Removing the sleeve reveals a book that is entirely white, except for the names of its author and subject in elegant black type on the spine. It is the perfect design for the biography of a man who insisted that even the innards of his products be exquisitely crafted, and that his factory walls gleam in the whitest white.

摘下封套，这本书完全是白色的，只在书脊上用简洁的黑色字体印有作者和书名。 对于这样一个人物的自传，这是最完美的设计，他一直坚持他的产品哪怕是内部结构都要精雕细琢，也坚持工厂的墙壁要洁白得耀目。

The cover was the only part of the book Steve Jobs wanted to control, writes Walter Isaacson in his introduction. The rest of his long-awaited tome bears this out. Though Mr. Jobs pushed the biographer of Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin to pen his own, granting him more than 40 interviews, this book offers a refreshing counterbalance to the adulation that followed his death on October 5th at the age of 56.

沃尔特在序言里写到，尽管本书的封面是乔布斯监督的部分， 这部他期待已久的大部头的其他部分也延续了他的风格。 虽然是乔布斯说服这位为爱因斯坦和富兰克林做传的传记作者来写他的传记，跟他做了40多次访谈，本书还是让人耳目一新--享年56岁于10月5日去世的乔 布斯，世人对其逝世后的溢美之词，本书做到了很好的权衡。

The picture Mr. Isaacson paints, particularly in the first half of this book, is not flattering. Mr. Jobs emerges as a controlling and often unsympathetic character. A child of the 1960scounterculture, he abhorred materialism and lived in simply furnished houses (in part because he was too picky to decide on furniture). But when Apple went public in 1980, he refused to give any stock options to Daniel Kottke, a longtime supporter and soul mate from college. “He has to abandon the people he is close to,” observes Andy Hertzfeld, an early Apple engineer. Mr. Isaacson finds meaning in the fact that Mr. Jobs was adopted, but this excuse feels thin

作者描述的情境，尤其是本书前半部分的那些，并不讨好。 他们表现出了乔布斯极有控制欲望且没有同情心的个性。 做为二十世界60年代文化冲突中的孩子，他憎恶物质主义，住在装修及其简单的房子里--当然，对于家具过于挑剔也是部分原因。 可是当苹果公司1980年上市的时候，他却没有给Daniel Kottke任何股票期权，这位Daniel Kottke可是从乔布斯大学时代起的支持者和知己。 苹果早期的工程师Andy Hertzfeld觉得，“他似乎一定要疏远那些跟他关系密切的人”。 作者把这归咎为当年乔布斯被弃养，可是这理由似乎没有什么说服力。

Mr. Jobs was disarmingly charismatic; employing what has been dubbed a “reality distortion field” to inspire cult-like loyalty. But also he could be cold and cruel. If he disapproved of an employee’s work, he often humiliated him. “This is who I am,” he once said after being challenged, “and you can’t expect me to be someone I’m not.” This nasty edge wasn’t always helpful, but it served a purpose, writes Mr. Isaacson: many would “end their litany of horror stories by saying that he got them to do things they never dreamed possible.”

乔布斯的魅力无法抵挡，他有一种被人称为“扭转现实的气场”，从而激发一种类似邪教的忠诚度。 但是他也很冷血和无情。 如果他不赞成一个员工的工作，他往往会让人很难堪。 他曾经对质疑他这一点的人说，“我这个人就是这样，你不能要求我做出不是我自己的样子”。 这种让人厌恶的棱角不是时时有效，可是也会达到它的目的，作者这样写到，很多人在讲了一连串他们痛恨的故事之后，会说，因为乔布斯，他们做到了他们从来都 想不到会成为可能的事情。

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