The Hard Conversations Founders Don't Want to Have
发布时间 2023-03-01 22:00:37 来源
摘要
Y Combinator group partners Michael Seibel and Dalton Caldwell discuss the importance of having honest and difficult conversations with startup founders. While having hard conversations can be uncomfortable, Michael and Dalton argue that this transparency is essential for founders to grow and ultimately, these experiences help founders have their own hard conversations that they've been avoiding with the people around them.
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Panelists：尊敬的主持人，各位来宾，感谢您们今天能参加我们的论坛。我们将探讨当今世界面临的一些挑战，并寻找新的解决方案。
Moderator：非常感谢您们来到我们的论坛。我想让我们先从大家对当今世界所面临的挑战进行一些讨论。我们都知道COVID-19疫情带来很多的负面影响，但除此之外，还有哪些挑战我们需要面对呢？
I think so much about being a YC partner is exactly that. I've made all these mistakes before. I'll probably make them again. I'll probably make them again. And the only thing that I could say is I know the way out.
我认为，成为YC合伙人需要考虑很多事情。我以前犯过所有这些错误，也许我将再次犯错。但我能说的唯一一件事是，我知道如何避免这些错误。
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原文：The recent increase in air pollution levels has raised concerns among citizens and government officials alike. Experts have found that the primary source of this pollution is industrial factories and the burning of fossil fuels. This has led to calls for stricter regulations to be imposed on these industries to reduce their environmental impact.
翻译：最近空气污染水平上升引起了公民和政府官员的关注。专家认为这种污染的主要来源是工业工厂和燃烧化石燃料。这促使呼吁对这些行业实施更严格的监管，以减少它们对环境的影响。
This is Michael Sible with Dalton Caldwell. At YC, we often have to have challenging conversations with founders when giving them advice. Today, we would like to talk through some of the hard conversations that founders don't want to have. Dalton, why don't you set this up for us?
“嗨，大家好，我是迈克尔·西布尔（Michael Sible），今天和我一起的是道尔顿·考德威尔（Dalton Caldwell）。在 YC（Y Combinator）工作期间，我们经常需要与创始人开展一些具有挑战性的对话，为他们提供建议。今天，我们想讨论创始人们不愿谈论的一些艰难对话。道尔顿，你为我们介绍一下吧？”
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对于那些经历了疫情，还在努力适应这一新现实的人来说，这些鼓舞人心的言论和行动显得尤为重要。我们需要感受到社区的支持和团结，这样才能共同度过这个时期。即使是小小的举动，如张贴鼓励语言的海报或送上一份小礼物，也可以带来积极的影响和帮助。
Well, look, let's start by trying to define a hard conversation. By definition, if it's a conversation you're looking forward to having, it is not a hard conversation. A hard conversation sucks. Yeah. That's why it's called a hard conversation. You don't want to have them. They're back. They don't feel good.
嗯，看，让我们首先试着定义一下难谈的对话。根据定义，如果你期待着进行的对话，那就不是难谈的对话。难谈的对话很烦人。是的。这就是为什么它被称为难谈的对话。你不想要这些对话。它们让人难受。
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在我看来，学习一个非母语的语言是一项具有挑战性而有益的任务。当我们能够流利地使用另一种语言时，我们可以更多地了解其他文化，并更好地与世界各地的人交流。虽然这可能是一个长期的过程，但从过程中学到的东西是非常有价值的。我希望能够在未来学习更多的语言，因为我相信这将有助于我在个人和职业方面的成长。
You're dread the hard conversations. Hard conversation is when the stakes are high. Like it could go bad. It could go off the rails. It could be you're saying something risky or you're making a point. Maybe you're doing something that's impolite or saying something that's impolite.
你害怕那些艰难的对话。艰难的对话通常涉及到高风险。可能会出现很糟糕的情况，情况可能会失控。你可能在冒险说一些话或想表达自己的观点。也许你在做一些不礼貌的事情，或者说出了一些不礼貌的话语。
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我们不应该忽视机器翻译在翻译领域所起的作用。虽然它们尚未可以完全代替人类翻译，但现代技术的进步使得它们越来越精准和准确。机器翻译可以在很短的时间内翻译大量内容，这不仅提高了工作效率，还为那些不懂得其他语言的人提供了便利。此外，机器翻译的应用领域不仅限于翻译，广泛扩展到了自然语言处理、文本分类和信息检索等领域，为我们的日常生活带来了便捷。
Because again, think about an easy conversation. Easy conversation is superficial. You used to agree with someone. You're like, hey, you're great. Way to go. That's an easy conversation, right? Yes. Hard conversation is not that. A hard conversation is when you're vulnerable. You're putting yourself out there. You're saying something that someone in the conversation is uncomfortable.
