硅谷實習生的奇特世界

I arrived at the Internapalooza in San Francisco last month with no idea what a “palooza” actually was. Wading into a throng of excited backpack-clad computer-science students all filming on their iPhones, I got my first taste: a cross between Black Friday and an X Factor audition.

上月，當我到達舊金山的Internapalooza活動現(xiàn)場時，心里對于一場“palooza”到底什么樣沒有絲毫概念。我艱難地擠進一群背著背包的興奮的學生當中，他們是計算機科學專業(yè)的，都在用iPhone攝像。我得到了第一印象：這是黑色星期五(Black Friday)和《X Factor》節(jié)目試鏡的混合體。

Tech-company interns attend this annual event, held in the city’s baseball stadium, ostensibly to hear esteemed speakers and make contacts. It is organised by Cory Levy, co-founder of teen social network After School, and attended by interns from Google, Facebook, Salesforce and more.

科技公司的實習生們參加在舊金山市棒球場舉辦的這次年度活動，號稱是為了聆聽令人尊敬的演講者指教，并建立人脈?；顒拥慕M織者是青少年社交網絡After School的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人科里•利維(Cory Levy)，參加者是來自谷歌(Google)、Facebook和Salesforce等公司的實習生。

The interns come for free, while companies pay, setting out their stalls in the hope of recruiting these bright young things when they graduate. “We bring together the smartest kids in Silicon Valley, who go to school across North America, and magical things happen,” Levy said.

實習生們免費參加活動，各公司負擔費用，在活動場地搭建自己的展位，希望在這些聰明的年輕人畢業(yè)時把他們招進公司。“我們把在北美各地上學的最聰明的孩子們召集到硅谷來，讓神奇的事情發(fā)生，”利維說。

But by the time artificial intelligence expert Andrew Ng came on stage, the audience had dwindled. Instead of listening, the 4,000 interns made a mad rush for branded trinkets. As soon as the area with the stalls was opened, they ran and pocketed anything with a tech company logo on it, jumping for Amazon T-shirts and grabbing at Dropbox tote bags. “Wow,” was all the woman at the Quicken Loans stand could say, as she watched a herd scoop up pens from the online mortgage lender.

但是，到人工智能專家吳恩達(Andrew Ng)登臺演講時，觀眾人數(shù)已減少了。4000名實習生不聽發(fā)言，而是瘋狂涌向品牌小飾品。展廳內發(fā)放這些東西的區(qū)域一開放，他們就跑了過去，拿走任何帶有一家科技公司標識的東西，從亞馬遜(Amazon) T恤衫到Dropbox大手提袋。“哇，”這是Quicken Loans展位的那位女士在看到一群人爭相拿走這家在線抵押貸款機構提供的筆時所能說出的唯一的話。

The crowd giggled and shrieked at Tinder caps, Tinder sunglasses and Tinder bottle openers. Valiantly, the man behind the stall tried to be serious, impressing on them that the dating site has the fewest engineers per user in the industry, so each one has a bigger impact. Meanwhile, I wondered if anyone has taught Silicon Valley’s next generation that the ability to get excited over a branded fidget spinner is not going to impress potential employers.

實習生們朝著Tinder的帽子、墨鏡和開瓶器又是咯咯笑，又是尖叫。在展位工作的男士勇敢地試圖表現(xiàn)出嚴肅，向實習生們介紹說：這家約會網站的每一名用戶對應的工程師人數(shù)是業(yè)內最少的，因此每名工程師能夠發(fā)揮更大的作用。同時，我揣測是否有人告訴硅谷的下一代：對一個品牌指尖陀螺感到激動的本事，不會給潛在雇主留下深刻印象。

But there is a sense of entitlement that comes with earning the equivalent of up to $80,000 a year plus benefits for your summer internship. On the Blind app, an anonymous messaging board popular in Silicon Valley, interns share details of how much money they make: Facebook is apparently paying some software engineering students $8,000 a month, while companies such as Microsoft and Lyft add free housing or a housing allowance on top. I heard interns showing off about which companies had already offered them job interviews.

