尋找真實的比爾蓋茨
He"s the most famous businessman in the world. Reams have been written about how he dominated the revolution in personal computing and is now poised to turn Microsoft into a media and Internet behemoth. But we know little about him as a person. What beliefs and values drive this man who, as much as anyone, will determine the way we look not only at computers but at ourselves and our world? Here"s an intimate look at one of the most important minds and personalities of our era.
他是全世界最成功的商人。大量的文章曾經撰敘過比爾蓋茨曾經如何主導個人電腦革命，並且現在如何準備讓微軟公司轉型成媒體和互聯網巨頭。但是，我們對他個人卻知之甚少。是什麼信念和價值觀驅使這個平凡的人來決定我們對於電腦、我們自己和這個世界的態度？下面我們將和我們這個時代最重要的思想者和代表人物之一近距離接觸。
When Bill Gates was in the sixth grade, his parents decided he needed counseling. He was at war with his mother Mary, an outgoing woman who harbored the belief that he should do what she told him. She would call him to dinner from his basement bedroom, which she had given up trying to make him clean, and he wouldn"t respond. "What are you doing?" she once demanded over the intercom.
比爾蓋茨六年級時，他的父母決定讓他接受個人心理輔導。他當時和他的母親瑪麗爭執不休。瑪麗性格外向，經常將自己的觀點強加給比爾蓋茨。比爾蓋茨住在地下室，瑪麗也不再給他清理房間。瑪麗每次通過家裡的對講系統叫蓋茨吃飯，但蓋茨通常不會應答。「你在幹什麼？」有一次瑪麗在對講機那頭詢問。
"I"m thinking," he shouted back.
「我在思考，」蓋茨吼道。
"You"re thinking?"
「你在思考？」
"Yes, Mom, I"m thinking," he said fiercely. "Have you ever tried thinking?"
「是的，媽媽，我在思考，」蓋茨言辭激烈。「你是否嘗試過思考？」
The psychologist they sent him to "was a really cool guy," Gates recalls. "He gave me books to read after each session, Freud stuff, and I really got into psychology theory." After a year of sessions and a battery of tests, the counselor reached his conclusion. "You"re going to lose," he told Mary. "You had better just adjust to it because there"s no use trying to beat him." Mary was strong-willed and intelligent herself, her husband recalls, "but she came around to accepting that it was futile trying to compete with him."
父母給蓋茨挑的心理醫生是個「的確很酷的夥計」，蓋茨回憶道。「每次會面後他都會給我一本類似於弗洛伊德理論的書，我也真的對心理理論很著迷。」經過一年的治療和一系列測試，心理輔導師給出了他的結論。「你將會失敗，」他告訴瑪麗。「你最好就是去適應這種改變，因為和他對抗是根本沒用的。」瑪麗意志力堅強，並且聰明，她的丈夫如是回憶，「但她還是接受了和蓋茨對抗就是徒勞的事實。」
A lot of computer companies have concluded the same. In the 21 years since he dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft, William Henry Gates III, 41, has thrashed competitors in the world of desktop operating systems and application software. Now he is attempting the audacious feat of expanding Microsoft from a software company into a media and content company.
許多電腦公司也得到了同樣的結論。從蓋茨哈佛大學輟學開始創建微軟公司的21年里，41歲的威廉·亨利·蓋茨三世在桌面操作系統和應用軟體行業所向霹靂。現在，他正嘗試進行一項大膽的舉動，將微軟公司改型成為一個媒體和主題公司。
In the process he has amassed a fortune worth (as of last Friday) $23.9 billion. The 88% rise in Microsoft stock in 1996 meant he made on paper more than $10.9 billion, or about $30 million a day. That makes him the world"s richest person, by far. But he"s more than that. He has become the Edison and Ford of our age. A technologist turned entrepreneur, he embodies the digital era.
在這個過程中，截止上周五，他已經擁有239億美元財富資產。微軟股票在1996年88%的躍升，意味著那一年他就在賬面上凈賺109億美元，換種說法，每天進賬大約3000萬美元。這使他成為迄今為止世界上最富有的人。但是，他比這更厲害。他成為了我們這個時代的愛迪生和福特。一個技師轉型成企業家，他代表了數字時代。
His success stems from his personality: an awesome and at times frightening blend of brilliance, drive, competitiveness and personal intensity. So too does Microsoft"s. "The personality of Bill Gates determines the culture of Microsoft," says his intellectual sidekick Nathan Myhrvold. But though he has become the most famous business celebrity in the world, Gates remains personally elusive to all but a close circle of friends.
他的成功源於他的個性：一個出色的，有時候令人害怕的混合體，集智慧、勁頭、競爭力和對自己的嚴格要求於一體。微軟公司的員工們亦是如此。「比爾蓋茨的個性決定了微軟的企業文化，」他的得力助手內森·米爾沃說。雖然蓋茨現在已經是世界上最知名的商業界名人，但是他依然讓公眾難以捉摸，只有一個親密朋友圈子。
Part of what makes him so enigmatic is the nature of his intellect. Wander the Microsoft grounds, press the Bill button in conversation and hear it described in computer terms: he has "incredible processing power" and "unlimited bandwidth," an agility at "parallel processing" and "multitasking." Watch him at his desk, and you see what they mean. He works on two computers, one with four frames that sequence data streaming in from the Internet, the other handling the hundreds of E-mail messages and memos that extend his mind into a network. He can be so rigorous as he processes data that one can imagine his mind may indeed be digital: no sloppy emotions or analog fuzziness, just trillions of binary impulses coolly converting input into correct answers.
讓他如此神秘的部分原因是他的智慧。漫步在微軟公司，按下與比爾通話的按鈕，聽到電腦程序如此描述：他有「令人難以置信的處理能力」和「無限帶寬」，能靈活地「平行處理」和「多任務操作」。看到辦公桌前的他，就知道那些描述是什麼意思了。他用兩台電腦工作。一台電腦與互聯網連接，擁有四幀序列數據處理能力；另一台則用來處理成百上千封的電子郵件和備忘錄，這使他的思維延伸到網路中。他處理數據時是那麼嚴謹，以至於讓人想像他的大腦確實就是數字的：沒有馬虎情緒或者模稜兩可，只有數萬億的二進位數字被冷靜地轉換成正確答案。
"I don"t think there"s anything unique about human intelligence," Gates says over dinner one night at a nearly deserted Indian restaurant in a strip mall near his office. Even while eating, he seems to be multitasking; ambidextrous, he switches his fork back and forth throughout the meal and uses whichever hand is free to gesture or scribble notes. "All the neurons in the brain that make up perceptions and emotions operate in a binary fashion," he explains. "We can someday replicate that on a machine." Earthly life is carbon based, he notes, and computers are silicon based, but that is not a major distinction. "Eventually we"ll be able to sequence the human genome and replicate how nature did intelligence in a carbon-based system." The notion, he admits, is a bit frightening, but he jokes that it would also be cheating. "It"s like reverse-engineering someone else"s product in order to solve a challenge."
