Inklings

小青学英语|Silicon Valley S01E03

Why would he announce it so far ahead of the actual rollout? No one does that.

@青: Rollout 指的是新产品的发布。Roll out 也可以作为动词短语用,比如 the company plans to roll out its new software update,推出新的软件更新。

Inferior products win out all the time. Like Jesus over Satan. I was going to say VHS over Beta.

@青: 意思是劣质产品总是获胜 win out。七八十年代,VHS 和 Beta(Betamax)是两种录像带格式。尽管 Beta 技术上更优越,但 VHS 以更广泛的兼容性和市场营销策略而获胜,成为主流,二者竞争史称 Videotape format war。推出 Betamax 的索尼以为高质量的画质是用户的首要关注点,以为一个小时时长足够,但用户要录制体育赛事和电影,宁可牺牲画质也需要更长的录制时间,何况微小的画质差异在家用电视上并不明显。而且,VHS 支持多家厂商生产,价格更便宜,而独家的 Beta 价格偏高。《圣经》中,耶稣在接受洗礼后,被圣灵引导到旷野,禁食了四十天四十夜。在这段时间,撒旦来试探他。首先,他让耶稣将石头变成食物以满足饥饿。然后,撒旦带他到圣殿顶端,鼓励他跳下以证明神会保护他。最后,撒旦展示世上的所有国度,诱惑耶稣拜他以换取权力。耶稣都拒绝了。

It's about a predatory flautist who murders children in a cave.

@青: Pied Piper 的故事是这样的。在一个美丽的小镇,突然遭受鼠患,威胁居民的生活。一位神秘的吹笛者用音乐成功引导老鼠离开,居民们非常高兴。但当他索要报酬时,镇民出于贪心拒绝了他。为此,吹笛者用音乐吸引了镇上的孩子们一起离开。意识到错误后,镇民们感到后悔,决定用音乐和舞蹈向吹笛者道歉,并邀请他回到小镇。最终,吹笛者原谅了他们,大家一起庆祝,镇上恢复了快乐,居民们也学会了珍惜他人的善意。Flautist 是吹长笛的乐手,暗黑版的童话解读是说一个侵犯儿童的长笛手,把孩子们骗到洞里杀死了。

What is that atrocity? What are we, an Irish pornography company?

@青: Atrocity 是指残暴的行为,一般比如说种族灭绝、战争、侵犯儿童等,这里是一种夸张的说法。Richard 设计的 logo 和 T 恤用的是绿色,绿色是爱尔兰传统文化常用的颜色,比如 Saint Patrick's Day 的代表色就是绿色。

I thought it was a Place Holder.

@青: Place holder 占位符,临时用用,以后会换的名字。Netflix 创始人 Mark Randolph 的自传 That Will Never Work 中提到过,在产品推出之前一般都要取一个临时的名字,诀窍是临时名字一定要足够离谱,否则公司最后很可能会选择凑合用用别改了。

Richard, I've actually been holding off telling people I'm the co-founder of "Pied Piper" because frankly, it's a little embarrassing.

@青: hold off telling people 忍着没说。Hold off 表示推迟,比如 hold off on making any final decisions 暂时不做最终决定。

That's not a name I found, it's a name that found me on a vision quest.

@青: Vision Quest 是一种传统的自我探索和精神寻求的仪式,通常与一些土著文化和传统相联系,尤其是北美原住民文化,目的是帮助参与者与自己的精神世界建立联系。内容通常是在一个偏远的自然环境中独处,进行冥想,多日禁食,可能还包括祈祷、唱歌、舞蹈或其他仪式。

It has to be something primal, something that you can scream out during intercourse.

@青: 产品名称一定要足够原始 primal,别太咬文嚼字。人类的原始本能 primal instincts,失去爱人的原始恐惧 the primal fear of losing a loved one。

No, it's just, everyone was doing it, I was just chiming in.

@青: chime in 意思是随声附和。敲钟的声音,就可以说 chime,比如 The clock chimed at midnight 时钟在午夜敲响。

I can't go into Peter Gregory's office with a new name, and ask him to cut me a new check. I mean, he's pulled funding from companies for a lot less.

@青: Cut me a new check 给我开一张新的支票。Pull funding from companies for a lot less 因为更小的原因从别的公司撤资。

As we discussed, our North Carolina plant went sideways.

@青: go sideways 进展不顺利、偏离计划。

And their selection consists solely of these burgers, of which they are presumably king?

@青: presume 意思是假设,presumingly 意思是所谓的,表示质疑。

I have Dinesh Chugtai here, and he's pretty irate because…

@青: irate 是比 angry 更强烈的气愤。

Your "borders" are merely a construct. I prefer to think of myself as a citizen of the world.

@青: construct 意思是人为构想的概念,而非真实的存在。

To wit, maybe you could make out my checks to cash? Or bitcoin.

