Chapter 3 1 Beginning in life

It's safe to say that Steve's heart was always on his Macintosh.On a deeper level, his success was due to a deep insecurity within him that forced him to go out and make a living to prove his worth.Also, since he was an adopted child since he was a child, the way he acts is not understood by most people. —Dan Kotek, friend of Steve Jobs Most people don't pay much attention to the changes around them. As a country, a society, and the United States with a culture, this is also the case in people's minds. The United States in the 20th century can be said to have experienced ups and downs: After experiencing the impact of two world wars, it was followed by melancholy in the 1950s, shocks in the 1960s, and changes in the social structure in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s, science and technology The development has led to social chaos.In this way, America has been profoundly transformed by decades of enormous social change that has changed the way people work, think, play, and even fall in love.Now it seems that the change of social customs at that time was inevitable, and its impact on people's traditional way of thinking was unexpected.

But one thing that hasn't changed even after Jobs was born is adoption.In the mid-1950s, adopting children was very common in the United States, and the children adopted were much younger than they are today.The difference can be explained simply by the humiliation of being a single mother in those days, coupled with the fact that abortion was illegal and, even if done, would have endangered the lives of adults.So, in the 50s, a viable solution for single mothers who were already pregnant was to place their newborn babies up for adoption.Some agencies that serve childless parents also care for pregnant single mothers, sort of like a cottage industry.

Steve Jobs was born in that era, on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California.In fact, Jobs didn't know his parentage until he was an adult.Shortly after his birth, the mother of the "unnamed baby" placed him in the care of a San Francisco couple, Paul and Clara Jobs, who had been hoping to adopt a child for more than a decade. But this wish has not been realized. Steve's adoptive father, Paul Jobs, had a colorful life before settling west.Although he was born in a farm family, he has an extraordinary bearing and is deeply influenced by the Calvinist religious thought in the Midwest.This experience enabled him to remain strong during the 10-year-long Great Depression in the United States, and at the same time had a greater impact on his adult behavior and life choices.He gave up on middle school and spent a few years wandering the American Midwest like a bum while struggling to find a job amid the deep depression.In the end, Paul chose a relatively stable career - serving in the army.He enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard (commonly known as the "Rogue Navy," as Paul called it) and acquired the skills to manage an engine room.His time in the Coast Guard also left a deep impression on him, as evidenced by the tattoos on his arms and his cropped, neatly cropped hair.Although he lacks a formal education, the vigor and energy exuding from his whole body show that he is already an out-and-out "American blue collar".

When Paul Jobs' Coast Guard ship was decommissioned in San Francisco Harbor, he made his home here.It was a time of world wars and depression, and Paul, like many Americans, was looking for a new beginning.He once made a bet with a fellow shipmate that he would find his bride near the Golden Gate Bridge.Coincidentally, he was soon dating a girl named Clara, whom he asked to marry him immediately.So, Paul and Clara married in 1946, and then returned to Paul's hometown in Indiana.There he found a career with the International Harvester Company, relying on his skills in operating machinery he had mastered while serving.

However, California was too tempting for Paul and Clara, so they packed up and returned to San Francisco in 1952, living in an apartment by the sea overlooking the Pacific Ocean.Soon Paul applied to a financial management company as an enforcement officer, and his main task was to ask users for the arrears of car loans.With his size and aggressive personality, he's perfect for a somewhat dangerous job.Sometimes, some debtor car owners never repay their loans, and he has no choice but to repossess their cars. At this time, he uses the mechanical skills he has learned to force open the car locks, and he can even use electricity to start the car when necessary.

Three years later, after adopting a baby boy named Steve Paul Jobs, the family moved to South San Francisco.This is an industrial town, and there are many places where veterans who have returned from the army live.In this town, when Steve was 3 years old, he developed a more lively personality. In today's standard words, that is ADHD.He tends to get up early in the morning to make trouble, as if he were one of those naturally mischievous kids.Once, he and his friends ran to the hospital just to taste the taste of pesticides.Another time, Steve stuffed a bobby pin into an electrical outlet to let it smell bad to satisfy his curiosity.Although having such a naughty child was enough to worry his parents, his adoptive parents decided to adopt another girl, Patty, who was two years younger than Steve.

Although Steve needs more supervision than most kids, he appears to be smarter than the rest of the kids.He made faces in front of the neighbors' cameras, yelled at the neighbors on his tricycle, and watched a lot of unhealthy TV, which may be one reason why he didn't make friends easily as an adult. Shortly after Steve's birth, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John Bardeen (den), Walter Brattain (Walter Brattain), and William Shockley (William Shock, ley) for Reward them for inventing the transistor.Never would Paul and Clara have imagined that this invention would not only change their son's life, but also allow their son to change the lives of many others.

