谷歌公司白手起家的神話
感謝殷時光對我的心靈輔導
讓我知道了自己就是個窮人家的臭屌絲孩子
回到家，當爹的在沙發上躺著，開這一瓶白酒，叼著煙，挺著個肚子，嘴裡嚼著大塊大塊的豬頭肉，看著新聞聯播，那眼神好像個廢人
當媽的在村裡瞎亂雞巴喊，好像沒人知道她是村裡的大嘴巴一樣
我還是洗洗睡吧
2018.6.23
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今天向大家推薦一本書：How google works。國內翻譯成：谷歌是怎樣運營的。但其實這本書應該叫：谷歌公司的成長和我們是什麼為什麼怎麼辦還有應該堅持的信念等等差不多了吧我們想幹什麼就幹什麼但是就是不來中國的管理故事。
本書分章節，每一章的結構幾乎都是按照：「事例—是什麼—為什麼—怎麼辦—實例」的結構進行展開，偶爾會有順序調整。本書中文版有刪減。
①摘自前言Forewordby Larry Page(Google Cofounder and CEO) 谷歌創始人之一：拉里佩奇
When I was younger and first started thinking about my future, I decided to either become a professor or start a company. I felt that either option would give me a lot of autonomy—the freedom to think fromfirst principles and real-world physicsrather than having to accept theprevailing 「wisdom.」
當年輕的我第一次考慮自己未來的時候，我決定：要不然成為一名教授，要不然就要成立公司。因為我覺得這兩個都能給我很多的自主權——讓我能夠自由地通過基本原則和人生準則去思考問題，而不是通過被迫接受的那些世俗智慧。
As much as technology has affected consumers, it has had an even bigger impact on businesses.In economic terms, when thecost curvesshift downward on aprimary factor of productionin an industry,big-time changeisin storefor that industry.Today, three factors of production have become cheaper—information, connectivity, and computing power—affecting any cost curves in which those factors are involved.This can』t help buthave disruptive effects. Many incumbents—aka pre-Internet companies—built their businesses based on assumptions of scarcity: scarce information, scarce distribution resources and market reach, or scarce choice and shelf space. Now, though, these factors are abundant, lowering or eliminating barriers to entry and making entire industries ripe for change.
儘管技術影響了消費群體，但是它對商業的影響更大。按照經濟學術語來說，當某行業產品的初級生產要素的主要成本曲線開始下降的時候，那麼這個行業就將要發生巨變。當前產品的三個生產要素：信息，連通，還有電腦的計算能力都變得便宜了，同時這三個也影響了包括這些要素的任何成本曲線。破壞性的影響就在所難免。很多的現任企業（也就是互聯網出現之前的公司）是把他們做的生意建立在缺乏性的基礎上：對信息、分配資源、市場範圍、消費者選擇和貨架空間的缺乏等。而現在，這些要素都變得多餘了，甚至降低和消除了行業進入門檻，轉變的時機已經成熟。
When we contrast the traditional knowledge worker with the engineers and other talented people who have surrounded us at Google over the pastdecade-plus, we see that our Google peers represent a quite different type of employee. They are not confined to specific tasks. They are not limited in their access to the company』s information and computing power. They are not averse to taking risks, nor are they punished or held back in any way when those risky initiatives fail.They are not hemmed inby role definitions or organizational structures; in fact, they are encouraged to exercise their own ideas. They don』t keep quiet when they disagree with something. They get bored easily and shift jobs a lot. They are multidimensional, usually combining technical depth with business savvy and creative flair. In other words, they are not knowledge workers, at least not in the traditional sense. They are a new kind of animal, a type we call a 「smart creative,」 and they are the key to achieving success in the Internet Century.
當我們把傳統的知識工作者跟每天在我們身邊工作超過20年的程序員和天才們進行對比的時候，我們發現谷歌人代表了一個不同類型的群體。他們不會被特定任務所局限；他們也不會被限制於接觸公司的信息和計算能力；他們不怕冒險，也不會在挑戰風險失敗後被懲罰或者退縮 ；他們不會被角色定義或者組織結構所包圍住，事實上，他們被鼓勵去鍛煉自己的想法；他們在不同意的時候不會保持沉默；他們不會輕易感到無聊然後去干別的；他們是全才，經常把技術跟商業頭腦和創造天分結合起來；話句話說，他們不是所謂的知識工作者，至少不是那種傳統的。他們是一種新的生物，我們把他們稱為「創意精英」，他們便是我們在互聯網世紀取得成功的關鍵！
AsPeter Druckerpointed out, the Egyptian who conceived and built the pyramids thousands of years agowas really justa very successful manager.
