Fake Steve Not So Fake Anymore

He’s been an icon of the tech industry for the past 14 months, and has kept readers both entertained and informed along the ride. He’s been the subject of more investigations then President Nixon, and is one of the most popular tech blogs to boot. Who is he?

The Fake Steve Jobs.

And yet, sadly, not everybody was happy with the anonymity that shrouded the blog in its childlike secrecy. Brad Stone, of the New York Times, decided that it was time to unmask the Apple CEO’s alter-ego, and it took him a heck of a lot less time than the sad attempts made by Valleywag over the past months.

Tech columnist Andy Ihnatko, Harry Shearer – the voice of Mr. Burns – and many others have all been suggested as being the man behind the mask, and Fake Steve has loved the chance to baffle the Silicon Valley gossipers.

Stone’s investigation finally led to one Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes magazine who focuses on – funnily enough – technology. He has also published two works of fiction, and is the author of the soon to be published “Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody,” published by Da Capo Press.

When an interviewer interrupted his vacation in Maine this past weekend, Lyons was open about his outing. “I’m stunned that it’s taken this long,” he said on Sunday when questioned about his online persona. “I have not been that good at keeping it a secret. I’ve been sort of waiting for this call for months.”

It was the book soon to be released that ultimately led to his downfall though. When his agent started pitching his book to publishers last year, he was described as an anonymous author who is a published novelist and works for a major business magazine. For NYT’s reporter Stone, it was a simple case of narrowing down those within the criteria’s given, and then matching Lyons writing from his own blog against Fake Steve Jobs’ writing.

What was the impetus behind such a project such as the website Fake Steve Jobs? According to
Lyons, “I thought, wouldn’t it be funny if a C.E.O. kept a blog that really told you what he thought? That was the gist of it.”

Lyons’ colleagues are proud to finally spill the beans on their infamous friend. Forbes’s publisher, Richard Karlgaard, was one of the journalists who made it known he would be up for knowing who was behind the site.

Lyons felt bad for pulling one over on his fellow colleagues, and spilled the beans to his bosses.

“I think it is the most brilliant caricature of an important part of American culture that I’ve seen,” Karlgaard said. “We’re really proud that he’s one of ours.”

All in all many people are unhappy though that Fake Steve has been unveiled. Renowned podcasters Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt spoke on Buzz Out Loud several weeks ago, expressing their concern over the possibility of Fake Steve being revealed. To them, and to many others amongst the community – myself included – the shroud that hung over the real identity lent that small hope, that it was actually Steve Jobs writing the blog.

Nevertheless, the blog will continue according to the latest posting, after Fake Steve comes enjoys “…some yoga and meditation and non-thinking.”

Posted by Josh Hill.

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