激发最令人惊喜的爱、慷慨和人性。
Melinda Gates
背景故事
梅琳达·盖茨，是比尔及梅琳达·盖茨基金会联合创始人，在杜克大学2013届毕业典礼上发表了振聋发聩的演讲。身为杜克大学校友的梅琳达，重新回到了母校并做了一次精彩的毕业典礼演讲，鼓励2013届毕业生去认识“所有人的无限尊严”。她的演讲主要围绕人际关系的重要性展开，告诉毕业生们想要有所成就，必须先学会尊重他人。演讲的主题是联系。她认为互联网的发展能够为全世界人之间的联系提供一个非常好的平台，让人与生活在不同环境中的人沟通，理解大家本质上是一样的人，建立起直接沟通的桥梁。比起抽象的概念，这种具体联系，能让人更愿意去帮助那些同自己一样，但生活条件更糟糕的人。这样一来人类才有可能真正实现马丁·路德·金所说的所有人情同手足的世界。
名人简介
梅琳达·盖茨（Melinda French Gates，1964～），毕业于美国杜克大学计算机系，后获得MBA学位，然后如愿进入了自己曾经实习过的微软公司，很快崭露头角，取得了骄人的业绩，成为一名管理人员。在嫁给比尔·盖茨之前，梅琳达已经在微软做出了骄人的业绩。她担任一个部门的主管，手下有一百多名员工。在嫁给盖茨之后，梅琳达便做起了全职的太太。几年来，她为盖茨生下一双儿女，还管理着盖茨豪宅的日常工作。梅琳达把家里收拾得十分温馨，还建了一个家庭图书馆。梅琳达和盖茨一起建立了美国有史以来最大的基金会——盖茨基金会，并担任主席。
演讲赏析
Human Connection Is Everything
Melinda Gates，co-founder and co-chair of the Bill&
Melinda Gates Foundation
Duke University，2013
President Brodhead，Trustees，and members of the Duke University Community.It‘s so fantastic to be back here at my alma mater.I am really grateful for the honorary degree，and I’m especially grateful to be able to address the graduating class.
So let me start by saying to those of you graduating today in 2013-Congratulations……
……and let me remind you to thank your mothers.Today is Mothers‘Day……
……and to say，I’m still bitter about the Louisville game.
I was a student here in 1986when Coach K first took the team to the finals.We lost to Louisville then，too，so you and I，we share that particular agony.
However，you‘ve had the good fortune to be here on campus when Duke won its fourth national championship.
I never got to see us cut down the nets，but I did get to travel to Chapel Hill，UNC game，against Michael Jordan and we won that particular game.
But the fact that Michael Jordan recently turned 50years old reminds me how long it’s been since I was a student of this university.
No matter how much time，though，passes I still feel connected to Duke，particularly to the landmarks here，the Duke Gardens，I often went there to study and when I was stressed out for those finals.Yesterday，I went there in the afternoon after rain to get centered before this speech.But besides the landmarks，for me there‘s a deep feeling of connection to the people here，to the people and friends that I’ve made over those 4years on this campus.And I doubt there is one word that really pulls together that shared combination of all the things，that labels all of us，under that term“Duck”，but the best word that I can think of is“connected”.Connected，that‘s a word I’d like to discuss with you today on your Graduation Day.
I left my home in August，1982，from Dallas，Texas.I travel to Durham.My parents marked that rite of passage with a terrific present：it was a typewriter，a B12Olympus portable typewriter.The best thing about it was it weighed only 12pounds，carrying in case and all.It was during my time at Duke that really computers took over and replaced the typewriter as being the thing of choice to write your papers.And we computer science department students，we resented you humanities majors，because you were hogging our machines to write your papers and what that meant was that I spent a lot of hours in basement of some very creepy buildings on this campus，particularly the biological sciences building.We would be in the basement of that building，coding away，seeing who could go the fastest，writing the most efficient code.I think you call it today probably a hackathon.And whoever lost that contest would have to go down the hall and touch mutant frog being grown by the biology department.So the personal computer and later when I was working at Microsoft，the internet，it really started a communications revolution.
And I have three young children，and as I watch how they use computers and phones today.I think the biggest difference between me on campus and you a generation later is the way you communicate.Now one popular way of describing this aspect of your lives is to say that you‘re connected.
Some pundits have already started to refer to you all as Generation C.One recent report I think kind of overdid the c-thing，by saying that you are connected，communicating，content-centric，community-oriented，always clicking.It went on to say that for these reasons alone，you will transform the world as we know it.Now of course all this height about how connected you are，has contributed to a counter narrative，that in fact your generation is increasingly disconnected from the things that matter.The arguments go something like this.Instead of spending time with your friends，you spend time collecting friend requests.Instead of enjoying that meal，you take a picture of it and immediately send it to your friends on Facebook.
But I want to encourage you to reject these cynics who say that technology is flattening your experience of the world.Please don’t let anyone make you think that you are any less somehow shallow，because you like to update your status on a regular basis.The people who say that technology has disconnected you are wrong，but so are the people who say that technology has automatically connected you.
Technology is just a tool.It‘s a powerful tool.But it’s just a tool.Deep human connection is very different.It‘s not a tool.It’s not a means to the end.It is the end.It‘s the purpose of a meaningful life.And it will inspire the most amazing acts of love，generosity，and humanity.