「我並不認為人類智慧有什麼特別之處，」有天晚上，蓋茨一家快要倒閉的印度餐廳吃飯的時候說道。這個餐廳位於他辦公室附近的一家購物中心裡。甚至在吃飯的時候，他也在多任務操作；他一心能二用，就在吃飯的時候，他經常將叉子在左右手中互換，以便於做手勢或者做記錄。「大腦中所有構成概念和情緒的神經元都以二進位的方式在工作，」他解釋道。「總有一天我們將能複製大腦工作，將其運用於機器。」地球上的生命是由碳元素構成的，他說，而電腦是由硅元素構成的，但那不是最重要的區別。「最終，我們將能破譯人類基因，並且複製自然如何在碳元素系統中發揮作用。」他也承認，這個想法有點讓人害怕，但他開玩笑說那也能夠騙人。「這就像逆向製造別人的產品來破解一項難題。」
Might there be some greater meaning to the universe? When engaged or amused, he is voluble, waving his hands and speaking loudly enough to fill the restaurant. "It"s possible, you can never know, that the universe exists only for me." It"s a mix of Descartes" metaphysics and Tom Stoppard"s humor. "If so," he jokes, "it"s sure going well for me, I must admit." He laughs; his eyes sparkle. Here"s something machines can"t do (I don"t think): giggle about their plight in the cosmos, crack themselves up, have fun.
宇宙是否存在更深刻的意義？一旦他進入角色或者開心了，他就口若懸河，揮舞著雙手，大聲說話，足以讓整個餐廳的人都能聽見他的聲音。「這是可能的，你永遠也無法知道是否整個宇宙就是為我而存在」。這是笛卡爾的形而上學和湯姆斯托帕的幽默的結合體。「如果是這樣，」他開玩笑，「那肯定對我特別有利，我必須接受。」說完，他笑了；他的雙眼閃爍出智慧之光。有些事情機器無法辦到（我不這麼認為）：對著它們在宇宙中的困境傻笑，然後自我摧毀，並享受這一過程。
Right? Isn"t there something special, perhaps even divine, about the human soul? His face suddenly becomes expressionless, his squeaky voice turns toneless, and he folds his arms across his belly and vigorously rocks back and forth in a mannerism that has become so mimicked at Microsoft that a meeting there can resemble a round table of ecstatic rabbis. Finally, as if from an automaton, comes the answer: "I don"t have any evidence on that." Rock, rock, rock. "I don"t have any evidence on that."
對嗎？難道人類的精神沒有點特別，甚至神聖之處嗎？他的臉龐突然沒有了表情，沉默不語，雙手交叉，前後大幅度地搖晃著。這在微軟公司也被競相模仿，開會的時候就像坐了一圓桌欣喜若狂的拉比們。最後，就像自動應答機回答一樣：「我對此沒有任何證據」。搖晃、搖晃、搖晃。「我對此沒有任何證據。」
The search for evidence about the soul that underlies Bill Gates" intellectual operating system is a task that even this boyish man might find a challenge.
對於精神證據的探索反映了比爾蓋茨的思維操作系統。這個探索甚至對這個孩子氣的男人也是個挑戰。
"As a baby, he used to rock back and forth in his cradle himself," recalls Gates" father, a man as big and huggable as his son is small and tightly coiled. A retired lawyer, he still lives in the airy suburban Seattle house overlooking Lake Washington where Bill III--the boy he calls "Trey"--grew up. (The name comes from the card term for three, though the father is now resigned to being called Bill Sr.)
「小時候，他經常在搖籃里讓自己前後搖晃，」蓋茨的父親回憶。他高大，受歡迎，而蓋茨卻生得很嬌小，緊緊地蜷縮在一起。他是位退休律師，依然住在西雅圖郊區空暢的能看到華盛頓湖的家裡。比爾三世就在那裡長大。他叫比爾三世「Trey」。（這個外號來源於紙牌中的三。現在父親退休了，被稱作比爾先生。）
His mother Mary was "a remarkable woman," Bill Sr. says. A banker"s daughter, she was adroit in both social and business settings, and served on numerous boards, including those of the University of Washington, the United Way, USWest and First Interstate Bancorp. After her death in 1994, the city council named the avenue leading into their neighborhood after her.
蓋茨的母親瑪麗曾經是個「出色的女人」，比爾先生說。她是一個銀行家的女兒，在社交場合和商務活動中都能應付自如，在包括華盛頓大學，聯合之路，USWest和第一洲際銀行在內的多個理事會中任職。她1994年去世後，市議會將通向他們家所在街區的大道以她的名字命名。
"Trey didn"t have a lot of confidence in social settings," says his father. "I remember him fretting for two weeks before asking a girl to the prom, then getting turned down. But Mary did. She was a star at social intercourse. She could walk into a room ..." He has the same toothy smile as his son, the same smudgy glasses covering twinkling eyes. But now, for just a moment, he is starting to tear up. His mind does not seem like a computer. He folds his arms across his stomach and starts to rock, gently.
「Trey曾經在社交場合中沒有多少自信，」他父親說道。「我記得他曾經在邀請一個女孩去舞會之前為此糾結了兩個星期，然後被拒絕了。但是瑪麗在這方面很有信心。她在社交場合是個明星。她能走進一間屋子……」和他兒子一樣，比爾先生笑起來也是露齒的；也是厚厚的鏡片下有一雙閃閃放光的眼睛。但現在，僅僅那麼一小會兒，他就不再跟他兒子那麼相像。他的思維看起來並不像電腦。他交叉雙臂，置於腹部，開始輕輕地搖晃起來。
He gets up to show some more pictures of Mary and of her mother. Both loved cards, and they would organize bridge games, as well as Password and trivia contests, after the big family dinners they held every Sunday. "The play was quite serious," Bill Sr. recalls. "Winning mattered."
他站起身來，展示了一些瑪麗和他母親的照片。他們倆都很喜歡玩撲克牌，每次周日大家庭聚會晚飯後，他們會組織打橋牌，還有密碼遊戲和一些小測試。「遊戲非常嚴肅，」比爾先生回憶。「勝利很重要。」
As he wanders through the house, he points out more framed pictures of his son: Trey, the towheaded Cub Scout; Trey with sister Kristi, a year older, who now has the joy of being his tax accountant; and with Libby, nine years younger, who lives a few blocks away raising her two kids; with Bill Sr. and his new wife Mimi, the director of the Seattle Art Museum; and hugging his wife Melinda while listening to Willie Nelson play at their New Year"s Day 1994 wedding in Hawaii.
他在房子裡邊走邊指出更多的放在相框里的兒子的照片：Trey，童子軍時頭髮蓬卷；Trey和大他一歲的姐姐克里斯蒂，現在是他的稅務會計；和小九歲的妹妹利比，她住在幾個街區之外，育有二子；和比爾先生、續弦米米，西雅圖藝術博物館的經理；還有一張是，1994年元旦在夏威夷結婚時擁抱著妻子梅琳達一起聽威利·內爾森演唱。
"He"s a busy guy," says Bill Sr., "so we don"t see him a lot, but we spend holidays together." Thanksgiving was in Spokane, Washington, at Kristi"s house, Christmas playing golf in Palm Springs, California, where Bill Sr. and Mimi have a place. They communicate mainly by E-mail. Just this morning he got one describing a photocopier Trey bought him for his birthday.
