《乔布斯传》背后的故事（节选）

    沃尔特•艾萨克森的《史蒂夫•乔布斯传》（Steve Jobs）已连续八周雄踞《纽约时报》（The New York Times）畅销书排行榜榜首的宝座。本月早些时候，我为北加州联邦俱乐部（Commonwealth Club of Northern California，总部位于旧金山）一次座无虚席的演讲采访了艾萨克森。尽管讨论这本书的文章连篇累牍，很多人也已经读过该书，但还有很多东西值得一讲。

    【除了12月14日马克霍普金斯洲际酒店（Mark Hopkins hotel）活动的相关报道之外】，我还发现了以下一些重要的内容：

    * 作为一位“回顾过去的传记作者”，艾萨克森似乎刻意不去评判史蒂夫•乔布斯的行为。艾萨克森对乔布斯的待人接物进行详细记载，详尽程度无人能出其右。但他清楚地指出，乔布斯的成就超过了他的缺点。我猜测，对于这一点的争论将非常激烈，尤其是因为乔布斯的行为已经被等同于苹果公司（Apple）的行为，而商界认为该公司经商的方式与做人的方式背道而驰（这里请允许我厚颜无耻地自我宣传一下，同时也要感谢艾萨克森反复提醒我。我将在本人的新书《解密苹果》（Inside Apple）中讨论这个话题。该书将于2012年1月25日出版）。

    * 乔布斯对艾萨克森说，他认为自己可以继续战胜癌症，部分是因为他这么长时间以来都做到了这一点。他相信医生将继续找到新的靶向治疗方法。乔布斯把自己比作一只机敏的青蛙。“游戏还没结束呢。我能跳到下一片睡莲叶子上去，”他说。

    * 艾萨克森说，慈善是乔布斯拒绝讨论的一个话题。他还说，比尔•盖茨这位老对手曾亲自打来电话，邀请乔布斯加入盖茨和沃伦•巴菲特共同提出的捐赠活动，但乔布斯甚至连电话都没有回。

    * 问及有哪些东西没有写入书中，艾萨克森说他省略了某些特别伤人的内容。这种说法很有趣，因为他的书中已然收录了大量乔布斯的个人素材。被多次问到乔布斯的家人有何反应时，艾萨克森简短地说道，他“不能代他们回答这个问题”。这个简短的答复颇有深意。

    * 艾萨克森使用硅谷热门公司Dropbox的服务来储存底稿。同时，他还是个夜猫子，写作时间大多是在晚上9点至次日凌晨2点，因为这个时候没人会打电话、发邮件骚扰他。

    Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs has topped The New York Times bestseller's list for eight consecutive weeks now. Earlier in the month I interviewed Isaacson for a sold-out audience of the Commonwealth Club of Northern California in San Francisco. For all that has been written about Isaacson's book and for all the people who have read it, there is plenty left to say.

    Some highlights I haven't seen explored elsewhere (other than coverage of the Dec. 14 event at the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins hotel):

    * As a "backward-looking biographer," Isaacson has made what appears to be a conscious decision not to judge Steve Jobs's behavior. Isaacson did more than any other writer to document how Jobs treated other people. Yet he clearly states that Jobs's accomplishments outshine his shortcomings. I predict this debate will pick up in intensity, especially as Jobs's behavior comes to be equated with Apple's (AAPL) behavior, and the business community dissects the company's way of doing business as opposed to the man's. (Shameless self-promotion, and thanks to Isaacson for repeatedly pointing this out: I will discuss this topic in my upcoming book, Inside Apple, to be released Jan. 25, 2012.)

    * Jobs told Isaacson he thought he'd continue to beat his cancer, partly because he'd beaten it for so long. Citing his belief that his doctors would continue to find new targeted therapies, Jobs likened himself to a nimble frog. "There'll be more. I'll get to the next lily pad," he said.

    * Isaacson says the one topic Jobs refused to discuss was philanthropy. He also says Jobs didn't return a call from Bill Gates when his longtime foe called to ask him to join the Giving Pledge Gates hatched with Warren Buffett.

    * Asked what he left out of the book, Isaacson says he omitted some particularly hurtful material. That's interesting, given the amount of raw personal material he included. Asked a couple times how Jobs's family reacted, Isaacson tersely says he "can't speak for them." His terseness likely is telling.

    * Isaacson used Dropbox, the hot Silicon Valley company, to store his manuscript. He's also a night owl, composing mostly between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m., when nobody called or emailed.