内容来源：https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/message-ceo/stanford-commencement-speech-2026/

内容总结：

谷歌首席执行官桑达尔·皮查伊近日在斯坦福大学2026年毕业典礼上发表演讲。他回忆了自己作为该校毕业生的经历，并分享了三项人生准则：选择乐观、挑战困难、做让自己兴奋的事。

皮查伊以自身故事开场，坦言自己曾在毕业时感到迷茫。他鼓励毕业生不必对每个选择都过于焦虑，人生真正决定性的时刻其实很少。他举例说，自己曾在学生时代与同学临时起意逃课去拉斯维加斯，事后发现世界并没有因此崩塌。

针对当前充满不确定性的全球环境，皮查伊建议毕业生“选择乐观”。他回忆自己从印度初到加州时，看到棕色的山丘感到失望，但寄宿家庭的女主人却温和地纠正说：“我们更喜欢称它为金色。”这种视角的转变对他产生了深远影响。

在“挑战困难”这一准则上，皮查伊讲述了参与谷歌Chrome浏览器开发的经历。尽管最初团队仅有十人，外界的质疑声不断，用户增长也曾陷入停滞，但团队坚持快速迭代，最终取得成功。他认为，挑战困难的事情会吸引优秀的人同行，即使未能完全达成目标，也会收获不凡的成果。

最后，皮查伊勉励毕业生追随内心的热情，而非父母、朋友或社会的期待。他提到自己从斯坦福校园里成排的电脑中看到了技术改变人类生活的可能性，正是这份兴奋感驱使他加入谷歌，并投身于Chromebook、Android等项目的开发。

“你们拥有加州的乐观精神，也拥有斯坦福的文凭证明你们能挑战困难，”皮查伊在演讲结尾说道，“现在，去点燃你们的热情吧！”

中文翻译：

读桑达尔·皮查伊2026年在斯坦福大学的毕业典礼演讲

莱文校长、马丁内斯教务长、各位校董、毕业班主席——感谢诸位邀请我今日致辞。尊敬的2026届毕业生们，祝贺你们！

我必须提醒各位：这是我第二次发表毕业典礼演讲。第一次其实就在我自家后院。那是2020年春天，正值新冠疫情和封锁期间。我们为无法像这样举办庆祝活动的毕业生录制了一场YouTube毕业典礼。

回望那段时光，我看到的是巨大的焦虑。本该坐满观众的场地空无一人。我还看到了：拍摄前我给自己剪的头发。说实话，真希望自己从没看过那个造型！

今天，眼前的一切才是毕业典礼应有的样子：毕业生们与你们所爱的人一同庆祝——那些在你们成长路上给予支持的人：父母、亲友、教授，以及所有帮助你们达成这一里程碑的人们。让我们再次为他们鼓掌，他们值得这份掌声！

我知道并非所有你们在乎的人都能到场。你们中许多人像我一样来自美国其他地区乃至世界各地，家人未必总能远道而来。事实上，这是我父母第一次出席与我相关的毕业典礼。所以请允许我特别感谢他们，也感谢今天到场的所有家人。

我知道今天本该由我向各位传授建议。但人们也给了我很多关于该说什么的建议。实际上，这些建议都指向同一个内容——关于不该说什么。人们认为这对我会很困难；毕竟，这涉及我姓氏的最后两个字母。

老实说，这个话题与我想要分享的内容毫不相干。我学到的最永恒的建议，往往与科技无关。它关乎你们自己，关乎你们想为自己构建的生活，以及那些能帮助你们追寻这种生活的选择。

人生中极少有成败攸关的时刻
你们中有些人已经明确了自己的追求。恭喜你们，尽情享受现在去玫瑰与皇冠酒吧庆功的时光吧——等有了全职工作，可就没这么轻松了。

很多人可能毫无头绪。这也没关系。我记得毕业那天心中的忐忑：总觉得人生就是一连串重大时刻，而压力来自必须把每件事都做到完美。

对于一群为每门成绩、每篇论文、每次考试拼尽全力，精心平衡社团活动、体育、实习乃至第一份工作的高成就者而言，这种感受尤为强烈。

我要告诉你们一个小秘密：这些事当下看似重要，但实际影响力远不及你们想象的那么深远。你大可以考砸那场生物测验、翘掉某堂课、从没学会吹大号——今天你大概率依然能站在这里。

