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史蒂夫•乔布斯传记抢先看
 作者: Philip Elmer-DeWitt    时间: 2011年08月19日    来源: 财富中文网
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沃尔特•艾萨克森撰写的乔布斯传记就像所有苹果产品一样,既简洁又含蓄。
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    艾萨克森在一封私人邮件中透露:“封面是艾伯特•沃森在2009年为《财富》(Fortune)杂志拍摄的乔布斯肖像照。而封底则是诺曼•瑟夫为乔布斯拍摄的肖像,照片中,乔布斯抱着最原始的麦金塔电脑(Macintosh),盘膝而坐。1984年,这幅照片登上了《滚石》杂志一月份的封面。书的标题采用赫维提卡字体。而封底则如图片所示,上面没有任何文字。”

    当然,他所指的是为苹果公司联合创始人撰写的《史蒂夫•乔布斯传记》(Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson),这是第一本在乔布斯本人支持和协助之下完成的个人传记【参考《深得乔布斯信任的人》(The man who won Steve Jobs' trust)一文】。周一,有媒体报道,亚马逊(Amazon)与巴诺(Barnes & Noble)的新书目录显示,该书的发售日期从2012年3月6日提前到2011年11月21日。这一变化使外界纷纷猜测,计划的变更或许与乔布斯健康状况的恶化有关。

    艾萨克森澄清道:“这与乔布斯的健康状况没有任何关系。今年六月份,这本书的撰写工作便已接近尾声。目前全书内容已经撰写和编辑工作已经完成。当初确定2012年3月(或者是别的什么日期)开始发售,并不是什么深思熟虑的决定。就像最初的封面设计一样。之所以采用那样的设计,完全是因为在去年春天,出版商更新数据库时需要一张照片以便存档。”

    以下为B&N网站上刊登的出版商关于本书的描述和作者简介。包括一份报价在内的内容简介已被替换为以下内容。更详细的介绍可点击这里阅读。作者简介部分中未提及艾萨克森与史蒂夫•乔布斯的妻子劳伦娜•鲍威尔都是非营利性机构——“为美国而教”(Teach for America)董事会成员这一事实。

    关于本书:

    本书撰写历时两年,在此期间,艾萨克森与乔布斯进行了40多次面对面访谈,并采访了乔布斯的100多位家庭成员、朋友、竞争对手和同事。艾萨克森生动展现了这位创新型企业家跌宕起伏的人生和热情似火的个性,他是一个残酷的完美主义者,而正是这种苛求完美的激情使六个行业发生了翻天覆地的变化:个人电脑、动画电影、音乐、手机、平板电脑和数字出版。

    目前,美国正在努力维持自己在创新领域的领先地位,而其他各国也在竭尽全力向数字化经济转型。在这样的大时代背景下,乔布斯就成了创造能力与应用想象的终极化身。他非常清楚,在二十一世纪,要想创造价值,最有效的方法是将创造力与技术相结合。在他打造的公司,想象力的不断跳跃总是能与非凡的设计相融合。

    虽然本书是在乔布斯协助之下完成的,但在创作过程中,但他并未干涉书中的内容,也没有要求在出版之前阅读全文。他本人没有对传记做任何限制。他鼓励了解他的人实话实说。对于他的同僚和竞争对手,乔布斯通常直言不讳,甚至有些冷酷无情。通过朋友、对手和同事对他的客观描述,一个集合了激情、完美主义、强迫症、艺术气质、暴躁和控制欲的乔布斯栩栩如生地展现在读者面前。这些气质形成了他商业理念,也带来了众多创新产品。

    魔鬼一面的乔布斯能让他身边的人暴怒和绝望。但他的个性却与产品相互关联,密不可分,正如苹果公司生产的硬件与软件一般,它们就像是一个整体。他的故事既富于启发,又发人深省,其中包含了乔布斯在创新、个性、领导力和价值观等方面的经验教训。

    关于作者:

    沃尔特•艾萨克森,罗德奖学金获得者,历史学家,畅销书作者。他从记者做起,开启了自己非凡的职业生涯——首先是在伦敦《星期日泰晤士报》(Sunday Times),之后在他的家乡新奥尔良的《皮卡尤恩时报》(The Times-Picayune)与《国家新闻》(States-Item)担任记者。1978年,他加入《时代》(Time)杂志,在不到二十年的时间内,便从一位政治记者一路成长为杂志主编。他曾在有线电视新闻网CNN担任过两年董事长兼CEO。2003年,成为国际知名的非盈利机构阿斯彭研究所(The Aspen Institute)的所长,该研究所“致力于培养开明的领导力,鼓励开诚布公的对话”。在卡特丽娜飓风灾难之后,被任命为路易斯安那州重建署(Louisiana Recovery Authority)副署长,并在多个政策制定委员会和理事会担任职位。

