So Mark Zuckerberg shows up at Harvard in 2002, and the university still hasn't gotten the facebook online. Each individual house has an online facebook, but there isn't one for the whole university. The university administration has been diligently having meetings about this, and will probably have solved the problem in another decade or so. Most of the students don't consciously notice that anything is wrong. But Mark is a programmer. He looks at this situation and thinks "Well, this is stupid. I could write a program to fix this in one night. Just let people upload their own photos and then combine the data into a new site for the whole university." So he does. And almost literally overnight he has thousands of users.
2002 年，馬克・祖克伯 （Mark Zuckerberg） 來到哈佛大學 （Harvard University），而學校那時還沒有一個完整的線上臉書 （facebook）。每個宿舍都有自己的線上臉書，但是整個學校卻沒有。學校行政部門一直在開會討論這個問題，大概再過十年就能解決了。大多數學生並沒有意識到有什麼不對。但馬克是一個程式設計師。他看到這種情況就想：「這真是太蠢了。我一晚上就能寫出程式來解決這個問題。只要讓大家上傳自己的照片，然後把資料整合到一個新的網站，就能為整個學校服務了。」於是他這麼做了。幾乎在一夜之間，他就有了數千名使用者。
Of course Facebook was not a startup yet. It was just a... project. There's that word again. Projects aren't just the best way to learn about technology. They're also the best source of startup ideas.
當然，那時的 Facebook 還不是一家新創公司，它只是一個……專案。又是這個詞。專案不僅是學習科技的最佳方式，也是新創點子的最佳來源。
Facebook was not unusual in this respect. Apple and Google also began as projects. Apple wasn't meant to be a company. Steve Wozniak just wanted to build his own computer. It only turned into a company when Steve Jobs said "Hey, I wonder if we could sell plans for this computer to other people." That's how Apple started. They weren't even selling computers, just plans for computers. Can you imagine how lame this company seemed?
在這方面，Facebook 並不特別。蘋果 （Apple） 和谷歌 （Google） 也是從專案開始的。蘋果原本並不打算成為一家公司。史提夫・沃茲尼克 （Steve Wozniak） 只是想打造自己的電腦。只是當史提夫・賈伯斯 （Steve Jobs） 說：「嘿，我想知道我們能不能把這台電腦的設計圖賣給別人。」蘋果才變成一家公司。他們甚至不是在賣電腦，只是賣電腦的設計圖。你能想像這家公司當時看起來有多遜嗎？
Ditto for Google. Larry and Sergey weren't trying to start a company at first. They were just trying to make search better. Before Google, most search engines didn't try to sort the results they gave you in order of importance. If you searched for "rugby" they just gave you every web page that contained the word "rugby." And the web was so small in 1997 that this actually worked! Kind of. There might only be 20 or 30 pages with the word "rugby," but the web was growing exponentially, which meant this way of doing search was becoming exponentially more broken. Most users just thought, "Wow, I sure have to look through a lot of search results to find what I want." Door sticks. But like Mark, Larry and Sergey were programmers. Like Mark, they looked at this situation and thought "Well, this is stupid. Some pages about rugby matter more than others. Let's figure out which those are and show them first."
谷歌（Google）亦然。拉里（Larry）和谢尔盖（Sergey）起初并未打算创业。他们只是想让搜索变得更好。在谷歌之前，大多数搜索引擎并未试图按重要性排序呈现给你的结果。如果你搜索「橄榄球」，它们只会给你每个包含「橄榄球」一词的网页。而且在 1997 年，网络非常之小，这实际上是可行的！某种程度上吧。可能只有 20 或 30 个页面包含「橄榄球」一词，但网络正以指数级增长，这意味着这种搜索方式正变得指数级地更加失灵。大多数用户只是认为，「哇，我确实必须查看大量搜索结果才能找到我想要的东西。」门卡住了。但就像马克（Mark）一样，拉里和谢尔盖是程序员。像马克一样，他们看着这种情况，心想「嗯，这很蠢。有些关于橄榄球的页面比其他页面更重要。让我们弄清楚哪些是，并先显示它们。」
It's obvious in retrospect that this was a great idea for a startup. It wasn't obvious at the time. It's never obvious. If it was obviously a good idea to start Apple or Google or Facebook, someone else would have already done it. That's why the best startups grow out of projects that aren't meant to be startups. You're not trying to start a company. You're just following your instincts about what's interesting. And if you're young and good at technology, then your unconscious instincts about what's interesting are better than your conscious ideas about what would be a good company.
