ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jeff Bezos - Online commerce pioneer
As founder and CEO of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos defined online shopping and rewrote the rules of commerce, ushering in a new era in business. Time magazine named him Man of the Year in 1999.

Why you should listen

Jeff Bezos didn't invent online shopping, but he almost single-handedly turned it into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. His Amazon.com began as a bookstore in 1994, and quickly expanded into dozens of product categories, forcing the world's biggest retailers to rethink their business models, and ultimately changing the way people shop.

But Amazon.com isn't just an internet success story. It's the standard by which all web businesses are now judged -- if not by their shareholders, then by their customers. Amazon set a high bar for reliability and customer service, and also introduced a wide range of online retail conventions -- from user reviews and one-click shopping to the tab interface and shopping cart icon -- so commonplace we no longer think of them as once having been innovations.

When the Internet bubble burst, Amazon.com took a hit with the other e-commerce pioneers, but the fundamentally sound company hung tough. It now sells more than $10 billion a year of goods, profitably, and its technology will influence the changes to business and media that will come next. Amazon recently released Kindle, a wireless digital reading device, giving the term "page turning" a completely new definition. Bezos, meanwhile, is one of the few early Web CEOs who still run the companies they founded. Outside of his work with Amazon, he recently founded Blue Origin, a space-flight startup.

More profile about the speaker
Jeff Bezos | Speaker | TED.com
TED2003

Jeff Bezos: The electricity metaphor for the web's future

Jeff Bezos e a nova inovação da web

Filmed:
1,547,891 views

O apogeu e queda dos ponto-com é normalmente comparada à Corrida do Ouro. Mas o fundador da Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, acha que se parece mais com os primeiros dias da indústria da eletricidade.
- Online commerce pioneer
As founder and CEO of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos defined online shopping and rewrote the rules of commerce, ushering in a new era in business. Time magazine named him Man of the Year in 1999. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:26
When you think about resilience and technology it's actually much easier.
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Quando se pensa em durabilidade e tecnologia é mais fácil.
00:29
You're going to see some other speakers today, I already know,
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Vocês verão outros palestantes hoje, eu sei,
00:32
who are going to talk about breaking-bones stuff,
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que falarão sobre coisas que quebram ossos,
00:35
and, of course, with technology it never is.
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e, claro, a tecnologia nunca é assim.
00:37
So it's very easy, comparatively speaking, to be resilient.
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Então é fácil, comparativamente, ser durável.
00:41
I think that, if we look at what happened on the Internet,
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Se olharmos o que aconteceu à internet --
00:43
with such an incredible last half a dozen years,
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nesta meia dúzia de anos incríveis
00:47
that it's hard to even get the right analogy for it.
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até difícil comparar a algo.
00:50
A lot of how we decide, how we're supposed to react to things
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Muito de como decidimos, como devemos reagir às coisas
00:54
and what we're supposed to expect about the future
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e o que devemos esperar do futuro
00:56
depends on how we bucket things
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depende de como aceitamos as coisas
00:58
and how we categorize them.
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e como as categorizamos.
00:59
And so I think the tempting analogy for the boom-bust
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A analogia fácil para o apogeu e queda
01:03
that we just went through with the Internet is a gold rush.
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que acabamos de viver é a corrida do ouro.
01:07
It's easy to think of this analogy as very different
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É fácil achar que esta analogia é bem melhor
01:10
from some of the other things you might pick.
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que outras que você possa escolher.
01:12
For one thing, both were very real.
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Pra começar, ambas são bem reais.
01:14
In 1849, in that Gold Rush, they took over $700 million
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Em 1849, na Corrida do Ouro, tiraram mais de $700 milhões
01:18
worth of gold out of California. It was very real.
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em ouro da Califórnia. Isso foi bem real.
01:20
The Internet was also very real. This is a real way for humans to
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A internet também é bem real. É uma maneira legítima de
01:24
communicate with each other. It's a big deal.
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comunicação. É muita coisa.
01:27
Huge boom. Huge boom. Huge bust. Huge bust.
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Grande crescimento, grande queda.
01:31
You keep going, and both things are lots of hype.
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E ambas geraram muito hype.
01:34
I don't have to remind you of all the hype
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Não preciso lembrá-los do hype.
01:37
that was involved with the Internet -- like GetRich.com.
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que envolveu a internet -- como GetRich.com.
01:40
But you had the same thing with the Gold Rush. "Gold. Gold. Gold."
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Mas era a mesma coisa da Corrida do Ouro. "Ouro. Ouro. Ouro."
