创业成功人士访谈录 第9期:比尔盖茨(3)

 　　Clearly, your extracurricular activity was probably more important in your later development than what you did in class,

　　显然，与课上学到的知识相比，你课外的这些活动对日后的发展更有帮助，
　　or at least equal important.
　　至少是一样重要的。
　　How do you feel as we look at problems in education,
　　现在的教育中也存在一些问题，
　　that students that are coming up interested in technical things should balance those.
　　很多学生对技术方面的东西更感兴趣，认为应将其与课堂上的知识平衡，你对此怎么看？
　　Do you think it is important to explore things on your own at that age?
　　你觉得自我探索对于那个年龄段的 人来说很重要吗？
　　Self-exploration is great,
　　自我探索很重要，
　　because you develop a sense of self-confidence and an identity of “Hey, I know this pretty well.
　　因为在这个过程中你可以培养自信心和一种我认同：“嘿，我很擅长这个。
　　I know this better than the teachers.
　　对于这个问题我比老师懂得还多。
　　Let me try and see if I can understand at the next level.
　　我要试试我是不是可以做得更进一步。
　　Maybe I’m pretty good at this stuff.”
　　或许我有这方面的天赋。”
　　And particularly with the computer where if your program is wrong,
　　对于计算机来讲，如果你的程序出现了错误，
　　you know you try it and if it doesn’t work and then you fix it and try it again.
　　你尝试了之后就会发现是哪里错了，为什么不能正常运行， 然后你就可以进行修复，再运行。
　　It is kind of a feedback loop，which because the classroom has a lot of people,
　　这就类似于一个反馈的过程，一个教室里有很多人，
　　and maybe there is not a subject that you think you are good at or interested at.
　　或许你对任何一门科目都不擅长，或是不感兴趣。
　　It is just fascinating to try and figure out the computer.
　　只有计算机才对你充满吸引力。
　　I remember at Computer Center Corporation they had hired in some of the great people of early computer days,
　　我记得在计 算机中心股份公司的时候，他们雇用了早期一些很有名的人，
　　including Bob Gruen, Dick Russell, a guy named Weir 1 who was a Stanford guy.
　　包括鲍博 格伦，迪克罗素，还有一个斯坦福大学的威尔。
　　Anyway，these guys would kind of loan us deep manuals on the system, just for a few hours and then take them away.
　　总而言之，这些人只把系统的详细操作手册借给我们看几个小时，然后便拿走了。
　　So, we’d spend those few hours just reading carefully.
　　因此，这几个小时，我们就仔细地读。
　　It was so exciting to get a little glimpse and beginning to figure out how computers were built,
　　这惊鸿一瞥很让人兴奋，看了这些知识让我们知道了计算机是如何建立起来的，
　　and why they were expensive.
　　为什么那么贵。
　　I certainly think that having some dimension, when you’re young,
　　当然，我认为年轻人跟其他人相比，
　　that you feel a mastery of, versus 2 the other people around you is a very positive thing.
　　在某方面是有一定的竞争优势的。
　　And for me that came in several ways:
　　于我而言，这体现在很多方面：
　　the reading I was doing non-computer related,in Math.
　　我正在做一些与计算机无关的阅读，数学。
　　But computers, timewise, for many years was a key center of excitement.
　　但是，这么多年来，计算机一直是我最感兴趣的东西。
　　We are going to talk a little bit about your transition into Harvard before you got to the Altair.
　　在谈“牛郎星”之前，我们先来 谈谈你在哈佛大学的经历。
　　You mentioned that even though you worked in computing 3,
　　你之前提到，即使在计算机行业工作，
　　that it wasn’t your goal when you went to college.
　　也并不是你进入大学时的目标。
　　Do you want to say what your goal was?
　　可以说说你那时的目标吗？
　　That’s right.
　　是的。
　　I finished up at TRW, went back, and graduated from Lakeside School.
　　我结束了在TRW的工作回去之后，从湖滨中学毕业。
　　I picked out of the schools I’d been accepted to, to go back to Harvard.
　　我没有去录取了我的学校，而是回到了哈佛大学，
　　They seemed to have a lot of different things.
　　他们似乎有很多与众不同的地方。
　　I knew that if I wanted to be a Lawyer or a Mathematician 4,
　　我知道，如果我想做一名律师或者数学家，
　　Harvard had good courses for these things.
　　哈佛大学的课程再好不过了。
　　Once I got there, I thought Economics was pretty interesting.
　　我一到那儿，就觉得经济学很有趣。
　　And I felt that I understood computers well enough,
　　并且，我觉得自己的计算机已经学得很好了，
　　that I really didn’t need to hang out with a computer crowd there,
　　完全不需要和那里的一群人在一起研究，
　　because they weren’t as interesting.
　　因为没什么意思。
　　I did end up taking a few computer courses.
　　最终我只选了几门计算机课程。
　　But most of what I did was not related to computers.
　　但是，我所选的大部分与计算机无关。
　　And meanwhile, Paul Allen, who had worked with me on everything,basically,
　　同时还有保罗艾伦，我们基本上做什么都在一起，
　　and who shared this idea that we should go do a company
　　他建议我们一起创办一个公司
　　—he actually tried to convince me after TRW that we should start a company then,
　　——事实上，离开TRW以后他就这样说服我，
　　and try to build PDP-8-like systems around 8080 chips.
　　希望建立一个像PDP-8—样包含8080个芯片的系统，大约8080个芯片。
　　But it just was too vague and my parents wanted me to go back to school.
　　但那只是一个很模糊的概念，并且我的父母要求我回去上学。
　　So, I went back there.
　　所以，我就回去了。
　　But Paul was there and we were always talking about,
　　但是，保罗在那儿，我们还经常一起讨论：
　　“Could we stick a lot of microprocessors 5 together to do something powerful?
　　“我们是不是可以把许多微处理器集中起来让它的功能更强大？
　　Could we do a 360 emulator 6 using micro controllers?
　　我们是不是可以用微控制器做一个360仿真器？
　　Could we do a time-sharing system where lots of people could dial-in and get consumer information?”
　　我们能不能做一个分时系统，让很多用户可以同时上线并获取信息？ ”
　　A lot of different ideas.
　　等很多新奇的想法。