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The Magician
The revolution that Steve Jobs led is only just beginning
【】When it came to(当提及……；但谈及……；后面一般接主题) putting on a show, nobody else in the
computer industry, or any other industry for that matter, could match （比得上……；比赛，竞赛；匹配；
对手；火柴） Steve Jobs. His product launches产品发布会, （at which he would stand alone on a black
stage and produce as if by magic an “incredible adj. 难以置信的，惊人的” new electronic gadget (小器
具)in front of an amazed crowd, ）were the performances of a master showman. All computers do is fetch vi.
拿；取物；获取 and work with numbers, he once explained, but do it fast enough and “the results appear to
be magic”. Mr Jobs, who died recently aged 56, spent his life packaging that magic into elegantly designed,
easy-to-use products.
The reaction to his death, with people leaving candles and flowers outside Apple stores and politicians
n. 政治家，政客 singing praises v. 赞扬；歌颂 on the internet, is proof n. 证明；证据；校样；考验；
验证；试验 that Mr Jobs had become something much more significant than just a clever money-maker. He
stood out in three ways——as a technologist, as a corporate (公司的)leader and as somebody who was able
to make people love what had previously been impersonal没有人情味的；客观的；非个人的, functional
gadgets. Strangely adv. 奇怪地；奇妙地；不可思议地, it is this last quality that may have the deepest effect
on the way people live. The era of personal technology is in many ways just beginning.
As a technologist, Mr Jobs was different because he was not an engineer- and that was his great strength.
Instead he was keenly adv. 敏锐地；强烈地；锐利地 interested in product design and aesthetics (美学),
and in making advanced technology simple to use. He repeatedly took an existing but half-formed idea-the
mouse-driven computer, the digital music player, the smartphone n. 智能手机, the tablet computer(平板电
脑)-and showed the rest of the industry how to do it properly. Rival firms竞争公司；竞争商行 competed
with each other to follow where he led. In the process he brought about great changes in computing, music,
telecoms n. 电信，远距通信；电讯 and the news business that were painful for existing firms but welcomed
by millions of consumers.
Within the wider business world, a man who liked to see himself as a hippy (嬉皮士), perma
nently in revolt n. 反抗；叛乱；反感vt. 使反感；使恶心against big companies, ended up being ha
iled n. 冰雹；致敬；一阵 by many of those corporate giants as one of the greatest chief executives
of his time. That was partly due to his talents n. 人才；才能，天赋（talent的复数）: showmansh
ip n. 表演技巧；吸引观众的窍门, strategic vision, an astonishing attention to detail and a dictatoria
l adj. 独裁的，专政的；专横傲慢的 management style which many bosses must have envied v. 羡
慕；嫉妒（envy的过去式和过去分词. But most of all it was the extraordinary trajectory (轨迹)of
his life. His fall from grace n. 优雅；恩惠；魅力；慈悲） 堕落；失宠；误入歧途 in the 1980s, f
ollowed by vt. 然后，随后；续集 his return to Apple in 1996 after a period in the wilderness 在野
的；荒原；离开政界的, is an inspiration to any businessperson whose career has taken a turn for t
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he worse. The way in which Mr Jobs revived v. 使复活，使恢复 the failing company he had co-fo
unded and turned it into the world’s biggest tech firm (bigger even than Bill Gates’s Microsoft, the
company that had x Apple so dramatically in the 1980s), sounds like something from a Hollywoo
d movie.
But what was perhaps most astonishing about Mr Jobs was the absolute loyalty he managed to inspire
in customers. Many Apple users feel themselves to be part of a community, with Mr Jobs as its leader. And
there was indeed a personal link. Apple’s products were designed to accord with the boss’s tastes and to
meet his extremely high standards. Every iPhone or MacBook has his fingerprints all over it. His great
achievement was to combine an emotional spark with computer technology, and make the resulting v. 致使
（result的ing形式）；产生 product feel personal. And that is what put Mr Jobs on the right side of history,
as technological innovation (创新)has moved into consumer electronics over the past decade.
As our special report in this issue (printed before Mr Jobs’s death) explains, innovation used t
o spill over from militaryn. 军队；军人adj. 军事的；军人的；适于战争的 and corporate公司的 团
体的 法人的 laboratories to the consumer market, but lately this process has gone into reverse n.
