5 ms·

(I tossed my login details but i'm the same guy who posted this http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353050 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353050) The be

(I tossed my login details but i'm the same guy who posted this http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353050 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353050) The best lie is a half truth. "Max" the reason people read your articles is because you've said you make $40K a month from niche iphone apps. Mark (lets drop the pretense) you sound like you have read Positioning by Ries, A. and Trout,J (http://www.amazon.com/Positioning-Battle-Your-Al-Ries/dp/0446347949 http://www.amazon.com/Positioning-Battle-Your-Al-Ries/dp/044...). Your positioning this "Max" character as the idealized serial entrepreneur. Globe trotting, living in 5 star hotel, identifying markets, working out those niche products. I'm sure that idealized person is something many people here want to replicate. That's only half the story though isn't it? The reality is your $40K a month is made from these apps (http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/feather-moor-ltd/id305345763?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/feather-moor-ltd/id3053457...) 1 star apps with content ripped from sites like ehow.com. Lets not forget that feather+moor are your creation as well. Would people read 37signals in the same light if they actually made their money by running casino affiliate sites? Would people read joel on software in the same light if he actually made his money from porn sites? Would people read Paul Graham articles in the same light if he actually made his money selling teeth whitening ads? You are not hiding your identity because of privacy, your hiding it because the reality of your success doesn't fit with the image you've created for Max. "Max" is not real because he is only half the story.

jlcgull 16y ago
Incisive analysis. What do you have to say to this "Max" ?
olefoo 16y ago
If there is an aspiring journalist in the audience, now would be a good time to track down Mr. Essien and the various other players involved, interview them and put together a definitive account of as much as is known. It would make a decent cover article for Fast Company, or do it as a blog with raw information dumps and crowdsourcing the factchecking.
- maxklein 16y ago
  You'd be rather disappointed, I think. I'm not secretly Michael Arrington. And any aspiring journalist should feel free to come question me - the details of how long it takes me to walk to work or how my back-ache is doing would make for an interesting story for me, but I'm not sure many will care otherwise. It's all rather undramatic, I'm afraid.
  - olefoo 16y ago
    Undramatic? But, the knife fights, the tense meetings with corrupt Chinese officials who could have you thrown in jail, the forty thousand a month, the 5-star hotels; all of that, undramatic? The problem is that you are now an unreliable narrator; you may not even be the protagonist in your own story any more. Who is Max Klein? A cipher, a nobody, an anonymous entrepreneur sharing his tales from behind a veil of mild obfuscation? Or is he a device in a larger scheme? Perhaps he is an advertisement for a correspondence school? A scheme to defraud a Saudi prince? A character escaped from a novel, whom the author is desperately trying to contain? Who knows?
    - maxklein 16y ago
      Drama comes from the choice of words - every narrative can be told in an exciting way. Everybody has had similarly dramatic experiences, but they are not writing about them. My dramatic experiences, which are less than 10 articles, are spread out over 7 years. I'm sure anyone can find interesting things he has done in the last 7 years. I'm 29 years old. At 21 you may not have seen a lot, but at 29, you have enough independent years to have gone through a few adventures. And I've gone through a LOT more than the few I have written in my blog, those are just the ones that made sense for that blog.
jallmann 16y ago
> That's only half the story though isn't it? The reality is your $40K a month is made from these apps (http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/feather-moor-ltd/id3053457... http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/feather-moor-ltd/id3053457...) 1 star apps with content ripped from sites like ehow.com. So what? HN also rabidly follows a guy that sells bingo cards. It's not about what you do, what's interesting is how you do it, and the story you tell doing that. Project management and bug tracking software is pretty boring, if you ask me. But the lessons from joel and 37s are anything but boring. In fact, I would be very interested in blogs from someone who runs a sucessful porn site, just because the challenges involved are emblematic of any startup -- how do you acquire customers in such a commoditized market? How do you keep them coming back, how do you monetize them? The technical side (scaling, etc) would make for good reading, too.
- lotharbot 16y ago
  > HN also rabidly follows a guy that sells bingo cards. HN rabidly follows a guy who tells us he sells bingo cards, and who actually sells bingo cards. It's interesting to hear him talk about it, because when he tells us about a challenge he overcame, it's a legitimate challenge to his actual business. Is "Max" telling us the truth about his actual business, and telling us actual lessons learned and challenges overcome, or just spinning clever tales? BlackwoodHolt seems to think it's mostly clever tales, and Max hasn't done a good job of dispelling that yet. I, too, would be interested to hear from someone who ran a successful porn site. But I wouldn't want to hear lessons about making a living on bingo cards from someone who actually made their money at porn and only had a tiny bingo card business on the side.
  - jallmann 16y ago
    Nobody, "Max" included, has talked about making money in a method than claimed otherwise. From most indications, his apps are legit. Unglamorous, sure, but I don't think that's reason to "hide" behind a veil of secrecy, as the GP is implying. The only strange thing here is that he works under pseudonyms, but whatever. Don't get me wrong, I think the investigative work going into this is interesting and it is adding another dimension to this Max character. But HN, lighten up. This place takes everything so seriously it's almost stodgy sometimes.