让我讲个自己领悟这个道理的故事。在斯坦福读书时，我有个同学叫帕特。他来自长滩，耳朵上戴着一只当时我觉得很前卫的耳环，开着一辆白色双门本田序曲敞篷车。

那年一月的一个周三早晨，是我第一个冬季学期。我们正要去上课，他突然说："要不改去拉斯维加斯？"我从来没翘过课，更没搞过公路旅行。（事实上，这是我父母第一次听说这事。）但我居然答应了："好啊。"于是我们回宿舍拿了些东西就出发了。

要穿越群山才能到达那里。车行山中时，突然下起了雪。我从没见过雪。伸手去接雪花时，我简直不敢相信那绒毛般的轻柔触感。帕特停下车让我出去；那景象美极了，是我永生难忘的时刻。

出发九小时后，我们抵达拉斯维加斯，地平线上已是万家灯火。我不知该作何感想。帕特教我玩二十一点。我拿了五美元开局，居然赢了约十五美元，立刻收手："不玩了！"我们钱不够久留，第二天就踏上了归途。

似乎没人注意到我们翘过课。我第一次意识到：偶尔放松一下，天不会塌下来。

你们一生会面临无数时刻。其中真正重要、必须做对的只有少数：选择伴侣、决定是否组建家庭、重大职业转向。这些决定需要时间和深思熟虑。

但你们还会遇到更多看似至关重要的时刻……实际上数以千计。而其中极少是成败攸关的：大学毕业后的第一份工作？接下来搬去哪座城市？要不要来那次公路旅行？这些时刻虽为人生旅途增添色彩，却罕有决定命运的力量。

不过，如果你能在纷繁喧嚣中辨明信号，就能在这些时刻里悄然引导人生走向你期待的方向。

所以今天，我想分享三个自己践行多年的简单准则。三个帮我做对更多选择、减轻压力的过滤器。

选择乐观
首先，选择乐观。

此刻你们或许不以为然。世界正经历太多动荡：全球冲突、经济焦虑、技术重构、信息过载——一切都在快速演进。

看着每日新闻，很容易觉得我们活在空前艰难的时代。但对我而言，记住每个时代都以各自方式经历苦难是有益的。我们无法选择毕业时的世界面貌，却能选择如何诠释自身处境。

这是我父母从小灌输给我的理念。我在印度蓬勃发展的金奈长大。生活大体舒适，但早年也经历过挑战。我们曾为严重干旱发愁，担心运水车能否及时到达。科技的到来也格外迟缓。我们等了好几年才装上电话、电视、冰箱。每一样都切实改变了我们的生活。

父母从不让现实的局限限制我对可能性的想象；正因如此，我才敢于梦想有朝一日能去那个叫硅谷的遥远地方工作。

当斯坦福的录取通知到来时，父亲花掉相当于一年工资的钱为我买了机票。那是我第一次坐飞机。

抵达加州时，这里并非我想象中的模样。记得第一次与寄宿家庭从机场驶上280号公路，窗外景色——如果你不是本地人，加州广告里总是郁郁葱葱、满目翠绿。但我望向窗外时，更多是……棕褐色。我大概说出声了，不知为何。我的寄宿妈妈简·厄尔夫人温和地纠正我："我们更愿意称之为金色。"

这正是我说的"选择乐观"。用积极视角重新诠释：我看到棕褐，她看到金色。这微小的视角转变，对我看待周遭世界的方式产生了巨大涟漪效应。

说实话，被"虚假宣传"的还不止茂密森林。宣传册上的海洋温暖宜人、引人入胜。我接受斯坦福录取前，有位教授甚至以美丽海滩作为卖点给我发电邮。

所以第一次去圣克鲁兹海滩时，我径直冲进了海水——一点也不暖和。

后来我才知道大西洋可能更暖和一些——顺便说，这也是斯坦福加入ACC联盟的唯一合理之处。

尽管山丘棕褐、海水寒冷，但我遇到的几乎所有人都对生活抱有积极态度。也许是因为全年能穿短裤？谁知道呢。

我发现自己也染上了这种加州乐观。它帮助我度过了斯坦福时期一次重大转折：我来这里本打算攻读博士，从事学术研究。但生活另有安排，我需要尽早工作。于是我退出了博士项目。斯坦福慷慨地让我通过硕士课程要求毕业。