By the time Steve was 10 years old, his interest in electronics became apparent.Some small electronic products fascinated him deeply. In his young mind, he always wanted to understand how capable these small things are.By then, the family had moved to a peninsula in Mountain View, California, where Paul was still collecting debt, and in neighboring Palo Alto, electronics companies had sprung up on the outskirts of the city. .Steve's house is in a good location because engineers from Hewlett-Packard and other electronics companies live here.Every weekend, some engineers would go to their garage to do some maintenance work. They admired Steve, a lonely, studious and hardworking boy.Once, an engineer brought back a carbon crystal microphone from the laboratory for him to play with.Steve was fascinated by the mic and asked many detailed questions.After that, Steve often came to his house to play. The engineer had a good impression of this precocious boy, so he gave the microphone to Steve.

Steve gets nothing from his peers, all he gets is trouble, because he doesn't fit in with them anymore.Years later, a classmate described him this way: he was a lonely, rather crying boy.Steve had been on the same swimming team as this classmate, one of the few sports teams he was on. "If the game fails, he will run to the side and cry. It is also difficult for him to coordinate with other students. He is such a guy." The classmate said. The mischievous tendencies and self-willed nature that Steve developed as a child quickly manifested themselves.He was expelled from school several times because of his mischief, disobedience to the teacher's management, and failure to complete the homework and extracurricular assignments assigned by the teacher (which he believed to be a waste of time).

When Steve was in fourth grade, he was deeply influenced by a teacher named Imogen Teddy Hill, who eventually changed his life. "She was an amazing teacher in my mind," Steve said. "She taught fourth-grade advanced classes, and she learned about me in a month. She pushed me to learn. She Or even say: 'I really hope you can complete these assignments, and I will give you $5 if you can.' In this way, Mr. Hill inspired the enthusiasm for learning in me.'' Steve learned more that year than any other year.His teachers wanted him to skip fifth grade and go straight to the school's junior high school, but Steve's parents didn't agree to that, instead moving him to Crittenden High early.But Crittenden Secondary School does not make special arrangements for top students, just put them with older students.

At the same time, Paul Jobs' work to collect debts was not smooth.So he quit his job and started selling real estate in this increasingly economically developed peninsula city.But his somewhat gruff personality prevented him from being a successful real estate broker, a trade that required a mix of servility and adventure.In this way, life in the Steve family became tense. Soon, Paul Jobs returned to work as a mechanic after a 15-year absence from his old profession.Although this needs to be done step by step from the bottom, his career has developed better, and soon their family's life will not be so tight.Paul is responsible for the development of the barcode scanning system at Spector Fitzex, which is used to read barcodes on products, and can be used in supermarkets in any corner of the world. However, the new school Steve attended was really not great.Because the conditions of Crittenden Middle School are much worse than those of the primary school Steve attended, and it has not even been on the right track in terms of cultivating students' talents and specialties.The local police are often called in to stop student fights, and some hoodlums in Mountain View are so good at causing trouble that Steve, who likes to play pranks, can't help it. The free spirit and extraordinary intelligence level in Steve's heart have no chance to display and improve in the chaotic situation of the school.He gradually became moody and frustrated.This situation also prompted Steve to change his mind, and he decided not to attend this school for the next year.That summer, he told his dad about it.After a long discussion, Paul and Clara accepted this reality, because they knew that if certain