And yet when the cup of power neared his lips, he became strangely hesitant, reluctant, perhaps coy.

　　 然而……當回歸的時機真的到來時，他卻有一種奇怪的游移不定的感覺。削弱吉爾·阿梅里奧的力量，他倒不會覺得不好意思。那是他的本性，而且一旦他認定阿梅里奧不知道自己在做什么，他就別無選擇。但是當權力之杯到了嘴邊，他會奇怪地開始遲疑，甚至不愿接受，也許是故作姿態。

　　He returned to Apple officially in January 1997 as a part-time advisor, as he had told Amelio he would. He began to assert himself in some personnel areas, especially in protecting his people who had made the transition from NeXT. But in most other ways he was unusually passive. The decision not to ask him to join the board offended him, and he felt demeaned by the suggestion that he run the company’s operating system division. Amelio was thus able to create a situation in which Jobs was both inside the tent and outside the tent, which was not a prescription for tranquillity. Jobs later recalled:

　　 1997年1月，他作為一位非正式的兼職顧問入職蘋果，如他之前告訴阿梅里奧的那樣。他開始介入一些人事問題，尤其是會保護他從NeXT帶過來的員工。但是在其他大多數方面，他都異乎尋常的被動。他對不讓他加入董事會的決定感覺不快，而讓他管理公司的操作系統部門的建議也讓他覺得是貶低了他的價值。阿梅里奧得以創造了這樣一種局面，喬布斯既是局內人又是局外人，這可不是和睦之道。喬布斯后來回憶：

　　Gil didn’t want me around. And I thought he was a bozo. I knew that before I sold him the company. I thought I was just going to be trotted out now and then for events like Macworld, mainly for show. That was fine, because I was working at Pixar. I rented an office in downtown Palo Alto where I could work a few days a week, and I drove up to Pixar for one or two days. It was a nice life. I could slow down, spend time with my family.

吉爾不希望我在。而我認為他是個笨蛋，我在把公司賣給他之前就知道。我想，我現在就是做做形象大使，在類似Macworld這樣的活動上出席一下，主要為了作秀。這沒問題，因為我還在皮克斯工作。我在帕洛奧圖市中心祖了一間辦公室，可以每周在那兒工作幾天，再開車去皮克斯待個一兩天。這日子不錯。我可以慢下腳步，多陪陪家人。

　　Jobs was, in fact, trotted out for Macworld right at the beginning of January, and this reaffirmed his opinion that Amelio was a bozo. Close to four thousand of the faithful fought for seats in the ballroom of the San Francisco Marriott to hear Amelio’s keynote address. He was introduced by the actor Jeff Goldblum. “I play an expert in chaos theory in The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” he said. “I figure that will qualify me to speak at an Apple event.” He then turned it over to Amelio, who came onstage wearing a flashy sports jacket and a banded-collar shirt buttoned tight at the neck, “looking like a Vegas comic,” the Wall Street Journal reporter Jim Carlton noted, or in the words of the technology writer Michael Malone, “looking exactly like your newly divorced uncle on his first date.”

　　 事實上，在1月初的Macworld活動上，喬布斯就做起了形象大使，而這次的經歷讓他更堅定地認為，阿梅里奧就是個笨蛋。將近4000位忠實粉絲爭先恐后地匯集到舊金山萬豪酒店的大宴會廳，聆聽阿梅里奧的主題演講。介紹他上臺的是演員杰夫·高布倫（JeffGoldblum），就是在《獨立日》里扮演用蘋果電腦PowerBook拯救了世界的人。“在《侏羅紀公園2：失落的世界》里，我飾演了一位混淹理論專家。”他說，“我想，這使我有資格在蘋果的活動上講話。”然后他把舞臺交給了阿梅里奧。阿梅里奧走上臺來，穿著件閃光的休閑夾克，里面是件立領襯衫，領子緊緊地貼著脖子——“看起來像拉斯韋加斯的滑稽演員。”《華爾街日報》的記者吉姆·卡爾頓（JimCarlton）后來寫道。或用另一位科技作家邁克爾·馬隆的話說，“看著就像是你剛離婚的舅舅第一次出來約會”。