此時,蓋茨已經(jīng)是高年級學(xué)生,
and somehow he managed to convinced his teachers to let him decamp for Bonneville under the guise of an independent study project.
也不知道用了什么辦法,他成功地勸說了他的老師讓他離開學(xué)校,來到博納維爾,開展所謂的獨立學(xué)習(xí)計劃。
There he spent the spring writing code under the direction of a man named John Norton,
在那里,他在一個名叫約翰.諾頓的人的指導(dǎo)下,整個春天都在編寫程序。
who Gates says taught him as much about programming as almost anyone else he'd ever met.
蓋茨認為諾頓對自己編程知識方面的幫助,是他見過的人中無人可比的。
Those five years, from eighth grade to the end of high school, were Bill Gates's Hamburg,
這五年,從八年級到中學(xué)結(jié)束,便是比爾.蓋茨的“漢堡之旅”。
and by any measure, he was presented with an even more extraordinary series of opportunities than Bill Joy.
在很多方面,機遇都一次次眷顧他,他遠比比爾.喬伊幸運。
Opportunity number one was that Gates got sent to Lakeside.
首先值得慶幸的是,蓋茨被送到了湖邊學(xué)校。
How many high schools in the world had an access to a time-sharing terminal in 1968?
在1968年,世界上能有多少中學(xué)擁有分時系統(tǒng)的計算機終端?
Opportunity number two was that the mothers of Lakeside had enough money to pay for the school's computer fees.
第二件幸事,便是湖邊中學(xué)的母親們能夠為學(xué)校計算機的運作提供足夠的資金支持,
Number three was that, when that money ran out, one of the parents happened to work at C-Cubed,
第三件幸事,便是資金快耗盡的時候,剛好有位父母在電腦中心公司工作,
which happened to need someone to check its code on the weekends,
而公司剛好需要找人在周末測試他們的程序,
and which also happened not to care if weekends turned into weeknights.
并且從周末做到周日晚上都行,
Number four was that Gates just happened to find out about ISI,
第四件幸事,便是蓋茨遇上了ISI,
and ISI just happened to need someone to work on its payroll software.
而ISI剛好需要人手幫他們開發(fā)工資單程序,
And number five was that Gates happened to live within walking distance of the University of Washington.
第五件幸事,便是蓋茨住的地方離華盛頓大學(xué)很近,從家里到華盛頓大學(xué)只需要步行就行;
And number six was that the university happened to have free computer time between three and six in the morning.
第六件幸事,就是剛好在凌晨3點到6點之間,可以免費上機,
And number seven was that TRW happened to call Bud Pembroke.
第七件幸事,便是TRW這家跨國公司剛好雇用了巴德.彭布羅克;
And number eight was that the best programmers Pembroke knew for that particular problem happened to be two high school kids.
第八件幸事,便是彭布羅克知道,能夠解決特殊問題的最好的程序員,是中學(xué)里的兩個孩子;
And number nine was that Lakeside was willing to let those kids spend their spring term miles away, writing code.
第九件幸事,便是湖邊學(xué)校允許它的學(xué)生在春季就讀時間內(nèi),到離學(xué)校數(shù)里之外去編程。
And what did virtually all those opportunities have in common?
那么,所有的幸運兒都有什么共同點?
They gate Bill Gates extra time to practice.
這些機遇給了蓋茨充分的訓(xùn)練時間。