measures were not taken, Steve would become a bad boy.They knew it was time to make a choice. "He said he really didn't want to go [to go back to that school]," Paul Jobs recalled, "so we had to move." At the age of 11, Steve was able to persuade his parents to move with enough willpower. His strong personality combined with his dedication to work enabled him to overcome any obstacle in his path, which is famous in history. Tiff manifested as a child. In 1967, the Jobs family moved to Los Altos, California, where they suddenly discovered that there had been so many technology workers gathered since the implementation of the Manhattan Project (Manbattan Project).Many electrical engineers and their families live in Los Altos and the surrounding cities of Cupertino and Sunnyvale.At that time, Lockheed City was already on the rise as a major partner city of NASA, and a large number of electronic companies were established, mainly for the realization of the US spacecraft moon landing program.Electronic companies need to produce and apply small electronic devices. However, in the United States at that time, the invention and production of such small electronic devices were completely started from scratch.From the perspective of development, the miniaturization of electronic devices first benefited from the invention of transistors, and then the invention of integrated circuits.Here, Steve can always ask questions of knowledgeable technicians, and here and there there is always a box or two of electronic components that Steve can take apart after school Check it out.In his opinion, this place is a paradise compared with the chaotic city of Mountain View! Steve attended Cupertino High School, where Steve met Bill Fernandez, the son of a lawyer.Neither of them is suitable for athletes because they are short, thin, and have poor coordination of movements, but they have strong and distinctive personalities, and they are regarded as unapproachable by their classmates.And for the two "outsiders", electronic devices are the best playmates.They do not have the problems that ordinary teenagers may encounter, such as rejection by classmates, intense sports activities, conflicts between boys and girls, etc., because they can find their own happiness in the lonely production workshop near the school and hide in it. Just play for hours.They may have been regarded as "weird" people by their classmates, but at that time, Fernandez and Jobs had already felt a strong scientific and technological atmosphere surrounded by engineers and scientists. "I was very impressed with Steve Jobs," recalls Bruce Cottle, who was Steve's classmate at Cupertino Junior High and Homestead High for six years.Cottle, who was considered "the most successful student" in high school, is now realizing his dream of becoming a partner at one of the most successful senior law firms in Silicon Valley. "Generally, we are used to handling our own work with ease, but Steve is different. He estimates accurately and can often complete the whole work very successfully with half the effort of others. Another thing that impressed me deeply Yes, even though he was fresh out of school, he had the guts to try and do it, and I didn't have the guts to do it myself." Across the street from the Fernandezs were the Wozniaks.Jerry Wozniak, the head of the family, was an engineer in Lockheed, and since Fernandez's parents knew nothing about electronics, Jerry became Bill's mentor in the field.Jerry's son Steve is also interested in electronics, and although he is five years older than Fernandez, he sometimes joins in with Fernandez's science fair games. In 1968, Steve Jobs entered Homestead High School. At this time, Steve Wozniak was a freshman at Colorado State University. Something amazing.After repeated attempts, the daring computer whiz played a prank on the school's administration.After a nostalgic piece of music about the US election was played at school, a rather disrespectful sound suddenly came from the computer over and over again.Obviously, this is the most surprising trick Wozniak has used. If the director of the student office knows who did it, this person can only stay in the school in a low-key manner for another year.No way, Wozniak just left the school, he knew he would not come