CHAPTER ELEVEN

第十一章

THE REALITY DISTORTION FIELD

現實扭曲力場

Playing by His Own Set of Rules

以自己的游戲規則行事

When Andy Hertzfeld joined the Macintosh team, he got a briefing from Bud Tribble, the other software designer, about the huge amount of work that still needed to be done. Jobs wanted it finished by January 1982, less than a year away. “That’s crazy,” Hertzfeld said. “There’s no way.” Tribble said that Jobs would not accept any contrary facts. “The best way to describe the situation is a term from Star Trek,” Tribble explained. “Steve has a reality distortion field.” When Hertzfeld looked puzzled, Tribble elaborated. “In his presence, reality is malleable. He can convince anyone of practically anything. It wears off when he’s not around, but it makes it hard to have realistic schedules.”

安迪·赫茨菲爾德加入Mac團隊后，另一名軟件設計師巴德·特里布爾給他介紹了項目的基本情況，讓他知道了還有大量工作尚未完成。喬布斯希望項目能在1982年1月之前完工，也就是說只有不到一年時間。“這太瘋狂了，”赫茨菲爾德指出，“不可能的。”特里布爾說，喬布斯是不能接受違背自己意愿的事情發生的。“能最好地形容這種情況的就是《星際迷航》里的一個術語”，特里布爾解釋道，“史蒂夫擁有現實扭曲力場。”赫茨菲爾德有些疑惑，特里布爾便進一步解釋道：“有他在的時候，現實都是可塑的。他能讓任何人相信幾乎任何事情。等他不在的時候，這種力場就會逐漸消失，但這種力場讓我們很難作出符合實際的計劃。”

Tribble recalled that he adopted the phrase from the “Menagerie” episodes of Star Trek, “in which the aliens create their own new world through sheer mental force.” He meant the phrase to be a compliment as well as a caution: “It was dangerous to get caught in Steve’s distortion field, but it was what led him to actually be able to change reality.”

特里布爾回憶說，自己是從《星際迷航》中著名的一集——“宇宙動物園”中學來的這個短語，“在那一集中，外星人通過極致的精神力量建造了新世界。”他說他使用這個短語既是一種稱贊，也是一種警示。“陷入史蒂夫的扭曲力場中是一件很危險的事情，但也正是這種力場讓他可以真正地改變現實。”

At first Hertzfeld thought that Tribble was exaggerating, but after two weeks of working with Jobs, he became a keen observer of the phenomenon. “The reality distortion field was a confounding mélange of a charismatic rhetorical style, indomitable will, and eagerness to bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand,” he said.

起初，赫茨菲爾德認為特里布爾一定是夸張了。但在對喬布斯進行了兩個星期的觀察后，他有了切身感受。“現實扭曲力場是幾種因素的混合物，其中包含了極富魅力的措辭風格、不屈的意志和讓現實屈從于自己意圖的熱切渴望，”他說，“如果他的一個論點沒能說服別人，他會嫻熟地切換到另一個論點。有時候，他會突然把你的觀點占為己有，甚至都不承認自己曾有過不同的想法，這會讓你猝不及防。”

There was little that could shield you from the force, Hertzfeld discovered. “Amazingly, the reality distortion field seemed to be effective even if you were acutely aware of it. We would often discuss potential techniques for grounding it, but after a while most of us gave up, accepting it as a force of nature.” After Jobs decreed that the sodas in the office refrigerator be replaced by Odwalla organic orange and carrot juices, someone on the team had T-shirts made. “Reality Distortion Field,” they said on the front, and on the back, “It’s in the juice!”

赫茨菲爾德還發現，沒有人可以避開這股力量的影響。“讓人驚奇的是，即使你敏銳地意識到了現實扭曲力場，它還是可以在你身上產生作用，”他說，“我們經常討論有沒有方法可以屏蔽這個力場，但一段時間之后，大多數人都放棄了，只能認為它是一種自然力量。”有一次喬布斯宣布，辦公室冰箱里的蘇打水都會被替換成奧德瓦拉（Odwalla）牌的有機橙汁和胡蘿卜汁，之后團隊里就有人制作了一批T恤，前面寫著“現實扭曲力場”背后寫著“它藏在果汁里！”

To some people, calling it a reality distortion field was just a clever way to say that Jobs tended to lie. But it was in fact a more complex form of dissembling. He would assert something—be it a fact about world history or a recounting of who suggested an idea at a meeting—without even considering the truth. It came from willfully defying reality, not only to others but to himself. “He can deceive himself,” said Bill Atkinson. “It allowed him to con people into believing his vision, because he has personally embraced and internalized it.”

在某種程度上，稱之為現實扭曲力場只是換了種好聽的說法來描述喬布斯喜歡說謊的特性。但事實上，它是一種更復雜的掩飾行為。喬布斯會斷言一些事情——可能是世界歷史上的一個事件，或者是敘述一場會議上某人提出了一個觀點——而完全不考慮事實是什么。這源自他對現實的有意蔑視，不光是對別人，也對他自己。“他可以欺騙他自己比爾·阿特金森說，“這就讓他可以說服別人相信他的觀點，因為他自己已經接受并吸收了這個觀點。”

A lot of people distort reality, of course. When Jobs did so, it was often a tactic for accomplishing something. Wozniak, who was as congenitally honest as Jobs was tactical, marveled at how effective it could be. “His reality distortion is when he has an illogical vision of the future, such as telling me that I could design the Breakout game in just a few days. You realize that it can’t be true, but he somehow makes it true.”

當然，很多人都會扭曲現實。當喬布斯這么做的時候，通常都是一種策略，為了實現某個目的。天性誠實的沃茲尼亞克就驚嘆于這種力量的效果。“當他對于未來有一些不合常理的想法時，比如說告訴我，我能只用幾天時間就設計出‘打磚塊’游戲的時候，他的現實扭曲力場就會起作用。你意識到那是不現實的，但他就是有辦法讓它變為現實。”