If you’ve been following the ramblings of Steve Jobs on his blog (not the real one, but instead Fake Steve Jobs), then you’re in for a disappointment. The magic has gone. The suspension of disbelief has been, well, suspended. Fake Steve has been outed.
It didn’t take sleuthing bloggers to discover his identity. Nor was it Valleywag (which tried several times, much to the amusement of Fake Steve). It was New York Times Journalist Brad Stone who did the research, and allegedly after just a week’s time was able to correctly find out Fake Steve’s real identity. So it’s good ol’ journalistic research that did the trick. So much for new media, huh?
Fake Steve is, in real life, Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes. What started out as a blog aiming to parody one of the more illustrious CEOs of our time grew to be one of the most popular blogs on blogspot.com, which even other high-profile CEOs like Bill Gates and even the real Steve Jobs himself do check out.
And what does Fake Steve have to say?
Well it had to happen. Honestly I can’t believe it’s taken this long. But as you may have heard, I’ve been busted by a newspaper reporter. My cover has been blown. Guy named Brad Stone, who works for the New York Times. Have you heard of him? Well, tip of the hat to you, Brad Stone. You did the sleuthing. You put the pieces of the puzzle together. You went through my trash, hacked into my computer, and put listening devices in my home. Now you’ve ruined the mystery of Fake Steve, robbing thousands of people around the world of their sense of childlike wonder. Hope you feel good about yourself, you mangina.
And I thought it was really Steve.