back. While Wozniak might have made a name for himself studying computers at school, his mother thought he was a "dumb."Because he never paid attention to female classmates, he only challenged himself. "Woz," that's what he'd been called since he was in elementary school.While he would have his way in some situations, he was generally a very submissive young man.He became so focused on the things he was interested in, sometimes so absorbed that his mother had to poke him in the head with a pencil to get him to pay attention to something else.Outside of electronics and the basic science and mathematics associated with them, little else interested Woz.He can design circuit boards for some small appliances day and night, but for some subjects that don't interest him, such as literature and sociology, he doesn't even bother to do the simplest homework.Since ancient times, most geniuses have had such a quality: they are so brilliant in one field, but dismissive of other aspects.By the end of his high school, he had largely failed English and history. Despite Woz's lackluster academics and penchant for mischief, he quickly became the best technician in and around Cupertino, and an idol to fellow boys like Bill Fernandez. In the summer of 1969, Woz and his good friend Allen Baum spent a month making various diagrams and instructions for designing a mechanical device, filling the entire folder.Later, Baum went to MIT, and Woz decided to complete the task himself. He scavenged the needed parts in abandoned storage rooms and also ordered some from some electronics companies that supported him.He persuaded Bill Fernandez to help him, which was a good idea indeed, because the methodical Fernandez had an elaborate operating platform in the workshop across from Woz's house, which was very suitable for design work. "I wanted to design a mechanism that would do a certain thing," Woz later said, "like turning on a TV, and you turn a knob, and you can adjust the TV. With a computer, you push a button, and you tell The light will turn on." Finally Woz succeeded, and the mechanism he designed did exactly that.After completing the design, Woz and Bill also showed off their product to a reporter from the San Jose Mercury News.The device wasn't all that sophisticated, but it predated the first equivalent computing device to hit the market by five years. One day, Fernandez invited Steve Jobs to see the computer he and Woz had designed.This was the first time Woz and Jobs met, but the meeting didn't mean much.Because Wozniak was 18 years old at the time, he was already a veritable little expert in electronics, while Jobs and Fernandez were 5 years younger than him, and they were kids who knew nothing about practical electronics.Yes, they like to fiddle with all kinds of electronic devices, but they just like to play tricks with lasers and mirrors, not anything of real value.At this time, Wozniak was already able to design circuit boards for advanced computers on paper, and he often went to the library of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center to find ways to find the most cutting-edge information. After seeing this computer, Jobs admired Woz's design ability very much.He used to think that his knowledge of electronics was unparalleled, but now the reality made him sober-"Woz is the first person I met with a higher level than me in electronics." Steve Jobs had heard of Wozniak's deeds from Fernandez very early, and he knew Woz was a master of mischief.In middle school, Woz's most astonishing act was to have the headmaster of Homestead run around the track carrying a large, bulky bag that the headmaster had found in a locked cupboard. There was a ticking sound inside, and the principal suspected it was a time bomb, but in fact it contained only some bricks and an alarm clock.This incident made Woz famous, and the students talked about it all night in the juvenile auditorium. When he returned to school the next day, the students all stood up and cheered for him loudly. