乔布斯传 第127期:过程就是奖励(2)

 Unfortunately for Apple,

对于苹果公司来说不幸的是，

Jobs also took aim at another perceived competitor to his Macintosh: the company's own Lisa.

乔布斯还将矛头对准了麦金塔的另一个竞争对手：苹果公司自家生产的丽萨。

Partly it was psychological.

这么做一定程度上是心理原因。

He had been ousted¹ from that group, and now he wanted to beat it.

他曾经遭到过丽萨项目的驱逐，现在他要打败它。

He also saw healthy rivalry² as a way to motivate his troops.

乔布斯还认为，良性的竞争也是一种激励下属的方法。

That's why he bet John Couch $5,000 that the Mac would ship before the Lisa.

正因如此，他才跟约翰·库奇打赌5000美元，赌Mac会在丽萨之前上市。

The problem was that the rivalry became unhealthy.

问题是，竞争逐渐变成了恶性的。

Jobs repeatedly portrayed³ his band of engineers as the cool kids on the block,

乔布斯总是把自己手下的一帮工程师描绘成酷小孩，

in contrast to the plodding⁴ HP engineer types working on the Lisa.

与丽萨团队那群惠普工程师风格的无趣之人形成了鲜明对照。

More substantively⁵, when he moved away from Jef Raskin's plan for an inexpensive and underpowered portable appliance

更实质性的问题是，他当初放弃了杰夫·拉斯金生产廉价、低性能便携电脑的计划，

and reconceived the Mac as a desktop⁶ machine with a graphical user interface⁷,

将Mac重新定义为拥有图形用户界面的台式机，

it became a scaled-down version of the Lisa that would likely undercut it in the marketplace.

这样一来Mac就成为了小尺寸版本的丽萨，很有可能削弱丽萨的市场影响力。

乔布斯传

Larry Tesler, who managed application software for the Lisa,

负责管理丽萨电脑应用软件的拉里·特斯勒

realized that it would be important to design both machines to use many of the same software programs.

意识到了一件很重要的事情，就是让许多软件在两款机器上都能使用。

So to broker⁸ peace, he arranged for Smith and Hertzfeld to come to the Lisa work space and demonstrate the Mac prototype.

于是，为了促成两个团队间的和平，他安排史密斯和赫茨菲尔德来到了丽萨的工作区，展示一下Mac的样机。

Twenty-five engineers showed up and were listening politely when,

25名工程师聚到了一起，正当大家在认真聆听、

halfway⁹ into the presentation, the door burst open.

演示进行到一半的时候，门被猛然推开了。

It was Rich Page, a volatile¹⁰ engineer who was responsible for much of the Lisa's design.

冲进来的是里奇·佩奇,他负责丽萨的大部分设计工作，是一个反复无常的工程师。

"The Macintosh is going to destroy the Lisa!" he shouted.

“麦金塔会毁了丽萨的！ ”他吼道，

"The Macintosh is going to ruin Apple!"

“麦金塔也会毁了苹果公司！”

Neither Smith nor Hertzfeld responded, so Page continued his rant¹¹.

史密斯和赫茨菲尔德都没有作出回应，于是佩奇继续咆哮：

"Jobs wants to destroy Lisa because we wouldn't let him control it," he said, looking as if he were about to cry.

“乔布斯想要毁了丽萨，就因为我们没让他来管，”他说着，好像要哭出来一样：

"Nobody's going to buy a Lisa because they know the Mac is coming! But you don't care!"

“没人会买丽萨的，因为大家都知道Mac就要问世了！但你们根本不在乎！”

He stormed out of the room and slammed the door, but a moment later he barged back in briefly¹².

他冲出房间，砰地关上了门，但过了一会儿又闯了进来。

"I know it's not your fault," he said to Smith and Hertzfeld.

“我知道这不是你们的错，”他对史密斯和赫茨菲尔德说，

"Steve Jobs is the problem. Tell Steve that he's destroying Apple!"

“史蒂夫·乔布斯才是问题所在，告诉史蒂夫，他正在毁掉苹果公司！”

Jobs did indeed make the Macintosh into a low-cost competitor to the Lisa, one with incompatible¹³ software.

乔布斯的确把麦金塔变成了丽萨的低价竞争者，并且使用的是丽萨不能兼容的软件。

Making matters worse was that neither machine was compatible with the Apple II.

更糟糕的是，这两款机器与Apple II都不兼容。

With no one in overall charge at Apple, there was no chance of keeping Jobs in harness.

苹果没有人全面管理公司，也就没有人能管得住乔布斯。

1 ousted   

驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• He was ousted as chairman. 他的主席职务被革除了。
• He may be ousted by a military takeover. 他可能在一场军事接管中被赶下台。

2 rivalry   

n.竞争，竞赛，对抗

参考例句：

• The quarrel originated in rivalry between the two families.这次争吵是两家不和引起的。
• He had a lot of rivalry with his brothers and sisters.他和兄弟姐妹间经常较劲。

3 portrayed   

v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中，他始终把自己说成是受害者。
• The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 plodding   

a.proceeding in a slow or dull way

参考例句：

• They're still plodding along with their investigation. 他们仍然在不厌其烦地进行调查。
• He is plodding on with negotiations. 他正缓慢艰难地进行着谈判。

5 substantively   

adv.真实地；实质上

参考例句：

• WTO-consistency had to be secured substantively as well. 与WTO的一致性还必须获得实质性的保证。 来自互联网
• What is called quantum information science is substantively to research information science encoding with quantum states. 量子信息学是近几年迅速发展起来的一门新兴交叉学科，它是量子力学和信息科学相结合的产物。 来自互联网

6 desktop   

n.桌面管理系统程序；台式

参考例句：

• My computer is a desktop computer of excellent quality.我的计算机是品质卓越的台式计算机。
• Do you know which one is better,a laptop or a desktop?你知道哪一种更好，笔记本还是台式机？

7 interface   

n.接合部位，分界面；v.(使)互相联系

参考例句：

• My computer has a network interface,which allows me to get to other computers.我的计算机有网络接口可以与其它计算机连在一起。
• This program has perspicuous interface and extensive application. 该程序界面明了，适用范围广。

8 broker   

n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排

参考例句：

• He baited the broker by promises of higher commissions.他答应给更高的佣金来引诱那位经纪人。
• I'm a real estate broker.我是不动产经纪人。

9 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

10 volatile   

adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质

参考例句：

• With the markets being so volatile,investments are at great risk.由于市场那么变化不定，投资冒着很大的风险。
• His character was weak and volatile.他这个人意志薄弱，喜怒无常。

11 rant   

v.咆哮；怒吼；n.大话；粗野的话

参考例句：

• You can rant and rave at the fine,but you'll still have to pay it.你闹也好，骂也好，罚金还是得交。
• If we rant on the net,the world is our audience.如果我们在网络上大声嚷嚷，全世界都是我们的听众。

12 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

13 incompatible   

adj.不相容的，不协调的，不相配的

参考例句：

• His plan is incompatible with my intent.他的计划与我的意图不相符。
• Speed and safety are not necessarily incompatible.速度和安全未必不相容。