但是，伴隨在暑期實習賺到相當于逾8萬美元年薪外加福利而來的是一種權利意識。在一款受硅谷追捧的匿名留言板應用Blind上，實習生們相互介紹他們賺到多少錢的詳細情況：據說Facebook向一些軟件工程專業(yè)的學生支付8000美元的月薪，而微軟(Microsoft)和Lyft等公司還另外提供免費住宿或發(fā)放住房津貼。我聽到一些實習生在炫耀哪些公司已向他們發(fā)出了求職面試通知。

People used to come to Silicon Valley because they were geeks who couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Now, as one intern at cybersecurity company Symantec told me: “This is the place to go. It is not like 10 years ago. It is now recognised for being like NYC for investment banking or NYC and Chicago for consulting.” The number of new tech jobs in the Bay Area has risen between 4 and 7 per cent a year for the past five years.

過去人們到硅谷打拼，是因為他們是極客，想象不出自己會做其他任何事情。如今，正如網絡安全公司賽門鐵克(Symantec)的一名實習生告訴我的那樣：“這是應該去的地方。現(xiàn)在不像10年前了?，F(xiàn)在人們認為硅谷是投行業(yè)的紐約，或者咨詢業(yè)的紐約或芝加哥。”過去5年里，灣區(qū)(Bay Area)每年以4%至7%的速度新增科技崗位數(shù)量。

Even recent scandals do not seem to have put off new recruits. I met three young male engineers who are spending the summer at Uber, where chief executive Travis Kalanick was recently pushed out amid allegations of sexism. “Uber 2.0 will work out, hopefully,” one of them said, as if the company simply needed a software update.

甚至不久前的丑聞似乎也沒讓新應聘者們反感。我遇到了三名正在優(yōu)步(Uber)進行暑期實習的年輕男性工程師。最近，有關性別歧視的指控導致該公司首席執(zhí)行官特拉維斯•卡蘭尼克(Travis Kalanick)被趕下臺。“希望優(yōu)步2.0將會解決問題，”其中一人說，好像這家公司需要的僅僅是一次軟件更新。

Not everyone enjoys this carnival of capitalism. On the other side of the Bay, in Oakland’s Jack London Square, stands the new Museum of Capitalism. Here, in a retail space that is otherwise empty despite its enviable waterfront location, 80 artists explore themes from immigration to land rights and police violence. Flags bearing the logos of banks that failed during the financial crisis hang from the ceiling; a podium displays a suitcase full of junk mail offering loans. There is even a display of corporate stash: a vast collection of pens given out by pharmaceutical companies to doctors to advertise their drugs.

并非每個人都喜歡這場資本主義嘉年華。位于灣區(qū)另一側奧克蘭的杰克倫敦廣場(Jack London Square)有一座新的資本主義博物館。這里，在這個盡管地處令人羨慕的水邊位置、但原本空蕩蕩的零售空間，80名藝術家探索了從移民到土地權以及警察暴力執(zhí)法的諸多主題。屋頂懸掛的旗子上印著那些在金融危機中倒閉的銀行的標識;一個講臺上展示了一個手提箱，里面裝滿兜售貸款的垃圾郵件。館里還展出了公司藏品：制藥公司為推銷他們的藥品而贈送給醫(yī)生的一大堆鋼筆。

The museum is sombre, despite the ridiculousness of many of its exhibits. It misses the way in which capitalism has excited generation after generation of hopeful students, luring them to New York, then Chicago and now Silicon Valley. Perhaps they should add a video of the Internapalooza — but maybe with the sound off.

這間博物館讓人感到陰郁，盡管許多展品是荒唐的。它沒有揭示出資本主義是如何激勵一代又一代躊躇滿志的學生，把他們吸引到紐約、再吸引到芝加哥，如今又吸引到硅谷的。也許他們應當增加一部有關Internapalooza的視頻片——只是大概要關掉聲音。