本文源自 Salman Khan 對 Elon Musk 四年前的一次 Chat，也是 Khan Academy 經(jīng)濟類課程中一個學(xué)時中的內(nèi)容：
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDwzmJpI4io

I just came from the Tesla factory in Fremont.

費利蒙市（Fremont）是一個位于美國加州舊金山灣區(qū)東南部的城市，Tesla 2010 年用 4200萬 美金向豐田購買了這家工廠

So today's fiasco was -- I kid you not -- we were missing a $3 USB cable.

相當于 I am not kidding you. 整條生產(chǎn)線因為這根 3美金 的 USB線 停了下來

So essentially, because it's part of the wiring harness.

線束，前面提到的 USB 線是「線束」中的一根

means that you've got to stack them up in the yard.

yard 的意思有「無所事事，閑置在家」的意思，因為一根線的緣故讓缺少了這個配件的汽車呆在 yard 這么形容也挺貼切

SAL KHAN: Like, literally, RadioShack? ELON MUSK: Like Fry's.

RadioShack 和 Fry's 都是電子器材店，RadioShack 都是面積不大的小店，F(xiàn)ry's 規(guī)模一些更像大型超市。RadioShack 創(chuàng)建于1921年，2017年3月宣布倒閉，F(xiàn)ry's 現(xiàn)在好像還不錯，有30多家線下店

you were going to be doing this or-- when did it dawn on you that you would try to revolutionize

漸漸明白 dawn on you, dawn on me 這樣的表述都是可以的，表示漸漸明白或者慢慢發(fā)生

SAL KHAN: Yellowstone's due for an explosion every several hundred thousand-- Shandra knows about that. It's been 700,000, Super volcano for those of you who don't know.
ELON MUSK: Yeah. Exactly. I know exactly what you're talking about.
SAL KHAN: We read the same books.

黃石火山是位于美國黃石國家公園的超級火山，也叫黃石超級火山。火山口位于懷俄明州的西北角，大約有72千米長，55千米寬，是由過去210萬年中三次超級火山噴發(fā)造成的，第一次發(fā)生在210萬年前，第二次發(fā)生在130萬年前，第三次發(fā)生在64萬年前。如果黃石公園的火山再次爆發(fā)，規(guī)模將是1980年圣海倫火山爆發(fā)的2500倍，火山爆發(fā)指數(shù)8，引發(fā)全球災(zāi)難

• 火山灰將覆蓋全美3/4的土地；
• 在火山一千千米范圍內(nèi)，灰塵引起大量暴雨，爆發(fā)泥石流，火山灰將壓垮多數(shù)民房；
• 火山灰塵導(dǎo)致電子設(shè)備無法正常使用，將使通訊，交通，物流等行業(yè)全線癱瘓；
• 多數(shù)民眾將死于化學(xué)氣體中毒、受污染的水和食物，比如氟
• 全球性的天氣災(zāi)難。硫酸氣體層將在2周內(nèi)覆蓋全球，反射陽光，致使全球平均氣溫下降12--15度。赤道附近可能持續(xù)兩三年的積雪，季風(fēng)消失，大部分人類和動植物會死于寒冷和饑餓。

And so the area that I was studying was advanced capacitors. So essentially capacitors that have an engine density exceeding that of batteries. Because they have a very high power density, but a low energy density. Maybe you have lecture to that effect, I don't know.

So I was going to try to work on that and try to leverage the equipment that was developed for advanced chip making and photonics to create ultra-precise capacitors at the molecular level.

Musk 說自己在學(xué)習(xí)超級電容，然后調(diào)侃 Khan 可能在學(xué)院講過電容和電池能量的物理課程，Khan 創(chuàng)建可汗學(xué)院的原因就是意外的發(fā)現(xiàn)自己講課特別擅長，所以自然有可能也講過類似的物理課程

后面 Musk 剎不住車說了很多專業(yè)領(lǐng)域的內(nèi)容，高級芯片制作、光子學(xué)、超精密電容、分子級等等，Khan 趕緊把話題拉了回來

SAL KHAN: And this was when you were going to go into grad school? You had a brief stint at Stanford?
ELON MUSK: That's right.
SAL KHAN: At a PhD in applied physics?
ELON MUSK: Applied physics, material science.

