????就在一年前，有報道稱看見史蒂夫?喬布斯和馬克?扎克伯格在帕洛阿爾托一起散步。他們談?wù)摰脑掝}是Ping，也就是蘋果公司（Apple）的音樂社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)服務(wù)和iTunes的推薦引擎。喬布斯有意把這個產(chǎn)品融入Facebook社交網(wǎng)站，所以他邀請扎克伯格到家里共進(jìn)晚餐，然后兩人一起散步。

????這個設(shè)想最終沒能實(shí)現(xiàn)，如果喬布斯沒有因病去世，這件事很可能已經(jīng)變成現(xiàn)實(shí)，兩個人最終也許會簽訂重大的協(xié)議（兩家公司都有對方需要的東西）。實(shí)際上，他們都喜歡邊走邊聊，這個共同愛好也增加了雙方合作的可能性。

????喬布斯以邊走路邊開會而聞名，尤其是對初次見面的人更是如此。沃爾特?艾薩克森在《喬布斯傳》（Steve Jobs）中回憶了寫作這本書的緣起，當(dāng)時喬布斯打來電話，要他寫這本書：

????我們談到了阿斯彭研究所（Aspen Institute），我剛到那里工作。我邀請他夏天到科羅拉多州的校園去演講。他說，他很樂意到訪，不過不想登臺講話，希望能散散步，和我聊聊天。

????聽起來有點(diǎn)奇怪，我還不知道他喜歡在散步的時候討論嚴(yán)肅的話題。

????扎克伯格同樣也以散步而聞名——主要是對他有意招致麾下的人選。他會帶這些人走過Facebook總部附近的一條小徑，從那里極目遠(yuǎn)眺，欣賞硅谷優(yōu)美的風(fēng)景。他會指著蘋果公司、惠普公司（Hewlett-Packard）等幾家科技巨頭的總部說，F(xiàn)acebook將來要比那些公司更強(qiáng)大。最近有人向《紐約時報》（The New York Times）透露：“整個過程如夢似幻，我覺得自己像是在約會?！?/p>

????移動支付公司Square的創(chuàng)始人、首席執(zhí)行官杰克?多爾西近來接受了《財富》雜志（Fortune）的采訪，他說：“我最喜歡的放松方式就是散步。如果我和朋友一起散步，我們會聊得很投機(jī)。要是能看到海景，那就更棒了?！?/p>

????因此，是不是可以說， “走路會議” 【這個詞出自電視劇《白宮西翼》（ The West Wing），用來描述那些在白宮走廊里讓人透不過氣的會議】對硅谷具有特別的意義？

????在一定程度上，看起來的確如此。當(dāng)然，紐約是個行色匆匆的城市。即使在這里，步行也是危險的運(yùn)動。我們只想盡快地從甲地到乙地，盡可能地減少麻煩。這座城市過于繁華喧鬧，不太可能進(jìn)行重要的談話。此外，隱私也是個問題：高管在街頭交談的場景會被拍下來，幾分鐘內(nèi)就能傳到網(wǎng)上。金融危機(jī)最嚴(yán)重的時候，各位商業(yè)人士和政府官員經(jīng)常分頭去開會，避免被人看到一路同行，安德魯?羅斯?索爾金的著作《大而不倒》（Too Big To Fail）里就多次提到這種情形。無論是否在金融危機(jī)期間，避免同時露面是企業(yè)高管需要遵守的社交禮節(jié)。出于這種考慮，華盛頓也不適合舉行街頭會議。

????如果你在洛杉磯邀請別人出去散步，那么他們會把你看作怪人。因?yàn)槟抢餂]有人散步，除非是在攝像機(jī)的鏡頭前。

????但是，硅谷就不同了。那里有各種各樣供人散步的場所，而且不受打擾，比如帕洛阿爾托安靜的林蔭道，F(xiàn)acebook總部后面的徒步小徑?？萍脊纠锏教幎际沁M(jìn)行戶外活動的人，包括遠(yuǎn)足、跑步和騎自行車。

????譯者:凌云

????Just over a year ago, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg were reportedly spotted taking a walk together in Palo Alto. The topic was Ping, Apple's (AAPL) "music social networking" service and recommendation engine for iTunes. Jobs was interested in having it incorporated into Facebook, so he invited Zuckerberg to dinner at his house and then they took a stroll.

????The deal never happened, but it seems highly possible that if it weren't for Jobs' illness and death, the pair might have eventually struck some kind of big pact (each company had something the other wanted) and the fact that both of them liked walking and talking so much would only have increased the odds of a deal.

????Jobs was famous for taking meetings on foot, especially when he was meeting people for the first time. Walter Isaacson, in his biography, Steve Jobs, relates how Jobs approached him to write the book:

????We talked a bit about the Aspen Institute, which I had recently joined, and I invited him to speak at our summer campus in Colorado. He'd be happy to come, he said, but not to be onstage. He wanted, instead, to take a walk so we could talk.

????That seemed a bit odd. I didn't yet know that taking a long walk was his preferred way to have a serious conversation.

????Zuckerberg has become equally famous for his walks -- in his case with people he wants to hire. He takes them on a trail near Facebook headquarters, and eventually to a spot that looks out over a gorgeous view of the Valley. There, he points out the headquarters of various tech giants -- Apple, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) -- and says that Facebook will be bigger than all of them. "The entire experience was totally surreal," one person told The New York Times recently. "I really felt like I was on a date."

????Jack Dorsey, CEO of the mobile-payments startup Square recently told Fortune: "My favorite thing to do to relax is walking. If I'm with a friend we have our best conversations while walking. If there's an ocean view it's great."

????So is the pedaconference (a term made famous by the TV show The West Wing, which often depicted breathless meetings taking place along the halls of the White House) particular to Silicon Valley?

????To a degree, it would seem so. New York of course is a walking town. But there, walking is a blood sport. The idea is to get from point A to point B as quickly and as free of hassle as possible. And the city is just too cacophonous for meaningful conversation. Plus, privacy is a factor: any high-end street meetings are going to be spotted and posted online within minutes. During the height of the financial crisis, various players in business and government often walked separately to meetings to avoid being seen together, as depicted countless times in Andrew Ross Sorkin's book Too Big To Fail. Avoiding being seen together is de rigueur among top execs, crisis or not. Such considerations similarly make Washington an unlikely venue for street meetings.

????And if you ask someone to take a walk in Los Angeles, they'll think you're a weirdo. It just isn't done, except on camera.

????In Silicon Valley, though, there are all kinds of places to take (relatively) private walks, such as the quiet, leafy streets of Palo Alto or the hiking trails behind Facebook's headquarters. And tech companies are filled with people whose extracurricular activity includes lots of hiking, running or biking.