Young CEOs in Silicon Valley Rush to Make Mark on World

By Patrick May

Marissa Mayer

Elon Musk

Google’s Sergey Brin puts his money where his meat is, funding the world’s first test-tube hamburger in a bid to change the way the world eats.1. Sergey Brin: 謝爾蓋·布林，谷歌創(chuàng)始人之一；puts his money where his meat is: 源自俗語(yǔ)puts his money where his mouth is，意為“某人出錢(qián)支持他所相信的事情”，此處稍作改動(dòng)，意為“出錢(qián)支持跟肉相關(guān)的一個(gè)行業(yè)”，即下文提到的試管漢堡；test-tube hamburger: 試管漢堡，由荷蘭科學(xué)家用母牛干細(xì)胞在試管里培養(yǎng)出來(lái)的牛肉，造價(jià)30多萬(wàn)美元，于2013年8月4日在倫敦舉行了試吃活動(dòng)；in a bid to: 試圖，為了。Tesla’s Elon Musk pushes space tourism as a down payment on ensuring our intergalactic salvation.2. Tesla: 特斯拉電動(dòng)汽車(chē)公司；Elon Musk: 埃隆·馬斯克，他集工程師，企業(yè)家和慈善家各種身份于一身，并且是貝寶、空間探索技術(shù)公司以及特斯拉汽車(chē)三家公司的創(chuàng)始人；down payment: 定金，預(yù)付款；ensure: 保證，確保；intergalactic: 銀河間的，星系際的；salvation: 拯救，救贖。And Amazon’s Jeff Bezos3. Jeff Bezos: 杰夫·貝索斯，亞馬遜的創(chuàng)始人，他于去年自掏腰包，花費(fèi)巨資收購(gòu)了傳統(tǒng)媒體巨頭《華盛頓郵報(bào)》。buys The Washington Post because, well, he hasn’t said.

Driven by bravado, benevolence, boredom or perhaps equal measures of each, deep-pocketed and increasingly young CEOs in Silicon Valley and beyond are taking their money, power and fame and using it to plant flags in all kinds of surprising places.4.也許是受蠻干逞能、仁慈本性或無(wú)聊因素的驅(qū)使，或許是三者兼而有之，那些財(cái)力雄厚、越來(lái)越年輕化的硅谷及其他地方的CEO運(yùn)用他們的錢(qián)財(cái)、權(quán)利和名望在世界各個(gè)令人感到驚訝的領(lǐng)域開(kāi)辟新的事業(yè)。bravado: 蠻干心理，逞強(qiáng)的行為；benevolence: 仁慈，善舉；deep-pocketed: 財(cái)力雄厚的。

Sergey Brin

硅谷年輕的CEO們?cè)谌〉酶髯灶I(lǐng)域的成功之時(shí)，也沒(méi)忘了要兼顧自己嗜好，有的忙著弄試管漢堡，有的忙著玩太空飛船，有的忙著建萬(wàn)年鐘表，還有的忙著搞食譜……要說(shuō)這跨界要玩出名堂也不容易，也許只有這些資本雄厚又舍得花精力的硅谷才俊才能折騰得起吧！

And unlike in the valley’s olden days, when successful tech pioneers quietly assembled philanthropic powerhouses or lobbied to protect open space, there’s now a land rush by tech’s young titans to leave their mark on the world—and maybe save it in the process, one newspaper or in-vitro burger at a time.5. olden: 古昔的；assemble: 聚集，組合；powerhouse: 強(qiáng)大的集團(tuán)；land rush: 占領(lǐng)土地的熱潮，此處喻指年輕的CEO們爭(zhēng)相在各個(gè)新領(lǐng)域進(jìn)行投資；titan: 巨子，成就非凡的人；in-vitro: 在試管內(nèi)的。

“This trend is driven by some weird amalgam of guilt and ego and a desire to help the planet, but it’s like everybody wants to be Bono now,”6. weird: 奇怪的，怪誕的；amalgam: 混合物；Bono: 波諾，原名Paul David Hewson，是愛(ài)爾蘭歌星，同時(shí)他也是音樂(lè)家、風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資家、商人和社會(huì)活動(dòng)家，此處指每個(gè)人都想要像Bono那樣多方面發(fā)展。said author Michael S. Malone, long a keen observer of valley culture. “They want to do good, but they also want to make themselves look good in the process. It’s really just another form of one-upmanship7. one-upmanship:〈口〉高人一等的表現(xiàn)，搶先一步。.”