Khan 確認了一下 Musk 的高等教育經(jīng)歷，Musk 在斯坦福讀應(yīng)用物理材料科學(xué)博士其實只有短短的兩天，所以 Khan 用了 brief stint 這個短語

And I'd actually worked at a company in Silicon Valley called Pinnacle Research, which did advanced capacitors. There were electrolytic capacitors. And they actually were pretty good. They had like the energy density of a lead-acid battery, which for a capacitor, that's a big deal. But they used ruthenium tantalum oxide. And I think at the time, there was maybe like one or two tons of ruthenium mined per year in the world. So it's not a scalable solution. But I thought there could be some solid-state solution, like just using chip-making equipment. That was going to be the basic idea.

Musk 透露在 1995 年念書的時候曾經(jīng)在 Los Gatos 的一家叫做 Pinnacle Research 的公司有過一段實習(xí)經(jīng)歷，讓他對超級電容技術(shù)有所了解，了解其原理和局限，有所設(shè)想，并結(jié)合其他資源最終引發(fā)了他制造電動汽車的經(jīng)歷。
not a scalable solution（沒有可擴展性）

ELON MUSK: I think success on an academic level would have been quite likely, because you can publish some useless paper-- and most papers are pretty useless--
SAL KHAN: We have a few-- don't take offense.
ELON MUSK: I mean, how many PhD papers are actually used by someone ever?
SAL KHAN: That's a good point.
ELON MUSK: Percentagewise it's not good. And so it could have been one of those outcomes where you add some leaves to the tree of knowledge. And that leaf is, nope, it's not possible. And there goes seven years of my life.

Musk 對學(xué)術(shù)成就有點受傷，吐槽很多的人給學(xué)術(shù)體系幫倒忙，這個比喻蠻有意思的，「給樹上加葉子，然后是枯掉的葉子」

So we started Paypal on University Avenue. After the first month or so of the website being active, we 100,000 customers.

University Avenue 是一條很短的街，然后這條街的 165號 非常的厲害，這棟樓里面出過 Google, Logitech, Paypal, Danger（智能手機的先驅(qū)，傳聞是微軟5億美金收購） 等眾多著名企業(yè)

SAL KHAN: So much money did you all spend with that kind of $5, $10, $20 incentive to get that critical mass going?

在核物理領(lǐng)域，臨界質(zhì)量（Critical mass）是指維持核子連鎖反應(yīng)所需的裂變材料質(zhì)量。在這個臨界點以后，就可以產(chǎn)生連鎖反應(yīng)的組合，核反應(yīng)的速率會以指數(shù)增長。在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)項目的用戶增長過程中，也存一個類似的臨界點，當每天增長的新用戶多于這個臨界數(shù)量之后，用戶的增長速度就會有較快速的增長

ELON MUSK: It depends on your relative scale. It's a peanut to Google.

peanuts 在美式英語里面經(jīng)常被用來指代「很小的一點錢」，所以經(jīng)常說：works for peanuts, he pay peanuts

SAL KHAN: And then after Paypal, then I mean-- to some degree, especially us in Silicon Valley, we kind of understand the Internet.

to some degree 可以翻譯成「從某種程度上而言」，感覺是一個蠻適合口語中使用的連接詞

And so I started researching the area, becoming more familiar with space, reading lots of books. And I came up with this idea to do so-called Mars oasis, which was to send a small greenhouse with seeds in dehydrated gel that upon landing, you hydrate the gel.

Musk 創(chuàng)立 SpaceX 的初衷，就是為了為「火星綠洲」項目提供發(fā)射手段，「火星綠洲」是為了在火星上種植物

SAL KHAN: But you were willing to bet the farm, so to speak, on this?
ELON MUSK: Yeah.

bet the farm 是「孤注一擲」的意思，沒找到典故反正就是這么說~

ELON MUSK: The Boeing Delta II would have cost $65 million each, so two would have been $130 million. And then I was like, woah, OK, that breaks my budget right there.

德爾塔2號運載火箭是由美國麥道公司設(shè)計和制造的運載火箭，是德爾塔系列運載火箭家族中的重要成員，在麥道被波音公司合并后，則由波音的綜合防務(wù)系統(tǒng)分部負責生產(chǎn)。德爾塔2號運載火箭是NASA手中的1種重要火箭，從1989年開始投入使用，近百次的發(fā)射僅有兩次失敗。Musk 覺得 6500萬 美金一枚的價格已經(jīng)高于他的預(yù)算了（相比較而言，目前最新的 SpaceX 可回收一級火箭重復(fù)發(fā)射的獵鷹9發(fā)射價格為 4000萬美元 不到，有效載荷則是德爾塔2號的5-7倍）

And so I had a series of meetings on Saturdays with people some of whom were still working at the big aerospace companies, just to try to figure out is the some catch here that I'm not appreciating. And I couldn't figure it out. There doesn't seem to be any catch.

catch 在這里可以翻譯成「貓膩」

• OK, I've seen all the benefits, but what's the catch?
• This sounds too good to be true. There's a catch, isn't there?
• Aha, triple interest rates! So, there's the catch!
• There's always a catch. Nothing's truly free in this world.
• Don't fall for their low rental rates. The catch is in their mileage policy.

