Part of the reason I live the way I do is that as a freelance writer, my income is unpredictable and at best fairly unspectacular. Thus it behooves me to keep in mind thedifference between wants and needs. Like all human beings, I have some needs that are absolute: about 2,500 calories a day, a half a gallon of water to drink, a sanitary means of disposing of my bodily wastes, water to bathe in, something muscular to do for part of the day and a warm, dry place to sleep. To stay sane I need contact with people and with nature, meaningful work and the opportunity to love and be loved.
我之所以選擇這樣的生活方式，部分原因是，作為一名自由作家，我的收入是難以預料的，最多的時候也是相當普通的。這對我來說理應牢記想要和需要的區別。像所有的人—樣，我有些需要是絕對的：一天攝取大約2,500卡路里的熱量，喝半加侖水，處理身體廢物的衛生設備/工具，用來洗澡的水，抽空做些強身健體的運動，還需要有一個溫暖干燥的地方睡覺。為了保持神志正常，我需要和人們聯系，和自然接觸，需要有一份有意義的工作，擁有愛與被愛的機會。
I don't need, nor do I want, to complicate my life with gadgets. I want to keep technology at the periphery rather than at the center of my life, to treat it like meat in Chinese cuisine as a condiment rather than as a staple food. Technology should abet my life, not dominate or redefine it. A really good tool—like a sharp kitchen knife, a wheelbarrow or a baby carrier, all of which have been with us in some form for thousands of years—makes a useful difference but doesn't displace human intelligence, character or contact the way higher technologies sometimes do. Working people need the tools of their trade, and as a writer, I do have a fax, but I've resisted the pressure to buy a personal computer. A manual typewriter has worked well for me so far. Noticing that the most computer-savvy people, I know are always pining for more megabytes and better software, I've decided not to climb on the purchasing treadmill of planned obsolescence.
我既不需要，也不想讓各種小玩意使我的生活復雜化。我想讓科技處于我生活的外圍而不是我生活的中心，我只想把它們當成是中國菜中的肉，僅僅是一種調味品，而不是主食。科技應該幫助我的生活，而不是主宰或者改變我的生活本質。—件真正好的工具——如一把鋒利的菜刀，一輛獨輪手推車或者一個嬰兒背帶，所有這些都是我們以不同形式用了幾千年的物件——會產生有益的影響而不是像高科技一樣有時候會取代人類的智慧、改變人的特性或者聯絡方式。工作的人需要有本行業的各種工具，作為一名作家，我確實有一部傳真機，但是我頂住了購買一臺個人電腦的壓力。目前對我來說，一臺手動打字機就足夠了。當我發現我認識的那些最精通電腦的人總是在渴望著更大的內存和更好的軟件時，我決定不讓自己登上那輛需要不斷購買更新換代產品的購物腳踏車。
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