01:43
Sixty-eight rich men on the Steamer Portland. Stacks of yellow metal.
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"Sessenta e oito homens ricos em Portland. Pilhas de metal amarelo."
01:47
Some have 5,000. Many have more.
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"Alguns têm cinco mil. Muitos têm mais."
01:50
A few bring out 100,000 dollars each.
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"Outros com mais de $100.000, cada."
01:54
People would get very excited about this when they read these articles.
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As pessoas ficavam muito excitadas quando liam esses artigos.
01:57
"The Eldorado of the United States of America:
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"O Eldorado dos EUA."
02:00
the discovery of inexhaustible gold mines in California."
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"A descoberta de minas de ouro intermináveis na Califórnia."
02:06
And the parallels between the Gold Rush and the Internet Rush continue very strongly.
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Os paralelos entre a Corrida do Ouro e a Corrida da Internet continuam fortes.
02:10
So many people left what they were doing.
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Muita gente abandonou o que fazia.
02:13
And what would happen is -- and the Gold Rush went on for years.
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E a Corrida do Ouro perdurou por anos.
02:16
People on the East Coast in 1849, when they first started to get the news,
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Pessoas da Costa Leste, em 1949, ao ouvir as notícias,
02:20
they thought, "Ah, this isn't real."
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pensaram, "Ah, isso não é real."
02:22
But they keep hearing about people getting rich,
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Mas continuaram a ouvir de gente ficando rica,
02:25
and then in 1850 they still hear that. And they think it's not real.
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até 1850. E acharam que era mentira.
02:28
By about 1852, they're thinking, "Am I the stupidest person on Earth
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A partir de 1852, pensaram "Eu sou a pessoa mais estúpida da Terra
02:33
by not rushing to California?" And they start to decide they are.
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por não correr pra Califórnia?" E começaram a achar que eram.
02:37
These are community affairs, by the way.
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E são decisões comunitárias, por sinal.
02:39
Local communities on the East Coast would get together and whole teams
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Pequenas comunidades do Leste se uniriam em equipes
02:42
of 10, 20 people would caravan across the United States,
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de 10 ou 20 pessoas e atravessariam do país,
02:45
and they would form companies.
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e formariam empresas.
02:47
These were typically not solitary efforts. But no matter what,
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Estes não eram empreendimentos solitários. Mas de qualquer maneira,
02:50
if you were a lawyer or a banker, people dropped what they were doing,
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sendo advogados, ou bancários, as pessoas largavam os empregos,
02:53
no matter what skill set they had, to go pan for gold.
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não importa quão qualificados, para ir peneirar ouro.
02:57
This guy on the left, Dr. Richard Beverley Cole,
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Este cara na esquerda, Dr. Richard Beverley Cole,
03:00
he lived in Philadelphia and he took the Panama route.
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vivia na Filadélfia e seguiu para o Panamá.
03:03
They would take a ship down to Panama, across the isthmus,
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Eles embarcariam para o Panamá, através do canal,
03:06
and then take another ship north.
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e pegariam outro barco para o Norte.
03:08
This guy, Dr. Toland, went by covered wagon to California.
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Este cara, Dr. Toland, chegou à Califórnia em um vagão fretado.
03:13
This has its parallels, too. Doctors leaving their practices.
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Isto tem paralelo, também. Médicos deixando sua prática.
03:17
These are both very successful -- a physician in one case,
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Estes são ambos bem sucedidos -- um médico de um lado;
03:19
a surgeon in the other.
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um cirurgião do outro.
03:20
Same thing happened on the Internet. You get DrKoop.com.
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O mesmo aconteceu na internet. Tínhamos DrKoop.com.
03:24
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
03:25
In the Gold Rush, people literally jumped ship.
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Na Corrida do Ouro, as pessoas literalmente pularam do barco.
03:28
The San Francisco harbor was clogged with 600 ships at the peak
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A baía de San Francisco ficou engarrafada com 600 embarcações
03:35
because the ships would get there and the crews would abandon
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porque a tripulação abandonava os barcos
03:37
to go search for gold.
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para procurar por ouro.
03:39
So there were literally 600 captains and 600 ships.
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Então haviam literalmente 600 capitães e 600 barcos.
03:43
They turned the ships into hotels, because they couldn't sail them anywhere.
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Eles transformaram os barcos em hotéis, porque não conseguiriam navegar.
03:46
You had dotcom fever. And you had gold fever.
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Houve a febre das ponto-com e a febre do ouro.