ELON MUSK: However, if we make it reusable, then it can be two orders of magnitude cheaper.
SAL KHAN: Two orders of magnitude cheaper.
A 100th of the price?
ELON MUSK: That's right.

兩個數(shù)量級：two orders of magnitude 百分之一：A 100th

And I've seen some-- you all are doing these vertical landings, like literally out of like the 1950s Sci-Fi movies.

1950s 被認為是科幻小說電影的黃金年代，10年間涌現(xiàn)了無數(shù)的科幻小說，以及200多部科幻電影，那個時代的人們正經(jīng)歷著戰(zhàn)后的反思，冷戰(zhàn)的序幕已經(jīng)拉開，核武器的巨大威懾讓人們對未來充滿了不確定性的巨大恐慌，讓這類科幻題材的影片出現(xiàn)了和那的市場，并最終促進了后來人類登月的壯舉

John W. Campbell 的 Astounding Science Fiction 雜志被公認為那個時代最杰出的科幻雜志，旗下有眾多一流的科幻小說作者，是那個時代幻想思潮的主要根源之一

Yeah, actually, that seems to be the case. I didn't realize they sold so few cars in that segment.

segment 的用法很多樣：C-segment, that market segment, segment leader 等等，有時候可以翻譯成「級別」，有時候可以翻譯成「款式」。歐洲為了對汽車市場進行更好的管理，曾經(jīng)制定了分類標準，用的也是 segment 這個詞，稱之為 Euro Car Segment，感覺這是一個汽車行業(yè)專用的詞

The nature of new technology adoption is it tends to follow an S-curve. So what usually happens is people under-predict it in in the beginning, because people tend to extrapolate in a straight line.

新技術(shù)發(fā)展的 S曲線：

如果把時間線拉得更長，那么技術(shù)發(fā)展的時間線會是這樣的：

ELON MUSK: So it's, I think very impressive thing you're doing to spread knowledge and understanding throughout the world.
SAL KHAN: The universe soon, if you hold up your end of the bargain.

if you hold up your end of the bargain 可以翻譯成「如果你完成了你那部分的工作（前面說要發(fā)射火箭、登陸火星等等）」，「end of the bargain」一般運用在雙方合作并共同完成（一筆交易、一項合作）的情況下，所以含有「你那部分」這層含義，側(cè)重在表示對方完成自己所約定那部分事情

But I think a lot of things that I would say, you've probably heard 100 times. And, in fact, are if not doing. The more you can game-ify the process of learning, the better. For my kids, I do not have to encourage them to play video games.

-ify 是一個表示「...化」的詞綴，這里可以翻譯成「游戲化」

I have to like pry them from their hands, like crack.
SAL KHAN: Yes.
ELON MUSK: It's like, drop that crack needle.
SAL KHAN: You have that problem at your house, too. The crack is addictive.

Musk 形容他的小孩子玩游戲的時候全神貫注就像「吸毒」一樣，crack 可以翻譯成霹靂可卡因（Crack cocaine），是可卡因的游離堿形式，也是吸食可卡因時的一種常見形式。純品為泛白色、帶有鋸齒狀邊緣的塊狀固體，密度比燭蠟略高。
霹靂可卡因最早于1980年代中期在美國紐約、洛杉磯和邁阿密等市的貧困街區(qū)首先出現(xiàn)，因制備時會發(fā)出爆裂聲而得名

And I think, unfortunately, a lot of education is very vaudevillian.

vaudevillian 是指1880-1920年之間，在北美比較流行的，混雜形式的表演者，這種表演能夠把樂器、歌唱、雜技、小丑等串在一起，后來因為電影的發(fā)展而消亡

I mean the analogy I sometimes use is, have you seen like Batman, the Chris Nolan movie, the recent one. And it's pretty freaking awesome. And you've got incredible special effects, great script, multiple takes, amazing actors, and great sound, and it's very engaging.

