Two years ago, Nest, a start-up founded by a group of ex-Apple engineers and designers, unveiled a 'smart' home thermostat. Folks in the tech industry responded with a familiar, collective two-step. First, puzzlement: A thermostat? Who buys thermostats? And then, when they got a chance to see the Nest in action, there was respectful envy: A thermostat! Of course!
        兩年前，由一群前蘋果工程師和設計師創辦的新公司Nest發佈了一款“智慧”家用恒溫器。對此，科技行業的反應是那種常見的、集體的先抑後揚。

        There had been Internet-connected thermostats before Nest's version, just as there had been digital music players before the iPod. But like Apple Inc.'s music player, the Nest thermostat was so much more clever than anything else on the market that it seemed a reinvention of the industry.
        但蘋果公司的音樂播放機和Nest公司的恒溫器比市場上其他任何產品都聰明得多，所以看上去就像是行業的一次革新。
        Rather than expect users to program their ideal temperature settings into the device -- which many people never did, wasting lots of energy on unnecessary heating and cooling -- Nest's device used sensors and algorithms to 'learn' your preferences and program itself. The result was a gadget so innovative it became obvious: You looked at the Nest and you thought, 'Wait a second, why didn't anyone think of this before?' (It's not cheap, though, at $249).
        Nest的恒溫器並不指望使用者通過程式設計把理想溫度設定寫進設備裡面，而是通過感測器和演算法來“瞭解”使用者的偏好並自己程式設計。這樣便形成了一件因為創新反倒變得稀鬆平常的科技產品：你看著Nest恒溫器心想“噫，以前為什麼就沒人想到呢？”

        I found myself mouthing the same question a few weeks ago, when Tony Fadell, the chief executive of Nest Labs Inc., showed me the company's newest invention, a smoke and carbon-monoxide detector called Nest Protect. Like the thermostat, the Nest Protect -- a $129 device that the company unveiled this week -- looks more like a modernist museum piece than a household utility. And just like the thermostat, Nest's smoke detector feels like a reinvention of the category.
        前不久我不由得也問了同樣的問題。和恒溫器一樣，Nest Protect 與其說是一件居家用品，倒不如說是一件現代主義風格的博物館藏品。
        But the smartest thing about the Nest Protect isn't the device itself. I'm more impressed by what the smoke detector says about Nest's approach to innovation. With both its products, Nest exemplifies what has become an especially promising path to invention in Silicon Valley. Call it the Andy Rooney business plan: First, find the most annoying, obvious problem that millions of people deal with every day. Then ask if things really have to be that way.
        但Nest Protect最聰明的地方不在設備本身。我更感興趣的是它所體現的Nest式創新方法。可以把它叫做 Andy Rooney 式商業計畫：首先是找到億萬人群每天都面對的最惱人的平常問題，然後問：真的非得那樣嗎？

        Why should we have to program our thermostats, anyway? Or why should you need to see a cab to hail it? Why not just call the closest one with a button on your phone? Also, why do you need to pay with cash at the food truck -- shouldn't the vendor be able to accept credit cards using his tablet, or, even better, shouldn't his payment system be able to detect who you are and let you put your lunch on your tab?
        我們為什麼非要給恒溫器程式設計？
        After hitting on a universal annoyance, the Andy Rooney inventor applies a mix of intelligent software, cool hardware and network power to transform the frustration into an experience that feels close to exhilarating. If you've installed a Nest thermostat, hailed a car using Uber, or paid for lunch using Square, you've likely felt the same. Why hasn't the world always worked this way?
        在注意到一種普遍的煩惱之後，“Andy Rooney”式發明家會利用智慧軟體、精良硬體和聯網能力，將煩惱轉變為一種接近愉悅的體驗。為什麼這個世界不是一直這樣呢？

        Nest's Protect plumbs similar ground. 'They're products that have been unloved, that are basically the same as when we were growing up,' Mr. Fadell says. Nest Protect has a sensor that can see you, allowing you to silence false alarms by waving at it.
        “它們都是些曾經不受人待見的產品，跟我們小時候相比差不太多。”
        When you install multiple detectors in your house, they form a network, so that when the one in your living room sniffs out trouble, all the units issue a voice warning telling you where and why the alarm is sounding. It also has comprehensive self-diagnostic system that lets you know whenever anything with the device is amiss -- no more remembering to check the devices semi-annually to see if it's working.
        你在家中安裝多個探測器之後，它就構成了一張網路，它還有一套全面的自我診斷系統──不再需要記住半年檢測一次看它是否在運轉。