Either way, the stampede8. stampede: 人群的蜂擁而至。is on. Whether it’s Bezos with the “10,000 Year Clock” he’s helping build inside a West Texas limestone mountain and his Blue Origin spaceflight startup, or Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million campaign to jump-start public education, the new moguls of online commerce and social media are fanning out with outsize dreams and a ton of cash.9. 無(wú)論是貝索斯幫忙在西得克薩斯州一座石灰?guī)r的山內(nèi)建造的萬(wàn)年鐘和新建的藍(lán)色起源宇宙飛船公司，還是臉譜網(wǎng)創(chuàng)始人兼CEO馬克·扎克伯格出資一億美元來(lái)推動(dòng)公共教育的運(yùn)動(dòng)，這些電子商務(wù)和社交媒體的新富豪都在拿著大把的鈔票去展開(kāi)宏偉的夢(mèng)想。10,000 Year Clock: 萬(wàn)年鐘，是貝索斯出資建造的一座預(yù)計(jì)能運(yùn)行一萬(wàn)年的巨大鐘表；Blue Origin spaceflight startup: 藍(lán)色起源宇宙飛船，是貝索斯資助的無(wú)人駕駛宇宙飛船公司；jump-start: 啟動(dòng)，推動(dòng)；mogul: 富豪；fan out:展開(kāi)；outsize: 特大的，特大號(hào)的。Brin, in particular,is one busy paradigmshifter, pushing wind power and driverless cars, even as he sports Google Glass eyewear while hawking humane hamburgers.10. paradigm-shifter: 模式改變者；sport: v. 玩弄，炫耀；Google Glass eyewear: 谷歌眼鏡，是由谷歌公司研發(fā)的一款具有上網(wǎng)等多種功能的眼鏡；hawk: 兜售。

Some of these executive endeavors are simply hobbies or personal statements writ large.11. endeavor: 努力；writ large: 擴(kuò)大了的，更明顯的。Oracle’s Larry Ellison buys tennis tournaments, Asian art and exotic cars.12. Oracle: 甲骨文公司，世界上最大的軟件數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)公司；Larry Ellison: 拉里·埃里森，甲骨文公司的老板；tournament: 聯(lián)賽，錦標(biāo)賽；exotic: 奇異的。Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer created a spreadsheet of ingredients for cupcake recipes.13spreadsheet: 電子數(shù)據(jù)表；cupcake: 杯形蛋糕。And Zuckerberg, acting on his passion for hunting and killing his own food, shot a bison and had the head mounted on a wall at Facebook headquarters.14. bison: 野牛；mount: 放置，鑲嵌。

While some of these activities may conjure up memories of the late billionaire Howard Hughes and his plywood-clad Spruce Goose, futurist Paul Saffo cautions that “quirky” may be the wrong adjective.15. 盡管這些活動(dòng)可能會(huì)讓人想起已故的億萬(wàn)富翁霍華德·休斯和他那膠合板的木質(zhì)飛機(jī)，未來(lái)主義者保羅·薩佛警告說(shuō)，他們的行為可不僅僅是“離奇”這個(gè)詞所能形容的。conjure up: 使浮現(xiàn)于腦海；Howard Hughes: 霍華德·休斯，美國(guó)航空工程師、企業(yè)家和電影導(dǎo)演；plywood-clad: 膠合板包著的；Spruce Goose: 斯普如斯之鵝，是霍華德·休斯的木質(zhì)飛機(jī)的名稱；futurist: 未來(lái)主義者；quirky: 古怪的，離奇的?！癝ilicon Valley,” he said, “is full of ideas that seemed silly until they took off like a rocket and changed the world. And while Musk and Bezos with their space efforts may have personal goals that raise eyebrows, this is important stuff—opening up space for commercial ventures may eventually get us out of the gravity well of Earth.16. raise eyebrows: 豎起眉毛（表示驚奇、懷疑等）；venture: 商業(yè)冒險(xiǎn)，冒險(xiǎn)事業(yè)?！?/p>

Regis McKenna, a Silicon Valley veteran and Apple’s first marketing guru, describes a long local legacy of techies converting their professional success into global goodwill, but adds that “they didn’t brag about it and a lot of the philanthropic work was done under the radar.”17. 瑞吉斯·麥金納是硅谷的資深人士，也是蘋(píng)果公司的首位營(yíng)銷專家，他描述說(shuō)：硅谷長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)都有一種當(dāng)?shù)氐膫鹘y(tǒng)，那就是技術(shù)人員會(huì)將他們職業(yè)上取得的成功轉(zhuǎn)化為全球性的善行；但他又補(bǔ)充說(shuō)：“他們不會(huì)對(duì)此夸耀吹噓，而且會(huì)低調(diào)地去進(jìn)行很多慈善事業(yè)?！盧egis McKenna: 瑞吉斯·麥金納，硅谷著名的營(yíng)銷大師；guru: 領(lǐng)袖，專家；techie: 技術(shù)人員；convert: 轉(zhuǎn)變；brag about:夸耀，吹噓；under the radar: 低調(diào)神秘，不引人注意。

Marissa Mayer

“At one point,” McKenna says, “Silicon Valley was known as the private foundation capital of the world, but today these sorts of things have become much more visible.”