在電影拍攝每個鏡頭開始的那個板子上，會有 take，表示某個鏡頭的第幾次拍攝，每一次連續(xù)進行的表演，可以稱之為一個 take
multiple takes 是指一個鏡頭被反復(fù)拍攝很多次，有時候是因為導(dǎo)演對表演一直不滿意，有時候是為了滿足后期剪輯的需要而故意多拍攝一些

SAL KHAN: So with that-- and I apologize to all of you guys for hogging up all of the time, because, obviously, I could talk for hours about this stuff.

hog(something) 的意思是一只把著一個東西單獨使用，這里 Khan 這么說的意思就是他一直是單獨和 Musk 單獨聊，那么接下來就可以到觀眾提問的時間了，因為 hog 愿意是「豬」，所以這里要么是自謙，否則感覺說話蠻不客氣的
例句：Dude, stop hogging the controller. I want to play.

ELON MUSK: I was reading about the California high-speed rail, and it was quite depressing. Because California taxpayers are going to be on the hook to build the most expensive high-speed rail per mile in the world-- and the slowest.

加州高速鐵路是一個計劃中的高速鐵路系統(tǒng)，目前由加州政府成立的加利福尼亞高速鐵路管理局（簡稱加州高鐵局）計劃籌備，整個執(zhí)行計劃在2005年8月通過。
作為美國當前規(guī)模最大的在建基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施項目，加州高鐵從誕生之初就備受爭議。旨在連結(jié)該州南北兩端的加州高鐵項目在幾十年前就已出現(xiàn)雛形，專門負責規(guī)劃監(jiān)管這一項目的政府機構(gòu)加州高速鐵路管理局(CHSRA，下稱“加州高鐵局”)也早在1996年就已經(jīng)成立，但21年后的今天，這一項目依然在以龜速前進。

SAL KHAN: Is this around the evacuated tubes? The vacuum tubes? Like the old bank--
ELON MUSK: It's something like that.

在晶體管、集成電路出現(xiàn)之前，電腦是基于真空管技術(shù)的，Khan 說 Mush 的 Hyperloop 項目的原理類似于真空管技術(shù)，這里的 old bank 只是一個比方，因為銀行為了安全和穩(wěn)定，會固守一些老舊的技術(shù)，但是老到用真空管電腦？我認為是不可能的

But, we haven't done our earnings call yet. So I think I'll probably do it after the earnings call.

earnings call 是指公司管理層定期給投資人報告財務(wù)情況的會議，會議這么命名是源于 earnings per share (EPS)，會議的內(nèi)容會隨后出簡報公布，如果是上市公司的話需要遵守交易所的一些相關(guān)約定

You should really-- if you told it to an objective person, would they look forward to the day that that thing became available.

objective person 是指那些不會受情緒影響，對事物不產(chǎn)生偏見，僅僅基于事實來進行判斷的人

Or an aircraft. Like I thought it was really disappointing when the Concorde was taking out of commission, and there was no supersonic transport available.

協(xié)和飛機（Concorde）是一款由法國宇航和英國飛機公司聯(lián)合研制的中程超音速客機，它和蘇聯(lián)圖波列夫設(shè)計局的圖-144同為世界上少數(shù)曾投入商業(yè)使用的超音速客機。協(xié)和飛機在1969年首飛、1976年投入服務(wù)，飛機能夠在15000米的高空以2.02倍音速巡航，從巴黎飛到紐約只需約3小時20分鐘，比普通民航客機節(jié)省超過一半時間，所以雖然票價昂貴但仍然深受商務(wù)旅客的歡迎。
協(xié)和飛機共生產(chǎn)了20架，其中僅有16架投入營運。巨大的資金投入和漫長的研發(fā)過程使英法兩國政府蒙受了不小的經(jīng)濟損失，而且兩國政府還不得不撥款資助英航和法航購買協(xié)和飛機。2000年，協(xié)和飛機發(fā)生了其營運生涯的第一次、也是唯一的一次災(zāi)難性事故——法國航空4590號班機空難，旅客對其信心大減，之后的911事件又使國際民航業(yè)陷入危機。受種種因素影響，英航和法航?jīng)Q定協(xié)和飛機執(zhí)行完2003年10月23日的最后一次商業(yè)飛行后終止服務(wù)，并于同年11月26日完成“退役”航班后結(jié)束其27年的商業(yè)飛行生涯。