The images that come to mind when thinking about Silicon Valley are of single-minded engineers toiling in garages on futuristic devices, high-flying entrepreneurs building super yachts after making their fortunes and savvy venture capitalists providing seed money to the next Google or Facebook.
一想到矽谷，浮上腦海的畫面不外乎：工程師專心一致在車庫裡埋頭研發具未來性的設備，野心勃勃的創業者發了財後訂製超級遊艇，以及精明的創投資本家為下一個Google或臉書提供種子基金等等。

But Silicon Valley does have a seamier side. And soon it will have its own show.
然而矽谷當然也有不那麼美的一面。而且很快就會用節目自行暴露。

A television series that has clueless reality show wannabes trying to cash in on the latest tech boom is being filmed now and will be broadcast this winter. “It is a world where everyone seems to think that a good idea can lead to instant success and untold riches, because, after all, it has so many times before,” David Streitfeld wrote in The Times.
一個電視連續節目已經開拍，將在冬季播出，內容描繪實境秀中一批無厘頭的財迷試圖趁最新一波高科技熱潮一夕致富。史崔菲爾德在紐約時報撰文指出，「當今世界似乎人人都認為只要有個好點子，立刻就能功成名就，富可敵國，因為畢竟過去有過不少例子。」

Randi Zuckerberg, an executive until last summer at her brother’s little startup, Facebook, is an executive producer of the show, which has many in the tech world fretting.
蘭蒂．祖克柏直到去年夏天還在她兄弟所創辦的臉書公司擔任主管，現在則是這個節目的執行製作人之一，而這個節目已經讓科技界不少人煩惱不安。

One former Facebook colleague of Ms. Zuckerberg’s tweeted that she was “terrified” that the series would turn Silicon Valley “into a laughingstock of an industry.”
蘭蒂在臉書的一位舊同事便推文表示，她「很怕」這節目會把矽谷變成「產業界的笑柄」。

“Trust me, enough people in this industry make laughingstocks of themselves,” Ms. Zuckerberg replied. “We’re just capturing reality!”
對此，祖克柏小姐回答說：「相信我，這一行裡已經有太多人把自己變成笑柄。我們只是記錄事實而已。」

In one scene from the show, Kim Taylor spoke vaguely about a start-up that would cater to the luxury market for women. “It is a little undefined, even to Ms. Taylor, who came here two years ago from Chicago,” Mr. Streitfeld wrote. “But then, her start-up is only a few days old.”
節目中有一幕，金．泰勒有些不知所云的談到要創辦一家公司，打入貴婦的精品市場。史崔菲爾德寫道：「即便對泰勒小姐而言，要怎麼做仍相當不明確，她兩年前才從芝加哥來到此地。而當時她的公司才開辦了幾天而已。」

Ms. Taylor admits to her mentor that she has no background in coding or product development, skills most successful entrepreneurs possess.
泰勒女士告訴她的夥伴，她在程式設計或產品開發方面毫無背景，而這些是大部分成功創業家都具備的技能。

The place where the first link of the tech food chain exist has little allure for reality TV producers. In fact, there is no television set where they live. These “hacker hostels” are full of bunk beds where young programmers, designers and scientists can work, eat and sleep, The Times reported.
跟高科技食物鏈最早掛鉤的場所，對真人實境電視節目製作人而言，完全不具吸引力。「紐時」報導，事實上在他們生活的地方根本就沒有電視機。在這些「駭客小旅舍」裡擺滿了行軍床，年輕的程式撰寫員、設計師及科學家們可以在這裡工作、吃喝與睡覺。

Jade Wang, a 28-year-old neuroscientist who has worked at NASA, realized she could turn this type of housing into a business. With friends, she operates three houses in the Bay Area under the name Chez JJ. The idea came to her, she told The Times, when she realized “nerds” like herself want to be around their own kind.
在美國太空總署工作的28歲神經科學家王寶玉博士，想到她可以把這種居住型式變成一門生意。她和幾個朋友在加州灣區開了三家小旅舍，取名為「JJ的家」。她對紐時記者說，當她理解到像她自己這種「怪咖」（喜歡鑽研科技與學問而拙於社交的人）喜歡物以類聚時，便想到這個點子。

“It’s not that nerds are necessarily socially awkward among normal people,” Dr. Wang told The Times. “If you have a large room of 99 percent nerds and you have that one normal person, they’d be the ones who are socially awkward.”
王博士對紐時說：「這些怪咖在跟一般人交往時，未必就很拙劣。如果你有個大房間，裡面99%都是怪咖，而只有一個普通人時，那這個人便顯得很笨拙。」

When a hot company like Twitter sets up its headquarters in a marginal neighborhood, as it did in San Francisco after it was lured there with tax incentives, that can upset the balance, The Times reported. At the Ironwok Japanese and Chinese restaurant, the owners were feeling the pressure. “Of course, Twitter is good for the city, but how about me?” the owner, Jenny Liu, 41, told The Times, pointing out that her landlord was raising her monthly rent to $12,000 from $8,000.
紐時指出，當一家像「推特」這樣的熱門公司在一個偏僻的社區設立總部，就像該公司在租稅獎勵的吸引下而在舊金山開業的狀況一樣，便可能破壞當地原有的均勢。在鐵鍋日中餐廳，老闆們也感受到這種壓力。41歲的餐廳老闆劉珍妮對紐時記者說：「當然，推特對這個城市而言是件好事，但對我有什麼好處？」她指出，房東決定將每月房租由8千美元漲到1萬2千美元。

Twitter, Zynga, Yelp and other social network companies have made San Francisco their home, creating jobs and raising commercial rents. Young tech workers are also moving into the city and commuting south to Silicon Valley, further raising rents and forcing out some longtime residents.
推特、Zynga電玩、Yelp評論網站及其他與社群網站相關的公司已經把總部設在舊金山，創造就業機會，並且拉高了商辦房地產的租金。年輕的科技業員工也搬來這裡，再通車南下矽谷工作，這也使舊金山的房租進一步上漲，並將一些老住戶逼走。

“If you have a city that is wall to wall with tech workers, that might be really cool from a tech worker’s standpoint,” Peter Cohen, director of a nonprofit housing organization, told The Times. “But that is not the kind of rich diversity of population that makes San Francisco the place that it is.”
一個非營利性住宅組織的負責人柯漢對紐時說：「一個城市裡如果高科技業的員工無所不在，從他們的角度來看當然是酷得要命。然而要是就使舊金山所以成為舊金山的居民豐富多樣性而言，可就不是這麼回事了。」

原文參照：?

2012-08-21聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 任中原譯 原文參見紐時週報二版左