3 ms·
"People who suddenly find themselves with really huge audiences often start writing more cautiously, like politicians." This happens way to much, and it causes
by rmorrison 17y ago
"People who suddenly find themselves with really huge audiences often start writing more cautiously, like politicians."
This happens way to much, and it causes an echo-chamber of mediocre ideas to be propagated across the web. This is why I don't always trust the wisdom of crowds. Just because 10,000 retweeted an article, doesn't make it interesting. The same goes if X thousand people bought a book. But they'll get exposure, and more reads/sales.
Another area where the "wisdom of crowds" can perform poorly is in democracy, for example where a majority takes rights away from some other minority.
- pmichaud 17y agoI've been accutely aware of this as my reader base has expanded over the last several months to several thousand readers and 10s of thousands of page views. My goal is to stay honest and still be willing to make a fool of myself. The main difference now, as I prepare myself and my writing to share things I find uncomfortable to share, is that I'm aware that it's possible that my grandmother will see it. My strategy in dealing with that isn't to be more cautious. Instead, it's to level with my grandmother. Because of the strange dynamic of the net there are things I'm okay sharing with the anonymous masses that I'd be pretty upset if my grandmother or my kids found out. So I'm going through the process of making sure my grandmother and kids know everything there is to know. That's scary and difficult. But in the end, I think it's positive.