Consumer or market-driven demand – the kind most of us think of when we hear the word – is far less predictable, and therefore much riskier, than state-sponsored demand of the sort that landed a man on the moon. Companies that depend solely on their products’ commercial appeal are limited in the kinds of innovations that they can safely introduce, because if one of their products fails in the marketplace, they may not survive to build another one.
听到“需求”这个词时多数人会想到由消费者或市场驱动的需求，这比将人类送上月球的由政府出资的需求更加难以预测，因此风险也大得多。完全依靠产品商业号召力的企业能够放心引入的创新非常有限，因为如果某种产品在市场上遭遇失败，他们可能活不到下一个创新诞生的时刻。初创公司和小公司尤其如此，而它们恰恰是所有人都希望出现在硅谷下一波创新浪潮中的角色。