戳破科技初創企業泡沫 Satire pierces the quirks of the tech start up bubble

A 52-year-old journalist who has covered the tech industry for decades is laid off. He joins a start-up where the average employee is aged 29 and tends to wear clothing bedecked with the company logo and colour.

這位報道科技行業幾十年的記者52歲時被解僱了。然後他加入了一家初創企業，這裏員工的平均年齡爲29歲，經常身穿帶有公司標識和形象色的服裝。

Coming from the author of a cutting satire of Steve Jobs, who now writes for the HBO comedy Silicon Valley, the tale could be mistaken for a film pitch or parodic dystopian novel. But Dan Lyons is serious. After being “dumped” as Newsweek’s technology editor in 2012, Lyons decides to ride Silicon Valley’s second great bubble. Lyons finds the right company, if only for the raw material that he, a seasoned satirist, spins into gold.

萊昂斯曾撰寫過有關史蒂夫•喬布斯(Steve Jobs)的措辭尖刻的諷刺作品，現在擔任美國家庭電影頻道(HBO)喜劇《硅谷》(Silicon Valley)的編劇，因此這本書中的故事可能會被誤以爲是一部電影宣傳片或一本惡搞性質的反烏托邦小說。但萊昂斯是認真的。在2012年作爲《新聞週刊》(Newsweek)的科技編輯被“炒魷魚”後，他決定利用硅谷第二次大泡沫的機會。他找對了公司，哪怕這只是讓這位老道的諷刺作家找到了妙筆生花所需的素材。

When Lyons joins Boston-based HubSpot as a “marketing fellow” in 2013, it is gearing up to go public. Reeling from culture shock, Lyons catalogues daily life in the company and its unselfconsciously ridiculous vocabulary.

2013年，萊昂斯加入總部位於波士頓的HubSpot，擔任“營銷員”，當時該公司正準備上市。文化衝擊讓萊昂斯暈頭轉向，他把公司的日常生活及其可笑而不自知的用語分類記錄了下來。

Its software helps businesses assail customers with messages it says are not spam but “loveable marketing content”. Employees are not sacked, they are “graduated”. A co-founder totes a teddy bear to meetings to represent the customer. There are yoga ball chairs, free candy, taps dispensing beer, and a replica of a red British telephone box. The funny, if repetitive, descriptions paint a workplace that is “a cross between a kindergarten and a frat house”.

該公司的軟件幫助企業向客戶進行信息轟炸，稱這些不是垃圾信息，而是“可愛的營銷內容”。在這家公司，員工不是被解僱，而是“畢業”。一位聯合創始人會帶着一個泰迪熊開會，用它代表客戶。那裏有瑜伽球椅、免費糖果、出啤酒的水龍頭以及一個仿製的英國紅色電話亭。書中戲謔（儘管有些重複）的描述描繪出一個“介於幼兒園和聯誼會之間”的辦公場所。

But the book is not just a chronicle of the tech bubble’s silly quirks. As Lyons gets to know HubSpot, questions arise about the business model of a company that does not appear to trust its product. At one point his desk is moved to a “boiler room” of telemarketers selling HubSpot software, which claims to replace such dated practices. The company says it evaluates its employees on “HEART” — an anodyne acronym for “humble, effective, adaptable, remarkable and transparent” — but holds its sales reps to strict quotas.

但本書不僅僅記錄了科技泡沫中的奇人怪事。隨着萊昂斯對HubSpot的逐漸瞭解，他開始質疑這家似乎不相信自身產品的公司的商業模式。他的辦公桌曾一度搬到“電話推銷室”，電話推銷員在這裏推銷HubSpot軟件，而該軟件恰恰聲稱要取代電話推銷這種過時的做法。該公司表示是根據“HEART”標準（即謙遜、高效、應變、卓越和透明）衡量員工表現，卻給銷售代表規定了嚴格的任務額。

Lyons uses the lens of his growing disillusionment to focus a broader critique of Silicon Valley. “The people at the top are profiting from this game, which they have rigged in their favour,” he writes, by turning money-losing start-ups into financial vehicles for the benefit of a handful of investors. Tech workers, meanwhile, “are told the needs of the company are more important than their own”.

萊昂斯從一種越來越清醒的視角聚焦於對硅谷的更廣泛批判。“處於頂層的人們正從遊戲中獲利，他們操縱遊戲使之有利於自己，”他寫道，他們把虧損的初創企業變成了讓少數投資者受益的金融工具。與此同時，科技從業者“被告知公司的需要比他們自己的更重要”。

The darkest turn comes, after Lyons has thoroughly fallen out with HubSpot (but profited from its IPO), returned to journalism and written this book. HubSpot’s chief marketing officer is sacked for unethical conduct after trying to obtain Lyons’s manuscript, another executive resigns before he too can be fired and the chief executive is sanctioned for his role in the affair. The Federal Bureau of Investigation probes the incident.

在萊昂斯與HubSpot徹底交惡（但從該公司的首次公開發行(IPO)中獲益）、重返記者工作並撰寫這本書後，最黑暗的轉折來臨了。HubSpot首席營銷官在試圖獲得萊昂斯的手稿後因不道德行爲被解僱，另一位高管在也可能被解僱之前辭職，首席執行官因在此事中的角色接受處罰。美國聯邦調查局(FBI)對此事進行了調查。

But it is HubSpot’s response to the book that suggests it is as clueless as Lyons portrays it. The co-founders write a LinkedIn post that strikes the wounded tone of a jilted ex.

但真正表明HubSpot就像萊昂斯描寫的那樣愚蠢的，是該公司對這本書的迴應。該公司的幾位聯合創始人在LinkedIn上發帖，受傷的語氣彷彿被拋棄的前任。

“We were upset when we first read the book,” they write. “But negative emotions have a relatively short half-life with us. Our emotions have been dissipating quickly and we think they’ll asymptotically trend towards zero over time. Besides, life is too short to hold grudges.”

“當我們第一次讀這本書時，我們感到傷心，”他們寫道，“但負面情緒對我們的影響相對短暫。我們的負面情緒正迅速消散，我們相信，隨着時間的流逝，它們會消失殆盡。另外，人生苦短，無須心存怨恨。”