ZestFinance創始人 隨心所欲多讀書

Douglas Merrill is used to overcoming challenges. As a child growing up in Arkansas, he was deaf for three years -- the result of an auditory nerve infection -- and had to relearn how to speak. The difficulty was made more problematic by his dyslexia, which was not diagnosed until high school. At an early age, Merrill learned that he could achieve his goals, but his path wouldn't always be the obvious one. After earning degrees in sociology and economics from the University of Tulsa, Merrill went on to receive a Ph.D. in cognitive science from Princeton and eventually became the chief information officer at Google (GOOG).

道格拉斯·梅里爾早已習慣了克服各種挑戰。梅里爾小時在阿肯色斯州長大，幼年由於罹患聽覺神經感染，他曾失去聽力長達三年之久，後來只得重新學習說話。但他人生的挫折還遠遠不止於此，高中時，梅里爾被診斷出患有閱讀障礙。因此梅里爾在人生的早年就已經明白，自己的成功要比別人付出更多的努力。後來梅里爾從陶沙大學（University of Tulsa）獲得了社會學與經濟學學位，然後赴普林斯頓大學（Princeton University）深造，獲得認知科學博士學位，一路打拼，最後當上了谷歌公司（Google）的信息總監。

Today, he runs ZestFinance, a 100-person company that he started in 2010. ZestFinance uses a combination of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data to help lenders assess the credit risk of potential borrowers. The company's mission is to help people who are "under-banked" find access to credit at lower interest rates, a particular challenge since the 2007 banking crisis.

2010年，梅里爾創立了一家名叫ZestFinance的公司。這家公司有100名員工，主要利用人工智能、機器學習和大數據等技術，幫助借款人分析潛在貸款者的信用風險。ZestFinance旨在幫助“資金不足”的人以較低的利率獲得貸款，經過2007年的金融危機後，這無疑是一個特殊的挑戰。

Merrill, 43, is based in Los Angeles. He spoke with Fortune.

現年43歲的梅里爾居住在洛杉磯。近日他接受了《財富》雜誌的專訪。

1. Who in technology do you admire most? Why?

1. 你最欣賞的科技界人士是誰？爲什麼？

I admire a guy who's been dead a very long time. His name is Matthew Fontaine Maury. Maury was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in the 1800s, when ships had sails. He was the captain of a ship, and the routes that he tended to sail were from west coast of the U.S. towards Japan. Sometimes the routes were great, and sometimes the routes were very rough. Like almost all ship captains, he knew exactly one way to get to Tokyo, but every captain's path had slight differences.

我最欣賞的人已經過世很久，他叫馬休o方丹o毛利。他是19世紀美國的一名海軍上尉，當時的軍艦還是帆船。他曾是一艘軍艦的艦長，經常行駛從美國西海岸到日本的航線。有時航線的海況很好，也有時風浪十分惡劣。像差不多所有其他船長一樣，他只知道一條去東京的航線，不過每個船長的航線多多少少是不太一樣的。

Sadly he was injured. Unable to be a ship captain anymore, he was looking around for something to do. He stumbled upon the fact that other captains had other routes that performed better in some times of the year and worse in some times of the year. He noticed that all captains have ways to go from same city to same city, and they all had different times of the year when they were good. He started telling captains that if they gave him their log book, then he would give it back later with the sum of their routes with everyone else's routes.

後來他不幸受了傷，沒法再航海了，於是他打算找點別的事做。他偶然發現，有些艦長選擇的航線在一年的有些時候海況較好，但同樣在一年的其它時候海況較差。另外，所有艦長從一個城市到另一個城市都有自己的習慣航線，這些航線在一年中的海況都有好有差。於是他讓艦長們把他們的航海日誌交給自己，由他對所有人的航線進行彙總，然後將彙總後的航線交給艦長們。

What he discovered were the trade winds and the notion that weather changes throughout the year and as a result the time to travel changes over time. He basically crowdsourced routes all over the world. If you look at the data over time before Maury, the routes were kind of random between cities; they were all over the board. So the next 10 to 20 years after Maury had this idea of crowdsourcing routes, the routes got more and more defined and sensitive to seasonal weather patterns. The sea is how everything in the world works; it's the backbone of trade and information. Maury provided massive change.

