14 APPENDIX 2
14 附录2
WHILE MUSK HAS REFLECTED PUBLICLY ABOUT HIS TIME AT PAYPAL AND THE COUP, he went into far greater detail than ever before during one of our longer interviews. Years had passed since the tumultuous days surrounding his ouster, and Musk had been able to meditate more on what went right, what went wrong, and what might have been. He started by discussing his decision to go out of the country, mixing business with a delayed honeymoon, and ended with an explanation of how the finance industry still hasn't solved the problems X.com wanted to tackle.
马斯克在公开场合曾经反思过他在PayPal的时光和那次政变，然后在一次时间较长的访谈中，他告诉了我比以往更多的细节。距离他当时被排挤出决策层已经过去好几年了，如今马斯克已经能够更好地反思当初什么是对的、什么是错的以及原本可以是什么样子。在那次访谈中，他首先提到了他决定出国去处理公司事务顺便补一下蜜月，最后他解释了为什么金融业还没有解决X.com想要解决的问题。
“The problem with me going away was that I was not there to reassure the board on a few things. Like, the brand change, I think it would have been the right move, but it didn't need to happen right then. At the time it was this weird almost hybrid brand with X.com and PayPal. I think X was the right long-term brand for something that wants to be the central place where all transactions happen. That's the X. It's like the X is the transaction. PayPal doesn't make sense in that context, when we're talking about something more than a personal payment system. I think X was the more sensible approach but timing-wise it didn't need to happen then. That should have probably waited longer.
“我离开导致的问题是，我没办法消除董事会对某些事情的疑虑。比如品牌变更，我认为这本来会是一个正确的决定，但它发生的时机不对。当时，X.com和PayPal这两个品牌混在一起使用，这样的话会有点奇怪。我认为X是恰当的、可长远使用的品牌，它应该在所有交易中处于中心位置。X的作用就在于此，就好像它代表交易(transaction)。PayPal在当时的环境下没有意义，我们当时讨论的不止是个人支付系统。我认为X是一个更明智的方法，但它发生的时机并不合适。它应该再等一阵子。”
“As for the technology change, that's not really well understood. On the face of it, it doesn't sound like it makes much sense for us to be writing our front-end code in Microsoft C++ instead of Linux. But the reason is that the programming tools for Microsoft and a PC are actually extremely powerful. They're developed for the gaming industry. I mean, this is going to sound like heresy in a sort of Silicon Valley context, but you can program faster, you can get functionality faster in the PC C++ world. All of the games for the Xbox are written in Microsoft C++. The same goes for games on the PC. They're incredibly sophisticated, hard things to do, and these great tools have been developed thanks to the gaming industry. There were more smart programmers in the gaming industry than anywhere else. I'm not sure the general public understands this. It was also 2000, and there were not the huge software libraries for Linux that you would find today. Microsoft had huge support libraries. So you could get a DLL that could do anything, but you couldn't get—you couldn't get Linux libraries that could do anything.
“至于技术变革，我们并没有正确地了解它。表面上，用微软C++开发工具代替Linux编写前端代码看起来对我们意义不大。但事实上，微软和个人电脑的程序设计工具非常强大。它们是为游戏产业开发的。我的意思是，虽然这在硅谷像个异类，但你可以更快地编程，你可以在个人电脑C++的世界里更迅速地实现你想要的功能。Xbox的所有游戏都是用微软C++编写的。个人电脑上的游戏也是如此。编写这些游戏很复杂、很困难，这些伟大工具的开发要归功于游戏产业。游戏产业比其他行业拥有更多聪明的程序员。我不确定大众是否了解这一点。2000年，Linux还不像今天这样拥有巨大的软件库。微软拥有巨大的支持库，因此你能够获得一个可以做任何事的动态链接库，但Linux软件库却有局限性。
“Two of the guys that left PayPal went off to Blizzard and helped created World of Warcraft. When you look at the complexity of something like that living on PCs and Microsoft C++, it's pretty incredible. It blows away any website.
