Atari 雅达利

In February 1974, after eighteen months of hanging around Reed, Jobs decided¹ to move back to his parents' home in Los Altos and look for a job. 1974年2月，在里德学院晃荡了18个月之后，乔布斯决定搬回父母在洛斯阿尔托斯的住处，然后找一份工作。

It was not a difficult search. 这并不是什么难事。

At peak times during the 1970s, the classified section of the San Jose Mercury carried up to sixty pages of technology help-wanted ads. 20世纪70年代，《圣何塞水星报》(San Jose Mercury)的分类广告版面上，科技类的招工广告最多时曾达到60页。

One of those caught Jobs's eye. "Have fun, make money, " it said. 其中的一则广告吸引了乔布斯的目光。"在享乐中赚钱"，广告语是这么说的。

That day Jobs walked into the lobby of the video game manufacturer Atari and told the personnel director, who was startled by his unkempt hair and attire², 那一天，乔布斯走进了游戏制造商雅达利公司（Atari)的大厅，对着被他不修边幅的发型和装扮吓了一跳的人事主管说，

that he wouldn't leave until they gave him a job. 得不到一份工作他是不会离开的。

Atari's founder³ was a burly entrepreneur named Nolan Bushnell, who was a charismatic visionary with a nice touch of showmanship in him 雅达利当时是非常热门的公司。它的创始人是髙大健壮的企业家诺兰布什内尔（Nolan Bushnell), 此人是个充满魅力、能说会道的梦想家

in other words, another role model waiting to be emulated⁴. 换句话说，又一个时代偶像。

After he became famous, he liked driving around in a Rolls, smoking dope, and holding staff meetings in a hot tub. 成名之后，他喜欢开着劳斯莱斯四处转悠，吸食毒品，在浴缸里开员工会议。

As Friedland had done and as Jobs would learn to do, he was able to turn charm into a cunning force, 他有一项能力---是弗里德兰也具有的、乔布斯日后也学会了的--就是将个人魅力转化为说服力，

to cajole and intimidate⁵ and distort reality with the power of his personality. 通过个性的力量进行劝诱、胁迫以及扭曲事实。

His chief engineer was Al Alcorn, beefy and jovial⁶ and a bit more grounded, 他手下的首席工程师叫做阿尔奥尔康（Al Alcom)，一个健壮、快乐又很理性的人。

the house grown-up trying to implement⁷ the vision and curb⁸ the enthusiasms of Bushnell. 他就像个家长一样，一方面要帮助布什内尔实现他的梦想，另一方面又要控制住他的狂热。

Their big hit thus far was a video game called Pong, 布什内尔指派奥尔康研发一款视频游戏《乒乓》的街机版。

in which two players tried to volley a blip on a screen with two movable lines that acted as paddles. 游戏中两名玩家分别操纵屏幕上两根移动的光标充当球拍，拦截充当乒乓球的小光点

(If you're under thirty, ask your parents.) （如果你不到40岁，问问你的父母)。

When Jobs arrived in the Atari lobby wearing sandals and demanding a job, Alcorn was the one who was summoned. 当乔布斯穿着凉鞋来到雅达利公司要求工作时，有人通知了奥尔康。

"I was told, 'We've got a hippie kid in the lobby. He says he's not going to leave until we hire him. “我被告知：有个嬉皮士小子在大厅里，他说我们不雇他他就不走。

Should we call the cops or let him in?' I said bring him on in!" 我们该打电话报警还是让他进来？'我说，快带他进来！ ”

Jobs thus became one of the first fifty employees at Atari, working as a technician for $5 an hour. 乔布斯由此成为了雅达利公司第一批50名员工之一，职位是技术员，薪水每小时5美元。

"In retrospect⁹, it was weird¹⁰ to hire a dropout¹¹ from Reed, " Alcorn recalled. “现在想想，雇用一名里德学院的辍学生真有点儿不可思议，”奥尔康说，

"But I saw something in him. He was very intelligent, enthusiastic¹², excited about tech." “但我在他身上看到了一些东西。他非常聪明，富有激情，对技术狂热。”

Alcorn assigned him to work with a straitlaced engineer named Don Lang. 奥尔康让乔布斯与一个叫唐朗（Don Lang)的工程师一起工作，此人的思想极其保守。

The next day Lang complained, "This guy's a goddamn hippie with b.o. 第二天朗就开始抱怨了：“这家伙是个该死的有体臭的嬉皮士。

Why did you do this to me? And he's impossible to deal with." 你为什么要这么对我？还有，我裉本没法儿跟他相处。”

Jobs clung to the belief that his fruit-heavy vegetarian¹³ diet would prevent not just mucus but also body odor, 乔布斯坚信，他以氷果为主的素食习惯不仅会消除黏液，也会去除他的体味，

even if he didn't use deodorant¹⁴ or shower regularly. It was a flawed theory. 就算他不用香体剂，也不常常洗澡。这是个错误的理论。