Don’t Take the Black Pill (Text Adaptation)

Andrew Kelley - Don’t Take the Black Pill (Text Adaptation) (2026 Jul 31)

This is a blog post version of the talk I delivered at Software Should Work 2026. Shoutouts to Isaac Van Doren for running such a delightful conference and nailing it first try, and for infecting us all with his charming enthusiasm for Columbia, Missouri.

这是我在 2026 年“软件应该好用”（Software Should Work 2026）大会上演讲的博客版本。特别感谢 Isaac Van Doren 举办了如此精彩的会议并一举成功，也感谢他用对密苏里州哥伦比亚市那迷人的热情感染了我们所有人。

Part 1: The Pill

第一部分：药丸

When I gave this talk, I warmed up the crowd by asking the audience who liked the 1999 film The Matrix. Roughly half raised their hands. But the kicker was the followup question, “who has never seen this movie?”. 10 brave youngsters raised their hands to audible gasps.

在演讲时，我先通过询问观众有多少人喜欢 1999 年的电影《黑客帝国》来热场。大约有一半人举了手。但接下来的问题才是重头戏：“谁从来没看过这部电影？”10 位勇敢的年轻人举起了手，引得全场一片惊呼。

In this movie, there’s an iconic moment where our hero, Ted “Theodore” Logan, is presented with two choices, the red pill or the blue pill. The question is essentially “Do you want to know an uncomfortable truth?”; the blue pill means “no” and the red pill means “yes”. To the audience, the answer is obvious. If the main character chose blue, the credits would roll before anything happened.

在这部电影中，有一个标志性的时刻：我们的英雄泰德·“西奥多”·洛根面临两个选择——红色药丸或蓝色药丸。这个问题本质上是：“你想知道那个令人不安的真相吗？”蓝色药丸意味着“不想”，红色药丸意味着“想”。对观众来说，答案显而易见。如果主角选择了蓝色，电影在还没开始时就会直接播放演职员表了。

But the metaphor is so strong and the cinematography kicks so much ass that the scene influenced our culture and language to the point where people who haven’t even heard of the film say the phrase “based and red-pilled”.

但这个隐喻太强大了，电影的拍摄手法也太出色了，以至于这一场景深刻影响了我们的文化和语言，甚至连那些没听说过这部电影的人都会说出“基于事实且觉醒”（based and red-pilled）这样的短语。

Let’s talk about the “black pill”. It comes from “incel” culture. The word is a portmanteau of “involuntary” and “celibate”. Basically, young men who had trouble dating started complaining about it together on the Internet. So far, so good, but an unfortunate feedback cycle emerged.

我们来谈谈“黑色药丸”。它源于“非自愿独身”（incel）文化。这个词是“非自愿”（involuntary）和“独身”（celibate）的合成词。简单来说，就是那些在约会中遇到困难的年轻男性开始在互联网上聚在一起抱怨。到目前为止，这还没什么问题，但随后出现了一个不幸的反馈循环。

Those who used the space in a productive manner, such as brainstorming, encouragment, mentorship, etc., tended to shape up, mature, work through their problems, and, to put it bluntly, get laid. At that point, they didn’t really feel like sticking around and commiserating anymore, so they left. This was a natural filtering process.

那些以建设性方式利用这个空间的人，比如进行头脑风暴、互相鼓励、提供指导等，往往会振作起来、变得成熟、解决自己的问题，说白了就是成功脱单了。到了那个阶段，他们就不再想留下来诉苦了，于是他们离开了。这是一个自然的过滤过程。

Thus, when new, impressionable youngsters entered the community, they were greeted only by miserable, hopeless, antisocial losers. Over time the culture became so toxic that the accepted wisdom became, essentially, “Give up. The game is rigged. There is nothing you can do. You might as well lie down and rot.”

因此，当新的、容易受影响的年轻人进入这个社区时，迎接他们的只有那些痛苦、绝望、反社会的失败者。随着时间的推移，这种文化变得极其有毒，以至于公认的“智慧”本质上变成了：“放弃吧。游戏是被操纵的。你什么也做不了。你还不如躺平腐烂。”

In short, the “black pill” is nihilism mixed with depression mixed with anger, and in the worst case leads to outcomes like suicide or school shootings. I almost fell into this trap.

简而言之，“黑色药丸”是虚无主义、抑郁和愤怒的混合体，在最坏的情况下，会导致自杀或校园枪击等后果。我差点就掉进了这个陷阱。

Speaking from experience, entering the dating scene as a young man can be challenging to the point of despair. I was raised by conservative Christian parents and had so, so much to learn and to unlearn about the world in order to date comfortably and confidently. Perhaps you may be surprised to hear this but what helped me get out of this spiral was listening to pick up artists.

以我的经验来看，作为一个年轻男性进入约会市场，其挑战性有时会让人感到绝望。我在保守的基督徒家庭中长大，为了能舒适且自信地约会，我不得不学习和摒弃关于这个世界的太多东西。也许你会惊讶，但帮助我走出这个恶性循环的，竟然是听那些“搭讪艺术家”（PUA）的理论。

Looking back, I think what these guys mainly have to offer is its own form of nihilistic, manipulative toxicity, but one of them said something that I instantly realized was key. He said that you shouldn’t focus on the outcome of “the pick up”. The actual move, he said, is to work on being attractive, in general, to everybody. Platonic friends included.

