刨去贝佐斯本人的八卦不谈，我对他致股东信中的这几句话印象深刻：

“世界想要你变得平庸。”

“你必须为你的独特性付出代价。”

“做你自己是值得的，但是它并不容易或者免费，你必须持续投入能量。”

虽然我一直和小妞说：“我们同为人类是一种假象，事实是，如果我们能够剥去肉体，显露灵魂，人与人之间的差异，不亚于蚂蚁和大象、老鼠和雄鹰。”

但是，这封信更显露了更深一层次的真相：随着人生进程，我们会趋同，或者假装趋同。——这正是世界的法则之一，你可以说背后是生物学的驯化，物理学的熵增，社会学的同质化+同构化。而维护自我和个性，是需要代价和能量的。

这正是宇宙的法则。

你会怎么选？真的很难。

而现在，随着AI的到来，这个法则恰好有了更多含义——这或许是人类区别于AI的最大特质；或者换个角度说，如果有一天硅基生物有了“个性”和“自己”，我们就能把它定义为一个“真正的人”了。

我们都说创造性。那何为创造性？它和“个性”有关吗？它和“不同”有关吗？金钱来自于趋同，还是不同？

……

我有一个自己的答案：深刻洞察趋同，再让独立认知凌驾其上。

正如禅宗所言：「如如不动，了了分明」

“如如不动”指内心不为外界潮流、舆论、群体压力所动摇；“了了分明”指对世间趋同的本质、虚妄有透彻的认知。

附上那封信的英文原文：

Dear Shareholders,

This is my last annual letter as CEO of Amazon,and there’s one thing I think is critically important that I must teach all of you.I hope every Amazonian will take it to heart.

The following is a passage from Richard Dawkins’extraordinary book,The Blind Watchmaker.It’s a basic fact of biology:

“Staving off death is a thing that you have to work at.Left to itself–and that is what it is when it dies–the body tends to revert to a state of equilibrium with its environment.If you measure some quantity inside a living body,such as the temperature,the acidity,the water content or the electrical potential,you normally find it is appreciably different from the corresponding quantity in the environment.For example,our bodies are usually warmer than their surroundings,and in cold climates we have to work hard to maintain this temperature difference.When we die,this work stops,the temperature difference disappears,and eventually we become the same temperature as our surroundings.Not all animals work so hard to avoid coming into equilibrium with their surrounding temperature,but all animals do something comparable.For example,in a dry country,plants and animals work to maintain the water content of their cells,resisting the natural tendency for water to flow out of their bodies into the dry outside world.If they fail,they die.More generally,if living things didn’t work actively to prevent it,they would eventually merge into their surroundings,and cease to exist as autonomous beings.That is what happens when they die.”

While this passage is not intended as a metaphor,it is an exquisite metaphor,and it is directly relevant to Amazon.I think it is relevant to all companies,all institutions,and to each of us in our personal lives.In what ways does the world pull at you to make you“normal”?How much effort does it take to maintain your distinctiveness?How much care and attention is required to keep alive the thing or things that make you special?

I know a happily married couple who have a running joke in their relationship.The husband,looking at his wife with mock exasperation,will say:“Why can’t you just be normal?”They both smile and laugh,and of course the deep truth is that her distinctiveness is what he loves about her.But at the same time,it’s also true that if we could just be a little more“normal,”things would often be easier–less energy expended.

This phenomenon happens at every scale.Democracy is not normal.Tyranny is the historical norm.If we stopped doing all of the continuous hard work that is required to maintain our distinctiveness in that regard,we would quickly come to equilibrium with tyranny.

We all know that distinctiveness–originality–is valuable.We are all taught to“be yourself.”What I’m really asking you to do is to embrace and be realistic about how much energy it takes to maintain that distinctiveness.The world wants you to be typical–in a thousand ways,it pulls at you.Don’t let it happen.

You have to pay a price for your distinctiveness,and it’s worth paying.The fairy tale version of“be yourself”is that all the pain stops as soon as you let your distinctiveness shine.That version is misleading.Being yourself is worth it,but don’t expect it to be easy or free.You have to keep putting energy into it.

The world will always try to make Amazon more typical–to bring us into equilibrium with our environment.It will take continuous effort,but we can and must be better than that.

...

I’m attaching my 1997 letter to shareholders.We were a small bookseller then,and I wrote:“We remain in Day 1.”

Today,24 years later,we are still in Day 1.

To all of you:Be kind,be original,create more than you consume,and never let the universe make you typical.It’s still Day 1.

Jeff