03:51
And you saw some of the excesses
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E víamos alguns dos excessos
03:53
that the dotcom fever created and the same thing happened.
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que a febre das ponto-com causou e o mesmo havia acontecido.
03:57
The fort in San Francisco at the time had about 1,300 soldiers.
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O forte de San Francisco tinha cerca de 1300 soldados.
04:01
Half of them deserted to go look for gold.
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Metade desertou em busca de ouro.
04:05
And they wouldn't let the other half out to go look for the first half
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E não deixavem a outra metade sair para buscar a primeira
04:08
because they were afraid they wouldn't come back.
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porque temiam que não voltassem.
04:10
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
04:12
And one of the soldiers wrote home, and this is the sentence that he put:
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E um dos soldados escreveu pra casa, e isso foi o que disse:
04:15
"The struggle between right and six dollars a month
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"A luta entre o certo e $6 por mês
04:19
and wrong and 75 dollars a day is a rather severe one."
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contra o errado e $75 por dia é um tanto severa."
04:27
They had bad burn rate in the Gold Rush. A very bad burn rate.
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Ele tinham uma péssima estimativa de perda na Corrida do Ouro.
04:31
This is actually from the Klondike Gold Rush. This is the White Pass Trail.
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Isto é da Corrida do Ouro de Klondike. Esta era a trilha White Pass.
04:35
They loaded up their mules and their horses.
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Eles carregaram seus cavalos e mulas.
04:39
And they didn't plan right.
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E eles não planejaram direito.
04:43
And they didn't know how far they would really have to go,
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E não sabiam ao certo a distância que teriam que percorrer,
04:46
and they overloaded the horses with hundreds and hundreds of pounds of stuff.
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e sobrecarregaram os animais com centenas de coisas.
04:50
In fact it was so bad that most of the horses died
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De fato, era tanta carga, que a maioria dos cavalos morreu
04:54
before they could get where they were going.
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antes de chegar onde iam.
04:56
It got renamed the "Dead Horse Trail."
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A estrada passou a se chamar "Trilha do Cavalo Morto".
04:58
And the Canadian Minister of the Interior wrote this at the time:
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E o Ministro de Interior do Canadá escreveu isso, à época:
05:02
"Thousands of pack horses lie dead along the way,
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"Milhares de animais de carga jazem mortos pelo caminho,
05:05
sometimes in bunches under the cliffs,
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às vezes aos montes, no fundo de penhascos,
05:07
with pack saddles and packs where they've fallen from the rock above,
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com sacolas em cima, de onde eles caíram,
05:11
sometimes in tangled masses, filling the mud holes
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às vezes em massas confusas, enchendo poças
05:14
and furnishing the only footing for our poor pack animals on the march,
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e criando o único solo firme para nossos animais de carga,
05:17
often, I regret to say, exhausted, but still alive,
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geralmente, lamento dizer, exaustos, mas vivos,
05:21
a fact we were unaware of, until after the miserable wretches
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fato do qual não estávamos cientes, até que
05:24
turned beneath the hooves of our cavalcade.
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eles se movessem sob nossa cavalgada.
05:27
The eyeless sockets of the pack animals everywhere
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As órbitas oculares vazias nos montes de animais
05:29
account for the myriads of ravens along the road.
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indicam a miríade de corvos ao longo da estrada.
05:32
The inhumanity which this trail has been witness to,
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A selvageria que esta rota testemunha,
05:34
the heartbreak and suffering which so many have undergone,
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o sofrimento que tantos têm passado
05:37
cannot be imagined. They certainly cannot be described."
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não podem ser imaginados. Certamente não podem ser descritos."
05:42
And you know, without the smell that would have accompanied that,
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E vocês sabem, sem o cheiro que acompanharia aquilo,
05:47
we had the same thing on the Internet: very bad burn rate calculations.
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tivemos o mesmo com a internet: estimativas de perdas muito ruins.
05:52
I'll just play one of these and you'll remember it.
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Vou passar um desses e vocês vão lembrar.
05:55
This is a commercial that was played on the Super Bowl in the year 2000.
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Este é um comercial do Super Bowl de 2000.
05:59
(Video): Bride #1: You said you had a large selection of invitations. Clerk: But we do.
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(Video): Noiva #1: Você disse que tinha muitos modelos de convites. Atendente: Mas temos.
06:03
Bride #2: Then why does she have my invitation?
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Noiva #2: Então por que ela tem o meu?
06:06
Announcer: What may be a little thing to some ... Bride #3: You are mine, little man.
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Anunciante: O que pode ser bobagem para uns... Noiva #3: Você é meu, homenzinho.
