原文来自Nick Mugguilli的博客。作者从另一个角度告诉你时间的意义，以及什么时候用钱去购买时间。
记得Munger说过：如果你感觉不到时间的存在，你还没有找到生命的意义。你的时间只在此时此刻。
Peter Attia, a physician and longevity expert, has a talk on increasing your lifespan where he proposes an incredible thought experiment to his audience (see 16:49):
医学和长寿专家Peter Attia有一个关于如何延长寿命的谈话，他建议听众做一个难以置信的思想实验：
I would be willing to bet that not one of you, if you were offered every dollar of Warren Buffett’s fortune, would trade places with him right now…And I would also bet, by the way, that Buffett would be willing to be 20 years old again if he was broke.
我愿意打赌，即使让你获得巴菲特的所有财产，你也不会愿意和今天的巴菲特交换生命。 我愿意打另外一个赌， 如果可以年轻20岁，巴菲特会即使破产也在所不惜。
Consider his thought experiment for one moment. Imagine having Buffett’s wealth, fame, and status as the greatest investor on Earth. You can go anywhere you please, meet anyone you want, and buy anything that can be sold. However, you’re now 87 years old. Would you make the trade? I know it sounds cryptic, but almost all of you wouldn’t.
考虑一下他的思想实验。想象获得巴菲特的财富、名望和地位，成为地球上最伟大的投资人。你可以去任何想去的地方， 见任何你想见的人，买任何可以买的东西。
但是，你现在已经87岁了。你会做交易吗？我知道这听起来很神秘，但几乎所有人都不会。
Attia’s thought experiment got me thinking deeper about another seemingly unrelated question I have been asked by a few friends:
Attia的思想实验让我更深入的思考一些朋友提出的另一个看似无关的问题：
Nick, why don’t you monetize your blog?
Nick，你为什么不通过博客赚钱？
I used to respond to this question with, “I am trying to grow my audience,” or “It isn’t worth what little money I would make,” but I recently realized I was wrong. I was thinking about this question incorrectly. I am charging for this blog, but not with money. I am charging you the one thing you cannot replenish, the one thing Warren Buffett can’t buy, the most important asset in the world—your time.
我过去常常回答：“我正在努力聚集我的听众”，或者“这个挣不了多少钱”，但我最近意识到自己错了。我错误地思考了这个问题。我的这个博客其实已经在收费，但不是收的钱。
我向你收取一件你无法再生的东西，一件巴菲特也无法买到的东西，这是世界上最重要的资产 - 你的时间。
Think of it this way: Each week you get 10,000 minutes to live your life (it’s actually 10,080 minutes, but let’s round for simplicity). If these 10,000 minutes represent 100% of your week, then each minute is 1 basis point (i.e. one hundredth of a percent). If you sleep 7 hours a night that’s 2,940 minutes or ~30% of your week. If you work 40 hours, that’s another 2,400 minutes or 24% gone. Therefore, if you spend 5 minutes reading one of my posts, that’s 5 basis points of your week that you are allocating to me. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but when you consider the endless amount of content competing for your attention, it’s amazing.
这样想一想：每周你可以获得10,000分钟的生活（实际上是10,080分钟，但为了简单起见，让我们四舍五入）。如果这10,000分钟代表你一周的100％，则每分钟是1个基点（即百分之一的百分之一）。
如果你每晚睡7小时，那就是2,940分钟或者你一周的约30％。如果你工作40个小时，那就是另外2,400分钟或24％不见了。因此，如果你花5分钟阅读我的一篇文章，那就是你每周分配给我5个基点的时间。
我知道这听起来不是很多，但是当你考虑到无数的内容争夺你的注意力时，这真是太神奇了。
This is why I happily spend ~10 hours a week (6% of my week) writing a 5 minute post that thousands of people will read. It’s why I read 40+ books a year to find diverse ideas to relate back to your finances. It’s why I view writing to you as a privilege, an exorbitant privilege, as Barry Ritholtz once said. In a world where so many people think they are owed something, I have to remind myself that I am owed nothing. I have to fight, scratch, and claw for your precious attention. And I will. I will scour the Earth for the most intriguing things I can share with you week after week after week. And yes, while my post quality will vary, my goal is to never waste your most important asset.
这就是为什么我乐意每周花费大约10个小时（我一周时间的6％）写一篇5分钟的文章，成千上万的人会读。这就是为什么我每年阅读40多本书来寻找和你的财务状况相关的不同想法。
这就是为什么我认为写作是一种特权，一种极高的特权，正如Barry Ritholtz说过的那样。在这个很多人认为他们有所拥有的世界里，我必须提醒自己，我一无所有。我必须为你的宝贵关注而竭尽所能。我会的。
我会在地球上搜寻最有趣的东西，一周又一周地与你分享。是的，虽然我的文章质量会有所不同，但我的目标是永远不要浪费你最重要的资产。
And trust me that time is your most important asset. Why? Because you will never get a second more than what you already have. Yes, I could discuss the importance of time when it comes to starting early or compounding, but I know you already know that. Time is important primarily because of its scarcity. Consider this thought experiment and you will see why:
相信我，时间是你最重要的资产。为什么？因为你永远不会多出一秒的时间。是的，我可以讨论时间的重要性，诸如及早开始投资或者复利效应，但我知道你已经知道这些了。时间很重要，主要因为它的稀缺性。思考一下下面这个思想实验，你会明白为什么：
Imagine working extremely hard for years at the neglect of your family so you can earn more money. Let’s say your plan works and you get that promotion you always craved. Now you can take your extra money and invest it. However, a few years later, a downturn strikes and you sell in a panic for a minor loss.