就好像彼得德魯克指出的，幾千年前建造金字塔的埃及人，恰恰是最成功的管理者。
②摘自第一章：Culture—Believe Your Own Slogans 谷歌文化—相信你的口號
Many people, when considering a job, are primarily concerned with their role and responsibilities, the company』strack record, the industry, and compensation. Further down on that list, probably somewhere between 「length of commute」 and 「quality of coffee in the kitchen,」 comes culture. Smart creatives, though, place culture at the top of the list. To be effective, they need tocareabout the place they work. This is why, when starting a new company or initiative, culture is the most important thing to consider.
很多人在考慮工作的時候，首先想到職責和責任、公司業績、行業、和報酬。往下追究，大概會從「通勤工時」和「食堂的飲料的質量」來考慮公司文化。然後對於創意精英來說，他們會首先考慮那個地方的文化氛圍。為了有效工作，他們需要真正的關心一下那個地方。這就是為什麼當創立新公司或者新事業，文化是最為重要的因素。
Your parents were wrong—messiness is a virtue.
你的父母教你的是錯誤的—雜亂恰恰是一種美德。
Hippos are dangerous in companies too, where they take the form of the Highest-Paid Person』s Opinion. When it comes to the quality of decision-making, pay level is intrinsically irrelevant and experience is valuableonly if it is used to frame a winning argument. Unfortunately, in most companies experience is the winning argument. We call these places 「tenurocracies,」 because power derives from tenure, not merit.
河馬們（Hippos）對於公司來說非常危險，「河馬」就是工資高的人的意見（Highest-Paid Person』s Opinion）。當提到決策質量的時候，從本質上來說，工資水平與決策是完全無關的。只有在討論並構建有力論點的時候，個人經驗才會有價值。不幸的是，在大多數公司，個人在公司的地位和經驗就等於權威。我們把這樣的公司成為「資歷制」，因為權力體現在任期上，而不是能力和價值。
註：注意這裡只適合高科技公司，特別是像谷歌這種。
Thebuilding block of organizationsshould be small teams. Small teams are like families: They can bicker and fight, or even be downright dysfunctional, but they usually pull togetherat crunch time. Small teams tend to get bigger as their products grow; things built by only a handful of people eventually require a much bigger team to maintain them. This is OK, as long as the bigger teams don』t preclude the existence of small teams working on the next breakthroughs. A scaling company needs both.
大組織的一點一滴的建立應該從小團隊開始。小團隊就好像家庭：他們會鬥嘴和打架，甚至全完不能運作，但是一到緊要關頭就會聚在一起。隨著產品的擴增，小團隊會變得很大；一小伙人建立起來的組織最後就需要更大的團隊來運作。這很正常，只要大團隊不阻礙其中的小團對的再次突破就行。一定比例的公司需要兩者的存在。
註：這裡很有教科書意義，為什麼呢，打個比方，如果你學過生態學，或者細心觀察事物，你就會發現一個種群之中，其中肯定有一個或幾個建群種，當然建群種有些不會是優勢種。就好像一片森林，這片森林的凈光合能力主要由優勢種分擔，別的物種除了起能量流通作用外，還組成物種多樣性的一部分。
Smart creatives may have a lot of good traits, but they aren』t saints, so it』s important to watch your knave quotient.
創意精英們有很多的優點，但他們也不是聖人，所以，注意團隊里惡棍電費比例非常重要！！
註：也是講物種多樣性的問題
A great start-up, a great project—a great job, for that matter—should be fun, and if you』reworking your butt offwithout deriving any enjoyment, something』s probably wrong. Part of the fun comes frominhaling the fumesof future success. But a lot of it comes from laughing and joking and enjoying the company of your coworkers.