回想起来，很明显这对创业来说是个好主意。当时并不明显。从来都不明显。如果创办苹果（Apple）、谷歌或脸书（Facebook）明显是个好主意，其他人早就已经做了。这就是为什么最好的新创公司是从并非旨在成为新创公司的项目中成长起来的。你不是在尝试创业。你只是在追随你对什么是有趣的直觉。而且，如果你年轻且擅长科技，那么你对什么是有趣的无意识直觉会比你有关什么会是一家好公司的有意识想法更好。
2002 年，馬克・祖克伯 （Mark Zuckerberg） 來到哈佛大學 （Harvard University），而學校那時還沒有一個完整的線上臉書 （facebook）。每個宿舍都有自己的線上臉書，但是整個學校卻沒有。學校行政部門一直在開會討論這個問題，大概再過十年就能解決了。大多數學生並沒有意識到有什麼不對。但馬克是一個程式設計師。他看到這種情況就想：「這真是太蠢了。我一晚上就能寫出程式來解決這個問題。只要讓大家上傳自己的照片，然後把資料整合到一個新的網站，就能為整個學校服務了。」於是他這麼做了。幾乎在一夜之間，他就有了數千名使用者。
Of course Facebook was not a startup yet. It was just a... project. There's that word again. Projects aren't just the best way to learn about technology. They're also the best source of startup ideas.
當然，那時的 Facebook 還不是一家新創公司，它只是一個……專案。又是這個詞。專案不僅是學習科技的最佳方式，也是新創點子的最佳來源。
Facebook was not unusual in this respect. Apple and Google also began as projects. Apple wasn't meant to be a company. Steve Wozniak just wanted to build his own computer. It only turned into a company when Steve Jobs said "Hey, I wonder if we could sell plans for this computer to other people." That's how Apple started. They weren't even selling computers, just plans for computers. Can you imagine how lame this company seemed?
在這方面，Facebook 並不特別。蘋果 （Apple） 和谷歌 （Google） 也是從專案開始的。蘋果原本並不打算成為一家公司。史提夫・沃茲尼克 （Steve Wozniak） 只是想打造自己的電腦。只是當史提夫・賈伯斯 （Steve Jobs） 說：「嘿，我想知道我們能不能把這台電腦的設計圖賣給別人。」蘋果才變成一家公司。他們甚至不是在賣電腦，只是賣電腦的設計圖。你能想像這家公司當時看起來有多遜嗎？
Ditto for Google. Larry and Sergey weren't trying to start a company at first. They were just trying to make search better. Before Google, most search engines didn't try to sort the results they gave you in order of importance. If you searched for "rugby" they just gave you every web page that contained the word "rugby." And the web was so small in 1997 that this actually worked! Kind of. There might only be 20 or 30 pages with the word "rugby," but the web was growing exponentially, which meant this way of doing search was becoming exponentially more broken. Most users just thought, "Wow, I sure have to look through a lot of search results to find what I want." Door sticks. But like Mark, Larry and Sergey were programmers. Like Mark, they looked at this situation and thought "Well, this is stupid. Some pages about rugby matter more than others. Let's figure out which those are and show them first."
谷歌（Google）亦然。拉里（Larry）和谢尔盖（Sergey）起初并未打算创业。他们只是想让搜索变得更好。在谷歌之前，大多数搜索引擎并未试图按重要性排序呈现给你的结果。如果你搜索「橄榄球」，它们只会给你每个包含「橄榄球」一词的网页。而且在 1997 年，网络非常之小，这实际上是可行的！某种程度上吧。可能只有 20 或 30 个页面包含「橄榄球」一词，但网络正以指数级增长，这意味着这种搜索方式正变得指数级地更加失灵。大多数用户只是认为，「哇，我确实必须查看大量搜索结果才能找到我想要的东西。」门卡住了。但就像马克（Mark）一样，拉里和谢尔盖是程序员。像马克一样，他们看着这种情况，心想「嗯，这很蠢。有些关于橄榄球的页面比其他页面更重要。让我们弄清楚哪些是，并先显示它们。」
It's obvious in retrospect that this was a great idea for a startup. It wasn't obvious at the time. It's never obvious. If it was obviously a good idea to start Apple or Google or Facebook, someone else would have already done it. That's why the best startups grow out of projects that aren't meant to be startups. You're not trying to start a company. You're just following your instincts about what's interesting. And if you're young and good at technology, then your unconscious instincts about what's interesting are better than your conscious ideas about what would be a good company.
回想起来，很明显这对创业来说是个好主意。当时并不明显。从来都不明显。如果创办苹果（Apple）、谷歌或脸书（Facebook）明显是个好主意，其他人早就已经做了。这就是为什么最好的新创公司是从并非旨在成为新创公司的项目中成长起来的。你不是在尝试创业。你只是在追随你对什么是有趣的直觉。而且，如果你年轻且擅长科技，那么你对什么是有趣的无意识直觉会比你有关什么会是一家好公司的有意识想法更好。
