Even worse, the perfection of the cube made it hard to manufacture. Most parts that are cast in molds have angles that are slightly greater than pure 90 degrees, so that it’s easier to get them out of the mold (just as it is easier to get a cake out of a pan that has angles slightly greater than 90 degrees). But Esslinger dictated, and Jobs enthusiastically agreed, that there would be no such “draft angles” that would ruin the purity and perfection of the cube. So the sides had to be produced separately, using molds that cost $650,000, at a specialty machine shop in Chicago. Jobs’s passion for perfection was out of control. When he noticed a tiny line in the chassis caused by the molds, something that any other computer maker would accept as unavoidable, he flew to Chicago and convinced the die caster to start over and do it perfectly. “Not a lot of die casters expect a celebrity to fly in,” noted one of the engineers. Jobs also had the company buy a $150,000 sanding machine to remove all lines where the mold faces met and insisted that the magnesium case be a matte black, which made it more susceptible to showing blemishes.

更糟的是，完美的立方体生产起来也很困难。大部分模具铸造出来的零件都不是纯直角，而是会稍微超过90度，因为这样会比较容易把零件从模具中拿出来。（就像平底锅锅沿的角度稍微超过90度，煎饼会比较容易拿出来一样。）但是，艾斯林格下令，不能有这种拔模角度，不能破坏立方体的纯粹和完美。乔布斯对此表示狂热支持。因此，每一面都必须分开制作，使用价格65万美元的模具，在芝加哥的一家专业机器加工厂制作。乔布斯对于完美的热情已然失控。当他注意到模具在机箱底盘上留下的微小细纹时，他就会飞到芝加哥，说服铸模工人重铸，直到完美。而这种微小瑕疵是其他任何计算机制造商都能接受的。“大部分铸模工人都想不到会有名人专程飞来找自己。”NeXT项目的一位工程师戴维·凯利（DavidKelley）指出。乔布斯还让这家公司购买了一台价值15万美元的砂光机，用来去除模具面相交处的所有细纹。乔布斯坚持镁合金外壳应该是亚光黑色，而这样，如果有瑕疵就会更明显。

Jobs had always indulged his obsession that the unseen parts of a product should be crafted as beautifully as its fa?ade, just as his father had taught him when they were building a fence. This too he took to extremes when he found himself unfettered at NeXT. He made sure that the screws inside the machine had expensive plating. He even insisted that the matte black finish be coated onto the inside of the cube’s case, even though only repairmen would see it.

乔布斯一直认为，产品看不见的地方也应该和露在外面的部分一样精美，就像他的父亲会用一块上好木材做衣柜的背面一样。当他发现自己在NeXT可以不受约束时，就任由自己在这方面走向极端。乔布斯要求机器内部的螺丝一定要有昂贵的镀层，甚至坚持把立方体的内部也涂成亚光黑色，即便只有维修人员才能看得到。

Joe Nocera, then writing for Esquire, captured Jobs’s intensity at a NeXT staff meeting:

乔·诺切拉（JoeNocera）当时为《君子》杂志写稿，记述了乔布斯在NeXT员工会议上前强烈表现：

It’s not quite right to say that he is sitting through this staff meeting, because Jobs doesn’t sit through much of anything; one of the ways he dominates is through sheer movement. One moment he’s kneeling in his chair; the next minute he’s slouching in it; the next he has leaped out of his chair entirely and is scribbling on the blackboard directly behind him. He is full of mannerisms. He bites his nails. He stares with unnerving earnestness at whoever is speaking. His hands, which are slightly and inexplicably yellow, are in constant motion.

如果说他坐着开完了员工会议，就不太准确，因为乔布斯从来没有耐着性子坐到会议结束。他控制局面的途径之一就是不断地动来动去。这一刻他还跪在自己的椅子上，下一分钟就懒散地窝在椅子里，过了一会儿又干脆跳出椅子，开始在身后的黑板上乱涂乱画。他有很多怪癖，包括咬指甲，还有用他那令人胆怯的认真劲儿盯着说话的人。他的手有些莫名的发黄，不断在动。

<span style=\"color:#006400\\"\">What particularly struck Nocera was Jobs’s “almost willful lack of tact.” It was more than just an inability to hide his opinions when others said something he thought dumb; it was a conscious readiness, even a perverse eagerness, to put people down, humiliate them, show he was smarter. When Dan’l Lewin handed out an organization chart, for example, Jobs rolled his eyes. “These charts are bullshit,” he interjected. Yet his moods still swung wildly, as at Apple. A finance person came into the meeting and Jobs lavished praise on him for a “really, really great job on this”; the previous day Jobs had told him, “This deal is crap.”

最让诺切拉震惊的是乔布斯的“几乎故意的人际交往技巧缺乏”。当别人说出乔布斯认为愚蠢的意见时，他似乎早有准备，急迫地想要贬低、羞辱他人，以显示自己更聪明。例如，当丹·卢因拿出一份组织结构图时，乔布斯转了转眼珠。“这些东西狗屁不是。”他最终插话道。不过，他的情绪仍然喜怒无常，就像在苹果公司时一样，一会儿把人捧成英雄，过一会儿又把人贬成混蛋。一位财务人员来到会议室，乔布斯慷慨地称赞他“在这个项目上的工作非常非常出色”；但是前一天，乔布斯才对他说过：“这笔交易跟垃圾没什么两样。”

One of NeXT’s first ten employees was an interior designer for the company’s first headquarters, in Palo Alto. Even though Jobs had leased a building that was new and nicely designed, he had it completely gutted and rebuilt. Walls were replaced by glass, the carpets were replaced by light hardwood flooring. The process was repeated when NeXT moved to a bigger space in Redwood City in 1989. Even though the building was brand-new, Jobs insisted that the elevators be moved so that the entrance lobby would be more dramatic. As a centerpiece, Jobs commissioned I. M. Pei to design a grand staircase that seemed to float in the air. The contractor said it couldn’t be built. Jobs said it could, and it was. Years later Jobs would make such staircases a feature at Apple’s signature stores.

NeXT最初的十名员工中，就有一位是室内设计师，负责帕洛奧图总部的设计，这是NeXT公司的第一个总部。虽然乔布斯租下的大楼是新建的，设计也漂亮，但他将内部设施全部拆毁重建。墙壁换成了玻璃，地毯换成了浅色的硬木地板。1989年，NeXT公司搬到雷德伍德一个更大的地方时，这一过程再次上演。尽管大楼是全新的，但是乔布斯坚持要将电梯挪走，让大堂显得更为恢弘。在大堂的中心，乔布斯委托贝聿铭设计了一段宏伟的楼梯，看上去就像飘浮在空中一样。承建商表示这个设计没法实现，乔布斯坚持能够做到，最终也确实建成了。多年后，乔布斯把这款楼梯变成了苹果专卖店的特色。