Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas

<img src="http://www.virtumundo.com/images/spacer.gif" height=15 width=1> Want to start a startup?

<img src="http://www.virtumundo.com/images/spacer.gif" height=15 width=1> 想要创业吗？

Get funded by Y Combinator .

获得 Y Combinator 的资助。

</td > April 2005 This summer, as an experiment, some friends and I are giving seed funding to a bunch of new startups.

</td> 2005 年 4 月 今年夏天，作为一项实验，我和一些朋友正在为一批新的初创公司提供种子资金。

It's an experiment because we're prepared to fund younger founders than most investors would.

这是一个实验，因为我们准备比大多数投资者资助更年轻的创始人。

That's why we're doing it during the summer—so even college

这就是为什么我们在暑假期间这样做——所以即使是大学

students can participate.

学生可以参加。

We know from Google and Yahoo that grad students can start successful startups.

我们从谷歌和雅虎了解到，研究生可以成功创业。

And we know from experience that some undergrads are as capable as most grad students.

我们从经验中知道，一些本科生和大多数研究生一样有能力。

The accepted age for startup founders has been creeping downward.

初创公司创始人的公认年龄一直在缓慢下降。

We're trying to find the lower bound.

我们正在努力寻找下限。

<!-- There have been cases, certainly, of startups founded by people still in their teens.

<!-- 当然，也有一些由十几岁的人创办的初创公司的案例。

But I suspect few of them were allowed

但我怀疑其中很少有人被允许

by investors to be more than mascots.

被投资者视为不仅仅是吉祥物。

That's not how we plan to operate.

这不是我们计划的运作方式。

Having done it once, we have no desire to experience again the 24/7 timesuck of running even one startup, let alone eight or ten.

做过一次之后，我们就不想再次经历运行一家初创公司的 24/7 时间的麻烦，更不用说运行八个或十个了。

We'll give these guys as much help as we can with their ideas, but it will be up to them to sink or swim.

我们将尽我们所能为这些人的想法提供帮助，但这将取决于他们的沉浮。

--> The deadline has now passed, and we're sifting through 227 applications.

--> 截止日期现已过去，我们正在筛选 227 份申请。

<!--We've learned a few surprising things in the process.

<!--在此过程中我们学到了一些令人惊讶的事情。

One pleasant surprise is how few cranks we got.

一个令人惊喜的是我们得到的曲柄数量如此之少。

We expected to attract flocks of them, but we've only had a handful.

我们预计会吸引成群的动物，但我们只有少数。

We were surprised, too, at how smart the applicants appear to be.

我们也对申请人的聪明程度感到惊讶。

And how extraordinarily energetic.

而且精力异常充沛。

But you know what the most surprising thing is?

但你知道最令人惊讶的是什么吗？

How bad some of the smartest applicants' ideas are.--> We expected to divide them into two categories, promising and unpromising.

一些最聪明的申请者的想法是多么糟糕。--> 我们希望将它们分为两类：有前途的和没有前途的。

But we soon saw we needed a third: promising

但我们很快发现我们需要第三个：有前途的