Longreads Best of 2016: Business & Tech Reporting

We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories.

我们请几位作家和编辑在不同类别中选择一些他们今年最喜欢的故事。

Here, the best in business and tech reporting.

这里有最好的商业和技术报告。

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Jeremy Keehn

杰里米·基恩

A features editor at Bloomberg Businessweek.

彭博商业周刊的专题编辑。

## My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard(Shane Bauer, Mother Jones)

## 我作为私人监狱看守的四个月（肖恩·鲍尔、琼斯妈妈）

Bauer’s undercover exposé on Louisiana’s Winn prison deserves all the credit it has received for its courage and narrative verve.

鲍尔对路易斯安那州温恩监狱的卧底揭露，其勇气和叙事神韵值得所有赞誉。

It’s also a marvelous labor and business story, deeply concerned with the line that connects the indignities of life as a $9/hour guard with the Corrections Company of America’s balance sheet.

这也是一个精彩的劳工和商业故事，深入探讨了将一名每小时 9 美元的警卫的侮辱生活与美国惩教公司的资产负债表联系起来的界限。

Bauer traces many of the cruelties he witnesses to understaffing and other cost-cutting measures (assertions CCA denies), carefully contrasting what he observes with the company’s contractual obligations to the state, and with standards at public prisons.

鲍尔将他所目睹的许多残酷行为归因于人手不足和其他成本削减措施（CCA 否认这一说法），并仔细地将他所观察到的情况与公司对国家的合同义务以及公立监狱的标准进行了对比。

His tragicomic account of an audit just eviscerates the entire concept of industry self-regulation.

他对审计的悲喜剧描述完全消除了行业自律的整个概念。

The week after the piece was published, the Justice Department announced steps to phase out private prisons, causing the industry’s stocks to crash, but make of this what you will: the company—-by then rebranded as CoreCivic—-saw its share price rise 43 percent on November 9th, the biggest jump on the NYSE that day.

这篇文章发表一周后，司法部宣布了逐步淘汰私人监狱的措施，导致该行业的股票暴跌，但你可以想象一下：这家公司（当时更名为 CoreCivic）的股价在 11 月 9 日上涨了 43%，是纽约证券交易所当天的最大涨幅。

Max Abelson

马克斯·阿贝尔森

A reporter on Wall Street for Bloomberg News, where his work often goes in Businessweek.

彭博新闻社的华尔街记者，他的作品经常出现在《商业周刊》上。

His stories were included in Columbia University Press’ Best Business Writing anthologies in 2015 and 2013.

他的故事曾于 2015 年和 2013 年入选哥伦比亚大学出版社最佳商业写作选集。

## Everybody Goes Haywire (Anna Altman, n+1)

## 每个人都变得失控（安娜·奥特曼，n+1）

Altman’s gorgeous essay about work, pain and disability was unlike anything I’ve read this year.

奥特曼关于工作、痛苦和残疾的精彩文章与我今年读过的任何文章都不一样。

So much of business reporting is about the money and power of the people at the top.

很多商业报道都是关于高层人士的金钱和权力的。

To read about a worker’s physical agony — its history, its symptoms, its effects, and the attempts to ameliorate it — made me think about business writing in a new way.

阅读有关工人身体痛苦的资料——它的历史、症状、影响以及改善它的尝试——让我以一种新的方式思考商业写作。

It’s a painful read, and a beautiful one.

这是一本痛苦的读物，也是一本美丽的书。

## My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard by Shane Bauer (Shane Bauer, Mother Jones)

## 《我作为私人监狱看守的四个月》作者：Shane Bauer（Shane Bauer、《琼斯妈妈》）

Is it a coincidence that the Justice Department announced plans to end the use of private prisons not long after the release of Bauer’s terrifying account of working for the Corrections Corporation of America?

在鲍尔为美国惩教公司工作的可怕经历公布后不久，司法部就宣布计划停止使用私人监狱，这难道是巧合吗？

I happened to read the jazz saxophonist Art Pepper’s memoir Straight Life this year, but even its vivid description of a cursed life in and out of jail couldn’t match the detail of Bauer’s undercover investigation.