背面；相反；倒退；失败. Many people’s homes now have more powerful, and more flexible, devic
es than their offices do; consumer gadgets and online services are smarter and easier to use than m
ost companies’ systems. Familiar consumer products are being adopted by businesses, government a
nd the armed forces. Companies are employing in-house versions of Facebook and creating their o
wn “app stores” to deliver software to employees. Doctors use tablet n. 碑；药片；写字板；小块 c
omputers 平板电脑 平板计算机 for their work in hospitals. Meanwhile, the number of consumers h
ungry for such gadgets continues to swell. Apple’s products are now being snapped up 抢购；购下
in Delhi and Dalian just as in Dublin and Dallas.
Mr Jobs had a reputation as a control freak (怪人), and his critics complained that the products and
systems he designed were closed and inflexible, in the name of greater ease of use. Yet he also empowered
millions of people by giving them access to cutting-edge n. (刀片的)刃口；尖端；前沿 technology. His
insistence on putting users first, and focusing on elegance and simplicity, has become deep-rooted in his
own company, and is spreading to rival firms too. It is no longer just at Apple that designers ask: “What
would Steve Jobs do?”
The gap between Apple and other tech firms is now likely to narrow. This week’s announcement of a
new iPhone by a management team led by Tim Cook, who replaced Mr Jobs as chief executive in August,
was generally adv. 通常；普遍地，一般地 regarded as competent adj. 胜任的；有能力的；能干的；足
够的but uninspiring. Without Mr Jobs to shower his star dust on the event, it felt like just another product
launch产品发布 from just another technology firm. At the recent unveiling n. 除去遮盖物；公开；揭幕
式of a tablet computer by Jeff Bezos of Amazon, whose company is doing the best job of following Apple’s
lead in combining hardware, software, content and services in an easy-to-use bundle, there were several
attacks at Apple. But by doing his best to imitate vt. 模仿，仿效；仿造，仿制Mr Jobs, Mr Bezos also
flattered (抬举)him. With Mr Jobs gone, Apple is just one of many technology firms trying to arouse his
uncontrollable spirit in new products.
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Mr Jobs was said by an engineer in the early years of Apple to emit vt. 发出，放射；发行；发表 a
“reality distortion (扭曲)field”, such were his powers of persuasion n. 说服；说服力；信念；派别. But in the
end he created a reality of his own, channeling the magic of computing into products that reshaped entire
industries. The man who said in his youth that he wanted to “put a ding in the universe” did just that.
【】As you are probably aware adj. 意识到的；知道的；有…方面知识的；懂世故, the latest job markets
news isn’t good: Unemployment is still more than 9 percent, and new job growth has fallen close to zero.
That’s bad for the economy, of course. And it may be especially discouraging if you happen to be looking
for a job or hoping to change careers right now. But it actually shouldn’t matter to you nearly adv. 差不多，
几乎；密切地 as much as you think.
That’s because job growth numbers don’t matter to job hunters as much as job turnover (人员更替)
data. After all, existing jobs open up every day due to promotions n. 促销；升职, resignations 辞职,
terminations(解雇), and retirements n. 退休，退役. (Yes, people are retiring even in this economy.) In both
good times and bad, turnover creates more openings than economic growth does. Even in June of 2007,
when the economy was still moving ahead, job growth was only 132,000, while turnover was 4.7 million!
And as it turns out, even today — with job growth near zero — over 4 million job hunters are being
hired every month.
I don’t mean to imply that overall job growth doesn’t have an impact on one’s ability to land a job. It’s
true that if total employment were higher, it would mean more jobs for all of us to choose from (and
compete for). And it’s true that there are currently more people applying for each available job opening,
regardless of whether it’s a new one or not.
But what often distinguishes vi. 区别，区分；辨别 those who land jobs from those who don’t is their
ability to stay motivated adj. 有动机的；有积极性的. They’re willing to do the hard work of identifying
their valuable skills; be creative about where and how to look; learn how to present themselves to potential
employers; and keep going, even after repeated rejections. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that
2.7 million people who wanted and were available for work hadn’t looked within the last four weeks and
were no longer even classified as unemployed.
So don’t let the headlines fool you into giving up. Four million people get hired every month in the U.S.
You can be one of them.
【】Our risk of cancer rises dramatically adv. 戏剧地；引人注目地as we age. So it makes sense that the
elderly should be routinely screened for new tumors — or doesn’t it?
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