「他是個很忙的傢伙，」比爾先生說，「所以我們也很少看到他，但是我們一起度假。」感恩節是在華盛頓州斯波克恩Kristi的家裡度過的；聖誕節在加州棕櫚泉一起打高爾夫，在那比爾先生和米米有個住處。他們主要是通過電子郵件交流。就在今天早上，他收到一封Trey的郵件，描述了Trey送給他的生日禮物，一台複印機。
He lumbers over to a table where he has gathered some pictures of summer vacations they used to take with friends at a cluster of rental cabins known as Cheerio on the Hood Canal, about two hours away. There were nightly campfires, family skits and the type of organized competitive games the Gates family loved. "On Saturdays there was a tennis tournament, and on Sundays our Olympics, which were a mixture of games and other activities," Bill Sr. recalls. "Trey was more into the individual sports, such as water skiing, than the team ones."
他腳步沉重地走到一個桌子旁，上面擺放著一些和朋友們在租來的小木屋過暑假的時候拍的照片。那是個坐落在胡德運河旁名叫奇里奧的地方，離比爾家大約兩個小時車程。那時候，每晚都會有篝火、家庭短劇和蓋茨家最喜歡的那種有組織的競爭遊戲。「每個周六都會有網球比賽，而每個周日就是我們的奧林匹克盛會了，會有一系列的比賽和其它活動，」比爾先生回憶。「相對於團隊比賽，Trey更擅長個人項目，例如滑雪。」
In 1986, after Microsoft became successful, Gates built a four-house vacation compound dubbed Gateaway for his family. There his parents would help him replicate his summer activities on a grander scale for dozens of friends and co-workers in what became known as the Microgames. "There were always a couple of mental games as well as performances and regular games," says Bill Sr. as he flips through a scrapbook. These were no ordinary picnics: one digital version of charades, for example, had teams competing to send numerical messages using smoke-signal machines, in which the winners devised their own 4-bit binary code.
1986年，微軟公司一舉成功，蓋茨為他的家人蓋了一座擁有四間房子的度假院落。在那裡，他的父母能幫助他複製他的夏日活動，但更大規模，可以同時幾十個朋友或者同事同時參與其中，這也成為日後為人所知的微軟遊戲。「始終都會有一些智力遊戲和表演以及一些普通遊戲，」比爾先生一邊翻閱剪貼簿一邊說道。這些都不是普通的野餐：例如，一個數字版本的啞謎要求每個隊伍利用煙霧信號機發送數字信息，比賽的勝者都得設計自己的四位二進位代碼。
"We became concerned about him when he was ready for junior high," says his father. "He was so small and shy, in need of protection, and his interests were so very different from the typical sixth grader"s." His intellectual drive and curiosity would not be satisfied in a big public school. So they decided to send him to an elite private school across town.
「他準備上高中時我們都很為他擔心，」他父親說。「他那麼瘦小和害羞，需要保護，並且他的興趣愛好也普通的六年級學生大不相同。」他對知識的渴望和好奇不可能能在大型公立學校得到滿足。於是，他們決定將蓋茨送到鎮子那頭的私立精英學校上學。
Walking across the rolling quad of the Lakeside School, Bill Sr. points out the chapel where his son played the lead in Peter Shaffer"s Black Comedy. "He was very enthusiastic about acting. But what really entranced him was in there," he says, pointing to a New England-style steepled classroom building. With the proceeds from a rummage sale, the Mothers" Club had funded a clunky teletype computer terminal.
一起在湖濱學校的校園裡散步的時候，比爾先生指著一所教堂說，他兒子曾經在那裡表演過彼得謝弗的黑色喜劇，並充當主演。「他特別熱衷於表演。但最令他喜歡的演出是在這裡，」他指著一幢新英格蘭式的尖頂教學樓說道。母親俱樂部用義賣所得款項資助購買了一台笨重的電腦打字機終端。
Learning BASIC language from a manual with his pal Paul Allen, Trey produced two programs in the eighth grade: one that converted a number in one mathematical base to a different base, and another (easier to explain) that played tic-tac-toe. Later, having read about Napoleon"s military strategies, he devised a computer version of Risk, a board game he liked in which the goal is world domination.
和好友保羅艾倫從一本手冊上學習了入門的編程語言後，Trey在八年級的時候編了兩個程序：一個程序是將數字從數學基礎轉移到另一個基礎；另一個程序（解釋起來更簡單）是三子棋遊戲。隨後，讀了拿破崙的軍事戰術後，他設計了一個電腦版的Risk遊戲，這是那時候他喜歡的棋盤遊戲，目標就是稱霸世界。
Trey and Paul were soon spending their evenings at a local company that had bought a big computer and didn"t have to pay for it until it was debugged. In exchange for computer time, the boys" job was to try (quite successfully) to find bugs that would crash it. "Trey got so into it," his father recalls, "that he would sneak out the basement door after we went to bed and spend most of the night there."
不久，Trey和保羅就每天晚上都會去當地一家公司調試新購入的一台大型電腦，直到調試完才拿到了傭金。作為使用電腦的交換條件，他們倆的任務就是儘力找出並解決電腦故障（非常成功）。「Trey對此非常著迷，」他父親回憶，「他甚至會在我們睡著之後悄悄從地下室溜出去，在那公司花上大半夜時間。」
The combination of counseling and the computer helped transform him into a self-assured young businessman. By high school he and his friends had started a profitable company to analyze and graph traffic data for the city. "His confidence increased, and his sense of humor increased," his father says. "He became a great storyteller, who could mimic the voices of each person. And he made peace with his mother."
心理治療結合上電腦幫助他變成了一位自信滿滿的年輕商人。高中時，他和他的朋友們就開了一家利潤頗豐的公司，專門為城市交通數據提供分析和圖表。「他的信心提升了，幽默感也隨之增加了，」他父親說道。「他的口才變得非常棒，甚至能模仿每個人說話。並且，他和他母親和好了。」
"In ninth grade," Gates recalls over dinner one night, "I came up with a new form of rebellion. I hadn"t been getting good grades, but I decided to get all A"s without taking a book home. I didn"t go to math class, because I knew enough and had read ahead, and I placed within the top 10 people in the nation on an aptitude exam. That established my independence and taught me I didn"t need to rebel anymore." By 10th grade he was teaching computers and writing a program that handled class scheduling, which had a secret function that placed him in classes with the right girls.
「九年級的時候，」蓋茨在某天晚餐的時候回憶道，「我又有了新的叛逆情緒。雖然我那會兒成績一直都不是太好，但我決定每天回家都不複習而要成績全優。我不去上數學課，因為我知道得足夠多了，並且上課前我已經學習過了，最後我在一個能力考試中排名全國前十。那奠定了我獨立的性格，也教會了我不再需要去叛逆。」到十年級時，他開始教授電腦課，並且設計了一個解決排課任務的程序。其中有個很秘密的作用，將他和一些好女孩分在了一起。
His best friend was Kent Evans, son of a Unitarian minister. "We read FORTUNE together; we were going to conquer the world," says Gates. "I still remember his phone number." Together with Paul Allen, they formed the official-sounding Lakeside Programmers Group and got a job writing a payroll system for a local firm. A furious argument, the first of many, ensued when Allen tried to take over the work himself. But he soon realized he needed the tireless Gates back to do the coding. "O.K., but I"m in charge," Gates told him, "and I"ll get used to being in charge, and it"ll be hard to deal with me from now on unless I"m in charge." He was right.
