פייק סטיב ג’ובס

Ido Kenan and Jonathan Silber, Calcalist: It seems that you’re a lot more famous for blogging Fake Steve Jobs than for your day job. How does that make you feel? Are you jealous of your alter-ego?
Daniel Lyons: “Yes, I’m incredibly jealous of him. He gets all the love and attention and I get nothing. Except, um, the money. So I guess it evens out in the end.”

Considering all you know about Apple and Jobs, how come you still like them? Why do you think nothing bad sticks to Apple the way it sticks to Microsoft?
“Apple is not a company. Apple is a cult that happens to make and sell electronics. The Apple faithful believe anything Steve Jobs tells them, and buy anything he makes. It’s a form of mass psychosis.”

Does FSJ make the real Jobs look good or bad? And moreover, do you think you have affected his public image, that people view him in a certain light because of you?
“I think FSJ overall is good for Jobs and good for Apple. From all I can see, RSJ is actually way more of a jerk than I make him out to be. So even when I depict him behaving badly, in reality he’s even worse.”

Do you consider yourself a Steve Jobs fan? Would you want to be him?
“I would not want to work for Steve Jobs, or be related to him, or live near him, or do business with him. Or even sit in a room with him. But I’m glad other people are willing to put up with him. I love his products. I’m glad he’s on the planet.”

Why Apple? Why not Microsoft, or Dell, or Nokia?
“None of those companies have a CEO who’s as weird and interesting as Jobs. Jobs takes himself very, very seriously. And he appears to have almost zero sense of humor. That makes him a perfect target for parody.”

Can you tell us a little about the origins of “The Secret Diary of”? How did it start?
“In summer 2006 I wanted to learn about blogging. I figured I could have some fun by doing the secret diary of Steve Jobs and sending links to a few of my friends so they’d have a laugh. But then all these other people started reading it too, and it just grew from there. I really didn’t expect to keep doing this for more than a few weeks. I shut down after six weeks but so many people wrote to me asking me to start up again that I did. It seemed like I could create my own blog version of a sitcom, and build an audience by word of mouth, which is what happened.”

How was living in secrecy like? Did you fear getting exposed, or wishing for it?
“I hated the secrecy. Plus, I’d told lots of people. So I knew eventually people would find out. It’s been much better since I was exposed.”

Before the New York Times exposed you, who knew your identity but kept it secret?
“At least fifty people that I knew about — and I’m sure all of them told other people. All of my friends knew. My family. My colleagues at Forbes.”

Had the NYT not exposed you, when were you planning to come clean, if at all?
“I think I might have just shut down the blog and never said who did it.”

Did you fear an Apple lawsuit? Did they contact you, before or after you were exposed?
“They’ve never contacted me, and I’ve never feared an Apple lawsuit. My site is parody. It’s pretty clearly all a joke.”

We loved your Apple lawsuit prank. We actually bought it until you said your lawyer was named Tony Clifton. It was not the first time you caused a news senseation which was totally a fake. How does tormenting us makes you feel?
“I really felt bad about the lawsuit prank. I didn’t think anyone would believe it was true. If you go back and look at those posts they’re all pretty obviously fake. But I guess not fake enough because so many people were fooled. I actually had a sleepless night freaking out over all the people who were getting upset and writing to Apple. I got up at 4 in the morning and wrote the final installment making it clear that it was all bogus.”

How did your colleagues respond when you were exposed — were they supporting? Did they criticize you?
“They loved it. Most of them were reading the blog and loving it.”

Tell us about your meeting with Wozniak.
“Meeting Woz was fantastic. I was nervous because I’d made a lot of jokes about him on the blog. But he told me he loves the blog and loves the jokes. He’s a really amazing guy.”

You’re full of criticism about the press. Do you think blogs are doing a better job? Are they helping make the press better? Are blogs the future of journalism?
“I hope blogs are not the future of journalism. I like to think that what we call ‘journalism’ is just going to get bigger thanks to the Internet — instead of one thing killing off or replacing another, I think we’ll just have more venues and platforms. And that, I think, is a wonderful thing.”

How’s blogging different from old-fashioned press? Is it a better medium for telling certain truths? And how, in your opinion, will blogging change the way we consume (and produce) news?
“Obviously blogs speed up the news cycle in a huge way, which can be both good and bad. Blogs also are way more opinionated and subjective than most newspapers. I do think that in some ways on my blog I’m able to be more honest or more straightforward than I can be in a print magazine job. Not that we set out to lie in the press. But we tend to be polite. And that politeness sometimes keeps us from saying what we really mean or what we really think.”

Do you read any blogs regularly? Which ones?
“Valleywag, Gawker, Groklaw, Cult of Mac, Engadget, Gizmodo, GigaOm.”

Following your experience with FSJ and Google Ads, do you now know the answer to the question everybody’s asking, how to make money from blogging?
“The only way I can see to make money with blogging is to get a deal with a big publisher that can sell ads for you. For me that has meant doing a deal with Forbes.”

I want to work for Apple. What should I do?
Fake SJ: “Give up. We will never hire you. Sorry.”

I work for Apple. How do I avoid being fired?
“Figure out where I am going to be at all times, and then be someplace else.”

What do you think of Pirates of Silicon Valley?
“I think we should have sued. I said so at the time and got voted down. But I wish we had.”

iMac, iPod, iPhone — what next?
“Have you seen our new MacBook Air super sub notebook? It’s the most amazing computer ever created. We’ll have more things like that– maybe a whole line of Air products that weigh almost nothing.”

When will the iPhone get to Israel?
“If you keep bugging me about it, never. Okay? So just be like everyone else and take what we give you, when we give it to you, and be ecstatically happy. Namaste. Peace out.”

3 תגובות לפוסט “פייק סטיב ג’ובס”

1. ליאור הנר on 18 בפברואר, 2008 13:13

   הרמונט בבלוג חביב מאוד. מז”ט.

2. גיא גרימלנד on 18 בפברואר, 2008 15:03

   נחמד הבלוג החדש. תתחדש.

3. דורה on 18 בפברואר, 2008 15:15

   דווקא יפה, העיצוב-איקאה שלך.

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