我本可以视之为梦想的终结。但多亏厄尔夫人，我学会了把那片棕褐山丘看作金色。那一刻，我选择了乐观。

挑战困难之事
第二个准则：主动投身困难之事。

我很想告诉你们，离开斯坦福后我立刻功成名就……事实并非如此。甚至十年后，我仍觉得自己未走上正确道路，花了不少时间才站稳脚跟。

直到我申请谷歌。2004年愚人节那天我去终面，恰逢Gmail上线。面试官问我看法时，我分不清这到底是玩笑还是真实产品。因为在当时，给所有人提供1GB免费存储简直野心勃勃，近乎天方夜谭。

入职几年后，我也得到了解决看似不可能问题的机会。那时互联网正进入新阶段：网页从简单页面演进为丰富应用。我们这群人觉得可以重新构想浏览器，让它更快更好，并做出了自认不错的早期原型。

公司内部普遍认为，构建浏览器极其困难，需要数百名工程师；而我们只有十人左右。

这个共识是对的。这件事确实极难。某种程度上我们很天真——而面对新事物时，保持些许非理性是好的。

2008年，我们发布了自认为很棒的浏览器。前24小时获得800万用户，评价极好。然后用户增长停滞了。

一年后，市场份额约2%。我记得微软CEO史蒂夫·鲍尔默在采访中嘲笑Chrome，称之为"四舍五入的误差"。

这足以令人沮丧。但带着那份加州乐观，我告诉团队：他特意跑来贬低我们，恰恰说明我们做对了。

我们继续前进，设定极具挑战性的目标推动团队。快速迭代，每六周发布一次浏览器版本——而对手可能半年到一年才更新一次。成功开始显现。

挑战困难教会我很多：这往往会吸引其他优秀且乐观的人。即使未能达到设定的崇高目标，你依然会成就非凡之事。

所以，当你有机会选择困难之事时——请说"好"。

做让你兴奋的事
第三个准则：在所有条件相当时，选择让你兴奋的事。

对我而言，这始终是技术的可及性。我们家拥有越多技术，生活就变得越好。

直到来斯坦福前，我都很少接触电脑。所以当走进斯威特楼，看到一排排随时可用的电脑时，你们可以想象我的惊讶。

那是1993年，互联网就在我身边被构建出来。我视之为人类进步的根本推动力。想到自己能参与将互联网带给更多人，这令我无比兴奋。正因如此，我接受了谷歌的工作邀约，也正因如此，我后来抓住机会投身Chromebook和Android等项目。