06:11
Announcer: Could be a really big deal to you. Husband #1: Is that your wife?
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Anunciante: Pode valer muito para você. Marido #1: É a sua esposa?
06:15
Husband #2: Not for another 15 minutes. Announcer: After all, it's your special day.
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Marido #2: Só daqui a 15 minutos. Anunciante: Afinal, é seu dia especial.
06:23
OurBeginning.com. Life's an event. Announce it to the world.
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OurBeginning.com. A vida é um evento, anuncie para o mundo.
06:26
Jeff Bezos: It's very difficult to figure out what that ad is for.
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Jeff Bezos: É muito difícil descobrir do que é este comercial.
06:30
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
06:33
But they spent three and a half million dollars
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Mas eles gastaram três e meio milhões de dólares
06:35
in the 2000 Super Bowl to air that ad,
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no Super Bowl de 2000 por este anúncio.
06:38
even though, at the time, they only had a million dollars in annual revenue.
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Apesar de terem uma receita de um milhão por ano, na época.
06:44
Now, here's where our analogy with the Gold Rush starts to diverge,
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Aqui é onde nossa analogia com a Corrida do Ouro começa a divergir,
06:48
and I think rather severely.
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severamente, eu acho.
06:50
And that is, in a gold rush, when it's over, it's over.
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Porque, numa corrida pelo ouro, quando acaba, acabou.
06:54
Here's this guy: "There are many men in Dawson
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Como disse esse cara: "Há muitos em Dawson,
06:57
at the present time who feel keenly disappointed.
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agora, sentindo-se ansiosamente desapontados.
06:59
They've come thousands of miles on a perilous trip, risked life, health and property,
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Viajaram milhares de milhas, arriscaram sua vida, saúde e propriedade,
07:04
spent months of the most arduous labor a man can perform
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gastaram meses nos mais árduos trabalhos possíveis,
07:07
and at length with expectations raised to the highest pitch
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animados pelas mais altas expectativas,
07:10
have reached the coveted goal only to discover
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alcançaram o cobiçado objetivo apenas para descobrir
07:12
the fact that there is nothing here for them."
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o fato de que não havia nada lá para eles."
07:16
And that was, of course, the very common story.
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E esta foi, claro, uma história comum.
07:19
Because when you take out that last piece of gold --
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Porque quando o último pedaço de ouro é tirado --
07:21
and they did incredibly quickly. I mean, if you look at the 1849 Gold Rush --
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e o fizeram incrivelmente rápido. Se virmos a Corrida do Ouro de 1849 --
07:26
the entire American river region, within two years --
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toda a região dos rios americanos, em dois anos --
07:29
every stone had been turned. And after that, only big companies
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cada pedra foi revirada. E, após isso, só grandes empresas,
07:33
who used more sophisticated mining technologies
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com tecnologias mais sofisticadas,
07:35
started to take gold out of there.
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conseguiram tirar mais ouro dali.
07:38
So there's a much better analogy that allows you to be incredibly optimistic
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Então há uma analogia melhor, que permite um incrível otimismo,
07:44
and that analogy is the electric industry.
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e ela é com a indústria elétrica.
07:49
And there are a lot of similarities between the Internet and the electric industry.
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Existem muitas similaridades entre as indústrias da internet e elétrica.
07:53
With the electric industry you actually have to --
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Na indústria elétrica, você realmente tem que --
07:56
one of them is that they're both sort of thin,
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uma delas é que ambas são meio esguias,
07:58
horizontal, enabling layers that go across lots of different industries.
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horizontais, permitindo camadas que permeiam outras indústrias.
08:01
It's not a specific thing.
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Não é algo específico.
08:05
But electricity is also very, very broad, so you have to sort of narrow it down.
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Mas eletricidade é muito amplo, então temos que focar.
08:10
You know, it can be used as an incredible means of transmitting power.
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Sabe, pode ser usada como um incrível meio de transmissão de energia.
08:14
It's an incredible means of coordinating,
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É um meio incrível de coordenar,
08:16
in a very fine-grained way, information flows.
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a pente fino, transmissão de informação.
08:18
There's a bunch of things that are interesting about electricity.
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Há muitas coisas interessantes na eletricidade.
08:21
And the part of the electric revolution that I want to focus on
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E a parte da revolução elétrica que eu quero focar
08:26
is sort of the golden age of appliances.
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é a era de ouro dos eletrodomésticos.
08:29
The killer app that got the world ready for appliances was the light bulb.
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O sucesso que preparou o mundo para os eletrodomésticos foi a lâmpada.