“两个离开PayPal的人加入了Blizzard Enter tainment(暴雪公司)，并帮助创作了游戏‘魔兽世界’。它的复杂程度令人瞠目，令任何网站都相形见绌。
“In retrospect, I should have delayed the brand transition, and I should have spent a lot more time with Max getting him comfortable on the technology. I mean, it was a little difficult because like the Linux system Max had created was called Max Code. So Max has had quite a strong affinity for Max Code. This was a bunch of libraries that Max and his friends had done. But it just made it quite hard to develop new features. And if you look at PayPal today, I mean, part of the reason they haven't developed any new features is because it's quite difficult to maintain the old system.
“回想起来，我本来应该推迟品牌更替，应该多花点时间帮助马克斯，让他在技术方面更加得心应手。我的意思是，这对他来说有点难度，因为马克斯创建的Linux系统叫作‘马克斯代码’。因此马克斯对‘马克斯代码’感情至深。这是马克斯和他的朋友一起完成的一系列软件库。但它使得再开发新的功能变得很困难。如果你看看今天的PayPal，我的意思是，他们没有开发任何新功能的一大原因是他们很难维护旧系统。
“Ultimately, I didn't disagree with the board's decision in the PayPal case, in the sense that with the information that the board had I would have made maybe the same decision. I probably would have, whereas in the case of Zip2 I would not have. I thought they just simply made a terrible decision based on information they had. I don't think the X.com board made a terrible decision based on the information they had. But it did make me want to be careful about who invested in my companies in the future.
“基本上，我同意董事会对PayPal做出的决定，如果我也掌握了董事会获得的信息，我或许会做出相同的决定。我可能会，但对于Zip2，我不会做出这种决定。我认为，他们只是根据自己掌握的信息做出了一个骇人的决定。我不认为X.com的董事会根据手头的信息做出了一个糟糕的决定。但这让我更慎重地考虑将来什么人能够投资我的公司。
“I've thought about trying to get PayPal back. I've just been too strung out with other things. Almost no one understands how PayPal actually worked or why it took off when other payment systems before and after it didn't. Most of the people at PayPal don't understand this. The reason it worked was because the cost of transactions in PayPal was lower than any other system. And the reason the cost of transactions was lower is because we were able to do an increasing percentage of our transactions as ACH, or automated clearinghouse, electronic transactions, and most importantly, internal transactions. Internal transactions were essentially fraud-free and cost us nothing. An ACH transaction costs, I don't know, like twenty cents or something. But it was slow, so that was the bad thing. It's dependent on the bank's batch processing time. And then the credit card transaction was fast, but expensive in terms of the credit card processing fees and very prone to fraud. That's the problem Square is having now.
“我当时想过用尽一切办法把PayPal夺回来。我当时沉迷于这一想法，几乎没有人理解PayPal实际上是怎么运作的，为什么它能够成功，而在它出现前后的其他支付系统却没能成功。在PayPal工作的大多数人都不理解这一点。它成功的原因是，在PayPal进行交易的成本比任何其他系统都低。而交易成本低的原因是，我们能够提高自动化交易系统(ACH)、电子交易，最重要的是内部交易的交易比例。内部交易基本上是没有欺诈情况的，我们无须花费成本。一笔ACH交易大概要花费20美分，我不是很清楚确切数字。但它的速度很慢，这是它的缺点。它取决于银行的批量处理时间。信用卡交易很迅速，但手续费比较贵，而且很容易有欺诈行为。这就是Square支付(盒子支付)正在面临的问题。
“Square is doing the wrong version of PayPal. The critical thing is to achieve internal transactions. This is vital because they are instant, fraud-free, and fee-free. If you're a seller and have various options, and PayPal has the lowest fees and is the most secure, it's obviously the right thing to use.
“Square支付已经走错了方向。关键是实现内部交易，这很重要，因为这样速度很快、没有欺诈，也无需手续费。如果你是一个卖家，而且有很多选择，而PayPal的收费最低又最安全，你当然会选择PayPal。
“When you look at like any given business, like say a business is making 10 percent profitability. They're making 10 percent profit when they may net out all of their costs. You know, revenue minus expenses in a year, they're 10 percent. If using PayPal means you pay 2 percent for your transactions and using some other systems means you pay 4 percent, that means using PayPal gives you a 20 percent increase in your profitability. You'd have to be brain dead not to do that. Right?