几年前，我遇到一群印度乡村女性，她们首次使用安卓智能手机学习新技能、与远方的亲人通话。

我还记得参观匹兹堡一所教室时，看到不同背景的学生通过我参与打造的产品学习。目睹计算机技术改变人们的生活——正如它改变了我的人生——是这世上最令我兴奋的事。

所以，当你们规划自己的人生道路时，请不要聚焦于：
父母希望你们做的事，
或朋友们都在做的事，
或社会期待你们做的事。

相反，思考那些能让你们与室友彻夜畅谈、兴奋不已的话题。然后去做那些事。

结语
2026届的同学们，我由衷相信你们是史上最能干的一届——至少，在下一届到来之前是如此。进步就是这样运作的。

前方还有数以千计的时刻在等待你们。重要的不是事事做对，而是找到持续前进的方法。

有时我们会抵达美妙之处，比如白雪皑皑的山巅；有时则会来到……嗯，拉斯维加斯。两者都是馈赠……

你们已拥有加州乐观，能看见人生中的金色山丘；也拥有斯坦福文凭，证明你们能攻克难题……

现在，出发吧，去点燃你们心中的火焰！祝贺你们！

英文来源：

Read Sundar Pichai’s 2026 Commencement Address at Stanford University
President Levin, Provost Martinez, Trustees, Senior Class Presidents – thank you for the invitation to address you today. And to the distinguished Class of 2026, congratulations!
I must warn you all: this is only the second commencement speech I’ve ever given. The first was literally in my backyard. It was the spring of 2020, right in the middle of COVID and lock downs. We were filming a Youtube commencement for the graduates who couldn’t have their own celebrations like this one.
When I look back on it, I see a time of great anxiety. I see the empty space where there should have been an audience. I see: the haircut I gave myself right before filming. In fact, I really wish I could unsee it!
Today, what I see in front of me is how graduations should be: Graduates celebrating together and with the people you love, who have supported you on your journey: Your parents, relatives, friends, professors and everyone who helped you reach this milestone. Let’s give them another round of applause, they deserve it!
I know not everyone you care about could be here. Many of you came from other parts of the country and the world, as I had. And it’s not always possible for families to travel. In fact, this is the first time my mom and dad are attending a graduation ceremony I’m a part of. So let me say a special thanks to them, and to my entire family here with me.
I know today is about giving you all advice. But people have also been giving me a lot of advice on what to say. Actually, it’s been the same advice, and it’s about what not to say. People thought it would be really difficult for me; it is the last two letters of my last name, after all.
In all honesty, that topic is truly immaterial to what I want to share with you. The most timeless advice, I’ve learned, is technology agnostic. It’s about you, the life you want to build for yourself, and the choices that help you pursue that life.
VERY FEW MOMENTS IN LIFE ARE MAKE OR BREAK
Some of you know what you’re pursuing already. Congratulations, enjoy closing down The Rose and Crown now, it gets tougher with a day job.
Many of you may have absolutely no clue. That’s ok too. I remember feeling uncertain on graduation day: The sense that life was a series of really big moments, and the pressure I felt to get them all exactly right.
This is especially true for a group of high achievers who have sweated every grade, every paper, every exam, who have focused on having the right mix of activities, athletics, internships, and now your first jobs.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: While these things matter in the moment, they are much less consequential than you might think. You could have failed that biology test, skipped a class, never learned to play the tuba. And you’d still probably be here today.
Let me tell you a story of how I started to learn this for myself. When I was a student here, I had a classmate named Pat. He was from Long Beach, had an earring in one ear which I thought was really edgy at the time, and a white, two-door Honda Prelude convertible.
One Wednesday morning in January, my first winter quarter, we were on our way to class. He was like, "Do you want to go to Vegas instead?" I had never skipped a class. I had definitely never taken a road trip before. (In fact, this is the first time my parents are hearing of it.) And yet, I said, “sure.” So we went back to our dorm rooms, grabbed some things, and set off.
You have to cut through the mountains to get there. As we drove through them, it started to snow. I had never seen snow before. I stuck my hand out to grab it, and I couldn’t believe the softness of the flurries. Pat stopped the car so I could get out; It was really beautiful, a moment I’ll never forget.
Nine hours from when we set out, we arrived in Vegas with the night lights on the horizon. I didn’t know what to think. Pat taught me how to play blackjack. I started with five dollars and did manage to win about fifteen more, and was like, “I’m out!” We didn’t have enough money to stay long so the next day we started the drive back.
No one seemed to notice that we had missed class. For the first time, I realized the world won’t end if I relaxed a little.
You are going to face a lot of moments in your life. Only a few of them are really important and you need to get them right: Picking a partner, choosing whether to start a family, a bigger career pivot. Those decisions require time and intention.
However you will face many more moments in your life that only seem really big... Thousands of them, in fact. And very few of them are make or break: Your first job out of college? The city you move to next? Whether to take that road trip? While those moments add texture to your journey, they rarely determine the course of your life.
But if you are able to filter the signal through the noise you can nudge your life in these moments into having the impact you want.
So today, I want to share three simple filters I’ve applied to my own life. Three filters that have helped me get more moments right than wrong and took some of the pressure off.
CHOOSE OPTIMISM
First, choose optimism.
This might not ring true to you at this moment. The world is going through a lot: global conflicts, economic anxiety, a rewiring of technology, information overload, all at a fast pace.
It’s easy to look at the news of the day and think that we’re living in uniquely challenging times. For me, it’s helpful to remember that each generation has faced hardship in their own way. We don’t get to choose the world we graduate into; but we do get to choose how we frame our circumstances.
This was something my parents instilled in me at a young age. I grew up in the vibrant city of Chennai, India. It was a comfortable life for the most part, but in those early years we had some challenges. We worried about severe drought and whether the water trucks would arrive in time. And for us technology came slowly. We had to wait years to get a telephone, a tv, a refrigerator. Each changed our lives in meaningful ways.
