Bitmapping and graphical interfaces became features of Xerox PARC’s prototype computers, such as the Alto, and its object-oriented programming language, Smalltalk. Jef Raskin decided that these features were the future of computing. So he began urging Jobs and other Apple colleagues to go check out Xerox PARC.

位图显示和图形界面成为了施乐PARC开发的电脑样机（比如“奥图”电脑）和面向对象的编程语言Smalltalk的特性。杰夫·拉斯金认为，这些特性是电脑产业的未来。于是他开始催促乔布斯和苹果的其他同事去施乐PARC考察一番。

Raskin had one problem: Jobs regarded him as an insufferable theorist or, to use Jobs’s own more precise terminology, “a shithead who sucks.” So Raskin enlisted his friend Atkinson, who fell on the other side of Jobs’s shithead/genius division of the world, to convince Jobs to take an interest in what was happening at Xerox PARC. What Raskin didn’t know was that Jobs was working on a more complex deal. Xerox’s venture capital division wanted to be part of the second round of Apple financing during the summer of 1979. Jobs made an offer: “I will let you invest a million dollars in Apple if you will open the kimono at PARC.” Xerox accepted. It agreed to show Apple its new technology and in return got to buy 100,000 shares at about $10 each.

拉斯金有一个麻烦。乔布斯认为他是个让人难以忍受的理论家，用乔布斯的原话来说，就是个“糟糕透顶的白痴”。因此，拉斯金只好找来自己的朋友阿特金森，让他去说腋乔布斯关注一下施乐PARC的研究进展，因为在乔布斯“不是天才就是白痴”的世界中，阿特金森是属于天才这一边的。拉斯金不知道的是，乔布斯正在进行一项更为复杂的交易。施乐的风险投资部门想要参与苹果公司在1979年夏天进行的第二轮融资。乔布斯开出了条件：“如果你们愿意掲开施乐PARC的神秘面纱，我就同意你们投资100万美元。”施乐公司接受了，同意向苹果展示其新技术；作为回报，他们可以每股10美元的价格购买10万股苹果公司的股票。

By the time Apple went public a year later, Xerox’s $1 million worth of shares were worth $17.6 million. But Apple got the better end of the bargain. Jobs and his colleagues went to see Xerox PARC’s technology in December 1979 and, when Jobs realized he hadn’t been shown enough, got an even fuller demonstration a few days later. Larry Tesler was one of the Xerox scientists called upon to do the briefings, and he was thrilled to show off the work that his bosses back east had never seemed to appreciate. But the other briefer, Adele Goldberg, was appalled that her company seemed willing to give away its crown jewels. “It was incredibly stupid, completely nuts, and I fought to prevent giving Jobs much of anything,” she recalled.

一年之后，苹果公司上市了，施乐花100万美元购买的股票已经价值1760万。但在这场交易中，苹果公司获益更多。乔布斯和同事们在1979年12月参观了施乐PARC的技术成果，但乔布斯觉得他看到的并不是全部，于是几天之后又得到了一次更加全面的展示。拉里·特斯勒（LarryTesler）是奉命进行展示的施乐科学家之一，他对有机会展示自己的工作成果非常兴奋，因为这些从来都得不到远在东部的老板们的赏识。但另一名展示者，阿黛尔·戈德堡（AdekGoldberg）,对于公司愿意把自己最宝贵的科研成果拱手示人感到震惊。“那么做是无比愚蠢、彻底疯狂的，我想尽办法，阻止乔布斯获取太多信息。”她说道。

Goldberg got her way at the first briefing. Jobs, Raskin, and the Lisa team leader John Couch were ushered into the main lobby, where a Xerox Alto had been set up. “It was a very controlled show of a few applications, primarily a word-processing one,” Goldberg said. Jobs wasn’t satisfied, and he called Xerox headquarters demanding more.

第一次展示会上，戈德堡得逞了。乔布斯、拉斯金以及丽萨团队的负责人约翰·库奇（JohnCouch）被带到大厅，在那里，一台施乐的奥图电脑已经准备就绪。“只给他们展示了很有限的几个应用，最主要的是一个文字处理程序。”戈德堡回忆说。乔布斯并不满意，他致电施乐总部，要求得到更多信息。

So he was invited back a few days later, and this time he brought a larger team that included Bill Atkinson and Bruce Horn, an Apple programmer who had worked at Xerox PARC. They both knew what to look for. “When I arrived at work, there was a lot of commotion, and I was told that Jobs and a bunch of his programmers were in the conference room,” said Goldberg. One of her engineers was trying to keep them entertained with more displays of the word-processing program. But Jobs was growing impatient. “Let’s stop this bullshit!” he kept shouting. So the Xerox folks huddled privately and decided to open the kimono a bit more, but only slowly. They agreed that Tesler could show off Smalltalk, the programming language, but he would demonstrate only what was known as the “unclassified” version. “It will dazzle [Jobs] and he’ll never know he didn’t get the confidential disclosure,” the head of the team told Goldberg.

于是，几天之后，他又被邀请去了施乐MRC，这次他带来了一个更为庞大的团队，包括了比尔·阿特金森和曾经在施乐PARC工作过的苹果程序员布鲁斯·霍恩（BruceHorn）。这两个人都知道该寻找什么。戈德堡说：“我上班后，发现公司里很喧闹，有人告诉我，乔布斯和他的一群程序员正在会议室里。”施乐的一名工程师在展示那个文字处理程序的更多细节，想以此应付他们。但乔布斯越来越不耐烦了，他不停地喊：“别说这狗屁玩意儿了！”施乐的几个人聚在一起商量了一下，决定向乔布斯展示部分核心技术，但只是一点点。他们同意特斯勒展示一下编程语言Smalltalk，但只能展示“非机密”版本的。“这就足够让他眼花缭乱了，他不会知道我们还有机密部分的。”团队负责人这么告诉戈德堡。