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were two very similar men.They are very focused, and they are also very withdrawn, even a little withdrawn, not very joking, and not very active members of the team.Although there is a 5-year age difference between them, the same love for electronics makes up for the gap.Wozniak has a special interest in electronics. When he wants to explain a certain concept or principle in his field of interest, his words are like a rushing river. Jobs also has such a personality, and he has great enthusiasm for the things he likes.No matter who he was talking to, he stayed very close to the person he was talking to, almost close to the person, and then told the person one after another of his latest discoveries. Whenever he decided to talk to someone, he couldn't stop him. hold him.Later, one of his acquaintances commented on him: "Talking to Steve Jobs is like taking water from the fire tap." He has become a world-class celebrity, and he is like this.Sometimes one could see him laughing, but the real, uninhibited kind was rare. This may be the difference between Steve and Woz.Wozniak is quick-witted and likes to crack jokes, which is one of the ways he relaxes after work fatigue. (A few years later, Woz started a free service in San Jose called "Laugh for a Day," and even now he sends jokes and cartoons to some of his pals.) Woz is steeped in the world of computers and electronics. , while Jobs was immersed in his own world. Jobs knew at that point that he was adopted, and that knowledge only increased his desire to make a difference.For the first time, the mechanism Wozniak and Fernandez devised sparked within him the will to fight. Woz may have the practical skills, but Steve Jobs has the courage to go forward.When he's on target, nothing can stop him.Over the years, what has not changed in Steve is his wild and unruly personality, enterprising spirit and strong personal desire. He hopes to become the first-time leader and decision-maker through his hard work.After his family moved to Los Altos, Steve began work on designing a frequency counter, a device for tracking fixed electrical frequencies in electrical circuits.When he figured out that other components were needed, he grabbed the phone and dialed Bill Hewlett, founder and president of Hewlett-Packard. "I just saw him in the Palo Alto phone book," Jobs explained, "and he answered the phone, and he was a really nice guy. He didn't know me at all, but he talked to me for like 20 minutes, and Finally he promised to give me some components. Plus, he gave me a job at HP for the summer, assembling frequency counters on the assembly line... oh, 'assembly' is too much of a word, I'm just turning a screw cap. It doesn't matter , I will be very happy if you can ask me to go to work." But as Steve matured, he began to realize that there might be something else in his life besides electronics. "I remember coming back from my first day on the assembly line at Hewlett-Packard," he recalls fondly, "and I was beaming and telling my school superintendent, a guy named Chris, about my joy and happiness at Hewlett-Packard, and telling him My favorite thing in the world is electronics. I asked him what his favorite thing was, and he took one look at me and said, 'Sex!' I learned a lot of other things that summer." Steve was introduced to marijuana for the first time in the second and third grades of middle school.Steve also began to have a strong interest in some literary works. "I was so calm for the first time because I got to know Shakespeare, Dylan Thomas (Dylan Thomas) and other classic authors. I read Melville's works (M0by-Dick), and in the third grade, I also took literary creation class," he said. In this way, Steve pursued his ideal as always.At that time, the ideology of American society had changed from the unity and obedience of the 1960s to the individualism of the 1970s.Steve quickly absorbed the values ​​of this counter-cultural tradition. He yearned for individualism, refused to be constrained or coerced by various rules, and even indulged in the psychedelic free world.Steve worked hard to live up to his values, but he didn't have that cynical hippie quality. Although Homestead Secondary School is a very unremarkable school, its rapid development after the war has given it a small reputation in this area.There are two highways next to this school, the school has a campus atmosphere, and it is also a characteristic school in California.When the school opened in September 1968, Steve Jobs and Bill Fernandez were the