Ken Eckert：

I have a doctorate and by any standards before this century am lucky enough to be very well-educated.

我有一个博士头衔，从本世纪的任何标准来看，我都很幸运，因为我受到了良好的教育。

Then when I go home I feel foolish when I go for a walk with my father. He knows what kind of bird that is; what it eats; how it will sound. He knows those trees, how they grow, what kind of fruit or leaves they will make. He knows what will grow in that soil. He knows those clouds and what weather it will bring. He knows if you tap a wall with a hammer the pitch will be lower when you hit a 2x4 support.

但当我回家同我的父亲一起散步时，我觉得自己很蠢。他知道我们看到的是什么鸟类，知道它吃什么，也知道它的叫声听起来如何。他了解树林里的树，明白这些树如何生长，他也知道这些树会结什么果子或者它们的叶子长什么样。他知道在那片土地上会长出什么东西。他了解天上的云，抬头看看就知道天气会如何。

I just don't have that level of "natural intelligence" about my surroundings. Nevertheless, when I talk to my students I feel like I am Daniel bloody Boone. These are skills requiring you to spend time outdoors with real birds and not angry ones on a tiny screen.

而我对于我周围的环境就没有那种程度的“天生悟性”。不过，当我和我的学生交谈时，我觉得我就像血腥的丹尼尔•布恩(此人爱好打猎)。这些技能都要求你进行户外活动，同真实的鸟儿呆在一起，而不是与小屏幕上的愤怒小鸟一起消磨时光。

[Followup. I had no idea this post would be so heavily voted. Thank you all for the comments. I used the term 'natural intelligence' poetically, but it probably wasn't the best choice as it implies that these skills cannot be learned. They of course can be, just as I learned to fix a flat; the point is that fewer want to. There are also certainly skills young people now attain that were unusual before (for example, few of my teenage friends could type); but the question did not ask this. And good catch: the 2x4 stud has a higher pitch. Ken :> ]

补充：我之前不知道这一条会有这么多人投票(4.6K)。感谢你们所有人的评论。我用的'natural intelligence'一词也许在这里并不恰当，因为它暗示着人们无法习得这些技能。人们当然能学会这些，就像我学会了补胎一样；重点在于很少有人想学。现在的年轻人也会一些特别的技能(比如我十几岁时认识的朋友很少有人会打字)；不过这些与此问题无关。

Elizabeth Greene：

I was born in 1976.

我于1976年出生。

My great great grandfather would bemoan my inability to chop down a tree.

我的高祖会因我无法砍倒一棵树而叹息。

My great grandfather would have laughed at my fumbling attempts at hitching and riding a horse.

我的曾祖会因我笨拙地尝试拴马和骑马而大笑。

My grandfather could build a fire in a fireplace with one match, invaded Europe, and could repair a failed tube television using parts from a drugstore. I would struggle with each.

我的祖父能在壁炉中用一根火柴生火，他入侵过欧洲，还能用杂货店里面的一些零件来修坏了的电子管电视。而我每一样都不会。

My father successfully taught me how to adjust a points ignition system but failed to pass on the arcane incantations required for carburetor troubleshooting.

我的父亲成功地教会我如何调整点火装置，但他没教会我怎么排除化油器故障。

In my generation I see a legion of people with little or no comprehension of the boxes that make their life possible. "It's broken"; I need another." is the cry. The idea of replacing a single part to make it whole again is foreign, killed stone dead by a tide of planned obsolescence and "No user serviceable parts inside."

在我这一代人里面，我看见很多人都只会说“它坏了，我需要一个新的。”人们对修理东西感到很陌生，他们只知道使用期限到了和“用户不能自行维修里面的零件”。

In my children I see less organized thought and less reliance on memory. Those tasks are outsourced to search engines, inference engines, and gadgets in the same way that walking led to horses and led to cars.

而我的孩子这一代，我看到他们的思维没那么有序，也较少依赖记忆。他们有搜索引擎、推理机和各种小玩意儿。

As my ancestors have, so will I. I will sigh at their loss of skills. I would like to give them the gift of mental arithmetic, reading and following a map, memorizing phone numbers and addresses, and the skill of composing a brief essay on a whim. Those things are important to me. To my children they are not.

就像我的祖先一样，我会看着他们失去这些技能。我很乐意教他们心算，教会他们看地图和记下各种电话号码与地址等等。对我而言这些东西很重要，对他们来说并非如此。

They are adapting to their world in the same way I adapted to mine. The skills I need to succeed are different from their needs. I wish them well in what they study, and I hope to be here when they sigh at their children's follies.

他们正在适应他们的世界，正如我当初适应我的世界一样。我需要继承的技能与他们不同。我祝愿他们学得好，我希望我能看着他们瞅着他们孩子的活报剧。