The Trouble with the Segway
Paul Graham examines why Segway failed to deliver on its promise, attributing it to the rider's smug appearance: standing upright while moving makes them look too effortless. He contrasts the Segway with Trevor Blackwell's one-wheeled Eunicycle, which gets smiles, while the Segway draws shouts like 'Too lazy to walk, ya fuckin homo?' from cars. Graham argues that Segway's easy funding allowed them to work in secret, insulated from real-world feedback. A thought experiment suggests a skateboard-like stance would be cooler. The article offers insight into product design and the social acceptance of technology.
July 2009 The Segway hasn't delivered on its initial promise, to put it mildly. There are several reasons why, but one is that people don't want to be seen riding them. Someone riding a Segway looks like a dork.
2009年7月 轻描淡写地说，Segway 并未兑现最初的承诺。原因有很多，但其中之一是人们不想被人看到骑它。骑 Segway 的人看起来像个傻瓜。
My friend Trevor Blackwell built his own Segway, which we called the Segwell. He also built a one-wheeled version, the Eunicycle, which looks exactly like a regular unicycle till you realize the rider isn't pedaling. He has ridden them both to downtown Mountain View to get coffee. When he rides the Eunicycle, people smile at him. But when he rides the Segwell, they shout abuse from their cars: "Too lazy to walk, ya fuckin homo?"
我的朋友 Trevor Blackwell 自己动手制作了一辆 Segway，我们称之为 Segwell。他还制作了一个单轮版本，叫做 Eunicycle，外观与普通独轮车无异，直到你发现骑手并未蹬踏。他骑着这两辆车去山景城中心买咖啡。当他骑 Eunicycle 时，人们对他微笑；但当他骑 Segwell 时，坐在车里的人会冲他大喊脏话：“懒得走路了是吧，你这个死基佬？”
Why do Segways provoke this reaction? The reason you look like a dork riding a Segway is that you look smug. You don't seem to be working hard enough.
Someone riding a motorcycle isn't working any harder. But because he's sitting astride it, he seems to be making an effort. When you're riding a Segway you're just standing there. And someone who's being whisked along while seeming to do no work — someone in a sedan chair, for example — can't help but look smug.
为什么 Segway 会招致这种反应？骑 Segway 时你看起来像个傻瓜，是因为你显得自鸣得意。你似乎不够卖力。骑摩托车的人并不更费劲，但由于他跨坐在车上，看起来像是在付出努力。而骑 Segway 时你只是站在那里。一个被快速运送却看似毫不费力的人——比如坐在轿子里的人——难免会显得自得。
Try this thought experiment and it becomes clear: imagine something that worked like the Segway, but that you rode with one foot in front of the other, like a skateboard. That wouldn't seem nearly as uncool.
试试这个思想实验，一切就清晰了：想象一个功能类似 Segway、但需要你双脚一前一后站立骑行的东西，就像滑板那样。那样就不会显得那么逊了。
So there may be a way to capture more of the market Segway hoped to reach: make a version that doesn't look so easy for the rider. It would also be helpful if the styling was in the tradition of skateboards or bicycles rather than medical devices.
因此，或许有一种方法可以占领 Segway 曾希望触及的更大市场：推出一款让骑者看起来不那么轻松的版本。此外，如果设计风格沿袭滑板或自行车而非医疗器械，也会有所帮助。
Curiously enough, what got Segway into this problem was that the company was itself a kind of Segway. It was too easy for them; they were too successful raising money. If they'd had to grow the company gradually, by iterating through several versions they sold to real users, they'd have learned pretty quickly that people looked stupid riding them. Instead they had enough to work in secret. They had focus groups aplenty, I'm sure, but they didn't have the people yelling insults out of cars. So they never realized they were zooming confidently down a blind alley.
有趣的是，Segway 陷入这种困境，恰恰是因为公司本身就像一辆 Segway——一切来得太容易了：他们融资太顺利。如果他们必须逐步发展公司，通过向真实用户销售几个版本并不断迭代，他们很快就会意识到人们骑上去显得很蠢。相反，他们资金充裕，得以秘密研发。我相信他们做了大量焦点小组测试，但却没有遇到从车里朝他们大喊脏话的人。因此，他们从未意识到自己正自信地驶入一条死胡同。