再说一遍，想想简单的对话。简单的对话只是表面的。你曾经同意某人的看法。你说：“嘿，你很棒！干得好。”这是一个简单的对话，对吧？是的。困难的对话不是这样的。困难的对话是当你脆弱时。你把自己展示出来。你说一些让谈话中的某个人感到不舒服的话。
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第六段：通过使用这种技术，医生们能够更准确地诊断和治疗疾病，因为基因测序可以为医生提供有关患者身体的更多信息。此外，基因测序还可以帮助医生预测患者对某些药物的反应，从而更好地制定治疗方案。虽然这种技术非常有用，但仍需要进一步研究和实验来更好地了解基因测序的影响和潜在风险。
You know, it's funny. As you set that up, what's tricky being a startup advisor is that you know it's going to help someone to have hard conversations with them. But you also know that they're not going to enjoy it.
你知道，很有趣。作为一个初创企业顾问，困难之处在于，你知道与他们进行艰难的对话会对他们有所帮助。但你也知道，他们不会喜欢这样的对话。
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许多公司和组织正在利用人工智能和机器学习来改善其业务方法和服务，但这也带来了隐私和安全方面的风险。这些技术需要大量的数据来学习，因此保护个人数据隐私变得至关重要。此外，黑客利用这些技术来进一步攻击公司和组织，因此必须加强网络安全。 然而，一些专家认为，科技行业应该更加注重道德和社会责任，确保这些技术以正确的方式使用，不会伤害人类。
I think as a YC partner in the early days, I think I measured my effectiveness based on how much fun founders had talking to me. And only after a couple of batches that I realized that doesn't really do anything. And then when I started having honest conversations and talking about my actual opinions about their product or about how hard they were working, the job changed. Did you experience that?
我认为，在 YC 合伙人早期的日子里，我衡量自己的有效性是基于创始人和我交谈时有多少乐趣。而只有几个批次之后，我才意识到那样做并没有什么作用。当我开始进行诚实的对话，谈论我对他们的产品或者他们工作的难度的真实看法时，这份工作就改变了。你经历过这样的情况吗？
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第八段：法院下令要求公司支付超过1000万美元的罚款，以及750万美元的返还款项。这些款项将用于向受害者进行赔偿。同时，公司也被命令改进其手续，以避免未来的类似违规行为。这一判决是该公司历史上最大的刑事罚款之一，也是金融业违规行为的惩罚性案例之一。
Yeah. I mean, if you just agree with someone, it's easy to, you know, and you like mirror their body language. There's all these techniques you can do to be likable. You're like, oh, wow, you're so smart. Everything you say is correct. Your jokes are funny. You can do this stuff. And the problem is it's not that helpful. It's just not that helpful.
对啊，如果你只是同意别人，就很容易跟随他们的肢体语言。有很多技巧可以让自己更受欢迎，你可以说：“哇，你真聪明，你说的都是对的，你的笑话很有趣。”但问题是这些方法并没有什么帮助。它们其实帮助不大。
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第9段：在这个快节奏，全球化的世界中，语言成为更加重要的沟通工具。随着不同国家之间贸易、旅游和文化交流的加强，人们需要掌握多种语言来增加自己的竞争力和融入世界。因此，学习语言已经成为日常生活中不可或缺的一部分。同时，在一个多元化的社会中，了解不同的语言和文化也有助于促进国际间的理解和合作。
And again, think about us as founders or think about friends. Think about our friendship with people. The people that you would consider your two friends in life are the people that can say the things to you that no one else will. Yes. And if you're surrounded by crowds of people that for whatever reason or unable or unwilling to tell you the truth about anything, you're having a bad time.
