CHAPTER ELEVEN

第十一章

THE REALITY DISTORTION FIELD

现实扭曲力场

Playing by His Own Set of Rules

以自己的游戏规则行事

When Andy Hertzfeld joined the Macintosh team, he got a briefing from Bud Tribble, the other software designer, about the huge amount of work that still needed to be done. Jobs wanted it finished by January 1982, less than a year away. “That’s crazy,” Hertzfeld said. “There’s no way.” Tribble said that Jobs would not accept any contrary facts. “The best way to describe the situation is a term from Star Trek,” Tribble explained. “Steve has a reality distortion field.” When Hertzfeld looked puzzled, Tribble elaborated. “In his presence, reality is malleable. He can convince anyone of practically anything. It wears off when he’s not around, but it makes it hard to have realistic schedules.”

安迪·赫茨菲尔德加入Mac团队后，另一名软件设计师巴德·特里布尔给他介绍了项目的基本情况，让他知道了还有大量工作尚未完成。乔布斯希望项目能在1982年1月之前完工，也就是说只有不到一年时间。“这太疯狂了，”赫茨菲尔德指出，“不可能的。”特里布尔说，乔布斯是不能接受违背自己意愿的事情发生的。“能最好地形容这种情况的就是《星际迷航》里的一个术语”，特里布尔解释道，“史蒂夫拥有现实扭曲力场。”赫茨菲尔德有些疑惑，特里布尔便进一步解释道：“有他在的时候，现实都是可塑的。他能让任何人相信几乎任何事情。等他不在的时候，这种力场就会逐渐消失，但这种力场让我们很难作出符合实际的计划。”

Tribble recalled that he adopted the phrase from the “Menagerie” episodes of Star Trek, “in which the aliens create their own new world through sheer mental force.” He meant the phrase to be a compliment as well as a caution: “It was dangerous to get caught in Steve’s distortion field, but it was what led him to actually be able to change reality.”

特里布尔回忆说，自己是从《星际迷航》中著名的一集——“宇宙动物园”中学来的这个短语，“在那一集中，外星人通过极致的精神力量建造了新世界。”他说他使用这个短语既是一种称赞，也是一种警示。“陷入史蒂夫的扭曲力场中是一件很危险的事情，但也正是这种力场让他可以真正地改变现实。”

At first Hertzfeld thought that Tribble was exaggerating, but after two weeks of working with Jobs, he became a keen observer of the phenomenon. “The reality distortion field was a confounding mélange of a charismatic rhetorical style, indomitable will, and eagerness to bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand,” he said.

起初，赫茨菲尔德认为特里布尔一定是夸张了。但在对乔布斯进行了两个星期的观察后，他有了切身感受。“现实扭曲力场是几种因素的混合物，其中包含了极富魅力的措辞风格、不屈的意志和让现实屈从于自己意图的热切渴望，”他说，“如果他的一个论点没能说服别人，他会娴熟地切换到另一个论点。有时候，他会突然把你的观点占为己有，甚至都不承认自己曾有过不同的想法，这会让你猝不及防。”

There was little that could shield you from the force, Hertzfeld discovered. “Amazingly, the reality distortion field seemed to be effective even if you were acutely aware of it. We would often discuss potential techniques for grounding it, but after a while most of us gave up, accepting it as a force of nature.” After Jobs decreed that the sodas in the office refrigerator be replaced by Odwalla organic orange and carrot juices, someone on the team had T-shirts made. “Reality Distortion Field,” they said on the front, and on the back, “It’s in the juice!”

赫茨菲尔德还发现，没有人可以避开这股力量的影响。“让人惊奇的是，即使你敏锐地意识到了现实扭曲力场，它还是可以在你身上产生作用，”他说，“我们经常讨论有没有方法可以屏蔽这个力场，但一段时间之后，大多数人都放弃了，只能认为它是一种自然力量。”有一次乔布斯宣布，办公室冰箱里的苏打水都会被替换成奥德瓦拉（Odwalla）牌的有机橙汁和胡萝卜汁，之后团队里就有人制作了一批T恤，前面写着“现实扭曲力场”背后写着“它藏在果汁里！”

To some people, calling it a reality distortion field was just a clever way to say that Jobs tended to lie. But it was in fact a more complex form of dissembling. He would assert something—be it a fact about world history or a recounting of who suggested an idea at a meeting—without even considering the truth. It came from willfully defying reality, not only to others but to himself. “He can deceive himself,” said Bill Atkinson. “It allowed him to con people into believing his vision, because he has personally embraced and internalized it.”

在某种程度上，称之为现实扭曲力场只是换了种好听的说法来描述乔布斯喜欢说谎的特性。但事实上，它是一种更复杂的掩饰行为。乔布斯会断言一些事情——可能是世界历史上的一个事件，或者是叙述一场会议上某人提出了一个观点——而完全不考虑事实是什么。这源自他对现实的有意蔑视，不光是对别人，也对他自己。“他可以欺骗他自己比尔·阿特金森说，“这就让他可以说服别人相信他的观点，因为他自己已经接受并吸收了这个观点。”

A lot of people distort reality, of course. When Jobs did so, it was often a tactic for accomplishing something. Wozniak, who was as congenitally honest as Jobs was tactical, marveled at how effective it could be. “His reality distortion is when he has an illogical vision of the future, such as telling me that I could design the Breakout game in just a few days. You realize that it can’t be true, but he somehow makes it true.”

当然，很多人都会扭曲现实。当乔布斯这么做的时候，通常都是一种策略，为了实现某个目的。天性诚实的沃兹尼亚克就惊叹于这种力量的效果。“当他对于未来有一些不合常理的想法时，比如说告诉我，我能只用几天时间就设计出‘打砖块’游戏的时候，他的现实扭曲力场就会起作用。你意识到那是不现实的，但他就是有办法让它变为现实。”