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Everyone has a blog these days, I just want to fit in. You never know, one of these days one of my posts will be linked by loads of web-famous people and I'll get tons if hits. That'll be sweet blog validation. If you want to see even more posts, check the archive.

Someone much smarter than myself

September 11, 2008

Merlin Mann is the type of guy I'd like to be when I grow up. He's in the same club (in my mind) as Dan Kennedy, Jon Stewart and other painfully smart and witty people with their heads on straight. I'll stop gushing about my man-crushes and get to the point. Merlin wrote something this month that really smacked me in the face. I've been feeling this hopeless malaise with everything internet related and he wrote about this much better than I could have. This paragraph in particular made me want to stand up and belt out a 'hell yeah!'

"What worries me are the consequences of a diet comprised mostly of fake-connectedness, makebelieve insight, and unedited first drafts of everything. I think it’s making us small. I know that whenever I become aware of it, I realize how small it can make me. So, I’ve come to despise it." – Merlin Mann

So, in lieu of an actual 'blog post,' I'd like you to read the rest of Merlin's post. Just imagine me nodding my head and shouting the occasional "AMEN" while you read it.

Merlin Mann – Better

3 Comments

Patchchord 11 Sep 08 at 10:48pm

In our particular industry, we work everyday to transform that which is meant to be consumed into something that consumes, that which is meant to be commanded into something that commands, that which is meant to be sold into something that sells. It is decidedly artificial from the moment it is created and easily discarded the moment after it is considered. By default, our work doesn't even have the privilege of being part of pop culture (which in and of itself is transient and disposable by definition) but still instead aspires with every breath to become just that.

Yet – and I say that with a mighty sense of emphasis – I find that my personal view of what the world IS is more readily shaped by coming to understand that which it ISN'T. The pieces of me that I leave behind in assorted bits of 1s and 0s spread across the web are what mark my journey. They rarely, if ever, are a reflection of my final destination. For me, that will always be a place that can't be accessed, tagged, shared, uploaded, downloaded, networked, stored or deleted. That is the me that can never be "online."

So everything else, my friend, are just the laborious grunts of an individual trying to understand his tiny little corner of the universe.

Chris 12 Sep 08 at 8:13am

I do see what you're saying. It's not so much the medium and the 'biz' that are bugging me. It's more about the traps that are SO easy to fall into, or as Merlin put it "the chew toys that have made me sad and tired and cynical." I've been treating the internet like a TV with a keyboard. I should know better than that, I let my brain get a little too relaxed.

I need to kick my mind back into MAKE mode.

john b. 8 Oct 08 at 11:56am: I find this all terribly ironic coming from someone who has a blog.

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