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Not only humans have fun. My observation is that all animals who can make choices as to what to do to fulfill their needs seem at times to have fun. The higher the animal, the more fun. Lower animals, whose behavior is essentially built-in and who do not have much ability to learn, are not involved with fun. If you want a fun pet, you would not choose a turtle.
不仅人类拥有快乐。据我观察，所有能够决定如何来实现自我意愿的动物，有时候也拥有快乐。越是高级的动物，得到的快乐就越多。对于低级动物来说，它们的行为基本上是固有的，没有太多的学习能力，也就与快乐没什么关联。如果你想要拥有一个有趣的宠物的话，你就不会选择乌龟。
My guess is that we will survive in direct proportion to how much we can learn. So, driven by the need for fun, we always have a powerful genetic incentive to keep trying to learn as much as we can. Without the relationship between fun and learning we would not learn nearly as much. I realize that we also learn for power, love and freedom, but to satisfy these often requires long-term dedication. It is the immediate fun of learning that keeps us going day by day, especially when we are young and have so much to learn.
我的推测是我们的生存能力跟我们的学习能力成正比。因此，在对快乐的需要的驱使下，我们总是有着强有力的内在动机，促使我们尽可能多地学习。如果学习和快乐之间没有关系的话，我们就不会获得这么多的知识。我发现我们也在为权力、爱和自由而学习，但是要满足这些需求常常需要长时间的忘我工作。正是学习所带来的直接乐趣让我们天天进步，尤其是当我们年轻时，当还有很多东西需要学习的时候。
Boredom is the opposite of fun. It always occurs when we have to spend time without learning: A monotonous task is always boring unless we can find a way to learn while doing something repetitive, or make the thing we are doing competitive or social, as Tom Sawyer did when he was painting the fence. A prisoner who is actively planning his escape finds his confinement much less oppressive. Anytime we can introduce power, freedom or belonging into a situation, we find it more interesting. And as we do, we also find ourselves learning along the way.
无聊乏味是快乐的对立面。当我们消磨时间却学不到东西时，这种无聊感便会向我们袭来。单调的工作是很乏味的，除非当我们做这些重复的工作时，寻找到一种学习方法或者让我们所做的事情具有竞争性或社会意义，就像汤姆·索亚在给栅栏刷漆时所做的一样。一个积极策划越狱的囚犯会觉得监狱生活不那么难挨。任何时候只要我们把权力、自由或者归属感引入到某一环境，我们就会发现更多乐趣。当我们那样做时，也会发现我们同样是在学习。
