"From where I sit it's a great adventure and an unending mystery."

May 8, 2013 3:18 PM

"I am a master at sullying my own name and, all things considered, being associated with the worst software on the planet ranks way down the pole." John McAfee (previously) answers questions about his latest shenanigans
posted by Blazecock Pileon (26 comments total)

...which is why no tech entrepreneur today with any intention of cashing in/selling out uses his name on the product (can you imagine Evaner.com?)
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:26 PM on May 8, 2013

This is genius. If he writes a book of anecdotes like that it will sell gangbusters.

Though reading the lines (no need to go between them) the common element to all John McAfee's dysfunctional relationships is John McAfee.
posted by Sebmojo at 3:33 PM on May 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

"... being associated with the worst software on the planet ranks way down the pole."

I didn't know he worked for SAP.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 3:39 PM on May 8, 2013 [11 favorites]

Slashdot! Also love this.
posted by zscore at 3:49 PM on May 8, 2013

He's the man Charlie Sheen wanted to be but couldn't.
posted by tommasz at 3:54 PM on May 8, 2013 [20 favorites]

awesome interview. quite the rollercoaster ride of a life and despite all the downs, I'm proud that he cares to change nothing of his past. We truly have to experience all that we've experienced to be where we are today. Unless you're not where you want to be now, there's no reason to change anything. If you're not where you want, hopefully your past experience or lack there of will propel you to make that change. <3
posted by ilovebad at 3:56 PM on May 8, 2013

"I have been in Mexican jails on three separate occasions and, frankly, I cannot recommend them."
Wow.
posted by poe at 3:56 PM on May 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

Halloween Costume Idea: Disguise as McAfee in disguise as someone who looks exactly like McAfee.
posted by Dr. Zira at 3:59 PM on May 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Yes, never never never use your personal name as your product name. Google learned that the hard way with Orkut. Then again, at least it's no ReiserFS.
posted by Nelson at 4:07 PM on May 8, 2013

And now that I've actually read the fine article, this really jumped out at me: "from 1971 to 1982, 99% of my income came from smuggling and selling drugs". I haven't followed his Crazy very closely, is that a known thing?
posted by Nelson at 4:10 PM on May 8, 2013

Damn. I had apparently missed all of this.

Here's my question: Why not leave Sam? Fear for his life?

from 1971 to 1982, 99% of my income came from smuggling and selling drugs

And another: What was the other 1%?
posted by cmoj at 4:11 PM on May 8, 2013

He was a semi-professional florist. Weird, but true.
posted by Sebmojo at 4:31 PM on May 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

Against all odds, the woman turned out to be crazier than myself. After a year and a half, the fractured elements of her psyche reassembled themselves into an exact likeness of a snarling ferret and she self destructed. She destroyed all of our research results, destroyed our bacteria samples, erased the hard drives of our computers, destroyed our carefully collect plant samples and went home to Boston. I cogitated the situation for a brief period, said "Fuck it!" And went into the coffee business. Thus was formed the New River Coffee Company.

This interview finally allowed me to understand John McAfee. I now realize he is engaged in a long-form Andy Kaufman-style comedy routine.
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 4:32 PM on May 8, 2013 [5 favorites]

Haha. This reminds me of the note to self I added to a saved link in Pinboard about a mention of McAfee (the company, sans any mention of the founder) in a recent news story:

"Any story mentioning McAfee probably should lead with 'McAfee, a company whose founder recently went batshitinsane...'"
posted by limeonaire at 4:53 PM on May 8, 2013

"Here's my question: Why not leave Sam? Fear for his life?"

Because he likes being surrounded by crazy women, and maybe she isn't nearly as violent and unstable as he makes her out to be. McAfee sounds like a guy who exaggerates everything to make it sound like he's constantly leading a grandiose life of adventure.
posted by Kevin Street at 4:58 PM on May 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

I am absolutely disappointed that no one thought to ask him about the much more genius disguise of, upon hearing the police were on their way to arrest him, burying himself up to his neck in the sands of Belize on the beach outside his house, and having Samantha place a cardboard box on top of to cover his head. The cops thought it was just some random box trash on the beach.
posted by thinkpiece at 5:24 PM on May 8, 2013 [11 favorites]

Holy crap, he's back in the US?!? What a lucky f#%*r!
posted by nowhere man at 5:51 PM on May 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

John McAfee's recollections seem to be about 40 percent hallucinated Burn Notice rerun.
posted by klangklangston at 6:26 PM on May 8, 2013 [7 favorites]

The cops thought it was just some random box trash on the beach.

Is this for real?
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 6:39 PM on May 8, 2013

I haven't written code in 20 years. In truth I was a terrible programmer. At all the companies I worked at I did everything within my power to avoid coding tasks. I was just good enough though to be able to spot the truly outstanding programmers. At McAfee I hired the best and then stayed out of their hair. If I had been responsible for even a tiny amount of code I fear we would never have gotten off the ground.

When is this man going to be canonized?

nb: haven't read the rest of the article yet, I'm sure it's fine
posted by 23 at 6:40 PM on May 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

Every answer to every question is a different incredible story. Very impressive.
posted by painquale at 7:27 PM on May 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

John McAfee certainly is lucky to have had John McAfee around. I hope he appreciates himself.
posted by octobersurprise at 7:34 PM on May 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Very entertaining, but for the whole "probably killed a guy and likely won't be extradited for it" matter.
posted by Cash4Lead at 7:39 PM on May 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

*resets the stuffmonger clock*
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:54 AM on May 9, 2013 [3 favorites]

There's a great story in Italo Calvino's 'If on a winter night a traveller' where every tale told by the narrator sits on a base of other stories, which in turn sit on other stories. And there's never any end to the stories because each story spawns a dozen more.
posted by Sebmojo at 2:50 PM on May 9, 2013 [2 favorites]

The cops thought it was just some random box trash on the beach.

Is this for real?
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 9:39 PM on May 8 [+] [!]


Well, real according to McAfee. The story about being buried on the beach can be found in numerous sources along the internet, but here it is in the NYT, the least fantastical version I've read. It's about a dozen paragraphs up from the bottom of the story.
posted by thinkpiece at 5:17 AM on May 10, 2013