“如果一笔业务的利润率是10%，也就是说，去除所有成本，他们的利润就是10%。一年里，收入减去支出赚10%。如果使用PayPal的话，你只需支付2%的手续费，而使用其他支付系统要支付4%的费用，这意味着使用PayPal你将增加20%的利润率。如果这样你都不选择PayPal的话，除非脑子坏了，你说是吧？
“So because about half of PayPal's transactions in the summer of 2001 were internal or ACH transactions, then our fundamental costs of transactions were half because we'd have half credit cards, we'd have that and then the other half would be free. The question then is how do you give people a reason to keep money in the system.
“由于2001年夏天PayPal大约一半的交易都是内部交易或者ACH交易，所以我们的基本交易成本是一半，因为我们有一半是信用卡交易，那么另一半就是免费的。问题是你如何才能让客户心甘情愿地把钱放在我们的系统里。
“That's why we created a PayPal debit card. It's a little counterintuitive, but the easier you make it for people to get money out of PayPal, the less they'll want to do it. But if the only way for them to spend money or access it in any way is to move it to a traditional bank, that's what they'll do instantly. The other thing was the PayPal money market fund. We did that because if you consider the reasons that people might move the money out, well, they'll move it to either conduct transactions in the physical world or because they're getting a higher interest rate. So I instituted the highest-return money market fund in the country. Basically, the money market fund was at cost. We didn't intend to make any money on it, in order to encourage people to keep their money in the system. And then we also had like the ability to pay regular bills like your electricity bill and that kind of thing on PayPal.
“这就是为什么我们创造了PayPal借记卡。虽然有点违反常识，但如果你能让客户更容易地把钱从PayPal取出来，他们其实越不想把钱取出来。但如果客户花钱或取钱的唯一方法就是把钱从传统银行里取出来的话，他们会马上这么做。另一件事是PayPal货币市场基金，我们之所以创造它，是因为考虑了人们为什么要把钱取出来：他们可能是要进行实际交易，或者想要获得更高的利息。所以我创立了美国回报率最高的货币市场基金。基本上，这个货币市场基金是按成本价运营的。我们不打算靠它来赚钱，这是为了鼓励人们把钱存到我们的系统里。我们还有通过PayPal定期支付账单的功能，比如你的电费单和其他账单。
“There were a bunch of things that should have been done like checks. Because even though people don't use a lot of checks they still use some checks. So if you force people to say, ‘Okay, we're not going to let you use checks ever,' they're like, ‘Okay, I guess I have to have a bank account.' Just give them a few checks, for God's sake.
“我们本该发明很多类似支票那样的功能。因为即使人们使用支票的频率不会很高，但他们还是会用到。所以，如果你强迫人们说，‘我们再也不让你使用支票了。’他们会说，‘好吧，我估计我得去开个银行账户了。’看在上帝的份儿上，给用户一些支票用吧。
“I mean, it's so ridiculous that PayPal today is worse than PayPal circa end of 2001. That's insane.
“我的意思是，现在的PayPal还不如2001年年底的PayPal，这太可笑了，简直太蠢了。
“None of these start-ups understand the objective. The objective should be—what delivers fundamental value. I think it's important to look at things from a standpoint of what is actually the best thing for the economy. If people can conduct their transactions quickly and securely that's better for them. If it's simpler to conduct their financial life it's better for them. So, if all your financial affairs are seamlessly integrated one place it's very easy to do transactions and the fees associated with transactions are low. These are all good things. Why aren't they doing this? It's mad.”
没有一家新公司了解这个目标，真正的目标应该是了解什么才能带来根本性的价值。我认为应该从什么才是真正对经济最有利的这个立场来观察事物。如果人们能够快速安全地进行交易，那就挺好。如果能够更简单地进行交易，那就更好了。因此，如果你的所有财务事宜都能够无缝地整合在一起，那么交易将会变得很容易，而且相关收费也会比较低。这都很好。为什么他们不去开发这种功能呢？真是愚蠢极了。”