oPtions: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs

October 23, 2007
Daniel Lyons

Welcome to the mind and world of Fake Steve Jobs: Fake Steve, the counter-intuitive management guru: “Obviously we can’t literally put our employees’ lives at risk. But we have to make them feel that way.” Fake Steve the celebrity hobnobber: “I like Bono. He’s the only person I know who’s more self absorbed than I am.” Fake Steve on backdated stock options:
“No doubt you’ve heard what happened to me. You’ve read the stories about the big scandal at Apple. The fact is, you’ve heard only one side. You’ve heard a distorted tale based on leaks and lies, fabrications and media hacks. Now it is my turn. And believe me, my lies and fabrications and falsehoods are way more convincing than theirs.”
Yes, it is social satire and comedy that pokes fun at all of the icons, characters and intrigue of the technology world-from the Silicon Valley to Redmond, and until recently the author of the widely popular blog was a mystery. Now the Fake Steve Jobs story continues in the form of a novel, where we follow Apple’s chief executive grappling with business woes and getting help and bad advice from friends like Bono, Larry Ellison and Al Gore.

Speaker Details

Fake Steve Jobs is (in his off hours) Daniel Lyons, a senior editor for Forbes and the author of an earlier novel and a collection of short stories. He is the recipient of both a National endowment for the Arts Literary Fellowship and the Playboy College Fiction Prize.