        Some might argue that there's nothing especially novel about the Andy Rooney model of tech innovation. Inventors have always looked at the world and asked why, after all. That's true, but -- as Nest has shown -- modern software and hardware allows them to act on the question in ways that haven't been possible before.
        有些人或許會說，Andy Rooney 式科技創新沒有什麼特別新鮮之處。畢竟發明家一直都在面對著眼前的世界問為什麼。確實如此，但正如Nest所證明的，現代軟體和硬體的存在使他們能夠以過去根本不可能的方式對問題採取實際行動。
        Consider Square Inc., Jack Dorsey's payment company. In the past, there was a good reason why food trucks didn't accept credit cards -- doing so was logistically onerous. But once people got smartphones, the tech hurdles melted away. At that point, you could imagine a system that conformed to how people wanted to pay, rather than one that worked a certain way because technology hadn't caught up.
        以 Jack Dorsey 的支付公司Square Inc.為例。過去流動快餐車不受理信用卡的理由很明顯──受理信用卡太繁瑣了。然而一旦人們有了智慧手機，技術上的障礙便不復存在。在這個時候，你便能夠想到一個符合理想支付方式的系統，而不是一個因為技術沒有跟上而按某種方式運作的系統。

        The Andy Rooney model is especially powerful for sectors that the tech industry has traditionally ignored -- like, for instance, transportation. Over the past few years, we've seen a surge of new apps and devices to fix taxis, traffic and local deliveries. These problems haven't yet been solved, but at least folks are trying.
        Andy Rooney 模式對於過去被科技行業忽略的部門（比如交通）尤其強大。這些問題還沒有完全得到解決，但至少大家都在嘗試。
        Another promising area is health care. Why does it seem impossible to make a timely doctor's appointment? Why isn't it easier to access or transfer your medical records? Surely the world wasn't meant to be this way, right? Shouldn't we be able to fix it? (And some companies are: See the doctor-appointment site ZocDoc.)
        另一個大有前途的領域是醫療。為什麼及時預約醫生似乎是一件不可能的事情？病歷的查閱或轉移為什麼不能更容易一些？這個世界肯定不應該是這個樣子的，對不對？難道我們不應該有能力把它弄好？

        One persistent critique of the Andy Rooney model of innovation is that it is overly concerned with bourgeois annoyances. As a tech-obsessive who lives in Silicon Valley, most of the problems I want fixed can seem shallow: I'd like retail stores to offer same-day shipping to my house; I'd like restaurants to let me pay for meals from my phone; and I desperately want my phone to direct me to nearby open parking spots. In the same way, Nest, Uber, Square and other hot start-ups do seem to be offering high-class solutions for rich-people's problems.
        人們對 Andy Rooney 創新模式始終存在這樣一種批評意見：它過分關注於中產階級的煩惱。作為一個生活在矽谷的科技迷，我想解決的大部分問題可能都顯得膚淺。同樣，Nest、Uber、Square和其他熱門新公司看上去確實是在為富人的問題提供高級解決方案。
        But that's myopic. Mr. Fadell says Nest's thermostat could save people up to hundreds of dollars a year in energy costs. By minimizing the scourge of false alarms, the Nest Protect could help save lives -- so it isn't just a high-end bauble.
        但那是短視的。Fadell說，Nest的恒溫器可以為人們省掉一年多達數百美元的能源成本，Nest Protect將誤報的煩惱最小化，可以幫助救人性命──所以不只是一種高端玩物。

        And remember that over time, the price of digital innovations tends to fall. Today's $129 smoke alarm will cost half as much tomorrow, and then it will cost even less. At that point, it won't seem trivial that a bunch of rich start-up guys looked at the modern world and asked: Why is everything so unbearable?
        而且別忘了，數字創新的價格往往會隨著時間的推移而下降。今天129美元的煙霧報警器到明天就只需要一半的價錢，隨後的價格還會越來越低。到那個時候，這樣一種情形就不再顯得沒有價值：一群富裕創業家看著當代世界問，為什麼一切都是如此不可忍受？