The Macintosh Spirit 麦金塔精神

作者: 安迪·赫茨菲尔德 日期: 未注明日期 人物: 史蒂夫·乔布斯、约翰·库奇、杰夫·拉斯金、伯勒尔·史密斯 主题: 苹果精神、灵感、管理、个性、起源、现实扭曲 概要: 关于苹果第一代Macintosh的开发以及制造它的人的轶事: 团队的态度和价值观塑造了 Macintosh 的精神 , 麦金塔精神 The Macintosh Spirit

A small team put a lot of hard work into designing the original Macintosh computer. They were led by Steve Jobs, who inspired them with his passion and enthusiasm. We can still feel that excitement when we use the finished product today. The people who designed the Macintosh are a part of the computer. You can see their attitudes, values, and personalities in the many small details they added while designing it. All these small details come together to give the Macintosh a certain feeling or spirit that affects how users experience it.

一个小团队投入了大量的精力来设计最初的 Macintosh 计算机。他们由史蒂夫·乔布斯领导,他的热情和热情激励着他们。今天我们使用成品时仍然能感受到那种兴奋。
设计麦金塔电脑的人是计算机的一部分。从他们在设计时添加的许多小细节中,你可以看到他们的态度、价值观和个性。所有这些小细节共同赋予 Macintosh 某种感觉或精神,影响用户的体验。

We were very excited because we thought we could do something really new and special. Usually, technological improvements are small, but sometimes a new idea can take us to a completely new level. Some years ago, Apple and other companies made computers affordable for regular people. But these computers were still too complicated for most people to use. We believed that the Mac’s new way of using pictures and symbols instead of typing commands could make computers enjoyable for people who are not tech experts. This could have made a big difference in the lives of millions of people.

我们非常兴奋,因为我们认为我们可以做一些真正新颖且特别的事情。通常,技术进步很小,但有时一个新想法可以将我们带到一个全新的水平。
几年前,苹果和其他公司让普通人买得起电脑。但这些计算机对于大多数人来说仍然太复杂而无法使用。
我们相信,Mac 使用图片和符号而不是键入命令的新方式可以让非技术专家的人也能享受到计算机带来的乐趣。这可能会给数百万人的生活带来巨大的变化。

As soon as Steve Jobs took over the Macintosh team in January 1981, he made them feel very urgent about their work. One of his first things to do was to make a bet with John Couch, who was in charge of the Lisa team. Steve bet him $5000 that the Macintosh would come out before the Lisa, even though Lisa had started two years earlier and we had just started working on Macintosh. The Macintosh team always made very optimistic schedules because Steve wouldn’t accept more realistic estimates. He believed that if he really wanted something to happen, he could make it happen by being very determined.

1981 年 1 月,史蒂夫·乔布斯一接手 Macintosh 团队,他就让他们对自己的工作感到非常紧迫。他要做的第一件事就是和丽莎团队的负责人约翰·库奇打赌。
史蒂夫跟他打赌,Macintosh 会先于 Lisa 推出,尽管 Lisa 比 Lisa 早两年推出,而我们刚刚开始开发 Macintosh。
麦金塔团队总是制定非常乐观的时间表,因为史蒂夫不会接受更现实的估计。他相信,如果他真的想要某件事发生,只要下定决心,他就能实现。

We wanted to make the Macintosh computer great, but we had a high standard to meet. Most companies make things just to make money and beat their competitors. But we didn’t think like that. We wanted to create something amazing and unique that would stand out from everything else. We wanted the Macintosh to be the best in every way, and we spent a lot of time making sure every small detail was just right. For us, “good enough” wasn’t good enough. If Steve, our leader, could see it, it had to be perfect.

我们希望让 Macintosh 电脑变得更加出色,但我们需要满足很高的标准。大多数公司生产产品只是为了赚钱并击败竞争对手。但我们不这么认为。
我们想要创造出一些令人惊叹和独特的东西,从其他一切中脱颖而出。我们希望 Macintosh 在各个方面都是最好的,并且我们花了很多时间来确保每个小细节都恰到好处。对我们来说,“足够好”还不够好。
如果我们的领导史蒂夫能够看到它,那么它一定是完美的。

Steve told the people designing the Mac computer to think of themselves as artists. In 1982, he took the whole team to see an art exhibition by Louis Comfort Tiffany in San Francisco. Tiffany was an artist who could make lots of copies of his work, just like we wanted to do with the Mac. Steve even had each team member sign their name inside the computer case, like artists sign their artwork. This made each person feel responsible for making the best product possible.