My parents never let the constraints limit my imagination of what was possible; it’s the reason I even let myself dream I could one day work in a far away place called Silicon Valley.
When the call from Stanford came, my father spent the equivalent of a year’s salary to buy my ticket. It was my first time on a plane.
When I landed in California, it wasn’t exactly as I had imagined. I remember that first drive down 280 coming from the airport with my host family.
If you’re not from here, California is advertised as being really lush and green. But when I looked out the window, it was more…brown. I guess I said this out loud, I’m not sure why. My host, Mrs. Jane Earl, gently corrected me. “We prefer to call it golden,” she said.
And that’s exactly what I mean by choosing optimism. It’s about reframing for the positive: Where I saw brown, she saw golden. This slight change of perspective had a huge ripple effect on how I thought about the world around me.
Lush forestry wasn’t all that was mis-advertised, if I’m being honest. The ocean looks warm and inviting on the brochure. A Stanford professor even emailed me before I accepted and used the beautiful beaches as a selling point.
So the first time I went to the beach in Santa Cruz, I ran fully into the water. It was not warm.
I’ve since learned that the Atlantic can be warmer — which, by the way, is the only reason Stanford joining the ACC makes any sense at all.
Despite the brown hills and cold ocean, it seemed like almost everyone I encountered had a generally positive outlook on life. Maybe it’s because you can wear shorts all year, I don’t know.
I found myself adopting this California optimism. And it helped me navigate one of my bigger pivots during my time at Stanford: I came here fully intending to get my PhD, and to move into academics. Life had other plans, and I needed to get a job sooner. So I left my doctorate program. Stanford was generous to offer me the chance to fulfill the requirements for a master’s.
I could have seen it as the end of a dream. But thanks to Mrs. Earl, I was able to see that particular brown hill as golden. In that moment, I chose optimism.
WORK ON HARD THINGS
The second filter is to gravitate towards working on hard things.
I’d love to tell you I was an immediate success after leaving Stanford… I wasn’t. Even a decade later, I felt like I wasn’t on the right path, and it took me a while to find my footing.
Until I applied to Google. I had my final interview there in 2004, it was April Fool’s Day and the day Gmail launched. So when my interviewers asked me about it, I wasn’t sure if it was a joke or a real product. That’s because at the time, one gigabyte of free storage for everyone felt super ambitious, and almost impossible.
A couple years into the job, I got my chance to work on a seemingly impossible problem, too. It was around this time that the internet was moving into a new phase. The web was evolving from simple web pages to rich applications. There was a group of us that felt we could reimagine the browser to be much better and faster, and we had an early prototype that we thought was pretty good.
Internally there was a consensus that building a browser would be incredibly difficult, requiring hundreds of engineers; we had a group of about ten.
The consensus was right. It was going to be really hard. In some ways we were naive, and it's good to be a bit irrational when you approach new things.
And in 2008, we launched what we thought was a great browser. We had eight million users in the first twenty-four hours, and the reviews were really positive. And then user growth stagnated.
After a year, we had around two percent share. I remember Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, made fun of Chrome in an interview and called it a rounding error.
It could have been demoralizing. But with that California optimism, I told the team that the fact he went out of his way to dismiss us meant we were doing something right.
We kept going, setting highly aggressive stretch goals to keep the team pushing. We rapidly iterated, shipping the browser every six weeks while others shipped one maybe every six months to a year. Success began to follow.
Working on hard things has taught me a lot: It typically attracts other great and optimistic people. And even if you miss meeting the high goals you set, you’ll still achieve something great.
So when you have the choice to work on something hard — say yes.
DO WHAT EXCITES YOU
And the third filter I use: when all else is equal, do the thing that excites you.
For me, that has always been access to technology. The more access my family had, the better our lives got.
I didn’t have much access to a computer until I came to Stanford. So you can imagine my surprise when I walked into Sweet Hall and saw rows and rows of computers that I could use anytime I wanted.
It was 1993 and the internet was being built literally all around me. I saw it as a fundamental enabler of human progress. The idea that I could be a part of bringing it to as many people as possible was exciting. It’s why I took the offer at Google. And why I jumped at the chance to work on projects like Chromebooks and Android later on.
Several years ago, I remember meeting a group of women in rural India using Android smartphones for the first time to learn new trades and speak with loved ones far away.
And I remember visiting a classroom in Pittsburgh and seeing students from different backgrounds learning through the products I helped to build. Seeing computing change people’s lives as it had changed mine was the most exciting thing in the world to me.
So as you look at your own path, don’t focus on:
The thing your parents want you to do,
Or the thing all your friends are doing,
Or that society expects of you.
Instead, think about the things that keep you chatting excitedly with your roommates late into the night. And go do those things.
CONCLUSION
Class of 2026, I genuinely believe you are the most capable class in history. At least until next year’s class — that’s how progress works.
You have thousands of moments ahead of you. The important thing isn’t to get them all right; it’s to find a way to keep moving forward.
Sometimes we end up somewhere wonderful, like a beautiful snow capped mountain. Other times we end up in, well, Vegas… Both are a gift…
You already have the California optimism to see life’s golden hills, and a Stanford diploma proving you can do hard things…
Now, go out and set your heart ablaze! Congratulations!