jlcgull 16y ago

Incisive analysis. What do you have to say to this "Max" ?

olefoo 16y ago

If there is an aspiring journalist in the audience, now would be a good time to track down Mr. Essien and the various other players involved, interview them and put together a definitive account of as much as is known. It would make a decent cover article for Fast Company, or do it as a blog with raw information dumps and crowdsourcing the factchecking.

maxklein 16y ago
You'd be rather disappointed, I think. I'm not secretly Michael Arrington. And any aspiring journalist should feel free to come question me - the details of how long it takes me to walk to work or how my back-ache is doing would make for an interesting story for me, but I'm not sure many will care otherwise. It's all rather undramatic, I'm afraid.
- olefoo 16y ago
  Undramatic? But, the knife fights, the tense meetings with corrupt Chinese officials who could have you thrown in jail, the forty thousand a month, the 5-star hotels; all of that, undramatic? The problem is that you are now an unreliable narrator; you may not even be the protagonist in your own story any more. Who is Max Klein? A cipher, a nobody, an anonymous entrepreneur sharing his tales from behind a veil of mild obfuscation? Or is he a device in a larger scheme? Perhaps he is an advertisement for a correspondence school? A scheme to defraud a Saudi prince? A character escaped from a novel, whom the author is desperately trying to contain? Who knows?
  - maxklein 16y ago
    Drama comes from the choice of words - every narrative can be told in an exciting way. Everybody has had similarly dramatic experiences, but they are not writing about them. My dramatic experiences, which are less than 10 articles, are spread out over 7 years. I'm sure anyone can find interesting things he has done in the last 7 years. I'm 29 years old. At 21 you may not have seen a lot, but at 29, you have enough independent years to have gone through a few adventures. And I've gone through a LOT more than the few I have written in my blog, those are just the ones that made sense for that blog.

jallmann 16y ago

> That's only half the story though isn't it? The reality is your $40K a month is made from these apps (http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/feather-moor-ltd/id3053457... http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/feather-moor-ltd/id3053457...) 1 star apps with content ripped from sites like ehow.com. So what? HN also rabidly follows a guy that sells bingo cards. It's not about what you do, what's interesting is how you do it, and the story you tell doing that. Project management and bug tracking software is pretty boring, if you ask me. But the lessons from joel and 37s are anything but boring. In fact, I would be very interested in blogs from someone who runs a sucessful porn site, just because the challenges involved are emblematic of any startup -- how do you acquire customers in such a commoditized market? How do you keep them coming back, how do you monetize them? The technical side (scaling, etc) would make for good reading, too.

lotharbot 16y ago
> HN also rabidly follows a guy that sells bingo cards. HN rabidly follows a guy who tells us he sells bingo cards, and who actually sells bingo cards. It's interesting to hear him talk about it, because when he tells us about a challenge he overcame, it's a legitimate challenge to his actual business. Is "Max" telling us the truth about his actual business, and telling us actual lessons learned and challenges overcome, or just spinning clever tales? BlackwoodHolt seems to think it's mostly clever tales, and Max hasn't done a good job of dispelling that yet. I, too, would be interested to hear from someone who ran a successful porn site. But I wouldn't want to hear lessons about making a living on bingo cards from someone who actually made their money at porn and only had a tiny bingo card business on the side.
- jallmann 16y ago
  Nobody, "Max" included, has talked about making money in a method than claimed otherwise. From most indications, his apps are legit. Unglamorous, sure, but I don't think that's reason to "hide" behind a veil of secrecy, as the GP is implying. The only strange thing here is that he works under pseudonyms, but whatever. Don't get me wrong, I think the investigative work going into this is interesting and it is adding another dimension to this Max character. But HN, lighten up. This place takes everything so seriously it's almost stodgy sometimes.