一個好的初創團隊、計劃項目—或者一份好的工作—都應該充滿樂趣。如果你忙的焦頭爛額卻一點也不開心，那就是什麼東西搞錯了。一部分樂趣來自對未來的憧憬。但是大部分應該來源於跟你同事開開心心地工作。
③摘自第二章：Strategy—Your Plan Is Wrong 谷歌的戰略模式—你的計劃錯了
We have no idea what your venture is or even your industry, so we won』t presume to tell you how to create a business plan. But we can tell you with 100 percent certainty that if you have one, it is wrong. MBA-style business plans, no matter how well conceived and thought out, are alwaysflawed in some important way. This is why a venture capitalist will always follow the maxim of investing in the team, not the plan. Since the plan is wrong, the people have to be right. Successful teams spot the flaws in their plan and adjust.
我們不知道你是什麼事業、什麼行業，所以我們不會去告訴你怎麼去制定商業計劃書。但是我們可以100%向你保證如果你手頭有一份，那肯定是錯的。那種MBA形式的計劃書，不管它構思的多精妙，整理的多有調理，它一定在一些方面有瑕疵。這就是為什麼風投家經常會選擇投團隊而不投計劃。因為那份計劃是錯誤的，但是人必須是正確的。成功的團隊會發現計劃的瑕疵而調整它。
The ecosystem matters a lot. The most successful leaders in the Internet Century will be the ones who understand how to create and quickly grow platforms. A platform is, fundamentally, a set of products and services that bring together groups of users and providers to form multisided markets. Platforms are increasingly (if not exclusively) technology based.
整個大環境的生態很重要。在網路世紀，最最成功的領導者就是那些懂得建立平台並且快速成長的人。所謂的平台，就是一系列的產品和服務，可以把供應商和用戶群吸引進去，從而形成多邊市場。平台（即使不是所有的平台）對科技的依賴將會越來越大。
This is the difference between twenty-first- and twentieth-century economies. Whereas the twentieth century was dominated by monolithic, closed networks, the twenty-first will be driven by global, open ones. There are platform opportunities all around us. The successful leaders are the ones who discover them.
這就是20世紀和21世紀經濟市場的不同之處。鑒於20世紀被封閉、單一的網路所主宰，那麼21世紀將會是全球的、開放的。我們身邊有很多平台機會，成功的領導者就是發現它們的人。
④摘自第三章：Talent—Hiring Is the Most Important Thing You Do 谷歌招聘—人才的hire是你最重要的事
If you asked managers at large companies 「What is the single most important thing you do at work?」 most would reflexively answer 「Go to meetings.」 If you persisted—「No, not the most boring thing you do at work, the most important」—they would probably respond byspoutingsome of the standard principles they learned in business school, something about 「devising smart strategies and creating opportunistic synergies to accumulate accretive financial effects in an increasingly competitive market.」
如果你問大公司的管理者「你工作中最重要的事是什麼？」大多數人都會條件反射地回答：「開會。」要是你繼續問「不不不，不是最無聊的事，是最重要的事」，他們可能會開始嘮叨在商學院學的一些基本原理，比如「在競爭激烈的市場中制定巧妙地戰略和創造協同機會來實現增值的金融效應」。
For a manager, the right answer to the question 「What is the single most important thing you do at work?」 is hiring.
對於管理者來說，這個問題的正確答案應該是：人才招聘。
There』s another reason that hierarchical hiring doesn』t work. Leaders (and management book authors) often say they hire people smarter than themselves, but in practice this rarely happens in a hierarchical hiring process.
這種等級式的照片行不通還有一個原因。領導者（以及管理類書籍的作者們）經常說他們會僱傭比他們更聰明的人，但事實上這種情況在等級式照片制度下很難行得通。
「Our people are our most important asset」 is awell-worn cliché, but building a team of smart creatives that lives up to that statement requires more than just saying the words: You need to change how the members of the team are hired.
「人才是我們最重要的財富」是老生常談了，但是想要遵循這句話來建立由創意精英們組成的團隊，需要的不僅僅是說：你需要改變團隊成員的招聘方式。
The best workers are like a herd: They tend to follow each other. Get a few of them, and you』re guaranteed that a bunch more will follow.