他當時最好的朋友是肯特埃文斯，一個傳教士的兒子。「我們一起閱讀《國富論》；我們計劃征服世界，」蓋茨說。「我至今還記得他的電話號碼。」和保羅艾倫一起，他們成立一個聽起來很官方的湖濱程序員小組，並且為當地的一家公司設計工資管理系統。保羅嘗試自己一個人接受這個工作時，第一次激烈的爭吵隨之而來。但他不久就意識到，他需要不知疲倦的蓋茨回來編碼。「行，但是我得負責一切，」蓋茨告訴他，「我習慣管理一切，並且從現在開始，除非我負責，我將撂挑子不幹。」他是正確的。
To relieve the pressures of programming, Evans took up mountain climbing. One day Gates got a call from the headmaster: Evans had been killed in a fall. "I had never thought of people dying," Gates says. There is a flicker of emotion. "At the service, I was supposed to speak, but I couldn"t get up. For two weeks I couldn"t do anything at all."
為了釋放編程的壓力，埃文斯開始登山。有天蓋茨接到校長的電話：埃文斯墜山而亡。「我從沒想過死亡，」蓋茨說道。他情緒開始有點變化。「當時情況下，我應該說些什麼，但是我不能。整整兩周，我什麼事都幹不了。」
After that he became even closer to Paul Allen. They learned an artificial-intelligence language together and found odd jobs as programmers. "We were true partners," Gates says. "We"d talk for hours every day." After Gates went off to Harvard, Allen drove his rattletrap Chrysler cross-country to continue their collaboration. He eventually persuaded Gates to become that university"s most famous modern dropout in order to start a software company, which they initially dubbed Micro-Soft (after considering the name Allen & Gates Inc.), to write versions of BASIC for the first personal computers. It was an intense relationship: Gates the workaholic code writer and competitor, Allen the dreamy visionary.
在那事件之後，他和保羅艾倫之間的感情更深了。他們開始一起學人工智慧語言，偶爾找到些編程工作。「我們是真正的搭檔，」蓋茨說道。「我們每天都會在一起聊數個小時。」蓋茨去哈佛大學後，艾倫開著他的克萊斯勒牌老爺車橫穿美國繼續他們的合作。他最終說服蓋茨從哈佛輟學一起開一家軟體公司。這也成為現代最著名的大學輟學案例。他們最終稱其公司為微軟（之前還考慮過阿倫和蓋茨公司），開始用BASIC語言為個人電腦寫程序。這是種深層次的關係：蓋茨是不知疲倦的代碼編寫者和競爭者，而阿倫是富有夢想的預見者。
Over the years they would have ferocious fights, and Allen would, after a Hodgkin"s disease scare, quit the company and become estranged. But Gates worked hard to repair the relationship and eventually lured Allen, who is now one of the country"s biggest high-tech venture-capital investors (and owner of the Portland Trail Blazers), back onto the Microsoft board. "We like to talk about how the fantasies we had as kids actually came true," Gates says. Now, facing their old classroom building at Lakeside is the modern brick Allen/Gates Science Center. (Gates lost the coin toss.)
那些年，他們有過激烈的爭執。在霍金森綜合症疾病的恐懼之後，阿倫可能退出公司，與公司越來越疏遠。但是蓋茨努力地修復他們的關係，最終讓阿倫回到微軟董事會。阿倫現在是全美國最大的高科技風險資本投資人之一（波特蘭開拓者隊的老闆）。「我們喜歡聊聊孩童時代的夢想，如何在現在最終實現，」蓋茨說。現在，在他們的母校湖濱學校那棟老教學樓對面，蓋起了一座現代化的艾倫蓋茨科技中心。（因為蓋茨扔硬幣輸了，所以他的名字在後。）
Steve Ballmer, big and balding, is bouncing around a Microsoft conference room with the spirit of the Harvard football-team manager he once was. "Bill lived down the hall from me at Harvard sophomore year," he says. "He"d play poker until 6 in the morning, then I"d run into him at breakfast and discuss applied mathematics." They took graduate-level math and economics courses together, but Gates had an odd approach toward his classes: he would skip the lectures of those he was taking and audit the lectures of those he wasn"t, then spend the period before each exam cramming. "He"s the smartest guy I"ve ever met," says Ballmer, 40, continuing the unbroken sequence of people who make that point early in an interview.
史蒂夫巴爾默身材高大，禿頂了，在微軟會議室附近轉悠，依然懷著曾經哈佛大學橄欖球隊經理的意志。「哈佛大學二年級時，比爾住在我樓下，」他說。「他能玩撲克玩到凌晨六點，我能在早飯時候遇到他，然後一起討論應用數學。」他們在一起修研究生水平的數學和經濟課程，但是蓋茨極少去上課：他會逃掉他應該上的課程，但會很認真地上他沒有選的課程。然後在考試前一段時間開始惡補。「他是我迄今為止遇到的最聰明的傢伙，」巴爾默說。他今年40歲，繼續著我在先前的採訪者那裡得到的不變的結論。
Ballmer nurtured the social side of Gates, getting him to join one of the college"s eating clubs (at his initiation Gates gave a drunken disquisition on an artificial-intelligence machine), playing the video game Pong at hamburger joints and later wandering with him to places like the old Studio 54 during visits to New York City. "He was eccentric but charismatic," says Ballmer.
大學時候，巴爾默擴大了蓋茨的社交面，讓他加入了大學裡的飲食俱樂部（在他的啟發之下，蓋茨寫了一篇精彩的關於人工智慧機器的專題論文），漢堡店玩一個名叫Pong電子遊戲，然後在紐約城玩的時候一起去54號老工作室之類的地方轉悠。「他的性格古怪，但是很有魅力，」巴爾默如是說。
When Microsoft began to grow in 1980, Gates needed a smart nontechie to help run things, and he lured Ballmer, who had worked for Procter & Gamble, to Seattle as an equity partner. Though he can be coldly impersonal in making business decisions, Gates has an emotional loyalty to a few old friends. "I always knew I would have close business associates like Ballmer and several of the other top people at Microsoft, and that we would stick together and grow together no matter what happened," he says. "I didn"t know that because of some analysis. I just decided early on that was part of who I was."
微軟公司1980年開始成長的時候，蓋茨需要一個聰明的人來幫助他管理事情，他找到了巴爾默。巴爾默當時在寶潔公司工作，在西雅圖是一個資產合作者。雖然在商業決策上他可能冷酷、不近人情，但是蓋茨對他的一些老朋友有著深厚的感情。「我一直相信我能在微軟擁有像巴爾默這樣親密的商業夥伴，和其他一些頂尖的人才。無論發生什麼，我們都會團結在一起，一起成長，」他說。「因為一些分析，我現在才知道這個道理。我當時僅僅是早早地那麼決定這就是我個性的一部分。」
As with Allen, the relationship was sometimes stormy. "Our first major row came when I insisted it was time to hire 17 more people," Ballmer recalls. "He claimed I was trying to bankrupt him." Gates has a rule that Microsoft, rather than incurring debt, must always have enough money in the bank to run for a year even with no revenues. (It currently has $8 billion in cash and no long-term debt.) "I was living with him at the time, and I got so pissed off I moved out." The elder Gates smoothed things over, and soon the new employees were hired.
