A Word to the Resourceful

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获得 Y Combinator 的资助。

</td > January 2012 A year ago I noticed a pattern in the least successful startups we'd funded: they all seemed hard to talk to.

</td> 2012 年 1 月 一年前，我注意到我们资助的最不成功的初创公司有一个模式：他们似乎都很难交谈。

It felt as if there was some kind of wall between us.

感觉我们之间好像有某种墙。

I could never quite tell if they understood what I was saying.

我永远无法确定他们是否明白我在说什么。

This caught my attention because earlier we'd noticed a pattern

这引起了我的注意，因为早些时候我们注意到了一种模式

among the most successful startups, and it seemed to hinge on a different quality.

跻身于最成功的初创公司之列，而这似乎取决于不同的品质。

We found the startups that did best were the ones with the sort of founders about whom we'd say "they can take care of themselves." The startups that do best are fire-and-forget in the sense that all you have to do is give them a lead, and they'll close it, whatever type of lead it is.

我们发现，表现最好的初创公司是那些拥有我们所说的“他们可以照顾自己”的创始人的初创公司。表现最好的初创公司是“一劳永逸”的，因为你所要做的就是给他们一个线索，他们就会关闭它，无论线索是什么类型。

When they're raising money, for example, you can do the initial intros knowing that if you

例如，当他们筹集资金时，您可以进行初步介绍，因为您知道如果您

wanted to you could stop thinking about it at that point.

我希望你能在那时停止思考它。

You won't have to babysit the round to make sure it happens.

您不必照顾这一轮以确保它发生。

That type of founder is going to come back with the money; the only question is how much on what terms.

这种类型的创始人会带着钱回来；唯一的问题是在什么条件下多少钱。

It seemed odd that the outliers at the two ends of the spectrum could be detected by what appeared to be unrelated tests.

奇怪的是，频谱两端的异常值可以通过看似不相关的测试来检测。

You'd expect that if the founders at one end were distinguished by the

你可能会期望，如果创始人一方面以

presence of quality x, at the other end they'd be distinguished by lack of x.

质量 x 的存在，在另一端，它们会因缺乏 x 而被区分。

Was there some kind of inverse relation between resourcefulness and being hard to talk to?

足智多谋和难以交谈之间是否存在某种反比关系？

It turns out there is, and the key to the mystery is the old adage "a word to the wise is sufficient." Because this phrase is not only overused, but overused in an indirect way (by prepending the subject to some advice), most people who've heard it don't know

事实证明是有的，而解开这个谜团的关键就在于那句古老的格言“智者一言就足够了”。因为这个短语不仅被过度使用，而且以一种间接的方式被过度使用（通过在主题前加上一些建议），所以大多数听过它的人都不知道

what it means.

这意味着什么。

What it means is that if someone is wise, all you have to do is say one word to them, and they'll understand immediately.

意思是说，如果一个人有智慧，你只要对他说一句话，他立刻就会明白。

You don't have to explain in detail; they'll chase down all the implications.

你不必详细解释；他们会追查所有的影响。

In much the same way that all you have to do is give the right sort of founder a one line intro to a VC, and he'll chase down the money.

就像你所要做的就是向合适的创始人简单介绍一下风投，他就会追上钱。

That's the connection.

这就是联系。

Understanding all the implications — even the

了解所有的影响——甚至是

inconvenient implications — of what someone tells you is a subset of resourcefulness.

不便的含义——某人告诉你的是足智多谋的一部分。

It's conversational resourcefulness.

这是谈话的足智多谋。

Like real world resourcefulness, conversational resourcefulness often means doing things you don't want to.

就像现实世界的足智多谋一样，对话中的足智多谋通常意味着做你不想做的事情。

Chasing down all the implications of what's said to you can sometimes lead to uncomfortable conclusions.

追究别人对你所说的话的所有含义有时可能会导致令人不安的结论。

The best word to describe the failure to do so is probably "denial," though that seems a bit too narrow.

描述未能做到这一点的最佳词可能是“否认”，尽管这似乎有点太狭隘了。

A better

更好的

way to describe the situation would be to say that the unsuccessful founders had the sort of conservatism that comes from weakness.

描述这种情况的方法是说，不成功的创始人有一种源于软弱的保守主义。

They traversed idea space as gingerly as a very old person traverses the physical world.

他们小心翼翼地穿越思想空间，就像一个很老的人穿越物质世界一样。

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