最棒的員工就好像羊群：他們喜歡相互跟著。所以得到他們中的幾個後，保證其他的也會跟進來。
Of course smart people know a lot and can therefore accomplish more than others less gifted.But hire them not for the knowledge they possess, but for the things they don』t yet know. Henry Fordsaid that 「anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.」
雖然聰明的員工懂得很多，會比其他的普通員工完成更多任務。但是招聘他們不是因為他們現在懂得多少，而是關於他們還不懂的、尚未開發的潛力。亨利福特說「只要一個人停止學習，他就老了，不管他是20歲還是80歲。不停止學習的人永遠年輕，人生最棒的事莫過於保持你的心智年輕」。
Don』t hire people you can』t learn from or be challenged by.
不要僱傭那些，不能讓你有收穫，或者不能對你造成威脅的人。
註：谷歌公司很懂得事物在矛盾中發展的道理，在公司剛剛開始壯大的時候，他們就給自己硬找了一個對手：當時處於計算機界風口浪尖的微軟公司。在本書前言中有提及。
⑤摘自第四章：Decisions—The True Meaning of Consensus 谷歌決策—共識的真正含義
Getting everyone to say yes in a meeting doesn』t mean you have agreement, it means you have a bunch of bobbleheads. Many leaders strive for 「consensus-driven」 decisions, but they fundamentally misunderstand the meaning of consensus.For those of you who skipped Latin, it stems from the Latin cum, meaning 「together with,」 and sentire, meaning 「to think or feel,」 so it literally means 「to think or feel together.」 Note that this implies nothing about unanimity; consensus is not about getting everyone to agree. Instead, it』s about coming to the best idea for the company and rallying around it.
讓會議上的每個人都同意並不能說明達成了一致，它說明你有一大堆的「點頭娃娃」。許多領導者都想達成「全體同一」的決策，但是他們從根本上誤解了一致（consensus）的意思。鑒於有的人跳過了拉丁文課程，這裡說明下：這個詞（consensus）由拉丁文開頭「cum」（意思是together with）和詞尾「sentire」（意思是to think or feel）組成，所以它字面上來講是「一起思考和感覺」。注意它跟一致同意（unanimity）一點關係也沒有；consensus不是說每個人都同意。相反的它有為公司和全體想出最好的妥協辦法的意思。
註：美國小孩子小學課程里就有拉丁文課程，我們好多人以為拉丁文是拉丁美洲的語言，或者歷史很悠久的類似於中國唐宋時期的字體，但其實不是。拉丁文是每個英語學習者的英文課程基礎。這方面中國還沒有普及開來，美國的現在就是中國的未來，了解一下？
Reaching this best idea requires conflict. People need to disagree and debate their points in an open environment, because you won』t getbuy-inuntil all the choices are debated openly. They』llbobblehead nod, then leave the room and do what they want to do. So to achieve true consensus, you needdissent. If you are in charge, do not state your position at the outset of the process. The job is to make sure everyone』s voice is heard, regardless of their functional role, whichis harder to achieve when thetop dog puts a stake in the ground.
最棒的點子都需要在衝突中萌發。人們需要在一個開放的環境之中相互反對和辯護，因為除非你把各種可能性都公開討論，不然大家不會買賬。他們就會點頭附和，離開房間後該幹嘛幹嘛。所以為了達成真正的一致，你就需要分歧。如果你是老大，不要一開始就表明自己的地位。你的任務其實是讓每個人的聲音能夠說出來，能夠被聽到，不論他是什麼職位。而如果你像大Boss一樣一開始就劃清界限，那什麼都結束了。
註：這裡的管理者就有點管理大生態的意思了，讓我想起來以前看的一本書，關於淘寶的大生態，資金鏈管理類。不過這個大家應該都懂吧，如果不懂的話建議去看看國產精品電視劇《鐵齒銅牙紀曉嵐》。 你可以不懂，但是不能不知道——和珅
⑥摘自第五章：Communications—Be a Damn Good Router 溝通方式-我只是個路由器
註：這一章講了一個高科技創新公司是怎樣傳遞公司信息的。跟傳統企業差別很大。建議細讀。
This is the traditional model of information flow in most companies. The upper echelons of management gather information and carefully decide which bits to distribute to those that toil beneath them.In this world, information is hoarded as a means of control and power.As the leadership scholars James O』Toole and Warren Bennis note, many businesspeople who rise to positions of power often get there 「not for their demonstrated teamwork but for their ability to compete successfully against their colleagues in theexecutive suite, which only encourages the hoarding of information.」 Most managers still think like thoseSoviet-era bureaucrats: Their job is toparse informationand distribute it sparingly, because obviously you can』t trust those youngrabble-rouserson the lower floors with the information keys to the company』s kingdom.
