另类的FDA

Isaacson describes how Jobs handled himself when a partner wasn't performing adequately:
如果一个合作伙伴无法按时满足乔布斯的要求,乔布斯会怎么做呢?乔布斯传的独家授权人Isaacson做了以下描述:

VLSI Technology, a chip company, was having trouble delivering enough chips on time. Jobs stormed into a meeting and started shouting that they were “Fucking Dickless Assholes." The company ended up getting the chips to Apple on time, and its executives made jackets that boasted on the back, “Team FDA."
VLSI科技,是一家专门从事芯片生产的公司,曾有一次无法及时的递交足够的芯片,乔布斯冲入VLSI科技正在进行的一个会议大骂他们是“该死的没种的混蛋”。后来该公司终于按时交付了芯片,其管理层为此做了后面印有“FDA团队”的外套留作纪念。

“你们干什么吃的!”

When Apple was about to reveal the "Bondi Blue" iMac, he berated his good friend and ad partner Lee Clow over the phone. Jobs said Clow's team was getting the color wrong for the print ads. He shouted, "You guys don't know what you're doing. I'm going to get someone else to do the ads because this is fucked up."
苹果发布Bondi Blue的iMac电脑前,乔布斯在电话上对他的广告合作伙伴兼好友Lee Clow严厉斥责。乔布斯称Lee Clow的团队把广告的颜色弄错了。他大声吼道:“你们是干什么吃的?我要找别人来做这个广告,你们的广告蠢到家了!”

Eventually Clow sat Jobs down and made him look at the original photos versus print ads. Clow was right. Jobs backed down.
最终Lee Clow稳住了乔布斯,拿出原始的照片和印刷的广告比较了一番,证明Lee Clow没错,乔布斯才做了让步。

五星级酒店房间不合自己标准,立马搬出来

Jony Ive went to the trouble of finding a boutique, 5-star hotel room for Jobs to stay at in London. As soon as Jobs got to his room he called up Ive and said, "I hate my room. It's a piece of shit, let's go." Jobs grabbed his things to leave, stopping at the desk to tell the clerk what he thought of the hotel.
Jony Ive遇到的一个麻烦是为乔布斯在伦敦找一家五星级精品酒店。乔布斯一进门就打电话给Jony Ive:“我讨厌这间屋子,纯粹是狗屎,我们马上走。”乔布斯拎起行李就往外走,路过前台接待人员还停下来把酒店大骂了一通。

没事找事地训斥全食公司店员

Jony Ive tells this story: "Once we went to Whole Foods market to get a smoothie ... And this older woman was making it and he really got on her about how she was doing it." Jobs later felt bad realizing she's an older woman doing a job that she's not happy at……
Jony Ive讲了另外一个故事:“有一次我们到全食公司买冰沙饮料,当时是个老妇人正在做,乔布斯就看她是怎么做的。”后来乔布斯很不幸地发现这位老妇人对这份工作毫无热情的时候……

你以前做的所有东西都是一个扯

The Xerox Star was supposed to be the hot new computer that came out in 1981 (it was ultimately a flop). Jobs and his team went to go check it out, but were absolutely unimpressed. A few weeks later he called Bob Belleville, one of the hardware designers on the Xerox Star team. "Everything you've ever done in your life is shit," Jobs said, "so why don't you come work for me?"
Belleville joined the team.
Xerox Star曾被认为是1981年最抢手的电脑(后来证实恰恰相反),乔布斯及团队曾前去参观,但是毫无疑问的没有留下任何印象,几周后他打电话给一名Xerox Star团队的硬件设计师Bob Belleville,“你以前做的所有事都是一个扯,那么为什么不到我这儿工作呢?”
而后Belleville 加入了苹果。

长时间对自己女儿置之不理

Jobs denied paternity of his daughter Lisa for years. She and her mother ended up living on welfare. To Jobs' credit, however, he ultimately made the situation right -- he started paying child support and reimbursed the state of California for years of back child support. He ended up connecting with Lisa and she became a member of his family.
乔布斯曾多年不承认与Lisa的父女关系。Lisa及其母亲最终靠福利维生。不过令人欣慰的是乔布斯终于扭转了这一局面,他后来开始支付孩子的抚养费,并偿还了加利福尼亚州给孩子的抚养福利。他最后和Lisa取得联系并成为他家族中的一员。

But it doesn't change the fact that it's a very sad story.
但是这还是一个让人失望的故事。

 

编外:抛弃子女的习性也会遗传吗?