While local luminaries of the tech world have occasionally taken sharp career detours after finding success in their primary field, the trajectory of entrepreneur-CEO-altruist seems increasingly woven right into the valley’s DNA.18. luminary: 杰出人物；detour: 繞道，彎路；trajectory: 軌道，軌跡；altruist: 利他主義者。Tech engineer-turned-philanthropist-turned-Hollywood producer Jeff Skoll may be the textbook example, first finding success at eBay and then giving away a billion dollars to deal with water and nuclear issues by the time he was 46.19. Jeff Skoll: 杰夫·斯科爾，加拿大工程師、網(wǎng)絡(luò)企業(yè)家和電影制作人；textbook example: 范例。But he’s got more and more company on the dance floor.

“Once entrepreneurs get a big win under their belt, they’ll often tackle things they weren’t comfortable with before that,”20. under one’s belt:〈口〉被自己獲得（或掌握、記住、經(jīng)歷過(guò)）；tackle: 著手處理。said Dale Partridge,the 28-year-old founder and CEO of online clothes-and-accessory “socialgood retailer” Sevenly. His 2-year-old firm, which donates $7 from each sale to a different charity every week, has “grown to 50 employees and revenues21. revenue: 總收入。.buy:〈口〉相信，接受，同意；purity-of-motive: 動(dòng)機(jī)純潔。of eight figures.”

Not everyone buys the purity-of-motive argument.22Karen Brosi, a financial planner and tax expert, heard the Brin-burger story and thought:“That’s just too weird. Or I see Larry Ellison buying an island in Hawaii,and it seems like some of these guys have more dollars than sense.”

Then there’s Musk and Bezos, with their fascination with outer space.

“There are so many places in the world where these guys could make a significant difference with their dollars, and you’re going to take me on vacation to the moon?” Brosi said. “It makes me want to grab them by their ties and say, ‘What are you thinking?’ ”

Big Side Projects

Corporate chieftains and their ambitious if sometimes quixotic side projects:23. chieftain: 首領(lǐng)；quixotic: 不切實(shí)際的。

Jeff Bezos

Sergey Brin, Google co-founder: A huge offshore wind-power development to pump up the East Coast power grid;24. offshore: 近海的；pump up: 打氣；grid:（輸電線路、天然氣管道等的）系統(tǒng)網(wǎng)絡(luò)。a driverless car; Google Glass; test-tube hamburger.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook: Founded Startup: Education foundation with $100 million in an attempt to transform public schools; shot and killed a bison as a way to show he’s “thankful for the food I have to eat,” and had the head mounted on a wall at work.

Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla: Working on “The Hyperloop,” a new high-speed transportation system that he says will take riders from Los Angeles to San Francisco in a half-hour; launched SpaceX25. SpaceX: 艾倫·馬斯克建立的美國(guó)太空運(yùn)輸公司，在2010年12月成為第一個(gè)能夠發(fā)射回收宇宙飛船的私人公司。to develop rockets that would open up space travel and eventually enable people to live on other planets.

Larry Ellison, co-founder and chief executive of Oracle: Made a brief cameo appearance26. cameo appearance: 客串演出，友情客串。in the 2010 movie Iron Man 2; bought a 50 percent share in a top U.S.tennis tournament; collects exotic cars; won the America’s Cup in Spain in 2010;bought most of Lanai, Hawaii’s sixth-largest island.

Marissa Mayer, former Google executive and president and CEO of Yahoo: A passionate baker, she once created a spreadsheet of ingredients for cupcake recipes,saying, “My hobbies actually make me better at work”; has invested in tech startups like design retailer Minted and car-sharing marketplace Getaround.

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon: To encourage more “l(fā)ongterm thinking” on the planet, he’s helping build a clock inside a West

Texas mountain that will keep time for the next 10,000 years; bought The Washington Post for $250 million of his own money; to open space travel to

paying customers, he launched Blue Origin, a human spaceflight startup borne

of his fascination with space travel, including “space hotels, amusement parks and colonies for 2 million or 3 million people orbiting the Earth.”