I don't think I need to apologize for what I wrote about Russell Wilson earlier this week, but I don't feel good about it, either, and I'm going to figure out why that is.
Having listened to you for some time I don’t think you suddenly “turned on” Wilson. You easily could have said that on the air. Now there are a number of radio hosts who have suddenly turned on him and that’s been hilarious. For what it’s worth I enjoyed the column and there’s another term you should learn even if unlikely to use in a column -“performance assholery “. Hopefully the meaning is clear
I do like the term performance assholery, and while I think there's a short-term gain that can come with such behavior, it usually catches up to folks in the long run because chronic assholery turns out to be a business liability. Who knew?
Also, thanks very much for both your interest and your support. And I think the familiarity with my work is another factor here. People who have been familiar with my perspective -- not just on Wilson, but on other issues -- had a much better sense of where I was coming from than the people who came across it on Twitter.
One other thing that I didn't get into in the newsletter, but am doing is decreasing the way I am going to use Twitter going forward. Thanks again for your interest and your thoughts!
I think you're right about this, Bill. I will say that in general, I have found the platform is an outlet for my cynical humor, my sarcasm, in a way that has never really come through in my longer writing. I've used it to build a number of connections and can honestly say that I've met people I consider to be friends over Twitter.
But ...
It is very easy to lose sight of what it is, which is a stream-of-conscious communication with a relatively small portion of the general population who are very, very online and communicate not as people but as Twitter personas. When you try and communicate like a normal human being in that environment, it can quickly become unbearable. This is definitely what happened to me on Tuesday, and I regret how I got caught in that loop.
I'm currently reading a book called "Futureproof" by Kevin Roose, who covers technology for the New York Times. The fundamental point of the book is how we keep technology -- specifically automation designed to capture and keep our attention -- from changing the way we move through the world. One of the foremost recommendations is to reduce the amount of time spent online, which is something I'm going to implement in my approach going forward. Thanks very much for reading!
Having listened to you for some time I don’t think you suddenly “turned on” Wilson. You easily could have said that on the air. Now there are a number of radio hosts who have suddenly turned on him and that’s been hilarious. For what it’s worth I enjoyed the column and there’s another term you should learn even if unlikely to use in a column -“performance assholery “. Hopefully the meaning is clear
I do like the term performance assholery, and while I think there's a short-term gain that can come with such behavior, it usually catches up to folks in the long run because chronic assholery turns out to be a business liability. Who knew?
Also, thanks very much for both your interest and your support. And I think the familiarity with my work is another factor here. People who have been familiar with my perspective -- not just on Wilson, but on other issues -- had a much better sense of where I was coming from than the people who came across it on Twitter.
One other thing that I didn't get into in the newsletter, but am doing is decreasing the way I am going to use Twitter going forward. Thanks again for your interest and your thoughts!
I don't think I've ever heard someone say that using twitter made them happier.
I think you're right about this, Bill. I will say that in general, I have found the platform is an outlet for my cynical humor, my sarcasm, in a way that has never really come through in my longer writing. I've used it to build a number of connections and can honestly say that I've met people I consider to be friends over Twitter.
But ...
It is very easy to lose sight of what it is, which is a stream-of-conscious communication with a relatively small portion of the general population who are very, very online and communicate not as people but as Twitter personas. When you try and communicate like a normal human being in that environment, it can quickly become unbearable. This is definitely what happened to me on Tuesday, and I regret how I got caught in that loop.
I'm currently reading a book called "Futureproof" by Kevin Roose, who covers technology for the New York Times. The fundamental point of the book is how we keep technology -- specifically automation designed to capture and keep our attention -- from changing the way we move through the world. One of the foremost recommendations is to reduce the amount of time spent online, which is something I'm going to implement in my approach going forward. Thanks very much for reading!