school's freshmen. The good friends, who shared a love for electronics while attending Cupertino High School, felt that there was a big shortcoming at Homestead High School, as they didn't experience the feeling of being at home. scientific research atmosphere.The school arranged a course on electronics, Mr. John McCollum's Electronics (1), and both of them decided to study this course. In this way, the two of them became the "computer fans" of the school.The name Silicon Valley Middle School gave to members of their electronics club was very learned.Because the name is associated with an obsession with electronics, it prevents other students from seeing them as "nerds".You know, in Silicon Valley, it's "cool" to be passionate about electronics. As early as 4 years before they entered Homestead Middle School, Steve Wozniak had achieved great results under the strict management and intensive training of the science department of this school.He has won numerous prizes in electronics classes, has become president of the Mathematical Electronics Club, has won prizes in science project competitions, and has been responsible for designing countless electronic schematic diagrams.For Jobs, these things did not arouse his enthusiasm. During the few years of studying at this school, he was not interested in science and was interested in other things. At the end of his sophomore year in high school, 14-year-old Jobs embarked on a new endeavor.At this point, he seemed to have lost interest in electronics, as his swim sessions at the Mountain View Dolphin Swim Club took up a lot of his time, and he also took part in water polo sessions.But his interest in this area was very short-lived.He found that he was not suitable for development in this area because "I am not an athlete material".Jobs was always looking for something that would interest him and allow him to devote himself fully to it. In a store called Hertick in Mountain View, there are a lot of discarded electronic components, which are messy and everywhere.Because in the Silicon Valley of the United States, electronic components can be thrown away with any excuse, for example, the paint is not painted well; the error rate is too high; new components are designed.These discarded components are often very good electronic components, and they can often be found in Hertik stores, as well as in other design shops and schools where students do science experiments.When Steve was in middle school, he would always find a way to work in these places on the weekends. While Fernandez showed Jobs the computer he and Woz had designed in detail, Steve had spent the weekend working at the Hertick store, where he had developed a considerable interest in electronic components and their prices. It is very familiar and has not been forgotten for many years.Fernandez-Wozniak's designs intrigued him so much that he would spend a lot of time in the Fernandez family's garage, and a friendship between him and Woz was formed. Their friendship was formed in part because of their shared love of practical jokes.Unlike Jobs, who had a strong desire to be a rebel but was unwilling to put it into practice, Woz was able to put his ideas into practice.This friendship between Jobs and the famous prankster Woz earned him popularity among his peers. By age 16, Jobs' hair was shoulder-length, and his appearance became increasingly distinctive in school.Behaviorally, he was on par with those clever hippies who even figured out how to hack the Telegraph and Telegraph long-distance telephone system by making long-distance calls using the telephone company's signal through simulated pirated telephone lines. In this way, they mastered the technology of "free" long-distance calls. Among these hippies, there is a well-known master, he is John Draper, one of the top ten super veteran hackers in the history of IT, nicknamed "Cap'n Crunch" (Cap'n Crunch).He found that the prize whistle in the Captain Crunch cereal box produced a 2,600-hertz tone, and he could use the whistle to blow into a telephone microphone, causing the telephone system to open a "blue box" for outgoing calls, thereby hacking into the Telephone system, users can make free long-distance calls.Steve wanted to meet him and see what he was capable of, so he followed