08:34
So the light bulb is what wired the world.
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Então a lâmpada foi o que conectou o mundo.
08:36
And they weren't thinking about appliances when they wired the world.
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E ninguém pensou em eletrodomésticos quando conectaram o mundo.
08:40
They were really thinking about --
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Eles realmente pensavam em --
08:42
they weren't putting electricity into the home;
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não estavam eletrificando as casas.
08:44
they were putting lighting into the home.
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Estavam só iluminando.
08:47
And, but it really -- it got the electricity. It took a long time.
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E isto trouxe a eletricidade. Mas demorou.
08:51
This was a huge -- as you would expect -- a huge capital build out.
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Foi um grande investimento. Como era de se esperar.
08:55
All the streets had to be torn up.
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Todas as ruas tiveram que ser abertas.
08:58
This is work going on down in lower Manhattan
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Isto é o trabalho na baixa Manhattan
09:02
where they built some of the first electric power generating stations.
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onde construiram algumas das primeiras estações geradoras.
09:06
And they're tearing up all the streets.
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E estão abrindo todas as ruas.
09:08
The Edison Electric Company, which became Edison General Electric,
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A Edison Electric Company, que virou a Edison General Electric,
09:11
which became General Electric,
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que virou a General Electric,
09:13
paid for all of this digging up of the streets. It was incredibly expensive.
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pagou toda esta escavação nas ruas. Foi incrivelmente caro.
09:19
But that is not the -- and that's not the part that's really most similar to the Web.
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Mas esta não é a parte mais parecida com a Web.
09:26
Because, remember, the Web got to stand
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Porque, lembrem, a Web precisou
09:28
on top of all this heavy infrastructure
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de toda esta pesada infraestrutura
09:30
that had been put in place because of the long-distance phone network.
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que foi construída para a rede de ligações telefônicas de linga distância.
09:33
So all of the cabling and all of the heavy infrastructure --
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Então todos os cabos e a pesada infraestrutura --
09:36
I'm going back now to, sort of, the explosive part of the Web in 1994,
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Estou voltando agora para a parte explosiva da Web, em 1994,
09:40
when it was growing 2,300 percent a year.
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quando ela crescia 2.300% por ano.
09:42
How could it grow at 2,300 percent a year in 1994
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Como ela poderia crescer 2.300% por ano em 1994
09:45
when people weren't really investing in the Web?
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quando ninguém estava realmente investindo nela?
09:48
Well, it was because that heavy infrastructure had already been laid down.
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Bem, é porque a infraestrutura já estava lá.
09:52
So the light bulb laid down the heavy infrastructure,
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Então a lâmpada construiu a pesada infraestrutura,
09:55
and then home appliances started coming into being.
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e os eletrodomésticos começaram a existir.
09:58
And this was huge. The first one was the electric fan --
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E era fantástico. O primeiro foi um ventilador --
10:01
this was the 1890 electric fan.
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este era o ventilador elétrico de 1890.
10:04
And the appliances, the golden age of appliances really lasted --
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E os eletrodomésticos, a era de ouro realmente durou --
10:08
it depends how you want to measure it --
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depende de como você medir --
10:10
but it's anywhere from 40 to 60 years. It goes on a long time.
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mas é cerca de 40 a 60 anos. Durou muito tempo.
10:13
It starts about 1890. And the electric fan was a big success.
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Começa por volta de 1890. E o ventilador foi um grande sucesso.
10:19
The electric iron, also very big.
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O ferro elétrico, também.
10:22
By the way, this is the beginning of the asbestos lawsuit.
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Por sinal, isso foi o começo dos processos por amianto.
10:26
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
10:27
There's asbestos under that handle there.
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Tem amianto sob aquele cabo.
10:32
This is the first vacuum cleaner, the 1905 Skinner Vacuum,
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Este foi o primeiro aspirador de pó, o Skinner Vacuum, de 1905,
10:35
from the Hoover Company. And this one weighed 92 pounds
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da Hoover Company. Só pesava 42 kg
10:40
and took two people to operate and cost a quarter of a car.
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duas pessoas operavam e custava um quarto do preço de um carro.
10:45
So it wasn't a big seller.
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Então não vendeu muito.
10:47
This was truly, truly an early-adopter product --
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Este era um produto de usuários precoces --
10:51
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
10:52
the 1905 Skinner Vacuum.
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o Skinner Vacuum de 1905.
10:54
But three years later, by 1908, it weighed 40 pounds.
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Mas três anos depois, em 1908, pesava 18 kg.
