After 24 years of writing columns for the FT, this is my last. I was a sports columnist from 2002 to 2010 before switching to this column about more or less anything. As a goodbye, let me recount what it’s been like doing the job in our peculiar era.
在为英国《金融时报》撰写专栏24年后，这是我的最后一篇。2002年至2010年，我曾是体育专栏作家，之后转而撰写这个几乎无所不谈的专栏。作为告别，我想回顾一下在这个特殊的时代里，从事这份工作是怎样的一种体验。
My approach was that every column starts with one original idea — or at least a thought that is new to most readers. The idea should be something that can be stated in a sentence: for instance, that some Maga folk such as Peter Thiel and Elon Musk had formative childhood experiences in apartheid South Africa. What’s not a column is restating the conventional wisdom. That seems pointless, though I’m sure I sometimes ended up doing it.
我的写作原则是，每篇专栏都以一个原创想法——或者至少是一个对大多数读者来说新颖的观点——开头。这个想法应该可以用一句话说明白：例如，彼得•蒂尔(Peter Thiel)和埃隆•马斯克(Elon Musk)这样的“让美国再次伟大”(MAGA)支持者在种族隔离时期的南非度过关键的成长期。重复传统观念算不上是一篇好的专栏文章。我觉得那么做毫无意义，尽管我确信自己有时最终也会那么做。
Every idea came from me. Nobody at the FT ever told me what to say or what political line to take. All those years, I spent most of my brainpower hunting ideas. I did it by listening to interesting people — in conversation, at conferences and by reading their books. It helps to live in a global city where people from everywhere pass through. English-language columnists tend to concentrate in London and New York, so I hope that writing from Paris, where the conversation is a little different, gave my column something distinct.
每一个想法都来自我自己。英国《金融时报》编辑部没有任何人告诉我该写什么，或者该采取怎样的政治立场。这么多年来，我把大部分精力投入到寻觅原创想法上。为此，我聆听有意思的人的高见——在谈话中、在会场上，或者阅读他们的书。就此而言，生活在一个世界各地的人们都会落脚的全球城市很有帮助。英文专栏作家往往集中在伦敦和纽约，所以我希望，在对话氛围略有不同的巴黎写作，能让我的文章独具特色。