Apropos of nothing, Steve Pavlina has had an impressively long career in the “online personality” game. I’m seeing FB ads for a new ‘subjective reality’ thing he’s doing that seems like his 2004 stuff repackaged/updated for post-truth 2019. Props.
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Back in 2004-06 when (Erik Markus) and I were neighbors in Ithaca, often chatting about emerging internet culture over beers, Pavlina’s name often came up. Erik picked up many tricks from Pavlina and I picked up many tricks from Erik when I started ribbonfarm in 2007.
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Iirc I signed up for my dreamhost account using Erik’s referral code. Interesting to reflect on secret history of blogging as traceable through these hidden pathways of metis being passed on. I don’t think I’d have started blogging if I hadn’t been neighbors with Erik back then
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I am not really a fan of Pavlina’s content per se, but gotta acknowledge the influence in shaping the medium, and a couple of major genres of content in it. If you’ve never heard of him, check this out. A true elderblog. stevepavlina.com
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If there was an academy of blogging arts, Pavlina would probably get a lifetime achievement award for sheer staying power. All the more impressive for holding steady at mid-tier. He came before Tim Ferris and SE Asia crowd, and survived without the mainstream crossover appeal.
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I’m very impressed by people who last so long outside institutionalized worlds, surviving and thriving without ever necessarily ‘arriving’. True free agents. I wish I had such economic wilderness survivalist skills. I usually have to have a foot in an institutional door or two.
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There’s probably an online sociology/oral history project simply tracing the memetic genealogy of the blogosphere via interviews with the sufficiently Lindy members. You’d have to add some threshold criteria to identify those who belong in the history.
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