結果他發現了信風對航線的影響，並且發現全球各地的海況會隨着氣候而變化，因此兩地之間的最佳航線也會隨着時間變化。他基本上是採用了衆包的方式篩選出了全球各地的最佳航線。如果你注意看毛利之前的航線數據，你會發現城市之間的海路是隨機的。在毛利之後的10到20年裏，有了航線衆包的概念，航路變得越來越固定，並且對季節性氣候很敏感。海洋對全球政治經濟有重大影響，它是貿易和信息的支柱，而毛利帶來了重大的變化。

2. Which companies do you admire? Why?

2. 你欣賞哪些公司？爲什麼？

I want to go slightly off the beaten path and talk about the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation. Sandy Hook Promise is a group that was founded after the Sandy Hook tragedy a couple of years ago. It was founded by a group of parents, and a bunch of Silicon Valley VCs are in it, and they are trying to find ways to improve school security by using venture capital-ish formats. They try to let people in the world come up with interesting ideas and see if they can seed fund those ideas to find interesting potential ways to reduce school violence.

我的回答稍微偏離你的問題，我最欣賞的是桑迪胡克希望基金會（Sandy Hook Promise Foundation）。這個基金會是幾年前的桑迪胡克慘案發生後成立的一個組織。它是由部分學生家長創立的，也有不少硅谷風投家參與到這項事業中。他們希望通過風投的模式找到鞏固校園安全的方法。他們希望讓全世界的人想出有意思的點子，看看能否通過種子基金資助這些辦法以減少校園暴力。

3. Which area of technology excites you most?

3. 最讓你感到興奮的科技領域是什麼？

Biotech. If you look at the incredible increase in computational power and math power, even in the past few years, there has been rapid change from having a very hard time asking the interesting medical questions to being able to start putting together some thoughts. There are companies like Celmatix, a biotech company that gives you very precise guidance on reproductive and fertility issues. For example, if you are on a particular path to have IVF, they take a couple of tests and they gather data about you, and they may say, actually you're probably a candidate for this procedure vs. that procedure. They care a lot. They're an example of a company that is doing something interesting in the field.

生物科技。近幾年，計算機性能和數學運算能力有了驚人的提高，因此生物科技領域也發生了巨大的變化，從一開始連提出有趣的醫學問題都很難，到現在已經可以開始把某些想法整合到一起。比如現在有一家叫Celmatix的生物技術公司，它可以就生育問題給出非常精確的指導。比如如果你要嘗試體外受精的話，他們就會做幾個測試並且收集你的數據，然後他們可能會說，你可能更適合這種方法或那種方法。他們關注的方面很多。現在有一些公司正在這個領域做一些很有趣的事，這家公司就是一個例子。

4. What advice would you give to someone who wants to do what you do?

4. 有些人也想從事和你這一行，你對他們有什麼建議？

I think oftentimes people get advice to take more science classes or go do an internship at a firm, and that's all good. But what I have found useful is that I read very broadly. I read history, biography, fiction, poetry. I read about fields that I know nothing about at all, like biotech. I find that having that broad-based information allows me to stumble across things that really influence my thinking. My advice would be to go read something random. Luckily the barrier to entry for reading is very low, so I have a lot of books on my Kindle.

我認爲人們可能經常會獲得比如多上一些科學課程或者在一家公司實習之類的建議，這都很好。但是我有一個很有用的經驗，那就是我讀書讀得很廣泛，像歷史、名人傳記、小說、詩歌都有涉獵。這些廣泛的信息能爲我帶來真正影響我思考的東西。我的建議是多隨機地閱讀一些東西。幸運的是現在閱讀的門檻很低，我有很多書都是在Kindle電子書上讀的。

5. What is the best advice you ever received?

5. 你得到過的最好的建議是什麼？

When I was at Google, one of the things I did was help run the IPO, and one day when I was going through part of the process, I made a big mistake and messed something up that was important. I immediately flagged the thing, but I got a call from Eric Schmidt, the CEO, who wanted to meet me in a conference room. So I'm running over there, and when I get there he says, "Hey, I understand that you did X." And I said, "Yes, I did, and I'm sorry." Eric looked at me, put his hand on my shoulder said, "Okay. Don't ever do it again, but I still love you." It's not terribly helpful advice, but it reminds me that people make mistakes and simultaneously you have to hold them accountable for those things and remind them that they're people that you value and not just a mistake. That was incredibly valuable for me.

我在谷歌工作的時候，曾經幫公司運作過IPO事宜。有一天在做一項跟IPO有關的工作時，我犯一個大錯，搞砸了一件重要的事，我馬上注意到了這個錯誤，但是我也接到了CEO埃裏克o施密特的電話，他讓我到會議室見他。於是我馬上跑到會議室，等我到了之後，他對我說：“嘿，我知道你犯了個錯。”我說：“是的，我很抱歉。”埃裏克看着我，把手放到我肩膀上說：“好，以後別再犯了，我仍然愛你。”雖然這不是一個非常有用的建議，但它提醒我，人是會犯錯的，同時你得告訴他們要爲自己犯的錯負責，還要讓他們知道，他們仍然是你重視的人，而不僅僅是一個犯了錯的人。這對我非常有價值。

6. What challenges are facing your business right now?

6. 你的公司現在面臨哪些挑戰？

The regulatory environment for lending is very complicated. There are state laws, there are federal laws, so we're continuing to find regulation's role vis-à-vis other elements. We're really trying to help, but everything is inherently regulatory. It's a good challenge in that the industry will be better by increasingly strong and well-intentioned regulation.