10:59
Now, not all these things were highly successful.
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Nem todas essas coisas fizeram muito sucesso.
11:03
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
11:05
This is the electric tie press, which never really did catch on.
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Esta é a passadeira de gravatas elétrica, que nunca pegou.
11:08
People, I guess, decided that they would not wrinkle their ties.
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Acho que as pessoas decidiram não amassar suas gravatas.
11:15
These never really caught on either:
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Estes nunca pegaram também:
11:17
the electric shoe warmer and drier. Never a big seller.
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os aquecedores e secadores de sapato elétricos. Nunca venderam muito.
11:21
This came in, like, six different colors.
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Vinham em, tipo, seis cores diferentes.
11:23
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
11:25
I don't know why. But I thought, you know,
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Não sei como. Mas eu pensei, sabe,
11:28
sometimes it's just not the right time for an invention;
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às vezes não é o tempo certo pra uma invenção;
11:32
maybe it's time to give this one another shot.
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talvez devêssemos dar uma nova chance a esta.
11:35
So I thought we could build a Super Bowl ad for this.
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Então podemos anunciar no Super Bowl.
11:39
We'd need the right partner. And I thought that really --
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Precisamos do parceiro certo. E acho que --
11:43
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
11:45
I thought that would really work, to give that another shot.
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Acho que pode realmente pegar dessa vez.
11:49
Now, the toaster was huge
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Agora, a torradeira era um sucesso
11:51
because they used to make toast on open fires,
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porque costumavam tostar pão direto no fogo,
11:54
and it took a lot of time and attention.
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e consumia muito tempo e atenção.
11:56
I want to point out one thing. This is -- you guys know what this is.
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Quero destacar algo. Isto é -- vocês sabem o que é.
12:02
They hadn't invented the electric socket yet.
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Eles não haviam inventado as tomadas ainda.
12:05
So this was -- remember, they didn't wire the houses for electricity.
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Então -- lembrem, eles não conectaram as casas por conta da eletricidade.
12:08
They wired them for lighting. So your -- your appliances would plug in.
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Foi pela iluminação. Então -- seus eletrodomésticos seriam plugados.
12:12
They would -- each room typically had a light bulb socket at the top.
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Cada cômodo teria um conector de lâmpada no teto.
12:15
And you'd plug it in there.
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E você ligaria ali.
12:17
In fact, if you've seen the Carousel of Progress at Disney World,
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De fato, um passeio da Disney mostra isso,
12:20
you've seen this. Here are the cables coming up into this light fixture.
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Aqui estão os cabos subindo até o bocal da lâmpada.
12:24
All the appliances plug in there. And you would just unscrew your light bulb
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Todos os eletrodomésticos ligam lá. Você tiraria a lâmpada
12:28
if you wanted to plug in an appliance.
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se quisesse usar um eletrodoméstico.
12:30
The next thing that really was a big, big deal was the washing machine.
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O próximo grande, grande sucesso foi a máquina de lavar.
12:35
Now, this was an object of much envy and lust.
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Entendam, um objeto de desejo e inveja.
12:38
Everybody wanted one of these electric washing machines.
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Todos queriam uma dessas máquinas de lavar clássicas.
12:41
On the left-hand side, this was the soapy water.
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Do lado esquerdo, a água com sabão.
12:43
And there's a rotor there -- that this motor is spinning.
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Um rotor no meio -- que está girando.
12:45
And it would clean your clothes.
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E isto limparia suas roupas.
12:47
This is the clean rinse-water. So you'd take the clothes out of here,
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Esta é a água limpa. Então você tiraria suas roupas dali,
12:50
put them in here, and then you'd run the clothes through this electric ringer.
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colocaria aqui, e então as passaria através dos tubos elétricos.
12:54
And this was a big deal.
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E era um grande sucesso.
12:56
You'd keep this on your porch. It was a little bit messy and kind of a pain.
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Eram mantidas no quintal. Era um pouco bagunçado e meio chato.
13:00
And you'd run a long cord into the house
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E você traria uma longa extensão de dentro da casa
13:03
where you could screw it into your light socket.
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onde estaria ligada a um bocal.
13:06
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
13:07
And that's actually kind of an important point in my presentation,
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E este é um ponto importante de minha apresentação,
13:10
because they hadn't invented the off switch.
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porque não haviam inventado a chave de desligar.
13:14
That was to come much later -- the off switch on appliances --
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Só veio bem mais tarde -- o botão de desligar dos eletrodomésticos --
13:17
because it didn't make any sense.
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porque não fazia sentido.