再次思考我们作为创始人或者跟好友之间的关系。考虑与人们之间的友谊。你生命中所认为的两个好友，是那个能够告诉你真相的人。是的，如果你被一群人包围，但由于某些原因无法或不愿意告诉你真相，那你就会感到糟糕。
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很多人都认为AI技术可以对世界产生积极的影响，但也有人担心它可能离开人类而独立思考和行动。实际上，AI是由人类设计和编写的，它只能执行特定的任务，并不能像人类那样自我意识和自我决定。因此，我们不必担心AI会取代人类或对人类产生威胁，而是应当利用这项技术为我们的生活带来更多的便利和效率。
One how you're going to learn, right? How are you going to learn when you're giving people inputs and their output back to you is dishonest? Because they would just want to make sure that you feel good. So let's talk about some of the hard conversations that we have with others.
你打算怎么学习呢？当你给别人输入信息，他们给你的输出不诚实，你要怎么学习呢？因为他们只是想确保你感觉良好。所以让我们来谈谈我们和别人需要进行的一些困难对话。
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原文： In conclusion, even though learning a new language may seem daunting at times, the benefits far outweigh the challenges. It’s a valuable asset in today’s globalized world and can open up endless opportunities in your personal and professional life. Whether you’re motivated by career advancement, personal growth, or simply a love for the language and culture, don’t hesitate to start your language learning journey today.
翻译： 总之，学习一门新语言可能有时看起来令人畏惧，但好处远远超过挑战。在当今全球化的世界中，它是一项有价值的资产，可以在你的个人和职业生活中开启无限的机遇。无论你是出于职业发展、个人成长，还是仅仅因为喜爱语言和文化而有动力，都别犹豫，从今天开始你的语言学习之旅吧。
Let's take an easy one. I'll give you an easy first example. The founder comes to office hours with us. They have already made a decision. It is obvious they've already made a decision. And they want us to spend an hour validating that they've made the right decision. That's kind of a hard conversation. Because like Dalton, what if we were being 1000% honest, what would we actually just say bluntly?
我们来选个简单的例子。我会给你一个简单的第一个例子。创始人会和我们一起参加办公时间。他们已经做出了决定。很明显，他们已经做出了决定。他们想让我们花一个小时来验证他们做出了正确的决定。这个对话有点难。就像道尔顿一样，如果我们百分之一百诚实，我们会直截了当地说些什么呢？
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12. The company's new product line has received positive reviews from industry experts and early adopters. Sales have also been strong, surpassing initial projections. The company is optimistic about the future of the product line and plans to continue investing in its development and promotion.
公司的新产品线得到了业内专家和早期采用者的积极评价，销售情况也非常强劲，超过了初步预计。公司对该产品线的未来充满信心，并计划继续投资于其开发和推广。
Well, here's, I think there's two ways to handle this. There's the dishonest way. The easy conversation is to take them at face value and be like, oh, wow. Seems like you've thought about this really well. I see no errors in your logic. You're a genius with no blood. You did it again. Exactly. But without the information to even verify that, right? With no actual fast of error. Wow. Like, what amazing strategy. This is just A plus work.
嗯，我想有两种处理方式。其中有一种是不诚实的。无需费力地接受他们表面上的话，说像，“哦，哇。你似乎已经想得很透彻了。你的逻辑没有任何错误。你是一位没有血的天才。你又做到了。没错。但实际上却没有信息可以验证这一点，对吧？没有真正的错误证据。哇，这真的是一个惊人的策略。这只是A+级别的工作。”
And then there's the hard thing. And what I think the hard thing is is not even disagree with it. It's to say, it's the question behind the question, which is, hey, it seems like you've already made a decision. Cool. Why are we talking about this? Why are we here right now? Why are we here today? What's the question behind the question?
然后有一个难题。我认为这个难题不是对它的不同意，而是问问题的背后问题，也就是，嘿，看起来你已经做出了一个决定。好的。我们为什么要谈论这个？我们为什么现在在这里？我们今天在这里是为什么？背后的问题是什么？
Is it that someone else, is it that your co-founder disagrees with you and what you're trying to do is bring my opinion into it to prove that you're right? Yes. Is it that someone else disagrees with? Like, there's always a real question hiding behind the scenes. I mean, man, people, it's always there when I bring this up, they're like, yeah, there is a question behind the question. Yes. But I mean, there's such a common theme.
是不是有其他人，是不是你的联合创始人不同意你的想法，而你试图引入我的意见来证明你是对的？是的。是不是有其他人不同意？像，总是有一个真正的问题隐藏在幕后。我的意思是，人们，每当我提起这个问题时，他们总是说，是的，问题背后有一个问题。但我是说，这种情况如此普遍。
I think if you really want to understand office hours in a nutshell, 60 to 80% of the time a founder will go into office hours with one question. And we won't even end up talking about that thing. That's not the actual question. That's not the actual question. This comes up a lot with people talking about applying to YC.
