Leaving Mozilla

After more than 15 years, I will be leaving Mozilla on July 21. Friday, June 12th will be my last “real” day, as I am planning on using my 200+ hours of vacation backlog. I’ve had the honor of working with some of you, and others have no idea who I am, but you might have a sticker of mine. While I have mostly enjoyed my time here, there are a few things I wish to say upon my departure:

在经历了 15 年多的工作后，我将于 7 月 21 日离开 Mozilla。6 月 12 日星期五将是我最后一个“实际”工作日，因为我计划用掉我积攒的 200 多个小时的假期。我有幸与你们中的一些人共事过，虽然其他人可能不知道我是谁，但你们或许拥有过我设计的贴纸。尽管我在这里度过了一段愉快的时光，但在离别之际，我仍有几句话想说：

You Are More Important Than You Think

I’m not referring to you The Corporate Entity or you the Collective Organization. I mean you. The person reading this right now. I have beat the drum for mentoring for quite some time. Mentoring is a lot of things, but essentially, it’s finding someone else to talk to. In a company full of fellow introverts, I get that idea is uncomfortable and hard, but really, it’s one of the best things for both you personally and your career. You’re smart and can both learn and teach, no matter what your level of experience or background. Please try it.

你比你想象的更重要

我指的不是作为“企业实体”或“集体组织”的你们，我指的是你——此刻正在阅读这篇文章的你。长期以来，我一直大力倡导导师制度。导师制度包含很多层面，但本质上，它就是找到一个可以交流的对象。在一家充满内向者的公司里，我明白这个想法可能会让人感到不适和困难，但实际上，这对你个人和你的职业生涯都是最有益的事情之一。无论你的经验水平或背景如何，你都很聪明，既能学习也能教导他人。请尝试一下。

You Are Part of Something Far Larger

If you’re working here, you’re one of the fortunate. There are a bunch of people who wanted to build a browser that could stand toe-to-toe with ones built by people with a lot of money. A browser that put their interests first. That worked how they wanted. We’re the lucky, tiny portion that can get paid, but it comes with a price. It is our obligation to listen to the people who aren’t lucky enough to get paid. The folk out there are our community. They’re our peers. They are the ones who trust that we will continue to work for them, because if not, they’ll find someone else who will. We run the very real risk of losing those people.

你是更宏大事业的一部分

如果你在这里工作，你是幸运的。有一群人想要构建一款能够与那些财力雄厚的公司所开发的浏览器相抗衡的产品。一款将用户利益放在首位、按照用户意愿运作的浏览器。我们是那极少数能够获得报酬的幸运儿，但这伴随着代价。我们有义务倾听那些没有机会获得报酬的人的声音。外面的大众是我们的社区，是我们的同伴。他们信任我们会继续为他们工作，因为如果不是这样，他们会找到其他人来替代我们。我们正面临失去这些人的真实风险。

We’re also pretty small

It’s too easy to think that we’re big. We’re not. We’re a niche browser that is lucky enough to get well funded. We shouldn’t try to be like the big browsers because that’s not what our Community wants. Think of it this way; imagine living somewhere filled with McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s. We’re that cozy little Mom & Pop diner where customers say hi to each other, pour each other coffee, and clean up tables. It’s the sort of place that folk meet up to chat at tables, have a pretty awesome sandwich, and ask the owner who runs the grill if he thought about having the pork chop come with rice instead of a baked potato.

我们其实很小

我们太容易认为自己很大了。其实不然。我们只是一个幸运地获得了充足资金的小众浏览器。我们不应该试图变得像那些大浏览器一样，因为那不是我们社区想要的。换个角度想：想象一下你住的地方到处都是麦当劳、汉堡王和温蒂汉堡。而我们就是那家温馨的小餐馆，顾客们互相打招呼、帮对方倒咖啡、清理桌面。那是一个人们聚在一起聊天、吃着美味三明治，并会问老板猪排饭能不能把烤土豆换成米饭的地方。

People have to seek us out.

They’re doing that because they don’t want to use the browser that they literally have at their fingertips. They also seek us out because they don’t trust the other big browser that everyone insists that they should be using. The folk that don’t care about that already use those big browsers. So, if people are looking for an experience that is absolutely not like the one they already have, why would we ever seek to emulate what those browsers are doing?

人们必须主动寻找我们

他们这样做是因为他们不想使用那些触手可及的浏览器。他们寻找我们，也是因为他们不信任每个人都坚持让他们使用的大型浏览器。那些不在乎这些的人早就去用那些大浏览器了。所以，如果人们正在寻找一种与他们现有体验截然不同的体验，我们为什么要试图去模仿那些浏览器正在做的事情呢？

That doesn’t mean we can’t become big.

We did this before. When we listened to our Community, gave them what they wanted, let them work with us to build something amazing, they told their friends. That was our growth phase, where we had ever increasing DAU (to use business terms). For regular folk, that’s when they installed us on their uncle’s laptop, their neighbor’s phone, and their classmates’ desktop, because their work was part of what made us special. They told their company about how we were a great alternative because they were proud to be part of what we were. That’s something you can’t build with just posters and stickers alone.

这并不意味着我们不能做大

我们曾经做到过。当我们倾听社区的声音，满足他们的需求，让他们与我们一起构建出色的产品时，他们会告诉自己的朋友。那是我们的增长阶段，我们的日活跃用户（DAU，用商业术语来说）不断增加。对于普通人来说，那时他们会把我们的浏览器安装在叔叔的笔记本电脑、邻居的手机和同学的台式机上，因为他们的参与是我们变得特别的一部分。他们会向公司推荐我们是一个伟大的替代品，因为他们为能成为我们的一员而感到自豪。这是仅靠海报和贴纸无法建立起来的。

TL:DR;

Respect yourselves. Help each other out. Remember who you’re working for. If you want to stay in touch, I’m not that hard to find online, although I might spend a few days screaming at the ocean.

总结：

尊重自己。互相帮助。记住你是为谁工作。如果你想保持联系，在网上找到我不难，尽管我可能会花几天时间对着大海尖叫。