13:19
I mean, you didn't want this thing clogging up a light socket.
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Digo, você não ia querer o cabo pendurado pra sempre.
13:22
So you know, when you were done with it, you unscrewed it.
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Então, quando acabava, você, desenroscava ele.
13:25
That's what you did. You didn't turn it off.
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Era o que era feito. Não desligava.
13:27
And as I said before, they hadn't invented the electric outlet either,
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Como eu disse antes, não haviam inventado as tomadas ainda,
13:31
so the washing machine was a particularly dangerous device.
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então a máquina de lavar era um aparelho um tanto perigoso.
13:34
And there are --
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E existem --
13:36
when you research this, there are gruesome descriptions
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quando a gente pesquisa, existem descrições horrendas
13:39
of people getting their hair and clothes caught in these devices.
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de gente que prendeu roupas e cabelos a esses mecanismos.
13:44
And they couldn't yank the cord out
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E não podiam puxar o plugue
13:46
because it was screwed into a light socket inside the house.
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porque era atarrachado a um bocal dentro da casa.
13:50
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
13:51
And there was no off switch, so it wasn't very good.
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E não tinha chave de desligar, então não era muito legal.
13:56
And you might think that that was incredibly stupid of our ancestors
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E podemos pensar que era muita estupidez de nossos ancestrais
14:00
to be plugging things into a light socket like this.
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ligar coisas a bocais assim.
14:03
But, you know, before I get too far into condemning our ancestors,
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Mas, sabe, antes de condená-los muito,
14:07
I thought I'd show you: this is my conference room.
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Pensei em mostrar a vocês: esta é minha sala de reunião.
14:10
This is a total kludge, if you ask me.
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Uma gambiarra total, se querem saber.
14:13
First of all, this got installed upside down. This light socket --
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Primeiro, isto foi montado de cabeça pra baixo. Esta tomada --
14:16
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
14:17
and so the cord keeps falling out, so I taped it in.
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então o cabo fica caindo, aí eu colei.
14:19
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
14:21
This is supposed -- don't even get me started. But that's not the worst one.
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Sem falar que -- Isto não é o pior.
14:25
This is what it looks like under my desk.
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Isto é a visão debaixo da minha mesa.
14:27
I took this picture just two days ago.
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Tirei esta foto dois dias atrás.
14:30
So we really haven't progressed that much since 1908.
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Então não progredimos tanto desde 1908.
14:33
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
14:35
It's a total, total mess.
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É uma confusão total.
14:37
And, you know, we think it's getting better,
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E pensamos que está melhorando,
14:40
but have you tried to install 802.11 yourself?
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mas já tentou instalar uma rede Wi-Fi sozinho?
14:44
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
14:45
I challenge you to try. It's very hard.
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Eu o desafio. É muito difícil.
14:47
I know Ph.D.s in Computer Science --
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Eu conheço PhDs em Ciência da Computação --
14:50
this process has brought them to tears, absolute tears. (Laughter)
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que foram reduzidos a lágrimas pelo processo.
14:54
And that's assuming you already have DSL in your house.
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E isso, pressupondo que você já tem banda larga na casa.
15:00
Try to get DSL installed in your house.
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Tente instalar a banda larga sozinho.
15:03
The engineers who do it everyday can't do it.
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Engenheiros que fazem isso diariamente não conseguem.
15:05
They have to -- typically, they come three times.
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Tipicamente, eles vêm três vezes.
15:08
And one friend of mine was telling me a story:
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E um amigo me contou
15:10
not only did they get there and have to wait,
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que não apenas teve que esperar eles chegarem,
15:13
but then the engineers, when they finally did get there,
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mas que, quando finalmente chegaram,
15:16
for the third time, they had to call somebody.
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pela terceira vez, tiveram que ligar pra alguém.
15:18
And they were really happy that the guy had a speakerphone
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E ficaram muito felizes do meu amigo ter viva-voz
15:21
because then they had to wait on hold for an hour
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porque tiveram que ficar na linha por uma hora
15:23
to talk to somebody to give them an access code
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esperando um código de acesso
15:25
after they got there.
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depois que tudo estava pronto.
15:27
So we're not -- we're pretty kludge-y ourselves.
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Então, ainda somos bastante bagunceiros.
15:31
By the way, DSL is a kludge.
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Por sinal, banda larga é uma gambiarra.
15:33
I mean, this is a twisted pair of copper that was never designed
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Digo, é um par de cabos de cobre que nunca foram feitos
15:35
for the purpose it's being put to --
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para o propósito em uso.