就像和阿倫在一起一樣，他們之間的關係有時會很惡劣。「我堅持是時候我們多招募17個僱員了。此時，我們第一次大的爭執暴發了，」巴爾默回憶道。「他宣稱我在使他破產。」蓋茨在微軟有條規定，公司在銀行必須始終都要有足夠的資金，能讓公司在無利潤的情況下運營一年，而不是負債。（它現在有80億美元的現金，並且沒有長期債務。）「我當時和他住在一起，但後來我煩透他了，就搬了出去。」年紀更大點的蓋茨把事情理順之後，不久就招募了新員工。
"Bill brings to the company the idea that conflict can be a good thing," says Ballmer. "The difference from P&G is striking. Politeness was at a premium there. Bill knows it"s important to avoid that gentle civility that keeps you from getting to the heart of an issue quickly. He likes it when anyone, even a junior employee, challenges him, and you know he respects you when he starts shouting back." Around Microsoft, it"s known as the "math camp" mentality: a lot of cocky geeks willing to wave their fingers and yell with the cute conviction that all problems have a right answer. Among Gates" favorite phrases is "That"s the stupidest thing I"ve ever heard," and victims wear it as a badge of honor, bragging about it the way they do about getting a late-night E-mail from him.
「比爾帶給公司一個理念，那就是爭執是件好事，」巴爾默說。「這和寶潔公司的理念完全不同。禮貌在那裡是備受推崇的。比爾知道避免客套性禮貌的重要性，因為那不能讓人迅速地了解到事件的核心。他喜歡別人，甚至低級員工，挑戰他。他向你反擊時，那是他對你尊敬的表現。」在微軟，這被稱為「數學夏令營」心理：許多自大者都喜歡搖動他們的手指表示反對，並且乖巧地嚷嚷，在他們眼裡所有問題都已經有了正確答案。「那是我聽過最愚蠢的想法」是蓋茨的喜歡的口頭禪，而被罵者則以此為榮，並為深夜時候收到一封蓋茨寄出的關於他們所作所為的郵件大加吹噓。
The contentious atmosphere can promote flexibility. The Microsoft Network began as a proprietary online system like CompuServe or America Online. When the open standards of the Internet changed the game, Microsoft was initially caught flat-footed. Arguments ensued. Soon it became clear it was time to try a new strategy and raise the stakes. Gates turned his company around in just one year to disprove the maxim that a leader of one revolution will be left behind by the next.
爭論的氣氛能提升靈活度。微軟網路從一個專有的在線系統開始，類似於CompuServe或者美洲在線。互聯網開放標準改變遊戲規則的時候，微軟最初被打了個措手不及。爭執隨之而來。但是不久便達成一致，是時候嘗試新戰略和提升市場份額了。蓋茨僅僅花了一年時間就讓公司扭轉了頹勢，由此打破了一條格言，革命領袖必定在下次革命中被淘汰。
During the bachelor years in the early "80s, the math-camp mentality was accompanied by a frat-boy recreational style. Gates, Ballmer and friends would eat out at Denny"s, go to movies and gather for intellectual games like advanced forms of trivia and Boggle. As friends started getting married, there were bachelor parties involving local strippers and skinny-dipping in Gates" pool. But eventually, after Gates wed, he took up more mature pursuits such as golf. "Bill got into golf in the same addictive way he gets into anything else," says Ballmer. "It gets his competitive juice flowing."
上個世紀80年代早期，他還是單身的日子裡，數學夏令營心理也伴隨著兄弟會休閑的風格。蓋茨、巴爾默和他的朋友們會去Denny『s一起吃飯，看電影，聚在一起玩類似於改進版的Boggle的小型益智遊戲。隨著朋友們開始陸續結婚，蓋茨家的單身聚會會邀請當地脫衣舞女郎和身材纖細的美女。但最後，蓋茨結婚後，他開始對些更成熟的像高爾夫的追求感興趣。「比爾玩高爾夫也是像其它事情一樣的痴迷，」巴爾默說。「他爭強好勝的性格也體現在高爾夫也中。」
It"s a rainy night, and Gates is bombing around in his dark blue Lexus. He loves fast cars. When Microsoft was based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in its early years, he bought a Porsche 911 and used to race it in the desert; Paul Allen had to bail him out of jail after one midnight escapade. He got three speeding tickets--two from the same cop who was trailing him--just on the drive from Albuquerque the weekend he moved Microsoft to Seattle. Later he bought a Porsche 930 Turbo he called the "rocket," then a Mercedes, a Jaguar XJ6, a $60,000 Carrera Cabriolet 964, a $380,000 Porsche 959 that ended up impounded in a customs shed because it couldn"t meet import emission standards, and a Ferrari 348 that became known as the "dune buggy" after he spun it into the sand.
那是個下雨的夜晚，蓋茨開著他深藍色的雷克薩斯飛馳。他喜歡開快車。微軟遷址至新墨西哥州的阿爾布開克後，在頭些年，他買了輛保時捷911，經常在沙漠里飆車；曾經由於一次午夜飆車，保羅阿倫還將他保釋出獄。他曾經在微軟從阿爾布開克搬去西雅圖的那個周末得了三張超速罰單——兩張是來自同一個警察，那警察盯上了他。隨後，他又買了輛保時捷930T，他稱之為「火箭」，然後是賓士、美洲虎XJ6，價值6萬美元的卡雷拉敞篷964，價值38萬美元的保時捷959，但這輛車在進入海關的時候被扣押，因為不符合進口排量標準。他還買了一輛法拉利348，他開著它在沙漠里兜風並陷進進沙丘之後就成了聞名的「沙灘車」。
Despite this record, Gates is not wearing a seat belt. (A dilemma: Is it too uncool to use mine?) He rarely looks at you when he talks, which is disconcerting, but he does so when he"s driving, which is doubly disconcerting. (I buckle up. As his mother and others have learned, it"s not always prudent to compete.) He turns into a dark drive with a chain-link fence that slides open as the Lexus approaches. It"s nearing midnight, and the security guard looks a bit startled.
儘管有這個記錄，蓋茨也不會系安全帶。（一個兩難困境：如果系安全帶是不是太不拉風了？）他在交談時很少會看著你，這令人不安；但是他在開車的時候就會看著你說話，這使人加倍不安。（我繫上了安全帶。從他媽媽和其他人那裡學到，和他競爭永遠不是件慎重的事。）他的雷克薩斯接近時，鐵絲網柵欄慢慢打開。他讓汽車自動巡行。將近午夜，保安看似有點驚訝。
Gates" home of the future has been under construction for more than four years, and is not expected to be completed until this summer. Built into a bluff fronting Lake Washington, it has 40,000 sq. ft. of space and will cost about $40 million. Looming against the night sky are three connected pavilions of glass and recycled Douglas fir beams, looking a bit like a corporate conference center masquerading as a resort.
