Interestingness

Pretend it's still Tuesday.

Here's something I've had lying around for about a year. It's one dude's list of ways to be "interesting."

Russel Davies... hell, I don't know what he's done. He writes like one of those bloggy know-it-alls. But isn't chutzpah worth something? Besides, it's 2:30 in the morning on a school night and I've obviously never cared to check his credentials before. I don't see me starting now.

Point is, he wrote this post a year ago that was catchy enough to bookmark, and occasionally I scratch my armpit while reading it. It's called How to Be Interesting.

It's a list of ten things that smack of Internet douchebag-ism, some of which are good ideas anyway. I mean, if you don't have an Internet connection, half his list is useless. And I strongly suspect that people managed to be interesting at least as far back as 1976, which I believe was pre-Internet in some countries, such as Canada.

Okay, there's no reason to be snarky. We can assume he's not making an exhaustive list, and -- full disclosure -- I would probably be an Internet douchebag if I had an iota of giveadamn for programming. I would love to be an Internet maverick with a spunky Web domain missing a vowel, and a business plan that involves moon rocks and user generated content. "It'll be like that Snow Crunch book, except... except everybody's penguins! On the moon! We'll get Morgan Freeman to do the narration!" (That's me talking to a venture capitalist. Secretly, I just want him to buy me an Aeron chair and a computer and leave me alone).

Actually, we already sort of have this.

Anyway, Russel Davies's list of 10 things. I'm doing 2, 6, 9, and 10. I don't see me ever getting around to doing 1,3, or 7. The rest... hmm... maybe? I've been considering that interview thing in the last few weeks.

What I think is actually sort of insidious is his bias for mediated life. His goal is to make you stop and examine more often. But, and I speak from cruel experience here, if you spend your time filtering, editing, recontextualizing your life for presentation in various media, you spend less time just living the thing. Writing it down is good. Living a life worth writing down takes precedence.

And my life worth writing down is freaking going to bed GOODNIGHT.