15:37
you know it's the whole thing --
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A coisa toda, sabe?
15:39
we're very, very primitive. And that's kind of the point.
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somos muito, muito primitivos. E esta é a questão.
15:43
Because, you know, resilience -- if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush,
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Porque, resistência -- nos termos da Corrida do Ouro,
15:47
then you'd be pretty depressed right now
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é muito deprimente
15:49
because the last nugget of gold would be gone.
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porque a última pedra de ouro se foi há muito tempo.
15:52
But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn't a last nugget.
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Mas o bom é que, com a inovação, não existe última pedra.
15:55
Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.
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Cada coisa nova gera duas novas questões e duas oportunidades.
16:00
And if you believe that, then you believe that where we are --
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E se você acredita nisso, pode ver que estamos --
16:04
this is what I think -- I believe that where we are with the incredible kludge --
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isso é o que eu penso: com toda essa gambiarra por aí --
16:08
and I haven't even talked about user interfaces on the Web --
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e eu nem falei de interfaces da Web ainda.
16:12
but there's so much kludge, so much terrible stuff --
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Mas tem tanta gambiarra, tanta coisa terrível,
16:15
we are at the 1908 Hurley washing machine stage with the Internet.
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que estamos no estágio máquina de lavar Hurley de 1908 da internet.
16:19
That's where we are. We don't get our hair caught in it,
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É onde estamos. Não prendemos nosso cabelo,
16:22
but that's the level of primitiveness of where we are.
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mas somos tão primitivos quanto.
16:25
We're in 1908.
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Estamos em 1908.
16:27
And if you believe that, then stuff like this doesn't bother you. This is 1996:
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E se você acredita nisso, coisas assim não incomodam. Isto é de 1996:
16:31
"All the negatives add up to making the online experience not worth the trouble."
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"A soma dos contras faz com que a experiência online não valha a pena."
16:35
1998: "Amazon.toast." In 1999: "Amazon.bomb."
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1998: "Amazon.brinde." Em 1999: "Amazon.bomba."
16:41
My mom hates this picture.
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Minha mãe odeia esta foto.
16:43
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
16:47
She -- but you know, if you really do believe that it's the very,
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Ela -- sabe, mas se você acredita que é só
16:50
very beginning, if you believe it's the 1908 Hurley washing machine,
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o começo, se entende que é a máquina de lavar Hurley de 1908,
16:54
then you're incredibly optimistic. And I do think that that's where we are.
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então você é otimista. E eu acredito que é onde estamos.
16:57
And I do think there's more innovation ahead of us
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E acredito que há mais inovação adiante
17:00
than there is behind us.
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do que já tivemos.
17:02
And in 1917, Sears -- I want to get this exactly right.
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E em 1917, a Sears -- Eu quero dizer certo.
17:07
This was the advertisement that they ran in 1917.
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Este foi o anúncio publicado em 1917.
17:11
It says: "Use your electricity for more than light."
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Ele diz: "Use sua eletricidade para mais do que iluminação."
17:14
And I think that's where we are.
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E eu acredito que é onde estamos.
17:16
We're very, very early. Thank you very much.
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Estamos bem no início. Muito obrigado.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jeff Bezos - Online commerce pioneer
As founder and CEO of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos defined online shopping and rewrote the rules of commerce, ushering in a new era in business. Time magazine named him Man of the Year in 1999.

Why you should listen

Jeff Bezos didn't invent online shopping, but he almost single-handedly turned it into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. His Amazon.com began as a bookstore in 1994, and quickly expanded into dozens of product categories, forcing the world's biggest retailers to rethink their business models, and ultimately changing the way people shop.

But Amazon.com isn't just an internet success story. It's the standard by which all web businesses are now judged -- if not by their shareholders, then by their customers. Amazon set a high bar for reliability and customer service, and also introduced a wide range of online retail conventions -- from user reviews and one-click shopping to the tab interface and shopping cart icon -- so commonplace we no longer think of them as once having been innovations.

When the Internet bubble burst, Amazon.com took a hit with the other e-commerce pioneers, but the fundamentally sound company hung tough. It now sells more than $10 billion a year of goods, profitably, and its technology will influence the changes to business and media that will come next. Amazon recently released Kindle, a wireless digital reading device, giving the term "page turning" a completely new definition. Bezos, meanwhile, is one of the few early Web CEOs who still run the companies they founded. Outside of his work with Amazon, he recently founded Blue Origin, a space-flight startup.

More profile about the speaker
Jeff Bezos | Speaker | TED.com