蓋茨的未來之家已經建造四年多了，預計直到今年夏天才能完工。房子在華盛頓湖畔，規模巨大，面積有4萬平方英尺，造價將在4000萬美金左右。夜幕之下，三個用玻璃和可回收的道格拉斯冷杉木建造的大亭子，看起來就像偽裝成度假村的企業會議中心。
Gates swings into a vaulted 30-car garage carved into the hillside. In the corner, like a museum piece, sits his parents" red Mustang convertible that he drove as a kid. "The first pavilion is mainly for public entertaining," he says as he picks his way past construction debris down four levels of stairs. Despite the hour, three technicians are working in the ground-floor reception hall, with its view of the Olympic Mountains across Lake Washington, adjusting two dozen 40-in. monitors that will form a flat-screen display covering an entire wall. "When you visit, you"ll get an electronic pin encoded with your preferences," he explains. "As you wander toward any room, your favorite pictures will appear along with the music you like or a TV show or movie you"re watching. The system will learn from your choices, and it will remember the music or pictures from your previous visits so you can choose to have them again or have similar but new ones. We"ll have to have hierarchy guidelines, for when more than one person goes to a room." Like Gates himself, it"s all very fascinating, fun and a little intimidating.
蓋茨拐進一個拱門，那是建在山洞裡的可容納30輛車的車庫。在角落，就像個博物館，那裡停放著他小時候開過的他父母的紅色野馬敞篷車。「第一個亭子主要用來提供公共娛樂，」他邊說邊在厚達四層樓的建築廢料中尋路而走。儘管在這個時間，仍然有三個技師在一樓客廳里工作，從那可以看見華盛頓湖那頭的奧林匹克山。技師們在調試兩打40英寸的顯示器，最終可以在整面牆上全屏演示。「你來訪時，你將會得到一個記錄你愛好的電子針，」他解釋道。「你漫步到任一房間，你喜歡的圖片會隨著你喜歡的音樂一起出現，或者是你正在關注的電視節目或電影。系統將會了解你的選擇，並且記住你上次到訪時的音樂或圖片選擇，這樣你又可以重新選擇他們或者選擇另外類似的。系統還會有層次指引，這是為多人同時進入一個房間準備的。」就像蓋茨本人，這房子也是引人入勝、充滿樂趣的，並且還有點令人害怕。
Moving into the center pavilion, Gates shows off what will be the library. A mammoth carved wooden dome hangs just above the floor, waiting to be raised into the cupola. (I wonder: Does this grand chamber dispel my fear that he will relegate print to museum status? Or inadvertently confirm it?) He has hired a New York rare-books dealer to stock the library for him. His current reading is eclectic. "On a recent trip to Italy," he says, "I took the new Stalin biography, a book about Hewlett-Packard, Seven Summits [a mountaineering book by Dick Bass and the late Disney president Frank Wells] and a Wallace Stegner novel." He"s also a fan of Philip Roth"s, John Irving"s, Ernest J. Gaines" and David Halberstam"s, but his all-time favorite novels are the schoolboy standards The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby and A Separate Peace. A nearby room will be filled by an enormous trampoline; at the office he sometimes surprises colleagues by joyfully leaping to touch the ceiling, and he finds bouncing on a trampoline as conducive to concentration as rocking.
進入中間的亭子，蓋茨自豪地說那將會是他的圖書館。巨大的雕花木質穹頂擱置在地上，等待著被吊上圓屋頂。（我懷疑：這個大房子是否會消除我的恐懼，是否他又會將這圖書館變成博物館？或者說，無意間已經給出肯定的答案？）他已經僱傭了一個紐約珍稀圖書經銷商來為他的圖書館置辦書籍。他現在的閱讀是兼容並包的。「最近一次去義大利，」他說，「我買了本新的斯大林傳記，一本關於惠普的書，《七座山峰》【迪克巴斯和迪斯尼主席弗蘭克威爾斯寫的一本關於登山的書】和一本華萊士斯泰格納的小說。」他也是飛利浦·羅斯, 約翰·埃爾文, 歐內斯特·格內斯和戴維·哈爾博斯坦的擁蹙者，但是他一直所鍾愛的小說是中學生標準的《麥田守望者》、《偉大的蓋茨比》和《一次分裂的和平》。附近的一間房子將會放滿無數蹦床；在辦公室，他有時會高興地跳起來摸到天花板，這讓同事驚訝不已。他發現，在蹦床上跳躍和搖晃一樣有利於精力集中。
The only completed part of the house is the indoor pool under the family quarters. A sleek lap pool reflecting images from a wall snakes through glass into an outdoor Japanese bath area. The security guard reappears and warns, "Be careful of what you do in there, since the boats on the lake can see inside." As the door to the pool room closes, Gates doubles over in laughter. Does he come in here often at night? "Sometimes with Melinda," he says.
房子唯一完成的部分是卧室下面的室內泳池。時尚的泳池倒影著牆壁，蜿蜒延伸到室外一個日式的沐浴區。保安再次出現，並警告說，「在裡面幹什麼事得小心，因為從湖裡的船上能看見裡面。」由於通往游泳池的門關上了，蓋茨開始放聲大笑。他經常晚上來這裡嗎？「有時候會和梅琳達一起來，」他說。
We wander out to the deck, and the wind slams the door shut. It"s locked. Gates tries to call the guard, but he"s disappeared to a distant part of the estate. So he leads the way past bulldozers into trenches that will someday become an estuary and stocked trout stream. At the moment, however, it"s a quagmire that proves impassable. Remarkably, Gates is able to avoid looking sheepish. After a few more minutes of shouting, he attracts the guard"s attention.
我們信步走到樓頂，晚風將門狠狠地關上了。我們被反鎖上了。蓋茨嘗試著叫保安來，但是他已經遠遠地消失了，去了這個豪宅另外的地方。於是，他帶路穿過推土機來到一個壕溝，日後這裡將成為飼養鱒魚的小溪的入水口。然而此時，它只是一個無法通過的沼澤地。值得注意的是，蓋茨總是能避免尷尬。呼喊保安幾分鐘之後，他終於叫來了保安。
Gates chose the austere and natural architectural style before he got married, but Melinda is now putting her own imprint on it. "The exposed concrete is going to have to go," he says, expressing some concern about how the architect might take this.
蓋茨在他結婚之前就喜歡上了這種樸素自然的建築風格，但是梅琳達現在正注入自己的風格。「暴露在外面的水泥都會被去掉，」他說，語氣中表達著對建築師將如何處理的擔心。
Gates met Melinda French 10 years ago at a Microsoft press event in Manhattan. She was working for the company and later became one of the executives in charge of interactive content. Their daughter Jennifer was born last April. Melinda, 32, is no longer at Microsoft, and she is active in charity work and on the board of Duke, where she studied computer science as an undergraduate and then got a graduate degree in business. Like Gates, she is smart and independent. Like his mother, she is also friendly and social, with an easy manner of organizing trips and activities. But she zealously guards her privacy and doesn"t give interviews.
