如果扎克伯格教你编程……

    有些人梦想成为下一个马克•扎克伯格。

    但令人失望的是，在美国，只有9个州把计算机课成绩算入高中学分。过去8年里，开设计算机课程的美国学校数量实际上还下降了。

    我认识的两位成功且颇有人脉的编程人员今天发布了一段大腕云集的视频，希望通过它让孩子们和教育人士对编程产生兴趣。

    这二位便是哈迪•帕托维和阿里•帕托维兄弟。他们自己出资制作了这段视频，而且还创立了一个叫Code.org的网站。在他们的游说之下，比尔•盖茨、Zappos的创始人谢家华、移动支付技术公司Square的CEO杰克•多尔西、Facebook创始人马克•扎克伯格等科技大腕都在这段视频中露了面，探讨学习编程的重要性，以及编程对他们的事业成功发挥的作用。

    不过这段视频并没有讲到帕托维兄弟自己的故事。其实，他们也有一段靠学习编程获得成功的感人经历。

    这对孪生兄弟1972年出生于伊朗，在那里一直成长到12岁。哈迪•帕托维回忆说：“生活在一个伊斯兰极权政府统治下，而且当时伊朗正与伊拉克开战，那真是一段恐惧的时光。”他们的父亲是伊朗一所顶级工科大学的教授。他从意大利购买了一台Commodore 64型电脑，两兄弟就在这台电脑上自学了编程。

    在帕托维家，教育的地位是最为重要的。1984年，全家迁离伊朗后，帕托维兄弟跟随父母来到纽约的塔里镇。全家人都挤在祖父母家的一间卧室里，为的是省下钱让帕托维兄弟读私立学校。兄弟二人的学习成绩双双名列前茅（哈迪和阿里在高中毕业典礼上分别以总成绩第一和第二的名次代表学生发言）。进入哈佛大学（Harvard）后，他们一边读书，一边兼职教别人计算机。哈迪•帕托维与Zappos的创始人谢家华还参加了哈佛大学的一个电脑编程队，在一次全球编程大赛上获得了第7名的成绩。

    然后两兄弟开始进入创业界。哈迪进入了Tellme公司的创业团队，阿里则进入了LinkExchange的创业团队——也就是谢家华Zappos公司的前身。后来两兄弟都把公司卖给了微软（Microsoft），各自赚了不少钱。利用大学同学的关系，他们也早早地向Facebook、Dropbox、Airbnb和Zappos等创业公司投了资。

    哈迪建议：“上哈佛大学，认识最聪明的人，对他们进行投资，这就是挣钱的最好方法。”

    而且别忘了学习编程。帕托维兄弟推出的视频由莱斯利•奇尔科特导演，奇尔科特也是《等待超人》（Waiting for Superman ）和《难以忽视的真相》（An Inconvenient Truth）两部电影的制片人。在微软公司的赞助下，这段视频将在学校和电影院播放。这部短片非常巧妙有趣，可惜的是有些非常有意思的内容被剪掉了。比如帕托维兄弟就向我们独家分享了这样一段：马克•扎克伯克谈他如何启发一个孩子编程。（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    Some people dream about becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg.

    How distressing, then, that only nine states count computer science as credit toward high school graduation. The number of U.S. schools teaching computer science has actually declined in the past eight years.

    Two wealthy and well-connected coders I know today launched a star-studded video about getting kids and educators jazzed about coding.

    Hadi and Ali Partovi, who are funding the film and their new Code.org with their own millions, persuaded tech stars like Bill Gates, Zappos (AMZN) founder Tony Hsieh, Square CEO Jack Dorsey, and Facebook's (FB) Zuckerberg, to talk about why learning to code is a must and how coding figures in their own success.

    The video doesn't reveal the Partovi brothers' own story--a fascinating tale about how learning to code propelled them.

    Born in Iran in 1972, the twin brothers lived there during their first 12 years. "It was a scary time under an Islamic totalitarian government at war with Iraq," says Hadi. The boys taught themselves to code on a Commodore 64 computer that their dad, a professor at Iran's leading technical university, brought home from Italy.

    Education was paramount in the Partovi family. When they got out of Iran in 1984, parents and twins slept in a bedroom in their grandparents' Tarrytown, New York home--saving money so the boys could attend private school. Geeks of equal measure (Hadi was valedictorian, Ali was salutatorian in high school), they worked their way through Harvard teaching computer science. Hadi and Tony Hsieh, on a Harvard Computer Programming team together, placed seventh in a global coding competition.

    Then the brothers scored in the startup world. On the founding teams of Tellme (Hadi) and LinkExchange (Ali)--Hsieh's pre-Zappos startup--the brothers both made money selling those companies to Microsoft (MSFT). Leveraging college connections, they also invested early in Facebook, Dropbox, Airbnb, and Zappos.

    "Go to Harvard, meet the smartest people and invest in them," advises Hadi. "That's the best way to make money."

    Oh, and learn to Code. Their new video--directed by Lesley Chilcott, a producer of Waiting for Superman and An Inconvenient Truth--will be shown in schools and in movie theaters, thanks to Microsoft's sponsorship. The short film is smart and entertaining, but as you might expect, some of the best stuff landed on the cutting room floor. Here's an outtake that the Partovi brothers shared with us exclusively: Mark Zuckerberg on how he inspired one kid to code.