The Wizard and the Mortal: Two Sides of Genius
奇才和凡人：天才的兩面世界

IN August 1931, Thomas Alva Edison, age 84, became gravely ill with kidney problems. He recovered a little, then suffered a setback and was confined to bed at home, drifting in and out of consciousness. Newspapers issued multiple bulletins each day, reporting on signs of improvement or decline. The end came in the early morning of Oct. 18, 1931, with his family at his bedside.
1931年8月，時(shí)年84歲的托馬斯·阿爾瓦·愛(ài)迪生因?yàn)槟I臟問(wèn)題病情嚴(yán)重。他有一點(diǎn)恢復(fù)，但是很快病魔再次襲來(lái)。偉大的發(fā)明家臥床不起，時(shí)而昏迷，時(shí)而清醒。當(dāng)時(shí)的報(bào)紙每天都要發(fā)布很多條公告，報(bào)道愛(ài)迪生的病情減輕或是加重的跡象。這一切也終于走到了終結(jié)：1931年10月18日凌晨，愛(ài)迪生病逝，去世時(shí)他的家人都在他的身邊。

That day, The New York Times ran nearly two-dozen articles on Edison’s life and death. Newspapers worldwide were filled with eulogies and remembrances for many days afterward. Words alone were not enough to express the nation’s grief. Heeding President Herbert Hoover’s request, many Americans briefly turned off their electric lights at 10 o’clock Eastern time on the night of Edison’s funeral.
當(dāng)天的紐約時(shí)報(bào)刊登了有二十幾篇文章，報(bào)道愛(ài)迪生的死訊和回顧他的生平。在那之后的好多天里，全球的報(bào)紙都滿是哀悼和追憶之詞。簡(jiǎn)單的文字似乎不足以表達(dá)這個(gè)民族的悲傷，根據(jù)當(dāng)時(shí)美國(guó)總統(tǒng)胡佛的建議，許多美國(guó)人在愛(ài)迪生葬禮舉行的當(dāng)晚10點(diǎn)鐘，暫時(shí)關(guān)掉了電燈，以示對(duì)這位偉大發(fā)明家的緬懷之情。

The broad outpouring that has followed the death of Steve Jobs reminds me of the display of grief following Edison’s death. In both cases, their passing evoked an extraordinary public response, tributes that were greater and broader than those paid to many a head of state. Why is that?
史蒂夫·喬布斯過(guò)世后，美國(guó)人民廣泛流露的悲傷之情讓我想起了愛(ài)迪生過(guò)世時(shí)的全國(guó)大哀悼。這兩個(gè)人的離世引起了不尋常的公眾反應(yīng)，人們對(duì)他們的贊美遠(yuǎn)勝于許多國(guó)家元首。為什么會(huì)這樣？

Both men have fully occupied my attention at different times. I wrote a book about Mr. Jobs in 1993. I looked at his struggling endeavor to start another computer company, NeXT, after he left Apple amid a power struggle in 1985. His return to Apple in 1997 and the triumphs that would follow were not within sight. I took my snapshot of him and the company when he was at the miserable nadir of his professional life.
他們都曾在不同的時(shí)間占據(jù)了我的注意力。1993年我寫(xiě)了一本關(guān)于喬布斯先生的作品。我主要關(guān)注了他在1985年權(quán)力之爭(zhēng)中落敗離開(kāi)蘋(píng)果創(chuàng)立另一家電腦公司NeXT的奮斗史，當(dāng)時(shí)我也并沒(méi)有預(yù)見(jiàn)到他會(huì)在1997年重返蘋(píng)果以及后來(lái)他的一系列勝利。我的文字記錄了職業(yè)生涯痛苦低谷時(shí)期的他和他的公司。

