????沃爾特?艾薩克森的《史蒂夫?喬布斯傳》（Steve Jobs）已連續八周雄踞《紐約時報》（The New York Times）暢銷書排行榜榜首的寶座。本月早些時候，我為北加州聯邦俱樂部（Commonwealth Club of Northern California，總部位于舊金山）一次座無虛席的演講采訪了艾薩克森。盡管討論這本書的文章連篇累牘，很多人也已經讀過該書，但還有很多東西值得一講。

????【除了12月14日馬克霍普金斯洲際酒店（Mark Hopkins hotel）活動的相關報道之外】，我還發現了以下一些重要的內容：

????* 作為一位“回顧過去的傳記作者”，艾薩克森似乎刻意不去評判史蒂夫?喬布斯的行為。艾薩克森對喬布斯的待人接物進行詳細記載，詳盡程度無人能出其右。但他清楚地指出，喬布斯的成就超過了他的缺點。我猜測，對于這一點的爭論將非常激烈，尤其是因為喬布斯的行為已經被等同于蘋果公司（Apple）的行為，而商界認為該公司經商的方式與做人的方式背道而馳（這里請允許我厚顏無恥地自我宣傳一下，同時也要感謝艾薩克森反復提醒我。我將在本人的新書《解密蘋果》（Inside Apple）中討論這個話題。該書將于2012年1月25日出版）。

????* 喬布斯對艾薩克森說，他認為自己可以繼續戰勝癌癥，部分是因為他這么長時間以來都做到了這一點。他相信醫生將繼續找到新的靶向治療方法。喬布斯把自己比作一只機敏的青蛙。“游戲還沒結束呢。我能跳到下一片睡蓮葉子上去，”他說。

????* 艾薩克森說，慈善是喬布斯拒絕討論的一個話題。他還說，比爾?蓋茨這位老對手曾親自打來電話，邀請喬布斯加入蓋茨和沃倫?巴菲特共同提出的捐贈活動，但喬布斯甚至連電話都沒有回。

????* 問及有哪些東西沒有寫入書中，艾薩克森說他省略了某些特別傷人的內容。這種說法很有趣，因為他的書中已然收錄了大量喬布斯的個人素材。被多次問到喬布斯的家人有何反應時，艾薩克森簡短地說道，他“不能代他們回答這個問題”。這個簡短的答復頗有深意。

????* 艾薩克森使用硅谷熱門公司Dropbox的服務來儲存底稿。同時，他還是個夜貓子，寫作時間大多是在晚上9點至次日凌晨2點，因為這個時候沒人會打電話、發郵件騷擾他。

????Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs has topped The New York Times bestseller's list for eight consecutive weeks now. Earlier in the month I interviewed Isaacson for a sold-out audience of the Commonwealth Club of Northern California in San Francisco. For all that has been written about Isaacson's book and for all the people who have read it, there is plenty left to say.

????Some highlights I haven't seen explored elsewhere (other than coverage of the Dec. 14 event at the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins hotel):

????* As a "backward-looking biographer," Isaacson has made what appears to be a conscious decision not to judge Steve Jobs's behavior. Isaacson did more than any other writer to document how Jobs treated other people. Yet he clearly states that Jobs's accomplishments outshine his shortcomings. I predict this debate will pick up in intensity, especially as Jobs's behavior comes to be equated with Apple's (AAPL) behavior, and the business community dissects the company's way of doing business as opposed to the man's. (Shameless self-promotion, and thanks to Isaacson for repeatedly pointing this out: I will discuss this topic in my upcoming book, Inside Apple, to be released Jan. 25, 2012.)

????* Jobs told Isaacson he thought he'd continue to beat his cancer, partly because he'd beaten it for so long. Citing his belief that his doctors would continue to find new targeted therapies, Jobs likened himself to a nimble frog. "There'll be more. I'll get to the next lily pad," he said.

????* Isaacson says the one topic Jobs refused to discuss was philanthropy. He also says Jobs didn't return a call from Bill Gates when his longtime foe called to ask him to join the Giving Pledge Gates hatched with Warren Buffett.

????* Asked what he left out of the book, Isaacson says he omitted some particularly hurtful material. That's interesting, given the amount of raw personal material he included. Asked a couple times how Jobs's family reacted, Isaacson tersely says he "can't speak for them." His terseness likely is telling.

????* Isaacson used Dropbox, the hot Silicon Valley company, to store his manuscript. He's also a night owl, composing mostly between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m., when nobody called or emailed.