薅羊毛

我们翻译这篇文章的理由

电商的崛起改变了我们的消费方式，每一个投资风口的出现为寻常百姓带来了什么呢？更多的“新人优惠”、更多的补贴？当我们享受着“首杯咖啡免单”的小确幸时，硅谷极客们也在薅羊毛的路上越走越远，为什么这些有着高薪工作的技术大佬会热衷于此？这背后的逻辑值得我们思考。

——崔颖

薅羊毛

作者：ALEXANDRA SUICH BASS

译者：崔颖

校对：唐萧

策划：刘璠

How to hack the freeconomy

如何入侵“免费经济”

The techies who figured out how not to pay for an Uber, or a mattress, ever again

技术极客们已经找到了未来如何坐Uber而不必买单、使床垫却不用付钱的不二法门。

One evening a few months ago, I had dinner at a restaurant in San Francisco called Dirty Habit. It was aptly named. One of my companions that night was a friend from the tech industry – he had studied at Stanford Graduate School of Business and been an executive at a self-driving-car firm before founding his own startup. But as we ate, he flaunted a different sort of achievement: he had lived in the Bay Area for years and never paid for a mattress.

几个月前的一天晚上，我在旧金山一家名叫臭毛病（Dirty Habit）的餐厅吃晚餐。你别说这餐厅名字起的真是恰到好处。那晚，一位和我一起用餐的朋友来自技术领域 —— 他研究生毕业于斯坦福商学院，之后在一家搞无人驾驶的汽车公司出任高管，后来就自己开公司创业了。我们边吃边聊，这位大佬却炫耀起他的另一番成就来：在湾区住了多年的他，从没为床垫付过一分钱！

My friend, who asked not to be named, approached this challenge methodically. First he compiled a spreadsheet of all the mattress firms’ free trials and return policies. Then he proceeded to take advantage of them one by one, “buying” six mattresses in turn and returning them just before the deadline, at no extra cost – and getting all his money back. He usually made the switch just before he moved apartments, so he didn’t have to lug a heavy mattress across town. As he described his strategy, I found myself torn between admiration and disgust. His ruse was ingenious, but was creating an Excel file about bedding really the best use of his time?

我的这位朋友（他要求匿名）有条不紊地搞定了这个“床垫”挑战。他首先整理出一份包含所有床垫公司提供免费试用和退货政策的电子表格，接着一家挨一家地占这些公司的便宜。他先后一共“买”过六个床垫，待免费试用期截止前再退了它们——没有额外费用，全额退款。他通常在每次搬家前退旧“换”新，这样他就不用拖着重重的床垫穿城搬家了。听着他的“作战策略”，我感到既佩服又厌恶。他这手儿确实是妙，但花时间做这么一份床垫“明细”表，真的不是浪费他的时间吗？ 

Taking advantage of promotions is a worldwide phenomenon, but techies stalk deals with extraordinary ingenuity. The perks of the “freeconomy” range from the quotidian to the luxurious. Startups, flush with funding from venture capitalists and eager to grab the attention of new customers, offer free food delivery, prepared meal kits, grocery-shopping, dog-walking, errand-running, moving, laundry and ride-hailing. Some techies boast that they have even figured out how to get free nights on Airbnb and nearly free flights from JetSmarter, which offers on-demand private jets. San Francisco is now more expensive to live in than any other city in America, but the biggest irony of its freeconomy is that the people who are the most adept at exploiting it are the people who need its benefits least: well-to-do nerds with high-paying jobs that come with plenty of benefits.

放眼全球，老百姓借着促销、活动宣传的当口占些便宜并不稀奇，但技术极客们可都是带着自己才智超群的大脑出手的。从日常所需到高端订制，“免费经济”的红利无所不包。初创公司拿到了风投人带来的大量资金，急切地渴望吸引新顾客。他们提供的服务包括免费送餐、餐点DIY配送箱、食品采购、跑腿、遛狗、搬家、拼车、洗衣等等。一些技术极客吹嘘他们甚至找到了如何免费住爱彼迎的妙招，以及如何用白菜价坐私人订制航班JetSmarter。如今的旧金山生活成本高于美国其他城市，但其“免费经济”最大的讽刺便是：那些最擅长薅羊毛的人，反而是最不需要这些好处的人：他们是生活富足的学霸，做着能带来许多福利的高薪工作。 

quotidian Quotidian is a fancy way of saying “daily” or “ordinary.” Quotidian events are the everyday details of life.

