乔布斯传之节选18

Cinderella

from Chapter 18

“The best thing ever to happen to Steve is when we fired him, told him to get lost,” Arthur Rock later said. The theory, shared by many, is that the tough love made him wiser and more mature. But it’s not that simple. At the company he founded after being ousted from Apple, Jobs was able to indulge all of his instincts, both good and bad. He was unbound. The result was a series of spectacular products that were dazzling market flops. This was the true learning experience. What prepared him for the great success he would have in Act III was not his ouster from his Act I at Apple but his brilliant failures in Act II.

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Jobs had perfected the art of turning product launches into theatrical productions, and for the world premiere of the NeXT computer—on October 12, 1988, in San Francisco’s Symphony Hall—he wanted to outdo himself. No detail was too small. Jobs went over the invitation list and even the lunch menu (mineral water, croissants, cream cheese, bean sprouts). He picked out a video projection company and paid it $60,000 for help. And he hired the postmodernist theater producer George Coates to stage the show. Coates and Jobs decided, not surprisingly, on an austere and radically simple stage look. The unveiling of the black perfect cube would occur on a starkly minimalist stage setting with a black background, a table covered by a black cloth, a black veil draped over the computer, and a simple vase of flowers. Because neither the hardware nor the operating system was actually ready, Jobs was urged to do a simulation. But he refused. Knowing it would be like walking a tightrope without a net, he decided to do the demonstration live.


Jobs had the audience cheering from his opening line: “It’s great to be back.” He began by recounting the history of personal computer architecture, and he promised that they would now witness an event “that occurs only once or twice in a decade—a time when a new architecture is rolled out that is going to change the face of computing.”

As usual there were superlatives. The product was “incredible,” he said, “the best thing we could have imagined.” He praised the beauty of even the parts unseen. Then he turned to a feature that would prove more prescient. “What we’ve done is made the first real digital books,” he said, noting the inclusion of the Oxford edition of Shakespeare and other tomes. “There has not been an advancement in the state of the art of printed book technology since Gutenberg.”

Liang恋

“史蒂夫·乔布斯最好的经历就是被我们解雇，离开苹果公司。”亚瑟·洛克后来这样说道。很多人认为，是艰难的爱情经历让乔布斯变得更为睿智、更为成熟。然而事情远非如此简单。被苹果驱逐后，在他自己所建立的公司里，乔布斯得以充分释放其本能，发掘其天赋，无论好坏。他毫无束缚。但结果却是一系列引人注目的产品沦为败笔之作。这是真正的学习经验。为他后来取得巨大成功做好准备的不是他被苹果驱逐的那段经历，而是他这辉煌华丽的失败经验。

    乔布斯将产品发布变为戏剧作品的艺术已经登峰造极。在1988年10月12日旧金山交响乐大厅举行的NeXT电脑全球首发式上，他想要超越自我。对乔布斯而言，事无巨细，他仔细检查了邀请名单甚至是午宴菜单（包括矿泉水、羊角面包、奶油芝士，豆芽等等）。 他挑选了一家影像投射公司并出资6万美元聘用他们负责视听支持。他还雇请了后现代主义派影视制作人乔治·柯茨来筹划这次发布会。不出所料，柯茨和乔布斯一致同意采取极致简约、质朴低调的舞台风格。在毫无修饰、极简抽象派艺术风格的舞台上设有一个黑色的背景，一张黑布盖着的桌子，一台布帘覆盖着的电脑，一瓶简单的盆花，揭开幕布，呈现在眼前的便是一个完美的黑色立方体。由于硬件设备和操作系统尚未准备到位，人们要求乔布斯做一个模拟实验。但他拒绝了，决定做现场示范，尽管知道这无异于在没有安全网的情况下走钢丝。

    乔布斯的一句开场白“回来真好！”引发了观众的阵阵欢呼。他从详述个人计算机体系的发展历程开始，然后承诺观众们即将见证一个事件，“这个事件在十年之内只可能出现一两次——苹果将推出新型系统结构，这将改变计算机应用的面貌”。

    如往常一般，他对其产品的盛赞之辞滔滔不绝。“这款产品棒得不可思议”，他说，“这是我们所能想象的最好的东西了。”他甚至称赞了机器内部那些看不见的部件的美妙之处。然后他开始介绍一个更具有前瞻性的产品特征，“我们制作了第一批真正的数字图书，”他说，并提到了已将牛津版的莎士比亚以及其他巨著收纳其中。“自古腾堡之后，印刷书本的艺术再无提升进步了。”

梦溪

回复 2# Liang恋

梦溪

“史蒂夫一生中遇到的最好的事情就是被我们开除，告知他一无所有的时候。”亚瑟。洛克后来谈到。许多人也都持这样的观点，那就是困境中的爱让他变得睿智和成熟。然而，事实并非如此简单。在乔布斯 被解雇的苹果公司里，他一味痴迷于自己本能的判断，而且好坏不分。这时候，他无拘无束，缺乏责任心。这样却造就了一大批举世瞩目的产品，冲击着世界市场。这的确是一次值得学习的教训。让之所以能在第三阶段取得如此大成功的原因不是第一阶段在苹果公司显现脱颖而出的才干，而是在第二阶段里彻彻底底的失败。
    乔布斯完善了将新产品投入大批量生产的工艺过程。比如他为了超越自己，于1988年10月12日，在旧金山交响乐大厅里第二代计算机的首次演示。鲜为人知的是，乔布斯在浏览完所有邀请目录后甚至包括午餐菜单（矿泉水，牛角面包，奶酪，豆芽）后，他挑了一个影视项目公司，然后资助他们6万美元。接着，他雇佣了后现代主义剧场制作人乔治。高斯来布景。他俩决定在一个极其简单的舞台上展示。舞台上仅仅陈设了一个黑色大幕布，一张用黑布覆着的桌子，一台被黑幕遮挡的电脑和一瓶朴素的花。在这样一个微光闪烁的舞台上出现了一个完美的黑色立方体，直视无碍。
    “回来真好。”乔布斯如此开场白迎来观众的欢呼。然后他开始回顾私人电脑外形的发展历程，并信心满满地告诉他们，现在将目睹一项未来二十年里难得一见的大事。在这二十年里，这一项技术的拓展将改变电脑的面貌。
    这样的产品依然是最顶级的，甚至“难以置信”。乔布斯称赞那些无形的设计思路时说，“这是我们所能想到的最好的方案。”然后，他提到一个较为可信的特征。“我们要做成世界上第一批电子书。”他提到了包括牛津版莎士比亚全集等大块头书。”这是自古腾堡以来买因数是上的又一次进步。