今年我偶然读到了爵士萨克斯管演奏家阿特·佩珀的回忆录《直线生活》，但即使其中对监狱内外被诅咒的生活的生动描述也无法与鲍尔卧底调查的细节相匹配。

It makes me want to be a braver journalist.

这让我想成为一名更勇敢的记者。

Derek Thompson

德里克·汤普森

A Senior Editor at The Atlantic.

《大西洋月刊》的高级编辑。

## The Failure of Welfare Reform (Jordan Weissmann, Slate)

## 福利改革的失败（Jordan Weissmann，Slate）

I’d love to recommend this essay on the history of, and failure of, welfare reform by Jordan Weissmann at Slate.

我很乐意推荐乔丹·韦斯曼 (Jordan Weissmann) 在 Slate 上发表的这篇关于福利改革的历史和失败的文章。

How Welfare Reform Failed takes one of the most undercovered issues of 2016–the plight of extreme poverty in America–and gives it the historical, statistical, and moral treatment it deserves.

《福利改革是如何失败的》探讨了 2016 年最受关注的问题之一——美国的极端贫困困境——并给予其应有的历史、统计和道德待遇。

Jennifer Reingold

詹妮弗·莱因戈尔德

Editor at Large at Fortune, where she writes investigative and feature stories as well as the online column Manage This!

她是《财富》杂志的特约编辑，撰写调查性报道和专题报道以及在线专栏《管理这个！》

Co-author (with Dan Reingold) of the book Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst, and (with Barbara Ley Toffler) of the book Final Accounting: Ambition, Greed and the Fall of Arthur Andersen.

与 Dan Reingold 合着《华尔街分析师的自白》一书，并与 Barbara Ley Toffler 合着《最终会计：野心、贪婪和安达信的倒台》一书。

## My Brother’s Pregnancy and the Making of a New American Family (Jessi Hempel, Time)

## 我哥哥的怀孕和新美国家庭的形成（杰西·亨佩尔，《时代》杂志）

This story, by my former colleague Jessi Hempel, is one of the most moving, unusual and politically relevant stories I read all year.

这个故事由我的前同事杰西·亨佩尔（Jessi Hempel）撰写，是我一年中读到的最感人、最不寻常且与政治相关的故事之一。

It chronicles the journey of Hempel’s trans brother as he gives birth to a child.

它记录了亨佩尔的跨性别兄弟生下孩子的旅程。

The photographs are intimate, even shocking to some—as is the story, which upends the traditional notion of a family in every way except for one—love.

这些照片很亲密，甚至让一些人感到震惊——就像故事一样，它从各个方面颠覆了家庭的传统观念，除了爱情。

I wept while reading this.

读到这里我哭了。

Then, while reading it again post-the 2016 election, I wept for different reasons altogether.

然后，在 2016 年大选后再次阅读这本书时，我完全因为不同的原因而哭泣。

## Venezuela, A Failing State (William Finnegan, The New Yorker)

## 委内瑞拉，一个失败的国家（威廉·芬尼根，《纽约客》）

Can a functional society commit suicide?

一个功能正常的社会会自杀吗？

We all know the answer is yes.

我们都知道答案是肯定的。

But experiencing it through the eyes of Finnegan brings it home in a horrifying way.

但通过芬尼根的视角来体验它，你会以一种可怕的方式体会到这一点。

His incredible reporting—peppered with quotes from people who are happy to be quoted by name, since they no longer have anything left to lose—shows the destruction of a society.

他令人难以置信的报道——其中夹杂着一些人的引述，这些人很高兴被引用他们的名字，因为他们已经没有什么可失去的了——显示了一个社会的毁灭。

Once prosperous, if corrupt, Venezuela, in the aftermath of Chavez and Maduro, is a place where people wait in line all day for food and still go home hungry; a place in which the only people who can earn money are security guards and police, though that’s not guaranteed, either.

曾经繁荣但腐败的委内瑞拉，在查韦斯和马杜罗之后，变成了一个人们整天排队等待食物但仍然饿着肚子回家的地方；在这个地方，唯一能赚钱的人就是保安和警察，尽管这也不能保证。

As we flirt with our own dystopia, it’s a cautionary tale indeed.