十年前，在一次微軟公司在曼哈頓舉辦的記者會上，蓋茨第一次遇見了梅琳達。她當時在微軟公司工作，隨後成為互動內容的負責人之一。他們的女兒詹妮弗在去年四月份出生。梅琳達今年32歲，已經沒有在微軟工作了。她活躍於慈善事業，是杜克大學董事會成員，她在那裡獲得了計算機科學學士學位和商業碩士學位。跟蓋茨一樣，她也聰明獨立。就像蓋茨的母親，她也為人和善、善於社交，精於組織出遊和各種活動。但是她很注意保護自己的隱私，沒有接受我的採訪。
"I used to think I wouldn"t be all that interested in the baby until she was two or so and could talk," says Gates as he shows off the more intimate family quarters. "But I"m totally into it now. She"s just started to say "ba-ba" and have a personality."
「我曾經想我對小孩一點興趣都沒有，直到女兒兩歲左右開始說話我才改變這個想法，」蓋茨邊說邊給我熱情地展示更溫馨的卧室。「但是我現在完全進入當父親的狀態了。她剛剛會說『ba-ba』，很有個性。」
Melinda is Catholic, goes to church and wants to raise Jennifer that way. "But she offered me a deal," Gates says. "If I start going to church--my family was Congregationalist--then Jennifer could be raised in whatever religion I choose." Gates admits that he is tempted, because he would prefer she have a religion that "has less theology and all" than Catholicism, but he has not yet taken up the offer. "Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient," he explains. "There"s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning."
梅琳達是個天主教徒，會去教堂，她也希望如此培養詹妮弗。「但是她給了我一個提議，」蓋茨說。「如果我開始去教堂--我家是個多宗教家庭--那麼，詹妮弗就會按照我的選擇來按照哪個宗教培養。」蓋茨承認他被這個建議吸引了，因為他更希望她有個比天主教「神學性更少」的宗教，但是他迄今為止還未接受這個提議。「僅從時間資源的分配上來看，宗教不是太有效率，」他解釋道。「周日早上我還能做很多別的事情。」
If Ballmer is Gates" social goad, his intellectual one is Nathan Myhrvold (pronounced Meer-voll), 37, who likes to joke that he"s got more degrees than a thermometer, including a doctorate in physics from Princeton. With a fast and exuberant laugh, he has a passion for subjects ranging from technology (he heads Microsoft"s advanced-research group) to dinosaurs (he"s about to publish a paper on the aerodynamics of the apatosaurus tail) to cooking. He sometimes moonlights as a chef at Rover"s, a French restaurant in Seattle.
如果說巴爾默是蓋茨社交能力的鼓勵者，那麼內森·米爾沃（和Meervoll的發音一樣）就是他智慧的鞭策者。內森·米爾沃37歲，喜歡開玩笑說他比溫度計獲得的學位還多，其中包括普林斯頓大學的物理學博士學位。他喜歡快速大笑，他對從技術（他是微軟先進技術研究小組的頭兒）到恐龍（他將要發表一篇關於雷龍尾巴的空氣動力學的論文）到烹飪所有的學科都有著極大的熱情。他時常在西雅圖一家名叫Rover"s的法國餐廳做兼職廚師。
When he arrives there for dinner, owner Thierry Rautureau comes out to hug him and pour champagne. There follows a procession of a dozen courses, from black truffles and pureed celery root in smoked game consomme to venison with obscure types of mushrooms, each with different vintage wines. (The bill for two comes to $390, and picking it up assuages my discomfort that Gates had insisted on putting the previous evening"s $37 tab at the Indian restaurant on his MasterCard.)
他去那吃晚飯的話，老闆Thierry Rautureau會出來給他擁抱，為他倒香檳。接下來，會上十幾道菜，從黑松露和煙熏芹菜根泥清湯到鹿肉伴稀有蘑菇，每道菜都會有不同的陳年葡萄酒。（兩個人的費用高達390美元，我拿起賬單付賬以平息我的不適，因為蓋茨堅持將昨晚在印度餐廳37美元的費用算到他賬上。）
"There are two types of tech companies," Myhrvold says in between pauses to inhale the aroma of the food. "Those where the guy in charge knows how to surf, and those where he depends on experts on the beach to guide him." The key point about Gates is that he knows--indeed loves--the intricacies of creating software. "Every decision he makes is based on his knowledge of the merits. He doesn"t need to rely on personal politics. It sets the tone."
「技術公司有兩種，」米爾沃聞著食物香味的間歇時說道。「一種是負責人會衝浪的公司，另一種是負責人等著海灘上的專家指導的公司。」關鍵點就是，蓋茨是那種懂得--確切的說是熱愛--軟體編寫中複雜性的老闆。「他所做的每個決定都是基於對任務的認識。他不需要依賴個人政治。基調已經定下。」
Myhrvold describes a typical private session with Gates. Pacing around a room, they will talk for hours about future technologies such as voice recognition (they call their team working on it the "wreck a nice beach" group, because that"s what invariably appears on the screen when someone speaks the phrase "recognize speech" into the system), then wander onto topics ranging from quantum physics to genetic engineering. "Bill is not threatened by smart people," he says, "only stupid ones."
米爾沃這樣描述蓋茨典型的私人會晤。他們會在屋裡來回踱步，會就將似於語音識別（他們稱這個小組為「美好破壞者」，因為在屏幕上總是有一個人對著系統說「識別講話」，）的未來技術談論數個小時，然後在從量子物理到基因工程的話題中漫談。「比爾不會被聰明的人嚇倒，」他說，「只會被蠢蛋嚇倒。」
Microsoft has long hired based on I.Q. and "intellectual bandwidth." Gates is the undisputed ideal: talking to most people is like sipping from a fountain, goes the saying at the company, but with Gates it"s like drinking from a fire hose. Gates, Ballmer and Myhrvold believe it"s better to get a brilliant but untrained young brain--they"re called "Bill clones"--than someone with too much experience. The interview process tests not what the applicants know but how well they can process tricky questions: If you wanted to figure out how many times on average you would have to flip the pages of the Manhattan phone book to find a specific name, how would you approach the problem?
微軟長期以來都是根據智商和「智力帶寬」來招募員工的。蓋茨就是個無可爭議的理想原型：微軟公司有這麼一個說法，和大多數人交談就像從噴泉中飲水一樣，但是和蓋茨聊天就像從消防水栓里喝水一樣。蓋茨、巴爾默和米爾沃都認為，聰明且未經雕琢的年輕人--他們稱之為「比爾克隆人」--比那些很有經驗的人更好。面試程序不是測試申請者所知道的，而是他們如何處理充滿迷惑性的問題：如果你想知道每次為了找個特定的名字而查閱曼哈頓電話本，平均每次會翻轉多少次黃頁，你會如何解決這個問題？
Gates" intellect is marked by an ability, as he puts it, to "drill down." On a visit to Time Inc."s new-media facility, he answered questions from a collection of magazine editors as if by rote, but on his way out he asked to see the Internet servers and spent 45 minutes grilling the claque of awed techies there. Broad discussions bore him, he shows little curiosity about other people, and he becomes disengaged when people use small talk to try to establish a personal rapport. Even after spending a lot of time with him, you get the feeling that he knows much about your thinking but nothing about such things as where you live or if you have a family. Or that he cares.