我认为，如果你想要简单了解办公时间，创始人60到80％的时间会有一个问题，但我们最终甚至不会讨论那个问题。这不是真正的问题，这在申请Y Combinator（YC）时经常发生。
People always think it's really important. Michael, I have some really important questions. I want to ask you about applying to YC. And he talks to them and it's just like, should I apply to. Like there's no. There's no there there. Yeah. It's a no-op. There's nothing. There is no. There's no. There's no. There's no. There's no. There's no. There's no. There's no.
人们总是认为这是非常重要的。迈克尔，我有一些非常重要的问题要问你，我想询问你关于申请YC的事情。他和他们交谈，就像是我应该申请吗？就像没有什么。没有那样的东西。是的。这是无用功。没有什么。没有。没有。没有。没有。没有。没有。没有。
Hey, I feel insecure and I want to talk to you, to Alton and Michael, about this, so that you give me validation that I should apply. Great! And so that's the actual question behind the question. Not, hey, I have this really complicated question about the application. It's. I don't know.
嘿，我感觉不安全，我想和你、Alton和Michael谈谈，这样你们可以给我确认，我应该申请。太棒了！这就是问题背后真正的问题。不是，“嘿，我有一个关于申请的非常复杂的问题。”它是。我不知道。
Alright, let's stick with hard ones. We're talking to an early stage company and it's becoming obvious that they're not going to be able to raise the amount of money that they want to raise and they're not going to be able to execute this magical explosion of spending that they want to execute. They'd convince themselves is what's required to get product market. What do you do in those situations?
好的，让我们继续谈一些困难的话题。我们正在与一家初创公司交谈，很明显他们无法筹集到他们想要筹集的资金，并且他们也无法执行他们想要执行的这个神奇的支出飙升，他们已经确信这是他们获得市场产品所必需的。在这种情况下，你应该怎么做？
You know, that's a really tough one because you want people to be optimistic as we've spoken about before and it's hard to, you never want to be short on someone's start up. What I would usually say on this one is think about what a great life of philosophy it is to set your expectations low and prepare for the worst and then if you get surprised, you get surprised on the upside, not the downside.
你知道吗，这真是一个困难的问题，因为我们之前已经谈到过，你希望人们保持乐观，但很难做到，你永远不想让人的创业梦想受挫。我通常会说的是，想一想把低期望设为人生哲学是多么伟大的事情，做最坏的准备，如果有好的惊喜，那就让好的惊喜出现在好的一面，而不是坏的一面。
The key in this hard conversation is not to debate someone that their plan is bad. Keep the optimism, you know, but isn't it better to sort of have a plan for the worst and not be surprised on the downside? And if you're surprised on the upside, fantastic. Right, man?
在这场艰难的谈话中，关键不在于争辩某人的计划是不好的。保持乐观，你知道的，但是有一个针对最坏情况的计划不是更好吗？这样就不会被可能出现的负面影响所惊讶了。如果你在正面得到了惊喜，那太好了，对吧，伙计？
I mean, people don't want to hear this. This is a hard conversation to have. It's like going up in the airplane, do you want to bring the parachute with you or not? Like, I'm not trying to be grim by saying bring a parachute, but would you want to bring the parachute? Yeah, if you had the choice. What's the downside of bringing the parachute? You don't use it. It's fine.
我是说，人们不想听这个。这是一场艰难的谈话。就像上飞机一样，你想带降落伞吗？我并不是说要悲观，但你想带降落伞吗？如果你能选择，你会吗？带降落伞有什么不好的呢？你没用它也没关系。
All right, so here's another one that comes up a lot. Dalton, I'd like to spend two hours really going deep on this problem, but our office hours don't go that long. How do you deal with me? I want to do a deep dive. Yes, this is another one of those questions behind the questions. And again, it can be different things that depend on the people.
好的，这是一个经常出现的问题。道尔顿，我想花两个小时深入探讨这个问题，但我们的办公时间不会那么长。你如何处理我？我想要深度挖掘。是的，这是另一个隐藏在问题后面的问题。而且，这取决于不同的人可能会有不同的解决方法。
I think sometimes what's going on is you are an idiot and I don't have confidence. You can give me advice unless I spend two hours showing you a slide deck so I can explain everything to you. Sometimes it's not really about the meeting. I just want a lot of FaceTime so we can build a relationship or whatever. And so this is, yeah, okay, that's fine. But you see what I'm saying, man, when someone asks that, there's something else going on. And again, it's usually the first one for me where they think we don't understand.
