Paul Papadimitriou

Gruber says that when he’s writing Daring Fireball, he’s picturing his ideal reader — a copy of himself — and conceptually writing just for him. With everything he writes, he’s writing to and for that one ideal reader, not trying to boost his SEO for target phrases or appeal to an ever broadening demographic.

➡ How I write and time-manage

There you have it.

I love writing. For more than fifteen years, I’ve been having amazing debates online with a selected group of friends ^[1]. I can spend so much time crafting the most documented answer or going into a non-sensical reply frenzy that it can be described as a real passion.

I was never able to translate that completely into blogging, though. I have had several blogs dating back to 1995, on way too many platforms, with way too many different domain names.

Gosh the staggering amount of time I’ve spent experimenting. Don’t do it. Well, do experiment. But don’t think technology. Think content. Think you. You’re the ideal reader.

I’m the ideal reader.

I was thinking too much. I’m a Virgo ascendant Virgo. I don’t value astrology, it’s a know fact amongst my friends, but random online searches about the topic would tell you that, besides not hiding my personality, I’m double the perfectionist, double the the analyzer. I think too much.

I was always struggling with the eventual noise I was putting out. Not noise to me, but what could have been noise to you. I didn’t want to disturb. I don’t care anymore. Well, I do, I just learned to better deal with it.

Twitter, the so-called grave-digger of long-form writing, has been my therapy. I realized I’m doing just fine with my half-professional, half-personal, half-witty, half-grunty, half-worldcup, half-analyst, half-Japan, half-non-sensical shots ^[2]. People are free to like my noise or not. To follow me or not.

To like me or not.

I’ve repeated over and over and I’ll do it again: I like opinions. The only reason I ever read newspapers is for the op-eds.

I’m opinionated. Like my articles ^[3]. Or not.

Like my tone or pass. There you have it.

1. entirely restricted to a small trusted circle of friends via an old email address [↩]
2. I know these halves don’t add up, but since you’re at the footnote, read Steve: “in an age where transparency begets trust, there’s a lot to be gained on an individual and institutional level for those who decide in some way to live some of their lives in public and converge networks“ [↩]
3. with cryptic titles, without them ending in a question to beg for commenting, with somewhat scattered topics. In full SEO anathema glory. [↩]