him.In the end, "Captain Crunch" agreed to the request of Steve and Woz. He took two novices, Steve and Woz, and successfully hijacked the telephone line. That night, they made long-distance calls to all parts of the world!Steve and Woz also decided to design their own electronic device for stealing long-distance calls to achieve the same effect. One way to steal a long distance call is to use a homemade device called a "blue box."Woz made several experimental studies in the library of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, and of course failed several times. He proposed a design scheme, and the "blue box" designed according to this scheme was better than other phone burglars. The "blue box" used is much better.One of the biggest advantages is that it does not require a switch, and when someone makes a long-distance call, the device is automatically activated.This technological innovation made Wozniak famous for many years. "We are simply fascinated," Jobs said, "it's unimaginable that just making such a simple little box can make calls all over the world." A kind of theft, in fact, the only thing that gets hurt is the phone company, and the loss of the phone company doesn't matter to people like them.What could be more honorable than doing this? When Jobs and Woz showed their friends the mock-up of phone piracy, their interest was piqued.Many people want such a "blue box", they have become out-and-out call phreaks, for this reason, they have attracted the attention of many people. Relying on the persuasive skills he learned from his father, Jobs persuaded Woz to sell their "blue box".Using his knack for haggling when buying electronic components, Jobs raised the cash price of the first batch of "blue boxes" to $40 each.Woz then enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where he assembled "blue boxes" in his dorm room, and Steve also sold the devices at his school.At the time, they charged $150 per "blue box," but also promised free repairs if anything went wrong.Later, because the device was very popular, they raised the price to $300, and of course sold it to those who could afford it, and the students still bought it at the original price. In this way they made a lot of money, and because of this, Jobs lost interest in middle school.At that time, he met Chris Ann Brennan.Chris is a classmate of Jobs. She likes film art very much. She usually engages in some film-related activities at night, so as to avoid the school's inspection.Jobs admired her rebellious character and felt a lot like him.Soon, they were in love.After school in the afternoon, they usually walk together, drink, and smoke marijuana. "One day, we purposely went to a wheat field, just to take some ecstasy," Jobs recalled, "Suddenly, I felt that the whole wheat field was playing Bach's music. At that moment, I was very excited, as if I was conducting a symphony. Like a band show." Wozniak didn't feel that way.The good times in his mind are working on arcane electronics. At first Jobs and Woz designed the "blue box" mainly for fun, but things quickly changed.Phone companies have taken extraordinary measures to deal with phone piracy, and it's dangerous for them.One night, when Steve was promoting products in a parking lot next to a pizzeria, he suddenly felt a gun pointed at him, like a crook trying to blackmail a master thief. "I could think of many ways to escape, but any one of them would have caused him to shoot me, so I had to hand over the 'blue box'." Jobs' enthusiasm quickly died down.He really wants to find other ways to make money, but when he can't find it, depression tends to smolder in his heart—a "blue box" cannot relieve him of this depression. Jobs always runs from Silicon Valley to Berkeley two or three times a week, because Berkeley is the world of hippies.他很喜欢这里的氛围，在这里，他常常在湾区漫步，思索各种想法和实践的可能性，而且在这里很少能碰到硅谷的熟人。乔布斯在伯克利的所思所想，也深深地影响了他要去什么样的大学学习的决定。 乔布斯决定要去就读的学校是位于太平洋沿岸俄勒冈州波特兰市的里德学院( Reed College)，这是美国西北部一所崇尚自由思想的学校。里德学院以善于培养出类拔萃的人才而著称，同时它也是一所收费很高的私立学校。乔布斯的父母知道这件事后非常吃惊，不仅仅是因为收费很高，还因为里德学院离他们家很远。“然而，史蒂夫说里德学院是他想去的唯一一所大学，假如他不能去那里，其他任何学校他都不去了。"乔布斯的妈妈回忆道。就这样，倔强的乔布斯又一次说服了他的父母。他们穷其所有，把乔布斯送进了里德学院。 在里德学院，史蒂夫很想取得好成绩，但那不是在学习方面，而是在个人能力方面。因此，他在学习上用的时间要远远少于他用在其他方面的时间。在1972年的秋天，史蒂夫决定不再吸食迷幻药了，把兴趣转到东方哲学上面来，就是想提高一下对东方一些神秘东西的认识，在那时，来自东方的思想潮流冲击着里德学院。