想象一下，假如你极其努力工作到忽略了家庭，这样你就可以赚更多的钱。假设你的计划有效，你得到了你一直以来渴望的升职。 现在你可以拿出额外的钱并进行投资。然而，几年之后，经济衰退来了，你出现了小幅亏损，恐慌之下抛售了股票。
In this thought experiment it sucks that you lost money, but, in theory, you can earn it back later. You can work a few extra years before retiring, but you can’t go back and see your children as children again. You can’t attend that friend’s wedding or mourn a relative with your loved ones twice. As Epsilon Theory’s Ben Hunt stated, “Always go to the funeral.” The fact is that money will come and go in your life, many times as a result of good and bad luck, but your time is only here now, so don’t squander it.
在这个思想实验中，你很倒霉输了钱，但理论上，你可以在以后赚钱。退休前你可以多工作几年，但是你不能再回去看到你的孩子还是孩子的样子了。你不能参加那个朋友的婚礼了，也不能与亲人一起哀悼某个亲戚了。
正如Epsilon Theory的Ben Hunt所说，“一定要去参加葬礼。” 事实上，金钱会在你的生活中来来往往，很多时候是好运气或坏运气的结果，但你的时间只在此时此刻，所以不要浪费它。
And don’t start believing that there isn’t enough time to do what you want in life. That idea is self-defeating. If anything, our society is creating more time for more people than ever before. Just consider this beautiful graphic, which I have discussed before, from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation:
不要相信所谓没有足够的时间去做你想要做的事情的说法。这个想法大错特错。我们的社会正在为更多人创造比以往更多的时间。考虑下面这幅漂亮的图，是我从比尔和梅林达盖茨基金会那里得到的：
Look at all of those children we saved and all of that human time we created! All of those lives, billions of hours collectively, would have been wiped from existence but for modern medical knowledge. This explains why the death of a child is so tragic compared to the death of a centenarian: the child never had a shot at life, but the 100 year old did. Nevertheless, 5.8 million children died in 2015. Children who never got to fully live, love, or dream big. Children who never had their time, so whatever you do, don’t waste yours…
看看我们挽救的所有孩子以及我们因此创造出来的人类时间！所有这些生命，加在一起数十亿小时，如果没有现代医学知识，都将从地球上消失。这就解释了为什么与百岁老人的死相比，孩子的死亡是如此悲惨：孩子从来没有过一次生命，但百岁老人有过了。
然而，2015年有580万儿童死亡。这些是从未完全生活、爱或梦想过的儿童。从来没有时间的孩子，所以无论你做什么，都不要浪费你的时间......
Knowing When To Trade 知道什么时候用钱购买时间
The key to changing your worldview on time is knowing when to trade it for money. Obviously, if you don’t have much money, you don’t have many options for trading, but as you gain wealth, this tradeoff will become more relevant. The traditional way to think about when to trade your money for your time has been to pay for anything that is below your hourly wage. This explains how one could justify paying for a cleaning or laundry service. I generally agree with this, but it can be expanded.
改变你的世界观的关键是知道什么时候用钱来交换时间。显然，如果你没有多少钱，你没有很多交易选择，但随着你获得财富，这种权衡将变得更加相关。什么时候用钱交易时间的传统思考方式是：支付低于你的小时工资的任何东西。
这解释了如何为什么我们要支付清洁或洗衣服务的费用而不是自己干。我原则上同意这一点，但它可以扩展到更广。
You should also trade your money for anything that you would regret missing on your deathbed. If you can imagine yourself regretting skipping an event in your final days of life, then you should trade money for it today. This worldview is something I only adopted recently, but it has made my decision-making process so much easier when it comes to tradeoffs like these. For example, I would probably spend money to visit a good friend, but I wouldn’t spend money to have a nice car. I will (hopefully) remember seeing my friend on my deathbed, but the car? No chance.
任何你临终前遗憾没做的事情，你也应该用钱去购买。如果你能想象自己在生命的最后几天里后悔错过了什么，那么今天你应该用钱去交换。这个世界观是我最近才采用的，但是以这样的思考方式权衡时，它使我的决策过程变得如此简单。
例如，我可能会花钱去拜访一位好朋友，但我不会花钱买一辆好车。我会在临终前希望看到我的朋友，但是汽车？一点不重要。
Lastly, I do technically monetize this blog through Amazon affiliate links (i.e. if you buy a book I link then I get a small percentage). However, the goal was not strictly monetization (I’ve made less than $1 per hour for each hour I have worked on this blog), but tracking engagement from readers like you across different articles.
最后，我通过亚马逊联盟链接从技术上将这个博客货币化了（如果你从我的链接买的书，那么我会得到一小部分）。然而，我的目标不是货币化（我在这个博客上每小时工作时间挣不到1美元），而是跟踪像你这样的读者在不同文章上的活动。
With that being said, if you really like issues of time and time travel, I highly recommend the fiction book Replay by Ken Grimwood. Please just trust me and DO NOT READ THE SYNOPSIS. Go in blind and you will thank me later for it. I also recommend the films Memento, Primer, The Butterfly Effect, and Twelve Monkeys for other takes on time travel (sorry it’s my favorite genre).
话说这么多，如果你真的喜欢时间和时间旅行的话题，我强烈推荐Ken Grimwood的小说《Relay》。请相信我，不要阅读大纲。直接进入开始，你以后会感谢我。我还推荐电影Memento，Primer，The Butterfly Effect和Twelve Monkeys，这几个是关于时间旅行的。（对不起，这是我最喜欢的类型）。
最后，感谢你的浏览！