每次养父母驱车送他到大学,从没说过Good-bye

From Isaacson's biography:
[When his parents dropped him off] he refrained from even saying good-bye or thanks. He recounted the moment later with uncharacteristic regret: "It’s one of the things in life I really feel ashamed about. I was not very sensitive, and I hurt their feelings. I shouldn’t have. They had done so much to make sure I could go there, but I just didn’t want them around. I didn’t want anyone to know I had parents. I wanted to be like an orphan who had bummed around the country on trains and just arrived out of nowhere, with no roots, no connections, no background."
节选自《乔布斯传》
(每次父母驱车把他送到大学时)他连一句再见都不说。每当回忆起这件事的时候他就莫名其妙的愧疚:“那是我一生中真正感到愧疚的一件事。我太大意了,伤害了他们的感情。真的不应该。他们为了确保我能上大学付出了这么多,而我却不希望他们在我身边。我不希望任何人知道我又父母。我曾希望自己像一个坐着火车周游全国的孤儿一样,到一个完全没有根,没有外界的联系,没有背景偏远的地方……”

解雇员工时不会提前通知

When Steve had to make cutbacks at Pixar, he fired people and didn't give any severance pay. Pamela Kerwin, an early Pixar employee, pleaded that employees at least be given two weeks notice.
"Okay," he said, "but the notice is retroactive from two weeks ago."
在皮克斯时,乔布斯需要裁员时他从不给辞退的员工遣散费。Pamela Kerwin,一个皮克斯早期的员工愤愤不平抗议道:“解雇员工时起码应在两周前给予通知。”
“好吧!”乔布斯回答,“那么通知在两周前就有了”

克扣好友奖金

While working at Atari, Jobs recruited Wozniak's help to build a scaled down version of Pong. There was a big bonus involved in getting it done quickly and efficiently, and Jobs lied about how much money was involved, pocketing the majority of the money for himself.
在雅达利公司工作时,乔布斯招聘了沃兹开发一种按比例缩小的乒乓球游戏(打砖块游戏),迅速而高效的开发出这款游戏就可以获得高额奖金,乔布斯在奖金的问题上撒了谎,开发成功后,把绝大部分奖金独揽怀中。

从没有给任何一个苹果早期员工职工优先认股权

Daniel Kottke was one of Apple's first employees and was even a personal friend of Jobs -- the two traveled around India together in 1974. But for some reason, Jobs never set him up with stock options.
Daniel Kottke是苹果最早的员工之一,而且还是乔布斯的朋友——1974年他们俩曾一起在旅行印度。但是由于一些原因,乔布斯从未给他股权。

Rod Holt, an early Apple engineer, confronted Jobs with this, saying, "Whatever you give him, I will match it."
Rod Holt,苹果早期的一名工程师,曾对乔布斯说:“无论你给他什么,也应由我一份”

Steve said:"Okay. I will give him zero."
乔布斯说:“好吧,我一根毛都不会给他”

对面试者进行骚扰

A surprising story about Jobs interviewing a job candidate from Isaacson's book:
《乔布斯传》里介绍了乔布斯面试一名申请者时一个令人吃惊的故事。

“How old were you when you lost your virginity?" he asked. The candidate looked baffled. “What did you say?” “Are you a virgin?” Jobs asked. The candidate sat there flustered, so Jobs changed the subject. “How many times have you taken LSD?” Hertzfeld recalled, “The poor guy was turning varying shades of red, so I tried to change the subject and asked a straightforward technical question.” But when the candidate droned on in his response, Jobs broke in. “Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble,” he said, cracking up Smith and Hertzfeld. “I guess I’m not the right guy,” the poor man said as he got up to leave.
“你初失贞操的时候多大?”他问道。面试者一脸疑惑,“你刚才说什么?”“你还是处男吗?”
乔布斯追问道。面试者慌乱的站着说不出话。然后乔布斯换了一个话题。“你吸食过多少次LSD(一种迷幻药)?” Hertzfeld回想起这一幕时说:“这个可怜的家伙涨红了脸,所以我改变话题问了一个简单的技术性问题。”但是他刚用低沉的声音回答完问题,乔布斯突然进来了,“Gobble, Gobble, Gobble, Gobble”的叫。Smith和Hertzfeld直接崩溃了。“我觉得我不适合贵公司”,可怜的面试者起身离开时来边走边说……