目前借貸的監管環境非常複雜。各州有各州的法律，還有聯邦的法律，所以我們還在繼續研究監管機構和其它因素扮演的角色。我們雖然很想提供幫助，但是一切從根本上都離不開監管的因素。這是一個很好的挑戰，因爲有了力度日益增強的健康的監管，整個行業會變得越來越好。

7. If you could have done anything differently in your career, what would it have been?

7. 如果你的職業生涯中有一件事能從頭來過，那會是什麼？

I would have started a company earlier. I went around to a lot of other firms, and I always enjoyed it, but I didn't necessarily have enough confidence in my own ideas to start my own business. Now I'm going on four years, and I love it. I learn something new every day. But it's also hard because there are no "B" days; everything has to be an "A" day.

我會更早開始創業。我曾經在很多其他公司幹過，我也很享受這個過程，但我不一定非要等到對我的創業理念擁有十足的信心了纔去創立自己的公司。現在我已經創業四年了，而且我很喜歡這個過程。我每天都會學到新東西。但是創業也是很艱難的，因爲你不能得“B”，必須把每件事都做到“A”。

8. What is one goal -- either personal or professional -- that you would like to accomplish during your lifetime?

8. 你這一生希望完成的個人目標或者職業目標是什麼？

I want to eat dinner at the White House. I am a distant aficionado of politics. I find the political process fascinating.

我想在白宮吃頓飯。我是一個跟政治不沾邊的政治愛好者，但我覺得政治非常有趣。

9. What was the last book you read?

9. 你最近讀過的一本書是什麼？

I'm going to go in a very strange direction. The last book that I just finished last night was by a guy named Michael Easton. Michael is a friend of mine who is an actor but also a writer of graphic novels. He wrote one recently called Soul Stealer. He gave it to me for Christmas in a hardback cover, and I was just now getting around to reading it. It's interesting to me that, at 43, I can still read comic books. The style of how the art is produced is different from when I was younger. The physical art is different. It's much darker, and the story is grittier, more painful, and disturbing on multiple levels. It's not just pure violence, it's actually hard to read; it's sad and a little bit upsetting. The ability to use this two-dimensional, small frame art to capture the emotional color of a city is challenging and fascinating. What a cool application of art.

就讀書而言，我正在走一條非常不同的路。我昨晚剛讀完的一本書是一個叫邁克爾o伊斯頓的人寫的。邁克爾是我的一個朋友，他既是一名演員，也是一位漫畫小說作家。他最近剛寫了一本叫《偷魂者》（Soul Stealer）的書。他把一本硬封皮的精裝書當成聖誕禮物送給了我，我最近剛抽出時間打算讀一讀。我覺得最有意思的是，我今年雖然已經43歲了，但還能看得進漫畫書。現在這種藝術的表現形式與我年輕的時候已經不一樣了。整個藝術基調更加陰暗，從很多層面上看，故事都更曲折、更痛苦、更糾結。它不僅僅是純粹的暴力。實際上它讀起來很艱難，它是悲傷的，而且有點讓人難受。能夠用這種二維的、小格子的藝術捕捉一個城市的情緒色彩，這種能力非常有挑戰性，而且非常吸引人。這真是藝術的一種很酷的應用。

10. What is one unique or quirky habit that you have?

10. 你有什麼獨特的習慣或愛好嗎？

The fingernails of my left hand are painted with black nail polish. I don't know why it's one hand and not two. I don't know why it's my off hand. I have no story other than I like how it looks. I used to do it myself but then I realized that I suck at it. Now I pay someone to do it. One of the benefits of our company is that we have a manicurist who comes in every week, so I have her do it.

我左手的指甲塗了黑色的指甲油。我不知道爲什麼我只塗了一隻手而不是兩隻手，也不知道爲什麼是左手而不是右手。除了覺得好看，我也沒有別的解釋。我以前都是自己塗的，後來我意識到自己塗得很難看。現在我付錢請別人替我塗。我們公司的一個好處之一就是，我們請了一個美甲師每週來我們公司，所以我都是請她給我塗。