Years later, I wrote a biography of Edison, a person whom Mr. Jobs admired. When you compare the two personalities and their careers, a few similarities emerge immediately. Both had less formal schooling than most of their respective peers. Both possessed the ability to visualize projects on a grand scale. Both followed an inner voice when making decisions. And both had terrific tempers that could make their employees quake.
幾年后，我開(kāi)始寫(xiě)愛(ài)迪生傳記。喬布斯很欣賞愛(ài)迪生。如果你把他們的個(gè)性和職業(yè)進(jìn)行比較，你會(huì)立刻發(fā)現(xiàn)一些相似點(diǎn)。比起大多數(shù)的同齡人，他們接受正規(guī)教育都比較少；他們都擁有從宏觀角度構(gòu)想項(xiàng)目的能力；他們?cè)谧鰶Q定的時(shí)候都會(huì)聽(tīng)從內(nèi)心的聲音；他們脾氣都很壞，會(huì)讓員工抓狂。

Both men worked in several product areas, but entertainment-related technology was a major portion of their product portfolios. This prompts a question: Would the public’s relationship to Edison have been essentially the same without the phonograph and without movies? Or with Mr. Jobs, if Apple had remained just Apple Computer?
他們都曾涉足過(guò)不同的產(chǎn)品領(lǐng)域，但是與娛樂(lè)相關(guān)的科技總會(huì)是他們產(chǎn)品組合中主要的部分。這也提出了一個(gè)問(wèn)題：如果沒(méi)有留聲機(jī)和電影，公眾對(duì)愛(ài)迪生的感情還會(huì)一樣嗎？如果蘋(píng)果只是蘋(píng)果電腦，人們還會(huì)如此關(guān)注喬布斯嗎？

After enjoying early success, each of them pursued a quixotic project that would occupy them for roughly 10 years — Mr. Jobs’s disappointing but enlightening NeXT odyssey and Edison’s failed attempt to build an iron ore processing business in northwestern New Jersey.
在取得早期的成功后，他們各自都花了大約十年的時(shí)間來(lái)追求一項(xiàng)不切實(shí)際的計(jì)劃：?jiǎn)滩妓沟腘eXT奧德賽系統(tǒng)雖然令人失望都卻很有啟發(fā)作用；愛(ài)迪生在新澤西州西北部開(kāi)始的鐵礦石加工業(yè)務(wù)也以失敗告終。

THE later careers of the two were more different than similar. Mr. Jobs was able to realize his product visions — again and again. Edison’s career was characterized by a pattern of introducing what today we would call a beta version of a product and then losing interest in it. Competitors would then swoop in and fully commercialize the idea — and profit the most from it.
不過(guò)他們后來(lái)的職業(yè)生涯有了很多的不同。喬布斯一次又一次實(shí)現(xiàn)了他對(duì)產(chǎn)品的愿景，而愛(ài)迪生的事業(yè)則陷入了一種模式：用現(xiàn)在的話來(lái)說(shuō)就是產(chǎn)品的測(cè)試版，然后很快對(duì)這個(gè)產(chǎn)品失去興趣。而他的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手，則會(huì)蜂擁而入，將他的這些想法完全商業(yè)化，當(dāng)然也從中獲利頗豐。

Mr. Jobs was the far shrewder businessman, even if he never talked about wealth as a matter of personal interest. When Edison died, he left behind an estate valued at about $12 million, or about $180 million in today’s dollars. His friend Henry Ford had once joked that Edison was “the world’s greatest inventor and the world’s worst businessman.” Mr. Jobs was worth a commanding $6.5 billion.
喬布斯則是個(gè)很精明的商人，雖然他從沒(méi)有表示過(guò)財(cái)富是他的個(gè)人興趣所在。愛(ài)迪生死后，他留下了價(jià)值1200萬(wàn)美元的遺產(chǎn)，相當(dāng)于現(xiàn)在的18億美元。他的朋友亨利·福特（福特汽車公司的創(chuàng)始人）曾經(jīng)拿愛(ài)迪生開(kāi)玩笑說(shuō)過(guò)：“這世界上最偉大的發(fā)明家也是最差勁的商人?！?喬布斯則要比愛(ài)迪生厲害得多，他去世時(shí)留下了65億美元的遺產(chǎn)。