傳統公司的信息傳遞模式如下：管理階層的上一級收集起信息，然後小心地決定怎麼分配給底下那些干體力活的人。在這個世界，信息被作為權利和控制的手段被人們故意囤積。就好像著名的管理學學者詹姆斯 及沃倫本尼斯所說，「大部分的人之所以能提升到掌權的職位不是因為他們在工作上多麼有有成就，而是因為他們懂得如何在領導面前跟同事競爭。這樣的話只會造成信息的囤積。」大多數的管理者仍然是在用蘇聯體制的思維模式：他們的工作是
解析信息，小心地分配下去，因為顯然他們不想把企業存亡的關鍵信息交給年輕人。
The most effective leaders today don』t hoard information, they share it. (Bill Gates in 1999: 「Power comes not fromknowledge keptbut fromknowledge shared. Acompany』s valuesand reward system should reflect that idea.」)
當今最厲害的領導者不會囤積信息，反而會把他們分享出去。（就好像比爾蓋茨在1999年說的那樣：「力量不會來自封閉知識，而是來自分享知識。這一點應該在公司的價值觀和獎勵體制中反映出來。」）
Conversation is still the most important and valuable form of communication, but technology andthe pace of workoften conspire to make it one of the rarest.
對話仍然是最重要和最有效的溝通方式，但是技術的發展和工作節奏經常阻礙對話溝通的發生。
⑦摘自第六章：Innovation—Create the Primordial Ooze 谷歌創新-創造原始環境
Before there can be innovation, there needs to be the proper context for innovation.Thisis usually found in markets that are growing quickly and full of competition (lots of companies are working on automated cars; most of them are actually car companies!).Don』t look for empty space and then be lonely; it is much better to use an innovative approach tobecome a player in a spacethat is or will be large. This may seem counterintuitive, since manyentrepreneursdream of entering 「greenfield」 markets that are brand new and have no competition. But usually there』s a reason the market is empty:It』s not big enough to sustain a growing venture. It still may be a goodbusiness opportunity—someone mustmake money offof all thoseniche productswe see in the SkyMall catalog—but if you want to create an environment of innovation, it』s better to look for big markets with huge growth potential.Remember, Google was late to the search-engine party, not early.
在能夠發生創新之前，需要有能夠創新的合適環境。這樣的環境一般會發生在發展迅速和競爭激烈的環境中（很多公司在做無人駕駛汽車，大多數是汽車公司）。千萬不要自己覺得這個東西沒人干過就瞎干。最好是選一個有潛力增長的領域，然後用創新的方式去讓自己有立足之地。這個看起來好像違反直覺，因為好多創業者夢想著找到一片無人開發，無人競爭的「綠洲」。但是只要那片市場空缺，通常都是有原因的：它還不能達到承擔起企業擴張的規模。但是它仍然可能有商機—有人肯定通過在網上商城賣小眾產品而賺翻了—但是如果你想為創新創造環境，那你最好是找一個有大潛力的大市場。記住，谷歌公司不是最開始做搜索的公司，而是後來居上。
大陸版刪減部分：
第四章里：One thing that surprised us was that many of the censorship requests we received were intended to suppress links to content that didn』t violate any clear, written law. Sometimes these requests were an attempt to mitigate spats between various government departments (one agency censoring the public statements of another agency) or to suppress scandals that had been planted online. For example, rumors started circulating that the sparkling new Beijing headquarters of CCTV (China Central Television) had a design based on rather salacious images. So we received, and complied with, a request to censor searches related to, among other things, CCTV, genitalia, and porn jokes. (And for all of you who just Googled those terms, (1) shame on you, and (2) we hope you』re not at work!)
The morning we made the announcement, we got several calls from government officials to our Beijing office wondering if it was some sort of joke. No one does this, one of them told us. Everyone just leaves quietly.
刪減部分主要是講谷歌是怎麼離開中國的，其中有很多小插曲，刪減不影響全文閱讀。這裡不再糾結翻譯。
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下一期：The small BIG: small changes that spark big influence—如何通過細節來影響別人
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