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Introduction: How This Book Came to Be
前言:本書是如何誕生的
In the early summer of 2004, I got a phone call from Steve Jobs.
2004年的初夏，我接到史蒂夫·喬布斯（Steve Jobs)打來的電話。
He had been scattershot friendly to me over the years, with occasional bursts of intensity,
多年來，他對我還算友好，偶爾還會(huì)感情驟增一下，
especially when he was launching a new product that he wanted on the cover of Time or featured on CNN, places where I’d worked.
特別是當(dāng)他希望即將推出的新產(chǎn)品能上《時(shí)代》雜志封面或者CNN(美國有線電視新聞網(wǎng))專題報(bào)道的時(shí)候，而這兩處恰好都是我曾工作過的地方。
But now that I was no longer at either of those places, I hadn’t heard from him much.
在我離開這兩家媒體之后，就沒有太多他的消息了。
We talked a bit about the Aspen Institute, which I had recently joined, and I invited him to speak at our summer campus in Colorado.
電話里我們談?wù)摿艘恍╆P(guān)于我剛剛加入的阿斯彭研究所（AspenInstitute)的情況，我遨請他來科羅拉多的校園演講。
He’d be happy to come, he said, but not to be onstage. He wanted instead to take a walk so that we could talk.
他說他很樂意，但不想登臺(tái)講話，而是想和我散散步、聊聊天。
That seemed a bit odd. I didn’t yet know that taking a long walk was his preferred way to have a serious conversation.
這番話聽上去有點(diǎn)奇怪，因?yàn)楫?dāng)時(shí)我還不知道他喜歡在散步的過程中進(jìn)行嚴(yán)肅的對話。
It turned out that he wanted me to write a biography of him.
后來我才知道，他是想讓我寫一本關(guān)于他的傳記。
I had recently published one on Benjamin Franklin and was writing one about Albert Einstein,
我剛剛出版了本杰明·富蘭克林（BenjaminFranMin)的傳記,正在著手完成阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦(AlbertEinstein)的傳記。
and my initial reaction was to wonder, half jokingly, whether he saw himself as the natural successor in that sequence.
因此我最初的反應(yīng)是，他是不是把自己看做這些偉人的繼承人了。
Because I assumed that he was still in the middle of an oscillating career that had many more ups and downs left, I demurred.
當(dāng)然這是半開玩笑的。我認(rèn)為他還處在事業(yè)的波動(dòng)期，等待他的還有諸多跌宕起伏，所以我拒絕了他的請求。
Not now, I said. Maybe in a decade or two, when you retire.
現(xiàn)在還不是時(shí)候，我說，再等個(gè)十年二十年，等你退休了。
I had known him since 1984, when he came to Manhattan to have lunch with Time’s editors and extol his new Macintosh.
我認(rèn)識(shí)他是在1984年，當(dāng)時(shí)他來曼哈頓的時(shí)代-生活大廈（Time-LifeBuilding)與編輯們共進(jìn)午餐，順帶夸耀他的麥金塔電腦（Macintosh)。
He was petulant even then, attacking a Time correspondent for having wounded him with a story that was too revealing.
那個(gè)時(shí)候他的脾氣就不太好，他攻擊《時(shí)代》雜志的一名記者，因?yàn)閷Ψ綀?bào)道的一個(gè)故事暴露了太多事實(shí)而讓他覺得受到了傷害。
But talking to him afterward, I found myself rather captivated, as so many others have been over the years, by his engaging intensity.
但后來，通過與他的對話，我發(fā)現(xiàn)自己被他的強(qiáng)烈情感所吸引，就如同其他很多人多年來受到的吸引一樣。
We stayed in touch, even after he was ousted from Apple.
自那以后，我們就一直保持聯(lián)系，即便在他被迫離開蘋果公司時(shí)也未中斷。
When he had something to pitch, such as a NeXT computer or Pixar movie, the beam of his charm would suddenly refocus on me,
當(dāng)他需要推銷某樣產(chǎn)品時(shí)，比如一臺(tái)NeXT電腦或者一部皮克斯（Pixar)出品的電影，他的個(gè)人魅力就會(huì)突然間再次聚焦到我的身上，
and he would take me to a sushi restaurant in Lower Manhattan to tell me that whatever he was touting was the best thing he had ever produced.
他會(huì)帶我去曼哈頓下城的一家壽司餐廳，告訴我他正在兜售的東西是他制造出的最棒的產(chǎn)品。
I liked him.
我喜歡這個(gè)家伙。