回想起来，我认为这些人主要提供的是一种虚无主义、操纵性的毒素，但其中一个人说的话让我瞬间意识到那是关键。他说，你不应该专注于“搭讪”的结果。他说，真正的做法是努力让自己在总体上对所有人都有吸引力，包括柏拉图式的友谊。

You should try to make everyone want to be around you, because you genuinely care about them. Listen intently to what they say. Make them laugh. You offer people whom you interact with meaningful experiences that make them remember you and invite you to future events. You put effort in to make everyone have a good time. By doing this, you create more circumstances where there is a chance for romance to spark. It’s genius!

你应该努力让每个人都想和你待在一起，因为你真心关心他们。认真倾听他们说的话。让他们欢笑。为你互动的人提供有意义的体验，让他们记住你并邀请你参加未来的活动。你付出努力让每个人都玩得开心。通过这样做，你创造了更多让浪漫火花迸发的契机。这真是天才！

My takeaway here is that the kids are alright. Even when exposed to a bunch of bad ideas, if good ideas are also in the mix, they’ll figure it out.

我的结论是，孩子们没问题。即使接触到一堆坏主意，只要其中也混杂着好主意，他们最终会想明白的。

Let’s bring this a little closer to home. This is Cory Doctorow. He’s the guy who coined the term “Enshittification”. He worked for Electronic Frontier Foundation for a while before becoming a full-time writer. In 2019 he published a short story called “Radicalized”. The story centers around an online forum of people who commiserate together because they got screwed over by health insurance companies. Listen to this excerpt and see if it sounds familiar:

让我们把话题拉近一点。这是 Cory Doctorow。他创造了“Enshittification”（互联网平台劣化）这个词。在成为全职作家之前，他曾在电子前哨基金会（EFF）工作过一段时间。2019 年，他发表了一篇名为《激进化》（Radicalized）的短篇小说。故事围绕着一个在线论坛展开，里面的人因为被医疗保险公司坑害而聚在一起诉苦。听听这段摘录，看看是否觉得耳熟：

“In a forum for ex-drunks, there’s a big group of elder statespeople who’ve been sober for years and years. They’re a wise, moderating voice, and they are the existence of proof of life after addiction. Whenever someone on the forums went on a bender and was recriminating with themselves, there was a dried-out elder who could tell a story to top theirs, about being put out on the street, losing their kids, losing their limbs, even, and coming back from it. Fuck Cancer Right In Its Fucking Face did not have those people. The people who got over their furious grief left [the forum], chased away by its rage culture. The people who stayed were really into their anger, clinging to it like a drunk refusing to let go of a bottle. If your anger took you to a place you couldn’t handle, a place that scared you, the elders of [the forum] would help you all right: they’d explain to you that this was the right reaction, the only reaction, and it was never, ever going to get better. This was your life from here on in.”

“在一个戒酒者论坛里，有一大群已经清醒多年的老前辈。他们是睿智、温和的声音，是戒瘾后重获新生的活证明。每当论坛里有人酗酒后陷入自我谴责时，总会有位过来人讲出比他们更惨的故事——关于流落街头、失去孩子、甚至失去肢体，但最终又重新站起来的经历。而‘去他妈的癌症’（Fuck Cancer Right In Its Fucking Face）论坛里却没有这样的人。那些克服了愤怒与悲伤的人离开了（论坛），被那里的愤怒文化赶走了。留下来的人沉溺于愤怒，像酒鬼不愿放下酒瓶一样紧紧抓住它。如果你的愤怒把你带到了一个你无法承受、让你感到恐惧的地方，论坛里的‘长辈’们确实会‘帮助’你：他们会向你解释，这是正确的反应，是唯一的反应，而且情况永远、永远不会好转。这就是你余下的人生了。”

Five years after Doctorow published this fictional short story, the real life CEO of the American health insurance company UnitedHealthcare was shot to death, bullets cased with the words “deny, defend, depose”.

在 Doctorow 发表这篇虚构短篇小说的五年后，现实中美国联合健康保险公司（UnitedHealthcare）的首席执行官被枪杀，子弹壳上刻着“拒绝、辩护、罢免”（deny, defend, depose）的字样。

Part 2: Software Should Work

第二部分：软件应该好用

The main purpose of a conference like this is technical. At its core, it’s a “safe space” where the attendees already agree that software should work, and it should be fast, and it should prioritize the user experience, and so all we have to do is share tips, tricks, demos, and research with each other on how to better accomplish these things.

像这样的会议，其主要目的是技术性的。其核心是一个“安全空间”，与会者已经达成共识：软件应该好用、应该快速、应该优先考虑用户体验。因此，我们所要做的就是分享关于如何更好地实现这些目标的技巧、窍门、演示和研究。

But if we neglect the meta examination here, our efforts are in vain. The implication of the phrase “software should work” is that often in the real world, we find that it doesn’t work. Right? Why not? What’s stopping software from working?

但如果我们忽略了这里的元分析（meta examination），我们的努力就白费了。“软件应该好用”这句话的潜台词是，在现实世界中，我们经常发现它并不好用。对吧？为什么呢？是什么阻碍了软件发挥应有的作用？