在里德学院，从蒂莫西·利里( Timothy Leary)、理查德·阿尔珀特（Richard Alpert）到加里·斯奈德(Gary Snyder)，这些东方问题专家都有不少学生推崇。 乔布斯第一学期的成绩很糟糕，加上他那干脆利索的性格，他决定退学并要回所交的学费。然而这之后他还待在学校里，住在别的同学腾出的宿舍里，因为这些同学都去做自己喜欢的事了。里德学院确实是一所比较自由的学校，他们对这种现象并不介意，乔布斯甚至还与学生处的处长杰克·达德曼（Jack Dudman）成了好朋友。“史蒂夫有一个非常善于探询问题的头脑，这一点很吸引人。”达德曼回忆说，“他不会巧言令色、投机取巧，他对一些事实也不会自然而然地接受，任何东西他都想亲自查看一下。" 乔布斯退了学，但又能住在学校，没被学校赶出去，因为这个，他成了这所学校的“名人”。在第二学年开始的时候，他继续住在里德学院。“他很精明地意识到，他能在这个学校得到很好的教育，而不用受学分的困扰，在这里谁还想要学分啊？”乔布斯多年的好朋友丹·科特克如是说。（科特克是在里德学院里求学时认识乔布斯的。）那时的乔布斯穷困潦倒，整日无所事事，即使是在他的朋友圈里，他也感觉自己像一个局外人。在他内心深处，想着很多的事情。 “可以确切地说，史蒂夫心中总是装着他的苹果电脑。从更深层次上分析，他的成功是由于其内心怀有一种深切的不安全感，正是这种不安全感使他必须出去闯荡以证明自己存在的价值。另外，由于他从小就是被收养的孩子，他的行事方式并不被大多数人所理解。"科特克说。 1974年春天，乔布斯回到了他父母那里。有一次偶尔翻阅《圣何塞信使报》时，他看到了阿塔里（Atari）公司的招聘广告，这个公司是在富有朝气的硅谷地区成长起来的，发展的速度之快有点出入意料。阿塔里的崛起主要得益于开发了一种叫做“乒乓”( Pong)的电子游戏，然后以这种游戏迅速打开了市场，但该游戏被安装在桑尼维尔市的一个小地方时，由于玩者众多，游戏线路阻塞严重，因此阿塔里公司迫切需要一个电子机械师解决这一问题。广告上的招聘条件是此人必须是世界知名的电子机械师，公司会为他提供良好的娱乐服务和较高的薪水。乔布斯去应聘了，让他吃惊的是，他被雇用了。 在那时，阿塔里公司正处在飞速发展的时期。阿尔·奥尔康是该公司的首席工程师，他回忆道：“我们那时对阿塔里公司非常有信心，因为它发展得太快了，我们都希望能在这家公司工作。" 有一天，阿塔里公司的人事主管告诉奥尔康：“一个非常奇怪的家伙来到公司，他说他不会走，除非我们雇用他。我看，我们或者把他交给警察，或者只能雇用他了。"奥尔康回答说：“把他带进来让我看看。" 乔布斯被带了进来。“他穿着一身旧衣服，像一个嬉皮士，而且18岁就从里德学院辍学了。我真不知道为什么雇用他，他除了想做这份工作和还有一点活力之外，其他什么都没有。但我正是看中了他内在的那种活力，具备这种活力就能把这件工作做好。而且他还有一种想象力，要知道，想象力的概念是'一个人内在的想象能力，并不依靠外在的东西'。他的思想很单纯，没有其他任何的杂质。” “我把乔布斯介绍给唐·兰( Don Lang)，他说：'哦，不要，你把这家伙交给我干什么？他是个令人讨厌的嬉皮士。'后来我们和乔布斯达成了妥协，让他晚上过来，这样并不打扰任何人。 史蒂夫只是在阿塔里公司做一些小事情。有一天，他去找奥尔康，要求允许他去印度见识一下印度的宗教圣人。在那时，公司在德国的游戏市场出了点问题，奥尔康决定让乔布斯在去东方的路上顺便解决一下这个问题。于是，奥尔康简单地给乔布斯介绍了一下德国那边的情况，就打算让这个顺路去德国的年轻嬉皮士启程，他还提醒乔布斯叫他注意别错过了德国这一站。奥尔康让乔布斯在两个小时内解决问题，结果他真的就在两个小时之内把问题给解决了。 在德国做短暂停留后，乔布斯光着脚、穿着破烂的衣服就到了印度。这身打扮是他自己想要的，他认为这代表着一种特别的理想追求和审美观。在印度，他第一次遇见了那么多的穷人，他们和加利福尼亚穷困的嬉皮士不一样，因为嬉皮士们的穷困是可以选择的，而印度穷人的贫穷是一种命运的贫穷，是难以改变的。在印度，乔布斯接触到了很多的人和事，让他增长了不少见识。美国和印度在社会物质生活的舒适度方面真是有天壤之别，他以前的所思所想在当时受到了前所未有的挑战。 在印度的这次经历对乔布斯来说真是既惊险又刺激，它完全出乎了乔布斯的预料，也是乔布斯在繁华的硅谷中所体验不到的。但这一切并没有解开乔布斯心中的问题，他内心的那种欲望仍旧没有得到满足。在他回来后，乔布斯决定以一种与以前不同的方式从最基础开始做起。 史蒂夫从印度回来后，几乎变了一个人，对入冷漠，沉默寡言，整天穿着橘黄色的外袍，头发也剃光了。他又回到了阿塔里公司，想要做原来的工作。这个举止狂放、身着宽松外袍的大男孩到大部分公司的门口一站，可能都会有入叫警察。但20世纪70年代加利福尼亚的阿塔里公司不是这样，他们只是说了句“好吧”，于是，史蒂夫又去工作了。 在史蒂夫再次回到阿塔里公司后，他感觉在东方寻求真谛的经历和充斥着电子游戏、机械制造的现实之间差距太大，让他备受折磨。他还是保留着嬉皮士风格的审美情趣，这种风格在硅谷很容易保留下来，因为这里距嬉皮士们的圣地旧金山和伯克利太近了。乔布斯又重新和沃兹尼亚克建立了联系，虽然在不知不觉中他对他们之间的关系有了新的看法，他吹嘘沃兹是技术方面的高手，而他则具有很强的经营能力。 沃兹那时已在惠普公司工作了，他充分利用了他的老朋友乔布斯重新回到阿塔里公司工作的机会。阿塔里公司当时研发了一种叫“超级赛车”的电子游戏，“这是新一代的车轮驱动游戏，”乔布斯解释说，“沃兹是超级赛车游戏迷，所以我就叫他晚上过来，进入产品车间，他就在那里玩一个晚上。后来，每当我在技术项目上遇到困难时，我就会打断他10分钟，让他过来帮我。他真是我免费请的最优秀的机械师了！” 沃兹在工作上非常卖力。他并不追求荣誉，就是想多做出点成绩，比如设计出一台计算机，开发出一套游戏软件等。而乔布斯对所有的过程都有准确的把握，因为往往是他策划项目，他知道如何把产品转化成利润。 阿塔里公司的奠基人诺兰·布什内尔是这样评价乔布斯的，他说：“当他想做某件事时，他给我的计划表都是按天和星期计划的，而不是按月或年计划的，我喜欢他的这种行事风格。” 据奥尔康回忆，有一天，布什内尔找到乔布斯与他达成了一项开发游戏的协议。布什内尔把这个游戏叫做“突破”（Break-Out），他把这个游戏的制作情况告诉了乔布斯，并希望尽量少用电脑芯片。首席工程师奥尔康负责后勤服务，因为乔布斯只能在晚上没有其他工程师在场的时候才来工作。 在这个“突破”游戏中，玩家需要不断地向一堵“砖墙”开火，突破这堵墙就算赢得了胜利。要想玩好这个游戏需要有高度集中的注意力、坚决要成功的信念以及紧迫感——所有这些乔布斯和沃兹都具有。 “突破”的整个设计过程花费了48个小时。公司认为是乔布斯设计了这个游戏，实际上它全部是沃兹的功劳。“史蒂夫的作用只是在沃兹搞设计的时候买些糖果和可乐。”兰迪·威金顿如是说。他是一个很年轻的小伙子，是阿塔里公司临时雇用的，后来他到了苹果公司就职。 沃兹凭借以前的设计经验，准备用非常少的电脑芯片来完成“突破”的设计。乔布斯把这件事告诉了奥尔康，奥尔康对这个想法大为赞赏，乔布斯要求了1 000美元的设计奖金，奥尔康对乔布斯说：“如果这个游戏你用不到50个芯片就能做好，我就给你l OOO美元的奖金。”但乔布斯回来对沃兹说，阿塔里公司只给了600美元。就这样，他只给了沃兹一半。也就是说，沃兹做完“突破”的设计后只赚取了300美元，而乔布斯却得到了700美元。 后来，奥尔康发现了“突破”设计中的一个问题。他说：“我们对这项设计一无所知，而且由于乔布斯也不懂这项设计，他又不想让我们知道不是他设计的，因此，在'突破'最终投放市场之前，我们不得不重新进行了设计。” 沃兹直到1年后才知道这件事的来龙去脉，这件事也让他和乔布斯之间产生难以消除的阴影。那是在一次乘飞机旅行中，沃兹发现奥尔康也在飞机上，就过去和他谈话。那时设计完“突破”已经很长时间了，沃兹当时认为，他可以承认“突破”游戏的电路是他用很少的芯片设计的了。在那次谈话中，奥尔康顺便提到他给了乔布斯1 000美元作为完成这项设计的奖金。沃兹当时就感到他的朋友和伙伴乔布斯欺骗了他。其中有一种说法是，沃兹得知这件事后，难过得哭了。 据乔布斯和沃兹多年的好朋友亚历克斯·菲尔丁说，当乔布斯读到比尔·西蒙（也是本书的合著者）创作的故事《甜苹果？酸苹果？》 (On theFiring Line)时，他非常气愤，就打电话向沃兹解释说：“我根本就记不清那件事了。"乔布斯一直坚持说“记不清那件事了”或是“那件事没发生过”。 史蒂夫从阿塔里公司得到的这笔钱——先不论是多少，确实给他带来了好运，他用这笔钱买下了位于俄勒冈州的一个称为“All-One''的农场，这个农场也是他在里德学院的同学居住过的地方。史蒂夫对于向美国北部发展有着极大的热情。他一直投身于电子工业，实现着自己的梦想。最终他实现了自己的理想，他付出了很多，也收获了很多。他凭着自己对电子元件价格的敏感——这得益于他在海尔蒂克做过工，销售过“蓝匣子”，以及他父亲重新创业、从事汽车销售的经历，加上沃兹尼亚克那种神奇般的天赋，他们获得了巨大的成功。他们之间的合作甚至在制作“蓝匣子”之前就已经开始了，他们好像还能设计出来别的东西，然后拿出来卖，但那又是什么呢？ 在1975年1月，有一篇名为《大众电子学》（PopuLar Electronics）的文章发表了，这篇文章介绍了一台阿尔泰(Altair)计算机的详细情况，这标志着人们一直争论的“个人”计算机诞生了。计算机在使用二进制编码以前，人们要采用费时的手工编码，并且需要经过多道操作转换程序，才能把信息输入计算机存储器，而这台计算机的发明预示着二进制的编码方式已获得了很大的突破，它为计算机的发展开辟了广阔的道路。当地一位富有远见的教师鲍伯·阿尔布瑞契特和他的同伙一致认为应该号召成立一个电子俱乐部。门洛帕克市是阿尔布瑞契特领导的“自由大学”运动的活动中心，该运动由九_九_藏_书_网 在1975年年初，由于诞生了很多个人计算机，史蒂夫·乔布斯已经开始考虑他和沃兹尼亚克如何在这个新的领域获得商业利润。他必须要找到一个突破口，而他能发现这个巨大的商业前景完全得益于一个偶然的机遇。