当我们与自己的反乌托邦调情时，这确实是一个警示故事。

## The Cost of Caring (Rachel Aviv, The New Yorker)

## 关怀的成本（Rachel Aviv，《纽约客》）

The pain in this story is deep and strong, not only for every mother but also for every child.

这个故事中的痛苦是深刻而强烈的，不仅对每一位母亲，也对每一个孩子。

Aviv takes us deep into the life of Emma, a Filipina nanny who leaves her nine children in order to send them to university.

阿维夫带我们深入了解艾玛的生活，她是一位菲律宾保姆，为了送他们上大学而离开了她的九个孩子。

She succeeds in doing that by taking care of other people’s children—but the tradeoffs are so brutal that the piece is hard to get through.

她通过照顾别人的孩子成功地做到了这一点——但这种权衡是如此残酷，以至于这篇文章很难通过。

In Aviv’s voice, the story of Emma is the story of globalization—both how it provides incredibly opportunities and also takes them away.

用阿维夫的话说，艾玛的故事就是全球化的故事——全球化如何提供难以置信的机会，又如何夺走它们。

## The Most Exclusive Restaurant in America (Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker)

## 美国最独特的餐厅（Nick Paumgarten，《纽约客》）

I loved this piece so much, as much for how it was written as for what the story is about.

我非常喜欢这篇文章，既喜欢它的写作方式，也喜欢它的故事内容。

Paumgarten takes the reader on a light-hearted journey inside the world of the most exclusive restaurant in the country, if not the world: Damon Baehrel.

Paumgarten 带领读者踏上一段轻松的旅程，走进这个国家（甚至是全世界）最独特的餐厅：Damon Baehrel。

The place is booked, says the owner for so many years that he has stopped taking reservations.

店主说，这个地方已经被预订了很多年，所以他已经不再接受预订了。

But all is not what it seems—and Paumgarten skillfully draws you in, confuses you, and leads you to a conclusion that you somehow feel is all your own, even though it isn’t.

但一切并不像看上去那样——Paumgarten 巧妙地吸引你，让你困惑，并引导你得出一个结论，让你觉得这一切都是你自己的，尽管事实并非如此。

A refreshing interlude on food, facts and when the two don’t quite intersect.

一段关于食物、事实以及两者不完全交叉的令人耳目一新的插曲。

Mike Dang

迈克·邓

Longreads Editor-in-Chief and Editor at WordPress.com / Automattic.

Longreads 主编和 WordPress.com / Automattic 编辑。

## How “Silicon Valley” Nails Silicon Valley (Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker)

## “硅谷”如何钉住硅谷（安德鲁·马兰士，《纽约客》）

I don’t know a single person who has watched the HBO comedy “Silicon Valley” who hasn’t given it rave reviews or compared someone they know to one of the characters on the show.

我认识的每个看过 HBO 喜剧《硅谷》的人都给予了好评，或者没有将他们认识的人与剧中的角色进行比较。

Marantz takes us behind-the-scenes, revealing a network of more than 200 consultants, which includes “academics, investors, entrepreneurs, and employees at Google, Amazon, Netflix, and several other tech firms,” who help make the show so good.

马兰士带我们走进幕后，揭示了一个由 200 多名顾问组成的网络，其中包括“学者、投资者、企业家以及谷歌、亚马逊、Netflix 和其他几家科技公司的员工”，他们帮助使这部剧如此精彩。

## Theranos Whistleblower Shook the Company—And His Family (John Carreyrou, Wall Street Journal)

## Theranos 举报人震惊了公司及其家人（John Carreyrou，《华尔街日报》）

In 2014, Tyler Shultz anonymously emailed a complaint to New York officials who administered a proficiency-testing program in which Theranos, a once promising blood testing company, was enrolled.

2014 年，泰勒·舒尔茨 (Tyler Shultz) 匿名通过电子邮件向管理能力验证项目的纽约官员提出投诉，曾经前途光明的血液检测公司希拉洛斯 (Theranos) 也加入了该项目。

Shultz complained that Theranos doctored research and ignored failed quality-control checks, and warned his grandfather, former Secretary of State George Shultz, who was serving as a company director, about his misgivings.

