Fake Steve Jobs on Hillary, Hollywood, Oracle, Bill Gates, and Bono

I must admit I haven't gone back to this book since Steve Jobs died, but I probably will. It does poke fun at Jobs, and it uses his persona to comment on the world around him. My comments from a few years ago:

What is it about this book, despite the hilarious egoism of Apple’s Steve Jobs and Oracle’s Larry Ellison, that makes it such a fun and provocative read? 

Mostly it’s the keen insight Fake Steve Jobs, aka Forbes Senior Editor Daniel Lyons, has into the American political economy. 

See the book’s account of Hillary Clinton’s reception at Silicon Valley VC’s John Doerr’s home for a fundraiser. 

After she stuns Jobs by making fund of his John Lennon-style glasses, Jobs goes ballistic, but sensibly so. 

“You see the guys in this room? We’re guys who build things. All right, with the exception of the VCs, who are parasites. But I’m talking about the rest of us. We’re the guys who built the friggin Internet, with our bare hands…. “ 

And it makes you think of the gap between Silicon Valley firms and Wall Street and Washington. Where is wealth created? Where is it consumed – by politicians, plaintiff’s lawyers with their ludicrous lawsuits, and federal prosecutors, like those who brought the options cases against high-tech firms. 

The mixture of fact and fantasy is great – after Jobs attacks Hillary for having a fat ass, T.J. Rodgers (Cypress Semiconductor’s legendary CEO who has driven Dartmouth’s liberal board members crazy with his demands for open discussion) “stands up and starts doing a slow clap. Some others join in. Soon the whole room is clapping and shouting, Steve, Steve, Steve…”