4 ms·

I think you're reading too much into it. John has posted to Fake Steve articles he enjoys in the past. Gruber receives and dishes out this kind of stuff all the

by jsb 17y ago

I think you're reading too much into it. John has posted to Fake Steve articles he enjoys in the past. Gruber receives and dishes out this kind of stuff all the time. I bet if you'd ask him, he just thought the article about him was funny, wanted to link to it and decided to play along a bit.

telemachos 17y ago
I think you must have been reading a different piece than I read. Gruber sounded bitter, bitter, bitter to me. The last three paragraphs of Gruber's joke were pretty rancid.
- jsb 17y ago
  Maybe. Even if Fake Steve is a character, Dan Lyons wrote the words. If he wasn't prepared to take some flack back, he shouldn't have started Fake Steve in the first place. I'm willing to bet both writers are fine with the exchange, possibly even amused by each other. Frankly, we'd all be lucky to be roasted by either one of these guys someday.
jonshea 17y ago
You could be right. Maybe Lyons get together every Thursday at a bar and rib each other over who had the harsher blog post while they sip on Deus Brut Des Flandres. Maybe they have pet names for each other’s kids, and give them noogies at get-togethers. Maybe it is all fun and games, but they don’t write about that stuff on their blogs so it’s impossible to tell. From my point of view Gruber’s reply doesn’t read as friendly or jocular. Lyons calls Gruber a egotistical, obnoxious fanboy and jokes that Apple hatched a wide-reaching conspiracy just to trick him into a journalistic mistake. Fair enough. Gruber “jokes” that Lyons writes limp, insincere, watered-down articles for a failing magazine. Maybe Gruber misjudged his tone, but ouch. I’d be hurt if Gruber wrote that about me. I’d be hurt if a _friend_ wrote that about me.
- pohl 17y ago
  The whole thing is written according to one of Dan's FSJ schticks. The form of this "So Foo Called" schtick obligates the recipient of the call to treat Foo with casual, but brutal condescension. They don't have to be drinking buddies for this to be a sincere form of flattery.

by jsb 17y ago

telemachos 17y ago

I think you must have been reading a different piece than I read. Gruber sounded bitter, bitter, bitter to me. The last three paragraphs of Gruber's joke were pretty rancid.

jsb 17y ago
Maybe. Even if Fake Steve is a character, Dan Lyons wrote the words. If he wasn't prepared to take some flack back, he shouldn't have started Fake Steve in the first place. I'm willing to bet both writers are fine with the exchange, possibly even amused by each other. Frankly, we'd all be lucky to be roasted by either one of these guys someday.

jonshea 17y ago

You could be right. Maybe Lyons get together every Thursday at a bar and rib each other over who had the harsher blog post while they sip on Deus Brut Des Flandres. Maybe they have pet names for each other’s kids, and give them noogies at get-togethers. Maybe it is all fun and games, but they don’t write about that stuff on their blogs so it’s impossible to tell. From my point of view Gruber’s reply doesn’t read as friendly or jocular. Lyons calls Gruber a egotistical, obnoxious fanboy and jokes that Apple hatched a wide-reaching conspiracy just to trick him into a journalistic mistake. Fair enough. Gruber “jokes” that Lyons writes limp, insincere, watered-down articles for a failing magazine. Maybe Gruber misjudged his tone, but ouch. I’d be hurt if Gruber wrote that about me. I’d be hurt if a _friend_ wrote that about me.

pohl 17y ago
The whole thing is written according to one of Dan's FSJ schticks. The form of this "So Foo Called" schtick obligates the recipient of the call to treat Foo with casual, but brutal condescension. They don't have to be drinking buddies for this to be a sincere form of flattery.