舒尔茨抱怨希拉洛斯篡改了研究成果，忽视了失败的质量控制检查，并警告他的祖父、现任公司董事的前国务卿乔治·舒尔茨，不要担心他的疑虑。

This is a terrific story about turmoil within a tech company and a prominent family, but I would like to acknowledge John Carreyrou’s consistently impressive reporting on Theranos; his investigative work should win plenty of awards in the coming year.

这是一个关于一家科技公司和一个显赫家族内部动荡的精彩故事，但我要感谢 John Carreyrou 对 Theranos 一贯令人印象深刻的报道；他的调查工作在来年应该会赢得很多奖项。

Sari Botton

纱丽波顿

Writer, contributing editor to Longreads, editorial director of the non-profit TMI Project, and owner of Kingston Writers’ Studio.

作家、Longreads 的特约编辑、非营利组织 TMI 项目的编辑总监以及 Kingston Writers’ Studio 的所有者。

## The Clean (Lizzie Feidelson, n+1)

## 清洁者（莉齐·费德尔森，n+1）

As someone who is forever trying to strike a balance between work-writing that keeps me afloat, and my writing-writing, I loved this nuanced essay from n+1’s Dirty Work issue.

作为一个永远试图在让我维持生计的工作写作和我的写作之间取得平衡的人，我喜欢n+1《肮脏工作》特刊中这篇细致入微的文章。

It’s by an artist–a dancer, specifically–who finds a day job cleaning people’s houses.

这是一位艺术家——具体来说是一位舞者——创作的，他找到了一份清洁人们房屋的日常工作。

She’s working for another artist–a painter–who started the business as a way to leave her Wall Street job, so she could have more time to paint.

她正在为另一位艺术家（一位画家）工作，后者创办这家公司是为了辞去在华尔街的工作，这样她就可以有更多的时间画画。

But that doesn’t seem to be working out, and the painter/owner seems to resent the dancer/worker when the dancer/worker wants to take one week to attend a workshop.

但这似乎并没有奏效，当舞者/工人想要花一周时间参加研讨会时，画家/业主似乎对舞者/工人感到怨恨。

Michelle Weber

米歇尔·韦伯

Longreads Senior Editor and Editor at WordPress.com / Automattic.

Longreads 高级编辑和 WordPress.com / Automattic 编辑。

## Uncanny Valley (Anna Weiner, n+1)

## 恐怖谷（安娜·韦纳，n+1）

Take Anna Weiner’s hand and go beyond the world of Silicon Valley to see what the people at those standing desks near the ping-pong table in the middle of a tech start-up’s open-concept office are really talking about.

牵着安娜·维纳的手，走出硅谷的世界，看看科技初创公司开放式办公室中间乒乓球桌旁的站立式办公桌上的人们到底在谈论什么。

“We escape for drinks and fret about our company culture.

“我们出去喝酒，并对我们的公司文化感到担忧。

‘Our culture is dying,’ we say gravely, apocalyptic prophets all.

“我们的文化正在消亡”，我们都是末日预言家，严肃地说。

‘What should we do about the culture?’” This on-the nose piece about life, identity, and disillusionment in the Bay Area tech sector could only have been written by someone who (1) has been there and (2) is fearlessly honest.

‘我们应该对这种文化做些什么？’”这篇关于湾区科技行业的生活、身份和幻灭的尖锐文章只能由那些 (1) 去过那里并且 (2) 无所畏惧的诚实的人写出来。

Well, and (3), is a great writer — although this could come across as overly insular or unrelatable, it doesn’t.

好吧，（3）是一位伟大的作家——尽管这可能会显得过于孤立或不相关，但事实并非如此。

She shines a light on the very human desires of the people involved — to engage in work that’s meaningful, to care about what they do, to have financial and emotional stability, to live free of sexism and discrimination — in a way that makes them real and familiar, even if we’ve never been to San Francisco or sent a tweet, let alone stood at a treadmill desk.

她以一种让人们真实而熟悉的方式，揭示了所涉人员的人类愿望——从事有意义的工作，关心自己所做的事情，拥有财务和情感稳定，生活在没有性别歧视和歧视的地方——即使我们从未去过旧金山或发过推文，更不用说站在跑步机办公桌前了。

See more from our Best of 2016 series

查看我们的 2016 年最佳系列的更多内容