我有时候觉得你有些愚蠢而且我对你的能力没有信心。除非我花两个小时做幻灯片来向你解释所有的东西，否则你不要给我建议。有时候这并不是关于开会的事情。我只是想要更多的面对面时间，这样我们就能建立关系或者别的什么。这样，好的，没问题。但是你知道我的意思，当有人问这个问题的时候，实际上有其他的事情正在发生。并且对我来说，通常情况下是第一个原因，因为他们认为我们不理解。
I mean, maybe we don't, I don't know. But instead of them directly saying, I am concerned that you do not sufficiently understand our business. And so I want to make sure you do X, Y and Z. Okay, that's a hard conversation. But then I'm like, okay, I know where you're coming from. All right, I hear you. But some weird like, can we meet for three hours? Yeah. I'm always like, why? Yeah. I want another question behind the question, you know?
我的意思是，也许我们不知道，但他们没有直接说出来：“我担心你不够了解我们的业务，所以我想确保你做到X、Y和Z。”好的，这是一次困难的谈话。但是我了解您的想法。好的，我明白了。但有一些奇怪的事情，比如能不能见面三个小时？我总是想，为什么？是不是有别的问题？
Yes. Well, and what's so funny is if they just said, I don't think you're smart about this particular thing, we would get to the, we would get to the meeting. Yeah, okay. Right? We would get to meet it. Now, I think there's a couple others that I see. One is this assumption that we are like God-like advisors with complete understandings of every user base and every problem in the world. And like they can kind of like shortcut talking to users if they just spend enough time talking to us.
是的。嗯，有趣的是，如果他们只是说，我认为你在这个特定的事情上不够聪明，我们就可以进行会议了。是的，好的。对吧？我们就可以开会了。我认为还有其他一些问题。一个是假设我们像具有完全了解每个用户群体和世界上每个问题的神一样的顾问。如果他们花足够的时间与我们交谈，就可以绕过与用户交谈。
And so that one is just like folks like so often in this one, I'm just like, you're having the conversation with me that you should have with your customers. Like talk to them. Like I don't use your product. Talk to the people who do. I think the other one, which I really try to push back on is I'm lazy and I didn't come up with the agenda. I want to like roam my random thoughts and over the course of two hours, we will have 20 minutes of productivity. But I don't want to organize my thoughts and I want you to accommodate that.
所以这个情况有点像是通常情况下人们一样，我觉得你应该跟你的客户交谈，而不是跟我。我不用你的产品，跟那些使用的人谈话。还有一个状况，我会推迟，因为我懒得准备会议日程安排。我喜欢随意发挥我的想法，但过了两个小时，我们可能只有20分钟的有效时间。我不想整理我的想法，希望你能迁就我。
And for that one, I'm always just like, that's like you're not training yourself for success here. Like you expect more from yourself. Like if your competitors can get 20 minutes of input, 20 minutes of output, they will do way better than two hours of input, 20 minutes of output. And just, you know, that seems to kick people into gear.
对于那个问题，我总是会说，你好像没有为成功而训练自己。你对自己要求更高。如果你的竞争对手只需要花20分钟的输入和20分钟的输出，而你却需要2个小时的输入和20分钟的输出，那么他们肯定会比你做得更好。这种情况似乎可以激励人们努力进取。
What's another one that that you're excited about? I think we can shift gears to a couple of other contexts for hard conversations. Let's talk about hard conversations, not with us, but with co-founders. And so the thing I want to set up here is that classic thing is people become co-founders. Yes. They've never once had a disagreement or hard conversation. It's all been superficial, we're best friends. We work to, you know, it's all wonderful.
你还有没有其他感到兴奋的事情？我觉得我们可以转换一下，来讨论一下一些在难以启齿的对话中的情境。我们来聊聊难以启齿的对话吧，但是不是与我们之间的，而是与合伙人之间的。所以我想要表达的是，经典的情况是，人们成为合伙人，他们从未发生过分歧或难以启齿的对话。一切都是肤浅的，我们是最好的朋友。我们共同努力，一切都是美好的。
And then the first time they have a hard conversation, that's it. Explosion. You've seen this man, like what's going on here? Like, well, first things first, right? This is why we like teams who know each other for at least a little bit and have some kind of work or personal relationship because I always say that like when you have some kind of non, you know, if you have some kind of base relationship that you might want to maintain, even if this startup doesn't work, you won't say that thing.
