As a prime exemplar of the theory that a semi-competent journalist with his/her wits about him/her can write entertainingly and semi-authoritatively on a subject about which he/she knows practically nothing, I spent much of the 1990s masquerading, reasonably convincingly, as a technology pundit.
Like many things in my life, it was all the fault of my late and much-missed friend Tony Tyler. ‘Twas he who headhunted me from the underground press to the New Musical Express in 1972, and – almost twenty years later – he not only convinced me to buy a Macintosh, but snagged me a gig writing a satirical/speculative column for the UK’s premier Mac mag, MacUser. Against all the odds, I managed to survive several changes of editor until finally one incumbent busted me for excessive whimsical fantasising … because I submitted a column suggesting, based on naught but speculation, that Apple should follow the successful introduction of the iPod with something called ‘the iPhone.’
Oh well …
The MacUser column led, in turn, to a slot in the Daily Telegraph‘s weekly Technology supplement taking a monthly turn in their ‘In My Opinion’ box with a similar – but less Macintosh-centric and more civilian-friendly – column, and also to frequent assignments reviewing books on technology and the then-burgeoning cyberculture in The New Statesman. Living proof that boolsheet baffles brains, I was spending a fair amount of time writing for proper grownup publications about a topic I only marginally understood.
Eventually the Telegraph decided to retool their Technology section to be more business-oriented and appointed a new editor, under whose stern regime I managed to get exactly ONE column into print before being replaced by someone of less frivolous disposition and rather more solid knowledge.
I’m amazed that I got away with it for as long as I did. Dip into this section and you probably will be, also.
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