蓋茨智慧的標誌就是能力，正如他所說，「不斷深入」。參觀時代公司新的媒體設施時，他非常程序性地回答了許多雜誌編輯的提問，但是在出去的時候他請求看下互聯網伺服器，並花了45分鐘在那裡向驚訝的技師們提問。他喜歡廣泛的討論，對別人的沒有多少好奇心。別人嘗試與他進行私人交談以建立私人關係時，他會變得心不在焉。即使在和他聊了很長時間之後，你會覺得他更了解你的想法而對你住在哪裡、是否成家絲毫沒有概念。或者是他關心的話題。
In that regard he is the opposite of, say, Bill Clinton, who brackets the other end of the baby boom: Gates analytically rigorous and emotionally reserved, the President equally smart but intellectually undisciplined and readily intimate. They played golf on Martha"s Vineyard once, and the President, as usual, worked hard at bonding emotionally and being personally charming and intimate. He expressed sorrow about the death of Gates" mother, shared the pain of the recent death of his own mother and gave golfing tips to Melinda. But Gates noticed that Clinton never bore in or showed rigorous curiosity about technological issues. Though he vaguely considers himself a Democrat, Gates stayed neutral in the presidential election.
從這方面來看，他和比爾·柯林頓代表的嬰兒潮尾聲的一代完全相反：蓋茨在分析上嚴謹，情感上有所保留；總統先生也同樣聰明，但在學識上散漫，隨時發展親密關係。他們曾經在馬爾他莊園打過一次高爾夫。和平時一樣，總統在結交情感上狠下功夫，在私人關係上擁有魅力，與人親密。他表達了對蓋茨母親逝世的悲傷之情，並也道出了他母親前不久逝世的痛苦，並且教給梅琳達打高爾夫的一些小技巧。但是，蓋茨注意到柯林頓從沒鑽研過對科技問題，甚至沒有一點點好奇心。雖然他似乎表示過他是個民主黨人士，但是蓋茨在總統選舉時保持中立態度。
Warren Buffett, the Omaha, Nebraska, investor whom Gates demoted to being merely the second richest American, seems an unlikely person to be among his closest pals. A jovial, outgoing 66-year-old grandfather, Buffett only recently learned to use a computer. But as multibillionaires go, and they enjoy taking vacations together. Buffett"s secretary apologetically explains that Buffett isn"t giving interviews these days and at the moment is traveling, but she promises to pass along the request. Less than three hours later, Buffett calls to say he happens to be in the Time & Life Building with some free time between meetings in Manhattan, and he would be happy to come by to be interviewed. He likes to talk about Gates.
來自內布拉斯卡州奧馬哈的沃倫·巴菲特是個投資者，僅此於蓋茨，是全美第二富有的人。他們似乎不可能成為親密的夥伴。巴菲特今年66歲，性格開朗快活，是個爺爺輩的人了。他最近才學會如何操作電腦。但同時作為億萬富翁，他們喜歡在一起度假。巴菲特的秘書非常遺憾得解釋說，巴菲特這些天都不接受採訪，此時他正在履行，但是她承諾她將採訪請求傳達給他。不到三個小時，巴菲特打電話過來說他剛好在時代生活大廈，並在曼哈頓的一系列會議中間有些空閑，他很高興過來接受採訪。他想和我談談蓋茨。
His favorite story is about the 1995 excursion to China that Bill and Melinda organized for seven couples. "For part of the trip we stayed on a ship in the Yangtze with five decks that normally accommodates hundreds of people," he says with the glee of a kid describing Walt Disney World. "Each evening Melinda arranged different activities." There was karaoke singing in the ship"s ballroom, performances of quickie versions of Shakespeare plays, "and a trivia quiz on such things as how many meals we"d eaten, with prizes that Melinda and Bill handed out." When relaxed, Buffett says, Gates has a fun sense of humor. In the Forbidden City they were given a show of huge ancient scrolls that were silently rolled and unrolled by women trained for the task. "There"s a $2 fine," Gates whispered, "if you return a scroll not rewound."
他喜歡的故事就是1995年比爾和梅琳達組織七對夫婦去中國的旅行。「有一段旅程，我們是在揚子江上的一艘五層郵輪上度過的。一般來說，那艘郵輪能承載成百上千人，」他說話的時候就像一個小孩快樂地描述著迪斯尼公園。「每天晚上，梅琳達都會安排不同的活動。」在郵輪舞廳里唱卡拉OK，表演莎士比亞短劇，「還有瑣事競猜，譬如我們已經吃過多少頓飯，比爾和梅琳達還會派送獎品。」巴菲特說，休息的時候，蓋茨非常有幽默感。在紫禁城，他們觀看了一場巨大的古代春聯展，一切都無聲地進行，接受過此項培訓的女演員們為他們展開和合上一幅幅春聯。「發現一副沒有合上的春聯就會給演員2美元的罰款。」蓋茨低聲地說。
When Gates decided to propose to Melinda in 1993, he secretly diverted the chartered plane they were taking home from Palm Springs one Sunday night to land in Omaha. There Buffett met them, arranged to open a jewelry store that he owned and helped them pick a ring. That year Gates made a movie for Buffett"s birthday. It featured Gates pretending to wander the country in search of tales about Buffett and calling Melinda with them from pay phones. After each call, Gates is shown checking the coin slot for loose change. When she mentions that Buffett is only the country"s second richest man, he informs her that on the new Forbes list Buffett had (at least that one year) regained the top spot. The phone suddenly goes dead. "Melinda, Melinda," Gates sputters, "you still there? Hello?"
1993年蓋茨決定向梅琳達求婚時，他悄悄地改變了本該在周日晚上從棕櫚泉回家的既定飛行路線，而降落在了奧馬哈。巴菲特在那裡遇到了他們，安排到一個屬於他的珠寶店幫他們挑了一個戒指。那年，蓋茨為了給巴菲特慶生，特地為他製作了一部電影。電影講述了蓋茨假裝周遊全國尋找巴菲特的故事，並在公用付費電話給梅琳達打電話。在電影里，蓋茨每次打完電話都會檢查硬幣槽是否還有找零的錢。她提到巴菲特僅僅是全國第二富有的人的時候，蓋茨會告訴她，在新的福布斯財富榜上巴菲特已經坐上了頭把交椅（至少那一年是這樣）。電話突然斷線。「梅琳達，梅琳達，」蓋茨不停地喊著，「你還在那兒嗎？喂？」
Last October Gates brought Melinda and their new daughter to visit Buffett and his wife in San Francisco. They ended up playing bridge for nine hours straight. Another marathon session in Seattle started in the morning and lasted--with a break for Melinda to pick up lunch at Burger King--until guests started arriving for dinner. "He loves games that involve problem solving," Buffett says. "I showed him a set of four dice with numbers arranged in a complex way so that any one of them would on average beat one of the others. He was one of three people I ever showed them to who figured this out and saw the way to win was to make me choose first which one I"d roll." (For math buffs: the dice were nontransitive. One of the others who figured it out was the logician Saul Kripke.)
去年十月份，蓋茨帶
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