prepared meal kits 该产品目前还没有一个固定的中文译法。结合亚马逊网站的介绍和一些知名美食博主po图时的用语，暂译为“餐点DIY配送箱”（如下图）

I used to think I was, if not a freeconomy professional, at least a high-level amateur. Since I moved back to San Francisco, my home town, four years ago, I have learnt the local tradecraft. Locals often use multiple email accounts and different credit cards when signing up for apps so that they appear to be a first-time customer. I play hard to get, wandering away from a service for months only to sprint back as soon as they offer me a coupon. When I need a ride, I play Uber against Lyft to see which ride-hailing service offers the better deal. I’m currently using Lyft: they offered me 25% off ten rides.

我过去认为，就算我称不上“免费经济”的行家，至少也算个高段位业余选手。自从四年前搬回老家旧金山，我便习得了本地“绝活儿”。在各种APP里注册时，为了让自己看起来像新用户，本地人经常得用多个邮箱账号和不同的信用卡蒙混过关。我故作高冷，对某个服务商冷落数月，但只要它一给我优惠券我就火速做回它的忠实顾客。当我需要叫车服务时， 我就让优步和来福车下场battle，看看哪个拼车服务能给我更低的价格。我目前用来福车，因为他们给了我10次85折的优惠叫车服务。 

tradecraft Tradecraft is an old word that used to refer to the work, or craft, of any profession, or trade. It likely acquired its specific association with spy work during World War II, though it is a word most heavily associated with the Cold War. 

I have come to realise, however, that I am nothing but a novice. One popular route to free riches involves a “referral code”, which gives each person who uses it a credit for helping secure new customers. Felix, who runs a startup in San Francisco, has taken this to extremes. He accomplished what he calls his “Bay Area hack” by buying around $600 in advertisements on Google and placing his referral code from Uber in each ad. He spent hours fine-tuning his approach until his ads often had a higher click-through rate than Uber’s own. For each person who signed up to Uber’s service through his ad, he received a credit. He eventually amassed $30,000 in credits, which allowed him to ride around the city in Uber’s cars and eat three meals a day from UberEats, the company’s food-delivery service, for a whole year without paying a cent.

然而我意识到，在“免费经济”面前，我其实就是个小白。如今获取各种免费“资源”的一个热门途径即需要“推荐码”：每位用户如果能成功推荐其他人订阅该服务，也就是帮服务商发展了新客户，都能得到奖励。 菲利克斯（Felix）在旧金山经营着一家初创公司，他把“推荐码”的使用发挥到了极致。通过在谷歌买入约600美元的广告位，并把从优步得来的“推荐码”投放在他的每一个广告中, 他做成了他自己口中的“黑掉湾区”。他花了数个小时微调投放策略，直到他的广告点击率能经常超过优步自家的（广告点击率）为止。每有一个人通过他的广告点进去注册优步，菲利克斯的账户就会收到一小笔钱。最终他帐上攒了三万美元的存款，足够他在旧金山随意用优步叫车，并享受UberEats的三餐外送服务整整一年，UberEats是优步公司推出的送餐服务。 

译者注：“Bay Area hack”中的hack在美式英语中也有出租车的意思，这里可能也暗含作者一语双关的心思。 

Companies know consumers try to take advantage of them, but some entrepreneurs choose to be wilfully blind to it. “A little bit of you doesn’t want to find out,” says Sean Behr, the boss of Stratim. “You want to believe your product has traction.” His startup, which offers parking services to companies, had to pivot its business away from cheap on-demand valet parking when consumers like me exploited it feverishly.

各公司对消费者的小算盘心知肚明，但不少企业家都故意对此视而不见。“你心里有那么一小点抗拒，不想查个水落石出。” 旧金山软件公司Stratim的老板肖恩（Sean）说道。 “你愿意相信自己的产品是受欢迎的。”他的创业项目是为各公司提供停车服务，但当像我这样的消费者狂热地薅着他们的羊毛时，他的公司不得不转移业务重心，不再专注于随叫随到的廉价代客泊车服务。

The freeconomy may ultimately fizzle out when the tech boom sputters and venture capitalists grow less comfortable with their cash being used to win new customers at any cost. In the meantime, this bargain-hunting tells us three things about the mindsets of techies in Silicon Valley. First, to compete with giants like Google in a cut-throat talent market, companies are offering their employees a huge variety of perks, from meditation rooms to concierge services to egg-freezing for women. This corporate munificence has led to entitlement. Techies expect all companies, not just their employers, to take care of them.