Mr. Jobs was perhaps the most beloved billionaire the world has ever known. Richard Branson’s tribute captures the way people felt they could identify with Mr. Jobs’s life narrative: “So many people drew courage from Steve and related to his life story: adoptees, college dropouts, struggling entrepreneurs, and people fighting debilitating illness. We have all been there in some way and can see a bit of ourselves in his personal and professional successes and struggles.”
喬布斯大概是最受大家喜愛(ài)的億萬(wàn)富翁了。理查德·布蘭森（英國(guó)億萬(wàn)富翁）對(duì)喬布斯的贊美可能正好抓住了很多人從喬布斯生平中感悟到的認(rèn)同感：“許多人從史蒂夫的故事中得到了勇氣，與自己的人生經(jīng)歷產(chǎn)生了共鳴：出生時(shí)被收養(yǎng)，大學(xué)輟學(xué)，努力創(chuàng)業(yè)，對(duì)抗病魔。我們?nèi)松锌赡芏加幸恍┫嗤慕?jīng)歷，在他的個(gè)人和事業(yè)成功和奮斗史中，我們會(huì)看到一些自己的影子?！?/div>

By contrast, Edison became a victim of his own manufactured life narrative and the world’s adulation. Earlier, when Edison introduced the spring-driven phonograph in 1878, a reporter coined a nickname for him: “The Wizard of Menlo Park.” He liked — too much — playing the Wizard. Educational reform. National defense spending. The fatal effects of clothing. The relationship of diet to national destiny. Much of it was ephemera or idiocy, best forgotten.
相比之下，愛(ài)迪生就是他自己的制造生涯和世界阿諛?lè)畛兄Z(yǔ)下的犧牲品。1878年愛(ài)迪生發(fā)明了發(fā)條留聲機(jī)，當(dāng)時(shí)有一位記者給他取了個(gè)綽號(hào)叫：“門(mén)洛帕克的奇才?！?他太喜歡沉迷于天才的神奇世界里了。教育改革，國(guó)防開(kāi)支，衣物對(duì)身體的致命影響，飲食習(xí)慣對(duì)民族命運(yùn)的影響，這些要么是蜉蝣撼大樹(shù)，要么超級(jí)白癡，只有被遺忘的下場(chǎng)。

Steve Jobs did not waste his time or ours with similar flotsam. A rare time that he publicly stepped out of the role of chief executive and shared personal thoughts was when he delivered the commencement address at Stanford in June 2005. It was a moving meditation on his life and his — and our — mortality. It was a talk for the ages.
喬布斯則不會(huì)在這些沒(méi)用的東西上浪費(fèi)他或者我們的時(shí)間。他僅有的一次走出首席執(zhí)行官的角色與公眾分享他的個(gè)人想法的機(jī)會(huì)是在2005年6月斯坦福大學(xué)畢業(yè)演講上。那是對(duì)他的生命，對(duì)他還有我們最終的死亡一次動(dòng)人的思考，那是時(shí)代的對(duì)話。

The public tributes to Edison in 1931 and those to Mr. Jobs 80 years later were similar, but only superficially. With Edison, the public thought of the Wizard, an outsize persona, through which it was impossible to see an actual person. But with Mr. Jobs, the tributes were to a fellow mortal, exactly our own height, just as vulnerable as we all are to the random strike of a life-ending catastrophe.
1931年公眾對(duì)愛(ài)迪生的贊美和80年后對(duì)喬布斯的溢美之詞內(nèi)容相似，但是這種相似只是流于表面。想到愛(ài)迪生，人們會(huì)想到超級(jí)奇才，我們可能沒(méi)法看到真實(shí)的人的存在；而喬布斯，他是和我們相同高度的凡人，和我們一樣隨時(shí)會(huì)被死神之手勒住脖頸的凡人。