How to Be Silicon Valley
May 2006 (This essay is derived from a keynote at Xtech.) Could you reproduce Silicon Valley elsewhere, or is there something unique about it?
2006 年 5 月（本文摘自 Xtech 的一次主题演讲。）你能在其他地方重现硅谷吗？或者它有什么独特之处吗？
It wouldn't be surprising if it were hard to reproduce in other countries, because you couldn't reproduce it in most of the US either.
如果它在其他国家/地区难以复制也就不足为奇了，因为在美国大部分地区也无法复制它。
What does it take to make a silicon valley even here?
即使在这里也需要什么才能打造出硅谷？
What it takes is the right people.
所需要的是合适的人。
If you could get the right ten thousand people to move from Silicon Valley to Buffalo, Buffalo
如果你能让一万人从硅谷搬到布法罗，布法罗
would become Silicon Valley.
将成为硅谷。
[ 1 ] That's a striking departure from the past.
[ 1 ] 这与过去截然不同。
Up till a couple decades ago, geography was destiny for cities.
直到几十年前，地理还是城市的命运。
All great cities were located on waterways, because cities made money by trade, and water was the only economical way to ship.
所有大城市都位于水道上，因为城市通过贸易赚钱，而水是唯一经济的运输方式。
Now you could make a great city anywhere, if you could get the right people to move there.
现在，如果你能让合适的人搬到那里，你就可以在任何地方建造一座伟大的城市。
So the question of how to make a silicon
那么如何制造硅的问题
valley becomes: who are the right people, and how do you get them to move?
山谷变成：谁是合适的人，如何让他们行动？
Two Types I think you only need two kinds of people to create a technology hub: rich people and nerds.
两种类型 我认为创建一个技术中心只需要两种人：富人和书呆子。
They're the limiting reagents in the reaction that produces startups, because they're the only ones present when startups get started.
它们是产生初创企业的反应中的限制性试剂，因为它们是初创企业启动时唯一存在的试剂。
Everyone else will move.
其他人都会移动。
Observation bears this out: within the US, towns have become startup
观察证实了这一点：在美国，城镇已经成为初创企业
hubs if and only if they have both rich people and nerds.
当且仅当它们同时拥有富人和书呆子时，才是中心。
Few startups happen in Miami, for example, because although it's full of rich people, it has few nerds.
例如，很少有初创公司出现在迈阿密，因为尽管那里到处都是富人，但书呆子却很少。
It's not the kind of place nerds like.
这不是书呆子喜欢的地方。
Whereas Pittsburgh has the opposite problem: plenty of nerds, but no rich people.
而匹兹堡则面临着相反的问题：书呆子很多，但没有富人。
The top US Computer Science departments are said to be MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, and Carnegie-Mellon.
据说美国顶尖的计算机科学系是麻省理工学院、斯坦福大学、伯克利分校和卡内基梅隆大学。
MIT yielded Route 128.
麻省理工学院产出了 128 号公路。
Stanford and Berkeley yielded Silicon Valley.
斯坦福大学和伯克利大学产生了硅谷。
But
但是
Carnegie-Mellon?
卡内基梅隆大学？
The record skips at that point.
记录会在此时跳过。
Lower down the list, the University of Washington yielded a high-tech community in Seattle, and the University of Texas at Austin yielded one in Austin.
排名靠后的华盛顿大学在西雅图建立了一个高科技社区，德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校在奥斯汀建立了一个高科技社区。
But what happened in Pittsburgh?
但匹兹堡发生了什么？
And in Ithaca, home of Cornell, which is also high on the list?
康奈尔大学所在地伊萨卡也名列前茅？
I grew up in Pittsburgh and went to college at Cornell, so I can answer for both.
我在匹兹堡长大，在康奈尔大学上大学，所以我可以回答这两个问题。
The weather is terrible, particularly in winter,
天气很糟糕，尤其是冬天，
and there's no interesting old city to make up for it, as there is in Boston.
而且没有像波士顿那样有趣的老城区来弥补这一点。
Rich people don't want to live in Pittsburgh or Ithaca.
有钱人不想住在匹兹堡或伊萨卡。
So while there are plenty of hackers who could start startups, there's no one to invest in them.
因此，虽然有很多黑客可以创办初创公司，但没有人投资他们。
Not Bureaucrats Do you really need the rich people?
不是官僚 你真的需要富人吗？
Wouldn't it work to have the government invest in the nerds?
让政府投资于书呆子难道不行吗？
No, it would not.
不，不会的。
Startup investors are a distinct type of rich people.
初创企业投资者是一类独特的富人。
They tend to have a lot of
他们往往有很多
experience themselves in the technology business.
在技术业务中体验自己。
This (a) helps them pick the right startups, and (b) means they can supply advice and connections as well as money.
这（a）帮助他们选择合适的初创公司，（b）意味着他们可以提供建议、联系以及资金。
And the fact that they have a personal stake in the outcome makes them really pay attention.
事实上，他们与结果息息相关，这让他们真正关注。
Bureaucrats by their nature are the exact opposite sort of people from startup investors.
官僚本质上与初创投资者完全相反。
The idea of them making startup investments is comic.
他们进行创业投资的想法很滑稽。
It would be like mathematicians running Vogue -- or
这就像数学家经营《Vogue》——或者
perhaps more accurately, Vogue editors running a math journal.
也许更准确地说，《Vogue》杂志的编辑们经营着一本数学杂志。
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