当技术狂潮的热度散去，风险投资人对初创公司不惜代价地烧钱来赢取顾客垂青的做法愈加不满时，“免费经济”也许终将湮灭于历史之中。同时，这种“薅羊毛”的行为从三方面为我们解读了这些硅谷技术极客的思考模式。首先，试图与谷歌这样的行业巨头在残酷的市场里争夺人才，公司势必要为其雇员提供丰厚且多样的福利，从冥想室到助理服务再到为女性雇员提供冻卵不一而足。公司的这种慷慨让雇员们走向了特权思维，技术人才开始心怀期待，认为所有公司，不管是不是他们的雇主，都应照顾他们的需求。

concierge n. A helpful concierge is one of the perks of a nice company or hotel; the concierge's job isn't to carry your bags or check you in, but she / he will help you with almost anything else, including buying tickets and making reservations for you. 

Second, techies are more concerned about getting a good deal than they are about ownership – which explains why people are willing to return mattresses and why many techies get their sheets from a company that offers free samples. For them, living in the Bay Area feels like being at the centre of a well-funded research lab where local startups test new ideas and services to see how well they fare. “I love San Francisco. You see the future that will never work,” one high-profile entrepreneur mused at a dinner party, as a delivery person cycled up a steep hill in a far-flung part of the city to deliver food from miles away at almost no cost.

其次，技术极客们更在意的是做了笔划算的买卖，而非能否拥有某个产品—— 这也解释了为什么他们愿意把床垫退回去，为什么拿免费试用的床单。 对他们而言，生活在湾区就好比呆在一个资金充沛的研究实验室中心一样，这些初创公司就在这儿测试着他们的各种奇思妙想和服务并观测结果。 一位颇有名气的企业家在一次晚餐聚会上若有所思地说：“我爱旧金山！ 在这你能看到一个别处不可能实现的未来！”此时，外卖送餐员正从很远的地方骑着车爬上陡峭的山路，到这座城市偏僻的一隅来送餐，而费用几乎为零。

Third, and most importantly, exploiting the freeconomy is a way to take back control. Tech companies have amassed fortunes by tracking consumers, gathering as much data as they can about them, predicting what they are looking for and manipulating them to spend as much time with their products as possible. This is especially true for firms like Facebook that are now under fire for making money out of surveilling consumers across the internet. But plenty of other companies make it their business to know consumers: they employ people to study users’ locations and behaviour in order to lure them in.

再次，也是最重要的一点，即薅“免费经济”的羊毛是一种夺回控制权的表现。 科技公司通过追踪消费者，尽可能多地收集他们的数据，预测他们的需求，增加用户粘性等手段积累了大量财富。 脸书这样的公司尤其如此。如今，该公司因从监视全网用户中谋利而饱受抨击，但很多其他公司仍执迷于此道来了解用户：他们雇人研究用户的坐标位置和在线行为，从而吸引消费者咬饵入局。 

For my mattress-scheming friend, getting free things from companies “in some small way allows you to reclaim sovereignty on your own internal state. It’s David versus Goliath. It’s sticking up for the individual over the company.” And who doesn’t like rooting for the little guy, even if his slingshot was heavily discounted?

对我那个实施 “床垫计划”的朋友来说，从公司拿免费品， “一小部分也是让你拿回自我主权的一种体现。这就像大卫对抗歌利亚，你要捍卫自己而不是公司的利益。”就算人们严重地低估了大卫的作战能力，但谁不想为这个小个子喝彩呢？

stick up for support or defend (a person or cause)

David versus Goliath “Survivor: David vs. Goliath” is the 37th season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. The season features 20 new contestants divided into two tribes embodied by two biblical figures: 'David', composed of ten underdogs who constantly have to overcome obstacles, and 'Goliath', composed of ten overachievers who have used their advantages in life to excel in their fields.

圣经中关于大卫迎战歌利亚的故事见下链接

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=%E6%92%92%E6%AF%8D%E8%80%B3%E8%AE%B0%E4%B8%8A+17&version=CCB

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• 本文原载于 1843

• 原文链接：https://www.1843magazine.com/upfront/postcard-from-silicon-valley/how-to-hack-the-freeconomy

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