半影先生的24小时营业书店

Requirements：

1. You must always be here from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. exactly. You must not be late. You cannot leave early.

2. You may not read， examine， inspect， or otherwise touch any of the books in this store—unless you are retrieving it for a customer.

3. You must keep precise records of all purchases. Time. Amount. The customers appearance. His state of mind. How he asks for the book. How he receives it. Does he appear to be injured. Is he wearing a sprig of rosemary on his hat. And so on.

工作须知：

一、从晚上10点到早上6点，你必须乖乖呆在这，不许迟到，不许早退。

二、你不能阅读、翻看、检查或以其他任何形式触碰店里的书——除非是替顾客放回去他们不买的书。

三、你必须准确地记录每一笔购买：时间、数量、顾客的长相、他的言谈举止、他询问书的方式、他接过书的方式、他看起来是不是受伤了、帽子上是否别了一小枝迷迭香。诸如此类。

None of this represented the glorious next stage of human evolution， but I was learning things. I was moving up. But then the economy took a dip， and it turns out that in a recession， people want good old-fashioned bubbly oblong bagels， not smooth alien-spaceship bagels， not even if theyre sprinkled with precision-milled rock salt.

这里没有一件事能领我走向人生下一个辉煌的舞台，但好歹我能学到知识，我在进步。可接着经济走下坡路。原来在经济萧条时期，人们想要那种复古的，看起来很欢腾的椭圆形百吉饼，而不是那种平滑的外星太空船造型的百吉饼，就算上面撒的是精细碾磨过的岩盐粉也没用。

The ex-Googlers were accustomed to success and they would not go quietly. They quickly rebranded to become the Old Jerusalem Bagel Company and abandoned the 1）algorithm entirely so the bagels started coming out blackened and irregular. They instructed me to make the website look old-timey， a task that burdened my soul and earned me zero 2）AIGA awards. The marketing budget 3）dwindled， then disappeared. There was less and less to do. I wasnt learning anything and I wasnt moving anywhere.

Finally， the ex-Googlers 4）threw in the towel and moved to Costa Rica. The ovens went cold and the website went dark. There was no money for 5）severance， but I got to keep my companyissued Mac-Book and the Twitter account.

So then， after less than a year of employment， I was jobless. It turned out it was more than just the food chains that had 6）contracted. People were living in motels and tent cities. The whole economy suddenly felt like a game of 7）musical chairs， and I was convinced I needed to grab a seat， any seat， as fast as I could.

That was a depressing scenario when I considered the competition. I had friends who were designers like me， but they had already designed world-famous websites or advanced touch-screen interfaces， not just the logo for an upstart bagel shop. I had friends who worked at Apple. My best friend， Neel， ran his own company.

这群前谷歌精英们已经习惯了成功，他们可不会就此罢手。他们迅速地重塑了品牌，变身成古耶路撒冷百吉饼公司（译者注：公司原名为NewBagel），并且在生产中完全放弃了原来的规则，烤出来的百吉饼开始充满焦味，且不规则。他们要我把网站设计得更具旧时代的气息，这不是我想做的，这也不能给我赢得任何美国专业设计协会奖项。营销预算在缩减，直到为零。我可做的事情越来越少，我不再学到什么东西，我不再进步。

最终，前谷歌精英们放弃了，离开搬去了哥斯达黎加。烤箱冷了，网站也关闭了。我没有拿到遣散费，不过我得到了公司发的苹果笔记本电脑和推特账户。

就这样，工作还不到一年，我失业了。结果证明并不只是食品产业缩水了。人们开始住进汽车旅馆和帐篷区。整个经济的状况突然变得像一场音乐抢椅游戏，而我必须抢到一个座位，任何座位，越快越好。

可当我考虑到竞争的形势，眼前一片惨淡，就拿我那帮朋友来比吧，和我一样是设计师的有的已经设计过世界知名网站或是高端的触屏互动界面，而不是为新开的百吉饼商店做商标设计。我还有朋友曾在苹果公司工作，我最好的朋友尼尔还开过公司。

Another year at NewBagel and I would have been in good shape， but I hadnt lasted long enough to build my portfolio， or even get particularly good at anything. I had an art-school thesis on 8）Swiss typography （1957—1983） and I had a three-page website.

But I kept at it with the help-wanted ads. My standards were sliding swiftly. At first I had insisted I would only work at a company with a mission I believed in. Then I thought maybe it would be fine as long as I was learning something new. After that I decided it just couldnt be evil. Now I was carefully 9）delineating my personal definition of evil.

It was paper that saved me. It turned out that I could stay focused on job hunting if I got myself away from the Internet， so I would print out a 10）ream of help-wanted ads， drop my phone in a drawer， and go for a walk. Id crumple up the ads that required too much experience and deposit them in dented green trash cans along the way， and so by the time Id exhausted myself and hopped on a bus back home， Id have two or three promising 11）prospectuses folded in my back pocket， ready for follow-up.

This routine did lead me to a job， though not in the way Id expected.