史蒂夫告诉设计 Mac 电脑的人们将自己视为艺术家。 1982年,他带着整个团队去旧金山观看了Louis Comfort Tiffany的艺术展。
蒂芙尼是一位艺术家,他可以复制很多他的作品,就像我们想用 Mac 做的那样。史蒂夫甚至让每个团队成员在电脑机箱内签上自己的名字,就像艺术家在他们的艺术品上签名一样。
这让每个人都感到有责任制造出最好的产品。

At Apple, some teams had a strict way of making new products. They wrote detailed reports and had to follow strict rules before they started building the product. The Mac team did things differently. We wanted to be creative and made changes little by little. We used special chips called PAL chips to make changes quickly, almost as quickly as software code. Instead of talking about new ideas, we just tried them out by making quick versions of the product. We kept the ideas that worked best and threw away the ones that didn’t. This way, we always had something that showed our best ideas so far.

在苹果公司,一些团队对新产品的制造有严格的规定。他们编写了详细的报告,并且在开始构建产品之前必须遵循严格的规则。 Mac 团队的做法有所不同。我们想要发挥创意,一点一点地做出改变。我们使用称为 PAL 芯片的特殊芯片来快速进行更改,几乎与软件代码一样快。
我们没有谈论新想法,而是通过制作产品的快速版本来尝试它们。我们保留了最有效的想法,并丢弃了无效的想法。这样,我们总有一些东西可以展示我们迄今为止最好的想法。

You might expect that having a very busy schedule and trying to be perfect would make working together feel strict and serious. But most of the time, the Mac team had a fun, energetic, and playful atmosphere. Our manager, Jef Raskin, was a fun and relaxed person who liked to play games and have toys around the office. When Steve Jobs became our manager, this playful atmosphere stayed the same. Most of the people working on the Mac project were around the same age, in our mid-twenties, and we all enjoyed each other’s company. As we worked longer hours, we started to hang out together more and more, and the line between work and play became blurry. Despite the big pressure we were under, we loved what we were doing.

您可能会认为,日程安排非常繁忙并力求完美会让在一起工作时感觉严格而严肃。但大多数时候,Mac 团队都充满着有趣、充满活力、俏皮的氛围。
我们的经理杰夫·拉斯金 (Jef Raskin) 是一个有趣、轻松的人,喜欢玩游戏,喜欢在办公室里放玩具。当史蒂夫·乔布斯成为我们的经理时,这种有趣的氛围仍然保持不变。
大多数从事 Mac 项目的人年龄都差不多,都是二十多岁,我们都很享受彼此的陪伴。随着我们工作时间的延长,我们开始越来越多地一起出去玩,工作和娱乐之间的界限变得模糊。尽管我们承受着巨大的压力,但我们热爱我们所做的事情。

Steve had a bossy style, but the Mac team was surprisingly equal. While other parts of Apple were getting more traditional and slow-moving as the company got bigger, the early Mac team was more like a small company that is just starting out. We didn’t have strict rules and a hierarchy. Instead, we were a team where the best ideas counted, and we didn’t have many bosses to tell us what to do. Sometimes Steve would make a rule that wasn’t very fair or refuse to do something that everyone else wanted. But when he realized he was wrong, he would change his mind. At our third meeting in 1983, Steve reminded us of our adventurous spirit, which was starting to fade as the team got bigger. He told us, “It’s better to be a rebel than to be part of the ordinary crowd.”

史蒂夫有专横的作风,但 Mac 团队却出人意料地平等。随着公司规模的扩大,苹果的其他部门变得更加传统且行动缓慢,但早期的 Mac 团队更像是一家刚刚起步的小公司。我们没有严格的规则和等级制度。相反,我们是一个重视最佳创意的团队,而且没有很多老板来告诉我们该做什么。
有时,史蒂夫会制定不太公平的规则,或者拒绝做其他人都想做的事情。但当他意识到自己错了之后,他就会改变主意。 1983 年,我们第三次会面时,史蒂夫提醒我们,随着团队规模的扩大,我们的冒险精神开始消退。他告诉我们,“做一个叛逆者比成为普通人群的一员更好。”

When people are excited about something, that feeling is easy to catch. A product that is fun to make is more likely to be enjoyable to use. The original Macintosh team had a strong love for their work, a desire to be the best, an artistic sense of pride, and a playful sense of humor. This passion and energy helped create the Macintosh spirit, which inspired many people who worked on or used the computer, even years later.

当人们对某件事感到兴奋时,这种感觉很容易捕捉到。制造起来很有趣的产品使用起来也更有乐趣。
最初的 Macintosh 团队对他们的工作有强烈的热爱,渴望成为最好的,有艺术自豪感,还有顽皮的幽默感。
这种热情和活力帮助创造了麦金塔精神,甚至在多年后也激励着许多从事或使用计算机的人。
目录