然后，如果他们第一次进行了一次困难的谈话，结果就是爆炸。你看到这个人，就像发生了什么事？首先，这就是为什么我们喜欢那些互相相识并且有一定的工作或个人关系的团队。因为我总是说，当你有某种非利益关系要维护时，即使这个创业公司不起作用，你也不会说出那种话。
Or you'll think really hard before saying that thing that will like shatter the relationship. But when you're like, oh, the only reason why I'm even talking to you is because of this startup. And now I'm convinced that our startup's fucked, which by the way, you will be convinced your startup's fucked just continue it's clear. That's like a normal feeling. And then you're like, well, fuck it. Man, like you can't, you know, there are things you can't unsee.
你可能会在说那件可能会破坏关系的话之前，认真考虑一下。但是，当你说，“我和你说话的唯一原因是因为这个创业公司”，而现在我确信我们公司要完蛋了，顺便说一句，你会确信你的公司也要完蛋了，只要继续下去就清楚了，这是很正常的感觉。然后你就会说，“算了吧，有些事情是无法忘记的。”
And wow, sometimes the original sin was like you shouldn't have started the company with this person. But like let's say you are doing company with your co-founder and it's just really frustrating. What's the advice you give the founders on how to kind of process them?
哇，有时候最初的罪孽就像是你不该和这个人一起创立公司。但是，假设你和你的联合创始人一起创业，却感到非常沮丧。你会给创始人什么建议来帮助他们处理这些问题呢？
I think it's like you have to learn how to fight and maybe fight the wrong word, how to disagree. It's like you have to learn how to pull your punches and have a disagreement. That's a real disagreement and actually release the pressure of the disagreement in a way that doesn't cross the line so that the relationship is irrepably harmed.
我认为就像你需要学会如何打斗，也许打错词汇，如何不同意。就像你需要学会如何克制，有分歧。这是真正的分歧，实际上释放了分歧的压力，而不越过界限，这样关系就不会无法挽回地受到损害。
And it's a skill you have to learn. And if you've never been through a major disagreement with someone or had the skills for both of you to have a fundamental disagreement and talk it through yet not blow the relationship up. Yeah. And again, this is a skill like any other skill, man.
而且这是一项你必须学会的技能。如果你从未与某人发生过重大分歧，或者没有技能让你们两个能够有根本性的分歧并进行交谈，而不会破坏彼此的关系。是啊。这就像任何其他技能一样，是一种需要学习的技能，伙计。
It's a skill. You know, it's funny because the analogy that I'm thinking in my head is that like you know, it's a pressure release valve and you don't want to just rip it open. Yeah. But if you don't release any pressure, you also have a blow. It builds up and blows up. Yeah, either way it blows up.
这是一种技能。你知道，有趣的是我在脑海中想到了一个类比，就像你知道的，这是一个减压阀，你不想只是把它撕开。是的。但是如果你不释放一些压力，你也会有爆炸。它会累积并爆炸。是的，不管怎样都会爆炸。
Either way it blows up. If you let the pressure just build, build, build by only having superficial conversations for years, one day someone will snap. And on the flip side, if you just like leave it open all the time and you fight constantly, that ain't going to work either. It's sort of like the happy medium thing.
无论如何，都会爆炸。如果你只进行肤浅的谈话，让压力不断积累，多年后会有一天有人会崩溃。而另一方面，如果你总是保持开放，不停地争吵，那也行不通。就像是找到一个平衡点这样的事情。
I think the biggest thing that I had to learn and Amy, our former bass director used to talk about this a lot is this concept that like people will deal with conflict differently. I love to engage and like lean in and talk through conflict. But it's just as likely the person that I'm working with wants to avoid conflict or wants to take time to process conflict or doesn't process conflict through conversation. And like I have to look at those cues.
