Mark Zuckerberg 細說「駭客之道」

 

前一陣子 Facebook 的 IPO 搞得沸沸揚揚，28 歲的創辦人 Mark Zuckerberg 在上市說明書 (Form S-1) 中提到 Facebook 的駭客 (The Hacker Way) 之道，有滿多值得我們學習的地方。

駭客之道強調持續改進的精神

Zuckerberg 說，Facebook 的駭客之道已經成為他們獨特的文化與管理方式。

We have cultivated a unique culture and management approach that we call the Hacker Way.

Zuckerberg 為「駭客」這個詞做了更深一層的解釋，他認為駭客行為僅僅只是快速開發出某些事物，或是挑戰某些既存規則的極限。

In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done.

Zuckerberg 認為駭客之道是一種持續改進的精神。駭客們總認為事情可以變得更好，沒有什麼是已經完美無缺的了。他們會不斷地去調整、修正，並且對抗那些老是嚷嚷著「做不到」，或是主張維持現狀的人。

The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo.

Zuckerberg 說，為了要打造一個最好的服務，駭客們會耐心地、持續地從小事情一步一步做起，不會想要一次到位。

Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once.

而 Facebook 辦公室牆上的標語寫著：「完成比完美更好！」用來提醒每一個人。

 We have the words “Done is better than perfect” painted on our walls to remind ourselves to always keep shipping.

駭客之道強調動手而不是動口

Zuckerberg 說，駭客之道強調動手做與自律。與其花個數天辯論哪一個新點子可行或哪些方法比較好，駭客們寧願直接動手做原型，看看哪些東西可行。

Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works.

Facebook 員工常常掛在嘴邊的一句話是：「程式碼勝於雄辯」！

There’s a hacker mantra that you’ll hear a lot around Facebook offices: “Code wins arguments.“

Zuckerberg 說，駭客文化也強調開放和菁英管理。他們相信最後會勝出的，是那些能夠把最好的創意做出來的人，而不是那些只會動動嘴巴說創意的人，或管的人比較多的主管。

Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers believe that the best idea and implementation should always win — not the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people.

Facebook 的五大核心價值

1. 專注在效益 (Focus on Impact)

為了要得到最大的效益，最好的方式就是專注在解決最重要的問題上。

If we want to have the biggest impact, the best way to do this is to make sure we always focus on solving the most important problems.

這「說來容易、做來難」，大部分公司都做得不好，以致於浪費許多時間 (成本)。Zuckerberg 希望每個員工都能擁有解決棘手問題的本領。

It sounds simple, but we think most companies do this poorly and waste a lot of time. We expect everyone at Facebook to be good at finding the biggest problems to work on.

2. 動作迅速 (Move Fast)

迅速的動作讓 Facebook 學得更快、創造更多東西。Zuckerberg 提到，當大多數公司隨著越來越成長的規模，他們也放慢了腳步，比起因為動作慢而錯失良機，這類公司反而更怕犯錯。

Moving fast enables us to build more things and learn faster. However, as most companies grow, they slow down too much because they’re more afraid of making mistakes than they are of losing opportunities by moving too slowly.

在 Facebook 有一句諺語：「呷快弄破碗」，如果你從來沒打破過東西，那表示你來不夠快。

We have a saying: “Move fast and break things.” The idea is that if you never break anything, you’re probably not moving fast enough.

3. 大膽 (Be Bold)

要幹大事業就注定要冒高風險，但大多數公司都不敢這麼做。在瞬息萬變的世界裡，如果你不承接任何風險，那麼意味著你將會失敗。

Building great things means taking risks. This can be scary and prevents most companies from doing the bold things they should. However, in a world that’s changing so quickly, you’re guaranteed to fail if you don’t take any risks.

Facebook 還有另一句諺語：「最危險的事情就是不去冒險」。Zuckerberg 鼓勵每一個人做大膽的決定，即便有時候是錯的

We have another saying: “The riskiest thing is to take no risks.” We encourage everyone to make bold decisions, even if that means being wrong some of the time.

4. 開放 (Be Open)

Facebook 相信，更開放的世界代表更美好的世界。那時，人們可以有更多的資訊，能夠做更好的決定，也會更有影響力。在 Facebook，Zuckerberg 也是用這個準則對待每一位員工。

We believe that a more open world is a better world because people with more information can make better decisions and have a greater impact… We work hard to make sure everyone at Facebook has access to as much information as possible about every part of the company so they can make the best decisions and have the greatest impact.

5. 創造社會價值 (Build Social Value)

Zuckerberg 期望 Facebook 的每個員工每天都能聚焦在：「如何為這個世界創造出真正的價值」這個課題上。

… We expect everyone at Facebook to focus every day on how to build real value for the world in everything they do.

結語

我並不是一個 Facebook fan，對駭客也沒有太多意見，但是這裡所提到的幾個重要的駭客精神，都是過去這幾年我在一間大公司所看到幾乎已經消失的基本核心價值，甚至說是核心能力都不為過。

最後，不論你現在所處的環境如何，我都希望你能細細思量這其中的奧義，找到當初那個讓你怦然心動，願意附上代價所追求的理想，用你自己的「駭客之道」去駭吧！