乔布斯传 第385期:阿梅里奥出局(6)

 This attitude arose partly out of his tendency to see the world in binary¹ terms.

这种处事态度的部分源起，是他倾向于认为所有事都是非黑即白的。

A person was either a hero or a bozo, a product was either amazing or shit.

一个人不是英雄就是蠢材，一个产品不是奇迹就是垃圾。

But he could be stymied² by things that were more complex, shaded, or nuanced:

但是他可能会对更加复杂、不清晰或差别不明显的事情表现出困惑：

getting married, buying the right sofa, committing to run a company.

结婚、买沙发，抑或是承诺经营一家公司。

In addition, he didn't want to be set up for failure.

另外，他也不想做注定失败的事情。

"I think Steve wanted to assess whether Apple could be saved," Fred Anderson said.

“我想史蒂夫是想评估一下苹果是否可以被挽救。”弗雷德·安德森说。

Woolard and the board decided³ to go ahead and fire Amelio,

伍拉德和董事会决定继续向前推进，解雇阿梅里奥，

even though Jobs was not yet forthcoming about how active a role he would play as an advisor⁴.

即使乔布斯还不确定作为“顾问”他将承担多少职责。

Amelio was about to go on a picnic with his wife, children, and grandchildren when the call came from Woolard in London.

当伍拉德从伦敦打电话时，阿梅里奥正要跟妻儿以及孙子孙女们一起去野餐。

"We need you to step down," Woolard said simply.

“我们需要你下台。”伍拉德简单地说。

Amelio replied that it was not a good time to discuss this, but Woolard felt he had to persist.

阿梅里奥回答说现在不是讨论这个的合适时间，但是伍拉德决定他必须要坚持。

"We are going to announce that we're replacing you." Amelio resisted.

“我们将会宣布要把你换掉。”阿梅里奥还想反抗。

"Remember, Ed, I told the board it was going to take three years to get this company back on its feet again," he said.

“记得吗，埃德，我当初告诉董事会需要三年时间让这家公司重新站起来，”他说，

"I'm not even halfway⁵ through."

“现在我连一半还没走到。”

"The board is at the place where we don't want to discuss it further," Woolard replied.

“董事会认为我们不想再继续讨论了。”伍拉德答道。

Amelio asked who knew about the decision, and Woolard told him the truth: the rest of the board plus Jobs.

阿梅里奥问都有谁知道这个决定，伍拉德实话实说：董事会其他成员加上乔布斯。

"Steve was one of the people we talked to about this," Woolard said.

“史蒂夫是我们讨论这件事的人之一。”伍拉德说，

"His view is that you' re a really nice guy, but you don't know much about the computer industry."

“他的观点是你是个好人，但是你对计算机行业了解得不多。”

"Why in the world would you involve Steve in a decision like this?" Amelio replied, getting angry.

“你们怎么会在作这样的决定时把史蒂夫扯进来？”阿梅里奥生气地说，

"Steve is not even a member of the board of directors, so what the hell is he doing in any of this conversation?"

“史蒂夫连董事会成员都不是，他到底为什么会参与这样的讨论？”

But Woolard didn't back down, and Amelio hung up to carry on with the family picnic before telling his wife.

但是伍拉德没有让步，阿梅里奥挂上电话，继续跟家人去野餐，之后才告诉他妻子。

1 binary   

adj.二，双；二进制的；n.双(体)；联星

参考例句：

• Computers operate using binary numbers.计算机运行运用二进位制。
• Let us try converting the number itself to binary.我们试一试，把这个数本身变成二进制数。

2 stymied   

n.被侵袭的v.妨碍，阻挠( stymie的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Relief efforts have been stymied in recent weeks by armed gunmen. 最近几周的救援工作一直受到武装分子的阻挠。 来自辞典例句
• I was completely stymied by her refusal to help. 由于她拒不相助， 我完全陷入了困境。 来自互联网

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

5 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。