我认为我最需要学习的事情是Amy，我们以前的低音指挥经常谈论的这个概念，即不同的人会以不同的方式处理冲突。我喜欢参与并积极地解决冲突，但我与之合作的人可能会想要避免冲突，或想要花时间来处理冲突，或者不是通过谈话来处理冲突。我必须注意这些提示。
I have to understand what I'm talking to you and realize that when I have to kind of take a step back, even though I'm unsatisfied because I'm creating more of a problem by like continuing to push forward. And I think that this is one of those situations where you can't blame the other person for like not acting correctly. You have to take responsibility because you can both blame each other into an explosion all day long, right? Like that's easy.
我必须明白我在和你说什么，并意识到即使我不满意，我必须采取一步，因为继续推进会创造更多的问题。我认为这是这种情况之一，你不能因为别人没有正确行动而责备他们。你必须负起责任，因为你们两个都可以整天彼此责备，这很容易导致爆炸。
So next, what about what about employees? What do you think there? I think it's I think it's the same sort of situation and the dynamic might be a little bit different.
那么接下来，员工方面怎么样呢？你在那方面有什么想法？我觉得情况差不多，但动态可能会有点不同。
If you're only ever having easy superficial conversations with people, it's cool until it's not. And sometimes the best way to work with folks at your company or your colleagues employee, whatever we want to call them is to find the right way to have some of these hard conversations. And you know what they are. You know, you're probably I'm sure someone watching this is like, yeah, I can think of a few hard.
如果你只与人们进行简单深度不够的对话，这很好，直到变得不好。有时候和你公司的人员或同事们一起工作的最佳方式就是找到正确的方式来进行一些艰难的谈话。你知道这是什么。你知道，我相信在看这个的人中肯定有人会说，是的，我能想到几个困难的谈话。
I think it's some things I would say if I were afraid of the consequences of, you know, like there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. We're not saying go blow people up, but if you're just avoiding hard conversations, no one wins.
我觉得这些话是我在害怕后果的情况下会说的一些话，你知道，做事有正确和错误的方式。我们不是说去炸人，但是如果你只是逃避难谈的话，没有人会受益。
And the most importantly, the employee doesn't win because like the employee probably knows something's wrong. And if you're the boss, they probably expect you to be the one kind of addressing it. You know, one thing that I say about employees a lot and I want to limit this to like startups and startup employees like first like allow the idea in your head that you might have picked the wrong person and the person isn't the right fit.
最重要的是，雇员并不能获得胜利，因为他们可能知道有什么问题。如果你是老板，他们可能期望你是那个解决问题的人。你知道，我常常对雇员说一句话，我想在这里把它限制在像创业公司和创业员工这样的范围内，首先要重新审视自己的想法，认为你可能选错了人，这个人不适合这个职位。
Like it's like even if you did your best in interviewing and they're really good and did it. Now when you're at the idea that like that might not be the right fit and like this person might be able to do 10x better work somewhere else. And like that would make their life better just as much as it was make your life better.
就好比，就算你在面试时尽了最大努力，面试者表现优秀，但你也意识到这个人可能并不那么适合，或者在别的地方能够做得更好。那样的话，这个人的生活会因此变得更好，而你的生活也会因此变得更好。
Like allow for that because sometimes people feel like they have to solve unsolvable problems. And then the second thing I think about with like good startup employees is they want honesty. Like they good startup employees kind of understand this is a really hard task and that like the likelihood of being successful is really low and they want to be in the know they want transparency.
像允许这样，因为有时候人们觉得他们必须解决无法解决的问题。然后我想到的第二件事是，像好的初创公司员工一样，他们希望诚实。像好的初创公司员工一样，他们有点明白这是一项非常艰巨的任务，成功的可能性很低，他们希望知道情况，他们希望透明。
They want to know how about companies doing and they want to know how they can do 10x better to impact the outcome of the company. That's why you join a startup because you want an early stage show because you want to impact the outcome of the company. I've been often surprised at like sharing bad news like oh, we only have two months of runway. Right.
他们想知道公司的现状如何，也想了解如何做得更好，以影响公司的结果。这就是你加入创业公司的原因，因为你想参与早期阶段的展示，以影响公司的结果。我常常对像分享不好的消息，比如我们只有两个月的保障期，感到惊讶。
I would think would be demotivating but for great startup employees they're like all right. How the fuck are we going to fix this? And then you can get juice from them. You're like well, all right.
