硅谷揭秘新书扎堆上市

    硅谷的故事总是最令人神往。问问在那里工作和生活的人就知道了。

    无论这种说法是否夸张，那些热衷于科技领域故事的人今后几周都应拭目以待，因为即将涌现出大量这样的故事，足以让人目不暇接。最近，三本重磅作品即将问世，内容涉及四家知名的科技公司。在过去大约一周时间里，三家主要平面媒体分别节选了这三本书的一部分内容。每篇节选都引人入胜，一定会挑起业内人士阅读的兴趣——如果作者运气好的话，还会引起公众的关注。

    第一篇涉及科技行业的节选来自佛瑞德•沃格尔斯坦即将推出的新书《鏖战：谷歌和苹果开战引发革命》（Dogfight: How Google and Apple Went to War and Started a Revolution）。这本书定于11月12日上市。上周末，《纽约时报》杂志（The New York Times Magazine）刊登了它的开篇部分。沃格尔斯坦曾在本刊工作过七年，目前为《连线》（Wired）杂志撰稿。《纽约时报》杂志刊登的节选尽现了iPhone手机刚刚问世那段时间的日子，其中的细节耐人寻味。如果对谷歌的安卓（Android）手机操作系统涉世之初的情况也有同样详细和精彩的描写，这本书一定会成为这些领域的必读之作。

    《时代》（Times ）杂志继续着它的科技文学之旅——这个周末该杂志将刊登尼克•比尔顿的新书《Twitter孵化记：一段金钱、权力、友谊和背叛交织的真实往事》（Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship and Betrayal）中的一部分。这本书定于11月5日上市。在本文介绍的三位作者中，比尔顿年纪最小，但可能也是最尖锐的批判型硅谷观察人士。所节选的内容包括Twitter创立时期以及和涉及这家公司的传闻轶事。它会让不少在旧金山地区的人感到不安，而其中最不安的将是最近登上《财富》（Fortune）杂志封面的杰克•多西。多西是Twitter联合创始人，曾任首席执行官，目前是这家公司董事长。他还是移动支付技术公司Square的首席执行官，后者是一家历史更短的初创型企业。比尔顿对多西的描述颇令人吃惊。他把多西刻画成了一个不诚实、惺惺作态而且诡计多端的经营者；他认为多西篡改了自身的形象，还操纵着眼光不如比尔顿敏锐的潮流引领者（我也受到操纵了吗？你们得在读了比尔顿的作品之后才能做出判断）。这篇节选具有漫谈风格，和沃格尔斯坦的文字相比就像糖块之于重金属。不过，看看这本书还会爆出哪些猛料将是件有意思的事情。

    就我们已经看到的节选内容而言，布拉德•斯通的《全能商店：杰夫•贝佐斯和亚马逊时代》（The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon）有希望成为这三本新书中的佼佼者。斯通是《彭博商业周刊》（Bloomberg Businessweek）撰稿人，上周四，这份刊物用书中的一大段文字作为自己的封面文章【这本书定于10月22日出版，目前已经登上亚马逊（Amazon.com）百大最畅销图书排行榜。亚马逊会不会、以及如何推广这本书将是一件格外有趣的事情）。如果也要用食品进行比喻的话，这部令人期待的作品就像自助餐，对任何人来说都有可取之处。《彭博商业周刊》节选的内容对之前已经报道过的事件和趣闻进行了大幅度扩充——其中包括去年我就贝佐斯所写的封面文章；同时，它在描写亚马逊冷酷无情的商业战术以及贝佐斯作为创业者和经理人的心路历程时所达到的高度远远超过了之前的所有作品。这篇节选以贝佐斯生父的故事结尾。这部分文字非常扣人心弦，我在这儿再多说哪怕一句话都会破坏它。所以大家还是自己去看吧。想知道原因吗？归根到底，科技领域中的人物和企业都相当有吸引力。（财富中文网）

    译者：Charlie 

    Silicon Valley is the most fascinating story around. Just ask the people who live and work there.

    Hyperbolic or not, those who live for stories about tech should clear their schedules in the next few weeks: They are going to have plenty to read to keep them busy. Three important books about four significant technology companies are coming out soon. Each has been excerpted in a major publication in the last week or so. Each contains delectable morsels that will whet the appetite of the cognoscenti and, if the authors are lucky, attract the interest of the general public as well.

    The first excerpt to hit the tech scene was from Fred Vogelstein's upcoming book, "Dogfight: How Google and Apple Went to War and Started a Revolution." The book is due out Nov. 12, and its opening section ran in The New York Times Magazine last weekend. Vogelstein worked at Fortune for several years and currently contributes to Wired. The Times excerpt is chock full of instructive details about the early days of the iPhone. If the tidbits about the early days of Google's Android mobile operating software are as detailed and as good, Vogelstein's book will be a must read around these parts.

    Continuing its techfest, the Times Magazine this coming weekend will run a portion of its own Nick Bilton's book, "Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship and Betrayal,"due out Nov. 5. Bilton is the newest arrival of the three authors featured here, and perhaps the sharpest-edged and critical observer of the Silicon Valley he has encountered. The excerpt, covering the founding days and apocryphal tales of Twitter, is going to make more than a few people around San Francisco uncomfortable, but none more so than recent Fortune cover boyJack Dorsey. Dorsey is a co-founder of Twitter, its original CEO, and currently its chairman, all while he also is CEO of Square, a newer startup. Bilton paints a devastating portrait of Dorsey as a deceitful, disingenuous, Machiavellian operator who has massaged his image while manipulating style makers with less discerning eyes than Bilton. (Was I one of the manipulated? You'll have to be the judge after reading Bilton's article.) Bilton's excerpt is gossipy and as such feels like candy to Vogelstein's heavy meal. It will be interesting, though, to see what other bombshells await in the full book.

    Based only on the excerpt we've been shown, the best of the new books promises to be Brad Stone's "The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon." Bloomberg Businessweek, where Stone is on staff, released a massive chunk of the book Thursday as its cover story. (The book itself is out Oct. 22 and already is ranked in the top 100 of Amazon.com's bestsellers. It will be exceedingly interesting to see how and if Amazon markets Stone's book.) Sticking with the food metaphor, this promises to be a smorgasbord, with something for everyone. The Businessweek excerpt contains generous expansions of stories and tidbits that have been told before -- including in my cover story last year on Jeff Bezos -- but goes well beyond anything that ever has been written about Amazon's (AMZN) ruthless business tactics and Bezos's mentality as an entrepreneur and manager. The magazine piece concludes with a yarn about Bezos's biological father that is so gripping that for me to say anything more about it would cast me in the role of a churlish spoiler. So read it yourself. Because guess what? The people and companies in the technology industry are pretty fascinating after all.