    在文学界,艾萨克森是著名的权威传记作家,他的作品具有学术性,严谨而又极具可读性。他的第一部作品与其他人合作完成。当时,他与著名记者伊凡•汤玛斯合作,在1986年出版了《智者:六人智囊团和他们创造的世界》(The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made )一书。该书介绍了二战之后,组成美国政府、并负责制定美国政策的六个人,以及他们的生活。该书描述的年代不够久远,无法称其为历史,但又不够切近当下,也无法归入时事,导致对该书的评价褒贬不一,但其大胆的眼界和优雅的风格却广受赞誉。

    艾萨克森之后的传记作品均由其独立完成(并获得舆论的一致好评),还原了一系列个性迥异的人物,比如亨利•基辛格、本杰明•富兰克林,以及阿尔伯特•爱因斯坦等。从表面上来看,这些人并没有太多共同点,他为什么会选择差异如此鲜明的主题进行创作呢?他解释说:“我喜欢描写那些有着有趣想法的人物。通过他们,我努力探索组成智力的每一个方面:常识、智慧、创造力、想象力、心理调节能力、情感认知和道德观等,以及在这些特质中,哪些才是最重要的?它们又是如何成就一个有影响力的人,一个举足轻重的人,或者一个具有优良品质的人?”

    译者:刘进龙/汪皓

    "The cover," writes Isaacson in private e-mail, "is the Albert Watson portrait taken for Fortune in 2009. The back is a Norman Seeff portrait of him in the lotus position holding the original Macintosh, which ran in Rolling Stone in January 1984. The title font is Helvetica. It will look as you see it, with no words on the back cover."

    He's talking, of course, about Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson, the first book about the life of Apple's (AAPL) cofounder written with Jobs' support and cooperation (see The man who won Steve Jobs' trust). It was back in the news Monday when new listings on Amazon (AMZN) and Barnes & Noble (BKS) revealed that the pubdate had been moved up to Nov. 21, 2011, from March 6, 2012. The change sparked speculation that the new schedule might somehow be related to a decline in Jobs' health.

    "It's actually not related to any decline," writes Isaacson. "I turned most of the book in this past June. It's now all done and edited. The March 2012 date (or whatever date it was) was never a deeply-considered pubdate. Like the original cover design, it came about because the publisher wanted to put something in the database last spring."

    Below: The publishers' description of the book and the author bio as it appears on the B&N website. A description of the book that included a quote has been replaced with the one you see below. You can read the longer one here. The author's bio leaves out the fact that Isaacson and Laurene Powell, Steve Jobs' wife, both sit on the board of Teach for America.

    The book:

    Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

    At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

    Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.

    Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple's hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.

    The author:

    Rhodes Scholar, historian, and bestselling author Walter Isaacson began his distinguished career as a journalist -- first for London's Sunday Times, then for The Times-Picayune/States-Item, published in his hometown of New Orleans. He joined Time magazine in 1978, working his way up from political correspondent to managing editor in a little less than two decades. He served for two years as chairman and CEO of the cable TV news network CNN; then, in 2003, he became president of the Aspen Institute, an international nonprofit organization "dedicated to fostering enlightened leadership and open-minded dialogue." In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he was appointed vice-chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, and he serves on a number of policy-making boards and councils.

    In literary circles, Isaacson is best known as the writer of magisterial biographies, scholarly and meticulously researched, yet immensely entertaining. His first book, however, was a collaborative effort. Co-written with award-winning journalist Evan Thomas, and published in 1986, The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made explores the lives of six men who shaped government and public policy in the years following WWII. Examining an era too recent to be called history and too distant to qualify as current affairs, the book received mixed reviews but was universally praised for its ambitious scope and elegant style.

    Isaacson's subsequent biographies, all solo efforts (and all critically acclaimed), have chronicled the lives of such disparate figures as Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein. He explains what has drawn him to such widely divergent subjects -- men, who on the surface would appear to have very little in common: "I like writing about people with interesting minds. I try to explore the various aspects of intelligence: common sense, wisdom, creativity, imagination, mental processing power, emotional understanding, and moral values. Which of these traits are the most important? How do they make someone an influential or significant or good person?"







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最佳评论

@关子临: 自信也许会压倒聪明,演技的好坏也许会压倒脑力的强弱,好领导就是循循善诱的人,不独裁,而有见地,能让人心悦诚服。    参加讨论>>
@DuoDuopa:彼得原理,是美国学者劳伦斯彼得在对组织中人员晋升的相关现象研究后得出的一个结论:在各种组织中,由于习惯于对在某个等级上称职的人员进行晋升提拔,因而雇员总是趋向于晋升到其不称职的地位。    参加讨论>>
@Bruce的森林:正念,应该可以解释为专注当下的事情,而不去想过去这件事是怎么做的,这件事将来会怎样。一方面,这种理念可以帮助员工排除杂念,把注意力集中在工作本身,减少压力,提高创造力。另一方面,这不失为提高员工工作效率的好方法。可能后者是各大BOSS们更看重的吧。    参加讨论>>


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