@青: to wit,意思是“也就是说” that is to say。

I'm thinking about getting in another line of work anyway.

@青: get in another line of work 从事新的职业领域,也就是改行。

Uh, well, actually, that is a server farm. What we do, compression, would mean fewer of those, because we'd save a lot of memory space.

@青: server farm 服务器农场,又称为 server cluster 服务器集群。服务器农场往往由几千台计算机构成,需要大量的电力来运行。

You guys said I was a bad negotiator, but I closed it!

@青: close a deal 意思是谈成了交易。

I had three startups, myself, and I couldn't get those Sand Hill Road morons to fund any of them.

@青: Sand Hill Road 是加州硅谷的一条著名道路,以聚集众多顶级风险投资公司而闻名。

This is which one? The BK double stacker.

@青: double stacker 是有两个肉饼的汉堡包。

A high number of these breadings have sesame seeds on them.

@青: breadings 是炸鸡外面裹的面包屑、面粉等等。比如裹有轻薄酥脆面粉的洋葱圈 onion rings with light, crispy breading。

Hey! It's our own personal Herb Cohen! He's a famous negotiator. Wrote a bunch of textbooks.

@青: Herb Cohen 是美国著名谈判专家,出生于美国,父母为犹太移民。他和著名新闻主播 Larry King 是发小。1980 年出版的 You Can Negotiate Anything 是《纽约时报》畅销书。

We at Pied Piper look forward to giving Gavin Belson and the donkeys at Nucleus a run for their money.

@青: give someone a run for their money,想象赛马的时候,对手花钱下了注,但是你的马跑得很快,所以他也休想轻易赢。

Cut the shit. I just read Recode.

@青: cut the shit 少废话。Recode 是 Vox 旗下曾经的一个技术新闻网站,2023 年被改组为 Vox 的技术版。

I'm not falling for that phony, mumbley-mouth, googly-eyed routine again.

@青: mumbley-mouth 说话含糊不清的,googly-eyed 眼睛瞪得大大的,一脸无辜的样子,routine 这里是伎俩、套路。

That sounded sub-optimal.

@青: sub-optimal 不太理想,这里是故意说得轻描淡写,表示幽默。

Well, I guess it's still a little ajar, I don't know.

@青: ajar 字面意思是 not closed,比如形容门窗,延伸意思可以是 the negotiation is ajar 谈判还没有完全结束。

Hey! Make sure to clean off all the gunk off the front bumper, ok.

@青: gunk 这里是指汽车在行驶过程中沾上的泥土、虫子残骸、树叶或沥青等黏糊糊的脏东西。

So she decides to get a reverse mortgage on her home and write me a check.

@青: reverse mortgage 是反向抵押贷款,房主把房屋的部分价值借给银行,银行会给房主一笔钱。等房主因为去世等原因卖掉房子时,再还清贷款和利息。

Uh, is this gonna be a cash return, or does it credit back to the card?

@青: a cash return 意思是现金退款,credit back to the card 就是金额退到卡上。

And Steve Jobs? He took a shit-ton of hallucinogens.

@青: hallucinogens 是致幻剂,比如 LSD、迷幻蘑菇等等。

Hey! That is not cherry garcia.

@青: cherry garcia 是一种著名的冰淇淋。

And who's hiding drugs? Shocker, it's the illegal immigrant.

@青: shocker 是反讽,强调某件事情显而易见、不出所料。

If you keep screaming your name, it forces the assailant to acknowledge you as a human.

@青: assailant 袭击者,如果你不断地大声呼喊自己的名字,这会迫使袭击者意识到你是一个人,而不仅仅是他们攻击的对象。

It is now 5:35pm and I have ingested the psilocybin.

@青: ingest 摄入,psilocybin 是某种迷幻药。

I have started the countdown timer and I will be reaching Sonora and nirvana in approximately…

@青: reaching nirvana,达到涅槃状态,解脱、超越痛苦和轮回的境界。

Crops from both countries will be decimated.

@青: decimate 指大规模毁灭、破坏或减少某事物的数量。

If you wish, I could tap that projected revenue and make you a bridge loan of 15 million dollars, gentlemen.

@青: 桥接贷款 bridge loan 是一种短期贷款、临时资金,以便在融资到位之前,解决资金流动的问题。

Our first deposit slip.

@青: 存款单 deposit slip,刚刚完成了第一笔存款,并且有了第一份存款单。

Is this Pied Piper? It is now, but we're not taking a follow-on investors at this point.

@青: not taking a follow-on investors 目前不接受追加投资者。通常在创业公司融资过程中,跟进投资者可能会在公司表现良好后再进行追加投资。

Someone smeared your name and number in shit on my bathroom wall.

@青: Erlich 用粪便在厕所墙上抹出了 Richard 的名字和电话号码。

He ate the whole bag of gold caps.

@青: caps 这里是 capsules 的缩略,金色的胶囊 gold caps 是指含有迷幻药物的胶囊。

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