我觉得这可能会让人失去动力，但对于优秀的创业员工来说，他们会说“没事”。我们会想，“搞什么啊？怎么才能解决这个问题？”然后你就能从他们身上获取能量了。你会觉得，“好吧，那就行。”
I mean if we're all in the trenches together, maybe we can make something happen. But like it's really bad when like you know your startups in the trenches and you're like employees are like clueless. Well, well, I thought I was going fine. We raised a bunch of money. You never told me anything was wrong.
我的意思是，如果我们都在一起在战壕里，也许我们可以创造一些成果。但当你的创业公司陷入困境，而你的员工一无所知时，情况真的很糟糕。我觉得一切都很好，我们筹集了大量资金，你从未告诉我有任何问题。
And you're like. I think that to our credit, you and I say this a lot. If we were doing office hours with ourselves, what would what would we say? And yeah, man, I think sometimes we dodge hard conversations. Like we're not saying to be vulnerable here. We're not saying we always get this right at 100% of the time.
你听我说，我觉得这一点是我们的优点。如果我们跟自己做办公室小时，我们会说些什么呢？有时候，我们会回避那些难以谈论的话题，不是说我们想要表现脆弱。我们并不总是百分之百地正确处理这些问题。
In fact, I might argue many times the first conversations we have are wrong. I think the only thing that we do well is we continuously ask ourselves, are we lying to ourselves or is there like what would you say? What's the deeper question? What's the question behind the question? What's the question behind the question? I think we are good at asking that. And sometimes we assume that the initial salvo of questions are complete bullshit ourselves.
实际上，我认为我们第一次交谈时的很多对话都是错误的。但我认为我们唯一做得好的事情就是持续地问自己：我们是在欺骗自己吗？还是像你会说的那样，有更深层次的问题？问题的背后还有什么问题？我认为我们非常善于提出这种问题。有时候，我们会认为最初的问题是胡扯，但其实是自己欺骗了自己。
Within why see itself. And I think that's life, man. I guess what I'm trying to say is no one's perfect. If you don't put anyone on a pedestal, it doesn't matter who they are. They have their own shit. And that should be freeing and empowering and make you feel optimistic and not bad.
在为什么看到自己内部。我想那就是人生吧。我想我想表达的是，没有人是完美的。如果你不把任何人放在神坛上，不管他们是谁，都没关系。他们有自己的烦恼。这应该是自由和赋权的，让你感到乐观，而不是难过。
Right? Isn't that the right takeaway here? That's the right takeaway. You know, to close out, this reminds me of this like scene in the West Wing where one of the characters has a drug problem. That's pretty bad. Another character is going through PTSD and is really struggling but doesn't want anyone to know.
嗯，这不就是正确的结论吗？这就是正确的结论。你知道，最后提一点，这让我想起了《白宫风云》里的一个情节，一个角色有药物问题，这很严重。另一个角色正在经历创伤后应激障碍，非常苦苦挣扎但不想让任何人知道。
And this character is like a drug addict that like cleaned up and so on and so forth and is noticing the first character is struggling. You know, the way the kind of story goes is that other people who don't understand how much pain the person's in will like say, oh, you should go see his psychiatrist or you should go get a prescription. Like they'll do these superficial things.
这个角色就像是一个吸毒成瘾的人一样，像戒毒一样苦苦挣扎，同时注意到第一个角色在挣扎。你知道，这种情节的走向通常是，那些不了解这个人有多痛苦的人会说，哦，你应该去看看他的精神科医生或者拿药方。他们会做这些肤浅的事情。
But this character knows and so like he actually, you know, the analogy is like he jumps down at the bottom of the well with them. It's like I'm at the bottom of the well struggling and then my friend jumps down with me. And the thing that they say at the end is that like, well, I'm jumping down with you because I've climbed out of this well before and I know the way out.
这个角色知道，他其实就像跳到了井底和他们在一起一样的感觉。就好像我在井底挣扎，然后我的朋友跳下来陪我。他们最后说的话就是，我和你一起跳下来，因为我以前爬出过这口井，我知道出路。
And I think so much about being a YC partner is like is exactly that. Like I've made all these mistakes before. I'll probably make them again. I'll probably make him again. And the only thing that I could say is I know the way out as opposed to like, oh, we play air free ball, which is obviously. All right, then great chat. Thanks.
我认为成为YC合伙人的很多事情都是一样的。就像我以前犯过所有这些错误。我可能会再犯一次。我可能会再次犯错。唯一能说的是，我知道出路，而不是像打气球一样玩。好的，聊得很愉快，谢谢。