San Francisco is a good place for walks if your legs are strong. The city is a tiny square 12）punctuated by steep hills and bounded on three sides by water， and as a result， there are surprise 13）vistas everywhere. Youll be walking along， minding your own business with a fistful of printouts， and suddenly the ground will fall away and youll see straight down to the bay， with the buildings lit up orange and pink along the way. San Franciscos architectural style didnt really make 14）inroads anywhere else in the country， and even when you here and youre used to it， it lends the vistas a strangeness： all the tall narrow houses， the windows like eyes and teeth， the wedding-cake 15）filigree. And looming behind it all， if youre facing the right direction， youll see the rusty ghost of the Golden Gate Bridge.

如果能在新百吉饼公司多呆一年，我可能状态会更好，我的简历会更加丰富，甚至在某些方面可以做得十分出色，可惜它没给我这个机会。我有一篇在艺术院校写的关于瑞士国际主义平面设计风格（1957—1983）的论文和一个三页长程序的网站。

我一直在浏览着各种招聘广告。我的择业标准下滑得厉害。最开始时，我坚持只去我认同对方企业使命的公司。然后，我觉得只要能学到新知识也行。再之后，我认为只要那家公司不做坏事就好。到现在，我小心谨慎地描述我个人对“坏事”的定义。

纸张确实帮了我大忙。原来我离开网络，就能专注于找工作，我打印了无数的招聘广告，把手机丢抽屉里，走出门去。那些要求过多经验的都被我揉成一团，丢进一路上经过的带着凹痕的绿色垃圾桶了。到最后我累得不行跳上一辆回家的公交车时，我的后袋里已有二三份叠好的还不错的公司简介，可以继续了解。

这样做确实让我找到了一份工作，但却不是以我预想的方式。

倘若你的腿足够强壮的话，旧金山是个适合步行的好地方。这座小小的四方城市三面环水，其间分布着大坡度的小山头，由此而生的是处处让人惊奇的街景。你沿路前行，手里揣着一把打印稿，正想着自己的事情，突然脚下的路消失了，取而代之的是一段急急的陡坡，你能直接看到远处的海湾，沿路是明亮的橙色和粉色楼房。旧金山的建筑风格独树一帜，在国内的其他地方鲜有见到，而就算你生活在这，熟悉这里的事物，它的街景也总是给你一种新奇的陌生感：满是高而窄的楼房，似眼睛又似牙齿的窗户，层层叠叠好似精致的婚礼蛋糕。如果你向着正确的方向，就能看到建筑物后那若隐若现地被锈蚀的金门大桥的身影。

I had followed one strange vista down a line of steep stair-stepped sidewalks， then walked along the water， taking the very long way home. I had followed the line of old piers—carefully skirting the 16）raucous 17）chowder of 18）Fishermans Wharf—and watched seafood restaurants fade into 19）nautical engineering firms and then social media startups. Finally， when my stomach rumbled， signaling its readiness for lunch， I had turned back in toward the city.

Whenever I walked the streets of San Francisco， Id watch for HELP WANTED signs in windows—which is not something you really do， right？ I should probably be more suspicious of those. Legitimate employers use 20）Craigslist.

Sure enough， the 24-hour bookstore did not have the look of a legitimate employer：

HELP WANTED

Late Shift

Specific Requirements

Good Benefits

Now： I was pretty sure “24-hour bookstore” was a 21）euphemism for something. It was on Broadway， in a euphemistic part of town. My help-wanted hike had taken me far from home； the place next door was called Bootys and it had a sign with neon legs that crossed and uncrossed.

I pushed the bookstores glass door. It made a bell tinkle brightly up above， and I stepped slowly through. I did not realize at the time what an important threshold I had just crossed.

我曾沿着一处陌生的街景来到一条有着陡峭阶梯的人行道，踱步至海边，绕了好长一段路回到家。我也曾寻着古老码头沿岸——仔细环视着渔人码头及周边这锅人声鼎沸的大杂烩——先是海鲜餐馆，然后是各种航海类工程公司，再到新兴的社交媒体公司。最后，当我的肚子咕噜噜提示我午餐时间到了，我才转而往城里走去。

当我在旧金山街头漫步时，我总会注意看橱窗里挂着的招聘广告——别人一般不这么做的，对吧？我本也应该抱着怀疑审视的心态，因为正常的雇主一般都上克雷格列表网站发布信息。

说得没错，二十四小时营业书店看起来就不像是个正常的雇主：

招聘

晚班

特殊要求

报酬丰厚

现在，我几乎可以肯定“二十四小时营业书店”是某种场所的委婉表达。这里是百老汇大街，市里说话最隐晦的地方。看来我的“读招聘广告之旅”走得够远的了；书店旁边就是一家叫做“美臀”的店，店门招牌上就挂着勾勒出各种美腿的霓虹灯。

推开书店的玻璃门，头顶的铃铛欢快地响起，我缓慢地踏进店里，并没有意识到自己已经踏上了一段非凡的旅程。翻译：lvsu